The cold-blooded murder of journalist Hayatullah Khan Dawar in the restive North Waziristan Agency in mysterious circumstances sends a clear-cut message to all journalists working in tribal as well as settled areas -- there are limits they must abide by.

Hayatullah Khan, 30 and a father of four, was found dead in the mountains of Khaisur village, south of Mirali town, on June 16. He was shot several times in the head from behind while handcuffed and the intention behind this, experts believe, was to give the impression as if the journalist was killed while attempting to escape from captivity. Hayatullah Khan was kidnapped from the main Mirali-Bannu road on December 5 last year by a group of bearded men armed with Ak-47 assault rifles when he was on his way to cover a students' demonstration against the US missile attack in Esorhi village on December 1.

Earlier, reporting by Hayatullah about the same air strike had belied official claims that the house owned by Muhammad Siddiq was destroyed when explosives present there exploded, killing three alleged wanted al-Qaeda operatives too. President Pervez Musharraf claimed he was 500 per cent sure that al-Qaeda No-3, Hamza Rabia was among the dead.

Hayatullah, like a few others, did not agree and came up with photographs and facts that suggested the house may have been targeted with missiles from an unmanned US drone. His reports were critical of the political administration and the military operating in the region to hunt down al-Qaeda men and their local supporters. Hayatullah remained missing for six months and 10 days and was finally eliminated. In the interim, no militant or criminal group contacted his family either for ransom nor one claimed responsibility of his kidnapping.

"This is not Taliban-style because they dispose off cases of suspected informers and pro-government agents in a few days," says Ihsanullah Khan Dawar, younger brother of Hayatullah. Hayatullah's family holds agencies responsible for his captivity. Fellow journalists draw a comparison between the assassination of US journalist Daniel Pearl and the murder of Hayatullah, although the circumstances may have varied.

Ihsanullah says officials had assured his family that Hayatullah was being questioned and detained in the interest of the country. "'The day his name is cleared, he will be released'," Ihsanullah quoted one military officer as telling him. It was a major in the secret services who called up Ihsanullah to inform him about Hayat's death and where to find his body.

Hayatullah, according to his brother, was first threatened on November 17, prompting him to rush to Islamabad on November 21 to inform fellow journalist and close friend, Hamid Mir. He was offered three choices: leave the agency; stop reporting while staying at Mirali; or accept the position of a naib muharer (head clerk) in the political administration.

Two other journalists, Amir Nawab Wazir and Allah Noor Wazir, were gunned down and a third Anwar Shakir was critically injured in February 2005 in neighbouring South Waziristan Agency. The vehicle carrying them from Sra Rogha after attending the agreement signing ceremony between the military and a local Taliban commander, Baitullah Mehsud, was ambushed in Wana, headquarters of South Waziristan.

There was no probe and no one was brought to justice while journalists continued to be targeted. Their houses, offices and vehicles were hit, thus forcing the entire journalist fraternity to move out of the insecure tribal region and take refuge in Tank and Dera Ismail Khan. No journalist is based in South Waziristan today. While reporting about the situation in the tribal belt, a number of Peshawar-based journalists, including this reporter, have been threatened and subjected to the most abusive language on telephone by unidentified callers.

The mystery about Hayatullah's disappearance is compounded by statements and assurances made by officials to the family and journalists. Ihsanullah quotes Political Agent North Waziristan, Syed Zahirul Islam, as saying on May 15 that he was powerless to secure the release of Hayat.

Prior to that, the same official had informed Ihsanullah that his brother had been seen at Bagram Airbase and was in the custody of the US forces, a claim rejected by the Peshawar-based US Consul General, Michael Spangler during a luncheon hosted by him for the journalists on May 10 in Peshawar.

On December 24, in the presence of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz at the Governor House, Peshawar, then governor Khalilur Rehman categorically said: "He (Hayat) has not been kidnapped." Secretary to the governor told journalists that the more you demonstrate, the more you delay his release.

Hayatullah was arrested in Birmal area of Afghanistan's eastern Paktika province by US forces in 2001 and was detained at the Machadad Kot military base for a week, but was later allowed to go. "He was arrested on suspicion of being a spokesman for Mullah Omar," Ihsanullah said, adding that his brother was neither close to the Taliban nor has he worked against them.

Ihsanullah, who wishes to follow his brother into journalism, has been demanding an impartial inquiry into the murder. The federal government has set up a judicial inquiry commission headed by a judge of the Peshawar High Court, Justice Muhammad Raza Khan, to probe into the case and bring the facts behind the murder to the fore. The commission will look into allegations and the circumstances in which Hayat went.

Article 247 deals with the administration of the Tribal Areas and says that (1) subject to the Constitution, the executive authority of the federation shall extend to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, and the executive authority of a province shall extend to the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas therein. (2) The President may, from time to time, give directions to the Governor of a province relating to the whole or any part of a Tribal Area within the Province as he may deem necessary, And the Governor shall, in the exercise of function under this Article, comply with such directions.

'Investigation completed' reads the label on the file lying in a Muzaffarabad police station. It bears the name of Abdul Sattar Gopang, an octroi or chungi contractor who had been accused of blaspheming against the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and who has since paid with his life for the crime he allegedly committed. Inside the file are statements by two witnesses who say they had heard Gopang speak disrespectfully about the Prophet, quite sufficient to create the illusion that a probe has been carried out to its conclusion. An indepth investigation is perhaps thought to be unnecessary when the police have so much else on their mind.

Abdul Sattar Gopang belonged to Tehsil Jatoi, and known to have had a running tiff with a local transport group. From Gopang's side, four cases had been registered against the tractor trolley network headed by Malik Nazir Deena for refusing to pay the toll. Gopang had paid Rs 1 million for the right of collecting octroi at Chowk Permit Chungi (Tehsil Jatoi).

"The 20-odd tractor trolleys running under Deena's banner had been refusing to pay the toll," says Mulazim Gopang, brother of Abdul Sattar Gopang. Brawls between the two sides that took a clannish colour were common until March this year when a certain Maulana Abdur Rashid Siyal lodged a blasphemy complaint against Sattar Gopang.

The story gathered from various sources in Jatoi goes something like this. On March 13 Abdul Sattar Gopang stopped Deena's trolley (registration number JLA-307) and fined his driver Muhammad Akram for skipping the toll. A heated exchange of words between the two sides ensued in which Gopang himself has been reported to have abused not only the trolley driver, but also his employer. Just at that moment, Maulana Abdul Rashid Siyal came out of the Khatm-i-Nabuwat Mosque adjacent to the octroi post. He accused Gopang of using derogatory remarks about the Holy Prophet and the hue and cry he raised attracted a large crowd to the post. The people were incensed upon being told that Gopang had been disrespectful of the Prophet. They walked to the Jatoi Police Station and lodged a complaint of blasphemy against Gopang. A police version of the story is awaited pending investigation.

On June 16, when Abdul Sattar Gopang was being taken by a three-member police team for a hearing, he was stabbed several times outside the district courts Muzaffargar. Gopang's brother, Talib Hussain, rushed him to a hospital in an unsuccessful attempt to save his life. He died on way and the assailants, identified as Hafiz Muhammad Imran Qureshi and Hafiz Muhammad Iqbal Khan, surrendered themselves to the police. Gopang's side also includes Maulana Abdul Rashid Siyal among the attackers but he has not been mentioned in the police case.

DSP Malik Yaqoob Awan, who conducted an investigation of the blasphemy charges against Gopang, tells TNS there was evidence that the accused had used derogatory remarks in respect of God and the Prophet (PBUH); two witnesses had recorded their statements seconding the charges against him. "A police investigation is about recording statements and we have done our job carefully," the DSP says, but the explanation doesn't satisfy rights activists who have been calling for curbs on the use of blasphemy law and religious sentiment to settle personal scores.

"The police failure in curbing such incidents indicates a degeneration of the state," says Rashid Rehman, who heads the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan's Multan cell, and soon enough, his words are echoed by others in the wake of another occurrence in the nearby Bahawalpur district. This time the victim happened to be an elderly ex school teacher.

The police in Hasilpur Sadar have failed to apprehend those accused of killing Muhammad Sadiq, accused of blaspheming against Islam on June 15, in the small Chunawala village of the Bahawalpur District. While Sadiq was killed, Hafiz Muhammad Qamar Javed, a khateeb at a local mosque, was seriously injured when the two of them were attacked by an angry mob.

As against the clannish or the ethnic, this particular incident has been given a sectarian tinge. Both Sadiq and Qamar Javed have been described as belonging to the Ahle Hadith sect. They were attacked after being accused of burning pages of the Holy Quran.

Muhammad Aftab Arain, a resident of Chak No F-88, has filed an application with the police in which he states that Chunawala mosque is situated adjacent to the offices of Al-Dawa-Wal-Irshad. The mosque khateeb Hafiz Muhammad Qamar Javed was disposing off rough papers in the Dawa offices on June 15 when three men -- identified as Saeed Jat, Muhammad Akram Jat and Qari Muhiuddin -- arrived there and attacked him, accusing him of burning pages from a copy of the Holy Quran. As the former school teacher Muhammad Sadiq intervened on Qamar Javed's behalf, he also received a series of blows from the attackers.

The Hasilpur Sadar police have registered a case under Section 302 CrPc against three men on the run -- Muhammad Akram, Saeed Ahmed and Qari Muhiuddin. But that is not the only case relating to issues religious pending with the Hasilpur police. A case under Section 295-B is pending against Master Sadiq (deceased) and Hafiz Muhammad Qamar. Hasilpur Sadar police SHO Ghulam Murtaza says the police are waiting for Hafiz Muhammad Qamar Javed to recover from his injury to launch an investigation in earnest.

The MMA government, in light of the recommendations of Nifaz-e-Sharia Council, has announced a package to facilitate prisoners to have some time together with their families, thrice every year.

The decision by the NWFP government, which has been praised by the liberal circles and human rights bodies, aims to construct 20 residential barracks in four major prisons -- Peshawar, Haripur, Dera Ismail Khan and Bannu -- ensuring privacy and providing all kind of facilities that a family may need in a home. It was supposed to materialise months ago, as the announcement had come in late 2004, but the construction of separate family quarters took a long time. The PC-1 of the project for Peshawar central prison was approved a few days back under which five rooms, with attached bathroom and kitchen and a few yards in the name of a courtyard, would be constructed close to the main entrance.

Though the introduction of the package would be on an experimental basis for a certain time of period and extended to the rest of the 18 prisons of the province in case of success, many believe it would provide real relief to prisoners. It was the Nifaz-e-Sharia Council that recommended allowing a prisoner to accompany his family after every four months, the maximum period fixed by the second Muslim Caliph, Hazrat Umar Farooq (RA), for keeping a soldier away from home in connection with wars or other journeys.

Of the 2359 prisoners in Peshawar central prison, those who are imprisoned for less than five years or convicted for involvement in anti-state activities or terrorism are not entitled to bring their families. The rest would have to take permission from the District Coordination Officer as well as certain other quarters for bringing their spouses and children. A family would be allowed to stay inside the jail for three days after every four months. If one has two wives, he would be given two each days with every spouse as per the prescribed rules.

Female prisoners in various prisons, who have started protesting against the discrimination, are not entitled to bring their families at the introductory phase of the project. The NWFP government, however, is planning to give them the opportunity when the package is introduced in letter and spirit. Around 340 women are going through their imprisonment in NWFP jails among whom only 95 have been convicted while the remaining, aged 15 to 56, are going through trials under charges that are yet to be proved. Seventy-four children (girls and boys) are also accompanying their mothers in jails, 42 of them are behind the bars since their birth in jail. Females, however, can keep their children upto six years of age, a facility that earlier was extended for children less than three year old. The facility could be extended to six years only if the court allowed.

Although the step has been welcomed by human rights groups, the officials at provincial Prisons Department are still creating hurdles in launching the project. "Yes it had to be completed in all the four prisons last year. But as the allocation for the purpose was not sufficient we had to wait for increase in the budget. Now we have been given the required money and hopefully the project would complete during the current financial year," Inspector General Prisons, Fazlur Rahman, told The News on Sunday, adding they had to re-shape the PC-I due to lesser allocations.

The provincial government had allocated a special fund for the construction of family barracks in last year's budget. But, despite the allocation and firm directives, the slow pace of construction work has not yet allowed the prisoners to avail the facility. In the current budget the government has further increased the allocation for prisons, up to Rs.292.21 million from Rs.252 million, which also includes funds for the construction of the proposed 20 family barracks with 100 more wards in the rest of the 18 jails.

"We have increased the budget for prisons by 15 per cent so the projects initiated to provide relief to the prisoners could be completed within no time. The construction of family quarters has been almost complete in Bannu central prison while 15 other residential units in the rest of the three main jails is going on in full swing," remarked the NWFP senior minister Sirajul Haq, predicting that the prisoners would start availing the facility within a couple of months.

Some people fear it would create a number of problems for the inmates as well as the jail authorities and may open up the possibility of vulgarity in jails. "To begin with, female prisoners have not been given the right for which they have already started protesting. Second, who will ensure the girl coming inside to a family barrack is really the wife of the prisoner?" questions Noor Alam Advocate, who is heading an NGO, The Voice of Prisoners. He also asked for a check over the staff so they would not blackmail any family or oblige only influential inmates.

The step has been widely appreciated as it would enable many families to meet after several years. But there is a concern that five residential quarters may not be enough for a jail like Peshawar where the number of prisoners remains between 2500 to 3000. There must be also a check over the officials of these four prisons so the staff could not misuse the package. And foremost, the same right should be given to female prisoners too.

This one is brought on by friends who have been gallivanting near home, in fact just across the border, but I must start it far away. The 'Capitoline' is one of the fabled 'Seven Hills of Rome'. In fact if you are in Rome and get on to a rooftop and start counting, you can count about twenty-seven hills, but no matter. It is so called because they built the Capitol there, which is now mostly ruins, but the Americans have their Capitol as a copy; and a cute little Museum, and one of its glories is a marble Venus.

It is a Roman copy of a lost Greek bronze, and it is so wonderfully demure and charming that it has come to be the epitome of sculptural beauty. The Romans made other copies too, one of which ended up in a little known American museum -- minus the head! The head was acquired by a private collector and has missed the body for a century.

Now it seems the museum has persuaded the owner to let them unite the two pieces and much is being made of the complete masterpiece to be put on show. Of course this kind of thing sets us thinking.

Mainly some friends have been touring in the neighbourhood, where, in the Punjab Museum in Chandigarh, they came upon a Buddhist relic. It is either a stone foot, or footprint, and of these there should be two, and there are, and guess where the other one is? In the Lahore Museum! And now we are all aflutter because a show that brings the two pieces together will be a coup, and an excuse for parties!

And things seem to be working right for us. The Walled City of Lahore sits on a man made mound of the debris of older cities; and the highest point is the Lahore Fort. That is because the Fort, or those parts which have been public, are on top of a huge warren of rooms and quarters underneath. We called them 'dungeons' and kept them locked.

In fact they are the Royal quarters where the princely families kept cool in the summer and only came up in the evenings for public occasions. The Archaeology Department has kept them as a personal fief, using some as offices and stores, and the rest simply locked.

Recently the Royal Quarters proper, under the Hall of Mirrors have been cleared out, refurbished and done up and made ready to be opened to the public for the first time in living memory. People want a permanent museum there, the Archaeology people want a short exhibit, so they can hang on to them after. It doesn't matter if you can imagine the wonder of mounting there a show of artefacts and stuff from both sides of the border! The two footprints would make a marvellous centrepiece!

It is well known that back in 1947, when we decided to part ways, it was also decided that the museums in Lahore and Delhi would share some of their exhibits. One of us decided to be proper and packed up a sizeable amount of stuff and shipped it off... and the other didn't! And that is all I will tell you because I don't want to dig up old skeletons as it will end at us raving over the Koh-e-Noor and the Elgin Marbles!

Is National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) beyond the purview of parliamentary debate? Why else would the government not show expenditure of Nadra funds in the federal budget for 2006-2007?

These were the questions discussed in the National Assembly on June 13. The MNAs on treasury benches, particularly State Minister Omar Ayub Khan apparently had no answer to these questions. This is the second year in a row that the government has not shown either the demands for grants or the spending of Nadra in the budget. Central information secretary Pakistan Peoples Party Sherry Rehman raised this issue in the National Assembly and gave tough time to treasury benches.

The minister, after consulting the Interior Ministry, said: "According to preliminary information, since Nadra is a self-income generating body, it has not been included in the details of demands for grants".

The opposition rejected the argument saying that all government departments must appear before parliament for the approval of their allocations and spending. Aitzaz Ahsan said Nadra was not a private registered organisation, which could be exonerated from all sorts of accountability. He said whatever income it generated was part of the national kitty, and "has to get annual expenses approved from parliament". Government has failed to satisfy the opposition parties so far.

MNA Syed Nayyar Bukhari said the process of preparation of electoral rolls would start soon for the next general elections and keeping Nadra out of the parliament domain was part of pre-poll rigging. Sherry Rehman, when contacted told TNS that "Nadra was found involved in glaring misappropriation with regard to the last electoral polls," and "in the forthcoming general election may play the same role and affect the legitimacy of the general elections". This might be the reason why government wants to keep Nadra out of reach of the parliament so that opposition legislators cannot highlight its massive misappropriations. She said that "this year as well as last, Nadra, which is a public dealing department of govt issuing passports and NICs, did not appear in the Demands for Grants from the parliament because it was supposedly made autonomous and self-sufficient".

Sherry Rehman further alleged that NADRA's misappropriations under Brigadier (Retd) Saleem Ahmad Moeen, were so high that the Auditor General's report expressed its shock at the scandalous mismanagement. Last fiscal year Nadra had quietly charged Rs.250 million in the Development Budget but overspent at Rs.400 million only under the head of Automated Finger-printing Identification section under the charged expenditure of the Interior Ministry. Even if it is an autonomous department, it does not justify its removal from parliament's purview, she said.

"The daughter of Chairman Nadra is chief Human Resource Officer; son-in-law is chief IT officer," Sherry Rehman went on to say that last year Nadra spent Rs.1.8 billion without explanation, which has been tracked under the Immigration and Passports expenses [Machine-Readable Passports]. She said that irregular expenditures noticed by the auditor general 2003-4, amount to Rs.230 million in award of contract.

She said that missing Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC) forms worth Rs.95 million; Excess payment of Rs.92 million on Urdu forms; Damages paid to Fauji Foundation worth Rs.66 million due to failures in NADRA's management are unaccounted for. She also mentioned some other bunglings including Non-Recovery of Receipt of Rs.50 million; Purchase of equipment at Exorbitant Prices costing Rs.48 million; missing equipment worth Rs.4.9 million; Loss of Rs.35 million on purchase of additional scanners; Non-recovery of damages on non-data scanning worth Rs.36 million; Deduction of damages due to mismanagement worth Rs.35 million to M/s JBL; Excess payment of Rs.27 million; Excess payment of Rs.15.8 million to Pakistan Post Office; Irregular expenditure out of sale proceeds of Blank CNIC; forms, Lahore office; Irregular expenditure of Rs.15.4 million on hiring of consultancy services of IT projects; Irregular Expenditure of Rs.15.02 million on Consultant for Production of NICs; Non-production of record of expenditure worth Rs.12 million; pertaining to procurement and repair of computers; Irregular payment on Legal Consultants worth Rs.11.2 million.

Referring to the special audit report on funds released by Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to Nadra for preparation of electoral rolls for local bodies election, she told that glaring violation and misappropriation of funds have been deducted which include Rs.444 million worth of irregular expenditure on account of electoral rolls prepared without inviting tenders; Irregular expenditure of Rs.88.9 million on account of lump sum Management fees paid; Management allowed overcharging from contractor worth Rs.44.2 million on account of Pay Entry of Data Operators; Unsubstantiated payments to contractors worth Rs.106 million on account of Printing of Impressions; Irregular expenditure worth Rs.13 million on civil works.

Ghalibuddin DG Finance and Accounts Nadra told The News on Sunday that there is misperception that Nadra is above the parliament. "Nadra is statutory corporate body wholly owned by the government created in March 2000 through an Ordinance. Under the Article 24(4) of the Ordinance, the federal government took the responsibility to exclusively fund its operations and functions for three-years i.e. up to June 30, 2003."

He said federal government provided the budget allocation to Nadra for another year up to June 2004. Since 2004-05 no government funding is being provided to Nadra for its operations and functions. "However, Finance Division released only Rs.153 million in the financial year 2004-05 to achieve the targets and goals assigned by the present prime minister which related to establishment of 51 swift registration centres at tehsil level. Since July 1, 2004 Nadra is meeting its expenditures out of ID card fees and other IT projects."

He explained that Nadra is generating revenue through the Normal and Urgent CNIC fee, Overseas Cards Fee, Child Registration Certificate (B-Form); Revenue earned through installation of Machine Readable Passport System; verification services provided to banks, telecom companies etc. He said that during 2005-06, Nadra obtained two contracts from Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) and the driving license project of Bangladesh.

To a question he said that there is no embezzlement experienced in Nadra with regard to Readable Machine System, which the body has acquired at Rs.400million for which the foreign companies were ready to pay billions of rupees. He said that in 2002 electoral polls, government gave Nadra Rs.300 million for computerisation of the lists of voters, but Nadra did this job in just Rs.180 million and saved Rs 120 million.

To another question he replied that Nadra's external audit was conducted by two chartered accountant firms appointed by the federal government in consultation with the Auditor General of Pakistan. Nadra has an internal audit directorate, headed by a chartered accountant who directly reports to the authority through audit committee.

At a time when the federal government is all set for general elections, at least two incidents during last two months have incited an uneasy relationship between the ruling politicians and federal bureaucrats.

The first incident happened in the finance ministry while the second in the ministry of law and human rights -- both ministries crucial for the ruling party to win next elections.

Some senior-most bureaucrats and influential politicians are involved in both cases. The first incident that took place this year involved the parliamentary secretary finance, Khawaja Shiraz Mehmood, who allegedly got a joint secretary, Iftikhar Malik, thrashed in his office by some visitors from his constituency.

After the incident, senior officials at the Finance Ministry held a meeting and decided to go on strike, besides informing federal finance secretary Tanvir Ali Agha about the incident and demanding Mehmood's apology. The finance secretary telephoned Javed Sadiq Malik, the principal secretary to the prime minister. Mehmood was directed by the PM House to apologise to Malik. The matter was considered closed after that.

Before the memories of this incident could fade, another episode took place, this time involving the law and human rights minister Wasi Zafar and a female senior joint secretary of the same ministry, who also happened to be incharge of human rights wing. According to news reports, fearing lapse of the unspent funds at the end of fiscal year on June 30, the federal minister ordered Ms Saira Karim to award millions of rupees from human rights funds to 560 victims of human rights abuse belonging to his constituency in Jaranwala.

But, to the utter shock of the minister, the officer refused to obey his orders. Reportedly, the reason was that out of a total of 590 victims of human rights abuse, 560 were from the minister's constituency alone, making it difficult for the officer to justify the act.

According to reports, this infuriated the minister who alleged that she was collecting evidence against him. On her request she was transferred to the establishment division. But under the directive of the minister she was brought back and is facing an internal enquiry.

The law minister Wasi Zafar, 57, who has been elected to the National Assembly for the first time, had previously been elected to the Punjab Provincial Assembly in 1988 and 1997. He has also served as Secretary Lahore High Court Bar Association from 1982-1983. This is not the first time that he's faced controversy. Last year he was travelling to Karachi with his son. On arrival at Jinnah International Airport, the security personnel exempted him and his son from usual security check. This prompted an objection from a passenger who questioned why a minister should not be searched like other passengers. Reportedly, the remarks infuriated the minister's son who started slapping and kicking the man.

In another incident, the media reported the minister hitting a waiter in a hotel in Islamabad, for not providing service to his satisfaction. In another episode of similar nature, after being irked at not finding a parking space for his car he declared the parking lot around the law ministry as no-parking zone.

At a luncheon hosted by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz for the visiting Azeri President Ilham Aliyev, Zafar clashed with security guards and created a scene.

Seeking the PM's intervention, Ms Saira Karim, senior joint secretary in the Law Ministry, wrote a letter requesting Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to restore her 'dignity and honour' after she claimed Law Minister Wasi Zafar had not only used 'derogatory language' but had humiliated her when she declined to accede to his orders. However, the issue continues as law minister is not ready to budge from his position.

A press release by the federal law secretary on June 20 said Wasi had appointed Additional Secretary Azam Warraich to investigate the case. It said four ministry staffers had testified against Karim. It also said inquiries had been ordered into the disappearance of 57 cartons of blankets received in aid for quake survivors, adding that Karim had 'disregarded' Wasi's earlier orders for their recovery. Karim will also be investigated for 'inefficient conduct' and 'misguiding the media against the minister'. Ministerial sources claimed Karim did not use funds given by an NGO, despite approval by the board of governors, and registered 150 bogus NGOs after the earthquake.

The issue was also briefly echoed in the Senate on June 17 and the senators blasted Federal Minister for Law, Justice and Human Rights Wasi Zafar.

The condemnation of the law minister's highhandedness had been across the board, including senators from the ruling coalition, who offered no defence for the minister in his absence. The senators observed that after Saira Karim's ordeal, no bureaucrat would dare resist the 'corrupt' ministers. Opposition senator Enver Baig dubbed the incident as a sad occurrence -- a woman officer who refused to allow the law minister to misuse funds was turned into a bad example instead of being shown respect.

At a time when elections are round the corner, losing trust of bureaucracy is the last thing the present government wants. The government is using every policy to win peoples' sympathies; Wasi's orders to dole out leftover funds to his constituents also seemed to be part of the same desire. But controversies like Saira Karim's only add up to the problems of the government.

The war on terror has taken a back seat on media, both electronic and print. Observing the media in UK, one gets a feeling that the problem of religious extremism and acts of terrorism is limited only to Pakistan. The media is awash with news and comments about religious controversies and war on terror by Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

The Musharraf administration has been giving top priority to armed actions against the militants in Pakistan. The military operation in tribal areas in NWFP and in many areas of Balochistan has created an impression among Pakistani public that the whole world, or at least the developed countries were fighting a serious war against terrorism. However, the daily life in United Kingdom, a military ally of the United States in its wars on Afghanistan and Iraq, is just normal except for some isolated actions against suspects who are invariably immigrants from Muslim countries -- some of them living for past many years in this country.

One such action backfired last week against two Muslim youths originally belonging to Bangladesh. The human rights activists have taken the institution of London police to task as both the suspects proved innocent after interrogation. The Metropolitan Police are facing a potential compensation bill of as much as half a million pounds for the two men arrested in the bungled anti-terrorist raid in East London. Lawyers say that the figure could be this high because of the aggressive nature of the police operation. The police in United Kingdom had been famous for its decent behaviour and for its unarmed appearance at public places. But during the said raid on the house of Mohammed Abdul Kahar, 23, and 20-year old Abdul Koyair, the 300 strong police contingent shot at and injured critically, the unarmed elder brother Kahar. Human rights observers are of the opinion that Kahar was shot and wounded from a firearms officer's gun, although the circumstances in which it was fired are heavily disputed. The two men were released last Friday without any charge after a top level meeting at Scotland Yard decided their detention could no longer be justified.

Earlier, the case of killing a suspected terrorist, Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell Tube station last year had also been severely criticised and an inquiry into the circumstances in which an innocent person was killed by the armed police had been conducted. Observers believe that the police chief will have to resign as a result of the inquiry report. The person shot and killed had been declared innocent a day after he was killed.

The UK police have so far raided, arrested and released more than 850 persons suspected of terror activities. Only 23 of 895 arrests have resulted in convictions. Officials justify their acts by saying that terror risk means they must act on tip-offs. However, Muslim opinion leaders and their supporters among human rights groups say that Muslims are being picked on the basis of single-informant information. On June 12 anti-terror investigators had to defend once again their tactics after two men arrested in an operation in East London were released without charge. While police insist these kinds of raids were necessary to prevent another incident like July 7 last year when many of the innocent men and women caught up in those events have had their lives changed or lost their businesses.

One of those who were implicated on wrong information is Omar Mohammed, a 46-year old Jordanian living in Middlesbrough with his English wife and three children. Police came to his door asking if there was an Arab living in the house? Omer says within 10 minutes he was arrested without disclosing any reason for the arrest. After 48 hour they eventually told Omer Mohammed they had information that he imported suicide jackets, grenades, rockets and machine guns. Omer Mohammed was supposed to have hidden them in England and then shipped them back to Hamas and Hizbullah. Omer had asked them why he would bring the arms in England for Hamas and Hizbullah which was very difficult and risky anyway. The English wife of Omer Mohammed said that the police strip-searched her son Jamie who was only 14 years old and patted down her daughter. She had been scribbling on a piece of junk mail. The police found it and insisted that it was some Arabic codes.

Their case is not unique. According to Home Office until September 2005, 895 people had been arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000. Of those only 23 had been convicted of terrorism or activities connected to it. Officials without authorisation admit that most of the time innocent people were targeted.

The embarrassing episode of raid on the house of Bangladeshi immigrants coincided with more such incidents -- of death by suicide by two Saudis and one Yemeni at the notorious prison of Guantanamo bay, Cuba. The incident started a new wave of international condemnation against Bush administration policy -- of keeping prisoners from Afghanistan at the prison without any indictment or trial in any court. Bush administration was trying to dismiss the political impact of the suicide by three prisoners by saying that it was an act of public relations campaign by terrorists to gain public sympathy. The American officials reject the popular belief that the prisoners had committed suicide in desperation over their indefinite confinement without trial. The camp commander, Navy Rear Admiral Harry Harris described the suicides as 'al-Qaeda tactic'. The statement said that it 'does sound like this is part of a strategy -- in that they do not value their own lives, and they certainly don't value ours. They use suicide bombings as a tactic.'

In yet another incident there was more embarrassment for the Bush administration in store. After intervention by Bush administration, an American judge last month dismissed a law suit by a German Muslim who was seeking to sue the CIA for allegedly kidnapping him to Afghanistan and torturing him by mistake. The secret briefing of the judge by the director of CIA convinced the judge that the lawsuit to proceed would harm national security.

All such incidents have not only created a credibility crisis for the Bush and Blair governments but have also convinced the public at large that the threat of terrorism has been over-projected by these two governments to cover-up for the mistake of invading Afghanistan and Iraq. The general consensus is that "Our political leaders oversimplified the political situations in Iraq and Afghanistan to justify their incursions there." They believe that in the process they have alienated Muslim moderates, both at home and abroad, without whose help the war on terror cannot be won.

The trends of public opinion in the Western world call for an immediate re-evaluation of Pakistan's policy of showing over-enthusiasm as an ally of the United States in Bush administration's war on terror, that has taken a turn to be a campaign against Muslims all over the world.