Obligations of being an MNNA

The visit last week by the US Centcom commander-in-chief, Gen Abozaid, is significant in that it took place immediately after the Nato summit in Istanbul (June 28-29) at which Nato decided on a major expansion of its peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan.

The summit had also decided to extend Nato operations into Iraq to help the new government there, whom America handed over official sovereignty to on June 28, to train its army and maintain internal security.

The visit by the American Centcom chief to Islamabad is also significant in that it is the first since the strategic partnership with the West - which Islamabad has been forging after 9/11 - was formalized on June 17 with Pakistan being officially designated a Major Non-Nato Ally (MNNA) by the US president.

The chief advantage of MNNA status (so far 14 countries have been designated as MNNAs, three within the last three months) is that it facilitates the buying of American military equipment by the countries so designated.

But being part of a privileged security relationship with the US, Islamabad will probably be expected to play an even more active role in military and security cooperation with the US, especially since Western involvement in Afghanistan and now Iraq is being increased.

Pakistan is the sixth Muslim country to be designated an MNNA. The notion of MNNA status first surfaced in 1987 when Israel, Egypt, Japan, Australia, South Korea were named as such by Washington.

Jordan was designated an MNNA in 1996, and Argentina in 1998. Since 9/11 however, the number of MNNAs has doubled from seven to 14 with New Zealand and Bahrain being designated MNNAs in 2002; Philippines and Thailand in 2003; and Kuwait, Morocco and Pakistan in 2004.

Concrete cooperation with the US in the war on terror by MNNAs varies from allowing the Americans to use their military/civilian facilities (Pakistan), allowing American troops on their soil (Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain) to sending peace- keeping contingents to Iraq and/or Afghanistan, which six MNNAs have done, viz., Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines and Thailand. (For MNNAs like Philippines, Thailand and Pakistan, this cooperation has also included domestic military operations against suspected terrorists.)

The pressure on MNNAs to send troops to Iraq (to send more if they already have troops there) has apparently increased, with the projected increase in western involvement there as well as in Afghanistan, and also because some countries like Spain, Honduras and the Dominican Republic have pulled out their troops from Iraq.

South Korea, for instance, which already has a contingent of 660 military engineers and doctors in Iraq, is now going to send another 3,000 - this time special forces, construction troops, transport, communication and intelligence specialists - despite strong domestic opposition and the recent beheading of a South Korean hostage in Iraq (insurgents had demanded the cancellation of the deployment of more South Korean troops to Iraq).

The new deployment means South Korea will have the third largest number of troops in Iraq, behind the US and Britain. At the moment, fellow MNNA Australia is reported to be the third largest with only 805 military personnel in Iraq.

Other relatively new MNNAs, like New Zealand has a contingent of 60 military engineers, while Philippines and Thailand are reported to have contingents of 96 and 443 troops, respectively.

In most of these MMNAs, even in Australia, there is strong domestic opposition against such deployment. It has been widely reported that Islamabad had persistently been asked by Washington to send troops to Iraq, although so far, no Muslim MNNA has troops in Iraq.

Jordan and Kuwait, being Iraqi neighbours, have declined to do so, since the interim Iraqi government itself opposes the staging of troops from neighbouring countries. Egypt has also repeatedly refused to oblige.

Islamabad had previously been taking the line that it would send troops only if they were part of a UN peacekeeping contingent. Now that Nato, rather than the UN, will be taking charge of peacekeeping in Iraq, Islamabad must be reconsidering its position on troop deployment, especially given its new status as a Major Non-Nato Ally.

In fact, recent reports suggest that Pakistan, together with fellow MNNAs - Morocco, and Tunisia - is now considering sending troops to Iraq as part of the force charged with protecting the UN when it returns to Baghdad (the UN had withdrawn from Iraq when its headquarters in Baghdad was attacked).

The Pakistani hostage, captured in Iraq last weekend by insurgents who had threatened to behead him, has been released, but the episode is a frightening reminder of the danger that will accompany Pakistan's involvement, however indirect, in what is basically America's war in Iraq.

(The hostage himself, not the insurgents, had called for the closure of the Pakistani Mission in Iraq and a ban on all Pakistanis' entry into Iraq.)

The immediate challenge that the government in Islamabad under the new prime minister faces is not only that of convincing members of the ruling PML party, its allies, the opposition and the nation of the necessity of greater military and security cooperation between Pakistan and the US, but also of taking them along on what might be politically embarrassing decisions pertaining to obligations arising from the country's new status as a Major Non-Nato Ally.

Hunting in pairs?

Politicians, like fast bowlers, hunt in pairs. First it was Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz. Now it is Shujaat Husain and Pervaiz Ilahi. Which of the two is your choice? My vote is, whether you like it or not for the brothers from Model Town.

Anyway if Tony Blair can be the British prime minister and if Gorge W Bush can be in the White House, what is so wrong with our own Chaudhry Sahib from Gujrat? He is sufficiently ill-informed and adequately humble. I only wish Shaukat Aziz were not waiting in the wings.

With reference to nothing in particular, I think there is a premium on ignorance in our country. The less you know, the higher you go even if you own a television set. Speaking for myself, I have never wanted you to monitor this accursed channel as that to tell me the next morning that Pakistan has been re-admitted to the Commonwealth.

The heavens did not fall when Pakistan's membership of this entirly meaningless club was suspended. And the heavens will not fall or go a notch higher now that Pakistan is back in the British Commonwealth of Nations. But you should continue to monitor television news, especially the Khubarnama from PTV. This was an aside, however, and you may ignore it.

* * * * *

Let me now give you some more excerpts from Lahore: A Memoirby Muhammad Saeed. I have already told you who the author was. There is a chapter in the book, "A Ruinous Choice." He writes:

In the winter of 1941, I happened to be teaching Urdu to an Englishman, whose name I forget. Let us call him Mr. Brown. A common acquaintance had made us known to each other.

Mr. Brown was staying at the Falletti's. Each morning, I came straight from my newspaper's office and we sat together by the glittering fire and went through the Urdu primer.

Since I was not a professional Munshi following the age-old pattern, my pupil found some freshness in my method of teaching. Yet, like all foreigners, he had difficulty in discovering which object carried which gender.

One day in sheer disgust he shouted: "The Indian genders are simply maddening. Nobody knows, which is 'she' and which is 'he'". I said: "yes, they are as puzzling as English spellings.

Ch in Charing Cross sounds different when in school". He laughed heartily. Anyhow, the sittings were pleasant and Mr. Brown made encouraging progress. 'What's the news?', he would invariably ask when I stepped into his room. The war was on and Europe was virtually an inferno.

We used to discuss the major headlines briefly and as candidly as the circumstances permitted and then plunge into the lesson. For him that was the best recipe to drown his worries and for me the quickest way to get home after a long night.

On December 7, Mr. Brown opened the door as usual and before we occupied our seats, he asked me the routine question; 'what's the news?' and sank upon his knees to occupy his seat. I answered: "Japan has entered war and has blown Pearl Harbour into smithereens in an undeclared attack".

The gentleman straightened himself with a tremendous jerk and started pacing the room. He was in a state of deep agony. Now the Eastern hemisphere was ignited at both ends.

With the direct involvement of Japan the conflagration had become truly global. The only words he uttered and repeated thrice were: "Hum! Japan, too, has entered the war. It has made a ruinous choice".

Despite this calamitous start to the day, we did not postpone the lesson. His heart, however, was not in it. Anyhow, by the next morning, he had got over the initial shock. The Emperor's proclamation, as a loyal subject of His Britainic Majesty King Emperor, had stung his pride. 'A strikingly odious piece of war literature', was Mr. Brown's reaction to it. The Imperial Rescript ran as under:

"We, by the grace of heaven, Emperor of Japan, seated on a throne of a line unbroken for ages eternal, enjoin upon ye, our loyal and brave subjects. We hereby declare war on the United States of America and the British Empire. The men and officers of our army and navy shall do their utmost in prosecuting the war."

The American involvement besides being a great contributory factor towards Allies' victory, proved a turning point. The British from this day ceased to be the final arbiters in world affairs.

Despite the taunt common in certain British circles that the Americans are the one people who have declined without going through the stage of being civilised, they were now on way to dominating a vast segment of the globe.

In fact, wars have often led to the decline of old empires. After the First World War, the Ottoman and the Czarist empires crumbled into pieces. The Turks replaced their empire with a Republic; the Russians with Bolshivism. The Second World War was to witness the liquidation of the British Empire.

Yet, history, like nature, abhors a vacuum. The vacuum that was to result from the progressive fading of British supremacy in Asia was an attractive prospect for many an ambitious careerist.

India's Nehru, in particular, was looking forward -- even from his prison cell-to filling it as a super-power. But the mere lifting of the mist is no guarantee that the hill ahead is free from all hazards.

Vacuums undoubtedly do not persist long. But in matters of filling themselves they are very selective: they never allow weaklings to rush in. Only the fittest -- however distant -- are permitted to fill them.

The vacuum created by the Mughals was filled by a race from across the Seven Seas, though there were many local contenders. The impending vacuum was an invitation to new powers.

Though the whole scene was wrapped in the dust of war, discerning eyes, nevertheless, apprehended the spectres of America and Russia moving to the centre of the stage.

Whatever the prospect, the British were facing the situation resolutely. The psychological effect of German tactics and war-time inventions were proving a great disadvantage which they sought to neutralise through counter-display of their ingenuity and resources.

At a press conference a British Lt. Col. was asked to demonstrate the parachuting of troops, a tactic the Germans were increasingly employing with spectacular results in Europe and in which the British were trailing far behind. The Col. promised to take us to a display soon.

A few weeks later we were asked to assemble at the Zamzama before daybreak. A military truck came in the morning and picked us up. The party was consisted of Apnash Chander Bali of the Tribune, Mohindar of Milap, myself from the Shahbaz and a few more journalists.

Owing to a province-wide blackout, Lahore lay under an unrelieved blanket of pre-dawn haze. We set our face to the east and reached the Beas Bridge round about 8am. Though we had observed the blackout scrupulously, some time after daybreak the driver's fingers had touched the light knobs and we were 'detected' trying to cross the bridge with our lights on.

The sentry -- a tall handsome Potohar jawan -- immediately applied the barrier and we came to a shrieking halt. In a very angry mood, he came up to inquire why the lights were on.

We told him that it was a case of absent-mindedness, and not a wilful defiance of the law. But he was not convinced and refused to lift the barrier. I tried to argue that as the sun was already high in the sky it was immaterial if we burnt our lights.

This almost exasperated him. "No argument", he shouted: "Sun or no sun, blackout must be observed." The order left no room for argument and we surrendered. Thereupon the jawan permitted us to proceed.

We went upto Phillaur on the bank of the Sutlej. Across the bridge lay Ludhiana. For many years this had been the boundary between the British Indian Empire and Ranjit Singh's kingdom.

Along the guide bank, we immediately heard the outburst of machine-gun fire. Two Gorkha battalions were locked in a sham fight to demonstrate how troops engaged themselves. It was a good show. But when we learnt that parachutes were not going to be dropped, we were disappointed.

Anyhow, at Phillaur we had an interesting time. This river-bank town had a police training institution in a derelict fortress which possessed an inexhaustible store of criminals' finger-prints, including that of Lord Linlithgow's.

How his Lordship came to attain this distinction was related to us very proudly by the British Principal. He told us that when the Viceroy visited the institution he was gracious enough to make a round of the class rooms, record room and the arsenel, beginning, of course, with the Principal's office.

While listening to the Principal, the exalted visitor inadvertantly rested his hand on the glass-top and when the briefing was over he walked away leaving behind a most precious treasure.

The glass-top was taken immediately to the laboratory, photographed and developed and when the Viceroy came to inspect the finger-prints archives, he was shocked to find his own amongst those of the province's most dangerous "history-sheeters"! He must have felt amused.

But what was really amusing was that the Punjab police, true to its salt, did not funk to exhibit its efficiency even at the cost of a Viceroy! Lord Linlithgow has left in the Indian annals interesting stories besides a queer name, springing from his love for bulls.

Maulana Zafar Ali Khan once said: "If the Hindus could worship a leaf of the Tulsi plant as a deity, shouldn't they worship the gow (cow) or Linlithgow or John Bull?"

In quest of an honourable executioner

Nata Mallick, the solitary veteran hangman from West Bengal, has raised a fundamental issue. If soldiers and policemen can be decorated with state awards for killing people in what they claim to be the defence of civil society, why shouldn't he too be given equal respect for carrying out his duty on behalf of the government of the day? The question is as legitimate as it must seem bizarre to many of us.

What lends weight to Mallick's protest is the fact that there isn't any other hangman around in his state to carry out the job. This is partly because of the moral stigma attached to the profession, but also because there are not enough executions happening in the state anyway - the last one being of two men in 1991 who had killed a family of four - to warrant a permanent job with a regular salary.

When Mallick demanded higher perks and more respect, the West Bengal government sought the services of a hangman from Delhi's Tihar Jail instead. That deal fell through because the man requested a three-star hotel accommodation along with assorted hospitality plus a king's ransom to carry out the job, according to reports.

Having put to death more than 20 convicts, Mallick, the veteran hangman, insists he is not a professional killer. Had he been one, he says, he would be a wealthy man living in luxury and with a lot more respect as many criminals do.

That is one serious issue Mallick has raised. The other is a more fundamental one, about the fate of the man Mallick is being wooed to help execute. Going by newspaper reports and a daily dose of TV analysis, Indian society is sharply divided over the proposed hanging of a security guard who raped and killed a 14- year old schoolgirl in Kolkota in March 1990.

Even as President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam grapples with the mercy petition to spare the life of Dhananjoy Chatterjee for the murder of the young Hetal Parekh, a furious national debate has been kicked off over what the president should do.

On the one side is the Marxist chief minister of West Bengal, his wife and daughter, all demanding a quick and remorseless liquidation of Hetal's killer. Interestingly, rightwing groups too are demanding a swift end to Dhanonjoy's life.

On the other hand are Dhananjoy's parents, supported by eminent intellectuals from the cultural hub of state. Among those who oppose the death sentence per se are filmmakers Mrinal Sen and Aparna Sen, who both believe that capital punishment is no answer to the travails of a crime-ridden society.

Since Mrinal Sen used to be the blue-eyed boy of the Marxist regime of West Bengal, it would be seem that the debate over capital punishment has cut across the usual political loyalties.

Missing in all this is the clear voice of the country's ruling Congress Party. It spoke with a clear voice once when Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was about to be hanged. It was Mrs Indira Gandhi who had pleaded with General Ziaul Haq to spare Bhutto's life.

Later her daughter-in-law and the present leader of the party, Sonia Gandhi, was instrumental in getting reprieve for a woman who was found guilty in the plot to assassinate Rajiv Gandhi. If Nalini, the convicted conspirator, remains alive it would be largely because of the gesture shown by Sonia Gandhi.

This is not to say that the Congress Party is made up of avowed pacifists who are sworn to oppose the death sentence in a liberal vein a la Europe. Recall the suspicious haste with which the Kashmiri freedom icon Maqbool Butt was executed in Tihar Jail after an Indian diplomat was murdered by suspected Kashmiri extremists in Britain.

Of course the killers of Indira Gandhi too were hanged after they were given the death sentence. Ironically one of the main opponents of the death sentence in that episode was former editor Arun Shourie who, if I remember correctly, had raised questions about the conviction of one of the conspirators in the Indira Gandhi killing.

I say it is ironical because Mr Shourie, now that he wears the BJP hat, has become an ardent votary of the draconian anti-terror law called POTA, which, according to human rights activists, only facilitates the passage for miscarriage of justice.

The national debate kicked off by Nata Mallick's intervention and the looming capital punishment passed on a rapist-killer would make for an interesting contrast to the wider discussion on the morality of the death sentence, which has been raised by the controversial trial of Saddam Hussein now under way in Iraq.

What would India's stance be on Saddam's trial and on the death sentence, which is almost imminent given the orchestrated nature of the interim regime in Baghdad? In a crafty subterfuge, the American military administration in Baghdad had during its own tenure kept the death sentence out of its legal lexicon.

This was needed in deference to the European participation. But as soon as the "legal handover" of Saddam Hussein had been effected, the new "sovereign government" of Iraq made it clear that death for Saddam was part of its options.

There are no surveys in India on the issue, but it must be safe to conclude that an overwhelming majority of Indians would oppose the death sentence on Saddam Hussein.

Compared with the division of opinion over Dhananjoy Chatterjee, the opposition to any harm to Saddam Hussein has a far wider support across Indian society. What can be gleaned from this is the fact that while many Indians may regard their judicial system with scepticism, they remain far less trusting of the fairness of the world's most powerful democracy.

Thus, Indians will have more time to sympathetically ponder Nata Malick's petitions, but we are less likely to endorse the insidious attempt by a big power to usher in what clearly seems like the era of the global hangman.

* * * * *

If some in Pakistan were thinking that Narendra Modi was an aberration in accusing the Godhra carnage and the ensuing pogrom in Gujarat on 'Mian Musharraf', they are in for a surprise.

Now the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh, from the same ideological stable as Modi, has told the Liberhan Commission probing the demolition of the Babri mosque that Pakistanis were involved in the incident.

Citing a statement by the then human resources development minister Arjun Singh, Kalyan Singh's counsel B.B Saksena told Justice Liberhan that according to information received by the federal government at that time, some Pakistani infiltrators had made their way into Ayodhya to carry out the wrongful act on December 6, 1992.

Saksena did not have details but alleged that the Congress too may have been involved in the structure's destruction since that party wanted to bring about the downfall of Kalyan Singh's government.

Seeing the light in Nepal

A recent visitor to Karachi was a scientist on his way to India to meet the country's scientist-turned-president, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. In Karachi, the scientist, Dr Dave Irvine-Halliday, was unable to meet the Sindh governor due to the emergency caused in official circles by Mir Zafarullah Jamali's resignation on June 26.

Dr Irvine-Halliday is credited with developing a solid-state lighting system that works with solar power. He insists he does not deserve to be called an inventor.

"If you want to give me credit for anything, it cannot be for inventing a battery or a solar panel, but for recognising for the first time the application of a solid-state system as a reliable lighting equipment," he said in a chat during his visit to Karachi, where he delivered an interactive lecture on the salient features of his device at a conference organized by the Light Up The World Foundation Pakistan (info@lutwpakistan.com).

Born in 1942 in Perth, Scotland, Dr Irvine-Halliday immigrated to Canada shortly after doing his PhD in 1970. After spending at least 10 years in Ottawa and Edmonton, he moved 1to Australia, where he taught at the Victoria University of Technology in Melbourne for two years. In 1982, he went back to Canada.

Dr Halliday hit upon the idea of putting together a solid-state light system in 1997 when he spent a sabbatical in Nepal. where, trekking in the mountains, he discovered that only one-seventeenth of the four million households in the country had reliable power supplies.

"Affordable solid-state lighting systems using renewable energy sources could be employed by the two billion people living in the rural areas of the underdeveloped world who have no access to grid electricity," he said.

According to Dr Irvine-Halliday, little-known Japanese researcher Shuji Nakamura deserves a lot of appreciation for inventing Gallium Nitride (GaN) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) which made it possible to get white light from semiconductors.

Switching to 0.1 watt LEDs made him realize that light even from such a small source could enable a child to read. He developed a multi-diode lamp to light up Nepalese homes through the Light Up The World Foundation, an organization which has in recent times received many awards.

Dr Irvine-Halliday explained that his solid-state lighting system, consisting of white light-emitting diodes connected to a rechargeable solar panel, used a fraction of the energy of a regular incandescent bulb.

"They also have a very long life - about 100,000 hours. They are a one-time capital investment and they are physically very robust. Apart from being reliable and safe, as compared to kerosene lamps, which are used in villages and other underdeveloped areas, they are environment-friendly," he said. According to the scientist, the government should make available micro-credit schemes to the poor to enable them to purchase these lighting systems.

Striking the right note

For many years, classical music enthusiasts in Karachi used to lament that nothing worthwhile was happening in the city to promote this genre of music.

They would recall the 1950s and the 1960s when Radio Pakistan in collaboration with the Arts Council held music conferences which attracted eminent singers like Roshan Ara Begum, Nazakat Ali-Salamat Ali, Ustad Bundu Khan and sometimes even luminaries from across the border. But with the opening of the Karachi chapter of the Pakistan Music Conference in February and with its bimonthly programmes, lovers of classical music now have something to look forward to.

What happened early this month is even more heart warming. Mauseqaar, a group of serious amateur singers and musicians, which has been holding regular monthly concerts on a small scale, have done something big.

They hired composer Karam Abbas of the Gowaliar gharana and composer Niaz Ahmad, not to speak of six musicians, to hold summer classes. Mauseqaar advertised the classes in some leading newspapers only to be deluged with something like 600 applications.

A retired government officer and a trained singer, Amin Ajam went through each and every application. Some of them were called for interviews and those who qualified were auditioned.

Ajam, the two ustads and Dr Saira Khan, the president of Mauseqaar, judged the applicants and finally 30 girls and women and an equal number of boys and men were selected.

Two gender-based groups were formed (many women had expressed their hesitation in attending classes with men) and two weekly sessions of three hours will continue to be held until July 25, when certificates of participation will be awarded.

Since no fee is being charged and the venue (Pakistan National Council of the Arts premises) is conveniently located, the participants are largely from the middle- and lower-income groups.

They belong to different ages - ranging from young boys and girls to middle-aged men and women. There are two in their 60s. Mauseqaar has been quietly helping some of our less privileged singers and musicians.

Last year, they raised money for the welfare of a well-known musician who was dying of cancer. He was relieved to learn that his medical bills were paid. The remaining amount was handed over to his wife. He died six days later.

The killer wheel

It is hard to believe that no first aid was available for a boy who was recently crushed by the big wheel at one of the most frequented amusement parks of the city. He died of the injuries received before he could get any medical help.

Thirteen-year-old Mohsin Khan had gone to the park along with his family on a Sunday evening. "My son was about to sit on one of the Ferris wheel chairs when the operator, without ensuring that all riders were properly seated, started the machine.

Mohsin lost his balance and was crushed," recalled his mother, Sultana Mansoor. She said that onlookers somehow had the wheel stopped. But by that time, she added, Mohsin's ribs had broken and he was in great pain.

According to the parents, instead of calling an ambulance and sending the child to hospital without delay, the park management allegedly sought to hush up the accident.

They said the park management would not let the taxi carrying the injured boy go out of the main gate, but leave from the back gate instead. City government officials point out that a couple of days before the accident, a boy drowned in the water section of the park. There were no lifeguards around.

The city nazim has now sealed the killer big wheel while investigations are under way. The city government should seriously look into the maintenance of amusement parks that have electrical rides or swings or water reservoirs and ask for adequate safety measures.

Bus stops

Architecture students in Karachi have come up with some imaginative designs for city bus stops, thanks to a competition organized by the Karachi Chapter of the Institute of Architects, Pakistan (KCIAP) in cooperation with a private firm.

The primary objective of the event was to create awareness and to develop affordable and aesthetic design solutions for the city. These solutions will now proposed to the city government as there was consensus amongst the architects present that the current effort of opening bus stops by the city government left much to be desired.

The two bus stops that have been set up by the city government also include a shop as well as a sitting area for commuters. The head of the Karachi Transporters Association, who was present at the competition, appreciated the efforts of the students.

The bus owners representative said that it was important that any proposal to set up better bus stops in the city should have input from the transporters otherwise it would defeat the purpose of the exercise.

The proposals will now be presented to the city government. The architecture students at the competition also came up with solutions to issues that relate to katchi abadis in the city as well as those areas that have been regularized.

New formula

Most Karachi journalists are familiar with Mirza Jawad Baig, who has been associated with the Muslim League since 1939 but mostly ploughing a lonely furrow. After all these years, he has now hit on an idea which, he insists, would rid Pakistan of all its woes.

According to Mr Baig, the country should be divided into 22 provinces. Actually, he has been propounding this theory, in varied versions, for a long time. He first advocated the reorganization of the boundaries of the four provinces after the 1971 debacle.

While Mr Baig's political party, the All Pakistan Muslim League, has been inactive for some years, he takes a keen interest in political affairs. Recently he called a press conference in which he put forward his 22-province theory.

He proposes that Makran, Lasbela, Kalat, Sibi, Quetta, Karachi, Hyderabad, Larkana, Sukkur, Bahawalpur, D.G. Khan, Multan, Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Rawalpindi, D.I. Khan, Peshawar, Hazara, Malakand and the Northren Areas (Gilgit agency) be given the status of provinces.

By the same token, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas could be merged with the adjoining provinces of Malakand, Peshawar and D.I. Khan. Since the government has no monopoly over new fangled political ideas, Mr Baig feels that his formula too can do with a close look.

email: karachi_notebook@hotmail.com.