Twirp : Terrorist Wahabi Islamic Republic Pakistan

06-10-2008, 12:50 AM

Doh!

US think tank: Pakistan helped Taliban insurgents

Naresh · 06-10-2008, 01:49 AM

[center]Pak announces "cut" in defence budget, wants India to follow[/center]

Rezaul H Laskar Islamabad, June 9 (PTI) Announcing "a cut" in Pakistan's defence expenditure, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani today said it was a "tangible display" of its desire for peace with its neighbours and indicated that he wanted India reciprocate the move. Making a policy statement in parliament, Gilani said, "As a measure of our tangible display to seek peace with our neighbours, we have decided to freeze, actually reduce, the defence budget when seen in the context of inflation and the rupee-dollar parity.

" Without naming India, he added: "We hope to see a reciprocal gesture from our neighbour for the sake of peace and prosperity of the region." The Pakistani premier, however, did not give a figure on the proposed reduction in the defence budget which was Rs 275 billion last year and equal to nearly three per cent of the GDP.

Gilani's statement came in the backdrop of a major financial crisis faced by Pakistan. Rising global food and oil prices have fuelled double-digit inflation since Gilani's Pakistan People's Party-led coalition came to power in March.

Outlining the basic tenets of the country's security policy, Gilani said Pakistan's "defence is based on the strategy of minimum, essential and credible deterrence and that we shall not enter into any arms race". Noting that Pakistan is "located in a geo-strategically important but a turbulent region", he said, "We live and operate in a volatile environment.

We cannot, therefore, afford to remain oblivious to our defence needs. PTI

Points to note :

1. Pakistan's Defence Budget is about 3.2% of its GDP.

2. China's Defence Budget is about 4.2% of its GDP.

In comparison India's Defence Budgetis about 2.5% of its GDP.

As such the Indian Prime Minister should refute the Pakistani "Begging" India to reduce its Defence Spending and India should ensure that its Defence Budget is not less than Three Per Cent of its GDP, which for 2007-2008 is USD 1,150 Billion.

Thus India's Defence Budget should be USD 31.5 Billion.

Cheers <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' />

Naresh · 06-10-2008, 02:07 AM

[center]I WILL SINK, BUT I WILL TAKE PAKISTAN WITH ME![/center]

[center]<img src='http://www.nation.com.pk/uploads/news_image/proportional/I_will_not_quit_484.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />[/center]

Cheers <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' />

Naresh · 06-10-2008, 10:25 PM

[center]Pakistan out for win over rivals[/center]

Pakistan will be looking to extend their winning run and secure a place in the final of the tri-series when they come up against India on Tuesday.

Shoaib Malikâs side outclassed Bangladesh in the opening match on Sunday, but the bigger test will come against Mahendra Singh Dhoniâs men.

India have not played a one-day international since the 2-0 series victory over Australia early this year with the Indian Premier League taking centre stage in between.

Indeed, Indiaâs lack of competition in the one-day game could well be in Pakistanâs favour.

Coach Gary Kirsten, on his first assignment with the Indian team, has urged his players to put the Twenty20 version of the game behind them and focus on the one-day format.

âWe have worked hard in the last couple of days to ensure a smooth transition to the one-day game,â said Kirsten.

âWe have given considerable thought to our strategy. Obviously our gameplan has to be suited for the 50-over game. It is very different from the IPL.â

With the exception of Virender Sehwag, who is suffering with flu, there were no injuries reported.

India were greeted by wet weather on their arrival and were forced to practice indoors due to rain on Sunday.

They have retained almost the same team which toured Australia, the notable exception being Sachin Tendulkar, who pulled out due to a groin injury.

The balance, however, looks good.

Indiaâs batting is in good hands with the likes of Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, and Dhoni himself showing fine form in the IPL.

The bowling department, although a little short on experience, could still do damage. Irfan Pathan and RP Singh have proved devastating in the past and Ishant Sharmaâs pace and bounce could be a handful.

Bangladeshâs Abdur Razzaq and Alok Kapali and Pakistanâs Shahid Afridi showed spin would play a huge role, but India seem lacking in that respect.

Piyush Chawla, 19, leads Indiaâs spin attack in the absence of Harbhajan Singh, who is currently serving a five-match ban.

Left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojah, who caught the eye of selectors with a fine showing in the IPL for Deccan Chargers, is the other full-time spinner in the ranks.

Pakistanâs last defeat was against India in Gwalior in November 2007.

Since then, they have run up a string of consecutive victories. Sundayâs 70-run win was their sixth in a row against Bangladesh and their 12th overall.

Coach Geoff Lawson was hoping his team would make it a lucky 13.

[center]<img src='http://static.ecb.co.uk/images/width140/geoff-lawson-copy-26981.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />[/center]
[center] <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' />âWe would like to score a 150-run win over India,â he said. <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' />[/center]

âHaving said that, we donât want to make this a must-win situation and put ourselves under pressure.â

Salman Butt and Mohammad Yousuf showed fine form with the bat for Pakistan on Sunday, cracking half-centuries in difficult conditions.

The bowling, however, is in need of much improvement.

Umar Gul, unlike his new-ball partner Sohail Tanvir, was left off the hook despite a wayward early spell. His seven overs came at the expense of 28 runs. Tanvir, leading wicket-taker in the IPL, was more profligate, his eight overs costing 41 runs.

Wahab Riaz, 22, playing only his third one-day international, was the pick of the seamers with a three-wicket haul.

Cheers <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' />

06-11-2008, 12:28 AM

QUOTE1. Pakistan's Defence Budget is about 3.2% of its GDP.

2. China's Defence Budget is about 4.2% of its GDP.

In comparison India's Defence Budgetis about 2.5% of its GDP.

As such the Indian Prime Minister should refute the Pakistani "Begging" India to reduce its Defence Spending and India should ensure that its Defence Budget is not less than Three Per Cent of its GDP, which for 2007-2008 is USD 1,150 Billion.

Thus India's Defence Budget should be USD 31.5 Billion.
Don't under-estimate Moron Singh and Queen, they can cut down Defense Budget just to pay Oil bill and they will call win-win for long peace with Jihadi Paki.
Watch and see what not Indian jokers can do.

ramana · 06-11-2008, 01:01 AM

Meanwhile from Pioneer, 11 June 2008

QUOTEWest ignoring ISI's deadly role 

KPS Gill

Despite the experience of the post-9/11 age, Washington continues to view Al Qaeda as the most serious threat to the US. Similarly, Britain's MI5 speaks of as many as 30 'active plots' in the UK, most of which have links back to Al Qaeda in Pakistan. In the process, the real devil -- Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence -- is studiedly ignored

For decades, now, the West has systematically misread what it perceives as 'Islamic' or 'Islamist' terrorism, and despite the experience -- and one would presume, large volumes of intelligence -- of the post-9/11 age, continues to do so. Thus, on the one hand, the US National Intelligence Estimates, 2007, continued to view Al Qaeda as "the most serious threat to the Homeland, as its central leadership continues to plan high-impact plots, while pushing others in extremist communities to mimic its efforts and to supplement its capabilities". Similarly, the UK's MI5 speaks of as many as 30 'active plots' in the country, most of which "have links back to Al Qaeda in Pakistan".

On the other hand, some analysts have reduced the threat, principally, to what one writer describes as a "leaderless jihad", a loose-knit network of terror in the West, inspired by the Al Qaeda brand of Islamist extremism, but operating essentially as independent "bunches of guys", with no direct or necessary contact with any central structure of command. (Overtly Pakistan-controlled Islamist terrorism in theatres such as India and Afghanistan seldom receives significant attention in these analyses).

In all this, there is a studied neglect of the realities of the ground, particularly of the fact that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) -- as an organ of the country's military and political establishment -- has been, and remains, the principal source of the impetus, the infrastructure and the organisational networks of Islamist terrorism across the world. Historically, it is now common knowledge, it was the ISI that created virtually the entire structure of Islamist terrorist groupings behind the global jihad, which has now proliferated in new areas through the agency of various proxies. This includes Al Qaeda, and the entire spectrum of affiliates that continues to operate, with varying degrees of freedom, from Pakistani soil more than six-and-a-half years after 9/11.

At least part of the selective blindness of the West (and, indeed, of much of the world) is because 'Al Qaeda' has begun to mean different things to different people and, in much of the commentary, has become shorthand for a wide range of ideologically sympathetic groups located in Pakistan, many of which continue to receive active state support. Of the numerous cases of arrests, conspiracies and terrorist attacks related to Islamist groupings across the world (which I have documented in some detail in Pakistan: The Footprints of Terror, www.satp.org), connections that are generally attributed to the 'Al Qaeda', have been found, on closer scrutiny, to be more correctly ascribed to a range of other groupings, prominently including Lashkar-e-Tayyeba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Harkat-ul Mujahiddeen, Harkat-ul jihad Islami, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan and various factions of the Taliban -- everyone of which was a sarkari (state-sponsored) jihadi group in its origins, and most of which (with the exception of the SSP, and, more ambiguously, some of the Taliban factions) continue to receive state patronage in Pakistan.

In the immediate aftermath of Operation Enduring Freedom, when the Afghan infrastructure of Islamist terrorism was uprooted, Indian intelligence sources and various analysts, including this writer, had repeatedly asserted that Osama bin Laden, the Al Qaeda leadership and remnants, and the defeated rump of the Taliban, had all been relocated in Pakistan with the active co-operation and collaboration of the ISI and the Pakistan Army. A perfunctory denial by President Pervez Musharraf was immediately and uncritically seized upon by the West as sufficient 'proof' that this was not the case, despite the overwhelming burden of intelligence and evidence -- significant parts of which were actively suppressed by US agencies. When attacks against US coalition and Afghan forces, increasingly sourced from Pakistani soil, began to draw blood in Afghanistan, these same denials continued to be blindly accepted, or remained sufficient grounds for the Western political leadership to muddle over the Pakistani role.

More recently, these positions have begun to shift subtly -- though their principal thrust remains the same. Western commentators easily concede past Pakistani 'misdemeanours', but are quick to justify their favoured 'allies' in the 'war on terror', on the grounds that the establishment at Islamabad is now, itself, a victim of the same Islamist groups.

It is, of course, the case that some elements of state-initiated terrorism have now turned against their sponsoring state. But this is natural in any association of violent groupings not explicitly and effectively bound by law and a dominant mechanism of legitimate control. The 'implosion of terrorism' in Pakistan is a fact -- as with revolutions, terrorism consumes its own children and, one may add, progenitors. Pakistan has, par excellence, harnessed terrorism as an instrument of state policy for well over two decades. Today, Pakistan is in the grips of a violent 'blowback', what the Italian magazine Limes has described as Il Boomerang Jihadista.

Nevertheless, the fact that the Pakistan establishment continues to use Islamist extremism and terror as a principal instrument of state policy -- despite the disastrous implosion within the country -- is equally inescapable. This is most visibly the case across Pakistan's Afghan and Kashmir borders -- as well as in the substantial infrastructure of support in Pakistan for the terrorists operating in these theatres -- but is equally true of the far more dispersed incidence of Islamist terrorism in Western countries. Despite the internal turmoil they have contributed to, the Islamist fundamentalist and extremist groupings in Pakistan remain a necessary element of the state's instrumentalities of domestic management and external projection -- giving the country leverage far beyond its natural means, in every concentration of Muslim populations across the world. It is Pakistan, through its state agencies, and loosely controlled radical and jihadi affiliates, that continues to propagate Islamist jihad among the Muslim youth across the world, and that offers opportunities for training and absorption into terrorist organisations headquartered on its soil.

The Pakistani establishment's apparent conflict with Al Qaeda and elements of the Taliban is, at worst, tactical and transient -- in the long term, there is an identity of undiluted purpose. Were the Al Qaeda to be completely destroyed at some (improbable) stage in the foreseeable future, Islamist terrorism would continue to thrive on and from Pakistani soil.

The reality is, there is no such thing as Islamist terrorism. To understand the position correctly, we need to recognise that there is only ISI terror that has been dubbed as 'Islamist terror'. What we have, on the ground, is the proliferation of Pakistani terrorism, strategically compounded across new areas of disorder by networks loosely affiliated with their Pakistani sources. If Pakistani state support to so-called Islamist terrorism ended today, it would not be long before the various terrorist groups atrophied and withered away, lacking safe havens, institutional support and training infrastructure, and the vast ideological resources that have been brought to bear on the so-called global jihad. This does not, of course, mean that no Islamist terrorist incident whatsoever would then be possible.

Disaffected 'bunches of guys' may still secure the capacity and will to execute the occasional attack -- but another 9/11 (not to mention the ongoing campaigns in Afghanistan and Jammu & Kashmir) would need at least as much state support as the last one had.

Naresh · 06-11-2008, 04:34 AM

QUOTE(Mudy @ Jun 11 2008, 12:28 AM)Don't under-estimate Moron Singh and Queen, they can cut down Defense Budget just to pay Oil bill and they will call win-win for long peace with Jihadi Paki.
Watch and see what not Indian jokers can do.
[right][snapback]82655[/snapback][/right]


Mudy Ji :

Lo Kur Lo Baat - Methinks mayhaps A K Antony - our Right Honourable Defence Minister - has been reading our comments on this Forum!

[center] <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/clap.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='clap.gif' />Govt hints at doubling defence expenditure <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/clap.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='clap.gif' />[/center]

NEW DELHI : Notwithstanding Pakistan's unilateral freeze on its defence spending and a request to others to follow, India on Tuesday hinted at doubling its defence expenditure as its current spend was much below the world average despite a booming economy.

Defence minister A K Antony on Tuesday said the modernization of armed forces was one of the top most priorities of the government. "Our defence budget is just 1.99% of the GDP, which is one of the lowest in the world. The ideal situation would be 3% of GDP, which is the global average," he added.

Antony's comments came just a day after Pakistan premier Yousuf Raza Gilani made a statement that his government had decided to reduce the defence budget and "hoped to see a reciprocal gesture from its neighbour for the sake of peace and prosperity of the region". Pakistan's current spending on defence is nearly 3% of its GDP at around Rs 275 billion.

Antony's remarks are not only a rebuff to Pakistan but seen as an assertion of the fact that India's strategic and defence preparedness are no more Pakistan oriented. The focus has shifted to China.

"Armed forces all over the world are modernizing and becoming technology intensive. We must adopt a joint approach, keeping in view the varied security challenges being faced by our nation," he said stressing on "integration of tri-service approach in thought and in action".

The defence minister said the country's most important challenge in the foreseeable future still remains the growing instability in its neighbourhood. He said India has continuously expressed serious concerns on cross-border terrorism and has reiterated the importance of Pakistan fulfiling its commitment against terrorism. Antony said it is yet to be seen whether the recently formed government in Pakistan is able to address issues of national security, religious fundamentalism and cross-border terrorism effectively.

He warned that forces within J&K and those outside, who do not want successful conduct of elections and peace in the state, will try their best to disrupt the democratic process. "We will have to keep a constant vigil and intensify our efforts to ensure conduct of free and fair elections in an atmosphere of peace," he said.

Cheers <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' />

Naresh · 06-11-2008, 02:11 PM

Baglihar sets basis to resolve other disputes, says report

WASHINGTON, June 10: The Baglihar agreement provides a sound basis for the settlement of future water disputes between India and Pakistan, says a report published recently.

The report notes that while settling the India-Pakistan dispute over a dam on the Chenab River, the agreement reinterpreted the Indus Water Treaty in a way that it sets precedents for future settlements as well.

On Jan 5, 2005, Pakistan asked the World Bank to appoint a neutral expert to settle âa differenceâ with India over the Baglihar dam because Islamabad believed that the project violated the 1960 Indus Water Treaty for the distribution of rivers water between the two states.

On May 10, 2005, the bank appointed Swiss engineer Raymond Lafitte as a neutral expert for settling the dispute and on Feb 12, 2007 he delivered to the ambassadors of India and Pakistan in Bern, Switzerland, signed copies of his final decision.

âThe decision âwill most likely influence any future interpretation of the Indus Water Treaty,â observed Salman M. A. Salman, a lead counsel of the World Bank, who has written a detailed report on how the neutral expert resolved the issue.

âUndoubtedly, the process has set precedents in a number of aspectsâ and âwill most likely influence any future interpretation of the Indus Water Treaty,â he noted.

The decision, he said, underscores the notion of the peaceful settlement of international water disputes and âis likely to reshape many of the understandings about the treaty.â

According to the report, Pakistan have viewed the difference as largely a legal one, involving the interpretation of the treaty, while India viewed it mainly as an engineering one, regarding hydropower plants.

The neutral expert concluded that the rights and obligations of the parties under the treaty should be read in the light of new technical norms and new standards as provided for by the treaty.

This meant that the Baglihar difference was addressed bearing in mind the technical standards for hydropower plants as they have developed in the first decade of the twenty-first century, and not as perceived and thought of in 1950s when the treaty was negotiated.

The issues contested by the two parties included: maximum design flood, spillway, being ungated or gated, spillway, level of the gates, artificial raising of the water level, pondage, and level of the power intake.

The first issue on the maximum design flood related to the calculation of the maximum amount of water which can arrive at the dam.

In view of many uncertainties of flood analysis, the neutral expert retained the value proposed by India of 16,500 m3/s, as opposed to 14,900 m3/s proposed by Pakistan, for the peak discharge of the design flood.

He noted that climate change, with the possible associated increase in floods, also encourages a prudent approach.

On the second issue of a gated or ungated spillway, Pakistan considered that a gated spillway was not necessary, and would allow India to control the flow of the river.

The neutral expert determined that the conditions of the site, including hydrology, sediment yield, topography, geology and seismicity, require a gated spillway.

Cheers <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' />

06-11-2008, 08:59 PM

Pakistan blames US coalition for troops' death QUOTEThe incident late Tuesday followed a reported clash between Afghan forces and coalition forces and Taliban militants in the same area. The Taliban said eight of its fighters died in the skirmish.

The Pakistani army said the coalition airstrike hit a post of the paramilitary Frontier Corps and was a "completely unprovoked and cowardly act."

It launched a strong protest and reserved "the right to protect our citizens and soldiers against aggression," the military said in a statement. The statement said the clash in the Mohmand tribal region "had hit at the very basis of cooperation" between the allies in the war on terror.

It may be warning to Paki fauji, do your fauj duty only, leave Taliban alone.

Naresh · 06-11-2008, 09:22 PM

Mudy Ji :

I think that the Good Ole You Knighted States is asking the Pakistani Army in General and ISI in Particular to either part company with the Taleban or Pakistan would be âBombed to the Stone Ageâ

[center]13 security personnel including Major killed in Nato, Afghan forces attack[/center]

PESHAWAR : Officials in Mohmand tribal agency have confirmed the killings of 13 Frontier Corps personnel at Chopara check point near Nawa Pass area close to the Bajaur Agency by NATO and Afghan forces, 40 security force personnel are still missing.

They say that the Nato forces and Afghan National Army fired heavy artillery at the security checkpoint last night. Major Akbar is among the 13 security personnel killed in the attack.

Officials say that bodies of the 13 soldiers were first brought to Ghalani, the headquarters of Mohmand Agency and later shifted to the Frontier Corps Headquarters in Peshawar.

The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan claims to have shot down a helicopter of the foreign forces and killed all the occupants in the chopper.

Sources said that fresh security forces contingents have been sent to Pak-Afghan border and started search operation for the missing officials whereas tribal also send armed lashkar to the border.

Cheers <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' />

06-12-2008, 03:23 AM

QUOTEKiyani rules Pakistan
Pioneer.com
G Parthasarathy
A defiant President Pervez Musharraf frontally took on his critics in a wide-ranging Press conference on May 7, rejecting widespread public demand for an inquiry on the Kargil fiasco, defending his policies and his handling of the judiciary and vowing that he would not yield to demands that he should quit. But the embattled President knows that he has reached the twilight of his controversial career and that it is only a question of time before he, like the proverbial "Lone Ranger", would have to "ride into the sunset". The squabbling politicians now ruling Pakistan are already daggers drawn on how to deal with Gen Musharraf, but are not able to decide how they can get rid of him, while simultaneously protecting their own personal interests and political turf.

Even as the political soap opera between Gen Musharraf and the politicians is played out, it is apparent that real power behind the scenes is wielded by the country's Army chief, Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kiyani, with the Army having been proclaimed as the protector of Pakistan's "ideological frontiers" by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. Gen Kiyani, who recently had three hour long midnight meeting with the besieged Gen Musharraf, is consolidating his position as the country's ultimate arbiter. Even supporters of Mr Nawaz Sharif acknowledge that while Gen Kiyani will not interfere in the President being eased out in a constitutional and graceful manner by parliamentary action, the Army will not countenance its former chief being humiliated. Mr Sharif cannot, after all, forget that when the personal vendetta between him and the then crusty old President Ghulam Ishaq Khan got out of hand, the then Army chief, Gen Abdul Waheed Kakar, forced both the President and the Prime Minister to resign on July 18, 1993.

Gen Kiyani appears determined to put his own stamp on Pakistan's turbulent history by easing out Gen Musharraf's protÃ©gÃ©s and reversing his predecessor's policies on both Afghanistan and India. Gen Musharraf earned the wrath of traditionalists in the Army establishment and their jihadi followers by providing support to the US-led ouster of the Taliban and thereafter deploying, under American pressure, over 80,000 troops to fight pro-Taliban Pashtun tribals in the Tribal Areas of Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province (NWFP). In the bloody conflict that followed, estimated 1,564 armed forces personnel were killed and 570 captured in operations in the NWFP between March 2004 and May 2008. There have also been numerous cases of desertions and refusals to fight by members of the armed forces. In the meantime, the pro-Taliban jihadis have united under the banner of the Tehriq-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan and carried their fight with the establishment into the very heart of the capital, Islamabad.

Shaken by the ferocity of the tribal resistance, the Pakistan Army has tried to work out "peace deals" with the militant tribals only to find the "deals" flounder because of the refusal of the tribals to end cross-border support for their Taliban kinsmen in Afghanistan. A recent "peace deal" in the picturesque valley of Swat has resulted in the Pakistan Government accepting that the district will be governed by shar'iah, not by Pakistani laws.

In the meantime, Gen Kiyani and the ISI agreed on a ceasefire with Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud on February 7 and are negotiating another "peace deal" with Mehsud, which will result in the withdrawal of the Pakistani Army from the tribal areas. This has provoked widespread concern in Kabul and Washington, as Mehsud has publicly declared that "jihad in Afghanistan will continue", adding: "Islam does not recognise any man-made boundaries or barriers".

Despite American concern, Gen Kiyani appears determined to strike yet another "peace deal" with pro-Taliban elements in Pakistan. Pakistan's foremost expert on the Taliban, Ahmed Rashid, has recently revealed that Gen Kiyani has told American and NATO officials that he will not retain or reequip troops to fight a counter-insurgency war in the NWFP, as the Americans are demanding. Mr Rashid notes that "Taliban virtually rules" in the seven tribal agencies bordering Afghanistan.

NATO officials have reported a sharp increase in the number of Pakistanis, Arabs and other nationalities fighting alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan. While the US has provided over $ 8 billion in military assistance to Pakistan, virtually the entire assistance has been used to "buy expensive weapons for the Indian front, rather than smaller items needed for counter-insurgency". Mr Rashid adds that because of these developments, the US is now delaying supply of arms that Pakistan intends to use on its eastern front (against India) and is asking its NATO allies to do likewise. The Americans will learn that while Gen Kiyani may have been trained at the US Command and Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, he remains a traditionalist in using militant Islam as a tool of Pakistan's foreign policy.

Speaking to his troops along the LoC on February 12, Gen Kiyani averred that the Pakistan Army will never "turn its back" on the aspirations of the people of Jammu & Kashmir. He made similar remarks when speaking to his retired colleagues on Pakistan's national day on March 23. Taking the cue from the Army chief, the politicians led by Mr Gilani have disowned Mr Asif Zardari's suggestion that differences on Jammu & Kashmir should not affect the normalisation of India-Pakistan relations and reverted to the old hackneyed rhetoric on Kashmir being the "core issue" in India-Pakistan relations.

New Delhi would do well to remember that Gen Kiyani was commanding the 12 Infantry Division located in Murree, with its troops deployed in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir between 1998 and 2000 -- a period when cross border terrorism in Jammu & Kashmir was at its height. He was Director General of Military Operations during the tensions that followed the attack on the Indian Parliament by Jaish-e-Mohammed. Moreover, as Director General of the ISI, he was more than familiar with various means of "bleeding India". 

General Kiyani will continue as Army chief till November 28, 2010, and is already putting his stamp on the directions that Pakistan's military establishment will take in determining the country's foreign and national security policies. Those in New Delhi, who were rejoicing at the "restoration of democracy" in Pakistan, would do well to remember the realities of how political power is exercised by the Army in our turbulent neighbour -- realities that will have to be equally well understood in Washington, London, Berlin and Kabul.

06-12-2008, 10:51 AM

Defence budget increased by 7.6pcQUOTEISLAMABAD: The defence budget for the 2008-09 fiscal year has been raised by 7.6 percent â from Rs 275 billion in 2007-08 to Rs 296 billion, according to the federal budget announced on Tuesday.

The increase is virtually negligible, when seen in the context of a 10.4 percent inflation and a threefold increase in fuel prices compared with last year. A 20 percent increase in salaries will also reduce the impact of the 7.6 percent increase.

Of the total Rs 296 billion, Rs 294.9 billion have been allocated to military defence and Rs 1.17 billion to defence administration. Of the military defence allocation, Rs 99 billion will be spent on employeesâ related expenses. The operating expenses will be Rs 82.84 billion and the cost of physical assets Rs 87.63 billion. The army will spend Rs 25.73 billion on civil works. The defence budget will be discussed in parliament for the first time this year.

Nareshji,
Antony told them we will increase, now Paki is saying LOL we knew it , we knew it and they came out with new number.
Now, fools in South block will keep defence budget at same level.
By the way next budget will be decided by new Govt. in 2009

06-12-2008, 10:52 AM

Inflation at all-time high of 19%
By Tanveer Ahmed

KARACHI: Inflation reached all-time high of 19.27 percent in May, mainly because of growing prices of food items.

Naresh · 06-12-2008, 02:03 PM

[center]27 killed as US jets bomb Mohmand Agency[/center]

Major, 12 other soldiers among dead; protest lodged with US envoy; Washington terms attack legitimate

GHALANAI/PESHAWAR : Twenty-seven people, including 13 soldiers, a major among them, were killed and several others injured when two US fighter aircraft attacked several towns and security check-posts in the Mohmand Agency on Tuesday night.

Sources, however, said 25 soldiers of the Mohmand Rifles, a wing of paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC), were killed and seven others injured in the US attack on Gora Parao security post near the Pak-Afghan border.

But a senior official of the Mohmand Rifles, on condition of anonymity, told this correspondent that 13 of their people, including a major, were killed in the US air strikes on their post in the Mohmand Agency.

Some of the FC men, whose bodies were retrieved hours after the attack from their post, were identified as Major Mohammad Akbar, Subedar Salahuddin, Naib Subedar Zartaj, Havaldar Saifullah Khan, Sepoy Jalat, Sepoy Gulistan, Sepoy Salim Khan, Sepoy Mohammad Rashid, Sepoy Noorullah and Sepoy Akhtar Baz.

According to sources, six soldiers are still missing, including Sepoy Hidayat, Sepoy Naheed Khan, Sepoy Jaffar, Sepoy Abbas, Sepoy Noor Khan and Sepoy Waseem. They said that 13 of the paramilitary troops identified as Sepoy Muhabat, Sepoy Zahir, Sepoy Shehryar, Sepoy Sheerullah, Sepoy Hashim, Sepoy Muneer, Sepoy Sahib Dad, Sepoy Munaf, Sepoy Umar Gul, Sepoy Feroze, Sepoy Zahid, Sepoy Muhammad Gul and Sepoy Nazimullah sustained injuries in the attack.

Almost seven hours after the attack, two Pakistan Army choppers were sent to the troubled tribal region to bring the bodies of the soldiers and injured to Peshawar. However, the choppers flew to troubled spot after waiting for hours at Ghalanai, the regional headquarters of the Mohmand Agency, to let the situation become normal and allow the US planes to return to their bases in Afghanistan.

The sources said the US planes started bombing the Pakistani areas late Tuesday night when the Coalition troops came under attack by dozens of Taliban from various directions on both sides of the border.

Around 80 US and Afghan soldiers earlier on Tuesday had moved towards Speena Sooka (White Peak) in the contested Sheikh Baba area, where Pakistan and Afghanistan for the past several years had wanted to set up a security check-post.

Both the neighbouring counties have been claiming the ownership of this strategically-important mountainous area, which on various occasions in the past resulted in violent clashes between the troops of the two countries.

However, the US troops backed by gunship helicopters and unmanned drones on Tuesday set up a military post on the disputed land and reportedly fired shots at the Pakistani security personnel when they offered resistance.

US military officials have reportedly complained that militants often use the same mountainous spot to infiltrate into Afghanistan to attack the allied forces.The sources said the presence of the US forces in the volatile area provoked both Afghan and Pakistani Taliban and consequently they attacked them.

The Afghan Taliban and the Pakistani militants affiliated with Baitullah Mehsud-led Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) reportedly sandwiched the US troops when they respectively attacked them from both sides of the border.

The US troops reportedly asked for air support from their military airbase in Bagram, Afghanistan.The sources, while quoting senior US military officials, said two US Air Force F-15 Strike Eagle planes dropped 4,500-pound precision-guided bombs on the Pakistani territory, about a half-mile inside the border, about 12 miles south of Asadabad, the provincial headquarters of the bordering Kunar province.

There were also reports that a US unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) spotted and followed the militants as they fled back to Pakistan, which caused heavy loss to the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban.

Some US officials were reportedly saying that the American troops stopped at the border but the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) kept constant track of the enemy, pinpointed their location and, in coordination with the Pakistani military forces, the air strike on the Taliban was carried out to eliminate the threat to the allied forces at the border.

The Pakistani villages that came under attack included Suran, Bahadur Kalley, Guloona and Speena Sooka. Also, an FC post at Gora Paro was attacked where around 50 soldiers were deputed.

According to sources, besides the FC personnel and villagers, several militants were also killed in the US air strikes that continued till Wednesday morning.Maulvi Omar, TTP spokesman, told The News on telephone that 14 of their people died in the skirmish, eight of them from Bajaur while six belonged to the Mohmand Agency. He also claimed that their fighters had captured eight soldiers of the Afghan National Army (ANA).

Similarly, Zabeehullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Afghan Taliban, also called this correspondent from an undisclosed location and claimed they had shot down a US chopper at Sarkano area in Kunar.

He also claimed that the Taliban had killed 20 US paratroopers when they parachuted in Kunar on the night between Tuesday and Wednesday.Mujahid said 11 Taliban were killed and seven others were injured in the clash with the US troops on the Pak-Afghan border.

APP adds: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, while condemning the allied forcesâ attack in the tribal region, said the government will take stand on the sovereignty, dignity and self respect of Pakistan.

Speaking here at the National Assembly on a point of order by Engr Amir Muqam, the prime minister said: âWe strongly condemn this attack,â adding that no one would be allowed to carry out such attacks on Pakistan.

Meanwhile, the American Ambassador to Pakistan Anne W Patterson was summoned to the Foreign Office on Wednesday and a protest over the incident was lodged. Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir conveyed the resentment of the government to the ambassador, said Foreign Office officials.

The foreign secretary told Patterson that the attack was unprovoked and a gross violation of international border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. âThe senseless use of airpower against a Pakistani border post by the coalition forces is totally unacceptable,â he said, adding that it (the attack) constituted a blatant and willful negation of the huge sacrifices that Pakistan had made in its endeavour to combat terrorism.

AFP adds from Washington: A US air strike in northwest Pakistan on Wednesday was âlegitimateâ and âself-defenceâ, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said.âAlthough it is early, every indication we have is that it was a legitimate strike in self-defence against forces that had attacked the coalition forces,â Morrell said.

Pakistan has warned that the air-strike near the Afghanistan border has harmed cooperation with the United States in the âwar on terrorâ.The US State Department said earlier Wednesday it was âsad to see the loss of lifeâ among allied Pakistani troops.

âThis is a regrettable incident. Weâre sad to see the loss of life among the Pakistani military, who are our partners in fighting terror,â Gonzalo Gallegos, a State Department spokesman, told reporters.

âThis is a reminder that better cross-border communications between forces is vital,â said the director of press relations, reading from a statement.âWe are sure that military on both sides will look into the matter and review how to prevent recurrence and how to prevent extremists from using this area,â he added.Gallegos added that the US ambassador to Islamabad, Anne Patterson, met with Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir to âdiscuss the incidentâ, but gave no details of the talks.

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06-12-2008, 07:53 PM

Pakistan army informed of Mohmand operation: US <!--emo& Big Grin

--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' />

Naresh · (This post was last modified: 06-13-2008, 12:23 AM by Naresh.)

Mudy Ji :

The following Video nails the lies from the Pious, Peaceful, Pure Land Terrorists :

[center] <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/liar.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='liar.gif' />Pakistan air strike video released <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' />[/center]

The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan has released video which it says shows the U.S. bombardment at the centre of a diplomatic row with Pakistan did not hit a Pakistani border post.

Cheers <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' />

06-13-2008, 01:17 AM

Hahha,
Now Paki Army should beat themselves.

Shambhu · (This post was last modified: 06-13-2008, 02:47 AM by Shambhu.)

The brave Pakistani soldiers who were killed by the evil US have paid the ultimate price in service of their Islamic homeland. Now that price will be calculated and a bill will be sent (through the appropriate channels) to the US State Department. If, inshallah, the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security can also be made to contribute, well, then the price these brave soldiers paid will be still more ultimate.

May their souls rest in peace.

Bolo Takbir: Allah-o-Akbar
Bolo Takbir: Allah-o-Akbar
Bolo Takbir: Allah-o-Akbar

Naresh · 06-13-2008, 03:54 AM

1. Forex reserves below US Dollars11 Billion <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' />

KARACHI : The foreign exchange reserves of the country fell below $11 billion mark during the week ended on June 2008, reflecting the widening current account and trade deficits.

The foreign reserves held by the State Bank stood at $8.386 billion while those with other banks stood at $2.566 billion. The total reserves stood at $10.953 billion. An extraordinarily large trade deficit, which created a huge current account deficit, has also weakened the rupee from Rs 60 against a dollar at the beginning of the current year to around Rs 68 now. staff report

2. Up to US Dollars 3.5 Billion Foreign Exchange inflows to stabilize Foreign Exchange Markets : Dr Akhtar <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/liar.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='liar.gif' />

QUOTEDr Shamshad Akhtar, Governor, State Bank of Pakistan said today that foreign exchange inflows to the tune of $3.0 billion to $3.5 billion are expected to come in the banking system in the short to medium-term. These flows coupled with joint efforts of SBP â Commercial Banks will further stabilize the Pakistani Rupee parity vis-a-vis U.S. Dollar and calm down foreign exchange markets.

3. On May 09, 2008 Pakistanâs Forex Reserves : US Dollars 12.2071 Billion

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Naresh · (This post was last modified: 06-14-2008, 04:37 PM by Naresh.)

[center]1. âPakistan risks losing investor confidenceâ <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' />[/center]

QUOTE* Moodyâs report says weak governance and political tensions set to heighten risks of sudden shifts in private investor confidence

ISLAMABAD : Moodyâs Investors Service said in a report on Pakistan on Friday that weak governance, political tensions and flaws in the legal system would undermine institutions and policymakers, and heighten risks of sudden shifts in private investor confidence.

[center]2. Budget deficit estimated at Rs 661 billion <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' />[/center]

QUOTEISLAMABAD : Budget deficit of the federal government has been estimated at Rs 661 billion while Rs 79 billion surplus of provinces would help bring consolidated budget deficit down to Rs 582.3 billion in the upcoming fiscal year 2008-09.

Question : How is it that Pakistan is going to have a Budget Deficit of Pak. Rs. 661 Billion when the total Pakistani Budget is 2,009.8 Billion i.e. this projected Deficit is 33% of the Total Budget?

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