Jan2005

Jan10--The situation in gilgit is calming down after two days of mayhem in which over 15 people were killed after somebody attacked agha ziauddin rizvi said tobe a prayer leader of teh sectarian shiites...those killed include two government employees and one terrorist..a curfew and army patrolling has controlled teh situation with ziauddin rizvi in cmh rawalpindi...there has been trouble in skardu and hunza as well..sectarian strife in gilgit started in the zia days and has continued intermittently...many suggest that whenever a military leader is in trouble gilgit goes up in flames..many are suggesting the recent shujaat-musharaf meeting as the precursor or the initiator...Others suggest that after musharaf recently declared the gilgit area as a part of kashmir and the indians now feel free to intrude and commit atrocities in the area...others are suggesting that it be made a part of azad kashmir to solve the sectarian issue...many others suggest that the prayer leader might have been involved in some anti sunni actions which could be the cause of retaliation...agha rizvi rose to fame for leading violent demos to include shiism in the local textbooks...it reflects badly on the shiite musharaf whose main plank has been to create sectarian harmony even though no sects in islam... in which he has failed miserably...
Jan10--The other emerging flashpoint is the sui area where intermittent gun battles have been going on for sometime...a heavy gunbattle took place last night between the frontier constabulary and armed men...gas supply to the guddu power plant which was disrupted by a mortar attack on saturday had not yet been repaired...a house owned by nawab bugti and a petrol station were also hit..all the residential areas were affected by the fighting...
Jan10--Senates defence committee asks PIA to seek approval before selling off six airworthy airbus A300B4's and two jumbo 747-200's worth approximately $70 million...PIA suggests that airbuses and the boeing aircraft are becoming expensive maintenance wise..maintenance costs are almost teh same on new and olderplanes...It is genrally felt that PIA wants to shift to boeing 777's and the previous controversial deals corruption payouts are still in the rumour mill...
Jan10--The pakistan army is still embroiled in wana after more than a year of intermittent bloodletting...many suggest that the pakistan armies poorly trained and armed peshawar corp is at the base of the problem with a corp commander who lacks the basic ability to handle an ethnic/regional turf war...many suggest that troops from the battle hardened karachi corp be transfered to handle the situation who have been able to subdue teh mqm insurgency there...after literally blowing up abdullah mehsud's entire village they were still unable to catch the one legged legend...what an army...unable to control wana and considering itself more capable to rule pakistan..?
Jan10--In karachi the police apparently moved out of the troubled lyari area and immediately someone killed anwar bhaijan head of the baloch ittehad tehrik...in another incident an ASI was killed commiting a robbery..
While the anti islamic/religious musharaf regime refuses to recognize the countries name...Islamic Republic of Pakistan...and also refuses to have any religious identity in the passport..reasoning unknown..?they now also want to remove the sect column from all applications...are people hired and promoted on the basis of sects/ethnicity/syedism in pakistan...shiites, syeds are usually identifiable by their names as are some punjabis and pukhtuns and mohajirs...such matters really donot make much difference if syeds and mohajirs are promoted by the army chief..irrespective of what is in the passport and the application forms...ahmadis, hindus who should generally benefit and probably christians...probably the saudis will have to find out the persons religion thru other methods...pakistanis can than claim tobe non muslims in the face of indian and US immigration troubles..Apparently teh US refuses to issue visas to even certain family names..
Jan10--The government expecting a 20.2 million wheat target due to appropriate rains and sowings has directed provincial governments to release wheat stocks...wheat prices have been raised by shaukat aziz by around 16% causing a flour price increase of 10%...,One fails to understand why food prices are so unstable in a supposedly improving economy...Prices of vegetables, fruits and pulses are skyrocketing... The government on average keeps a 100 day wheat stock