Terrorist Islamic Republic of Pakistan - Jan 04, 2014

Dilbu · Post by **Dilbu** » 16 Jan 2014 15:34

Former Pakistan President Musharraf 'needs US treatment': Lawyers

ISLAMABAD: Lawyers for former Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf on Thursday told a Pakistani court hearing treason charges against him that the retired general needed medical treatment in the United States.

Musharraf is currently in a military hospital with a heart condition, after falling ill while travelling to the special treason tribunal two weeks ago.

Anujan · Post by **Anujan** » 16 Jan 2014 15:35

Mush's case is quite funny. His lawyers are challenging the validity of 1973 constitution of Pakistan itself

The argument goes as follows: 1973 constitution was passed by Assembly. However that Assembly was elected before Bangladesh broke away, so west Pakistan Assembly only represents 50% total strength. So the passage of 1973 constitution by only 50% of the votes is not valid at all. If it is not valid where is the question of treason against it, hain ji?

Such a fine piece of Lahori Logic has never been seen

Someone should declare Kashmir to be an internal matter of India and Bangladesh.

Dilbu · Post by **Dilbu** » 16 Jan 2014 15:39

Despite ‘advice’, Musharraf refuses to leave Pakistan on medical grounds

Pakistan’s embattled former military dictator Pervez Musharraf has refused to leave the country on “medical grounds” until he is given “clean chit” in high treason and other cases, according to a close aide.
Contrary to the impression that “Musharraf’s illness drama” has been staged to prepare a ground to send him abroad under a deal, his friends suggest that all efforts to “persuade” him to leave the country have failed to bear fruit as the Nawaz Sharif-led government wants to ” get rid” of 70-year-old Musharraf as early as possible.
“Musharraf is more keen to get his name cleared in high treason and other cases rather than leaving the country on medical grounds,” said former deputy prime minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi who is considered close to the former president.

Mush is on a campaign planned as good as Kargil. Lamp post ahoy..

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 16 Jan 2014 15:50

perhaps the bangladesh parliament can vote on whether they think mushy is a criminal?

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 16 Jan 2014 17:29

Anujan wrote:Mush's case is quite funny. His lawyers are challenging the validity of 1973 constitution of Pakistan itself
The argument goes as follows: 1973 constitution was passed by Assembly. However that Assembly was elected before Bangladesh broke away, so west Pakistan Assembly only represents 50% total strength. So the passage of 1973 constitution by only 50% of the votes is not valid at all. If it is not valid where is the question of treason against it, hain ji?

Even if Pakistan does not accept 26th March 1971 (when the declaration of independence of Bangladesh was actually made and celebrated ever since), Pakistan must surely accept at least 16th December 1971 because the following familiar sentence says so:

The PAKISTAN Eastern Command agree to surrender all PAKISTAN Armed Forces in BANGLA DESH to Lieutenant-General JAGJIT SINGH AURORA, General Officer Commanding in Chief of Indian and BANGLA DESH forces in the Eastern Theater. . . .

KJo · Post by **KJo** » 16 Jan 2014 18:23

Shashi Tharoor, Paki journo alleged affair.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/new ... 856972.cms

anupmisra · Post by **anupmisra** » 16 Jan 2014 18:52

abhijitm wrote: Will vaccination be any useful if the person is already infected?

Depends on the type of vaccination. A fatal dose of a barbiturate, paralytic, and potassium solution should do the trick.

rajanb · Post by **rajanb** » 16 Jan 2014 18:54

anupmisra wrote:
abhijitm wrote: Will vaccination be any useful if the person is already infected?
Depends on the type of vaccination. A fatal dose of a barbiturate, paralytic, and potassium solution should do the trick.

+1 You love them, don't you Anup!

Nitesh · Post by **Nitesh** » 16 Jan 2014 19:18

anupmisra wrote:
abhijitm wrote: Will vaccination be any useful if the person is already infected?
Depends on the type of vaccination. A fatal dose of a barbiturate, paralytic, and potassium solution should do the trick.

Peregrine · Post by **Peregrine** » 16 Jan 2014 19:20

KJoishy wrote:Shashi Tharoor, Paki journo alleged affair.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/new ... 856972.cms

From the Galley Hot Press : Lahore-based journalist Mehr Tarar has Identical Magnetic Poles in her Inner Knees.

Cheers

arun · Post by **arun** » 16 Jan 2014 19:50

Demonstration of the IEDology of Pakistan in Peshawar targeting a Mohammadden seminary operated by the majority Sunni sect, kills 7:

Bombing at Sunni Seminary in Pakistan Kills 7

A case of Green on Green Intra-Mohammadden sectarian violence with the Shia's dishing it out or a case of Green on Green sub-sectarian Intra-Sunni violence

{Edited to correct URL}

anupmisra · Post by **anupmisra** » 16 Jan 2014 21:00

Pilot, co-pilot killed as training jet crashes

training jet of a private company

anupmisra · Post by **anupmisra** » 16 Jan 2014 21:02

arun wrote:Demonstration of the IEDology of Pakistan in Peshawar targeting a Mohammadden seminary operated by the majority Sunni sect, kills 7:

Bombing at Sunni Seminary in Pakistan Kills 7

Bomb recovered from Nowshera Tableeghi Jamaat Markaz

Coordinated effort...

arun · Post by **arun** » 16 Jan 2014 21:39

anupmisra wrote:Pilot, co-pilot killed as training jet crashes

training jet of a private company

APP via Dawn OTOH is reporting the crashed aircraft was a PAF Mirage:

PAF aircraft crashes near Mandi Bahauddin; pilots killed

A Pakistan Air Force (PAF) Mirage aircraft crashed in Qadirabad area of Mandi Bahauddin, killing both pilot and the co-pilot, a PAF spokesman said on Thursday.

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 16 Jan 2014 21:49

Hope it was a ROSE-1 or 3 Mirage!!

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 16 Jan 2014 21:54

So it was a training jet of a private company after all!

rajanb · Post by **rajanb** » 16 Jan 2014 21:56

The PAF is a private company after all.

KJo · Post by **KJo** » 16 Jan 2014 22:40

Mehr Tarar ‏@MehrTarar Jan 2

My son:Wherever Muslims are the majority,there are no 'minority' rights.And wherever Muslims are a 'minority',they shout 4 'minority' rights

Anujan · Post by **Anujan** » 16 Jan 2014 23:04

Attempt at being "liberal". Dont fall for it. Trust me.

Anindya · Post by **Anindya** » 16 Jan 2014 23:18

Do we really need this?

India, Pakistan to allow 3 banks in each other's country: Minister

partha · Post by **partha** » 17 Jan 2014 00:02

Anujan wrote:Attempt at being "liberal". Dont fall for it. Trust me.

+1.

She is also making extra efforts on her timeline to look normal. As if nothing much happened.

Lilo · Post by **Lilo** » 17 Jan 2014 00:18

Sectarian killings soar in Pakistan, raising fears of regional spillover

A surge in sectarian killings is raising new fears about Pakistan’s stability, as violence against Shiites and other minorities spreads to major cities and increasingly targets the country’s professional class.

Although Pakistan has struggled for decades with bouts of sectarian violence, the death toll rose dramatically last year and the country is experiencing a gruesome start to 2014.

Masked gunmen have been stalking Shiite doctors, lawyers and college professors. On Jan. 6, a suicide bomber tried to enter a school filled with several hundred students in a Shiite-dominated area in the northwest but was stopped by a ninth-grader, who is being hailed as a national hero after he died when the bomb went off in the ensuing scuffle. Other religious minorities, including Sufi Muslims, are facing lethal assaults.

The turmoil occurs at a critical moment. U.S. leaders are hoping that Pakistan can help maintain regional stability this year as most NATO troops withdraw from neighboring Afghanistan. But observers say any sectarian tension in Pakistan could easily spill over into Afghanistan, where security remains perilous and where religious and ethnic rivalries simmer, too.

“Nothing is going to get better, and it’s probably going to get worse,” said Sheikh Waqas Akram, a former member of Parliament from the eastern province of Punjab, where sectarian tensions have been on the rise.

There were 687 sectarian killings in the country last year, a 22 percent increase over 2012, according to the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies. Although the deaths represented just a small portion of the toll of violence and terrorism in Pakistan — which claimed 4,725 lives last year — sectarian unrest is spreading throughout the country and becoming routine in heavily populated areas, the group concluded.

About three-fourths of Pakistanis are Sunni Muslims, while Shiites make up 15 to 20 percent of the population. Despite attacks over the years by Sunni militants, Pakistan has largely avoided the sectarian strife that has plunged Iraq and Syria into turmoil.

But analysts and some Pakistani political leaders are increasingly questioning whether Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif can keep order in the nuclear-armed country of 180 million people.

“We are on a very dangerous trend where sectarian violence is increasing, and it is starting to take the shape of structural violence,” said Muhammad Amir Rana, director of the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies. “We are now seeing sectarian tensions triggered not only by terrorism incidents, but average clashes within the sectarian communities.”

Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, was rattled this month when six men were found executed near a Sufi shrine. All of the victims’ throats had been slashed, and at least two of the men had been beheaded. A note was found next to their bodies warning others not to visit the shrine. The Pakistani Taliban took credit for the attack.

A few days later, in the northwestern city of Mardan, two men were fatally shot as they slept in a Sufi shrine. Sufi Muslims practice a mystical form of Islam and have been targeted for years by Islamist extremists.

Meanwhile, Shiite professionals have increasingly been targets of assassination attempts. Among the victims last year were a prominent poet in Karachi, a well-
respected doctor in the eastern city of Lahore and a university leader in the eastern city of Gujrat. Extremists are apparently trying to intimidate educated Shiites into leaving the country — a “brain drain by force,” said Salman Zaidi, deputy director of the Jinnah Institute, an Islamabad-based think tank.

The attacks on Shiites have continued in the new year. On Jan. 5, a 59-year-old Shiite doctor was fatally shot as he traveled home from his hospital in Multan in Punjab province. Two days later, a Shiite bank branch manager was fatally shot in the northwestern city of Peshawar, according to Pakistani news media reports.

“The attacks are getting more and more brazen,” Zaidi said. “There is a very real sense that the state will not be able to protect the Shia community, and it’s not just the Shias.”

Pervaiz Rashid, Pakistan’s information minister, disputed such conclusions, saying the government is cracking down on “sectarian outfits” and recently launched raids against militants in Karachi.

“No one will be allowed to destabilize Pakistan,” Rashid said in an interview.

For much of Pakistan’s 66-year-old history, tension between Shiite and Sunni communities was rare; the country’s founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, stressed tolerance. But the government permitted the formation of Sunni militant groups in the 1980s as backstops against Shiite-
dominated Iran and majority-Hindu India.

Pakistani officials said sectarian violence intensified in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, when the Taliban regime was ousted in Afghanistan and its fighters crossed into Pakistan.

As the border became less stable, hundreds of thousands of people sought refuge in Karachi, Lahore and other Pakistani cities. The influx has meant that hard-line Shiites and Sunnis compete for space in heavily populated areas.

“There was no issue with Sunnis and Shiites in our district before 2007,” said Gulab Hussain Tori, a Shiite leader in Peshawar. “We were like brothers, but, unfortunately, the situation changed since 9/11 and the arrival of militants.”

According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, which monitors violence in the region, Pakistan’s death toll from sectarian violence last year was the highest since the organization began tracking the statistic in 1989, when 18 people were killed. That number has grown to more than 500 for each of the past two years.

Pakistani leaders and observers say an especially troubling development occurred in mid-November, when Sunnis and Shiites clashed in Rawalpindi, a garrison city adjacent to Islamabad.

The fighting broke out as Shiites participating in a religious holiday procession marched past a mosque where a hard-line Sunni cleric was delivering a Friday sermon. A cloth market and nearly 100 shops were set on fire. Police said 10 people were killed, although residents said at least twice that number died.

Knox Thames, director of policy and research at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, said Western officials and humanitarian groups are still awaiting clear signals that Sharif will be able “to push back against the rising tide of religious extremism.”

In a video released Tuesday, a Pakistani Taliban commander blamed Shiites for the unrest in Rawalpindi and called on Sunnis to “rise and kill the Shias, kill their officers and target their businesses.”

“I think it could definitely spiral out of control,” Thames said. “What is needed is just basic law enforcement, arresting people who kill others and incite violence, and that is not happening in any consistent way.”

Although much of the bloodshed can be traced to Sunni militant groups, Thames and other analysts said there is growing concern that the Shiite minority is also starting to organize militant groups.

On Jan. 2, two high-ranking officials of Ahl-i-Sunnat Wal Jamaat, a Sunni-dominated political group, were fatally shot in Islamabad by masked men on motorcycles. There was no assertion of responsibility, but at least a dozen other members of the group have been assassinated over the past year, according to the South Asia Terrorism Portal.

From WaPo rag
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/sec ... story.html

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 17 Jan 2014 00:51

Anindya wrote:Do we really need this?

India, Pakistan to allow 3 banks in each other's country: Minister

we dont, but MMS wont give up. hopefully the elections will see the right thing done.

jamwal · Post by **jamwal** » 17 Jan 2014 01:03

LakshO wrote:
Dilbu wrote:It is not beyond TSP to deliberately try and spread polio back into India. We should ask pakis applying for visa to come to Indian consulates and get the vaccine administered and obtain indian certificates from there. There is no other way to make sure vaccination is getting done properly.
^^+1. well said, Dilbu sir. You can never trust these paki snakes.

Paki visa applicants must be administered the polio vaccine when they come to apply visa, charge them full for the service and process their visas r-e-a-l s-l-o-w-l-y to ensure that the vaccine kicks in by the time they enter India. Also, adminster a booster shot at port of entry, fully paid by the paki passenger, regardless of age, gender, length/purpose of visit, economic status etc.

According to a little birdie, Indian intelligence agencies are pouring vaccines in to rivers which flow to Pakistan.
I'm reasonably sure that not even 5% of those vaccines are halal.

partha · Post by **partha** » 17 Jan 2014 01:16

^
hehe..I really doubt that Jamwal saar but I won't be surprised if it makes it to Pak press in the coming days. AoA to another conspiracy theory.

Anindya · Post by **Anindya** » 17 Jan 2014 02:13

Apart from the Musharraf angle - wonder, what's wrong with the people of Paris, TX ...

Could a Texas mayor derail the treason trial of Pakistan's ex-strongman?

A court in Islamabad was shown a letter from the ex-ruler’s longtime heart doctor, Arjumand Hashmi, who said Musharraf, 70, should be transferred to the United States for urgent treatment following an “alarming” deterioration in his condition.

Pakistan-born Hashmi, who has been treating Musharraf since 2006, is the Director of Interventional Cardiology at the Paris Regional Medical Center in Paris, Texas. He is also mayor of the city, which has a population of about 25,000.

Peregrine · Post by **Peregrine** » 17 Jan 2014 02:25

Anindya wrote:Do we really need this?

India, Pakistan to allow 3 banks in each other's country: Minister

Anindya Ji :

India and Indians don't,

However, seemingly Pakistan may have assured India MFN status if India can agree to some methodology whereby Pakistan can freely use its own made Indian Currency to buy Indian Goods in India for Import by Pakistan.

Can't think of any other reason!

Cheers

RCase · Post by **RCase** » 17 Jan 2014 04:46

India, Pakistan to allow 3 banks in each other's country: Minister

I protest! I see Hindoo consipiracy in this. Why 3 banks and not 4, hainji.

For Hindoo, the number 3 is special - Trinity - Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma, Trishool, 3 Pheras etc. etc.
For Bakistan, halal number is 4 - number of wives, number of male witnesses to rape, four fathers, heck even our friends are 3.5 so as to be different from the Hindoos.

As the big birather, Yindia should understand Bakistan's sensitivity and immediately change the number of banks to 4.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 17 Jan 2014 05:08

All the better.

Take a look at Pakistan: A new way of looking thread.

Prem · Post by **Prem** » 17 Jan 2014 05:11

http://vimeo.com/84214105
Sindh Assembly's first stone relief
http://www.dawn.com/news/1080706/sindh- ... one-relief

The concept behind the relief was to depict Sindh from ancient to recent times through imagery molded in stone.The elements include the wheel, the dancing girl ( Look Like Typical Paki Hijra ) , the bull and the hieroglyphics from Mohenjo-daro,
moving on to the dome of the Bhitshah mosque and the formation of the bridge, which illustrates modern architecture.To bind the concept of the old and the new together, there is a hint of the galaxy near the top of the wall which shows that the old and the new all has it’s own dominant space within the universe. This first relief inside the Sindh Assembly building is near completion and there is hope to see more of these carvings on other walls inside the building once it opens in 2015.

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 17 Jan 2014 06:26

ISI stalking Tharoor through "honey trap"."Fe-Mailgate?"

Tharoor caught between a blonde and a brunette

New Delhi/Islamabad : Union Minister Shashi Tharoor on Thursday was caught in a cross-border tweet war involving his wife and a Pakistani woman journalist with charges of an alleged online affair flying thick and fast.

As the indecorous row surrounding the suave 57-year-old Tharoor escalated, the controversy-prone minister took to Twitter to come out with a joint statement with his wife Sunanda Pushkar to say they were “happily married.”
Mehr Tarar

“The blonde’s ‘aqal’ (brain) is weaker than her grammar and spellings. From an ‘affair’ it has become ‘stalking’… make up (your) mind… Which
one is it?” — Mehr Tarar

“We wish to stress that we are happily married and intend to remain that way. Sunanda has been ill and was hospitalised this week and is seeking rest. We would be grateful if the media respects our privacy,” said the statement by Tharoor, who married Pushkar in 2010. The row erupted after exchange of some messages involving the three, some of them intimate.

Pushkar has accused the 45-year-journalist Mehr Tarar of stalking her husband and trying to “break” her marriage when she was away for medical treatment.

Both Tharoor — who finds himself in the unsavoury row barely months before the general elections — and Pushkar had married twice before.

The tweet war, which set the social media abuzz, also saw Pushkar allege that Tarar was an ISI agent.

Pushkar also alleged that Tarar wanted to have a “relationship” with her husband and asked her to mind her business. Tarar, a mother with a 13-year-old son and an Op-ed writer and a contributor to a Pakistani daily, ignited a storm once the saga started playing out on social media, shooting off barbs at Pushkar and defending herself.

Tarar dismissed the allegations as untrue and said she was totally amused. She said Sunanda has gone out of her mind. “For a woman to trash another woman and linking her with her husband is the lowest form of sickness ever.

It’s nauseous. No respect for her marriage,” the journalist said in a series of tweets.

In a rather uncharitable remark, she said: “The blonde’s ‘aqal’ (brain) is weaker than her grammar and spellings. From an ‘affair’ it has become ‘stalking’… make up (your) mind… Which one is it?”

Tarar claimed she had great respect for Tharoor and that everything about him is on her Twitter account and on her timeline. She said Tharoor’s view on politics had always fascinated her. ”How can somebody stalk on phone?” she demanded and added that Sunanda’s tweets were crazy.

”To be called an ISI agent and a stalker…I have nothing to add. So I ‘stalk’ on BBM and phone. The last I checked it was a two-way thing, or maybe technology changed while I ‘stalked’?”

The journalist said she had met Tharoor for the first time for an interview. She had also met him in June at an awards event in Dubai.

After Tharoor and his wife put out a tweet saying they were happily married, Tarar told a wire agency, “I am very happy if there are happy. But I really want to know why Sunanda has put my life in jeopardy by labelling me an ISI agent. My life has been put in danger not only in India but in Pakistan also.”

On Pushkar’s allegation that she was ‘stalking’ Tharoor, she said: “I am not a 15-year-old to stalk someone. She said I am out to spoil Shashi’s election. But Kerala and Lahore are very far off.”

The Twitter handle of Tharoor, a popular Indian politician on the networking site, was allegedly hacked on Wednesday and some wacky tweets were sent from it to Tarar.
- See more at: http://freepressjournal.in/tharoor-caug ... Fe7hb.dpuf

The Pakistani lady caught up in the Tharoors' tiff
Comment Share Text size: A A A
January 16, 2014 14:24 IST

Shashi Tharoor may be living out many men's fantasy.

Two beautiful women are, apparently, fighting for his affections.

And India's minister for Human Resource Development sure doesn't seem too thrilled about it.

A very public love triangle was played out on Twitter among the People's Rep for rather staid Thiruvanathapuram, his flamboyant wife Sunanda Pushkar and Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar.

Pushkar, Tharoor's biwi number teen, first accused her 'stupid' (this is a brilliant man who got a PhD at 23!) husband of having an affair with Tarar and declared her intentions of divorcing him.

Then, she set the world of Twitter on fire when she posted rather explicit messages allegedly sent to Dr Tharoor by Tarar on the social networking site.

'I love you, Shashi Tharoor. And I go while in love with you, irrevocably, irreversibly, hamesha. Bleeding, but always your Mehr,' says one of them.

When a squirming Dr Tharoor claimed his account had been hacked, Pushkar claimed that Tarar was an agent of Pakistan's infamous Inter Services Intelligence.

So who is this Pakistani lovely?

Ms T, a former journalist at Pakistan's Daily Times newspaper, met Dr T for the first time when she interviewed the freshly-minted politician.

'It was a pleasure to meet him. His views as a politician fascinated me,' Ms T admitted.

Today, she describes herself as a 'housewife and a mother'.

She is an avid member of the Twitterati club and posts regular tweets about her interactions with her son, her current assignments and whatever music catches her fancy.

While she initially refused to get dragged into the fight, a furious Ms T later dismissed Mrs T's charges and threatened to sue the scorned wife over the allegations.

'Becoming an ISI agent is not that easy. And how can I stalk him when I am in another country?' Ms T asked.

She also tweeted up a storm since the saga started playing out on social media, shooting off uncharitable barbs at Mrs T and defending herself.
.
'The blonde's aqal is weaker than her grammar & spellings. From an 'affair' it has become 'stalking'..make up yr mind, darlin'. Which one is it,' she wrote.

Another tweet read, 'For a woman to trash another woman linking her w/her husband is the lowest form of sickness ever. It's nauseous. No respect for her marriage.'

The plot got curiouser when Dr T and his missus released a joint statement on Thursday, January 16, saying, 'We wish to stress that we are happily married and intend to remain that way. Sunanda has been ill and hospitalised this week and is seeking to rest.'

There, the matter rests for now! Until Dr T sails into another storm...

arun · Post by **arun** » 17 Jan 2014 06:33

arun wrote:
SSridhar wrote:Why Oral Polio Vaccination is a Must for Inbound Pakistanis …………{Snipped}…………….
Unless India wants the Polio Virus to join a long list of unwelcome exports from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan such as Jihadi Mohammadden Terrorists, Arms & Ammunition, Counterfeit Indian Currency Notes, and with todays news item on L’Affaire Shashi Tharoor, Honey Trapping Pakistani Journalists ; the new policy that requires every Pakistani travelling to India after January 30, 2014 to compulsorily receive oral polio vaccination “at least six weeks prior to departure to India.” is the minimum that needs to be done.

I however fear that will not be enough given the ease with which vaccination certificates can be obtained either via bribes or counterfeiting in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Far safer would be for our country to implement a complete ban on people travelling to and from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Our Government should not be swayed by sympathy inducing arguments about the need for maintaining people to people contact, helping divided families, using visit visas as confidence building measure to foster peace and communal vote bank politics. The Citizens of our country must instead enjoy the fruits of the vast resources ploughed into polio eradication without the fear of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan undoing the effort.

Pious Mohammaddens in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan seem to have fallen prey to propaganda perhaps born out of fact that the Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin were Jewish, that the Polio vaccine is a plot to sterilise Mohammaddens. The number of parents who are refusing to inoculate their children against Polio in the Islamic republic of Pakistan has climbed in 2013.

Our Government should take stringent measures to ensure that the polio virus is not reintroduced into India from the Islamic Republic joining a long list of other unwelcome exports from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan such as Jihadi Mohammadden Terrorists, Arms & Ammunition, Counterfeit Indian Currency Notes, Heroin and with yesterday's news item on L’Affaire Shashi Tharoor, Honey Trapping Pakistani Journalists :

Number of vaccination refusal cases go up as coordination crumbles

KLNMurthy · Post by **KLNMurthy** » 17 Jan 2014 07:26

Anindya wrote:Do we really need this?

India, Pakistan to allow 3 banks in each other's country: Minister

No worries:

ndia and Pakistan are working to allow three banks to set up branches on each other's soil to normalise trade relations and boost commerce, [paki] Minister of State for Commerce Khurram Dastagir Khan has said.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 17 Jan 2014 07:36

Jhujar wrote:http://vimeo.com/84214105
Sindh Assembly's first stone relief
http://www.dawn.com/news/1080706/sindh- ... one-relief

It is blasphemous that in the sunni wahhabi/deobandi/takfiri Islamic Emirate of Pakistan, man made figures are allowed to be displayed. Secondly, one look at the accompanying picture of naked woman, you know it is doubly blasphemous.

anupmisra · Post by **anupmisra** » 17 Jan 2014 08:12

The ultimate insult one paki can hurl at another:'you are an Indian'.

Journalist incurs Musharraf lawyer's wrath

Ahmed Raza Kasuri, one of the firebrand counsels of beleaguered former president, Gen (Retd) Pervez Musharraf, Thursday assaulted a journalist with insults like 'Shame on you' and 'you are an Indian' only because the fumed lawyer had no answer to the question he was asked.

"Your question makes you look like you are being paid by someone.

You are undermining Pakistan’s commando general?" an enraged Kasuri said.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 17 Jan 2014 08:36

India Against 'Non Discriminatory Access Status' but suggests an equally bizarre term - The Hindu

India is not agreeable to the term Non-Discriminatory Access (NDA), suggested by Pakistan in lieu of the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status. Instead, India has mooted in response to Pakistan’s request the term “Non-Discriminatory Market Access” (NDMA), Commerce Ministry officials told The Hindu . The officials said Commerce Secretaries of both countries would meet again here [New Delhi] on Friday.

How does it help by letting Pakistan off the hook just because it finds it troubling to call India a Most Favoured Nation when that is the WTO lingo ? How can we then take disputes to WTO which would not recognize this one-off terminology ? We are indulging TSP too much.

But Indian officials said, “There are three outstanding issues that Pakistan must agree to for the talks to be effective.” Had Pakistan agreed on these three issues, it would have fully reciprocated the Indian gesture of operationalising MFN status for it.”

The outstanding issues, the officials said, are: Permission for use of containers, operationalisation of 24X7-trade across the Wagah border and dismantling of the two negative lists still in use by Pakistan against India. There are no issues pending on the Indian side as India has already operationalised MFN status for Pakistan.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 17 Jan 2014 11:20

A Change of Guard in TSP Stokes Nuclear Safety Fears - Meena Menon, The Hindu

How can such a country where change of guard at that position imemediately raises fears of the nuclear weapons falling into the hands of the jihadi terrorists be ranked below India in the Nuclear Threat index ? Goes such a fear exist in any other NWS ? Does anyone even pay attention to such a change of guard in any of these countries ? That index is hoax.

A cryptic message on December 18, 2013 announced a change of guard in the Strategic Plans Division (SPD), which marked the end of a long and distinguished career of its director general (DG) Lt. Gen. Khalid Ahmed Kidwai, whose name had become virtually synonymous with the nuclear weapons and strategy management of the country. He was replaced by Lt. Gen. Zubair Mahmood Hayat, corps commander Bahawalpur in one of the quieter moves by the Nawaz Sharif government, which has renewed the debate on the safety of Pakistan’s growing nuclear arsenal. An oft quoted news report described Hayat as “brainy, brave and bold” and that he was commissioned in the Artillery regiment in the 80s.

The new SPD chief has a tough challenge ahead to reorient the organisation in testing times.

As a measure of Lt. Gen. Kidwai’s crucial importance, it was the outgoing SPD chief who briefed Chief of Army Staff Gen. Raheel Sharif during his visit to the institution last week. Gen. Sharif in a statement said that Pakistan’s nuclear programme occupied a central place for the defence of the country.

Lt. Gen. Kidwai headed SPD since its inception in 1999 and turned it into a “true nuclear conclave” as described by Feroze Hasan Khan in his book Eating Grass: The Making of the Pakistani Bomb . Lt. Gen. Kidwai is quoted in the book as saying that no delegation of authority concerning nuclear weapons is planned, during a lecture in the U.S. in 2006 but already there are reports from the U.S. media expressing concern over his exit after some 12 extensions and the biggest fear is that nuclear weapons could fall into the wrong hands.

When a similar atmosphere of distrust prevailed in 2008, Lt. Gen. Kidwai had invited the foreign press for an extraordinary briefing which included two Indian journalists.

At that time he had reassured everyone that the country’s strategic assets were in safe hands and that there was “no conceivable scenario” in which they could fall into the hands of extremists.

He said there was “no chance that one day there will be a DG SPD here with a long beard who will be controlling everything.”

But the world community now will need much more than assurances and it is not for nothing that the U.S. has reportedly increased surveillance over Pakistan, according to information from whistleblower Edward Snowden which has been refuted by the federal government here.

Michael Kugelman in a recent article in The National Interest titled “One More Reason to worry about Pakistan’s Nukes” asks the question, “Is anyone other than Khalid Kidwai capable of managing Pakistan’s nuclear security challenges, given their sheer magnitude?”

Stating that there is good reason to be anxious about Lt. Gen. Kidwai’s departure, he adds that “Few countries are as prone to a nuclear crisis as Pakistan — and this threat could well rise in the next year. The withdrawal of international forces from Afghanistan portends heightened competition between Pakistan and India for influence in Afghanistan.

The U.S. troop withdrawal also deprives militants of a prime target, increasing the likelihood that some jihadists — including those with ties to Pakistan’s security establishment — will launch new campaigns of violence in India. These scenarios could dangerously escalate India-Pakistan tensions, and conceivably trigger armed mobilisations that include Tactical Nuclear Weapons.”

In 2012, security authorities acknowledged a “serious threat” from the Pakistani Taliban to attack one of Pakistan’s largest nuclear installations,” he points out.

However, Pakistan has repeatedly emphasised the safety of its nuclear installations and its credible minimum deterrence policy.

Central Information Secretary of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Shireen Mazari, slammed “the U.S. media campaign launched once again against Pakistan's nuclear weapons.”

Lt. Gen. Talat Masood, chief coordinator of the think tank Pugwash told The Hindu that fears of nuclear weapons falling into the wrong hands was always there but comments are being made by people who don’t understand Pakistan and equate the nuclear with the conventional weapons set-up.

There can be no change as far as safety issues are concerned and the new DG will be even more careful.

Even if the control of the nuclear weapons is with the military there is a separate command and control structure protected by a separate force, physically and technology wise and it was secure, he said.

The government relies on the new DG and the military leadership had recommended him and SPD had grown into a mature institution, he pointed out.

kenop · Post by **kenop** » 17 Jan 2014 13:22

When a similar atmosphere of distrust prevailed in 2008, Lt. Gen. Kidwai had invited the foreign press for an extraordinary briefing which included two Indian journalists.

A bit of idle curiousity. These two must be from Hindu and PTI IIRC. Recently, there never were any other papers/agencies having presence in Pakistan. Any guesses on names?
Here is a 2008 report from The Hindu
This one too doesn' t have names

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 17 Jan 2014 13:26

From The Hindu, it should have been Ms. Nirupama Subramanian. Her name is right there in the report.

partha · Post by **partha** » 17 Jan 2014 13:39

http://tribune.com.pk/story/659933/ther ... st-report/

PESHAWAR: There could be more than three terrorists involved in the bomb blast in the Tableeghi Markaz in Peshawar, the investigation report of the blast revealed, Express News reported on Friday.

The report, prepared by police, stated that more than 15,000 people were present at the mosque at the time of the blast.

A case of Shia attacking Sunni. 10 people killed and 60 injured. As with all the terror attacks in Pakistan, expect rise in casualties. Slowly but surely Shias are retuning the favor. It is significant that this happened in Peshawar where Shias have been mostly at the receiving end.