The Daily PakistanPolitics Sept 16-30, 2019

• Sep26-2019--while nothing has yet come of the Trump mediation on kashmir...now Imran Khan is saying that he will mediate between the USA, Saudia and IRan...trump suggested that he did not ask him...earlier an attempt by Nawaz to mediate floundered...the dispute between the saudis and iran stems from sectarian and historic rivalries between the Persians and Arabs...even though Rouhani claims tobe a sunni...other diferences stem from aspects that include changing basic religious concepts..the iranians now also oppose the saudi monarchy and expect iran tobe considered as holy as saudi arabia...since they claim shiites tobe sizable in comparision to arabs and sunnis... The iranians are basically troublemakers and have been stoking their shiite power in iraq, lebanon and syria..they have recently been attacking tankers, confiscating tankers and in the most recent incident attacked a saudi oilfield...they also shot down a US drone...while US and Saudia have not yet retaliated many think they fear an all out uncontrollable conflict may ensue...the saudis who have backed down in syria and iraq have refused to accept iranian backed groups in yemen...earlier the US allowed an iranian tanker to supply oil to Syria despite its sanctions...Iran is generally considered unreasonable...whether they can fight off the US airpower is questionable...the example of afghanistan, syria and iraq suggests that they can fight to a stalemate...however it could permanently shut down the Persian Gulf...with oil available everywhere it might not matter even though a real conflict could cause prices to rise...Imran Khan's negotiation skills are questionable especially when all three sides have conflicting views...The pakistan army is said tobe envious of the iranians interfering in every conflict although they have told them that negotiations are only way to solve problems...however iran thinks they can cow down everybody including pakistan where there hand has been seen in many terrorist incidences...there are some in pakistan who suggest that pakistan may be using/encouraging iran to create trouble due to their own differences with saudis...pakistans sectarian minority is almost totally aligned against saudia...!
  
• Sep26-2019--a controversy erupted when a PTI advisor suggested that even the earth had started to move on their orders...
  
• Sep26-2019--Quake relief slow...NDMA which is army run with AJK and army machinery is repairing the Jatlan road which has craters right across its length and they will make it usable in a few days for light traffic...39 people are estimated to have been killed with damage to around 2000 houses in several villages...most of the injured come from the Jatlan village...government for some strange reason has cutoff electricity and mobile phones to the area
  
• Sep26-2019--The pathetic PTI regime is finding more reasons to raise electricity rates and is trying to modify rates for the previous year too...They now also want to increase rates alongwith inflation which has a minor impact on electricity production cost...
  
• Sep25-2019--It could be PTI corruption... as a son of a provincial minister Fahad Chohan had his physics marks increased from 14/30 to 30/30...at the moment nobody has been found to have asked the head examiner to recheck the marks or increase them...!usually school teachers do intercede for their students but getting half marks in a physics practical is pretty odd...unless there were two experiments... Fayyazul Hasan Chohan is a punjab minister of mines and supposedly has recently acquired a Rs.8 crore house in rawalpindi...somebody dabbling in crores could easily have siphoned a few lakhs to a head examiner...!
  
• Sep25-2019--Given the nature of Donald Trump Pakistan should not expect much from any negotiations conducted by him on Kashmir as he has a penchant to extract his own pound of flesh and indians are known to bamboozle the USA since a long time...i would put much more weight behind a US or UN expert carrying out the negotiations...The US power is little or nothing...one sees how they have been backing away from a conflict with Iran and playing up to indian and pakistani audiences...
  
• Sep25-2019--four civilians and two soldiers die in north waziristan...the four were oil company workers and assailants opened fire on their vehicle...
  
• Sep25-2019--The earthquake though of a relatively low intensity of 5.9 occurred very near the surface about 10-20 km north of jhelum...this is not the usual epicenter of earthquakes in the area and there is widespread damage in azad kashmir and a 14.5 km road alongside the Jatlan canal deep craters rendering it unusable...there are reportedly 30 deaths in azad kashmir mostly in and around the mangla dam city of mirpur...while it is a generally earthquake prone area the epicenters are usually much further north...The PTI immediately started their earthquake politics and just like the dengue politics there was no rush by the government to help out...on dengue they say they are still doing research...The PTI wants everybody to stand with them on kashmir, dengue and the earthquake but refuses to listen to pleas to not raise the dollar rates, gas , pharmaceutical and electricity, car prices...nor do they seem willing to cooperate with the opposition or allow local governments to work...with the auditor general pointing out almost Rs.15 trillion of bad financing by the government one does not know whether the government is incompetent or corrupt...there is no leader in the punjab and federal ministers expect beaurocrats to handle the work...one feels that it is lucky that nothing happened to the dam apart from muddy water which is not that dangerous...technically there was no reason to shutdown the mangla power station unless the outflow was damaged or there was serious effects on the machinery...however the dam and power station structures are very solidly built...however there are many soft earth/rock filled areas which can shift in major earthquakes...since most of the damage is surrounding the dam site many wonder whether the dam and its huge water reservoir could be the cause of a tectonic shift...others suggest/suspect PTI shenanigans given the prayer mongering or tasbeeh biradri praying against the AJK PMLn government...!
  
• Sep23-2019--another imported adviser has got the "don't criticize us""it is just politics" bug... we are just waiting for research to tell us what to do in case of Dengue...with 10000 cases countrywide they are still sitting on their butts...Potohar is a green, forested and rainy area ...and it provides more breeding grounds than other areas for the dengue mosquito...areas of infestation are identified quickly and fumigation is the method of choice to reduce at least some of the mosquitoes...just waiting for winter is hardly going to help or solve the problem...primarily they should start a public awareness media program and seeking help from Srilanka and WHO is required if the adviser has no knowledge of public health practices...despite a known period of eruption they had done no preparation for handling the epidemic like situations...one adviser was involved in increasing pharmaceutical prices while the punjab health minister was going around raising hospital charges for generally low income patients...it takes months for things like dengue to register on the adviser and the health minister/CM...It is like Donald Trump saying Kashmir is merely Imran khan's political procrastination and it is regional stability that he actually wants...!
  
• Sept20-2019--There are 9000 dengue cases this year and the PTI has not yet fumigated key areas like Dhok Munshi and other areas from where cluster cases emerged...almost a hundred cases emerging every day in Rawalpindi-Islamabad..Imran Khan had apparently run away to Hunza when KP faced a dengue crisis during the previous regime...
  
• Sept20-2019--Sheikh Rashid runs away from hostile crowd at HFH
  
• Sept20-2019--The PTI is coming across as totally naive and incompetent as Auditor points out Rs.15 trillion irregularities and supplementary grants in trillions not approved by parliament
  
• Sept20-2019--IHC sets aside PTI's removal of Mushtaq Sukhera as as FTO
  
• Sept20-2019--Saudi Arabia and Pakistan consoling each other about their militarily stronger enemies Iran and India...saudia not having a huge army is probably right tobe terrified while pakistan's is a pure case of cowardice...however the USA also uneasy of another conflict in the region is considering key areas like the Ibadan oil refinery, and Kharg Island as areas that might be bombed...when the USA attacked Afghanistan they initiated it with over 400 cruise missiles...such an attack could devastate iran's gulf oil facilities...
  
• Sept16-2019--Imran Khan is now supporting privatisation apparently...a major somersault on his previous position...
  
• Sept16-2019--Imran Khan has a deep and abiding liking for financial crooks...like the Abraaj chief or Jahangir Tareen or Abdul Aleem Khan , Dawoods etc...No where in the world are financial crooks let off the hook but here the financial adviser says accountability is bad for businessmen...i dont know what type he is talking about...exporters are paid for by the government...free electricity, free gas, sales tax refunds...nobody but the army chief has such perks...so if the likes of small time shopkeepers like the dawoods/jehangir tareen (son of a policeman) can build up a financial empire in fertilizer, engro, electricity production, sugar...what more ease of bussiness do you need...!the financial advisor must be on the take...he now wants to restructure profitable entities like SLIC, National Bank...failing entities are one thing but restructuring a successful bussiness...!totally crooked are the PTI advisers...The PTI has made a thing about creating a new sector that is unaccountable and immune to prosecution after the armed forces..!
  
• Sept16-2019--The Buzdar episode apparently is set to continue despite a terrible performance record...he says they issued 72 lakh insaf health cards...!while meant charitably for the lower income group of ordinary people...apparently 90% have been issued to punjab government employees...Ehsas sure is unable to understand who it is helping here...Dr. Sania Nishtar probably runover by politics ...or does she not understand the difference between a government employee and a charitable needy person...apparently she is running around in a burka checking out woman loan applicants...!charity should be meant for the poor, elderly, retired or unemployed...!not for bussinesswomen or exporters...!