The Daily PakistanPolitics Sep 26-30, 2010

• Sep30-2010--SBP raises discount rate to 13.5%...most inflation in pakistan is not due to interests on loans or loan taking however the actual influences are price hikes, dollar rates and overspending by governments thru foreign loans
  
• Sep30-2010--Government seeks three more weeks for appointing NAB chairman...as the SC CJ works on restarting the dead swiss cases and suggests that the army chief be told that smuggling in his NLC/Nato containers causes a loss to the country...
  
• Sep30-2010--reformed GST to cause another major price hike as it envisages 150 billion in new taxes by ending sales tax exemptions on foods, textiles, medicines, agriculture products such as live animals and poultry,plants and bulbs,canned foods,vegetables, fruits, cereals, spices, dairy products , saline /dextrose drips etc...The government seems tobe totally senseless in most people related matters...
  
• Sep29-2010--US claims killing al qaeda's regional chief another egyptian in fata in a drone attack on a car
  
• Sep29-2010--The government and banks tobe taken to task for writing of even more loans says the SC...which has not yet been able to clearly deal with the issue in an economic system in which the beneficiaries are always protected while the losers generally the people are always crucified...
  
• Sep29-2010--The GOP trying to crucify punjab in sales tax issue and inordinately benefit sindh...at the moment sales taxes paid by punjabi consumers are collected in sindh which directly benefits them at teh cost of the punjab populace
  
• Sep29-2010--The issue of US helicopter invasions and attacks on pakistani soil starting to snowball slowly as pakistan literally in a bind as it neither gets aid nor support from the US...many say pakistan given its weak moral position can only stop US container transportation...US and afghanistan literally want to crucify pakistan as it falls in line with their propaganda and actions...its like when u say "yes sir" all the time an occasional no gets u a kick in the butt..
  
• Sep29-2010--While Asif zardari has little to fear even if the swiss cases are reopened the PPP regime is prepared to tell the SC that the swiss investigation has reached a dead end and spending more on a case that has already consumed Rs622 million is only going tobe counterproductive...many suggest that since teh CJ is so interested he can take the case to the swiss courts himself and appoint a retired judge as a sort of prosecutor...many say the judges are also interested in a continuation of corrupt spending on swiss cases...while others say that the government cannot touch presidential immunity...The government has yet to initiate cases against the MQM and many others stopped under the NRO
  
• Sep29-2010--The government has been unable to appoint a NAB chairman after all its nominees were seen as pliable government supporters
  
• Sep29-2010--six killed in orakzai after gunship helicopters open fire
  
• Sep29-2010--The third cog in the army wheel fighting the afghan and pakistani taleban General Khalid Shamim Wyne has been elevated to the senior most armed forces position of JCSC..a position that defines the ideology of the pakistani war machines mind but who is usually not allowed to carry out the thoughts which are usually left to the service chiefs who edit whatever political and military ideologies are thrown at them...the views of teh previous CJSC were more hawkish than those of teh government and the military chiefs...General Shamim, the previous corp commander peshawar and general kiani handled the troublesome taleban war on both sides of teh border with the additional support of teh US drones...while corp commander peshawar did most of the fighting he was not elevated to the position of army chief and retired quitely...general khalid whose cause of fame is being corp commander quetta and handling the afghan taleban is genrally regarded as a Kiani protege which is why he has survived teh retirement oriented army...he was reportedly earlier offered the position of deputy army chief but declined...was considered but lost out to Kiani for the position of COAS-extension...and has survived to become CJCOSC or JCSC...many suggest another attempt was made for Kiani to give up the army chiefs position but he refused and in effect became stronger as his protege was given the senior position..generally the JCSC is teh war commander and incharge of military ideology and strategic command...generally considered milder than General Tariq he may eventually oversee an end to the taleban war and US invasion of the area...others suggest that this is another defeat for the primeminister who wanted his own man as army chief after the military ideology of fighting internally and subjugating to the USA overseas for F-16's and Lugar aid has become overloaded with cowardly overtones especially in the recent invasions of the pakistani border...
  
• Sep28-2010--Altaf hussein is not afraid of Nato since there are no drone attacks in karachi or london...however many say that he is only afraid of the karachi police and people from whom he has run away...his followers have no problems as nobody bothers them surprisingly...?...many suggest that the bahadur altaf is the most frightened leader pakistan has ever produced who has refused to come back from exile...at least nawaz sharif and benazir have/had teh courage to face teh situation...maybe it is time that his siyasi panah be revoked...?
  
• Sep28-2010--Shabaz Sharifs bad policies of selling off everything that belonged to teh local governments ie cars, resthouses and land backfired as only only one bidder turned up to bid for the former municipal offices in raja bazaar, rawalpindi...the provincial government does not seem tobe lacking funds and teh small amounts generated by selling off cars and small government offices can hardly change things...
  
• Sep28-2010--There was another air intrusion into pakistan by US forces this time killing six in kurram while a drone killed five in Khushali Turikhel...
  
• Sep28-2010--PPP say they will drag their do nothing regime along for another three years as even PPP supporters have gotten tired of their lack of governance, policies and even ideology...Their only appointment not shot down yet by teh courts is that of a three year extension to kayani...PPP has no thinking of its own and are turning teh CJ into a defacto primeminister...what should we do now are their usual questions to the CJ and COAS...!!yesterday they were thinking of firing the 70 odd NRO's associated with teh government ...today they are back to their old stance...
  
• Sep27-2010--American forces invaded pakistan from afghanistan and killed 30 pakistanis in north waziristan...whether they were militants or pakistani forces is not known however the cross border military encounter without informing pakistani authorities seems to suggest a further widening of the american led conflict...the enforced or bought silence of teh pakistani authorities many say is culpable...
  
• Sep27-2010--three drone attacks in north waziristan kill another 12
  
• Sep27-2010--Yusuf Raza Gilani does not like teh Rs600 per kilo foreign apples that he is fed in teh PM house and went to the G-6 sunday bazaar to buy Rs60 a kilo rotten looking apples...that should be the ratio or price differential in local and foreign sugar and local and foreign wheat...
  
• Sep27-2010--As everyone started to call for the removal of the ineffective Yusuf Raza Gilani he apparently met Nawaz Sharif teh SC afficionada and agreed to remove about 70 NRO affected who are in government positions including at least two ambassadors and probably the interior minister too whose handling of law and order has been terrible despite some overt bravery compared to top government officials...salman farooki a top zardari aide and teh family of rehman malik also quickly left teh country suggesting that teh PPP regime might use a heavy hand against its supposedly corrupted appointees..
  
• Sep26-2010--karachi which is akin to americas wild west remained politically calmer during the mqm ten day mourning...reports from the UK say that altaf hussein has not yet appeared before investigators and many say he suffers from sizofrenia like many other pakistani politicians..police say he could be refered to phsyciatrist care...the body of imran farook has not yet been handed over which suggests that police have some leads that they are following...bodies are usually handed over in a week for transportation overseas unless reasons exist...qaim ali shah says that they are behaving like brothers with the mqm not proceeding in any cases against them and only killing hundreds of non brothers over teh last two years...?
  
• Sep26-2010--suspects in danish embassy blast case acquitted...police usually arrest their own undercover people or suspected people to create some sense of order but most courts have been releasing the suspects in most cases
  
• Sep26-2010--four killed on a drone attack on a car in doga machakhel area
  
• Sep26-2010--there have been mild protests against the 86 years sentence by a US court against afia siddiqui which many consider wild and unjust...Yusuf raza Gilani says that he paid 20 million dollars for the judgement...since a court appointed lawyers fees cannot have been that high...did he pay teh US judge or afia siddiqui...?many suggest that women should not work for the americans or the taleban at any level...given the problems they encounter with stones and jail sentences...many also have said that the word kanker is the religious stone used to hit shaitans and not big stones...a women anyway would die if one stone hit her and the death sentence is not mentioned for consorting with males or working with them...?
  
• Sep26-2010--three masked men on a motorcycle entered a mosque in bahawalpur and shot dead two men attending a dars...people mostly from liberal,sectarian and opposing religions are known to get irritated by sermons from mosques although in this time and age things usually have a political or terrorist tinge...
  
• Sep26-2010--Rumours of change on several levels...the british pir and ethnic leader might be hand in glove for some sort of upheaval...others suggest that the first attempt having failed altaf hussain himself might disappear to start the fires in karachi...others suggest that mafiosi and bookies might be involved after a bookie was eliminated in karachi...while still others said that mqm's financiers had gotten tired of funding teh mqm's standstill politics of begetting one sort of violence after another...many others suggest that altaf hussain might be booted out of teh UK if a solution to the imran farook case is not found...others suggest that PPP's brinkmanship might be near an end as nawaz-PML-mqm could form a possibly unstable alternate government as the PPP's reluctant leadership crashes to failure again and again...still others suggest that a new primeminister might be in the offing...all that if the military stays put...PPP many say has been trying to keep its foot in all the pies without delivering anything on the populist or peoples level...it has continued its failed politics with threats of electricity tariff hikes, atta price hikes and unconstitutional tax hikes thru ordinances as opponents ask for silly swiss case openings and dropping of NRO ministers...which have no meaning to the people who are suffering under disasters and terrible economics...
  
• Sep26-2010--a controversial minister abdul qayuum jatoi who earlier started his ministerial career with a mujra fired after stating that "we provide the military with boots and uniforms not to kill our own leaders and countrymen...also suggesting that coruption be shared by all ethnic groups...saying the chief justice was not a balochi and belonged to faisalabad...also suggesting that zafarullah jamali,jam yousaf and owais Ahmed Ghani were in the chain of command when the decision to kill akber bugti was made...insisting that musharaf be charged and made to face his accusers in court..he jocularly suggested given teh dilemna of teh ppp itself that they had not changed teh army chief out of fear because change in mid stream is not advisable...others argue that the army is quite stable and changing teh army chief would have made no difference and the decision was ordered by Kiani ...does this firing suggest that yusuf raza gilani the PPP fiend in charge now believes that change is necessary for the PPP to survive another two to three years...?