The Daily PakistanPolitics Apr 01-15, 2017

• Apr15-2017--Raza Rabbani shutdowns Senate due to government non cooperation...The government apparently is unwilling to give a list of perks of generals and senior beaurocrats
  
• Apr15-2017--Nine supposed militants killed in a village in DG Khan alongwith four Rangers personnel in a search operation
  
• Apr15-2017--The cowardly pakistanis say they will keep an impartial stance on the Middleast which is akin to supporting the iranian infiltration of several arab shiite countries and assad's bombing of his own populace and even gas attacks...The policy is completely illogical and pakistan can only benefit if Assad survives somehow...!The Nawaz Sharif regime has developed a general animosity towards Saudia since the saudis wanted their own controlled military alliance of forty countries..The iranians and pakistanis have distanced themselves from the alliance and want it tobe just an observer rather than interfere in disputes and invade countries...The iranians have created considerable problems for the saudi's by controlling several shiite majority arab countries...The saudis however are more incensed at their interference in Yemen with which they have had a long and bitter border conflict
  
• Apr15-2017--This is the india that Nawaz Sharif wants tobe friends with...After they kidnapped a pakistan army retired officer from Nepal the pakistan army chief quickly gave a death sentence to an indian spy fro subversive activities...The indians want consular access to their spy and wanted the trial documentation...!Sartaj Aziz issued a timeline of the trial and said the indians were to blame for all the terrorism in balochistan since 2015...the military he says took place over five months which is odd as teh military trial never lasts that long
  
• Apr15-2017--Iran which is already embroiled in the jadhav espionage is now accused by Uzair Blaoch of having sought military information from him...both incidents linked to charbahar
• Apr14-2017--Student lynched to death in Mardan university over supposed blasphemy charges..parent says that son not involved in religious activities...
  
• Apr12--2017--Wapda seeks 80% hike in hydel tariffs to Rs 7.30 to pay 80 billion of KP/Punjab hydel royalties...!Hydel royalties are no longer a good idea and are anti people in concept...!That would increase an average power bill of 1000 units by over Rs2500...The governments are obviously not looking into the people's interests and nor is Nepra...!If by some quirk of fate the government is able to complete Bhasha and Dasu and has to give royalties on them and Mangla than hydel electricity costs would rise to over Rs25 and hydel energy would become useless...the government should study this issue now rather than later...in any case the people are not responsible for any royalties and the provinces and federal government should be responsible for making these payments from normal revenues...!
  
• Apr12--2017--two militants killed in attack on border position in mohmand...
  
• Apr12--2017--The Rangers have again taken custody of Uzair Baloch a Lyari gangster this time on a surprising charge of espionage...!!
  
• Apr12--2017--with the president and primeminister both traders the trade deficit has surged 38% to $24 billion...!very inept/bad businessmen at the helm...!
  
• Apr12--2017--In attempts to save the indian spy Jadhav...Khawaja Asif says he is allowed three appeals against the sentence for death ordered by the Chief Of Army Staff...The Indian foreign minister has admitted that Jadhav was an indian spy and is prepared to hire lawyers for him as well as to appeal to the pakistani president an indian mohajir whose family is involved in leather work in Agra and is at best described in pakistan as a mochi...!The COAS apparently ordered the death sentence when reports emerged that the indians might have executed a retired army officer after luring him to Nepal for a job...Army officers have a deep and abiding interest in making/minting money rather than professional military work...! and have been escaping from the country without NOC's...many also point to military men involvement in the security business for an increase in extortion etc.
  
• Apr12--2017--Nawaz Sharif again pounded out his failed policy of fake(defective ruse) friendship with enemy India at an airforce passing out at what seemed tobe a revamped airforce academy in Risalpur...The students in blue contrasted with the khaki and white of the army/navy...Nawaz Sharif has failed comprehensively in his afghan(military chief run) and India(persistent jhooti friendship overtures) which are the base of his upside down foreign policy...He should realize that the hindus cannot even smile for a pakistani or muslim and only think what they are going to do to these cow eaters.....Pakistan has this persistent thinking that they have a deep abiding friendship with this and that country...!He has also painted himself into a corner with his shiite or Iran only foreign policy viz Saudi Arabia and the arabs...!viz Islamic nato which Saudia had thoughtfully designed as an interventionist powerful force they have persisted with their Iranian oriented objections paring it down to a terrorism only advisory since handling terrorism is at best a country problem...They now say that Raheel Shareef still has to get an NOC after having been allowed several times to go ahead...!a gathering of forty powerful islamic countries is supposed to take place in May to either allow/deny the Saudis to become a powerful US type of Nato leader with access to interventions and bases in all the muslim countries...Pakistan which was regarded early on very highly as a powerful military power is now thought of as a pathetic frightened nincompoop by many islamic countries...!Nawaz Sharif who failed at creating a personal chummy friendship with the extremist hindu( enemy of muslims) Modi(US strategic counterpoint stooge)...has to realize that India cannot handle friendship when they have over sixty years blamed pakistan even for traffic accidents...! Friendship only begins after the end of conflicts e.g US-Vietnam...Friendship overtures coming from the mouth of a strategic arch enemy(chinese stooge) can at best be regarded as an attempt to make them look foolish and idiotic...!Indians now think that the chinese are preparing vietnam like tunnels to prepare for an invasion of india to occupy kashmir...!There are already indian reports to have identified chinese at border positions in azad kashmir...!many also think that Modi when he landed to attend a Nawaz Sharif family dinner wanted to go by road to Islamabad to takeover Pakistan...!!!(like Bangladesh)...Pakistan National Security Advisor Lt.Gen-R Naseer Janjua also seems a trifle naive in that light when he says that India cant be our enemy for ever...From India the enmity has been almost consistent for sixty years...enmity only ends when the conflicts are resolved...you really cant expect friendship for or from an enemy...!
  
• Apr09-2017--The apartment towers build on the land for the Grand Hyatt hotel(one constitution avenue) were alloted or purchased by 80 of the high and mighty in pakistan including Imran Khan as well as including chief justices, generals and politicians for 30 million each...The CDA cancelled the lease after the hotel construction did not start and all payments were not made by the allottee...!the towers built look odd and out of place and a bit spindly...the allottees have now appealed the IHC decision which cancelled the lease stating that no attempts to build the hotel had been made...Imran Khan has already paid 20 million of the amount...!
  
• Apr09-2017--In Balochistan a militant surrenders while another is killed in a clash and an explosives transporting vehicle was seized which had come from across the border...!
  
• Apr09-2017--A television discussion on the saudi alliance has termed pakistan policy as crooked and controversial and without any relevance to ground realities...they termed pakistan's syria policy as (1)to remove syrian dictator Assad (2) support russian policies such as bombing the IS and the new syrian army...!...(3) strengthening the Syrian Army... no mention is made of iranian and shiite mercenaries however the iranians and saudis both suggest that is the key to the solution...others suggest that the US wants the Iraqi's to take center stage and control...many suggest that the iraqis who also have a serious sunni-shiite divide were the actual behind the scenes operators of the IS...at an earlier stage it was suggested that a sunni area or province be created over the space that the IS had invaded and occupied...others suggest that syria be ruled by the sunnis to calm down the violence ridden area...Unless the pakistanis can talk honestly about issues they will cease tobe relevant even as negotiators...!others also suggest that creating a kurdish solution is also necessary for area stability...all the area protagonists which include the turks, syrians, israelis, iraqis, iranians and saudis have differing points of views including the sectarians and the US...! Pakistan has trouble with mullah rule but it accepts iranian mullahs...pakistan may have been supporting iranian middle east interventions behind the scene....!while others have suggested that they are troubled because of the iranian gas pipeline which has not yet been completed and donot want to jump cleanly into the saudi alliance or fight arab-iranian battles whether covert or overt...some have suggested that Sartaj Aziz is an iranian stooge...!The US too has problems with pakistan in the regional sense and has been strengthening the indians out of proportion to the pakistani nuclear power as an anti pakistan protagonist...recently the israelis have sold medium and short range anti missile systems to the indians while the US has given them a 41 kilometer artillery gun factory...!
  
• Apr09-2017--After the controversial joining of the saudi alliance a Nawaz Sharif stooge has called General(R) Raheel Shareef an ordinary general...! while defence minister Khawaja Asif suggested that Raheel Shareef had not sought an NOC...! suggesting that the primeminister in hiding was the actual officer(sic) handling the karachi violence...The pakistani foreign secretary a woman from the same family as General Asif Nawaz has said that the government is still working on the modalities of joining the alliance...The Imam Kaaba has termed it a great victory for islam...!others suggest that the iranians have duped the Nawaz Sharif regime and they are only willing to participate in negotiations and that also over cable...Nawaz Sharif has yet to visit iran due to the sensitivity over the iranian pipeline, iranian interventions in the middle east and some US reservations about pakistani relations with iran...!Pakistan may also have been opposing US opposition to the Assad regime some say...
  
• Apr09-2017--Khurshid Shah decries disappearance of Zardari employees...! says he too is a zardari employee...!critisize's army operations like Radd ul Fasad for their inefficacy...Karachi operation was started in the days of General Asif Nawaz..most army chiefs have been very controversial...General Asif Nawaz who died in office was said to have been poisoned by the MQM...!
  
• Apr09-2017--retired pakistan army officer goes missing in Nepal...suspicion of being kidnapped by the indians or might have disappeared into india...Nepalis are allowed to cross into india without formalities...possibility of being an indian spy too given the strange behaviour and having been employed by a fake indian website...!india regards pakistani's in Nepal with suspicion and monitors them for espionage and meeting indian muslims and kashmiri freedom fighters...!
  
• Apr06-2017--After the Australian and PSL debacles Misbah Ul Haq survives as Test Captain for a supposedly easy tour of West Indies...both openers on the australian tour are now out of the picture and Shan Masood survives to open with Ahmed Shezad or Azhar Ali...!their are new spinners in Asghar and Shadab and the new pacer is Mohammed Abbas who has been averaging five wickets per match...recalled is Usman Salahuddin...Younis who usually plays one good inning in a test series also survives...However Shehryar Khan has almost stabbed Misbah in the back saying this is his last series...!The West Indies are susceptible to leg spinners and pakistan could be playing two spinners and two pacers...The team has no credible alrounder but can play seven accomplished batsmen..Usman Salahuddin is a steady batsman and has a very good first class average..
  
• Apr06-2017--KP also to form a 4200 personnel CPEC Security Force...!
  
• Apr06-2017--The army spokesman who is a bit rough round the edges has called the Raheel Shareef decision as a state decision...The army too is a state organization and the decision was probably made by General Bajwa who consulted the Saudis on a state visit...Pakistan is vary of indian, afghan and iranian terrorist influences but still wants good relations with them...!! Pakistan was probably told that they would be consulted at the state level in case of serious operations involving iranian and pakistani interests...most anti terror operations donot require full fledged invasions and the maximum could be bombing a target or raiding a hideout...pakistan is more worried about shiite iran than other countries who they can handle
  
• Apr06-2017--retired army officer killed in karachi..running an institute for training army aspirants...LJA claims responsibility..mostly such attacks are inspired by individual complaints however shiite-sunni rivalry could be a probable cause..many however also suspect that the army has its own hit squads dealing with errant officers suspected of dubious activities...mqm could also be involved...recently the army has backed out of prosecuting people like Dr. Asim as things might become difficult for Nawaz Sharif in the case of an honest Panama verdict...The PMLn is touting Raheel Munir as a possible replacement for the primeminister however many suggest that Khawaja Asif could be the odds on favorite if the PMLn does not go for the milder National Assembly Speaker...!The Sindh governor in a surprise attack has called retired General Raheel Shareef an ordinary officer...
  
• Apr06-2017--four sindhi labourers killed while working on a road project in balochistan near Kharan...many blame iranian and afghan inspired insurgents
  
• Apr06-2017--The indian anti humanitarian attitude is apparent in the killing of eleven muslims over the past two years in cow incidents...muslims were mostly transporting cows and smuggling them over the border...apparently indian lynching mobs roam around highways looking for cattle carriers
  
• Apr06-2017--suicide bomber hits a census bus in Lahore's Bedian Road killing four soldiers and three passersby who included an airforce person..TTP claims responsibility...It seems that the militants have somehow got over the clearing of north waziristan and are again finding recruits for suicide bombings..while these could be individual groups... training a suicide bomber requires some expertise specifically in making a vest and finding a target...
  
• Apr05-2017--The PTI spokesman stated on TV that General Kayani had rigged the last elections...while he than clarified that he was quoting some newspaper articles and they were his personal comments...while the army does not enjoy a mandate type of control it was clear that they would not create problems for Nawaz Sharif...It has been reported that early on the day of the elections General Kayani visited Nawaz Sharif and congratulated him on winning the elections and welcomed him to power...however later Nawaz Sharif did not keep him as army chief as the ISI chief critisized the kayani investments and almost accused him of corruption...!
  
• Apr05-2017--In the first direct conflict between iran and pakistan the pakistanis started looking like a regional iranian puppy/stooge/puppet as the iranians publically critisized their policy on Raheel Shareef...!The iranians think that the saudi alliance will itself invade iraq and syria to end shiite influences which looks highly unlikely at the moment...The iranians want pakistan to oppose Saudi Arabia trying out an iran/US regional/world power lookalike attitude...The saudi's who were feeling happier as dictators and socialist regimes collapsed in the middle east had to directly shift their attitudes and come out in support of a military dictator in egypt...they have also tried to shift support to the assad regime in syria whom they had been trying to oust...According to pakistans new foreign secretary pakistan is not seeking to assist in intervening in middle east hotspots...and they will definitely only be bystanders in the saudi alliance as they themselves donot expect to need military support directly...when interacting with the foreign affairs committee of the national assembly the government and assembly seemed opposed however the committee and the government are both pro shiites...there had been rumours that Sartaj Aziz was an iranian agent and was continuously supporting the iranian meddling in the middle east...!earlier the PPP had asked the iranians for kickbacks for building the iran gas pipeline...!...MNA's wanted to know why things like the iranian gas pipeline are not moving ahead...mostly it is political constraints and the iranian high prices and the pakistanis not willing tobe controlled by iranian gas politically or strategically...The iranians could just shut off our gas and cause significant problems...The foreign secretary said that iran is a neighbour and they have a special relationship with Saudia...Even india is a neighbour and they at least are not friendly with iranians depending on india for oil exports...they had also a dubious anti pakistan intent in letting india build the charbahar port which however has not gone very far...!...The dubious nature of the pakistani foreign office policy seems quite clear...when the pakistanis donot want to participate they should opt out rather than try for an observer status...it is almost similar to the 1960's era Seato, Cento and RCD...!!keeping a balance between saudia and iran is literally a faulty policy...pakistan to make itself clear should critisize both iranian interference in the middle east and US, russian and saudi bombardments...Iran too should make it clear why it has allowed russian military aircraft to bomb Kurds in Iraq from its soil...!Pakistan should realize that what Raheel Shareef will have todo as a saudi terror czar will not be under their control and according to their or iranian interests only...!there is also no need for the alliance under what many regard as pakistan's lilliputian philosophy of playing with all major players but not siding with anyone...pakistan should make it clear that it has its own interests that should be supreme...Shireen Mazari and Shah Mahmood Qureshi critisized saudi interests but were unable to critisize iranian involvements in syria, iraq and lebanon...being shiite protagonists wont help Imran Khan much...!mazari and shah mahmood are probably shiites who are usually pro iranian and anti saudi...maybe Imran Khan wants to play the shiite card...Shiites are generally spread across the political spectrum with most of their support going to the PMLn and the PPP...The government has never formed policy based on the majorities interests and should not be seen as following the minority interests either...politically apart from the region iran is isolated and has been supporting anti pakistan interests in matters related to afghanistan and india...The USA probably would like the situation to go back to the Shah of Iran era when the iranians were the key player in the Persian Gulf...The iranians after their agreement with the USA have started showing their power and wealth as well as military prowess in controlling iraq and syria...many also see them as behind the russian bombardments in syria which literally wiped the IS of the map...!that would leave the saudi alliance fighting many situations thru proxies or arab militants
  
• Apr04-2017--on the terrorist page the saudi's and iranians are at best opponents...Iran has interfered directly in areas such as Lebanon, Bahrain, Iraq and Syria...shiite majorities and minorities have problems with sunni rulers...shiites generally want total power and disregard minorities from governance ...The Saudis have tried to develop capabilities where they can help their allies fight off opponents on a smaller political/military scale in Bahrain and Yemen...Iran has a similar although different role in syria and iraq where they have helped shiite rulers of a dubious kind ...!In iraq shiite paramilitaries run by religious leaders were directly involved in terrorism and counter terrorism...shiite and sunni terrorism are different and are handled by different organizations...Yemen being a case in point...iran handles things thru mercenaries and insurgents and the revolutionary Guards...while on the sunni side have been various organizations like alqaeda, IS as well as smaller less identifiable groups...the Saudis however donot like tobe linked to alqaeda or the IS both of which are on the decline...there are military/militant like organizations like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas and the older AL Fatah...the iranians almost totally funding and backing Hezbollah...whether the saudi alliance would be able to interfere on the level of the iranians is doubtful...however the saudis would obviously help those countries that are in their alliance...earlier the saudis tried to buildup the pakistani and lebanese militaries usually not to their satisfaction...whether Raheel Shareef would advise covert or overt involvements is yet tobe seen...In pakistan he mainly bashed in the sunni's but that also had to do with american, government, indian and shiite influences...but the pakistan army has a slow frightened approach waiting for the government nod to start actions...they started with financial controls on islamic charities in the early 2000's after 9/11, US drone attacks, than area invasions/ control and than later bigger area invasions...they now like US/israel/india are going in for fences and fortification of the border...!most of the work was handled by the FC in Balochistan and Fata which were regarded as paramilitaries...The iranian ambassador has apparently said negative things about Raheel Shareef's appointment which has come in for fire also from some politicians as well...after terrorist incidents in Turkey Raheel shareef went on a visit to Turkey...there he apparently advised playing fire with fire...or something akin to sabotaging the terrorists politically and militarily...some of the earliest terrorist incidences occurred in iran one in which the entire iranian cabinet was blown up...!before that came palestinian terrorist attempts to get back their territories from israel's occupation..one of the most famous being the hijacking of four 747's in Cairo...palestinians were backed mostly by iran, syria and Libya...later terrorism shifted to the religious sphere after the russian invasion of afghanistan...religious groups developed terrorist fighting capabilities and started challenging their own armies in the islamic region of influence...that initiated the suppression of the terrorist militant groups even if they had some government support...!Most of the problems started after the russian defeat in afghanistan and the elimination of the two superpower system...with one superpower smaller groups opposed to the status quo and in some cases also to their country governments started to emerge...amongst smaller powers the iranians started to emerge as a military power in the middle east and teh saudis started to feel that they ahd to act as a military regional supremo to challenge them...
  
• Apr04-2017--In the Orange Line case the judges and lawyers start a return to reasonability...judges say that line should not damage visibility and foundations of century old monuments while the lawyer for Nespak says they wont and constant monitoring of the situation would be done...controversially he said that any monument that was damaged would be reconstructed...regional powers like china, india and pakistan started to lose their status as they avoided direct involvements in trouble spots...!
  
• Apr04-2017--Power demand jumped to 18000MW and load shedding was reinitiated causing the removal of the federal power secretary...demand was 2000MW higher than last year...if we assume a similar situation next year the demand could be 4000MW higher and that could ruin the PMLn's announced date of ending power supply problems...!if we go by the street more split AC's are lying around for sale in areas where such shops previously did not exist...!
  
• Apr04-2017--SHC shows some guts and orders reinstatement of IGP AD Khawaja day after his removal...while there is nothing too bad in handing a major karachi park to Bahria the court ordered its status quo restored...Bahria is very engaged with top politicians and generals...and is known to ferry asif zardari around in particular in a private jet...They apparently also handed over a Bahria property in lahore to the Zardari's...!Bahria has made money mostly from government largesse in handing over to them huge land assets...!
  
• Apr04-2017--Our courts and NAB should study how the US handles plea bargains...Altaf Khanani was sentenced to 68 months and fined $250000
  
• Apr02-2017--In what many see as a politically inspired upheaval in the army two senior Lt Generals have been transferred to lesser positions...First Strike Corp Lt General Durrani moved to the POF while POF head Omar Hayat moved to NDMA...a very junior maj general promoted from position 101 to take over Mangla...!Durrani was seen as taking an interest in the census and may have been penalized for being unable to handle the indians cross border firing...Omar Hayat has probably been sidelined for refusing union handling orders from the interior minister who is a taxila politician...!we now probably have 100 superceded major generals...!
  
• Apr02-2017--SC making illogical decisions...first it says that a sportswomans appointment as a senior in NAB was not correct and ordered her removal after 13 years...and than also ordered that she be given pension...after 13 years in the job she should have learned how to work even if she was a matriculate...!
  
• Apr02-2017--Sindh government replaces IG Khawaja with Additional IG Dasti who is probably a mohajir...!
  
• Apr02-2017--The army chief who looks like he avoids verbal confrontation stands by democracy according to Imran Khan who met him after four months of his appointment to discuss military matters related to KP probably...!the only change recently has been the re-approval of military court death sentences and sending Raheel Shareef to the lucrative position of Saudi anti terror incharge...!Given the pakistani position of a frightened mouse the government had been uneasy to let even the mild Raheel Shareef handle the situations that emerge in the muslim world...they probably settled the saudi orders for a corp with tanks, artillery ,transports and a hundred pilots...!pakistan was uneasy at having its troops fighting in the muddled middle east situation...many shiites including Imran Khan were trembling at having to face and fight iranian insurgents and mercenaries...the army chief probably discussed the emerging PPP-PMLn situation and what could happen in case of a serious panamagate judgement...apparently according to April1 foolers the judges are divided between firing the kidney stoned Nawaz Sharif or jailing one or both Nawaz Sharif children...!according to some the army chief shared the funny jovial situation of buying flats in 1992 from proceeds of qatari2005...!
  
• Apr02-2017--According to some Nawaz Sharif wants the islamabad airport named for the chinese leader Xi JinPing and has found it very funny that the chinese have banned long beards and declared illegal not watching state TV news bulletins...The chinese apparently also want people(security guards) to advise against wearing veils in public places ...The also dont like the word halal...or muslim sounding names..according to some as soon as Nawaz Sharif announced that the the Xi JinPing airport naming was an april fools joke...he clutched his side as pain erupted in his kidney...!