The Daily PakistanPolitics Apr 1-15, 2012

• Apr15-2012--retired lt. colonel files writ in SC against illegal three year extension to General Kiani...such extensions have not been given even under martial law regimes...usually only a one year extension is given...This shows that military officers now regard Kiani as part of teh problem of good governance
• Apr15-2012--US suggesting that it will not stop drone attacks and not even apologize for killing pakistani soldiers at salala...pakistani politicians such as fazlur rehman of teh JUI have already said that a new written agreement on US ties is needed and that they have not allowed any nato suppllies and such supply lines will be blocked..others suggest that teh pakistan airforce needs to tell teh US that it can stop drones and that pakistans willingness to defend its territory should not be tested
• Apr15-2012--asif zardari who follows a different policy in sindh on teh karachi province wants to divide punjab to satisfy teh gilanis who are involved in everything from corruption, terrorism and drugs...there is little difference between seraiki and other punjab areas and teh seraikis have had enough political influence thruout and teh development in multan is comparable to lahore...many suggest that Musa gilani who has already had a liver operation(usually caused by drug addictions) was intent upon producing drugs like ecstacy with surreptitious multan pharmaceuticals...
• Apr15-2012--Eight hazaras shot dead in quetta by motorcycle gunmen..FC called in
• Apr14-2012--four killed in ongoing lyari violence
• Apr14-2012--India offers 500MW of electricity at Rs15 per unit via punjab border...pakistan probably has teh installed capacity to produce at that cost from furnace oil
• Apr14-2012--dropped anti zardari/gilani PPP punjabi ministers like kaira, gondal and ashraf reappointed amongst 11 new miniisters...only minister considered pathetic is firdous awan who would probably be replaced
• Apr13-2012--The attorney general was fired and irfan qadir was made teh new attorney general and yasmeen abbasi a PCO judge the secretary law...many noticed that while the national assembly was seriously studying the security implications of government policies teh government was turning the ministry of law into a group of domestic servants...
• Apr13-2012--three hazara's shot dead in quetta by motorcycle gunmen
• Apr13-2012--The PCNS revised reccomendations were adopted by parliament...they allowed non lethal nato supplies and ammunition was not allowed even thru teh airspace..the PAF was was asked to monitor border areas properly,operations inside pakistan not allowed nor any security/intelligence contractors and no foreign bases would be allowed...they pathetically asked that drone attacks be stopped...sovreignity was compromised in not insisting on a new alliance agreement with teh USA and not asking teh government to attack and retaliate any further attacks on teh country..many think that teh PAF should be told to monitor the border and intruders should be brought down...US sort of mocked teh process..noting teh seriousness..
• Apr13-2012--The SC in a major initiative asked teh four chief secretaries to report on possible arrangements for local polls by the end of teh month...the quetta police recovered three remaining persons and teh court questioned teh attitude of teh balochistan police in not giving any reasons for the detentions of the three who were released..
• Apr12-2012--wapda says that it is working on 20000MW of hydel projects...most are still in the plannings stage and only 32% work on teh 969 mW Neelum jhelum hydel project has been accomplished..other projects like bhasha, tarbela,bunji, dasu, munda...teh 1410MW tarbela units extension will not increase supply specifically as it will cause teh shutdown of all other units at tarbela..
• Apr12-2012--long electricity shutdowns effect rawalpindi water supply severely as it is dependent on over 200 tubewells when teh supply from rawaldam and khanpur is substantially reduced in summer
• Apr12-2012--The NAB chief defends his getting a controversial plot allottment so quickly...saying it is one in a lifetime allottment...many suggest that it is a bribe from teh government since as admiral he will already have been given enough plots...
• Apr12-2012--Dawn says new ISI chief off on a europe visit with teh controversial former chief...!...teh suggestions in teh press suggest that army and PPP want an immediate opening of teh nato supply line and in fact want to provide it more protection by using teh NLC and the railways...while the JUI and PMLn seem uncertain about restarting teh failed process without major safeguards and stoppage of US military and drone attacks on pakistan...many see a distinct reduction in afghan violence with the stoppage of teh nato supplies and definitely a reduction in tensions in pakistan related to the pipeline and drone attacks...The US is definitely not very friendly and now seems to suggest that they have been working with rather than against pakistan...many say teh US attitude will swing back to its normal anti pakistan line once it gets the nato pipeline restarted...
• Apr12-2012--four killed in dera bugti clash with FC while a strike in sindh on the chemical analysis of the death of JSQM chief...many say that it is very similar to the death of a military chief which was blamed on teh mqm...altaf hussein has been at odds with the nationalists recently as is teh PPP generally...however most of teh nationalist vote ends up with PPP candidates because of the lack of ability to contest elections
• Apr12-2012--militants kill seven in landi kotal area for desertion
• Apr12-2012--Farook Naek resurfaces as Law minister as Chandio is kicked out...The PPP's attempts at covering their corruption seems to be teh basis of their governance
• Apr12-2012--Gilani says allegations against his family for involvement in corruption and smuggling are malicious although the transfer of relevant FIA and ANF officials seems to show otherwise
• Apr11-2012--dawn says sectarian natured militancy in balochistan based on balochi based LJ..however the PPP sponsored ASWJ chief Ludhianvi seems out of teh picture...while others suggest involvement of fata based punjabi taleban..many however feel that as the culprits never get caught similar to karachi the involvement of teh government is almost certain...
• Apr11-2012--The SC again comes to the rescue of investigating officers of ANF facing gilani's tyranny and asks them to stay put as it hears the musa gilani , khushnood lashari and shakeel hussein..
• Apr11-2012--In Gilgit 34 hostages kidnapped by shiites/ismailis released...
• Apr11-2012--The PCNS creates another draft on nato supplies to discuss
• Apr11-2012--army unable to digup the avalanche base as digging ice is at best difficult...they probably will have to use explosives to blowup large chunks of teh ice..the makeup of the base personnel is strange with four sindhis and no punjabis or pukhtuns...?
• Apr11-2012--The changing pakistan army can be best studied by a list of its serving generals in wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_serving_generals_of_the_Pakistan_Army ...it has 27 serving lt generals, two generals and 150 major generals...about seventy serving major generals have been superceded...showing what many feel is a curious lack of ability in the armies top order...wikipedia also says that teh army had only two lt generals in teh 1965 war one of whom was posted in turkey...In 1971 the lt generals increased to 12 four of whom were governors in teh provinces...
• Apr10-2012--army chief appoints sacked defence secretary as FFC head thumbing his nose at the corruption oriented Gilani while Lt Gen(r) Lodhi pursues his IHC case against his sacking...
• Apr10-2012--no headway in finding avalanche victims in siachen area
• Apr10-2012--ten militants, soldier killed in kurram clash
• Apr10-2012--another two PPP workers shot dead in karachi by motorcycle killers
• Apr10-2012--six killed in quetta motorcycle killers sectarian attack..two killed in mand and two bodies found in khuzdar
• Apr10-2012--Dawn says that teh PPP and Bilawal want to play teh victimisation anti punjabi card which is now literally non existent...Nawaz Sharif did not have any murder cases against him and agreed to pay his loan debts...if Asif Zardari had done teh same teh courts would not have gone after the PPP government...Bilawal however should realize that there were at least three murder cases against asif zardari too and one in which benazir could theoretically be involved...so the courts have already paid their debts if any to teh zardaris...!...The hijacking case against Nawaz Sharif was not much of a case as he had only ordered the plane diverted to nawabshah and musharaf kept teh plane in teh air until the corp commander karachi decided to back him...anyway after having literally faced case after case only Gilani a punjabi is left with a contempt case and obviously Asif Zardari with his swiss case...and only a few punjabi ministers have been knocked out and those too mostly anti zardari...In teh ZAB case no cogent argument apart from teh sindhi victimisation plea...they would have to target the LHC judges with bias and teh military regime..however since teh PPP has allowed murder after murder in this government it can be debated that murder is now almost legalized...?
• Apr10-2012--Gilani goes after teh ANF and fires another two officials to coverup for his sons ephedrine misdeeds
• Apr10-2012--Gilani again announces a nonsensical energy policy of increased shutdowns in all provinces and saving a few hundred MW on saturdays and a few hundred by attempting to shut commercial areas at 8PM and billboard lights ...no visible attempts to increase power supply...bhasha, other hydel power stations and coal power wont be online for the next five years and bhasha could only be of help in the late summer months...there will be no additional generation by installing another tarbela turbine......filling bhasha could also take three years...hydel is just not available all the year around...attempts should be made for non hydel generation of around 5000 MW...even if all hydel stations and coal power come online in due course demand will have outstripped supply...a benazir type policy should have been put in place for necessary power generation by now...it should be ensured that all industrial units have their own power supplies in two years..and only lower income new housing should be allowed...The energy that will be saved can hardly cover load shedding supplies to even LESCO...the government should place all its resources directly at teh disposal of wapda to set up as many new power generation units as possible...if it cannot deal with circular debt than the only option is that teh government should resign and appoint a new primeminister who can...
• Apr09-2012--cement prices jump to RS435 from Rs270 in 2010
• Apr09-2012--PMLn says they procured 125000 laptops at an expensive Rs37700 with a fifteen month warranty...while reports from jhelum suggest that of the 100 distributed there around 15 were already on sale in teh local market...PMLn say they are to procure 300000 laptops next year...
• Apr09-2012--14 militants killed in military bombardment of orakzai area
• Apr09-2012--Bugti family houses raided in hyderabad and mirpur khas..police from karachi surrounded one bugti house but could not enter...
• Apr09-2012--while curfew continues in gilgit for teh sixth straight day.. GB unable to get shiite group to release hostages as they go after teh sunnite ASWJ...as tourists are airlifted out
• Apr09-2012--The dying PPP regime maybe doing what every regime has done last ..trying to work on india...while others have eked out some sort of agreement this government which has given up on kashmir and only has meaningless trade as an issue..The indians only have on offer raags and sitar and are usually able to culturally subdue teh pakistani elite.. as usual they want the pakistanis to even provide evidence to nab hafiz saeed...The one sided indian attitude has the PPP regime subjugated and almost culturally overwhelmed...Asif Zardari also was unable to get anything from teh indians apart from dire warnings on teh hafiz saeed issue...unless there is a mutual change teh indian attitude is hardly producive to any sort of solution...many suggest that asif zardari probably offered hafiz saeed for an agreement on sir creek...teh indian natured gilani has been asking for evidence against hafiz saeed too...
• Apr08-2012--shabaz sharif says that asif zardari has constantly tried to topple his government in punjab going to teh extent of using intelligence funds to purchase assembly members...
• Apr08-2012--nine killed in karachi after day and overnight attacks by apparently mqm gunmen
• Apr08-2012--teh image of Gilani turns into that of a juvenile dictator as he fires ANF chief shakeel hussein who was investigating his sons involvement in ephedrine smuggling.....former ANF chief moves SC against his removal and teh primeministers involvement in suppressing teh investigation..this after Khushnood lashari the principal secretary was summoned by teh ANF inits probe...
• Apr08-2012--karakorum highway remains cutoff as 32 remain kidnapped in nagir valley against killings in chilas
• Apr08-2012--Asif zardari turns ajmer visit into a juncket
• Apr08-2012--three security men killed in balochistan violence
• Apr08-2012--135 buried under teh snow as a huge avalanche buries siachens ghayuri sector battalion hq...
• Apr07-2012--wheel chair bound prayer leader shot dead by motorcyclists on quettas terrorist road Sariab...
• Apr07-2012--four disappeared persons brought in the by teh police on SC orders...FC commandant says he has denied a provincial ministers claim that FC involved in killing people...
• Apr07-2012--four PPP workers shot dead in karachi by possible mqm mortorcycle riders
• Apr07-2012--Asif Zardari has started railing and ranting against teh sharifs but many believe that teh PPP has outlived its utility in teh punjab and after four years in which nothing was done to solve teh gas and electricity issue he thinks that punjabi's will be fooled and want PPP governance...many believe that teh sindhi outsider has deliberately attempted to destroy teh punjabi middle class..he was seen as particularly lame in suggesting that nawaz sharif in exile could not arrange for people to attend his fathers funeral under a military regime... In the past fours years asif zardari has visited punjab only a few times compared to his daily visits to sindh...
• Apr07-2012--Nawaz Sharif links nato supplies to expulsion of US contractors while others want to link it to drone attacks...PMLq nwfp chief amir muqam joins PMLn...PMln has support in teh hazara area and could now win in swat- shangla
• Apr06-2012--six militants and three volunteers killed in khyber agency clashes
• Apr06-2012--Three FC men killed in a roadside bomb in balochistan
• Apr06-2012--asif zardari who wants togo to ajmer sharif to praise the pir for his astounding luck displays a meanness and lack of knowledge about lahore critisizing the gowalmandi sharifs as despicable mohajirs...?PPP has won few seats in lahore recently and the tide is turning even further against the pathetic unsympthetic PPP many say permamnently
• Apr06-2012--CJ orders quetta police to produce seven missing persons in a day..?
• Apr06-2012--a gangup between karachis murdering groups..?suicide bomber blasts police convoy killing four passersby...possible mqm involvement..in another attack four motorcyclists and two cars fire on a police car killing three...
• Apr05-2012--The generally useless government beaurocracy is to get a 20 % payhike in a continued wastage of tax revenues...PPP has been unable to improve governance working in all state sectors despite lavish salary hikes and perks...
• Apr05-2012--an afghanistan oil supplier was blownup as seven died in a roadside wagon explosion near landi kotal as sectarian violence continued in gilgit with deaths mounting
• Apr05-2012--PMLn returns to the PCNS committee although many donot see any major change in teh PPP governments slavish policies...if they want sovreignity than they will have to fight teh US intruders in teh region otherwise it is just continue as powerless pawns...
• Apr05-2012--Dawn says that PPP will be able to maintain its support in interior sindh in the next elections even though the opposition could forcibly take away a few seats...many suggest that the zardaris have literally eliminated teh bhutto's from sindh politics and an election with ID cards could create problems for the PPP who have had no opposition in teh sindh interior since the seventies...Dawn hopes teh votes of BISP women beneficiaries will help them out...thinking however changes with affluence and the poor sindhi women are not going vote for them for a thousand rupees which buys them nothing...they probably can expect the votes of teh richer agricultural lobby that have been getting fatter on literally handouts...the PPP regime has been covering teh economic losses of agriculture sector owners and teh IPP's...given PPP policies of revering the dead zardari or gilani maybe moving towards a bigger grave than teh bhuttos given their ripping off the economy to teh tune of billions......and the PTI and even PMLn could create the cracks to end teh sindh domination by teh PPP even though it might not be in this election...however it is in other parts of teh country that teh PPP is expected to suffer...with a possible 50-60 seats changing hands the PMLn-PTI could be forming the next government with teh ethnically oriented ANP-MQM who are expected to do well with not much opposition in mohajir areas of sindh and nwfp...even though the thoughts of a PTI sweep in punjab and nwfp are not now being predicted and the PMLn seems tobe backing out of its pro demo policies as the summer heat mounts or might be Gillanis/zardaris have offered to buy nawaz sharif a hotel in england for allowing them another term to teh peril of teh awam...
• Apr05-2012--while teh security problems what with salala, supply line attacks and drone attacks are problematic for pakistan teh USA expects us to believe that it has a security problem or concern...such concerns the US should settle in talks not with bombardments...many suggest that with teh US attitude teh relationship should be ended rather than continuing it...many suggest that the US has backed out of the threatening attitude on hafiz saeed which teh ISI many suggest is probably planning another sovreignity buster thru a suicide blast or air attack from india this time...For pakistan there is no national or even mutual interest in a politically dangerous nato pipeline and continued meaningless cooperation without an end to related violence which many say is US and pakistan army controlled...the general effect of nato aid and support payments are minimal...and what u get are might be a repaired grave in cholistan...
• Apr05-2012--Punjab minister dost mohammed khosa resigns after a murder case is registered...accused of kidnapping and killing his ex wife
• Apr04-2012--RPP owners names put on ECL...
• Apr04-2012--three shiites shot dead in karachi in possible sectarianist actions
• Apr04-2012--like two previous cases of corruption against teh gilani clan another suspect involvement of Musa ali gilani in allocating 9000 kilograms of ephedrine to narcotics smugglers emerges...
• Apr04-2012--while teh PPP has formally rejected teh policies of the senior bhutto since benazir times and officially regards the party leaders deaths as sacrifices for their suspect rich mans democracy the young Bilawal Zardari portrays it as a matter of Lahore and Larkana and asks SC to move to clear the bhutto name...The court can at best cancel the death sentence since bhutto only defended his politics and not teh case...The PPP has used its time in office to get cases cancelled against its dubious leadership and showed scant disregard for the problems of teh people...both the bhutto rulers were problem solvers while teh zardari-gilani era is characterized by alliances with bhutto opponents and refusing to even recognize problems...Bilawal Zardari probably does not realize that both Wali Khan and Airmarshal Asghar Khan vowed to kill zulfikar ali bhutto...The PPP many say has only survived because of its leaders suspect deaths and will not last very long with its dubious politics and will at best be restricted to politics in interior sindh...their only chance of survival is cooperation with nawaz sharif and hoping for pukhtun and PMLq votes...The SC has not changed much trying its best to save teh current rulers whatever they do...blaming the military intelligence establishment is also an old PPP tactic
• Apr04-2012--riots erupt in gilgit and chilas 14 killed...the area is a hotbed of sectarianism and apparently someone(possible shiite) threw a grenade at ASWJ workers organising a strike which caused the entire area of gilgit to reverberate with gunfire...five were killed while another 9 were killed when peopel(possible anti shiites) marched on teh karakorum highway and attacked a convoy of buses and killed nine
• Apr04-2012--In what is being termed a major counter attack teh US issues a 10 million dollar bounty for Mullah hafiz saeed...Hafiz saeed has been prominent in opposing the nato pipeline and teh US thinks some pakistani will go for the money...it also proves beyond doubt that the US has always been an indian in teh region following and helping india and dumping pakistan whenever it gets teh chance...there has been no evidence of hafiz saeed being involved in the bombay attacks apart from his possible leadership of the LET...he says he only led the jamat dawaa which supposedly is a charity organisation...since the bounty is for the location of hafiz saeed who is free in pakistan the objectives of USA are clearly murky and anti islamic...the USA has yet to reveal who gave them teh location of Ossama ie if it was not teh pakistan government and its ISI...maybe Asif Zardari wants a helicopter attack from india this time..?
• Apr03-2012--Another checkpoint attacked from afghanistan killing five security men and eight militants...many believe that teh US is preparing to attack across teh tribal frontier as more US troops pour into afghanistan...others suggest that the US is going to attack iran...TTP says only one militant died in teh attack...
• Apr03-2012--six die in ongoing lyari violence which has street people fighting teh police...many say the PPP regimes inability to handle the mqm and their ethnic pecaddillos only cause of teh problem...the mqm has constantly attacked other ethnic groups and now has the PPP regime attacking any pockets of anti mqm areas
• Apr03-2012--Gilani says PPP government unable to solve problems whether they are electricity, nato pipelines or gas pipelines...just waiting he says for teh national assembly to back down to restart the nato pipeline which is obviously making teh stoppage of the pipeline a meaningless action...The government many say is at best stumbling thru frightened of the SC and teh PMLn...The SC recently confiscated 12 rental power projects and initiated cases against teh power mafia headed by teh MOWP...The government has been unable to solve any issue in teh power sector since teh early eighties when teh military rulers could not build teh kalabagh dam and than dismantled wapda and initiated teh IPP's and than Rpp's...circular debt and unavailable power just kept increasing teh problems of load shedding and the bumbling government just kept lying to the people...The IPP agreements with their assured gas and fuel supplies and capacity agreements and high rates only kept the problem from being solved...The only way left is to declare force majeure...cancel all power agreements and take over all power companies and put them under a single company...eversince lieutenant generals and MOWP have been running things it has been going from bad to worse...the problem is compounded by using stored water to meaninglessly prop up sindh's agriculture...
• Apr02-2012--mutton prices also stage a hike in islamabad to the 550-60 level
• Apr02-2012--pipeline blows in pirkoh while FC chief says that a survey was conducted in the dera bugti area revealing new deposits of gas(suggesting improved security) although he is unable to stop pipeline blasts...
• Apr02-2012--violence continues in karachi and lyari
• Apr02-2012--CJ heads to quetta to hear civil rights petitions while the ISI cowardly asks for an in camera briefing for teh SC...The judges and ISI should realize that sweeping things under teh carpet serves no purpose and teh people especially of balochistan need to know teh truth...if there is a reason for the ISI actions than the people knowing it should not matter...keeping things secret only perpetuates the reasoning that subterfuge is not with an ulterior motive and thus not logical or correct...FC chief says there were 331 violent incidents this year in which over a hundred were killed...
• Apr01-2012--the poor were again threatened by the PPP's terrible allies the MQM and ANP with their terrible games of murder and ethnic deprivation and strikes in karachi and the PPP with another irresponsible petroleum price and CNG hike...The mqm apparently ordered teh killing of a pukhtun bus driver after four motorcyclists were killed...motorcyclists are much more likely tobe mohajirs while rickshaw drivers and bus drivers mostly pukhtun...the meaningless ethnic vendetta's in karachi are controlled by altaf hussein while the ANP also does not hold back...many suggest that ethnic desperado type organisations should be banned like teh religious extremists..others suggest that teh sindh governor be replaced by someone who can solve issues and control events...there was a lacklustre strike in lahore against the PPP regimes uncontrolled load shedding
• Apr01-2012--The Gilani's who many regard as corrupt with the whole family involved in dubious corruption oriented ventures has now started a vendetta against the former Nusrat Bhutto lawyer Baber Awan...first he was removed as minister, suspended by teh SC as a lawyer... than his handpicked nominees were fired from several positions in the MOL and CDA..he has now been fired from the parliamentary committee on national security and replaced by Qamar Zaman Kaira...Baber Awan refused to testify for teh primeminister in his defence against a contempt case in teh SC...
• Apr01-2012--The PCNS is unable to decide on opening teh nato supply line as without a change in american attitudes it will just restart the unending process of drone attacks and counter attacks on nato trucks...