Saturday, August 29, 2009

RAW involvement in East Pakistan: Pakistan Daily

US report details direct RAW involvement in East Pakistan secession

A sensational American report has confirmed the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s most powerful intelligence agency, was directly involved in the secession of East Pakistan into Bangladesh, and is currently engaged in similar activities. RAW has a long history of activity in Bangladesh supporting both secular forces and the area’s Hindu minority, masterminding the break up of Pakistan in 1971,

says the report made available The report has been prepared by the innocent sounding Federation of American Scientists (FAS), a group which is however engaged in analysis and advocacy on science, technology and public policy concerning global security, especially about countries which have nuclear capability.

It is a privately funded non-profit policy organisation, whose Board of Sponsors includes 55 American Nobel laureates. FAS was originally founded as the Federation of Atomic Scientists in 1945 by members of the Manhattan Project, who produced the first atomic bomb. RAW is extensively engaged in disinformation campaigns, espionage, sabotage and terrorism against Pakistan and other neighboring countries, reveals the sensational secret report. It also gives details of the truly alarming involvement of RAW in terrorist activities in Pakistan. The report reveals the involvement of RAW in Bangladesh dating from the 1960s, when it promoted dissatisfaction against Pakistan in the then East Pakistan, including funding Mujibur Rahman’s general election in 1970 and providing training and arming to the Mukti Bahini. The report claims an estimated 35,000 RAW agents have entered Pakistan at various times between 1983-99, with 12,000 having worked in the past or working presently in Sindh, 10,000 in Punjab 8,000 in North West Frontier Province and 5,000 in Balochistan. “As many as 40 terrorist camps are currently operating at Rajasthan, East Punjab, [occupied] Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and other parts of India and are run by RAW’s Special Service Bureau [SSB],” the report reveals. The report further confirms that throughout the Afghan War, RAW was responsible for the planning and execution of terrorist activities in Pakistan to deter Islamabad from supporting the Afghan liberation movement against India’s ally, the Soviet Union.

For more on this article, please click on the following link: RAW involvement in East Pakistan: Pakistan Daily

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Pakistan to build 4,500 megawatt dam: UPI

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- The Pakistani government, faced with chronic power shortage in the country, approved a $10.8 billion, 4,500 megawatt Diamer-Bhasha dam on the Indus River.

The dam project approved Thursday by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council will have a foreign funding component of about $3.8 billion, the Dawn newspaper reported.

Water and Power Minister Pervez Ashraf said construction on the dam in northern Pakistan, about 300 miles from Islamabad, would begin by October 2010 and should be completed in eight to 10 years.

"This is the biggest project ever approved in the history of Pakistan. We spent 33 years in discussions while the country's biggest dam's capacity was declining because of sedimentation," Ashraf said. "We have begun installing major hydropower projects to overcome the energy crisis."

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Pakistan to build 4,500 megawatt dam: UPI

Water shortage greatest threat to Pakistan: book: Dawn

By Anwar Iqbal

WASHINGTON: Water shortages present the greatest future threat to the viability of Pakistan as a state and a society, warns a new book on Pakistan.

Author Michael Kugelman argues that ‘while this assertion may be overblown, one can hardly dispute its underlying premise’.

The book points out that Pakistan’s water situation is extremely precarious. Water availability has plummeted from about 5,000 cubic metres per capita in the early 1950s to less than 1,500 per capita today.

According to 2008 data from the Food and Agriculture Organisation, Pakistan’s total water availability per capita ranks dead last in a list of 26 Asian countries and the United States.

The book warns that Pakistan is expected to become water-scarce (the designation of a country with annual water availability below 1,000 cubic metres per capita) by 2035, though some experts say this may happen as soon as 2020, if not earlier.

Mr Kugelman, a programme associate with the Asia Programme at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, warns that several dramatic demographic shifts are intensifying Pakistan’s already-rampant water insecurity.

The book notes that at least 90 per cent of Pakistan’s dwindling water resources are allocated to irrigation and other agricultural needs. This is not entirely surprising, given that Pakistan is an overwhelmingly arid country with an agriculture-dependent economy.

Unfortunately, however, intensive irrigation regimes and poor drainage practices have caused waterlogging and soil salinity throughout Pakistan’s countryside. As a result, vast expanses of the nation’s rich agricultural lands are too wet or salty to yield any meaningful harvests.

With the lion’s share of Pakistan’s limited water supplies dedicated to agriculture, less than 10 per cent is left for drinking water and sanitation.

The book notes that some of the starkest manifestations of the crisis can be found in the parched regions of Sindh. As the country’s population has surged, large volumes of water from the Indus have been diverted upstream to Punjab to satisfy soaring demand for agriculture and for consumption in cities.

‘Consequently, downstream in Sindh, the once-mighty Indus has shrunk to a canal, and in some areas shrivelled up to little more than a puddle.’

The river’s disappearance throughout much of Sindh, the book argues, has snuffed out livelihoods throughout the river delta, particularly those of fishermen — who are now forced to gather firewood for a living and to buy their water (at high cost) from trucks.

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Water shortage greatest threat to Pakistan: book: Dawn

Bllackwater USA now in Pakistan: Khabrein.info

Bllackwater USA now in Pakistan. The notorious US security firm Blackwater has reportedly established a presence in the restive tribal belt on the Afghan borders to help the FBI and CIA track down Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants allegedly hiding there and protect USAID projects.


"We have sent a report to the government regarding Backwater's presence in the country," an intelligence official told Islamonline.net requesting anonymity for not being authorized to discuss the sensitive issue.

Intelligence sources say that currently 20 to 25 Blackwater agents are operating in the North Western Frontier Province (NWFP), which borders Afghanistan, masquerading themselves as US intelligence and diplomatic officials.

"They are trying to establish their feet. They are hiding themselves under the diplomatic and FBI covers."

He said Blackwater has hired the services of some local security agencies to work for them.

"We are keeping an eye on the security agencies they have hired."

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Blackwater USA now in Pakistan: Khabrein.info

Genesis of Pakistan's recent inflation: The News

Dr Meekal A Ahmed

Pakistan has typically been a low-to-moderate inflation country. Taking a long-term view and excluding outliers, or periods of exceptionally high or low inflation, inflation has averaged about 6.5-7.5 percent per annum. This is a remarkable record for a developing country.

However, in recent years inflation has become a serious economic and social issue. From 2 percent during the period of 9/11, admittedly an unusually low starting point, inflation accelerated, reaching a "headline rate" of around 25 percent, a level never witnessed in Pakistan's economic history. Such a high rate of inflation is not, as some would have us believe, due to "exogenous shocks" beyond the control of policymakers. On the contrary, this inflation was largely policy-driven, as reflected in the fact that the "core," or "underlying" rate of inflation, which strips out the volatile components of inflation such as the price of food and oil that are due to exogenous shocks, also accelerated from, say, a core rate of 1 percent per annum to 18 percent over this period.

Nor did inflation start out of the blue, at the end of the golden era of General Musharraf. Inflation invariably has its genesis far back in time.

Pakistan's recent inflation experience is the consequence of short-sightedness, an incapacity to look ahead, and economic policies that were inherently flawed, driven by a debt-fuelled consumption bubble (now coming home to roost in the form of rising non-performing assets of the banking system), and excess levels of liquidity in the economy which spilled over into speculation in real estate and the stock market. Growth was not driven by the more self-sustaining forces of investment, productivity improvements, structural reforms, and net exports.

In the initial period, an increase in the rate of real GDP growth took place in an environment of relative price stability. Yet, to the discerning eye, it should have soon been clear that the pressure on resources was slowly building-up. Economic growth moved above trend (we hear about 7.2 percent GDP growth ad nauseam), operating with what economists call a "positive output gap." Absent any offsetting rise in productivity, which would have helped mute the inflationary strains being imposed on the economy of a positive output gap, the core rate of inflation started to gather speed.

It is the behaviour of the core rate of inflation that should have prompted policy action. However, the clear and obvious signs of accelerating core inflation were ignored and, with no effort being made to rein in demand pressures amid a widening positive output gap which reflected itself in growing macroeconomic imbalances, inflation started its deadly upward course. It has landed the economy in the worst economic slump and high inflation environment ever experienced in 62 years, with soaring unemployment and deepening poverty. To be sure, this high-inflation-low-output-growth stagflationary trap has been exacerbated by crippling power shortages, exogenous shocks, security issues, lingering economic uncertainty, and a global recession. But these factors exacerbated inflation; they did not cause it.

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Genesis of Pakistan's recent inflation: The News

Friday, August 21, 2009

Why most Pakistanis hate US policies?: The News

By Ansar Abbasi
ISLAMABAD: Judith A McHale’s “excellent” work and the New York Times’ reported Helene Cooper’s “exclusive” story might have made the day for the two but I am set to be declared any time as an al-Qaeda member and then killed inhumanly without being given the chance to defend myself.

The NY Times’ August 20th story “US officials get a taste of Pakistanis’ anger at America” reflects how smartly Washington and the US media make villains. I never had any doubt about their bias towards us — the Muslims and Pakistanis — but I never thought one day I myself would taste the magic of their lethal combination.

In my “one-on-one” recent meeting with Ms McHale, the Obama administration’s new under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, in Islamabad I did say that “we hate you” rather went on to the extent of telling her that “you” are callous, inhuman and cruel and that “you” have no respect for human lives. All this was said in a particular context and had a special reference but the way McHale quoted me in the New York Times suggests as if Ansar Abbasi hates McHale and that we Pakistanis hate all Americans.

First, I believe that the US under secretary was unfair to have picked up only me and my selected but mutilated “quotes” from our 30-40 minutes long interaction though she met other 16 Pakistani journalists and eight officials too. There is no explanation as to why I was treated so “specially”. Secondly, to my reckoning this “one-on-one” meeting, which was though also attended by Gonzalo Gallegos, Consular for Public Affairs in the US Embassy in Islamabad, and Joe Mellot, McHale’s special assistant, was a background interaction but it turned out to be an opportunity to portray me as a villain in the US media.

I don’t have any problem to say in public what I uttered in the conference room of the Islamabad hotel with McHale but I was never expecting that the apparently polite lady would turn out to be so impolite. At least, an old lesson stands reiterated — never trust the Americans.

In respect of Helene Cooper of the world’s most renowned and one of the most influential newspapers The New York Times, one can only wonder if the media ethics in the US allow a journalist there to quote someone while quoting some third party and that too to the former’s disadvantage without bothering to check the facts from the person, whose name and words are used to make the story.

It is true that McHale gave her initial polite presentation about building bridges between America and the Muslim world. She said she was in Pakistan to hear what people here think about the US and its policies.

I definitely thanked her politely for inviting me for an interview but never said that I hate her. Rather, I started by saying that I would be very candid, frank and honest in my views and to reflect what is in the minds and hearts of the majority of the people of Pakistan. I told McHale that most of our leaders would be sharing the same feelings but they would not tell you in your face, “We (the Pakistanis) hate you (American administration and policy makers)”. There was no point that I being Ansar Abbasi should hate another individual Judith A McHale.

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Why most Pakistanis hate US policies?: The News

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Management Theories from Islam: Economistan

The management theories of Islam as espoused and practiced by the pioneers of Islam, might be centuries old but they still hold to this day as some of the best ways of managing and leading.

Management Theory Y

The concept of theory Y managers is demonstrated by the Holy Prophet Muhammad’s (peace be upon him) personal way of leading and managing the affairs of the Muslim Ummah (community). Many early Muslims of the time used to come to the Holy Prophet (PBUH) themselves to ask for any service they could render to the newly born Muslim community. Never was force ever used to accomplish any task, rather it was based on volunteer service to the cause. Even at the times of the battles against the pagans of Mecca, many Muslims would come forward to render their services, even young teenagers. And the Holy Prophet (PBUH) would refuse their plea on the premise of them being too young for such a task.

Flat and Lean Organization

The Holy Prophet (PBUH) used the concept of a flat and lean organization and was easily accessible to the Muslim society of the time who would come with a lot of issues and affairs to be resolved by the Prophet (PBUH). The Prophet(PBUH) would always lead from the front and never shied away from doing his personal chores like cooking, stitching and cleaning or helping others despite being the leader of the Muslims.

Participative Style of Management Based on Consultations and Brainstorming

The Prophet (PBUH) used a consultative form of decision making, in which he would listen to the ideas of others and only then a decision would be taken. Brainstorming was extensively used and encouraged. Furthermore, there was no discrimination on the basis of race, creed or color. During one of the battles, the battle of Khandaq where the Muslim army faced a much bigger foe of ten thousand Meccans, a brainstorming session was held on how to ward off the pagans of Mecca. Many ideas were entertained, but the idea that was implemented came from Salman Farsi, a Persian by ethnicity, who had come all the way to Arabia searching for the True Prophet. He gave the idea of digging a big ditch around the entire city, called the “Khandaq”, which was many meters wide and deep. The Khandaq would make it very hard for the invading army to enter the city, as was the norm for battles in Persia. Even at the time of digging the Khandaq, an arduous task, the Prophet led from the front and performed his due share in excavating it. It is also reported that there was a very hard rock at one place of the Khandaq which the companions of the Prophet were having difficulty breaking. The Holy Prophet(PBUH) helped by......

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Management Theories from Islam: Economistan

Pakistan inaugurates Punjab power plant: pennet

Power Plant with a capacity of 225 megawatts in Sheikhupura, Punjab. Addressing the inaugural ceremony, the Prime Minister said that the joint venture between private companies and the government of Pakistan would prove to be a source of economic growth for the country

The Atlas Power plant consists of 11 four stroke diesel engines manufactured by MAN and one steam turbine. These engines are capable of operating as base-load plant on residual fuel oil and convertible into duel fuel operation with gas as well as bio-fuels as primary fuels.

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Pakistan inaugurates Punjab power plant: pennet

A conspiracy to barren Pakistan's farmlands: The Nation

Ishrat Ali Khan
While Pakistan has handed over credible evidence of Indian involvement in the subversive activities on its soil, India has pierced yet another soft target by building Wullar barrage on Jhelum River forcing the agro-based economy in tatters. Pakistan Indus Commissioner Syed Jamaat Ali Shah and Indian Indus water Commissioner G Aranganathan held important parleys early June and discussed 14 agenda items; including the contentious Wullar barrage project. The talks were essentially a failure with both sides being unable to reach an agreement on the Chenab's water flow, the Wullar barrage project and Nimo Bazgo hydel power projects. The two nations refer to the dam project by different names - Pakistan calls it the Wullar barrage and India calls it the Tulbul Navigation Project. It is a barrage because India is storing the flow of water through a 22-KM long tunnel into the Wullar Lake. According to Indian water strategists, the dam will help maintain better water levels in a nearby lake and regulate the flow of flood waters. That is why, it is a navigational effort. Nevertheless, Islamabad fears the proposed dam on the Jhelum river, a tributary of the Indus, will affect water levels further downstream in the plains of its Punjab province threatening irrigation and power projects. In the wake of inconclusive talks on water flow of Jhelum, Indian attempt to use water as a geo-strategic tool, is unfair and in contravention to the IWT-1960.
According to Indus Water Treaty of 1960, India has been allotted exclusive control/right over the waters of the eastern rivers, namely; the Ravi, the Beas and the Sutlej. Pakistan controls the waters of three western rivers; the Indus, the Jhelum and the Chenab. It is interesting to note that the base-source of water of all the rivers flows from Indian Held Kashmir (IHK). As the demand for water increased manifold, India's growing lust for maximum control over the sources of the supply of water of three western rivers, became more pronounced for its burgeoning population. The treaty barred India from storing any water or constructing any storage works on the western rivers that would result in a reduced flow of water to Pakistan. The Indian design to construct dams on Pakistani rivers will diminished the flow of Jhelum during the vital Rabi crop-sowing season (January and February) threatening Pakistan's agro-based economy and throwing the fate of dismal farmers in the abyss of absurdity.

For more on this article, please click on the following link: A conspiracy to barren Pakistan's farmlands: The Nation

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

U.S. Officials Get a Taste of Pakistanis’ Anger at America: NYT

Published: August 19, 2009

KARACHI, Pakistan — Judith A. McHale was expecting a contentious session with Ansar Abbasi, a Pakistani journalist known for his harsh criticism of American foreign policy, when she sat down for a one-on-one meeting with him in a hotel conference room in Islamabad on Monday. She got that, and a little bit more.

After Ms. McHale, the Obama administration’s new under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, gave her initial polite presentation about building bridges between America and the Muslim world, Mr. Abbasi thanked her politely for meeting with him. Then he told her that he hated her.

“ ‘You should know that we hate all Americans,’ ” Ms. McHale said Mr. Abbasi told her. “ ‘From the bottom of our souls, we hate you.’ ”

Beyond the continuation of the battle against militants along the Pakistani-Afghan border, a big part of President Obama’s strategy for the region involves trying to broaden America’s involvement in the country to include nonmilitary areas like infrastructure development, trade, energy, schools and jobs — all aimed at convincing the Pakistani people that the United States is their friend. But as Ms. McHale and other American officials discovered this week, during a visit by Richard C. Holbrooke, the special representative to Pakistan and Afghanistan, making that case was not going to be easy.

“We have made a major turn with our relationship with Pakistan under President Obama,” Mr. Holbrooke told reporters at a news conference in Karachi on Wednesday. Time and again, Mr. Holbrooke tried to delineate the differences between the Obama administration and the Bush era, painting the new administration as one that wants to see a better life and more business opportunities for Pakistanis.

For more on this article, please click on the following link: U.S. Officials Get a Taste of Pakistanis’ Anger at America: NYT

Cement exports register big increase in July: Dawn

Parvaiz Ishfaq Rana

KARACHI: Cement export made a sudden jump during July, the first month of the current fiscal year (2009-10), to 1.160 million tons from 0.838 million tons recorded during June 2009.

According to exporters, there had been around one million tons of exports for the last two years, but during July, the figure crossed the mark, indicating revival of cement demand in the world market.

However, cement export in June 2009 temporarily declined as India stopped providing rail wagons.

According to an understanding, both the countries were to provide train facility on the basis of inter-change which means one rail would go from Pakistan and the other would come from India to carry cement across Wagah border.

Cement export to India by sea route declined to 5,795 tons, but picked up in July and stood at 21,558 tons.

Similarly, export of cement to India by train during June was 38,560 tons but increased to 49,104 tons in July 2009.

Despite the fact that there was some decline in cement consumption by construction industry in India affected by slow economic activity, the on-going construction of Commonwealth games complex somewhat sustained demand of cement, exporters said.

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Cement exports register big increase in July: Dawn

Israel, India, US nexus plans to break-up Pakistan: Pakistan Daily

“It is essential that we strike and crush Pakistanis, enemies of Jews and Zionism, by all disguised and secret plans,” – David Ben Gurion, the first prime minister of the Zionist entity.

“The Indian spy agency RAW and the Israeli spy agency MOSSAD have created four new agencies to infiltrate Pakistan to target important religious and military personalities, journalists, judges, lawyers, and bureaucrats. In addition, bombs would be exploded in trains, railway stations, bridges, bus stations, cimemas, hotels and mosques of rival Islamic sects to incite sectarianism,” – Jane Information reported in July 2001.

Israeli scholar, professor Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, in his controversial book, The Israeli Connection, wrote about Zionists’ hatred toward the Muslim World and their support for anti-Muslim insugencies and covert military and intelligence operations to destablize Muslim countries, especially which don’t recognize Jewish settler colonization of Arab lands. Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi cites Israeli involvement in Iran-Contra affair, helping French colonists during Algerian War of Independence, aiding Idi Amin’s military coup in Uganda, aiding Kurdish and Shia rebellions against Saddam Hussein regime, support for Marcos’ fascism against Moro Muslim resistance, support for Burmese and Chinese genocide of Muslim minorities, and many others.

In 1968, Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi gave birth to country’s first foreign ’espionage and terrorist’ organization known as the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). Indira Gandhi adised RAW’s chief, R.N. Kao, to establish freindly relations with its Israeli counter-part, MOSSAD.

Charles Ferndale in his February 2009 article, titled The Great Game revisited, wrote: “In order to maintain its dominence in the region, Israel has for years set about destablising any Muslim country that poses threat to its dominance. Pakistan is the only Muslim country with nuclear weapons and Israel is within range. So Pakistan must be weakened to the point at which it ceases to operate militarily as a nation. Pakistan is supposed to be West’s foremost ally to fight against Islamic militancy, so Israel cannot attack Pakistan directly, and, if Israel did, she certaily would be defeated. So what to do? Well, two stages come to mind; one use America to attack Pakistan for you; and two, train and send into the border regions of Pakistan gangs of thugs willing to commit atrocities that then will be blamed on ‘barbaric Muslim militants’ – suggesting that Pakistan has lost control of its territory to dangerous extremists and so may lose control of its nuclear weapons.” The insurgency in Swat being the latest example of that Israeli strategy.

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Israel, India, US nexus plans to break-up Pakistan: Pakistan Daily