Pakistan : Terrorist Wahabi Islamic Rep Pakistan 6

[Guest]

[quote name='Naresh' date='31 May 2010 - 06:14 PM' timestamp='1275309372' post='106661']

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[url="http://www.geo.tv/5-31-2010/65901.htm"]Pak rupee devalues to record level[/url]



The Forex market dealers said that buying worth $200 million is expected of the importers during the current week for payments of crude oil, which would further [color="#FF0000"]shove the value of Pak rupee down the slope[/color]



Cheers

[/quote]



They can save money by using foot and make Oil "haram". Or ask Saudi to make Oil holy.

[Naresh]

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[url="http://www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=105846"]Gunmen storm Jinnah Hospital, 8 dead[/url]



LAHORE : At least eight people died when armed persons stormed the emergency ward of Jinnah Hospital here, Medical Superintendent said Monday.



According to Geo correspondent, two gunmen entered the emergency ward and [color="#FF0000"]opened fire at the injured of Model Town and Garhi Shahi attacks[/color].



According to Geo, three to four guards and attendants are among the dead.



The firing is still underway while police have surrounded the hospital.



[url="http://www.cbizlinks.com/worldnewschannels/dunyanews.html"][color="#FF0000"]Click for DUNYA TV LIVE[/color][/url]



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[Naresh]

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[url="http://www.geo.tv/6-1-2010/65944.htm"][center][size="7"][color="#006400"]TWELVE[/color][/size][/center][/url]



Cheers

[Guest]

[url="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/137789"]Link[/url]

Published: 05/31/10, 1:25 PM / Last Update: 05/31/10, 2:20 PM

The teachings of the moderate Ahmadiyya sect of Islam have been labeled apostasy by Palestinian Authority clerics, leaving its members open to persecution and even threats of murder. PA leaders have refused to step in, saying the status of the Ahmadiyya community is a matter for the courts to decide.



Arutz Sheva's Hebrew news service spoke to Mohammed Sharif Ouda, head of the Ahmadi community in Israel, who discussed the problems facing Ahmadi Muslims in the PA and worldwide.

...



Ouda began with a brief description of Ahmadi beliefs. Ahmadi Muslims follow the teachings of Mirzam Ghulam Ahmad, who they believe was the Muslim messiah. Ahmad preached that Islam had been distorted, and urged his followers to return to what he taught was the true Islam – a peaceful Islam that renounces violence and defines “jihad” as a form of inner struggle, and not an armed struggle.



The PA clerics' ruling on Ahmadi Islam poses a danger, he said. The penalty for apostasy in Islam is death, and while the PA has decided not to impose the death penalty on its Ahmadi residents, the decision to label them apostates puts them in danger nonetheless, he said. “They're encouraging the cold-blooded murder of Ahmadis,” he charged.



Ahmadi believers living in PA-controlled areas have been beaten and have had their property destroyed, Ouda added. In addition, the apostate label means they can be stripped of their rights in court, he said. He gave an example of an Ahmadi Muslim from Shechem who was ordered to divorce his wife and give up his property.



Ouda said he had appealed to PA officials to defend the community, but in vain.



There is an Ahmadi community in Gaza as well. "In Gaza," Ouda said, "the death penalty is enforced for various crimes, and members of the Ahmadi community hide their true beliefs."



Ahmadi communities in Egypt and Pakistan face persecution as well, Ouda related. In Egypt, members of the community can be arrested simply due to their beliefs, while in Pakistan a Muslim cleric recently declared that non-Ahmadi Muslims may not so much as say hello to an Ahmadi.



Despite persecution, the Ahmadi movement is flourishing, and has followers in 190 countries, Ouda said, among them Germany, Canada, Britain, and the United States. (IsraelNationalNews.com)

Something at global level is happening against Ahamadiya, Pakistan incidence seems like link to global Islam. Who is behind? Why suddenly they are after them?

[Guest]

[url="http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/at+least-twelve-people-killed-in-lahore-attack-jd-05"] link[/url]

The militant captured from Friday’s attack on the Ahmadi community’s place of worship was admitted to the intense care ward of the Jinnah hospital.



Analysts suggest that this was the prime motive behind the attack on the hospital.

[url="http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/provinces/04-ahmadi-stabbed-narowal-qs-07"] link[/url]

LAHORE: An Ahmadi man was stabbed to death by an enraged man in Pakistan on Monday, just days after gun, grenade and suicide attacks targeting the religious minority killed more than 80 people, police said.

[Guest]

Terrorists have escaped in a police van

[Guest]

[url="http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/indian-role-key-to-future-success-in-afghanistan-us-360"]Indian role key to future success in Afghanistan: US[/url]



Now start count down on attack on Indian interest in Afghanistan.

[Naresh]

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[url="http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=242832"]Pakistan hotel industry struggles as terrorism keeps visitors away[/url]



Enhanced security increases cost



KARACHI: Pakistan’s hotel industry remains in the red for the last two years because unabated incidents of terrorism and violence have not only slashed room-occupancy to less than 40 per cent, but also the number of daily customers, top industry officials said on Wednesday.

..................





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[Guest]

They can provide rent one get other free to terrorist. <img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':lol:' />

[Naresh]

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[url="http://www.geo.tv/6-6-2010/66217.htm"]Massive power failure darkens half of Karachi[/url]



KARACHI: It has been raining cats and dogs for last one hour in metropolis city of Karachi, leaving all the power units at Bin Qasim Plant shut down, which has resulted in darkening over 50 percent of city parts and multiplying the miseries of Karachiites, Geo news reported.



The officials at metrological department have forecast that the ongoing spate of incessant rainfall will constantly last for some days to come with small recesses.



Meanwhile, the Governor Sindh Dr. Ishratul Ebad Khan is on a visit to different areas of city to review the situation created by the torrential rain.



It may be mentioned that Director General Met Office said the Cyclone Phet heading to Pakistan, has been downgraded to lower level of category 1 in terms of intensity after hitting Oman coast and is 300-kilometers away Karachi coast.



He said the Phet Cyclone is going to hit Karachi coastal areas tomorrow afternoon.



Cheers

[Naresh]

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[url="http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010/06/09/story_9-6-2010_pg5_1"]Govt to seek $19bn loans, grants in 3 yrs[/url]



ISLAMABAD: [size="4"]Pakistan is to negotiate loans and grants of $19 billion, [color="#FF0000"]comprising $14 billion loans[/color] and [color="#006400"]$5 billion grants,[/size][/color] with multilateral and bilateral development partners during next three years 2010-13, according to the projections contained in the Medium term Budgetary Framework (MTBF) released by Ministry of Finance.



Pakistan would also service its debt amounting to $10 billion during next three years 2010-13 - with $7 billion of principle amount and $3 billion interest payments.



The future policy priorities of the EAD, contained in the MTBF book, propose that to finance development projects and overcome balance of payment (BOP) difficulties, $19 billion, comprising $14 billion loans and $5 billion grants, can be negotiated by the Economic Affairs Division. In this regard, the EAD has been mandated to negotiate with multilateral and bilateral development partners and ensure this disbursement during 2010-13.



The government’s strategy has been to secure foreign loans at concessional terms i.e. low interest rate coupled with longer maturity period.



EAD would continue to negotiate with and persuade the “Friends of Democratic Pakistan” (FODP) to honour pledges made by them at Tokyo Conference, and get maximum disbursements as balance of payment support through government channels, rather than spending it through non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and contractors.



Bilateral economic issues in the areas like trade, investment, energy, agriculture, science and technology, education, health, culture and tourism are to be negotiated on the platform of the Joint Ministerial Commission (JMC), and Joint Economic Commission (JEC). In this regard, JEC and JMC with 51 countries have been planned during the next three years. The government has also plans to arrange annual consultation with Paris Club member countries from next fiscal year 2010-11.



The government expects that Rs 598.558 billion in foreign economic assistance will be disbursed to Pakistan during 2010-11, Rs 606.402 billion by 2011-12 and Rs 560.273 billion in 2012-13.



According to the MTBF 2010-11 to 2012-13 the government has plans to provide budget based on service delivery to EAD. The government would repay principle amount of foreign loans worth Rs 113.818 billion in 2010-11, Rs 119.509 billion in 2011-12 and Rs 125.485 billion in 2012-13.



Short-term loans worth Rs 26.460 billion will be paid in 2010-11, in 2011-12 the government would pay short term loan worth Rs 27.783 billion and Rs 29.172 billion short term loan will be paid in 2012-13.



After 2011-12 Pakistan will have to repay over $11.5 billion to the IMF in a short period of three years as servicing of debt acquired during the IMF standby arrangement (SBA). This would require a large reduction in the current account deficit to create the requisite debt repayment capacity, an official said.



Cheers

[Naresh]

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[center][size="6"][color="#006400"]Lahoris breathing poisonous air[/color][/size][/center]



* Pollution levels in city’s air have exceeded all internationally declared parametres

* Environment Protection Department spokesperson says department considering all options to control pollution in provincial capital, several awareness programmes being pursued



[center][/center]



LAHORE : Residents of the provincial capital are breathing poisonous air due to the government’s failure in controlling massive industrialisation in residential areas and containing the growth in the number of vehicles on the road, which has increased significantly with the passage of time, Daily Times has learnt.



The level of all the major contaminants in the atmosphere has exceeded the given standard, which is not only harming the environment and the city’s ecosystem, but also causing an increase in the number of diseases related to lungs and various types of cancer.



The key pollutants, which are threatening the atmosphere of the city, include carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O), oxides of nitrogen (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SO2), lead (Pb) and suspended particulate matter (SPM), while nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is the major pollutant out of all other oxides of nitrogen in the air.



The major sources of all these pollutants include furnaces and other factories – mostly operating around the walled city and in the peripherals of Lahore – the relatively higher population growth, the massive increase in the number of vehicles on the roads, the absence of a proper public transport system and garbage and desolated infrastructure such as roads.



Most of the vehicles in Lahore, especially the heavy ones, are not complying with the given standards of international environmental agencies – called Euro-II and Euro-III – which means that the vehicles are not fit enough to avoid spreading any kind of contaminant in the air through their exhaust.



The majority of diesel vehicles using crude diesel oil, two-stroke rickshaws and motorcycles emit excessive graphitic carbon (visible smoke) due to faulty injection nozzles and weak engines. Two-stroke vehicles are the most inefficient in burning fuel and thus contribute most to emissions.



According to experts, air pollution either causes or triggers ailments like Asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, fibrosis, heart-related problems, cancer and diabetes among others.



An Environment Protection Department official told Daily Times that under the World Health Organisation’s standards the level of nitrogen oxide in the air should not be more than 40µg/m3 throughout the year, but the level in Lahore is now 170µg/m3.



Similarly, the level of particulate matter should remain less than 25µg/m3 round the clock, [color="#FF0000"]but it crosses 200µg/m3 during different timings in the provincial capital.[/color] The limit of SO2 is supposed to be 100µg/m3, but it crosses 200 in Lahore. Similarly, the maximum level of O3 is set at 100µg/m3 within every eight hours, but it also crosses its limits at different points in the city, while other pollutants like CO are also excessively present in the air.



The official said that The Mall was still considered one of the most green areas of Lahore, yet the level of all these pollutants in the area is extremely high, which is enough to understand the plight of the people living in the walled city, Ichra, Mozang, Yateem Khana, Sanda etc, where there is almost no greenery and the highest ratio of population density.



All options : Environment Protection Department spokesperson Naseemur Rehman told Daily Times that the department was looking at all options to control pollutions, including air pollution, and they were running several awareness programmes in this regard.



“The department sealed more than 100 polluting industries during 2009 in Lahore alone, fined 19,298 vehicles for emitting smoke and polluting the atmosphere, specially checked more than 200 chemical units in the city while conducting around 200 follow-up visits on different sites,” he said, adding that citizens should also understand that they have to adopt an environment-friendly life style.



Lahore Bachao Tehreek senior member Imrana Tiwana told Daily Times that the city was now being quoted at international levels for being one of the most culturally rich yet polluted places on the planet, which is a great embarrassment for our government and citizens.



She said that air pollution had already crossed all set limits in the city and it was time to start a proper programme to control air pollution and thoroughly monitor it in collaboration with local and international organisations.



She said that an international environmentalist organisation, called Clean Air Commission, had visited Lahore to lend their support for the eradication of air pollution as they previously did in India, Bangladesh and other South Asian countries, [color="#FF0000"]but the government did not accept their proposals.[/color]



Cheers

[Naresh]

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Kashmir traders to use Indian rupee for all transactions

NEW DELHI : With no banking facilities for cross-Line of Control (LoC) trade as yet, traders on both sides of the border [color="#FF0000"]have settled down [size="6"]to accept the Indian rupee[/size] as the currency for cash transactions.[/color]

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[Naresh]

[url="http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Politics/12-Jun-2010/Pak-seeks-sharing-of-findings"]Pak seeks sharing of findings[/url]



ISLAMABAD – While an Indo-US investigation ended on Thursday after a weeklong questioning of a US citizen David Headley, the alleged operative of Lashkar-i-Taiba, Pakistani authorities still await sharing of its findings to further probe the matter, said officials on Friday.



“Although India and the US are not bound to share findings of investigation, however, they need to share them with Pakistan in order to unearth the myth of Mumbai attack”, an official on condition of anonymity said.



This correspondent attempted many time to contact Foreign Office spokesman for official version; however, he did not take up call and finally switched off his cell phone.



Even a text message was dropped at his cell phone but he did not return a call till filing of this report. Meanwhile, according to a statement given by the US Department of Justice on Thursday, Indian law enforcement officials were provided direct access to interview David Coleman Headley as part of the cooperation and partnership between the United States and India in fight against international terrorism.



According to the statement (this correspondent is in possession of a copy of the statement given by the US Justice Department) Mr Headley and his counsel agreed to the meetings and Headley answered the Indian investigators’ questions over the course of seven days of interviews. The same statement states that both India and the United States have agreed not to disclose the contents of the Headley’s interviews in order to protect the confidentiality of the investigations. However, authorities of Interior Ministry want the US and India to share findings of the investigation to unearth myth of Mumbai attack, said officials when contacted on Friday.



[color="#FF0000"]It is important to mention here that the US Assistant Secretary of States Robert Blake said a couple of days earlier that Pakistan needed to address India’s concerns regarding punishment of those involved in Mumbai attack.[/color]



It is believed that the same statement has been given by a higher US official following Indo-US investigation from Hedley. In the wake of this development, defence analysts believe that terrorism would be the main item on the agenda of upcoming high-level talks between India and Pakistan. [color="#FF0000"]In order to further support their argument, analysts on Friday quoted statement of the US Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake who said at the start of this week that the agenda of the meeting between the Foreign Ministers of Pakistan and India “is not Kashmir, it is in fact terrorism.”[/color]



Cheers

[Guest]

[url="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100613/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan;_ylt=AkVQJfPwaftF_EnbkgVoIfas0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNmb3RxNDk5BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwNjEzL2FzX3Bha2lzdGFuBGNjb2RlA21vc3Rwb3B1bGFyBGNwb3MDNwRwb3MDNARwdANob21lX2Nva2UEc2VjA3luX2hlYWRsaW5lX2xpc3QEc2xrA3JlcG9y"]Report: Pakistani spy agency supports Taliban[/url]



My question - Why US media is saying this now? What they want to extract from Pakistan? Are they seeking some big fish to help Bambi sinking poll number?

[Naresh]

[quote name='Mudy' date='14 June 2010 - 12:13 AM' timestamp='1276454128' post='106884']

[url="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100613/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan;_ylt=AkVQJfPwaftF_EnbkgVoIfas0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNmb3RxNDk5BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwNjEzL2FzX3Bha2lzdGFuBGNjb2RlA21vc3Rwb3B1bGFyBGNwb3MDNwRwb3MDNARwdANob21lX2Nva2UEc2VjA3luX2hlYWRsaW5lX2xpc3QEc2xrA3JlcG9y"]Report: Pakistani spy agency supports Taliban[/url]



My question - Why US media is saying this now? What they want to extract from Pakistan? Are they seeking some big fish to help Bambi sinking poll number?

[/quote]



Mudy Ji :



Of course this is a strong possibility but what is more important is that this is an effort to justify an Increasing Role by the US in Pakistan as also a hint that should the Terroristanis continue the relationship with the Taliban then the US could might possibly & probably increase its physical presence in Terroristan including but not limited to a full scale invasion.



Cheers

[Naresh]

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[url="http://newsecuritybeat.blogspot.com/2010/05/guest-contributor-michael-kugelman.html"][center][color="#006400"][size="6"]The New Security Beat :[/size] [size="4"]Guest Contributor Michael Kugelman, Wilson Center, looks beyond Islamabad to Solve Pakistan’s “Other Threats”[/size][/color][/center][/url]



[center][/center]





After years of largely being ignored in Washington policy debates, Pakistan’s “other” threats--energy and water shortages, dismal education and healthcare systems, and rampant food insecurity--have finally moved to the front burner.



For several years, the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Asia Program has sought to bring these problems to the attention of the international donor community. Washington’s new determination to engage with Pakistan on its development challenges--as evidenced by President Obama’s signing of the Kerry-Lugar bill and USAID administrator Raj Shah’s comments on aid to Pakistan--are welcome, but long overdue.



The crux of the current debate on aid to Pakistan is how to maximize its effectiveness--that is, how to ensure that the aid gets to its intended recipients and is used for its intended purposes. [color="#FF0000"]Washington will not soon forget former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf’s admission last year that $10 billion in American aid provided to fight the Taliban and al-Qaeda was instead diverted to strengthen Pakistani defenses against archrival India.[/color]



What Pakistani institutions will Washington use to channel its aid monies? In recent months, the U.S. government has considered both Pakistani NGOs and government agencies. It is now clear that Washington prefers to work with the latter, concluding that public institutions in Pakistan are better equipped to manage large infusions of capital and are more sustainable than those in civil society.



This conclusion is flawed. Simply putting all its aid eggs in the Pakistani government basket will not improve U.S. aid delivery to Pakistan, as Islamabad is seriously governance-challenged.



Granted, Islamabad is not hopelessly corrupt. It was not in the bottom 20 percent of Transparency International’s 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index (Pakistan ranked 139 out of 180), and enjoyed the highest ranking of any South Asian country in the World Bank’s 2010 Doing Business report.



At the same time, the Pakistani state repeatedly fails to provide basic services to its population--not just in the tribal areas, but also in cities like Karachi, [color="#FF0000"]where 30,000 people die each year from consuming unsafe water.[/color]



Where basic services are provided, Islamabad favors wealthy, landed, and politically connected interests over those of the most needy--the very people with the most desperate need for international aid. Last year, government authorities established a computerized lottery that was supposed to award thousands of free tractors to randomly selected small farmers across Pakistan. However, among the “winners” were large landowners--including family members of a Pakistani parliamentarian.



Working through Islamabad on aid provision is essential. However, the United States also needs to diversify its aid partners in Pakistan.



For starters, Washington should look within civil society. This rich and vibrant sector is greatly underappreciated in Washington. The Hisaar Foundation, for example, is one of the only organizations in Pakistan focusing on water, food, and livelihood security.



The country’s Islamic charities also play a crucial role. Much of the aid rendered to health facilities and schools in Pakistan comes from Muslim welfare associations. Perhaps the most well-known such charity in Pakistan--the Edhi Foundation--receives tens of millions of dollars each year in unsolicited funds.



Washington should also be targeting venture capital groups. The Acumen Fund is a nonprofit venture fund that seeks to create markets for essential goods and services where they do not exist. The fund has launched an initiative with a Pakistani nonprofit organization to bring water-conserving drip irrigation to 20,000-30,000 Pakistani small farmers in the parched province of Sindh.



Such collaborative investment is a far cry from the opaque, exploitative foreign private investment cropping up in Pakistan these days--particularly in the context of agricultural financing--and deserves a closer look.



With all the talk in Washington about developing a strategic dialogue with Islamabad and ensuring the latter plays a central part in U.S. aid provision to Pakistan, it is easy to forget that Pakistan’s 175 million people have much to offer as well. These ample human resources--and their institutions in civil society--should be embraced and be better integrated into international aid programs.



While Pakistan’s rapidly growing population may be impoverished, it is also tremendously youthful. If the masses can be properly educated and successfully integrated into the labor force, Pakistan could experience a “demographic dividend,” allowing it to defuse what many describe as the country’s population time bomb.



A demographic dividend in Pakistan, the subject of an upcoming Wilson Center conference, has the potential to reduce all of Pakistan’s threats--and to enable the country to move away from its deep, but very necessary, dependence on international aid.



Michael Kugelman is program associate with the Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.



Photo Credit : Water pipes feeding into trash infected waterway in Karachi, courtesy Flickr user NB77.

[Naresh]

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[url="http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/editorial/now-creditor-drones-150"]Now Creditor drones[/url]



Michael Kugelman



“VERY frankly, it’s the only game in town in terms of confronting or trying to disrupt the Al Qaeda leadership.” — Leon Panetta, CIA director, on the use of Predator drones in Pakistan, May 2009.



“We have only one growth industry in Pakistan and that is conspiracy theories.” — Rashed Rahman, editor, Daily Times, January 2010.



Islamabad (via unsubstantiated Pakistani media reports): Emboldened by the success of Predator drones in taking out large numbers of militants in Pakistan’s tribal areas, the US government has decided to utilise the same unmanned aircraft to deliver humanitarian assistance to the country’s needy.



“Just as we so effectively rain missiles down on militants, we can air-drop essential goods and services down on everyone else,” said one highly placed official in Washington, who refused to confirm the new programme’s existence while simultaneously singing its praises. “By doing so, we avoid messy questions about how and through whom to channel the aid. There are no pesky middle men; the path from drone to recipient is rapid and direct.”



Authorities in Washington acknowledge there is a catch. The aid is not free. Each bundle of supplies is accompanied by an invoice. Aid recipients are asked to mail their payments to a US government processing centre, where the monies are then conveyed to a recently established Kerry-Lugar Supplemental Aid Fund.



“We win hearts and minds through direct aid provision, and use the proceeds of this aid to finance additional aid delivery,” explained an anonymous employee of the US executive branch. “It’s a virtuous cycle that will work wonders for the emerging strategic relationship between Pakistan and the United States.” He also underscored the tactical efficiency at play, noting that “we can bill dozens of Pakistanis with just one drone”.



Several Pakistani government officials here, when reached for comment, claimed to know nothing about this new strategy — dubbed the Creditor drone policy — while simultaneously demanding that the aircraft fly under the Pakistani flag.



Given the inaccessibility of the areas targeted for the air drops, early returns on the Creditor drone strategy have been difficult to ascertain. US officials claim to have already billed a number of high-level targets — [color="#FF0000"]impoverished Pakistanis living in some of the most water-, food-, and energy-short areas of the tribal agencies[/color], yet who are nonetheless assumed to have sufficient monetary resources to pay for their aid.



However, reports from Fata paint a complex picture of the situation on the ground — one marked by varying degrees of gratefulness, perplexity and outright hostility expressed by locals towards the new policy. One man near Miramshah in North Waziristan recalled fleeing in terror from the dreaded sound of an oncoming drone — only to look on in disbelief as the craft deposited not Hellfire missiles, but a set of tubewells complete with installation instructions and a ream of billing papers issued in triplicate.



“I appreciate this gesture,” he said, “though I’m also not quite sure what to make of it.”



Several miles away, an elderly man was seen carting away a box emblazoned with the words ‘Building Literacy, Building Governance’. Inside it was a variety of books with titles ranging from The Merits of the ‘Do More’ Approach to Counter-Militancy to Tax Collection for Dummies and The How-To Guide to Canal Repair. The man admitted he was illiterate, but said that he hoped to use the books as a substitute for firewood.



Meanwhile, in South Waziristan, several young men examined some newly arrived sacks of wheat and grew irate upon seeing the invoice. “How can the Americans expect us to be grateful for their drones?” they asked angrily. “They’re nothing more than huge billing machines flying through the sky.”



US authorities acknowledged several concerns — a chief one being that they have billed some of the wrong people. An American source regretted how one ill-fated Creditor drone, instead of delivering its payload of iPods and Vitamin A supplements to some relatively well-off tribal leaders in South Waziristan, inadvertently dropped the package through the roof of the nearby home of a deeply impoverished labourer who US officials believe has no ability to pay.



The American government insists it plans to issue a full apology. “We’d be happy to accept collateral, but collateral damage is something we definitely want to avoid,” one official declared emphatically. An additional concern is bringing in revenue; another official confessed that the Kerry-Lugar Supplemental Aid Fund had not yet received one bill payment. “It’s definitely a problem,” he stated, while refusing to elaborate further.



As word has emerged of the Creditor drones, analysts have staked out their positions. Many are condemning the policy for its indiscriminate billing. “Sure, it’s a good thing that you identify the key targets and go after them,” one Lahore-based expert shrugged. “But invariably you end up billing people you don’t mean to bill. And how do you justify billing high-level targets in Fata but not in other areas with similar targets, [color="#FF0000"]such as southern Punjab?[/color] I don’t see any results or any sort of payoff. It seems the more people are billed, the angrier people get — and that means less support for the Creditor drone policy, less support for the Americans, and more triggers for militancy.”



Others, however, are calling for calm and less criticism. “Let’s face it,” said a South Asia expert at a Washington think tank. “We’re not hearing about large-scale riots in Fata railing against evil Creditors. And what’s the alternative? Is there any other way to get direct aid to Fata’s impoverished?”



The now-roofless labourer in South Waziristan, his modest dwelling caked in exploded Vitamin A and littered with shattered iPod parts, had no patience for such philosophising. “Surely there are better ways of helping others,” he muttered, using the ‘vendor’s copy’ portion of his invoice to wipe Vitamin A powder off his face.



The writer is programme associate for South Asia at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars in Washington, DC.



michael.kugelman@wilsoncenter.org



Cheers

[Guest]

[url="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/10334914.stm"]Pakistan 'gave funds' to group on UN terror blacklist[/url]

Pakistan's Punjab province government gave about $1m (£674,000) last year to institutions linked to a charity on a UN terror blacklist, it has emerged.



The charity, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, denies accusations that it is a front for the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group.

<img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

Punjab officials say the funds were humanitarian in nature and were not given directly to the charity.

joke of the century and slap on India's appointed Prime Minister.

[Guest]

[url="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100616/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan_new_militants"]Pakistani militancy spreads to country's heartland[/url]