Iran Nuclear Enrichment and Recent Troubles

The diplomats said Monday they had no specifics on the nature of the problem that in recent months led Iranian experts to briefly power down the machines they use for enrichment – a nuclear technology that has both civilian and military uses. But suspicions focused on the Stuxnet worm, the computer virus thought to be aimed at Iran’s nuclear program, which experts last week identified as being calibrated to destroy centrifuges by sending them spinning out of control.

Saraiki Movement: Start and Origin

BEFORE one comments on Riaz Missen’s piece ‘Seraiki nationalism in focus’ (Encounter, May 2) it is inevitable to quote Abdul Majeed Pirzada’s remarks at an Awami Tehreek Conference on provincial autonomy held at Hyderabad on May 10. He says: “Pakhtoons should not be alienated because they were ‘natural allies’ of the Sindhis against the Urdu-speaking people.” This is what can be termed a principle of necessity, if not the law of necessity — a principle that sustains the campaign against Punjab by the other three provinces in the federation.

Poverty Alleviation in Southern Punjab (Pakistan)

This paper investigates the factors affecting rural poverty using Logit regression modeling based on primary source of data in the project area of Asian Development Bank.According to the results, rural poverty can be alleviated by lowering the household size, persons per room and dependency ratio, improving education, more female labor force participation, higher household participation rate, improving assets and household’s access to market especially in remote areas. The government should pay special attention to basic infrastructure and market access facilities beside some other socio-economic and demographic variables to alleviate rural poverty in remote areas of Pakistan.

Balochi People in South Punjab/Saraiki Waseb

Baloch people form a large portion of the whole population of Seraiki wasaib. They are found in considerable numbers in all Seraiki districts. They dwell both in cities and villages. All though some are big landlords and occupy large areas through out Seraiki Wasaib. But they no longer hold compact territories exclusively as their own. They have lost their language and speak Seraiki as a native language, they have been settled and assimilated in Seraiki culture and has little to do with Baloch tribes of Balochistan. Balochs of Seraiki wasaib can hardly be distinguished from other people of Seraiki Wasaib. One would not know about their caste unless revealed by themselves. These Balochs own no allegiance to any tribal Chief, are altogether external to political organization of the tribes of Baluchistan and don’t hold any dominant position among their neighbors which is enjoyed by the organized tribes of Dera Ghazi Khan. However Baloch tribes residing in Dera Ghazi Khan, Rajanpur and Rojhan still have lot of Baloch traditions and some of them still speak Balochi language

Balochs Of Dera Ismail Khan, Bhakkar, Layyah

Division of Punjab/ New Provinces in Pakistan

Calls to create more provinces in Pakistan have been intensified ever since NWFP was renamed Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The people of district Hazara are out on the streets with their demand for Hazara province. A motion was moved in the Senate during the 18th Amendment session with the suggestion that district Bahawalpur be given a provincial status and pictures of students carrying placards of ‘Seraiki province’ have been featured in newspapers ever since.

Terrorism in South Punjab

Pakistan’s attempts at Madrassa reform have largely ended in failure, more so because of the half-hearted attempts of the government and less because of resistance from religious quarters.

One can gauge how serious former President Pervez Musharraf was in reforming madrassas, also said to be the incubators for extremists, from the fact that the person overseeing the process was Ejaz-ul Haq, the son of former dictator General Ziaul Haq.

Saraiki Province or Bahawalpure Province ??

While the issue of a separate Seraiki province has so far been raised mainly by the intellectuals and out-of-mainstream politicians, it is now on the agenda of the political elite also.

The Seraikis have a language of their own. They also have a geographical habitat which is different from much of the rest of Punjab. Its Rohi, Thal, Damaan have been celebrated with deep love by poets from Khwaja Fareed to Dilshad Kulanchvi and evoke feelings not shared by their Punjabi neighbours. Its Pilu, once abundant but now a rarity in Punjab, also provides popular imagery to Seraiki poetry. While jhumar is a popular folk dance in Seraiki area, Punjabis are enthused by altogether different steps and movements of bhangra and ludhi. Unlike Punjabis who comfortably settled in Canada and parts of the US as early as in late 19th century and joined the British Army to fight wars in far off lands around the same period, the Seraikis have led till a few decades back a somewhat sedentary life.