Some fabulously rich Pakistanis keep their wealth abroad. The masses condemn it as a horrific disloyalty to the motherland. The condemnation exposes the masses’ utter ignorance of the reality. The masses must know that the Pakistanis who keep their wealth abroad have a very cogent reason. The reason is that robberies and dacoities are rampant in the country. Anyone could be robbed of his wealth any moment. The Pakistani robbers have developed a stronger sniffing sense than the sniffer dogs have. Under such circumstances if a Pakistani keeps his wealth in the country he only tempts the robbers to deprive him of his wealth. If robbery is an offence then tempting the robbers to rob is a greater offence.

There is another reason why some Pakistanis keep their wealth in the West. The social life in Pakistan is a horrible drudgery. The wealthy Pakistanis have a passion for enjoying their wealth by living a princely life. But there are no opportunities available in the country for such a living. Obviously, they can enjoy their wealth only in the West. The West offers them a fabulously wide variety of revelries. There are dancing clubs there were the wealthy Pakistanis, even if too aged can dance with young girls. The dancing would electrify their wobbling bodies. There are drinking clubs there. There are gambling clubs where the Pakistanis can burn their wealth and enjoy the conflagration.

When the westerners watch the Pakistanis enjoying a fabulously luxurious life, they get jealous. The Pakistanis enjoy the jealousy.
One must be curious to know how the fabulously rich Pakistanis get their wealth. Of course, some of them get it by fair means. But most of them get it by extremely mysterious means. They keep magically sucking the country’s wealth. The country feels the distress but is unable to do anything about it. When it is almost completely sucked, its very existence is endangered. In order to escape extinction, it borrows money from abroad. The money-suckers get jubilant. They start sucking the borrowed money. When the money is completely sucked, the country is again in agony about its very survival. It again borrows money from abroad. Again the sucking is in full swing. It has been going on and on like this almost throughout the country’s history.

Pakistan is cursed wit two brands of robbery. There are robbers who rob the citizens and there are robbers who rob the country. The masses are in agony. They are lamenting: “Oh God! When would we be rid of robberies?”
Most of the Pakistanis are eternally underfed. Because of their underfeeding they develop fatal diseases. The diseases despatch them underground where they are freed from underfeeding forever. What a liberation from underfeeding!

Let’s have another look at the fabulously rich Pakistanis. With just a little bit of their wealth they can easily relieve the underfed Pakistanis of their underfeeding. But they don’t help the underfed. They have a moral reason. They believe that the underfed Pakistanis are sent into the world by Destiny for dying underfed. Feeding the underfed would be a rebellion against Destiny. And they can’t afford to offend Destiny. If offended, Destiny might avenge the insult by stripping them of their wealth.

Economically, Pakistan is a land of two ethnic groups: the masses and the non-masses. The masses are poverty incarnate. The non-masses are affluence incarnate. The lifestyle of the masses is the lifestyle of the worms. The lifestyle of the non-masses is the lifestyle of the sybarites.
The masses spend every single moment of their life in Pakistan. The non-masses love to spend as much of their time abroad as possible. Consequently, they keep regularly flying between Pakistan and the West.
The masses can’t afford to educate their children. The non-masses educate their children in the West. When the non-masses fall sick, they fly straight to foreign clinics. If accidentally they die there the dead bodies are flown to Pakistan in accordance with their will. They love to enjoy life in the West. But they hate to be buried there. When the masses fall sick, they fly straight to the graveyards. The graveyards are their only clinics.

The writer is an academic.

The Lahore that was

Chauburji

It was a glorious spring day in 1960 that I accompanied my father to the Radio Pakistan Lahore for an audition. This was a time when the radio station was housed in a sprawling old bungalow near the Simla Pahari gate of the Governors House. The studios were located in the main building, while a ‘U’ shaped annex across the rear courtyard made up the offices of the producers and administrative paraphernalia. As one entered the gate, one passed along a drive and into a porch that connected another small building to the main structure.

This was the accounts office from where one got paid for the programmes one did. The radio station was surrounded by trees and there was a fairly well maintained lawn in front fringed by Jaman trees.
Life at Radio Pakistan Lahore was an unforgettable experience. Everyone from celebrity to the chaprassi acted as part of one big family. The young were respectful towards their older peers and the latter responded with great affection and dignity.

There was the great Ayub Romani, who was in charge of musical programmes. He was a popular figure, always surrounded by great names in music and one found the canteen hard to keep up with the demands for ‘a set or half set’ of tea from his office. The inimitable Sultan Sahib or Nizam Din to listeners was heard before he was seen. He was full of life and as child artistes we looked on him with awe.

Working with Mohini Ham-eed and Aqeel Ahmed was an experience that I cherish to this day. Mohini or Apa Shamim to thousands of boys and girls across the country anchored the Children’s Programme on Sundays. This wonderful person with the velvety voice also read out the daily evening story for the young. She had a great fan following as she often played lead female roles in radio plays. Aqeel Sahib had the gift of a perfect Urdu pronunciation and a voice to match it. I remember him as a man with wavy hair combed straight back, always ready to help faltering youngsters with their lines.

Begum Khurshid Shahid was a lady who was respected by ever-yone. She carried herself with great dignity and delivered her lines impeccably with great voice control in the style practiced by the old drama school. She was a great source of learning and it was a privilege to work with her.

Azizur Rehman was the doyen of radio announcers and the day was never complete unless one heard his resonant voice saying; “Yeh Radio Pakistan Lahore Hai.” He was a diminutive and gentle figure with a voice that could ‘calm a raving beast’. His two other equally famous colleagues were Mustafa Ali Hamdani and Akhlaq Ahmed. It was Hamdani Sahib, who had the proud privilege of making the first announcement as ‘Radio Pakistan’ at midnight on August 14, 1947.

In those days most programmes went live and one had to be careful of what one said on the side or how one delivered the lines in the script. One went on air with just a few rehearsals and there were times when a slip had to be covered with an impromptu dialogue. In such situations, the other members of the group always came to the rescue with a follow up question or a line and these slips generally went undetected by listeners.

The remuneration for amateur child artistes was only 10 rupees for each programme, a cheque for which was issued immediately after the event was aired or recorded. This was like largesse for a boy in those days as one could buy loads of goodies from Yasin Khan Bakers with the amount.

I had the opportunity to return to the familiar surroundings of the Radio Station in 1964 before it shifted to Empress Road. This time it was to record English language educational programmes for the British Council. I received my first sur-prise when the old chowkidar at the gate recognised me. I then came across individual after individual, who welcomed me as a long lost family member. I looked at the two goras accompanying me and just managed to say ‘I’m home’.

The writer is a freelance columnist.

The other day, when asked to give a talk at the American University in Washington, DC on the issues surrounding Western-Muslim tensions, what was expected to be a 90-minute session got extended to three hours, largely because of the dimensions of the discussion and the lively participation of on-campus students. It offered some revealing glimpses.

The discussion centred on the motives behind militancy, existing policy failures, and the search for viable remedies to reduce polarisation.
During the concluding phase of the discussion, convergence was reached on key points. The students posited that the much-touted notion of the clash of civilisations was faulty in that it presupposed a perpetual conflict which, while suiting vested interests, was at variance with historic precedent, wherein Muslim culture traditionally had shown its capacity for pluralism and inter-religious coexistence.

It was also brought forth that Judaism, Christianity, along with Islam stemmed from the same region and the first two were by no means European products. Accordingly, the term ‘Judeo-Christian civilisation’ was itself misleading and loaded in that it excluded Islam.

Also, the students felt that the media was prone to sensationalist coverage and, hence, stories depicting Muslims in an inflammatory light needed to be critically weighed instead of being swallowed “hook, line, and sinker.” There was also a sense that, since the youth had to bear the brunt of fighting and dying for the policies of their leaders, the onus was on them to strive for vigorous connections with Muslims and to acquire more knowledge about Muslim heritage and values.

Others participating in the discussion tried to identify features which hindered progress in the field of Western-Muslim relations. Mutual ignorance showed up as a salient factor. The lack of outreach and crude attempts to impose one’s own cultural standards on others were cited as additional obstacles.

Among the US students was a sprinkling of American Muslim students who expressed dissatisfaction with the state of Muslims in America, bemoaning the paucity of performers and the surfeit of informers. They felt that the American Muslim community spent too much time talking among themselves and did not branch out enough to the mainstream community, thereby restricting its range and influence. They also ruminated on the lack of role models and a weak reading culture among young Muslims including insufficient browsing of newspapers.

Throughout the discussion, what emerged loud and clear was the vital relevance of the Muslim world to the future of American youth who see their prospects intertwined with distant conflicts in the Middle East and Southwest Asia. Based upon the foregoing observations, the environment seems rich for a robust discourse, particularly on campuses, on issues which divide, and yet mutually connect, Muslims and Westerners.

Much of the interaction between the Christian West and the Muslim East is heavily elitist with negligible grassroots impact. But there is a silver lining.
Anxieties generated amongst American youth about ongoing conflicts in distant Muslim lands are fostering a peace constituency. It provides, therefore, a leadership opportunity for responsible Muslims to press the US to reset policies which are at the root of America’s global difficulties.
The writer is a barrister and senior political analyst.

PHILIP BOWRING

It must count as one of the more bizarre bits of diplomacy in recent times. Last week, on the eve of a visit by Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of Australia threatened to take Japan to the International Court of Justice if it did not stop whaling in the Southern Ocean, the part of the Indian Ocean south of Australia.

One may dismiss this as a politician’s gesture aimed at a domestic audience that has taken to emotional “save the whales” campaigns. Though whale oil and bone had once been Australia’s biggest export, the nation had no tradition of eating whale meat, and a shortage of whales caused the closure of its last whaling station in 1978. But such outbursts in favour of one member of the mammal kingdom by a major exporter of red meat is likely to do more damage to Australia’s image than to Japan’s. Most of Australia’s Asian neighbours may not care much one way or the other about whaling. But the tone of moral superiority adopted by Australia – its apparent belief that it is the guardian of the Southern Ocean from Asian depredation – grates on many Asians who also resent environment lessons from a top carbon polluter.

From an Australian perspective it may seem reasonable that the largest, most advanced country in the Southern Ocean should assume some responsibility for it. But such assumptions of its rights and duties in international waters can easily keep alive lingering Asian resentments of Western colonialism – European expansionism that gave a small new nation with a population only a little bigger than Shanghai control over a vast, mineral rich landmass. Does Australia want to control the ocean too, some ask?

There may be scientific arguments about whether Japan’s harvesting of several hundred whales per year is endangering the stock in the Southern Ocean. But Australia’s “crusade” seems more couched in emotional than scientific terms. We see this also in the heroic status accorded the Australian and New Zealand campaigners who have harassed Japan’s whaling vessels.

Japan may be pushing the limits of the “scientific research” allowed by the International Whaling Commission in the “whale sanctuary” it declared in the Southern Ocean. But at least Japan still belongs to that body. Norway always refused to accept IWC restrictions. Iceland walked out of the IWC in 1992.
Meanwhile, other countries with whaling traditions turn a blind eye to the organisation.

In short, though the world needs properly regulated management of the oceans, Rudd’s antics discourage whaling countries from cooperating with the IWC and make others reluctant to accept controls on fishing in international waters to stabilise rapidly depleting fish stocks. Harpooning whales may be cruel and does excite emotions even among those who regularly eat red meat. But Australia is in scant position to complain when it shoots upward of three million wild kangaroos a year to protect crops and grazing for sheep and cattle.

The kangaroo and camel culls may be justified. But local emotions are confused. Shooting kangaroos by licensed hunters has long been common in Australia’s outback. But a plan for a culling of the national symbol near the national capital raised a storm of protest to “save Skippy” (the pet kangaroo in a famous children’s TV programme).
There is of course nothing unusual in battles between the heart and the head when it comes to attitudes to animals. For example, there is emotion, not reason, behind those in the West who are horrified with the consumption of dog in the East. In fact, there is no reason to treat whales differently from horses, which are still a table meat in some European countries. Australia’s elevation of its selective emotion into a diplomatic feud with its major Asian ally is nothing short of ridiculous.

KHALID BUTT

It was on February 4 that the Punjab Assembly had passed a bill to amend the Local Government Ordinance, but it still awaits the governor’s signature to become law. The amendment is designed to empower the provincial government to appoint administrators to replace district, tehsil and town nazims whose terms have already expired, and that, in fact, called for the bill’s quick passage into law. Under Article 116, any bill passed by the assembly has to be forwarded to the governor for endorsement. And under Article 116 (2), he is bound to formally endorse it within 30 days. In case of any objection to the bill or any part thereof, he can return it to the assembly for a revision. Similarly, it is explicitly stated in Article 116 (3) that in case the governor returns the bill to the assembly, it is obliged to review it, and then re-submit it with or without any revision, after it has been duly approved by majority.
It should be understood that the local government system is a provincial subject and each province is duly entitled to make laws, bring changes or amendments in the existing laws, suiting its requirements or circumstances. As an adverse impact of dictatorial rule that ended only two years back, a single individual had, on his own, drawn up a new system, delegated powers, and jurisdiction as he thought fit.

He introduced a new LB system uprooting the old one. In no way was the new system capable of fulfilling the needs and aspirations of the public at large. It was also full of contradictions and loopholes, which forced its author to subsequently bring about changes in it.
The introduction of the new system was also followed by a propaganda blitz that described it as genuine transfer of power to the grassroots, like district, tehsil and union councils. However, it was nothing but an illusion. In actual fact, the real power stood concentrated in one individual, in the President House. The provinces were not authorised to make even a minor change, while elections for the low-level union councillor could only be made by the chief election commissioner.

In Punjab, the PML-N, long before assuming power, had declared its firm resolve to scrap this useless system to replace it with a new system that would be in consonance with public aspirations and needs. And soon after assuming power in the province, it started consultations with the three other provinces and finally convinced them to do away with the LB system the dictator had put in place. However, the 17th Amendment that the dictator had brought about in the constitution and Schedule 6 tied the hands of Punjab and, for that matter, other provinces.

They were unable to change anything without the advance approval of the president. The government, therefore, had to wait till December 30, 2009, when the constitutional coverage provided to the old system lapsed and the whole authority for handling the local government institution reverted to the provinces, where it had always rightly belonged.

The CM had set up a Cabinet Committee to review the local government system and its institutional structure. The committee decided upon the amendments that should bring the system into harmony with the needs of the people. It made certain recommendations and decided in principle to produce a framework of a new system incorporating those recommendations.

The idea was to replace the nazims with administrators, and the bill was placed before the Cabinet for approval and after going through the process of clearance by the concerned standing committee sent to the assembly for approval. However, it appears strange that on a matter of such vital and urgent public importance, on which there has been such a welcome consensus at all levels the bill is gathering dust at the Governor House, like the recent case of appointment of judges.
The bill had gone through the entire process at all levels with a commendable support from the PPP. The foot-dragging by the governor, therefore, defies logic, to say the least, especially when one compares it to the position of Sindh, where the governor signed it within 48 hours. Punjab, which had taken the lead in this issue to create a national consensus, is now lagging behind. On the other hand, Sindh that took a cue from it is forging ahead to implement the new system.

The writer is a freelance columnist.

RENÉE LOTH
US Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana is the latest casualty of a deeply troubled political system that isolates moderates and frustrates pragmatists – the very types of leaders average Americans say they want.
Bayh, who announced his retirement this week after 11 years in Washington, cited a dysfunctional Congress sundered by strident rhetoric and demands for party purity. “There is too much partisanship and not enough progress; too much narrow ideology and not enough practical problem-solving,” he said.
Bayh joins 10 other senators who announced their retirements this election cycle. At least four were considered moderates, holding views at times divergent from their party orthodoxy. Last year Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania switched parties rather than submit to continued browbeating from Republican leaders – or from primary voters, who tend to skew more to the political extremes.
Before the Senate, Bayh had been Indiana’s governor, an executive post largely concerned with delivering services and balancing budgets. By contrast, Washington increasingly is less about finding solutions than scoring political points. It has become a boiling stew of vitriol with little room for diversity in either party.
No doubt the Republicans lit the fire, with their lock-step opposition to anything President Obama might propose and their venomous, personal attacks amplified by new-media proselytizers. Republicans are being driven further to the edge by the crazy-quilt of activists rallying to the Tea Party movement, who see any sign of compromise as a betrayal or even treason. Obama warned Republicans of this danger at a cross-party summit this month. But Bayh also had problems with liberals, who have been irritated with him at least since 2002, when he voted for the Iraq war. Liberal blogs and commentary pages are rippling with pungent variations of “good riddance.”
Yet Bayh’s actual voting record was quite progressive for someone from a traditionally red state. In 2006 he received a 95 percent rating from the liberal Americans for Democratic Action, 100 percent from the union AFSCME, and zero from the social conservatives at the Family Research Council. Apparently, that isn’t pure enough in the current environment.

It wasn’t always thus. In the 1970s, Republicans were often strong champions of abortion rights and pay equity for women. Democrats were often hawks on Vietnam. President Nixon started the Environmental Protection Agency. Camaraderie off the clock between Tip O’Neill and Ronald Reagan, or between Ted Kennedy and Utah Republican Orrin Hatch, was something to champion, not avoid. It got things done.
Now, not just politicians but many voters are gravitating to the fringes, egged on by an Internet culture that reinforces their existing biases. Most ordinary voters are simply disgusted. In a survey released last week the Pew Research Centre found the lowest ratings for Congress in 16 years. Asked which party better offered solutions to the country’s problems, 60 percent said Republicans were doing a poor job and 52 percent said the same of the Democrats. It’s “a pox on both their houses,’’ said Pew’s president, Andrew Kohut.
There is a difference, however. Democrats at least wring their hands over the low tone of the public debate. Republicans seem to revel in it. For a party that is fundamentally anti-government, stoking antipathy toward Washington is part of the skill set. If cynicism depresses voter turnout, so much the better. Beyond health care reform or stimulus plans, Obama promised Americans a new kind of politics. Republicans are determined to block that, too.
Republicans may believe they have no reason to invest in bipartisan civility, but the fervent anti-government sentiment they think they can ride to capture new majorities in the fall elections is an incendiary force. Playing with fire, it’s easy to get burned.

Boston Globe.

CHAUBURJI
There are two illustrious names from the British colonial era that no student of history is apt to overlook with reference to Punjab and specifically Lahore. These two great men were the Lawrence Brothers – Henry and John.
In 1862, a top expert from Kew Gardens in London was brought to Lahore for laying out a vast park spread over 112 acres. The park was named after John Lawrence and came to be known as the Lawrence Gardens. Although this name was changed to Bagh-e-Jinnah after independence, the old name continues to be used by Lahoris at large.
There was a time when the lush green environs of these gardens were the pride of Lahore. Families could stroll on roads overhung with trees; climb the two hills or picnic on the beautifully maintained turf, without fear of being harassed by hooligans. Theatre lovers could enjoy a wide repertoire of plays in the hilltop Open Air Theatre, secure in the knowledge that what they were watching would be descent entertainment and not the obscene trash being doled out today.
The profusion of trees and shrubs and the habitat they provided presented ample opportunities for nature lovers and bird watchers. There was the kathal or ‘Jack Fruit’ tree near the entrance to the plant nursery, with large spiny fruit sticking out from its trunk. A little further down the road towards Lawrence Hall stood the gnarled old ‘Camphor’ tree with flying foxes festooned in its upper branches. Its leaves gave out a strong but pleasant camphor odour when crushed. The ‘Buddha’ tree was another oddity with large thorns protruding from its trunk and branches.
The entire 112 acres covered by these gardens was maintained by an efficient army of malis, who drew their inspiration from a gentleman called Ghulam Nabi. Mr Nabi was the garden supervisor and ruled the roost from the vast plant nursery situated on the road that led to the zoo. With drooping ‘Fu Manchu’ type moustaches, the ‘pugareed’ figure of this individual could be spotted, puffing on his king sized hookah, under the canopy of the trees lining the mini canal that ran through the nursery.

Anand Sagar
If the rising waves of social and political unrest are any measure of the gathering turmoil in Sri Lanka, it is unlikely that the island nation will regain its serendipity soon, and the snap parliamentary poll scheduled for April 8 may only make matters worse by exposing the deep fissures of frustration as it expands.
And for this rather disturbing state of affairs, the Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse may soon realise that he has no one else to blame but himself. Having won a protracted but major war against the formidable Tamil Tigers last year, he has now unnecessarily got embroiled in a petty political battle with his former comrade in arms against the dreaded rebels.
The pettiness of it all is all the more obvious considering that Rajapakse despite defeating Sarath Fonseka has now chosen to detain the retired four-star general. The country’s Defence Ministry has said that Fonseka will face a court martial on “unspecified” charges of conspiring against the government. Why the charges remain “unspecified” is not clear, unless the intention is merely to implicate and discredit the former general and the many supporters in his ranks.
Incidentally, Defence Minister Gotabhaya Rajapakse has alleged that Fonseka had clearly been plotting a military coup. If so, it is a serious accusation that will have to be answered seriously – for it involves somebody who not so long ago was being hailed as a national hero for his role in finally crushing the Tamil Tigers.
Not surprisingly, the opposition has stepped up its campaign for Fonseka’s immediate release and there have already been violent clashes in the capital Colombo and in other parts of Sri Lanka between Fonseka loyalists and ruling party activists.
The president, who clearly does not view the situation as being in any sense politically precarious, is confident and counting on silencing his critics by once again routing the opposition forces in the forthcoming parliamentary elections. In the presidential polls, he had secured a solid 58 percent of the votes cast. But even a second successive victory against his rivals may now not be enough to protect him in power against a battalion of critics.

Zahrah Nasir

Call it racism, call it colour prejudice, call it xenophobia, call it what you will but, however you want to define it, a certain sector of Pakistani society is bent on taking ‘nationalism’ to a senseless extreme without, I may add, pausing to consider their own antecedents.
How many ‘indigenous’ Pakistanis can honestly claim to be ‘unpolluted’ by Indian, Afghan, Kashmiri, Persian, Central Asian or other ‘neighbourly’ gene banks?….very few when it comes to the crunch and yet, these days, it is increasingly de rigueur to ‘victimise’ anyone exhibiting obviously ‘different’ roots.

Chinese, Sri Lankan, Russian and other Central Asia women are promptly labeled ‘ladies of the night’ without the slightest thread of evidence, all Africans are drug smugglers and, anyone with a white skin, as being British or American spies or, horror of horrors, being employed by that organisation of unspeakable evils, Blackwater, to the point where, reportedly, they are secretly photographed and their pictures displayed on some nefarious website or other as being public enemies, therefore, it goes without saying, acceptable targets!
Personally speaking, being unfortunate enough to have a white exterior then this issue is very personal indeed, the current outbreak of xenophobia, a word defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as “a morbid dislike of foreigners”, is nothing short of frightening, particularly so as I happen to be a distinctly patriotic Pakistani national, far more so, I strongly suspect, than ‘brown’ skinned Pakistanis lusting for much prized American, Canadian, Australian or British passports for example.
People have leapt to the wrong conclusions since I first set foot in this ‘land of the pure’ back in 1983, automatically presuming that I am Christian, that I am wealthy (dream on!), that, after taking up permanent residence and obtaining first a nationality certificate and then a, to me, prized green passport, I must shuttle backwards and forwards from Scotland at the speed of light or the drop of a hat and, that when the going gets tough, I will promptly pack my life in a suitcase and run ‘home’ with my tail between my legs as fast as I can go….all of which just goes to prove how wrong uninformed judgment can be.

The international community has taken war against terrorism seriously, while not much bothering about bloodless forms of wars, for instance India’s water terrorism.
In a bid to calm Islamabad’s concerns and speaking in diplomatic language, Indus Water Commissioner of India G Ranganathan, who recently visited Pakistan, said: “India had been affected as much as Pakistan due to water shortage in the Indus,” denying that India’s decision to build dams on rivers led to water shortage in Pakistan. He rejected Islamabad’s concerns at water theft by Delhi or violation of the Indus Water Treaty, assuring his counterpart, Syed Jamaat Ali Shah that all issues relating to water would be resolved through dialogue. However, ground realties are quite different from what Ranganathan maintained.
Nevertheless, apart from repeated violations of the treaty, for instance the construction of the Krishanganga project over Neelam River, New Delhi wants to use water as leverage in the composite dialogue especially when it comes to Kashmir where a new phase of protests has started. In this respect, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, while talking about the revival of Pak-India dialogue, said the other day that Pakistan’s case on Kashmir and water was based on truth, and the government would fight it with full strength. One hopes Islamabad does not give up principled stand.
India’s policy of water terrorism can be confirmed from the report that it has secretly offered technical assistance to the Afghan government to construct a dam over Kabul River. These developments make it quite obvious that India is trying to use water as an instrument of terrorism against Pakistan in pursuit of its hostile aims. The conclusion is that New Delhi, taking advantage of the multiple internal as well as external challenges that Pakistan is facing, intends to advance its nefarious design of keeping a firm hold on Kashmir. The state is located in the Indus River basin and contributes to the flow of all major rivers entering Pakistan.