South Asia Citizens Web

On behalf of Pakistan Peace Coalition (PPC), we convey our deep condolences to the families of the Pakistani soldiers who are feared to have lost their lives in this morning’s avalanche tragedy on the Siachen heights. The crass political and military absurdity of maintaining thousands of troops by India and Pakistan at the forbidding height of 22,000 feet on the Siachen Glaciers in the harshest weather imaginable, has taken its tragic toll in the shape of 150 plus Pakistani soldiers being trapped under an avalanche that smashed into a Pakistan army base this morning.

Opposing the CTBT because it fails to deliver complete disarmament is tantamount to opposing speed limits on roads because they fail to prevent accidents completely.

Sri Lanka’s farmlands are being aggressively marketed as investment opportunities for agro-export agriculture by the island’s foreign missions in the Gulf, and to Gulf-based businesses, including at the recently concluded Sri Lanka Expo 2012 (28-31 March) in Colombo.

[In Pakistan] the “Qaumi English Urdu Dictionary” published by “The National Language Authority” a state-run institution, the term “secularism” has been translated as “Ladeeniat.” On the basis of such distortions, rampant in our texts, the Urdu press has associated the term “Secularism” with being anti-religious and atheistic.

The Committee appointed by the Peoples Movement Against Nuclear Energy studied various reports, documents and papers on KKNPP in particular and nuclear energy and ionizing radiation in general. A 38 page report by the Central Expert Group (CEG) was made available to us. Besides responding to the assertions of the CEG report, we are also bringing forward our own studies that are relevant to the reactor safety.. Most of the documents that were asked by PMANE were not shared to the technical committee including the site evaluation study and other documents. Despite this handicap the committee has gone in depth and analysed various issues.