The Daily PakistanPolitics Aug16-31, 2015

• 31Aug-2015--In one of the many vagaries of karachis politics rumours have spread that Dr. Asim Hussein might be the behind the scenes controller and financier of Altaf Hussein and company...the resignations of the MQM are now understandable and the exit from Pakistan of Sindh's former numero uno Asif Zardari...that the mqm controller worked with Asif Zardari ie. on the opposite side seems quite shocking and surprising...Dr.Asim apparently orders people knocked off when they get too close or get too involved...while doctors always have been part of the Karachi violence that such a person would be the head of a hospital chain is shocking...Obviously the Karachi violence is undoubtly beneficial to the hospital business in the crooked sort of way...most believe that the chain of investigations might have begun from London and the discovery of huge funds in mqm residences...those investigations many believe led to people in Karachi and amongst them was Dr. Asim Hussein a person with huge interests in Karachi and obviously with access to huge resources...!!!
  
• 30Aug-2015--Rangers visit Ziauddin Hospital and arrest an associate of Dr. Asim...The Asim medical empire comprises five hospital facilities all over Karachi..Rangers have issued no specifics on the Asim arrest as yet...
  
• 30Aug-2015--Nawaz Sharif had in 1999 toppled the simla agreement with the Lahore agreement...which was toppled by musharaf with the agra summit...now apparently modi has bamboozled Nawaz sharif with the UFA agreement...Pakistan has been unable to make a case of indian terrorism whether it be Karachi, balochistan or the Sialkot border...unless they up the ante the Indians will continue to strangulate relations between the two countries...It means nothing that Pakistan has the power to hit back and than sit around doing nothing...!!
  
• 30Aug-2015--14 militants killed in shawal air strikes...!
  
• 30Aug-2015--The Sindh chief secretary says that the Rangers have killed 490 target killers, arrested 341 extortionists and freed 50 hostages...they also killed 464 terrorists and seized 349,854 bullets and 8000 weapons...Nawaz Sharif told the sindh IG not quote such figures...at him...however the interior minister has only reccommended three out of 74 Sindh cases for military courts...?
  
• 30Aug-2015--The PTI announces candidates for by elections and announces a sitin outside the ECP...PTI regards politics as a mix of elections, protests and self righteousness...while the PMLn regards itself as a do nothing ruler expected to criticize the PTI of which they are frightened, wary and the only aspirant to their power.. ...The PMLn which was abusive and nasty towards the PTI resignations seems to regard the MQM resignations as unimportant and hardly worthy of any attention...In both cases the national assembly speaker literally let the PMLn handle his work...
  
• 30Aug-2015--The adhoc approach of Nawaz Sharif is visible in the scuttling of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council which has overseen mushroom growth of improper medical facilities, crooked money minting doctors and medical colleges in Pakistan...The new chairman is an upstart military heart surgeon(nearly everyone in the country needs a stent theory) Maj General AzharKiani(retd) who apparently heads the Punjab paramilitary institution the Rawalpindi Cardiology institute...
  
• 29Aug-2015--Sindh chief minister protests at the arrest of Dr Asim for terrorist financing saying he had not been informed and the complaints against Dr. Asim were minor...!
  
• 29Aug-2015--In the bloodiest cross border violations the indians killed eight including a women and a child
  
• 28Aug-2015--Karachi police blame a group of indian trained mqm terrorists for attempting to increase the recent violence in Karachi...who are apparently in collaboration with an early era mqm terrorist named Javed Langra who went back to india and were involved in an attack on an mqm-h leader killing three...while the trade corridor is not much of an economic whirlwind the PMLn is bent upon saying that is opposed by the indians by its very association with china and the Indians have sent special guerrilla's to attack it...The PMLn has little to show for its recent term in office apart from anti people moves such as the recent new surcharges in the electricity bills...and not being able to end loadshedding even for one month when the dams are full
  
• 28Aug-2015--PMLn says that it will participate in the by elections in Lahore and Lodhran as they regard the recent PTI record in by elections as abysmal having lost in mianwali, peshawar and Haripur...while Tareen could contest Imran Khan would have to back down as that would raise the prospect of another by election in Rawalpindi...!many are suggesting that the PTI boycott the elections to raise its demands to replace all provincial election commissioners...however leaving the field open would make it too easy for the PMLn and they could go in as independents in alliance with the PPP and JI and other parties...The PTI did win multan after getting behind an ex PPP independent...!one suggestion is that the PTI attack the pathetic ex speaker ayaz sadiq on his lacklustre performance viz resignations and giving up his job to the PMLn politicos...
  
• 28Aug-2015--The armies top echelon says india is the only threat even though border violations occur on the Iranian and afghan borders as well...The Pakistanis however are unable to teach the Indians a serious lesson as they have been firing across the border at sialkots citizenry for many months now...
  
• 28Aug-2015--In further setbacks for the PPP an anti corruption court issued non bailable warrants for Amin Fahim and Yusuf Gilani in TCP trade subsidy scams as former commerce ministers...The FIA said they were involved in dozens of cases...
  
• 28Aug-2015--The Rangers tell an anti terrorist court in karachi that Dr Asim has been taken into custody for 90 days...he is accused for both misappropriating/embezzling government funds and surprising to say the least is accused also of funding terrorist activities...the latest have been attacks on Godill, wasim akram and the elimination of the Punjab interior minister...one does not know which of the attacks were funded by Dr.Asim...facially he could be either a sindhi or mohajir and for a mohajir who runs a major Karachi private sector hospital such activities would be considered strange...but he is after all close to asif zardari who is no stranger to attacking opponents and he too like mushahidullah had been selected to replace the incumbent governor...Ishratul Abad must have a lot of strings to pull and must be laughing up the PMLn sleeve...!...!during the PPP era he had disappeared to London apparently after serious allegations surfaced...others suggest that he had gone to consult Altaf Hussain on whether he should take up the Zardari offer of governorship...initially he was thought tobe a clean mohajir...!!!
  
• 27Aug-2015--A PMLq type muslim league in the offing with PMLn dissidents, ex military men like musharaf and the PMLq baqiyat says the Dawn...
  
• 27Aug-2015--PCB goes for a super cricket T20 league in Doha after deteriorated relations with Dubai...while T20 leagues have been held in Bangladesh, india, bigbash and west indies... Pakistan has been unable to get its own league going...the huge remunerations sought by players could see second ranked players and teams participating...however an offshore league cannot count on people participation which could have been assured in Pakistan...the kind of franchises required would need the private sector to fork out large amounts of cash which seems improbable in the Pakistan context...Pakistan cricket players who have played in west indies and Bangladesh super leagues have been waiting for the huge cash dividends...many seem to think that players could themselves form franchises if the payouts justify
  
• 27Aug-2015--two soldiers killed in an IED blast in south waziristan
  
• 27Aug-2015--A London court allows the police to keep the huge amounts of cash seized from Altaf Hussein and sarfraz merchants premises in a money laundering investigation...many believe that the cash come from criminal processes in Karachi and was not routed thru banks...
  
• 27Aug-2015--Brahmdagh Bugti suggests in an interview that they are willing to talk...The Baloch have responded to PMLn and the chief ministers attempts...the separatist violence and its suppression has toned down to quiet a large extent...
  
• 27Aug-2015--security forces kill 12 militants in quetta and dera bugti...they were apparently involved in attacking security forces and blowing up pylons, railway tracks and pipelines...
  
• 27Aug-2015--Zardari aide Dr. Asim arrested apparently for illegal occupation of land...The Rangers are apparently looking into many cases of land occupation which is an MQM plank...others suggested that he might be expected to answer complaints against him while he was petroleum minister and advisor in the Zardari regime...at that time also he had runoff to England after corruption sharing complaints...now he is the Sindh HEC incharge and the army might want to influence his choice of vice chancellors or even the chief minister might want want him to follow his advice...
  
• 27Aug-2015--An NA-154 Lodhran election tribunal deseats PMLn's Mohammed Siddiq Khan Baloch in a contest with the embattled PTI secretary general Jehangir Tareen...The PTI has been subduing internal dissent while the PMLn has shown an impressive winning streak in by-elections...given PMLn's recent record while Khawaja Saad Rafiq went for an SC appeal Ayaz Sadiq is going for participation...all three of the recent deseatings involved important people from both sides and could pave the way for a mid term election if the PTI upsets on all three seats...PMLn seems to have reenergized its system of buying entire biradari's but that might not be able to control the Lahore seats...The PTI will also have to focus on winning and getting its voters out...however it is a major victory for the PTI to get these decisions...The tribunals found it difficult to overturn the decisions however the irregularities caused the decision to order by-elections...It is unfortunate that the biometric test in Haripur failed where only 36% voters were able to get themselves verified by the ECP machines...
  
• 26Aug-2015--with the addition of two whoppingly large surcharges the PMLn regime increases taxes on electricity usage to an unimaginable 47.32%...no legal aspect is explained and no approval has been sought from Nepra or the National Assembly...!!!
  
• 26Aug-2015--three soldiers die in an attack on a checkpost in south Waziristan while a militant training camp is destroyed in north waziristan
  
• 26Aug-2015--Pervez Rashid and Rana Sanaullah both accuse tribunal NA-122 judge kazim ali malik of being denied PMLn favours...the judge responded that I have given over 30 judgements in favor of the PMLn but than they had nothing to say...
  
• 26Aug-2015--Army chief says that there would be more military courts for Karachi and there would be no letup in the operation...while the Rangers and police have calmed down much of Karachi they have nothing more to do..Rangers have been crossing into provincial matters of corruption and political Bhatta...lately there have been some reactions from the militants of the mqm and the religious mafia with attacks on Godill, wasim akram and the police...
  
• 26Aug-2015--ECP says it is not answerable to the PTI who want an overhaul of its appointees
  
• 25Aug-2015--Over 4 kilograms of gold bars recovered from an ANP leaders locker apart from ownership of plots in numerous housing schemes...syed masoom shah was a nazim of charsadda and later an assistant to the ANP chief minister amir haider hoti says the NAB...!!!
  
• 25Aug-2015--Interbank dollar rate also jumps after the kerb rate to around Rs104..this follows a drop in exports...and devaluations in india, Bangladesh and china...! US benchmark October deliveries of crude oil also fell to $38.6 while Brent fell to $43.38...
  
• 25Aug-2015--The mqm is not too serious it seems about its resignations...there do not seem tobe too many mqm men in custody...some say only two mqm men are in custody...however the mqm has shown no inclination to give up its own violence ridden activities...many suggest that the mqm initially wanted two militants apprehended who were shot dead in a police raid...however the PPP has shown a willingness to listen to the mqm complaints if they want something done about them...when Nawaz Sharif asked them they said sure but we want FIA/NAB and Rangers to keep out of our hair too...others say first the mqm suggests that killers should be arrested when that happens they say the Rangers are only focusing on our bad men...unfortunately Karachi is dominated by the mohajirs and the good, bad and ugly all support one ethnic organization causing the problem...all the mqm leaders have to do is seek a meeting with the home minister or the chief minister and if the complaint has any justification it could be handled...the mqm has previously used the same method to subjugate the MQMh and other parties and have hung on to their biased supporters...they should learn to live with and participate with other politicos...creating one party rule in Karachi will not lead to anything good...they also object to a TV bann on indian agent Altaf Hussain speeches recorded and otherwise...everybody was getting sick of them too...as to their disappearing workers they will only come back after the operation since they are involved in all sort of crimes including police killings, Bhatta and target killings...to form an operation committee the PMLn should seek an mqm responsibility clause...Nawaz Sharif is great on committees..the army got angrier and angrier and the apex committees were formed...now the mqm is irritated and an mqm oversight committee seems round the corner...!things can only only improve in karachi if everyone is given an appropriate powerbase...
  
• 25Aug-2015--a colonel and a soldier killed in shawal clashes alongwith six militants
  
• 24Aug-2015--The government has allowed military courts to try around 6000 internment centers detainees who have been captured in military conflicts since 2009...area conflicts such as swat, malakand and fata...The ordnance was issued without any information to the public...
  
• 24Aug-2015--The interior minister rejects press reports about LJ and an Islamabad seminary involvement in the khanzada suicide blast saying that they are still making the story...
  
• 24Aug-2015--four soldiers die in cross border mortar attack in the Tirah valley
  
• 24Aug-2015--Imran Khan asks the SC to quickly decide the NA122 and NA125 cases...The tribunals have delayed the decision for quite a long time already
  
• 24Aug-2015--three bodies of kidnapped labourers working with the FWO on the china corridor found
  
• 24Aug-2015--four killed and four injured in bajaur blasts
  
• 23Aug-2015--Qari Ahsanullah an Islamabad khateeb had an FIR initiated at the margallah police station for inciting people against the government calling the security services and the government as being agents of foreign intelligence agencies...!His seminary had been raided by Rawalpindi police the previous day
  
• 23Aug-2015--In another dangerous move the SC refused to allow a military court death row prisoner leave to appeal saying he should goto the HC first...The military had not provided the prisoners family a record of the verdict necessary for the appeal...The court should have simply ordered the military to provide the record of the trial..The prisoners family also stated that the prisoner was under age at the time...The SC turning the whole issue into a judicial joke said that the family should provide detailed verification of the prisoners name, age and education...!!!The new CJ it seems is also a controlled one...
  
• 23Aug-2015--After the Indians arrested two Kashmiri leaders in New Delhi to stop any meeting with the Pakistani NSA Advisor Sartaj Aziz who was dillying dallying on Kashmir and attempting to blowup the case of Indian involvements in terrorism in Pakistan also backed down and cancelled the trip to india...Sartaj Aziz who is seen by many as serving iranian interests had earlier forced the UAE shift to the indian sphere with offers from arabs to invest 75 billion in india...Newspapers lambasted Nawaz Sharif and the army chief who were willing to go along with the indians and only talk about terrorism...The Indians apparently were perturbed by Sartaj Aziz waving indian involvement dossiers at them...The Indians want a one way street on everything and are refusing to move ahead on Kashmir and other contentious issues such as cross border incidents and indian terrorism in Pakistan...This has happened despite pakistans continued cooperation on a gas pipeline to india and forgetting the indian army orchestrated samjotha blast...Pakistan should many say solve bilateral issues before allowing india further economic freedoms such as gas pipelines thru Pakistan...
  
• 23Aug-2015--The Election tribunal in NA-122 and PP-147 ordered by-elections...that caused the PMLn to lose its speaker National assembly Ayaz Sadiq and Mohsin Latif...a major victory for the PTI...Ayaz Sadiq said he would appeal to the SC...The decision comes more than two years after the elections were held in 2013...
  
• 22Aug-2015--Mqm irritated by Nawaz Sharif attitude of not mentioning the Karachi operation during his Karachi visit...the PPP chief minister had indicated that he led the operation and Nawaz Sharif thus could not form an unconstitutional committee of the mqm to oversee the operation...Mqm thus indicated that there was now no reason left for the resignations not tobe accepted...
  
• 22Aug-2015--India continuing to try to subdue Pakistan thru three way tactics...refusing negotiations on Kashmir, refusing pakistani meetings with hurriyet leaders...attacking and murdering innocuous kashmiris as freedom fighting militants...cross border attacks on pakistan...subduing harmless pro indians agents like Nawaz sharif and sartaj Aziz and obviously attempting to create only one issue meaningless talks of terrorism...terrorism is a local issue and talks would only be needed if Pakistan wants to provide information against kashmiri and indian militants...!recently both sides have mutually agreed not to process samjotha train terrorists and Bombay raid controllers
  
• 22Aug-2015--NA-144 PMLn mna disqualified for submitting a fake Larkana BISE FA degree
  
• 22Aug-2015--In a dramatic night raid twenty Rawalpindi police vehicles picked up four from an Islamabad seminary in connection with the khanzada blast in attock...they were released after a few days in custody...
  
• 21Aug-2015--Pakistan's three mafia type cricketers will be allowed to play after September 1...Mohammed Asif, Salman Butt and Mohammed Amir...apparently they got involved in a betting scandal for deliberately bowling noballs...which in itself is not illegal since a bowler can overstretch deliberately...salman butt a senior batsman already had over 90000 dollars in his accounts but he was also caught travelling with a huge amount of cash...The craze for money amongst sportsmen is said tobe the cause...while salman butt was not considered exceptional he was playing well as an opener and captain...at that time Pakistan regarded asif and amir as two of their best fast bowlers...however it remains tobe seen if they recover their form and can get selected...some former cricketers have suggested that they should not be considred for reselection...
  
• 21Aug-2015--Pakistan's national assembly speaker cancelled a parliamentary gathering after pressure to invite the speaker of the indian held Kashmir a Modi man...Pakistan however went ahead with a controversial Turkmenistan pipeline to india despite almost continuous firing and killings by india on the borders...Pakistan said that it was a Turkmen project and they would theoretically only be paid in gas for the transmission...?Pakistan has already collected around 85 billion from gas consumers in the country for the project and still hiked gas prices as well...
  
• 21Aug-2015--reports suggest that an old servant might have been behind the suicide attack on the Punjab homeminister however police insist that LJ or other south Punjab militants could have been behind the attack...145 have been arrested from south Punjab in recent days...Shahbaz Shartif seems in a fix on whome to appoint as home minister given the positions controversial nature...The last two handlers of the position have had problems...
  
• 21Aug-2015--The Mqm seems to have failed in forcing an unconstitutional oversight role to itself...Nawaz Sharif has insisted that the karachi operation intensity should be enhanced given recent occurrences while the chief minister suggested that he was in charge and the mqm their childishness not withstanding should contact him if they have any reservations or problems with those arrested or killed or under interrogations...
  
• 21Aug-2015--53 militants killed in air and ground assaults in the shawal valley says the army...while the army has played up their success they still insist that the shawal valley earlier considered inaccessible to the military is the last bastion where numerous militants are holed up...a week long air attack suggests that the militants still have a largish concentration and the army despite reservations has been forced to move into the area on afghan and US insistence...
  
• 20Aug-2015--Mqm to talk directly with Nawaz Sharif or the interior minister on why it wants itself and its workers given any immunity in the Karachi operations...many suggest that they now have also increased their security demands and might be asking for bullet proof vehicles as well
  
• 20Aug-2015--Polling for the first phase in 25 districts of Sindh and Punjab's will take place on October 12 and the other two stages will be completed by the years end...the provincial governments reluctance/fear to hold polling until they had legislated assured control over the nazims has been subdued and almost total control has been ceded to the courts and the ECP
  
• 20Aug-2015--while the Indians ie. Modi & co are not oblivious to using the Pakistani support base in occupied Kashmir to form governments... Pakistan rejects them by not allowing a hindu occupied Kashmir speaker into Islamabad while the Indians are threatening to torpedo any meeting with the hurriyat leaders that the tremblingly weak Sartaj Aziz had arranged...earlier the Indians were distressed with the meetings of Hurriyet with the Pakistani ambassador as well while the huuriyet leaders have earlier even visited Islamabad...the indians suppression of travel and meetings shows their pathetic suppression of leaders who are not powerful enough to mount an independence fight...
  
• 19Aug-2015--The SC suggests that the ECP can independently announce election dates for LG polls in Punjab and Sindh without consultation of the governments and the SC since it is a constitutional obligation...!earlier the SC questioned why they wanted to hold elections over three days
  
• 19Aug-2015--police claim to have knocked off the karachi head of alqaeda
  
• 19Aug-2015--Imran Khan who finds criticism difficult to digest says that his wife will only partially participate in politics after being criticized for the Hazara election loss...The PTI must realize that it will be difficult to counter a PMLn alliance with the JUI and PPP...while others suggest that the hazara loss is due to the Humayun Akhter group rejoining the PMLn...Reham Khan apparently turns out tobe from hazara
  
• 19Aug-2015--the mqm reportedly resigned because the Rangers would not layoff picking up their operatives or workers for criminal activities and than knocking them off in fake encounters...The PMLn which has lost all credibility over the last few years had to send another troublemaker Maulana Fazlur Rehman to handle the mqm resignations...The mqm initially said the maulana must come to nine-zero...as that happened Karachi's famed motorcycle killers attempted to knock off Rashid Godil an mqm backbencher and Mna...Godil was struck by several bullets and was in a critical state while his driver was killed...in a jovial sense of mqm's attitude many asked the maulana... clear kar lein Altaf Hussein se...pakren ya na pakren...!at least one motorcycle was seen on a television video
  
• 18Aug-2015--Airstrikes kill 65 in north waziristan and khyber agencies...unless the attacks are to satisfy Afghanistan Zarb e Azb might not have been totally successful leaving pockets of hidden militants
  
• 18Aug-2015--Mqm displaying an immature duality in attitude and a basic inability to comprehend police work says that they have not asked for ending the Karachi operation...mqm which is not part of the government theoretically cannot have a role in any oversight process which is the responsibility of the provincial govertnment, police, rangers, army and federal government...many suggest that they want to be part of the government and are seeking a ministerial level appointment...!reports suggest that the Karachi operation has decreased criminal,religious, militant and political violence
  
• 17Aug-2015--The Zarb e Azb operation is going along in fits and starts as another 40 killed in north Waziristan airstrikes
  
• 17Aug-2015--Punjab wazir-e-dakhla or home minister Shuja Khanzada dies near Attock in a suicide blast which levelled his dera...along with 18 others including DSP Hazro...it seemed to have occurred on the same day as an earlier attack on the Kamra airbase
  
• 17Aug-2015--three soldiers killed in a cross border attack near Chagai.
  
• 16Aug-2015--Mushahidullah the minister for climate change has sent his resignation from the Maldives say the PMLn...he had accused than ISI chief Lt.Gen Zaheerul Islam Abbasi of attempting to sow chaos thru attacks on parliament and occupation of the primeminister house...the alacrity with which the PMLn and army denied the story is pretty surprising as nothing was said when a similar report had appeared in the Daily Dawn some time ago...The difference between the Dawn report was only that Abbasi when queried by Raheel Sharif had denied that the recordings were his......reports of ISI funding and support for the PTI Dharna have been quite common...the ISI chief many say was upset at not being considered for the position of the army chief...similar comments are aired about the dharna involvement of another DG ISI Lt General(r)shuja pasha...Mushahidullah is a mohajir and was earlier considered for the position of Sindh governor...In other ISI news one of the most controversial ISI chiefs Hameed Gul died in Murree of a brain hemmorage...that almost closes the Taleban and afghan liberation groups chapter...