Nawab Raisani Drunk or Sick? Watch Video

WATCH VIDEO: Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Khan Raisani is seen making or recording a speech in which he says there is urgent need to revisit the 1973 Constitution.

The 2-minute video clip shows an incoherent Raisani struggling to speak, either because he was drunk or sick. The locale and date of the video recording is some where in Balochistan – Sept 7, 2010.

Before the Peoples Party elected CM could finish speaking, he is seen collapsing and guards around him reach out to prevent him from falling down. The camera is ordered to be shut down.

Nawab Raisani is on record having said that: A Degree is a degree whether it is genuine or fake doesn’t matter! WATCH the VIDEO and decide for yourself if Mr Raisani is actually drunk and can hardly speak or is sick and can’t speak. In either case Mr Raisani needs urgent help. Good Luck!

Altaf Ready to Return for Revolution

NEW YORK: Overseas Pakistanis are keenly watching one event after another consuming the elected coalition government in Islamabad and the four provinces. Just like the rest of the Pakistanis, these expats worry about their country of origin. Their remittances far exceed the value of assistance needed to tide over the flood crisis. In fact, it dwarfs the Kerry-Lugar-Berman aid. So why aren’t they mobilized?

From fake degrees, corruption, Sialkot lynching, Cricket scam to name a few– all these moral and political aberrations in our nation’s polity – have made an expat Pakistani slump on his rocking chair, biting his nails, preparing his one-liner response when he will be confronted with “What’s going on in Pakistan?” question.

There are talks of revolution amidst upheaval – the historical floods have not only washed away “everything” of the 20 million have-not’s, but even the Sindh Card, the Punjab Card, the Balochistan Card and the Pakhtunkhwa Card, according to Syed Mushahid Hussain, a respected politician with middle-class background.

The Mutahidda Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Altaf Husain on Sunday renewed his call for revolution. He said he will lead the poor, the middle-class and the Pakistani youth to rescue the country from the clutches of feudal lords, corrupt politicians and plunderers of national wealth.

He was addressing a large gathering in Karachi over phone from London in connection with the campaign of MQM’s social welfare Khidmat-e-Khalq organization to provide relief to the flood-hit people in the country. KKF is said to have so far distributed aid worth Rs250 million, it has been reported. Jamaat Islami’s Al-Khidmat and Imran Khan’s Tehreek-i-Insaf are active too. So are PPP and PML-N.

Hussain said feudal lords and corrupt politicians had enriched themselves through various means including waiver of hefty bank loans over the last six decades, built factories and also acquired assets abroad.

He said his critics could not block the looming change. “A revolution is coming and it will be unstoppable,” urging citizens including people in the armed forces to support such a movement.

Hussain said when people of all provinces were ready for bringing about a revolution, he would ask the MQM Rabita Committee to remove restrictions to allow him to return to the country to join the mass struggle.

Altaf holds dual nationality, in other words he is an expat too, and has been refused Pakistani passport six times, he said in an interview on Geo last week. PML-N and ANP leaders have questioned his allegiance to Pakistan. Ch. Nisar of PMl-N in fact demanded the government ask the British Government why “its national” is “inciting” Pakistanis and the Pakistan Armed Forces.

That brings up the question each Pakistani expat holding dual nationality faces. Can he or should he participate in politics back home? Commentators are divided on this issue. Ultimately what led Altaf to leave Pakistan and become a British national may influence the masses’ verdict. History may judge him compassionately if his rhetoric becomes an agent of change for a better Pakistan.

Altaf’s revolutionary statement is already said to be drawing strong reactions from rivals, particularly the main opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). When Hussain first made a call last month for martial law-like steps against feudalism and corruption, the Punjab-based Nawaz party went on overdrive. His unlikely supporters included IMran Khan of PTI, Syed Mushahid Hussain of PMl-Q and the Pir Pagara from Sindh. Most recently, Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali threw support behind change while appearing on Front Line on Saturday.

A war of words has been underway between the MQM, a partner in the Pakistan People’s Party-led ruling coalition in Islamabad and in the southern Sindh province, where MQM has wide electoral support in Karachi and other urban centers. Influx of IDPs from Sindh worries MQM, say some political commentators, as it would change the demography and the dynamics of Karachi, Sukkur and Hyderabad politics, they contend.

PML-N leaders accuse the MQM of seeking military intervention, which the latter denies. Meanwhile, PPP remains silent on the issue as its coalition-based government stands on the brink of collapse.

In his usual fiery style, Hussain refuted allegations against him and said the expenses for his stay in London were being borne by the party. “I have not accumulated any wealth and I do not own any properties or palaces like others,” he said.

He added that those who were worried with his statements about revolution would be more worried when they hear of his return.

“The government had not prepared an effective solution for the flood crisis,” said Altaf.

He also said that, those with influence breached the embankments and caused harm to the locals, and called upon the judiciary to take action against the people responsible for breaching the dykes (bundh) for personal benefits.

He told the office bearers of MQM not to make new clothes for themselves instead provide clothes to the children of flood-stricken people on this year’s upcoming Eid.

“I desire no presidency, premiership or any other seat of power for myself, all I want is that the downtrodden section of the society must get its rights,” Altaf Hussain reiterated.

Altaf suggested two weeks back that “patriotic generals” should step in to lead the country in such a crisis, a reminder that he could cause the government to collapse if he chose to pull out of the coalition.” PPP refuses to be drawn into the argument saying the matter should remain only a debate while they concentrate on flood relief efforts.

Pakistani officials, diplomats and aid workers warn that while civil unrest has so far been averted, the aftermath of the worst-ever flooding in Pakistan could destabilize the country in the months to come and aggravate the already deep regional, sectarian and class fissures, the New York Times reported today.

Reconstruct or Deconstruct Pakistan?

NEW YORK: Former CIA agent Duane Clarridge, who was indicted in 1991 in connection with the Iran-Contra affair, has reemerged in Pakistan.

According to website wsws.org, Clarridge is now running one of many Pentagon-funded private contractors operating in Pakistan to provide intelligence to the US military.

Only this time the feisty former intelligence officer, who left the agency more than 20 years ago, is back in the saddle as a private citizen in the ongoing covert war to “reconstruct or deconstruct” Pakistan. Pick your choice depending on which side of the philosophical plain of the so-called “war on terror” you are saddled on.

The Los Angeles Times reported, back in 2004 that the former intelligence operative joined forces with a group of conservative activists, shortly after his departure from the CIA.

That group used Ahmed Chalabi as a vehicle to overthrow Saddam Hussein in Iraq and replaced him with a pro-American head.

Clarridge has even been accused of forging the infamous Niger letter that led to the infamous series of lies to Congress known simply as weapons of mass destruction, wrote Jayne Lyn Stahl, in Online Journal. Stahl is a widely published poet, essayist, playwright, and screenwriter, member of PEN American Center, and PEN USA.

Fred Branfman reporting in AlterNet said about Clarridge: “Latin American Station Chief Duane “Dewey” Clarridge organized, trained, and operated local paramilitary and death squads throughout Central and Latin America that brutally tortured and murdered tens of thousand of civilians.”

According to published reports, documents declassified during Bill Clinton’s administration, show that covert operatives were placed inside Chile to destabilize Allende’s government, and prevent what was feared to be a Marxist takeover. Allende was replaced with Pinochet. Clarridge at that time was CIA’s Latin American Station Chief.

“I’ll bet you can’t count more than 200” who were killed under Pinochet during his notorious bloody coup, said Clarridge to an interviewer. “Sometimes, unfortunately, things have to be changed in an ugly way.” For simply “national security interests.”

While Clarridge retired, the CIA hasn’t, and is said to play a large part in destabilizing efforts in Pakistan and Iran, notes Stahl.

The private contractors in Pakistan helping US military Ops may now be taking commands from Duane “Dewey” Clarridge, Stahl observes.

President Obama as well know has not only continued, he has in fact expanded the murderous operations that were waged under the banner of the “war on terror” by the CIA and Pentagon during the Bush administration. The recent NY Times lengthy article, “A Secret Assault on Terrorism Widens on Two Continents”, details it all.

CIA’s drone missile attacks have been dramatically intensified against alleged insurgents inside areas of northwest Pakistan bordering Afghanistan. At least 700 Pakistani civilians were killed in these attacks during 2009. The number in 2010 is much higher. These strikes continue with impunity in the flood-ravaged country.

According to the article, the CIA and military operatives involved in Afghan Jihad war are directing or intimately involved in the present operations in AfPak (Afghanistan and Pakistan). It’s not just Clarridge and so many yet unknown operatives out there in and around Islamabad carrying out both overt and covert activities. Most seem to have experience in fighting a “faceless” war.

Assistant Secretary of Defense Michael Vickers, who oversees the Pentagon’s expanding Special Operation Command, was a senior CIA agent who helped direct its huge covert war to oust the Soviet-backed regime in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

The CIA as is generally known, helped arm and train not only the Afghan mujahedin, but also assisted the thousands of Islamist militants from the Middle East, North Africa and Asia who passed through Al Qaeda (the Base) to fight in Afghanistan.

Vickers, along with Defense Secretary (and former CIA head) Robert Gates, was one of several top officials appointed by Bush and kept in place by Obama.

So you have three important covert war players in the Afghan Jihad Theater now War Against Terror Theater: Clarridge, Vickers, Gates.
And the White House is benefiting from “a unique political landscape,” in Pakistan with support garnered from all major players – Peoples Party, ANP, MQM – including PML-Nawaz. The Kerry-Lugar-Berman – a bipartisan aid bill for Pakistan, and promises of more, bind these parties’ hopes and wishes together.

In a sign of things to come, according to the article, Obama last month appointed John Bennett to head the CIA’s National Clandestine Service, formerly known as the Directorate of Operations.

Among his previous assignments, Bennett headed the CIA’s Special Activities Division, which handles highly sensitive spying and paramilitary missions.

According to Newsweek, his last posting was as CIA station chief in Islamabad, where he was intimately involved in supervising drone missile strikes inside Pakistan.

Has all these led to destabilizing Pakistan? “Obama’s extension of the Afghan war into neighboring Pakistan, has not only undermined the government in Islamabad and triggered a dangerous civil war, but is destabilizing relations with India and throughout the Indian subcontinent, the article observes,” observes wsws.org in its news analysis.

“As the US aggressively pursues its interests through military means—overt and covert—its actions cut directly across the strategic interests of other major powers such as China, and threaten to provoke broader conflicts.”

Given the above developments and likely scenarios, Gen Kayani’s three-year extension in tenure, becomes not only significant but meaningful. Measures to preempt the right-wing popular Nawaz party and affiliates from coming even close to the corridors of power are already in the works. It is in nobody’s interest – whether they are the international players or the establishment to let this happen, said one observer.

Too much is at stake. It’s reconstruct Pakistan or deconstruct Pakistan.

It’s a regional issue, no longer a Pakistan, an Afghanistan, or for that matter a Pakistan-Afghanistan issue, said another observer.

Shall we then see some peaceful democratic change in the way Pakistan is being governed now?

My answer to that is probably a yes! How soon? Don’t know. Ask the croupier, the dice is already loaded!

To be continued…

Phoenix rising for Musharraf?

NEW YORK, AUG 26, 2010: Today is Nawab Akbar Bugti assassination's fourth anniversary. Restive and now flood-ravaged Balochistan is on payyah jam. Fire, bullets and water engulf the Baloch - reminiscent of the cyclone Bhola in 1970 that devastated Bangladesh and pushed the angry eastern half of Pakistan over the edge - a year later to emerge as an independent nation. Baloch nationalists and Pervez Musharraf-bashers point fingers at him for Bugti killing. There has been no public probe nor can the nation expect one. They are not used to it. The system expects all to follow Lagey Raho Munna Bhai SOP!

Meanwhile, Musharraf is in the headlines. First he announced he won't come back this year. But his political party APML is quietly and discreetly operating in Pakistan. They intend to make Karachi and Islamabad their staging grounds I am told. Orangi Sector 7 and Rawalpindi - my source tells me. Then came the news that he is forming a foundation for flood relief. Today he called the family of the Sialkot brothers and condoled their deaths. He also strongly condemned the Sialkot police’s silent spectator role in the lynching of their sons. Did he introspect Bugti's killing today? If he ordered Bugti killing as Army chief then on military's unified command doctrine he may be responsible. If he did so as the President then on collective leadership doctrine he may have a legal argument in his defense. But the nation by and large feels he overplayed his hands on this onne also. Earlier it was the Lal Masjid. Whether the nation will overlook the matter if and when he returns is another matter. Baloch won't - specially if you have dishonored them.

Two years back I wrote a blog on Musharraf. It is still relevant. Here it is:

AUG 19, 2008: Musharraf has quit as President- typically in a commando style: resilient, sans apologies - defending his actions - highlighting his achievements - focusing on rivals' shortcomings and weaknesses - hoping that Pakistan will come out shining but in the same breathe alluding to ominous signs of impending external and internal threats.

His parting diatribes seem to be a borderline case of delusional-cum-polemical chicaneries - an understandable mental manifestation of someone who have been pushed to move his butt off the high altar where he has been sitting so long. If I had a buddy like Bush on my side always, I would probably be the same - may be even worse. Interestingly both have been delusional to the extreme.

While running for the presidentship, Bush couldn't name the new leader of Pakistan, i.e. Gen. Musharraf. But after Sept. 11, things changed overnight - whether for the good or for the worse only history will tell.

Musharraf became the most crucial but ultimately the most frustrating ally of the U.S and Bush's personally. In the process, however Musharraf became a "personal friend" of George Bush - the latter often called him his 'buddy'.

Ironically, U.S. has "no permanent friends nor permanent enemies". So is it about Musharraf and USA. The region has become so murky that even the strongest Chlorox can't clean it up. Stains will remain for ever. Welcome to the club, Commando! He once said, he never blinked - because he had "cat's 9 lives".

Interestingly though, he is not yet fully depreciated politically (my personal opinion), even age wise and "nuisance value" wise. He has of course proved that he is neither a Ayub Khan nor a Yahya, nor a Bhutto! And, he has already proved he is not a Zia either!

He ended up getting the farewell guard of honor, has a President's security details, is lodged in Army Chief's house, shall remain in the country, can speak to the media, etc. and says will issue a White Paper on the dire strait of the economy.

As I watched his unapologetic monologue on the TV, my mind tried to visualize him on the day after. And I saw him out there, kicking and throwing dust all around.

Possibly a comeback kid one day? In some form or the other?

We got to wait to see if that will happen for at least a year or so, since there appears to be a two-year restriction on government officials from entering politics. Meanwhile he will maintain sophisticated connect with the media and the people using 'surprise' as a Commando's greatest weapon!

Muttahida, PML(Q), PML(F), etc...any or all may want him in one way or another. He has the potential to unite or divide the MQMs, provide alternate leadership to the Muhajirs in Karachi, has the knack to attempt to create a Punjab-Karachi constituency for himself - provided the establishment, including Uncle Sam, supports him and wants that to happen. Full of surprises Pakistan politics is.

Since the war on terror will go on....Musharraf, a known ally, offers alternate leadership. The U.S. has spent a lot on him. He is an "asset" by all definitions, some say. Meanwhile take a break Commando. Go golfing!

Note: Here is the link to the original blog written in Aug 2008: http://isalim.blogspot.com/2008/08/phoenix-rising-for-musharraf.html

PS: It's all about blood, sweat and tears & Pakistan. It's still in the making - both its ideological and physical boundaries. Meanwhile, here is a poem I wrote way back in 1973 after the fall of Dhaka:

REFUSAL

Oozing out
To travel in time
And growing so large
Till earth appeared;

Affectionately, cajolingly
A cell sucked breaths within
As love’s elixir
Seeped into her
Till it took no more.

Then he came to cry
That world inside
Could where he belong.

He also peeped and
Pageantries in air saw;

But heavenly flowers
Were they whence
Oozing out he'd seen.

So he ceased to cry, to peep
And crept cajolingly back into
His mother’s mound…

As cradle stood and
Lantern trimmed its
Cotton wick availingly

Sialkot brothers' killing: A Bushra Zaidi in the making?

NEW YORK: On Aug 15, dozens of people publicly beat to death two young brothers, Hafiz Mughees, 15, and Hafiz Muneeb, 19. Present on the “occasion” were the Sialkot District Police Officer Waqar Chauhan and eight policemen. These crime-stoppers watched crime committed literally on their watch. Instead of watching out for crime being committed, these immoral state employees watched the brutal act of lynching taking place in front of their own trained and watchful eyes. They could have stopped – even resisted, called for backup, reinforcement, etc. But they were silent spectators, like watching a favorite mohalla pastime being played out in a galli. In fact, news reports said the SHO allegedly masterminded the killing of the brothers. He has fled away and is still at large.

The bodies of the Hafiz brothers were later hanged upside down on the chowk. Some reports said the locale was the exterior of 1122 rescue office. Phew! what a way to rescue – or be rescued! Allah Khair Karey!
Mob frenzy, gang mentality, gladiator philosophy –all of these jellied and spurted out like toothpaste and cleansed their demented souls. Souls of all those who volunteered to witness the gory incident – on a day after the 63rd birth anniversary of Pakistan.

It’s an irony that lawlessness danced in concert with immorality on a day of fasting. It’s the holy month of Ramadan when even the sinful slow down. How many of those who watched the lynching were fasting that day? Did they break their fast with it or after it?

“What message have you given to the world about Pakistan,” the Chief Justice asked DPO Chauhan and said: “Nowhere in a civilized society such an incident takes place in the presence of police.”

What about the message sent up who watched all of it and whose first language is silence?

“Not only it was the duty of police to stop those who were beating the two brothers, but the people in the mob should also have shown moral courage by preventing the beating,” the chief justice said.

The DPO told the court that FIR against 12 people has been lodged on charges of murder of the two young men while SHO has been taken into custody. Why wasn’t this done on the same day? Why didn’t the Punjab IG take notice of it? Where were the local politicians? PML-N, PML-Q, PPP, PTI? What about the Punjab administration? The system failed!

Will the arrest of the 12 police officers bring back the soul of the two brothers? One is said to be a Hafiz Quran, other one I am not sure. Both were crazy about cricket I am told. Khawaja Asif (PML-N) told Shahid Masood he knew the family well and over three generations. Did he contact them the day this incident happened or did he wait to jump into action once the news hit the roof and became a “public issue” to be milked for political mileage?

Today is the sixth day of the horrible incident. While the Dapper Dan chief executive of the country chose to remain silent, the delusional but Teflon President came out from his bunker (on the sixth day) to strongly condemn the killing and called for report, inquiry, etc. into the gruesome incident. What is he going to do after that? Stack it along with Benazir Bhutto murder report?

It is a defining moment for the introduction of rule of law in Pakistan. Now or never! Only the youth can push this matter through though. They just sacrificed two of their own. If the death of Bushra Zaidi could be the defining moment for politics in Karachi, so can the death of these two brothers be for the advent of rule of law in Pakistan. The rest will swirl into place like the unwinding of a warped wire of a telephone headset. Go for it. Pakistan is still wired – not cordless!

The Show Must Go on Despite Flood & Fasting!

NEW YORK: Neither the flood nor the fasting will stop the Pakistani pageant in Toronto. The show must go on!

The beauty pageant, with swimsuit portion and all, involving expatriate Pakistanis, is on this Friday after Iftar, despite three weeks of massive flooding that has plunged 20 million into chaos in an already fragile country.

The month of Ramadan kicked off last week. Austerity, abstinence are the hallmark of this Islamic practice.

But Pakistani-Canadian pageant president Sonia Ahmed told The Toronto Star the pageant represents hope for the country she once belonged to. The show must go on. Most Pakistani-Canadians maintain dual nationality, enjoy such activities but not in Ramadan, commented Huma - a Pakistani Canadian living in Toronto.

It would be impossible, we imagine, to cancel or change the pageant at this point. Seven women of Pakistani origin from Norway, the U.K., the U.S. and Canada are already in Toronto, preparing for the glitzy evening at the Pearson Convention Center, published reports said. The winner will represent Pakistan at international pageants, the paper said.

“People have paychecks depending on this event,” Sonia told The Toronto Star. “My heart goes out to the victims. Every Pakistani has certain ways of dealing with culture and tradition, and my duty is to make sure my country has a positive image through the world.”

Yahya Qureshi, from Markham, said if people want to have a pageant, they should be sensitive.

“It doesn’t look nice when our own are doing glamorous things, which are not warranted in this situation,” he said. “But if they have made pre-plans, and have their own unfortunate situation that they cannot cancel, that is different.”

“There should have been an attempt to at least postpone it,” said Naomi Zaman, who won the crown in 2005. “We should focus more instead on raising funds. I’m hoping there will be some type of fund-raising going on at the pageant.”

Zaman won’t be attending, it has emerged. She’s recording a song and video, and plans to donate proceeds to a number of “disasters around the world, especially flood victims,” the Toronto Star reported.

Khalid Usman, a member of the Canadian Friends of Pakistan, said organizers should be more considerate.

“They should understand people are suffering, anywhere you are celebrating does not make sense,” he said.

This is not the first time the eight-year-old pageant has been criticized. In the pageant’s early years, members of the Pakistani community complained about the nature of the event.

This year, the pageant falls in the holy month of Ramadan. Organizers said the show begins after the fast (Iftar) on Friday.

But “Religion is not going to stop us,” Ahmed told the paper. “We’re doing it for the Pakistani community.”

Sonia told TS said she received many applications from women in Pakistan, but there are no contestants from the flood-ravaged country because the visa process is too complicated.

Her pageant in 2006 produced Mariyah Moten as "Miss Pakistan Tourism 2006". DesPardes titled her Pakistan's Miss Bikini. Moten draped in Pakistan's crescent and star flag and her interview on DesPardes became a hit among Pakistanis (and desis) on the internet!

Read:
Pakistan's First Miss Bikini!

Her photo: http://www.despardes.com/Albums/hottie/20060724.htm

In April, 2008 DesPardes interviewed 2007's Miss Pakistan World and asked Mahleej Sarkari if she would like to date Musharraf. Her answer was a quick yes! Sarkari became another hit on the internet and the chanachoor circuit!

Read Sarkari's story:


http://misspakistanworldofficial.blogspot.com/2008/04/musharraf-is-hunk-despardescom.html

Two youths tortured to death in public in Sialkot (Video)

Was it robbery, a dispute over cricket, or an old enmity? Regardless of the reason, it was medieval justice delivered by the vigilantes on the watch of the crime stoppers themselves. What a shame that such a height of lawlessness was reached in the birth town of Allama Iqbal - poet philosopher who talked about "Khudi (self) and dreamed of Pakistan for the Muslims of the sub-continent.

Published and TV reports said two brothers were lynched and then their bodies hanged upside down in a public square in Sialkot while police watched.

The Express Tribune published picture of the lynching today. See photo:



Geo was reportedly the first to break the news. Its airing of the video footage (see below) in connection with the death of these two teenage brothers prompted the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry to take suo moto notice of the crime today.

Geo News reported that DPO Sialkot Waqar Chauhan, who reportedly witnessed the crime, was summoned by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. The Lahore High Court also took suo moto notice of the unfortunate incident of vigilantism.

According to reports, dozens of people beat the two young brothers to death with batons in public in Sialkot in front of eight police officials and a gathering. DPO Sialkot Waqar Chauhan was also present during the incident, it has emerged.

At least eight police officials kept watching the two young brothers being tortured to death blindly but no one intervened including the law enforcing officers present at the scene, video footage showed.

The two brothers died of baton charges. Their dead bodies were then hanged in upside down position at a chowkee.

Deputy Commissioner Sialkot said that the charged mob killed the two brothers for injuring four people in a dispute during a cricket match.

The uncle of the two teenagers said his nephews were tortured for two hours. He said the police has admitted that his sons were lynched due to an enmity. He was talking to the media outside the Supreme Court building.

Express Tribune reported that the two brothers, 18-year-old Moiz Butt and 16-year-old Muneeb Butt, were beaten to death by a mob after an alleged theft and murder in Sialkot on August 16.

Conflicting reports suggested that the victims had been involved in a robbery and murder that took place on Sunday, ET report said.

“Later the police have admitted the teenagers had no criminal record, and that they had been killed due to enmity.”

Fourteen policemen, including an SHO, have been suspended and further investigations are underway.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry summoned Secretary Establishment for action against the police. He said brutal killings in presence of police was the height of lawlessness.

The Supreme Court ordered the establishment division to suspend DPO Sialkot for failing to stop the merciless lynching of the two teenage brothers.

WATCH VIDEO:

Pakistan Americans in Boston mobilize for Pakistan floods (Video)

NEW YORK: New England based Pakistani-Americans have quickly mobilized to help push the Pakistan flood relief efforts a notch up - in their own small way.

It's a humanitarian disaster of staggering proportions - the worst flood in its history, said New England Comcast News Network (NECN).

According to published reports, Pakistani American in Boston raised $50,000 over the weekend, but billions are needed to aid those affected by flood-ravaged Pakistan. The United Nations has appealed for $460 million in aid for immediate relief with billions needed over the years to reconstruct the affected areas - a vast swath of 1000 longitudinal miles stretching from the Swat Valley in the north to the Indus plains in southern Sindh.

So far about 20 million people have been affected. It is said to be the worst floods in Pakistan's recorded history, and around 2, 000 are reported dead. More than 6 million children are affected the most - 3.5 million of them are at risk of flood diseases. A case of cholera has also been reported.

Dr. Khalil Khatri, a dermatologist in Boston, and member Association of Pakistan Physicians said, "it is the common man who has suffered the most," but the "news has not traveled out so easily to the American public and the international community, said Oxfam America representative.

Tahir Chaudhry, former president of the Pakistani Association of Greater Boston said he realizes that the country "has a bad rap" right now due to its politics and involvement in the Afghan war, but the flood has affected the common people who have nothing to do with the political situation.

WATCH VIDEO:

Pakistan-Bangladesh rail link being re-established - after 39 yrs

NEW YORK: Bangladesh and Pakistan may re-establish rail links through India, 39 years after their separation and by Indian standard, 63 years after the subcontinent was divided.

“We would like to have transit and be connected to all South Asian nations, including Pakistan,” Bangladesh foreign minister Dipu Moni told Kolkata-based newspaper The Telegraph.

Islamabad has already said it wants the rail link revived, the paper added.

Last month, while allowing Afghan trucks transit to India, Pakistan had refused to grant Indians passage to Kabul, saying this would have to wait till Delhi gave it transit to Dhaka, the paper reported.

Top Indian railway officials have said they were willing to allow a Lahore-Delhi-Dhaka service — initially with goods trains and later, if politics allowed, with passenger trains.

Bangladesh until now had not been inclined towards any rail link with Pakistan. Till the 1965 Indo-Pak war, goods trains used to travel between Lahore and Dhaka though.

Moni, who at 53 is Bangladesh’s second-youngest foreign minister, reflects new thinking in Bangladesh that wants to put the past behind and become part of a new fertile “green crescent” in which connectivity may be the panacea of all evils if Thomas Bernett is to be believed.

“We are in favor of the Asian Highway connectivity plans.… We want all countries on board in that project,” the young minister said.

The Asian Highway is a co-operative project among countries in Asia and Europe, supported by the UN and global banks such as the Asian Development Bank. It seeks to link countries in Asia, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China and Japan, with Europe through a 7,000km trans-continental highway and railway system.

The gaps in the railway and highway networks lie mostly in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar. If these can be filled, the “green crescent” can be harnessed, says one South Asian observer.

Rumblings of change of guard in Islamabad

NEW YORK: Fears that President Zardari and his PPP-led coalition government in the center could be overthrown – possibly through an intervention or approval by the army – have grown as the two-and-a-half-years old civilian setup struggles to cope with the flood crisis. Hoarding, rising prices with the advent of Ramadan, ethnic killings in Karachi and Balochistan have added to the political government's woes.

Najam Sethi, editor of the weekly Friday Times, told The Guardian: "The powers that be, that is the military and bureaucratic establishment, are mulling the formation of a national government, with or without the PPP [the ruling Pakistan People's party]."

I know this is definitely being discussed. There is a perception in the army that you need good governance to get out of the economic crisis and there is no good governance," he added.

Sethi's comments cannot be dismissed easily given his proximity to the power players both in the political arena and in the establishment.

Other analysts say a military coup is unlikely because the army's priority is fighting the Taliban insurgency, and taking over during a disaster makes no sense, the influential British paper added.

Sethi said, "though only the courts could legally dismiss Zardari, but as the present government is one reliant on coalition partners, behind-the-scenes military pressure on those partners could bring it down," ANI reported.

These partners include MQM of Karachi and ANP of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, who will remain beneficiaries no matter what the change of guard comprises of.

The influential Texas-based STRATFOR - a strategic forecasting company popular among the intelligence community has observed that the rising social unrest down the line due to the flood crisis could create a political situation in which the Zardari government may be unable to complete its term, which ends in 2013.

"Should the civilian government prove incapable of managing the overall situation, will the military be forced to step in and take a more active role in governing the country? The government — especially President Asif Ali Zardari, who is also the de facto chief of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party — is, rightly or wrongly, extremely unpopular. Zardari’s decision to take a week-long trip to Europe while the floods were hitting the country has only worsened the situation. Rising social unrest down the line could create a political situation in which the government may be unable to complete its term, which ends in 2013.

"These are obviously worst-case scenarios, but ones that cannot be dismissed. Even if the floods had not happened, the security, economic, and socio-political circumstances in Pakistan demanded close observation. The floods have increased this importance, especially since U.S. President Barack Obama’s entire war strategy involves stabilizing Pakistan."

Do all the above observations by Sethi and Stratfor point to A) a military take-over or B) a national government or C) a new coalition government?

The military is of course knee-deep in security issues. Only a national government or a new popular political government (through the parliament) would suit the stake-holders who are aplenty just as they were in 1977.

President Asif Ali Zardari may already have thrown in the towel with his irrational - almost incoherent acts. Will his (now) one-day visit to Russia be the last foreign trip he undertakes? Only a Mamoo or the coffee-cup reader can predict that. They however came close to predicting in May (on Meray Mutabiq) that they see changes beyond July.

Allah Khair Karey!

Karachi: Targeted killings, bloodbath and beyond..

NEW YORK, USA: Pakistan’s financial capital which is also its southernmost port city – Karachi – with a massive population of almost 20 million, has witnessed a sudden spike in violence, spate of targeted killings, arson, loot, during the last 24 hours particularly. The latest downward spiral in the law and order in the city is unprecedented – almost orchestrated – according to some Karachi observers.

MQM – which is the political party that controls the nerve of the metropolis was rattled by the targeted killing of one of its top loyalists – MPA Raza Haider – a staunch worker for the last 26 years, who belonged to the Shia community. Being a MQM leader, an Urdu-speaking, and a Shia is a mix bag of bad lucks in violent Karachi. Anti-MQM forces are aplenty, in a city whose peace means peace in Pakistan – but where the battle for its turf control has seen more than 800 deaths since January, according to published reports. Just in July, if the present count is updated, it will exceed 100.

Since 6pm Monday evening when Raza Haider and his body guard were gunned down in Nazimabad, more than 50 people have been body-bagged, with dozens of vehicles, push-carts, and khokas (roadside restaurants) set ablaze – reminiscent of what happened in December 2007 (Bhutto murder)and in December 2009 (attack on Shia procession).

Each of these gory incident was hijacked by those whose objectives were beyond protests and demonstrations. So it is this time it seems.

The mob has torched dozens of vehicles, petrol pumps and shops as situation remained tense and normal life has stood still in the metropolis.

Several petrol pumps were also set on fire and the roads wear a deserted look. Aerial firing was also reported across the city.

In Liaquatabad, Karachi, miscreants set on fire a Geo News staff van. Several vehicles were also set on fire in several cities of interior Sindh.

A complete strike is being observed in Hyderabad and Sukkur, over the killing of the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) MPA. Karachi is already payyah jammed (wheel jam strike).

All educational institutions in the metropolis remained closed today and examinations have been postponed.

The government has blamed the Taliban and the banned militant group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) for the killing of the lawmaker. Twenty people have been arrested in connection with the violence, federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik told the Senate on Tuesday.

Some analysts said the violence could ultimately affect the economy. Karachi is home to the country’s main port, the central bank and the stock exchange, which has so far seen thin trade and closed an hour early today because of the violence.

“This obviously raises concern and anxiety, and if these things continue, Pakistan’s economy gets undermined,” said Hasan-Askari Rizvi, a political and security analyst, to a news agency.

“It is a pathetic situation and exposes the helplessness of the government to perform its basic duty towards its citizens,” said Rizvi.

Police and officials said that they also found evidence suggesting that militants had planned a suicide attack during Haider’s funeral, scheduled for later on Tuesday.

“On the basis of evidence available at the moment, it (the killing of Haider) was carried out by the Tehrik-e-Taliban and Sipah-e-Sahaba,” Malik told reporters in Islamabad.

The MQM, a coalition partner in the federal as well as the provincial Sindh government, renewed calls for a crackdown on militants after the killing of its lawmaker.

“For the past 3 to 4 years we have been pointing out and giving evidence about the presence of Taliban and extremists in Karachi,” said Wasay Jalil, a spokesman for the MQM.

“We were ridiculed at that time. But now everyone is admitting that the Taliban and the SSP are here.”

GANGS, MAFIAS

On Tuesday, a day after the killing, Karachi was tense as police and paramilitary troops patrolled deserted streets.

Hyderabad, the second largest city of the province, was also largely deserted as were other towns after the MQM called for three days of mourning.

“This could be the last nail in the coffin and could be disastrous for the stock market because as it is, volume has been below average and this may lead to foreign investors exiting the market,” said Sajid Bhanji, a director at brokerage Arif Habib Ltd, of Haider’s killing and the ensuring violence.

Karachi has a long history of ethnic, religious and sectarian violence. It was a main target of al Qaeda-linked militants after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, when Pakistan joined the US-led campaign against militancy, and foreigners were attacked in the city several times.

“All political forces in Karachi have their armed groups,” Rizvi said. “And then there are a lot of other groups – criminal, sectarian, drug mafia.”

Including last night’s death toll, officials say at least 193 people have been killed in targeted attacks since the start of the year, although analysts and political parties say the number is likely much higher.

Mohajirs, the descendants of Urdu-speakers who migrated from India after the creation of Pakistan in 1947, are the biggest community and dominate the city’s administration through the MQM.

It is also home to the largest concentration of ethnic Pashtuns outside the northwest.

Government officials also say criminals, including drug lords competing for turf in the city’s teeming neighborhoods, take advantage of the tension, complicating the police’s difficulties. So does the land mafia who have influence on all parties.

What lies beyond Karachi’s targeted killings and bloodbath is almost impossible to predict at the moment. “Whether it will lead to limited army control of the city or a civil-military administration is difficult to predict,” said one observer. Meanwhile both sectarian and ethnic forces appear to have made Pakistan’s largest city – its financial hub – their bed, bath and beyond!

Why Kayani to remain Pak army chief until 2013

NEW YORK, USA: Army chief Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani has been given another full-term (3 years) extension of service. Instead of retiring in November this year, he will now hopefully walk into sunset in November 2013 – almost right after the next elections are held.

Gen. Kayani had been averse to accepting any tenure extension, published reports have said. However, former COAS Gen (R) Waheed Kakar was said to have played an important role in convincing him to accept the extension in the larger national interest and that of the armed forces institution in particular.

Some observers feel the range of forces behind Kayani’s incumbency is as vast as the vested interests of war on terror and in the “re-making of Pakistan” as a “progressive, liberal, secularist society.”

The announcement of Kayani’s extension was made by none other than Prime Minister Gilani himself. Gilani’s public announcement was one of the shortest on TV in Pakistan’s history. In his two-and-a-half-minute burp, Gilani said that owing to the ongoing military operations against militants, it was important to maintain continuity in the military leadership.

The army chief will now become the first to enjoy the longest ever tenure, notwithstanding those who extended their own tenures in the like of Gen Ayub, Gen Zia, Gen Musharraf.

According to some of these observers, the move heralds the potential of long-term consequences on the country’s political and military landscape including present and future civil-military relationship. Two dynamics are inter-playing: The civil-military relations as envisaged in the Kerry-Lugar Bill and the one as planned by the establishment itself for the long haul.

According to reports, the decision was earlier planned to be announced by July 18. However, it was deferred till the visit of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. A poker-faced Clinton said in Islamabad last week that the United States did not and would not comment on Pakistan’s internal matter, when asked about Kayani’s extension. But Pakistan watchers smiled at that. Hillary did however stress that the United States would like democratic setup to continue!

Kayani positioned himself in the overall war against terror’s dispensation with his entry, thanks to Gen Musharraf, as DG ISI. His more than cursory involvement in Musharraf team’s negotiations with Benazir Bhutto, of which he was an integral part, is well known.

When Musharraf in November 2007 gave up his army chief role, he pinned that badge on Kayani. Elections were thereafter held making PPP win enough seats to form a secular government in the center. While Bhutto met untimely death, Musharraf was forced to quit – and in a twist of fate, Zardari and Kayani became new power players representing either side of the divide – or shall we say – from the same side in the great game!

Once a military assistant to the late prime minister Benazir Bhutto as well as a trusted protege of her rival Musharraf, Kayani has been recognised as a chameleon in surviving Pakistan’s treacherous political waters, AFP reported.

Today, a more relaxed and cheerful Gilani praised Kayani for his “commitment to democracy”, recalling that the military chief had termed “democracy inevitable” for peace and development in Pakistan. Read “progressive, liberal, secular forces” in place of “democracy”. The PM also quipped that all four major power balls – the army chief, the PM (himself), the President and the Chef Justice will remain in their seat until 2013!

Kayani has thus come out in the open as the key force in the power structure. He was then and is now, and will remain so in future also, until a mixed bag of nationalistic-secularist-progressive force emerges in the country. Such an ideological boundary for Pakistan may not make all the stake-holders happy though; but then in every successful negotiations – one party is always the grim reaper. Who is or who are the grim reapers – only time can tell. All that can be conjectured right now is that no matter who took the insurance from whom – the underwriter is the same!

Our subcontinental divide!

NEW YORK, USA: I recently came across some interesting facts regarding the pay scales and the fringe benefits enjoyed by each member of our National Assembly.

According to a popular blog ATP (All Things Pakistan):

A Pakistani MNA’s salary and perks details are as follows:

** Monthly Salary Rs. 120,000 to 200,000
** Expense for Constitution per month: Rs.100,000
** Office expenditure per month: Rs.140,000
** Traveling concession: Rs. 8 per km
(For a visit to ISLAMABAD & return: 6000 km = Rs.48,000)
** Daily BETA during Assembly meets: Rs.500
** Traveling in first class (A/C) train all over PAKISTAN: Free and unlimited
** Charge for Business Class in flights with wife or P.A.: Free for 40 trips/ year
** Rent for Govt hostel any where: Free
** Electricity perks at home: Free up to 50,000 units
** Local phone facility: Free up to 1,70,000 calls

On the basis of the above, the total monthly expense for each MNA: Rs. 26,66,666 (26 lakhs+)

The total expense for a MNA per year comes out to be Rs.32,000,000 (3 crore 20 lakh rupees)

Keep in mind that these numbers are only the official estimates. You can imagine for yourself the unofficial sums easily acquired by a man in such a position.