Tag Archives: House

Current Issues, International, Politics

Obama’s White House: on-the-fly zone – Dr Mohammad Taqi

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The US and the allies may call the military campaign what they want but the no-fly zone, for all practical purposes, is an act of war and the fact of the matter is that Qaddafi himself is the endpoint in this war that cannot be circumvented

Geostrategic planning and global leadership has been likened by the old grandmasters of US foreign policy to a grand chessboard, where the strategy is contemplated several moves in advance, with an eye on the endgame. But the knee-jerk responses of Barack Obama’s administration to the rapidly unravelling situation in the Middle East and North Africa give an impression that he and his team are playing chequers, albeit in a manner as erratic as Colonel Muammar Qaddafi, if not more. From dithering on the US role in Egypt to weeks of waffling about Libya before actually jumping on the no-fly zone bandwagon, it seems like the White House is literally an on-the-fly zone, making up policy as it goes along.

As the western intervention in Libya entered its fourth day, it appears that President Obama may have allowed himself and the US to get sucked into a very messy situation in yet another Muslim country. Mr Obama had stated a couple of weeks ago that Qaddafi must “step down from power and leave”. Just when the Tomahawk missiles were being unleashed on Libya, Vice Admiral William E Gortney said at the Pentagon that Qaddafi himself is not a target, but his safety could not be guaranteed. Speaking on Sunday morning talk shows, Admiral Mike Mullen took the line that the Libyan dictator must “make decisions regarding his future in the country” but reiterated that the goal of the attacks was not to oust him. Taken at face value, these comments appear somewhat innocuous and are designed to placate the war-weary American public but they also reflect the confusion and bickering within the various factions of the Obama administration. …

Read more : Daily Times

Media, Pakistan, Politics, Punjab, Sindh, Video

May God Save Pakistan from these political Judges and Their Judgments

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View the current political situation in Pakistan and the judgments of Apex court in the light of the Sharif borther’s stance because the judges are influenced by Raiwind. The CJP should now just move next door, the PM House. Since he wants to decide everything, starting from commodity prices to appointments at important positions, the PM House is a more logical place for him. Judges are being paid by public exchequers, if such functions are being done by the judiciary then what is the need and use of Parliament and Executive.

Many observers, once again are foreseeing the “Judicial Murder” of PPP. All roads are leading to Raiwind and Takht-e-Lahore. Mr. Najam Sethi, a brilliant intellectual has revealed all faces and forces of darkness right from the murder of Liaquat Ali Khan upto the murder of Shaheed Bibi. Many believe that something big Bang is on its way. Keep it up conspirators the war of power, dirty games, and sinister schemes! History will judge all of them because history is the final judge.

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Courtesy: Rawal TV (Current Affairs with Arshad Bhatti, 11th March 2011, Guest: Latafat Siddiqui)

via – Siasat.pk – You Tube

International, News, Politics

Security Council Calls for War Crimes Inquiry in Libya

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The U.N. Security Council called for an international war crimes investigation into “widespread and systemic attacks” against Libyan citizens.

By EDWARD WYATT

The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously on Saturday night to impose sanctions on Libya’s leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, and his inner circle of advisers, and called for an international war crimes investigation into “widespread and systemic attacks” against Libyan citizens who have protested against the government over the last two weeks.

The vote, only the second time the Security Council has referred a member state to the International Criminal Court, comes after a week of bloody crackdowns in Libya in which Colonel Qaddafi’s security forces have fired on protesters, killing hundreds.

Also on Saturday, President Obama said that Colonel Qaddafi had lost the legitimacy to rule and should step down. His statement, which the White House said was made during a telephone call with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, was the strongest yet from any American official against Colonel Qaddafi.

The Security Council resolution also imposes an arms embargo against Libya and an international travel ban on 16 Libyan leaders, and freezes the assets of Colonel Qaddafi and members of his family, including four sons and a daughter. Also included in the sanctions were measures against defense and intelligence officials who are believed to have played a role in the violence against civilians in Libya. …

Read more : The New York Times

Pakistan, Politics, Sindh, Sindhi

Injustices in Pakistan: Discrepancies in Federal Employment Including Appointments in Presidency & PM House

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By: Aziz Narejo

It is a general feeling in Sindh that the province has suffered injustices in almost every field since the inception of Pakistan – from the days of the first Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan to the present PPP led coalition government. Some governments have been outright hostile and hateful to Sindhis while others have not been able to help mitigate injustices due to several reasons. …

Read more : Indus Herald

History, Pakistan, Politics, Punjab, Religion

The Spy Who Knew Everything

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by Louise Roug

Former CIA officer and advisor to President Obama Bruce Riedel talks about his new book, what the protests in Egypt mean, and the lessons of Pakistan.

The most important skill that a CIA officer can have is the ability to be at the right place at the right time—and to recognize the moment. By that taxing measure, Bruce Riedel has been extraordinarily successful.

His first country assignment for the agency was the Iran desk, where he arrived in 1978 during the twilight of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi’s reign. The Iranian revolution the following year irrevocably changed how the United States could operate in the Middle East—a reality borne out by the 444-day hostage crisis that followed.

Riedel then became the CIA desk officer for Egypt, authoring an intelligence report in the fall of 1981 that warned of the high risk of Anwar Sadat’s assassination following the peace treaty with Israel. The briefing, in which Riedel predicted the rise of then–vice president Hosni Mubarak, proved stunningly prescient: during an Oct. 6 military parade that year, a group of soldiers, for whom peace with Israel was anathema, assassinated the Egyptian president.

“That was one hell of a day,” Riedel recalls in a NEWSWEEK interview, during a week when an uprising in Egypt has once more thrown the region into turmoil.

Serving four successive presidents, Riedel went on to work at the Pentagon, the White House, and at CIA headquarters in Langley, getting to know the most important players in Washington and the Middle East. But it is his last assignment—Pakistan—that keeps him awake at night.

“In Pakistan, we now have, for the first time, the possibility of a jihadist state emerging,” Riedel tells NEWSWEEK. “And a jihadist state in Pakistan would be America’s worst nightmare in the 21st century.”

His book Deadly Embrace: Pakistan, America, and the Future of Global Jihad was recently published by the Brookings Institution Press. Intended as a primer on Pakistan’s turbulent history, the book sets out to explain, as he writes, “why successive U.S. administrations have undermined civil government in Pakistan, aided military dictators, and encouraged the rise of extremist Islamic movements that now threaten the United States at home and abroad.” …

Read more : The Daily Beast

Human Rights, News, Pakistan, Personalities, Politics, Sindh, Sindhi

Banladesh awards G. M. Sayed for voicing Bangladesh

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Sindh – Karachi : Bangladesh’s government has decided to confer Bangladesh National Award to Sindh nationalist leader late G. M. Sayed, late Mir Ghous Bakhsh Bizinjo from Balochistan, [the poet of Sindhi language, Late Sheikh Ayaz from Sindh, who strongly opposed the military operation and as a president of Sukkur Bar Association he passed a resolution against the brutal military operation and genocide of Bangalis due to it he put behind the bars. During his imprisonment (May 1971 to January 1972)  in Sukkur Jail, he wrote his “Jail Diary”. He had also  behind the bars from 1965 to 1968 due to his revolutionary poetry in military dictator Ayoub Khan era . In later years it  becomes a piece of Sindhi revolutionary literature.],   Baadshah Khan, Abdus Samad Achakzai, Khair Bakhsh Marri, Ahmad Saleem, Tahira Muzhar, Zafar Malik and Air Marshal (R) Asghar Khan are among the 40 Pakistanis who were chosen for the award.

G. M. Sayed was the first leader in west Pakistan who had dare to strongly condemned and opposed the genocide of Bangladeshis in 1970 by Pakistani security forces during darkest times of dictatorship. The authoritarian authorities of that time decided to give punishment to G. M. Sayed, therefore,  they put G. M. Sayed under house arrest and his house was declared a sub-jail. He had been detained without trial until his death. He was declared “Prisoner of Conscience” by Amnesty International.

G.M. Syed mainly advocated for non-violence, democracy, secularism (Separation of religion from the state), national self-determination, unity among all south Asian nations and states, social and economic equality for all. Long live the struggle of Saeen G. M. Syed for the religious harmony, unity among all south Asian nations and states towards universal peace.

Now Bangladesh selected G.M. Sayed and several other individuals from various countries to award them with its highest civilian decoration.‎

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For more details : Examiner.com

India, News, Pakistan, Politics

US Court Issues Summons To ISI Chief

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US court summons ISI chief Pasha, LeT’s Hafiz Saeed

Washington: A US court has issued summons to senior ISI officials including its powerful chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha, along with Mumbai attack masterminds and LeT leaders Hafiz Saeed and Zakiur Rahman Lakhvi in response to a lawsuit filed by relatives of two American victims accusing them of providing material support for the 26/11 attacks.

The 26-page lawsuit was filed before a New York Court on November 19 against the Inter-Services Intelligence and Lashkar-e-Toiba by the relatives Rabbi Gavriel Noah Holtzberg and his wife Rivka, who were both gunned down by militants at the Chhabad House in Mumbai. …

Read more : Express

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, News, Pakistan, Politics

Siraj Haqqani moved to ‘secure safe house’ outside FATA

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By Ali K. Chishti

Daily Times can confirm that Siraj Haqqani, the operational commander of the Haqqani Network, who had earlier been moved from Miranshah, North Waziristan to Kurram Agency, has been moved to a secure “safe house” outside FATA. The decision was taken after the September 27 NATO incursion near the village of Mata Sanger, which left two Pakistani FC guards dead.

“Apparently, Siraj Haqqani was pretty close at a safe-house when the NATO incursion at Kurram took place,” confirmed a top Western diplomat. It should be noted that Siraj Haqqani was earlier moved to Kurram Agency from Miranshah in North Waziristan after his brother, Mohammed, was killed in a US predator strike and another military commander, Saifullah Haqqani, was killed earlier this year.

The Haqqani network, which is considered as a ‘strategic asset’ by the Pakistani security establishment due to their considerable influence in Afghanistan, had first been moved to Kurram Agency where a new operation centre had been set up to intensify attacks in Afghanistan in co-ordination with a break away section of the Lakhkar-e-Tayyaba and other groups. It is now reported that the Shia tribes that make up most of the base for the Frontier Corps, who had earlier given most of the resistance to Gubuddin Hekmatyar’s Hizb-e-Islami in Spina Shaga, have turned against the Haqqani network, who they see as an ideological threat to their existence. While most of the Pakistani mainstream media reported the recent clashes in Kurram Agency as ‘water wars’ between various tribal groups where more than 70 militants had been killed in strikes, it was in reality a section of the security establishment’s supporting pro-government tribal killings to pave a way for the Haqqanis. Daily Times can now confirm that it was a story to cover and allow the military to intervene on behalf of the Haqqanis, who are viewed as ‘strategic assets’ and ‘good Talibans’. ….

Read more : Daily Times

News, Pakistan, Politics

Islamabad : The National Assembly appeared shocked : A lot of military activity on the Constitution avenue – The soldiers did not salute the national flag which is the duty of every uniformed Pakistani and they insulted a federal minister in his flag-bearing car

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Two soldiers ‘train’ guns at minister
– Chaudhry Nisar said he saw “a lot of military activity” on the avenue at the time, giving him the impression that “some four-star general” was coming to meet either the president or the Prime Minister.
ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly appeared shocked to hear from opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Monday that two soldiers had insulted a federal minister in his flag-bearing car earlier in the day by training their guns at him at a checkpoint near parliament when a four-star general too was in the area.

The government acknowledged that this “serious” incident had happened, which Petroleum and Natural Resources Minister Naveed Qamar said would be taken up with “appropriate authorities”.

Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi, chairing the proceedings at the time, called for a report about what he called an incident of “highhandedness” before the house concludes its current session after four days.

But neither of the three men who spoke about the matter identified the minister involved in the incident, which the opposition leader said happened some time in the afternoon, when he also drove around 2pm through the Constitution Avenue, on which the Parliament House is located and where one of the checkpoints normally manned by police checks vehicles going towards the Parliament House as well as the nearby presidency and the Prime Minister’s House.

Also none of them named the general for whom troops came to control traffic, although Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani met President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday afternoon.

Chaudhry Nisar said he saw “a lot of military activity” on the avenue at the time, giving him the impression that “some four-star general” was coming to meet either the president or Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and that he was informed by some witnesses later on coming to his office in parliament about a minister’s car flying the national flag having been stopped along with other cars by two soldiers “carrying bandooks (rifles)” and controlling traffic at the checkpoint instead of police.

“The soldiers did not have the courtesy to salute the national flag… which is the duty of every uniformed Pakistani,” he said.

“The matter did not end there,” he said, and added that when the driver of the minister — who too he thought was heading towards the presidency or the prime minister’s house — “tried to move his car forward, the two soldiers trained their guns” (towards the inmates).

“Is it the national army or an individual’s army,” the opposition leader asked and stressed the troops had no business to assume police job. “If they stop me tomorrow, I will not stop.”
The army would enjoy the nation’s respect only if it complied with its constitutional duty of defending the borders, Chaudhry Nisar said, drawing cheers from his PML-N colleagues as well many PPP members.

Minister Naveed Qamar said it was a “serious matter” to stop the car of a minister with the national flag or of any elected member of the house and added: “The government takes it seriously. We will take up the matter with appropriate authorities.”

Read more : DAWN

More details BBC urdu

News, Sindh

Karachi – Suicide bombers strike Abdullah Shah Ghazi shrine

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Karachi: 5 killed in twin blasts at Abdullah Shah Ghazi shrine

At least 5 people have been killed and several others sustained injuries in twin blasts near shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi in Karachi, Dunya News reported on Thursday. Two children, security guard and policeman are among the dead.
According to Dunya News correspondent, both the blasts were occurred near walk-through gates of the tomb. According to police, 5 people were killed in the blasts. Panic prevailed after the incident. Police and law enforcing agencies cordoned off the tomb and relief activities have been started.
Emergency has been imposed in Karachi hospitals and paramedical staff has been called. The injured are being shifted to nearby hospitals including Jinnah Hospital. Situation of some of the injured is stated to be critical.
President Zardari was in the Bilawal House when the blasts occurred in Abdullah Shah Ghazi’s shrine. Security around Bilawal House was increased after the incident.

Read more >> DunyaTV