Fair investigation of attack on party leader demanded Asim Iqbal Islamabad, February 14: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Gilgit Baltistan has linked the attack on his party’s leader Minhaj ud Din to sectarian violence and demanded of the government to conduct impartial inquiry into the case. Addressing a press conference chief of JUI Gilgit-Baltistan chapter, Mulana Luqman Hakeem [...]

February 13^th, 2012. Islamabad. For those of us still following the game of thrones taking place at the center, it appears that Prime Minister Gilani is running out of road. He’s taking a long walk off a short pier. Insert your own cliché here. The debate has overtaken the Prime Minister, the discussion is now focused on what Pakistan must do, post-Gilani. To write the letter or not? Will Senate elections go ahead or not? Will the PPP spin this ungraceful end to a five year term as a victory, will Gilani go back to Multan a living shaheed? Pity the constituency whose only claim to a fruitful five year term is a representative with a knack for getting stabbed in the stomach and making it look like he meant to fall on his sword. Gilani will end up being a sacrifice for an utterly worthless cause – twenty-eight million US dollars that will never be returned to the people of Pakistan. Ever.

The statute of limitations on the Swiss cases are rumored to be anywhere between April and August 2012. The time for reopening old cases is diminishing fast. Yet we insist that the court charade of the last few months was necessary – it’s not about the money, it’s about setting an institutional precedent.

It has been nearly two decades since our President and his late wife stole a mind-bubbling sum of money and squirreled it away into Swiss banks, mansions in Surrey, bank accounts in Dubai and trendy flats in London. Reading the famous 1998 New York Times article reinforces the idea that when politicians from very poor countries amass vast amounts of wealth, they are not likely to let go of it that easily. So forget fantasies of liquidating the Bhutto assets and paying off Pakistan’s international loans. The Pakistani Supreme Court can humiliate the Prime Minister, but it can’t overturn decades of sophisticated white collar crime, much of which takes place outside its judicial territory.

And surely impotence of this intensity is severely humiliating for Chief Justice Chaudhry himself. Having become the defacto arbitrator of every aggrieved party in Pakistan, he suddenly finds himself without any implementation power whatsoever. He is the supreme commander of a court system that is rotten at the foundation, fighting the country’s largest and most public corruption scandal while his own lower court clerks accept petty bribes to tie up litigation for years. His own middle-class biases against the landed elite of the PPP notwithstanding, Chaudhary now faces the task of living up to the dubious honor of being the sole institution in this country deemed impartial and uncorrupt. Which means that if he isn’t seen going after egregious acts of corruption, he will be immediately deemed implicit.

In the face of such impotence, charging and convicting a seated Prime Minister of contempt is a sufficiently bold task to secure Chaudhary’s tripod of potency: judicial independence, of having real power (as opposed to simply striking down the NRO and not being able to do a damn thing to implement it for a full two years), and of being a guardian of the people. Gilani’s removal, whenever it happens, will be sufficiently large to distract from the fact that the PM never stole the twenty-eight million. He never decided to write the letter, or not to write it, for that matter – any more than he decided to become Prime Minister. It will serve to silence those who suggest that post-reinstatement, the CJ has been “bought out” by the PPP, to outcry those who notice that investigations into sugar cartels, NILC, Hajj, Abbotabad,  and Karachi came to naught. It is eye candy for the myopic, a desperate sideshow to distract from a flaming circus of budget malfunctions, energy scams and policy fubars.

But lets not beat ourselves up too much. John Burns pointed out in 1998 that multilateral organizations such as the World Bank regularly support teetering Third World economies “bled dry” by corruption in exchange for weak promises of institutional reform. The last five years have been immensely lucrative for friends of the regime, for those individuals and institutions capable of buying out or bullying Mr. Hundered Percent. At last count, this included everyone from ARY Gold to the Pakistan Army, from AKD to NLC to the men who bring you fantastically overpriced imported cars at huge markups. Zardari did not invent corruption, but he’s a fine example (an institutional precedent, as it were) of just how successful some men and women become in countries with broken democratic systems. Where the Army can quietly wring the neck of anyone attempting to infringe on its economic and political territory. Where an entire Parliament – incumbent, opposition and all – routes all decision-making through the Supreme Court. Where a judge is deeply contemptuous of men who take advantage of their office for personal aggrandizement – and then goes and does exactly the same.

By: Shaukat Masood Zafar Food is a basic human need and it’s the government who has to ensure a dependable food security system for the nation. For a country like Pakistan, this is crucial, since now a large part of the income of the population has to be spent to procure food. High grain prices [...]

Related posts:

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2. Defending Food Security requires instant reinventing of ZTBL
3. Pakistan Budget 2011-12: An Overview
4. Connivance of Plutocrats of PPP & PML(N) is increasing Wheat Prices in Pakistan
5. Afghanistan a threat to Pakistan’s Security

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday indicted Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani for contempt of court in the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) implementation case. A two-page charge sheet was read out by Justice Nasirul Mulk, who headed the seven-member bench hearing the case. The charge sheet said that the prime minister had violated Article 204 of [...]

After the late Arfa Karim, living in a suburb of Abbottabad (75 Km by road from Islamabad), raised nation’s pride by becoming the world’s youngest Microsoft Certified Professional after creating 7 Microsoft and Google certified computer operating systems.

The 14-year-old student, Sikandar Mehmood Baloch, lives in Bilal Town, Abbottabad. Sikandar not only became a certified expert of 107 computer engineering languages at a young age but has also received certificates of his achievements from Microsoft and performed work for Google.

He has also received 25 certificates as acknowledgement of his unique work performed for Google, the biggest search engine in the world. Sikandar is studying in 9th grade in a local school and has made many Linux Systems (From VVS1 to VVS7) and developed an indigenous anti-virus system as well.

He had created a world record at the age of 9 after making his first operating system.

From his wife’s multi million loan waiver, to his son’s alleged involvement in Hajj scandal. From friends and family involved in massive corruption cases to almost ritualistic shuffling in bureaucracy, hampering court investigation into several legal cases, the list goes on and on…

Transferring high profile government officers at free will, to disrupt legal investigation into several matters of national importance, ranging from Hajj Scandal, Fertilizer scam to Swiss cases, there is a pattern to Gilani’s defiance towards rule of law. Still he totally gets to brag about his respect for Law by merely presenting himself to Supreme Court, once he is summoned there.

Asim Iqbal Islamabad, February 12: Panic and fear gripped Skardu on Sunday night after two groups exchanged fire, reportedly, over some petty issue. According to details two boys quarrelled in Abbas Twon area near Baltaro Rest House Sunday morning for unknown reason. Elders of the locality immediately intervened to defuse the situation and settled down the dispute. [...]

one of the better written articles about Bulleh Shah that i have read in a while.

http://www.thefridaytimes.com/beta2/tft/article.php?issue=20110930&page=16

Organically grown Turnip   Photo: Zahra Ali

Home grown Carrots by Siam Rizwan

Even little things, such as consuming farm-grown food, contribute additional CO2 to the environment, and that means we often spend our hard-earned money on things that are detrimental to our planet and our lives. By saying this, I do not aim to discourage the consumption of all farm produce, but I do strongly discourage buying from inorganic farms.

Islamabad: Eggplants growing in a sack at Nadeem Iqbal’s organic garden   Photo: Zahra Ali

1. Prepare your own compost by reusing newspapers, wood shavings, used tea bags, vegetable and fruit peelings, eggshells, plant cuttings, etc.
2. Save seeds from your homegrown heirloom vegetables and herbs to use the next growing season.
3. Reuse empty sacks, bags, plastic bottles, tires and buckets, and just about anything else that can hold 6-12 inches (15-30cm) of soil and has a drainage hole, as planters in which to grow vegetables and herbs.
4. Reuse water used for washing dishes and vegetables to irrigate your garden.

Plastic Bottle Towers by Willem Van Cotthem

If you do not have a plot to start a vegetable garden, consider designing a container garden on your rooftop, balcony, terrace or windowsill. Vertical farming is a growing practice across the world that allows individuals with limited space to create bigger gardens and thus achieve larger yields.

Most of us will not be able to grow enough vegetables to fulfill our daily consumption, but we can definitely reduce our bills and CO2 emissions greatly.
For every 10 lb (4.5 kg) of tomatoes grown at home, you save 20 lb of carbon emitted into the environment and hundreds that you spend in buying it. 

So why not start a vegetable garden before World Environment Day on 5 June 2012? It’s easy and rewarding, and you’ll join the many other people around the world who have made small changes to their lifestyles in order to make a big difference to the planet. 

for more reading:

Reuse, Recycle and Produce: Bottle Gardening in Karachi

How, where and when to plant seeds

Green Economy  Initiative

World Environment Day 

Carbon Footprint Calculator

Tree Hugger

Special thanks to Talib Qizilbash.

By Surojit Gupta for The Times of India

Trade ties between India and Pakistan are expected to get a boost as New Delhi reaches out to the business community across the border, starting Monday to assure them about the positive impact of normal trade ties. Commerce minister Anand Sharma will undertake a rare journey to Pakistan, leading a large delegation of senior officials and top businessmen as the two hostile neighbours take baby steps to normalise trade and economic relations.

The private sector led by industry chambers has put up an “India show”, in Lahore and Karachi – the first ever trade exhibitions from India where over 100 exhibitors are participating. Firms representing pharmaceuticals, textile, gems and jewellery, chemicals and petro-chemicals are showcasing products.

The move is a follow up to the efforts to normalise trade ties. The Pakistan government announced granting of Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India in November last year. But, criticism from a section of industry in Pakistan has forced Islamabad to take measured steps on the issue. But, officials said they were optimistic that by the end of 2012, the transition to full MFN status would be complete.

Officials said they will launch outreach programme to assure businessmen in Pakistan that Indian goods will not swamp the Pakistan market if trade is normalised. “We will tell them that there are enough trade safeguards measures to ensure that Indian goods do not flood the Pakistani market. Let us first liberalise trade and see the impact,” said a senior government official.

Pakistan allows exports to India but has a positive list of 1,938 items which are officially allowed to be imported from India. Latest data shows that formal trade between India and Pakistan rose to $2.7 billion in 2010-11 from $144 million in 2001, while informal trade including third country trade is estimated at $10 billion, according to a Ficci status paper. “I have no doubt in my mind that bilateral trade, which currently stands at $3 billion, can be raised to $10 billion if trade through third countries (Dubai, Singapore and Central Asian countries) is channelised into direct exchange between the two countries,” said R V Kanoria, president, Ficci.

The government has undertaken a series of measures to increase bilateral trade. There is a move to open a second gate at the Attari-Wagah border, which is expected to increase the number of trucks crossing the border to 500-600 daily from 150-200 at present. Pakistan has agreed to remove restrictions on the number of commodities traded by the land route once the infrastructure in Wagah is ready, while both countries have agreed to avoid arbitrary stoppage of goods at ports. Suggestions have been made for opening up of an additional land route at Monabao-Khokhara Par on the Sindh border for faster movement of goods.

“We are taking significant steps to improve the border infrastructure. India has invested nearly Rs 150 crore to develop infrastructure at the Integrated Check post near Attari,” said a senior government official. He said the visa regime for business travel is also expected to be liberalised soon with multiple entry visas for 10 Indian cities, along with exemptions for police reporting. The formal announcement is expected to be made soon. Talks to expand trade in petroleum products are progressing, while efforts are also on to start negotiations for trade in electricity between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. Both sides have agreed on grid-connectivity between Amritsar and Lahore, which would pave the way for trade of up to 500 MW of power.

Trade experts said they were optimistic about the latest moves and said the effort will go a long way in helping faster regional integration. “The positive spin off for normalisation of trade is enormous. Pakistan has given signals and India now needs to take the initiative. Normalisation of bilateral trade relations will help in putting much of the political bickering on the backburner,” said Biswajit Dhar, director-general at Research and Information System for Developing Countries, an economic and trade thinktank. Experts said there was huge potential for forging joint ventures between Indian and Pakistani companies in sectors such as information technology, fish-processing, drugs and pharmaceuticals, agro chemicals, chemicals, automobile ancillary and light engineering.

Pakistanis for Peace Editor’s Note- The best chance of peace between India and Pakistan can only be achieved through trade and normalization of ties. The India Show at the Lahore International Expo Centre Feb 11-13 will go a long ways to bridging the gap and move us closer to achieving peace one day, which is the best scenario for both nations long term.

Filed under: Desi, India, Pakistan, Pakistanis, Peace, SAARC Tagged: Amritsar, Anand Sharma, Attari, Attari-Wagah Border, Biswajit Dhar, Dubai, Ficci, India, India Inc, India Pakistan Trade, India Show, Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Lahore Expo Center, MFN, Monabao-Khokhara Par, Most Favored Nation, Most Favoured Nation, New Delhi, Pakistan, Pakistan-India Relations, R V Kanoria, Research and Information System for Developing Countries, Singapore, The India Show, Trade Tariffs

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Friday threw out an appeal from embattled Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani against contempt charges, paving the way for him to be indicted next week. Speaking to reporters outside the court, Barrister Atizaz Ahsan, the PM’s counsel, confirmed that the prime minister would now appear in court on Monday. The [...]

PT Report Islamabad, February 10: The differences among the ruling Pakistan People’s Party on the appointment of Justice Rana has deepened. The People’s Student Fedration has announced to launch agitation movement under the slogan “Dismiss CM Mehdi Shah and save Gilgit Baltistan”. The first protest demonstration in this regard will be held on 14th February in [...]

http://www.awaztoday.com/playshow/19797/Islamabad-Tonight-9th-February-2012.aspx http://www.zemtv.com/2012/02/09/islamabad-tonight-9th-february-2012-latest/
http://www.friendskorner.com/forum/f247/islamabad-tonight-nadeem-malik-9th-february-2012-a-263612/
http://www.pakistanherald.com/Program/Islamabad-Tonight-February-09-2012-Nadeem-Malik-9635

ISLAMABAD TONIGHT

WITH NADEEM MALIK

09-02-2012

TOPIC- POLITICAL SITUATION OF THE COUNTRY

GUESTS- KHURRUM DASTGIR KHAN, BABAR SATTAR, NAYYAR BUKHARI, ANSAR ABBASI, MOEED YOUSUF

KHURRUM DASTGIR KHAN OF PML-N said that executive of Pakistan is not abiding by the resolutions of the parliament or the decisions of the Supreme Court. He said that the parliament passes a resolution but the executive ignores it. He said that after the rejection of review petition there is no more hope left. He said that the people should ask their representatives that they are abiding by the law or not. He said that his party stressed on the problem of Balochistan but went in vain. He said that the people say that the agencies are involved in Balochistan. He said that talking about the personal rights is not treason against the country. He said that about 1500 settlers are also killed in the province of Balochistan. He said that the role of agencies should be finished in Balochistan. He said that an amnesty should be declared for the people of Balochistan gone astray. He said that the nationalist leaders do not represent the majority of the Balochistan people.

BABAR SATTAR A COLUMNIST said that the court has to follow a due process. He said that the courts can not deliberate on the wishes of the people. He said that Aetzaz is arguing that it can be observed that the decisions of the court are according to the law and constitution or not. He said that it is a dangerous argument by Aetzaz because it will not let any decision to be followed. He said that the government in Pakistan is not protecting the basic rights of the people. He said that in Balochistan people and agencies are killing each other. He said that we have handed over the national security issues to the military. He said that it is not the job of the military to judge that who is traitor and who is not.

NAYYAR BUKHARI OF PPPP said that according to his information a consensus has been achieved on twentieth amendment. He said that now the resolution of the twentieth amendment will be presented in front of the parliament.

ANSAR ABBASI A JOURNALIST said that the whole onus is on the Supreme Court at the moment. He said that the parliament is not playing its role. He said that the members of the parliament do not even know that what the 18th amendment all about was. He said that it seems that Aetzaz is taking lesson from Babar Awan because his arguments do not make any sense. He said that Aetzaz says no letter will be sent to the Swiss court and at the same time contempt of the court is not committed. He said that the court should only deliberate when it is needed. He said that America is dared to talk about Balochistan problem because we are the slaves of America. He said that our leaders do not have courage to protest to America. He said that America is responsible for state sponsored terrorism more than any body else. He said that we should talk to the people have gone astray towards the terrorism. He said that we should not hand over our problems to the military because it complicates things. He said that amnesty should be announced both for the people of Balochistan and tribal areas.

MOEED YOUSUF A ANALYST FROM AMERICA said that American government does not support the discussion on Balochistan in their country. He said that Pakistan is on target at the moment and there is a negative impression about it in the Washington DC. He said that the problem of NATO supply will be resolved and a levy will be charged on NATO containers.

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Filed under: CURRENT AFFAIRS

ISLAMABAD: Senators from both sides of the divide on Thursday condemned the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations for discussing the Balochistan issue, and termed it as a direct interference in Pakistan’s affairs. Raising the issue on a point of order Senator Raza Rabbani said that the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations has no [...]