Bharat Rakshak

Shaashtanga wrote:Not sure how many of you have watched Hamid Meer's show - Capital talk, but off late he has been visiting a makeshift camp in Islamabad in front of the parliament house where all the relatives of missing person (who have been picked up by agencies i.e. ISI or MI etc) have come to share their grieveances. The RAPE class is totally missing from this congregation as if providing silent support to extra judicial kidnappings by ISI & MI. These old aged men & women alongwith very young kids sitting out in the open in cold Islamabad weather are a testament to the vile nature of Paki security agencies. When ISI & MI can be so cruel to their own citizens then killing a few Yindoo Kaafirs is a childs play for them.
After watching the full programme I cried.

http://www.zemtv.com/2012/03/05/capital ... arch-2012/

MULLATAN: Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar has stated that Pakistan could help the Afghan government in talks with the Taliban. Khar said on Monday that stability in the regions was in the interest of Pakistan. The situation in the region cannot improve without improving relations with neighbours.”The Foreign Minister when asked about NATO supplies said that their aerial passage had never been blocked. Khar once again pointed out that the decision to reopen the supply route would be made by Parliament.
“I had informed US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton that the NATO supply route issue would be decided by Parliament,” Khar said. Relations between the US and Pakistan have been troubled following the NATO attack on a Pakistani check post and may deteriorate further over Islamabad’s pipeline project with Tehran. Khar has already emphasised that project would be completed irrespective

anishns wrote:The comments are even more interesting...

Shaashtanga wrote:Not sure how many of you have watched Hamid Meer's show - Capital talk, but off late he has been visiting a makeshift camp in Islamabad in front of the parliament house where all the relatives of missing person (who have been picked up by agencies i.e. ISI or MI etc) have come to share their grieveances. The RAPE class is totally missing from this congregation as if providing silent support to extra judicial kidnappings by ISI & MI. These old aged men & women alongwith very young kids sitting out in the open in cold Islamabad weather are a testament to the vile nature of Paki security agencies. When ISI & MI can be so cruel to their own citizens then killing a few Yindoo Kaafirs is a childs play for them.
After watching the full programme I cried.

http://www.zemtv.com/2012/03/05/capital ... arch-2012/

Jhujar wrote:New York: Stratfor analysts did not believe that Osama bin Laden was buried at sea.
Osama Drama,72 Denied , Injustice by G Sam

The Stratfor analysts did not believe that Osama bin Laden was buried at sea,

KARACHI: The Gwadar district coordination officer (DCO) was shot dead in the Defence area of the city late on Monday night, Geo News reported.

Abdul Rehman Dashti was found dead in a black car parked near a bungalow on Khyaban-e-Tanzeem, police said. The bungalow belongs to Turbat politician Mir Imam Bizenjo. The body was taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for a post-mortem.

The track for the Punjab Sports festival witness a slapping match on Tuesday. The incident (er...match) took place between an official for the special children and an organizer for the event. The fight (er...match) continued for several minutes and was stopped when officials standing nearby "intervened" (and declared the special representative of the pakjabi nanha mujahids as "the winner").

Teaching the Holy Quran to children will help eliminate terrorism from Pakistan, claims MPA.
By Abdul Manan - Published: March 6, 2012
Dr Asma Mamdoot, a Pakistan Muslim League – Functional (PML-F) MPA on a women’s seat, presented a resolution out of turn which was passed unanimously by the house.
LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution to make teaching of the Holy Quran with comprehension mandatory at all public and private institutions in the province. According to the Rules of Procedure of PA 1997, Tuesday is private members’ day and MPAs move resolutions about human interest issues.

The session resumed at 11:20am, an hour and 20 minutes late from the scheduled 10am time. On Tuesday, which is private members day, two resolutions were passed unanimously, two were rejected, one disposed of and one was pending. Provincial Minister for Agriculture Ahmad Ali Aolakh answered questions about his department as well.


The resolution states
The House has opinion to make it mandatory the teachings of Quran in all educational institutions in order to sensitize the current young generation but rather to make it the part of the syllabus. Punjab government should allocate funds for the promotion of teaching of Quran in educational institutions and to devise comprehensive strategy for the promotion of Quran. The Quran with comprehension shall be made part of syllabus but rather to corporate it in curriculum of the different classes.

Mamdoot, while talking to The Express Tribune, said a bill will later be moved in the house based on this resolution. The MPA said she had observed that the current generation was illiterate about the teachings of the Holy Quran, which provides the perfect code of life.

When Mamdoot was asked what compelled her to bring forward the resolution, given that there were already children receiving Quranic education at seminaries, she said that teaching the Holy Quran with comprehension to the children will help eliminate terrorism from the country. She added that aside from the teaching of the Holy Quran, all other activities at the seminaries forced children to become terrorists. She also added that Urdu-medium and English-medium schools should teach the comprehension in the relevant languages.

Service for Shahbaz Bhatti

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MPA Pervaiz Rafique Malik on a point of order said that he had wanted hold a service at the grave of Shahbaz Bhatti, but Punjab Police had besieged his house in Faisalabad and had forbidden him from doing so. The grave is located at Khushpur Chak No 51 GB Tehsil in the Sumandri district of Faisalabad.

Malik alleged that he along with thousands of Bhatti’s followers had planned to visit the grave, but he had been placed under house arrest and around 5,000 followers who had managed to make it were harassed by the police.

He said besides being stopped, his privilege had also been breached and demanded that the Punjab Government should reply to this.

Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan said that Dr Paul Bhatti, the brother of late Shahbaz Bhatti and an advisor to the prime minister, had asked the police to stop Malik from visiting the grave. He said that this was an internal affair and the provincial government was not a party to it.

Malik, not satisfied with the reply, asked in which capacity the police had barred him, an MPA, on the direction of Dr Paul Bhatti. Sanaullah said that he should move a privilege motion in the house and all matters would be cleared.

Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) MPA Ziaullah Shah in his resolution urged federal government to manage the substitute for the gas crisis so that factories could continue to run. The resolution was passed by the house.

House resolutions

A simple resolution is a legislative proposal that addresses matters entirely within the prerogative of one house or the other. It requires neither the approval of the other house nor the signature of the President, and it does not have the force of law. Most simple resolutions concern the rules of one house. They are also used to express the sentiments of a single house.

PM congratulates the Russian leader on recent presidential poll victory.
By Our Correspondent - Published: March 6, 2012
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has accepted Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s invitation to visit Pakistan in September. PHOTO: REUTERS/FILE
ISLAMABAD: Russian leader Vladimir Putin has accepted Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s invitation to visit Pakistan in September.

Gilani telephoned Putin on Tuesday to congratulate him on his election as the country’s president.

According to a press release, Gilani told Putin that the fact that people brought him back to office is testimony of them reposing their confidence in his leadership. The prime minister also extended him an invitation to visit Pakistan in September, which was accepted by Putin. The two foreign ministries will decide on the exact date of the visit.

Putin appreciated Gilani and his government’s efforts for consolidating relations between Russia and Pakistan.

Putin, who is currently the prime minister of Russia, was recently elected as the president amid fierce protests and criticism over his control of Russian politics.

Pakistan’s polio problem is a reflection of how we neglect our social sectors at the expense of everything else.
By Raza Rumi - Published: March 5, 2012
The writer is a former consulting editor at The Friday Times, and can be found on Twitter @RazaRumi

While Pakistan’s national security state remains busy to protect its domestic power and global leverage, the lethal polio virus made a startling comeback in recent years. Over 173 cases were officially reported during 2011, making a mockery of our priorities. Our neighbours, India and Bangladesh have eradicated polio and we remain in competition with Nigeria and Afghanistan regarding the number of polio cases identified. Until the end of the month of February, 13 new polio cases were detected this year. The new cases are not confined to militancy-affected areas — though we would like to believe and blame the war on terror for all our woes. In 2012, polio cases were reported from Hyderabad and Naushehro Feroze in Sindh, Bahawalnagar in Punjab and Khyber Agency in Fata.

During 2010, 144 polio cases were reported in the media; higher than 2009 levels when 116 polio cases were identified. There is no question that poorer and conflict-ridden districts are more likely to be hit by the virus. It has been noted in the government’s own documents such as the draft National Emergency Action Plan (NEAP) 2011, that upto 20 per cent of children in the country are deprived of the third (critical) immunisation dose that leads to increased vulnerability to this crippling disease. In 2011, polio patients increased in Balochistan and Sindh, as they decreased in Fata and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa by 30 per cent.

In Balochistan, districts bordering Afghanistan and Karachi in Sindh remain high-risk areas. Karachi’s three localities where cases have been reported are Gadap, Baldia and SITE and this may have to do with migration in the recent years due to conflict and/or natural disasters. Thus, the challenge compounds for the federal and provincial governments to tackle this disease.

Earlier, immunisation campaigns have been affected by the fatwa’s issues by clerics declaring such campaigns a conspiracy of the West. Other efforts such as the introduction of iodised salt in the northern parts of Pakistan suffered as the mullahs declared that immunised salt turned men impotent. But the recent discovery of a fake immunisation campaign by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been the final confirmation of sorts. Apparently, the CIA in its drive to find Osama bin Laden, engaged one Dr Afridi and his team went from house to house to provide vaccinations for hepatitis and collected DNA samples. Perhaps, Bin Laden’s family was identified through this means, Afridi languishes in jail and the US is appealing for his release. But this awful ploy has caused much harm to the state of immunisation in the country.

According to a report in The Guardian (March 2, 2012) , a group of US NGOs coalition has written to the CIA director that such “use of the cover of humanitarian activity” for intelligence purposes “casts doubt on the intentions and integrity of all humanitarian actors in Pakistan, thereby undermining the international humanitarian community’s efforts to eradicate polio, provide critical health services, and extend life-saving assistance…”. This is a laudable step and within Pakistan, local health groups and media should also undertake advocacy in this direction.

Our maverick politician, Sheikh Rasheed has been making some outrageous claims on TV shows. Rasheed accused Unicef (actually the WHO) of using dubious ‘Indian’ polio drops in Pakistan. This is the most vile level of politics that anyone can play in a country where polio incidence is alarming, to say the least.

Pakistan’s polio problem is a reflection of how we neglect our social sectors at the expense of everything else. Public health crises such as dengue, fake medicines etc have already exposed how our systems and regulations are virtually collapsed. It is time for the elected governments to reorient their priorities and deliver on their promises. Two key factors, which have marred the polio campaigns — ineffective accountability and monitoring systems — cannot be rectified without effective local government reform.

The polio crisis also reminds us that nuclear weapons do not ensure the safety and prosperity of our future generations.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 6th, 2012.

Energy crisis forces industrialists to abandon production.
By Imran Rana - Published: March 6, 2012
FAISALABAD:
Khalid Saeed is no longer the industrialist who owned Wahab Textile Mills in Faisalabad; he sold off his manufacturing plant’s machinery to a scrap dealer and has opted instead for the real estate business.

Saeed’s story does not surprise most businessmen in Faisalabad. The fallout from the energy crisis has laid waste to Faisalabad’s once thriving industrial complexes; its effect most profound on the textile industry. In the midst of growing uncertainty and frustration, fresh investment has all but dried up, and new projects have ground to a halt. Meanwhile, increasing numbers of millers have started switching over to other sources of income after writing off heavy losses. Some, like Saeed, have sold their plants to scrap dealers and converted industrial land into residential colonies.

When asked why he opted for such a drastic switch, a disillusioned Saeed says he believes that the textile industry has entered its twilight; production and exports are falling, the law and order situation has worsened and political instability, gas closures and prolonged electricity load shedding have dealt a blow to the industry from which it may never recover.

In such conditions, he says, businessmen have little hope but to look towards the services sector. Having abandoned textile manufacturing, Saeed is now focusing on a string of projects: he is working on the Marhaba residential colony, Marhaba departmental stores, Marhaba Fried Chicken and Excel Labs, all in Faisalabad.

Awais Dogar, once CEO of Awais Textile Mills, told The Express Tribune that he too has sold his units and invested in Eden Gardens, an umbrella project of residential colonies. He expressed frustration at the suspension of gas supply for indefinite periods, the rising cost of production, sky-rocketing inflation, high mark up rates and the economic slowdown as the cause of closure of his industrial units.

Ghulam Farid, ex-owner of Farid Textiles Faisalabad, purchases vast tracts of agricultural land for cultivation and resale. He says that the extraordinary energy shortages were the prime reason for the decline of the textile sector and ultimately forced millers to change their business lines.

Other industrialists have chosen to shift capital outside Pakistan. Bangladesh has been a destination of choice for people like Rana Irtaza, manager of Tauseef Enterprises, who has established two mega textile units there. Worsening domestic conditions force millers to think about different businesses and investing out of Pakistan, he says. Faryad Niamat, once CEO of Niamat Textile Faisalabad, agrees. Like Irtaza, Niamat too opted to invest abroad rather than risk continuing production in uncertain times.

Over the last couple of years, trade bodies’ representatives and millers have been urging the government to speed up its efforts to overcome the gas and electricity crisis, but the government has yet to take any concrete steps or give tangible assurances. Billions of dollars worth of machinery gathers dust due to prolonged hours of load shedding, forcing millers to sell it off as scrap rather than tie up their capital in an unproductive pursuit. The lack of faith in positive government intervention has presented dejected industrialists with few alternatives than to take the bitter pill and do the previously unthinkable.

To most, the death knell has already been sounded for industrial pursuits in Pakistan.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 6th, 2012. .

Stakes in HBL, NBP and PPL to be offloaded for capital.
By Our Correspondent - Published: March 6, 2012
The government will sell-off parts of its shareholding in major local corporations in local and global capital markets among other measures, after the Privatisation Commission’s proposal.

KARACHI: With all fiscal deficit funding being done through domestic channels as external sources are largely dried up, the government has finally come up with a privatisation process plan to raise almost Rs30 to Rs35 billion shape to fund its deficit.

The government will sell-off parts of its shareholding in major local corporations in local and global capital markets among other measures, after the Privatisation Commission’s proposal of Capital Market Transaction Road-Map has been reportedly approved by the Cabinet Committee on Privatization, says an InvestCap research note issued on Monday.

Listed companies on the cards include Pakistan Petroleum Limited, Habib Bank Limited, National Bank of Pakistan and Kot-Addu Power Company while non-listed public sector holdings include State Life Insurance Company, Pak-Arab Refinery Company, National Insurance Company, Government Holding Pvt Ltd), Islamabad Electric Supply Company and Faisalabad Electric Supply Company.

The process has been reported to commence next month, exactly when the new Capital Gains Tax (CGT) regime is scheduled to take effect.

The government will raise the capital through three main sources, initial public offerings (IPO), Secondary Public Offerings (SPO) and Global Depositor Receipts (GDR).

The International Monetary Fund suspended the $11.3 billion loan programme in 2010 due to failure to implement fiscal and power sector reforms, a move that shied away almost all external lending institutions.

Ironically, the government has not included any of the highly uneconomic government entities like Pakistan International Airlines, Pakistan Railways and Pakistan Steel Mills among the available companies being offered for privatisation, says the note. However, putting up profitable companies for sale first would not be a bad idea to get the privatisation process off the mark for the government.

This is expected to lower the fiscal deficit by 0.2% to 6.3% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in fiscal year 2012, adds the note.

However, viability of the government’s privatisation plan is largely contingent upon timely materialisation of newly proposed Capital Gains Tax (CGT) regime and price levels the government may fetch, says the note.

Not all secondary public offerings and global deposit receipts can fetch price premiums especially banks, given their portfolio mix with uncertain ratings due to their rising stake in government instruments, concludes the note.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 6th, 2012.

FBR chief, two intell­igence office­rs go to court to have case quashe­d.
By Our Correspondent - Published: March 3, 2012

The three men were tasked with looking into the missing containers which were destined from Karachi to Afghanistan.

KARACHI: The chief of the Federal Board of Revenue and two intelligence officers from Peshawar have gone to court for being included in an FIR for a case they were actually investigating.

The three men were tasked with looking into the missing containers which were destined from Karachi to Afghanistan. But then, a Karachi deputy customs collector, Jamshed Ali Talpur, filed a complaint and the Jackson police put their names in the missing containers FIR on October 26, 2011.

These three men now want the FIR thrown out.

Leading up to the investigation

After the media highlighted that there was massive pilferage going on in the Afghan Transit Trade (ATT), the case became commonly known as the Isaf container scam.

The Supreme Court took notice of it and after a hearing on September 30, 2010, ordered the federal tax ombudsman to investigate the matter. The court wanted answers to 15 specific questions.

The chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue, Hafiz Muhammad Anees, and two intelligence officers Saad Iqbal and Jawwad Sultan went to work. They found that from January 1, 2007 to October 15, 2010, 7,922 containers never crossed the Pakistan-Afghan border and were either pilfered or dropped within Pakistan’s limits, causing an estimated revenue loss of Rs19 billion. They identified as a “sample case” two companies - Lunar Products, Kabul and Messrs Köpcke Global Trading, Kabul. They found that 52 containers were fraudulently imported in Nato/Isaf’s name.

This team submitted eight progress reports to the Supreme Court and it surfaced that 28,802 commercial and 3,542 non commercial containers never crossed the border.

But then, in October 2011, the deputy customers collector filed an FIR naming the team as accused in the container case.

This team has now appealed to the court to declare the FIR as mala fide and direct the investigating officer to revoke it.

The Sindh High Court issued notices for explanations to the deputy collector, inspector general of police, the Jackson police station investigating officer and judicial magistrate VI, South. The notices have been issued for March 22.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 3rd, 2012.

Afghanistan has closed down camps run by Baloch nationalist groups where some 5,000 people were being trained, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik has claimed.

The minister said that the camps had been shut down by the Afghan President Hamid Karzai on requests by the the Pakistan government.

“Karzai acted after Pakistan requested him to stop the activities of the Baloch nationalist groups and the Afghan President had admitted that some of the troubles in Balochistan province were originating from his country,” Mr. Malik contended

CRamS wrote:Lots of diplomatic gobly gook from Jihadi Lodhi. But simply put, as the mouthpiece of TSPA/ISI she is saying we need parity with India, we need "resolution of disputes", and till then pigLeTs and nukes will be unleashed on India.

anupmisra wrote:On a side note, pakjabis being, well, true to their dubiously-illegal-mixed-parentage: Fight during Punjab sports festival

The track for the Punjab Sports festival witness a slapping match on Tuesday. The incident (er...match) took place between an official for the special children and an organizer for the event. The fight (er...match) continued for several minutes and was stopped when officials standing nearby "intervened" (and declared the special representative of the pakjabi nanha mujahids as "the winner").

All hail another pakjabi gold medallist and a possible entrant into the Guinness World Records (for non-stop slapping)!!

The Commander of the Unites States Central Command, en. James Mattis has said that he is traveling to Pakistan within the next 10 days or so, where he would engage in discussions with Pakistan s military leadership, in a bid to streamline some of the issues cropped up in the recent part, particularly after the NATO airstrike on Salala check-post in Mohmand on Nov 26 that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.While speaking during a hearing of the US Senate s Armed Services Committee on Defense Authorizations for 2013 Tuesday, he, however, did acknowledge that border coordination with Pakistan at different levels had been continuing after the Salala firing incident. Pakistan had initially withdrawn troops from border coordination posts before sending them back after hectic consultations between US, Afghanistan and Pakistan.Responding to a question of Senator Richard Blumenthal about efforts undertaken by Pakistan for stopping the flow of IEDs from tribal areas to Afghanistan, Gen. Mattis said that Pakistani tribal areas "have a unique status and there area number of factors for transportation of IEDs". "My impression is that Pakistani security forces are not doing enough", Senator Blumenthal asserted. "I ll have to check whether the Pakistani forces are doing enough or not, before getting back to you about it", Gen. Mattis replied.

The summons, which was issued in the wake of a petition seeking the registration of a second FIR for Bhutto's December 2007 killing, was pasted to the gate of 68-year-old Musharraf's farmhouse at Chak Shahzad on the outskirts of Islamabad.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry on Monday directed authorities to paste the notice at Musharraf's residence after he failed to respond to repeated calls to appear in court.
The notice asks Musharraf to appear in court on March 22 with his national identity card to prove his identity as a Pakistani citizen.

Interior Minister Malik has said the government has approached Interpol to issue a Red Corner Notice for the arrest of Musharraf in connection with Bhutto's assassination

ISLAMABAD: The bankrupt Pakistan Railways management has pulled off the mother of all deals with the NLC, while the army is working hard behind the scenes for an equally big deal with the United States.In the first week of February, railways signed a deal with the military-run National Logistics Cell (NLC) under which the cell will repair 30 railway locomotives of which 15 will be returned to the railways to use. The other 15 will be used by the NLC to carry freight booked by the NLC.What does the NLC get out of this deal? This was a question that proved hard to answer as the NLC and the ISPR never bothered to reply to any questions despite a weeklong wait.However, Dawn has learnt that the military is gearing up to earn big bucks from the transport of US/Nato/Isaf supplies via Pakistan’s land routes in the near future and this is what is behind the NLC deal with the railways.In fact, negotiations between the Pakistan military and the US started as far back as 2009 for a share of the transport pie that has earned many individuals and companies in this country millions since the start of the war in Afghanistan over a decade ago.A source within a transport company that carries military supplies to Afghanistan confirmed that trial runs were carried out at the request of the American government in 2009 and 2010; from Karachi to Peshawar and from Karachi to Chaman to not just see if the rail routes worked but also how long the journey took. “The journey to Chaman took seven days which was an improvement on the trucks as the increasing number of FC checkpoints was causing delays,” the source said.It now appears that while the US waits for the parliamentary review of bilateral relations that was ordered after the Salala incident, behind the scenes the two sides are negotiating the terms and conditions for transporting Nato and American supplies to Afghanistan.An official in the Foreign Office confirmed that the Americans, Nato officials based in Afghanistan, the NLC and the Foreign Office were working out some plan to use the railway for supplies to Nato forces in Afghanistan.

BijuShet wrote:From "Tribune" (posting in full)
Mandatory Quran teaching: Resolution unanimously passed in PA

Arun Roperia wrote:I'm well aware of HN's views but am pleasantly surprised to see Ali Chisti exposing Zaid Hamid's rant on Mumbai attacks.

anupmisra wrote:I like this Hasan guy. He has an earthy punjabi sense of humor. Lot of pent up frustration and anger in this guy. Watch his other discussions on U-tube and you will see.

by Rangudu
What was his Punjabi quote on Abdali?

Rangudu wrote:Pakjabis worshipping Abdali is an extreme form of Stockholm Syndrome.

BEIJING—A senior Chinese official on Wednesday alleged that militants in northwestern China have deep-seated ties to Pakistan-based terror groups, an unusually explicit accusation that could put strains on the relationship between Beijing and its most important regional ally.Nur Bekri, the top government official in China's northwestern Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, said Chinese officials believe the Pakistani government opposes recent attacks directed at China. Nonetheless, the comments during a high-profile legislative session suggest growing concern over Islamabad's inability to fight terrorism. We have discovered some East Turkestan activists and terrorists from our neighboring country have countless links," Mr. Bekri said during a meeting in Beijing of the National People's Congress, China's once-a-year legislative body. He added that Pakistan itself is an "all-weather friend" of China, echoing previous remarks from Chinese officials.akistani Foreign Ministry and military officials couldn't be reached for comment. The Pakistani Foreign Ministry said in a previous statement that it would continue to support China in fighting the ETIM.Mr. Bekri's comments follow earlier claims in August by the city government of Kashgar, in far western Xinjiang, that suspected assailants there had received explosives and weapons training in terrorist camps across the border in Pakistan. Analysts have said the increasingly public accusations suggest Beijing is either unhappy with Islamabad's counterterrorism efforts or is keen to show that attacks in Xinjiang originated abroad

ISLAMABAD - On the advice of Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, President Asif Ali Zardari has appointed Air Marshal Tahir Rafique Butt as the new Chief of the Air Staff of Pakistan Air Force.
According to the presidential spokesman, Tahir Butt will assume charge as the new Air Chief on March 19th.
Prime Minister Gilani had advised President Zardari to appoint Butt as he was the most senior Air Marshal. Butt will succeed Air Chief Rao Qamar Suleman.Air Marshal Tahir Rafique Butt born in 1955 received his early education at PAF Public School, Sargodha. He joined PAF and graduated from PAF Academy, Risalpur in March 1977. After doing his fighter and operational conversion courses, he has flown various types of fighters and training aircraft on PAF Inventory. He is a qualified flying instructor and also a combat commander on fighters. He has commanded an elite fighter squadron, a Fighter Flying Wing and two