The Daily PakistanPolitics Apr1-15, 2015

• Apr15-2015--ANP, MQM-H and iftikhar chaudhry want to present their cases before the judicial commission...while the ANP seems to have no case mqm-h was literally destroyed by the mqm-a/PPP...iftikhar chaudhry whom many now regard as having been on the PMLn payrole despite being a martial law appointee...
  
• Apr15-2015--Altaf Hussein's Murder Inc. was again in the dock as its murderous travel agent moazam ali khan was remanded into 90 days custody...for the murder of Imran Farook...!In london altaf hussein apparently could not answer any questions since he lacked an understanding of the english language and was again sent home on bail...many feel that altaf hussein is providing the information to get his killers apprehended as he tries to get free of the british police who will hound him for the rest of his life...
  
• Apr15-2015--The UN imposed an armed embargo on houthi rebels and asked them to withdraw from Sanaa...four houthi and saleh militant leaders have been blacklisted...This can be said tobe a victory for the moderate arab countries like Jordan which fear iranian dominated shiite rebellions...The russians who in the past had supported a communist or socialist south yemen backed out by abstaining from the UN resolution which passed 14-0...Iran has been moving in to fill the vacuum of a lack of governance as the alqaeda withdraws from countries such as syria, iraq and lebanon...many feel that the situation has been created by the US sponsored shiite regime in Iraq which is now also being bolstered by the hardline iranian army...iran has upto now only been interfering in shiite ruled or shiite majority states thru militant organizations like Hezbullah...but now elements of the the regular Iranian Revolutionary Guards are also being sent in...however its interference in yemen creates a new situation which has the gulf arabs, jordan and saudia in turmoil at how to handle the iranian interference in traditionally arab areas over the last twenty centuries...with the Omani king stated tobe seriously ill...iranian control over the lower gulf and red sea ports would create serious trouble for the saudi regime
  
• Apr14-2015--two soldiers die in an IED blast in spinwam as 10 militants are killed in orakzai bombings
  
• Apr14-2015--FC kill 13 suspects in a clash for possible involvement in the killing of twenty labourers in Turbat
  
• Apr14-2015--travel agent and possible handler of the killers of imran farook in london arrested in karachi...altaf hussain being questioned at a london police station as the mqm is now in a coalition with taleban supporters...
  
• Apr14-2015--The saudi's and UAE who have always helped PMLn and PPP leaders in time of trouble will remember for a long time the evil grin on nawaz sharif's face after the passage of the anti saudi legislation...if parliament cannot understand the difference between friend and foe than who else can...obviously pakistan has no role to play as a peace maker after such legislation and the saudi's should realize the two timing nature of people like nawaz sharif, khawaja asif, zarif, ishaq dar and sartaj aziz who were the movers of such a legislation...the saudi's and the UAE should realize that they should support the country and not its temporary leaders which is the major difference between a democracy and dictatorship...this is also one of the results of the selective financing of a few by saudi charities...!!!The iranian role of interfering directly thru military aid in a local political problem is also now very clear...and pakistan's siding with iran in the conflict seem's pathetic if not illinformed...
  
• Apr13-2015--arabs get annoyed with the pakistani governments attempt to avoid the yemen crisis thru a meaningless resolution in parliament...pakistan has avoided involvements in the past as well when it refused to send troops into iraq and afghanistan...others suggest that the pakistani setup is so fragile that the government could be toppled if its weak fauj suffered casaulties...pakistan is also seen as being under the iranian thumb which does not get too involved in helping pakistan financially...it can be seen in contrast when chinese handover of gwader and the chinese corridor were approved without any parliamentary approval despite being similarly controversial...many see the nawaz regime being under pressure from shiite groups which are to a large extent controlled by iranian funds...politicians have always found it difficult to understand the saudi funding of the relatively poor mosque based clergy
• Apr13-2015--10 militants killed by security forces while attempting to enter pakistan thru the mohmand border
• Apr13-2015--BLF chief Allah Nazar accused of killing twenty construction workers from sindh and punjab...
  
• Apr12-2015--The interplay between saudia and iran is getting increasingly dirty as two iranian military men were picked up in aden..while the iranians said that two of their men were sexually harassed at a saudi airport...the pakistani government at best is in no man's land in the conflict as the arabs getting irritated at iranian interference in arab disputes...The iranian role in yemen is obviously not praiseworthy
  
• Apr12-2015--20 labourers gunned down at a Turbat bridge construction site...labourers from south punjab and sindh...balochistan chief minister and minister shown carrying dead bodies and balochistan interiro minister visits rahimyar khan to offer condolences
  
• Apr12-2015--A UAE minister severely critisizes pakistans assembly resolution which is largely considered tobe anti saudi arabia...he also states that pakistan could suffer severe retaliations...There were already thinkings about what the UAE and Saudi could do...many point to restrictions on home remittances and cancelations of visa's to the Dar children and other unwelcome visitors such as the sharifs...The UAE is home to many of the pakistani top echelon who could find that nobody would be helping them at airports any longer...others suggest that military relations could suffer as could limitations on airline flights which are the mainstay of PIA...however many suggest that pakistan may get away with just mild rebukes and may in future be cold shouldered by the upto now friendly saudi's...relations with the UAE apparently have already gone sour due to past frictions...even nawaz sharif has sought refuge in dubai and saudia under past military takeovers as have nusrat bhutto, benazir and asif zardari...
  
• Apr11-2015--Pakistan apparently opts out of the yemen solution and war as the PMLn insists that it is neutral on the issue...parliament resolution does not mention any saudi request and they also backed out of supporting the legitimate government that had been toppled by the houthi militia...This means in general that the shiite lobby succeeded despite the support of the extremist taleban supporting JI...the saudi's suggested that the pakistanis had become immaterial to the process although they were continuing to talk to the pakistani government...This means that if the saudi's go for a direct intervention it will have tobe thru an arab league rapid reaction force...pakistan has thus fallen for anti saudi shiite/iranian propaganda and has become blind to the process and any participation in the solution...The saudi's will thus have to depend more on US support and support from other arab countries barring those that are shiite dominated...one minister also stated that pakistani troops were already in saudi arabia...however other reports suggest that only one major general has been deputed to handle pakistan's participation and saudi 747's went back empty after troops participation was refused...many suggest that pakistan has upto two lakh faujis in saudi uniform but the saudis will now have to replace their ministry of defence officials said tobe full of ex pakistan armed forces officials...
  
• Apr10-2015--Army transfers the almost new head of Strategic Plans Division Lt. Gen. Zubair Mahmood Hayat and appoints him CGS while Lt Gen Mazhar Jamil takes over SPD who was the GHQ military secretary...current CGS made Corp Commander Multan...five Lt gen's are to retire causing the massive upheaval...most of the promoted major generals look like a minority group...Zubair must have been unhappy at SPD where old man Kidwai is still serving as a consultant...Kidwai took over after Qadeer Khan was forced out by the musharaf regime
  
• Apr10-2015--The PMLn attitude on saudia/yemen is in sharp contrast to their behaviour at home where helicopter gunships pounded Tirah and killed 23 on thursday
  
• Apr10-2015--many are laughing behind their backs when asif zardari suggests that his twenty-seven year old son is in training in england while his daughter is only interested in zamindari and bussiness...!!!some suggest that someone also wanted to takeup singing instead...!
  
• Apr10-2015--Nepra reduces february tariff by Rs 4.4 per unit...while petroleum prices have fallen from almost a 110 to around $50 this is the maximum reduction that Nepra has ordered...many feel that the government is still reluctant to give the people any benefits while always ready to increase tariff's...eg. with petroleum prices falling and a massive inflow of foreign exchange the dollar price is still stuck at over a hundred...while many wonder how Ayyan a model put together half a million dollars in cash and tried to escape with it abroad...many suggest it is part of the PPP loot...!
  
• Apr10-2015--Lakhvi ordered released by the LHC
  
• Apr10-2015--SC commission to study election dhandli/irregilarities asks political parties to present their views/evidence...Najam Sethi the punjab caretaker CM during the elections says he would like to present his case first in answer to Imran Khans allegations...while Imran Khan asks Nadra/ECP to present their knowledge of irregularities and tribunal decisions...Imran Khan will have to realize that just saying "dhandli hui thi...hui thi" will not impress the judges...
  
• Apr9-2015--Imran Khan vows to end atmosphere of fear in karachi...the mqm seemingly at war with everyone who wants a piece of their ethnic turf...
  
• Apr9-2015--nine militants shot dead in karachi
  
• Apr9-2015--The iranian foreign minister shows his anti saudi attitude while sartaj aziz comes out with an anti abdullah saleh/houthi militia stand and suggests that the UN security council handle the issue...Pakistan turns out tobe a puny superpower under the circumstances with their relations with all those involved seemingly becoming suspect and touchy at best...
  
• Apr9-2015--The CJ appoints an election commission headed by him alonhwith judges amir hani muslim and and ejaz afzal..The first issue will be for the court to settle the unconstitutional aspects surrounding the commissions formation
  
• Apr8-2015--Pakistan plans to buy high altitude US Viper attack helicopters with hellfire missiles that they can use on other planes or drones and attack militants with relative safety and control...
  
• Apr8-2015--Nawaz Sharif who seems tobe wary of having to go help the saudi's says that the turks are going to talk to the iranians to stop them troubling the saudi's...The turks have vast experience in ruling the arab areas including yemen and also have an army that can project force...the pakistanis despite wanting iranian gas and power should make the priorities clear to the iranians who seem to want to encircle the saudi's...The violence in yemen has tobe stopped and the iranians too should use their influence with the houthis to return to their own areas...reports of iranian military involvements in yemen are also spreading...
  
• Apr7-2015--government is so keen to get rid of HBL shares that its floor price is Rs19 below the market price which would cause the government a loss of Rs5 billion...!!
  
• Apr7-2015--six killed in Tirah bombings...Jamrud political agent says Jamrud had been cleared of militants
  
• Apr7-2015--NTDCL says that they are building new transmission lines to create a multiple area supply redundant system where there can be maximum use for available power...with one main 500KV transmission system spread across the country outages can have a ripple effect to bring the entire system to its knees...
  
• Apr7-2015--The PTI antagonists the JUIf, PMLN and MQM heckled the PTI for returning to parliament after abusing it...
  
• Apr7-2015--Khawaja Asif showing no regard for diplomatic niceties said that the saudi's wanted planes, men as well as navy ships to participate in the yemen war but that the PMLn seemed unwilling to go that far...
  
• Apr6-2015--Javed Hashmi says that the dharna was lt. general pasha's idea and that imran khan regularly talked to pasha and general kayani...workers had been asked to drag nawaz sharif outside the primeminister house and PAT had been asked to ransack parliament...he says pasha was bent upon removing nawaz sharif, khawaja asif and chaudhry nisar from govt....many people thought that a military man must be behind the process due to the persistance shown by the politicos and the violent threats...however the faceoff ended because the army chief did not falter from his duty...most people thought that the ISI was behind the protests
  
• Apr6-2015--11 TTP men arrested in kuchlak as two policemen are shot dead in karachi
  
• Apr6-2015-- three killed as airforce planes bomb Tirah
  
• Apr6-2015--fighting continues in Aden as the pakistanis move to withdraw their pledge to fight with the saudi's...US tries to beef up the egyptian airforce to help the saudis...
  
• Apr5-2015--local court says that Malik Riaz not allowed to use the Bahria name since 2000
  
• Apr5-2015--five killed in Tirah bombings
  
• Apr5-2015--Russians want UN to pause yemen conflict
  
• Apr5-2015--Rangers to oversee elections in NA246 due to possibility of mqm violence
  
• Apr4-2015--the new selectors comeup with a oneday team most of whose members could probably be too old in another four years...they seem tobe depending on the new openers hafeez, sarfraz and sami aslam who alongwith mohd rizwan a wicketkeeper are the only new players...the middle order is tobe formed by steady slow players like azhar ali, asad shafik, probably hafeez, haris sohail, mohd rizwan and the failed sohaib maqsood...shezad, umar akmal and nasir jamshed have been dropped alongwith younis khan and the two retirees...they probably have more batsmen who can play longer innings but are not considered too great or threatening on the world stage...they also have not dropped ehsan adil who looked odd in the two matches that he played...saeed ajmal comes back to strengthen the lacklustre spin with yasir shah who did not get a tryout in serious matches in the worldcup...they should look for a real paceman to replace adil since mohd irfan is going tobe out for a longtime...maybe imamul haq should have been given a tryout...baber azam comes into the test squad...although he has a better one day and t20 average...a person with a one day average of 63 should be in the oneday squad...while mukhtar ahmed and mohd rizwan come into the t20 where shehzad has been retained...saad nasim provides the steady depth in the t20 side...shahid afridi too could have been dropped from the t20 because of his steadily dropping form...no real surprises apart from mukhtar ahmed...who comes into the t20 side after only a few matches for state bank with some star performances
  
• Apr4-2015--six militants killed in a ziarat military operation
  
• Apr4-2015--mqm's ghunda's uproot a PTI election camp while the KMC removes mqm leaders wedding lawns built on amenity plots for poor hospitals...mqm unwilling to participate in a multi party democracy...it looks like a party of ghunda's who seem to still want to terrorize the country by spoiling teh karachi atmosphere...its dictatorial attitude may now not be tolerated...or will the PTI run like other ethnic and political groups...even the PMLn and PPP have not had the courage to put up candidates in NA 246...
  
• Apr4-2015--houthi rebels flee parts of aden after an arms drop by the saudi's...while the alqaeda claim to have captured a provincial capital in the east...pakistan has partially evacuated around a thousand people with more difficulties in evacuating the rest...pakistan has verbally assured the saudi's support but seems unwilling to put its troops where its mouth is...the saudis at the moment are just trying to restrict the houthi's but could invade and capture houthi areas near its borders...others suggest that major ports and the capital could be the saudi's target...saudi's could setup a government in exile which would shift to sanaa as soon as it is possible...other possibilities are the withdrawal of the houthis from southern areas and a defacto partitioning into north and south again...houthis have been doing this to subjugate the plains since before the arrival of islam...most of the southern parts of yemen have always been under occupation by houthis and other foreign interests...yemen and saudi arabia became more stable states after the british ended the ottoman empire which had occupied most of the arab areas...
  
• Apr3-2015--a guard found hanged at the residence of sindh minister mazharul haq...while a former PMLn minister siddique kanju's son shoots dead a passerby by after he started shooting when his car crashed into another in lahore
  
• Apr3-2015--government sacks islamabad SSP Nekokara who had been unable to control the PTI's violence prone mobs...The police had almost refused to control the dharna in the face of aggressive tactics...Imran Khan says he will reinstate the officer if he comes into power
  
• Apr3-2015--four pukhtuns found shot dead in karachi...
  
• Apr3-2015--both sides continue military activities in yemen with the houthis capturing the Aden presidential palace and the saudi's bombing a tanker at a seaport...in mukalla alqaeda raided a prison and freed 300..in dhaleh 40 houthis were killed by their commander...it could be a long saudi attrition campaign if the houthis donot giveup...most of the military is allied with the former president abdullah saleh a houthi who are working with the houthis...there does not seem to be much military resistance from the majority sunnis...
  
• Apr3-2015--The iranians reach an agreement with the USA to stop enriching uranium...only tobe allowed use of 6000 centrifuges of type-1 of which 5014 will enrich uranium to 3.65% for ten years...no uranium tobe enriched beyond 3.65 for fifteen years...the rest of the 19000 centrifuges tobe put into cold storage...stockpiles of 10000 kg of enriched uranium tobe reduced to 300 kg..a new reactor yet tobe installed tobe redesigned to not produce plutonium..a setup tobe created for supply of nuclear equipment...full monitoring and sanctions tobe removed or applied on compliance...uranium has tobe enriched several times to reach the 20% level for bomb making...iranians at present can make material for one bomb in three months...details still tobe worked out
  
• Apr2-2015--two soldiers killed in blast in khyber agency
  
• Apr2-2015--a simplified deal has been arrived at by the PTI and PMLn on the judicial commission...a three judge commission of SC judges will study the issue of how elections were conducted and decide if their has been any attempt to subvert the will of the people...if so Nawaz Sharif will order new elections under a PTI-PMLn caretaker government otherwise PTI will be forced to eat humble pie...they have also agreed on an approved secretary of the ECB and chairman nadra and if required a similar exercize to appoint an FIA DG will also be made...The chief ministers will also simultaneously dissolve the provincial assemblies...Imran khan says that dhandli was committed although there have been no real surprises yet barring procedural and human errors...so it is left upto the judges what they think of the electoral process...many think that it should have been agreed that people vote after their thumb impressions are verified in future elections to make deceipt minimal...if things go according to the PTI script than elections will be held approximately in 105 days ie around July 2015
  
• Apr2-2015--one of the top mqm leaders in london arrested in a money laundering probe and released on bail
  
• Apr2-2015--The confused pakistani politicians dont know what to do in the yemen situation...a peaceful role player is not really needed as the saudis and yemeni politicians can talk themselves if such a situation arises...many think the Houthis have terrorized yemen enough thru out history and they should be taught a lesson that militancy cannot solve any issue and that people should not be subjugated with military might...The houthis should be given an ultimatum to withdraw to their mountain abode...and than troops should be injected first by controlling the sanaa airport and than by quickly bringing in enough soldiers and equipment to control the capital and enforce a government...
  
• Apr1-2015--many believe that pakistan does not have much of a role to play in yemen given its reticence, fright and theories of non involvement...however many suggest pakistan could be used by the Saudi's to secure Sanaa if the Houthis agree to go back to their areas...The houthis continued to pressurize Hadi forces in the southern port of Aden while the saudis have bombed various areas...The iranians whose proxies overran most of yemen are trying to keep the status quo by urging talks between the parties...at the moment the hope of talks is minimal since the situation came about after talks...there are also reports of fighting between the saudis and houthis on the saudi yemen border
  
• Apr1-2015--The PPP which is largely irrelevant in punjab these days attempts to form a local coalition with the PTI in the cantonments areas of rawalpindi
  
• Apr1-2015--mqm riffraff attack PTI workers at a karachi ground in the NA245 constituency