The United States (US) has on Friday reiterated its demand that Pakistan must prosecute Hafiz Saeed, the head of Jamat ud-Daawa, who is accused of having masterminded the Mumbai attacks in November 2008.
"to the fullest extent of law". There's the loophole. Baki law falls woefully short of that "fullest extent".Pakistan had been sent a message that Hafiz Saeed must be ‘prosecuted to the fullest extent of law’.
Four mortar positions on Pakistani side — from where Rangers were firing 82 mm and 60 mm mortars — are damaged, they said. A defence position in a farmhouse behind Harpal and Jagwal village, too, has been hit, they added.
A senior BSF official said that by the intensity of their retaliation and the number of ambulances moving on the Pakistani side, the “casualty across the border appears to be very high…somewhere between 20-25”.
Ack Thoo - Congress Sonia and Manmohan.According to ANI, MoS PMO Jitendra Singh, after meeting the civilians injured in ceasefire violations, said, “All injured are being taken care of. For the first time, even though Pakistan is up to its mischief as it has always been, the kind of retaliatory action from Indian side was not seen for decades together.”
Don't the pakis use very creating accounting and reporting to inflate their Forex numbers? I guess no amount of padding will make a moth eaten, spider infested bank account better..anupmisra wrote:
More good news (which usually comes in "threes") on the ba(w)kistani fiscal front:
Pakistan's foreign reserves slide continues
https://www.dawn.com/news/1383863/pakis ... -continues
anupmisra wrote:
More good news (which usually comes in "threes") on the ba(w)kistani fiscal front:
Pakistan's foreign reserves slide continues
https://www.dawn.com/news/1383863/pakis ... -continues
sudhan Ji :sudhan wrote:
Don't the pakis use very creating accounting and reporting to inflate their Forex numbers? I guess no amount of padding will make a moth eaten, spider infested bank account better..
One must also provide India's forex numbers (Like Peregrine ji does) to prove that India and Pak are one and the same..
Pakistan Forex : $ 13.7 billion
India Forex : $ ~ 414 billion
Pakistan should quickly put out the begging bowl and claim that the Forex reserves are now growing..
After debt repayments in coming months, SBP’s own net reserves will be a mere $4.5 billion - December 9, 2017
This amount is also shown part of both the central bank and commercial banks’ reserves, according to sources.
As of November 2017, the SBP’s official foreign currency reserves were $12.66 billion including $5.8 billion worth of currency swaps and forward contracts.Despite showing $5.8 billion as part of its own reserves, the SBP has also included the same amount in the total $6.01 billion reserves held by commercial banks.
By excluding $5.8 billion of short-term loans, the net usable reserves with the commercial banks stand at only $200 million. Out of $5.8 billion, $1.68 billion was obtained for one month, $2.46 billion for up to three months and $1.7 billion for up to one year, according to the SBP.
“This is clearly double counting of $5.8 billion. In principle, it should have excluded this sum from the commercial banks’ reserves,” said Dr Ashfaque Hasan Khan, former director general of Debt of Ministry of Finance.
As of November 2017, the SBP’s official foreign currency reserves were $12.66 billion including $5.8 billion worth of currency swaps and forward contracts. Despite showing $5.8 billion as part of its own reserves, the SBP has also included the same amount in the total $6.01 billion reserves held by commercial banks.
By excluding $5.8 billion of short-term loans, the net usable reserves with the commercial banks stand at only $200 million. Out of $5.8 billion, $1.68 billion was obtained for one month, $2.46 billion for up to three months and $1.7 billion for up to one year, according to the SBP.
“This is clearly double counting of $5.8 billion. In principle, it should have excluded this sum from the commercial banks’ reserves,” said Dr Ashfaque Hasan Khan, former director general of Debt of Ministry of Finance.
See, I don't know why SDRE kufars don't get it. As long as allah is watching over ba(w)kistan and its TFTA citizens, and as long as there even one hand gun around in that benighted land, ba(w)kistan can never run out of money or lenders or donors or johns. It does not matter how little or how much foreign exchange the baki banks have, as long as they can threaten to commit hara-kiri with a gun pointed to their collective heads while sitting on their primed aitimi bums, the world will keep being a donor, a lender or a john (not necessarily in that order).Peregrine wrote:This is clearly double counting of $5.8 billion. In other words if “Correctness is Invoked" then the SBP Forex Reserves will be US$ 2.5 Billion or so!anupmisra wrote: Pakistan should quickly put out the begging bowl and claim that the Forex reserves are now growing..
nam Ji :nam wrote:So ground work is been prepared for a US down hill skiing....
So a global superpower who relies on a untrusted ally for supply route, does even imagine that Pakistan which has done it before... can close it again?
US did not dump fuel and ammo into afghanistan for such a contingency? The drama will never stop.
You Tube Presentation – Pakistan has Gurkhas : 01 Min 00 Sec to 02 Min 10 SecIn 1954, soon after signing up Pakistan as an American ally, U.S. Secretary of State of John Foster Dulles tried to persuade legendary columnist Walter Lippmann of the value of his new strategic partner. Dulles told Lippmann, “I’ve got to get some real fighting men into the south of Asia. The only Asians who can really fight are the Pakistanis. That’s why we need them in the alliance. We could never get along without the Gurkhas.”
“But Foster,” Lippmann countered, “the Gurkhas aren’t Pakistanis, they’re Indians.” Of course, Lippmann was also wrong as the Gurkhas are from Nepal but that is less important than the lack of knowledge of the U.S. Secretary of State. “Well,” responded Dulles, unperturbed by such details, “they may not be Pakistanis but they’re Moslems.”[/b]
“No, I’m afraid they’re not Moslems, either; they’re Hindus,” Lippmann stated.“No matter,” the secretary of state retorted and proceeded to lecture Lippmann for half an hour on the virtues of SEATO in stemming communism in Asia, writes a biographer of Walter Lippmann.
CheersISLAMABAD: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has observed that Pakistan faces $11.43 billion damages claims in Reko Diq mining case in international courts due to corrupt practices and inefficiencies of successive governments of Balochistan.
Pakistan’s Ambassador to United States Aizaz Chaudhry, in an interview with BBC Urdu, has said that Pakistan wants to send Haqqani network and Taliban back to Afghanistan so they can participate in national politics there.
We are pressurizing them to return to Afghanistan because it is their homeland
Send them back to Afghanistan? So they are currently in ba(w)kistan?if the United States has any doubt and have any information they must share with Islamabad because Pakistan itself wanted to eliminate them
. Read on...100% marks for paki-logicHe went on to state that according to the information acquired, these banned outfits have 43 percent occupation of Afghani land. Hence, it is needless that they stay in Pakistan.
The United States urged Pakistan on Friday not to give sanctuary to “terrorist organizations” and Pakistan demanded that the Trump administration address safe havens inside Afghanistan and its income from the narcotics trade.
The exchange took place Friday at a Security Council meeting on the issue of Afghanistan’s relations with its Central Asia neighbours and the link between peace and security.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan said the United States can’t work with Pakistan if it continued to give sanctuary to terrorist organizations and needed to stop this and join efforts to resolve the Afghan conflict.
Pakistan’s U.N. Ambassador Maleeha Lodi countered that Afghanistan and its partners, especially the U.S., need to address “challenges inside Afghanistan rather than shift the onus for ending the conflict onto others.”
“Those who imagine sanctuaries outside need a reality check,” she stressed.
After stopping of military aid
The exchange followed the Trump administration’s announcement this month that it was suspending military aid to Pakistan until it takes decisive action against militants.
In August, the U.S. infuriated Pakistan by accusing it of providing a haven for extremist groups that carry out attacks in neighbouring Afghanistan. Pakistan repeatedly has said it is acting against Taliban insurgents and members of the Haqqani militant group.
Armed clashes in Afghanistan in the past year were the highest in a decade and civilian casualties remained at near-record levels. More than 2 million people were directly affected by the conflict in 2017, with some 4,48,000 having to abandon their homes to save their lives.
Mr. Sullivan told the council that an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned approach to peace, with firm international support for Afghan security forces, “will make clear to the Taliban that victory cannot be won on the battlefield a solution is and must be political.”
But he said, “We must recognize the reality that while the Afghan government has been adamant about its interests in initiating peace talks with the Taliban, there has been no reciprocal interest on the part of the Taliban.”
“That must change,” Mr. Sullivan stressed.
Backing Taliban in IS fight “is pernicious”
Mr. Sullivan also criticized unnamed countries for supporting the Taliban in the name of fighting the Islamic State extremist group.
“This approach is misguided or worse pernicious,” he said. “The United States believes that the two are not linked. We can and must fight ISIS in Afghanistan while ensuring the Taliban come to the negotiating table.”
Ms. Lodhi said that after 17 years of war it’s “more than evident” that neither the Afghan government nor the Taliban can win militarily.
“The continuing resort to military force and escalation of the conflict without an accompanying political and diplomatic strategy ... will produce more violence, not a political solution,” she said. “It is not enough to pay lip service to a negotiated settlement and then do little other than exercise a strategy of force and coercion.”
Mr. Sullivan, Ms. Lodhi and Afghanistan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai did not mention the U.S. suspension of aid to Pakistan.
But Mr. Karzai said: “We are pleased to note that the imperative of addressing the problem of regional terrorist sanctuaries and safe havens is now recognized more than ever before.”
Martin Luther King said, “We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear”. In Pakistan, those journalists, activists and students who have chosen to act with great courage to criticize the unlawful conduct of the military, vis-à-vis illegal abductions, torture, murder, oppression and corruption, find themselves and their families in the midst of horrifying and dangerous circumstances.
In the last few months alone, almost every major newspaper has covered stories from Pakistan of journalists, bloggers and students either being abducted and tortured or beaten in broad daylight by “unknown” assailants. This is not the first time Pakistan has been confronted with the phenomenon of enforced disappearances. After all, under military dictator Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan agreed to abduct, torture and effectively sell its citizens to the United States under the policy of extraordinary renditions. *
Investigative journalist Taha Siddiqui was the most recent target of an attempted abduction in the Federal Capital. En route to the airport to catch a flight to London, Siddiqui was dragged out of a cab, beaten to a pulp and threatened by around a dozen armed men. His passport, phone, laptop and other personal belongings were confiscated by the armed men but miraculously, Siddiqui, through his determination to live, managed to escape. What was the crime for which he was meted out such unlawful treatment? One need only scroll through his social media posts and articles in local and international papers to see he was one of the most vocal critics of the Pakistani military establishment.
Just a few weeks earlier, a social media activist, Raza Khan, was abducted in Lahore following a meeting organized by him to discuss the right-wing takeover of the capital by Islamic fundamentalists. Last year, at least four human rights activists/bloggers (namely, Waqas Goraya, Asim Saeed, Salman Haider and Ahmed Raza Naseer) were abducted, detained and tortured by the security agencies. What all these people have in common is the choice of institution they criticized: the military establishment.
In all these cases of abductions, Pakistan saw the same rhetoric we have been hearing over the last many decades to justify unlawful conduct by state agencies. Paid social media accounts and suspect journalists with ties to the establishment have done everything in their power to launch dangerous and slanderous campaigns against all these individuals. The four activists abducted in 2017 were accused of blasphemy – a charge for which no trial is ever needed: there is an automatic death sentence by the masses (as we saw in the case of Mashal Khan, a university student falsely accused of blasphemy who was murdered on his campus). No action is ever taken against those who level such false allegations, nor are the mobs who engage in such violence ever punished by the State.
With regard to Siddiqui, while he has thus far been able to avoid the fate of those who are accused of blasphemy, he has been accused of staging his own abduction allegedly to seek asylum in the West. The persons who launch such vicious attacks would have you believe that every single critic of the military is either foreign-funded or has some ulterior motive. Some have even gone so far as to argue that the State has a right to illegally abduct those who criticize it. Those who dissent in Pakistan are not only punished for dissenting at the hand of state agencies: they are also ridiculed, mocked, ostracized and threatened by society either for surviving the ordeal inflicted upon them or for speaking up against such tactics.
The cost of speaking up against the military in Pakistan, it now seems, is too high a cost for many to bear. Threats to the lives of dissenters and their families are not only common but those who so threaten do so with complete impunity. There are no consequences. In fact, these attacks occur on such a regular basis now that it has become crystal clear that the State’s security agencies fear no accountability for these violations of the Constitution and international law.
The Committee for the Protection of Journalists has deemed Pakistan one of the most dangerous places for journalists. One would just like to highlight that the practice of enforced disappearances doesn’t only affect journalists but includes as a potential target literally any individual who dares to criticize the Pakistani military establishment. We live in strangely ironic times: on one hand, the military establishment leeches off the budget and claims it is one of the most superior intelligence agencies in the world, while, on the other hand, such abductions and murders are rampant. Either the State is complicit, which is perhaps the most likely scenario, or it is simply incompetent, which is just as alarming. Either way, the people of Pakistan deserve answers. Will anyone who speaks up against the misuse of authority by the military establishment be subjected to enforced disappearances and torture? Will those who are lucky enough to survive ever see justice being done against those who perpetrated these heinous attacks against them?
In October last year, senior journalist, Ahmad Noorani (another vocal critic of the establishment) was beaten in broad daylight by “unknown” attackers. Following the attack, the Director General of the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) sent the journalist a bouquet of flowers and voiced his “full support” to “catch culprits and bring them to justice”. Operating with complete impunity has allowed the security agencies to not only violate the law but act like a callous mafia that first attempts to murder people and then sends them a box of chocolates which might as well come with a note that says, “we hope you have learnt your lesson”. When has action ever been taken against those involved in these enforced disappearances? Many of these “missing persons” remain missing – their families have no idea whether they are dead or alive.
We deserve better. Pakistan deserves better. If someone has committed a crime, the State must produce them before a court of law but this culture of impunity has to end.
The writer is a lawyer pursuing her Masters in International Law at the University of Vienna.
Peregrine wrote:PCB in a fix as defaulting franchises put third PSL edition in jeopardy
Solution : Pakistan Cricket Board has been advised to have the Defaulting Franchises to apply to the IMF for a Loan.
as many as five out of the total six franchises have failed to clear their dues with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) despite the expiry of the given deadline of Nov 15, 2017
https://www.dawn.com/news/1384159/lahor ... -17-reportIn two years, 1,297 cases of child rape were reported in Punjab...1,045 were cases of sexual assault against boys
Now, here are the obvious "distortions":ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has been made a member of Trillion Dollar Markets Club. Members of the Trillion Dollar Markets Club are countries whose economies, measured by GDP on a purchasing power parity basis in current dollars, have grown larger than one trillion dollars.
The collective purchasing power of consumers in these countries is estimated to be in excess of one trillion dollars. Based on October 2017 IMF/World Bank estimates, Pakistan’s economy is believed to have grown to $1.056 trillion.
According to Federal Secretary for Trade Younis Dhagga, Pakistan’s economy is only the 25th economy in the world to have achieved this key milestone. It was the only country to do so in 2017.
A Canadian woman came all the way to Pakistan in order to tie the knot with her long-term online lover who she met on social networking website Facebook.
“I proposed her and asked her to marry me in Pakistan. To which she agreed and after converting to Islam, we both married each other.”
Did "qaiser" tell her about his..er...extended family?Qaiser had previously shared with me about Pakistan’s culture...
Better solution would be to put the PSL as part of CPEC! (See-Pak was the solution for all problems in Bakistan).Peregrine wrote:PCB in a fix as defaulting franchises put third PSL edition in jeopardy
Solution : Pakistan Cricket Board has been advised to have the Defaulting Franchises to apply to the IMF for a Loan.
Cheers
China is their one source "mai-baap, meri-maa, ham-saya, hamara rakhwala" solution to every problem and SeePack is the dirt road that leads to it. Pakis are knowingly playing this shrewd game without realizing that china is not like the west. There is no compassion in the chini hearts. They will exact their pound of flesh and more.Peregrine wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iihHhM7M_s
A unique ceremony was held here at PAF Museum to pay tribute to Air Commodore (Retd) Sattar Alvi, a renowned war veteran of 1974 Arab-Israel war. He shot down an Israeli Air Force Mirage aircraft during an aerial combat in Syria. In this ceremony he presented flying coverall (suit) of deceased Israeli pilot (Capt Lutz) to PAF Museum.
He termed the flying coverall of the deceased Israeli pilot as a ‘War Trophy’
In 1967 and 1973 Arab- Israel wars, our air force had participated with valour
Spot the Mossad agent:This is the ideological state made in the name of Allah and nobody dare to cast an evil eye on it
Pir Hameeduddin Sialvi on Saturday set yet another deadline for the government, this time for enforcing “Shariah” within seven days or risk protests in every nook and corner of the country.
Addressing a Khatm-i-Nabuwat Conference in the city... Aashqan-i-Rasool [those in love with the Holy Prophet] would protest in every street in the country, and it won’t stop.
The conference was attended by the workers the TLYR, the Sunni Ittehad Council, the Sunni Tehreek and other ulema and Mushaikh.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1384229/sialv ... seven-daysFor Rana Sanaullah, the Pir advised him to recite “kalima” again and renew his faith – otherwise, he said the law minister could not be considered a Muslim.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan summoned India's deputy high commissioner for the fourth consecutive day on Sunday over the alleged "unprovoked firing" by Indian troops across the Line of Control which resulted in the death of two people.
The FO, apart from today, had summoned India's deputy high commissioner on January 15, 18, 19 and 20.
Amid mounting global pressure on Pakistan to act against Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed and entities linked to him, a UN Security Council team will visit the country this week for an assessment of Islamabad’s compliance with the world body’s sanctions regime.
The two-day visit of the UN Security Council’s sanctions monitoring team will begin on Thursday.
“The monitoring team of the UNSC 1267 Sanctions Committee will be here on January 25 and 26,” a senior Pakistani official was quoted as saying by Dawn.
The UN monitoring team’s visit is taking place amid increasing pressure on Pakistan from the U.S. and India with respect to the inadequate implementation of the sanctions on Saeed and entities linked to him.
However, Pakistani officials, insist that the trip is a routine visit.
Saeed was listed under UN Security Council Resolution 1267 in December 2008.
On Friday, the US State Department said it has told clearly to Islamabad that Saeed is a “terrorist” and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, reacting strongly to Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s remarks that there was no case against the Mumbai attack mastermind.
State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said: “He is listed by the UNSC 1267, the Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee for targeted sanctions due to his affiliation with Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is a designated foreign terror organisation.”
“We believe that he should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Nauert had said.
Saeed, the chief of the Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD), was released from house arrest in Pakistan in November.
The JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the LeT which is responsible for carrying out the Mumbai attack that killed 166 people. It has been declared as a foreign terrorist organisation by the U.S. in June 2014.
“The terms of reference of the monitoring team for Pakistan visit are not publicly known, but as per its general mandate it assists the 1267 Committee in keeping an eye on the freezing of the financial assets of listed persons and entities and checking provision of training and other material to them and their travel,” the paper said.
The UNSC monitoring team intimates instances of non-compliance to the committee through its reports. At the same time it also advises and assists member states on implementation of the regime.
Pakistan has remained under the Financial Action Task Force scanner over allegations by the U.S. and India about the UNSC sanctions not being fully implemented, the paper said.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury has designated Saeed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, and the U.S., since 2012, has offered a USD 10 million reward for information that brings Saeed to justice.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying five people took part,
The U.S. Embassy in Kabul had put out an alert on Thursday saying it was "aware of reports that extremist groups may be planning an attack against hotels in Kabul,"
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Afghanistan's Interior Ministry says attack on Kabul's Intercontinental Hotel was orchestrated by the Haqqani network, which Afghan and U.S. say has bases inside Pakistan
To this day ModiJi haters in India deny these surgical strikes and trivialize them by claiming MMS/Sonia also did the same but did not take credit. And this narrative is also pushed by their toadies like Ajay Shukla.
A brawl among two student groups at University of the Punjab left several injured here on Monday.
A violent scuffle erupted among Baloch Students and Islami Jamiat Taliba (IJT) causing several injuries. Activists of both organisations attacked many vehicles inside the Jinnah Campus and at the Waris Mir Underpass.
After the incident, heavy contingent of police arrived on the scene. Police fired shells to disperse activists after which IJT activists attacked police vans at the underpass.
According to PU spokesperson, police are conducting search operation in the university and suspects will be arrested by indentifying them through CCTV footage.
The clash has created panic among students. However, classes are being conducted as per schedule.
