Ripple Effect

With all the hullabaloo about Shamsi airbase I remembered that when I did this story for The News (http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=163174&Cat=2&dt=2/18/2009) (and The Times of London picked it up the next day), I had at least a couple of pictures which clearly showed that Pakistani military (army and airforce) officers had been the airbase and American officers had shown them around -- the pictures (see for yourselves) show them being shown one of the parked drones -- this picture must be circa 2007 so it was under the government of Pervez Musharraf -- and in one of them the American military official is partly shielded -- his upper torso. Another shows a Pakistan army and airforce officer from behind -- and to their left can be seen two US soldiers -- side-on. In two of these pictures, Pakistani military officials can be clearly seen.

Dear all, The other day, while traveling between Islamabad and Muzaffarabad, I noticed a queue of hundreds of vehicles near Banni Pari village which had been stopped by the Frontier Works Organization (FWO) without any warning as they were carrying out road construction in the area. When I got down and ask FWO personnel after introducing myself that why didn't they detail someone at Jheeka Galli to guide/inform the motorists to take alternative route if the road had to be blocked for 3 hours, much to my horror I had to face the most hostile attitude from them, mainly because being a (commercial) subsidiary of Pakistan army they considered themselves above questioning. An official in civvies, who introduced himself to me as Major Hassan, said it was not his responsibility to depute anyone to inform the motorists/commuters at Jheeka Galli about the road blockade and that I was nobody to ask such questions to him and instead I should talk to the DC (DCO) and other administration offic...

The Snare Letter to Editor When I heard, I didn’t believe it. The members of an American delegation then on official visit to Pakistan entered the office of a major general (now retired) who was serving at a pivotal post, and during the course of meeting presented him the keys of a bullet proof vehicle they brought along with them from Washington. They were keenly concerned about the safety and security of the general, of course. But to their utter surprise, the general refused to accept the gift, saying his institution had provided him enough to meet his transport and security needs. I couldn’t believe that a General in the Pakistan GHQ would refuse the Americans. He paid the cost and retired as major general but why did he refuse the gift? “Such bullet proof vehicles are secure, but serve the purpose of dubbing exclusive or private conversations which they can use to achieve their ends. Already our everything is being recorded by mobile phone companies, the Blackberry has server in A...

A journalist based in Parachinar sent this to me -- its here unedited, uncut -- might be a bit obtuse at times but worth a read After Nine-Eleven when fierce game started at the name of terrorism, this fierce game not only compelled the thousands of people to exclude them from their ancestor areas, but it was also the harmful reason for the “Educational Murder” of tribal students. Bright and shined future of tribal students has been made darken by the terrorists. The innocent children, who might have a pen and book, were forced to hold on weapon and explosive material. Suicides were trained to kill their own Pakistanis. This bloody game and tribal students “Educational Murder” are still continued. Terrorism in Pakistan and especially in tribal areas is the part of the Worldly conspiracy. But names of some Pakistani Agencies have been also included in this list of terrorism doubtfully with continuation. Misunderstood policies of rulers and government made the common people doubtful abou...

I received this from 'international professor' -- a nutjob, a whacko for sure -- but one thing stood out -- in recent days people keep asking why the navy, why target the navy -- part of his longer email, reproduced below, i think explains why the navy is being targeted -- read and see for yourself Naval base PNS Mehran was sold like Shamsi air base International Professor Some months ago U.S. administration awarded “Legion of Merit” to Admiral Noman Bashir, people astonished that what kind of links Pakistan Navy has with war of terror, because Pakistan’s areas chosen by U.S. for operational purposes like Swat, Malakand and FATA or outside Pakistan like Afghanistan have no links with sea. Most people are not aware of the fact that Pakistan Navy is fighting U.S. war of terror like Pakistan army and Pakistan air force devotedly and its mercenaries services are mostly outside boundaries of Pakistan. According to Associated Press dated: Jan 04, 2011 the Air Chief Marshall Rao Qamar...

AP's "intelligence writer" quotes US officials briefed on the OBL operation that "Five aircraft flew from Jalalabad, Afghanistan, with three school-bus-size Chinook helicopters landing in a deserted area roughly two-thirds of the way to bin Laden's compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad". Is this the vague reference made in the in-camera briefing by a senior PAF official that Kala Dhaka was also used -- the area northwest of Abbottabad, Oghi, Black Hills, Kala Dhaka, is remote and deserted -- so the Americans were able to land in a deserted area of Mansehra district and use that as a base, so to speak, to launch the Abbotabad operation -- surely all this couldn't have happened with no one in the PAF, or air traffic control finding out -- is becoming increasingly difficult to believe that the Pakistanis knew nothing about this -- yes I know this may seem an irrelevant question now, but if they did know and they are lying about it, this would be the ...

We get lots of unsolicited articles and letters every day -- 10 marks for guessing who wrote this Method in the madness XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX There, ironically, is a group in Pakistan which hates two As (Allah and Army) but loves to flirt with another A (America). To them, army is responsible for everything wrong in this country. These ultra liberals (self acclaimed though) are busy deriding and ridiculing armed forces with frothing mouths on Abbottabad incident. But as they say, there is a method in their madness. In an apparent attempt to criticize armed forces in the wake of US operation, they are raising few questions which do not require answers after scholarly pursuits. These few queries can be dismissed by an ordinary mind. But, alas, common sense is not what they aspire to propagate. It’s their love to hold tail coats of USA that drives them to miss the obvious. The Abbottabad operation by American SEALs is a failure of intelligence. It cannot be defended. But more than intel...

I'm not really into conspiracy theories at all -- when the raid took place, initially there were suggestions that the copters took off from Tarbela which is around 30-35 kilometres east of Abbottabad -- if they came from Afghanistan, the closest known base would be Jalalabad -- that town is slightly north of Peshawar so choppers coming from there would either have to fly over Peshawar city or north -- through Charsadda (see accompanying graphic) -- and then on to Mardan -- north of Mardan the population density is relatively lower, but the Mardan-Mingora road is situated here -- travelling eastward on this, one would pass north of Swabi and past Tarbela (the country's largest hydel facility) and eastward on to Abbottabad -- the other option to fly slightly on a northern flight path meant that the helicopters flew over less populated Lower Dir (it borders Afghanistan), eastward past southern Swat and Buner and past Allai in Batagram district north of Tarbela (this could be the O...

Received this in my gmail -- some people may want to read it -- Questions After Laden’s Death May 4th, 2011 After 10 years of cat and mouse game, America, finally managed to kill Laden, the world’s most dreaded terrorist. The authorities on terrorism are right in their assessment that this is not going to end all terrorism as we know it today. This can be an important step in this direction, but this is certainly not the final blow. The war on terror will remain unfinished as long as the ideology of Darul-Islam,which is the goal of jehad against humanity, remains intact. It was this ideology that had given birth to Osama. It is quite possible that after the death of Osama, many more Osamas may emerge adhering to this ideology. New Osamas may prove many times more dangerous than the dead Osama. The red alert having been notified all over the world after the death of Osama is proof enough of this danger that is lurking amidst us. Therefore, this is not the time for celebration, but that ...

this story in Dawn on April 12 http://www.dawn.com/2011/04/12/us-asked-to-stop-drone-raids-cut-cia-operations.html has been written by Anwar Iqbal and Masood Haider -- Dawn's Washington and New York correspondents -- they extensively quote from an NYT story -- forget the fact that in some places the attribution is not clear (as in readers cannot really tell whether they have written the story or whether it is the NYT report that they are quoting) but what was bewildering was the fact that this story on the paper's back page (of the same day's edition) by its Peshawar bureau chief Ismail Khan http://www.dawn.com/2011/04/12/pak-military-asks-us-to-significantly-cut-number-of-cia-operatives.html was EXACTLY the same story that Anwar Iqbal and Masood Haider were quoting Now why would you take as the front page lead a story in NYT when your own reporter co-wrote that story and you have taken that story on your back page anchor Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Special buses will be run from Lahore to Chandigarh for the semi-final -- Distance between Lahore and Amritsar -- 50 kilometres Distance between Amritsar and Chandigarh - 217 kilometres Distance between Lahore and Multan -- 317 kilometres Lahore and Chandigarh, as the crow flies, and even if one counts the length of the highway and road that connects Lahore to Attari, and then from Attari to Amritsar and then to Chandigarh, is closer than Lahore to Multan The barriers that we have put up on either side -- how brilliant would it be if we could just drive from Lahore to Chandigarh to watch the semi final I guess that aint happening in my lifetime

Is it just me or all the front-page stories on the nationwide euphoria following Pakistan's massive win over the West Indies in the World Cup quarter-final in Dhaka on Pakistan Day made no mention of anyone celebrating in Balochistan?

On my way to work this morning, while listening to FM 91's show with Sophie, I heard this radio advert by Nestle -- It starts with a male voice -- the husband -- saying "Begum, tum nay packing naheen kee? Murree naheen jana?" And the woman says, "Naheen, mein bhot thakee huee hoon" And they end up not going -- and the ad says that the woman is tired because of iron deficiency -- and that had she been drinking Nestle's Milkpak, perhaps this situation wouldn't have materialised -- while more women, statistically speaking, suffer from iron deficiency, the advert does reinforce a very stereotypical image of the woman, rather 'begum', doing all the work in the home (wake up Nestle! of all companies one would have thought you would know that that stereotype is under threat in most Pakistan cities at least) -- of course, it is not difficult to understand why big corporations would, despite the liberal/forward-looking public persona of themselves that th...

Judge for yourself Editorial in The Express Tribune -- March 13, 2011 http://tribune.com.pk/story/131689/more-missiles--or-more-schools/ More missiles — or more schools? Spending on missile defence takes away from our social sector development in an economy, which is estimated to grow by a mere two per cent this year, compared to India’s nine per cent. PHOTO: INP India and Pakistan have test-fired their nuclear-capable short-range, surface-to-surface, ballistic missiles on the same day, and if one were to say that was coincidental, there would be very few takers. Everything the two neighbours do is a hostile message from one to the other, emanating from costly mutual espionage that they conduct against each other. If tit-for-tat was the motive behind the timing, India wins because it fired two nuclear missiles instead of one. In 1998, when it came to nuclear tests, Pakistan had won because it exploded more devices than India. Pakistan has fired Hatf-2 — hatf means ‘bodiless sound’ but ...

What in the world is Unilever trying to teach children in Pakistan? If anyone has seen the new Surf Excel advertisement, they would know what I am talking about. And for those who haven't. it shows a group of children wearing school uniforms trying to have some fun in the rain -- which is fine, but these children are shown having fun while lowering their pants and jumping around in the water. I am no prude and this isn't an issue of morality or anything, but rather propriety. Is the message that Unilever is sending children, and indirectly their parents, that it is okay to run around in the rain with your pants lowered and exposing your underwear? Seriously, would Ehsan Malik want his own children to behave in this manner? One would have expected slightly better from a company that calls itself the largest multinational in the so-called FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods)and which in 2010 earned an after-tax profit of over Rs3.2 billion

Yes you read that right -- Star Plus, the Indian television channel otherwise banned in Pakistan, but presumably available in most parts of the country, is the most-watched channel on cable television. In fact, it leads the next most-watched channel, Geo News, by such a wide margin that more people watch Star Plus than the next four channels on the ratings list. Not only that, the top five also includes two other banned Indian channels, Sony and Colors. Lest people be suspicious of where I'm getting all this from, this is in fact in the public realm, thanks to brandsynario.com, a Pakistani marketing and advertising website, which has posted the results of an exhaustive survey by Media Logic detailing the viewing habits of Pakistanis for 2010. Media Logic is incidentally the same company that does market research and ratings for the industry and hence its findings are normally taken at face value and accepted by all the channels. There are two ratings lists that are of interest. The...

What's with TV anchors gunning for Veena Malik -- did they expect her to wear the burka on Bigg Boss? -- as if she had ever done that in Pakistan and as if Pakistani film heroines wear such attire in Pakistani movies -- why is Kamran Shahid gunning for her? Would he do that with, say, Nawaz Sharif, or better still, Kayani? Also saw a show on Geo where viewers were asked the question (it doesn't come any loaded than this) that did they agree that Veena Malik's demeanour and behaviour on Bigg Boss had insulted Pakistan? The results, when I saw was watching the channel were: 93 per cent said 'yes' and 7 per cent said 'no'. I bet more than half of those 93 per cent (especially if they were men) wouldn't mind seeing Ms Malik dressed in a mini-skirt. If there's something this country's good at, it's sanctimonious hypocrisy I have to agree with Ms Malik -- people are going after her because she is a "soft target" -- and surely our TV ancho...

I have not seen these published anywhere -- they may be graphic, one of them at least but I am putting them up on my blog because people need to know of the monster of extremism and intolerance that is slowly eating away us from inside the first pic is of the governor -- he is shown from the back -- since he was shot from the back -- the police is trying to pick him up and take him to hospital -- in a police van because they presumably wanted immediate medical treatment -- the other pic shows two elite force policemen holding the killer with their feet on his chest and smgs (sub-machine guns pointing at him) -- this must have happened immediately after the assassination these pics were sent by a friend who did not want to be named -- they were taken by someone (other than him) who was in Mocca at the time -- that is precisely the restaurant where Mr Taseer had been having lunch - incidentally during my last visit to Islamabad, I had coffee at this place with a friend -- and our car was...

I have not seen these published anywhere -- they may be graphic, one of them at least but I am putting them up on my blog because people need to know of the monster of extremism and intolerance that is slowly eating away us from inside the first pic is of the governor -- he is shown from the back -- since he was shot from the back -- the police is trying to pick him up and take him to hospital -- in a police van because they presumably wanted immediate medical treatment --