Nov2000

Main News November, 2000

November 30: The FP generally considered tobe a responsible newspaper has apologized for issuing the statement of a fake TNFJ advisor to the CE...However they say that musharraf still is a kuttar shiite..
November 30: The FP has for the third time headlined a story that an allied attack on afghanistan is imminent as they refuse to extradite Ossama Ben Laden. The USA a supposedly a powerful country is being seen here as mean and weak inits quest to bomb afghanistan a literally poverty stricken dilapidated country.Why doesnt the USA bomb a non islamic country for a change such as india for example or might be israel which also donot obey its orders...The pukhtuns generally anti US seem to want the USA to bomb afghanistan....
Novewmber 30 : Altaf Hussein the arch political terrorist has again according to the FP threatened the existence of pakistan if equal rights are not accorded to mohajirs. He also questions pakistans existence as is the norm of such anti pakistanis. Countries dont exist because of rights or their equalization but because of their peopel. People who behave as responsible decent law abiding citizens. People who work for their countries and not against them. Any movements mounted by teh likes of altaf hussein will never have any effect and they are obviously free todo so since they are not bound by teh constraints of patriotism. Pakistan does not exist because of some resolution or poet or nationality but because its peopel chose to be a seperate country at a specific juncture in history. People like altaf hussein who cannot bear the constraints of a normal soceity will be always be outcasts. Railing sometimes against punjabis, sometimes against pukhtuns, sometimes against sindhis, sometimes against teh police , sometimes against teh army and now against the very existence of teh country. I think that altaf hussein cannot bear to live under other muslims or pakistanis and should migrate to a non muslim country. I am sure he will be happy in india under the yoke of hindus or anywhere else where he is of no consequence...
November 30: Hikes in electricity and petroleum prices in teh offing says the FP
November 30: Three AVM's Salim Arshad, Pervez Akhter and Qaiser Hussein promoted to airmarshals
November 30: The partial indian ceasfire in occupied kashmir seems tobe another attempt to browbeat kashmiris and pakistan into permanent humiliation and surrender. As long as teh objective of ceasefires is not the final liberation of kashmir from indian occupation they will have little but temporary effect. At teh moment the objective seems tobe to achieve an indian defined peace with no movement towards liberation from indian brutalities and occupation
November 29: Shahida Jamal and Altaf Saleem became ministers of Law and Privatisation.These can be seen as promotions but their merit and need is definitely questionable. Shahida is the granddaughter of a former primeminister Hussein Shaheed Suhrwardy (and should theoretically be bengali in origin) has had a meteoric rise from the position of a lecturer in a law college... There are some quirks to their appointments. One is that their appointments occurred during teh visit of a WB vice president.....The other is that there was no real need for a seperate law minister apart from Aziz Munshis quixotic nature...This could result in constitutional changes wanted by the military coming thru quickly..Shahida is the third women in the cabinet. The other two have not caused any substantial change in govt attitudes despite focusing on some NGO issues...
November 29: The News says that teh Donors especially teh WB are sceptical of the beaurocratically controlled devolution plan especially when teh focus is on restricting participation with no attempts at creating an educated focused leadership.My personal view is that the complicated devolution plan will just slow down and stall everything since there is no clear link to people and political organisations which have been responsible for running local govts upto now. The WB instead wants the govt to focus on fiscal problems such as debt, sustainability, reforms and poverty..Without a clear developmental nexus just focusing on money matters alone is merely going tobe disastrous..Increasing taxation which also forces up prices has had negative effects on consumer spending and can also be said tobe a reason for the increase in poverty..The reforms process is only directed at shifting ownership of teh countries assets to overseas concerns which has upto now only created undue price pressures on an economy which has not really shifted from its rural origins..There are also widespread suspicions that the foreign owners are in fact front organisations for corrupt locals...Howver the WB VP seems impressed by Musharraf's generally stunted vision of things which causes us tobe suspicious of the WB...
Nov29--A pakistani diplomat in dhaka has caused an uproar suggesting that teh atrocities related to 1971 events were due to the planning and actions of teh Awami League and its guerrilla organisations and not the pakistan army. The mukti bahini the awami leagues indian trained guerrillas terrorised/murdered rural populations, pakistani army men and biharis or almost anyone supporting pakistan. The pakistan army is known to have retaliated with force in many cases. Many in west pakistan blame the army for not being able to stop teh secession.
November 29: The CE who claims to lack sectarian partisanship in fact seems to have a TNFJ(shiite terrorist organisation) advisor on politics named Razziudin Razvi says the FP who resigned over the law and order situation....???The TNFJ is now threatening the musharraf govt with violence .. Organisations that take the law into their own hands can only be regarded as terrorists themselves. The TNFJ are paranoid about the SSP, LJ and the taliban with whom they have an ongoing war over the last decade.This seems tobe a policy similar to Nawaz Sharifs who provided TNFJ offices with armed police guards. TNFJ regulars are known to possess atleast kalashnikovs and occasionally rocket launchers..The former musharraf advisor blamed the murder of anwar akhunzada on everybody ie ssp, lj, afghans, police and govt agencies...except themselves. One can add TNFJ's internal rivalry, other maulvi groups, military retaliation for the murder of a former military governor and of course unknown individual killers or even commercial/personal animosities to the list of suspects. Musharaf too was in peshawar on teh day of the murder....?? Some say that the musharraf advisor intended to use the murder to highlight afghan terrorism but fell into the usual trap of sectarianism... which is why the TNFJ is opposed to the taliban and their other sunni rivals in the first place. One never considered musharraf a diehard shiite but sectarians have strange bedfellows...?
November 29: The FP reports that Tariq Waseem Ghazi, Ahsan Azhar Hayat and Qadir Baloch have been promoted to Lt Generals and will soon take over as teh QMG, and corp commanders in quetta and gujranwala while the incumbents will retire
November 28: The USA a selfstyled protector against the transfer of missile technology has imposed limited sanctions on the pakistani ministry of defence and Suparco which includes barring them from dealing with US organizations. These sanctions are nothing new and have been practically in place for over ten years.This after accepting chinas denial of having provided technology and missiles to pakistan. Pakistan at the moment does not have any commercial dealings with USA on defence matters apart from consultations with US army commanders. Pakistan has not been involved as yet in transferring missile technologies beyond some say providing clandestine help to iran. Suparco is not involved in developing missile technology and only deals with things such as developing sattelites and some weather monitoring and satellite launching mechanisms Since pakistan cannot itself launch sattelites into space pakistans mastering of ballistic rocket technology is considered suspect... . Pakistans missile technology at the moment seems rudimentary especially in the ballistic category although they claim to have mastered the main technologies ie liquid and solid fuel as well as distance control and accuracy...Some suggest that pakistans ballistic missiles burnt out in space during testfiring as no real evidence was ever shown asto accuracy of target accomplishment
November 28: Three killed as bombs explode in quetta, lahore and muridke. These bombs seem tobe timed around PMLn activities while the general sense is that of indian involvement as well as local terrorists. Some even go so far as suggesting pukhtun and mqm involvement in such activities...
November28: The News reports that teh APHC has asked both india and pakistan to evacuate from kashmir so that it can be unified . The APHC seems tobe expecting something from the partial indian ceasefire which obviously shows that they have still not learned a lesson from historical indian duplicity.As far as pakistan is concerned unification can not be supported under indian occupation. However there will be no problems in that direction when and if india withdraws its armed occupation forces ie its military and police.Most of azad kashmir was liberated by kashmiri freedom fighters and teh pakistan army has only kept them from further actions in the oft expressed hopes of a peaceful resolution. Pakistan has effectively maintained a defacto ceasfire since the kargil episode with no reciprocity from the indians in moving towards a real solution. The indians only want facesaving measures to hide their brutal regime. Pakistan at one stage was even willing to allow free kashmiri movements across teh LOC as a real confidence building process which could help move towards an effective solution even in the context of maintaining two kashmirs...
November 28: The miltary govt has placed all strategic organisations such as the KRL, NDC, PAEC etc. under the NCA or teh National Command Authority. These organisations were already functioning under the defacto government and army control...
November 28: The military govt is to allow the private sector to export wheat and import diesel fuel. The three oil distributing companies in pakistan are PSO, Caltex and Shell.
November 28: Both teh News and FP report that two ministers are tobe inducted at the center. The pro mohajir Shahida Jamal who is teh sindh law minister is to takeover as teh Law minister while Aziz Munshi gets demoted to the position of Attorney general. Altaf Saleem the privatisation czar is tobe inducted as teh minister for privatisation...
November 27: In what is being seen here as controversial police action reminiscent of extra judicial killings two police officers from islamabad( a suspended SHO and a presidency security officer) went to khushab and killed one Nasir Ali and his wife who were suspected of involvement in rocket attacks on islamabad. One fails to understand why the police of teh area concerned were not directed to pick up the suspects. In other news police have foiled another rocket attack on islamabad by either the TNFJ/SSP/LJ/other terrorists when they stopped a taxi and recovered rocket launchers, mines and grenades being smuggled into teh islamabad territory
November 27: Ramazan to start from tommorrow
November 27: In what is being seen as a major change in pakistani politics the countries dominant political party the PMLn joined the grand democratic alliance teh GDA to cooperate with teh PPP and ANP in opposing military rule. That caused a withdrawal from the alliance by eight small parties which include the jamiat ahle hadis and teh PML(chatta).
November 27: The PMLn dissident group seemed to move further towards a split in the PMLn as it rejected cooperation for teh restoration of democracy. The kulsoom faction was however embroiled in another controversy on whether to support zafarulhaqs bid to reconcile with the dissidents or to oust the dissidents for good
November 27: A former great of teh PPP Aitzaz Ahsan states that the military is again going to attempt a controlled form of democracy. He cites an intolerant and authoritarian attitude as responsible for the failures of civilian govts in pakistan alongwith control on most of teh countries finances by non elected and non representative officials.A quote from his interview " We are a culturally backward , intolerant and superstitious people given to emotions rather than reason. We always want complete authority in teh family, industrial setup, feudal system and even in cricket...No nation with an authoritarian culture and intolerant attitude has developed in history.( a concept proved wrong especially in europe where almost all states have developed from an authoritarian, military,fundamentalist and feudalistic background)
November 26: The ghunda group or the dissidents of the PMLn have also forcibly occupied the PMLn office in lahore with an open display of arms showing the inadequacy of the ministry of interior and the lahore police. On the other hand zafarul haq the head of the kulsoom faction of teh PMLn has categorically denied expelling the dissidents suggesting that reconciliation talks were in progress
November26: The Frontier Post in news originating from New Delhi says that the pakistan and indian armies have reached agreement on deescalating tensions on the LOC or the APOG(actual ground position line) by ending retaliatory firing. However teh indians have as usual refused to stop firing in case of imaginary infiltrations. The indian army has also acknowledged destroying villages and settlements in search and destroy operations. There was no confirmation of the news from the pakistani side. Most regard it as a part of teh continuous indian/US attempts to sabotage the kashmiri freedom movement...
November 26: Lasmo a british firm has been assigned the $260 million task of bringing on line the Bhit gas field in sindh to produce 235mcf of natural gas by 2002/3.
November 26: The Utility Stores Corporation has fired 55 employees for corruption. The corporation which used to have sales of around Rs11 billion was systematically destroyed by bringing prices on par with the market and giving employees a share in teh profits. Now very few people shop at the stores as prices are usually similar or even higher than the market except one or two items such as sugar...The utility stores were established to combat hoarding and price fluctuations in basic consumer items but have now become superfluous and useless as far as the people or consumers are concerned
November 26: Wapda teh state electricity utility has filed another petition for raising electricity rates by 10% while its previous petition for raising prices by 51 paisa across teh board is still pending. Wapda has over 5 million consumers of whom over 2 million use less than 100 units...
November26: The musharraf govt is still on the defensive against constant unnnecesary pressure and interference from the World Bank and the IMF in economic policy despite reductions in loan deliveries (according to reports in teh press)...The policy of literally following all instructions/orders/advice from the two UN institutions has constantly boomeranged with even further unimplementable advice which rarely solves any problems...people now wonder at the utility of the military govt... The govt policy of submission to donors and aggressive resistance to the needs of the people is causing musharraf to look at the least as odd as benazir and nawaz sharif with even the army starting to look for ways to bring in somebody else....Many now are beginning to think of benazir and nawaz sharif as relatively better than the military...
November 25: According to The News in discussions with NRB, certain provinces want funds distributed to provinces/districts on the basis of population, need,backwardness and share in tax collection. Others suggest agricultural output as well as where taxes are collected. Only Balochistan can really be regarded as backward with most development centered in karachi and to a lesser extent lahore, islamabad, peshawar and quetta.One would suggest that all districts be provided with equal development funds while teh share of provinces such as balochistan and to some extent nwfp be increased. Upto now sindh especially karachi have been gobbling up most most of the non government funds such as loans from the banking sector and even donors . Even now they want more infrastructure spending in karachi which does not seem too judicious to other provinces. One would also point out that places like karachi have the potential of huge resource generation even at the district level and the rest of teh country should have a share in that too
November25: The News in a New Delhi news item has suggested that Russia, Tajikistan and the USA might be preparing to attack taliban positions in afghanistan as their proteges are facing imminent defeat...
November 25: The Frontier Post opines that its investigation reveals that Javed Jabbar was removed for corruption as he wanted a share in PTV contracts for transmissions in europe and teh USA alongwith Yusuf Mirza teh PTV MD...
November 25: Two SSP workers were shot dead in karachi probably in a revenge attack by TNFJ murderes/mqm terrorists. In related news there were protests in teh northern areas a TNFJ stronghold on the murder of Anwer Akhunzada which they regard as teh work of SSP or lashkar jhangvis murderers. Many consider the murder tobe a matter of personal revenge which is being exploited by teh TNFJ as usual. Pakistanis generally are considered immature in dealing with death inits natural as well as non natural forms...
November 25: It is being surmised that the iran-india gas pipeline thru pakistan has been abandoned. It was a project supported by the pakistani military regime however many regarded it as a source of constant terrorism given teh antagonism between india and pakistan. Others wonder why the pakistan government was going out of its way to benefit india...
November 25: Four PMLn dissident leaders Chaudhry Shujaat, Mian Azhar, Ijazul Haq and Faqir Bokhari were expelled from the party after they failed to reply to show cause notices for participating in the forcible takeover of teh PMLn house, beating up PMLn politicians and damaging thier cars. Other dissidents who participated such as Humayun Akhter and Fakhar Imam were neither charged nor expelled ...
November 24: The Frontier Post headlines a story which suggests that the PMLn is collecting funds to mount a serious PNA style movement in teh coming months. The PMLn without Nawaz Sharif will find it difficult to sustain such a movement given the militaries insistence on no political activities. However a combined opposition minus certain military stooges could mount some sort of movement. Even that seems difficult at the moment as most of the parties would be willing to wait out the remaining one and half year of military rule if they have faith in the armis word. During the previous martial law govt the military paid no heed to the judiciaries advice...
November 24: A shiite TNFJ leader Anwar Akhunzada was shot dead in peshawar. He had been charged in teh murder of NWFP governor Fazle Haq but acquitted by the courts. The history of the TNFJ which is one of frequent confrontations with militant sunni organisations causes suspicions of sectarianism. Others suggest that the military might also be involved . This comes hard on the heels of the murder of Rehana Sarwar in lahore leading one to believe that anti political forces might be involved. The pro iranian TNFJ is also opposed to the taliban which causes one to theorize afghan involvement as a possibility.Another possibility cited by some are personal rivalries within the TNFJ or just mischief mongers out to destabilize the military govt...
November 24 : Minor political parties such as the PTI, NAPP, PAT, AQP, TI, MP combined with possibly dissidents of the PMLn and the JI will attempt to create an anti PPP-PMLn coalition to oppose the two main political parties and maybe coerce the military into a possible puppet regime...
November 23: The Frontier Post suggests that a new PML(haqiqui) might soon be formed by PMLn dissidents which would avoid personlity creation, frictions and focus on issues
Nov23--The NRB chief Lt Genral (r) Naqvis has apparently equated democracy with terrorism in ads placed in urdu newspapers. He apparently also has no idea of what is meant by provincial autonomy and is attempting to define what it means in real terms...
November 23: Nadra they say is using a private contractor reknowned for corruption and bad labor practices for preparing its electoral rolls.. One wonders than why NADRA needs over 2000 employees... The contractor they say is using slave labour(almost)($60 per month average salary) to complete the task.. Major General Zahid Ehsan must than be pocketing substantial commissions...(One sometimes wonders what is the army definition of corruption...)
November 23: The PPP which has already filed refernces against Usman aminullah and Farook Adam for corrupt practices is now preparing to file a refernce against finance miniter shaukat aziz for tax evasion. Shaukat aziz a former employee of Citibank has apparently not revealed his foreign assets and holdings...
November 23: The ministry of Interior has fired 186 employees for corruption and indiscipline...The ministry controls many organisations commonly said tobe involved in corruption such as the FIA, Ppassports and ID card registrations...
November21: PMLn heads towards a Split
In its continuing support of unruly mob behaviour reminiscent of the Supreme Court storming senior leaders of the PMLn including Humayun Akhter , Fakhar Imam, Mian Azhar, Chaudhry Shujaat and Ijazul Haq took over the PML house in islamabad with violence prone armed supporters preventing a meeting of the PMLn's executive council which was to debate joining the GDA to create a joint opposition. These generally punjabi anti PPP leaders have been opposed to Nawaz Sharifs leadership for some time and can be said tobe the establishment group of the PMLn who have close contacts with the police, military and intelligence agencies. Some of them could also be said tobe controlled by ISI funds...Chaudhry Shujaat 's agricultural/ industrial/ rural family has a long running feud with the Bhuttos with supposed al zulfikar members led by murtaza bhutto having murdered his father Chaudhry Zahoor Elahi which some claim led to the murder of murtaza bhutto by the police. Chaudhry Shujaat some say could have been behind that the police action rather than asif zardari /nasirullah baber....Chaudhry Zahoor Elahi claimed that zulfikar ali bhutto had implicated him in a case of stealing a peasants buffalo...All the diisidents were imediately removed from the PMLn . The nawaz sharif loyalists led by Zafar ul Haq held their meeting at Kulsoom Nawaz's newly rented islamabad residence and immediately announced joining teh GDA. The dissidents if tradition is followed will probably form a splinter group which can be dubbed the PMLa(PLM-azhar).The dissidents have a good following in teh punjab but are used to lowkey drawing room politics and are opposed to personalities rather than any specific policy differences. Apart from chaudhry shujaat they generally oppose family dominance of the PMLn... This is the first major split in what is generally thought to be the zia ul haq cobbled nawaz sharif led PMLn. It was a conglomeration of military /intelligence supporters, old style muslim leagias and PPP dropouts which was initially run by the generals. However as the PMLn started to feel braver they started to challenge the very institutions that created them leading to the musharraf led coup. The dissident group is not thought to have the charisma to win an outright election even in the punjab and could eventually rejoin the PMLn if they fail to gather sufficient support in their constituences...The split if it becomes permanent could renergize the PPP's chances of winning elections if the PMLn support base also divides...
November21: Despite massive imports sugar prices have climbed to Rs35--Rs 40 in various retail markets. In the wholesale markets prices are around Rs30/32. Agreements have just been reached in sind between growers and sugar makers to increase sugar cane prices to near the grower demands of Rs60 per maund. It seems that teh musharraf govt has deliberately allowed prices to increase in close coordination with sugar importers, sugar factory owners and growers by delaying imports and increasing confusion. This shows the continued malafide and malicious intentions of the present govt especially with regards to teh interests of consumers
Novevember 19:The musharraf govt has started to implement the retirement of officials who have reached 25 years of service and are considered either corrupt or inefficient.The govt has been hesitant in initiating action against serving corrupt officers of the beaurocracy and the military
November 18: It seems that the NAB prosecutor Farook Adam who was convicted for treason and attempting to mount a coup against the govt of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto by a military court martial headed by Zia Ul Haq has also spent several years in the Attock Fort where he was kept in a tunnel during interrogations.he seems to have paranoid associations with the Fort.. He seems unable to accept his conviction as is the norm with all convicts in pakistan. There are a number of people connected to that coup in the present govt and it seems that many of the present generals were probably in cahoots with the coup plotters. Farook Adam is seen by many as the person who has stage managed the present govts efforts to create a dislike for politicians,the police and beaurocracy thru almost KGB like tactics which include the dissemination of false information and an almost communistic control of the state machinery and the judiciary. He seems tobe the military govts ideological guide..
November17: The Provisional Constitution Order an illegal instrument which legalises and protects the military takeover viz teh judiciary has been once amended once again to make the CE and governors equivalent to the primeminister and chiefminister. The frequent amendments show why amendments to teh constitution are a stumbling block in a working democracy . One would like to know why the military wants such total protection for its actions while denying the same to civilian or elected govts....Is the military so afraid of the judiciary or is the judiciary not dependable enough to give honest verdicts in accordance with even their personal perceptions of a how a judiciary should work. If a judiciary is tobe a mere rubberstamp during military rule and an obstructive force during relative democracy than no system can really succeed in getting the peoples confidence....
November17:No chance of default says Shaukat Aziz.It appears that teh govt can easily raise the necesary foreign exchange resources from the domestic market but the downside is that teh exchange rate has tobe allowed to slide which causes an unnecessary price rise in virtually all products...
November17: For the first time Nepra the electricity price regulatory mechanism is conducting hearings on Wapda's request for a price hike of Rs0.31- Rs 0.51 per unit. That would raise the electricty costs of an average household by around Rs200 or 16-20%. The reason is stated tobe an almost doubling of teh furnace oil prices from Rs6070 to over Rs13000 per ton since July 1,1999. There have been over 20 price revisions in furnace oil over teh period.. Wapda is expecting 58594Gwh of electricity sales during 2000-2001divided equally between hydel, thermal and private power sources. Wapda claims a loss of Rs5 billion over this period. With a gross expected income of around Rs190 billion a 20% increase in cost will net it around Rs 30 billion which is an astronomical amount. Even if losses of 30% are factored in that would be around Rs 21 billion much more than the effect of the prices in furnace oil. A Rs0.13 price rise has already been allowed which sufficiently offsets the furnace oil price hike. The govt should consider such changes that prices are adjusted just once annually and increases in electricty prices should be allowed equally that is on the overall calculated price per unit so that everybody is equally effected Changes in furnace oil prices should also only be adjusted over a fixed period as daily changes are generally harmful. The govt should also ask Wapda and IRSA to restrict water releases from dams during the period July to November so that cheaper hydel production can be maximised. The govt should also consider reducing any taxes on furnace oil to zero and even allow large users to import on their own if costs are effected positively. Shifting to gas usage should also be encouraged. Wapda has a sufficient cushion as regards prices and blaming everything on teh price structure should be discouraged.The federal and provincial govts should also expedite payments due to WAPDA and KESC.Consideration should also be given to reducing subsides enjoyed by the the armed forces.Higher electricity prices are just not good for the economy .
November 17: Despite all its strange policies The NEWS reports that CBR has been unable to incresae the number of income taxpayers. In fact income tax payers have fallen by around 34%. The govts policies of targetting groups rather than those actually minting money is one of teh reasons of teh govts failure apart from falling employment opportunities and the high cost of living...However tax revenues are up by 12% at Rs 112..899 billion but below targets by Rs4 billion upto October 2000. That might work out to a loss of around 4% in achieving actual targets...
November17:The PMLn is still undecided as to its permanent cooperation with the opposition alliance the GDA. Objections include a lack of liking for the name as well as a group which prefers to cooperate with the military/JI rather than the PPP which is teh dominant block of the GDA. The GDA too is upto now cooperating generally with the military rulers..Other apprehensions include the possibility of a PMLn split. However analysts consider the threat of a split quite remote as splinter groups have never succeeded in pakistans political history. The group opposing the formation of a combined opposition is generally considered quite powerful electorally. However other analysts consider a direct PPP-PMLn alliance outside the GDA which also groups inconsequential small groups as a major threat to the PMLn power base. A alliance with PPP in any form they say would rejuvenate the withering PPP support base. However a PPP-PMLn electoral alliance would damage the chances of the military attempt to bring forward a new leadership based on relatively unpopular groups and knocking out teh concept of a civilian powerbase based on one or two regional leaders. The military has always failed previously inits attempts to have a non party based elected assembly or govts which are generally more pliable but less disruptive.Many peopel would prefer that the current impasse be ended by the PMLn and the PPP bringing forth relatively untainted leaderships on their own which can than directly work together to bring forward a changed political atmosphere. An educated elected but politically wise leadership free of regional/provincial/local constrainst and able to stand upto indian/us hegemony has always been a desire felt deeply amongst most pakistanis. However disruptive forces or the politics off intentional constant bickering has always overshadowed everything upto now causing delays in decision making and a loss of trust and interest amongst the politically aware.The general populace which perceives politics and elections as individual or group attempts rather than a collective exercise in electing government leaders and representatives is also problem. Directly elected single tier governments could probably solve many of the problems with less executive authority and all decisions being made by the assemblies with the executive having total implementing authority. Educated participative and knowledgeable discussions are probably also needed so that teh people donot feel that they are being led by simpletons or fools..
November 18:The military govt has again fallen back on a system that did not succeed when implemented earlier and thus admitted failure in recovering defaulted loans whose figure at the end of one year of military rule is teh same as before ie Rs 145 billion..They are now going to set up loan tribunals under the High Courts to expedite or in fact further slow down matters
November18:The five superceded airmarshals are to retire on November20 alongwith Pervez Mehdi after musharraf made it clear that they were no longer needed. AVM Saleem Arshad has been promoted to Air Marshal and made the deputy head of the pakistan airforce...
November18:Pakistan is nearing agreement with teh IMF which has agreed to new benchmarks of 5.2% deficit and 4.5% Gdp growth. That would allow pakistan to a short term IMF loan of around $600 million and increased financing from donors such as teh WB and the ADB of around $700 million and a rescheduling of $1.3 billion in debt inclusive of debt arrears of around.$ 800 million . Pakistan will next year move to a PRGF(Poverty Reduction Growth Facility) which according to Shaukat Aziz will be needed for around three years at teh end of which pakistan will have reached a self sufficiency stage.
November19: The press secretary to teh CE a major general has issued a statement that early elections or restoration of the assemblies are not forecast and that the economy has magically improved. In fact there is no particular improvement in teh economy and it continues tobe run on a makeshift day to day basis. Recent fiascos include the reduction in sugar output and delay in sugar imports causing prices to surge.Army rule has always caused spectacular sugar price increases. In fact teh major push to knockout ayub khans rule came when he raised the prices of teh than rationed sugar from Rs0.75 to Rs1.50 per seer(equivalent to a kilo). He also stated that Lt Gen Ziauddin Butt(r) and Brigadier Javed Malik will soon be courtmartialled which will be another first in army history. He says NAB can move against any corrupt official whether in teh military judiciary or beaurocracy. Rashid Qureshi seems tobe positioning himself tobecome the information minister?He also joked that the airforce chief had been appointed on merit and that there were no other considerations
November19: Pakistan again allows unrestricted entry of afghan refugees
November 19: Nusrat Bhutto ailing and exiled wife of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto has been sentenced in absentia to two years for refusing to appear in court on charges of amassing wealth beyond known resources
November 19: Abdul Ghani Lone the chairmant of teh APHC is visiting pakistan these days in connection with his sons marriage. He says pakistan is moving towards a negotiated settlement on kashmir away from a UN plebiscite scenario
November14: Air Marshal Waqar Azeem(retd) was sentenced to 7 years in prison, fined 20lacs and barred from public office for 21 years alongwith other family members in a loan default case... No property was however confiscated to cover teh cost of teh loan ...
November14: 38 die as bus crashes into van near jahanian
November14: The Lahore High Court has shown its poverty in independent law based decision making by sending cases of Benazir and Nawaz to the accountability court in teh Attock Fort. NAB seems unable to argue cases in public places...The NAB prosecutor refferred to the Attock Fort as a sort of Dulai Camp...
November14: Nadra admits to grave errors in electoral rolls and extremely high costs... Even the second dradt has 10-20% errors they concede.
November14:Jemima Khan the jewish convert to islam(?) has been declared anti semitic by the jewish lobby for her comments on the almost daily murder of palestinians by the israelis...
November13:The Chief election Commissioner paid Rs560 million to NADRA for defective electoral rolls which were full of errors, mistakes and blunders...
November13: The Taliban have demanded the reopening of borders to allow refugees to enter pakistan due to economic problems.Pakistans military govt. on the other hand feels that the situation in afghanistan has improved considerably to handle refugees for aid disbursement within afghanistan...
November12:CEC withdraws Nadra prepared electoral rolls and now earlier army verified lists are tobe used
November12:SBP governor says that pakistan is losing $2 billion annually in loans for not signing CTBT.Doubts goverment unemployment figures as too low and says that no investment has taken place in industrial and urban areas since 1996
November11:Entry of Afghan Refugess Banned At Torkham
November10:New Electoral Rolls Defective
Senior PPP leaders from sindh say the new electoral rolls are very defective as names of more than 100000 people are missing in sindh areas of larkana and shikarpur.Very few people have contacted the election commission to rectify the lists as the areas are mostly rural and usually only political workers take a real interest in such matters. The census on which the lists are based was an educated exercise and obviously the census was inadequate in the rural areas. Filling out forms in urdu and english can hardly be an enjoyable exercise for an uneducated rural sindhi
November 10:Musharraf Cooperates with political terrorists
The military govt seems to have a common cause with most politically terrorist organizations. According to The NEWS military officials have gone out of their way to facilitate the MQM. They have not bothered with initiating any cases against the MQM apart from one. But are also studying a judicial review of the over 1600 cases against the MQM.The military also are not proceeding with any cases that are pending against the MQM in civil courts.Meaning that there is tobe no political victimisation of the MQM. However the military is not so nicely inclined towards the PPP and teh PMLn. They are also apparently showing a preference for other non popular organizations such as Imran Khans PTI...
November8: 263 arrested in karachi in connection with suicide blast
November8:Accountability and survey have shaken the confidence of investors says the State Bank Governor
November7:Mobile phones will have free incoming calls from december
November7:State Bank Of Pakistan states that economic growth will slow down to around 4.5% due to higher oil prices
November7: Suicide Bombing In Karachi
In what can only be described as a stepping up of the war against pakistan a suspected MQM women terrorist blew herself up in the Nawa i Waqt newspaper office in karachi killing three and wounding five others. Losses in life were limited as the main office had been shifted after an earlier mob and arson attack. The political implications range from a newspaper war by rival publications to a history linked to the jamaat e islami and a generally anti PPP male chauvinism. The nawa e waqt has a generally firebrand pro pakistani approach to issues and is thus obviously anti mqm,anti USA as well as anti india. Karachi politics has been dominated by religious, sectarian and ethnic terrorism for over a decade since the emergence of the MQM. Other aspects include rival gangwars, sunni shiite problems, provincial animosities, mqm's anti punjabism and anti armed forces aspects as well as the emergence of anti taliban terrorism.A remote possibility could be personal animosity, indian terrorism or anti employer animosity since employees are poorly paid in the newspaper industry(tradeunion terrorism)
November7: 75 killed in 34 bomb blasts in pakistan thruout the year 2000. Most bomb blasts are blamed on indian terrorism but other aspects include effects of the afghan wars as well as PMLn and MQM orchestrated anti government terrorism as well as availability of bomb making materials. Meaning have gun haveto shoot
November4: MQM AT IT AGAIN IN KARACHI
The anti punjabi, anti taliban , anti kashmiri and anti army exile based MQM leadership maybe at it again. Karachiites had better beware. Things might again start getting rough. Over the past couple of days incidents similar to the ones that occurred in the MQM's 'war against pakistan' have occurred again. Motor cycle riding murderers have resurfaced. Three afghan vendors and a sunni activist were killed in two incidents. While in another a naval official was kidnapped and shot dead with bullets to teh head. Actions very similar in nature and close to the likings of the mqms ethnic heart. However it could also be the work of pro iranian shiite terrorists who have views similar to the mqm in some matters?? Reports are spreading that the mqm is about to restart its campaign of terror in close coordination with the indians and anti pakistan afghans. Support of nationalist groups from sindh, balochistan and nwfp for such terrorist activities has already been lined up
November4:Traders Riot In Peshawar
Riots by traders against the armys forced distribution of survey forms continued in peshawar for the second day . Strike, closed bazaars, demos, tyre burnings, teargas shelling many traders arrested etc. Province wide protests might follow
November3:AVM MUSHAF ALI MIR NEW AIRFORCE CHIEF
In a surprise announcement an Air Vice Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir was almost directly promoted to air chief marshal and appointed the new chief of the pakistan airforce superseding six senior airmarshals namely Farook Qari, Zahid Anis, Qazi Javed, Pervez Mirza, and Riaz Sheikh. He was only promoted to the rank of airmarshal ten days ago. Rumours surrounding the appointment are spreading thick and fast. They say that the senior airmarshals all disliked Pervez Musharraf and wanted a quick return to civilian rule in which they have a relatively greater role vis teh army . The airforce has played a very minute role in the musharraf administration. Others say that the lahore lobby has again succeeded in getting its man appointed. Still others surmise that mushaf looks like a pukhtun and the mohajir-punjabi military leadership wanted that. Others say that he is a kashmiri.The most damning rumour is that these days one has tobe either a shiite or a mohajir tobe promoted. Still others say that musharrafs wife did not get proper respect from the wifes of the senior airmarshals. Only pro govt forces say that mushaf was rated highly in teh airforce a silly reason as it would imply that teh senior airmarshals were not. Others say that the reason was a principle that those retiring very soon are not considered for promotion. The five senior airmarshals are to retire by July2000. They will probably now take early retirement as is the norm when superceded unless they have no ego at all....
November3: Benazir Bhutto no longer listed in new electoral rolls.Sindhis want electoral rolls in sindhi.
November3:Bomb Blast in rawalpindis raja bazaar 26 injured.Blasts in rawalpindi are usually blamed on pukhtun saboteurs
November2:Altaf Hussain asks supporters to define his role. A known stooge of military dictators he admits that he left the country in a financial deal with the ISI which both sides did not implement due to which he continued his terrorist campaign from london.With his job having been taken over by pervez musharraf he is now left with no option but to accept a new and fresh mqm leadership not tainted with ethnic and criminal terrorism...
November2:In a report many consider unbelievable at least in total content the indian CBI(govt investigation agency) names more international players than indian players for dealings with indian bookies. The only indian players of any worth mentioned are Ajay Jadeja, Azharuddin,Manoj Prabhakar and Nayan Mongia who have all been banned from playing cricket again.Since it is not possible for any one player to control a match it can only be surmised that these players were acting as conduits for the entire indian team. It is obvious from the way cricket is played these days that various players in various teams are betting even against their own teams and that they challenge the people whom they think are being paid to arrange match results...To that extent the indian report appears tobe a fabrication around some facts.The pakistani cricket team is generally thought to have the financial ability to purchase important members of the opposing cricket teams when considered necessary at times even with the known support of the cricketing authrities. Players like Wasim Akram, Saeed Anwer, Mushtaq Ahmed and Saqlain and even some junior players are known to underplay their capabilities in various situations for financial gain as well as when they are having problems with the cricket authorities or team mates...At times players are said to even exchange wickets for future favours like getting county contracts...Some players are said to have given away wickets in exchange for one or two wickets of the opposition in specific matches...Playing down the wrong line, getting runout, getting caught behind and holing out a catch to a specific player or getting a partner runout are the favourite ways to fix a match or sell a wicket....Most of the matches are generally fixed between rival captains...Bets are often placed between rival captains...Most of the foreign players mentioned in the CBI report have denied the accusations of receiving money or providing any information to bookies
November2:In the face of a severe fiscal crisis and faced with an openly derisive public the military leader Pervez Musharraf orders speeded up privatisation and CBR efforts to collect more taxes. The pakistani privatisation process lacks conviction and public support as its main objectives of reducing dependence on foreign aid, reducing the debt and improving the economy are not expected to be achieved. After privatisation a foreign exchange crisis is expected to emerge as foreign owners transfer profits abroad.The people have suffered the most under the restructuring of the economy program as prices have soared beyond normal expectations and employment opportunities continue to decline...
November 1: The News a pro mohajir pro musharraf newspaper has headlined a newsstory by its crime correspondent which says that musharraf may be out by October next year and that pro democratic forces in the army and beaurocracy are suggesting elections by October 2001. This is in the context of the useless ineffective accountability, increasing corruption, economies failure to improve, lack of western support,high cost of living, unrepresentative government, army-civilian divide and attempts by musharraf to show that he is honest enough to admit failure and hand power back to the civilians at the end of his army tenure
November 1:Dacoities, sectarianism , robberies increase as elections draw near. It is surmised by many that most of the funds for election activities are collected by criminal methods. The recent spate of dacoities and robberies all over punjab are a pointer in that direction. Some also say that various corp commanders opposed to civilian rule could also be behind the recent upsurge of lawlessness. Others suggest that the anti punjabi forces such as the MQM are behind all the criminal activities. Still others suggest that indian terrorists are collecting funds to aid their politicians in pakistan....
November 1: Pakistan won the oneday series against england amid questionable umpiring decisions. The umpires seemed to have clear cut orders not to give lbw decisions against pakistani batsmen especially inzamam
November 1: Another symbol has emerged on the pakistani scene. The army says it is a symbol of unity,harmony and cohesion.Before it used tobe teh quaid e azam who believed in unity, faith and discipline. The other famous symbol is Benazir who is supposed tobe a a symbol of the federation even though she resembles a sindhi nationalist and at times even an indian sympathiser

Main News November, 2000

November21: PMLn heads towards a Split