Pak FP does not know the meaning of Isolation

[CM]

Hot on the heels of the CE visit to Saudi, Sattar is off to Japan.
Pakistan is deemed to be isolated.
Yet Pakistan has become the main player in this whole Statue crisis.
The Japanese premiere wishes to discuss the taliban, and buddhist statue.
Annan is coming to talk to Pakistan mainly on Kashmir and specifically on the statue related topic.
Pakistan is important geopolitically but presently with their connections with the Taliban.
This will remain an issue for sometime and pakistan is the only nation to break the ice.
What we did for the US and China we will do for the taliban and the rest of the world.


Link: http://www.dawn.com/2001/03/10/top12.htm

Sattar to visit Japan from 14th


TOKYO, March 9: Foreign Minister Adbul Sattar will visit Japan from March 14 to 17 where he is
expected to discuss the demolition of the Buddha's statues in Afghanistan with his Japanese
counterpart.

"During his visit, (Mr Sattar) will meet the Japanese foreign minister, Yohei Kono, on March 15 to
exchange views on the bilateral relationship and other issues of the world as a follow- up to Japanese
premier Yoshiro Mori's visit to Pakistan in August last year," a Japanese foreign ministry statement
said here on Friday. The two would also discuss the Taliban's demolition of 1,500- year-old giant
Buddha statues in Afghanistan's Bamiyan valley, a foreign ministry spokesman said.

Mr Kono will also send a letter to Mr Sattar, asking Pakistan to use its influence on the Taliban to
stop the demolition of the Buddha's statues, ministry officials said.-AFP

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[FYI]

If the brahmin try to make acase of justifying there destruction of Babri mosque,Taleban can too.Look Washington Post Article .And what about 90% of lower caste hindus who were not allowed to even enter those Temples that Brahmins claim to be hindus.Is hindu only Brahmin???
As one hindu complained ,he was not at all by removal of those temples in benares & Ayodhya ,as they were the seat of some of th e worst corruption in hindu priests luxurious life style during Aurangzeb & before .They were done as part of plan to rid of vil of explotation of widows,untouchables &amassing of wealth.
In another post a DALIT hindu untouchable complained:
"Look man, you try to put yourselves in my shoes and think. It is not a
point of right or wrong. It is a matter of priorities. The muslim
invaders destroyed and plundered temples to which the lower castes were
not even allowed to enter. So the demolitions might be wrong, but it
doesn't matter a penny for the lower discriminated castes. What actually
matters for them was they were not even allowed to go anywhere near the
temples and pray ther god. It happened even to this day. For some people
it might have been these destructions might have been a form of a poetic
justice. When we were not allowed to enter those temples, it is good
that those invaders demolished them. No one can enter them....ha ha ha
attitude. Give it a thought and give one reason why the lower castes
should cry at the Muslims invaders destroying temples which were private porperty of the upper castes. Infact it makes sense for them to direct
their anger at their immediate enemies, the Brahmins for their current "

From Moses to the Taliban
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By Crispin Sartwell
Saturday, March 10, 2001; Page A21

He took the calf that they had made, burned it with fire, ground it to
powder, scattered it on the water, and made the Israelites drink it.
Moses said to Aaron, "What did this people do to you that you have
brought so great a sin upon them?"

Exodus 32: 20-21

What the Taliban is doing to statues in Afghanistan appears to be
mindless destruction. But it is deeply rooted in a tradition we share
with them.

The word "iconoclast" today indicates a person who attacks widely
accepted beliefs. But it originally meant one who literally breaks
idols. And the first iconoclast on record was Moses, who, coming down
from the mountain with the Ten Commandments to find the Israelites
worshiping a statue, broke the tablets and then the idol itself.

Ever since, we have oscillated between idolatry and iconoclasm, two
impulses that share a belief that images have power: power to bring you
to the divine, or to mislead you into worshiping false gods.

Plato wanted to ban figurative art because he believed it was deceptive.
The early Christians destroyed images of the Roman and Greek gods
throughout the Roman Empire, and Christian missionaries have done the
same with images all over the world. The Protestant Reformation of
Luther and Calvin was in part a reaction against the Catholic cult of
Mary and the saints, and the Protestants destroyed innumerable Catholic
icons.

The Mosaic religions -- Judaism, Christianity and Islam -- all of which
recognize the authority of the Old Testament and its prohibition of idol
worship, have each given birth to extreme moments of iconoclasm. Sects
of Judaism and Islam in particular have sometimes gone as far as Plato
and prohibited all representational arts.

Iconoclasm is inseparable from monotheism. God for the Mosaic religions
is conceived as pure spirit, and hence often as an entity of which there
can be no images. That is part of what distinguishes the Mosaic
religions from what monotheists call paganism and idolatry.

That is not to say that what the Taliban is doing is rational or
justified. Afghanistan, in losing its images of the Buddha and other
statues, is losing something that connects them and us to their history,
and is losing the work of centuries of creative genius. But we must also
acknowledge that the Taliban's interpretation of Islam is directly
connected to the mainstream of the tradition of Moses.

But the idolaters that the Taliban are attacking are not the worshipers
of the Golden Calf or even of the Buddha. Buddhism has been dead in
Afghanistan for a thousand years.

The idols they're obliterating are ours.

We of the secular West have to some degree replaced religion with art.
Art for us is something holy that must be preserved: housed in
fortress-like buildings to which we make pilgrimages, preserved or
restored in perpetuity. Art has not always been thought of that way by
other cultures. Navajo sand paintings, as beautiful and difficult to
make as they are, are traditionally destroyed after the ceremonies for
which they are made.

Art for us is spiritual, eternal, transcendent. We have made of art a
cult, and the work of art is our idol. So the iconoclasts of the modern
era horrify us as much as the iconoclasts of the ancient world horrified
the pagans. It has seemed at times in the past few days that we are
moved more by the plight of the sculptures of Afghanistan than the
plight of the Afghan people, who are suffering from a drought and from
the oppression of the Taliban rulers themselves.

But the Taliban know very well how to horrify us: They know our
religion, and they know their own. They're both enacting a central
feature of theirs, and achieving maximum provocation by assaulting ours.

This leads to the sad destruction of beautiful things. But it also
testifies to the continuing power of images and the continuing power of
the great religious traditions.

And give the Taliban this: Unlike Moses with the Israelites, they're
not, as far as we know, grinding the statues to powder, scattering them
on the water and making people drink them.

Crispin Sartwell is the author of "The Art of Living: Aesthetics of the
Ordinary in World Spiritual Traditions."

© 2001 The Washington Post Company


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"jo kHat main kahte they apni jaan mujhko
aaj kHat likhne main unki jaan jaati hai .....

[Malik73]

The CE has been to over 25 countries across the world and been warmly welcomed in each. He has signed numerous economic, trade, and military cooperation deals with scores of countries.

Recent Gas piplelines agreements, the export of oil, and export of Pakistani made arms, are just some signs of Pakistan playing a vital part in the world.

[CM]

Well to add to our export promotion we have sent a huge delegation and 11 pakistani companies to UAE for a defense expo, to increase our military exports.

Link: http://www.dawn.com/2001/03/11/top18.htm

Article: 11 Pakistani firms to take part in Abu Dhabi show

By Our Correspondent


ABU DHABI, March 10: Eleven Pakistani companies will showcase their defence ware at the 5th
Idex, (International Defence Exhibition) and Conference, to be held in Abu Dhabi from March 18 to
22.

This is one of the most important exhibitions in this region being held under the umbrella of the Defence
Export Promotion Organization (Depo) and coordinated by the new defence attache at the Pakistan
Embassy Group Captain Zahid Qadeer Malik.

Giving details of the exhibition, the embassy's press counsellor Rao Liaquat Ali Khan, said that
Pakistan has gained a reputation for quality defence products at highly competitive prices as compared
to western manufacturers.

He said that the objective of Pakistan's participation is to strengthen its relations with countries with
whom it has military cooperation and to introduce the services of Depo to prospective buyers of
defence equipment from Pakistan.

The Pakistani delegation which would attend the event includes Secretary Defence Production Air
Marshal (retd) Zahid Anis, Depo Director General Maj-Gen Syed Ali Hamid, and Chairman Export
Promotion Bureau Tariq Ikram.

The 11 participating companies are both from the public and private sectors.

The CE is doing an excellent job of boosting or exports.
If only we could decrease our imports further.

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[Malik73]

Excellent news indeed. The CE's foreign and export policies are on a roll...this exhibition is the natural result of the IDEAS 2000 exibition last year in Karachi.

In fact the CE has strenghtened our relations with almost all the countries of West Asia big time. We are truly becoming a West Asian power.