Main News--- October1-31, 2000

• October31:Tempers flaired as people were denied entry to a cricket match in rawalpindi and the riots/stone throwing and window smashing was controlled by tear gas and beatingup the ticketless as musharaf sat calmly watching teh match

• October 31: Five ahmedis slain in village Ghatlians ahmadi prayer hall

• October31: The Sind High Court upheld the life sentence of nawaz sharif in the plane hijacking case but rejected the charge of terrorism/plea for a death sentence/ sentencing the six co accused. One of the three judges said it was merely an abduction. Obviously the judges either lack judicial knowledge and sense or are unable to give an honest verdict under military rule as merely diverting a plane cannot be described as a hijacking since conditions existed in the country for such a step to become necessary.An appeal coud now be filed in the Supreme Court which might overturn the decision even though it is packed with musharraf supporters

• October29: Four killed in chaman toy bomb blast

• October 28:The Pakistan foreign minister said that pakistan airspace is closed to the US for attacks on afghanistan. The US fired cruise missiles at afghanistan last time without informing pakistan and many surmised that the attacks were made in collusion with the pakistan military and govt. When asked what pakistan would do if the US still did so he showed pakistans impotence by stating that the issue will be raised in specific international forums...

• October27:Musharraf who has literally started to droop admits that his govts popularity is falling towards zero but like the elected leaders before him refuses to leave power as like them he thinks that he is improving things. One just wonders for whom is his performance improving...

• October28:The pakistan army and its great warrior are literally quaking in their boots and showing their fright in having to fight the indian army even on kashmir. It is becoming apparent that the pakistan army has no intentions of continuing the fight for the liberation of kashmir from the indian captors.Since there is no hope in negotiations given indian intransigence it seals the fate of the kashmiris and they had better start accepting indian occupation. That is the message derived from the great warrior turned timid mouse's recent statements.He says and I quote ' Kashmir cause of india-pakistan tension' and'Military solution of kashmir issue neither possible nor desirable'.Who cares about tensions...Statements made by mohd ali jinnah being aired on pakistan television show that the quaid e azam was misled by indian propaganda on kashmir. Such statements include one which states that he was against a forced marriage on kashmir. The pakistan govt is hiding behind the sherwani tails of the mild natured quaid e azam in avoiding their impotence on kashmir becoming over apparent to a gullible public...The only gains that pakistan has evermade in kashmir were thru armed force and in fact they have only lost territory in negotiations...Most pakistani rulers attempt to portray to the pakistani public that they are the heir apparents to or building their image in likenesss to mohd ali jinnah...very funny really... Such leaders only visit the mazar of the quaid e azam whenever they are faced with the criticism of their being anti pakistani...

• October 26:Wapda takes over Kapco management from British firm alongwith loan liabilities

• Estimated Wapda Price Rs360billion

• Embattled NAB prosecutor Farook Adam (who is a former army major who was convicted for treason and is presently embroiled in fighting corruption charges and accusations of ridiculing/controlling the pakistan judiciary )has come out with a renovated list of Benazir assets with a much lower price tag of $1.5 Billion. That includes her properties in karachi, gwadar, larkana, nawabshah, england, france and the USA. The list seems unbelievable as she would require a substantial organization just to manage those properties. And if she owns the Rockwood estate and has had it renovated too than why doesnt she stay init?Obviously with her husband in jail she would have to run everything herself and that does not seem tobe the case..The military govt seems tobe losing the case against corrupt politicians for teh first time...If musharraf whose origins were in poverty can own over Rs200 million in assets than Benazir who comes from a family with huge agricultural assets can obviously have made $1.5 billion...

• October25; one killed in karachi police firing on protestors of quran desecration

• October 24:Lt General Khalid Maqbool the supposedly more reasonable NAB chief says that no irregularity or corruption has surfaced in any military military deal so far.Military deals are usually decided by the armies top leadership. There have been many stories especially in the english press about corruption and commission payments in army deals. Some stories usually started to promote corruption theories even while negotiations or decisions were still in progress. For example The NEWS printed stories about corruption in the deals for the MIRAGE2000 even while the decision to purchase had not even been made...

• October24: five children die in toy bomb explosion near charsadda

• October 23: Three killed in an explosion at a lashkar tayyaba meeting while two ssp activists were shot dead in another incident

• October 23: 27 died as two buses collided near shorkot

• October 23:Khair M. Junejo appointed new minister of food and agroculture

• October 17: The Supreme Court setaside an LHC verdict and acquitted 8 accused in the multan khana farhang e iran directors murder case.Overturning a criminal case at the level of the SC is considered quite rare despite pakistani police using anyone available in politically important cases

• October16:Food And Agriculture minister Shafkat Jamot(Jamots related to Mumtax Bhutto) resigns. Adjudged responsible for high prices and the sugar crisis including import of overexpensive low quality sugar from india

• Hamoodurrehman commission report which consists of five volumes and 800 pages being edited for publication. Eighteen copies of report exist. Moinuddin Haider says those responsible for East Pakistan crisis tobe brought to justice

• Newspaper reports suggest that Sardar Wahid Baksh Bhutto was murdered on orders of Mumtaz Bhutto who belongs to the PMLn-MQM-sindi nationalist axis of politicians in sind

• There are around 5% sindis/balochis in the pakistan army numbering around 30 thousand which number the present militry govt aims to raise to around 70000 or about10%. The pakistani army is dominated by punjabis 50%, pukhtuns 25% , kashmiris 15%and mohajirs 5%

• Six lt generals to retire by March2001.

• October15:There have been two more resignations from the musharraf teams. Influential mohajir media advisor and information minister Javed Jabbar resigned after saying that he did really good work and created an influence less press. The pakistani press died a year ago after it agreed to cooperate with musharraf.Musharraf asked him to resign after his advice was considered below par or literally worthless.Others say he lied too much and wanted to start his own television station. The other to resign was shafqat mahmood the punjab information minister. He probably had a run in with the the new corp commander who dislikes alcoholics they say.Others suggest that the governor abused him for being unable to create a popular image of the governor and his government. Both are former PPP walas and maybe the army thought they were Benazirs spooks

• October13: Police scuttled all attempts by PMLn leaders to mount any serious protests on teh first anniversary of teh military coup

• October9: Elections in July 2002 say several govt ministers and power tobe handed over by August 2002

• October9: HamoodurRehman Commission report on teh 1971 East Pakistan Crisis tobe published within days says the interior minister. This is a clear change of tactics since the earlier outbursts of musharraf on the matter

• October8: The Military govt which is a firm believer in central decision making in almost everything has decided to study the issue of provincial autonomy and assure its provision in future govts. This is the funniest pronouncement yet from the govts RAW chief Lt Gen(r) Naqvi

• October8:Azam Hoti the ANP communication minister in the PMLn government was sentenced to 14 YEARS,FINED Rs20 million and disqualified from politics for misusing power in awarding a contract for installing emergency telephones on the motorway thru a close associate contractor who was also fined and jailed for seven years for installing faulty equipment. The judgement again seems out of proportion to the fault

• October8:According to the latest reports four servants and two others on September 3rd tied up Wahid Bux Bhutto and hacked him to death with axes. They than buried him but on Sept6 dug him up and took his body to a nearby school and burnt his body. They than took away the remains in a plastic bag.All this happened and nobody even noticed that he was missing. Very strange really. And it took letters to the chief executive for the murderers tobe apprehended after one whole month of the incident. Things are really getting worse under army rule

• October7:Wahid Bux Bhutto a cousin of Benazir Bhutto and the head of the bhutto clan has reportedly been slain by kidnappers said teh Sind police chief. He had disappeared about two weeks ago. No attempts were made by police to trace the kidnappers and police now say that the four kidnappers have been arrested who say they killed the tribal chief and buried him. The body has not yet been recovered. Rumours suggest that this is the way teh military govt is using to get tribal chiefs out of their way. An indication to this effect had been given by the NRB or govt think tank chief lt Gen(r) naqvi a few months ago. Benazir says that this is one of several murders of bhutto clan members which have taken place under the present military rule. The govt has recently arrested a tribal chief in balochistan. Others suggest that the MQM and the PMLn both could be involved in the murder as both are opposed to the bhuttos. They suggest that servants are planted at the victims house so that it can be considred an ordinary murder when it is an actual setup....

• Oct7: Nasrullah Khan the oppositions combined chief has criticized the pro indian speeches by Altaf Hussein in London as anti pakistan. The MQM representative here Aftab Sheikh in turn suggested that they now wanted autonomy(In urdu it is called khud mukhtari which is even more dangerous and tantamount to secession) under the pakistani constitution. However the present constitution forbids the creation of any more provinces

• October 5: The State Bank intervened by raising rupee interest rates and increasing cash requirements of banks as the dollar rose to Rs63.4 in the open market

• October 5: Former balochistan chiefminister Zulfikar Magsi was arrested for smuggling cheaper fuels from iran

• Nadra will accomplish total computerisation of census, electoral, passport and NIC data alongwith computerised immigration checks at various entrypoints.Fauji Foundation is to print NIC cards. Computer readable passports and a vehicle registration database and a GIS/LIS system are its other tasks

• October 2:PAF likelt to induct 150-200 S-7's locally built fighter aircraft starting in 2003.Kamra is expected to start full fledged production in 2002

• October 2: The FP's inflation rate jumps to 9% on the back of higher dollar and oil prices

• October 1: PPP wins three out of four seats on teh AJK Council