Terrorist Islamic Republic of Pakistan (TSP): Dec. 28, 2010

[Gagan]

But the news for the Pak Lurks is that

The revolution is coming to Pakistan

[vijayk]

Yes, Tavleen Singh has a son with Salman Taseer. Taseer was still married at that time.
The son is a Journalist in the UK.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tavleen_Singh

She completed her education in India and started her career with a reporting job at Evening Mail, Slough (England), where she worked and trained for two and a half years under the Westminster Press/Thompson training scheme.

Singh returned to India in 1974 to work with The Statesman as a reporter and went on to do several stories on communal riots, elections and wars. In those days such topics were covered mainly by male reporters.

She joined The Telegraph as Special Correspondent in 1982, mainly covering Punjab and Kashmir. She did the first known interview with Bhindranwale during this time and won the Sanskriti award in 1985 for her reporting of Punjab.

Her son, journalist-writer Aatish Taseer, whose father was Governor of Pakistani Punjab, Salman Taseer, is the author of the recently published book- " Stranger to history", was born in 1980 in London [6]

http://www.business-standard.com/india/ ... er/354971/

But Taseer, the love child of journalist Tavleen Singh, born in London, growing up amidst cousins and an extended joint family in New Delhi before being sent off to a residential school in Kodaikanal, was more concerned with another identity. Born as a result of a tempestuous week-long affair, his father, Salmaan Taseer, was Pakistani. Did that make him, Aatish, a Pakistani Muslim?

but unfortunately for Aatish, the publication of this book coincides with the rise of his father as governor of Punjab, while his book examines the “cultural” Islam of his father with an excoriating indictment of that religion and of his father’s country.

He wrote to his father as a seven-year-old, but did not get a response; later, he called him from his boarding school, only to be rebuffed. Still later, when he worked in London as a journalist, a story he wrote on second-generation Pakistani estrangement of identity becoming the genus of Islamic extremism earned him his father’s ire, accusing him of even “superficial knowledge of the Pakistani ethos”. By now Taseer had been to Pakistan, met with his father, the extended family. “It had been emotional meeting my father and his family,” he says, “it made me shut down.”

Taseer had grown up accompanying his mother on election campaigns and her political beat — apparently the first words he spoke, he recalls, were “Indira Gandhi hai hai! — and experiencing the plurality of Indian society. “Pakistani society has no plurality,” he says. “There is the fundamental idea of freedom, of institutions, in India, no matter how chaotic, which in Pakistan are looked upon with great suspicion.” So while he hoped to work out his “personal problem on one level”, the journey, on another plane, “couldn’t ignore the problem of Islam”. He had worked out that “what I was dealing with was part of faith but they weren’t articles of faith. For instance, my father’s attitude to Hindu India, to pre-Islamic India couldn’t be explained,” even though Salmaan was not a practising Muslim. “Something bigger had happened in the 20th century to Islam that could be explained by the Partition as a quest for a new Islamic country. That original impulse in 1947 masked in genteel ways what seemed like a refined argument but concealed what an ugly thing it was.”

[A_Gupta]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 00955.html

A Pakistani news station quoted a witness who said he saw a security guard get out of Taseer's vehicle, raise a Kalishnikov rifle and fire through the window of the vehicle.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said one of the governor's guards surrendered to police after the shooting, and told them he was angered by Taseer's recent public endorsement of a pardon for a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy.

That position had earned Taseer threats from Islamist parties, who held a strike last week against proposed changes to the nation's controversial anti-blasphemy laws. Taseer stood by his stance, posting on Dec. 30 on his Twitter account: "I was under huge pressure sure 2 cow down b4 rightest pressure on blasphemy. Refused. Even if I'm the last man standing."

[Brad Goodman]

Roadside Bomb Injures Four Children in Pakistan’s Baluchistan

Four Pakistani children were injured when their bus was hit by a roadside bomb in the city of Turbat, 380 miles (600 kilometers) southwest of Quetta, capital of Baluchistan province.

“The remote-controlled device went off as soon as the bus came in its range,” said Saeed Ahmed, spokesman for the province’s information minister, Yunas Mullazai. “The injured children were taken to a local hospital,” he said, adding their wounds were not serious.

The bus belonged to the F.C. Model Public School, run by members of the South Asian nation’s paramilitary forces deployed in Baluchistan, where insurgents are fighting for greater autonomy.

[menon s]

So, who`s the next waajibul qatl? Sherry Rehman . She better pack off, to Dubai.

[Brad Goodman]

may be 10% is going on a one way ticket

Pakistan's Zardari 'to head to US next week'

ISLAMABAD — Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari will visit the United States next week, officials in Islamabad confirmed Tuesday in the wake of a major political crisis that has weakened his government.

Zardari is scheduled to attend the memorial of Richard Holbrooke, who was the US special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan until his sudden death last month, and meet US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, they said.

[SSridhar]

Any opposition to the Blasphemy Law, or even going soft on it, is also considered blasphemous. This is quite characteristic of Islamists who quell any opposition to their strict interpretation of the Koran, the Sunnah and the Hadith by simply disallowing any discussion under extreme punishment.

Let's recall a few other interesting incidents regarding blasphemy in Pakistan.

In April 2000, Gen. Musharraf, at the peak of his popularity, announced a new procedure for filing FIR in blasphemy cases which required a magistrate to certify that a prima-facie case existed before acceptance of the FIR by the police. Within a month, he had to rescind the order under pressure from the clergy.

In 1991, the Federal Shariah Court struck down a provision of the Blasphemy Law that allowed life imprisonment instead of death for acts of blasphemy and opined that only death was permissible under the Islamic shariah. When Ms Benazir Bhutto criticized this ruling, a fatwa was issued in 1992 by the then Religious Affairs minister of Pakistan, Maulana Abdul Sattar Niazi, who was also an Islamic cleric, calling her a kafir for acting in an unIslamic way.

In June, 2007 the Islamist fervour reached newer heights when the British government announced knighthood to Salman Rushdie. Mr. Ejaz-ul-Haq, the hardline religious minister and the son of Gen. Zia-ul-Haq, announced in the National Assembly that such acts justified suicide attacks. The Speaker of the Punjab Assembly went a step ahead and said he will himself kill a blasphemer like Rushdie.

Now, other blasphemers in Pakistan need to worry about their lives too. Zardari would not pardon the poor Aasia Bibi.

[Gagan]

Well according to Najam Sethi, the situation in Pakistan is so bad these days, that no politician or fauji General wants to come into power and take all the blame.

So Zardari is safe for now, taking all the blame for implementing the unpopular IMF demanded price hikes, taxes etc. When the situation has become somewhat stable, Nawaz Sharif or Kiyani will make their moves using the MQM or the Chaudharis.

A time frame of late 2011-2012 is supposedly when Zardari will finally board a flight with a one way ticket (to dubai / London or to the stars)

[Gagan]

This Salman Taseer's KIA is somewhat reminiscent of what happened to the Shahs in Iran just before the Revolution.
The queen apparently said that the Hijab must be torn apart to reveal the true Iranian woman. The mullahs twisted that statement out of context and the simmering religious fanaticism came to fore.

Something similar might one day happen in Paqistan.

[Gagan]

Aasia bibi was being lined up for refugee status in europe or massa land. Wonder what happens next.

[shiv]

Yes, Tavleen Singh has a son with Salman Taseer. Taseer was still married at that time.
The son is a Journalist in the UK.

Aaaah! Thanks. I knew the name Salman Taseer rang a bell somewhere. This is it.

[krisna]

Pakistan: Violence feeds illiteracy

After the Taliban entered South Waziristan in 2001, illiteracy and militancy have been on the rise.

"Soaring militancy is hampering the government’s efforts to uplift education, despite millions of dollars spent on education," says education officer Hameedullah. "The FATA the situation is not showing any sign of improvement. The dropout rate in public sector primary schools stands at a staggering 69 percent."

According to official figures, 447 out of 638 schools in South Waziristan have been fully or partially damaged by Taliban militants.

Militants have set 673 schools on fire in this area since 2004.
Taliban militants consider female education to be against Islam, and take pride in blasting such institutions.
A total of 322,819 children are enrolled in 7,792 schools and colleges in FATA. The area has 2,088 primary, middle and high schools for girls. Of the 37 degree colleges, 13 are for girls with 14,000 students enrolled.
The FATA annual school census report 2009-10 shows that the dropout rate is 63 percent among boys and 77 percent among girls. Poverty and social taboos associated with female education are certainly a factor, but education has been hit further by the militancy bombshell.

In the Mohmand Agency militants have destroyed 88 schools and one degree college, affecting about 16,000 students. "The children here are destined to become monsters because they are growing up in militancy," says Jamal Shah, a mason, whose four children have been at home since the militants dynamited their school. "The destruction of schools is continuing."

The literacy rate in FATA is about 17 percent; only 3 percent of the women population is literate.

The pious ones create more pious ones out of children. Breeding monsters. It is a shame young lives who should be playing and enjoying life carefree are meant to be future soosai bums.

[A_Gupta]

http://www.dawn.com/2011/01/04/murder-most-foul.html
Murtaza Razvi writes:

Back to Mr Taseer’s assassination, it was rather uncanny to overhear a conversation that I did between two security guards outside the building they were deputed to guard, within minutes of the news of Mr Taseer’s death breaking. One guard congratulated the other on the assassination while the other responded by saying that the killer was indeed a very courageous man, God be praised.

This is not the country that makes one feel very safe.

[Singha]

sharif's demand for a 30% cut in govt spending would anger the armed forces...

Nawaz Sharif sets demands; 3-day deadline for PPP government in Pakistan
Published: Tuesday, Jan 4, 2011, 20:21 IST
Place: ISLAMABAD | Agency: PTI

Pakistan's opposition leader Nawaz Sharif today gave the beleaguered government a 72-hour ultimatum to act on several demands, including rollback of a fuel price hike and probe into corruption scandals, failing which the PPP could be booted out from the Punjab government.

Sharif, chief of the country's main opposition party the PML-N, did not link the demands to support for the Pakistan People's Party-led government at the centre, which was reduced to a minority after the Muttahida Qaumi Movement withdrew support to it last week.

However, sources said his stance was linked to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's efforts to seek support from the PML-N yesterday.

"The PML-N has decided that the Prime Minister should be given three days. He should inform us in 72 hours if he will implement this agenda. We will wait for his reply in a yes or no," Sharif told a news conference.

If the government agreed to the PML-N's demands, it should take "formal action" to implement them within 45 days, Sharif said.

"The nation should see progress by February 20... If the prime minister says he cannot (accept the demands) we will part ways with the PPP in the Punjab government," he added.

The three-day deadline came as the PPP-led government is facing its worst crisis at the centre, being reduced to a minority following the pulling out of the MQM and JUI from the ruling coalition.

Among the demands listed by PML-N were an immediate rollback of an unpopular fuel price hike announced on January 1, a proper regime for settling fuel, gas and power tariffs so people are not burdened, an end to gas and power outages, and stopping corruption and sacking government employees and ministers allegedly involved in graft.

The PML-N also demanded that the government should implement all decisions of the superior judiciary, including an order for action against those who benefited from a controversial graft amnesty.

President Asif Ali Zardari was among the over 8,000 people who benefited from the National Reconciliation Ordinance and the government has so far refused to act against him.

Sharif also called for the reorganisation of the Election Commission to ensure free and fair polls, a 30 per cent cut in government spending, and a probe into major scandals, including irregularities in the Haj pilgrimage, graft in state-run firms like the Pakistan Steel Mills and payment of kickbacks in the purchase of Agosta submarines from France.

The PML-N joined hands with the PPP to form a coalition government after the 2008 general election but Sharif pulled his party out of the alliance within six months.

After the PPP-led government lost its majority, the PML-N has stopped short of calling for a vote of no-confidence against Prime Minister Gilani.

The PPP is part of the PML-N-led government in Punjab, Pakistan's most populous and politically crucial province.

During a meeting with Gilani yesterday, Nawaz Sharif's younger brother and Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, had said the PML-N will not take any step that derails democracy.

[shynee]

In pictures: Salman Taseer assassinated in Is slum abad

[Rangudu]

Taseer's killer's name is Qadri, which is a Barelvi name but he looks like a jihadi terrorist. Clearly the jihadi virus has spread beyond the Wahhabi/Deobandi area to inflict all of TSP.

[RamaY]

Ordinarily,one would feel sorry that a liberal has been killed.

Except that the liberal views and the lifestyle of the family that resembled that of the 'rich and famous in the west' was built on gains from dubious sources. And that too in a country that is one of the poorest in the Indian subcontinent.

All that partying and living it up by the family is going to come to a crashing halt.

It is nothing but different shades of green.

This guy may appear liberal per Paki-standards but when it come to Bharat, he is as green as it gets. So no need to be sorry.

[Brad Goodman]

Wives beat up Pak man for planning his fifth marriage

A man in Pakistan's Punjab province was publicly beaten up by his two wives, who claimed that he is about to marry for the fifth time. Mian Ishaq, a resident of Gujranwala city, was attending a friend's wedding reception with his third wife when his two other wives Mehvish and Uzma gate-crashed with dozens of relatives and beat him up before the guests on Monday

[svinayak]

In pictures: Salman Taseer assassinated in Is slum abad

why three days of national mourning.
What was his elite position in social order. was he a pir

[ramana]

Wives beat up Pak man for planning his fifth marriage

A man in Pakistan's Punjab province was publicly beaten up by his two wives, who claimed that he is about to marry for the fifth time. Mian Ishaq, a resident of Gujranwala city, was attending a friend's wedding reception with his third wife when his two other wives Mehvish and Uzma gate-crashed with dozens of relatives and beat him up before the guests on Monday

He should have been named Mian Ashiq instead of Mian Ishaq!

Just transpose vowels I and A.

[Gagan]

He was a member of the ruling Pee Pee Party.

The BBC has got the photo labels wrong. The people are not protesting against the assassination. They are more likely shouting "Daaath to blasphemers".

How soon before the Lahore Bar Association rises to the defense of the pious security guard? This trial is going to drag on for decades.

Taseer's son will have to enter politics just to keep the trial going, otherwise some Jihadi Judge in lahore will release the security guard for lack of evidence and eyewitnesses. The police will of course conveniently misplace the bullets recovered from the body and the cartridges from the car / crime scene.

There is a 50-50 chance that the bodyguard will get released and get a hero's welcome.

[svenkat]

but unfortunately for Aatish, the publication of this book coincides with the rise of his father as governor of Punjab, while his book examines the “cultural” Islam of his father with an excoriating indictment of that religion and of his father’s country

He wrote to his father as a seven-year-old, but did not get a response; later, he called him from his boarding school, only to be rebuffed. Still later, when he worked in London as a journalist, a story he wrote on second-generation Pakistani estrangement of identity becoming the genus of Islamic extremism earned him his father’s ire, accusing him of even “superficial knowledge of the Pakistani ethos”. By now Taseer had been to Pakistan, met with his father, the extended family. “It had been emotional meeting my father and his family,” he says, “it made me shut down.”

Taseer had grown up accompanying his mother on election campaigns and her political beat — apparently the first words he spoke, he recalls, were “Indira Gandhi hai hai! — and experiencing the plurality of Indian society. “Pakistani society has no plurality,” he says. “There is the fundamental idea of freedom, of institutions, in India, no matter how chaotic, which in Pakistan are looked upon with great suspicion.” So while he hoped to work out his “personal problem on one level”, the journey, on another plane, “couldn’t ignore the problem of Islam”. He had worked out that “what I was dealing with was part of faith but they weren’t articles of faith. For instance, my father’s attitude to Hindu India, to pre-Islamic India couldn’t be explained,” even though Salmaan was not a practising Muslim. “Something bigger had happened in the 20th century to Islam that could be explained by the Partition as a quest for a new Islamic country. That original impulse in 1947 masked in genteel ways what seemed like a refined argument but concealed what an ugly thing it was.”

This deserves to be archived.What was it that changed Islam in India in early 20th century.Perfidious albion. The Aligarh movement.The Punjabi Mussalman was a British favorite from 1857 onwards.And later,satanic cold war policies of US and now the barbarism of chinese.Salmaan was not a practising muslim but the hatred against hindus,his own past-the shame of defeat,conversion,rootlessness,cowardice,denial would not go away despite the veneer of modernity bequeathed and certified by westerners.

Ordinarily,one would feel sorry for the loss of a human life snuffed out by fanatics.

Seems poetic justice . The more pious despatched him to jahannum while Tasser was showing off his pretense of liberalism.

[shynee]

It's about time they hose the crime scene. May be they already did it by now

[Gagan]

Looking at the BBC pics, the Lahori bolis have already stepped on the site.
One can see a blood stained foot print even in that picture.

I wonder how long before the media wallahs move in and take pics of the inside of the car.

Anyway, this one is an open and shut case from Pakistan's point of view - An honorable pious young man shot a blasphemy sympathizer - simple onlee.

[rgsrini]

It's about time they hose the crime scene. May be they already did it by now

Absolutely! I was thinking the same thing. What kind of investigation is this without hosing down the place. The Standard Operating Procedures are not being followed. Seems like a cover up...

[Brad Goodman]

apart from Taseer there have been few more islamic justice served in pakilands in last 24 hrs. Looks like shariah is just round the corner. I want to see the faces of rapes and tspa jernails the day mullas take over power.

Taliban cut off man's hand for theft

The Taliban chopped off a man's hand after he was found guilty of theft by a 'Shariah' or Islamic court set up by them in the restive Orakzai tribal region of northwest Pakistan, a day after beheading a fellow militant who was accused of spying for the government. Abdul Khaliq's hand was cut off by members of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan at Qureshan Chowk in Mamozai area of Orakzai tribal agency.

The act was witnessed by local residents, the Dawn newspaper reported today, adding that Khaliq was found guilty of theft by the Taliban.

Despite claims by security forces and the semi-autonomous region's political administration that 90 per cent of Orakzai region had been purged of militants, the Taliban are still very active in several parts of the tribal agency.

A day earlier, the Taliban in Orakzai beheaded a fellow militant named Gulbat Khan after accusing him of "spying" for the government and the security forces.

In November last year, the Taliban had publicly flogged 25 alleged drug peddlers in Orakzai.

The Taliban had set up numerous "courts" across the tribal belt about three years ago to administer their brand of justice.

Though some of these courts were wound up after the army launched an operation in parts of the tribal areas, they have been re-established in recent months by the Taliban.

[Lalmohan]

the ISI have made a hit on this man, under the guise of full plausible deniability of blasphemy outrage
all eez vell

[Brad Goodman]

jernails run from balochistan. I am suprised this news was not reported earlier.

COAS orders dismantling of Sui cantonment

QUETTA – While announcing the dismantling of Sui Cantonment and turning it into a education city, Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani Monday said an educated and prosperous Balochistan guaranteed a strong and stable Pakistan.
He said strong, stable and thriving Balochistan had remained utmost dream of Army as it could help making the country prosperous.
He was addressing the inaugural ceremony of country’s third military college at the gas producing town of Sui in Dera Bugti district. Balochistan Governor Nawab Zulfiqar Ali Magsi, Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani and Commander Southern command Lt Gen Javed Zia were also present on the occasion.

[ramana]

They are preparing for Baloch spin away by removing possible military infrastructure.

[Paul]

This is the pre-partition alternative. Fallback to Option A for the west.

[ramana]

X-post....

Salman Taseer's killing shows there is deep problem in TSP. How can the US and the West be sure that the troops that guard the maal won't seize them in a fit of fundamentalist rage? The issue is bigger than the killing of a politician.

[Prem]

The revolution is coming to Pakistan

[/quote]

To reverse the hundreds of years of devolution ,Poaks need evolution not revolution. Was Taseer Ahmadiya pretending to be Muslim?

[vic]

This killing is a master stroke in short terms blackmail of Uncle Sam & Zardari by ISI=Army=Kayani


Note:- Pak elite society is very very liberal. Lot of Indians have enjoyed the benefits. The Guard probably knows how much fun the RAPES and SDRES were having in the Gov House and his frustation got the better of him.

[Brad Goodman]

pakis pull the biggest nigerian scam on guess who ..............

Nigerians themselves

NADRA wins Nigerian ID card project

KARACHI: National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has signed a multi-million dollar contract with Nigerian government agency, National Identity Management Commission, for system integration services and issuance of national identity document; stated a statement issued on Monday. “This is a landmark achievement that will further strengthen ties between Pakistan and Nigeria. The system has been indigenously developed by NADRA and its delivery will empower the government of Nigeria to issue tamperproof and secure Computerized ID Cards to Nigerian citizens,” said Chairman NADRA. staff report

[RamaY]

They are preparing for Baloch spin away by removing possible military infrastructure.

jernails run from balochistan. I am suprised this news was not reported earlier.

COAS orders dismantling of Sui cantonment

He said strong, stable and thriving Balochistan had remained utmost dream of Army as it could help making the country prosperous.

AoA onleee!!!

RajeshA garu, here is the first piece for your integration project. We should do a simulation on Balochistan integration and see the associated costs/benefits

[RajeshA]

Man how could I've slept through this news!

Salmaan Taseer Dead!

The revolution is coming! When a guy gets killed by his own bodyguard, that sits! Now no politician in Pakistan will ever be able to trust his bodyguards, not to speak of anybody else! This is going to give such a boost to all Fun

RAPEs are going into lockdown! I'll be surprised if there are too many parties in the coming days in Is-Slum-Bad? The revolution is truly on the march!

This guy died before Aasia Bibi! Now who is going to save her?! Now who would have the guts to save a poor Christian woman in Pakistan?!

[AdityaM]

Salmaan Taseer on his twitter profile on 2nd Jan posted:

We pray 4 the heroic brave ppl of Kashmir. Inshallah 2011 bring them azadi from the brutal occupation they have faced 4 so many long years
11:45 AM Jan 2nd via Twitter for iPad

To this i had then replied:
Also pray for the heroic Baluchs, Kafiris, pakhtuns and the many others who you continue to kill.

today he is killed.
also found on his twitter: I was under huge pressure sure 2 cow down b4 rightest pressure on blasphemy.Refused. Even if I'm the last man standing

[partha]

I wonder why "Pakistani liberals" have not yet blamed India for Salman Taseer's assassination. If India was talking to Pakistan to resolve "core issue" (in other words give Kashmir to Pakistan) then somehow this assassination would not have happened.

PS: there is a march organized by some "Pakistani liberals" against blasphemy laws on Jan 15th. Let's see what happens then.

[svinayak]

Salmaan Taseer Dead!

[wamanrao]

Let's hope our spooks are reviewing the current situation with Pakisatan's minorities as a potential source of intelligence assets for the future. Maybe the next NSA will be able to tell the future PM that other "options" exist, should a retaliation for a 26/11 be in the works.