Zaicha

As the global age takes its course, Pakistan has an unparallel opportunity to estabelish its identity as a pluralist state

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Location: Bahawalpur, Pakistan

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Politics

ISLAMABAD, Dec 11: The Alliance for Restoration of Democracy on Monday sent a letter to the diplomats of major countries based in Islamabad, highlighting flaws in the ongoing process of voters’...
SEVERAL leading members of the establishment, belonging to the federal cabinet or its auxiliary political party, have announced ‘their’ decision to get President General Musharraf re-elected head of state for five years. Is the die then cast? If the conclusion is in the affirmative, it is time the people, at least those possessing a capacity to comprehend matters imminent, started taking stock of the hazards on the road to democratisation.
Looking beyond the Charter
SOME observers would have us believe that having identified the contours of a civilised political system, got someone to put it on paper in fairly decent prose, called it a “charter” and signed it, Ms Benazir Bhutto and Mr Nawaz Sharif have buried the “hatchet” that they wielded to make life miserable for each other, when they alternated as prime minister (1988-99). This is good to hear, but one may wonder how long the “hatchet” will stay buried.
Case for amending the Constitution
Opposition’s decision
THERE is considerable food for thought for the military-led government in the decision announced by the opposition on Tuesday to launch a mass movement against it.
ARD, MMA plan joint movement
ISLAMABAD, June 20: The Alliance for Restoration of Democracy, the Muttahida Majlis Amal (MMA), Pakistan Tehrik Insaaf and PONM on Tuesday agreed to launch a joint movement to get rid of military rule and ensure free, fair and transparent general elections....
‘PONM ready to launch joint astruggle with ARD, MMA’
PPP files reference against PM with NAB
ISLAMABAD, June 17: The People’s Party Parliamentarians has filed a reference with the National Accountability Bureau against Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, present and former federal ministers for petroleum and natural resources...
Musharraf on democracy
While talking to a delegation of district nazims led by Punjab Chief Minister Pervez Elahi, President Pervez Musharraf said that the "train of democra ...
Charting a new course?
By Kuldip Nayar
WHETHER or not the optimism exuded by Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif is misplaced is yet to be tested. But both political leaders, whom I met in London a few days ago, are brimming with confidence.
Benazir Bhutto, Asif Zardari arrest warrants issued
ISLAMABAD: An Islamabad court Saturday issued arrest warrants of the former prime minister and People’s Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto and her spouse Asif Ali Zardari and directed the Ministry of Interior to present them in the court on July 3 after their arrest through the Interpol.
Charter for a democratic Pakistan
By Rahimullah Yusufzai
The Charter of Democracy continues to arouse controversy. It has raised expectations even as its critics are sceptical about the sincerity of the two ...
Facing a dilemma
DR FAROOQ HASSAN
General Musharraf's dilemma about his future job security is patently visible. In addition he cannot easily countenance the coalescing of the two major political parties against him even though this process may be still as far as London. He has clearly realised that any future set up of the electoral college .
Coalition crisis drags on
ISLAMABAD, May 26: The Sindh coalition crisis remained unresolved as a three-member delegation of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) failed to get an audience with President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Friday....
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PML leaders back Arbab; MQM team in Islamabad
-Crisis persists; MQM team to meet president
-Coalition in Sindh on the rocks
Sugar issue raised at PML budget meeting
ISLAMABAD, May 22: Prime Minister Shuakat Aziz on Monday assured the Pakistan Muslim League leadership that the new budget would be people- and investor-friendly with major focus on reducing inflation and bringing down prices of essential commodities....
Decision on uniform next year: Musharraf
ISLAMABAD, May 19: President Gen Pervez Musharraf said on Friday that under the constitution he could remain in uniform only till 2007....
Benazir & Nawaz sign Charter of Democracy
LAHORE, May 14: The long-awaited Charter of Democracy (CoD) was approved and signed by former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif late on Sunday night after several hours of...
PP P leaders to meet Indian PM
ISLAMABAD, May 4: A five-member delegation of the People’s Party Parliamentarians, led by its chief Makhdoom Amin Fahim, will meet Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi next week, sources in the party told Dawn on Thursday....
Musharraf acts to defuse PML factional tensions
ISLAMABAD, May 4: President General Pervez Musharraf held intensive meetings in his chamber in Parliament House with leaders of various factions of the ruling PML and party president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi....
No deal with Musharraf: Nawaz Sharif
“A man who is guilty,” Nawaz Sharif said and repeated, “A man who is guilty. And responsible for abrogating the Constitution, a man who is guilty of subverting the Constitution, a man who is guilty of dissolving the Parliament, a man who is guilty of staging a coup against an elected government, a man who is guilty of manufacturing an LFO as 17th amendment in GHQ and unilaterally declaring it part of the Constitution.”When asked if he was that clear he emphatically said, “Haan ji,” adding a deal means you are accepting all that what he has done and in my dictionary, in my view, this is against morality.
Full Story
Benazir and Nawaz vow to restore democracy
LAHORE, April 24: Former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif met at the latter’s Park Lane apartment in London on Monday with both sides renewing their pledge to restore democracy in the country by getting rid of the military rule....
Editorials
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Finally they meet
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The PPP/PML-N deal
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Nawaz-Benazir meeting
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Will the Nawaz-BB ‘London Plan’ fly?

Musharraf, Aziz in bid to keep coalition intact
RAWALPINDI, April 21: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz held a meeting with President General Pervez Musharraf at the latter’s camp office here on Friday and discussed the latest political situation in the country....
Musharraf to be re-elected for 2nd term: Shujaat
ISLAMABAD (March 09): The 2007 general elections will be held under a neutral, caretaker government, as this has already been enshrined in the Constitution of Pakistan, president Pakistan Muslim League (PML) Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said on Friday.
PPP, PML-N to evolve joint plan: Benazir, Shahbaz meet in Dubai
LAHORE, March 10: Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and PML-N president Mian Shahbaz Sharif met at the Dubai residence of the PPP chairperson on Friday and exchanged views on the political...
PML rebels not to vote in Senate polls
ISLAMABAD (March 10): As many as 11 members of the forward bloc within the ruling party-PML, in a dramatic move, announced on Thursday not to cast their vote in favour of Tariq Azeem, the party candidate for Senate seat from Islamabad, to mark their protest over alleged political victimisation at the hands of Punjab ruling clique.

Governance

By Shahid Javed Burki
The 50,000 or so families that fit in the income category of the very rich owe their wealth and income either to land they have owned for decades, perhaps for centuries, or to the industries they established since the birth of Pakistan, or to dealings in properties that are now valued very highly at the peripheries of the major cities. In all these cases the state has either helped in protecting the source of income or assisted in creating the wealth that produces it.
PESHAWAR, Dec 11: Describing Pakistan’s volatile tribal region as a virtual “mini-state” used by Taliban and foreign militants “to regroup, reorganise and rearm,” an international think-tank on Monday accused Islamabad of following an ambivalent approach....
ISLAMABAD, Oct 4: For the first time Population Census Organisation has published district-wise report of all union councils of Punjab that contain population data and its division by sex, rural and urban areas and literacy rate....
National security redefined
A careful study of the Pakistan Economic Survey 2005-06 leaves one in no doubt that historically speaking our policymakers, whether under military or civilian governments, have over-emphasised the military dimension of national security to the neglect of the economic dimension, particularly human resource development which provides the foundation for the process of sustainable economic development.
In Pakistan, constitutions have been abrogated, held in abeyance, mutilated beyond recognition and trifled with to suit political expediency or personal ambitions. But all said and done, the 1973 Constitution has managed to survive all crises and dictators.
By Dr Tariq Rahman
PAKISTAN faces many dangers from within and without. This discussion looks at the former. There are three broad categories of dangers from within: ethnic conflict, class conflict and ideological conflict.
Contrary to their generosity in overspending billions of rupees on VVIP Jets, Mercedes Benz, foreign visits of the rulers and other non-development areas, the federal ministries left unspent huge development funds meant for the well- being of the masses.
ISLAMABAD, May 25: Despite insistence of the audit department, a sub-committee of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) here on Thursday showed reluctance to refer the Kamra grid station scam, in which...
It has been found out during the NAB investigations that the 65 percent directives, which were made to remain unchanged or decrease the oil prices, since the year 2001, were made verbally by the competent authority, while the directives to increase the oil prices were made in writing by the approval of finance ministry.
Pakistan is a federation only in name; the centre has always dominated, and this has led to heart-burning and grievances among the provinces, leading to serious consequences such as the break-away of East Pakistan.
ISLAMABAD, April 25: Four new faces were inducted into the federal cabinet on Tuesday while some portfolios changed hands the most prominent among them being the ministry of information and broadcasting....
A law forbade a person from becoming prime minister a third time, and the government used all its administrative machinery to ensure the Muslim League’s victory. Against this background, Chief Election Commissioner Qazi Mohammad Farooq’s disclosure about an acting set-up for the next general election deserves to be welcomed, though certain questions remain unanswered.
ONCE again the provinces and the centre are at loggerheads over the question of resource sharing. This time they are not fighting over who would share how much from the divisible pool, because that has already been settled for the time being. What is at issue today is whether or not the provinces qualify for allocations from the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) after their share in the divisible pool has been increased.
A week of unprecedented urban fighting in the wild tribal belt of North Waziristan has left scores dead and forced thousands to flee their homes, raising the stakes in Pakistan's war on Islamic militancy along the Afghan border.
The cartoons published in the European press have provided a fresh impetus to religious extremism. Religious parties are clearly drawing on the reservoir of genuine public fury at the blasphemous sketches to whip up an anti-government and anti-US campaign. Every party is complicit in contributing to the current hysteria where the form that the violent protests have taken has pushed the original calumny in the background and let loose a horde of rabble-rousers on the streets. Another strike is planned for today; yesterday’s attack in Karachi has set the scene for it in the most gruesome way possible.
ISLAMABAD, March 2: President General Pervez Musharraf on Thursday said Pakistan would continue to fight extremism and terrorism in a holistic manner as curbing these menaces was crucial to long-term national security and economic development....
Terrorism high on Bush’s agenda for talks in Islamabad
WASHINGTON, March 2: US President George W. Bush’s pledge to visit Pakistan despite Thursday’s terrorist attack was no surprise for diplomatic and official circles in Washington already aware of his determination to visit Islamabad at all costs....
ISLAMABAD, March 2: The federal cabinet has condemned Thursday’s bomb blast in Karachi as “a dastardly act of terrorism” but expressed confidence that it would not affect US President George Bush’s visit to Pakistan which would go ahead as planned....
Low-profile government-sponsored rallies to condemn publication of cartoons featuring the Prophet Mohammed have swiftly escalated into a campaign directed against Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf.
While some of the agitation was in fact directed toward the cartoons, religious leaders and secular analysts agree that the ensuing violence has little to do with religious offenses committed far away, and more to do with grievances at home.
Without any relevant constitutional or legal accommodation, Pakistan has silently but informally moved from a cabinet to a prime ministerial form of government. The emergence of the prime minister's secretariat and its gradual growth as a parallel secretariat in the federal set-up has diminished the role of the federal ministries and divisions.
The report of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan on Balochistan is extremely depressing. The report can be termed depressing for a number of reasons, such as the details and pictures of missing persons, the list of children killed in the violence, accounts of torture and pictures of Sui as a ghost town. However, what is most depressing about the report is that it highlights the fact that when the writ of the state has not been established and an area is allowed to run as the wilds for decades there is nothing pretty about the plight of the people.
Parliament can re-elect Musharraf, says Shujaat
Pakistan Muslim League President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has said that parliament can re-elect President Pervez Musharraf for a second term in 2008....
Senate’s HR body to visit Balochistan
Senate’s standing committee on human rights on Monday constituted a sub-committee to visit Balochistan soon after the current session of the upper house of parliament to ascertain first hand knowledge of the situation in the volatile province....
PQP-ANP merger announced: Unity of Pukhtuns through peaceful democratic movement sought
The Pukhtunkhwa Qaumi Party (PQP) on Monday merged with the Awami National Party (ANP). The president of the PQP, Mr Afzal Khan made the announcement of merger with...
Efforts fail to merge BSO factions
The Baloch Students Organization (Aman) said on Monday that efforts to merge the three factions of the BSO had failed. Speaking at a press conference, BSO chairman Amanullah...
The Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB) a representative body of farmers has observed that government will have to spend Rs42 billion in foreign exchange on sugar import to plug the shortfall in local production.
Sugar sector places onus of high prices on govt
TCP sitting on stocks as sugar soars above Rs36 per KgBy Masood AnwarKARACHI: Sugar trade and production circles have placed the onus of sugar price hike on the flawed policies of the federal government.
Afghans, India fuelling unrest in Balochistan’
Balochistan Governor Owais Ghani has accused Afghan warlords and drug barons of arming tribal militants in the province and India of financing them.
Rs60bn plan unveiled for Balochistan roads
The National Highway Authority (NHA) on Monday unveiled five-year package for Balochistan road network amounting to Rs60 billion. The package was announced by NHA Chairman Maj-Gen Farrukh Javed at a press briefing held at the authority’s headquarters....
Balochistan in turmoil againThe war in Balochistan is once again making headlines. 2005 was a troubled year for the province with the insurgency simmering throughout the year interspersed with military action by the Frontier Constabulary from time to time. It is a pity that as the year draws to a close the army has stepped up its operations and there are reports of casualties that include women and children.
Details
Balochistan: Yet another crackdown
AT A random reckoning, we are seeing the fifth major military/paramilitary operation in Balochistan since independence. This is besides other lesser known and relatively minor military actions launched in the province from time to time.
What next in Balochistan?
The situation in Balochistan is going from bad to worse. Every day the newspapers carry reports of rocket attacks by unknown people and shelling and firing by the security forces. The government has now openly declared that it will take recourse to force to restore law and order in the province. This is a dangerous approach because when the army decides to use military means, it inevitably turns a crisis into a do or die issue.


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Balochistan insurgency sets off ripples all over country
A fresh wave of insurgency in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province has set off ripples all over the country with senior federal government officials claiming to have taken over control of mountains which served as hideouts for the insurgents.
Strike observed in Balochistan
Complete wheel jam and shutter-down strike was observed on Tuesday in Quetta and other parts of the province on the call of opposition parties to denounce government policies...
Two camps overrun; gas pipeline blown up
Paramilitary forces on Tuesday seized control of two more camps of Mari tribesmen in Bakar and Peekal on the border of Dera Bugti and Mari tribal agency and recovered a huge cache of weapons....
ARD postpones protest in front of parliament
The Alliance for Restoration of Democracy postponed its protest in front of Parliament House scheduled for of December 29 and also the meeting of party heads till January 2.
Encroaching upon smaller provinces’ autonomy

Balochistan crisis

ISLAMABAD, Dec 11: In a rare demonstration of unity, prominent government and opposition leaders called on Monday for resolving the crisis in Balochistan through dialogue, involving all genuine
PAKISTAN seems to have reached the edge of the precipice. The political rumpus that has erupted in the country in the aftermath of Nawab Akbar Bugti’s killing signals a national crisis of grave proportions. The situation is more serious than it appears. It is not just a clash between political centres of power that we witness today. Akbar Bugti’s killing has spawned a sense of deep alienation among all sections of the Baloch people.
A dark hour
The sentiment in Balochistan over Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti’s death has reached its peak and is causing grave agitation. The Balochistan National Party (BNP) has announced that it has decided to resign from the National Assembly, Senate, the provincial Assembly and all local bodies in protest against the killing of Bugti and the ‘disgraceful’ burial of his body.
KBAR BUGTI has been killed in a military operation that federal officials insist was conducted on the request of Balochistan government. The issue is seen by the ruling camp in the...
"You may sob, weep, cry or shout. It is your choice. He was our enemy. He was an enemy of the state. He got what he deserved." It was not the lone voice. In the streets there was support for Musharraf: nothing new in it.

Tragedy with a priceWho is playing politics? The Balochistan problem Unfortunate tragedyEmerging scenarioCrisis worsens?Targeting Punjabis Jeevay, jeevay Pakistan In defence of army action in Dera Bugti Violence against politics A time of disquiet Our Last Samurai Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti (1927-2006)


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QUETTA, Aug 26: Veteran Baloch nationalist leader and former Chief Minister of Balochistan, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti was killed, along with 37 armed tribals, in a military operation in Chalgri area of Bhamboor hills of Dera Bugti district on Saturday....
As many as five persons including a policeman and a soldier were killed while 23 were injured in clashes between policemen and protesting mob in Quetta despite the curfew in the wake of the killing of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti and some 450 protestors were arrested. Moreover, tension and panic prevailed in Karachi as violence erupted in many areas of the city.

Monday, December 11, 2006

Society

Woman up against landlords, police
MULTAN, Dec 11: A woman has been trying to find her husband allegedly missing for 11 months, seeking police and local politicians’ support without a success....
Desperation of the poor
A FACTORY worker in Lahore killed his three minor daughters recently as he was convinced he would not be able to give them an “honourable life” with his meager earnings, however hard he may try. He did not spare even his youngest daughter, aged three, who pleaded with him to spare her. A shocked police guard shot him dead in the police lockup saying the beast had no right to live.
Social sciences in dismal state
ISLAMABAD, May 26: A review ceremony of two books at the Trust for Voluntary Organisation (TVO) here on Friday invited heated debate on the dismal state of social sciences and research in the country....
Dying with your boots on
By Shafqat Mahmood
Yes, no one wants to quit. There was a time when people would look forward to retirement. After a lifetime of work, it was like a well deserved rest a ...
‘Politicians losing people’s trust’
RAWALPINDI, May 25: Politicians are losing people’s trust as they do not share truth with them, and the lack of trust led to widespread political disengagement resulting in low turn outs in the elections....
Winds of change?
By Shaukat Qadir
month or so ago, the Public Accounts Committee — for the first time to the best of my knowledge — summoned senior serving and retired military officers to give a briefing on defence expenditure; and they all turned up. Shamefully, only one member of the PAC turned up that day, but the military officers satisfactorily responded to his questions.
Feudal lords blamed for weakening local govt systemDistrict Nazim Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan Jatoi has accused the influential feudal lords, like Abdullah Shah, father of Punjab Minister fo ...
News in brief ...
Mystic’s truth?: Military dictator fulfilled a saint’s prediction
Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority chairman ordered to surrender possession of illegal farm
‘Islami Jamiat Talaba campaign’: ‘Stop music, stop drama and dance’
When Push(tun) comes to shove, they rally