ISLAMABAD : An organization of private schools situated in the federal capital have decided to keep their affiliated schools shut for another week in view of security apprehensions, Geo News reported Sunday.
Around 110 private schools registered with Private Schools Association (PSA) have decided to continue closure of institutes unless government provides them security, said President Private Schools Association (PSA) Zofran Ellahi.
Zofran said the association has decided to close the institutes for another week but it can extend the period if proper security is not provided by the government.
<b>JEDDAH â Pakistani military sources said Friday that the army was considering announcing a state of emergency in the country following the deterioration of the security situation as the military operation continues against the Taleban.</b>
The sources said that a National Security Council meeting due to be held within the next 48 hours will consider Chief of the Army Staff Gen. Ashfaq Kayani assuming the role of chief executive in order to supervise security with the presidency and government institutions continuing their activities in governing the country. According to the sources, the move has received preliminary acceptance from the Pakistani presidency, although a source at the Presidency denied knowledge of any such move being tabled for discussion.
The state of emergency would continue until the end of the operation, the sources said, which the military has scheduled to last eight weeks. An official army source told Okaz, however, a state of emergency announcement was âmere speculationâ, and declined to provide further details.
Meanwhile, the Kingdomâs ambassador to Islamabad <b>is to hold an emergency meeting Sunday to consider the status of Saudi schools and the embassyâs affiliated offices in the light of the current security situation in Pakistan.</b> Ambassador Abdul Aziz Al-Ghadeer said that a decision would be taken on the resumption of classes at Saudi schools following a one-week suspension due to security concerns. The schools are currently due to reopen Monday.
<!--emo&:clapping--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/clap.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='clap.gif' /><!--endemo--><b>Emergency evacuation plans are also in place, he added, for the 250 to 300 Saudi nationals in Pakistan. â Okaz/SG</b> <!--emo&:clapping--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/clap.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='clap.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<b>NOTE :</b> It is evindent that CHUSSA (China, USA and Saudi Arabia) have already sanctioned the take over by the Pakistan Army should the situation deteriorates any further!
<b>Army suffers losses in Pak</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Pakistani forces fought pitched battles with Taliban fighters in their bid to wrest their hub of Sararogha in South Waziristan killing 34 militants to raise the terrorist death toll to 227. The forces, however, lost 11 soldiers as insurgents opened new fronts in the lawless region.
Six soldiers were killed in pitched battles as the troops advanced from Kotkai to capture Sararogha and Jandola but had to face heavy resistance from well entrenched Taliban militants at Ghalai village. With Mondayâs heavy losses Pakistani army casualties climbed up to 30.
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<b>Lashkar publications back in Pak, Jaish opens new madrasa in Masood town</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Months after Jamaat-ud-Dawa publications were taken off stands in Pakistan following the UN Security Council ban on the outfit, the periodicals are said to be back in circulation under new names. And the other anti-India terror outfit, Jaish-e-Mohammed, has inaugurated a new madrasa in Bahawalpur on behalf of its head Maulana Masood Azhar.
This flies in the face of Indiaâs diplomatic efforts to get Pakistan to rein in these outfits after the Mumbai terror attack. With the Pakistan government failing to build a credible case against LeT founder and JuD head Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, sources said, the outfitâs propaganda machine has suddenly become more energetic.
JuDâs weekly newspaper Ghazwah is said to have reappeared as <b>Jarrar</b>. Womenâs monthly <b>Tayyibat </b>is now replaced by <b>Al Sifat</b>, students monthly Zarb-e-Taiba is said to have been renamed <b>Akhbaar-e-Taiba</b> while another periodical Al-Daawa is said to have the hit stands under the name<b> Al-Harmain</b>.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<b>Brigadier escapes terrorist attack in Islamabad</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Updated at: 1011 PST, Tuesday, October 27, 2009
ISLAMABAD: Unidentified terrorists opened fire on an army Brigadierâs jeep in sector I/9 area here on Tuesday but <b>all the persons on vehicle escaped unharmed</b>, Geo news quoted police sources as saying.
According to eyewitnesses, the senior army official, along his mother and driver, narrowly escaped the attack whereas offenders have managed to flee from the firing scene.
âThe assailant was waiting for 15 minutes outside army official home to launch terrorist strikeâ, witnesses said adding, âThe police troops have cordoned off the entire area, meanwhile, the security of the area has been beefed upâ.
Police have kicked off search operation against the unknown attackers, police sources said.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd--><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Shooting on government vehicle reported in Islamabad</b>
Updated at: 0932 PST, Tuesday, October 27, 2009
ISLAMABAD: A firing incident on a government vehicle in sector I-9 in Islamabad has been reported. Police teams sent to the area.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
ISLAMABAD - As the government has backed out of its commitment to end power crisis by December 2009, it will be difficult for the authorities concerned to achieve the annual exports target of $ 18.86 billion set for the ongoing fiscal year 2009-10, The Nation reliably learnt on Tuesday.
According to sources, at the time of preparing Strategic Trade Policy Framework 2009-12, the officials of Ministry of Commerce were hopeful that the power crisis would go by Dec 2009 and, therefore, they set optimistic targets for the ongoing fiscal year.
It might be mentioned here that in the last fiscal year 2008-09, country exported goods worth $17.78b and for having 6 percent export growth, the exports are set at $ 18.86 billion for the current fiscal year.
The government in the start of the current month has backed out of its commitment to end power loadshedding by Dec 2009, as Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said that investors were slow on rental power plants owning to growing criticism. âInvestors are uncertain to invest in these projects and now the crisis was likely to continue till June 2010,â he said at that time.
For the last two years not only the large industries but also the small industrial units have been suffering from power outage. Sources informed that ministry was considering that proper electricity would be provided to the industrial units after December that would help achieve the economic targets, especially the exports target. An official of ICCI told The Nation on condition of anonymity if the power crisis remained for the next few months, it would be difficult even to fulfil the domestic needs.
<b>UN investigator warns US on use of drones</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->UNITED NATIONS â A U.N. human rights investigator warned the United States Tuesday that its use of unmanned warplanes to carry out targeted executions may violate international law.
Philip Alston said that unless the Obama administration explains the legal basis for targeting particular individuals and the measures it is taking to comply with international humanitarian law which prohibits arbitrary executions, "it will increasingly be perceived as carrying out indiscriminate killings in violation of international law."
Alston, the U.N. Human Rights Council's investigator on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions, raised the issue of U.S. Predator drones in a report to the General Assembly's human rights committee and at a news conference afterwards, saying he has become increasingly concerned at the dramatic increase in their use, especially in Afghanistan and Pakistan, since June.
He said the U.S. response â that the Geneva-based council and the General Assembly have no role in relation to killings during an armed conflict â <b>"is simply untenable."</b>
<b>"That would remove the great majority of issues that come before these bodies right now," Alston said. "The onus is really on the government of the United States to reveal more about the ways in which it makes sure that arbitrary executions, extrajudicial executions are not, in fact, being carried out through the use of these weapons."</b>
Alston's warning comes as President Barack Obama is weighing how to overhaul the U.S. approach to the Afghan conflict.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, wants as many as 40,000 more troops while Vice President Joe Biden favors maintaining the current troop strength of around 68,000 and significantly increasing the use of unmanned drones and special forces for the kind of surgical anti-terror strikes that have been successful in Pakistan, Somalia and elsewhere.
Alston, a law professor at New York University, said that while there may be circumstances where the use of drones "to carry out targeted executions" is consistent with international law, this can only be determined in light of information on the legal basis for selecting certain individuals.
<b>"What we need then is the U.S. to be more up front and say 'OK, we're prepared to discuss some aspects of this program,'" he said.
</b>
Alston said the U.S. should provide details on use of drones, disclose what precautions it takes to ensure the unmanned aircraft are used strictly for purposes consistent with international humanitarian law, and what measures exist to evaluate what happened when their weapons have been used.
"Otherwise, you have the really problematic bottom line -- which is that the Central Intelligence Agency is running a program which is killing significant numbers of people, and there is absolutely no accountability in terms of the relevant international laws," he said.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Monday, August 03, 2009
By Taj M Khattak
In an impressive ceremony on July 26, Indian prime minister Manmohan Singhâs wife Gursharan Kaur struck a coconut on the steel hull of the Indian Navyâs latest nuclear submarine, INS Arihant, and catapulted her country into âClub Five,â countries which develop their own submarines, the United States, Russia, France, the United Kingdom and China.
Ironically, the INS Arihant launch site was not far from the sea grave of Pakistanâs first submarine, PNS Ghazi, with its crew of 90 or so, interned in eternal sleep; a site as sacred to Pakistanâs sea warriors as sacred can be. Ghazi, it may be recalled, had valiantly bottled the entire Indian Navy fleet in its harbours in the 1965 conflict, facilitating the Pakistani Navyâs surface fleet to have a shoot at Dwarka. But fortunes had swung full circle and it perished at the entrance of Vishakhapatnam harbour during a daring but dangerous mission in 1971 war. But back to Arihant now.
The launch on July 26 coincided with the 10th anniversary celebrations of Indiaâs victory over Pakistan at Kargil. âArihantâ is a Sanskrit word which means âdestroyers of all enemies.â If the meaning of the submarineâs name and the date of its launch had any symbolism aimed at Pakistan, only the Indians would know, as most of the media here, more or less, gave it a miss.
INS Arihant has been developed, at a cost of $2.9 billion, under the super-secretive âAdvanced Technology Vehicle,â a euphemism for an SSBN, which was conceived in the 70s. It will provide India with the capability to launch nuclear weapons from sea, adding to its land and air abilities to complete New Delhiâs nuclear weapons concept of triad. In the process it would give India an unquestionable second-strike capability.
Arihant is a ballistic nuclear submarine, also known as an SSBN (ship submersible ballistic, nuclear). It is not an attack submarine, SSN, that is designed to hunt and destroy surface and undersea vessels. Arihantâs main purpose is nuclear deterrence and firings of strategic nuclear weapons.
The Arihant is not the first nuclear submarine in the service of the Indian Navy. In 1988, India leased a Soviet Charlie-class nuclear submarine it renamed as INS Chakra. In accordance with the lease agreement, the USSR received Indian Rs100 millions per month as lease charge. The âleaseâ arrangement also ensured that the USSR received back the spent nuclear fuel, so it was not seen as violating the NPT.
The Indian Navy, in the process, was gaining useful experience in operating nuclear submarines as it was manned by an all-Indian crew. The lease, however, remained plagued with reports of radiation-related accidents and the submarine was returned on completion of the lease in 1991, the year the Soviet Union disintegrated into several independent countries.
INS Arihant has been jointly built by the Indian Navy and the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO). Arihant is claimed to be constructed entirely in India, though reports have surfaced now and then about India seeking Russian assistance is such tricky areas as propeller and shaft technology in order to mitigate production risks, and perhaps the cost, as the ATV had already reached a whopping $2.9 billion tag.
Russian footprints are clearly visible as far as the design of the submarine is concerned, and its assistance in the miniaturisation of the nuclear reactor would certainly have been unavoidable. If there were any doubts, the repeated expressions of gratitude from speakers during the launch ceremony for Russian assistance dispelled those doubts.
INS Arihant is believed to be powered by an 85-megawatt-capacity nuclear reactor and can acquire surface speeds of 22 to 28 km/hour (12-15 knots) and a submerged speed of up to 44 km/hour (24 knots). It has four launch tubes of 2.4- meters diameter each. Initially, it will be armed with three 0.74-meters diameter, K-15 (Sagarika) missiles with a range of 700 kilometres in each launch tube.
Subsequently, it will be armed with one 2.0-meters-diameter sea launched Agni III in each tube with a range of 3,500 kilometres. The sea trails are expected to take anything up to two years where the next milestone to watch is when the reactors onboard attain criticality. The Arihant would then enter the phase of induction of weapons and the whole exercise could take anything up to ten years from now.
The Pakistani Navyâs Agosta 90-B submarines had been equipped with MESMA (module dâenergies sous marine), and an Air Independent Propulsion system, which offered that extra battery power in high double-digit hours on hotel load at slow speed to evade enemy pursuit after an attack. This had been a qualitative advantage over the foe so far; admittedly not a very huge one, but an important one nonetheless, which now stands covered well beyond with one big leap of Arihantâs launching.
But in conventional warfare at sea, this advantage inherent in the Pakistani Navyâs submarines, as anyone with experience of being at the wrong end of depth-charge activity in war would vouch, is still a very big and a most welcome breather indeed.
There have been some rather hurried statements from our ministry of defence after the launching in Vishakhapatnam, which reflect an acceptance of what has been termed as the Indian challenge. But it is certain that the defence establishment of country will take a much harder and deliberate look at the whole issue (if it has not been done already since the ATV was in the coming since 1970s), and indeed the whole paradigm of strategic weaponry.
Both India and Pakistan have enough nuclear weapons to lob over each other from land and air and destroy each other two or three times over and render this entire region an ecological disaster area for decades to come. Should Pakistan then need more nuclear weapons to be lobbed at India from the sea?
One often hears that if our survival is at stake in a war with India, then we shall exercise the nuclear option; or, put militarily, if there is a serious threat of loosing sensitive spaces, then we will make a move towards the âN Button.â I am sure our Strategic Defence Command knows that the moment we press that button, we would have initialled a reaction from India on the 17-or-so targets in Pakistan.
Admittedly, this figure on sites is the works of one Indian analyst, but it is hard to figure how much different it would be from the Indian establishments own calculations. The whole point is that nuclear weapons are deterrence against going to full-fledged war. But if, for whatever reason, a war breaks out between India and Pakistan, then the nuclear option would cease to be an option any longer.
If it yet does, and is exercised in a moment of madness, then, far from hoping that it will help us save the fatherland, it will expedite its pulverisation, and there will be nothing left for anyone, either this or that side of the border, for such is the devastating nature of the mushroom clouds.
As we have seen in the recent past, nuclear submarines have not saved countries from implosion. The Soviet Unionâs Northern Fleet nuclear submarines lay rotting by the dozens at Murmansk after the break-up down of the Soviet Union.
Pakistan, currently ranking at number 10 on the list of most failed state and at 134 amongst 180 countries on Transparency Internationalâs Corruption Perception Index, besides the host of other problems which need not be repeated here, should watch each and every step that it take and very, very carefully indeed.
It is time to put our house in order and not overstretch ourselves in any unnecessary competition. The Soviet Union was drawn in one such race that it could not sustain and it perished in the process. Let Pakistan not be the second such case study of this century.
PESHAWAR: Senior NWFP Minister Bashir Ahmed Bilour said we will bring the terrorists to the justice they deserve.
Talking to newsmen while visiting the blast spot at Chowk Yadgar Mina Bazaar, Peshawar today, he denied that the incident took place due to the security lapses.
âTerrorists may reach anywhere, if they can enter GHQ.â
He observed, âHow and which Islam is served by taking innocent lives in suicide blasts.â
âArmy might be called in the city if need arisesâ, Bilour answered a question.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The area was one of the most congested parts of Peshawar and full of women's clothing shops and general market stalls popular in the city of 2.5 million.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Thank God, I am not a citizen of the Islamic state of Pakistan. Imagine if my parents had been enamoured of Jaswant Singh's newfound hero Mohammad Ali Jinnah and migrated to the Islamic State of Pakistan.
What a tragedy could have befallen my family and me! I could have either myself turned into a bigot or my kids could have taken up guns in the pursuit of a puritanical Islamic state like Saudi Arabia. I am extremely indebted to my parents for sticking to their roots in Allahabad and happily accepting the citizenship of 'Hindu India' instead of saltanat-e-khudadad-e-Pakistan (godly kingdom of Pakistan).
Ironically, there is nothing godly or saintly about Pakistan today. Pakistan could never become a modern republican state. So the state eventually withered away and got out of everyone's control. There was a time not too long ago when the world believed that it was the Pakistan army whose writ ran the country. How naive was this understanding.
Once considered the most powerful power centre, the Pakistan army headquarters in Rawalpindi is now under attack from Pakistani jihadis. The world also thought that the Punjabi elite had a tight grip over Pakistan establishment. Now the Punjabis themselves are not secure in their beloved town of Lahore where terrorists' strike at will.
Who then controls Pakistan? Is it the democratic establishment led by Asif Zardari? No, not at all! There is no consensus between Zardari and Mian Nawaz Sharif, the two leading rival democratic parties, even in these moments of grave internal crisis. Are the executive and judiciary now acting as the watchdog? Well, both sympathise with the likes of Hafiz Saeed and nuclear technology smuggler AQ Khan more than the state of Pakistan. Saeed and Khan are the two ideological masters of Pakistani jihadi philosophy.
All the Pakistani terror groups revere them. So it is neither army, nor the Punjabi elite that controls Pakistan any longer. Instead it is men like Saeed and Khan who do, ideologically at least.
You cannot arrest Saeed in Pakistan because he is the ideological pope of jihad. You cannot prosecute him either. The police would make such a weak case that it won't stand in a court of law for a minute. The judiciary would let him walk out because of his 'heroic services' in 'destabilising India'. And even America cannot harm Khan.
After all, he delivered a nuclear bomb to the insecure Pakistanis, stealing and smuggling nuclear technology from all over the world. The world is convinced that he smuggled dreaded technology to North Korea and Iran. He is the last hope of the jihadis who believe that Khan would one day deliver them a nuclear device to destroy their hated enemy, America.
Pakistan is today controlled by the syndicate of Taliban, al Qaeda and Punjabi terror outfits like Jaish e Mohammad. But why is it that Pakistan has failed in modern sense of the word state? A modern state in the post renaissance and post industrial revolution world is essentially run by the will of the people through democracy.
Pakistan has nothing to do both with renaissance and industrial revolution. Its ideological frontier very soon after its inception was a medieval Islamic state whose only function was to destroy India.
So the people were always kept at the margin of state affairs. Pakistan elite facilitated the military takeover of the establishment to fight India and 'liberate Muslim Kashmir from Hindu hands'.
When the entire Pakistani establishment failed to harm an emerging modern Indian state and got truncated in 1971, it vengefully came up with the idea of jihad against India 'to bleed India in Kashmir'.
A jihad genie like Jaish e Mohammed was created with the ideological training from men like Saeed and Talibani madrasas spread across the tribal belt of Pakistan to harm India. The genie is now out of the bottle consuming the state that created it.
A medieval Pakistani state, run by an army and ideologically driven by myopic people like Saeed and terror outfits like Jaish, has had to finally come to this pass where no one now understands who runs Pakistan.
Pakistan shunned renaissance wisdom and post-industrial democratic institutions.Such a medieval state has had to run out of steam sooner or later. So it is now implodingand being consumed by the medieval and tribal hatred it nurtured against India.
Thank you mom and pop, for not migrating to Islamic state of Pakistan because I would have also exploded if not imploded by the jihadi forces that are consuming Pakistan now.
<!--QuoteBegin-ramana+Oct 28 2009, 09:45 PM-->QUOTE(ramana @ Oct 28 2009, 09:45 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Need to understand the Peshawar blast better. Something is odd here.
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from paki fora<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->There was huge crackdown in Peshawar since last big blast, hundreds of Afghanis were arrested.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Army are strangely silent about this mass murder of women and children, where is that whore Asma Jahangir - who has so much love for the BLA and Bukti and these takfiri scum. Where is her condemnation.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This is message from Paki Army to Pashtun. This is what I am reading from Paki fora, they were routing for this to happen, and it did.
<i>WASHINGTON: The Pakistan Army has received a total of about $17 billion from the United States for arms and equipment since 1954, the year the United States entered into defense pacts with Pakistan. According to an article published on Thursday in the Wall Street Journal, since 2002, the US has subsidized the Pakistan Army to the tune of $150 million per month.</i>
KARACHI: Pakistan has so far imported Rs.2.5 billion tomatoes from India through Wagah border.
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So far tomatoes worth of Rs. 2.5 billion have been imported so far whereas tomatoes of Rs. one billion will be imported till December.
<b>Explosives found from Karachi college</b>
Updated at: 1853 PST, Wednesday, October 28, 2009
KARACHI: Explosives have been found from ground of Government Commerce College, Geo News reported Wednesday.
SSP Fayyaz said suicide vests were also recovered from the playground of the Government Commerce College situated near II Chundrigar Road.
