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August 2010

Pakistan sinking in debt

By Ismat Sabir

President Asif Ali Zardari said that the key to Pakistan’s economic development is trade not aid. However, the president terms the assistance not as aid but as payment for damages that the country has suffered due to its role in fighting the war on terror. It was also renamed by President Obama’s administration as ‘Overseas Contingency Operation’.

It has been proved that aid alone has not been able to cure sick economies of the developing countries and they are under the aid trap, which is steadily increasing day by day. Their dependence on foreign assistance to meet the budget deficit is rising, which is one of the aid conditionality and also forces them to hire foreign experts; and at the same time aid also accounts for a major expenditure item in the budget as the allocations for interest payments and principal as and when it becomes due. Pakistan pays under the head of debt and debt servicing, inclusive of domestic debt, to about 30 percent of the budget expenditure. Read More »Pakistan sinking in debt

WASHINGTON DIARY: Why the US cannot leave Afghanistan —Dr Manzur Ejaz

Pakistan — poised to become an industrial society like South Korea — was subverted to become more like a pauper desert kingdom of the Gulf. Of course, Pakistan’s internal mechanism played a major role but as an external force, the US encouraged the regressive processes to take hold

The perception of CIA infallibly having the omnipotent powers of the Almighty has been destroyed by WikiLeaks’ disclosure of over 91,000 sensitive US security documents — amounting to the biggest leak in history and showed chinks in the CIA’s armour. However, some conspiracy theorists’ conclusion that it was a US-designed leak to create an environment to withdraw from Afghanistan may be a farfetched inference. The US cannot afford to withdraw from Afghanistan and Pakistan if the countries are perceived to be conducive to grooming terrorism that can hit Europe or the US. There are several other strategic reasons for not quitting if the US has to retain its superpower tag.
Read More »WASHINGTON DIARY: Why the US cannot leave Afghanistan —Dr Manzur Ejaz

AFGHANISTAN WAITING FOR ANOTHER TRIAL

ALI SUKHANVER

“Who is going to take care of you when I am no more in this world?” said the helpless prisoner in the death cell to his beloved standing on the other side of the bars.

My love! I can’t bear even the thought of anyone else touching you. He put her hands around her neck and with all his force of love began to press his fingers tightly against her throat. Just in a few moments, the girl’s pretty body fell down on the rough floor like a lifeless log of a tree. The man said staring deep into the eyes of the dying girl, “Now I can leave this world without any pain and agony of repentance.” Same is the story of the USA and Afghanistan but with a different ending. Here the so-called beloved is going to squeeze the throat of her so-called lover.

Read More »AFGHANISTAN WAITING FOR ANOTHER TRIAL

UK to tighten student visa rules to check immigration

LONDON: Britain will review its student visa system to tighten rules in a bid to control growing levels of immigration, said Immigration Minister Damian Green on Monday. The number of non-EU students coming to Britain has jumped by a third to more than 300,000 last year, prompting the government to order a shake-up of the visa system which it said was open to “significant abuse”. Home Office figures on Monday showed the number of students increased by more than 75,000 totaling 313,000. The influx was exacerbated by students bringing with them 31,000 dependants, the department said. That compared with 235,000 students and 25,000 dependants in the previous year. ImmigrationRead More »UK to tighten student visa rules to check immigration

‘30,000MW can be generated from coal deposits in Pakistan’

Associated Press of Pakistan

 ISLAMABAD: Member Science and Technology of Planning Commission of Pakistan Dr Samar Mubarakmand said that the magnitude of Pakistan’s coal deposit is several times more than total oil reserves of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iran and Iraq.

“We can generate 100 million barrels of diesel and 30,000 MW of electricity from our coal deposits for 500 years,” he said while addressing the participants of 21st Convocation of National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences, (NU-FAST) here.

“The country endowed with the second largest deposit of coal in the world at Tharparkar, confirmed deposit of copper and gold at Reko-Diq valued at 1.2 trillion dollars and third biggest asset of the country is extremely intelligent and well trained human resource” he said.Read More »‘30,000MW can be generated from coal deposits in Pakistan’

People warned of fake education/visa consultants in Pakistan

Myra Imran
Representatives of renowned educational institutions of Australia, United Kingdom and United States have warned aspiring candidate against fake consultants that actually make big majority of the total number of consultants working in the country.

They said that according to a rough estimate, there are more than 2,000 consultants in the country and among them only 20 are reliable and affiliated with the international institutions. They were talking to ‘The News’ at a two-day International Education Expo organised by HR Consultants on Sunday. “There is severe lack of good guidance in this regard and it is largely up to the student to judge the consultant’s reliability,” said Adeel Saeed Mir, Navitas Country Manager for Pakistan. He deals with admissions in colleges and universities in Australia and Canada. Read More »People warned of fake education/visa consultants in Pakistan

‘Don’t badmouth Musharraf, move courts if you can’

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SENIOR Member All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) and former Federal Minister Dr Sher Afgan has said that there was a democratic government and an independent judiciary in Pakistan; therefore, politicians should bring allegations against former President Musharraf to court instead of bad mouthing him.

Addressing a press conference at Lahore Press Club, he said that APML would present its manifesto this September. Dr Sher Afgan assured that Pervez Musharraf would return to the country before any form of elections held. He said that Pervez Musharraf does not fear facing the charges levelled against him provided that a fair trial was held. The current hotchpotch of corrupt politicians cannot solve the problems of people and the salvation of the country can only be brought about under the leadership of Pervez Musharraf, he added.Read More »‘Don’t badmouth Musharraf, move courts if you can’

ISLAMABAD: 100 corrupt SHOs take oath never to take bribes

By Tariq Butt

More than 100 notoriously corrupt SHOs (station house officers) of six Punjab districts swore on the holy Quran in the months of June and July in the presence of several area notables and members of the civil society that they would never again take bribes.

And if any police officer was found involved in corruption, the concerned SHO would be held responsible for this offence. This was part of the “Gujranwala Model” introduced by Regional Police Officer Zulfikar Cheema in the Gujranwala Range comprising districts of Gujranwala, Gujrat, Sialkot, Hafizabad, Mandi Bahuddin and Narowal.Read More »ISLAMABAD: 100 corrupt SHOs take oath never to take bribes

Wikileaks has exposed US designs

By Asif Haroon Raja

War diary is an account of daily events occurring during war. Each HQ/unit/intelligence agency maintains this diary which subsequently helps in finalizing war history. While the unit in the field records the events based on its limited internal resources, higher HQs and intelligence agencies make their assessments based on intelligence reports, agents, intercepts, information provided by friendly intelligence agencies, source reports, electronic and print media, internet, satellite communication, etc. These reports are marked as classified and placed in folders marked as restricted, secret and top secret. Very few are authorized to handle top secret documents, stored in special lockers which can be opened using codes.

In Afghanistan, US military has been maintaining record of day to day happenings since the start of war on terror in October 2001. Since the US is up against faceless enemy fighting guerrilla war and great majority of Afghans are anti-Americans, hence human intelligence of US military is very weak. Any Afghan trying to fraternize with Americans is dubbed as an American spy and shot dead by militants. For the fear of reprisals very few among the Pashtun Afghans risk working for US intelligence agencies. For this reason, outreach of CIA and FBI in southern and eastern Afghanistan in particular is limited. The latter have therefore been banking a lot upon RAAM as well as RAW to complete their daily/weekly/monthly reports which they have to forward to Pentagon in Washington. As is well known, RAAM, which is filled with non-Pashtun Northern Alliance elements only, is the reincarnation of KHAD. This setup came to life in 2002 with the help of oxygen provided by RAW. Both have therefore become complimentary to each other and have been operating as a close knit team and have common objectives. Read More »Wikileaks has exposed US designs