Sunni Terrorist Fragments of Unstable Pakistan- November 7, 2016

[habal]

they print dollah also.

this is the company at the root of all troubles

http://www.delarue.com

[JE Menon]

A tidbit that some may have forgotten. A senior official of this company was on the plane that was hijacked for the release of Zargar, Azhar and Shaikh

[saip]

The week-long ordeal had an unexpected impact on the currency tycoon. What I experienced on the plane has changed me forever, said Giori. I don't know what it is: Hinduism, the so-called fatalism of Indians. But the way the passengers stayed so calm throughout, even the children, was exemplary. I told myself, if the plane had been full of Italians or French, it would have been very different.

DeLaRue Giori

[Falijee]

Hatred And Subterfuge: Pakistan’s Proxy War On India
Syed Ata Hasnain - November 04, 2016, 7:13 pm
[quote]The Pakistan Army continues to follow the principles of irrationality and deniability as essential aspects of its military doctrine.[/quote]
POSTED IN FULL

Through my years as a senior commander in the Indian Army, there was an annual feature which never escaped my attention. The yearly war game of my formation would invariably begin with a presentation by a new team each time on the psyche and mindset of the Pakistan Army. I considered it mandatory for all to know as much about the mind as about the weaponry or the tactics of our western adversary.

The Pakistan Army has invariably taken the initiative and risked escalation to attain what it may perceive as the national interest of Pakistan. However, its claims of advancing that interest are more than dubious in the eyes of most of the world. There is, however, much difference in the translation of what most of the world believes and what it officially puts out as its belief.

Also,"much difference" in what is conveyed to "foreign audiences" and what is "dished out" for domestic consumption !

This has been the Pakistan Army’s major achievement brought about by a deep strategy of denial, subterfuge and management of perception. It has mastered all these and been helped to a great extent by the importance of the geostrategic real estate that Pakistan occupies. This real estate is in effect the confluence of five civilisations with competing interests of each of them. These civilisations are the Indian, Chinese, Central Asian, Persian and Arab. And the "strategy" of playing one superpower against the other !

The Pakistani strategic leadership, consciously or unconsciously, ascribes far greater significance to this aspect and attempts to wrest advantage due to it.

Any attempt to examine the mindset of the Pakistan Army and its deep set psyche has to take into account a few specifics. The partition of the subcontinent, the wars—1947-48, 1965 and 1971, ( and the" pursuit " of so-called Ghazwe- e- Hind , derived from "The Holy Book " ! )the polity which allowed unbridled growth of aggressive self-aggrandisement, the dabbling in religion and the perceived sense of insecurity arising from the geographical comparison of the size of India and Pakistan. These are just some of the events and trends which shaped the strange mind of the Pakistan Army but may need examination to arrive at other characteristics which form the Pakistani national mindset too.

Perhaps the one most significant aspect which has contributed to the mindset of the “holier than thou” and “we know it all” attitude is a social one. When feudal practices ( to this day, no govt "has the guts " to undertake land reforms to abolish feudalism ! )persist and a social hierarchy prevails, those at the higher rungs become more authoritarian. The making of the plan for intrusion into the Kargil sector, as described by Pakistan’s Air Commodore M. Kaiser Tufail in his seminal article confirms this assumption.

The temptation in such analyses is to proceed sequentially with historical perspectives and arrive at deductions of what we find useful when related to the current situation. I am consciously reversing the approach by first stating what my observations are on the psyche and mindset of the Pakistan Army and then drawing a historical connect to those aspects which need it.

In a nation where the Army has contrived to create a legitimacy for its control over major aspects of governance and which is not even answerable to the highest judicial authority, a certain sense of disdain develops for all others. It is tremendously morale-boosting for the uniformed community; decisions can be taken without having to bear the responsibility for them; there cannot be a headier empowerment than that. So the Pakistan Army’s leadership continues to thrive with a dominant mood of antipathy towards India and the Indian Army. It means that all issues concerning defense and foreign affairs are its domain as the political leadership, intelligentsia, academics and diplomats cannot truly understand military threats. This is the old and the currently prevalent mindset which prevents the leadership from deep thinking on implications of its decisions.

. Not to mention that political and military leadership, "generally speaking", except for "tokenism" is firmly in the hands of the Pakjabi establishment .

Two classic examples need to be quoted. First there was Kargil, where Pervez Musharraf kept the other services and the government of the day outside the ambit of planning and even basic information, as described earlier. His disdain for the Indian civilian leadership made him take an unethical decision of not saluting India’s Prime Minister in 1999 during a visit to Lahore. He followed that by initiating a conflict in the Kargil theatre. However, he had not thought through his strategy which would lead to conflict termination and the contingency planning was terribly weak.

And the civilian leadership was forced to go to President Clinton to "save" the Enchendee of the Fauj !

This happened in 1971 and 1965 too. In 1971, Yahya Khan should have anticipated the potential intervention by India if a humanitarian crisis was created in former East Pakistan. Yet he went ahead and acceded to the genocidal elimination of intellectuals and imposing the wrath of the Army on the hapless citizens in the rural areas, forcing them to flee across the border. In 1965, Ayub Khan’s terrible hurry to instigate a conflict before India’s refurbished Army came into shape got the better of Pakistan.

What makes the Pakistani Generals the world’s finest conflict initiators and the worst terminators? When you belong to a service which is so dominant and can take credit for success while ascribing failure to others, decision making becomes easier. Yet, it leads to a brasher mindset. To conclude that the Pakistan Army has learnt something from its errant ways would be a mistake. It continues to follow the principles of irrationality and deniability as essential aspects of its military doctrine. The decision to strike at Pathankot air base with sponsored terrorists in order to upset the gains of the initiatives in India-Pakistan relations is reflective of this.

There is a pattern of "mischief making" by the Pak Fauj , whenever diplomatic initiatives are being tried !

The Pakistan Army’s major force multipliers over the last 30 years or so have been two agencies, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), and India-focused terror groups such as the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM). Together they form the “deep state”, the diffused leadership which runs Pakistan’s anti-India campaign. The ISI gained its experience in Afghanistan in the 1980s andIn 1989, as conditions presented themselves, the Pakistan Army was confident of making a successful switch from Punjab to Jammu & Kashmir. The risk of escalation was huge and the nuclear parameters of either side were still ill-defined. Yet Pakistan took the risk and its intent was partially achieved; the risk-taking business is part of the Pakistan Army’s “caution be damned” attitude. 90s as the lead intelligence agency while simultaneously pursuing a low-key proxy war in India’s Punjab in the 1980s.

The "Khalistan issue " is still not dead as far as the Paki Army is concerned !

While we may brush aside the failure of the Pakistan Army in 1965 and 1971, its ability to conceive a hybrid strategy for retribution against India as a nation and the Indian Army in particular, and then pursue it for close to 40 years is in itself a reason to bring about a mindset.In all these 40 years, it has never been chided internationally, thus emboldening it even further. The understanding and recognition that the core centre of radical Islam lies in the Af-Pak region has never been denied by the international community, but the Indian intent of having Pakistan declared a rogue state sponsoring transnational terror too, has never been given the seriousness it deserved. This supposed moral victory has given the Pakistan Army the confidence and the perception that the world rarely sees threats in unison. It can, therefore, continue to target India through its hybrid variety of proxy war without fear.

In this, the Pakistan Government has basically "depended" on the Chinese to stop world opinion from taking any action against them !

Where did the idea of proxy war come from and how did it take shape?
To understand this, it is necessary to go back to 1972 and the Shimla Agreement. The devious Pakistani mind was on display and so was the trusting Indian attitude. Ninety-three thousand prisoners of war were handed over without an attempt to seek a permanent solution to our border problems.( Big blunder by I.G. ; ZAB outsmarted her in this regard ! )Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto guided Pakistan’s destiny for close to six years. It was the period in which the Pakistan Army was licking its wounds. In the interim came India’s Pokhran nuclear test, forcing the decision on Pakistan to also seek the bomb. In 1977, Zia-ul-Haq struck, unseated Bhutto and assumed power.Zia then conceived his diabolical plan for seeking retribution. The plan was twofold. The first was all about neutralising India’s conventional superiority through acquisition of nuclear weapons capability. This was earnestly and illegally pursued through the 1980s and 1990s. The second was to seek opportunities or create them to exploit India’s apparent fault lines.

The history of the Af-Pak region through the 1980s is all about the experience that Pakistan Army’s senior and middle leadership gained in Afghanistan leading the transnational mujahideen and acting as the US and Saudi Arabia’s frontline state. They also ran a side show in India’s Punjab. It is this that apparently convinced the Pakistan Army leadership that religion/faith were powerful tools of motivation which created fervour and passion and could be exploited for strategic gains.

The 1980s also saw the advent of the Saudi clergy into Pakistan making a beeline for the seminaries set up in the refugee camps; the radical ideology of the Salafis found unresisted advocacy here. It was the beginning of the radicalisation of the Pakistan Army and the use of faith as a strategic weapon, something Pakistan continues to reflect in its larger thinking.The opportunity did not need to be created. It came faster than anticipated and right where the Pakistani military leadership wanted it; in the Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir. The runaway success in Afghanistan in forcing the Soviet withdrawal came to be associated with the last nail in the coffin of the Cold War. Pakistan became the favoured partner of the US-Saudi combine.

It was heady, and the taste of success with the hybrid form of warfare in Afghanistan gave the generals the confidence to try the same against the Indian Army, then stuck in the quagmire of Sri Lanka. It’s a measure of the confidence of the Pakistani military leadership that it did not flinch when the opportunity was sensed in spite of the fact that Zia-ul-Haq, the chief advocate and strategist, died at the threshold in August 1988. Weaker leaderships may have succumbed, but General Mirza Afzal Beg, a mohajir cavalry officer along with Lt Gen Hamid Gul, a Punjabi, again from the cavalry, and experienced in conduct of covert operations as Director General, ISI, took the required decisions.

Institutionally, both ISI and ISPR have been the Pakistan Army’s mainstay in the execution of its strategy against India. The ISI has done the dirty work of getting the jihadi elements on board, as well as recruiting, financing and launching them, while the ISPR has managed the perception, information and strategic communication game. The leadership continues to believe in the infallibility of its strategy despite the Kargil setback and the near-war situations which emerged in 2001-02 and later in 2008.On both occasions, the threshold of India’s tolerance for proxy war was crossed, but it did not progress into a full showdown. India’s advocacy of seeking all options is likely to have given the Pakistan Army a mistaken perception that it (India) was far too obsessed with its economic progress for it to risk a confrontation which would probably set it back by many percentage points in the economy charts.

In many ways, the ISPR, the lesser known of the two sword arms of the Pakistan Army, has been far more effective in its ventures and contributed greatly to the Pakistani strategy. Denial is its responsibility, besides the whole gamut of psychological operations. But it has been the joint effort of the two in bringing the struggle in Kashmir to the streets. Retrieving a tactical or operational situation involving terrorists, intrusions, infiltration or incidents of the Hazratbal and Charar-e-Sharif variety, is never a major challenge for the Indian Army as has been proven many times. However, the Pakistan Army has done its research well on the effects of an Intifada movement, the like of which was seen in 2008-10 and is continuing even now in 2016 after it was triggered by the death of Burhan Wani.

Because of Pakistan's "special reputation " the deniability factor", like a "broken record" , (and also because of today's "social media ") is no longer being believed by world governments - e.g. OBL killing

Recovery from such a situation needs a transformational change as was attempted in 2011. In a private discussion with the Indian defence attaché in 2011, Shuja Pasha, the high-profile ISI chief is believed to have referred to the 2011 initiatives of the Indian Army. He reportedly admitted that the Pakistan establishment watched with wonderment how the Indian Army deftly switched the situation around with a change of strategy in the approach to the people.
The Pakistanis know it and have read our weaknesses too. They are aware of the civil-military divide, the media obsession, the inability to focus on the Kashmiri alienation and the woeful quality of the information game. Can it all be defeated this time? Perhaps, the Indian government’s ownership of the surgical strikes may have surprised them. If anything, some pragmatism about the limits of Pakistan’s interference in Kashmir and elsewhere in India may have dawned on the Pakistan Army.

That India can choose to execute non-escalatory actions and be brazen enough to not even produce evidence to the world is a noticeable departure from the past. Having tasted success and got the passionate support of the public behind it, the Indian government’s actions could be also perceived by the Pakistan Army as no longer predictable and may therefore impose some caution.

The "unpredictability" of the Modi Govt will surely "upset" the Pak Fauj ; e.g. demonitization of the large notes !

However, it is also entirely believable that irrationality continues to rule the Pakistan Army’s mindset. A self-belief that tactical nuclear weapons are the guarantee against India’s proactive strategy may continue to prevail and that could be the reason for brazenness.

Tactical nuclear weapons use will be answered by a nuclear strike against major Pakistani cities !

The Pakistan Army’s belief in the strength of its relationship with China is also a major factor in promoting its errant ways. The coming of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has enhanced the mutuality of that relationship. As the US-India strategic partnership emerges, the China-Pakistan equation will only strengthen, adding further weight to the mindset that the Pakistan Army can get away with some irrational acts to keep the pot boiling in Kashmir and elsewhere in India.

But the Paki Govt , still "depends" on US for day- to -day survival !

Finally, has anything changed due to the surgical strikes? It would be unfair to deduce that these have had no effect. At the same time, to state that they have changed the mindset of the Pakistani military leadership and forced it to retract from its avowed policy of interference in Jammu & Kashmir would also be incorrect. What they have definitely achieved is the conveyance of a strategic message that India’s political leadership can and will take decisions and take them early enough; and that it is quite capable of playing a diplomatic game to isolate Pakistan. The combining of options is a lesson being slowly realised. However, India would do well to take precautions against a possible unpredictable and irrational act which will cause much dismay, emotive public response and pressure, and leave it with even lesser options than what it had after Uri.

This interesting article was written before Trump got elected as POTUS; Pakistan Army may now find its option still reduced further !

[ArmenT]

they print dollah also.

this is the company at the root of all troubles

http://www.delarue.com

Paper for dollars is made by an American company, mainly Crane & Co. Blend of ingredients for US currency paper is a closely guarded secret. And I believe that in many cases, De Lar Rue only supplies raw materials (paper, ink, plates, machinery) to various countries, which print their own money in their own premises.

[Raja Bose]

Pakis already shalwar soiling about POTUS Trumpanzee?

[rajsunder]

I think Indian bank notes are printed in Switzerland. How come baki's have such sophisticated press? If they have such technology then why not print dollah and buy muft me ef sollah?

it cannot be done bcos some one of their own will rat them out even before a single $ is out of their press for the sake of a US passport.

[Falijee]

Pakis "Grasping For Straws" And Stirring Shtt As Usual Because Their Goose Is Cooked Under POTUS Trump

Trump's offer of mediation between Pak, India on Kashmir dispute welcome: Foreign Office

[Falijee]

More "Hearburn" For Pakistan ?
Trump and Modi will be 'best friends', says adviser to US president-elect
Reuters
POSTED IN FULL !

The US president-elect will be "best friends" with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said adviser to Donald Trump and President of the Republican Hindu Coalition, Shalabh Kumar on Thursday.While answerinig a question regarding Trump's expected policy towards Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kumar said, "They will be best friends ─ not only the two nations will be best friends, but these two gentlemen will be best friends. Donald Trump knows about Modi through me. He is very keen to learn about Modi."

"He [Trump] calls out the camel in the room when nobody else does. He already talks about cross-border terrorism ─ he is the first president to do so, essentially acknowledging that Pakistan is a perpetrator of terrorism," said Kumar while commenting on Trump's policy on South Asian security in the context of India's rivalry with Pakistan.

"What I expect from him is a full expression of support for the surgical strikes that Modi ordered. The war against radical Islam is going to be properly prosecuted. He is going to find great partnership with India in that," Kumar added.Shalabh Kumar, an Indian émigré businessman, is Trump's point person for outreach to Indian-American voters.The Chicago-based Kumar emigrated from India in 1969 and founded the Republican Hindu Coalition, a political interest group, last year.

If "Billary" was being advised by a Muslim Brotherhood supporter (Abedin) on Pakistan policy what is wrong with a Hindu advising Trump on India

[CRamS]

"He [Trump] calls out the camel in the room when nobody else does. He already talks about cross-border terrorism ─ he is the first president to do so, essentially acknowledging that Pakistan is a perpetrator of terrorism," said Kumar while commenting on Trump's policy on South Asian security in the context of India's rivalry with Pakistan.

Not sure if Trump explicitly called out TSP terror against India, but if he did, its a welcome move.

One need not talk about India TSP relations with US as a zero sum game. Its not some kind of a love contest between 2 brides (India and TSP) for the maacho bride-groom (USA). Most often this is how it is framed. Rather, all that US has to say is that TSP terror against India is as evil as ISIS terror or Al Queda terror, and its India specific pigLeTs ought to be eliminated just as ISIS and Al Queda pigLeTs, that alone is enough for TSP to shiver.

[Prem]

Senator suggests withdrawing Rs5,000, Rs1,000 banknotes

Wow, A whole new idea

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party Senator Osman Saifullah Khan has submitted a resolution in the upper house of parliament, seeking demonetisation of Rs5,000 and Rs1,000 currency notes to reduce illicit money flows and encourage people to use banking services.The private member resolution comes at a time when the country’s population is gradually shifting to cash economy due to the government’s ill-conceived taxation policies.“The house urges the government to take steps to withdraw from circulation as legal tender the high denomination Rs5,000 and Rs1,000 notes so as to reduce illicit money flows, encourage the use of bank accounts and reduce the size of undocumented economy,” reads the resolution.This is the only way that will compel people to use banking channels and launch a crackdown on black money circulating in the economy, said Khan, while speaking at a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance on Thursday.The General Pervez Musharraf-led government had introduced the Rs5,000 denomination notes despite resistance from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). The notes made it easy for the people to keep cash instead of depositing money in banks.The resolution was moved in the Senate a couple of days after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the demonetisation of Rs1,000 and Rs500 banknotes, making these notes invalid in a major assault on black money, fake currency and corruption.“At this point, we do not see a reason to withdraw the Rs5,000 currency note,” said Abid Qamar, chief spokesman for the SBP.Those who are in favour of the note say it facilitates the people in areas where banking services are not available. Private commercial banks are mainly concentrated in the urban areas and main towns.A World Bank report says about 100 million adults in Pakistan do not have access to formal and regulated financial services.However, those who wish to see withdrawal of the note argue that high denomination notes have reduced the value of currency and fuel inflationary expectations in the economy. In 2015-16, “the currency in circulation expanded 30.5% compared to 17.3% a year before, which reflects that private businesses are using cash to settle their transactions,” according to the MPC.In absolute terms, the currency outside scheduled banks increased from Rs2.555 trillion in 2014-15 to Rs3.334 trillion last year, a net addition of Rs779 billion in a single year.

[manjgu]

is there a fake currency problem in Pakistan also? whats the magnitude of the problem?

[habal]

they print dollah also.

this is the company at the root of all troubles

http://www.delarue.com

Paper for dollars is made by an American company, mainly Crane & Co. Blend of ingredients for US currency paper is a closely guarded secret. And I believe that in many cases, De Lar Rue only supplies raw materials (paper, ink, plates, machinery) to various countries, which print their own money in their own premises.

ArmenT, google this company, it will give you more details.

their crash happened only due to Rupee bungling. Chidambaram had outsourced high-denomination currency printing to De La Rue during UPA second term. So they were not only providing supplies to RBI mint, but they were printing high-denomination Rupee onsite in De La Rue's security press in Oxford. Some of their employees, at senior level, collaborated and pilfered the security paper that was exclusively used by RBI and sold them to third party. That paper was replaced with inferior quality paper. At the same time a currency plate & old machinary went missing from a dilapidated RBI press somewhere in MP or in the interiors.

After which, all the fakes that came in India ere equivalent to original. There was no difference in quality.

[yensoy]

So they were not only providing supplies to RBI mint, but they were printing high-denomination Rupee onsite in De La Rue's security press in Oxford. Some of their employees, at senior level, collaborated and pilfered the security paper that was exclusively used by RBI and sold them to third party. That paper was replaced with inferior quality paper. At the same time a currency plate & old machinary went missing from a dilapidated RBI press somewhere in MP or in the interiors.

UK is fully infiltrated by Pakis. Nobody but India should be printing Indian currency. And penalties for aiding and abetting counterfeiters should begin at life imprisonment and above.

[Bart S]

is there a fake currency problem in Pakistan also? whats the magnitude of the problem?

Which country's fake currency are you talking about? They make a whole assortment of them.

[Paul]

Zalmay Azad
‏@KZalmay

Senator @SenBobCorker who blocked F16 sale to Pakistan is tipped to be the new Secretary of State---interesting times ahead

[Murugan]

Senge Hasnan Sering ‏@SengeHSering 3h3 hours ago
EU must halt trade incentives to Pakistan until PAK withdraws from #GilgitBaltistan
EU Parlmnt Confrence Declaration

[Falijee]

Saudi Arabia planning procurement of JF-17 Thunder, Mashshaks, says Saudi air chief

Ummah Brother Pakiland, taken for a ride by the Custodian Of The Holy Mosque ? See below

Saudi Arabia owes billions to private firms after collapse in oil revenues

[arun]

I think Indian bank notes are printed in Switzerland. ......... {Rest Snipped} ........

I do not know about Switzerland, but what I do know is that currency notes are printed at 4 locations in India, namely Mysore (Karnataka), Salboni (W. Bengal), Nashik (Maharashtra) and Dewas (Madhya Pradesh).

[pankajs]

Saudi Arabia planning procurement of JF-17 Thunder, Mashshaks, says Saudi air chief

Ummah Brother Pakiland, taken for a ride by the Custodian Of The Holy Mosque ? See below

Saudi Arabia owes billions to private firms after collapse in oil revenues

Not saying that it might not be true BUT any news reported by Baki media is suspect till it is verified by another source.

Remember all the support they were getting on Kashmir till it was denied. It is not so simple with Baki newz.

[Bart S]

Saudi Arabia planning procurement of JF-17 Thunder, Mashshaks, says Saudi air chief

Ummah Brother Pakiland, taken for a ride by the Custodian Of The Holy Mosque ? See below

Saudi Arabia owes billions to private firms after collapse in oil revenues

The news that Saudis are about to purchase JF-17s and Super Mushaks is very likely, and as usual for Pakis, pure hogwash.

The Saudi Air Force has 70+ EF and 150+ F15s, besides using Hawks and Pilatus trainers. The idea that they would be interested in JF-17s is absurd.

[Peregrine]

Indian aggression may lead to strategic miscalculation: Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan today briefed Head of Missions of P5 countries on the alleged Indian aggression on the Line of Control (LoC) and Working Boundary, saying the use of "heavy weaponry" by the Indian Army threatens peace and stability and may lead to a "strategic miscalculation".

Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry provided details to the ambassadors of China, France, Russian, UK and USA, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, about unprovoked firing and ceasefire violations by the "Indian occupation Forces" in the past two months, the Foreign Office (FO) said.

Chaudhry expressed grave concern over the increased frequency and duration of indiscriminate firing from the Indian side, deliberate targeting of villages and civilian populated areas, resulting in the death of 26 civilians and injuring 107 others, said FO.

The Foreign Secretary also alleged that the Indian side was resorting to such heavy weaponry use after a gap of 13 years.

"Pakistan has been compelled to respond but with maximum restraint. The Armed Forces of Pakistan gave a befitting response," FO quoted Chaudhry as saying.

He expressed apprehension that Indian actions, which constituted a threat for the maintenance of peace and security, may lead to a "strategic miscalculation".

He said India was also not cooperating with the United Nations Military Observers Group (UNMOGIP).

The Heads of Missions assured that they would convey Pakistan's concern to their respective capitals, the FO statement said.
Cheers

[yensoy]

So they are afraid that they will make a strategic miscalculation? This is like the guy threatening to jump off the bridge and nobody taking him seriously.

[ranjan.rao]

^^^I love it when they quote from UPA era language "compelled to respond with maximum restraint"..jingo khush hua..

[pankajs]

Indian aggression may lead to strategic miscalculation: PakistanThe Heads of Missions assured that they would convey Pakistan's concern to their respective capitals, the FO statement said.

The embassies have been faithfooly passing the Baki message from the time kashmir tamasha started. Problem is no one @tHQ is listening.

This is more for the local consumption and to re-assure one another that every thing possible is being done to save Chaddi.

[Falijee]

Rats at Jinnah International Airport Karachi

KARACHI – A video of rats at the Jinnah International Airport has gone viral on social media.

The rats could be seen running freely in Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) lost and found department at the airport.

There were some " reports" earlier in the press that some of the "lucky rodents" were able to get safe passage on a PIA plane to LONDONISTAN.

Also wondering if this "rumour mongering Daily" will be booked by PEMRA for breach of "national security" like the Almeida guy

[LokeshC]

If they cut through the control cable the plane is as good as Bakistan.

[Peregrine]

Rats at Jinnah International Airport Karachi

KARACHI – A video of rats at the Jinnah International Airport has gone viral on social media.

The rats could be seen running freely in Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) lost and found department at the airport.

There were some " reports" earlier in the press that some of the "lucky rodents" were able to get safe passage on a PIA plane to LONDONISTAN.

Also wondering if this "rumour mongering Daily" will be booked by PEMRA for breach of "national security" like the Almeida guy

Falijee Ji :

A Case of PIA mitt mice schidt mixt
Cheers

[Peregrine]

Waterfall days

PAKISTAN’S transition from water-rich to water-stressed didn’t come without fair warning. At the turn of the ’90s, experts predicted that freshwater resources in the country would dwindle substantially and become scarce by 2005. The predicted ‘waterfall’ was confirmed by the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR), which further added that acute water shortage would follow by 2025 if the current situation was allowed to prevail.

While our country is no stranger to various kinds of shortfalls, the impending water crisis is not one that will stay confined to the odd street demonstration; unlike, for example, in the case of electricity shortage, where protests can be curbed by simply reallocating electricity from rural suburbs to urban metropolises. When the most essential compound on earth absolutely necessary to sustain life and land is threatened, it could potentially signal the onset of armed conflict in an already volatile region.

Cheers

[saip]

If they cut through the control cable the plane is as good as Bakistan.

Don't they have triple redundancy or something like that? Unless there are three rats trained by RAW, CIA & Mossad acting in collusion.

[SSridhar]

On the question of Currency Notes,

PMO pushed to print new notes in India, says official - Vijaita Singh, The Hindu

India imports bank note papers from European firms like Louisenthal in Germany, De la Rue in United Kingdom, Crane in Sweden and Arjo Wiggins in France and Netherlands.

Currently, 70 per cent of the notes are being produced in India and in the next two years, the target is to achieve 100 per cent self-reliance, a senior government official told The Hindu .

But for the Rs. 2,000 notes, it was decided that all raw notes would be produced in India and the Bank Note Paper Mill India Private Limited (BNPMIPL) in Mysuru {a private limited company?}, which started functioning in 2015, was given the task. For some of the new Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes, however, imported bank note paper has been used.

Another official said the production of the notes in India was pushed by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

“The PMO was of the opinion that all the bank notes are imported from countries, which are members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. If tomorrow, there is an embargo on India then the currency manufacturing will be crippled as we rely heavily on imports. With this aim it was decided to push the production in India,” said the official.

On being asked whether the new design would minimise the chances of counterfeiting the new currency notes, the official said, “It is not impossible. Only the design has changed but the security features remain the same. Pakistan prints fake notes at their government press,” said the official.

Mammoth exercise

The official said the decision to print the Rs. 2,000 notes was taken six months back and the Mysuru facility was asked to produce the raw bank notes. It has a capacity of 12,000 MT per year. He said around 18 billion new notes are to be printed, which includes those of the Rs. 2,000 denomination.The officials said the last time such an exercise was undertaken was in 2005.

[arun]

X Posted from the Understanding the USA thread.

“South Asian Expert” who has been very quick to claim to be liberal, paint critique as Hindutva and detractors as Bhakths shows just how illiberal she is. Rather “Unfair” twitter portrayal of Melanie Trump by Dr. Christine Fair I must say.

Anyway, I am slowly and surely finding out the shocking low levels to which self-proclaimed” liberals” can stoop to when thwarted by democratic processes in India and less importantly in the US :

https://twitter.com/CChristineFair/stat ... 7282351105

[arun]

Author with roots in the Mohammadden Terrorism fomenting Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Mohammed Hanif, writes an Op-Ed titled “After Trump, Fear and Gloating in Pakistan” in the New York Times:

There is dread, and fear and loathing. But mostly there is gloating. Those who are gloating here in Pakistan have a convincing enough narrative: Everything we already knew about ugly America just got a chest-thumping confirmation from Americans themselves.

The bully that roamed the earth proposing to start wars, topple governments and bankroll tin-pot dictators has finally come home and brought with it all the racism and vulgarity it doled out in various parts of the planet. It has come home to assert its supremacy, its whiteness, its right to be ugly and foul-mouthed and to get rewarded for it. America, say the gloaters, is a bit like that aging thug who can’t terrorize the neighborhood anymore and so has turned on his own family.

Pakistani democrats feel they have a special right to gloat. Over the last few days, some of them have been reminding the rest of us Pakistanis that we have never elected a right-wing fascist as our leader. They have reminded us that we elected a woman as our leader way before America even contemplated the possibility for itself.

The late Benazir Bhutto was indeed the first woman to be elected as prime minister of a Muslim country. But we seem to have forgotten the ugly campaign against her, the sexual innuendoes and the doctored pictures — all this before Photoshop and social media. And let’s not forget that we managed to assassinate her 70 days after really, seriously, trying to kill her. We have also not even gotten around to finding out who killed her.

If American presidents have had many quarrels with their Pakistani counterparts, they have had many more love-ins. America has bankrolled all three of Pakistan’s military dictatorships. It was very close to us when our dungeons were full of political dissenters and F-16s bought in the United States were bombing our people.

American presidents have been fond of hosting Pakistani dictators at Camp David. Now it’s the turn of Americans themselves to be ruled by a dictator , and of their own choosing. We, at least, never picked ours.

From NYT here:

After Trump, Fear and Gloating in Pakistan

[arun]

X Posted from the “Pakistani Role In Global Terrorism” thread.

“In an exclusive interview with VOA in Kabul, Rahmatullah Nabil, the former head of the National Directorate of Security, said Pakistan helped create a strike force called the Red Force or Red Brigade in late 2014, and that it started operating in early 2015 when international forces had mostly left and surveillance had been reduced.” :

Former Afghan Intel Chief Accuses Pakistan of Militarily Supporting Taliban

[arun]

Duplicate Self Deleted.

[svenkat]

Yeh kab hua ? Haven't seen it before.

[svenkat]

Watch from 21:28

[SSridhar]

The establishment’s dilemma - Pervez Hoodbhoy, DAWN

Please read this.

THE oligarchy which runs Pakistan, often called the establishment, is in a quandary. The problem is that whatever it says through its diplomats abroad — and with however much energy — the world insists on perceiving Pakistan as an ideological state wedded to exporting jihad. This is undesirable, but so also is the idea of changing course.

Writing in this newspaper, Ambassador Munir Akram admits that Pakistan has “few friends and many enemies” in Washington. Indeed, Trump’s victory can only worsen matters. But Europe, Russia, and Japan also see things similarly. Few there would be impressed by Akram’s frank admission that, “Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed participated in the legitimate post-1989 Kashmiri freedom struggle”, do not attack Pakistan, and “enjoy a degree of popular support” — or with his suggestion that no action be taken against such groups until things improve in Kashmir.

[Munir] Akram’s views likely reflect the current thinking of a powerful section of the establishment. But what precisely is the establishment? Who can belong to it, and what does it want?

From Pakistan’s birth onwards, the establishment has set Pakistan’s international and domestic postures, policies, and priorities. Today it rules on the extent and means by which India and America are to be confronted, and how China and Saudi Arabia are to be wooed. It sanctions, as well as limits, militant proxy forces for use across borders; closely controls what may or may not be discussed in the public media; and determines whether Balochistan or Sindh is to be handled with a velvet glove or banged with an iron fist.

Establishment members are serving and retired generals, politicians in office and some in the opposition, ex-ambassadors and diplomats, civil servants, and selected businessmen. The boundaries are fluid — as some move in, others move out. In earlier days English was the preferred language of communication but this morphed into Urdu as the elite indigenised, became less cosmopolitan, and developed firmer religious roots.

Arguably, most forms of government anywhere are reducible to the rule of a few. In Pakistan’s case how few is few? In 1996 Mushahid Husain, long an establishment insider and currently a senator, had sized the establishment at around 500 persons plus a list of wannabes many times this number.

Stephen Cohen, an astute observer of Pakistani politics over the decades, remarks that establishment membership is not assured even for those occupying the highest posts of office unless they have demonstrated loyalty to a set of “core values”. That India is Pakistan’s archenemy — perhaps in perpetuity — is central. As a corollary, nuclear weapons are to be considered Pakistan’s greatest asset and extra-state actors an important, yet deniable, means of equalising military imbalances. These, and other, assumptions inform Pakistan’s ‘national interest’.

National interest means differently in different countries. For example the post-War American establishment considered the export of American values — particularly free trade — as America’s national interest. Stalin’s Russia and Mao’s China competed to implant their respective brands of communist ideology overseas. On the other hand today’s China is purely pragmatic. So is India. Not being ideological states, they are not mission-driven. They just want to be modern, rich, powerful, and assertive.

Let’s compare Pakistan’s national interest with the above. Just what is it in the eyes of its establishment? In search of an answer, I recently browsed through theses and articles in various departments of universities, including the National Defence University in Islamabad.

What I found was unsurprising. National interest is defined exclusively in relation to India. This means resolving Kashmir on Pakistan’s terms, ensuring strategic depth against India via a Talibanised Afghanistan, nurturing the Pakistan-China relationship to neutralise Indian power, etc. To “borrow” power through military alliances against India is seen as natural. Hence, switching from America’s protection to China’s happened effortlessly.

Missing from the establishment’s perception of national interest is a positive vision for Pakistan’s future. I could not find any enthusiastic call for Pakistan to explore space, become a world leader in science, have excellent universities, develop literature and the arts, deal with critical environmental issues, achieve high standards of justice and financial integrity, and create a poverty-free society embodying equalitarian principles.

This lopsided view has distorted Pakistan’s priorities away from being a normal state to one that lives mentally under perpetual siege. To its credit, Nawaz Sharif’s government attempted — albeit only feebly — to make a break and concentrate on development. It knows that the use of covert jihad as an instrument of state policy has isolated Pakistan from the world community of nations, including its neighbours. Diplomats tasked to improve the national image are rendered powerless by the force of facts.

Keeping things under wraps has become terribly hard these days. For example, Pakistan denies any involvement in the Uri attack. But, to commemorate the dead attackers, Gujranwala city was plastered with Jamaatud Dawa posters inviting the public to funeral prayers, to be led by supremo Hafiz Saeed on Oct 25, for the martyred jihadists who had “killed 177 Hindu soldiers”. I did not see any Pakistani TV channel mention this episode. The posters were somehow quickly removed but not before someone snapped and uploaded them on the internet.

To conclude: while the rise of the hardline anti-Muslim Hindu right and India’s obduracy in Kashmir is deeply deplorable {This is routine, mandatory in Pakistani context and riddled with gaping holes that can be easily tackled and hence needs to be ignored} , it must be handled politically. One cannot use it to rationalise the existence of non-state militant groups. Such groups have taken legitimacy away from those fighting Indian rule in Kashmir. They have also turned out to be a menace to Pakistan’s society and armed forces.

Today’s crisis of the establishment can lead to positive change provided gut nationalism is subordinated to introspection and reflection {That's the hope of an anguished. It cannot happen. Pakistan is well past the point of no-return and that too a long, long time back.}. It is a welcome sign that a significant part of the establishment — the Nawaz Sharif government — is at least aware of the need for Pakistan to reintegrate itself with the world. Concentrating on our actual needs is healthier than worrying about matters across our borders. One can only hope that other parts of the establishment will also see this logic {Futile & impossible}.

The UN Report investigating the assassination of Ms. Benazir Bhutto defined the term ‘Establishment’ as this: The Establishment is generally used in Pakistan to refer to those who exercise de facto power; it includes the military high command and the intelligence agencies, together with the top leadership of certain political parties, high-level members of the bureaucracy and business persons that work in alliance with them. The military high command and intelligence agencies form the core of the Establishment and are its most permanent and influential components

[arun]

Pakistani cinemas will screen Iranian and Turkish films to fill void

MUNNAZZAH RAZA
STAFF WRITER

Will this move prove fruitful as Indian films aren't screening? We find out

As the ban on Indian content persists, Pakistani cinema owners and film distributors hope to bring about a change in the cinema experience for audiences by screening Iranian, Turkish and hopefully Chinese and South Korean films. …………………..

What, no Arab movies

Is it halal for an IEDological Muslim State and Islamic Republic like Pakistan to favour movies from Pork injesting Kaafir P.R. China and South Korea while avoiding movies from pious Arab speaking Umma countries

I am betting that the Punjabi Military dominated Deep State of the Mohammadden Terrorism fomenting Islamic Republic of Pakistan will maintain the ban on screening Indian movies for H&D aka Honour and Dignity purposes but will not enforce the ban against private DVD screenings of Bollywood movies

[Narad]

At least 12 dead, dozens injured in Hub’s Shah Noorani shrine explosion in occupied balochistan.