The Daily PakistanPolitics Feb11-20, 2011

• Feb20-2011--PMLn suggesting that PPP not very accomodating and a split in punjab might occur after teh Feb23 deadline...
  
• Feb20-2011--The Judicial Commission holds back on the meaningless adhoc judges syndrome...Ramday has already been a judge for 22 years and he can hardly contribute anymore...The SC should move to end teh Judiciaries impasse's by giving sensible appreciable decisions rather than politicising or delaying issues for whatever reasons...six additional judges of the SHC were given another extension while three were dropped...
  
• Feb20-2011--the US after weeks of trying to subjugate pakistan moves to repair relations in their eternal enemy prone friendship..the pakistani primeminister on teh other hand suggested khoon baha as a solution given his orientation with money...The USA forgets that their aid might help army and politicians but is of no assistance to the generalized populace...The US had been threatening to break off diplomatic and financial relations as usual...the move comes amid reports that the US had surreptitiously moved out of pakistan two other officials who had killed the third motorcyclist in an apparent targeting by jumping a median...
  
• Feb19-2011--Altaf Hussein says no use in projecting prophets life...blasphemy...?as PMlq asks for five seats in karachi for five in punjab
  
• Feb19-2011--power pylon and gas pipeline blasts increase misery in balochistan as 12 pipelines and eight power pylons blownup in last 12 days shut down gas and elctricity supplies across balochistan
  
• Feb19-2011--one dies in bannu car blast as two BSO activists shot dead in khuzdar as baloch areas strike in balochistan against killing of BNP polticians...
  
• Feb18-2011--The school teachers in islamabad went on strike demanding a single school system and grades...government has been unable to settle even teh issue of director general of the FDE in over three years
  
• Feb18-2011--The judges cant keep out of politics as a judge (non functional) of teh PHC issued a contempt notice against four sitting judges of teh SC...The SC said such judges cannot function... while an SC bench suspended the parliamentary committees rejection of four additional judges of the LHC...
  
• Feb17-2011--Kaira apparently to replace the anti punjab american agent fauzia wahab as PPP's party spokesperson...PPP walas in attempts at getting into teh reckoning for the foreign minister post went at each other like enemies...The PPP turning into a dictatorial one man party with anybody opposing the unbalanced leadership being shunted out...
  
• Feb18-2011--leon panetta unable to understand pakistans viewpoint on LT an anti india grouping...many suggest that pakistan should be able to deal with india directly and the USA has always complicated the issue and turned into an indian mouthpiece...pakistan not willing to oppose friendly groups on both sides of teh border and it is teh USA that needs to clear its strategy on issues in teh region...
  
• Feb18-2011--the raymond davies case clearly identifies the undependable and unstable nature of teh pakistani system with all tiers having differing concepts...The LHC put his name on teh ECL while a magistrate sent him to jail on a 14 day remand for illegal weapons...The government unable to submit its view on immunity and to do so by March 14...?The primeminister who is supposedly the decision maker under teh constitution seems to be a weak reluctant indecisive stand in for the real thing...!!!the sidelined army chief called in again to discuss teh issue...
  
• Feb16-2011--seven bodies recovered from shah alam inferno rubble...
  
• Feb16-2011--Pmlq's unification bloc with 44 members becomes seperate entity in punjab assembly
  
• Feb16-2011--American trouble shooter(not raymond davies) John Kerry arrived in lahore to plug the american case against a contract worker of teh US consul in lahore...The US duality in behaviour and the strange nature of the person involved who shot the two motorcyclists from teh front as well as teh back and than photographed them suggests that the americans might have contract killers in their embassies...the americans have also not provided any information on another car which ran over a third motorcyclist
  
• Feb16-2011--Yusuf Raza Gilani who remained in jail for hiring multani relatives and receiving commission on buying vehicles for teh national assembly and has got elected a son and brother while in power allows investigations of money laundering against his controversial son...many suggest he had earlier attempted to make his son the punjab chief minister...
  
• Feb16-2011--Raymond Davies jokes are the talk of the town with Nawaz Sharif advising John Kerry that he should ask Asif Zardari to grant Raymond Davies an amnesty as he did his interior minister...others say when criminals rule chaudhries dance...
  
• Feb16-2011--The Raymond Davies case has literally toppled the primeminister with John Kerry flown in todo the talking(that is how americanized teh PPP has become)...when he arrived at the Raiwind palace(started out as a farmhouse) Nawaz Sharif complained about teh meager Rs200 million allocation to punjab from teh Kerry Aid Fund(the Lugar was dropped as raymond davies used it to shoot two kids in lahore)...kerry assured him that they would put raymond on trial in teh USA...and nawaz sharif queried whether he would get a sentence matching an MIT PhD's who was sentenced to twenty years just for grabbing a gun...
  
• Feb16-2011--In other news fauzia wahab pushed aside shah mahmood qureshi as she rushed towards Kerry Lugar shouting for political amnesty...however Raymond Davies saved teh day as he immediately shot her in teh foot...The PPP at pains to demonstrate its democracy starts out in one position and ends on the other side...apparently Fauzia Wahab is using a loud horn to tell teh peopel that teh SC already ordered to grant Raymond Davies diplomatic immunity...while others joke that it is a godsend for pakistani embassy workers in teh USa who can now smuggle drugs and even go out on a US street when they feel like it and shoot a couple of americans walking by and than claim immunity..al qaida many say now in close contact with embassy workers in many western countries...
  
• Feb15-2011--Reports which have resurfaced suggest abdul qadir gilani is squarely being accused of corruption...accused of taking Rs20 million from the hajj scam...a FIA director Hussein Asghar who summoned abdul qadir gilani to explain how he had purchased a Rs15 million car was transferred by the primeminister...many are suggesting that the JUI questioned the primeminister why he had fired the religious affairs minister when his son had taken the payoff...in another controversy Zain Sukhera a friend of Qadir Gilani was appointed an advisor in the religious ministry...who is also said to have in exchange taken the primeministers son on foreign trips including a free hajj...?The sons sure are going at it faster than zardari and benazir...
  
• Feb15-2011--The PPP's Qureshi imbroglio collapsed as shah mahmood qureshi refused to stand up for himself.....others said that he privately argued that i donot work under a trollop from karachi...Fauzia wahab was apparently told to mind her own bussiness but continued to issue personal statements...she wants immunity for raymond davis in the hopes of becoming foreign minister...fauzia and baber awan said tobe acting as Zardaris ghunda's in oldstyle politics of character assassination......immunity many say ends when a criminal act with a weapon is committed ..diplomats are not authorized to carry guns...however baber awan the other man questioning shah mahmood's attitude said they wanted the release of afia siddiqui...
  
• Feb15-2011--The SC CJ in a move that raises questions of impropriety and need reappointed Khalilur Rehman Ramday as an adhoc judge for a second year after retirement and again asked for another retired judge tobe appointed as an adhoc judge...many suggest that teh SC is taking advantage of a weak corruption riddled government that wont even question such inappropriate actions...others suggest that they are using teh appointment to fill their charity kitty at peoples expense...
  
• Feb14-2011--PPP leaders not happy at the Zardari-Gilani new cabinet which many see as a hasty attempt to paper over differences in teh PPP especially amongst groups favorable to teh Pmln , PMLq and mqm...they feel that juniors like Ghurki, firdous and Hina have been preferred over senior punjabi politicians...shah mahmood not seen as a public failure like rehman malik, baber awan, raja ashraf and many think bakhtawar may have the ear of her father more than punjabs real politicians...
  
• Feb14-2011--Mushir Alam becomes sindh SHC cj while two more sindhi judges are shifted to the SC
  
• Feb14-2011--The aging supporter of military governance chaudhry shujaat tries to bring the noisy murderous MQM into punjab politics as he can barely shift his weight under the noose of teh PMLn...with punjabi immigrants already under the control of the PMLn only some areas of urdu mohajirs can see some gain for the PMLq...however most feel that teh PMlq vote will totally shift to the PMLn if they feel teh chaudhries have no politics left in them...
  
• Feb14-2011--Rahat Fateh Ali Khan stopped at delhi airport with huge sums of money...
  
• Feb14-2011--The sidelined and those not getting any important positions attacking shah mahmood qureshi a former muslim leaguer who was removed from teh foreign ministry after he objected to the deputy primeminister attitude of rehman malik and gave fewer opportunities to gilani and zardari to travel abroad...many suggest Raja ashraf moving into line for the foreign minister position..many others say teh USA might have been involved in having him removed given the pro USA attitude of teh top two...PPP many say going after him like mad dogs...
  
• Feb14-2011--Uchh power plant shuts down as another pipeline blows up
  
• Feb13-2011--Gas supply to quetta not restored as more pipelines blowup...punjab also suffering gas shortfalls
  
• Feb13-2011--Many suggest that shah mahmood qureshi was offered water and power at the last moment but he refused and did not attend the oath taking...This suggests a hurried cabinet announcement...since there was no other contender for the foreign office it seems that zardari and yusuf raza gilani were miffed at not getting enough overseas tours.. shah mahmood qureshi had led the elections in the punjab to a relatively better result than in previous elections...The PPP has slipped considerably in the punjab due to gilanis seraiki emphasis and zardari's ANP/sindhi nature
  
• Feb13-2011--In the Raymond Davies case the USA cancelled a asif zardari visit and cancelled other engagements and threatened a cutoff in financial assistance that have slowed down to a trickle anyway...The US has an adverserial relationship with pakistan and many think that it benefits pakistan little to be seen as a slavish ally and unless teh US does things on time especially transfering financial assistance.... it might be better to turn into an iran and breakoff relations with teh USA and live on what we have rather than inflate our economy on a mirage that does not deliver...
  
• Feb13-2011--ATC judge Rana Nasir Ahmed issues warrants for musharaf's arrests in the Benazir assassination...The PPP regime upto now sitting around doing nothing now seems tobe trying to show that it is doing some sort of accountability...upto now PPP ministers have stopped actions against musharaf on any score including running away with the proceeds of a book written by the government or initiating a coup against an elected government...
  
• Feb12-2011--Hosni Mubarak left power in egypt paving the way for an uncertain future government leaving it to the military to arrange some sort of democratic credentials
  
• Feb12-2011--In PIA rehman malik as usual agreed as he does with the mqm and said jaise aap ki marzi...and jettisoned the PIA MD after four days of blocked flights...defence minister insisting that there is no agreement with turkish airlines...
  
• Feb12-2011--lahore police said that Raymond Davies deliberately shot dead two while the US consul said that they were running from a robbery
  
• Feb12-2011--22 ministers take oath with zardari-gilani unable to make many expected major changes..only ministers to have fallen from grace seem tobe raja ashraf, kaira, gondal and shah mahmood...Naveed qamar has lost the petroleum ministry while teh economic minister sheikh pasha has become more powerful despite being seen as ineffective, weak, anti people and washington controlled...he might have survived because of his willingness to talk to the opposition...hina rabbani khar has been shifted to minister of state for foreign affairs and maybe the reason for shah mahmood qureshi to refuse to take oath or it could be the raymond davis affair...ashiq firdous the only one promoted to information minister...teh failing interior and railways ministers have survived after phone calls from london...gilani to handle petroleum and power ministries....the problematic ministries viz the people were petroleum, water and power, food and agriculture,economics and foreign affairs...defence minister has also survived despite problematic control of army promotions, army handled terrorism and PIA..while minister of foreign affairs who handled the problematic kerry lugar and indian affairs might have been toppled..PMLn had complained that they have only received $200 million of the kerry Lugar aid...Nazar mohammed gondal also lost the food ministry to israr ullah zehri...samina ghurki becomes environment minister...so there are more changes in women ministers and some top guns seem to have lost out mostly considered tobe challengers for gilani's position...however two other challengers amin fahim and ahmed mukhtar survived...The government now has two women ministers for the first time...The only new inductees were Mir Changez and Umar Gorage from the PPP and two from the PMLq and Fata...Raza Rabbani made a comeback as Shahabuddin was shifted to textiles...The fallen include prominent PPP men Najmuddin khan, Jakhrani, aftab Jilani, gondal, kaira, pervez ashraf,shah mahmood,etc...a policy of one minister from a division...benefited firdous and hina rabbani who seems tobe the longest serving minister of state...important ministries not filled include petroleum,foreign affairs, water and power, ports,housing and works,human rights, overseas pakistanis, communications and defence production...
  
• Feb11-2011--challenging the regimes contention that they had contained the taleban a suicide bomber blewup at a military parade ground killing 31...mardan is the hoti home ground and is the punjab regimental center
  
• Feb11-2011--PIA-government parleys fail as governments potential defence minister rehman malik fails to address grievances.. rehman malik had a reputation of subduing the mqm by agreeing to all their demands usually...according to the mqm he used to say "acha isi tara sahi..."!!
  
• Feb11-2011-- The government in what is going to amount to a mockery of the peoples concerns is going todo the same thing all over again...reduce spending, increase taxation and electricity/petroleum prices which will spiral into a another general price hike...but this time they are going to get it approved from the rubber stamp parliament
  
• Feb11-2011--As the SC judges looked into the (save Zardari )appointment of teh NAB chief Deedar ali shah the government reappointed teh same person with a change in teh notification suggesting an approval by the primeminister too...?
  
• Feb11-2011--The only girls college in teh Orakzai was blownup
  
• Feb11-2011--rocket attack on quetta express in nasirabad