Those who killed Laal Masjid's innocent students, plz read 4:93

^An-Nisa

⁹² Never should a believer kill a believer; but (If it so happens) by mistake, (Compensation is due): If one (so) kills a believer, it is ordained that he should free a believing slave, and pay compensation to the deceased's family, unless they remit it freely. If the deceased belonged to a people at war with you, and he was a believer, the freeing of a believing slave (Is enough). If he belonged to a people with whom ye have treaty of Mutual alliance, compensation should be paid to his family, and a believing slave be freed. For those who find this beyond their means, (is prescribed) a fast for two months running: by way of repentance to Allah. for Allah hath all knowledge and all wisdom.

⁹³ If a man kills a believer intentionally, his recompense is Hell, to abide therein (For ever): And the wrath and the curse of Allah are upon him, and a dreadful penalty is prepared for him.

a muslim is ordered not to take any action (even) against munafiqeen if they join a group who is friends with u... see ayat 90 for example:

⁸⁸ Why should ye be divided into two parties about the Hypocrites? Allah hath upset them for their (evil) deeds. Would ye guide those whom Allah hath thrown out of the Way? For those whom Allah hath thrown out of the Way, never shalt thou find the Way.

⁸⁹ They but wish that ye should reject Faith, as they do, and thus be on the same footing (as they): But take not friends from their ranks until they flee in the way of Allah (From what is forbidden). But if they turn renegades, seize them and slay them wherever ye find them; and (in any case) take no friends or helpers from their ranks;-

⁹⁰ Except those who join a group between whom and you there is a treaty (of peace), or those who approach you with hearts restraining them from fighting you as well as fighting their own people. If Allah had pleased, He could have given them power over you, and they would have fought you: Therefore if they withdraw from you but fight you not, and (instead) send you (Guarantees of) peace, then Allah Hath opened no way for you (to war against them).

when a munafiq cannot be killed if he/she is with our friends, then how can we justify attackin a group of students -who is inside our country and sitting in a masjid which comes in jurisdiction of the state and does not have ample resources to plot treason- just for keeping some (so called) foreigners with them????

The Holy Qur'an/An-Nisa - Wikisource

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Take not for friends unbelievers rather than believers.The Holy Qur'an/An-Nisa

^An-Nisa
139 Yea, to those who take for friends unbelievers rather than believers: is it honour they seek among them? Nay,- all honour is with Allah.

¹⁴⁰ Already has He sent you Word in the Book, that when ye hear the signs of Allah held in defiance and ridicule, ye are not to sit with them unless they turn to a different theme: if ye did, ye would be like them. For Allah will collect the hypocrites and those who defy faith - all in Hell:-

¹⁴⁴ O ye who believe! Take not for friends unbelievers rather than believers: Do ye wish to offer Allah an open proof against yourselves?

¹⁴⁵ The Hypocrites will be in the lowest depths of the Fire: no helper wilt thou find for them;-

¹⁴⁶ Except for those who repent, mend (their lives) hold fast to Allah, and purify their religion as in Allah's sight: if so they will be (numbered) with the believers. And soon will Allah grant to the believers a reward of immense value.

¹⁴⁷ What can Allah gain by your punishment, if ye are grateful and ye believe? Nay, it is Allah that recogniseth (all good), and knoweth all things.

The Holy Qur'an/An-Nisa - Wikisource

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Afghan opium trade

Afghan opium tradeHAMID Karzai of Kabul may have his concerns, some of them valid, about Pakistan’s role in combating militancy. That said, he is doing little to tackle a major insurgency-related problem that is entirely Afghan in nature. His country saw a record poppy harvest in 2007 that accounted for as much as 92 per cent of global opium production. Worth an estimated $4bn in the international market, Afghanistan’s opium output last year was equivalent to 53 per cent of the country’s licit GDP and another ‘shockingly high’ harvest is expected in 2008, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. True, more than 80 per cent of Afghanistan’s opium is supplied by the Taliban-controlled southern provinces but surely parts of his own country ought to fall under Mr Karzai’s jurisdiction. While the military might of the Taliban may be a factor, Kabul’s hesitancy in cracking down on opium production is also influenced by the systemic corruption plaguing the country. If drug lords sit in parliament, as many allege, is it likely that Mr Karzai will allow meaningful and decisive action against people whose support he needs to stay in power? But then this is just one of many areas where Mr Karzai’s rhetoric, if not vitriol, doesn’t quite match his actions on the ground.

Besides lining the pockets of tribal chiefs and politicians of criminal bent, the Afghan drug trade is fuelling the very insurgency that the country’s government and Nato troops are attempting to quell. By taxing poppy farmers and extorting protection money from operators of morphine and heroin laboratories, the Taliban are estimated to have earned more than $100m last year from Afghanistan’s thriving opium trade. The connection between insurgency and drug trafficking is well established not only in Mr Karzai’s country but across the world, Colombia and its narco-fuelled Farc rebels being a prime example. The Afghan president needs to sever the opium lifeline that feeds home-grown militants and has turned over a million of his people — nearly 3.5 per cent of the country’s population — into heroin addicts with little hope of recovery. He would be doing the rest of the world a favour too, particularly neighbours like Pakistan and Iran. Heroin addiction not only destroys individual lives, it shatters families and perpetuates poverty. It also fuels crime and contributes to the spread of potentially fatal diseases that are transmitted through sexual contact or sharing of needles. Afghanistan, with its monopoly on opium production, needs to get its act together, for its own benefit as well as that of others.

DAWN - Editorial; June 30, 2008

Opium trade was significantly cut short in taliban era (See an excerpt at the end of this post), but still bush etc. blamed them for making profit with a prohibited crop... what is their supported govt. doin now???? y cannt they reduce the production???? How come they r makin profit of all this but still are noble ppl????


Another factor that should not be overlooked is opium. During the Taliban era, opium planting was forbidden. But Aghanistan has a long history as an opium producer. The rise of the Taliban was in some way a blessing in disguise for the Vienna-based U.N. body that has been fighting for a drug-free world. In the last five years, opium production and drug trafficking from Afghanistan have been greatly reduced.

But the fall of the Taliban has given opium farmers opportunities to replant the “heavenly drug.” A farmer from Nangahar, Katib, had intended to plant his field with wheat, but has changed his mind, since the profit from opium is 15 times that of wheat.

It is no secret that opium fields are money fountains for high commanders and warlords as well. Harvest time is known to warlords as a time to fight for expanded opium territory.

http://www.worldpress.org/asia/0202tempo.htm

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Nasty jolts to the economy

By Shahid Javed Burki

PAKISTAN�S economy received several nasty jolts in the last several months. Some were delivered by the developments over which the country�s policymakers did not have any control. These included the inexorable increase in the price of oil which has affected all oil-importing countries including Pakistan.

There has also been an increase in the price of agricultural commodities Pakistan must import to meet domestic demand. These include wheat and oil seeds.

There were other jolts to the economy for which policymakers must take full responsibility. These include the shortage in the generation of electric power which has resulted in load-shedding that is taking a heavy toll in terms of both lost output and great discomfort to the citizens. Most affected by this shortage are the less well-to-do segments of society who cannot afford to buy alternate sources of electric supply such as portable generators.

These shortages should have been estimated by the previous administration and appropriate investments should have been made. Instead, for eight years, Pakistan did not make investments in electric power generation while the demand for electricity continued to increase at nearly seven per cent a year. This has left the country with a demand-supply gap estimated by the government at 4,000 megawatts.

Compounding these problems were the decisions taken by Islamabad to spend carelessly in order to help the party in power in the elections of Feb 2008. Public expenditure was allowed to increase way beyond the resources available to the government by way of tax and other revenues. The result was a ballooning of fiscal deficit estimated at 9.5 per cent of GDP by Ishaq Dar who was the minister of finance in the first coalition government to take office after the elections.

A significant part of this deficit was financed by borrowing from the central bank which added to the inflationary pressures already present in the economy. This produced price increases without precedence in Pakistan�s history. Once again it is the poor and the not-so-well-off segments of society that are suffering. Unless help arrives soon, Pakistan may begin to see political and social pressures building up. Considering the weak state of institutional development in the country, it would be hard to contain these strains.

The new set of political leaders, who have come to power, is being advised to adopt adjustment measures to deal with the pressures under which the economy is labouring these days. The prescriptions being offered are the usual ones: contain government expenditures by cutting spending on both current and development parts of the government budget, raise resources by expanding the tax base, provide relief to the poor by giving them cash transfers and by creating jobs for them by starting rural and urban works programmes, take advantage of the fall in the value of the rupee by encouraging exports, and make non-essential imports more costly.

In a report released by the new Lahore-based Institute of Public Policy that I chair, the government was also advised to transfer greater authority to the provinces and to the institutions of local government. This will help with the process of adjustment since it would bring economic governance closer to the people. We also advised the government to make sure that the design of adjustment policies ensured that future growth was not compromised. This was done in the 1999-2002 period when, following the advice of the International Monetary Fund, the then administration applied hard breaks to the economy.

This, as indicated above, is the standard advice given to most governments dealing with difficult economic situations. Pakistan, however, needs to do much more than follow the standard prescription. It needs to adopt an approach and develop a strategy that lessens the grip on the economy of several powerful vested interests. Over time, the Pakistani economic elite has increased its influence on the making of public policy.

The extent to which this has happened is clearly shown by some simple calculations. The latest World Development Indicators published by the World Bank provide estimates for all countries of the share in national income of various segments of the population. In Pakistan, the top 10 per cent of the population claims 26.3 per cent of the total national income while that of the bottom 10 per cent is only four per cent. This is one of the sharpest differences in the developing world: the rich receive 6.8 times the amount of national income that accrues to the poor.

However, a comparison of the shares in national income does not fully reflect the amount of real inequality between different classes of people. The rich have much better access to public services than the poor; the state generally looks after their interests much more than it does for the poor.

What makes these income differences even more problematic is that they are widening as a consequence of the growth model followed by the Musharraf government which favoured the rich. The sectors that flourished under President Musharraf did little for the poor while they provided large amounts of incomes and asset appreciation for the rich. The recent price increases in food commodities have added further insult to the injury inflicted by the pursuit of the growth model.The poor�s real income will decline significantly if food and fuel prices are allowed to eat into their disposable incomes. Not only is the price increase hurting the poor, the latter are also being affected by the various shortages that have appeared in the economy against which the rich can protect themselves but the poor are left to fend for themselves.

In fact, the rich have succeeded in creating large cocoons around themselves, thus isolating themselves from the less fortunate citizenry. They have built gated communities, protected by private security companies; they send their children to expensive private schools that provide education of reasonable standards; they go out over the weekends to shop in the malls of Dubai and go for summer vacations to various watering spots in Europe.While one should not grudge this lifestyle, it cannot be sustained in the midst of great and growing poverty. And it must not be sustained at the expense of the poor. Public policy must address this problem to ensure not only sustained economic growth but also social and political stability.

DAWN - Editorial; June 10, 2008

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And, who invented daylight saving?

By Salman Rashid

JOHNNY Hart's absolutely hilarious comic strip �BC� has the kid ant asking the dad ant who invented daylight saving. Dad ant tells the kid that it was Edison, but not Thomas as is commonly believed. It was his brother Mason, the inventor of the Mason Jar, who did it.

Every day, so dad ant tells the kid, Mason would go to his workshop, blow a jar as they used to blow glass jars in the old days and set it out in the sun to dry before capping it.

Little did old Mason realise that his jars were filling up with daylight and when he capped them, he got a jar full of daylight. Since blowing glass jars was his business, he soon had a whole great bunch of them all duly filled with daylight. Then one day the expected happened: just about sunset, one of the jars, perhaps too overfilled with daylight, blew the top. And, presto! the world had an extra hour of daylight.

Satisfied, kid ant turns around while dad ant nonchalantly spits out his wad of tobacco and says to himself, �This home schooling could turn out to be a lot more fun than I thought.� This, I suspect, is the sentence with a little variation that some bureaucrat in Islamabad, having high-fived his lesser crony, said.

With the variation the bureaucrat�s sentence would be something like, �Could you believe these moronic politicians would fall for this one so soon again? Making them look like fools is going to be a lot more fun than we thought.�

As the late great Peter Ustinov once said that he suspected there was a room in the foreign office where they taught future diplomats to stammer, so too do I suspect there are several rooms in every department in the Islamabad secretariat where sinister characters concoct such imbecile ideas to be inflicted upon us poor masses via our unthinking herds of politicians. It might work for the West with its high literacy to put their clocks forward by an hour every spring and back every autumn, but in a country of just about 10 per cent actually literate people, it does not.

Go back 19 years and you first find this absurd idea almost being inflicted upon us by the first PPP government. It was the winter of 1989-90 when out of the blue came the announcement that Pakistani clocks were being set ahead � yes, ahead � in a few days� time.

The nation immediately went into turmoil. Thank heavens we only had PTV to tell us how our lives were going to be revolutionised by this one hour of jiggery-pokery. Had private channels been then inflicted on us as now, they would have gone into overdrive screaming about how the Zionist-Hindu lobby had launched the final solution for the unmaking of Pakistan.

Good sense prevailed and the idiotic idea was killed before it could actually be put into practice. Years stumbled by and then we had The Man Who Would Refuse To Ever Know His End Is Come. One summer (was it 2002 or the year after?) it was announced that like most of the western world, we too were to put our clocks ahead by one hour.

Those very same bureaucrats, having sold their crazy idea to generalissimo-politico, were once again sniggering up their sleeves. They could hardly believe that the person who thought he was the smartest thing ever to happen to this sorry land was so easy to fool.

Shortly after we began revelling in the extra hour of General daylight, the people of Sibi being particularly enamoured of it especially when temperatures there hit 52 Celsius, I went cycling around rural Punjab. As I waited for my cup of tea at a village teashop, an elderly woman came along to ask the man what time it was. He told her and she looked a little uncertain as she turned to go. Then she stopped and asked if this was the �real� 10 o�clock or Musharraf�s 10 o�clock.

This woman of rural Punjab, like all those of her kind sprinkled across the villages of the entire country, was a real Pakistani: simple, with little or no education, whose daily timetable was guided less by clocks, more by the rising and setting of the sun.

When she needed to milk her buffalo, she did not give a fig about what the clock said. She milked it when the stars above still blazed and the horizon had just a touch of colour. Summer or winter, it was the sun that set the pace for her chores of the day, the same way it did for those millions of other real Pakistanis.

The foolishness was permitted to persist for a full six months because generalissimo did not want to admit he had made a very foolish mistake. Reversion to Pakistan Standard Time was greeted with a great sigh of relief. Speaking of PST, here�s another gem which shows why we should not indulge in this gimmickry that suits only 100 per cent literate nations. Radio Pakistan and PTV announcers would tell you what o�clock it was Pakistan Standard Time. No one told those morons that the time we were going by was not PST but summer time.

If you have kept your eyes open and watched the pattern of life in Pakistan, you will know that it was the introduction of satellite TV that turned our lives around. Until then, ordinary folks would watch the nine o�clock news on PTV and hit the sack. Then came �The Bold and the Beautiful�, and people who could not understand a word of English stayed awake all night watching the same inanity again and again and again. And so it was since the onset of the Nutty Nineties that our lives were no longer guided by the sun.

Now when the government told the traders to do business on Sunday instead of Friday in order to stagger businesses and offices, the traders duly thumbed their noses at the government. They also told it to go to hell about closing at 9 pm. Why, it was their business and they had every right to carry on until whenever they wished, they are now on record as having said. They have every right to go home about midnight and watch Indian soap operas until the muezzin calls them to their first duty of the day. Saving electricity be damned.

Frankly, if you ask me, I say why settle for just one hour of daylight saving. We can have as many Mason Jars of daylight as we want if we set our clocks forward by, say, five or even 10 hours. Maybe even a few years. Why not claim to be living in the year 2199? Imagine the daylight and the electricity we will save by eliminating the intervening years. No half measures, I say, go the whole hog.

The writer is the author of several travel books.

odysseus@beaconet.net

DAWN - Editorial; June 09, 2008

An interesting piece of writing :)

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Mukhtar on drone attacks in tribal areas

United States (US) troops are not violating the sanctity of Pakistani borders as “they use pilotless drones to hit Al-Qaeda hideouts in Pakistani tribal areas, according to Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar.

The minister, apparently justifying the unmanned drone attacks, told a press conference on Thursday the US had claimed to have killed senior Al-Qaeda operatives in Damadola. A drone attack on the village on May 14 claimed 12 lives, who, according to locals, were children and women, while security forces in Afghanistan claimed top Al-Qaeda militants were killed in the fourth attack on the village.

Mr Mukhtar said the government lodged protest if the US violated the borders. He said Al Qaeda operatives should not use Pakistani territory for their militancy.

The minister said that Pakistan Muslim League-N Nawaz Sharif and other coalition partners were evaluating the constitutional package. He said President Pervez Musharraf should fulfill his promise of quitting the Presidency as the PML-Q had lost the elections.

He said the government was working to improve conventional deterrence against its enemies and the armed forces were doing well within the restricted funds provided to them.

About an inquiry into the Kargil issue, he said that the interview of Lt-Gen Jamshed Kiayni (retd), broadcast on a television channel, was not good because he had served with President Musharraf and enjoyed benefits under his command.

Mukhtar on drone attacks in tribal areas -DAWN - National; June 06, 2008


:(... great justifications

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PML-N hits out at decision to scrap Kalabagh project

Several legislators belonging to the Pakistan Muslim League-N have expressed concern over Pakistan People’s Party’s decision to abandon the Kalabagh dam project without taking their party into confidence, although it was part of the ruling coalition.

At a parliamentary party meeting held here on Monday, the legislators are also reported to have objected to the PPP decision of appointing Salman Taseer as the Punjab governor.

They'll do similar things in future... guys wake up n leave the coalition... NOW!
...
PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif said the party was sitting with the treasury to protect the PPP from horse-trading and it would support or oppose on merit all government’s decisions, including the federal budget, in parliament.

He directed the MNAs to support the lawyers’ long march on June 10 to press their demand for reinstatement of the deposed judges.

He briefed the party MNAs on salient features of the proposed constitution amendment package prepared by the PPP.

He reiterated that the PML-N wanted the judges to be reinstated in accordance with the Murree Declaration.

APP adds: PML-N spokesman Siddiqul Farooq told a TV channel that the party would endorse all those clauses in the package which reflected the mandate given by the people in the elections.

He said the PML-N was against indemnifying the actions taken on Nov 3, 2007, because the people of the country had given a clear mandate to undo those steps.

Indemnity to the steps would mean maintaining the status quo, while the people wanted a change in the system, he said.

He said it was the responsibility of the leadership of the coalition parties to respect the mandate of the people in letter and in spirit.

Replying to a question, he said the PML-N, despite having reservations about the PCO judges, had agreed to accommodate them in the interest of the coalition. He said the five judges of the Supreme Court who were part of the pre-Nov 3 judiciary and who had taken oath under the Provisional Constitution Order should return to their previous position while the newly-inducted judges should work as ad hoc judges.

He said regularisation of the ad hoc judges could be considered by the judicial commission envisaged in the Charter of Democracy.

The spokesman said there would be no problem in getting the constitutional package approved in parliament if it was in line with the mandate given by the people. A consensus package could be approved by both the houses within a week, he said.

PML-N leaders Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Khwaja Mohammad Asif and Ahsan Iqbal and legal experts Khwaja Haris and Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim are members of the party’s committee led by Raja Zafarul Haq that will study the draft of the package.

PML-N hits out at decision to scrap Kalabagh project -DAWN - Top Stories; June 03, 2008

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Attack or Way of Expressing ???

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen vehemently condemned a suicide bombing on his country's embassy in Pakistan on Monday, describing the attack as “cowardly” and unjustifiable.

- DAWN - Latest Stories; June 02, 2008

I wonder if we can put such an attack in the category of freedom of expression??? cannt we say that this was the way of the bomber to express his anger or he did this for his satisfaction may be... why dont we think out of box???

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Article inserted in constitution by Musharraf

The following is the text of Article 270AAA inserted in the Constitution by President Pervez Musharraf last year.

In the Constitution, after Article 270AA, the following new Article shall be added, namely:- “270AAA. Validation and affirmation of laws etc. (1) The proclamation of Emergency of 3rd November, 2007, all President’s Orders, Ordinances, Chief of Army Staff Orders, including the Provisional Constitution order No.1 2007, the Oath of Office (Judges) Order, 2007, the amendments made in the constitution through the Constitution (Amendment) Order, 2007 and all other laws made between the 3rd day of November, 2007 and the date on which the Proclamation of Emergency of the 3rd Day of November, 2007, is revoked (both days inclusive), are accordingly affirmed, adopted and declared to have been validly made by the competent authority and notwithstanding anything contained in the Constitution shall not be called in question in any court or forum on any ground whatsoever.

“(2) All orders made, proceedings taken, appointments made, including secondments and deputations, and acts done by any authority, or by any person, which were made, taken or done, or purported to have been made, taken or done, on or after the 3rd day of November, 2007 in exercise of the powers derived from any Proclamation, Provisional Constitution Order No. 1 of 2007, President’s orders, ordinances, enactments, including amendments in the Constitution, notifications, rules, orders, bye-laws, or in execution of or in compliance with any orders made or sentences passed by any authority in the exercise or purported exercise of powers as aforesaid, shall, notwithstanding anything contained in the Constitution or any judgment of any court, be deemed to be and always to have been validly made, taken or done and shall not be called in question in any court or forum on any ground whatsoever.

“(3) All proclamations, President’s orders, ordinances, Chief of Army Staff Orders, laws, regulations, enactments, including amendments in the Constitution, notifications, rules, orders or bye-laws in force immediately before the date on which the Proclamation of Emergency of the 3rd day of November, 2007 is revoked, shall continue in force until altered, repealed or amended by the competent authority.

“Explanation.- In this clause, “competent authority” means,- (a) in respect of President’s orders, ordinances, Chief of Army Staff Orders and enactments, including amendments in the Constitution, the appropriate Legislature; and (b) in respect of notifications, rules, orders and bye- laws, the authority in which the power to make, alter, repeal or amend the same vests under the law.

“(4) No prosecution or any other legal proceedings, including but not limited to suits, constitutional petitions or complaints, shall, notwithstanding anything contained in the Constitution or any other law for the time being in force, lie in any court, forum or authority against any person or authority on account of or in respect of issuance of the legal instruments referred to in clause (1) and on account of or in respect of any action taken by the Chief of Army Staff, the President or any other in exercise or purported exercise of the powers referred to in clause (2).

“(5) For purpose of clauses (1), (2) and (4) all orders made, proceeding taken, appointments made, including secondments and deputation, acts done or purporting to by made, taken or done by any authority or person shall be deemed to have been made, taken in good faith and for the purpose intended to be served thereby.”

Rise of Pakistan: Article inserted by Musharraf

This article could have been in simpler language if they'd have used the word 'Musharraf' in in place of the bold text in the post. For example the text in clause 4 would look like "... on account of or in respect of any action taken by musharraf in execise or purported..." See, the govt. itself has complicated the text. Such simplifications could have been easier to understand and implement. Those would also have told ppl tht mush is undoubtedly the sole king of a 'sovereign' state. Oh it could even be further simplified by using the following text: "Any thing done by Musharraf in Pakistan since the time he has been living in pakistan has been done validly and notwithstanding anything contained in the Constitution shall not be called in question in any court or forum on any ground whatsoever. Musharraf always does everything in a good faith, whether he does it as a president, or a chief of army staff or in any other role." Be it the 1999 govt. take over or 2007 coup, he did not do anything for himself, it was infact in greater interest of the country. For example removing 60 judges who oppose a single spoiled child is for the greater good of the country. Obviously almost 70% of the judiciary can be wrong but absolute mush cannot be. It is written in the constitution article 270AAA that he does every such thing it in good faith. May Allah bless him and show him the right path. And if he cannot be blessed, then Allah may bless us by removin him from presidency.

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Israeli Terror

Dozens of Palestinians were arrested before dawn Thursday in an Israeli military incursion in the northern Gaza Strip, witnesses said. Israeli troops used loudspeakers to order residents of the Beit Hanun area aged 16 to 60 to gather in a square, and then took away about 60 of them, a witness said. The Palestinian Ramattan news agency said one of its cameramen was among those arrested. Witnesses said armoured military bulldozers destroyed farmland during the incursion. Meanwhile, a 29-year-old Palestinian civilian died of his wounds Thursday, one day after he was hit by Israeli gunfire in southern Gaza, the head of Gaza emergency services said.

- DAWN - Latest Stories; May 29, 2008

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Nuclear scientist Dr. A. Q. Khan criticizes Musharraf

Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the detained architect of Pakistan's nuclear program, rebuked Pervez Musharraf on Thursday, saying the country has “gone to the dogs” in the last 10 years. Speaking by phone from his Islamabad residence, he told Dawn News television that the test had proved skeptics in the west wrong that “we were not capable of doing anything.” Yet hopes Pakistan could then make progress in economic development after becoming “self-sufficient” in national defence had not been realized, he said. “This has not happened. The last 10 years, the country has gone to the dogs,” Khan said. “People are hungry. You see the (rising) prices and all.” Asked if he blamed Musharraf for the nation's problems, Khan said: “The team leader is to be responsible for the failure of the team but all those who were with him did not assert themselves and (did not) do a proper job.” He was of the view that the new government should be given time to cope with Pakistan's many problems. Dr. Khan told Dawn News that the restrictions on his movements had not been relaxed although he was allowed out of his house to visit the Academy of Sciences this month to mourn a former colleague. Khan said he was free to use the phone but soldiers still guard his house and “only a very few people have been allowed to come and see me.” He also said his health had deteriorated because of his detention, adding that he had suffered many illnesses including deep vein thrombosis and prostate cancer - for which he underwent surgery last year. AFP adds: Asked about Pakistan’s nuclear test, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan said most of the facts about it were widely known, but there would be further revelations. When asked what was yet to be revealed, he said: “They will be out, there are some things -- they will be out in time, when and appropriate time is there,” adding that there were certain subjects he could not talk about because of the “national interest.”

- DAWN - Latest Stories; May 29, 2008

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’نہ استعفےکا فیصلہ کیا،نہ ایساارادہ ہے‘ main koi ghairatmand hoon???

ایوان صدر کے ترجمان میجر جنرل (ر) راشد قریشی نے کہا ہے کہ صدر پرویز مشرف نے نہ تو اپنے عہدے سے استعفیٰ دینے کا فیصلہ کیا ہے اور نہ ہی وہ ایسا کوئی ارادہ رکھتے ہیں۔

جمعرات کو بی بی سی سے بات کرتے ہوئے انہوں نے کہا کہ صدر کے حکومتِ پاکستان سے اچھے تعلقات ہیں اور وہ قائم رہیں گے۔

انہوں نے بعض اخبارات میں شائع ہونے والی ان خبروں کو من گھڑت اور بے بنیاد قرار دیا جن میں کہا گیا ہے گزشتہ شب آرمی چیف سے ملاقات کے بعد صدر نے مستعفی ہونےکا فیصلہ کیا ہے اور کسی بھی وقت اس کا اعلان متوقع ہے۔

سابق وزیراعظم میاں نواز شریف کی جانب سے صدر پرویز مشرف کو ہٹانے اور ان پر غداری کا مقدمہ چلانے کے بیان پر راشد قریشی نے کہا کہ ان کا بیان تبصرے کے لائق ہی نہیں ہے۔

hahaha More entertainment on BBC :)

Asif supports move to oust Musharraf, claims Nawaz (but zardari to phir mukar jaye ga)

PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif said here on Wednesday that there was no justification for providing a safe exit to Pervez Musharraf and claimed that PPP co-chairman Asif Zardari had agreed with him to remove the former army chief from the presidency.

He said that Musharraf must be held accountable for abrogating the Constitution.

He announced that he would join the lawyers’ march if the pre-emergency judiciary was not restored.

Speaking at a function held here to mark the 10th anniversary of first nuclear tests, Mr Sharif said that during a meeting with him in Islamabad on Tuesday, Mr Zardari had agreed to work with him to oust Pervez Musharraf.

Urging the masses to be prepared for a decision greater than the one they had given on Feb 18, the PML-N leader said that had his party got a clear mandate he would have overthrown Musharraf the following day.

The former prime minister, who was ousted in a military coup on Oct 12, 1999, said he had forgiven Musharraf for the mistreatment and torture he had suffered at his (Musharraf’s) hands.

But, he said, he would not absolve Musharraf from the charges of devastating the country by selling it to foreign powers, carrying out what he called the Lal Masjid massacre, incarcerating nuclear scientist Dr A.Q. Khan and superior court judges and handing over innocent Pakistanis to American agencies in return for dollars.

“I have told Mr Zardari that I will ride the lawyers’ bus for Islamabad if the deposed judges are not reinstated,” Mr Sharif added.

He said his party had quit ministries for the sake of its principled stand on the judges’ issue and it was ready to go even further.

Urging the masses to be ready for a movement for deciding the fate of the country, he said that people had to prove that “they are a living nation”.

The fate of the country should be decided in Islamabad, and not in Washington or anywhere else, he added.

He said India had recognised Pakistan as an independent and sovereign nation when Islamabad detonated the nuclear devices. But, he regretted that an army dictator had pushed the country towards destabilisation, carried out massacre from Karachi to Khyber and given the nation the gift of suicide attacks and lawlessness.

Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Sirdar Zulfikar Khosa, Khwaja Saad Rafiq and other PML-N leaders spoke on the occasion.

Asif supports move to oust Musharraf, claims Nawaz: ‘No justification for providing safe exit’ -DAWN - Top Stories; May 29, 2008

we look forward to see u in the lawyers' bus Mr. Sharif... this act will pull crowds i m sure...

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Pakistan marks ‘decade of N-responsibility’

Pakistan hailed the 10th anniversary of its first nuclear tests on Wednesday, saying it marked a decade of “responsibility and restraint” by the Muslim world’s only atomic power.

The foreign ministry issued a statement marking the anniversary of the detonations on May 28, 1998, which were carried out in response to nuclear tests by India.

“It was a historic day in the nation’s quest for security,” it said of the tests.

“Pakistan has taken its responsibilities as a nuclear weapon state seriously. We have not relented in our pursuit for creating a peaceful global and regional environment,” it added.

Pakistan marks ‘decade of N-responsibility’ -DAWN - Top Stories; May 29, 2008

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Israel can have nuclear weapons, others cannt :)

’اسرائیل کے پاس 150 ایٹم بم ہیں‘ Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/regional/story/2008/05/080527_carear_israel_fz.shtml

امریکہ کے سابق صدر جمی کارٹر نے کہا اسرائیل کے اسلح خانوں میں کم از کم ڈیڑھ سو کے قریب جوہری ہتھیار یا ایٹم بم موجود ہیں۔ جمی کارٹر نے اسرائیل کے جوہری پروگرام کے بارے میں یہ دعوی ایران کے جوہری پروگرام کے بارے میں کیئے گئے ایک سوال کے جواب میں کیا۔ اسرائیل کے بارے میں عام خیال یہی ہے کہ اس کے پاس متعدد جوہری ہتھیار موجود ہیں تاہم اسرائیل اس بارے میں خاموشی کی پالیسی پر کاربند ہے اور امریکہ بھی اسرائیل کے جوہری پروگرام پر لب کشائی کرنے سے باز رہتا ہے۔

BibTeX and bibliography styles

A few bibliographic styles are:

1: ieeetr 2: unsrt 3: IEEE 4: ama 5: cj 6: nar 7: nature 8: phjcp 9: is-unsrt

10: plain 11: abbrv 12: acm 13: siam 14: jbact 15: amsplain 16: finplain 17: IEEEannot 18: is-abbrv

19: is-plain 20: annotation 21: plainyr 22: decsci 23: jtbnew 24: neuron 25: cell 26: jas99 27: abbrvnat

28: ametsoc 29: apalike 30: jqt1999 31: plainnat 32: jtb 33: humanbio 34: these 35: chicagoa 36: development

37: unsrtnat 38: amsalpha 39: alpha 40: annotate 41: is-alpha 42: wmaainf 43: alphanum 44: apasoft

If any of these styles is not found in latex they can be downloaded from http://www.tug.org/tex-archive/biblio/bibtex/contrib/. Each file will be of .bst extension. In order to use the style 'nar', you must have the file 'nar.bst' in your LaTeX directory, or in your current working directory, or anywhere where it is visible to LaTeX.

to see how are these styles rendered (i.e. how does a certain bib style look like?), please visit the following: http://www.cs.stir.ac.uk/~kjt/software/latex/showbst.html

Adapted from BibTeX and bibliography styles

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MQM's stance will not affect Suddle...

پاکستان میں صوبہ سندھ کی پولیس کے نئے سربراہ ڈاکٹر شعیب سڈل نے کہا ہے کہ متحدہ قومی موومنٹ کی طرف سے ان کی تعیناتی پر تحفظات سے فرق نہیں پڑتا اور وہ صوبے میں امن وامان برقرار رکھنے کے لیے ہر ممکن اقدام کریں گے۔

ان کا کہنا ہے کہ قانون کی خلاف ورزی کرنے والوں کے خلاف سخت اقدامات کریں گے خواہ ان کا تعلق صو بے کی کسی بھی سیاسی جماعت سے ہو۔

بی بی سی سے گفتگو کرتے ہوئے شعیب سڈل نے کہا کہ وہ ایک سرکاری ملازم ہیں اور انہیں اس بات سے کوئی سروکار نہیں کہ متحدہ قومی موومنٹ کی قیادت نے پیپلز پارٹی اور ایم کیو ایم کے درمیان مفاہمت کے مذاکرات میں ناکامی کی ایک وجہ ان کی بطور آئی جی سندھ تعیناتی کو بتایا ہے۔

ایم کیو ایم نے الزام عائد کیا تھا کہ پیپلز پارٹی کے سابق دور حکومت میں ڈاکٹر شعیب سڈل نے، جو اُس وقت ڈی آئی جی کراچی تھے، ایم کیو ایم کے سینکڑوں کارکنوں کو ماورائے عدالت قتل کیا تھا اور متاثرہ خاندانوں میں ان کی بطور آئی جی سندھ تعیناتی پر تشویش کی لہر دوڑ گئی ہے۔

قومی اسمبلی میں ایم کیو ایم کے پارلیمانی لیڈر ڈاکٹرفاروق ستار نے اتوار کے روز ایک پریس کانفرنس میں کہا تھا کہ پیپلز پارٹی کے ساتھ جو مذاکرات ہو رہے تھے اُن میں ایم کیو ایم نے یہ مطالبہ بھی کیا تھا کہ شعیب سڈل کو بطور آئی جی سندھ تعینات نہ کیا جائے۔

آئی جی سندھ نے ان الزامات کو مسترد کرتے ہوئے کہا کہ ایم کیوایم کی حکومت پانچ سال تک صوبے میں اور مرکز میں برسراقتدار رہی ہے اور اس دوران وہ ایک بھی ایسا ثبوت سامنے نہیں لاسکی جس سے یہ ثابت ہوتا ہو کہ وہ بطور ڈی آئی جی کراچی، ایم کیو ایم کے کارکنوں کی ہلاکت کے ذمہ دار ہیں۔ انہوں نے کہا کہ اگر ان کے کہنے پر ایم کیو ایم کے کسی کارکن کی موت واقع ہوئی ہے تو اسے سامنے لائیں

Full Story۔

MQM’s power-sharing talks with PPP fail: Suddle’s appointment as IG opposed

Dr Sattar said the MQM had serious reservations over the appointment of Dr Shoaib Suddle as the Sindh police chief. Dr Suddle, according to him, was responsible for extra-judicial killings of scores of workers of his party. “When we conveyed our reservations to PPP leaders in Saturday’s meeting, they replied that he was their hero.”He said that under such circumstances the MQM felt that the PPP was not serious in holding dialogue for reconciliation and the coordination committee had decided that the party’s lawmakers would sit in the opposition.

He urged all MQM workers, including elected representatives, to keep an eye on the situation and inform the masses about it.In reply to a question, he denied that MQM’s demand for more ministries in the Sindh cabinet had resulted in the failure of the talks.

Full Story on MQM’s power-sharing talks with PPP fail: Suddle’s appointment as IG opposed -DAWN - Top Stories; April 14, 2008

but mqm agreed to adopt forgive n forget policy see the following

Muttahidda Qaumi Movement(MQM) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) announced on Wednesday that both parties have forgiven each other and promised to save Pakistan for the future generation. Full story: The Nation
... above excerpt from the nation tells us tht mqm has forgot past and have forgiven ppp... then y do they have doubts abt intentions of ppp? if they doubt ppp's intentions then on the same grounds others can doubt mqm being non-serious n insincere while accepting the forgive n forget policy if they r sincere n serious in this policy then y do they object on appointment of suddle?

Secondly Shoiab Suddle is alleged to have played role in supression of mqm or extra judicial killings of mqm workers... then, Ishrat-ul-Ibad, the governer sindh has also been allegedly involved in many crimes including killings... there r no legal proofs presented in the courts against either of them... how come mqm has reservations on appointment of a person allegedly involved in killing but is happy with a governer who has also been alleged to have killed many innocents... for your reference i m putting a few excerpts from different places:

Who is this “Sindh Governor”? He is the Governor of Sindh Province in Pakistan. Karachi the port city is Capital of this Sindh Province. The name of Governor is Ishratul Abad. In official record he is absconder of justice from Karachi but he is invisible for the Police of Province which Police is under him. He is involved in more than 50 criminal cases as per the above magazine. Leave those criminal cases aside one can say those are political victimization. Take only one and last month’s case to understand the man. A London daily (telegraph) last month reported that UK peoples money was being misspent. The daily gave example that while one Ishratul Abad was drawing a big monthly social allowance with other facilities being an asylum seeker from UK treasury, he was living a posh life as Governor of Sindh in Pakistan More...

President General Pervez Musharraf has designated Mutahidda Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Dr Ishratul Ibad as Governor Sindh. All cases against the MQM’s nominee for the Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad have been withdrawn, the Nation reported. It may be mentioned that there were dozens of cases including of murder, dacoity and kidnapping against Dr Ibad. One of the cases against him was of abducting a military officer.
The nomination of the Muttahidda leader Dr Ishrat-ul-Ibad as Sindh Governor was assailed in the Sindh High Court. Petitioner Sohail Hameed Advocate has also prayed the court to restrain Dr Ishratul Ibad from performing his responsibilities as Sindh Governor, as according to him, his appointment is in violation of Article 2A of the Constitution. President and prime minister of Pakistan and Dr Ishara-tul-Ibad have been cited as respondents in the petition.Eagle Enterprises

as mqm can say allegations to koi bhi laga sakta hai... so can someone else say on mqm's stand against appointment of suddle...

when law n order situation went wrong after BB's assassination, IG was changed at tht time too (see The News), so its normal to make such changes in police, why is mqm makin it an issue?

earlier IG could not respond to events like april 09, 2008 then y wont the sittin govt. change the person... previously appointed IG was appointed by caretaker govt. n was found incapable of doin wht is needed... so a change to avoid events like april 09 is much needed...

MQM never does wrong. Always others are responsible for wrong doings:
Farooq Sattar accused the PPP leadership of maintaining a non-serious attitude and put all the onus of the failure of talks on the PPP. "We had several rounds of talks with the PPP leadership, but they always gave a cold shoulder and the negotiations on their part were greatly non-serious," Sattar said. Full Story

Mr. Farooq Sattar, ppp came to nine zero to extend a hand of friendship, n u r sayin tht they r givin a cold shoulder, come on give logical stmts... will we ever listen to a stmt like "yes we admit we were responsible for the failure or deadlock etc.... and we seek apology for tht" from mqm? mqm always blames others for everythin... mqm guys r angels it seems

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Hanging references in latex

If u have a long list fo references in one coloumn and 2nd column is empty or very unbalanced due to very few references, then do the following to get a balanced references page.

in bbl file write \vfill\eject before the reference which u intend to move to 2nd column (do this after running bibtex earlier). Do not run bibtex after this since it will overwrite ur bbl file and effect will not be seen. After writing the above command u only need to run latex command and then make dvi or pdf whatever u like...

Violence Triggers police dept reshuffle

The Karachi police witnessed a major reshuffle on Wednesday, amid severe violence in the city which killed more than half a dozen people, in a move reflecting the change of the political administration in the province.

The principal decision came from the IG Sindh office, which decided to replace all the three deputy inspectors-general of as many zones in the city. Though the notification was not issued till our going to press, sources within the police department maintained that the announcement had been made and officers concerned informed about it.

“The IG Sindh has decided to replace DIG South Javed Bukhari with Iqbal Mahmood while Wajid Ali Durrani, currently serving as DIG Traffic, will take charge of DIG West in place of Falak Khursheed,” said a source citing the decision made by the IG office.

Similarly, he added, DIG East Salman Syed, who was assigned the job a few months ago, is likely to be replaced by Bashir Memon, currently serving at the National Police Academy.

The sources said the change within the police command came at a crucial time when the city was forced to plunge into lawlessness, when confrontation between two groups of lawyers led to severe exchanges of fire, arson and violence across the city, leaving more than six people dead and over 50 vehicles burnt.

A senior official agreed with the notion that the fresh postings in Karachi police’s higher cadre was the tip of the iceberg, as the new political administration would like to change senior officers of the department elevated by the previous government.

“Notifications of the new postings are expected by the morning (Thursday),” said the official. “We expect more changes in the days to come, which include transfers and postings in police as well as the provincial home department.”

He said Wednesday’s violence and police failure to control it in time would precipitate change in senior police ranks, and the removal of the SP of Saddar Town was the first step in that direction.

“SP Tahir Naveed has been replaced after the increased violence, which affected mostly his town and led to his replacement with SP Ameer Sheikh,” added the official.

“The wave of change in the police setup is likely to trickle down to lower level, where SPs of different towns and district police officers in several cities of the province are likely to be transferred from their positions.”

He said the Pakistan People’s Party leadership, which has taken over the Sindh administration for a third time since 1988, had started receiving inputs about and feedback on officers holding different offices, and a few sitting officers were likely to get replaced by them.

“There are various reasons for the shakeup of the police hierarchy but the most important reason perhaps is the perception about the existing setup, which is supposed to be under the influence of the outgoing administration,” added the official.

KARACHI: Violence Triggers police dept reshuffle -DAWN - Local; April 10, 2008

just it here for my record :)

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