The Daily PakistanPolitics Dec9-10, 2009

• Dec10-2009lahores moon market death toll is 61
  
• Dec10-2009The PPP moves on the balochistan package removing the military from kohlu, sui and gwadar...forming three new FC wings of baloch recruits to replace them and withdrawing 89 cases...as things are easing in balochistan while they keep getting rougher elswhere... there are doubts about the baloch package however the PPP has nothing else to do with a huge budget lying around and seems tobe dealing with only political matters...yusuf raza gilani blamed by many as not being able to push things faster...
  
• Dec10-2009The NRO started to reverberate in court as swiss money and how much and who it belonged to started tobe questioned...amounts mentioned in the press are from 150 000 dollars to about a million dollars with teh NAB saying there are 25 claimants...after a decade of NAB investigations and the government having reached a settlement with SGS-cotechna as well NAB had started pulling back in early 2007 when nothing substantial was happening...the military later reached a settlement with the PPP and literally withdrew all teh cases...however as teh PPP regime tried to reinvent the NRO it ran into trouble...the PPP onits own withdrew 8000 cases against teh mqm however only zardari and a few ministers might get into further trouble...
  
• Dec10-2009another school blownup in Bara
  
• Dec10-2009several men arrested from sorgodha including american students here to study terrorism training
  
• Dec10-2009provinces fail to agree on how to divide huge provincial share...views just on how much should be divided on population and tax collection differs widely...the government has already offered over a 100 billion each to balochistan and nwfp...while punjab is opposing seperate allocations...sindh generally considered teh most developed province wants issues benefitting it only to be topmost which is being opposed by others while punjabs population position which was teh basis of teh 1973 constitution is opposed by other provinces...most of the NFC discussions are generally in an anti punjab vein with punjab many say expected to lose over 10% share due to the low level fight being put up by the punjab PPP finance minister...over a trillion expected tobe teh provincial share with teh center saying that it is increasing taxes by 500 billion in january...many suggest that inter provincial and ethnic rivalries are teh basis of much of the terrorism of late while many others blame the policies of manmohan and mchrystal as four truckloads of indian arms have been seized says rehman malik...with a curious devious and difficult to accept statement from the american military praising manmohan suspiciously for moving towards resolving kashmir as a supposedly border issue...while the musharaf regime had suggested a soft border approach in fact accepting its defeat on kashmir the PPP has not clearly stated its position trying to go along with previous policy of making life easier for kashmiris but teh indians have not shown much of an interest in any sort of solution preferring to stay away from negotiations as long as possible...
  
• Dec9-2009Supposed taleban terrorism spread further afield as taleban bases in south waziristan were being wiped out...A reportedly ISI office in multan cantonment was hit by a suicide bomber killing eight..terrorism has shown the pathetic failure of military and civilian intelligence systems and the military is the only group that has any respect for a supposedly famous intelligence organisation...presenting as a soft target gunmen shot thru guards and blew up the building...
  
• Dec9-2009PPP backs down on cantonments in sui, gwadar and kohlu handing over the kohlu cantonment to the FC
  
• Dec9-2009Pakistan announced for the second time that it had received a swedish airborne radar system as the americans threatened to widen the areas of raids into pakistan...many suggest that with a weakened government attacking american drones maybe teh only thing that can stop terrorism and revive some confidence in benazirs pathetic partymen many of whom are literally fighting for political survival
  
• Dec9-2009 Irsa rejects punjabs water demand from the indus as wheat sowing season approaches...
  
• Dec9-2009pervez elahi says punjab to lose as much as 100-150 billion as teh sharifs play provincial charity with punjabs share...
  
• Dec9-2009pakistan rely on their new fast bowling attack as they announce the same cricket team for the australia tour whose openers at least are suspect...younis khan seems to have quit cricket..many suggest that he and at least two new openers might have to be flown to australia after the first test...only umar akmal and kamran akmal have shown some real form followed by mohd yusuf...the others are at best in the side for fun apparently...