Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Untouchables, Hudood laws & Pak Red Button (update) (update)

I wish I can go to these places and do something about it. Come on Lottery give me a few million Pounds init?

This is what the caste system treat human beings in India the fifth largest industrial power. The people who live there firmly believe I suppose these acts are legit init?

"The Dalits here live in pipes. Most of the pipes are about 1.5 metres in diameter; a number have mud-brick extensions and doorways fashioned from scrap wood and metal. The smaller pipes are only 75cm in diameter and the tenants must crawl on their hands and knees to enter. On a corrugated iron sheet that forms the side of one of the houses, letters of the English alphabet are scrawled. A young boy, using a stick as his pointer, runs through the list for us from start to finish."

Grrrrrr... Do you know what "Hudood laws" means. I just came across this term in a news article about MS Bhutto's death and the implications there after. And in there this person having first known Benazir Bhutto from high school in Karachi, and then later in Cambridge
(Massachussetts), talks about Ms Bhutto's past work.

"Q: Was Ms. Bhutto a model for Pakistani women?

A: She was courageous and single-minded. And she
showed that a woman could be the head of a
conservative Islamic state. Nevertheless, it is
hard to see what she wanted beyond personal
power. Although she said that she was fighting
for grand causes, I'm still trying to figure out
what they were. She certainly did nothing for
Pakistani women during her two stints in power
and left untouched the horrific Hudood laws,
according to which a rape victim needs to produce
4 witnesses to the act of penetration (else she
could be punished for fornication)."


Cor blimey what the heck? Init? So I went and had a wee look at what the wikipedia has to say about the subject. The link is there, so go ahead and ave a look, I can't do everything you know, said the donkey to.....

And in this article says this:

""This law is used mostly for revenge," says Parveen Parvez, a lawyer at Karachi’s City Courts, talking about Pakistan’s Zina, or adultery, laws that are part of the HudoodOrdinance of 1979. "Most cases are registered by parents against their daughters who have married of their own choice, or husbands whose wives re-marry after divorce.""

Well further research shows that this law has been amended by "Protection of Women (Criminal Laws Amendment) Act, 2006 " in 1 dec 2006.

There is a continueing debate in the press about the Pakistan's nuclear arsenal which is 50 missilles or so. But in this article it is looking at a different way.

"Q: Let's talk about Pakistan's nukes. There a lot
of concern about the possibility that nuclear
weapons could end up into the hands of Islamic
fundamentalists. Early in December the Washington
Post revealed that a small group of U.S. military
experts and intelligence analysts convened in
Washington for exploring strategies to secure
Pakistani nukes if the Pakistani regime falls
apart. Their conclusions were very scaring, as, -
there are no palatable ways to forcibly ensure
the security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons. What
do you think about this?

A: The government says there is absolutely no
danger of loose nukes. Pakistan has been sending
serving officers of the Strategic Plans Division,
which is the agency responsible for handling
nuclear weapons, to the United States for
training in safety measures (PAL's locking
devices, storing procedures, etc). But there's no
way of telling if this will be effective.
Extremists have already penetrated deep into the
army and the intelligence agencies. We now see
repeated evidence: for example, last month an
unmarked bus carrying employees of the Inter
Services Intelligence [Pakistan's secret
intelligence], was collecting employees early in
the morning. It was boarded by a suicide bomber
who blew himself up killing 25. It was an inside
job.

And now there are many other such examples, such
as that of an army man killing 16 Special
Services Group commandos in a suicide attack at
Ghazi Barotha. A part of the establishment is
clearly at war with another part. There are also
scientists, as well as military people, who are
radical Islamists. Many questions come to mind:
can there be collusion between different
field-level commanders, resulting in the
hijacking of a nuclear weapon? Could outsider
groups develop links with insiders? Given the
absence of accurate records of fissile material
production, can one be certain that small
quantities of highly enriched uranium or weapons
grade plutonoium have already not been diverted?
I do not know the answers. Nobody does."



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