Friday, January 23, 2009

Dr Khan network’ suspect tipped off CIA: Swiss TV


GENEVA: A Swiss man suspected of being involved in the world’s biggest nuclear smuggling ring claims he supplied the CIA with information that led to the breakup of the black market nuclear network allegedly led by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.
In a documentary airing on Thursday on Swiss TV station SF1, Urs Tinner says he tipped off US intelligence about a delivery of centrifuge parts meant for Libya’s nuclear weapons programme.
The shipment was seized at the Italian port of Taranto in 2003, forcing Libya to admit and eventually renounce its efforts to acquire nuclear weapons.
The 43-year-old Tinner is suspected, along with his brother Marco and father Friedrich, of supplying Dr Khan’s clandestine network with technical know-how and equipment that was used to make gas centrifuges.
Dr Khan, the creator of Pakistan’s atomic bomb, has been accused of selling the centrifuges for secret nuclear weapons programmes in Libya and Iran before his network was disrupted in 2003.
Tinner was freed by Swiss authorities last month after almost five years in investigative detention and he has yet to be charged.
A CIA spokesman, George Little, refused to discuss the Tinner case. The agency has said in the past that 'the disruption of the A.Q. Khan network was a genuine intelligence success, one in which the CIA played a key role.'
In the Swiss documentary, Tinner also claims he sabotaged equipment destined for uranium enrichment facilities so it would malfunction on first use. He does not say which country the sabotaged parts were destined for.
Former Swiss justice minister Christoph Blocher told the SF documentary that he travelled to Washington in 2007 — three years after Urs Tinner’s arrest — to discuss the case with then US attorney-general Alberto Gonzales.
Blocher says he refused a US request to hand over thousands of files of evidence in the case, but the Swiss cabinet later decided to shred the files after it learned they contained information that could endanger national security, including nuclear warhead designs.
MPs’ panel unhappy
On Thursday, a parliamentary panel criticised the government for destroying the files, saying there was no immediate danger to Switzerland’s internal or external security.
The Swiss government also refused to let federal prosecutors investigate whether the Tinners had engaged in espionage for a foreign state, a punishable offence.
Urs Tinner is waiting to see whether prosecutors will file charges against him for breaking Swiss laws on the export of sensitive material — a crime that carries a penalty of up to 10 years imprisonment.
The federal criminal court in Bellinzona on Thursday ordered
Marco Tinner be released on a bail of $87,000, rejecting an appeal by prosecutors to keep him in prison pending a possible trial.
Swiss weekly NZZ am Sonntag reported last month that prosecutors objected to Marco Tinner’s release because of concerns he might still possess sensitive information on the construction of nuclear bombs.
Jeanette Balmer, a spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor’s office in Bern, refused to comment on the newspaper report.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has said its investigation into the Khan network showed that some members possessed highly sensitive information. The information was in electronic form, making it easy to disseminate, and the agency was concerned that some of the documents may still be out in circulation.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

The Power of the Pulpit - The Saudi-isation of Pakistan

By Mohammed Hanif

Maulvi Karim, who taught me to read the Quran and led prayers in our village mosque for 40 years, was one of the most powerless men in our community. The only power he assumed for himself was that of postman. The postman would deliver the mail to him and then he would walk from house to house distributing it. He would, of course, have to read the letters for a lot of families who couldn’t read.

He was also a dog lover.

I joined him a number of times as he played with his little Russian poodle outside his house, then walked to the mosque, did his ablutions and led the prayers. After prayers he would hang out at the door of the mosque exchanging gossip with regulars. There would be people loitering outside the mosque when he went in. They would still be around as he finished the prayers and came out. It never occurred to him to ask these people to join him. It never occurred to the people who hung outside the mosque to feel embarrassed about not joining the prayers. They all lived on the same streets, not always in harmony, but religion in any of its forms was not something they discussed on the street. What was there to discuss? Wasn’t faith a strictly private business? Something that happened between a man and his god and not something that had to be discussed in your living room.

A minority went regularly to the mosques, another minority opened a bottle of something in the evening, but most people had secular pastimes like watching soap operas on TV and placing small bets on cricket matches.

He may sound like a character from the early 20th century but Maulvi Karim died only about a decade ago, and till his last days he had not given up his routine. In the social hierarchy he was somewhere between the barber and the cobbler. His basic functions were limited to being present at births, death and weddings. If he had been alive today and watched an episode of Alim Online, I wonder what he would have made of it. I wonder if he would have felt envious of all the celebrity maulanas who have become a staple of satellite television programming. Not only do they crop up on every discussion on every topic on earth but now they have their own TV channels as well, where they can preach 24/7, interrupted only by adverts for other mullahs.

The mosque imam, who served an essential social function, has given way to another kind of mullah: the power mullah, who drives in a four-wheeler flanked by armed guards; the entertainer mullah, who hogs the airwaves; and the entrepreneur mullah, who builds networks of mosques and madrassas and spends his summer touring Europe. And then there is the much maligned mullah with his dreams of an eternal war and world domination.

Since “mullah,” when pronounced in a certain way, can be read as a derogatory term, and since we don’t want to offend them (because we all know that they do get very easily offended) we should call them evangelists or preachers.

Mullahs, maulvis, imamas, or ulema-i-karam as many of them prefer to call themselves, have never had the kind of influence or social standing that they enjoy now. A large part of Pakistan is enthralled by this new generation of evangelists. They are there on prime time TV, they thunder on FM radios between adverts for Pepsi and hair removing cream. In the past few years, they have established fancy websites with embedded videos; mobile phone companies offer their sermons for download right to your telephone. They come suited, they come dressed like characters out of the Thousand and One Nights, they are men and they are women. Some of them even dress like bankers and talk like property agents offering bargain deals in heaven.

I grew up during the time of General Zia, the first evangelist to occupy the presidency in Pakistan. But even he had the good sense to keep the beards away from prime time television. But the ruthless media barons of today have no such qualms. They have turned religion into a major money-spinner. Pakistan’s economy remains in its endless downwards spiral, but it certainly seems there is a lot of money still to be made in televised preaching.

They have also tailored their message to the aspiring middle classes. Recently on his show on Haq TV, Tahirul Qadri (and he has gone from being a maulana to Allama to Sheikh-ul-Islam) thundered that religion doesn’t stop us from adopting new fashions. You can change your furniture every few years, there is nothing wrong with getting the new car models, but it should all be done in good taste. The man could had have given his lecture on Fashion TV. “But you shall never question the basic tenets of religion,” he went on. The implication was clear: you shall never question what he has to say. The message is even clearer: make money, spend it and it’ll all turn out to be okay if you keep tuning in to my programme.

And the message is being taken seriously by the upper classes of Pakistan. I walked into a new super store in Karachi’s Clifton area and was pleasantly surprised to see what looked like a books section. It was a books section indeed, but it was called “Islamic Books Section” and all the books in it were about Islam.

I went to a Nike store, and it was no different from any Nike store in any part of the world: over-priced, shiny sneakers and branded football shirts. But in the background instead of the loud gym music, the hallmark of such stores, speakers played recitation from the Quran.

The multinational companies, sensing the mood of the people, have also joined the bandwagon. Mobile phone companies offer calls to prayers for ring tones, and Quranic recitations and religious sermons as free downloads. During the month of Ramadan a number of international banks were gifting their preferred clients fancy boxes containing rosaries, dates and miniature Qurans.

It’s the perfect marriage between God and greed.

Traditionally, what a preacher needed was a pulpit. For the pulpit he needed a mosque, and to get to a mosque he needed to do a long apprenticeship in which he had to prove his worth to the community before he could be allowed to sit at that pulpit. With the arrival of satellite TV channels, evangelists provide the most cost-effective programming and, as a result, have found a pulpit in every living room.

Even the Sindhi and Seraiki language channels, which were known for their liberal political approach and sufi messages, have found their own evangelists to fill the slots.

And their influence has changed our social landscape beyond recognition. Twelve years ago, an old friend from school tried to recruit me into a militant anti-Shia organisation. After dropping out from high school, Zulfikar Ahmad had started a motorcycle garage and joined one of the sectarian organisations that were flourishing in the area. We had a heated discussion over his politics, and I reminded him of a number of common friends who were Shias and were as good or bad Muslims as any of our other classmates. Visibly unconvinced, Zulfikar gave up on me and wished me luck in my godless life.

Zulfikar’s attempt at converting me was one of the many signs of religious intolerance creeping into our lives. Taliban-ruled neighbouring Afghanistan and many middle class Pakistanis, while enjoying the relative freedoms of a fledgling democracy, hankered for a more puritanical, Taliban-style government. But these zealots, despite their high profile, remained marginal to society as religion was a personal affair, not something you discussed in your drawing room.

As I moved back to Pakistan a few months ago, I was overwhelmed by the all pervasive religious symbols in public spaces and theocratic debates raging in the independent media as well as in the drawing rooms of friends and relatives. The graffiti on the walls of Karachi, blood-curdling calls for jihad, adverts for luxury Umrahs are omnipresent. And for those who can’t afford to go all the way to Mecca, neighbourhood mosques offer regular lectures and special prayers sessions.

I spent the Eid holidays in my village in Punjab and attended prayers at the mosque, which Maulvi Karim used to run. My village folk are very wary of radical mullahs and have appointed an imam who is Maulvi Karim’s son and has spent most of his youth in Birmingham. His sermon was probably the most progressive I have ever heard. He advised his male congregation to share household work with their women. He gave examples from Prophet Mohammed’s life and said that he used to clean his own room even when he had more than one wife. “You must attend to your stock yourself. It doesn’t matter if you have servants, feed your buffaloes,” he said. I looked around in amusement, trying to imagine these men, steeped in centuries of male chauvinistic tradition, going home to do their dishes.

What puzzled me in the end was that his prayer included get-well-soon wishes for Baitullah Mehsud, who according to local TV channels, was ill. I couldn’t reconcile the imam’s message for equality of the sexes and his good will for Mehsud, whose crusade against women is as well known as his anti-American jihad.

For answers I turned to my old friend Zulfikar. He still sports a long, flowing beard but his conversation is peppered with Punjabi expletives which I found quite refreshing amidst the wall-to-wall piety in my hometown. “I have left all that jihad-against-Shias business behind,” he told me. “I have college-going daughters now. Bringing up children in these times is a full-time jihad.”

He told me that he was worried about the others. “I look as if I am a Taliban supporter but I am not. But these clean-shaven people you see here,” he pointed to some clients and workers at his garage, “inside they are all Taliban.” He explained that with Pakistan coming under repeated US attacks even people who have voted for moderate political parties are looking towards the Taliban for deliverance.

In Karachi, there are frequent warnings that the Taliban are headed this way. There are posters warning us about Talibanisation. Altaf Hussain thunders about them at every single opportunity. But nobody seems to warn us about the preachers who are already here: the ones wagging their fingers on TV always tend to precede the ones waving their guns, smashing those TVs and bombing poor barbers.

Preaching is also turning out to be an equal opportunity business. Driving my son to his new school one day, I listened to a woman talking with a posh Urdu accent on a local FM radio. With a generous smattering of English, she was trying to persuade her listeners to dress properly. “When you prepare for a party, how much do you fuss over a dress? You select a piece, then you find something matching, then you have second thoughts. All because you want to look your best at the party. You want to flatter your host. And do you prepare like this when you know that one day very soon you are going to go to the ultimate party, where your host will be Allah?”

The speech, we were told, was brought to us by al-Huda Trust, which is located in the upscale Defence Housing Authority and has its own website.

Later, I ran into a relative, a mother of two who was wearing jeans and a shirt, and who asked our opinion about her new hairdo. She was fasting, I was not. She quoted me some rules for fasting: situations in which one is allowed not to fast, along with some more injunctions for lapsed ones like myself. When are you going to start wearing the hijab? I asked her jokingly.

Probably never, she said. “The Book tells us only to wear something loose, not to draw attention, not to wear anything tight. There are so many rapes, abductions. We must not provoke.”

“How do you know all this religious stuff?” I asked her.

“I have read it in books,” she said nonchalantly, as if it was the most normal thing for a liberated working mother to pore over religious texts to decide the length of the hem of her skirt or the size of her blouse.

“Where does it say?” I challenged her. “In the Quran. I have read it myself.” She started another mini-lecture, which ended with these words: “The point is that Allah doesn’t want a woman to draw attention to her bosom.”

Listening to these preachers, people in Pakistan today seem to believe that God is some kind of lecherous old man who sits there worrying about the size of a woman’s blouse while American drones bomb the hell out of the Pashtuns in the North. You can blame the Pashtuns for many things, but no true Pashtun has ever been accused of wearing tight dresses.

Pakistan’s president, Asif Zardari, stumbling from one crisis to another, has been accused of many things, but nobody has ever accused him of having a political philosophy. He was asked about this a while ago in an interview, and he parroted some clichés about Sindhi Sufi poetry and world peace. “I am a great admirer of Sindhi Sufi poetry,” but I doubt Zardari would get very far reciting it to one of the thousands of evangelists unleashed on this hapless nation. Because if Zardari has read Sindhi Sufi poetry – or, for that matter, Punjabi, or Pushto Sufi poetry – he would know that it is full of more warnings about mullahs than all the CIA’s country reports lined end-to-end. Sometimes I am also puzzled at my own reactions to these preachers: why do these overt symbols of religion bother me when I myself grew up in a family where prayers, Quran, and rosaries were a part of our everyday life. One reason could be that the kind of religion I grew up with was never associated with suicide bombings and philosophies of world domination. Religion was something you practiced on your own, between meals and going to school. It didn’t involve blowing up schools, which seems to be the favourite pastime of Islamist militants in today’s Pakistan and something that our televangelists never talk about. Maybe people are just buying into the symbolism as a way of expressing their defiance towards the Pakistan government’s policies that many of them see as a mere extension of the US. Maybe, like many other expats, I just hanker for those good old days when saints and sinners, believers and sceptics and preachers and their bored victims could live side by side without killing each other. (Newsline)

Three Young men arrested for cyber crime

KARACHI: The Cyber Crime Unit (CCU) of the Crime Investigation Department has arrested three young men for stealing pay orders through a courier service. Noman Azeem, Muhammad Amir Qayyum and Salaam Adil Sheikh were caught red handed by CCU after investigation revealed that the men were involved in swindling. CCU Chief DSP Usman Asghar Qureshi said that the three men made away with almost Rs 7 million before they were caught.
Qureshi said that the management of a private bank registered an FIR No 26/09 and requested for a thorough investigation. The DSP said that Azeem, working at a courier service, would steal the bank-stamped envelopes from the outgoing mail and with his accomplices, Qayyum and Sheikh, who work as finance consultants, had been committing the crimes for the past six months. Qureshi said that pay orders worth Rs 6.7 million were recovered from the culprits while revealing that Azeem was previously arrested by the local police and has a criminal record. The three men have been given into police remand for five days by the city court judicial magistrate. “We are investigating the case and are now checking for the involvement of other suspects. During the initial investigation, they have given us a lot of information. We are trying to locate all accomplices involved in this racket,” Qureshi added.

Drug mafia opens for business in SITE under police supervision

By By M. Zeeshan Azmat

Karachi

A committee comprising different political activists as well as representatives of prominent families and communities has urged the police hierarchy and other law enforcement agencies to take strict and immediate action against the drug mafia involved in selling illegal drugs in different localities of Sindh Industrial Trading Estate (SITE), particularly in Bawany Chawli, Union Council 5 for past many years.

According to a report prepared by the committee, there are over 50 places in UC-5 alone where drug peddlers have been operating their business without any fear. Hashish is the top selling item in the locality, while Heroin is second most traded narcotics so far. Some drug dealers also carried weapons to dominate residents of the area, it further said. Now, these drug traders are also moving into other parts of SITE Town, sources said.

The report has been given to the Home department, police headquarter, and area police stations but officials have not taken any action, The News has learnt.

This situation has gone from bad to worse since the past two years; meanwhile, people have witnessed regular incidents of street crime. Approximately 20 per cent of the population of the UC is addicted to drugs, while the police does not interfere in the matter because of political pressures, the sources said.

Medina Masjid, Muhalla Hyder Chali, Sarafa Bazaar near Shahi Masjid, Shahi Muhalla, Haqani Masjid and Muhalla, Rababni Masjid Muhalla, Mecca Masjid, Sher Bahadur Dera, Jalali Masjid and Pahari Muhalla, Bagh Malik and Rabbani Muhalla are some of the most active spots of drug peddling, The News has learnt.

Local activists from Awami National Party, Jamat-e-Islami, Jamat-e-Ullemae Islam, Muttahida Quami Movement, Pakistan People’s Party and Pukhtukhua Milli Awami Party, were part of a 25-people based committee. Meanwhile, all Nazims and Naib Nazims of SITE Town, other representatives of town administration, SHO’s of three police stations of town have been nominated as members of the committee.

The report, which was based on committee’s investigations that lasted for two months, revealed that the drug racket also enjoyed the support of police personnel from the town’s jurisdiction. According to the report, different levels of groups involved in the sale of drugs give the money extracted from extortion to the local police, and payments are made according to the category of their business.

Almost a month ago, one of the main drug dealers of the town, Wahab, was arrested along with five other traders but later, he was released in lieu of Rs0.25 million without an FIR being lodged. Like, Wahab, Juma Khan and his brother are other leading drug dealers. They operate in the graveyard located in between Pathan and Frontier Colony.

The report also indicates that drug operators use intra-city buses to smuggle contraband into the city. Afterwards, local public transport (comprising coaches) is used to distribute the drugs to other areas.

In some cases, entire families are involved in the sale of narcotics in local markets, the report stated. On the other hand, the residents of UC5 told The News that role of the local police is dubious and few, if not all, of the law enforcers support the drug mafia. Some retired and suspended policemen are also involved in drug trading and few on service policemen are also participating in it, they alleged.

“It has been noticed that whenever a person goes to the police to lodge complaints or FIRs against drug sale in his or her area, the police never respond properly,” area people claimed. “Furthermore, complainants receive severe threats from drug dealers within hours of their visit to police station,” they said.

Former, TPO Javed Riaz Akbar and who was followed by, Sohail Zafar Chatha, had taken serious actions against the sale of narcotics in the area, but, once they were transferred one after other from the town, the situation became favourable for these dealers. Nowadays, DIG West, Abdul Majeed Dasti has taken some measures but his efforts are going in vain due to connivance of local police with drug dealers.

Provincial Minister for Excise and Taxtation Department, Mukesh Kumar Chawala, was contacted to comment on the matter, but he was not available to speak to The News.
(The News Report)

INDIA/PAKISTAN: Civil Society Mounts Peace Offensive

By Rita Manchanda

NEW DELHI, Jan 20 (IPS) - A visit to India by a delegation of civil society activists from Pakistan as part of a ‘peace offensive’ is expected to help keep the two South Asian neighbours from going to war over the Nov. 26-29 terror attacks on Mumbai city.

The Jan. 21-23 high profile ‘track two’ visit hopes to woo Indian political leaders, reason with hawkish security experts and appeal for cross border solidarity and, at a people-to-people level, make the point that both countries are common victims of terrorism.

Although the delegation is led by Pakistan’s best known human rights activists, Asma Jehangir and I. A. Rehman, and bolstered by politicians from Pakistan’s main political parties and leading journalists, the impact they are likely to make is still uncertain.

So far, except for India’s Left parties, no Indian political party has made any commitment to meet the delegation. "We’re still trying," said one of the Indian hosts Shabnam Hashmi of Act Now for Harmony and Democracy.

However, Ravi Hemadri of the Pakistan India Peoples Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD) was more candid, "Given that India’s Republic Day, Jan. 26, is just days away, and with the jingoistic rhetoric already being ratcheted up, it’s doubtful if politicians would risk being seen as soft."

This is especially so against the backdrop of ‘megaphone diplomacy’ via the media with Indian army chief Gen. Deepak Kapoor telling journalists that ‘’all options are open".

Similarly India's home minister P. Chidamabaram hinted to the ‘The Times’ of London about the possibility of curtailing trade and people-to-people contacts. "Why should we entertain Pakistani business people? Why should we entertain tourists in India? Why should our tourists go there?"

An opinion poll conducted by ‘The Indian Express’ newspaper recorded 92 percent of respondents saying ‘Yes’ on "Should road, rail links with Pakistan be snapped if no action taken...?" "This call for suspending links will hurt thousands of ordinary people for whom peace has meant the ability to cross the border," said Syeda Hamid, speaking in her personal capacity and as founder of the Women’s Initiative for Peace.

"The Parthasarthys, the Maroof Razas [top security experts frequently seen on TV], who do they speak for? Not for the ordinary people. It is the peace groups who speak for the ordinary people, not the hawks on TV. It is civil society that reflects the voices of the millions on both sides who stand to suffer,'' Hamid said.

Such sentiments motivated leading social activist Swami Agnivesh to launch the "Joint Signature Campaign by Citizens of India Pakistan Against Terrorism, War Posturing and to Promote Cooperation and Peace", and travel to Amritsar to join a public rally for peace mobilised by groups that will, on India’s Independence Day stake a candlelight vigil on the Indo-Pakistan border.

"Civil society has to respond to terrorism. It cannot leave everything to the state whose instruments are the army, intelligence and diplomacy. For 10 years peace groups have worked to create an atmosphere for both governments to commit that peace is ‘irreversible’. That’s why even after Mumbai, there’s been no war," he said.

Were tall claims being made about the peace lobby? "Ask the 51 Pakistani citizens jailed in Jodhpur, Rajasthan for visa tampering? They would still have been locked up had the PIPFPD not taken up their cause. Despite the war jingoism, in December they were freed and returned home," Hemadri said.

The peace lobby which seemed to have withdrawn into a defensive silence after the Mumbai attacks has now found a confident voice. Most were "fearful to speak up, to examine, lest they be seen to be excusing the Mumbai attacks,’’ said Nitya Ramakrishnan, a civil liberties lawyer.

A joint resolution by 30 civil society groups has appealed for ‘Sanity in Our Neighbourhood,’ asserting that they "will not to be consumed by fear, terror and war. That is the agenda of the terrorists".

There are signs that the peace initiatives are gaining momentum. On Jan. 11, at New Delhi’s first public meeting on ‘War, Democratic Rights and Peace Processes’ there was backing from peace and democratic rights groups, feminists, labour and teachers’ organisations.

Tweaking the Indian media’s force multiplier phrase of "enough is enough" as a goad to military action, Pamela Philippose, a well-known columnist, said: "Our way is to say ‘enough is enough’ to war mongering".

Tarun Tejpal, editor of the ‘Tehelka’ newspaper, emphasised "the need to look at the root causes of the making of a terrorist, the grievances that motivate people to these heinous terrorist acts’’.

The visit of the high profile Pakistan delegation may catch media attention, but can it shift the hawkish public sentiment? Even the scheduled public meeting will be less than public. Security concerns have entailed an "invitees only" entry, as vigilante groups propagating hate politics have stepped up their activities.

On Jan.14, Pakistani TV comedian Shakil Siddiqui was thrown out of a studio in Mumbai by a sons-of-the-soil group, the Maharastra Nav Nirman Sena. Earlier, the same group motivated the Mumbai police to pressure the Oxford Bookstore to take Pakistani books off its shelves, "lest they be targeted".

The peace lobby, however, is determined to keep up the pressure. Shabnam Hashmi said: ‘’We can’t allow ourselves to be dispirited by mainstream media’s jingoism. Let us not trivialise the grave threat that the people of both India and Pakistan face by reducing it to cross border talking heads of TV trading blame charges."

They see as a triumph the fact that the Lahore-based Ajoka Theatre troupe was able to come to India and perform its 'Hotel Mohenjodaro' to a packed audience at the 11th Bharat Rangmahotsav Theatre Festival in the national capital on Sunday.

Amal Allana, chair of the festival’s host, the National School of Drama, dismissed reports that the Pakistani troupe was denied visas. ‘’'Everything went according to schedule and their visas arrived on time.’’

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Aishwarya Rai in the ‘Top 50 Most Desirable Woman in the World’ list


New Delhi: Her acting skills might have been a topic of much debate but when it comes to her beautiful frame and drop dead gorgeous looks Aishwarya Rai leaves many behind. The actress who has time and again bagged praises from the who’s who of the entertainment industry has now left some of the most striking Hollywood babes behind in terms of looks.

The Bachchan bahu, has once again made her family proud, as she has made it to the ‘Top 50 Most Desirable Woman in the World’ list. A annual survey by a leading men’s portal AskMen.com poll asked it’s readers to select their ideal mate based on ‘intelligence, charisma and ambition’ and Aishwarya Rai had many vouching for her.

Scoring over uber hot supermodel Karolina Kurkova and bootylicious singer Beyonce, Aishwarya Rai bagged the 48th position in the survey. Topped by Eva Mendez, the poll had top-notch names like Angelina Jolie, Rihanna and Gisele Bundchen fighting for the top position.

The top 50 are:

1 Eva Mendes
2 Megan Fox
3 Marisa Miller
4 Keeley Hazell
5 Anne Hathaway
6 Alessandra Ambrosio
7 Scarlett Johansson
8 Rihanna
9 Kristen Bell
10 Kate Beckinsale
11 Heidi Klum
12 Emmanuelle Chriqui
13 Halle Berry
14 Brooke Burke
15 Jessica Alba
16 Jessica Biel
17 Selita Ebanks
18 Monica Bellucci
19 Adriana Lima
20 Cheryl Cole
21 Doutzen Kroes
22 Evangeline Lilly
23 Lucy Pinder
24 Bianca Beauchamp
25 Penelope Cruz
26 Charlize Theron
27 Mila Kunis
28 Gisele Bundchen
29 Keira Knightley
30 Olga Kurylenko
31 Isla Fisher
32 Misa Campo
33 Denise Milani
34 Bar Refaeli
35 Christina Aguilera
36 Summer Glau
37 Layla Kayleigh
38 Katy Perry
39 Stacy Keibler
40 Odette Yustman
41 Hayden Panettiere
42 Angelina Jolie
43 Zoe Saldana
44 Sara Varone
45 Eva Longoria
46 Miranda Kerr
47 Carrie Underwood
48 Aishwarya Rai
49 Karolina Kurkova
50 Beyonce

194 Girls Raped in Karachi Last Year 2008

Karachi being the biggest city of Pakistan also desere to be the city of opportunities. It was Karachi who was commercialized far before any other city of Pakistan. This all comes with its special geographical location.

But this all not makes a this free from the odd ends, although obcure to many eyes but yet they should be recognized by every citizen of this mega city. One of such thing is the problems. Karachi is no longer a safe city. Safety is what Karachi lack the most. This is where we find many roots of nationwide crimes.

Such a crime is associate with the diginity of girls. Rape. Every girl is afraid of this word, and its spreading and strengthening its roots day by day not only in Karachi as well in many cities of the country.

Last year whole nation mourned over many things, but the lives of these 194 girls are no more to be categorized as life. These girls not only were raped but they lost their meaning of living. Out of 194 girls 146 ones commited suicide.

Many NGO’s are working against the sourced behing the women crimes one of such is Aurat Foundation working effectively for their cause. This NGO presented the whole report to the media about the crimes to be highlighted by the media and then some work can be expected from the Government.

According to Dawn:

Over 1,885 incidents of violence against women — in which more than 480 women had been killed — were reported in the province during 2008, says a report.