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100 CHILDREN KILLED IN LAHORE BY A SERIAL KILLER ---10 NOV -12DEC, 1999(Part two)

ROCKET ATTACKS, CABINETS AND A ZOO DEATH---10 NOV -12DEC, 1999(Part One)

COUNTRY AT A STANDSTILL, BUMPER HARVESTS,NAB, ANTIQUE TILES,LASHKAR E TAYYABA

100 CHILDREN KILLED IN LAHORE BY A SERIAL KILLER ---10 NOV-12DEC, 1999(Part Two)

• An ATC in Mirpus Khas has sentenced an editor and a writer of a sindhi newspaper Alak to 17 years in prison for using obnoxious language with respect to prophets
• Nov27--Pervez Musharraf had a two and a half hour meeting with Ajmal Khattak in Peshawar. It could be the beginning of a dialogue with politicians or the selection process for the next political govt
• The Mera Ghar housing project has been revived with the proviso that the govt not be held responsible for its financing
• The import of used carparts has been allowed
• Nov28--The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court has setup six accountability courts probably as a replacement for Nawaz Sharifs ehtesab courts
• Nov29-10 people were killed when the Khyber Mail rammed into a bus at a railway crossing near the Gambat railway station in Khairpur,Sind
• The Frontier Post suggests that former information minister Mushahid Hussein has also become a state witness after the DG CAA who has already been released after being pardoned
• The AG Aziz Munshi has been elevated to the position of law minister while Javed Jabbar has been made an advisor to the CE
• Nov30--The judge in the plane case has banned comments and allowed nawaz sharif a television, radio,home food,private bathroom and an attendant
• two people were killed in a hydrabad bus bomb blast
• A severe explosion in a gas cylinders store in hasilpur near bahawalpur killed 14 also destroying three houses and a dozen shops
• The military govt is expected to start downsizing govt depts and reduce ministries according to a report emanating from its economics advisory board.
• Musharraf has no plans at present to hold either a referendum or amend the constitution
• From June 2000 identity cards will be issued by the National Database Organization.A new centralized passport issuing organization is also being mulled
• DEC1--The Exit Control List is being revised daily to lessen hardships to those affected
• The military govt is expected to setup a Rs 10billion price stabilization fund to buttress prices of surplus agricultural commodities
• Pervez Musharraf has assigned the task of developing the concept of district govts to his newly formed think tank
• Pakistan has earned $1.55billion over the last three years from rice exports
• Pervez Musharraf is prepared to setup 100 courts to try default and corruption cases
• 1939 defaulters owe Rs100million and above. 96 out of the top 100 tax evaders have paid their dues says the Interior minister
• Dec2-Seven people were killed as a well cover caved in at risalpur near Nowshera
• Dec2-in one of the goriest crimes ever unveiled in Pakistan a letter from a criminal Javed Iqbal led the police to unearth the murders of over 100 children in Lahore over the past three months.one wonders how 100 children can have disappeared without any hue and cry being raised by the concerned parents He usually abducted children mostly boys who had left home and were wondering around and killed them sometimes after sodomising and then decomposed the bodis in drums of acids to dispose of the remains.The accused had been investigated several times for child sodomy. As police investigated the supplier of the acids died while in police custody apparently jumping from a first story window. Other reports suggested police torture.The governor quickly transferred senior police officials and arrested those accused of torturing the accomplice..
• The foreign minister Abdul Sattar has setup an eighteen member advisory committee with three special invitees Agha Shahi, Sahibzada Yaqub and SM Zafar.Prominent amongst the selectees are Nasim Zehra, Shireen Mazari,Tanvir Ahmed Khan, KM Arif,Apparently two journalists Rahimullah YusufZai and Ahmed Rashid declined the offer tobe members
• Dr. Yaqub the survivor of several previous govts finally resigned from the NSC apparently after being severely criticized on the FCA issue. Other reports suggest that he wanted Renai heaters installed in his official residence which request was rejected by the concerned officials
• The ATA ordinance has been amended so that ATC's can try a wide range of cases. The reasoning seems tobe the nawaz plane landing case in which the authorities want to use more serious offences.Cases of treason, hijacking, conspiracy,waging war, malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings etc can now be tried by ATC's
• in Jhang a subinspector of police has been sentenced to death in the case of torturing a detenu to death
• Dec3-The NSC think tank is to focus on nine areas which include politics, govt and economic structures, law enforcement,public employment, health, education, welfare, public information and district govts
• An atta crisis is brewing in the NWFP as prices have shotup to Rs220-250 for a 20 kilo bag which retails for Rs160 in the Punjab
• A cop was killed in mardan in a shootout between armymen led by a major and police over the arrest and thrashing of a few faujis . The armymen apparently ransacked the police station and took away a few policemen.
• Dec4-Maleeha Lodhi has been appointed ambassador to the USA
• Reports in the press reveal that Sheikh Rashid a PMLn minister and known bachelor has been secretly married to a women from Saudi Arabia
• The military govt also seems bent upon increasing the woes of consumers asit has imposed a 15% GST on electricity consumed above 500 units. While it will not directly affect the middle income group but the indirect affect will be a general price increase.
• Dec5-The finance minister suggests that GST will make no difference as additional surcharge on electricity will be reduced
• Dec6--According to the News 11 people died in a village near Nowshera from a disease called lakra kakra
• Dec8-A home made cycle bomb exploded on rawalpindis bank road damaging several cars and shattering window panes
• Pakistanis consumed over116 tons of gold in 1999 making it the ninth largest consumer of gold in the world
• the army pomotion board approved the promotions of 27 brigadiers to major generals
• Dec9-The News suggests that the presidents of HBL and UBL have resigned after tensions arose due to NAB directions for information on all borrowers
• Umpires in the recently concluded cricket series in Australia have referred the bowling action of speedster Shoaib Akhter to the ICC
• Dec10--There are suggestions in the Pakistani press alongwith denials that Kalsoom Nawaz is being prepared to head the PMLn in the most likely scenario which sees the top leadership of the PMLn behind bars on various charges ie if not on the gallows
• Dec11---The Frontier Post suggests that a list of 78 corrupt politicians has been drawn up who will be proceeded against in the very near future by the military govt
• There are four vacancies in the Supreme Court which will have tobe filled very soon. Apparently there is only one sindhi judge and no one from balochistan
• Dec12-The much debated petroleum price increases of 7-20% were finally announced. Super the generally used category now costs Rs29 per litre. The reasons were said tobe the higher international cost of imports and to offset the overall cost of about $2.5billion . The real reasons are the falling taxation revenues. However one concludes that the economic policy of the govt continues tobe that agriculturists and industrialists should be protected from losses while the people can go to.... One would suggest that all the subsidies given to faujis in various fields be ended too so that they can realise the high cost of living too

ROCKET ATTACKS, CABINETS AND A ZOO DEATH ---10 NOV-12DEC, 1999(Part One)

• Pakistans new agosta submarine and overhauled mirage planes were released by the French authorities as the US govt also moved closer to the military regime
• The PMLn while resisting the urge to confront the military authorities aggressively has a filed a case in the SC against the Oct12 action which shall be heard on 31Jan which shows clear judicial support for military rule
• Nawaz Sharif and a few supporters are being charged in an anti terrorist court with threatening the life of the COAS and passengers of a PIA plane by refusing to allow it too land. The case decision is being delayed but once the court starts hearing the case a decision could be reached within days. The courts have allowed Nawaz to meet his family
• The drama of the armies campaign to recover defaulted loans seems to have flopped. About Rs 8 billion were recovered upto the deadline.Over 300 industrialists have been arrested and put on the exit control list. No action has been taken since.
• An army led monitoring and evaluation system has apparently been put in place which upto now seems to have no effect on how things are done in this country as there is no link to the people
• The South African coach Pybus was made the scapegoat of Pakistan s 3-0 thrashing in a cricket series in Australia. The culprits however included the captain as well as the bowlers and selectors
• The Rs700 million Nawaz Sharif Raiwind palace seems tobe literally out of this world according to the Frontier Post. It has 25 bedrooms and six kitchens. An underground cinema hall with $4500 chairs and a dual roof system . It also has a 300 ton airconditioning system
• The six member NWFP cabinet comprises Justice® Ali Hussain Qizalbash, Qari Roohullah, Engr Owais Ahmaed Ghani, Faridur Rehman, Engr Imtiaz Gillani, Obaidullah Jan, Shaheen Sardar Ali and Shamsul Mulk. . However since than Justice Qizalbash resigned as apparently all the decisions were being made without his approval
• Eight DIG's have been replaced in Sind
• Bomb blasts occurred in rawalpindi and hyderabad (FOUR)without loss of life and could be linked to the PMLn's ouster
• UBL is forking out Rs10million a month on 107 people acquired from multinational banks while saving Rs1.1billion annually from firing around 8000 workers. There is no visible improvement in the banks working vis a vis the public
• Unidentified terrorists fired remote controlled rockets from cars in several sensitive areas of Islamabad on the 12th. Several cars were gutted. Suspicions focused on the PMLn and afghans
• The sind cabinet comprises Engr ANG Abbasi, Anita Ghulamali, Barrister Shahida Jamal, Dewan Mohd Yusuf Farooki, Iftikhar Soomru and Dr SM AbdulRab
• The GOP has constituted a 15 member economic think tank consisting of Hafiz Pasha, Syed Baber Ali, Zafar A. Khan, Munawer Hamid, Shoaib Sultan Khan, Shahid Kardar, Jehangir Siddiqui, Arshad Zaman, Altaf Saleem, Bashir A Mohammed, Shahid Haq, Abdullah Memon, Azam Farooki, and Aziz Luni. However the govt currently is following the same path as the Nawaz Sharif govt
• The GOP has ended a subsidy on electricity thus increasing cost to the consumers substantially
• The NLC which is involved in the expansion of a part of N-5 ie the Grand Trunk Road has now also been made incharge of collecting the toll at various places. It will use the funds to expand and maintain the countries main highway. Tolls at present generate Rs one million a day.NLC is not considered a very efficient organization vis planning and construction activities however it is a sort of military subsidiary thus exempt from criticism
• The salary of the NSC members who do nothing has been set at Rs35000 plus the perks of ministers
• the Punjab cabinet comprises Shaheen Attiqur Rehman, Shahid Kardar, Shafqat Mahmood, Akhter Saeed, Lt Gen® Mohd Tariq and Dr Khalid Ranjha
• The Balochistan cabinet comprises Brig® Khadim Hussein, Sardar Wazir Ahmed Jogezai, Agha Abdul Qadir Baloch, M.r. Aziz Baber and Mir Mohabbat Khan Marri
• Defaulters and corrupt are to face 21 years disqualification and upto 14 years imprisonment and assets forfeiture according to the new NAB ordinance 1999
• An eighth member of the NSC has been announced. Dr Mehmood Ghazi will provide the religious input
• The GOP has announced the formation of the National Reconstruction Bureau which is to be the NSC's think tank headed by retired Lt. Gen Syed Tanwir Hussein Naqvi
• Vice Chief Of the Air Staff AVM Aliuddin has been appointed DG CAA
• There are unconfirmed reports of recovering huge amounts of cash and valuables from Nawaz Sharifs raiwind residence
• Oil has been discovered in the kohat area and the discovery well is producing 1200bpd and 5 million cubic feet per day of gas
• Nawaz Sharif and company are also to face an appeal in the Supreme Court against the decision in the SC rowdism case
• Eight people were killed in a Sooter Mandi Lahore bomb blast and 15 injured
• The PPP has accused the military regime of being political orphans and attempting to eliminate an entire political class of people
• In an unfortunate incident a bear at the Lahore Zoo snatched a 15 month old child from his unwary and careless father and ripped him to death
• A low official inflation rate is said tobe the catalyst of the GOP attempting to lower interest on savings and consequently reducing the cost of borrowings currently at 15-28%
• Nawaz Sharif may also face a case of kickbacks from construction companies viz the Motorway
• The military govt has signed multiple agreements with various donors to reschedule loan repayments
• The PPP has appointed a former student leader Jehangir Badr as its secretary general. The PPP has been unable to generate new fresh popular leaders and has continued to rely on its old brigade
• The LHC has ordered the release of SSP chief Azam Tariq
• An mqm(h) activist was gunned down in Karachi
• The formation of a pro nawaz terrorist group 'Al Nawaz' is being rumoured
• The military govt has reapproved the decisions of the nawaz govt to raise wheat prices to Rs300 and purchase cotton thru the TCP to support prices
• Miscreants in multan seton fire a shrine
• All male members of the Nawaz Sharif family have been placed under detention while the females are allowed to travel around
• Dr Ishrat Husein a director in the World Bank has been appointed governor of the State Bank of Pakistan
• Musharraf says that Pakistan does not have a nuclear button yet
• Pervez Musharraf is to setup provincial NAB's. Errant and Inefficient beaurocrats tobe fired or transferred in future.Nobody tobe made OSD
• Nov25--Vehicles were set on fire and shops forcible closed in the Landhi and Korangi areas of Karachi as Pakistan Rangers raided an arms depot of the MQMh located in a KESC building.
• Nov26-The controversial petroleum ministry secretary Dr. Gulfraz has been replaced by Abdullah Yusuf who spent most of his life running the utility stores and has a reputation for corruption. He was currently secretary planning and development
• Two workers died in a fire at the Karachi airport
• Khawaja Ijaz Sarwar has been appointed secretary to the ministry of information

COUNTRY AT A STANDSTILL, BUMPER HARVESTS,NAB, ANTIQUE TILES,LASHKAR E TAYYABA---31 OCT-09 NOV 1999

• Oct 31--Fahim Ahmed alias Lumba an MQM activist who was reportedly involved in 13 cases of murder, robbery and arson was killed in korangi,Karachi
• The general reaction to the army appointments is that they are quite ordinary. In the beaurocracy the general trend has been to bring back previous appointees . The retired military officers appointed are probably people with personal links to the army leadership. Apart from the three service chiefs only three active service officers have been appointed to civilian positions.There has been no identification of corrupt beaurocrats or politicians as yet. Only beaurocrats very close to the the Nawaz regime have been made OSD. The armies choices lack a general brilliance apart from a couple of appointees. The people are generally ambivalent to the appointees. It also seems that the army seems to have no particular direction. Things are at a standstill in most areas. The army has yet to decide how to proceed on all fronts.No actions have as yet been initiated against Nawaz nor has he been allowed to meet anyone. The courts also seem to be unable to move independently on several cases filed against the October 12 action despite its obvious unconstitutionality. The army obviously seems to be satisfied with its actions as it has generally brought a peaceful atmosphere however unless they start to initiate actions in various development spheres the country will remain at a standstill and the feeling of a lack of public representation will start being felt. It seems that the major problems that the army leadership seemed to have viz the Nawaz govt are its independence in the appointing sphere where apparently army advice was consistently being rejected
• Nov 01--An army mushak aircraft crashed near gujranwala killing the two captains on board
• Syed Fazal Hussein Mausvi has been elected the head of the TNFJ a semiterrorist Shiite organization considered close to the Sharif brothers replacing Sajid Naqvi who was considered ineffective in dealing with anti Shiite terrorism
• A family of five was slaughtered in the Multan area
• The terrorism inclined exiled leaders of the MQM who had left the party en masse have rejoined the party
• Shafqat Rana has been appointed the secretary of the Pakistan Cricket Board
• Nov 2-The army chief announced that speedy trial courts wud be setup to try corruption cases and that the army and judiciary too wud face accountability. One wonders if anyone will have the courage to ask the army chief where he got those double breast suits and whether he will make such clothes available to the public too. No case against the previous ehtesab buff nawaz sharif could be initiated during his two year rule
• The army chief expects the NSC to advise him on whether to hold a referundum to justify his takeover.Pakistan has no experience of any real referendums and the only one held by Zia Ul Haq to justify his rule was a complete farce with few participating and the Times magazine reporting that people danced in the streets on the success of Zia in the referendum
• The son of Munir Akram pakistans permanent representative to the UN in Geneva died after falling from a balcony in Bronx,New York
• According to the SBP Rs 12.22 billion were collected from the sale of the new Rs15000 prize bonds which has one prize of 20 million and 5 prizes of 10 million
• Pervez Musharraf has declared his property assets which includes three houses,6 plots and 2 squares(8, 16 or 50 acres) of agricultural land.The airforce and navy chiefs have also declared their properties.The navy chief seems slightly richer with the airforce chief seemingly the poorest
• There was a seven hour long power outage in Karachi
• Nov3--Malik Asif Hayat has been appointed the DG FIA vide Major® Mushtaq now under house arrest. Asif is son of Brig®Hayat and was IG AJK
• Seven people were killed in mardan for revenge
• Nov4--Dr Akber S Ahmed a reknowned writer and filmmaker has been appointed ambassador to Britain.It is said that the army chief liked his film on the quaid e azam for which he has been rewarded
• Nov5-Eight more ministers were appointed. They are Moinuddin Haider, Omar Asghar Khan, Dr. Shafqat Jamote, Zubeida Jalal, Dr Abdul Malik Kansi, Abdul Razak Daud, Usman Aminuddin and Abbas Sarfraz Khan
• One person was killed and three injured as three apparently Indian orchestrated bombs went of in Muridke during the annual getogether of the Lashkar e Tayyaba
• In elections for the legislative council for the Northern areas the PMLn got six, PPP-6,independents--7 and the TNFJ--5 seats
• Nov6-Shahid Aziz apparently is going to reintroduce the same policies that failed in the early part of the Nawaz govt
• The CE expects to soon start cases against Nawaz Sharif for tax evasion, loan defaults and corruption
• Shah Mehmood Qureshi a feudal/pir from the Seraiki belt of Punjab is being tipped as the new secretary of the PPP
• Nov 7-Riaz Hussein Naqvi a retired beaurocrat has been appointed the new chairman of the CBR the countries tax collecting organization
• Mukhtar Qureshi has been named the acting head of the State Bank Of Pakistan.It was being surmised that a WB/IMF executive Ishrat Hussein would be appointed to the position but the govt apparently went for real experience
• The Saarc summit was postponed on indias initiative. The Indians who seem to prefer the attitudes perpetuated by Nawaz Sharif seem wary of the straight talking Pervez Musharraf. Saarc gatherings are little more than photo opportunities
• Nov8-Jemima Khan returned to Pakistan after an 11month exile in London. She is expected to face charges on smuggling over 300 antique tiles. Imran Khan suggests that the case was a part of Nawaz Sharifs political victimization as the tiles were not antique. However the facts seem to indicate that the tiles were antique but were of afghan/Iranian origin and not Pakistani antiques. Such tiles are available in small numbers at various Afghan/Iranian shops in Islamabad. How she collected so many is quite surprising. But the case seems tobe based on facts
• Nov9--8 people were killed as a wagon crashed into a bus in Islamabad
• According to a press report the GOP is about to appoint Wasim Afzal the former secretary of the dreaded Ehtesab Bureau as Director of NAB. It is difficult to believe as NAB is currently headed by a serving Lt Gen.
• Pakistan was thoroughly beaten in the first cricket test in Australia by ten wickets after one of the worst and inept displays especially in the bowling deptt. In the batting deptt two of the teams batsmen failed in both innings and others refused to consolidate and kept up an attacking style when a serious approach was required.The playing of two allrounders and Mushtaq proved a costly mistake
• For the first time in decades all of pakistans agricultural targets were achieved with bumper cotton, wheat, sugarcane and rice harvests

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