Two pakistani women elected in british parliament!

LONDON: Two Pakistani-British women were among three women who became the first Muslim females to be elected to the British parliament following their success in Thursday’s national polls. Yasmin Qureshi, a 47-year-old practising barrister, held on to the Labour seat from Bolton south east constituency (north west England), by taking 18,782 votes against her Conservative party rival Andy Morgan who polled 15,827 votes. The other successful woman was Oxford-educated Barrister Shabana Mahmood, a Labour candidate, who won with 19,950 votes. The third successful woman was Roshan Ara Ali of Bangladeshi-descent, who won East London constituency of Bethnal Green and Bow with 21,784 votes.

Pakistan successfully test-fires two missiles

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has successfully test-fired two ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

According to ISPR, Shaheen-1 missile has range of about 400 miles (650kilometers), while the second Ghaznavi missile could hit target at a distance of 180 miles (290 kilometers).

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, General Tariq Pervaiz and Admital Nauman Bashir witnessed Saturday’s launch.

PCB unveils inquiry report on Australian tour

LAHORE: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) inquiry committee report regarding team’s poor performance in Australia has been unveiled which reveals that match fixing, oath taking of players on the Holy Quran against Younis Khan, chit chat with girls at boundary line and disputes among the players. According to report, Pakistan former captain Muhammad Yousuf called six players to his room and forced them to take an oath on the Holy Quran that they would not accept Younis Khan as captain. The inquiry committee recommendations led to the board banning Younis Khan, Muhammad Yousuf, Shoaib Malik and Rana Naved and fining Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal and Umar Akmal.

The inquiry report also said that former Test bowler, Aaqib Javed who was sacked as assistant manager after the tours had told the inquiry committee that Younis Khan was not liked by anyone in the team when he was captain. "Younis was not liked by any player and they were at least six players who were vocal against him. Younis was an arrogant captain who didn't listen to anyone," Aaqib told the inquiry committee.

The former pacer is also claimed to have told the committee that Younis, Shoaib Malik and Shahid Afridi were the main troublemakers in the team. Other excerpts of the report said that pacer Rana Naved had told the inquiry committee that there were players in the Indian Premier League who had links with bookmakers. Former Pakitan coach Intikhab Alam has said some of the national team players behaved as if they were "mentally retarded" during a woeful tour of Australia. Alam told the committee that some of the players did not understand how to conduct themselves when representing the country. The former coach also pointed fingers at Shoaib Malik as "someone with a negative attitude and active in intrigues in the team."

Jordanian woman body-builder takes on world of prejudice

AMMAN: Her highly muscled body is smothered in tattoos, she is constantly criticised by her fellow Jordanians and she suffers deep inner torment.

No matter what it takes, however, 26-year-old Farah Malhass is determined to become the first Arab woman to enter an international body-building competition."Everyone is against me. No one understands why I want to become an international star in figure body-building," she told AFP.

Her pursuit comes at great personal cost; many Jordanian men have strict views on "correct" behaviour for women, as witnessed by the frequent so-called honour killings –of female family members suspected of having sex before marriage.

Malhass is a sitting target for Jordan's hardliners, not least of all because her body is covered in tattoos: a bare-breasted angel is depicted on her upper thighs, angel wings cover her back, and edgy statements are branded across her arms.

"You are somebody when you stop being nobody," reads one. "Only the one who hurts you can heal your pain," reads another.

"The tattoo is vital for me. It reveals my identity and the path I want to follow," says Malhass, who travels regularly to Beirut to get her tattoos after receiving her first one at the age of 17. "Yes, it hurts, but it is therapeutic at the same time because the pain allows me to overcome the inner suffering that eats away at me," she says.

Hailing from a well-off Jordanian family as one of two daughters, Malhass's parents are divorced. She has no contact with her businessman father and her mother is often away on travels."It was my grandfather who looked after us. He always spoiled me, but when I was 20 I wanted to live alone and achieve my dream."

A rebel from an early age, she has nurtured the dream since the age of 14, when she swore that one day it would be her pictures splashed out across the walls of the gym.

Malhass began training at 20, but soon came up against the disapproval of her family, who could not understand why she should chose to "deform my body and make myself look ugly."

So she enrolled at Saint Martins College in London to study fine art, but soon dropped out.
Back in Jordan, she joined the International Organisation for Migration in 2007 and worked with Iraqi immigrants, "an experience that scarred me with their stories of torture and abuse." Malhass left the IOM last year and is now totally committed to her ambition of taking part in international body-building competitions.

Today, she is on the verge of seeing her dream come true.

She is to travel to Canada in September to take part in an amateur body-building competition in the "figure" category, for muscle men and women who do not aim to develop huge biceps."If I win first prize, I would then be able to participate in professional competitions," she says.

But in Amman her plans are met with scepticism and derision far more than encouragement.

The Jordanian body-building federation has difficulty accepting a woman into its ranks. "Aren't you ashamed of parading in front of the world in a bikini," she is asked.

So far only one Jordanian athlete, Zeid al-Far, has supported her. He is also competing in Toronto and they are sharing the cost of their training.

They are also seeking sponsorship together but this is proving elusive, with just one radio station manager in Amman and a nightclub owner in Beirut taking any interest. "Preparations for the competition are expensive, with all the vitamins and other health supplements, gym membership, food – I've even sold my car to meet the costs," she says.

She insists she wants to reach her goal by herself, without family help.

"Besides, my grandfather is ill and if he ever learned that I was taking part in this kind of competition, he would certainly never recover."

Calling on Super Sahib

I will always love Superman: he fights for peace, justice, and the American (err… Pakistani?) way. I think he embodies all that we wish for in today’s corruption- and violence-ridden world. He is that rare individual who is unflappably decent (severe lack of grey moral areas), courageous (well not really, given that next to nothing can hurt him), and unstoppably awesome (like an earthquake, tsunami, or other national disaster).

But given the wave of anti-Americanism sweeping Pakistan, I think it’s time we coined a realistic desi Superman. What would he be like? What qualities would he embody? What would he look like? And what would he spend his time doing?

For starters, he would not want to be called Superman – he’s a Pakistani, dammit! He would have the option of being Super seth or Super saeen, but would probably opt for Super Sahib.

Moreover, he would be fat. I’m sorry, but if you have the ability to fly or float, you’re not going to spend a lot of time running, working out, or even walking for that matter. And let’s get real – cardio burns fat; natural floating buoyancy doesn’t.

Since Super Sahib would have a pot belly rivaling the entire consolidated Sharif clan, there is no way he would prance around in physique-hugging tights. Instead, the man would dress for comfort and rock out in a shalwar kameez – they are darn comfortable, after all.

Do you honestly think the most powerful being in this country would roam around in tights and wear his underwear on the outside? Let’s get real. He doesn’t need to prove anything or impress anyone! He’s Super Sahib. Besides, his desi Super Mummy would cry a river if he dressed like the spokesperson for the Gay Pride Parade.

In the fine tradition of chairmen, politicians, and mill owners, Super Sahib would probably wear a plain white shalwar kameez in the finest available latha. But given his stature, he’d probably have at least a few sponsors – Pepsi, McDonalds, etc. And when the likes of Shahid Afridi come to whack him for siphoning off their sponsorships, he’ll simply fly away.

Super Sahib’s favorite pastimes would include chilling on his farm in Chak Shehzad on a La-Z-Boy with multiple cup-holders, drinking sweet lassi, and watching his crops grow while the damsel in distress he just saved cooks vats of biryani and nihari for him.

Super Sahib won’t disguise himself or pass as a lame, non-descript news reporter; he’d be Super Sahib all the time and occasionally work as a ‘consultant’, charging fees that would make even Pakistani politicians look reasonable. Forget the superpower – Super Sahib will give us hydro-electric projects, drone technology, and economic development in a matter of minutes.

In keeping with Pakistanis’ reputation for philanthropy, Super Sahib would be extremely charitable. In addition to attending all the charity balls, fund-raisers, fashion shows, and flower shows that he is invited to, Super Sahib will donate (read: sell) all his toenail clippings for cancer research. He will regularly show off his sensitive side by crying when Pakistan loses a cricket match, or when Sania Saeed or Nadia Jamil appear in a televised drama serial.

The fact is, we are a country that yearns for the help of supermen and their superpowers, because we refuse to do anything for ourselves. Our hearts, minds, and our history are filled with different supermen (the only problem is, we can’t seem to agree on who the real superman or superpower at any given time was). And so it is that we await, with bated breath, the coming of Super Sahib, who will (inshallah) fix all our nation’s problems.

WOMEN AS EXPLAINED BY ENGINEERS!‏

The beauty of watching Pakistan play

Cricket has this wonderful way of throwing up extraordinary events that sometimes teaches us to simply accept the beautiful unpredictability of sport without reading any sinister intentions into it. Struggling to stay awake at about 5 am this morning (Australia time), I was enthralled by a five-wicket maiden over at the end of Australia’s innings in the Twenty20 World Cup match in St Lucia. That an amazing finish to an innings that was rocketing along at breakneck speed just a few overs earlier when David Hussey collared Mohammad Sami.

When was the last time a team that lost 5 wickets for no runs in an over comfortably won a cricket match? That says a lot about how good this Australian team is. It also served as a sobering reminder that when such extraordinary events happen, we should sometimes dispense with our cynicism and appreciate the theatre and drama of sport for what it is. Watching that last over, there was no doubt in my mind that this was a bizarre but brilliant passage of play by Pakistan and an equally poor performance by Australia. Nothing more, nothing less. Just one of those things that can happen sometimes.


Very little else about Australia’s play was poor and Pakistan had little else to celebrate but for this single over. If the situation had been reversed, I wonder if there would have been the usual murmurings and suspicions about how Pakistan could possibly have lost five wickets for no runs in six balls. And that would have been most terribly unfair on Pakistan because as we’ve just seen, amazing things can happen sometimes without having to question the integrity of such events.

Like in Sydney a few months ago, Australia fought back brilliantly and Pakistan stumbled at the last hurdle to complete a memorable game of cricket. It was compelling cricket and Pakistan played their part in one of the most enjoyable Test matches in recent memory, only to have to defend themselves against some scurrilous suggestions that something was rotten in the camp. And sadly for Pakistan, they seem to unfairly have to put up with frequent innuendo of this nature, even when there is little evidence to point to anything but brilliant, poor, inspired, imaginative, freakish moments in a cricket match. It’s the beauty of the way they play cricket, richly talented, often unpredictable, capable of the brilliant and bizarre in the space of a few minutes. That’s one of the reasons I’ve always loved watching Pakistan play – you never quite know what to expect but you expect to be entertained, frustrated or bewitched at every twist and turn of the game. Sure, there have been some integrity issues with Pakistani cricket that have been well documented but we sometimes forget that just about every country has been implicated in the murky world of match-fixing and betting scandals.

Pakistan seem to be forever defending themselves against such accusations but that a roller-coaster ride is the very reason why they are such a watchable side. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve watched Pakistan chase a total and fall hopelessly behind the run rate, only to see the most amazing acceleration that defied the 40 overs that preceded it. Even this morning, despite feeling desperately sleepy and seeing Australia comfortably on top, I could not bring myself to switch off the TV in case Afridi, Misbah or Razzaq just exploded and pulled off a miracle. I only truly relaxed when Misbah was dismissed, despite the scoreboard willing me to call it quits and take an Aussie victory for granted.

There are not too many other sides in world cricket that make me that nervous, even when Australia are seemingly cruising towards victory. Perhaps South Africa with Boucher and Morkel still at the crease but theirs is a more clinical assault rather than the sheer unpredictability of a Pakistani cyclone. It’s Boom-boom or Bust! Whatever the criticisms of modern cricket, one cannot argue that it lacks for entertainment, sheer skill and firepower. I love watching Australia bat for that reason. I love watching Australia in the field for that reason. Even on their bad days, even when the eyelids are heavy from watching two consecutive games of cricket in the middle of the night and a warm bed is calling, when Pakistan are chasing down an impossible target, it’s easy to see why Bon Jovi said “I’ll sleep when I’m dead”.

Who is this idiot faisal shahzad?

Not long ago, Faisal Shahzad had a pretty enviable life: He became an American citizen after emigrating from Pakistan, where he came from a wealthy family. He earned an MBA. He had a well-educated wife and two kids and owned a house in a middle-class Connecticut suburb.

In the past couple of years, though, his life seemed to unravel: He left a job at a global marketing firm he'd held for three years, lost his home to foreclosure and moved into an apartment in an impoverished neighborhood in Bridgeport. And last weekend, authorities say, he drove an SUV loaded with explosives into Times Square intent on blowing it up.

The bomb didn't go off, and Shahzad was arrested on a plane in New York as he tried to leave the country. He was in custody Tuesday and couldn't be reached for comment. Authorities say he is cooperating and has admitted getting explosives training in his native Pakistan.

Shahzad's behavior sometimes seemed odd to his neighbors, and he surprised a real estate broker he hardly knew with his outspokenness about President George W. Bush and the Iraq war.

"He mentioned that he didn't like Bush policies in Iraq," said Igor Djuric, who represented Shahzad in 2004 when he was buying a home.

Djuric said he couldn't remember the exact words Shahzad used about Bush but "something to the effect of he doesn't know what he's doing and it's the wrong thing that he's doing."

"I don't know if he mentioned 9/11," Djuric said, "but something like that, Iraq has nothing to do with anything."

Shahzad, 30, is the son of a former top Pakistani air force officer, according to Kifyat Ali, a cousin of Shahzad's father. He came to the United States in late 1998 on a student visa, according to an official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the investigation into Saturday's failed car bombing.

He took classes at the now-defunct Southeastern University in Washington, D.C., then enrolled at the University of Bridgeport, where he received a bachelor's degree in computer applications and information systems in 2000.

"He was personable, a nice guy, but unremarkable," said William Greenspan, adviser for undergraduate business students at the University of Bridgeport. "He would just come in and take the course as needed so he could graduate in a timely manner."

"If this didn't happen, I probably would have forgotten him," Greenspan said. "He didn't stand out."

Shahzad was granted an H1-B visa for skilled workers in 2002, according to the official who spoke to the AP. He later returned to the University of Bridgeport to earn a master's in business administration, awarded in 2005.

In 2004, he and his wife, Huma Mian, bought a newly built home for $273,000 at the height of the market in Shelton, a Fairfield County town that in recent years has attracted companies relocating to Connecticut's Gold Coast.

Like her husband, Mian was well educated. She graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2004 with a bachelor of science in business with an emphasis in accounting, the school said.

On her profile on the social networking site Orkut, she described herself as "not political" and said she spoke English, Pashto, Urdu and French. She listed her passions as "fashion, shoes, bags, shopping!! And of course, Faisal." She posted a picture of Shahzad, smiling, with the caption, "what can I say ... he's my everything. Authorities say Shahzad returned to Pakistan then came back to the United States. He took an apartment in Bridgeport, and his landlord told investigators the apartment came with a garage that he alone had access to. The landlord also told police that he spotted two bags of fertilizer when he saw Shahzad entering the garage May 3.

He usually walks around alone, looking lonely and kind of depressed usually," Nejilia Gayden said.

Since Shahzad's arrest late Monday, investigators have removed fireworks and fertilizer from the property. They also recovered a gun from the car Shahzad had driven to the airport.

Federal agents also searched the empty home in Shelton on Tuesday after The Connecticut Post and The New York Times said its reporters had discovered a trove of rain-soaked documents outside the home. The Post's find included an old passport from Pakistan, an academic transcript from Southeastern University listing a grade point average of 2.78 and tax returns showing Shahzad earned $22,650 income as an account analyst in 2001.

The newspaper also found greeting cards, including one in which someone named Fayeza addressed him as "sweetest Faisal."

"Wish you happiness and joy now and always," the card said. "Praying for your bright future."

Beyond beauty

Far from the firestorm in Pakistan, Fatima Bhutto is currently launching her controversial memoir, Songs of Blood and Sword, in London. A recent launch event at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts was well attended by Pakistani expatriates, attired in their designer best and armed with fierce opinions about the Bhutto family. For the most part, that is.

At the post-launch reception, an acquaintance complained that Bhutto had not made any revelations, jibed that Pakistanis ask dumb (read tame) questions, and concluded that all political blather is a waste of time. “In that case, why are you here?” I asked. His pat answer: “Because Fatima is smoking hot.”

This crass response is not an uncommon reaction to Bhutto, whose good looks have been reviewed almost as vigorously as her latest book. In a profile for TheTelegraph, Janine di Giovanni wrote: “Fatima is tiny and beautiful, but largely unaware of her beauty.... Her face is clear of make-up (unlike her aunt, who adored red lipstick and thick foundation).” The Guardian’s Susanna Rustin opted for similar adjectives, painting Bhutto as “beautiful, small and elegant”.

Esteemed writer Khushwant Singh was more profuse in his praise, describing Bhutto as a “stunner” and waxing eloquent about the “pinhead of a diamond sparkling on the left side of her nose and her long jet-black curly hair falling on her shoulders”. Even Bhutto’s publishers felt that her looks should be exploited to sell her books — the back flap of the book jacket is virtually free of text, plastered instead with a striking, softly lit profile picture of the writer.

In 2010, in an era that has often been described as post-feminist, this sort of commentary about a female writer should be unacceptable. It should be considered inappropriate to blatantly objectify someone who has put herself in the public sphere in the capacity of a journalist, a historian, a memoirist, and even a political figure. What, after all, does Bhutto’s presence have to do with her prose, political convictions and propensity for historical research?

Bhutto’s detractors, who have described her as naïve and biased, and her work as fictionalised or poorly researched, are showing her more respect than those who gush over her beauty. Such critics are engaging with her on the terms that she has asked the world to engage with her on — as a writer, a historian, an intellectual. In taking her to task, they have placed her memoir — not her appearance — under scrutiny.

Unfortunately, Bhutto is not the first Pakistani woman who has braved the public sphere on the might of her brains, only to be judged on the basis of her beauty. One of Pakistan’s leading novelists, a brilliant and witty woman, laughingly confessed that for a while, if you Googled her name, the search engine would toss up the word ‘husband’ as a popular prompt. In other words, this writer’s fans were more interested in finding out if she’s snagged a man than in her titles, teaching experience or book tours.

It is also well known that no women are more attacked or appraised for their fashion choices than Pakistan’s ministers and parliamentarians. Female politicians who care for their appearance are often accused of indulging in inappropriate acts to get to the top; those who don’t are mercilessly mocked. Precious little is said about their policy initiatives as compared to the hefty debate on their kurtas and kajol.

Further, among female columnists I know, there is a running joke that our best work incites the most marriage proposals. Indeed, feedback to these columns is regularly peppered with propositions and judgments (both good and bad) on my looks. By including an email address at the end of this column, I open myself up to criticism, correction, education, and, yes, on a good day, praise. Having my profile picture evaluated is not part of my job description.

Given the who-killed-who proportions of the controversy that Bhutto’s book has generated, making the point that people should not be obsessing about her beauty may seem insignificant. And I apologise to those who feel a feminist rant is a bit much to deal with on a Sunday morning. But the fact is, this is a crucial time for Pakistani women to demand that men — and for that matter, other women — stop objectifying them, and start taking them seriously.

In a post-Zia era, Pakistani women are starting to take flight on the wings of women’s rights activists (the term ‘feminist’ has been out of vogue most of my adult life). They are making their mark as professionals, academics, athletes, journalists, writers, bankers and more. Granted, most of these women are educated, urban, and hail from the middle or upper classes. But that trend, too, is changing. As increasing poverty, unemployment and inflation put enormous pressure on families, women from all social strata are being compelled to contribute to the household income.

And here’s a little advance lesson based on global economic trends: women who work enjoy a disposable income, and are good about saving a little something at the end of each month. They often spend these savings on themselves; on their education, health, fitness, beauty and fashion. That means the more learned, financially empowered and self-sufficient women get, the better they look. This is why Pakistanis need to train themselves for a future in which women — beautiful, stylish, well-groomed women — will succeed in different arenas. And like Bhutto today, these women will deserve to be evaluated on the strength of their formulations, not their form.

For once, our government has set the right precedent. On an abstract level, the recently approved Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Bill was calling for just this: that women who work no longer be objectified, sexualised, harassed, or privileged on the basis of their looks. If our law has enshrined a value, we should embrace it. More importantly, we should celebrate Pakistani women for the skills, talent, professionalism and intellectual merit that they have to offer.

Pakistani arrested in NYC

NEW YORK – A Pakistan-born U.S. citizen accused of driving a bomb-laden SUV into Times Square and parking it on a street lined with restaurants and Broadway theaters was to appear in court Tuesday to face charges that he tried to set off a massive fireball and kill Americans, federal authorities said.

The suspect, Faisal Shahzad, was taken into custody late Monday by FBI agents and New York Police Department detectives at Kennedy Airport while trying to board a flight to Dubai, according to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and other officials. He was identified by customs agents and stopped before boarding, Holder said early Tuesday in Washington.

Shahzad is a naturalized U.S. citizen and had recently returned from a five-month trip to Pakistan, where he had a wife, according to law enforcement officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation into the failed car bombing.

The U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan was handling the case and said Shahzad would appear in court Tuesday, but the charges were not made public. FBI agents searched the home at a known address for Shahzad in Bridgeport, Conn., early Tuesday, said agent Kimberly Mertz, who wouldn't answer questions about the search.

Authorities removed filled plastic bags from the house overnight in a mixed-race, working-class neighborhood of multi-family homes in Connecticut's largest city. A bomb squad came and went without entering as local police and FBI agents gathered in the cordoned-off street.

Shahzad was being held in New York overnight and couldn't be contacted. A phone number at a listed address for Shahzad in Shelton, Conn., wasn't in service.

Pakistan without Muslims, a village in India’s Bihar state

PATNA: There is not a single Muslim living in this village, yet it is named Pakistan. This Pakistan is situated in Purnea district of Bihar.

Notwithstanding recent tension and four wars the people of that village oppose change in the name of the village. This is notwithstanding the demand by some people to change the name. The villagers do not want the two countries to fight.

A Lahore datelined report in a Pakistani daily quoting BBC said that the villagers want to spread the message of peace and brotherhood.

This Indian––or rather Bihari––Pakistan is a village situated on the border with West Bengal and the native Muslim population migrated to the then East Pakistan in 1947. It is in the memory of those Muslims that the locals had named the village Pakistan, said the report.

Before the State Re-organization Commission’s recommendation in 1956, the then undivided district of Purnea was contiguous to East Pakistan. However, in 1956 Islampur sub-division was given to West Bengal, which now forms the international border with Bangladesh.

Many Pakistanis have their roots in India and many of them root for India. There is Bihar Colony, Delhi Colony, Aligarh Colony etc in Pakistan, especially Karachi.

Similarly many western Punjabis living in India do not hesitate in declaring their roots. Shops like Lahori Halwa, Sialkot Sports, Peshawar Store etc can be found in many places.

But, there is perhaps no India, Bharat or Hindustan in Pakistan and no Pakistan, barring this one, in India.

Aamer delivers five-wicket maiden

There was a bizarre finish to the Australia innings as five wickets fell for no runs in the final over, from Pakistan's left-arm quick Mohammad Aamer during their Group A match at the Beausejour Stadium, St. Lucia.

Brad Haddin was caught off the first ball, Mitchell Johnson clean bowled off the second with both Michael Hussey and Steven Smith run out by direct hits from wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal as they tried to run byes. Tait survived the fifth ball but was bowled off the last for nought. Aamer finished with three for 23 from his four overs.

Aamer's feat is yet another bowling record for Pakistan in Twenty20 internationals and prompted former Australian captain Ian Chappell to say, “I don't think I'll get over saying 'five-wicket maiden', ever.”

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