Tackling Extremism in Pakistan

The turbulent and tumultuous history of the Indian subcontinent has given it unique characteristics. From the numerous invasions from the North, the religious movements, conflicts between races and religions, the colonization by the British, the uprising against the British in 1857, and the freedom movement of 1947 to India-Pakistan wars, the Kashmir issue, the Soviet Afghan war, and the recent US/NATO Afghan war, all have left their marks and have shaped the society in a way where the extremist behaviour is dominant. Pakistan, being financially and militarily weaker than the bigger India, is more prone to extremism. Lets look at some of the elements that contribute to the promotion of extremism in Pakistani society and then the strategy to contain it. Although extremism starts right from the cradle, lets start with the educational institutions.

Syllabus of Government Schools and Colleges

The educational syllabus in the government sector schools and colleges of Pakistan does not promote thinking, analysis, brain-storming and research. Memorizing and cramming remain the main mode of learning. Apart from a syllabus that curbs the creativity and discourages unbiased analysis, the students are beaten into submission through physical punishments. Physical punishments in government schools are so rampant (at least they were in 1990s) that they look almost legal. It is lamentable that such illegal practices are routine in the institutions where the future generations of Pakistan are educated and trained. Some physical punishments were specifically designed to hurt the self-esteem of students. This educational milieu creates a mind-set which is susceptible to develop the extremist tendencies. Social workers, philanthropists, journalists and educationists regularly evoke this issue on different media platforms from time to time but nothing concrete is done. In fact nobody has seriously analysed as to why this is happening. Is it financially beneficial?

Indigenous Air Defence Systems

Air defence is needed for the protection of naval vessels, moving or stationary army units, air force bases and all strategic installations and infrastructure. Air defence units may be based on ground (Surface to Air missile (SAM)) or airborne (air force fighter jets). Both types of units need radars for target detection and tracking. For ballistic missile defence, the radar may even be located in space. Radars are also needed for space surveillance (against spy satellites) like the GRAVES radar of France but the scope here is limited to aerial surveillance only. For those who do not know, radar works in air and space whereas sonar is used underwater (as used by ships and submarines) for surveillance. Surface to Air missiles are mostly conventional weapons although nuclear versions (e.g., Nike Hercules) were also made during the Cold war by super powers.

In order to engage a target or an airspace intruder (aircraft or ballistic/cruise missile), it must first be located and this is the job of surveillance radar. For low-level intrusions, low-level radars are needed if they are on ground. In general, low-level radars have short range and medium-to-high-level radars have long range. A good example of long-range surveillance radar network would be the Canadian NORAD system for providing early warning of Soviet Union's nuclear bombers and ballistic missiles. The low-level shortcoming of the ground-based long-range surveillance radar (due to Earth's Curvature) has been overcome by airborne radars. Once an intruder is located, it is passed on to the nearest tracking radar of a SAM system or the information is relayed to the air force fighters and they pick up the target on their own airborne radars.

Pakistan and Nuclear Weapons Proliferation

On 4th February 2005, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan appeared on television and took the entire responsibility of nuclear proliferation activities upon himself. The world media protrayed him like a terror trader and he was held responsible for nuclear proliferation activities (to Iran, Libya, North Korea and offers to Iraq and Syria [1]). 

Numerous articles, books and documentaries (e.g.[5]) appeared on the activities of A.Q.Khan and his network. His confession added more confusion to the issue. He was repeatedly accused of stealing documents from his firm (Urenco) in the Netherlands, using them to manufacture nuclear weapons for Pakistan and then selling it to other countries. 

In reality, Urenco had nothing to do with nuclear weapons. The firm Urenco worked in the civilian domain and made Lightly-Enriched Uranium (LEU) for civil nuclear power plants. A.Q.Khan did not work on nuclear weapons and not even on Highly-Enriched Uranium (HEU) during his stay in Netherlands. It is HEU that is needed for the nuclear bomb. LEU is used as fuel in light-water nuclear reactors for the generation of electricity. Therefore, even if some documents were copied from this firm, these were not enough to make HEU. LEU and HEU are two worlds apart.

Introduction to Turbulent Flows (Lecture Slides)

During my PhD studies, I worked on the Turbulent Flows. I prepared these lecture slides with the intention of teaching the subject in a post-graduate degree program. One reason of preparing my own material on the subject was that I wanted to include clear explanations, provide limitations of validity for various laws and adopt an easy to follow writing style. It can be said that all the notes or lecture slides available on the turbulent flows are not necessarily easy to understand. 

The second reason was that in Pakistan, I did not find a single university course that dealt with Turbulent Flows. Even the best Engineering universities were not offering this important course. It was therefore better to start a course with my personal course materials. The distinguishing feature of these particular slides/notes is that I have tried to provide  the "Limitations" of various theories, laws and assumptions which are sometimes neglected and thus lead to in inaccurate results.

Bangladesh As Pakistan's Taiwan : A Missed Opportunity

China's Taiwan

In January 2012, USA refused to supply Taiwan (formerly called Formosa) with the latest generation F-16C/D fighter jets. Press articles pointed out that the technical details of modern weapon systems were being leaked to the China [1]. Many high-level officials (even Generals) were found to be spying for China [1]. Apparently China claims the territory of Taiwan and they are not on good terms but some analysts have pointed out that it might not be what it seems.


After long years of warfare with the Communists, General Chiang Kia-shek took refuge in the island of Taiwan off the coast of the Mainland China with his left-over forces in 1949. Mainland China was taken over by the Communist People's Liberation Army (PLA) led by Mao Tse Tung. Mao Tse Tung was an aggressive Chinese leader, an expert in warfare. He fought with and defeated Nationalists led by General Chiang Kia Shek (till 1949), fought with Japanese occupation forces in China (1937-1945), invaded and captured Tibet (1950), sent troops to Korea to fight against US/Allied forces (1950-1952), fought a war with India (1962), acquired nuclear weapons, was ready to go to war with USSR (Russia) on one occasion and more. One thing he did not do was to recapture Taiwan. On occasions, military exercises were held near Taiwan and tensions rose high but a full-scale invasion did not happen.


In a bid to protect Taiwan from Communist China, West (USA and Europe) opened their arms to Taiwan. Latest military and industrial technology was provided to Taiwan in addition to its human resource development. The AIM-9B Sidewinder missile-equipped F-104 Starfighters of the Taiwanese Air Force symbolised the military aid of USA in early 1960s (just like Pakistan Air Force). Allegedly, these technical advances got transferred to the mainland China.  As the world knows it, China has become both the nuclear and space power, equalling the technical advacements of the west spanning over centuries. In short, what the analysts hinted to was that China profited from a "hostile Taiwan".

Pakistan's Taiwan

Nuclear Reactors and Tactical Nuclear Weapons of India and Pakistan : The Missing Links

Nuclear reactors are mainly used for three purposes, i.e., for generation of electricity, for naval propulsion and for production of Plutonium. All five internationally-recognised nuclear weapon states build their own nuclear reactors (all three types mentioned above). India and Pakistan claim to have nuclear weapons technology but still they have not built their own nuclear reactors capable of electricity generation or naval propulsion. Research and experimental reactors are not included in this study. It must be immediately added that India did modify the Canadian Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR) design to increase its output. But for light water reactors, it still needs technical assistance.

Canada, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland do not possess nuclear weapons but they build their own nuclear reactors. It should be relatively easy for a nuclear weapons state to build these reactors. For both India and Pakistan, the right and logical route for advancement in the nuclear technology was to first work on indigenous nuclear reactors and then go towards weapons. Even now, they can share their know-how in the civil nuclear sector for mutual benefit.

After mastering nuclear weapons technology, Pakistan's establishment (Planning Commission) turned to the Thar Coal project. It was like, "We are done with the nuclear technology, now lets use coal". The nuclear expertise and infrastructure should have been employed for the generation of much needed electricity by building civil nuclear reactors. Lets see what happened in the developped countries.

Automobile Maintenance: Door lock Motor Repair

After décades of continuous operation, these electric door lock motors go bad mainly due to a torn rubber boot. The air gets inside and the grease is lost. Dirt can also accumulate on the slip rings of the dc motor, hindering its smooth operation. First remove the outer cover of the door from inside the vehicle.

Computer Power Supply Repair

If your notebook computer's power supply goes bad, then here is a tutorial for you. Remove the connecting wires from the box of power supply. The wires seldom get bad, its mostly something inside the plastic casing, which eventually has to be opened.

Fake Stealth Helicopter of The Abbottabad Raid 2011

On 2nd May 2011, a heli-borne force raided a compound in the Abbottabad city of Pakistan for the capture of Osama Bin Laden. After the raid, media showed some pictures of the tail unit of a crashed stealth helicopter (supposedly). Without any solid reason, it was stated that the crashed aircraft was a stealth version of the MH-60 BlackHawk helicopter. Two elements were readily evident from the photos. Firstly a shrouded tail rotor and secondly a forward-swept elevator (use google for images).

 

The 1971 India-Pakistan War : Betrayal or Blunders

If we study the military history of the India (Pre-1947), it would become evident that when faced with failure in war, we have always blamed betrayal and conspiracy instead of learning the right lessons. Be it the defeat of Siraj-Ud-dollah of Bengal (1757), the fall of Sultan Tipu (1799) or the Independence War (1857), we have always blamed triators instead of battleplans, strategy and bad Generalship. A good General should succeed in achieving his minimum objectives despite the risk of betrayal.

Agents, spies and informers are present on both sides and it is so since the time immemorial. From the engineering background, I would say that a General should have a "factor of safety" in his planning. Factor of safety is the extra protection against unforseen factors. To give an example, General Wellington can be quoted, who fought against the French Imperial Army during the Peninsular Wars (1807-1814). Despite the activity of embedded french informers, he succeeded in giving surprise to the French on several occasions.

Frequently-Mentioned Causes of Debacle