The Daily PakistanPolitics--July 19-22, 2009

Jul22-2009--In what may describe teh SC of this time and the future teh chief justice cleared the 2008 elections saying they were held under teh constitution...whether something is legal when one part of teh government isn't constitutional is something only the SC can say and do...earlier it has given strange decisions about military rule and its consequences and dealt with teh government of coup plotters and given them legality as it basically supported authoritarianism and opposed teh mixed up roles that politicians play...the SC must clearly state that coup plotters are never well intentioned and are bad army types...SC praises parliament on not validating Nov3 actions although not doing anything about it too... how it sees musharaf going scot free of any blame is difficult to understand...The chief justice said that they could visit the Iqbal tikka case but their judgments would not be retrospective showing teh court tobe frightened of dealing with many or some past wrongs...of late teh SC chief justice has blamed teh court for the execution of a primeminister and toppling governments by teh military and giving them sustenance...

Jul22-2009--mild to ferocious protests erupted in teh punjab over electricity outages and price hikes by the traders who went on a strike..a train was torched in jhang...

Jul22-2009--Indians told of their involvement in pakistans internal troubles as indian intelligence agencies based in afghanistan and iran have long had a direct hand in pakistans troubles..pakistan did not mention iran while teh USA only adopted a mild approach to indian involvement in terrorist activities...while being xtremely harsh with pakistan. Hillary however did make some sort of a parallel with teh guantanamo prisoners and those held by pakistan for teh bombay incidents...

Jul22-2009--in continuing operations in dir 12 militants were killed and security forces have taken control of many militant held areas

Jul22-2009--Everybody has their own angle on the power crisis...Raja ashraf says he has almost overcome teh crisis...wapda says bhasha will solve it...zardari has come out with electricity from tashkent..sindh wants electricity from air and Lakhra coal and Asim says that teh expensive iranian gas will solve teh problem of power fuels...while yusuf raza and teh WB/IMF say extremely high prices will solve teh problem...availability and keeping prices reasonable are the essence for the pakistani economy..Since 1982 the government has been unable to keep a sustainable power policy with many failed schemes which included only hydel power...save electricity etc. etc.....many suggest that unless the government keeps prices in control nobody will need electricity soon..? and that an overall electricity handling group might be needed to control IPP's, fuel providers like PSO and sui gas companies, Pepco, KESC, Wapda and other related organizations such as distribution companies..IMF/WB and the mean and nasty ministry of finance and power...karachis industrialists say that a captive power plant costs Rs5 per unit while PEPCO/KESC is charging Rs9 which shows unnecessary profits..by the state

Jul22-2009--3 die in karachi building collapse as death toll in rain losses rises to 50

Jul22-2009--Pepco tells peopel to keep calm against its price hikes and unnecessary load sheddings...Pepco spokesman said that load shortfall was 18% while loadsheddings were in the range of 30-40%...the primeminister and president are either blind or only concerned with karachis problems...

Jul22-2009--gas pipeline blownup near pirkoh

Jul22-2009--grenade attack in quetta and bomb blast in khuzdar

Jul22-2009--power protests in peshawar and sukkur/qamber as well

Jul21-2009--massive power outages continued from saturday to monday evening in karachi

Jul21-2009--pakistan wants EU arms and troop trainings too...?

Jul21-2009--two IDP camps closed in mardan...

Jul21-2009--problems continued in swat as one soldier was killed and 18 militants...four tribesmen were found with throats slit..a local cleric was also killed

Jul21-2009--dozens of militants killed in lower dir and three soldiers as well...

Jul21-2009--four police personnel killed on the outskirts of peshawar

Jul21-2009--In karachi consumers or gangs of roughians attacked 21 KESC outlets as power outages continued..in some places police had to fire tear gas shells...while KESC said that attacks on KESC will cause work to slow down and that only four grid stations were not working...

Jul21-2009--rain related death toll rises to 41 in karachi

Jul21-2009--The LG system was seen tobe relatively successful in grass roots development and even law enforcement was better handled apart from heavy rioting ...the current provincial governments attempt to push teh clock back and bring back provincial controls on law and order and development...Zardari who is generally influenced by teh mqm is backing out after punjab refused to share administrator appointments..law and order is also improving and only elections should be held under administrators...the PPP which under Benazir had been behind the concept of devolution would have preferred political administrators but the PMLn prefers teh beaurocracy...

Jul20-2009--Asim Hussein tries to justify the high cost of iranian gas which according to some sources is the most expensive gas in the world of pipelines...given current usage patterns it would not be available to generate power alone..asim had earlier suggested that the gas was so expensive that it could only be justified if used for power generation...

Jul20-2009--people in karachi protested at rain related power outages...instead of helping solve issues karachis educated started rioting...karachi says it lost power due to a 500KV kine outage at guddu which seems ridiculous as most of its power is locally generated...28 deaths reported in almost record rainfall that had karachi almost entirely flooded..karachiites many say are paranoid...

Jul20-2009--Asim Hussein is trying to explain away teh governments bad policy on petroleum pricing...taking taxes of Rs18-22 on a price of Rs63 is a bit harsh anyway...his calculation of Rs37 as the refinery price might be too high... It might be cheaper to import refined products instead many suggest...others suggest that the government should use the middle east oil price as teh base rather than western oil prices

Jul20-2009--PMLn says it will appoint all administrators in punjab and no share tobe given to PPP

Jul20-2009--In what many see as a mockery of not only free tractor distribution or discounted tractors teh chief secretary punjabs son and wife got a tractor each...why everyone in a family needs a tractor is hard to fathom...small landholders can easily rent tractors as they need it for a day or two in a season...tractors dont improve agriculture in themselves

Jul20-2009--three terrorists killed in malakand

Jul19-2009--In what many say is teh musharaf doctrine continuing who had thought that india in a few years would itself suggest a kashmir solution but that didnt happen...now yusuf raza says he will build trust thru talks...trust for what end...meaningless..seems that yusuf raza has some views about indians that are not based on reality...indians have never solved any problem preferring that they have a propaganda item whenever necessary... mere talks solve nothing...either pakistan should give up or talk aggressively on the issue...he says that he fights only those who fight teh writ of teh government and not its external enemies...in a mild rejoinder to the bombay incident pakistan gave india a dossier on what it had on indian involvement...in balochistan...they were also involved in swat and Fata..many say..

Jul19-2009--heavy rains in karachi, hyderabad and upper sindh...18 dead..roads flooded, cars marooned..68 powerlines snapped and karachi was without power and water

Jul19-2009--In what many say is teh PPP regimes belated understanding that they have to play by teh rules...Gilani withdrew the nomination for teh ambassador to France as 105 foreign service officers filed a court case in The ICJ

Jul19-2009--12 militants killed in Orakzai by air strikes on taleban positions with severe clashes in darra adamkhel areas

Jul19-2009--FIA clarifies that it is more democratic than teh current regime and political jokes and commentary will not be proscribed by a stiff law the PECO 2008..

Jul19-2009--despite teh immense problems generated by the  KESC privatization government bent upon privatizing other good and bad power distribution companies...

Jul19-2009--as the USA claims that india is a friend they say that they will still not start brokering a solution on kashmir immediately and will only urge india to open up...the uSA while being extremely harsh with pakistan is taking teh softest of approaches to india and is not even willing to take up issues on which it literally dictates to pakistan..india many say is deeply involved in trying to destabilize pakistan in every possible way whether it be karachi, multan, balochistan, swat or fata...

Jul19-2009--In what many say is a zardari like action who ordered link canals to punjab closed for a month a baloch minister closed the grang regulator to sindh for four hours...sindh is responsible for teh baloch share of 6000 cusecs..balochistan getting less than 2200 cusecs... ...rangers were called in to open teh regulator to the canal in sindh...

Jul19-2009--security forces destroy the lashkar i islam center outside peshawar

Jul 19-2009--many suggest that teh PPP and PMLn should restudy their liking for a subordinate LG system controlled by beaurocrats even though teh LG system served teh interests of the military dictatorship...winning elections should be the target/route to LG power and allowing substantial powers to devolve to district systems should be preferable as long as they work within the framework of teh country...crushing a system into disfiguration is not preferable and u might as well create a new one with new names...teh word nazim reminded everyone of teh jamat i islami...The worst part of the LG system is the extreme unequal distribution of resources and many suggest that is where the provincial governments should reccommend real change...