Author: admin
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Sardar Mamoo – Reliance and Tawakal on Allah- Life is to give and not to take
“Shah M Mubeen ur Rehman known in the family as Sardar was my ماموں and veteran of wars of 1965 and 1971 (Baluch Regiment) and passed away with metastatic cancer in 1992. He along with his brother Shah M Ismail, served as رضا کار during Hyderabad Indian army action in 1948 and narrowly escaped death…
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Kalabagh Dam Use for Inciting Smaller Provinces against Federation-Technical Feasibility vs Trust-Deficit Issue
The opposition for big dams like Kala Bagh Dam (KBD) originates in smaller provinces from the same concerns and mistrust that we have for India building big dams up stream on Indus because it hurts Pakistan’s lower riparian rights when the water is diverted away from us without our consent and approval. It is primarily…
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A Tale of Two Live Performances of Pastoral- 6th Symphony of Beethoven and My Musical Journey
Here I recall the two experiences of my life while attending two live performance of Beethoven’s 6th Symphony, “Pastoral” and how they stimulated my love for Beethoven and classical music. The two experiences are spread apart by nearly thirty years. First was at UT Austin’s Bates Recital Hall in 1989 conducted by Louis Lane and…
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Metro Transport Infrastructure of Hong Kong and Detractors of Metro for Pakistan
I just returned from Hong Kong. I was astounded to see the metro bus-train infrastructure and roads infrastructure with elevated expressways and flyovers constructed not only in city areas but also on sea and between islands. There are over 15000 buses plying on over 500 routes. Crisscrossing the islands were 11 train lines with such…
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Metro Buses and Trains vs Health and Education-Tryanny of OR
Why can’t we come out from the tyranny of “or”? It should not be either metro “or” health/education. It should be metro train/bus “and” health/education. As admirably explained in Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Built to Last”, issues should not be cast as “either-or”. Great leaders learn the power of “and” ! It is not either quality…
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A Tale of Two Operations- 1999 Kargil Operation and 1965 Operation Gibraltar
1999 Kargil Op & 1965 Op Gibraltar: Two pompous dictators, two huge fiascos, two strategic miscalculations by dictator generals who live their early life saying only “yes-sir”, and then live the remaining life only hearing and expecting nothing except “yes-sir”. Interestingly enough both of these clandestine operations had several common characteristics : Both were secret…
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Dictator Gen Musharraf as Bounty Hunter: Costs of Joining War on Terror
[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions] References: Musharraf handed over 4,000 Pakistanis to foreign countries https://tribune.com.pk/story/1687073/1-musharraf-handed-4000-pakistanis-foreign-countries/ Pakistan suffers $123.1 bn losses in terror war Pakistan’s losses in war on terror fail to impact US discourse War on terror fought with Pakistan’s own…
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How Corruption is being Eliminated in Pakistan since 1950s: Corruption as a Ruse to Maintain Status Quo
Sustained Elimination of Corruption since 1950s. All thanks to CJPs and our patriotic forces: The corruption was first eliminated in 1951 when Liaquat Ali Khan was terminated and then corruption was eliminated by removing Khwaja Nazimuddin in 1953. Corruption was again eliminated in 1954 when the Molvi Tameezuddin assembly was dismissed. The patriotic elimination of…
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Can a Strong Clean Leader Solve All the Problems of Pakistan- Mythical Narratives
Is it possible to eradicate corruption by only changing the person at the top, the man at the helm of affairs? Unfortunately, this seems to be the predominant narrative in Pakistan. This narrative of “Pakistan Needs a Strong, Clean and Decisive Leader at the Top” has been selling in Pakistan since 1950s. This narrative states…
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Agenda to Ensure Supremacy of Law and Constitution in Pakistan
My agenda is simply to strive for supremacy of rule of law and constitution. I am pained to see people hurling invectives, slandering, and condemning people as traitors without due process of law. Even if I know that someone is guilty, I have no authority to take law in my own hand and dispense justice…
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Top Ten Reasons Why HEC Abandoned Quality Ranking of Universities
Recent decision of HEC to abandon its quality rankings [1] needs to be welcomed. It was an initiative motivated by hubris with scant regard to societal and industry requirements. It was conceived and designed by those who wanted all the universities to become research universities and clones of each other. It was a whip with…
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Is Illiteracy Responsible for Problems of Pakistan? Narrative to Justify Neocolonialism and dictatorial rule
[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions] Are Illiterates Responsible for Woes of Pakistan? Or Is this a Narrative to Support Exploitation? Is this narrative designed to support exploitation by the un-elected “educated elites” in the service of neo-colonialism? There is a dominant…
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Pakistan Helped US Become Superpower- In the Service of Neocolonialism
[To understand the context of this post please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions] How Pakistan helped US become a superpower is a classic case study of how developing countries are maneuvered to help neo-colonial powers achieve their global agenda. This was admitted on record by DG ISPR in Pakistan, …
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DoN godfathers Political Engineering of the SC Bench to Obtain Doctrine of Necessity Judgement
How SC Bench was engineered in 1955 to get the judgement of choice notorious as Doctrine of Necessity (DoN). Sindh High Court had decided against the decision of Governor General in 1954 to dissolve the Constituent Assembly, and had restored Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan to his office of the President of the Constituent Assembly. The following…
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Power of Word in Value Based Education: Discriminating Truth from Falsehood
Honorable Prime Minister, Group Chairperson City School, dignitaries, educationists, teachers and my dear students. I thank the organizers for giving me the opportunity to speak about value based education, some thing that is near and dear to my heart. Power of Word emanates from the depth of our feelings. Words are only words unless they…
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Justice Delayed is Justice Denied: Covey's First Habit Advice to Chief Justice of Pakistan
[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions] What is the advice for Chief Justice of Pakistan(CJP) from Covey’s First Habit of Highly Effective People: CJP ought to work on his circle of influence, instead of his circle of concern, by focusing on…
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Baba Rehmatay- From Chief Justice to Chief Executive: Tilting at the Windmills?
[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions] What is the constitutional role of CJP? To act as the Chief Justice who arbiters when there is a constitutional conflict between law passed by parliament and executive decision making, or is the CJP role to…
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Metro/trains vs hospitals vs schools: Where to Allocate Meagre Resources
[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions] Metro/trains vs hospitals vs schools vs dams vs energy vs other infrastructure projects? Allocation of resources to infrastructure projects and measurement of their comparative benefits is a political decision and should be decided by people not…
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Sir Najmul Hasan of IBA and How to Determine the Extent of Your Success in Life
Yesterday, during my PhD class with students I was trying to explain the complexity of real world and how models (and theories) help us in making sense of this complexity by focusing on a few concepts and their relationships. The discussion moved towards perception and reality and from there to this phenomenal lesson by Najmul…
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Constitutional Solution to Curb Horsetrading in Pakistan
[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions] Massive horsetrading of votes took place during Senate 2018 elections. PTI and MQM Senate seats were lost. Do you know what were the two signals that triggered horse trading in Senate elections 2018? (1) The stringent…
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Difference between a Political Leader and an Employee
What is the difference between a leader and an employee? To become an employee you need to appear in an interview. However, unlike employees, a leader has no need to appear in a job interview or have his application processed by an HR manager. People elect the leader not some HR manager or unelected elites…
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Smoking and Childhood
The closest I had ever come to smoking was when I was 6years old when my neighborhood friend introduced me to the dried branch of “turai” (torai, gourd). It has perforations that allow to be lighted and smoked. Did smoke that for a few days. Got caught, and somehow my mother logically convinced me to…
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Are All Politicians Corrupt in Pakistan? Mythical Narratives Designed to Support Rule of Dictators
[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions] All politicians are corrupt? This sweeping generalization is a narrative used and popularized by supporters of neocolonialism to justify the rule of un-elected elites on one hand, and on the other hand to demoralize the people, …
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Conference Marketing and Promotion-Where is the “conference” in a conference!
Conference Marketing and Promotion: Where is the “conference” in a conference? Marketing and branding of a conference depends upon its value proposition for its participants. Currently value proposition of most conferences is often every thing except the “confer” part of the conference, which means exchange of ideas and discussions. Typical value propositions of existing conferences…
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How Neocolonialism Keeps Developing Countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan Perpetually Destabilized
[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions] The analysis of the recent NewYork Times article about Afghanistan indicates that think tanks in USA have worked out all the options for Afghanistan. All these options perpetuate destabilization for the long term which is the…
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What Options Gen Musharraf had after 9-11 when US threatened to send Pakistan to stone age?
[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions] I often come across people who consider that Gen Musharraf’s U-Turn after 9-11 was the only alternative that the dictator had in the face of the threat from State Department official to bomb Pakistan back to…
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How to Measure the Quality of Your "Parental Relationship"
Quality of “parental relationship” : اپنے بچوں سے تعلق قائم کریں قبل اس کے کہ کوئی اور ان سے تعلق قائم کرنا شروع کر دے ۔ Following parameters indicate quality of your relationship is NOT good and you need to be concerned if: If you don’t trust your child, then there is a “trust deficit”.…
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Parental Concern about Economic Future of our Child
I often see parents excessively worried about the economic future of their child. They are often projecting their own insecurities and their own inadequacies on their children despite a huge difference in their situation as a child and their child’s current situation. Their over-worrying about the economic future of child belies their faith and eeaman…
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An Indecent Obsession: Of War and its Futility
Reflections on “An Indecent Obsession” a movie and book by Colleen McCullough (author of “Thorn Birds” which I read in Pakistan around 1985-86). This is a page from my diary written on September 25, 1987. I was 25 and this was my first semester at UT Austin, and was residing at Riverside Apartments. ——————- For…
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To Kill a Mockingbird: A Personal Journey
I was around 10 when I saw the movie “To Kill a Mocking Bird” on PTV in 1971-72. That was the time when I didn’t focus on the dialogues but used to only concentrate on the emotions and feelings depicted. We didn’t have access to Internet or magazines with briefs about the programs or movies…