Retired diplomats and columnistsColumnist Nusrat Javeed confided in Express that he was reporting from Islamabad for the past decades but could not help noticing that Pak diplomats had a way of becoming great columnists after retirement. They posed as great world wanderers (jahan-deeda) who had solutions for all problems of foreign policy. They appeared in English dailies with their hair appropriately blackened to hide their senility and wrote insincere and dishonest opinion while appearing to be great philosophers (buqrat).
Faisal Saleh 'King of Corruption'
Reported in Jinnah Federal Minister Housing and Works Faisal Saleh Hayat was the king of corruption in the PPP government with relatives ensconced in high bureaucratic offices easing his corrupt practices (haer-pher). Now the officers had appealed to the Supreme Court to look into the activities of Mr Hayat. They complained that Mr Hayat was in the habit of getting wrong things done through verbal orders for which he had his frontmen. He took 12 percent at the time of tendering and took 2 percent monthly as his share.
Dawood Ibrahim locations
Daily Nawa-e-Waqt reported that India had given to Islamabad locations within Pakistain where the most wanted Indian smuggler and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim could be found. Among the various places where Dawood Ibrahim could be seen enjoying Pakistain's hospitality were houses in Islamabad and Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
. Along with Mullah Umar and the Haqqani brothers, Ibrahim's presence in Pakistain is denied by Pakistain.
No confederation with India, please!
Reported in Nawa-e-Waqt a number of highly respectable citizens led by Dr MA Soofi said that Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
politicians and railways minister Ghulam Bilour had gone bonkers recommending that Pakistain join India in a confederation. They said the statement was ghaddaari (treason) against Pakistain. They said that those like Bilour who recommended the confederation were on the payroll of the Americans.
| Nor would the Indians be keen on the idea, and who can blame them? They have enough Muslims of their own. |
Columnist Nusrat Javeed wrote in Express that first Pakistain caught hold of Husain Haqqani and called him traitor on the evidence provided by an enemy of Pakistain Mansoor Ijaz, blaming Haqqani through red-capped persons that the Americans could not have got to the late Osama bin Laden
... who is now neither a strong horse nor a weak horse, but a dead horse...
if Haqqani had not issued numberless visas to American spies. Then after the case against Haqqani became a fiasco because Haqqani bravely ran away to the US, Paks got hold of Dr Afridi who has now been convicted by a jirga in the Khyber Agency
on charges that had nothing to do with the death of Osama bin Laden.| Because when you're an army with a country, laws and stuff are for the rubes -- you can do as you please, including venting your spleen on the man who helped demonstrate the extent of your jihadi vileness. |
Columnist Nusrat Javeed wrote in Express stating that retired interior secretary Roedad Khan was vociferous about thieves and dacoits (chor lutairay) ruling Pakistain and how they deserved to be removed by the Army. But the columnist recalled how during the East Pakistain crisis when General Yahya threatened East Pakistain with dire punishment it was Roedad Khan in the top bureaucracy who was heard complimenting the dictator for taking a tough line.
| And no doubt his wife was among those pleased that the West Pakistan soldiers were improving the beauty of the East Pakistanis by giving their women so many light-skinned babies. |
World famous Pak historian Dr Safdar Mehmood
| Who? |
Lovers burnt by panchayat
Daily Jinnah reported that in Multan two lovers were called to the panchayat after it was discovered that they had a liaison. The Panchayat decided that the two should be burnt to death. One Aftab Bhutta carried out the sentence and burnt the lovers. After that the panchayat expeditiously departed at a goodly pace but nine people who sat as judges were hauled by the police but the two lovers were most likely to succumb to the burns.
| Pakistan, Land of the Pure. |
Famous retired general of Steel Mills fame Abdul Qayyum wrote in Nawa-e-Waqt that in a seminar in Islamabad Mushahid Hussain and Hamid Mir made good speeches on Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
but it was a pity that Mushahid Husain and his party had joined the PPP coalition. Unfortunately, some speakers led by Asma Jahangir spoke against the Army and it appeared that in their eyes the only enemy of Pakistain were the Army and the ISI.
| That certainly is one point of view... |
Writing in Jang Saleem Safi stated that the Army did not want to be excessive in its response to American actions nor to be too intense, but it hoped that some firmness would be good to improve Pakistain's financial position. But President Zardari was scared of the coming elections and wanted to be to on the right side of anti-American public passion and therefore decided to be inflexible towards the Americans. Thus he took a line quite contrary to the Army's plan. This step led to Pak-US relations hitting bottom.
Meera attacks Reema
Reported in Express famous filmstar Meera said that another Pak filmstar Reema had given proof of her lack of intelligence by marrying an aged (buzurg) doctor in the US. She said she was highly ungrateful and selfish by not inviting Mira to her wedding. She said that she had broken a decade-long oath of not talking to Reema by assenting to work in her movie for free but she had ignored her.
| The poor darling! |
Reported in Nawa-e-Waqt Dr Shakeel Afridi was convicted by a tribal court for collaborating with the terrorist organization Lashkar Islam led by Mangal Bagh
F...a former bus driver, now head of the Deobandi bandido group Lashkar-e-Islam and the Terror of Khyber Agency...
. (The paper did not name the organization lest it kill its news hounds and simply said kaaladam party.) The report said that Lashkar Islam denied that Dr Afridi ever had links with it. But it said that if they ever got hold of Dr Afridi they would kill him.
Dr Afridi deserves sympathy
Columnist Saleem Safi wrote in Jang that Dr Afridi was convicted for treason but such generals as Musharraf, Mehmood Durrani, Hameed Gul, Asad Durrani, Aslam Beg
...occasionally incoherent retired four-star general who was the Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army, succeeding the creepy General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, after the latter
, etc, who were found undermining the state were never considered as traitors to Pakistain. ISI too had an agreement of cooperation with CIA but Dr Afridi was being hunted down. Dr Afridi and family are being persecuted without giving them the benefit of the doubt.
Finance Minister turns Christian?
| Oh noes! |
Budget shortcomings
Writing in Jang Hamid Mir stated that Budget 2012-13 had increased the money to be spent on PM's house garden from Rs14 million to Rs19 million while India was leaving Pakistain behind by spending record amounts on the Indian military. Pakistain Navy and Air Force deserved boost to their budgets not the PM's garden.