Bharat Rakshak

Murree Brewery, a Pakistani beer company, will soon start selling its lager in India, in hopes of building trade ties between the archrival countries. In 2001, only 1% of India’s trade was with Pakistan.

Even though Murree has tripled production since 1995, many Pakistanis turn their noses up at the company's offerings, which also includes gin, vodka and a prize-winning 21-year-old single malt whisky.

"We regard it as an insult to serve Murree to guests," said one of Islamabad's politicos during a recent gathering – lubricated with Carlsberg and Johnny Walker Black Label.

Unfortunately, the prized western imports are increasingly hard to come by. Bootleggers say the six-month ban on Nato supplies has led to soaring prices as much of Pakistan's black market supplies come from consignments intended for embassies in Kabul.

Senior cricketers of the Pakistan national team were left fuming and unhappy at a function of the Pakistan Cricket Board after comedians ridiculed them before a live audience.

What Holbrooke Would Do About Pakistan

Now Pakistan should be confronted with a clear and harsh update of that choice: confront the international community and be turned into a sanctioned pariah, like Iran, in which case the country will lose ground economically and militarily to its arch-rival India. Or, embrace fully anti-Taliban measures and be rewarded with more economic assistance, such as Clinton’s New Silk Road, which seeks to turn the region into a commercial hub once again.

Well there you are. Clear as crystal. Kicking India's ass is a juicy option - a "carrot" for Pakistan to cooperate with the West.

Well there you are. Clear as crystal. Kicking India's ass is a juicy option - a "carrot" for Pakistan to cooperate with the West.

Three others wounded as gunmen open fire on Swabi-bound bus on National Highway

* All those killed are non-Sindhis; * Sindhu Desh Liberation Army claims responsibility for attack; * Pamphlets found on site say attack in revenge for JSMM leader’s killing

It is the US aim to further its own geopolitical, geostrategic and trade aims in the region and in Asia by ensuring that it can do business with both India and Pakistan at the same time without one being offended by the US transactions with the other. The purported discontinuation by Pres. Bush Jr of the equation between India and Pakistan being practised up until then was only to ramp up the US-India equation which was languishing way below the US requirement for historical reasons. The constant advice by the various players of the US administration, from Obama, Hillary downwards, to India to engage more muscularly in Asia-Pacific is not only to balance China on behalf of the US but also to defocus India from Pakistan and Afghanistan. The constant and deep attention that various US officials pay to minute details in the India-Pakistan equation, the alacrity with which they welcome various moves etc. are meant to nudge the two countries in a certain way that would protect American interests.

Though India came here prepared for signing the agreement that provides for group tourism visa and visa-on-arrival for the elderly and children, besides easier business visas, Pakistan from the first day of talks, on Thursday, indicated that while it agreed with all that had jointly been decided at earlier meetings, it needed more time.

We all groan about the galloping illiteracy that has all but finished Pakistan. In thousands of schools and colleges across the country, millions are emerging with barely an education worth the name. These hordes, largely illiterate are then reduced to seeking any employment, howsoever menial it might be. Others resort to quicker means of making a living and crime follows soon after. It is frightening to confront the overall dismal situation in Pakistan where vested interests have usurped whatever meagre resources we might have had, taking massive chunks of the budgets and reducing the ‘education’ drive to a mere farce.We spend just 1.5 percent of our GDP on education and we all know who takes the lion’s, tiger’s and leopard’s share. I think their medals cost more than what this nation spends on education but then who is going to ask the boys to give back the toys they have and who is going to tell them that there won’t be any country left to defend if things carry on like they do. The answer to that too is well known but seldom voiced. Such lopsided thinking can only produce tragic and ugly results. With millions being added to our galloping population, Pakistan is now faced with such daunting and frightening problems that even Attila the Hun would think twice before venturing here.
The statistics make for horror reading and not the kind of thing that you want to wake up and read on a Sunday morning without any electricity but with mosquitoes galore. In this the new century a country which cannot get rid of mosquitoes does not deserve to exist. This is no citadel of Islam – at best servant quarters. Where we are going can drive a chill up anyone’s spine but because the culture now is ‘loot now, abscond later,’ no one truly cares what happens to Pakistan. At school level, mechanically the system churns out robots – ill-informed, ill-prepared and ill-equipped to join others already in the sewers. Those who are able to get a little further up, greasing their way forward or supported by the guess papers and tuition centres, take the illiteracy mega notches ahead.My generation grew up on Messers Ghaznavi and Ghauri, lauded as some kind of Islamic visionaries, whereas in reality they were no more than marauding thieves who repeatedly attacked rich India and looted, enslaved and made off with all they could find. Razing Hindu temples glorified their looting. It was years later, long after college, that one read the truth. But falsehood or not, what is scary is the quality of the instruction that is being poured into young and impressionable minds. The examination of the 7-year-olds is objectionable becauWe have an army – excuse the pun of illiterates and they are growing. When the criterion of literacy is what we have fashioned here, it is not a surprise that the nation is blank. Our so called Matric is laughable as is our FA/FSc. Meaningless exams with nothing of consequence. Those who make it to the graduate or post graduate level cannot put two sentences together. Our country refuses to buy books or go to a library – the few that we have. Pretty soon we won’t even know how and where to affix our thumbs but our arsenal will be awesome.e if Pakistan History is largely a matter of anthem singing and whatnot, those who are supposedly responsible are guilty of misguiding their young students. That is not simply unfortunate but downright criminal.

Chidambaram rejects Malik's invite to visit Pak over its inaction in 26/11 case

Pakistan is a sauvirgin state and the Defa-e-Pakistan Council will not allow the country to become an "Indian market", Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Mohammad Saeed said on Saturday.Saeed, described by India [ Images ] as the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks [ Images ], made the remarks while addressing a news conference with other leaders of the DPC in the southern port city of Karachi. He alleged that both the US and India were "interfering" in Pakistan's affairs.At a series of rallies and protests organised by the DPC in recent months, Saeed has opposed the Pakistan government's plans to give Most Favoured Nation-status to India by next year.aeed said the DPC had decided to postpone a proposed "long march" against the reopening of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation supply routes to Afghanistan because the leaders of the regrouping had decided to launch the protest at the appropriate time. The DPC is an alliance of over 40 religious and extremist groups that was cobbled together by Saeed last year after a cross-border NATO air strike killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. The DPC has organised a string of rallies and protests against the US and India. The news conference in Karachi was also addressed by Jamaat-e-Islami chief Munawar Hasan, who said any attempt by the government to reopen the NATO supply lines would be resisted by the DPC.He accused the US of wanting to destabilise Pakistan and carrying out more attacks like the NATO air strike."We are ready to pay any price but will not allow the US and NATO to get their supplies through Pakistan," Hasan said.

Our terrorist-supporting "ally" Pakistan has outdone itself again.

The point is that giving in to extortion from a reprehensible and adversarial government is wrong for reasons of principle, but also pragmatism. The practitioners of our foreign policy then knew what those of ours today do not: that acquiescing to extortion leads to more extortion and rewards the corrupt.

See this - http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/chid ... 89874.html

This might explain Pak's decision.

When asked if India would in that case pocket the Rs.56 crore bounty offered by the US for providing evidence leading to conviction of Saeed, Singh said that India would be more than happy to give Pakistan that amount if they handed over Saeed to India.

Former PCB chairman Ijaz Butt has said that the BCCI's top brass has assured him that the Pakistan players will be allowed to play in the next edition of the Indian Premier League in 2013.

I have a gut feeling that the next 'Abottabad style' operation will be to get Afridi out. Obama will be working on this one hard for sure.

Kanishka Ji, no Afridi is not a small fry. To the average American he is becoming a Hero. Someone who helped nab Osama. Irony is Obama cannot afford to leave him in an election year. All said and done, America has it's positive points. It is not for no reason it is the most powerful country today. It is my opinion that they would risk even half a dozen American lives to get him out.

The amrekis will simply buy his freedom. The pakis have a price for everything. That is the very tragedy of that nation. They know the price of everything but the value of nothing.
The stage is being set for price negotiations and an acceptable H&D solution.
The amrekis will never risk amreki lives to free this doctor.

Pakistan is a sovereign state and would never be allowed to become an Indian market

That is the very tragedy of that nation. They know the price of everything but the value of nothing.

partha, thanks for that piece of news. I wasn't aware that Chidambaram had earlier rejected the invitation. But, it makes no difference to my conclusion. Let's also wait and see how it develops in the coming weeks. I still remember the SAARC Home Ministers' Conference in c. 2009 when there were similar brave words spoken only to be swallowed hard in the last minute by P.Chidambaram. He also triumphantly announced that TSP had promised to send voice samples very soon. That was 2009 and we are already in the middle of 2012.

OTOH, SM Krishna has been saying that the trust deficit between India & TSP has shrunk and that he will visit them soon. I am not sure if there is coordination among the different branches of GoI.

Kanishka Ji, no Afridi is not a small fry. To the average American he is becoming a Hero. Someone who helped nab Osama. Irony is Obama cannot afford to leave him in an election year. All said and done, America has it's positive points. It is not for no reason it is the most powerful country today. It is my opinion that they would risk even half a dozen American lives to get him out.

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This should go in as the first sentence on page 1.