Pakistanis eating poultry fed on pig!According to Khabrain the government had caught a number of large poultry farms importing feed made of pigÂ’s meat and blood. At least four large-scale poultry breeders had been importing pig-feed with the connivance of the bureaucracy which had made crores of rupees in bribery.
Frontier CM took Rs 30 crore
Columnist Nazeer Naji said in Jang that the JUI rebels in the Peshawar Assembly had revealed in a TV programme that chief minister Akram Durrani had taken Rs 30 crore as bribe from the Senate candidates he selected from the province. One rebel insisted that the Peshawar government gave one crore each to the MPAs to satisfy them and keep them loyal.
Osama bin Laden and Nawaz Sharif
Columnist Hamid Mir said in Jang that PMLN former information secretary Siddiqul Farooq had denied that Osama bin Laden and Nawaz Sharif had ever met or that the latter had received any money from the former. The truth was that in August 1999 prime minister Nawaz Sharif had collaborated with the US to hunt Osama bin Laden down in the Tribal Areas. News came about Americans being active in Waziristan, whereupon the JUI leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman took steps to block the operation against Osama from DI Khan (Tank to Wana Road) where his party began checking all traffic, leading to clashes with the FC troops. At this JUI leader Hafiz Hussain Ahmad had sarcastically remarked that the same Nawaz Sharif who had once asked for OsamaÂ’s help against Benazir was now collaborating with America to hunt him down.
What anti-America bloc?
Columnist Nazeer Naji wrote in Jang that people fired by anti-American passions were thinking of an anti-American bloc by joining which Pakistan could defeat America. The latest suggestion was that Musharraf should immediately tour Russia, China, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, the Central Asian republics as well as Malaysia and Indonesia and tell them about AmericaÂ’s wrongdoing. Naji asked if any of the states mentioned could be in an anti-American bloc? He said China was threatened by Muslim terrorists just like America, so was Russia in Chechnya, and the Central Asians were on the American side in Afghanistan as they backed Northern Alliance. He wrote that such suggestions would be cruelty towards the Pakistani people. It would be like a mad sufi from Malakand sending his private army to defeat the United States there in 2001.
Sipah Sahaba attacks a festival
According to daily Pakistan Sipah Sahaba ‘Taliban’ in their hundreds from Tank, Daraban Kalachi and DI Khan got together on 60 cars, a truck and a bus, and armed with kalashnikovs and rocket launchers, attacked the shrine of Kalu Qalandaria in a village of DI Khan. They set the shamianas on fire, fired in the air to scare the people of the mela and sacked the bazaar. After this there was a clash between the people and the Sipah in which the local police too intervened. The Sipah Sahaba exchanged fire with the police and fled only after it met stiff counter-fire from the police.
What should Balochistan do?
Talking to monthly Naya Zamana (April 2006) Hafeez Hasanbadi – a Baloch poet from Kharan who was educated as a Marxist in the Soviet Union – stated that Baloch nationalism had been hijacked by Marri and Mengal sardars who were not in favour of representation because parliament would never be under Baloch influence. Yet leaders like Pushtun Achakzai didn’t want what the two sardars wanted. The Baloch must think of the Gwadar port as an earnest of their good fortune and must not let war in Balochistan block the Iranian pipeline which can change their lives for the better. He said if the Baloch sardars succeeded then Pakistan too will suffer as a credible partner in the fight to end terrorism.
Army has given us freedom
Writing as a minority Christian, Samuel Rehmat stated in Jang that all Pakistanis must create in themselves the habit of arguing rationally. He said that despite all its past flaws the present army leadership had given Pakistan more freedom of expression than would be possible in the future.
Communists are now American toadies
Writing in Jang Abdul Qadir Hassan stated that Communists tried to overthrow the government in 1951 after which the Left Wing declined in strength. Bhutto too showed off as a leftist but was actually a feudal and abandoned his lefties in favour of the feudals. Today all the lefties and communists had become lovers of the United States and were running NGOs and their favourite pastime was anti-Islam (Islam Dushman).
Hudood and Osama bin Laden
Columnist Khursheed Nadeem wrote in Jang that President Musharraf was in favour of removing the hudood laws but his partner in power PML chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain was in the way as he believed that hudood laws could not be touched. The columnist was shocked that Qazi Husain Ahmad of the MMA had refused to acknowledge that he even knew Osama bin Laden, although the MMA had gained electoral edge by appealing to the feat of Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Eighty per cent tax cases are bogus!
Columnist Irshad Haqqani wrote in Jang that according to Mr Abdullah Yusuf, chief of the Central Board of Revenue, 70-80 per cent of the income tax cases brought against citizens by the income tax department were found to be wrongly prepared. There were 60,000 cases pending in tribunals, high courts and the Supreme Court, most of them will now be withdrawn. Income tax officers, after losing at the High Court, sent the cases up to the Supreme Court where they had no chance of winning. There were 1200 cases pending at the Supreme Court out of which 1000 were bogus and would be withdrawn. The taxpayer was thus made to suffer unless he bribed the tax officials.
Trouble in Sindh
Writing in Jang Ikram Sehgal stated that President Musharraf needed to act quickly in Sindh as the province was moving towards a crisis far more dangerous than the crises faced in Balochistan and FATA. The politicians chosen to run the government in Karachi had little support, thus weakening the PML leadership there, while the MQM had a solid urban base and remained popular. The centre was responsible for inflicting controversial and corrupt politicians on Sindh. The ‘imposed’ (musallat) politicians must be removed from Sindh.
Mad mullah of Miran Shah
Writing in the daily Pakistan Tanvir Qaisar Shahid stated that Maulvi Abdul Khaliq of North Waziristan had taken over the main city of Miran Shah and was literally holding the people hostage under his personal government. He has given battle to Pakistani troops and had taken control of most of the property in the town in the name of Islam, dealing out punishments to people who did not obey him. Because of his mad aggression people were moving in large numbers to the settled city of Bannu in the NWFP which was becoming overpopulated.