Dr Abdul Wahid Soomro (MNA Pakistan Peoples Party)

A fascinating report released recently by the British Council Pakistan on the role of language in education in Pakistan, suggests that Pakistani students are best served by education if they are to be instructed in their mother tongues.

The report also suggests that Islamic madrassas are extremely interested in learning English so they can promote Islam in other countries, learn about other religions, communicate their message to the world in a better way, improve image of Islam in the world as well as the basic need for Muslims to learn knowledge.

Titled Teaching & Learning in Pakistan: The Role of Language in Education, the report (prepared by Hywel Coleman and the British Council), was based on the results of a widespread research and survey of the many languages spoken in Pakistan and the country’s education sector.

ISLAMABAD: The three-year fragile and ineffective efforts for peace between warring sectarian tribes in Kurram Agency have received an unexpected boost in the shape of the controversial Haqqani network which is now trying to play peace broker. 

This has been confirmed by more than one source from among the key players involved in the peace process. 

The entry of the Haqqanis in the Kurram peace talks, which date back to 2007, has surprised many. After all, the network is usually mentioned in terms of its war theatre in Afghanistan and its base in North Waziristan. The US has been pressurising the government for months to dislodge the Haqqanis from North Waziristan. 

WASHINGTON: Pakistan on Wednesday praised US President Barack Obama for saying he would visit the country next year, calling it a sign of commitment between the troubled war partners.
Obama, meeting with a senior Pakistani delegation, said he would not visit when he travels to neighboring India next month. But he committed to visiting Pakistan in 2011 and invited Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari to Washington.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, speaking afterward at the Brookings Institution think-tank, called his meeting with Obama “very satisfying.”
“The fact that he has agreed to visit Pakistan next year, the fact that he has decided to invite the president of Pakistan to the United States of America, that is the level of engagement that is taking place,” Qureshi said.
The United States has played a delicate balancing act, seeking to show Pakistan it seeks a relationship beyond cooperation on Afghanistan while also trying to broaden its ties with India, the world’s largest democracy.

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama will not visit Pakistan during his Asian tour next month, but has committed to a trip to the key US anti-terror ally in 2011, the White House said Wednesday.
There had been rising speculation over whether Obama would pay a surprise and unannounced visit to Pakistan when he visits India in two weeks, then moves on to Indonesia, South Korea and Japan.
But he told Pakistani officials taking part in a strategic dialogue with American officials in Washington that a visit would take place next year instead.
“The President explained that he would not be stopping in Pakistan during his trip to Asia next month, and committed to visiting Pakistan in 2011,” the White House said in a statement.
Obama also told the delegation that he would welcome Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari to Washington, but no date was specified.
Sources

KARACHI: Former Pakistan captain Younis Khan’s return from obscurity became a reality on Wednesday, after reports emerged that he may replace injured batsman Mohammad Yousuf in the national squad.
Younis has been out of the Pakistan squad since last year, after he was indefinitely banned as the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) took disciplinary action against seven players following the team’s disastrous tour of Australia. The ban was later lifted but Younis has not been able to play international cricket due to PCB Chairman Ijaz Butt’s alleged stern stance against the former captain.
Butt, however, invited Younis to meet him in a bid to sort out their differences after former cricketers and politicians openly slammed the board chief’s handling of the situation. The meeting between the two is currently underway and reports emerging from the PCB headquarters at Gaddafi Stadium Lahore say that Younis is likely to make his return in the team at the expense of Yousuf.
Yousuf, part of Pakistan’s squad for the nine-match series against South Africa, reportedly pulled out of the on-going training camp in Lahore after sustaining an injury on the first day.
PCB chief selector Mohsin Hassan Khan is due to hold a press conference shortly after the Butt-Younis meeting and the World Twenty20 winning captain’s inclusion in the squad is said to be the main agenda of the presser.
Sources

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Wednesday said army was not being called in Karachi to restore law and order, and stressed that the political leadership was capable of addressing the issue.
Talking to media representatives, Prime Minister Gilani dismissed remarks by Pakistan People’s Party leader Nabeel Gabol of calling the army to take control of the city. Gilani said that was Gabol’s “personal view”.
“It is not the point of the view of my party,” Gilani said.
He said the army could be called in to assist the civilian government, but added that “the political leadership of the country was capable of containing the situation”.
When asked whether he had any information that the unrest in the city was being manipulated by foreign hands, Gilani said he would respond once he received a detailed report from Interior Minister Rehman Malik.
Condemning the killings in Karachi, Gilani said he had personally spoken to the stakeholders in Karachi and that efforts were underway to bring peace to the city.
To a question regarding the Supreme Court's decision on the 18th Amendment expected tomorrow, Gilani said he hoped for a positive verdict. He further said that the PPP held the court in high esteem.
Sources

LONDON: A Saudi prince, the grandson of King Abdullah, was jailed for life by a British court Wednesday for murdering his servant in a London hotel.
Saud Bin Abdulaziz Bin Nasir al Saud, 34, was ordered to serve a minimum of 20 years by a judge at London's Old Bailey, also known as the Central Criminal Court.
“It is very unusual for a prince to be in the dock on a murder charge. No one in this country is above the law,” judge David Bean told Saud as he sentenced him.
The court convicted Saud on Tuesday of beating and strangling Bandar Abdullah Abdulaziz to death on February 15 in the climax of a long campaign of violent sexual abuse. – AFP
Sources

KARACHI: Unknown gunmen killed four people in different incidents of target killing in Karachi on Wednesday, bringing to 33 the number of people killed in the city in the past 24 hours.
“It is right now difficult to name any groups over involvement in the killings but I can say one thing — this is a conspiracy to destabilise Karachi,” city police chief Fayyaz Leghari told AFP.
“Police have arrested several suspects and they are being interrogated,” Leghari said without disclosing any numbers.
Commercial centres shut down in the wake of the violence that intensified on Tuesday claiming at least 29 lives.
Police and paramilitary troops patrolled troubled parts of the city, which were deserted with public transport on strike, an AFP reporter said.
Police were searching for attackers in eastern and southern parts of the city where the violence has been concentrated.

KARACHI: At least five people died in different incidents of target killings in Karachi on Tuesday, DawnNews reported.
On the other hand, 86 people suspected of being involved in target killings, rampaging, torching vehicles, and triggering riots were arrested from across the city.
Earlier, over the weekend, at least 31 people were killed in violence in parts of the city.
Sources

ISLAMABAD: President Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Qazi Anwar on Tuesday returned a cheque, worth Rs1 million, earlier given to the association by Law Minister Babar Awan.
Speaking to media representatives outside the court, Anwar said accepting such an amount was creating doubts about his integrity.
He said Awan had offered him a cheque bearing Rs1 million for the welfare of the Supreme Court employees.
Qazi Anwar said a faction of the media had started a defamation campaign against him, and he had decided to return the cheque for this reason.
He then disposed off the cheque in front of media representatives.
Sources

KARACHI: All-rounder Shoaib Malik will lead Pakistan's challenge in next month's Super Sixes in Hong Kong, Pakistan selectors announced on Monday.
The 28-year-old Malik, who was national team captain until January last year, was overlooked for the series against South Africa starting later this month in the United Arab Emirates.
Instead Malik will lead a seven-member second-string Pakistan team for the Hong Kong event which will be held on November 6 and 7.
Pakistan chief selector Mohsin Khan said: “We have selected Malik to lead the team for the Hong Kong Super Sixes.”
Other members of the Pakistan team are Imran Nazir, Shoaib Khan, Sohail Khan, Shabbir Ahmed, Ahmed Shahzad and Asad Ali.
Besides Pakistan, teams from Australia, India, England, New Zealand, Hong Kong, South Africa and Sri Lanka will take part.
The teams are comprised of six players with one substitute. The Hong Kong Sixes tournament was first held in 1992 and is sanctioned by the International Cricket Council.
Pakistan won the inaugural event 18 years ago, then again in 1997, 2001 and 2002.
Sources

WASHINGTON: The foreign minister of Pakistan said Monday that Iran had no justification to pursue nuclear weapons and urged the neighboring country to embrace overtures from the United States.
In some of Pakistan's strongest statements on Iran's controversial nuclear program, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that he wanted to avoid “another major crisis in the region. In my view, I don't think they have a justification to go nuclear,” Qureshi said at Harvard University.
“Who's threatening Iran? I don't see any immediate threat to Iran,” he said, while adding that Pakistan accepted Iran's “right to civilian use of technology.”
Qureshi said he has shared his views with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and told him to seize on US President Barack Obama's stated willingness to engage in dialogue to mend decades of fraught US-Iranian ties.
“This administration has been extending the olive branch, make use of it. Engage the world,” Qureshi said.
Pakistan has a mostly friendly but complicated relationship with Iran's Shia clerical regime. Baluchistan province stretching between the two nations is rife with insurgency and sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shias.
Pakistan and Iran in June signed a deal that commits Tehran to selling natural gas from a pipeline. The United States has warned against the project as it steps up sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said at the time that Islamabad would implement UN resolutions on Iran but not unilateral US restrictions.
Qureshi said that Pakistan faces a threat from India, making its case different than Iran's. Pakistan became the Islamic world's only nuclear weapons state in 1998, days after its historic rival carried out similar atomic tests.
Qureshi also pointed out that Iran was signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which Pakistan and India never signed.
“They have an international obligation. They have signed NPT and they should respect that,” he said.
Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's bomb, confessed on television in February 2004 that he ran a nuclear black market that sent secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea. However, Khan later retracted his remarks.
Sources

HONG KONG: The founder of global social networking giant Facebook is so determined to make his company a success in China he's even learning the language.
Facebook has over 500 million users worldwide but has been restricted in China since July 2009 after the deadly ethnic unrest in the restive Xinjiang region.
In a long question and answer session with an audience at Stanford University, Mark Zuckerberg explained how Facebook is only “not winning or going to win” in four countries: China, Japan, South Korea and Russia.
“We kind of carved off China and said “Okay this one is extremely complex and has its own dynamics,” he told the audience at the Y Combinator start up school on Saturday.
“In China I think the values are so different from what we have in the US so, before we do anything there, I'm personally spending a lot of time studying it and figuring out what I think the right thing to do is.
“It's kind of a personal challenge this year, I'm taking an hour a day and I'm learning Chinese. I'm trying to understand the language, the culture, the mind set -- it's just such an important part of the world.
“How can you connect the whole world if you leave out a billion-six people?” China is the most populous nation on the planet, with an official tally of 1.3 billion -- 420 million are active online.