Plane Crashes over Margalla Hills, Islamabad
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Yet another sad news! A passenger plane of a private company crashed this forenoon in Margalla Hills, North of Islamabad. The plane was about to land at Islamabad airport. It took off from Karachi about a couple of hours earlier, around 0800 hours. It carried 150 plus passengers including the air crew. All of them are reported to have died with their bodies scattered all over the inaccessible Margalla Hills. Over a hundred bodies have been recovered. The black box of the plane has also been found out.
The plane is reported to be flying in No Fly Zone. Soon after the crash, Federal Home Minister made an irresponsible statement that five passengers had been found alive and evacuated to the hospitals. Later, the statement was found to be baseless and the minister had to correct it. A cabinet meeting was in progress which was called off on hearing the news of the plane crash. The Prime Minister, Chief Ministers and the Defense Minister opted to fly in the same helicopter over the scene of the accident. The pilot of the plane is reported to have reached Karachi this morning flying another plane from Turkey. He was over 65. An inquiry has been ordered which like all other such like inquiries is not likely to be made public.
The response of the nation was very positive. A number of residents individually and also as part of various organization collectively immediately moved to the scene of the crash and put in their bit to evacuate the dead bodies and search for the survivors. Helicopters, too, were there on the scene within minutes and played a major role in rescue operations. However, there was lack of coordination among various agencies while undertaking the rescue operations.
Labels: Islamabad, Plane Crash
posted @ 9:00 PM,
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Running the Country
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
The prime minister states that if the present coalition government fails no force will succeed in running the country. Does it mean a confession on part of the worthy prime minister that the present government is certainly not successfully running the affairs of the state and that it is heading towards failure, if it has not already failed? The prime minister is also claiming that the present coalition government is composed of the best set of people to run the government and that if the best can't succeed how could the second best. He may be right. After all this is the government, people of Pakistan happen to have voted to power a couple of years ago. If the best are corrupt and are resorting to nepotism, and are unable to control price hike, improve law and order, follow the verdicts of judiciary, resolve the issue of load shedding and so on, how could the second best do it. The present state of affairs is perfectly in line with the divinely words that people get the rulers of the type they themselves are. So, let us reflect as to what we are doing in our individual capacities. Our criticism of the situation and the government/rulers is not going to do any good either to us or to our country.
Labels: Democracy
posted @ 6:01 PM,
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Saudi's mediation in Indo-Pak talks!
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Ever since independence from the British rule in 1947, the relations between the two neighboring countries, India and Pakistan have remained strained primarily for want of resolution of Kashmir issue. Quoting the post 1971 War, Simla Agreement, India insists that the resolution of the Kashmir issue and all other issues has to be undertaken through bilateral talks. These bilateral talks have not borne any positive outcome to date.
The recent visit of Indian Prime Minister to Saudi Arabia signalling stronger ties between the two countries has raised the possibility of Saudis mediating between India and Pakistan.
Labels: IndoPak Relations, Kashmir Issue
posted @ 4:13 PM,
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Renaming the Province of NWFP
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Pakistan has four provinces. These are Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and NWFP. The names of the first three provinces make sense. Punjab means 'five waters' implying the rivers Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Sutlej and Bias which pass through the province. The language spoken by the majority population of Punjab is Punjabi. Sindh province takes its name from the river Indus which is also called Sindh and Sindhi is the language spoken by the majority population of this province. Balochistan takes its name from the Baloch tribe which forms the majority population of this province. However, it must be noted that the entire populations of the first two provinces do not speak the languages as per the names of these provinces. Similarly, Baloch tribe is not the only tribe living in Balochistan. NWFP stands for North West Frontier Province which once part of Indian sub continent i.e India of the pre-partition era made some sense as the province lay in the north west of then India. However, NWFP is the only province of Pakistan whose name makes no sense at all and is irrelevant. It's indeed sad that despite repeated demands from the people of the province since independence of Pakistan in 1947.
The provincial assembly of NWFP has, more than once, passed resolutions including the one passed by the current ruling alliance led by ANP (Awami National Party) for change of name of the province to Pakhtoonwa (the majority population of the province is Pakhtoon, the Pashto speaking Pathan tribes, known as Pakhtoons) but to no avail. Pakistan Muslim League (N), the largest political party in opposition opposes the name of Pakhtoonwa on the grounds that all population of the province is not Pakhtoon. The truth of the matter is that the party has more following in non Pashto speaking belt of Hazara, named after Hazara tribes, and negligible in the majority Pashto speaking areas due to which it is opposing the renaming of the province as Pakhtoonwa. This area is also known as Gandhara. Political wisdom of PML(N) is strange. Both arguments, the declared and the hidden one, reflect the hollowness of the political wisdom of PML (N). How does it expect to seek the support of the Pakhtoons after opposing the name of Pakhtoonwa?
Another irony of the fate is that the renaming of the NWFP is part of the larger package of constitutional amendments under consideration by the constitutional committee. ANP has made it clear that it would not support the package if the province is not renamed. It could mean a deadlock for the passage of the package of constitutional amendments. A middle ground is being sought by renaming the NWFP as Pakhtoonwa Hazara or Pakhtoonwa Gandhara. Let us see as to what turns out to be the final outcome.
Labels: Constitution, Provincial Autonomy
posted @ 3:55 PM,
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Terrorists attack on SIA building in Lahore
Monday, March 8, 2010
The threat of terrorism looms large on all Pakistanis on daily basis. It has been so for many years now. Since the life must go on, we all continue moving about despite hearing the news of terrorists attacks taking place in our city or another city. Sometimes, we don't hear the news but the noise of the blasts themselves. This is what happened about eight hours ago. I heard a big blast which was heard all over Lahore. Owing to load shedding, I could not switch on the TV to find out as to what had happened. A few minutes later, I got a phone call from my cousin in Canada who inquired about the well being of all family members. She could not get through to talk to her mother, my aunt. I rang up my aunt and then informed her daughter that everyone in the family was safe. Soon thereafter I got a call from my daughter who is studying in Montreal, Canada. Same concern and question about family's safety with the same answer from me that all of us are fine and safe. I rang back to my daughter as call from her side is more expensive. She commented very seriously that we should emigrate. How many of us can emigrate?
How many phone calls must have been made by Pakistanis all over the world to inquire about the well being of their near and dear ones in Lahore. All phone call responses were certainly not of all correct report. Over a dozen persons died and another five dozen were injured in the suicide attack which shook Model Town, Lahore and its surrounding localities. The target was the building in K block in use by the Special Investigation Agency, Punjab. A vehicle loaded with 800 kilograms of explosive was banged into the building by the suicide attacker/driver. The blast caused a 12 feet hole at the point of impact and shock waves of the blast caused cracks in the buildings nearby. Window panes of buildings up to two to three kilometers broke. Why was this office located in a residential area? Why wasn't it well secured? There are countless questions but no answers! That's the state of affairs, we, in Pakistan, happen to be bearing and passing through.
Labels: War on Terror
posted @ 4:18 PM,
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Throne of Origins
The actual “Road to Swat” bifurcates from the great Grand Trunk Road near Nowshera. About a kilometre below the highest point on the Road to Swat, the commuters can see the view of Takht-e-Bahi Mountains in the middle distance standing from the road. The ruins of one of the grand monastery of the past are situated on the top of a 152-meter high hill, about 80 kilometres from Peshawar and 16 kilometres northwest of the city of Mardan. While Swat is famous for different reasons now (rise and fall of the Taliban), some interested people still commuters to visit Takht-e-Bahi - a Buddhist monastery developed between 1st and 7th centuries AD.
Read Throne of Origins at Logic is variable
Labels: Travel
posted @ 1:43 PM,
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Backdrop of India Pakistan Talks
Saturday, February 6, 2010
India has agreed to resume talks with Pakistan after a deadlock of over two years.
India and Pakistan turned out to be foes of each other soon after their independence from the British Rule in 1947. The two countries have had three wars to date in 1948, 1965 and 1971. The last war resulted in secession of East Pakistan from the Federation as an independent state named as Bangladesh.
The main issue of enmity between the two countries is regarding the State of Jammu and Kashmir part of which is under the administrative control of India and the other part is under the control of Pakistan. With majority population of Muslims but ruled by a non Muslim who sold the state to India for Rs. 7.5 million only resulted in the advance of armies of both countries into the state in 1948. The UN sponsored cease fire and the countless resolutions passed by Security Council and General Assembly seek holding of a plebiscite in the disputed state. Having agreed to the aforementioned resolutions at the time of cease fire, India backed out from her commitment and continues to do so to date. Whereas Pakistan could take the case to UNO, the Simla Agreement signed after the 1971 War binds the two countries to resolve the dispute mutually without intervention of a third party. This is the price Pakistan had to pay for the 1971 War to get its thousands of prisoners back besides losing its eastern wing which had more population than the western wing. In 1988, India undertook the nuclear tests which was immediately followed by Pakistan. Both India and Pakistan became nuclear states.
With the passage of time, a number of other issues like Siachen, prisoners in both countries have cropped up. The two worth mentioning are the water dispute and terrorism. The former has arisen as a result of construction of dams and diverting the water by India on/of the rivers flowing from India into Pakistan. Earlier, the struggle of Muslims in Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir was recognized the world over as a bona fide independence movement. Since the incidence of 9/11 , India has been able to politically shun the notion of independence movement before the world and is hell bent on labeling it as terrorism. Pakistan, too, had to cease its support to the freedom fighters restricting itself to only moral, political and diplomatic support.
Ever since the US invasion of Afghanistan soon after the 9/11, India has been increasing its presence in Afghanistan; over a dozen consulates and lot of trade and construction activities. This does not suit Pakistan, rather threatens Pakistan's security on its western front. Pakistan's concerns have been registered by America who acknowledge that Indian presence in Afghanistan is adversely affecting Pakistan's war on terror. Pakistan accuses India of supporting terrorists playing havoc in Pakistan and separatists seeking secession of Baluchistan from Pakistan. India denies both accusations.
Until the end of the last decade, India insisted that confidence building measures should be taken first to resolve the issues and Pakistan maintained that the issues be resolved first and confidence building measures would automatically follow. During all these years there was a time that India refused to recognize Kashmir as an issue between the two countries as India considered its integral part. However, through negotiations, Pakistan has been able to make India concede, though only diplomatically, that Kashmir is an issue between two countries which requires resolution. During the last decade, Pakistan changed its stance and agreed to initiation of confidence building measure like cross cultural interaction between the citizens of two countries and trade.
The confidence building measures progressed pretty fast and, reportedly, back channel diplomacy was taking place to resolve the issues including that of Kashmir when the Mumbai attacks occurred in November 2008 and everything came to a standstill, rather, it started moving backward to the brink of cross border adventures. India accused Pakistan of its involvement in these attacks as the only terrorist caught alive is a Pakistani citizen. Pakistan denied its involvement at governmental level and committed to undertake investigations and punish the individual Pakistani citizens, if any, found involved. This row has taken two years for the dust to settle down where after India has agreed to resume talks of which terrorism is going to be an important point on the agenda.
Labels: Indo-Pak Talks, IndoPak Relations
posted @ 10:45 PM,
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Dodge Accessories
Friday, February 5, 2010
Movement of personnel or good by road is all dependent upon vehicles. Dodge is one of the most popular manufacturers of auto-motives. Dodge Ram, Dakota, Charger, Challenger, Caliber, and Viper are known the world over. Vehicles manufactured by Dodge are dependable. The innovative approach, peculiar to Dodge, is even recognized by its competitors. Such a big fleet of vehicles of varying types and models plying in thousands has to be backed up by equally dependable and genuine accessories. You have got to have a trusted supplier of Dodge accessories who can supply all accessories of all types of Dodge vehicles of all models. CARid.com has earned a name for itself which you can trust and rely on.
Be it the Dodge car accessories or the Dodge truck accessories, CARid.com have them all. Their inventory is wholesome. The accessories are guaranteed to be of the highest quality. Their highly trained staff takes special care to understand your requirement and ensures that you get the right kind and quality of accessories for your vehicle.
You can get in touch with them via live chat or through their toll free number and shop online them seven days a week. The website is very neatly laid out. It is comprehensive in details and user friendly. You can look for the accessories by vehicle category, by product or by brand. The pictures you see are extremely helpful in recognizing the accessories required by you. And, if needed, you can visit them. You are only a click away.
posted @ 7:26 PM,
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Pleased in Pak Pattan
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Pakpattan - the name is enough to start the travelers, cautiously curious and devoted faithful dreaming. Already the magic words like sultans and saints are stirring in the head. Let your gaze slip over the dhaki - original citadel of Pakpattan - and the town will suddenly appear. The antiquity is its own message: the town is heritage, and heritage permeates the town. Read the story of the town by S A J Shirazi.
Labels: Travel
posted @ 12:28 PM,
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Lyari Operation
Thursday, January 14, 2010
A surgical operation was conducted in Lyari, Karachi, by Rangers other day. On hue and cry by the Karachites of all sections of society, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah stated that the operation in Lyari had not been conducted on his orders and that it was conducted without his knowledge. How surprising it is that ruling governments, both in the province of Sindh and the center are being run by Pakistan Peoples' Party and no one is owning the operation conducted by Rangers!
Labels: Governance, Karachi
posted @ 8:03 PM,
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Please Get Serious
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Point here is that Hamid Mir, and other anchormen must work on a fine balance and responsibility to the people who are watching them. My suggestion: Hamid Mir, please be serious while you use your anchor power. Read the story here.
posted @ 10:40 AM,
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Top Ten Blog Posts 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
Pakistani blogospehre is growing each year and many new bloggers have entered the cyber world. During the outgoing year, Pakistani blogs have been noticed by international and regional media, Pakistani news channels not to mention the millions at home and abroad.
Here are Top Ten Posts 2009.Congratulations and well done.
posted @ 7:30 PM,
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Anti terrorism-thinkers or doers
Sunday, December 6, 2009
For a nation put to sleep by many a sermons of religious purpose, the mass bloodshed of innocent brethren comes as no surprise. We pray to an invisible God, believe in the words of the invincible preachers and devote our lives to chant verse after verse like imbecile parrots. We believe in those who make us believe in them and abandon any who dares dissent. We declare those who worship our exclusive Gods in any way other than the one deemed appropriate by us as heretics. And yes, we do condone the execution of one transgressor after another in the name of blasphemy.
We, the people of the fading green flag, the aloof crescent with the bleak star, take religion seriously. We live and die for it. We kill and reincarnate in its name. We trace our origin and destination to be religious perfection. And we perfect others more than ourselves. We perfect our neighbor before our kin. We burn their mosques before illuminating our own. And we ostracize them before including ourselves. We march forward as a herd of mindless sheep whose shepherd has gone astray. And once lost in utter chaos we hold faith. In time of need and otherwise, we always hold faith.
While our faith is intense and potent, we rest it in the hands of self-appointed custodians and go about carrying our affairs with the nonchalance of beings bereft of responsibility. We believe in them and their virtuous service but we do not take onus of our blind acquiescence. We condemn the strangers executing our brethren one after the other but we never wonder about where the wizards of doom emerge from. We plough to make our land fertile for strife and exonerate those planting the seeds of bloodshed. And when it is time to reap the fruit of our doing we stare exasperated at each other pointing fingers.
You see, we are believers. We believe and we believe well. If only we were thinkers or doers.
Labels: Anti Terrorism, War on Terror
posted @ 5:20 PM,
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Rawalpindi Carnage
Saturday, December 5, 2009
In a highly tragic incident 36 innocent people including 17 children, 10 civilian, 9 Army personnel embraced shahadat when terrorists attacked a mosque in Parade Lane, Rawalpindi. Reportedly 4 terrorists approached a mosque inside officers residential colony in Parade Lane, Rawalpindi Saddar and hurled grenades on Namazies followed by indiscriminate firing. Meanwhile two suicide bombers entered the Mosque and blew themselves killing 35 Namazies who were offering Jumma prayers. Security forces personnel in the area responded immediately and 2 other terrorists were killed in exchange of fire.
Read the names of all martyrs here.
Labels: Terrorism
posted @ 6:01 PM,
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Resentment against Baluchistan Package
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Baluchistan is area wise the largest of the four provinces of Pakistan. It is the smallest province in terms of the population. Ever since independence there has invariably been lot of hue and cry regarding the deprivation of the rights of the people of Baluchistan. All governments to date have been accepting the existence of this deprivation and announcing different packages and incentives to make up the deprivation. However, the hue and cry regarding the deprivation has continued to increase despite all these efforts. In the recent past, particularly, after the death of Nawab Akbar Bugti and killing of a few more political leaders, this hue and cry has gathered a new momentum and now the voices of secession from Pakistan are on the increase.
People of Baluchistan feel that they are not getting the due share of development and their democratic rights of freedom of expression, equal opportunities etc are also not respected. The other sore point is about the royalty for the mineral resources like natural gas from Sui gas fields, copper from Saindak, marble etc. In the last few years there have been a large number of people from Baluchistan who, according to the political leadership, have gone missing as they have been picked up by the security agencies, namely, army. People of Baluchistan are against the involvement of the army and even the establishment of new cantonments. Gwadar port is yet another sore point where non Baluchis have purchased lot of land and are working in various projects which is going to change the demography of the area. Notwithstanding the poor standard of education, the people of Baluchistan want all public office vacancies to be filled by them and not from outside Baluchistan.
It is in this backdrop that the present government had promised to alleviate the sufferings of Baluchistan through a package. The said package has been placed before the national assembly. The Baluch leadership’s response has been twofold; the political leadership of Baluchistan was not taken into confidence while preparing the package and that the package falls well short of the demands of the people of Baluchistan. Yet another cry has been that the people of Baluchistan wanted these promises to be converted into deeds and going by the past precedence, they had all the reservations about the implementation of the package.
Even if the Baluchistan package presented in the National Assembly is well intentioned, it’s not being perceived as such. Wouldn't it have been better that all the elected and non elected political leadership was taken on board while preparing the package. If this was not possible, the least which could have been done was to present the package in the Provincial Assembly of Baluchistan prior to its approval by the National Assembly and the government.
Labels: Baluchistan, Democracy, Governance, Provincial Autonomy
posted @ 6:53 PM,
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NRO beneficiary quits as moral obligation
Monday, November 23, 2009
Finding his name in recently published list of beneficiaries of National Reconciliation Ordinance, the advisor of Punjab Chief Minister and principal secretary of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Saeed Mehdi has tendered his resignation stating that he never made any corruption nor took advantage under NRO. He further said that he was involved in the matter maliciously, therefore, quitting from the office as moral obligation. Mehdi said he would not accept any official designation till clearance.
Unless there are some hidden and political ramifications, the resignation of Saeed Mehdi is indeed commendable. Is he going to be the lone exception or going to be followed by hundreds of others in the government led by the worthy President of Pakistan?
Labels: Corruption, Moral Values, Nepotism, NRO, Zardari
posted @ 3:40 PM,
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Abnormal activities of foreign nationals
Saturday, November 21, 2009
As per the press reports, MNA Javed Hashmi, who also heads the NA human rights body’s sub-committee on American private security firm Blackwater’s alleged presence in the country, said that the US was purchasing land in the suburbs of the federal capital Islamabad, including Malpur, Sihala and the Simly Dam area. He also said,“Influential people in Islamabad are renting out their houses to Americans,” and added “as per preliminary information, it is an established fact that Inter-Risk and DynCorp are training recruits in Peshawar”.
There has been a lot of hue and cry on part of the residents of Islamabad for many weeks about abnormal activities of the foreign diplomats and nationals. It has been the subject of the media, too. There have been reports that foreign nationals are employing highly trained retired soldiers of the special services group of the army in large numbers offering them very attractive salaries.
There is a need to probe into the matter to verify if all this is true or mere speculations. Based on the probe, government should take appropriate measures in either case and let the people know about it.
Labels: Activities of Foreigners, Governance, security
posted @ 7:23 PM,
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Donating sacrificial meat to IDPs
Friday, November 20, 2009
Eid ul Azha is due to be celebrated in about a week's time. After the military operation in Swat Malakand areas and the ongoing military operation in South Waziristan, we are having a large number of internally displaced persons, in millions in case of the former and in lakhs in case of the latter. All of these people need to be helped. Celebration of Eid ul Azha provides a large number of Pakistanis a good opportunity to help these IDPs.
Following the teachings of Islam, a large number of Pakistanis are going to spend millions of rupees to buy sacrificial goats and cows and slaughter them. Government, particularly army, and other agencies helping the IDPs should collect these sacrificial animals/money from the ones who intend buying the sacrificial animals and pass the same to the IDPs. The money so collected can be used to buy the animals from the neighborhood of the IDPs. Army is best suited for that as it is better organized and people have more faith in it. This will create a lot of goodwill amongst the IDPs and make them feel that their fellow Pakistanis care for them and remember them.
Labels: IDPs, Military Operation in South Waziristan, Swat Operation
posted @ 12:30 PM,
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Pakistan 42nd most corrupt country: TI
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Transparency International (TI), in its report for the year 2009, has rated Pakistan to be the 42nd most corrupt country in the world. Last year Pakistan was rated as 47th most corrupt country. Thus, as per this report, corruption has further increased in Pakistan over the last one year. India has been reported to be at 84th position. TI has cited issue of (National Reconciliation Ordinance) NRO in end 2007 as the main cause for continuing increase in corruption. The NRO grants immunity to a large number of politicians and bureaucrats charged with corruption. Most of these politicians and bureaucrats led by Mr. Asif Ali Zardari are back in power.
The PPP led government continues to boast of heroic deeds since their coming in power about two years ago. The report of TI bares it all. The worthy prime minister (PM) has shown his concern about it and formed committees to streamline procedures for good governance. This action on part of the PM very clearly reflects his acceptance of the TI report. He could have denied it, too, to be false and ill founded! The thought of good governance has occurred to the PM after this report. What have his cabinet and he been doing for the last two years? Waiting for the report! PPP calls itself to be the champion of democracy and good deeds. Rhetoric are good for a while. Deeds speak louder than words. In stead of competing with India in Cricket and Hockey matches, and being emotional about it, Pakistan needs to compete with India in the field of good governance.
Labels: Corruption, Democracy, Governance
posted @ 7:43 AM,
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Fred Bremner
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Light Within on on Fred Bremner writes, “He was not a diplomat, historian or a journalist, yet his photographs and publications have become an important source of historic records of the cities, events, places and people in Pakistan.”
posted @ 11:36 AM,
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