Pakistan : Terrorist Wahabi Islamic Rep Pakistan 6

[Guest]

[url="http://www.dawn.com/2010/12/25/militants-attack-check-post-in-mohmand-one-wounded.html"]Militant toll rises to 40 in Mohmand raids[/url]

PESHAWAR: At least 40 militants were killed when helicopters gunships pounded their hideouts in Pakistan’s Mohmand tribal region, officials said Saturday.



Security forces launched a search operation in the tribal district after co-ordinated insurgent attacks on five check posts Friday in which 11 paramilitary soldiers were killed.



At least 24 militants had already been killed in Friday’s fighting.



“Since yesterday Pakistani security forces helped by helicopter gunships carried out raids on suspected militant hideouts and killed 40 militants,” Mohmand’s top administration official Amjad Ali Khan told AFP.

[Guest]

[url="http://www.geo.tv/12-25-2010/76324.htm"] Female bomber kills 43 at food center in Bajaur[/url]

KHAR: The death toll of Bajuar Agency suicide blast has climbed to 43 while 72 others were seriously injured on Saturday, Geo News reported.



The suicide bomber detonated himself at the checkpost outside the ration distribution point in Khar, the headquarters of Bajuar Agency.



Security forces have cordoned off the area after the blast.



Emergency has been declared in headquarter Khar hospital. Hospital sources have confirmed the dead of 43. The condition of many injured is said to be critical.

[Naresh]

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[url="http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=2900&Cat=13"]PM shown bleak picture of economy[/url]



ISLAMABAD : The economic team led by Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh presented a horrifying picture of the country’s economy to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in a closed door meeting on Thursday, saying the fiscal deficit could shoot up to Rs1,284 billion or 7.5 per cent of the GDP by June 30, 2011 against the envisaged target of 4.7 per cent if prompt remedial measures were not taken.



“As a last ditch effort, the meeting decided on renewed efforts to evolve a consensus on the Reformed General Sales Tax (RGST),” a senior bureaucrat, who attended the meeting, told The News here on Friday evening.



The PM was informed that the IMF would grant extension in the ongoing Standby Arrangement (SBA) programme but the pending fifth review for the release of $1.7 billion tranche would not be complete till the imposition of the RGST, implementation of power sector reforms and getting approval of the SBP Act by parliament.



“Pulling out of the IMF programme is not an option,” said a senior official and added that if the government failed to address the emerging challenges, then the entire economic team would prefer to quit rather than be held responsible for failure on the economic front.



Pakistan’s problems lie on the fiscal side and without mobilising revenues and cutting down expenditures, the economy could not move forward. In case fiscal deficit hits Rs1,284 billion, inflation would go beyond 20-25 per cent and interest rate would be on a much higher side, leaving absolutely no scope for economic growth.



The meeting also decided to abolish the Trading Corporation of Pakistan and a summary in this regard would be sent to the federal cabinet for approval. The meeting was informed that monetary policy alone couldn’t control inflation until and unless there was a meaningful coordination between monetary and fiscal policies.



Saudi Arabia, the main supplier of the diesel to the world, is switching its power generation to diesel in January and would thus become major user of diesel itself. The price of the commodity would thus shoot up, directly impacting Pakistan.



The IMF agreement, the sources said, is an international obligation and its conditions have to be met. The problem is that the government does not have a Plan-B in case it fails to evolve a consensus on the RGST.



Borrowing from the SBP by the federal and provincial governments is one of the causes of inflation. Under the IMF programme, the government was required to bring its SBP borrowing to zero by June 30, 2010. Instead, the government has borrowed from the SBP over Rs327 billion during the ongoing fiscal year 2010-11.



Of total Rs4.3 trillion bank deposits, public sector entities are holding Rs865 billion in the banks on just 4% to 12% interest. After excluding foreign currency deposits of private sector, banking sector deposits amount to Rs3,100 billion [color="#FF0000"]while the government and its institutions have borrowed to-date over Rs2 trillion from the banking sector.[/color]



The overall borrowing of the government from the SBP has reached Rs1.5 trillion; federal and provincial governments and institutions have borrowed Rs382 billion for commodity operations and Public Sector Enterprises have already borrowed Rs400 billion from the banking system. Keeping in view this huge borrowing from the banking system, there is nothing available for the private sector to borrow from this system.



Availability of Rs1,600 billion of excess currency is identified as the main cause of hoarding, as people have cash in hand, not borrowed from anywhere, and are using it for hoarding of commodities of daily use.



Cheers

[Naresh]

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[url="http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2010/12/23/Pakistan-considers-defense-budget-increase/UPI-13331293126300/"]Pakistan considers defense budget increase[/url]ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Pakistan's government is considering a 10-percent boost to defense spending amid a warning that it might slow down economic development.



[color="#FF0000"]The army wants an extra $521 million on top of the budgeted $5.17 billion for 2010-11[/color] to meet the country's security needs.



But the finance minister reportedly suggested a much smaller increase, [color="#FF0000"]predicting such a large boost to spending would seriously jeopardize the country's economic development.



In July the government approved a defense spending increase of 17 percent in the face of intensified battles with Taliban insurgents operating from remote areas near Afghanistan.[/color]



"I think security is our top-most issue," Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh told Parliament in his budget speech at the time. "We are facing a situation in which our armed forces, paramilitary forces and security forces are laying down their lives. ... They should know from this house that we all stand by them."



However, Shaikh is resisting the military's current wish to boost its budget because of the "prevailing grave economic situation" and difficulties in bridging the ever-widening "gap between national income and expenditure." Shaikh told a meeting of the government's economic committee, chaired by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, that shrinking revenues and difficulties with introducing a Reformed General Sales Tax have to be addressed quickly.



The RGST must be up and running if the International Monetary Fund is to release to Pakistan the much-needed fourth tranche of its $11 billion standby credit.



The money will help Pakistan reform its energy sector and improve the delivery of electricity and water to consumers and businesses. In turn, that would increase foreign investment in power generation because of better and more stable returns.



Shaikh is believed to have met the head of the army, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, in Rawalpindi last week and [color="#FF0000"]has offered an increase of around 1 percent.[/color] Pakistan has traditionally based it military budget on defensive measures against a perceived threat from India, which along with Pakistan was created as an independent state when the British left the subcontinent in 1947.



[color="#FF0000"]Around half the budget goes to the 480,000-strong army,[/color] of which just under 150,000 is deployed along the border with India. Pakistan also has 10,000 troops on U.N. peacekeeping duties.



Pakistan's military has been replacing its aging aircraft with General Dynamics F-16 fighter jets and also versions of the Chinese-designed JF-17 Thunder jet fighter.



In June, three new F-16s were flown from the United States and handed over to Pakistan's air force.



Under the deal with the Chinese, Pakistan is getting 250 of the JF-17 aircraft, developed by Pakistan Aeronautical Complex and Chengdu Aircraft in China. Deliveries began in 2009 and the aircraft will replace Pakistan's Nanchang A-5, Chengdu F-7P / PG and Dassault Mirage III / V fighters.



While Pakistan ponders a defense increase, Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi told an international economic gathering in Istanbul that terrorism, drug-trafficking, transnational organized crime and natural disasters were undermining efforts for economic progress in the region.



"This calls for innovative approaches and focused attention on socioeconomic development of the region," he said during the 11th Economic Cooperation Organization head of states summit meeting.



Global peace, stability and prosperity are indivisible and "the global effects of economic and financial turmoil are not far behind us."



Qureshi also reiterated the goal to continually lower trade barriers and by 2015 establish a free-trade area in the eastern Asian region.



ECO was set up in 1985 by Iran, Pakistan and Turkey to promote economic, technical and cultural cooperation. It was expanded in 1992 to include Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.



The previous ECO summit was held in Tehran in March 2009.



Cheers

[Guest]

[url="http://www.dawn.com/2010/12/27/hindu-families-seeking-asylum-in-india-2.html"]Hindu families seeking asylum in India[/url]

QUETTA: Over two dozen Hindu families have approached the Indian High Commission in Islamabad for visa and political asylum in India after what they called growing cases of kidnapping for ransom and target killing of the members of their community in Balochistan.



This was disclosed by the regional director for the federal Ministry of Human Rights, Saeed Ahmed Khan, at a seminar on “Provincial Conference on Balochistan Crisis” here on Sunday.

“As many as 27 Hindu families from Balochistan have sent applications to the Indian embassy for asylum in India,” he said.



Mr Khan said it was a matter of great concern and urged the government to take immediate measures to improve the law and order situation in Balochistan.

[Guest]

[url="http://www.dailypioneer.com/307031/Persecuted-Hindus.html"]Persecuted Hindus[/url]

In Pakistan, to be a minority is a curse

[Guest]

[url="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110103/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan"] Pakistan PM tries to avert government collapse[/url]

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement said Sunday it was joining the opposition because of fuel price hikes, inflation and the generally poor performance of the ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP). The government announced hikes in gas and heating oil prices on New Year's Eve.

[Guest]

[url="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110104/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan_violence"]Pakistani governor killed by own bodyguard[/url]

ISLAMABAD – The governor of Pakistan's wealthiest and most populated province was shot dead Tuesday by one of his bodyguards who told interrogators he was angry over the politician's opposition to laws that impose the death penalty for those convicted of insulting Islam.

[Naresh]

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[url="http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20110105/tts-uk-pakistan-politics-ca02f96.html"]Pakistani scholars say mourning slain governor risky[/url]

Five hundred Pakistani religious scholars have warned that anyone who expresses grief over the assassination of a senior ruling party official who opposed the country's blasphemy law [color="#FF0000"]could suffer the same fate.[/color]

Cheers

[Naresh]

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[url="http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/pakistan-stares-into-the-abyss-4263"]Pakistan Stares into the Abyss[/url]



FORECAST



In a stark example of how drastically a situation can change in just one week, it seems that Pakistan is once again teetering on the brink.



This past week has brought two shocks which threaten to further destabilize Pakistan’s already-tenuous politics: the brutal assassination of Salman Taseer in Islamabad and the sudden departure of the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) from the governing PPP coalition. Both incidents point to a spiral of political destabilization over the next few months as the forces of Islamic fundamentalism, a lack of essential services, and widespread hopelessness push up against political institutions that are increasingly fragile.



Why exactly the MQM chose this moment to rob Zardari’s PPP government of its critical majority in the Pakistani parliament is a critical question. While the answer likely has something to do with the obvious political practicality behind such a move, many observers are pointing the finger at ISI meddling. In terms of political expediency, the exodus couldn’t have come at a better time. In leaving the PPP-led coalition, the MQM has positioned itself on the right side of populist sentiment on two critical policy issues: the RGST and rising gas prices. Both policies are as critical to the PPP as they are unpopular with the lower-middle classes in Pakistan. Coming out against the RGST also has the added benefit of boosting the MQM’s nationalist credentials, as the RGST tax reform package is widely seen as a bitter pill being forced down Pakistan’s throat by Western donor countries.



As is often the case with political intrigue in Pakistan, the ISI is also frequently popping up in conversations on the MQM’s exit. In late December, MQM chief Altaf Hussein publically decried the summoning of the standing ISI chief by a US court. Speculation is rife that this latest move to destabilize the PPP government was in fact born out of collaboration between MQM and the ISI, with the ultimate goal of the latter being to expand the security services’ influence within the resulting political vacuum.



The assassination of Salman Taseer, a popular liberal PPP politician and standing governor of Punjab, threatens to take popular anxiety looming over the PPP’s broken coalition and add a violent element to it. The assassin’s motivation- mainly, the late governor’s support for reforming Pakistan’s blasphemy laws- stands as yet another reminder that Pakistan’s political institutions have become a battleground between moderates and extremists. Already, PPP supporters have taken to the streets in Lahore to protest the murder of the late governor, and a new bout of street violence should be expected as the national debate over blasphemy laws is far from finished.



In all this, we see a deepening of the chaos that permeates politics in Pakistan, and the two questions on everyone’s minds are: when will elections be held and can they produce a stable government? At this point, the PPP’s position is so tenuous that elections have become an inevitability; even if some kind of coalition deal is drawn up to squeeze out a little more time. Whenever these elections are eventually held, they will be coming at a critical time for Pakistan, for if the extremist rot isn’t quickly excised from the Pakistani political process, [color="#FF0000"]a coup or [size="5"]even state collapse isn’t too far-fetched in the future[/size][/color].



Cheers

[ramana]

Nightwatch on the events in TSP

Pakistan: An elite police commando from the provincial police force who was assigned as a bodyguard for the governor of Punjab Province murdered the governor today in Islamabad. The commando dropped his weapon and surrendered to the police, bragging that he was proud he killed a blasphemer. With that, Pakistan's political crisis deepened.



The commando killed Governor Salman Taseer because the governor openly criticized Pakistan's law that requires execution for blasphemy against, not just god, but Mohammed and Islam. In a strict interpretation of blasphemy, it is a denunciation of god, not of a prophet or a set of religious beliefs. That is not the Pakistani law, however.



Taseer advocated a pardon for Aasia Bibi, a Christian factory worker who was convicted of blasphemy against the prophet on the testimony of her Muslim co-workers. Taseer thought this was unjust.



His murder is the most sensational since the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in December 2007.



Comment: The most sensational attacks by fundamentalists have all involved bodyguards. They include the most serious assassination attempts against Musharraf when he was President; the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and the assassination of Governor Taseer. In addition every attempt to attack military facilities in Rawalpindi has involved cooperation by guards.



Taseer's assassin was no wild-eyed Islamist. He was a trained and vetted police commando. And that is the point. The ranks of Pakistan's security forces are dominated by Islamists. They take seriously their oath to uphold Pakistan's laws, including the blasphemy law. The popular culture has become Islamist, in sympathy if not in action, and the political and military elite are a small modern minority.



There is no need to search for the black hand of al Qaida. The investigation will find that the murderer discussed his sense of outrage with comrades. The majority of Pakistanis might not approve of the method, but will not denounce the act of stopping a blasphemer.

[Guest]

Looks like a political murder masquerading as a fight between moderates vs extremists. Somebody wants everyone to believe it is Islam, but it is political.

[Guest]

Pakistan is moving toward complete Islamization. It is done by Islamic tradition, by "rape, guns, bombs and bullets".

[HareKrishna]

About 60% of Pak politicians are islamist.They want the nukes to be put in the service of the Caliphate.

[Naresh]

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[quote name='Swamy G' date='06 January 2011 - 07:36 AM' timestamp='1294279101' post='110158']

Looks like a political murder masquerading as a fight between moderates vs extremists. Somebody wants everyone to believe it is Islam, but it is political.

[/quote]



No Sireee.



It is just a case of the Foaming at the Mouth Bearded Terrorists (as spawned and supported by the Pakistani Army) at War with the "Suited - Booted" Whisky Swilling Terrorists.



Cheers

[Naresh]

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[url="http://www.geo.tv/1-6-2011/76859.htm"]PIA inks deal to sell US, Europe routes[/url]



NEW YORK: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has signed deal to sell its routes to US and Europe, apparently due to shortage of airplanes, Geo News reported.



Sources were of the view that as per agreement, PIA airbuses, on all incoming and outgoing routes, will fly as far as Turkey, from where, Turkish airplanes will fly till US and Europe with PIA passengers on board.



The deal will be effective from March 2011 while the agreement will be made public within some weeks.



Sources also said that new PIA flights will be started for Houston, US, in order to send people message that PIA is still in operation on US routes.



PIA airbuses being used for US routes now, will then be operated on routes to Beijing and Sydney, sources claimed.



Even PIA’s MD Captain Haroon flew on Turkish airline for US journey, sources claimed further.



Cheers

[Naresh]

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[url="http://www.sbp.org.pk/reports/annual/arFY10/DomesticandExternalDebt.pdf"]Pakistan’s Total Debt (Internal and External) for FY July 2009 – June 2010[/url]





Pakistan Rupees 10.1964 Trillion i.e. 69.5 % of GDP



Cheers

[Naresh]

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[url="http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=24205&Cat=9&dt=1/6/2011"]The murder[/url]



On the assassination of Salmaan Taseer, sweets were distributed, congratulations exchanged, and a sickening contentment was evident on the faces of quite a few people that I managed to interact with. In fact, certain individuals were heard saying that the Punjab governor deserved to be killed for criticising the blasphemy laws. And, yes, the people I mention were apparently educated, “enlightened,” middle-class citizens of the glorious Islamic Republic of Pakistan.



The effect of this brutal and sinister murder will not simply be confined to the event of the governor’s assassination. In fact, it will have a negative impact of creating in the public a perpetual and suffocating fear while engaging in public debates, questioning anything that the religious bigots have to say or analysing any interpretation that they posit. By killing the governor, purportedly for his speaking ill of an error-riddled law, the Right-inclined have essentially tried to shut down any debate which will dilute their influence, weaken their suffocating hold over Pakistani society and thereby their monopoly over anything overtly religious.



One of the arguments in favour of Salmaan Taseer’s assassination is that he committed a grave crime in supporting an alleged blasphemer, namely Aasia Bibi, and in calling for the repeal of a “religious” law. This is despite the fact that Aasia Bibi is currently pursuing an appeal before the competent court of jurisdiction and, therefore, until the appeal is decided, her innocence or guilt is still a matter of dispute. Secondly, the blasphemy laws, as enacted by men are not God’s law but an interpretation of what God has commanded. They are susceptible to human error, and are therefore amenable to revision in order for them to be brought more in line with God’s commandments. In fact, any attribution of divinity to these man-made legislations would seem to contradict the very principles of blasphemy that the so-called religious zealots seek to protect.



Other than this, there are others who vehemently declare that Taseer brought about his own death by daring to voice his opinion about the flaws in the man-made blasphemy laws and the inaccuracies in the conviction of Aasia Bibi at the lower court level. For them, the blame did not lie with the cold-blooded murderer who took a Muslim’s life in the name of Islam, but rather at the doorstep of the person who simply opined about the correctness or inaccuracies of the drafting of a particular type of law. Such is the hypocrisy engrained in our “religious” clique that one maulana, asked on television whether he thought the assassin was wrong in what he did, refused to call the killer a criminal. He said he would leave that decision to the courts. Ironically, these very maulanas had issued fatwas against Salmaan Taseer and called him wajib-ul-qatl (deserving to be murdered) for simply airing views that contradicted theirs.



It is clear that the assassination of Salmaan Taseer will have serious consequences for the general public and people’s freedoms, whether they realise it or not. His death signifies not only an attack on the freedom of speech enshrined in the Constitution, but also on what is left of Jinnah’s Pakistan. [color="#FF0000"]Jinnah would probably have never created this country had he realised how we would eventually cede power and mortgage our lives to those who in fact were against the very idea of Pakistan.[/color]



If Jinnah were alive today, he wouldn’t have been around for long. He would probably have been killed by these extremists on trumped up charges of blasphemy. God help us.



The writer is a Fulbright Scholar and a lawyer based in Karachi. Email: basil.nabi@gmail.com



Cheers

[Guest]

[quote name='Naresh' date='07 January 2011 - 03:20 AM' timestamp='1294350144' post='110170']

[url="http://www.sbp.org.pk/reports/annual/arFY10/DomesticandExternalDebt.pdf"]Pakistan’s Total Debt (Internal and External) for FY July 2009 – June 2010[/url]

Pakistan Rupees 10.1964 Trillion i.e. 69.5 % of GDP

[/quote]

[url="http://www.dawn.com/2011/01/07/pakistan-negotiating-drone-deal-with-us-3.html"]Pakistan negotiating drone deal with US[/url]

WASHINGTON: Pakistan is still negotiating a deal with the United States to acquire its own fleet of surveillance drones, and hopes to get six systems of the aircraft, diplomatic sources told Dawn.



The drone system that the two countries are negotiating about is known as Shadow-200 and is currently used by the US Navy and the Marine Corps. It is launched from a trailer-mounted pneumatic catapult and is recovered with the aid of arresting gear similar to jets on an aircraft carrier.



It is equipped with an infrared camera which relays real time videos to a ground control station. It is a surveillance aircraft and is not equipped with weapons attached to the drones the Americans use to target militants in Fata.



Pakistan originally wanted weapon-equipped drones but the Americans turned down the request, saying that so far they had not shared this technology with any other nation.

Pakistan is not a poor country, they are very rich, they want to buy every single toy.

[Guest]

[url="http://www.dailypioneer.com/308941/Traders-stop-vegetable-export-to-Pak;-protest-onion-export-ban.html"]Traders stop vegetable export to Pak; protest onion export ban[/url]

Amritsar-based traders today refused to export vegetables, including tomato, to Pakistan via Attari-Wagah land route, peeved over the ban imposed by neighbouring country on onion export through land route.



"We have not exported vegetables to Pakistan at all today in protest against the Pakistan government's move of putting a ban on onion export to India," Amritsar-based vegetable trader Anil Mehra told PTI today over phone.



This decision was taken today collectively by about 40 vegetables exporters based at Amritsar.



"We took this decision because when we (India) needed vegetables (onion), Pakistan has simply banned the export of essential item," he said, while adding that the traders were not bothered about the losses which would they face because of not sending vegetables to neighbouring country.



About 60 to 70 trucks carrying vegetables including tomato, ginger and chilly, have been withheld by exporters and were not sent for customs clearance for onward movement to the neighbouring country.



"No truck carrying vegetables including tomato crossed over to Pakistan through land route. Though six trucks containing soybean (animal feed) have moved to neighbouring country while nine trucks carrying mainly dry fruit from Pakistan entered Indian territory at Amritsar," a senior official of Customs Department at Amritsar said.



India is a major exporter of vegetables to Pakistan as out of total export via land route, 30-32 per cent account for tomato alone.



Besides, soybean has a share of 55 per cent and remaining with chilly, ginger, potato, capsicum, biscuits, raw cotton etc.



The exports from India to Pakistan through Attari-Wagah land route have almost doubled to Rs 840 crore during April-December 2010 against export of Rs 447 crore in the corresponding period.



Sudden ban imposed on export of onion has hit the traders of both the countries with Indian importers claiming that Pakistan had not even allowed the supply of contracted orders of onion before the announcement of ban.



Indian traders claimed that vegetable suppliers in Pakistan had also shut down their business in protest against imposition of ban on onion export through land route.



Notably, close to 7,000 MT of onion had arrived since the commencement of onion export to India from Pakistan via land route.



Because of the supply from Pakistan, prices of onion in Punjab and Chandigarh had come down from a level of Rs 60-65 per kg to Rs 45-50 per kg.