The Daily PakistanPolitics Dec 15-31, 2015

• Dec31-2015--In Karachi an anti terrorist court has issued arrest warrants for Waseem Akhter, Rauf Siddiqui, Anis Qaimkhani, Saleem Shehzad, Qadir Patel and Usman Moazzam for asking Dr Asim to provide treatment and shelter for suspected terrorists...most of them are or have been leaders of karachi's ethnic terror war...
  
• Dec31-2015--the houses of two candidates in a by-election for PB-50 Turbat have been set on fire while a third candidates house was attacked
  
• Dec31-2015--while on the surface Qaim ali shah visited the primeminister to convince him to reduce the total dictatorship of the Rangers in the Karachi operation and allow it tobe politically supervised actually he was discussing the names of three mqm supremos who ran the mqm terror operations at various times one of whom is being considered for the Karachi mayorship...The government apparently refused to change the attitude and handling by the Rangers...The Sindh government over the past two decades of problems in Karachi has not apprehended even a single politician despite involvement of politicos from many sides...while corruption and law and order are both provincial problems the use of the Rangers,FIA and NAB are in effect federal control over issues is troubling to the provincials. The army seems tobe at the forefront of obstructing the siphoning of government money for politics or terror...many have suggested the army wants to control the process so that they too can share the spoils...The PPP was earlier said tobe unhappy with the mqm not sharing the spoils with them
  
• Dec30-2015--Nepra reduces tariff for November by Rs2.06 and and adds another Rs1.10 as supplementary charges..Discos purchase electricity at Rs5.32 and charge upto Rs25 from consumers
  
• Dec30-2015--with the KP government in his pocket Imran Khan inaugurates a much larger cancer hospital in peshawar
  
• Dec30-2015--while the primeminister visited Karachi the Sindh chief minister flew to Islamabad instead..
  
• Dec30-2015--terror and the war on terror continues unabated...four terrorists hanged in Kohat while eight militants killed in airstrikes on Tirah...three militants and an FC man killed in Kech clash and blast in mastung...
  
• Dec-30-2015--26 die as suicide motorcycle hits Nadra office in Mardan...Nadra office hit because of its role in the war on terror...says one taleban offshoot...Nadra has a role in identification of terrorists and victims if a finger is found...mardan is near the border of some tribal areas
  
• Dec27-2015--while Sindh continued to growl the center approved the Rangers stay in karachi for another two months...Sindh does not want those who aid or finance terror tobe apprehended...!
  
• Dec26-2015--It was a big Dec 25...Modi might not know this but their nemesis quaid e azam was born...as Modi suddenly...apparently landed in lahore for a supposedly personal visit to Nawaz Sharif even Sartaj Aziz made himself unavailable...!many did not see much in the visit as india is really not very keen on solutions viz pakistan barring the mundane or inevitable...however reports suggest the meeting had been arranged earlier...Nawaz Sharif and Modi dress similarly that is all one can say however earlier reports suggest that the BJP had offered Nawaz Sharif the primeministership if he ditches Pakistan for ever...!However nature mocked pakistan as an earthquake ripped thru Pakistan soon after Modi left...The media generally pro nawaz literally blanked out the news...! with the severe earthquakes coming repeatedly one could predict a very harsh earthquake in the near future...!others quipped that kabul is probably already testing a nuclear device...!
  
• Dec25-2015--Sanaullah Zehri takes over as balochistan chief minister and Raheela Durrani as provincial assembly speaker
  
• Dec25-2015--PTI's Tareen defeats Siddiq Baloch despite increases in the vote bank on both sides in a NA154 by election...PPP votebank almost plummets to zero..
  
• Dec25-2015--Despite a total inability to deal with Karachi's problem culture the Sindh PPP government continues to hesitate in giving Rangers supra police powers...it is pathetic to suggest that the Rangers not cooperate with the FIA and NAB and not deal with terrorism issues...even though one does not find fault with qaim ali shah's suggestion that he be informed before not after...Rangers theoretically are a provincial outfit...zardari suggests that he is fighting for the constitution and uses all sorts of underhand tactics...!
  
• Dec25-2015--The SBP which is not an authority on electricity generation and production suggests that the government has done enough to reduce petrol and electricity prices since the fall in petroleum prices...one finds that quite strange with oil below $40 a barrel...That means that oil has fallen from over a 100 dollars to less than forty...that would suggest at least a 40-45% reduction in petroleum prices and at least a straight 30-50% reduction in electricity prices...with over 33% electricity still dependent on furnace oil that should have caused a substantial fall in electricity prices...with the oil price fall looking permamanent for the near future the government should have agreed to a reduction in electricity prices rather than use the faulty mechanism of monthly fuel price adjustments and tax hikes...with the SBP being a financial whiz they should have noticed the governments wheeling and dealing rather being straight and honest...The SBP however agrees that the PMLn has not done enough to bring more production online and suggests infrastructure improvements are still not enough...The government has increased sales tax on electricity/petroleum and suddenly introduced two new surcharges last month...The surcharges are a tariff rationalization surcharge, a debt servicing surcharge plus the Neelum Jhelum surcharge amounting to Rs3.53 per kwh...that literally kills any real effect or a pass on effect from a reduction in cost of production...The government also increased cost of hydel energy by a rupee per unit and increased taxes by Rs40 billion... The SBP should restudy the issue of electricity tariffs and force the government tobe reasonable in handling such issues...
  
• Dec24-2015--Qaim Ali Shah to hold talks with Nawaz Sharif on the Rangers issue...he obviously has failed to understand that the province is under the control of the Apex committee in which he is an ordinary member
  
• Dec24-2015--a child died as he was stopped for an hour from entering Karachi civil hospital as it was being inaugurated by Bilawal Bhutto...
  
• Dec24-2015--nine militants killed in clashes in Kech and Kalat while five suspected taleban killed in DGK
  
• Dec24-2015--a female second secretary expelled from Pakistans embassy in Bangladesh after she was accused of giving a small amount to a bengali
  
• Dec23-2015--with all the asims,mqm armies,PPP/religious/ethnic pistol riders, zardaris, shahs and hurs... qaim ali shah tells the American ambassador there are no terrorists in Sindh...the terrorists in safoorah goth must have been parachuted in from the USA...!
  
• Dec23-2015--The cruel PMLn regime increases Quaideazam University charges to over Rs60000 per semester...the same government is wasting billions on sending primary kids to school for Rs750 a quarter...will those kids be able to afford university when they cant afford to go to primary school...with the increase in private education...fees have risen substantially and it is quite clear only the top of the middle income groups will be able to complete their educations...the rich masses study overseas anyway
  
• Dec23-2015--Shahid Khaqan Abbasi of Airblue says Ishaq Dar maybe after PIA but he is hellbent in destroying PSM and even SSGC...with budgets of more than four trillion they can run PSM with ease and find a few honest managers todo it...The industrialist chakar baaz nature of the PMLn regime say they cannot run PIA, PSM, SSGC and will sell them at throwaway prices to the private sector...PIA is even being eyed by the extortionist Agha Khanis(Houthis) who have run off with the countries biggest bank as they say without even a grunt...others suggest that Nawaz Sharif is funding the private sector with state funds...with 40 billion in his bag Ishaq Dar can run anything from Dubai...Nawaz Sharif should realize that the agriculture sector has been funded quite heavily and there is no reason to escalate prices...in fact due to the fall in prices of electricity and petroleum prices should be brought down anyway...
  
• Dec23-2015--the federal government rejects the provincial views of Sindh on recent Rangers activities and suggests that their powers and activities cannot be curtailed and they will function as usual..Rangers too say they will fight to the bitter end...PPP suggests wildly that Sindh has been invaded...while the Rangers have become a provincial military with supra government powers they have handled Karachi since the start of the mqm menace and troublemaking...from riots , Karachi university disturbances, criminal activities, political bhatta/thefts, murders and police killings too the heydays of the mqm when they had torture cells, Altaf Hussain army and no go areas...given all that these days might be still be heavenly bliss...the provincial government seems braver now although the army statement is that they will now deal with extremism as well as sindhi corruption...!extremism has more todo with governance, convoluted religions, economics and roti...solve that and the people will be peaceful...!it is the people who find life difficult not the kissan...hav'nt heard of a peasant revolution in decades...or does the lohar have any brains...!
  
• Dec22-2015--soldier among three killed in IED blasts in Mohmand
  
• Dec22-2015--The administrative judge of anti terrorism courts who is a judge of the SHC refused the police request to let off Dr. Asim who is being favored by the Sindh government...lawyers and Dr. Asim claimed that they were being threatened and maligned...the judge however said that he will decide...the judge is possibly a zardari relative and Dr Asim a zardari crony...the Rangers, police, Sindh government and federal government have differing positions on the issue...Rangers say that Dr Asim was personally involved in treating terror suspects in his hospitals as well as using state funds to fund politics...the provincial government and police say that there is no evidence while the Rangers claim a video as well as reports of Dr. Asim's employees...the provincial govt recently issued orders to the Rangers not to harass, intimidate or raid government offices without qaim ali shah's approval or cooperate with federal agencies...!
  
• Dec17-2015--Nepra reduced solar electricity tariffs from 17 cents to 11 cents...This despite no cost of fuel or staff...the tariff should be around 3-4 cents for wind and solar...The excessive profits seem tobe pretty wild and unnecessary.
  
• Dec17-2015--the election commission has cancelled LG polls in Sanghar and Badin after violence
  
• Dec17-2015--A larger bench of the LHC allowed the uneducated Siddique Baloch apparently to contest against jehangir tareen in Lodhran..earlier he had been disqualified for a supposedly fake education degree and suspect electoral fraud...the LHC has helped the PMLn by almost declaring that honesty, educational degrees and hidden assets are not a reason for disqualification...
  
• Dec17-2015--The Sind government clipped the Rangers wings and told them not to cooperate with anyone but the Sindh police and not interfere/deal with corruption cases...it also removed tackling terrorism from their job...the Rangers had started to tackle terrorist/political fundraisers and associated people like Dr Asim which led them to raid mqm offices, government deptts, hospitals and arrest government officials...even officers in the gas utility were found funding terrorism thru corruption...many supposedly Asif Zardari cronies... the crooked and corrupt also fell into the net causing asif zardari and his family to flee...Rangers are thus left with inane minor police work...the military had earlier threatened to take action if the Rangers work was disturbed...however Raheel Sharifs concerns may have been handled and the Sindh government bravado is probably due to the puny and political weakling Chaudhry Nisar who might not react to the PPP attempt to save itself and the mqm from the Rangers...
  
• Dec17-2015--The frightened pakistan regime quakingly agreed to participate in the Saudi military alliance but was wary of any direct participation...Pakistan which was earlier regarded highly in the Islamic world has become almost alienated and sidelined by its refusal to participate in the muslim heartland troublespots...
  
• Dec17-2015--facial bravado was apparent as the earlier frightened Nawaz Sharif prayed for the APS dead in Peshawar...Imran Khan also announced a monument for the children who died in the APS terrorist incident in Peshawar and said it had caused a decrease in terrorism in the country...schools also remained closed...politicians had a year ago been frightened to even visit Peshawar...!
  
• Dec16-2015--military aircraft pound the areas near the afghan border in the Khyber agency eight killed
  
• Dec16-2015--Pakistan's stature has declined considerably since it ran away from a fight in yemen...however the Saudis still consider them for an unasked inclusion in a 34 state military alliance that could send in organized troops into trouble spots such as Syria, Iraq and yemen...while everyone else is already participating in one way or the other Pakistan has been hiding behind a wall of cowardice and fright...its ISPR spokesman has categorically said that Pakistan is incapable of handling or participating in any conflict beyond its region...in the region too they are being subdued by india and iran and are barely able to handle several internal insurgencies as well as border violations on the afghan and indian borders...The Pakistan armed forces and parliament despite a facial bravado are frightened even to prick their real enemies...and Nawaz Sharif can at best be considered to be one of the biggest cowards in pakistans history...
  
• Dec16-2015--according to Dawn terrorism is almost a way of life here...while most people think that bigger incidents have substantially declined Dawn says that from a high of 2061 incidents in 2010 they have declined to 1015 in 2015...starting from 1820 in 2007...many think that the attitudes, dealing and healing circles are terribly flawed..however incidents are at their lowest in a decade and fewer and fewer despicables can be found praising the act of the terrorist...The military and police are still not alert enough and especially the military wants too much praise despite not being able to solve or handle the problem adequately...there is nothing praiseworthy in dying at the hands of an aimless terrorist and the government and army attempts to make such deaths some sort of praiseworthy martyrdom act causes serious concerns...the army should be able to deal with them quickly and fast...there is no point in a huge armed force that gets massacred every few months...however the army is probably better equipped although not better trained to handle subversion and insurgencies since 1971...from a country that thought that they could take on india in a war in 1965 they are now frightend to send a few thousand troops to help the Saudis...