Shoe thrower fears for his safety

Sardar Shamim Khan who threw his shoes at President Asif Zardari during a rally in Birmingham is in hiding after receiving death threats.

The 57-yr-old dad-of-four has taken shelter among the Kashmiri community in Alum Rock after receiving threats from supporters of Asif Zardar, reported Sunday Mercury on its website.

A source close to Shamim Khan told the Sunday Mercury: “He feels that he can’t go home at the moment, so he is keeping a very low profile.

“His family has been threatened over in Pakistan, the irony is that most of them are actually Zardari supporters.

“He has also had threatening phone calls as well, most likely from overseas. At the moment he is scared for his safety.”

Shamim Khan had hurled his shoes at the President after becoming enraged by his handling of the country’s flood disaster.

He told media he was proud that he had thrown his shoes at the President who happens to be the co-chairman of Pakistan Peoples Party. Shamim chalimed he was a PPP supporter.

“I could feel the anger brewing up inside me,” Shamim told media after throwing shoes. “I thought, we’ve a crisis back at home and all he can do is take a trip around Europe while his own people are suffering.

“His speech was insulting to my people who are dying because of Zardari’s government.

Pervez Musharraf on Connnectivizing With His Worldwide Fans on Facebook

Here is transcript for former President of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, as 'Connector of the Day' below. The show was launched on February 15, 2010.

           (BEGIN TRANSCRIPT OF VIDEOTAPE)

            MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR (voice-over):  In his own words,
he was a general before a politician.  But that didn't stop Pervez
Musharraf from serving Pakistan as head of the government for nearly nine
years, seven of them as president.  Considered an ally to the U.S. in the
war on terror, Musharraf had a controversial reign.  Opponents within the
country accused him of censorship and of being a dictator.  In 2008, he
eventually stepped down amid calls to impeach him.  The post was eventually
filled by current President Asif Zardari. 

            In his latest incarnation, Musharraf is an Internet sensation. 
Currently, the former president has tens of thousands of fans on his
Facebook page where he regularly answers questions and writes status
updates.  From wartime leader to Facebook friend, Pervez Musharraf is our
"Connector of the Day."
 
            (END VIDEOTAPE)

            FOSTER:  And Mr. Musharraf has over 127,000 fans on one social-
networking site, so we knew he'd be a hit online.  Hundreds of you sent in
your questions for him on our Web page, CNN.com/connect.  My colleague
Becky caught up with the former Pakistani president here in London and
began by asking him about the response he's getting on Facebook

            (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

            PERVEZ MUSHARRAF, FORMER PRESIDENT OF PAKISTAN:  First of all, let me
say that analyzing the outcome of the Facebook, I knew I had a lot of
support, but this support was all dispersed all over the world.  I always
thought that dispersed support is weak support; collective support is
strong support.  So it is the medium of the Facebook which provided the
connectivity to collectivize all the support.  I mean, that is how I take
it.  So therefore, I am very grateful to the Facebook for collectivizing
all the support that the -- that I have now.

            BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT:  On Facebook itself,
you have said that you're a strong believer in freedom of the print and
electronic media, and yet, at least the end of your tenure, your time in
power was defined by sort of the clamp down -- of the clamp down on the
media.  So when did you have the change in heart, as it were?

            MUSHARRAF:  No, I've never -- there's no change of heart at all.  I
always believe in the freedom of the media.  I believe that while they
should be free, they should be independent, they should be accountable
also.  Too, they must show responsibility.

            ANDERSON:  All right, well, we've got lots of questions from viewers. 

            Waqas represents what dozens of people have asked on our website, the
"CONNECT WORLD" website, is that many of your supporters want your -- to
return to Pakistani politics.  Do you have any plans to return?

            MUSHARRAF:  If Pakistan is not doing well, every Pakistani, every
patriotic Pakistani feels it in his heart.  And I also do, that at this
moment, Pakistan is not doing too well.  So if I can contribute anything to
the -- to the country and if the people of Pakistan want me to contribute,
I certainly would like to look into that.

            ANDERSON:  Would you create your own political party?  That's a
question from Safi, one of our viewers.

            MUSHARRAF:  I don't know as of yet.  One has to address all of these
issues.  But one thing is sure, I believe very strongly in a military
maxim, never reinforce failure.  I wouldn't like to reinforce failure. 

            ANDERSON:  Do you think Pakistan is failing at the moment? 

            MUSHARRAF:  Politically, yes.  We haven't succeeded.  The politics in
Pakistan, democracy in Pakistan has not really ever been very successful. 
And I mean successful, we expect democratically-elected governments to
perform for the country, that the country should be moving forward
progressing and the welfare and the well-being of the people being
addressed.  If that is not being done, I think we need to look into the --
look into ourselves.  What is it lacking in the democratic political
dispensation in Pakistan?

            ANDERSON:  How have you thought about using Facebook to better the
lives of ordinary Pakistanis, as it were?

            MUSHARRAF:  Well, I think the only way I mean I could contribute is
because of the number of people who have become my fans, and if this number
keeps increasing and because they come from all over the world, I could
contribute towards their better understanding of issues confronting
Pakistan.

            ANDERSON:  Derrick Chapman asks, can the Afghan strategy of appealing
to moderate Taliban succeed, for example?

            MUSHARRAF:  I have always believed that we have to follow a triple
strategy of military, political and socioeconomic.  On the political side,
right from 2003 -- 2002 and 2003, I've been saying that we need to win away
the population, especially of the pashtuns from the al Qaeda and Taliban. 
We must not all treat all pashtuns to be Taliban, although all Taliban were
pashtuns. 

            So I've been saying -- I've been talking off the majority of pashtuns
to be weaned away and these (ph) to be struck with these senior elements in
the pashtun who may be have -- don't have any ideological connections with
the Taliban.  Now, what they really mean by moderate Taliban, I really
don't know.  So we need to look into the pashtun, which is 50 percent of
Afghanistan, to draw the pashtuns form the -- from militancy.

            ANDERSON:  Couple more of the questions coming into the CONNECT THE
WORLD site.

            "What would you give up for an India-Pakistan peace process?"

            MUSHARRAF:  I think it's the most critical thing.  India-Pakistan
peace is required from international point of view because internationally
we are considered a nuclear flashpoint.  It is considered -- it is very
important from regional point of view because SAR (ph), the regional
organization, is important because of the Indo-Pakistan conflict.  And it
is important from bilateral point of view.  There is so much to gain
bilaterally by both India and Pakistan through peace, and so much that we
are losing because of this confrontationist approach.

            ANDERSON:  Last one of our viewer questions.  Sulav says, what were
you better at being, a diplomat or an army chief?

            MUSHARRAF:  Well, I would like to believe an army chief.  I'm a
fighter and I love my uniform and I love leading my men.  I love them.

            ANDERSON:  Do you miss the diplomacy at all?

            MUSHARRAF:  Diplomacy doesn't come very naturally to me.  I'm too
straight -- I'm a very straight talker and diplomats, I think -- maybe they
ought to be talking straight.  I'm not cut for diplomacy, I think.

            (END VIDEOTAPE)

            FOSTER:  A frank Pervez Musharraf speaking to Becky there.

ENDS


The video of Musharraf interview can be found here: 
http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2010/02/15/ctw.connector.pervez.musharraf.cnn

Pak academics conspicuously absent at Intl forum - Are we on regress path?

(NOTE: Blog posted by me - Faiz Alnajdi who is the Middle East Bureau Chief of PKonweb.com and DesPardes.com. I am pesently in USA and have attended an engineering conference in Las Vegas and read my latest research paper (17th) on low cost roof design).


The ISEC-5 Conference was held at Las Vegas between Sep 22 and Sept 27 . It was as usual well-attended.

I also attended this Conference on Structural Engineering and Construction (aka: ISEC-5). It was hosted by University of Nevada at Las Vegas.

I also presented my research paper entitled, "Precast Ferrocement Barrel Shell Planks as Low Cost Roofs" in the afternoon session of 24th Sept 24th.

The Conference was attended by professional engineers, researchers and academics from over 33 countries in which over 170 research papers on latest Structural Design & Engineering matters were accepted, read and presented to the attendees.

Being a Pakistani professional civil and structural engineer living and working in Riyadh-Saudi Arabia, I am very proud to have represented both Saudi Arabia as well as Pakistan at this august international forum.

However, it was very sad to notice that Pakistani professional engineers both from
the industry and the academics either from Pakistan or living elsewhere were conspicuously absent at this forum.

On the other hand I could see an active participation from a large number of Indian professional engineers, researchers and academics both from within the United States and outside - that is from India itself.

Even several Bangladeshi delegates were seen at this forum. Some from the Arab countries, that is from Egypt and Syria also participated.

The question that immediately came to my mind and I am still very perturbed at this phenomenon was, "why Pakistani professional engineers, researchers and the academics remain so conspicuously absent in such international forums?"

I think this is too serious a matter to be ignored at any level of our society. Such absentism leaves a very bad impression on both Pakistan and Pakistani professionals, engineers, researchers and academics.

It is also very important to mention here that this is not the first occasion where I had observed such a conspicuous absence of the Pakistani engineers, researchers and the academics.

I regret to mention here that on similar international forums in the past also I have observed the same scenario.

To substantiate it, I must mention here that I was not able find a single Pakistani, either coming from within the United States or from Pakistan, at the 5th International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering (aka: 5icchge) which was hosted by the University of Missouri at Rolla in New York during April 13 thru 16 2004.

On that occasion too I had proudly presented my research findings both as a Pakistani and as a Saudi engineer and had presented two papers.

In my opinion, these are not lone incidents. I hate to say here that I see a pattern - a pattern of regression. We see Pakistan as a state and Pakistanis as a nation regressing instead of progressing.

While our neighbors and all others are continuously marching ahead and progressing in all fields, we unfortunately seem to be regressing fast on this front at least if not all fronts.

Pakistani professional engineers, researchers and academics also seem to find themselves trapped under the same regressing influence and cycle.

I must say this trend of regression must be confronted otherwise very soon Pakistan and the Pakistanis would find themselves forgotten by the international community and we would continue to remain in the news related to "terrorism activities alone".

With a vibrant media now and unhindred access to the web, we Pakistanis should collectively do something about this malaise. In a high technology global village now being backwards in related areas is a sure sign of disaster. Merely wearing tie and suit and Italian shoes and acting as leaders of the people means we are a disconnected whole and in a state of denial. Let's all do something about this disconnect by vowing to raise awareness of this latest scenario at the very least.

Posted by: Syed Faiz Ahmad aka: Faiz Al-Najdi
MEngg, MASCE
(Mmber: International Executive Committee - ISEC-6 in Zurich in 2011)
Chief Structural Engineer
Saudi Oger Ltd
Riyadh-Saudi Arabia
Now reporting from: New York; 29 Sept-09

Undies R Us!

AUG 27: A recent merchant report indicated that the sales of Men’s underwear have risen in the recession. It is the single category which hit double digits and exceeded industry expectations in sales..

Go ‘you guys!’ for boosting the economy and doing your part.

Also, per Alan Greenspan (former chairman of US Federal Reserve), since men don’t shop as much as woman, so if men are buying undies then economy must be recovering. It doesn't take a GENIUS to figure that out..

By: Aysha Ibtasam, Fashion Editor > PKonweb.com and DesPardes.com