The Daily Pakistanpolitics December 1-10, 2010

• Dec10-2010--Transparency international says that police, beaurocrats and politicians are at the forefront of corruption in pakistan...while teh police which was very independent earlier has come under teh control of politicians and beaurocrats and is relatively controlled...most people get off when they run into trouble and pay...however the army and the elite usually get off scot free thru connections..nowadays most police indirect income comes from collections on the road...on each festive occasion police are seen standing on the roads collecting donations...?however situation at the lower level is much improved however major corruption occurs at the level of ministries and top government levels...and in district governments where most of government money is spent in the billions which automatically multiplies amounts involved in corruption...people like asif zardari apparently use front companies like ary television and beharia construction to operate for them...
  
• Dec10-2010--The ministry of information suggests that it runs a slush fund of which Rs570 million were distributed in 2007-2008...many suggest that sherry rehman transferred 200 million into her own account while the ministry probably runs a lot newsmen and even private tv channels...apparently journalists and experts are paid 5000 rupees for plugging teh government on private channels and writing pro government stories...ministry even funding two supposed think tanks IRS and ISS
  
• Dec10-2010--The ISI backs down and informs SC that 11 missing militants involved in terrorism in the north are in their custody...apparently the army has warned teh SC about releasing those involved in terrorism
  
• Dec10-2010--In the wikileaks domain disparaging comments about indian generals are in the forefront..many suggest that coas kiani might have been seeking prior US approval to takeover teh government...?the sharifs should realize that the kiani's are suspect with their association with coup plotters...and it was a colonel kiani who asked for a death sentence for nawaz sharif in the hijacking case and coas kiani appointed another kiani as MI chief thus apparently running the army as a fiefdom...and rumours have it that kiani wanted another medal while Pasha is gunning for a few more plots and few squares of land...
  
• Dec10-2010--Things are moving fast towards an election that will again pit the same opponents...no new party is expected tobe able to even put up a show...government attempts to show that is investing Rs600 billion in a small number of projects such as extension of motorway to multan, buying 150 US locomotive engines, jaglot skardu highway etc...government seems to have no new initiatives and is carrying forward old development projects...
  
• Dec9-2010--while western governments move to crush the wikileaks founder pakistans democracy stumbles as army chief found tobe making disparaging remarks about asif zardari and spy chief in cahoots with israel...In the US top generals are kicked out if they make such remarks even at meetings...our democracy would be strengthened if the army chief and ISI chief were replaced...rumours that the government had asked general wyne to recommend two generals for the positions should teh government have the guts to make such a move...an honorable thing for the generals concerned would be to resign if they dislike the government so much...although a government that is based on people animosities in most matters is hardly going tobe democratic in such matters...
  
• Dec9-2010--governor punjab does an illegal vanishing act
  
• Dec9-2010--no taliban or US army in quetta says raisani
  
• Dec9-2010--18 die in kohat suicide blast
  
• Dec5-2010--Hafeez sheikh seems to have his head in teh clouds and is unable to give cogent reasons for the RGST which many say will cause a further burden of upto 800 billion in a few years on teh people..gst affects the populace in general and is not meant to tax the rich...taxing the rich is meaningless as they just raise prices of their products such as landholdings, agricultural crops, means of bussiness and industrial products/utilities that affect the people harshly and protect their riches...increasing taxes, propping up the dollar, going for increased aid and not working to have aid written off will only replay the cycle of higher taxes, price hikes and even more aid...in a few years or eventually like greece we will be unable to pay our foreign loans which have been rising with each successive government...and need an even bigger IMF handout..initially hafeez should know that they got a IMF loan of $700 million for reform...it is not reform but further subjugation of the people at the hands of a cruel and rich based governance system of haves...
  
• Dec5-2010--JC nominates LHC Justice Iqbal Hameed ur rehman as the IHC cj ...who is the son of a ZAB era bengali judge who wrote the commission judgement on the east pakistan seperation scenario... the JC also nominated Tariq Kansi a baloch session judge and Riaz ahmed a peshawar lawyer as the judges of the IHC..no punjabi nominated to the IHC or any sindhi...!!JC also approved extensions to BHC and SHC additional judges...
  
• Dec5-2010--dawn whose policy is sindhi oriented is using wikileaks to propup the floundering zardari who many say was supposed to vanish on his trip to france but was given a reprieve...according to wikileaks the best supporter of zardari seems tobe the equallyvulnrable hamid karazi...who calls zardari a good man trying to free his country from extremists...anne patterson however says the weakness of the pakistan army and police will result in a 10-15 year fight to eliminate militancy...karzai also suggests that like zardari he believes that the USA is the only support base for zardari...karzai however rejected the wikileaks assertion that kabul was supporting baloch militancy which is also regarded by many here as correct...and not many believe that karzai has the best relations with pakistan of any kabul leader...karzai also says that inida's attitude towards pakistan has not changed as it tries to surround pakistan by destablizing entities and forces...
  
• Dec5-2010--General Kayani has compounded his meanness by suggesting that he might dislike zardari but despizes nawaz sharif even more...the army has compounded things by suggesting thru the ISPR that they support democracy(joke) and hold politicians in high esteem...80% of the propaganda against politicians is initiated by the ISI and military intelligence.....while others suggest that kayanis support was bought with an illegal three year extension in service...wikileaks are being used to try to clear the suspect general's damaged reputation...such as kayani clearly warned the americans that like in the past they would not sit back and watch indian military retaliations/adventurism after the bombay incident...the americans tryed also to portray indians cold start doctrine as a myth rather than an anti pakistan doctrine...americans also forget that the only reason for the indian armies existence is pakistan...and that india supported the way ISI was investigating the bombay incident...eliminating the entire chain of people thru motorcycle assassinations involved in the operation...while others suggest that a former ISI chief Kallu was the designer of the bombay invasion...and it was reinvented and ordedered by yusuf raza gilani...however its handling went horribly wrong as the indians refused to allow a hostage situation to develop which resulted in unnecessary casaulties......and that pakistans liaqat ali khan was forced to start building an army after the indians refused to handover kashmir and stop communal riots...the army however was unable to free kashmir from indian clutches and their attempts to takeover kashmir piecemeal have not gone anywhere...!!recently the army admitted that their anti aircraft systems were unable to defend against an indian attack on islamabad/GHQ and ordered a chinese(russian designed SS3) anti aircraft missile system..couldnt the famed KRL design an anti aircraft missile system...?
  
• Dec4-2010--cotton crop has essentially lost 2 million bales causing huge price hikes to near Rs10000 per 40 kg
  
• Dec4-2010--the confusion prone punjab chief minister who has ended duties on indian films increases and applies excise entertainment duties of 65% on patriata chairlifts raising teh cost to Rs450 from Rs325...these duties are not applicable anywhere else......
  
• Dec4-2010--nestle almost selling watered milk inits costly milk packs despite suggestions that it is only removing 10% fat...confusion in national assembly whether milk is bought by packaging companies at Rs 20 or Rs 48...Sindhs engro milk also was milk for a few weeks before it became contaminated water...like nestle...
  
• Dec4-2010--three militants killed in attack on FC convoy near Khuzdar...one Fc soldier killed
  
• Dec4-2010--Wikileaks fighting to stay online as world powers attack its internet base...
  
• Dec4-2010--parliamentary committee on constitution reforms rejects SC suggestion that a judge rejected by the PC should be reconsidered by the JC
  
• Dec4-2010--Asfandayar wali khan who emerged as the key player under zardari since zardari had earlier been an ANP member is seen as having been offered the primeministership by zardari as well as the presidency by kayani after he removed zardari...asfandyar was seen as a zardari lackey after he took protection in the presidency and lived there for many months...without having too many seats in the province or center...zardari continued to plug teh anp agenda and succeeded in literally turning the generally anti punjab ANP into a subjugated extension of the PPP...The PMln went along with the unpopular ANP agenda as it served teh sharifs personal interests to the detriment of losing literally all their support base in the nwfp...
  
• Dec4-2010--members of parliament seek removal of fauzia wahab as a parliamentary committee chairman as government lies to finance committee about extent of revenues from RGST...the estimates of the committee range from 22 billion to 222 billion...many hope that wikileaks would get the IMF cables to expose the PPP regimes comments on the RGST...
  
• Dec4-2010--Wikileaks has turned the top four political and military officials into almost laughing stock and their credibility has fallen considerably..before this kayani and pasha were considered highly but they too have shown frailty and a lack of common sense...Zardari almost looks the best with his attitudes not any better than his actual reputation...whether the government and political parties will take the top two on the military and political side to task for their haphazard behaviour is not known...as people and other politicians will literally mock them from now on...
  
• Dec4-2010--many suggest that the army chief caught in a pincer movement between very junior muttering corp commanders and a government he is uncertain of how to deal with only was left with the american ambassador as a sort of confidante..it seems apparent that the countries top leadership needs a phsychiatrist as instead of dealing with issues in pakistani institutions they talk about it to outsiders especially the americans... ...kayani has repeatedly plugged the zardari-gilani regime and has been often seen sitting in between the two and taking walks in the presidency..gilani many say was so frightened of the fata fight that he left it entirely to kayani on how to deal with it...other items that show the pakistani rulers negative pshyche is the information that a sharif brother informed teh LT that they would be banned so they cleared out their banks accounts before the india attack...
  
• Dec4-2010--In what is being seen as a clear sign of the PPP regimes frightened nature viz the army the CCOD was satisfied at the army chiefs threats in conversations with the american ambassador to remove asif zardari...asif zardari too mentioned the threats in the wikileaks conversations..many are already reading the new article 6 to see if it applies and whether the PPP and army chief are guilty of treason...?...what is even more damaging the regimes frontman yusuf gilani decided not to take any notice of the wikileaks revelations even the ones that mentioned the ISI chiefs indiscretions including handing over information to the israelis...The ISI chief clearly was playing everyone for a fool when he told the americans that he even visited iran to investigate threats against india...such a good friend of india the ISI..the previous army chief was called a good son of india by hindu nationalist vajpayee...and the israelies showed a deep affection for musharaf too...surely the army and ISI seem tobe working against national security what to talk of the former army chief...the david headley relative Yusuf Gilani immediately also issued a statement that the army would not want for anything as if they had ever refused an army request in the past...???The army chief indicated that he was only worried about musharaf spending the rest of his life in jail...so touching really..a respectful junior...this really was'nt necessary said kayani apparently when musharaf appointed him COAS and gave him a small stick...?...corp commanders also worried about the country selling out on the Kerry Lugar Bill and the judges/nawaz sharif long march...said kayani if i wanted to coup i would have done it during the long march...?
  
• Dec3-2010--government withdraws amended accountability ordnance...probably as a ploy to get nawaz sharif to vote for the RGST...many say if the national assembly passes the RGST bill it will be a clear indication of the death of democracy...
  
• Dec2-2010--The US could be leaking cables and information as a propaganda weapon as secret stuff hurts dictators(who are more adept at talking than even US brow beating officials) more than direct talks or requests from teh US..Wikileaks one must say seems to have a great many sources after US state deptt cables were also revealed showing the pathetic nature of what is supposed tobe democracy in pakistan...usually we used to have only one US agent but now all three or four seem tobe US spies...Gilani is shown to be a supporter of drone attacks and Kayani reveals his negative impressions about zardari and faryal talpur emerges as a hero in american eyes and the next potential president...even the ordinary..bulging eyed anne patterson(drinks herself to sleep) seemed tobe the person most talked to by the army chief and his hirelings zardari and gilani...seemingly the american ambassador seems to be the first after an american ambassador in the zia era to achieve the status of almost a viceroy or defacto ruler of pakistan...the army chief seems to be just as pathetic as pakistans top two politicians and the ISI chief..no previous ISI chief has stooped so low as to become an informant for the israelis...the ambassador comes across as a go between for directions/orders to pakistans pathetic politicians from americans top three......pakistans democracy seems tobe pathetic and not worthy of even being called one..Pasha teh ISI chief turns out tobe an israeli informer and Kayani asks for US soldiers tobe embedded inits FC, and north and south waziristan operations...kayani and gilani come across as complete liars as their stated policies are the complete opposite of their comments...and Kayani gives Obama his wish list for afghanistan directly showing his negative appraisals and lack of reliance/authority of US defence deptt officials...This is the third tranche of wikileaks and seem to bee coming from the State Deptt...Hilary and anne patterson have really turned the tables on the supposed sovreign loving pakistan army and government... while the earlier wikileaks came from military coffers in afghanistan...it might be a new american/Obama policy to release documents early rather than 25 years later...obviously some transmission worker would not have access to all teh dthousands of documents and the US state and defence deptts seem directly involved...!!
  
• Dec1-2010--asif zardari, taseer, sherry rehman and LHC turn accusers against muslims in aasia blasphemy sentence...legislators should clearly define blasphemy and its sentence should be reduced so that anti muslim attitudes can be contained amongst the populace...as taseer who has already crossed other hudood says he is now responsible to god...earlier he was responsible to zardari alone...LHC restricts zardari from interference until legal remedies are completed...the dead and buried sherry rehman also jumps in with her own blasphemy law...!!
  
• Dec1-2010--French official says coas Kayani only interfering behind the scenes...she obviously does not know that kayani threatened yusuf raza gilani if his term was not extended..army chiefs under the PPP have always been clear about their views on political issues and have always made them known to the rulers...kayani seems tobe a new breed who is literally looking like a pet cat and anti people like zardari and yusuf gilani......pakistan is at best a partial sindhi-military dictatorship as military spends budget as zardari winces in pain at takleef of sindhis...piling on the pressures by price hikes and new taxes they have little interest in the people and their problems...afghanistan and fata can only be rectified after the west leaves the area...donor funds of little utility to the people...many suggest that coas kayani looks like a sindhi facially rather than a proud north punjabi...
  
• Dec1-2010--suicide bomb blast in bannu kills six
  
• Dec1-2010--NA speaker inducts two more ministers from ANP and PMLf in a hurry when zardari, senate speaker and yusuf raza gliani are not around...many say PPP's anti people nature being reinforced...
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