The Daily Pakistanpolitics 01-10 August, 2011

• Aug11-2011--while blocking retirements at the top the army promoted 19 brigadiers to major generals while according to the dawn only four major general vacancies will result from retirements of lieutenant generals
  
• Aug11-2011--the sindhi nationalists who usually support the PPP if they oppose the kalabagh dam and the ANP stunned teh PPP leadership by opposing the mqm supported local bodies viz the commissioner system...The chakar baz gilani watched in stony silence as teh ANp walked out of the NA and teh sindh PPP accused teh gilani-zardari clique of a sellout...
  
• Aug11-2011--drone kills eighteen in north waziristan..while in quetta two policemen and a schoolteacher were gunned down and bodies of two labourers found in turbat
  
• Aug10-2011--The upstart foreign minister Hina rabbani khar said she wanted to talk to india as a friend even though friendliness is rarely ascribed to the indian phsyche by anyone...even in india she was threatened by indians to beware of china and the retiring indian airforce chief said that they would destroy pakistan in a nuclear war scenario...not very friendly one must say however she said that they wanted to continue talking on issues the most recent of which are over two decades old...
• Aug10-2011--In the provincial debate BNP-M wants jacobabad, DG Khan and Rajanpur amalgamated with balochistan while others want balochistan divided into three on linguistic grounds...on the other hand the DG khan politicians seem inclined to join the seraikis...provinces in general or linguistic provinces have failed over teh longhaul starting from east pakistan and breaking up the theoretical states goes against the pakistan resolution so touted by some karachi and baloch politicians...at the moment one could describe fata, sindh, balochistan and nwfp as failed provinces...
  
• Aug09-2011--nature played havoc with the presidency too as heavy rains choked water pipes...zardari like the mqm wanted to know who was responsible for the water inflows into the troubled president house...maybe it was the mqm said one joker...?
  
• Aug09-2011--with the troublemaker Gilani out of teh country SC gets courage to set aside zafar qureshi suspension...
  
• Aug09-2011--after a literal hammering in fata and nwfp the army in no mood to handle another area with big law and order problems such as karachi...in a pathetic display of weakness they hope government measures will succeed in karachi...they hav'nt for over twenty years...
  
• Aug09-2011--The new provinces debate has brought strange views to the fore..the lackluster leaderless attitude of the PPP...who are unable to control even sindh...PPP attempts to demean the punjab as they cant control any of teh smaller provinces or fata...many suggest that smaller unmanageable provinces could be even a bigger disaster...many say the musharaf era kite flying of districts as seperate entities with the end of all the looting provincial governments might be a better bet...just as an example we have 114 districts ...if all the federal divisible funds and other available resources were given directly to them each district could get as much as 15-25 billion depending on teh overall take...under the present system big cities in the punjab barely get 2-4 billion barring lahore which seems tobe getting 20-30 billion...dividing punjab could have a devastating effect with sindh losing all its water rights as it would no longer be a lower riparian...however on the punjab level things might improve as with four provinces each could get more than 250 billion each...that would be a bonanza for parts of punjab that get literally nothing from lahore although the expenses of four assemblies and governments could eat into that...sindh could also get much lesser in financial terms as some parts of punjab are less developed than the whole...the ANP is the meanest in the provincial debate...supporting new provinces in all other provinces but not in nwfp and fata...
  
• Aug08-2011--many suggest that teh concept that smaller provinces will be easier to control seems far fetched given teh pakistani experience where smaller provinces have been more problematic than teh bigger province...creating trouble in a smaller province will be easier than doing it in a larger province...many suggest that unless the entire country is turned into smaller provinces just doing it in punjab alone will not solve the problem...earlier teh martial regime had suggested that all divisions or districts be turned into provinces...also many feel that it is the national assembly that should take the lead on forming new provinces and all teh countries problematic areas including fata, hazara, karachi, coastal balochistan, pukhtun balochistan be turned into new provinces...others are also suggesting that DI khan be included in the seraiki sooba while still others say that south punjab should be equally divided into two as well as central punjab and potohar...many in punjab feel that the loot of punjabs financial resources would have to be returned due to a division of punjab into two, three or four...?however without solving teh countries electricity problems smaller provinces can easily turn into rioting havens...
  
• Aug08-2011--The zardaris and the mqm are so frightened of teh commissioner karachi that they have done another about turn and now the PPP and mqm relationship is back to square one...again the musharaf local bodies reinstated in all of sindh...ANP however says that they are now dropping out of the PPP coalition in sindh and have told their lone minister in sindh to become non functional...
  
• Aug07-2011--PMLn moves to placate army by appointing two retired lieutenant generals..tirmizi and qadir baloch from nwfp and balochistan as assistant secretary generals..they already have a deputy secretary general and will now need a real heavyweight as secretary general...the secretary general in theory will now have to come from sindh...?
  
• Aug07-2011--A major blast at a peshawar nato terminal blows up sixteen oil tankers
  
• Aug07-2011--in what amounts to a division of sindh into two parts teh PPP's new trouble shooter like rehman malik accepted the mqm position and devolved them from teh commissioner system...karachi and hyderabad will now function in a supposed limbo under DMO's..apparently karachi and hyderabad will get local bodies and not the rest of sindh...whether the mqm can provide street security is another matter and unless they can restore peace in karachi since hyderabad sees no violence the situation will probably revert to the one of violence as usual...
  
• Aug06-2011--In a move that puts farook sattar at odds with the heavily armed mqm he agreed to a possible military de weaponisation drive in karachi as qaim ali shah the pathetically unimaginative chief minister of sindh and raza haroon came to a friendlier handling of teh situation which generally means the PPP backing away from all its points of views...many say altaf hussein has been literaly rejected by karachiites and teh coordination committeee has been dropped in favor of the governor and the opposition leader raza haroon...altaf hussein one day was ordering peace and the next a month long seige of karachi and eventually apologizing..?
  
• Aug06-2011--as the sindhis refused to have anything to do with it Gilani asked the PMlq to propose teh south punjab province in teh punjab assembly...south punjab though not a troubled area blames teh center and lahore for a lack of development...however generally south punjab is quite well developed education wise , in agriculture and infrastructure...many suggest that south punjab could easily deprive sindh of more funds and probably water...many things would have tobe renegotiated including water and NFC accords...generally speaking it is unconstitutional to talk about something that is not in teh constitution and the national assembly has to change teh constitution before the punjab assembly can do its job...without the PMLn or even if every mpa acted independently getting a 2/3's vote in teh punjab assembly would be difficult...others suggest that the SC has already ruled that a major change to teh constitution will be considered illegal...Gilani seems tobe in an undue haste as if elections could be announced or Gilani removed from the primeministership soon...Gilani 's position as primeminister also could be up in teh air as he would theoretically be an mna from a much smaller province than punjab as a whole and thus technically useless...sindh and nwfp probably feel unnerved as they too have areas who want tobe a seperate province...many suggest that the issue should theoretically go to a referendum in teh punjab at least...
  
• Aug06-2011--mqm they say has lost its ball of air...mqm ki phook nikal gai he...as farook sattar gave a list of 500 mqmh workers who they say are criminals ishrat flew in to discuss when they should rejoin the sindh government...many suggest that the mqm should talk to the sindh interior minister and sindh IG police...others say that if mqm cant do anything to change the situation in pakistans best developed city than they can hardly have any purpose or use...mqm should understand that this is pakistan and that is the way it is going tobe...and one does not know what they should do since it is much better than 1947...others suggest that the obvious suggestion to the mqm is to run away like their leader altaf hussein and not loot banks to pay for their violence...
  
• Aug05-2011--The ANP and MQM both of which supported the military actions in fata and lal masjid now want the military in karachi too...they have to realize that the civilian methods have not been exhausted and that includes incarcerating teh militant leaders who are apparently known to the sindh police and it is only the weakness of teh sindhi leadership that stops them from being arrested...the list of people arrested in 2002 is known and those involved can easily be deduced from statements that are issued...the mqm must as a first step stop its followers and supposed leaders from participation in violence...there is no way the military can disarm a whole populace...the military if called will have to act just as it does in the fata and swat where the populace refused to see reason...the mqm must realize what happens to cities that fight against teh country and amongst themselves...there is the example of kabul and beirut...many suggest that the mqm leaders be sent on a tour of mogadishou to see what happens...the only silver lining is that after destruction rebuilding can create jobs and probably a better karachi and might be better more sane leaders...there is also the viewpoint that sindhi barons control the violence for their own purposes to defeat an upstart city population...if the army comes in than so will cobra helicopters and they will blowup all militant hideouts and leaders...there will be no respite untill the violence stops in totality...the army cannot come in and than the mqm can regroup and start the violence all over again...that is what has been happening upto now...the mqm leaders are just as violence prone as their supporters and unless they stop their negativity nothing will change until they realize how to deal with problems and give proper and peaceful advice to their supporters...when they advise violence than how can things change...the PPP has made a serious miscalculation in not allowing political local bodies to function...they should think about local body elections especially in karachi if the mqm promises to end all violent activities...it is really not a matter of urdu, english and sindhi...they should have just instituted provincial government controls, reduce funds to karachi to help other areas of sindh and allow them the political space to function in coalition with other groups...the commissioner karachi said that they had 108 medical institutions under them and there are hundreds of factories and commercial organizations so it is not a matter that things have not been developed in karachi by past and present governments...it is still the best developed city in the country which only does not focus onits poor areas...therefore it is not a matter of more industries in karachi which probably still has 30% of teh countries industries located there...i saw a karachi which was better developed than before but its policing system had suffered because of immunity to political forces that cause unnecessary trouble...the problem of karachi like teh rest of the country is electricity ...why does the PPP and KESC not solve that for a start...one does not see any efforts in that direction there or in teh rest of teh country...when priorities are wrong than problems occur...the mqm problem is their isolation from the people of karachi and non involvement in the karachi administration...if they agree to keep the peace appoint a political commissioner but not a terrorist like the previous nazim...the previous deputy nazim could be an acceptable appointment if she has the guts tobe independent of the terrorism of teh mqm...!!??
  
• Aug04-2011--The controversial seraiki(kabhi altaf kabhi gilani aur kabhi nawaz sharif)Javed Hashmi now wants four provinces in punjab as size wise even south punjab is too big administratively while Shebaz Sharif says it is just a government gimmick as there are more problems in fata, karachi and balochistan...it is those provinces that are administratively difficult to handle as teh problem in punjab is generally equi-distribution of development funds...Fata should be declared a province and each agency given 15 seats in its provincial legislature...to start out a nominated legislature and governor can take over with a nominal police force since the tribal system is a complete failure...
  
• Aug04-2011--In what can at best be regarded as closing ones eyes to trouble and troublemakers...the PPP coalition asked Asif Zardari to negotiate peace with the karachi terrorists aka the mqm whose leader issued a one month threat of war from london...when Gilani called in teh army chief to ask his opinion he told them that this time we will reduce karachi to rubble starting with the houses of all the mqm militants...and he also told them that the army can not sit idle as the mqm leaders threaten the country...and cause strife and persistent ethnic warfare...it was suggested that the only way was to arrest all top mqm leaders in the country who are behind teh karachi problem...however teh pathetic PPP asked Asif Zardari to ask the mqm to rejoin the sindh cabinet...in fact they asked zardari to negotiate with the mqm but he is known as a wimp and persistent mqm supporter even in the PPP and just wants them back in teh cabinet...many regard the karachi situation as the biggest PPP failure who could not handle the ethnic warriors even in teh seventies when zulfikar ali bhutto introduced sindhi in karachi schools as compulsory...earlier ayub khan too could not handle the killing fields of golimar and liaqatabad...many suggest that the craziness of the mqm is because they cannot identify with pakistan and its prosperity...starting out they and the landlords looted pakistan as mohajirs were doled out houses and land left behind by hindus...while in punjab the mohajirs became billionaires teh karachi ethnic mohajirs moved lower down teh ladder eventually ending at teh botton dominated by other ethnicities like sindhis and pukhtuns...earlier the punjabis and mohajirs had developed sindh and now they are being pushed out of teh picture and cannot take it anymore...the PPP is handling teh situation as if the mohajirs are religious minorities and handling them like the indian congress and BJP...however teh mqm has created a monster by becoming teh countries worst and biggest minority even though they are muslims...some suggest the mqm leaders are shiite who have little love for the country and the majority sunnis...the other groups in karachi namely sunni extremists, taleban, pukhtuns and baloch are much more cooperative whether economically and politically dominant or not...many suggest that the mqm has lost complete control and lower cadres go berserk whenever they want...many suggest that mqm has for the first time attacked an industry although they were accused of setting factories on fire before......many suggest that the mqm are controlled by indian forces such as the bjp and rahul gandhi both pretty much happy to see pakistan in deep trouble what with teh problems in balochistan and fata...many suggest that teh PPP's childishness portrayed by the mohajir-sindhi zardari is teh cause of teh problem as teh mqm know they can terrorize him into subjugation easily...many suggest that teh country could be on the verge of a coup despite a weak armed forces leadership...others suggest that mqm has not givenup the hope of a seperate harachi either as a province or seperate state...many in punjab generally supporting mqm as they trouble the PPP into another grave think that karachis destruction will create more opportunities in jobs and industrial avenues in other provinces...The PPP regime has failed to demonstrate an even economic handout to all areas of teh country and has been generally happy with teh army failures in balochistan and fata and probably teh semi terrorist situation all over teh country...u can see the rehman malik response to the mqm's threats of continued terrorism...all politicians make such statements he said...all politicians donot create mayhem at teh drop of a coin...the PPP should identify the creators of teh karachi violence and send them behind bars for ever...obviously the people the PPP arrests are not the ones behind teh violence orchestrated by london or teh coordination committee of teh mqm...still others say that PMLn behind the karachi violence while imran khan controls the anti nato and fata violence...many say altaf hussein has already been paid off by the interior ministry but his phsychological craziness persists as he went up in flames on hearing the crooked sugar barons thoughts on the mohajir origins..."bhooke nange aye they aur hamari daulat kha ker hum se he larte hen..."...one would like to clarify that there were only a few rich men amongst the mohajirs in 1947 and while not unclothed they came here poor and petrified and downtrodden...a religious minority in india that was constantly persecuted and subjugated by hindus and the british...they subsequently occupied government offices and instituted petty corruption until the political class, military and management decided that they should benefit from corruption and not the clerks...while the politicians quadrupled corruption the mohajirs steadily lost their jobs first to punjabis and than pukhtuns and sindhis...many suggest even the suit that altaf hussein flaunts was bought by rehman malik...?
  
• Aug02-2011--seven nato tankers torched near khairpur
  
• Aug02-2011--Gilani apparently trying to create a south punjab province by force to create a political base for himself...while he can hardly get the resolution thru the national assembly and senate he wants to push it thru the punjab assembly...to create problems for teh PMLn which can effectively block teh resolution...however the south is also quite divided and many suggest that teh PPP could suffer its first reversal if it tries to move it in the national assembly where a two third vote requires everybody tobe on board...how they are going to divide the punjab with bahawalpur already opposed and whether other areas would like to live under multani domination which might be worse than an over all punjab...many might be upset by the PPP trying already for domination of multan, bahawalpur and dg khan...south punjab says the dawn consists of multan, dg khan, rahimyar khan, muzafargarh, layyah, bahawalnagar,sadiqabad, vehari, lodhran, rajanpur, bahawalpur...and they also want central punjab areas such as mianwali, bhakkar and mianwali...dg khan is generally considered baloch with mianwali having a substantial pukhtun base...how they are going to divide the punjab which basically has no real movement for a seraiki sooba...one doubts that sindh, nwfp and balochistan would want to vote for such a division although karachi might do so...many suggest that the government should divide all the provinces on a realistic basis which could see punjab divided into three, balochistan into three, sindh into two and nwfp into two...thatta, karachi and hyderabad could probably form a viable province in sindh...it is a controversial area as under the pakistan resolution the country can theoretically not divide its states...
  
• Aug02-2011--Politicians if not taken to task continue begetting violence...In what seems to have been one of teh bad days apparent mqm attacks in surjani town claimed 23 lives with most of the attacks against pukhtun targets while a factory was attacked in sohrab goth by apparent pukhtuns...destroying numerous motorbikes...many suggest with ramazan approaching the politicians might have gone on a bhatta gathering spree destroying those that resisted paying...most of the violence seems mqm orchestrated with pukhtun retaliations..many suggest that the violent mqm leaders should be arrested before those actually involved are found and incarcerated...how the PPP expects to solve teh problem while sitting with those who order the violence seems unexplainable...most of the karachi violence is supposedly meaningless ethnic warfare with no side able to control or subjugate teh other...
  
• Aug02-2011--it is teh general feeling that bheegi billi ki tara altaf hussein ke pas jaane wale karachi men masle hal nahin kar sakte...Unless the criminals are brought to book the karachi situation will not improve...MQM is known to respond typically ...ke ham kyun roken...?..terrorists can only be dealt one way...the people should not only protest against the police and bijli shutdowns but also against the bijli chor and the criminal...there are only a few mqm leaders known to participate in the hate mongering activities and they can easily be incarcerated...many suggest that patriotism does not gel with ethnic/religious terrorism...The issues in karachi and maybe quetta have crossed the bounds of politics and obviously cannot be solved thru mere political statements...like the ones being issued by rehman malik, manzoor wassan and altaf hussein...
  
• Aug02-2011--Gilani obviously unaware that even parliament does not have unlimited powers nor does the executive...The SC can issue corrective orders and those have tobe followed by the government...many suggest that the SC appoint a NAB chief since the government is unable to...?
  
• Aug01-2011--Yusuf Raza Gilani apparently again let off the hook by the SC says the Dawn as he refuses to obey their orders on various matters..there are several SC orders pending on various matters that the PPP regime is refusing to follow...The SC prepared to act however they say if Gilani creates further problems in implementing SC orders...The PPP seemingly only in power to get their corruption related cases..killed...