Sep 302010
 

Ikram Sehgal

 Very recently a security firm in Belarus discovered a “malware” which they called Stuxnet, a worm that spies on and reprograms industrial systems, the very first to successfully target critical industrial infrastructure. Specifically meant to attack “Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition” (SCADA) systems used to control and monitor industrial processes, Stuxnet specifically targets Siemens computers in the network by using infected USB flash drives. A major computer virus attack was made on the Windows computers at Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant, however it does not seem to have damaged the major systems at the plant. Continue reading »

 Posted by at 11:24 am
Sep 302010
 

By Farrukh Saleem

 ISLAMABAD: It’s the economy, plain and simple. Pakistani generals want Pakistani economy to grow and to grow at the fastest pace possible. Here’s why.
The total length of Pakistan’s boundaries is 6,774 km — India 2,912 km, Afghanistan 2,430 km, China 523 km and Iran 909 km. And, Pak Army gets around $5 billion a year to keep Pakistan’s geographical integrity intact-roughly 3 percent of our $166 billion annual GDP.
Military strategists around the world look at the capacity of their adversaries, not their intentions. In 2009, India jacked up its defence budget by a hefty 24 percent. The same year, an interim defence hike was announced showing an accumulated increase of 55 percent. Continue reading »

 Posted by at 9:36 am
Sep 302010
 

By Rauf Klasra

 ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari reportedly dropped a bombshell in the PPP parliamentary party meeting the other night when he made the shocking confession that he was betrayed and trapped by top players of the game in the NRO case.
He told the shocked members that he was given certain assurances in exchange for not defending it before the Supreme Court. A top source said the betrayed president had believed in what he was offered.
Continue reading »

 Posted by at 9:33 am
Sep 292010
 

By Ijaz Kakakhel
Researchers and agricultural scientists are experimenting on commercial production of a plant (Stevia) as alternate to sugar at National Agriculture Research Council (NARC), which will enable the country to get rid of sugar crises permanently.

The plant was imported from Canada on experimental basis, which is 300 fold sweeter than sugar, said Dr Shahid Masood Chief Scientific Officer NARC while talking to Daily Times.

It is especially for sugar patients because it has zero calories. At present “Stevia” is planted on about 2 acres area and has about 2000 plants. He said the plant has different species having different types of sweetness. Continue reading »

 Posted by at 8:59 am
Sep 282010
 

Mehmood-Ul-Hassan Khan

UAE Commander Army Relief Force, Brigadier Abdul Rahman Ibrahim bin Abdul Aziz,

The Commander of the Army Relief Force, of the United Arab Emirates, Brigadier Abdul Rahman Ibrahim bin Abdul Aziz, has been wholeheartedly engaged with rescue and relief operations in the most affected areas of flood in Pakistan and started rehabilitation phase. He always speaks about high philosophies of unity of command, submission, advantages of righteousness (Haq), brotherhood, sacrifice, patience and cooperation. UAE Force’s immaculate performances and big achievements in the most affected flood areas under his command simply prove his charismatic leadership.

UAE Commander: Height of Professionalism

Brigadier Abdu Rahman a true professional, brave solider, good administrator and above all great human being is persistently looking care of the disheartened general masses in flood hit places. He is committed to give his best to purge the human miseries and bring some comfort to their distressed lives and smiles to their concerned faces. Brigadier Abdul Rahman did also perform gigantic humanitarian assistance even in the cataclysm 2005 earthquake in Pakistan. Even this time UAE Force, was the first to reach for the help of its traumatized brothers in Pakistan and started titanic rescue and relief operations and consequently moved to the second phase of rehabilitation in different regions.

Brig. Abdul Rahman most recently took the media team representing different countries in three Chinook planes for an aerial view of the most affected districts of Balochistan and Sindh. The media team could easily compare between colossal destruction and enduring determination of our brotherly UAE team, fighting against all odds to help the unfortunate general masses living in these places. Undoubtedly, they witnessed incidents of harshness of the natural calamity and relentless hardworking spirits of the UAE army force to lessen the human miseries and severity of life. They are simply bravo.

UAE Force Personnel

More than 40 personnel are working from dawn to dust in Balochistan and Sindh to help the flood hit people. They are courageously confronting with scorching heat, unpleasant humidity and harsh weather to reach out to needy population and rescue them from starvation, hunger and diseases. They have big heart full of devotion, humanity, moral values and above all spirits of brotherhood in order to perform their professional duties with zeal.

Current Integrated Activities

UAE Army Relief Force is stationed at Khaild Air Base Quetta, where from it is carrying the ongoing rescue, relief, distribution of goods and executing medical programs in makeshift camps situated in Jacobabad and Dera Murad Jamali. The UAE team is busy in different humanitarian assistance in the vicinity of Dera Murad Jamali, Jaffarabad, Jhal Magsi and Qilla Saifullah. On their own request more than 200 families have been moved to their home towns, Jacobabad through Chinook fleet. UAE Force Commander proudly said that his country is the only country, carrying out various organized rescue, relief distribution of goods and rehabilitation programs in Sindh and Balochistan.

Future Plan

UAE team has already started the rehabilitation phase/efforts for flood victims in Balochistan and Sindh. Brigadier Abdul Rahman also tabled his future plans for the well-being of flood affected people. He elaborated that during the first phase 5000 people/families would be helped to resettle in their home towns through Chinook planes in Dera Murad Jamali and Jacobabad districts as the water in these areas has receded.

Sufficient food stuff and tents will also be provided to them so that they will not be confronting with any shortcoming for the time being. UAE team will provide them rations for one month, supply of tents to the unsettled, installing water purification plant/machines and substantial financial assistance to the distraught people. He said that more than 85 tonnes of food stuff and 3000 tents will be distributed among the most pompous people. Furthermore he reaffirmed UAE government’s commitment “not to leave until and unless every displaced person is resettled to their native places. He also mentioned that 25,000 tents have already been arranged along with plenty of warm cloths/blankets, medicines and the last not the least water purification plan in these areas the provinces.

Chinook: An Unsung Hero

Angel of Mercy

UAE Chinook an unsung hero is doing great humanitarian services in the most affected areas of flood in the country. Chinook a twin-engine tandem rotor heavy- lift helicopter has become sign of life, hope, assistance and above all logistics. Through its 72 sorties so far in the last 50 days more than 1295 people have been evacuated from disastrous areas. UAE team has been instrumental to facilitate even other countries relief commodities, airlifted to distribution centers. It also takes care of transportation expenditures in the associated activities in these places. With the help Chinook, UAE Army easily accomplished and shifted more than 359 tonnes of food-stuff and other helping material.

UAE Army Relief Force’s Contributions in first Phase

Brig. Abdul Rahman said that after the appeal of government of Pakistan and orders of by H.H. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of UAE and through the follow up of General H.H. Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces to help the badly pretentious people of flood victims in the time of national crisis. Right from the beginning, UAE Force has been working jointly with the Armed Force of Pakistan in different regions of Punjab, Blochistan and Sindh.

Chief of Armed Forces of Pakistan General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani made a special visit to Multan to meet the UAE Army Relief Force

The UAE Force has been operating an air bridge between the flood-hit areas and delivery relief stations. Three Chinook fleet was initially stationed at the Pakistan Air Force Base in Multan. It carried out inter-provincial airlifting of relief goods. The Army Relief Force and Armed Forces of Pakistan are unstintingly working to evacuate people from inaccessible areas and bring them to safer places.

UAE unending intensified relief operation in different parts of the country once again proves its full commitment to humanitarian and ethical responsibilities and its keen interest to save endangered lives and preserves human dignity. It also highlights the core strength of our brotherly bilateral relations. Chief of Armed Forces of Pakistan General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani made a special visit to Multan to meet the UAE Army Relief Force and appreciated its diversified but integrated rescue, relief and rehabilitation efforts.

Mobile Military Medical Field Hospital

UAE medical team has professional doctors, well trained nurses and experienced specialists doing noble work in Pakistan. They are working around the clock and have so far served more than 3891 patients in the most affected areas.

UAE Relief Force is writing new chapters of humanity, brotherhood, services and delivery in the most affected areas of Pakistan. They are all engaged to alleviate the human agonies of the flood victims. Brig. Abdul Rahman and his team has succeeded to give new meanings to suffering people vulnerable with epidemic diseases like influenza, cholera, malaria, skin diseases, dehydration, chest infection and measles etc. in many regions throughout the country. They have been busy in initiating many effective health care programs and vaccination drive which are now paying its dividends.

UAE Relief Force is supervising operational hospitals in many areas. Currently it is running a mobile filed hospital in Balochistan at Jhal Magsi, doctors are treating professionally with full humanistic spirits. Small children and women were treated mostly suffering from epidemic diseases. According to the medical staff more than 200 patients visit to the hospital daily. Earlier a medical team is providing preventive and curative programs in Kot Adu, Muzaffargarh and Ali Pur, Southern Punjab.

Makeshift Camps

UAE Relief force is visiting many makeshift camps in these areas on regular basis. A media team visited three well organized and well managed makeshift camps in the nearby districts i.e. Dera Murad Jamali and Saifullah Jal Magsi.

Brig. Ahid, head of the Southern Command and relief operations in Balochistan, appreciated the humanitarian assistance embarked by UAE Government and the Army Relief Force in the province. He has expressed his gratitude to the leaders and people of UAE for their extended help.

Concluding,

United Arab Emirates Army Relief Force has been doing expanded rescue activities, relief goods distribution and health care programs in the most affected areas of flood. Chinook has been rightly labeled as “Angel of Mercy” in Pakistan. Brigadier Abdul Rahman Ibrahim bin Abdul Aziz, UAE Commander has been described as “Man of Iron”. The diversified but integrated rescue, relief and rehabilitation have succeeded to lessen human sufferings in these areas.

Sep 282010
 

Work is initiated on exploiting energy potential of coal reserves of Thar which will start producing electricity within two years, enough for next 40 Years, without any single Second of Load Shedding. These reserves of coal worth US $ 25 trillion can not only cater the electricity requirements of the country for next 100 years but also save almost four billion dollars in staggering oil import bill. Continue reading »

 Posted by at 12:39 pm
Sep 272010
 

ALI SUKHANVER

The western forces have succeeded in depriving Taliban of public support in Pakistan; surely a difficult question to be answered. For the last many years the reality of the Taliban has been a matter of confusions and misunderstandings. Since its beginning, the Taliban movement was simply and purely an ideology-based exercise strongly tinged with the flavour of militancy, but with the passage of time, the ideology vanished and there remained nothing but militancy. More strange is the fact that this militancy proved more fatal and injurious to the Muslims than to the forces eager to crush the Taliban. If we cast a look at the damages caused by the Taliban, we would find a less number of the effected Americans but the list of the targeted Muslim would be unending. The situation gives birth to so many suspicions. Are they really the Taliban who are taking the lives of innocent Muslims including school going children and women shopping in markets and the old men offering their prayers in mosques? Are they really the Taliban who are slaughtering the soldiers and officers of the Pakistan army just to create panic and harassment? No they are not the Taliban because it is against the tradition of the Afghans and the Pathans to deceive and dodge their benefactors; and most of the original Taliban are of the same traditional origin. They could never betray those who had always been favoring and supporting them at the time of need, particularly when the Russian forces were the most determined in wiping them off the scenario. Continue reading »

 Posted by at 8:40 pm
Sep 262010
 

ENGR HUSSAIN AHMAD SIDDIQUI

The planners have put in a spanner, as it appears, in the whole process of utilising Punjab’s indigenous large coal reserves for power generation that was launched last year on a fast-track basis. In a major policy shift, the government of Punjab has now announced to develop a 200-MW capacity power project based on “imported” coal.
Continue reading »

 Posted by at 7:57 pm
Sep 252010
 

In a criminal case, the jury has to make the judgment of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. That is what the defendant’s attorneys do; create doubts in criminal cases. In civil cases, the preponderance of evidence may suffice a judgment against the defendant; based on credible and compelling evidence and its probable truth and accuracy.  Asif Zardari’s murder and kidnapping cases required “beyond reasonable doubt” evidence, almost impossible in Pakistan; to put him away for life- His corruption charges do not demand an air tight proof to show his prowess for embezzlement. The bafflement is due to the number game, how many billions; go and wrangle about few millions here or there.  It is not about this man, Zardari, who represents the illiterate majority that elected him; it is about the conscious of a nation. As Asif Zardari said it so eloquently, “It is not Jinnah’s Pakistan, it is Bhutto’s Pakistan”, meaning that the nation has a new state of mind. God bless our great country! Ibn Khaldun in Muqaddimah suggested that it is the people who are responsible for the bad leadership. It is sad and facetious interpretation through Continue reading »

 Posted by at 5:07 pm
Sep 242010
 

The news that GHQ was under attack literally shocked everyone in and out of the country. As a child, I was a regular visitor of the venue because at that time it happened to be my father’s office. As someone with so many childhood memories associated with that place, I was completely shattered at the insanity of the violence that had and was still taking place. I remained glued to my television screen pretty much in dis-belief at the mercilessness of the perpetuators of terror. I was completely unable to reach at any understanding of why this was happening, the sole explanation that came from my heart and not head was that it was an early October morning, and heart is a strange organ. Continue reading »

 Posted by at 4:28 pm
Sep 222010
 

By Qaisar Sultan

There is a dilemma faced by the nation regarding the Supreme Court’s dubious inability to contain an irreparable damage done to the country by corrupt, evil, inept politicians who have become the legislators in Pakistan, an insult to the term and its concept. There seems to be stretched out long debates, intentional delaying tactics, cute excuses, confusions, rumors about some kind of payoff to some judges by the politicians and threadbare legal arguments and waste of money of the tax payer. During the Musharraf regime, there were genuine fears of all kinds. When general Musharraf ignored the Supreme Court, the question was asked: Who could make him to surrender to the decision of the Supreme Court; and what could happen if he refused to listen to the Supreme Court’s decisions? The question is: What the Supreme Court can do to force the democratic and supposedly a constitutional government to abide by the decisions of the highest court in the country? Continue reading »

 Posted by at 6:45 am
Sep 222010
 

ALI SUKHANVER

 Neither USA, the commander of the universal war against terror, nor the most challenging so-called Muslim extremists   could stop the notorious priest Terry Jones from burning the Holy Quran; it is something very strange; Terry Jones seems the most powerful  because he simply ignored all threats and admonitions by saying ‘ My foot’ to all. If Al-Qaeda and Taliban were really as powerful as portrayed by the western media, they would have till now slaughtered the notorious priest Terry Jones; the culprit behind the burning of the Holy Quran on 9/11 this year. The silence of these so-called Muslim extremist groups over the burning of the Holy Quran is not only surprising but also somewhat suspicious. Their silence questions their existence. In the story beginning from the insulting caricatures of the Holy Prophet and surely proceeding forward after this heinous episode of the burning of the Holy Quran , we find Continue reading »

 Posted by at 6:43 am
Sep 192010
 

By Moonis Ahmed

Two local car manufacturers– Pak Suzuki Motors Co Ltd and Honda Atlas Car Pakistan Ltd – have increased per unit prices on their different models from Saturday, according to a letter of the companies sent to authorised dealers.

“The decision to increase prices on different models of Suzuki and Honda has been implemented from September 18”, said an authorised dealer. “Both the companies, however, gave appreciation of yen against rupee as a reason for this increase in prices.”
Continue reading »

 Posted by at 8:55 am
Sep 192010
 

 

* ‘Chronic mistrust’ among provinces, central government

The summer’s floods in Pakistan have reopened a quarter-century-old debate on whether to build a large hydroelectric dam on the Indus River or not, a dispute that has split the nation along regional lines.

Supporters say the water reservoir could have prevented much of the floods’ devastation and boosted agricultural production along the river. Opponents say just the opposite.

The debate over the Kalabagh Dam shows how the worst natural disaster in Pakistan’s history, affecting some 20 million people, has unearthed deep fissures in its society. There is a chronic mistrust among the provinces and the central government, and critics accuse wealthy landowners of naked self-interest in wanting to ensure the Indus keeps irrigating their crops. Continue reading »

 Posted by at 8:54 am
Sep 192010
 

Angry at the fact that the monies so urgently needed for the post-floods reconstruction drive were being swallowed up by the black hole of debt, which was mostly accumulated during the tenures of unrepresentative governments, many considered it unjust to be asked to repay the $ 3 billion in annual debt servicing for the accumulated $ 55 billion debt

As Pakistan celebrates a sombre Eid-ul-Fitr overshadowed by the shock and grief of our losses in the recent floods, Gulbaz Masih of the Dutch charity Good Angels has boarded a flight from Amsterdam in the Netherlands to Islamabad. He will be escorted to a campsite near Charsadda in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering the Taliban hotbed tribal belt that separates Pakistan from Afghanistan, where he will be distributing food packages among the flood victims. Continue reading »

 Posted by at 8:53 am