As the news are developing, it has been heard that reportedly MOHAMMAD ASIF has been caught with OPIUM (AFEEM) on Dubai Airport while he was on his way to homeland.
Shame on these people.. he must not be let alone that easily.. As they say in Urdu,"KHUDA GANJAY KO NAKHON NA DAY" (MAY GOD DON'T GIVE FINGERNAILS TO BALDY).
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Another Shame to Pakistan Name
Monday, June 2, 2008
Lal Masjid Reborn
Lt. General Kyani (Ex-Core Commander Rawalpindi) in his recent interview with Dr. Shahid Masood has confirmed that army has used phosphorous gernades in mosque. Hope after impeachment they open the case of mosque too.
What is phosphorous gernade?
What is phosphorous gernade?
Expecting Miracles From Jackasses
A strange nation we are, expecting wisdom from morons, radicalism from born opportunists, and virtue from knaves whose principal claim to fame is daylight national robbery.
What do we take the national scene to be, the result of a Nepalese revolution or a Chinese long march? Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan after a deal brokered by the Yanks in whose prowess she had invested all her hopes. Nawaz Sharif's return to the country came about as a result of Saudi royal intervention. Hard to detect the glimmers of any Che Guevarism in either of these Roman triumphs.
Musharraf took off his uniform not because a million men and women, torches in hand, had besieged Army House but because the Yanks were twisting his elbow and support for him within the army command was waning. The lawyers' movement played a vital part in weakening him but lawyers take on too much upon themselves when they portray themselves as the heralds of the changes that have swept Pakistan.
All the leaders of the movement – from Aitzaz Ahsan to Munir A Malik to Ali Ahmed Kurd – are my friends. They are possessed of admirable qualities but modesty or humility, alas, is not the most conspicuous among them. They expect the world to change but themselves refuse to change, still stuck in the heady feelings generated by their movement last year. If the tide flows it also ebbs. Critical points come and pass. Their movement has lost its momentum and something more than Aitzaz's driving skills – his uncanny ability to arrive at every destination at least ten hours late – is needed to regain it.
The people made their views known on Feb 18 but only because they were given an opportunity to do so. If they had not been given that opportunity does anyone think that they would have taken to the streets and stormed the citadels of power? In which make-believe world do we live? Our capacity for being pushed around is virtually inexhaustible and our political class, far from honing the tools of political resistance, has arrived at the last stages of moral and intellectual bankruptcy.
If the Feb elections had been shelved, Pakistan would have dug a deeper hole for itself but the masses would not have stirred. A nation that could endure Ayub Khan for eleven years, that knight of darkness – Ziaul Haq – for another eleven, and a certified mediocre like Musharraf, a disaster in both war and peace, for eight and a half years, can put up with anything. Still the fact remains that whether the Yanks played around with the props on our political stage or the Saudi Royals had a hand in altering some of the background tapestry, elections were held, Musharraf and his pack of political jackals were roundly humiliated, and political parties reviled and abused, and kept out in the cold all these years, swept to a dramatic victory.
So the people were not remiss in expecting great things to happen. What they have received instead is another extended lesson in the workings of political bankruptcy, the political parties in whom the people had reposed their trust proving epic failures at political management. Instead of dealing with real issues and trying to figure out how to get the country out of the hole in which it is stuck they are chasing shadows, evening out old scores and charging at toothless dragons that have lost the power to spout any fire from their raging nostrils.
Zardari, to his credit, is being the man that he always was: interested in power and money. Courtesy of the deal struck with Musharraf (through the Yanks) he has just won himself the biggest reprieve in Pakistani history, all cases against him – and it was not easy counting them – having been wound up. The people of Pakistan may yet be awaiting their miracle but he has received his.
My Lord Dogar, presently adorning the highest chair in the Supreme Court, is the agent of this miracle. And the people of Pakistan, chumps as ever, expect Zardari to put Dogar in the doghouse while My Lord Iftikhar Chaudhry, symbol and hero of the lawyer-cum-judicial movement, sweeps into the Supreme Court. This won't happen in the real world as long as Zardari is around. So what he is doing is smiling all the time and spouting some of the worst clichés about institution-building that the people of Pakistan have had to put up with for a long time.
The people of Pakistan – ordinary people, that is, because some have had a ball – have had to put up with much all these years. But having to endure lectures on politics from Mr Zardari takes the prize. Those in the charmed circle of the PPP elect – that is, in Zardari's good graces and therefore enjoying office or importance – go about with trained smiles on their faces. Sherry, I said, was becoming a competent minister. She is also turning into a sophisticated version of the dreaded Mohammad Ali Durrani.
But imagine the plight of those not in this charmed circle. They have to take in all that they are subjected to without wincing or saying anything in return. Our political parties, all of them, produce no rebels. They turn out courtiers instinctively aware that discretion is the better part of valour.
So the nation is being fed a series of fibs as extended as the thousand and one tales of the Arabian Nights: all about constitutional packaging, etc. Zardari misses not a step when reciting this litany. Farooq Naek, the law minister, as he goes through the same paces looks a deeply unhappy man. Things are whirling out of control and the economy is sinking and the rupee taking a further dip every day but the political charade being played out in Islamabad goes on, each day bringing a fresh twist to it.
And what is that other great party of the people, the PML-N, doing? Heaping fresh imprecations on Musharraf's head when Musharraf is no longer the problem. Far from being a den of conspiracy, the erstwhile Army House where he is still holed up has now a house of sorrow, another lesson in what happens when the pomp and glory of power have fled. Yet the PML-N keeps harping on Musharraf as if with him gone or better still impeached, the bright morning Pakistan has long awaited will have finally arrived.
It is a sign of the state the PML-N is in that without giving the matter a second thought it overreacts to the appointment of a political nonentity like my old friend Salmaan Taseer (never mind if he is a smart finance man) as Punjab governor, turning Salmaan at least for 48 hours into a looming presence on the political landscape. Beware the time when Musharraf is finally no more because the time for excuses then will have run out. Whom them to blame for the nation's shortcomings or the ineptitude of the political class?
The PML-N also runs the risk of being perceived as a single-issue party. It has boxed itself so much into a corner over the judges' issue that it has drastically curtailed its room for manoeuvre. We will restore the judges, the party and its leaders thunder at every opportunity, when it lies not in their power to do so. The key to the restoration of the judges is in Zardari's pocket and he has other games to play and other accounts to settle.
The PML-N consoles itself with the thought that its graph is rising while the PPP's is plunging. That may be so but of what use a rising graph when it is hard to predict what is going to happen in the next five months, let alone the next five years. How long will the present pantomime last? Suppose it doesn't, will we head into an election or another night of the…I need not spell out the word. Zardari may be playing a negative game of his own but the PML-N's interest lies in seeing to it that the present experiment, centred on Pakistan's first attempt at coalition-building, lasts.
But for that it will have to break free from the shackles of the judges' issue. Perhaps it would if it got some help from the legal fraternity or even My Lord Chaudhry. But the legal community has run out of ideas while My Lord Chaudhry no longer seems capable of thinking outside the box. He has proved himself a great man in many respects but the gift that marks a Mandela from an ordinary mortal seems not to lie in his grasp. Someone with true greatness in his soul would have said by now 'all right I am ready to step aside provided Musharraf goes too, Dogar also goes, and the Nov 2 judiciary is restored' thus sacrificing self for a higher cause.
Iqbal, awakener of our souls, where has thy memory fled, where all thy songs exhorting us to emulate the flight of the eagle? At stake is the country's future, calling for vision and some measure of greatness. What we are getting is a dance by dummies and men of straw.
Courtesy: AYAZ AMIR
THE NEWS on FRIDAY
What do we take the national scene to be, the result of a Nepalese revolution or a Chinese long march? Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan after a deal brokered by the Yanks in whose prowess she had invested all her hopes. Nawaz Sharif's return to the country came about as a result of Saudi royal intervention. Hard to detect the glimmers of any Che Guevarism in either of these Roman triumphs.
Musharraf took off his uniform not because a million men and women, torches in hand, had besieged Army House but because the Yanks were twisting his elbow and support for him within the army command was waning. The lawyers' movement played a vital part in weakening him but lawyers take on too much upon themselves when they portray themselves as the heralds of the changes that have swept Pakistan.
All the leaders of the movement – from Aitzaz Ahsan to Munir A Malik to Ali Ahmed Kurd – are my friends. They are possessed of admirable qualities but modesty or humility, alas, is not the most conspicuous among them. They expect the world to change but themselves refuse to change, still stuck in the heady feelings generated by their movement last year. If the tide flows it also ebbs. Critical points come and pass. Their movement has lost its momentum and something more than Aitzaz's driving skills – his uncanny ability to arrive at every destination at least ten hours late – is needed to regain it.
The people made their views known on Feb 18 but only because they were given an opportunity to do so. If they had not been given that opportunity does anyone think that they would have taken to the streets and stormed the citadels of power? In which make-believe world do we live? Our capacity for being pushed around is virtually inexhaustible and our political class, far from honing the tools of political resistance, has arrived at the last stages of moral and intellectual bankruptcy.
If the Feb elections had been shelved, Pakistan would have dug a deeper hole for itself but the masses would not have stirred. A nation that could endure Ayub Khan for eleven years, that knight of darkness – Ziaul Haq – for another eleven, and a certified mediocre like Musharraf, a disaster in both war and peace, for eight and a half years, can put up with anything. Still the fact remains that whether the Yanks played around with the props on our political stage or the Saudi Royals had a hand in altering some of the background tapestry, elections were held, Musharraf and his pack of political jackals were roundly humiliated, and political parties reviled and abused, and kept out in the cold all these years, swept to a dramatic victory.
So the people were not remiss in expecting great things to happen. What they have received instead is another extended lesson in the workings of political bankruptcy, the political parties in whom the people had reposed their trust proving epic failures at political management. Instead of dealing with real issues and trying to figure out how to get the country out of the hole in which it is stuck they are chasing shadows, evening out old scores and charging at toothless dragons that have lost the power to spout any fire from their raging nostrils.
Zardari, to his credit, is being the man that he always was: interested in power and money. Courtesy of the deal struck with Musharraf (through the Yanks) he has just won himself the biggest reprieve in Pakistani history, all cases against him – and it was not easy counting them – having been wound up. The people of Pakistan may yet be awaiting their miracle but he has received his.
My Lord Dogar, presently adorning the highest chair in the Supreme Court, is the agent of this miracle. And the people of Pakistan, chumps as ever, expect Zardari to put Dogar in the doghouse while My Lord Iftikhar Chaudhry, symbol and hero of the lawyer-cum-judicial movement, sweeps into the Supreme Court. This won't happen in the real world as long as Zardari is around. So what he is doing is smiling all the time and spouting some of the worst clichés about institution-building that the people of Pakistan have had to put up with for a long time.
The people of Pakistan – ordinary people, that is, because some have had a ball – have had to put up with much all these years. But having to endure lectures on politics from Mr Zardari takes the prize. Those in the charmed circle of the PPP elect – that is, in Zardari's good graces and therefore enjoying office or importance – go about with trained smiles on their faces. Sherry, I said, was becoming a competent minister. She is also turning into a sophisticated version of the dreaded Mohammad Ali Durrani.
But imagine the plight of those not in this charmed circle. They have to take in all that they are subjected to without wincing or saying anything in return. Our political parties, all of them, produce no rebels. They turn out courtiers instinctively aware that discretion is the better part of valour.
So the nation is being fed a series of fibs as extended as the thousand and one tales of the Arabian Nights: all about constitutional packaging, etc. Zardari misses not a step when reciting this litany. Farooq Naek, the law minister, as he goes through the same paces looks a deeply unhappy man. Things are whirling out of control and the economy is sinking and the rupee taking a further dip every day but the political charade being played out in Islamabad goes on, each day bringing a fresh twist to it.
And what is that other great party of the people, the PML-N, doing? Heaping fresh imprecations on Musharraf's head when Musharraf is no longer the problem. Far from being a den of conspiracy, the erstwhile Army House where he is still holed up has now a house of sorrow, another lesson in what happens when the pomp and glory of power have fled. Yet the PML-N keeps harping on Musharraf as if with him gone or better still impeached, the bright morning Pakistan has long awaited will have finally arrived.
It is a sign of the state the PML-N is in that without giving the matter a second thought it overreacts to the appointment of a political nonentity like my old friend Salmaan Taseer (never mind if he is a smart finance man) as Punjab governor, turning Salmaan at least for 48 hours into a looming presence on the political landscape. Beware the time when Musharraf is finally no more because the time for excuses then will have run out. Whom them to blame for the nation's shortcomings or the ineptitude of the political class?
The PML-N also runs the risk of being perceived as a single-issue party. It has boxed itself so much into a corner over the judges' issue that it has drastically curtailed its room for manoeuvre. We will restore the judges, the party and its leaders thunder at every opportunity, when it lies not in their power to do so. The key to the restoration of the judges is in Zardari's pocket and he has other games to play and other accounts to settle.
The PML-N consoles itself with the thought that its graph is rising while the PPP's is plunging. That may be so but of what use a rising graph when it is hard to predict what is going to happen in the next five months, let alone the next five years. How long will the present pantomime last? Suppose it doesn't, will we head into an election or another night of the…I need not spell out the word. Zardari may be playing a negative game of his own but the PML-N's interest lies in seeing to it that the present experiment, centred on Pakistan's first attempt at coalition-building, lasts.
But for that it will have to break free from the shackles of the judges' issue. Perhaps it would if it got some help from the legal fraternity or even My Lord Chaudhry. But the legal community has run out of ideas while My Lord Chaudhry no longer seems capable of thinking outside the box. He has proved himself a great man in many respects but the gift that marks a Mandela from an ordinary mortal seems not to lie in his grasp. Someone with true greatness in his soul would have said by now 'all right I am ready to step aside provided Musharraf goes too, Dogar also goes, and the Nov 2 judiciary is restored' thus sacrificing self for a higher cause.
Iqbal, awakener of our souls, where has thy memory fled, where all thy songs exhorting us to emulate the flight of the eagle? At stake is the country's future, calling for vision and some measure of greatness. What we are getting is a dance by dummies and men of straw.
Courtesy: AYAZ AMIR
THE NEWS on FRIDAY
Power Crisis? A Myth or Reality
The facts and figures regarding electricity generation and its consumption in 2007 and the first five months of 2008 prepared by PEPCO show the present electricity crisis in Pakistan is the result of some carefully managed mismanagement for attaining certain objectives.Even the top professionals attached with the power sector smell a rat at the mismanagement done by not making payments to the Generation Companies (GENCOs) and the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and not performing certain tasks in time deliberately on the direction of some hidden hands to create a fake crisis for certain objectives.
There was not an energy crisis in the country in the years 2006 and 2007 and even there were not any signs of such a big and long crisis in the air. According to the figures presented by PEPCO to a Standing Committee of the Senate last month, the power generation capacity of all the production units in January 2007 was 11,039 MW while the total demand was 12,093 MW with a deficit of 1,054 MW.
In Feb 2007, the generation was 12,552 MW, the demand was 11,590 MW and surprisingly there was surplus production of 962 MW. In March 2007, the production was 11,171 MW, consumption was 12,311 MW with a deficit of 1,140 MW. In April 2007, the production was 13,002 MW, the consumption was 13,843 MW with a deficit of only 841 MW. Comparison of these figures with the last months of 2007 and the first few months of 2008 tell a different story. In October 2007, the production was 13,492 MW, consumption was 13,737 MW, while the deficit was only 245 MW.
In November 2007, the production was 11,590 MW, consumption demand was 12,401 MW with a deficit of only 811 MW. On November 3rd 2007, the then Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) imposed emergency and sacked about 60 judges of the superior judiciary. "A strong demand from all circles of the society was raised to restore all the judges sacked unconstitutionally, and the mighty establishment started to play its role by creating many other fake crises to de-prioritize the real demand," many professionals attached with political and power sector say.
After the proclamation of emergency in Nov 2007, suddenly a fake crisis was created and the production in December 2007 was suddenly reduced to 9,679 MW, the consumption remained almost the same as it was in Nov, 12,154 MW and thus the deficit touched its peak and suddenly reached 2,475 MW. In Jan 2008, the production was 9,104 MW, the demand was 12,255 MW, which was not much higher than that of the demand in Jan 2007, but the deficit now was 3,151 MW. In Feb 2008, the production was 10,122 MW, the consumption was 12,123 MW while the deficit was 2001 MW. In March 2008, the production was reduced to 9,856 MW, the consumption was 13,010 MW and the deficit reached the point of 3,154 MW.
In April, the production was 11,300 MW, the consumption was 15,000 MW and the deficit touched the highest point ever in the recent years i.e. 3,700 MW.
Former railways minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told The News on Friday that in the last days of the Shaukat Aziz government, whenever he approached the prime minister and complained to him about the non-availability of gas, flour and electricity, the situation became normal for some days and gas and electricity load-shedding diminished. "But, after three or four days of my visit to the prime minister’s office, the situation again became worse. I want to say that the crisis was fake and was managed by some hidden hands who I do not know,” Sheikh Rashid said.
Former chairman PEPCO, Munnawar Baseer, when approached by The News on Friday, said that the major reason for the present crisis was stopping of payments to GENCOs and IPPs, which had lowered the production by 1,500 MW. Secondly, he said, reduction in hydel production had also lowered the production by more than 500 MW.
He said that the government was moving ahead with some mature planning to sort out this issue. He explained at the end of the last year and the start of the running year, there was a mismanagement of the highest level in all the departments of the government concerned with the power sector. He said that he couldn't say that all this was done for achieving some objectives “but it is sure that mismanagement was and is being done intentionally”.
Courtesy: The News on Saturday
There was not an energy crisis in the country in the years 2006 and 2007 and even there were not any signs of such a big and long crisis in the air. According to the figures presented by PEPCO to a Standing Committee of the Senate last month, the power generation capacity of all the production units in January 2007 was 11,039 MW while the total demand was 12,093 MW with a deficit of 1,054 MW.
In Feb 2007, the generation was 12,552 MW, the demand was 11,590 MW and surprisingly there was surplus production of 962 MW. In March 2007, the production was 11,171 MW, consumption was 12,311 MW with a deficit of 1,140 MW. In April 2007, the production was 13,002 MW, the consumption was 13,843 MW with a deficit of only 841 MW. Comparison of these figures with the last months of 2007 and the first few months of 2008 tell a different story. In October 2007, the production was 13,492 MW, consumption was 13,737 MW, while the deficit was only 245 MW.
In November 2007, the production was 11,590 MW, consumption demand was 12,401 MW with a deficit of only 811 MW. On November 3rd 2007, the then Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) imposed emergency and sacked about 60 judges of the superior judiciary. "A strong demand from all circles of the society was raised to restore all the judges sacked unconstitutionally, and the mighty establishment started to play its role by creating many other fake crises to de-prioritize the real demand," many professionals attached with political and power sector say.
After the proclamation of emergency in Nov 2007, suddenly a fake crisis was created and the production in December 2007 was suddenly reduced to 9,679 MW, the consumption remained almost the same as it was in Nov, 12,154 MW and thus the deficit touched its peak and suddenly reached 2,475 MW. In Jan 2008, the production was 9,104 MW, the demand was 12,255 MW, which was not much higher than that of the demand in Jan 2007, but the deficit now was 3,151 MW. In Feb 2008, the production was 10,122 MW, the consumption was 12,123 MW while the deficit was 2001 MW. In March 2008, the production was reduced to 9,856 MW, the consumption was 13,010 MW and the deficit reached the point of 3,154 MW.
In April, the production was 11,300 MW, the consumption was 15,000 MW and the deficit touched the highest point ever in the recent years i.e. 3,700 MW.
Former railways minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told The News on Friday that in the last days of the Shaukat Aziz government, whenever he approached the prime minister and complained to him about the non-availability of gas, flour and electricity, the situation became normal for some days and gas and electricity load-shedding diminished. "But, after three or four days of my visit to the prime minister’s office, the situation again became worse. I want to say that the crisis was fake and was managed by some hidden hands who I do not know,” Sheikh Rashid said.
Former chairman PEPCO, Munnawar Baseer, when approached by The News on Friday, said that the major reason for the present crisis was stopping of payments to GENCOs and IPPs, which had lowered the production by 1,500 MW. Secondly, he said, reduction in hydel production had also lowered the production by more than 500 MW.
He said that the government was moving ahead with some mature planning to sort out this issue. He explained at the end of the last year and the start of the running year, there was a mismanagement of the highest level in all the departments of the government concerned with the power sector. He said that he couldn't say that all this was done for achieving some objectives “but it is sure that mismanagement was and is being done intentionally”.
Courtesy: The News on Saturday
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