Discuss Pakistan
From PML-N comes this gem:
Rana Sanaullah:Politics for poor not possible from London
Now on the heal of this we have this headline:
CM Punjab leaves for London today
More from the funny pages:
If I remember correctly, Musharraf took over 12 October 1999. Elections were held 18 February 2008. By March 24, 2008, they were voting for a new PM (Mush stayed president 18 August 2008). Effectively his rule was over 2007.
At any stretch his rule was less than 9 years.
What Shahbaz is trying to do is blame Musharraf for the incompetence of his own and Zardari’s rule. though I do agree we are in the eleventh year of dictatorship (Now if we can add Sharif’s last stint to that… 😉 )
Blaming yesterday’s blast in Qissa Khwani Bazaar in Peshawar that killed at least 24 — mostly Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) protesters rallying against electricity load-shedding and the government — on Taliban makes no sense. Of course all media in unison is repeating the “Taliban did it” lie as are Rehman Malik (“we have them on the run”), ANP (“We will defeat them whatever the cost”, said the porn-peddler Bilour; someone should ask him which hole his brave leader Asfandyar Wali is shivering in today), smart-bomb-snuff-video peddler Kiyani will bravely copy Bilour (“We will defeat them whatever the cost”), etc. and I am sure we will soon have some Taliban spokesperson claiming responsibility.
Of course it is all hogwash!
Now why would Taliban:
I completely agree with Ameer of JI who blamed Pakistan’s alliance with the US for the suicide bombing. I think he should have gone further and said it was carried out either by U.S. or the government itself.
But here one must not overlook two very important motives that the government has for carrying out this act: stop protests against load-shedding and ‘rebuild consensus’ after the latest supposed fuck-up by the Army (it was no fuck up — they had to kill and put up a big body count; they just got caught).
As 20+ load-shedding has made life unbearable for most, the protests are being held daily all over the country. The government is of course has no solution for the electricity shortfall and it knows as the temperature rises, so will the intensity of these protests. It is desperate to prevent them. It is desperate enough to do anything in its power to scare people away from protesting. Sings of the governments desperation are all over:
So is the government desperate enough to carry out so-called ‘suicide-bombings” to try and take away people’s right to protest?
No question! I say chalk one up for State Terrorism’!
Of course our military has no qualms about killing innocents but having been caught red-handed — no pun intended — makes them act desperate. Having been exposed by the foreign press — btw: shame on our press that kept giving us ISPR denials till Kiyani’s ‘apology — they had to do something to present the Taliban as ‘animals who kill innocents’ so that the sin of killing innocents by the army is thus justified by this grotesque morality/logic. This kind of killing — I mean a ‘suicide blast in a crowded marketplace full of innocents’ — was in fact guaranteed after the Army’s faux pas. This wasn’t the first time. Sadly, this won’t be the last!
So confirm that one for State Terrorism.
Just for Baboos: No, Webster Tarpley DOES NOT belong to JI 😉
P.S. One official explanation is of course:
The Jamaat-e-Islami party was hit Monday when a suicide bomber apparently targeted police watching over a rally of the group. Many of the 24 dead and 45 wounded were party loyalists, while two were officers, police official Khan Abbas said Tuesday.
Question I have is: If the suicide bomber was targeting police, how come only two of them died? Wouldn’t the suicide bomber get closer to the police (than the protesters) before blowing himself up?
The other day I cam across this news item:
All except one Sahiwal housing societies illegal
SAHIWAL, March 10: The tehsil municipal administration (TMA) has declared illegal 72 out of total 73 housing societies under the Punjab Private Site Development Schemes (Regulation) Rules, 2005, Dawn has learned.
Of these 72, cases of only three housing societies are under process while the remaining 69 are being tried.
While the administration is prosecuting the owners of these commercial housing societies in the consumer court through Farid Town and Ghala Mandi police stations, citizens have publicly been warned against purchasing plots in these illegal housing schemes.
…
TMO Masood Tamana said a large number of these illegal societies had been developed in less than 70 acres of land which was yet another violation of the law…..
The case of these societies is certainly not limited to Sahiwal (e.g. Lahore has at least 103 such schemes)
Well, guess what? Suddenly Mr Shahbaz Sharif took out his magic wand — I can only imagine the weight of the bills in the suitcase he probably received — and “POOF!”, just like that most of those illegal housing schemes have become ‘legal’:
(“The Minimum Area Required For Housing Schemes Has Been Reduced From 170 Kanals To 40 Kanals”)
🙂
In the other item mentioned in the same I don’t have any idea how much public land is being ‘leased’ to the public for housing. The only thing I am sure of is the process won’t be transparent though it is being advertised as such. Do I have a proof? No — just an educated guess 😉
The statement certainly was odd:
“Gen Musharraf planned a bloodbath of innocent Muslims at the behest of others only to prolong his rule, but we in the PML-N opposed his policies and rejected dictation from abroad and if the Taliban are also fighting for the same cause then they should not carry out acts of terror in Punjab (where the PML-N is ruling),” he said at a seminar held here on Sunday to commemorate the services of late Mufti Muhammad Hussain Naeemi.
Of course this has led to an uproar and every joker has had a field day. PML-N was out to limit damage. But what I sort-of enjoyed was Shahbaz running to Daddy Kiyani to say ‘I really didn’t mean it’!
The other day I was watching the interview of former President Farooq Leghari. His answer to the question about the Mehran Bank scandal really made me laugh out loud and I went “We got another one!”
What he claimed was that the most of land involved in the deal was not his but his wife’s and his mother’s. That alone proves he is lying because both his wife and his mother are from NWFP and though his mother might have inherited some farmland from his father, his wife certainly had none in the area — remember we are talking Southern Punjab — and if she did, it was put in her name by no one but Farooq Leghari himself for purposes other than giving her ownership of it.
I went “We got another one!” because hiding behind there wives to try and coverup ones own corruption seems to be the order of the day. Let’s see, recently we had Aitzaz (“LPG quota is not mine but my wife’s”), PM Gilani (“I have no money, no house, and the $550 Million loan was taken out by my wife”), both Shahbaz and Nawaz also appear to be penniless living off of loans from their wives and kids. Zardari of course need not be mentioned….
With the NRO mess not going away, and more stories of corruption by Sharif Brothers making the news, more and more signs are pointing towards the two families (three if you can call MQM a family) joining hands to cover each others back.
First was the attack by PML-N stalwarts against Zardari detractors and today we learn the two are collaborating not only on NRO-Plus and plan to pass it unanimously, but have jointly written a script to blame someone else for their corruption in order to ‘prove’ all cases were ‘politically motivated’ and they are clean as a whistle:
PPP’s New Line: “Jehangir Badr, whose prime target was no other than former President Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari during the entire press conference, said that not only the NRO beneficiaries, but those who had to pay billions of rupees to banks should also be held accountable.”
PML-N’s New Line: “Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif Wednesday said it was Farooq Leghari who filed lawsuits against the leaders of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).”
Please remind me which is the ruling party and which one is the opposition?! And isn’t Shahbaz forgetting about Saif-ur-Rehman???
Note: No doubt I agree with Jehangir Badar that “Farooq Leghari, his son Awais Leghari and other members of their family, should be held accountable for their various corruption scandals such as cooperatives and PTCL scandals” but it should be done alongside the holding accountable PPP and PML-N and other NRO beneficiaries and not instead of it, as seems to be the plan. And why didn’t Badar think of this before???? Farooq Leghari’s corruption did begin when PPP was in power. Also, how is PPP going to deal with the fact that Zardari’s henchman Malik Riaz of Bahria Town is a business partner of Farooq Leghari?
I am surprised Badar left out the name of his colleague Senator Jamal Leghari, the elder son of Farooq, who is no less corrupt. That Farooq and Awais are guilty of corruption, there is no doubt about that either. It is a fact that Farooq Leghari (and Jamal and Awais jointly) had less than 1250 acres of land when he became president but today Farooq Leghari alone has acquired more than 12,500 acres of agricultural land (I have no clue about the acquisitions by Awais and Jamal Leghari but they have been on a land buying spree as well). And this does not include other property and bank accounts. Awais alone built his house in Islamabad at a cost of Rs 8 crore. His cousin Sumaira Malik of the ‘Cat House’ fame has spent twice that. Her sister Ayla Malik’s (these days with DunyaTV) husband (now ex) Sardar Rind has bought another 12,500 acres in the same area as Farooq Leghari. Farooq’s cousins of course are not only among NRO beneficiaries but also big loan defaulters (but sitting pretty in the National Assembly or as Nazims)
Note: Let me remind Mr Badr that it was Awais Leghari who became Privatization Minister for a day to sign the sale of Pakistan Steel Mill (PSM), the sale that was over-turned by CJ Iftikhar and was the main and last straw that led to the CJ’s dismissal by Mush. I am sure Awais got offered a pretty penny to go along with that scam.
Recently money laundering by Sharifs was exposed in the press (but they have somehow managed to quash it or it lost attention of the press due to the NRO issue). It is also a surprise how the owners of 10 sugar mills managed to stay clear of the sugar scandal when there are no doubts of their involvement.
Now we are told they are certainly involved in many others and might have stayed clear by forcing the removal of chairman of NAB, Lt Gen (retd) Shahid Aziz. Their parners in crime? President Asif Ali Zardari, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Humayum Akhtar, Jehangir Tareen, Altaf Saleem, Nasarullah Dareshak, Anwer Cheema and Mian Azhar in scams relating to sugar, edible oil, stock exchange and petroleum products.
Related:
Shabaz Sharif set to sell government property (which will be anything but ‘transparent’
Shahbaz on way to London to meet Altaf Hussain
PML-N colluding with PPP on NRO-Plus, the new ‘accountability’ bill
Like master…
US slaps sanctions on LeT leaders
…like slave
Hafiz Saeed’s Release Challenged by Punjab Government
Update: The case went to SC as both Punjab and Federal Govt joined hands (that’s PML-N and PPP as bosom buddies again) but SC has rejected all their petitions. But will they leave it at that? Hell no! “Leaders” on their knees know who their real master is so of course they have filed “fresh” appeals…
F*ck Politics 
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