Bharat Rakshak

Anindya wrote:Pak waiting for next PM to do business?

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According to Mir, Sharif is now waiting for the new government in India next year to do business.

Anindya wrote:Pak waiting for next PM to do business?

He is not in a position to make a big breakthrough with Pakistan)," Mir said.

According to Mir, Sharif is now waiting for the new government in India next year to do business.

Peregrine wrote:SSridhar Ji :

Your Post : 30 Sep 2013 14:23

Would it be possible to enumerate the "Trade Benefits" to India if Pakistan Grants "MFN Status" to India?

Personally I think that this "Trade Benefits" are just a lot of "Hype" and no substance, the Pakistanis have to use their Forex Holdings for "Bare Essentials", which for them is Arming Pakistan to the teeth, and not for Commercial Goods.

Joseph wrote:Why Sharif expects a new government in India to be more agreeable to Paki demands without the Pakis changing their behavior & attitudes towards India is a mystery.

Awais Sheikh, the counsel for Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh who was murdered in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat jail in May 2013, has taken permanent refuge in Sweden

Sheikh took refuge in the Scandinavian country following his alleged abduction bid

Sheikh and his son Shahrukh were allegedly abducted ....on May 16 and were released three and half hours later

Sheikh, who also heads an NGO called “Pakistan-India Peace Initiatives”, quoted an incident of meeting a 1971 prisoner of war (PoW) Sepoy Mangal Singh of 14 Punjab Regiment in Central Jail, Lahore

CRamS wrote:This lock jam has to be broken, and it will be broken only when TSP suffers a huge cost for its terror. I hope MMS & Co come to their senses and take the next logical step

PESHAWAR: Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Chief Minister Pervez Khattak said on Monday that the blasts that had happened in Peshawar were the fault of the media.

In an interview with Express News, Khattak said ”You are carrying out the blasts.”

Asserting that the media was sensationalising the issues affecting K-P, he said that if people weren’t questioning him, why was the media creating an issue.

LONDON - Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said the Taliban had disowned the latest devastating blast in Peshawar that led to killing of over 40 people on Sunday.

Talking to reporters, he said a strategy would be formed regarding the Taliban after he returned to Pakistan.

He expressed concern that terrorism was being exported to other countries from Pakistani soil, adding that terrorism was being promoted in Pakistan from abroad as well.

Following the hike, those consuming 201 to 300 units will have to pay Rs 14 per unit instead of the earlier Rs 8.11.

Similarly, consumers using 301 to 700 units will be paying Rs 16 per unit instead of Rs 12.33.

The increase in electricity tariff is one of the requirements of the loan deal the government struck with the IMF recently.

The electricity tariff for the agriculture sector was also earlier increased and the subsidy for the sector was cut. This was done as a requirement for the initial reimbursement of the loan given by the IMF.

There was also a sudden increase in electricity tariff for the textile industry.

Although they stand on the opposite ends of Pakistani public opinion—with China widely popular— Beijing and Washington do not compete for influence in Pakistan, but instead play complementary roles, analysts tell The Diplomat. “China wants the United States to continue arming Pakistan, and the United States has encouraged China to expand its financial assistance to Pakistan,” Small says. Though China is Pakistan’s primary supplier of sophisticated military technology like missiles, jets, radar equipment and submarines, it cannot match U.S. military aid in volume, which totaled US$15.8 billion between 2002 and 2012. Similarly, as Small explains, “the kinds of investments that Beijing has been making are not likely to be replicated by Western investors.”

While Washington has attempted to instill a top-down approach, sending taxpayer-funded aid grants directly to Islamabad, Beijing has poured private investment into infrastructure, arts and cultural projects. The Karakorum Highway is the most prominent example: a treacherous 1,300 km corridor that connects the Chinese mainland with the Gwadar Port facility, a key strategic foothold just off the southern edge of the Strait of Hormuz. Pakistani and Chinese officials hope to supplement the roadway with a 2,000 km high-speed rail link between Kashgar and Gwadar, bringing billions of dollars in investment to the region. As a result, bilateral trade between Beijing and Islamabad expanded to over US$12 billion last year, and 120 Chinese companies are now operating in Pakistan.

China has also been expanding its cultural diplomacy with Pakistani as of late. In downtown Islamabad’s sprawling Rose and Jasmine Garden, Beijing spent 3 billion rupees to build the Pakistan-China Friendship Center, a state-of-the-art performance, conference and exhibition space boasting an 800-seat auditorium, eight conference halls and 105 residential rooms. Projects like this are “indeed solidifying the goodwill for China in Pakistan,” said Irfan Shahzad, Lead Research Coordinator at the Institute of Policy Studies, an Islamabad think tank, in an interview with The Diplomat. But that facility is just the tip of the iceberg: institutions such as the China Study Center, inaugurated at the Islamic International University Islamabad last year, along with engineering and science scholarships for Pakistani students to study in the mainland, will be critical in efforts to forge cultural linkages with elites.

Indians are more divided – roughly a quarter says American policies are fair while slightly more say they favor India. Few believe the U.S. favors Pakistan.

Despite having been primus inter pares and head of government, Gill on the Hill is having to negotiate with former MNAs and Taliban-sponsoring clerics for the release of his son, who was kidnapped during elections in May and is reportedly being held in North Waziristan. The former MNA in question is so influential with the group holding the younger Gill that he managed to arrange a telephone conversation between father and son. The kidnappers are asking for an exorbitant amount of money, we hear, and negotiations are continuing. On the same note, a recently retired fauji told our mole that another high-profile kidnapped person was known to be "within 30 kilometers of our check post" in North Waziristan but that the faujis were helpless and could not enter the terrain because of a "peace deal" with that particular group of terrorists.

Acharya wrote:US and Chinese Interests Align in Pakistan

. . . “ . . . the United States has encouraged China to expand its financial assistance to Pakistan,” . . . “the kinds of investments that Beijing has been making are not likely to be replicated by Western investors.” . . . Beijing has poured private investment into infrastructure, arts and cultural projects. The Karakorum Highway is the most prominent example: a treacherous 1,300 km corridor that connects the Chinese mainland with the Gwadar Port facility . . . Pakistani and Chinese officials hope to supplement the roadway with a 2,000 km high-speed rail link between Kashgar and Gwadar, bringing billions of dollars in investment to the region. As a result, bilateral trade between Beijing and Islamabad expanded to over US$12 billion last year, and 120 Chinese companies are now operating in Pakistan.

Pakistan’s leaders have squandered another opportunity to rally the nation against religious extremism. The terrorist attack on one of the oldest churches in the country, Peshawar’s All Saints Church, stunned all. For a couple of days, people wondered aloud about the depths to which Pakistan had sunk. But soon after the initial reaction, the media and politicians’ simply continued pandering to the Taliban and other terrorist groups.

It is now a familiar pattern. Pakistanis censure acts of terrorism but refrain from condemning or acting against terrorist groups. The terrorists are emboldened with each attack, noting that their ideology is finding space in the political mainstream.

The All Saints Church, established in 1883, symbolised the history of Christian presence in Pakistan. Christians have lived in Pakistan long before it was conceived as a separate country. By attacking this historic place of worship, the jihadi terrorists signalled their desire for religious cleansing of Pakistan. This was yet another moment for Pakistan’s leaders to say “No” to the extremist vision of Pakistan as excluding non-Muslims (or, for that matter, Muslim sects other than the hardline Sunni version of Islam).

Instead, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan, the leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) responded with calls for conciliation with the Pakistan Taliban (TTP). Mr. Khan even insinuated that the church attack may have been a “plot” against talks with the Taliban even though the TTP had publicly claimed credit for the terrorist bombing. Although Mr. Sharif backed away from talks on terms set by the Taliban ahead of his trip to New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly session, his government remains committed to talks with a group that murders innocent Pakistani citizens.

Jinnah’s vision

Pakistan’s religious minorities have been under attack for some time, in stark contrast with the vision laid out by Pakistan’s founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah in his famous August 1947 speech. Jinnah had said: “You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place or worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed — that has nothing to do with the business of the State.” Sadly for Pakistan and Pakistanis, Jinnah faded away from this life and guidance of the fledgling nation soon after.

In the mass population exchanges that occurred at Partition, most Hindus and nearly all Sikhs left West Pakistan for India and a large number of Muslims moved to Pakistan. Christians stayed behind in Pakistan, expecting greater protection because of their support for Jinnah and the Muslim League in Sindh and Punjab. While the Pakistani state often encouraged a national narrative of Muslim Pakistan versus Hindu India, Christians were often not attacked after independence because they were deemed weak in numbers as well as political influence.

Harassment

That has changed over the years. Pakistan Christians now routinely complain of being threatened, harassed, and forcibly converted. There are frequent reports of young Christian girls being raped and unwillingly married off to Muslims. The State’s indifference to these grievances has now led to the attacks by suicide bombers and armed extremist groups

Some Pakistani leaders had voiced concern about the direction that Pakistan was taking as early as 1948. Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, founder of the Awami League, later to serve briefly as Prime Minister of Pakistan, showed a depth of prescience during the Constituent Assembly debates a few months after independence. What was to become a way of life for Pakistanis was visible to him at the very outset.

Sliding into chaos

Addressing Pakistan’s first Prime Minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, Suhrawardy pointed out the danger of securing popular support by invoking fear of danger to Islam or the country. “Now you are raising the cry of Pakistan in danger for the purpose of arousing Muslim sentiments and binding them together in order to maintain you in power. This must go. Be fair not merely to your own people whom you will destroy but be fair to the minorities.” The pleas of Suhrawardy and others were ignored and Pakistan has gradually slid into an emphasis on Islamisation that is increasingly becoming violent.

Using religion as the sole basis of forging Pakistani nationhood has had catastrophic results as has been the Pakistani establishment’s decision to orchestrate militant groups, groomed and armed for combat in Kashmir and Afghanistan. The Pakistani state can no longer control the jihadi extremists and will eventually have to fight them, unless it is willing to surrender to their narrow concept of an Islamic state. The refusal to accept that harsh reality is enabling the jihadis to persist with their plans while the government is caught with no plan of its own.

Many Pakistanis realise that there is no good or bad Taliban. Pakistan needs to ban and disarm all jihadi and sectarian militias. The jihadi extremists do not accept our Constitution or the pluralism necessary for a democratic state. The talk about talks with these groups can never end well for a democratic polity and only encourages their belief that they are winning. The issue, however, is: who will lead Pakistan away from confusion and towards recognition of the need to fight and win against the jihadis?

RAWALPINDI: Four persons of the same family were found murdered in Al Shifa Colony on Tuesday here, Geo News reported.

Police said that four bodies were recovered from one house in Al Shifa Colony, which were identified as Brigadier (retired) Sikandar Malik, his wife and two daughters.

Police have cordoned off the area, while the bodies have been shifted to the hospital. Further investigation was in progress.

According to the Nation, these statements established the fact that actually it was the RAW in India, CIA and Mosad who were involved in the killings of innocent citizens in different parts of the country, but cunningly linked it with the Taliban. He said that the question was why, in spite of these proofs, the Pakistan Government was not informing the world at large that India was involved in terrorist activities in the country.

Pakistan intelligence agencies have warned the Sindh government that the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has prepared a massive terrorism plan. The Home Department, Sindh has been sent two separate secret reports by intelligence departments informing about the Pak Taliban’s brazen plans

ISLAMABAD : The Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat and Capital Administration & Development on Monday pointed out that two new airports being constructed in Islamabad and Gwadar are unfeasible due to their physical location

Committee members underline that the New Islamabad International Airport is located just four kilometers away from sensitive nuclear installations, while Gwadar Airport is in a highly seismic zone.

Officials of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) briefed the committee that a seismic survey had not been conducted prior to construction and that only a topographic survey had been done, despite the fact that the entire region is a highly seismic zone.

SSridhar wrote: Joseph, there is no mystery. The usual TSP tactic is to wriggle out of a situation through some such opening. That's all. Their hope is that by August/September timeframe, some other development could happen in the region such as US withdrawal, Afghan situation etc that would offer another window of opportunity in their Houdini act.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

kish wrote:A report on "The World’s Worst Passports For Travel", As usual Al-Bakistan finds it-selves among fellow failed states. (needless to say top 6 are muslim majority nation)

Revealed: The World’s Worst Passports For Travel

Sushupti wrote:[]

Anujan wrote:There was an article from Sherry in Jinnah institute report. Apparently MMS failed to reciprocate NS efforts and it was a huge lost opportunity. No where is Lahore declaration mentioned (when India came closest to sustained engagement with Pakistan and they did a Kargil) or Agra summit (With Mushy's bluster) or just before Mumbai attacks. Pakis conveniently forget all these and tell "Why cant you sign a peace agreement when everything has been normal for the past few hours?"

Another narrative among "intellectuals" is that MMS is "weak" and cannot carry his armed forces and party with him, and is not a good partner to NS "bold moves". I find this laughable, Nawaz hasnt completed a term yet, last two times he was deposed, was cooling his heels in Saudi arabia for a full 9 years, and during Mushy's time even bundled and sent back when he attempted to return. Let him complete a term first and then we can see who is the stronger partner and who is the weaker partner.