From: zafir@unssun.nevada.edu (Zia Zafir)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.pakistan
Subject: PSAI Project Pakistan News
Date: 12 Apr 92 23:39:57 GMT
Reply-To: zafir@unssun.nevada.edu (Zia Zafir)
Organization: University of Nevada, Reno


From: Zia Zafir
PSAI Project Pakistan News

Arab News:
Pakistan Looks Ahead With Confidence: (By M.I. Lashkar)

Karachi, March 30 -- Pakistan is looking forward to enter the 21st century
with an open economy that can withstand the onslaughts of the domineering 
economies and competition from parallel economies of the free world.
     With a GDP annual growth rate of 5.6 percent, paralleled only by Sri 
Lanka in the region, this South Asian nation of 115 million people is not
only engaged in consolidating the democratic rule to which it has returned
recently after years of political vicissitudes, but is also struggling hard
for taking its already burgeoning economic to a greater degree of self-
reliance.
     Even today, Pakistan's economy has attained a level of strength by which
it could absorb the great shock of the recent Gulf war which cost it around
$700 million both in loss of home remitances and exports and in higher
payments for imported oil.
     A middle-income country, it is one of the few nations of the Third World
which have not gone in default in debt-servicing.  Pakistan has not asked for
rescheduling of its debt, in spite of the fact that its debt-service payments,
rising to around $1.3 billion in 1990-91, because the highest single item of
expenditure in its annual budget.  Obviously, the economy is resilient enough to
generate the resources from within.
     While Pakistan is thus confidently managing its old debts now rising to $15 billion, it has taken reformative measures which, while mobilizing its own
resources more efficiently, can obtain its own share in the world trade, 
otherwise dominated by the protectionist measures of the industrialized
countries of the North.
     Pakistan's foreign trade has so far been dominated by a heavy import of
oil and oil products, imposing a great pressures on its foreign exchange
resources.  But as a result of intensification of its search for oil in
recent years, it is now getting a home production of 68,000 barrels of oil
per day, about 50 percent of its present requirements.  Oil is expected to be
struck in more and more wells which are now under various stages of exploration.     With the import cost of oils thus expected to go down, the country's 
foreign exchnage resources will, in future years, be available more and more forthe modern technology and technology-based machinery which are expected to come
to the country in a big way.  With a spurt also in the services sector in which
airlines, shipping, telecommunications, road constructions etc. have been
opened to the private sector and foreign investors, the country has to make
available more and more foreign exchange resources for their import requirements     As the home remittances of Pakistani workers abroad are drying up, 
Pakistan's exports have remained the main source of foreign exchange.  With the
whole textile sector now being reorganized, the country will soon turn into
a major exporter of textile goods.
     Last year's performance in this regard is an indication.  In that year,
exports rose to $6 billion from the previous year's $5 billion.  In the current
year, exports are likely to be worth $8 billion.  In the coming year, they are 
expected to be doubled with newer and newer items of manufactures and
semimanufactures available for export from the domestic production line that is
lining up in the wake of industrial revolution in the country.
     In the domestic field, Pakistan is working for the improvement of the
quality of life of its people.  With $350 per capita annual income, the number
of people living below poverty line in the country, is coming almost to nil,
while income disparity in Pakistan has become one of the lowest among the
comparable countries.  With the measures taken in the country's annual and
five-year development plans in recent years starting to have their impact, the
ratio on income shares of the richest 20 percent to poorest 20 percent of peoplein Pakistan has now come down to 5.5 percent.
     Pakistan is mainly an agricultural country with food coming from its own
land which is, however, under pressure because of increasing density of
population and claim on it from other sectors of economy.  In 1981 census, the 
country's population was 85 million with 105 persons living in one square
kilometer of land.  Now in 1992, the population has gone up to 115 million and
one square kilometer of land has now become more congested with 150 persons
living there.
     Consisting of 79.61 million hectares of land, the country has a total
cropped area of about 20 million hectares.  The country is trying to keep up thetempo of agricultural production which it achieved in the green revolution of
the 1960s that gave self-sufficiency in food and exportable surplus in cash 
crops.
     Pakistan is simultaneously looking for developing its social sectors. 
During the last ten years, the percentage of population provided with sanitationfacilities increased from 22 percent to 32 percent and that of safe water supplyfrom 52 percent to 67 percent nwo.  One hospital bed is now available to 1535
persons and one doctor to 2127 persons.
     With a literacy rate of around 30 percent, the country is now heading
for universalization of education through decentralization of responsibilities
handed down to community level.

Arab News:
Yaqub To Head U.N. Sahara Peace Mission:

United Nations, March 25 (AP) -- A former Pakistani foreign minister has 
been named  as the new head of the U.N.'s troubled peacekeeping mission in 
Western Sahara, officials announced yesterday.
     Sahabzada Yaqub Khan, who retired from Pakistan's foreign service after
long career that also includes tours as ambassador to Washington and Moscow,
will replace Johannes Manz of Switzerland.
     U.N. Secretary-general Boutros Ghali made the appointment after informing,
but not consulting, the rival parties in Western Sahara -- the occupying
Moroccan forces and the Polisario guerrilla front, said U.N. spokesman
Francois Giuliani.
     Morocco is unlikely to have a problem with Khan's appointment, but the
Polisario has already made its displeasure clear to reporters.
     Polisario diplomats said they would have rejected Khan as being too
pro-Moroccan, if they had been consulted.

Arab News:
ANP and JUI Turn Guns on Nawaz Sharif: (By Salahuddin Haider and L.A. Siddiqui)

Karachi, March 27 -- Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif is facing two-pronged
attack from his left leaning coalition partners, the Awami National Party of 
Wali Khan and Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) in the NWFP and Baluchistan.
     In the dramatic development last night, five of the ANP ministers stormed
out ofthe NWFP cabinet meeting demanding an apology from the premier's ruling
Pakistan Muslim League (PML) party, and JUI demanded that followers of the
"Zikri Jamat" planning its annual congregation in the coastal Turbut, be
declared non-Muslims like the Qadianis.
     The veteran Pathan leader, Wali Khan was bitter about what he termed as
uncalled for the remarks by the PML secretary-general, Sen. Iqbal Ahmad Khan,
Federal Minister Chaudhry Nisar and several others about his father, late
Ghaffar Khan.
     At PML's Independence Day meeting on March 23 in Peshawar, Iqbal, a former minister in ex-Prime Minister Muhammad Khan Junejo's cabinet, and others 
branded the ANP as an anti-Pakistan party, and reminded the audience that the
'Red-shirt' leader Ghaffar Khan popularly known as "Sarhadi Gandhi" had opposed
Pakistan and its founder Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
     Whether their outburst was a calculated move to discredit the Wali Khan
party or a brainchild of some vested interests, was not known, but it surely 
angered the ANP president Ajmal Khatak who asked the ANP minsters in the NWFP
and federal cabinet to review their links with the Pakistan government of IJI.
     Meanwhile, the five NWFP ministers removed the Pakistan flag from their
official cars, and in another development, the ANP high command asked its two
federal ministers Ghulam Ahmad Bilour and Azam Hoti not to attend office till
further orders.
     In Baluchistan, a JUI-backed organisation called the Almi Majlis-e-
Tahaffuz-e-Khatm-e-Naboowat said the Zikris had committed sacrilege and should
be declared on outcasts.  It said majlis would not allow the Zikris annual
conference on April 1.  The Zikris said several hundred of thier followers have
been arrested but the deputy commissioner of Turbat denied it.

*End of News Article*

A Poem By Faiz Ahmad Faiz: 

			SHAAM

	is tarah hai ke har ek peR koi mandir hai
	koi ujRa hua baynoor puraana mandir
	DhunDta hai jo kharaabi ke bahaanay kab say
	chaak har baam, har ek dar ka dam-e-aakhir hai
	aasmaN koi purohit hai jo har baam talay
	jism par raakh malay, maathay pe sindoor malay
	sar nigooN baiTha hai chup chaap na jaanay kab say

	is tarah hai ke pas-e-pardah koi saahir hai
	jis nay aafaaq pe phailaya hai yooN sehr ka daam
	daaman-e-waqt say paiwast hai yooN daaman-e-shaam
	ab kabhi shaam bujhey gi na andhera hoga
	ab kabhi raat Dhalay gi na sawera ho ga

	aasmaN aas liye hai ke yeh jaadoo tootay
	chup ki zanjeer katay, waqt ka daaman chhootay
	day koi sankh duhaai, koi payal bolay
	koi but jaagay, koi saanwali ghoongat kholay

	        LINE BY LINE TRANSLATION
			BY
		    V.G. KIERNAN

			EVENING

	It is as if every tree is some temple,
	some ruined, unlit old temple
	which since long is seeking excuses for crumbling;
	each roof torn, every door is at its last breath
	The sky is some priest who at foot of each roof-wall,
	On his body ashes smeared, on his forehead vermilion smeared,
	Head drooping, is seated silent, there is no knowing since when.

	It is as if behind the curtain there is some magician
	Who has so spread over the heavens a net of magic
	The evening's skirt is so joined with the skirt of time,
	Now evening will never be extinguished and darkness never come,
	Now night will never decline nor morning come.

	Heaven has the hope that this spell may be broken,
	That the chain of silence may be snapped, the skirt of time be freed,
	That some conch-shell may make outcry, some anklet speak,
	Some idol awaken, some swarthy-beauty open her veil.


			VERSE TRANSLATION
				BY
			  V.G. KIERNAN

			   EVENING

	It is as if each tree
	Were an old deserted shrine
	Unlighted, long since pining
	To be free to crumble away-
	Each rooftop gaping, every
	Portal at the last gap;
	And heaven a sort of priest,
	Squatting since god knows when
	Under eaves, brow daubed
	With scarlet, body with ashes,
	Speechless, head hanging down;
	-As if behind the curtain
	There were some conjuror
	Drawing such webs of magic
	Over the universe,
	And time's skirt and this evening's
	Were stitched together so close,
	that twilight will never end,
	Darkness will never come,
	Night never decline, or morning
	Ever return....Heaven's prayer
	Is that the spell may break,
	The chain of silence snap,
	Time's skirt be disentangled-
	Some wailing conch-shell blare,
	Some jingling anklet speak
	Some idol waken, or some
	Swart votaress lift her veil.


Project Pakistan News is an attempt to provide a few articles of interest 
on Pakistan from various international news sources.  It is primarily 
intended for those Pakistani students, professionals and others who would 
like to know what is happening in Pakistan without investing too much time 
in this exercise. Postings on the project's electronic mail mailing list
will be on a weekly basis (ie one posting a week) and shall not be more
than a few pages long. 

Requests for addition to the Project Pakistan News's electronic mail 
mailing list should be sent to Nageen Himayat at nageen@pender.ee.upenn.edu

The articles above are chosen and copied by me in good faith and are 
independent of the policies of the PSAI organization. All comments and
and suggestions should be sent to me at zafir@unssun.nevada.edu

Thank you,

Zia Zafir
University of Nevada, Reno

PSAI Project Pakistan News
zafir@unssun.nevada.edu