CrossTalk: Pakistan Next Target for US?
Sep 1, 2010 Pakistan, war on terror
Tags: afghanistan, India, Karzai, Pakistan, US
As Pakistan drowns, its leaders fight
Sep 1, 2010 Pakistan, pakistan politics
After a month of extensive flooding in Pakistan’s Indus river, the waters are finally pouring into the Arabian Sea.
The fury of the floods has inundated almost one-fifth of the country’s agricultural land, destroying crops orchards and sweeping away livestock. In the end, it displaced almost 20 million people and destroyed irrigation systems, schools, hospitals, wiped out entire villages and destroyed more than a thousand bridges.
All in all, the government now estimates the total losses from the devastating floods to be around $43bn. Just a few years ago the government also estimated the losses incurred from the ongoing alliance in the so-called War on Terror, which is said to be around $35bn.
Add the two and you get a figure of $78bn – something the Pakistani leadership will have to bear in mind.
Already the country’s external debt is said to be a staggering $53bn on which the country is paying back $3bn annually for debt-servicing, putting an extra burden on the already faltering economy. The question is what happens next?
Calls for revolution
At least one self-exiled political leader, Altaf Hussain of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM), thought the time was rife for a revolution. He has already told the peasants who have lost everything to occupy the homes and estates of the feudal, whom he says control this country and hold sway over parliament, the bureaucracy and the military.
Hussain even asked the patriotic generals to bring the feudal landlords to book and hold them accountable. The message was enough for the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) party to move a point of order in the National Assembly against the MQM.
The message also fueled a ferocious debate on private TV networks in which political figures from various parties and the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party fought verbal bouts in front of a bewildered nation that was already dreading the tough times ahead because of the worst floods in living memory.
Forgotten was the plight of the poor people who were now planning to return to their destroyed farms and villages as the waters gradually started to retreat.
Target killings persist
The floods did nothing to stop the target killings in Karachi, which continue unabated and where two political rivals – the Awami National Party (ANP) and the MQM – are fighting what is now dubbed as a turf war for control of Pakistan’s economic jugular and its major port city, also the financial hub of Pakistan.
Ironically, the nationalists are keeping a low profile in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, previously known as the Northwest Frontier Province (where they are in power) after angry locals complained that political leadership failed to come to the rescue of the ordinary citizens and warned them of dire consequences.
Sadly even now it appears that neither the government nor other political parties are able to concentrate on relief to the victims of the flood.
Even though they were more than generous to offer advice to the people to start a bloody revolution, they had no idea that the people were perhaps contemplating holding their political leadership responsible for their plight.
If the Pakistani leadership wants to be sincere to the people, it should try and win back lost credibility by putting aside petty differences and uniting to save the country.
If leaders fail now they will have to prepare to face the wrath of 180 million people; and though the idea may be coming from some political circles that the country is ready for a revolution, those leaders would not be the benefactors.
Tags: Pakistan, Pakistan Flood, target killing
Hidden facts behind fake evidences of News Of The World!
Lords, London – England: British police on Sunday bailed without charge a man arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud bookmakers.
Several people are saying that these allegations are quite right & the players must be punished. The simple answer is these are accusations because they are not proved yet & will not because of the weak strength of the evidences.
Hidden facts behind these fake evidences (People saying these are real, here is the answer that these are fake):
1) Picture of Salman Butt with so called ‘fixer’ Majeed & so called ‘reporter’ of ‘News of the World’ :
Take a close look of this picture ==>
- Salman Butt is in front, he should be stand in between of them.
- You can see how much is the difference between the quality of Salman Butt pic, the so called ‘fixer’ pic & the reporter pic.
- The width of the shadow of Salman’s neck is too big then it comes in real.
- Have a look at the right side bottom of the picture, bottom of the so called ‘fixer’ Majeed, there is some thing with white border & with black inner surface, what is it, may be a chair or table or some thing. One thing proves here that the photographer is not professional. Then how he gets high quality picture of Salman Butt.
- The left arm of the jacket/coat which Salman Butt is wearing is so straight, in real its not look like this. Check the yellow line on the left arm of the Salman Butt.
- If you are still not believing, let’s believe it is true for a while, this picture can be take on some kind of party, the press ‘reporter’ is there, the so called ‘fixer’ is the agent of several ‘Pakistani players’. Still it is not proving that any kind of fixing here.
2) 1st Video in which the so called ‘Reporter’ is giving money to so called ‘Fixer’:
- No time is mentioned, it might be recorded after the overs or after the day.
- When ever any kind of bookie takes such a big amount, he never counts it & he always receive cash in the form of briefcase.
- What kind of hidden camera is this, which is just fixed in front of the so called ‘fixer’ & table? A CCTV, no because such a hidden camera can’t provide high quality result (colour view) with high quality voice.
3) 2nd Video in which the so called ‘Reporter’ is giving cash to the so called ‘Fixer’ in the car & after this ‘Fixer’ is giving his jacket to Wahab Riaz:
- Again no date & time is mentioned.
- So called ‘Fixer’ is seeing in the camera & talking.
- Amazingly, so called ‘Reporter’ is giving cash to the so called ‘Fixer’ in the car where there is light & people are walking on the road near the car.
- 3 cameras are in the car according to the video & so called ‘Fixer’ even can’t point out a single camera & he is looking into it.
- In the car the so called ‘Fixer’ is wearing ‘Light Blue’ shirt & when he is giving his jacket to Wahab Riaz, he is wearing ‘Black’ shirt.
- Showing or Giving jacket is not proving anything, because the weather in England is cold & may be Wahab Riaz is feeling cold so Wahab just borrowed the jacket from him.
4) Why the ‘News of the World’ team didn’t went to Police on August 27, 2010:
- Because the evidence were not ready.
- Because they were waiting for some kind of poor performance so they can provide more strength to there fake evidences.
- Some people are saying that because of their weekly edition they leaked the videos on August 28, 2010, well this is not the reason because if they would’ve visited the Scotland Yard on August 27, 2010 with their evidences then there was a chance that Scotland Yard would’ve kept the videos secret until August 28, 2010.
5) So Called ‘Fixer’ Mazhar Majeed released on bail:
Scotland Yard on Sunday bailed without charge a man arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud bookmakers.
“A 35 year-old man has been bailed until a date in the future”, a Scotland Yard spokesman said.
6) Salman Butt refuses to resign after false allegations:
The captain of Pakistan Test Cricket Team insisted he would not be resigning after being implicated in an alleged betting scam.
he matter is almost over, the criticisers must now stop criticising. The English media completely failed in their ridiculous mission.
7) Pakistani players can leave England:
The Pakistani players at the center of the scandal are free to leave the country, London’s Metropolitan Police said Monday.
Tags: behind fake evidences, Muhammad Asif, News Of The World, Pakistan, Pakistani Players, Salman Butt
Match Fixing Blame – Real or Fake?
Aug 31, 2010 Pakistan
Tags: Match Fixing, Match Fixing Blame, Mohammad Amir, Pakistan
Two Brothers killed in Sialkot Uncut Video
Aug 24, 2010 Pakistan
Pakistan’s non-reaction to Wikileaks
Aug 17, 2010 Pakistan
On the morning of July 26 I woke up at home in Karachi, nine hours ahead of eastern time, to an e-mail from an American friend who writes for The Atlantic’s website. “How is WikiLeaks playing in Pakistan?” he wanted to know. The story had broken overnight, and I had no idea what he was talking about. In turn I picked up Dawn, The News, and The Express Tribune, the three Pakistani newspapers that are delivered to my house every day. Not one of them had anything to say on the issue.
It was another matter entirely when I logged onto my computer and the New York Times website. For the next several hours I was transfixed, trying to digest both the firestorm in the international media and the pin-drop silence at home.
The most likely explanation of this is that the story broke too late to make it into Pakistani newspapers on Monday morning. The conspiracy-minded might argue it could have been suppressed, perhaps even in advance, by the Pakistani state, or that domestic newspapers would not want to jump into dangerous territory without taking the time to examine the matter closely. Either way, the silence continued almost unbroken throughout the day.
By early afternoon the websites of dailies Dawn and The Express Tribune carried only one story each; both were wire reports. Later in the day they had each added one more. The News, which vies with Dawn for the top circulation spot among English-language newspapers, remained silent on the issue. When I turned on the television, news channels were focusing on domestic stories. Even the small group of Pakistani journalists and analysts who are usually quick to Twitter about politics and current affairs didn’t seem to be particularly interested. While the Western media tied itself into knots over the implications for the war in Afghanistan and for how information gets disseminated today, Pakistan maintained a stony silence.
On Tuesday the indifference hadn’t fully worn away. Only two of five English-language dailies, which are generally considered less right-wing than Urdu newpapers, carried editorials on the issue, and many newspaper reports were still based on wire stories rather than their own reporting or analysis. It was earlier today, finally, that the issue began to get some fraction of the coverage it has been getting in the West.
Tuesday’s front pages show one reason why. Alongside the WikiLeaks story, and sometimes as the main lead, appeared the deadly suicide bombing outside the home of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Information Minster, an outspoken critic of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and a member of the secular ANP party that governs the province. Tragically, it targeted a gathering held to mourn the loss of his young son, who was killed at gunpoint just two days earlier in an incident the TTP claimed responsibility for. Another major story crammed onto the front page was about a 10-rupee-per-kilogram rise in the price of government-subsidized sugar, an increase that sounds minimal but, following massive earlier price hikes resulting in part from government inability to manage food supplies, has real and troubling implications for a population that can now barely afford anything beyond wheat and vegetables. Amidst the Western media’s focus on Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy, the war’s political implications for Barack Obama and how Afghanistan is carpeted with Taliban IEDs, Pakistan simply has too much at home to worry about. Perceptions of the country in the West take a back seat when severe electricity shortages, spiraling food prices and devastating terrorist attacks confront us every day.
There is also, as Mosharraf Zaidi pointed out in The News in the rare (if not only) column on the issue on Tuesday, the country’s lack of surprise any time the Pakistani intelligence service the ISI and the Taliban are mentioned in the same sentence. As a result of lingering suspicion of the U.S., the narrative here is not so much denying ISI involvement as it is resentful of American focus on that aspect of the leaks amidst all the material available, and of what could be considered unreliable evidence about the spy agency’s actions. The first news reports to acknowledge the issue jumped straight to this secondary point instead of telling the story of the leaks itself: “US condemns leak alleging Pakistan spy-insurgent links” and “ISI denounces leaked intel documents” were the headlines of the stories on news websites on Monday. Editorials on Tuesday and Wednesday have focused heavily on the non-Pakistan aspects of the leaks, such as civilian casualties and the Taliban’s stranglehold on Afghanistan, and expressed doubts about reports on ISI collusion. And when the New York Times led with the Pakistan angle while the Guardian focused on civilian deaths and more strongly emphasized the questionable nature of material about the ISI, these choices fed into the perception that U.S. media reports about the story were simply hype, if not biased.
My exchange with a fellow Pakistani journalist on Monday was telling. In a series of e-mails that afternoon, we wondered what the motive was behind the leaks and their timing — was this really the work of a lone conscientious objector, or even a group of them, who were somehow able to release 90,000 documents that included details on classified military action and the struggling war strategy of NATO and the U.S.? Or was it a larger political move to hurt Obama before mid-term elections in November? Was it done deliberately by the White House, which subsequently pointed out that the reports covered the time period before Obama took office and therefore vindicated his new strategy? Was this the Pentagon trying to put pressure on the ISI, or a U.S. government attempt to curb Pakistan’s role in Afghan Taliban reconciliation, and hence its growing influence over Karzai?
This is one stereotype about Pakistanis that is true. We have grown up as a security state run by the military and intelligence agencies, with a co-dependent yet troubled relationship with the U.S., and our instinct is to question the obvious version of any story. One could argue, in that vein, that some media outlets here initially suppressed this one under either implicit or explicit state pressure. But amidst daily tragedy, and in an atmosphere of enduring mistrust of the U.S., the story never really had a chance.
Madiha Sattar is a senior assistant editor at the Karachi-based monthly The Herald.
Tags: cia, Pakistan, US, war on terror, Wikileaks
Disease spreads in Pakistan Flood crisis
Aug 16, 2010 Pakistan
Pakistan’s flood crisis is making the spread of disease a fast increasing problem and hospitals are struggling to cope with the sheer volume of affected people.
Women and children, especially newborns, are suffering the most from malnourishment.
Tags: Floods in Pakistan, Pakistan, Pakistan Flood
Pictures of Flooding in Pakistan!
Aug 10, 2010 Pakistan
It is only the start of the monsoon season, but already Pakistan is experiencing some of the worst flooding it has seen in over 80 years. Entire villages have been washed away, an early estimate of over 1,600 deaths so far and over 2 million displaced or otherwise affected. Not only is the immediate water damage causing havoc, the floods have inundated crop-producing areas, dealing a crippling blow to the agricultural-based economy and threatening a food crisis. The Pakistani government now struggles to rescue and provide aid to millions – while still fighting with militant Islamist forces in many of the hardest-hit regions. With even more heavy rains predicted in the coming days, here are a handful of recent photographs of Pakistanis as they cope with this latest disaster.
Tags: Flooding in Pakistan, Flooding in sindh, flooding vliages, mud sliding, NWFP, Pakistan, Pakistan Flooding, pakistani villages, Punjab Flooding, villages, worst flooding
