Pakistan News And Discussion-11

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Good News from Pakistan <!--emo&:bevil--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/b_evil.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='b_evil.gif' /><!--endemo-->

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Pakistani's way of resolving disputes:-17-year-old boy killed in seating order row

LAHORE: Unidentified killers clubbed a 17-year-old boy to death over a van-seating dispute in the Qilla Gujjar Singh police precincts on Sunday. Edhi Foundation officials said that Amir Mehmood, a resident of Jandiyala Village Manawan, was returning home from his work by a public van, when he quarrelled with two boys Shahzad and Majid over seat in the van.

Other passengers of the van settled the matter. Shahzad and Majid later came to Amir’s work place at Abbot Road on a motorcycle with no registration number plate. They called Amir outside the shop and injured him with multiple hits of wooden rods and fled the scene.

Co-workers rushed Amir to the Mayo Hospital where he died. Police sent the body for autopsy and registered a case against the alleged killers.



Radio Pakistan Islamabad official robbed

LAHORE: A couple robbed money from the deputy controller of Radio Pakistan (Islamabad) after intoxicating him in the Sabzazar police precincts on Sunday.

Radio Pakistan (Islamabad) deputy controller Ahmed Sheikh came to the city on July 27. As he left the bus at the Band Road, a couple riding a car asked him the way to Green Town.

Sheikh guided them towards the Green Town but the Saraiki speaking couple offered him a lift. On their way, the male member of the couple stopped the car at a cold drink corner and purchased three juice packs and gave one to Sheikh.

Sheikh went unconscious after taking the cold drink. The couple robbed him of important documents and Rs 50,000 and escaped after throwing him on the roadside. Locals called Rescue 1122 on finding him unconscious and he was later rushed to the Jinnah Hospital.

Sheikh regained consciousness late night on July 28, and hospital administration asked him about his family and informed them. They reached Jinnah Hospital and informed the police. The family took Sheikh to Islamabad.

When contacted, Sabzazar Police duty officer said he had no knowledge of the incident while the SHO could not be contacted for comments. staff report



Chinese language courses to start to help in better understanding your chinese accupuncturist<!--emo&:clapping--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/clap.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='clap.gif' /><!--endemo-->

KARACHI: Two Chinese language courses will start July 31 at the recently established Chinese Language Tutorial Center (CLTC). A four-month crash course and a 16-month regular course are being offered to citizens with the promise of a better chance in education and occupation.

The CLTC is the only Chinese language tutorial organization in the city. It is sponsored and managed by the Chinese Guangxi Corporation, which is a Chinese state-owned company. The month-old center is located in KDA Scheme Block 5, Clifton and a short introductory course has already been completed. A total of 25 Pakistani students from different groups participated and have completed the course successfully.

“I am an employee of a trading firm that is in <b>frequent contact with our Chinese counterparts.</b> Language was a major barrier in communicating with them. This center has given me a unique opportunity to learn the language in the shortest period of time,” said Khalid Hussain.

According to him, the teaching method has already proven itself in different countries. “Our Chinese language center in Dhaka has been a very successful experiment. The same set-up has been shifted to Pakistan and we are expecting similar success in Karachi as well,” Junqiang added.


Pakistanis collect dead fish that miraclously appeared in harbour

KARACHI: Thousands of dead fish have appeared off the Karachi Port Trust harbour and several people have started collecting them to sell in the city, raising alarm among experts.

“It could be very dangerous for people to consume these fish without knowing the real cause of death,” Nasir Panhwer of the IUCN told Daily Times. “The fish could’ve died because of a chemical or naturally. Nobody knows exactly when or how it happened and where they came from.”

Sham Lal, a visitor at the Hanuman Temple near the Native Jetty Bridge, told Daily Times that the number of these dead fish increased on Sunday. “The disgusting odor is unbearable and the black kites and crows have started eating them,” he said.{P.S:- Sham Lal is a visitor at the Hanuman Temple and not a devotee}.

The news of the fish spread like wild fire. Many people were seen collecting them near Native Jetty Bridge without knowing why they had died. The authorities, including the KPT’s marine pollution control department, Sindh’s environment department, the EPA and others, have yet to find out the real reason behind this disaster.

“Perhaps some huge fishing ship caught these fish and then offloaded them when they found some other big catch in another place,” speculated Shariq, a KPT public relations officer.

He assumed that the fish did not die because of chemicals and that they were thrown away. “We have collected samples and they will be sent to the national institute of oceanology for biological assessments. Initially, we found that the gills of these dead fish were white which means that they died naturally, not because of some chemicals,” he told Daily Times.


Load shedding completely ruins the day for Pakistanis who try to rest after a week of work

KARACHI: Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) consumers experienced another day of inconsistent power supply on Sunday – the day that KESC always says is free of load shedding because offices are closed and the demand is less than the supply.

KESC spokesmen have previously said that on days off the power demand remains well within the supply range because most of the demand coming from the offices is absent on a non-working day, therefore, there is no need to load shed. Kamran, a resident of Airport area, said that the load shedding spoilt the entire day. The inconsistent power supply completely ruined the day for people who try to rest after a week of work, said Ms Gulshan.



Shut down by September 27 or else...: Islamist threatens to bomb Rainbow Centre


* Issues warning to cable operators, cinemas and bus drivers who play loud music

KARACHI: A pamphlet from a man threatening to blow up Rainbow Centre unless it shut down by September 27 was distributed Saturday night, sparking panic in the ground-floor business owners and people who live in the flats above.

“If the video business does not shut down in two months, there will be an explosion so big that the entire world will remember it,” said the A4 size open letter, written in crude Urdu handwriting and signed by ‘Fatah’. “Even if I do not remain, the voice of Islamic Shariat will never die.”

The open letter also issued a warning to the city’s cinemas, cable operators and public bus drivers who play loud music. “All of Karachi’s cinema hall owners are requested to shut down otherwise after July 27 any one of them could be blown up with a bomb at any time,” the letter said.

“Cable operators should only air Islamic channels and if any vulgar programmes are broadcast in any locality of Karachi, the cable operator’s office will be blown up,” it added.

The letter’s writer said that vulgarity and obscenity had become exceedingly common and that the various forms of the media were showing dancing and singing. He appealed to people to shun these forms of entertainment and for those he threatened to desist from their work.

The pamphlet was reportedly distributed to all the shops on the ground floor of Rainbow Centre by two children, aged seven and nine, said Waqas Khalid who works at shop No. G-39 and Nadim of shop No. G-112. The children did not know what was written in the letter, added Waqas of shop No. G-111. As the salesmen read it and the news spread, shopkeepers grabbed the children and questioned them.

The children, who are from the neighbourhood, said that they were given Rs 100 each by <b>a tall man with a big beard.</b>{Must be Osama's long lost pakistani Cousin}<!--emo&:bevil--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/b_evil.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='b_evil.gif' /><!--endemo-->  He was wearing a shalwar kameez and skull cap. He gave them the pamphlets and told them to just throw it into each shop.

The Rainbow Centre union got together to discuss the problem and when this report was filed they were drafting a letter to the law enforcement agencies that they planned to dispatch.

Acting chief of police Javaid Bukhari told Daily Times Sunday night that he had not received any complaint but if he did the police would obviously do everything in their power to prevent anything bad from happening. “We can give solve the problem 10 percent by giving them extra security but 90 percent of it will depend on their own vigilance,” Bukhari said, adding that he was going to look into the matter today.

Rainbow Centre union president Salim Memon said that while he agreed that there should be an Islamic system, threatening people with bombs was no way to impose it. One of his colleagues, Muslim, added that some people thought that distributing a letter like this was a “short cut” to heaven. Rainbow Centre will tighten security but are also deciding whether to continue work as usual or shut up shop.

The chairman of Media Plus Communications Amir who is also part of the management of Nishat Cinema said that they had not received the pamphlet.

JI’s Merajul Huda Siddiqui said “Rulers should also realise, however, that the undue use of power gives rise to another kind of powerful movement. Our rulers think that steam would be released if they have a photo session at the Ka’ba.”



More than 7.5 million Pakistanis than  live in slums

* Rs 5,000 monthly income for family of 6
* Land prices soared because of World Bank
* Illegal housing growing by 10% annually

KARACHI: Half of Karachi’s population - more than 7.5 million people - live in katchi abadis, said Ahmed Tasneem Siddiqui, a known bureaucrat who is considered an expert on slums.

“Those who live there are from the skilled and unskilled working classes, including clerks, teachers, industrial workers, small workshop owners, air hostesses, domestic workers and sanitary workers,” Siddiqui said during the PPP’s weekly lecture programme held at the Peoples’ Secretariat on the topic: ‘Katchi Abadis: Why they crop up? What is the solution?’

Siddiqui said that during the last seven to eight years, the gap between the nation’s rich and the poor has grown enormously. Now one sees thousands of people sleeping in open spaces or living in subhuman conditions, he added.

He noted that the locality where a family lived determined the level of its social conditions, income, and human rights. He said that a difference could easily be seen in the generations. Every generation of those living in posh areas was taller and healthier than the previous one, while in katchi abadis, every succeeding generation, especially the females, were shorter and weaker than their parents.

The reasons for this, he said, were malnutrition, high incidence of disease, congestion, lack of fresh air and recreation and lack of sound sleep, etc...

He narrated the history of the creation of katchi abadis that he said started immediately after Pakistan’s independence because of the influx of refugees and the import of cheap migrant labour for developing industrial sectors. And then later due to the break-up of the country, he added.

“The phenomenon has now grown into an organised land invasion by land grabbers, who work in partnership with the police, the patwaris and local councillors. More than 1,000 acres of government land, around settled acres, is occupied every year by this partnership and is sold to those who have no place to live,” he said.

Siddiqui added that the government abandoned its duty of developing housing schemes for low income groups under the pressure of the World Bank, which set down rules and procedures that caused prices of land to soar.

The development programme, as dictated by the World Bank, delayed construction by 15 to 20 years because poor people could never meet the conditions for the schemes. The result was that all the housing schemes, such as Surjani, Gulzar Hijri, Shah Latif Town etc, were a failure. “Hardly 10 to 20 percent of the plots in these schemes see construction and it takes more than 20 years to construct houses on the plots,” he said.

Informal and illegal housing in katchi abadis was growing by nine to ten percent yearly. Abadis such as Machar Colony were spreading overnight and even reclaiming land from the sea.

“The private sector only develops housing for the rich and the public sector and the cooperative sector hardly function. Unfortunately it is the informal sector that is looking after the housing needs of low income groups,” he said.

Siddiqui stressed that the need of the hour was that the public sector look at the methods employed by the informal sector, eliminate corruption and provide land to low-income families at affordable prices legally.

Agreeing with the argument of the programme organisers - that all people have equal rights on land and the PPP shall provide a ‘plot for every family’ - he cautioned that housing was not just about plots and the party should work on a comprehensive package for educational, health, recreation and micro-credit facilities in the new localities it proposes to develop for low-income groups.

Zahid Farooq, in his presidential remarks, severely criticised the government for playing into the lands of the land mafia. He said that the land mafia was bulldozing old settled localities of the poor in order to create spaces for commercial plazas. He urged the civil society, and most importantly the residents of these localities, to show resistance even if they have to face the might of the so-called law enforcing agencies.



Intelligence official, relative kidnapped in pakistan

MIR ALI: Unknown people kidnapped an Intelligence Bureau sub inspector and his relative from Mir Ali tehsil in North Waziristan Agency on Sunday.

A private television channel reported that five masked men abducted Sub-Inspector Bahadur Nawaz and his relative Muhammad Javed, a government schoolteacher, when they were going from Mir Ali Scouts Cantonment to a local bazaar.

Both hostages are from Bannu district’s Domeel area.


TNSM suicide bombers head to Rawalpindi

ISLAMABAD: The law-enforcement agencies are searching for at least two would-be suicide bombers whom the Tehreek Nifaz-e-Sharia Muhammadi has tasked with attacking the residences of military officials in Rawalpindi, sources told Daily Times.

They said intelligence agencies had sent reports to the Interior Ministry, claiming that two suicide bombers trained by TNSM head Maulvi Faqir Muhammad and his brother Maulvi Ghulam Muhammad had left Bajaur Agency for Rawalpindi. “The bombers are clean shaven and around 25 years of age,” according to the reports.



Pakistan faced with threat of Islamist revolt: No deal with uniformed president: BB

LONDON: Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto insisted on Sunday that she would not strike a power-sharing deal with President Pervez Musharraf so long as he remained the army chief.

Bhutto has had talks with General Musharraf about a possible return to Pakistan but maintained she had grave reservations about a uniformed president. “It’s very important to deal with who’s there. He is the person there and if we can find a way to get the uniformed presidency out of the picture, we can find a way to get democracy back... we will be looking forward. We’re not there yet.”

She added: “The post of the army chief must be separated from that of the president.”

She said an amendment passed by Musharraf banning a twice-elected prime minister from seeking office a third time was “an issue which is part of the discussion between us”.

“If he doesn’t bring the change, if the people of Pakistan, through their elected representatives wish to lift that ban, they certainly can,” she said. “Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and I have come to an understanding that we would lift this ban.”

Bhutto also told German newsweekly Focus that she would fight Musharraf before the country’s highest tribunal if he tried to win a new term from the old parliament before new elections are held. “The army must stop governing the country. The military must respect decisions of the government and be held accountable before the parliament,” she said.

“But I will go back regardless of whether the talks with Musharraf are successful or not,” Bhutto said, adding that she would seek protection against prosecution from Pakistani courts.

Asked by Sky why she wanted to return, Bhutto said Pakistan was being threatened by extremists. “... this is more than a struggle for me: this is a struggle for the heart and the soul of Pakistan ... Very critical choices have to be made between the forces of the past and the forces of the future.”

<b>In the Focus interview, Bhutto warned of a looming Islamist revolution mounted from madrassas. “The Red Mosque was just a warm-up for what will happen if the religious schools are not disarmed,” she said.</b>

She added that Islamist extremist leaders were plotting to overthrow Musharraf’s government and had converted madrassas in Pakistani cities into military headquarters with well-stocked arsenals.

She accused Musharraf of adopting an “appeasement policy” toward extremists that had only strengthened them. She admitted that she had made mistakes during her time in office in trying to work with the Taliban to pacify the country.



Blasts suspects to be arrested soon

ISLAMABAD, July 29: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has said that the people involved in suicide attacks and other bomb blasts would be arrested and given exemplary punishment.

Talking to newsmen on Sunday after his visit to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Science, he said law enforcement agencies had been working hard so that the culprits behind the Aabpara suicide attack and other bomb blasts could be arrested soon.

The prime minister said: “Suicide attacks and bomb explosions always kill innocent people and it is against the basic teachings of Islam.”{Yeah then why send them to India,Mr.Aziz}.

He said some forces were working against the solidarity and interest of the country on the instructions of foreign forces. He said the government had taken adequate measures to face such elements.



Three held for grenade attacks

QUETTA, July 29: Police on Sunday arrested three suspects in connection with grenade attacks in Khuzdar.

According to sources, the police raided the hostel of degree college Khuzdar and taken a student and two other people into custody. Police claimed to seize a grenade and arms from their room.

The two arrested people were not students of the college and were living in the hostel illegally, the police said, alleging that they were involved in grenade attacks in different areas of Khuzdar.

The three suspects were handed over to concerned authorities for further interrogation.

Meanwhile, police rounded up over 60 suspects in connection with the killing of Raziq Bugti who was gunned down on Friday.



Baloch women take to Gandhigiri: To observe hunger strike

QUETTA, July 29: The newly-formed Baloch Women Panel on Sunday announced that it would observe a token hunger strike from July 30 till August 14 for the recovery of missing youths.

Speaking at a press conference here on Sunday, BWP members Hani Baloch and Shakar Bibi said the government’s oppression against the Baloch people had forced the women to come out on the streets.

They accused the security forces and intelligence agencies of torturing the detained Baloch youths in secret cells. They alleged that during raids on the houses of political activists, women are insulted, adding that hundreds of Baloch political workers had either been arrested or missing for the last four years.

The BWP members said the panel had been formed to support those families whose youths were either abducted or missing.

They appealed to the international human rights organisations to raise voice against the detention of Baloch youths in the province.

They said Wahid Qamar, Ghulam Mohammad, Sher Mohammad, Saleem Baloch, Khan Mohammad Marri, Qadir alias Shadi Khan Marri, Fazal Baloch, Zakir Majid Baloch and Faiz Baloch had been missing and for their recovery the BWP members would observe the token hunger strike.



Nine killed in road accidents, armed attack

QUETTA, July 29: Nine people, including three women, were killed and 38 others were injured in two road accidents and a firing incident in Hub, Kalat and the Rakhni area of Balochistan on Sunday.

Police sources said an armed man attacked a house in the Rakhni area of Barkhan and started firing, killing three people of a family on the spot.

The cause of the attack is said to be an old enmity. The armed man escaped after firing.

Deceased were identified as Nageen, Qadir Bakhsh and Hayatan Bibi.

Three people including a woman were killed and 24 others received injuries when a Karachi bound bus carrying pilgrims turned turtle near Hub. The pilgrims were coming back from Shah Noorani. The injured were shifted to the civil hospital Hub.

The victims were identified as Shahida Bibi, Abdul Rehman and Irfan.


Bomber’s identikit released

ISLAMABAD, July 29: The Islamabad police have released an identikit of the man thought to have blown himself up at Aabpara Market on Friday evening.

The government announced on Sunday a sum of Rs1 million for anyone who would identify the suicide bomber.

The snaps of the suicide bomber have been sent to government organisations across the country for identification.

The photograph shows a clean-shaven man, with some hair on his chin and jet black hair on the head.

The picture shows the nose and the chin fastened together with a string as one portion of the face had been blown away and both eyes were open.

A plastic surgery of the face has been conducted to reconstruct the face as the left side and nose were badly damaged.


Another Lal Masjid in pakistan

GHALLANAI, July 29: Gunmen have forcefully occupied a mosque and an adjacent shrine in Mohmand Agency’s Lakaro tehsil and announced that they will continue the ‘mission’ of late Maulana Ghazi Abdur Rashid and establish a madressah at the place.

The armed masked men took up positions in and around the Jamia Masjid Ghaziabad Lakaro on Saturday night and people coming to pray there were frisked at the gate. The gunmen announced that they were renaming the mosque as ‘Lal Masjid’ and the madressah would be called ‘Jamia Hafsa Umme Hassan’, witnesses said on Sunday.

Residents said the gunmen after occupying the mosque and the shrine of Haji Sahib Turangzai, a known reformist and freedom fighter, declared that they would continue their jihad against the US and its allies. They urged locals to support them.

One of the gunmen, introducing himself as Khalid, spoke to journalists on behalf of the militants and said that they would continue the mission of deputy administrator of Islamabad’s Lal Masjid, Maulana Ghazi. “The killing of Maulana Ghazi Abdur Rashid would give birth to hundreds others like him. We are establishing a madressah, Jamia Hafsa Umme Hassan here,” he said.

The armed men wrote ‘Lal Masjid’ on the walls of the mosque and changed a signboard in front of the tehsil office building to ‘Lal Masjid Ghaziabad’.

The political administration could not be reached for comments despite several attempts. However, the political tehsildar of Lakaro tehsil confirmed that the mosque had been occupied.
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