They caught the hindu zionist, lal topee zaid will be happy hearing this newsRajiv Lather wrote:It is interesting to note that this brigadier is a Pushtun. There were other officers who raised their voice, but no one wants to touch the punjabi officer corps. In a way it was GHQ's way of sending a message. I doubt that it will work.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
There is an opacity about the business dealings of our president and his extended family that is reminiscent of armour plating. The latest of his dealings to emerge concerns 2,400 kanals of land him and his son Bilawal own in the Margalla Hills area. As reported in this newspaper, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has approved changes in the zoning regulations of Zone III, currently defined as being within the protected Margalla Hills National Park area, which will allow the land to be used for commercial purposes. These may include farm-housing, a golf and country club, medium-rise apartments, and the ever-ugly and noisy wedding lawns. The CDA chairman insists that this particular tract of land, part of Zone III, was actually outside the boundaries of the National Park and therefore not subject to the regulations that control development within it. The approval of the change in use of the land is going to magnify its value many-fold, and the Zardari clan will have scored a significant fiscal gain.
There will be those who argue that this is nothing more than good business. He has held the land since the mid-90s, long before the presidency beckoned and if he benefits from a change in the zoning laws, all well and good. But where did the impetus for the change come from? Why, none other than the cabinet had referred the case to the CDA and sought variation in the zoning regulations. Other Zardari associates are also interested in the rezoned land, at least one of them until recently, a federal minister. The CDA Zoning Regulation 2005 defines the whole of Zone III as: “Margalla Hills National Park as notified under section 21 of the Islamabad Wild Life (Protection, Preservation, Conservation and Management) Ordinance 1979 and other protected ranges, forest areas and un-acquired land falling between Margalla Hills and the north of Murree Road shall constitute this zone”. That at least is clear as day – but how that came to be changed is as clear as mud.
ISLAMABAD:
Silently, but controversially, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has approved fundamental changes in the zoning regulations of its Zone III, defined as a protected Margalla Hills National Park area, which once implemented would instantly multiply the fortunes of President Asif Ali Zardari, who along with his son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, owns 2,400 kanals of land in the area.
This change in the zoning regulations has allowed the selected area of Zone III to be used for commercial purposes that include farm housing, golf and country club, a five-star hotel, medium rise apartments, wedding lawns and public buildings, etc. To the good luck of President Zardari, his agriculture land that was purchased through his alleged frontman in the mid 90s will become commercial land as soon as the new regulations are approved by the federal cabinet. This change would instantly raise the price of the selected land manifold.
When contacted, CDA Chairman Imtiaz Inayat Elahi, however, insisted the particular area of Zone III, whose zoning regulations have already been changed by the authority’s board but yet to be approved by the cabinet, does not fall in the Margalla Hills National Park area. “This area was outside the park,” the CDA chairman added.
He said it was the cabinet that had referred the case to the CDA and had sought the amendment to the zoning regulation for an organised construction activity there. However, sources said Faisal Butt, who is acting as the covert boss of the CDA and is a close friend of President Zardari, is the one who has got this magical work done.
Till recently, a federal minister, who is closely associated with both the president and Faisal Butt, too, is said to have purchased more than 100 kanals of land in his daughter’s name to multiply his wealth as soon as the cabinet approves and announces the change in the CDA zoning.
Faisal Butt is interestingly the same person who apparently bought 2,400 kanals of land from President Zardari’s alleged frontman Nasir Khan and then through a consent-degree transferred it in early 2009 in the name of a private company owned by President Zardari and his son Bilawal Bhutto. It was The News that had broken the story in 2009.
The CDA chairman said he does not know whether President Zardari’s land is located in the same area. He, however, explained that in 2008 the Supreme Court, under the then chief justice Dogar, had given an order in the case of Zone IV whereby the character of the zone was also changed. He said since the construction was going on in the Zone IV area, therefore, it was decided to regulate the construction activity and save to possible extent the green character of the zone.
Documents reveal the CDA, in its 23rd board meeting dated 21st of December 2010, approved certain parameters of land uses of Sub Zone A of Zone III that include the provision of farm housing for which minimum size of scheme would be 1,500 kanals and minimum plot size would be of four kanals, and an apartment scheme of 100 kanals where commercial, public and multi-storey buildings could be constructed.
The Sub Zone A is identified by the CDA documents as the area between Khayaban-e-Margalla and foothills. The documents propose the construction of a golf and country club, a five-star hotel, country housing/farm housing, wedding laws, solar energy parks, nurseries, open sports fields and public buildings. The CDA documents also recommended that the cabinet give permission to construct individual houses in and around existing settlement of village Shah Allah Ditta (within 1 km of the existing settlement). According to a source, this area covers over 100 kanal land recently purchased by a key presidential confidante, who was a federal minister till recently.
The CDA chairman, however, insisted the area approved by the CDA board is part of Zone III, not of Margalla National Park. The CDA Zoning Regulation 2005 defines the whole Zone III as: “Margalla Hills National Park as notified under section 21 of the Islamabad Wild Life (Protection, Preservation, Conservation and Management) Ordinance 1979 and other protected ranges, forest areas and un-acquired land falling between Margalla Hills and the north of Murree Road shall constitute this zone”.
The CDA regulations said in this zone, no change in land use will be permissible except preservation, forestation and recreation. These regulations add no sale/purchase of land, which entails change in some of the existing rural settlements, is allowed. They add no residential scheme can be floated in the zone.
It should be recalled here that The News on November 3, 2009 had broken the story that a private company owned by President Zardari and his son Bilawal purchased 2,460 kanals (307 acres) of prime land in Islamabad in March 2009, valued at CDA price of over Rs2 billion, for a mere Rs62 million, proving after a long wait that a 1997 NAB reference against Zardari for the same deal was justified, but had to be dropped then for lack of some missing links.
The deal, which Zardari was accused of in 1997, was thus completed this March, 15 years later, after a complex process of legal cases, suits and counter-suits, between a person once declared by the then government as a front man of Zardari, another person believed to be closely associated with the president and a private company that is jointly owned by the president, his son and a few others.
Documents and legal papers, including the sale deed and court judgments given by the PCO-led Islamabad High Court, available with The News, had proved that a Karachi-based private company, Park Lane Estates (Pvt) Ltd, purchased almost 2,500 kanals of land near Sangjani from Faisal Sakhi Butt, who himself purchased the land from a Pakistani-American living in Houston, US, named Muhammad Nasir Khan, for merely Rs62 million. Nasir Khan was the original purchaser of this land in 1994 and was declared to be the frontman of Zardari in the Ehtesab Bureau reference filed against him in 1997. (Courtesy: The News)
I was using 'surrender monkeys' as the pejorative not 'vegetarian'BajKhedawal wrote:
Cosmoji, I don't think the TFTA paki fauj of '71 fame were vegetarians. Wereas, neither was Iron Man Sardar Patel a vegetarian surrender monkey.
. Anyway, the pakifauj were the surrender monkeys. You don't have to be both but it helps in the MEA Hope that it works in at-least having more IED mubaraks in TSPIt is interesting to note that this brigadier is a Pushtun. There were other officers who raised their voice, but no one wants to touch the punjabi officer corps. In a way it was GHQ's way of sending a message. I doubt that it will work.
He could be a US mole taken into custody after Abortabad raid.BijuShet wrote:Not sure if others noticed but this TSP Brigadier Ali Khan has been missing/detained/arrested since May 6. Its just that the news is now being reported in the wider media. The question is what did he do just prior to May 6 that caused him to be arrested? Also he was posted at the GHQ for the past two years so he must have decent knowledge of what TSPA was upto. Was he a mole or was he a pawn used to take pressure of Kayani or was he someone so messed up that even TSPA needed to take action against him?
When CosmoR used vegetarian he did so knowingly that not all the officials in MEA are gonna be vegetarian..therefore its use is figurative, while your use of the word idiot is either out of context or in anger. As such, same rules wont apply.If I say you are an idiot, would you be understanding enough to say that I mean no harm and I am using idiot in the sense of the root word "idiota" - meaning lay person or uneducated?. Clearly the words one uses are an important indicator of meaning. If one says something there is no hiding behind the burqa that one means something else. So lets not have vicarious lame excuses for a completely unnecessary and ill thought out remark.
The Holy Arabic language word for Hijra is "kwanii", which got modified to Kyani in Pakistani. Please always refer to him with appropriate name as Jernail Kwanii of Fauj E Pakistani.RajeshG wrote: Kitne muh bandh karega Hijra Cmdr ? Just the other day I read this Kashmiri shopkeeper asking -> What Jihad ? These hijraas even gave up the Sheikh.
Laanat Hai !!
RFE/RL: What does it say to you about Pakistan's military when you hear that instead of hunting down the people who helped Bin Laden hide in their country, it is instead hunting down the people who helped the United States find and kill him?
Gorka: I think this is a wonderful example of why one cannot talk of Pakistan as a unitary nation.
Your use of vegetarian with surrender monkey implies vegetarians to be as such, and that is what I take offence to.Cosmo_R wrote:I was using 'surrender monkeys' as the pejorative not 'vegetarian'BajKhedawal wrote:
Cosmoji, I don't think the TFTA paki fauj of '71 fame were vegetarians. Wereas, neither was Iron Man Sardar Patel a vegetarian surrender monkey.
The U.S. will leave them to it — abandonment again — and choose the happier relationship with India. Secretary Clinton will be at the regional forum of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in late July, helping to take her longtime initiative of eastward Indian engagement, and the integration of the United States into East Asian political structures, to a new level. This is part of a long-term strategy of accommodating the rise of China and of India.
And Pakistan, after 10 years, will be left behind; as the line in Washington goes, “There is no good solution.”
In the 1980s, every 5-year-old in Pakistan wanted to become a commando or a pilot. Nobody wanted to become an accountant or an architect or a civil engineer. Ever wonder why?It’s because the army was awesome.
Pakistan's national heroes
One of my earliest memories was waking up early in the morning each Sept. 6 to watch the Defense Day Parade on TV. It was amazing. There were planes, commandos, and missiles: everything that makes up the fantasy toy world of a young boy. As we watched the tanks roll by, my mom told me that Sept. 6 is celebrated to commemorate the valiant defense of the country against an Indian attack in 1965. The Pakistan studies book in school later taught me that India attacked Lahore in the dead of the night, without any provocation or formal declaration of war – a “cowardly attack.” We won the war and caused major losses to the Indian military machine. Maj. Shaheed Aziz Bhatti was my hero.The next chapter talked about 1971. We learned that India created a terrorist group called the “Mukti Bahini,” which terrorized the population in Bangladesh. While a massive conspiracy engineered by the Indians misled the East Pakistan population and eventually led to partition, our army still won the war and the Indian army was left licking its wounds. Shaheed Rashid Minhas was the hero this time.School books told us that India never accepted the creation of Pakistan and that its army would invade Pakistan the first chance it got; we would then be forced to lead terrible lives, just like Muslims in India lived a life of servitude and backwardness.A career in the army was a dream. Regardless of economic background, if a young man made it into the Pakistan Army as an officer, it was guaranteed that he would have a nice house, a decent car, and access to the prestigious Services Club. His children would study in good schools and he would be eligible for discounts on everything from groceries to airline tickets. Never again would the police harass him, and petty burglars would think twice before trying to break into his house in the military cantonment. He would get to play golf and polo. When he retired, he would end up with a couple of plots of land in prime neighborhoods, allowing him to grow old in peace.
With new information, disillusionment
Then the 21st century happened and things started going wrong. Information that was locked up in books that nobody read was suddenly available on TV and in people’s email boxes. Internet articles told us that Pakistan started the 1965 war on Aug. 5 by sending soldiers into Kashmir (and that the Sept. 6 attack from India was a retaliation).
Suddenly, 187 million people are forced to come to terms with the possibility that their armed forces might not be as awesome as they thought.Pakistanis are now asking difficult questions: Is the Army incapable? Is it corrupt? Has it really been the savior of the country for the past 65 years? And the most dangerous question of all: Are sections of the Army supporting the terrorists? In a world where the Army is the only thing in Pakistan that is reliable and true, this is a fundamental shock to the nation’s value system.Denial is a natural reaction when everything that you believed in is suddenly taken away from you. That’s why I agree with most Pakistanis that it’s all a conspiracy. It’s a plan by the CIA to malign our armed forces and take over our nuclear assets.
Maybe it’s an effort by India’s intelligence agency to hurt our defense capabilities. In fact, it’s probably an evil scheme by the Israeli Mossad to destroy the world’s most powerful Muslim army. The Army isn't corrupt. The Army is still awesome.
He also debunks the Madrassa Math figure of 68 billion dollars in losses due to 'Pakistan's War on Terror'.The migration of Pakistani savings to other countries shows that its top wealth holders — whatever their percentage — do not see a safe future in Pakistan. Insecurity is the fundamental reason for such a prevalent view among prosperous Pakistanis
The Malaysian Consul General, General Khalid Abdul Razzaq, told the press that in the last few years, about 700 Pakistanis had transferred Rs one trillion and 80 billion to his country in a specific programme. If one includes the most popular places for Pakistani capital in the Gulf States, Europe and the US, the transferred amount would be in the hundreds of billions of dollars. If capital is flying out so ferociously, the Pakistani economy has a very dim future. The more depressing aspect is that the policies that created such conditions are not changing in the foreseeable future
Last month, Pakistan’s economic division estimated that the Pakistani economy has suffered losses of about $ 68 billion due to the war on terror. However, the figure was based on certain unproven assumptions and less than solid stipulations. It seemed that the figure was touted in the international press to convince foreign governments about the cost Pakistan is bearing for the war on terrorism and tell them that their aid is too little when compared to the losses. One could have questioned Pakistan’s projected loss figure on various grounds but the capital transfer to Malaysia cannot be questioned because it is coming from the horse’s mouth.
Thank you for choosing to reply because it gives me a chance to say what I wanted to say. You did mention n Cosmo_R's defence that "vegetarian" was being used in the sense of "not aggressive".RSoami wrote:
When CosmoR used vegetarian he did so knowingly that not all the officials in MEA are gonna be vegetarian
I just borrowed Paul Kagan's "Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys" metaphor. OK, I did not realize vegans would be so offended (who knew?).The Punjab chapter of People’s Lawyers Forum (PLF), on Monday, staged a protest at GPO Chowk on The Mall, against Punjab Law Minister, Rana Sanaullah, for issuing statement regarding former federal minister Babar Awan, labelling him as wajib-ul-qatl (liable to be killed).
Cosmo - it requires guts to do what you did. Thank you for that. You have redeemed yourself with more honor than most people are able to manage. As far as i am concerned - I eat meat myself but have noticed amongst Indians a needless sense of being defensive/Stockholm syndrome-ish on the issue of vegetarianism where former pukka vegetarians go to to a largely meat eating nation, order salad in an Italian restaurant and eat the odd piece of chicken and then lecture all vegetarians on the greatness of meat eating. Like being apologetic about "idol worship". For once I am in complete agreement with Acharya wrt the success of social engineering.Cosmo_R wrote:@All vegans ^^^ it was just a joke.
I am hereby changing (edit/replace all) references to "vegetarian" with "Amul cheese". Will that satisfy piskologists ?
.disha wrote:^^^ Regarding piskology and social engineering - What to do only, when our national emblem itself shows four (one facing the other way) lions on top of an elephant, bull and a horse running away from a chasing lion., with dharma chakras thrown in between for more confusion
Interesting point. You are, of course referring to the Ashoka Chakra. Any Indian should know what Ashoka did with his life and what values he held up. And his dietary preferences.Even after these oisules are broken into a thousand pieces (haramiyaan de totey-totey ho jawangey), each part will keep shouting "it was an Indian Israeli American conspiracy."In the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, India continues to be seen as a bigger threat than Islamic Terrorist groups like the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
Prem wrote:In Pakistan, denial is easier than heartbreak
Pakistanis have long revered their Army as heroic and pure. Now, they're coming to terms with the fact that it might not be as awesome as they thought. Denial is a natural reaction.
(Long post but it capture in nut-shell the whole story of Paki Poaklogical Pisskola drinking since 47)
In the 1980s, every 5-year-old in Pakistan wanted to become a commando or a pilot. Nobody wanted to become an accountant or an architect or a civil engineer. Ever wonder why?It’s because the army was awesome. {Snipped} ............................
Poaks onlee need to see Mahakali with Mundmala and 72million swords in her hands with a BrFesque smirk on her face .shiv wrote:disha wrote:^^^ Regarding piskology and social engineering - What to do only, when our national emblem itself shows four (one facing the other way) lions on top of an elephant, bull and a horse running away from a chasing lion., with dharma chakras thrown in between for more confusion
Just to note, it is beyond lot of people to send the message of Kali. With Poaks, it is better to bring in Draupadi - they go crazy and cannot wrap their heads around Polyandry. The concepts of Durga and Kaali is waay beyond them (and honestly beyond lots of Indians as well, though they will understand if explained properly - but not poaks - they have lost the cranial capacity). I would reserve Kaali as the ultimate weapon against the EJ types (learned from BR itself). But again that is my personal opinion.Prem wrote: Poaks onlee need to see Mahakali with Mundmala and 72million swords in her hands with a BrFesque smirk on her face .
Simply, 'Cognitive Dissonance'.Prem wrote:In Pakistan, denial is easier than heartbreak
Pakistanis have long revered their Army as heroic and pure. Now, they're coming to terms with the fact that it might not be as awesome as they thought. Denial is a natural reaction.]
Brigadier’s arrest shows extent of radicalisationHowever, it is not the first time that allegations have been made about links between elements in the Pakistani military and the militants belonging to Hizb-ut-Tahrir. At least two serving army officers were court martialled in 2010 for their alleged links with the Hizb-ut-Tahrir which represents a new breed of Islamic fundamentalists, who study at top British and American schools yet abhor Western values, advocate a pan-Islamic state and favour the removal of Pakistan’s pro-US government. The Pakistani military authorities had denied last week that a serving major was among several people who had been detained on charge of being CIA informants and passing on information which helped the US track down and kill al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. But it soon transpired that Major Amir Aziz, a doctor in the Pakistan Army’s medical corps, had been picked up.
Similarly, on May 30, 2011, hardly a week after the May 22 fidayeen attack on the Mehran Naval base in Karachi, the Pakistani military authorities arrested from Lahore a former commando of the Pakistan Navy, Kamran Ahmed, and his younger brother, Zaman Ahmed, for aiding the attackers. Kamran, who joined the Pakistan Navy in 1993 and was trained as a Special Services Group commando, was detained on charges of providing maps of the Mehran Naval base to the attackers. He had served at the Iqbal Naval base in Karachi till 1997 and was later transferred to the Mehran Naval base where he served till 2003, before being court-martialled by his institution and terminated from service in 2003 for assaulting a senior fellow officer.
However, Kamran is not the only Navy officer to have been arrested for his links with jihadis. Another Pakistani marine commando from the Waziristan tribal region, who had been posted at the Mehran Naval airbase, was arrested in January 2011 for his alleged links with militants. During interrogation, he disclosed that al-Qaeda and Taliban-linked militants had plans to target some key naval installations, including oil depots and power grid stations.
As a matter of fact, the spectre of Islamist infiltration has haunted the armed forces of Pakistan for decades. The creeping coup of conservatism in the armed forces is a legacy of the country’s third military dictator, General Ziaul Haq, under whose command the state policies were centred on Islam; religious sermons by fanatic mullahs in military units were encouraged and even Tableeghi Jamaat members were allowed to preach in the garrisons at will. This drift within the armed forces was first revealed during Benazir Bhutto’s second tenure as Prime Minister in 1995, when a group of senior Army officers headed by a Major General was busted planning to topple the government and to eliminate the existing Army leadership, with the prime aim of enforcing Islamic Shariah in the country.
The subsequent arrest of dozens of commissioned and non-commissioned officers of the Army and the Air Force in connection with the December 2003 suicide attacks targeting Musharraf’s cavalcade in Rawalpindi did not, consequently, come as a great surprise to many. And it probably did not surprise the military leadership that al-Qaeda and Taliban-linked militants had penetrated the Pakistan Army and Air Force units to preach their brand of jihad and recruit personnel to assassinate none other than their own Army Chief. After surviving twin assassination attempts, Musharraf had ordered the purging of known Islamists from superior ranks of the armed forces.
In January 2005, almost a year later, after court martial proceedings, a military court headed by Lieutenant-Colonel Sultan Noor Ali Khan of 96 Medium Air Defence Regiment, sentenced three Air Force officers to terms ranging from two to nine years for alleged links with the Jaish-e-Mohammad led by Maulana Masood Azhar. Nauman Khattak, 18, and Saeed Alam, 19, were sentenced to two years in prison, while the third airman, Munir Ahmed, was awarded a nine-year sentence.
Three months later, in March 2005, the trial court handed down death sentence [in absentia] to another accused in the conspiracy to assassinate Pervez Musharraf, Naik Arshad Mahmood of the Special Services Group (SSG) of the Army and others, including Havaldar Mohammad Younis of the 98 Air Defence Regiment of the Army, who was awarded 10 years with hard labour, and Lance Naik Zafar Iqbal Dogar of the SSG, who abandoned the mission halfway and became a key state witness. Six months later, on September 18, 2005, yet another military trial court sentenced Major Adil Qudoos to 10 years in prison, Colonel Abdul Ghaffar to three years and Colonel Khalid Abbasi to six months. Major Attaullah, Major Faraz and Captain Zafar were dismissed from service.
However, in an unprecedented move, never heard in the Pakistan Army, Abdul Islam Siddiqui, an Army soldier, was executed on August 20, 2005 after being tried in a closed-door Field General Court Martial, headed by a Major General. The 35-year-old Siddiqui was charged with pressing the button of the remote control device which caused an explosion targeting Musharraf in Rawalpindi on December 14, 2003.
