Pakistan

Re: Pakistan

Postby LenaHuat » Fri Apr 17, 2009 8:05 am

The Swat Valley has fallen to the Taliban. :cry: Some one and half decade ago, I recalled a very warm and fascinating holiday to the Valley. It's scary how things are unravelling in Pakistan.
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Re: Pakistan

Postby iam802 » Mon Apr 20, 2009 2:29 pm

Key Points:


Zakaria: Karzai rejects key Obama strategy
# Zakaria surprised President Karzai repudiated key U.S. strategy in Afghanistan
# Analysts concerned about possible collapse of Pakistan, Zakaria says
# Zakaria guest says Pakistan government could fail within a month
# Unstable Pakistan has big impact on Afghanistan, Zakaria says

---


http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiap ... index.html

Fareed Zakaria is a foreign affairs analyst who hosts "Fareed Zakaria: GPS" on CNN at 1 and 5 p.m. ET Sundays.


(CNN) -- The Afghan government will change a law that critics say legalizes rape within marriage for Shia Muslims, President Hamid Karzai told CNN Thursday.

In an interview to air on Sunday's "GPS" program, Karzai told CNN's Fareed Zakaria that he and others were unaware of the provision in the legislation, which he said "has so many articles." Karzai signed the measure into law last month.

"Now I have instructed, in consultation with clergy of the country, that the law be revised, and any article that is not in keeping with the Afghan Constitution and Islamic Sharia must be removed from this law," Karzai said.

The president's comments came one day after several hundred demonstrators, mostly women, faced off over the law, which critics say prevents women from declining their husband's request for sexual intercourse and essentially legalizes marital rape.

The measure applies to the 20 percent of Afghans who are Shia Muslims. It was part of a nearly 270-page piece of legislation that was written to solidify the identity of the Shia minority in Afghanistan.

Zakaria spoke to CNN about other topics he discussed with Karzai.

CNN: Is President Karzai on board with President Obama's new Afghanistan strategy?

Fareed Zakaria: I was surprised when he repudiated what is perhaps the key American strategy: having U.S. military officers on the ground negotiate with local "reconcilable" Taliban members in order to enlist them into militias.

According to the plan, those militias would then enforce local security and help to keep the peace.

President Karzai said that Americans will never be successful negotiating themselves -- that they must work through Afghanistan government officials.

"If you want to accomplish a local deal with a certain Taliban commander at a tactical level, good enough. But even that has to be done in agreement with the Afghan administration [government] at the local, provincial level. Without that knowledge in the Afghan administration [government], this peace process will not go anywhere."

CNN: What do you think of what's going on in Pakistan?

Zakaria: Well, there have been months of growing instability, and serious foreign policy analysts are now candidly speaking about the prospect of the collapse of Pakistan. David Kilcullen, a frequent guest on this program and once a key adviser to General David Petraeus, has said that we need to face the possibility that the Pakistani government could fail, and it could happen within a month.

CNN: Do you think that will happen?

Zakaria: I don't think it's imminent, but as Ahmed Rashid, author of the book "Descent into Chaos," says on our show this week, "Pakistan is in a very precarious position in its existence. I don't think it can immediately collapse -- it's a big country, 170 million people, very many different ethnic groups. But certainly the spread of the Taliban in Punjab is really critical."
Don't Miss

* Donors pledge aid to Pakistan
* Zakaria's book: 'The Post-American World'
* 'Fareed Zakaria: GPS'

CNN: Why is it so critical?

Zakaria: The area Ahmed Rashid mentions, the Punjab, is the province that is home to more than half of the entire Pakistani population. As one Punjabi police official told a reporter, "If you want to destabilize Pakistan, you have to destabilize Punjab." The Taliban are successfully gaining greater influence in this region.

CNN: And what is going on in Pakistan is also affecting Afghanistan, right?

Zakaria: Yes, and Afghanistan remains unstable. Defeating the Taliban in Afghanistan might pave the way to lessen their power in Pakistan. Many observers agree that the best possible chance at all of this is to try to repeat what worked in Iraq. We divided our real enemies from those who we could buy onto our team. In military speak, we co-opted the reconcilables.

CNN: Do you think it will work?

Zakaria: It sounds simple, and it was, relatively, in Iraq. But it's not so simple in either Pakistan or Afghanistan.

First, Al Qaeda in Iraq was a foreign group with little sway over the locals, but the Taliban are native to Pashtun areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and therefore have built-in loyalties.

Second, the Sunnis in Iraq knew that they had to come on board with the Americans or they would face the fury of the Shiite majority. There is no comparable dynamic that scares the Taliban into our arms.

CNN: So what do we do?

Zakaria: Well, as everyone says, it's very complicated. It's also why this week's show is focused on getting to the bottom of what is going on with the Afghanistan/Pakistan situation.

We have Afghanistan's President Karzai as well as Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, President Obama's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. I am sure you will learn a lot. Make sure you watch this Sunda

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Re: Pakistan

Postby winston » Mon Apr 20, 2009 3:17 pm

I hope somebody is now thinking about those Nuclear Weapons ...
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Re: Pakistan

Postby winston » Thu May 28, 2009 5:53 am

When you read stories like this, it does not really give you much confidence. It's either a big garden or someone was really sleeping. I hope they have better security for those nuclear weapons ... WTF is going on there ? ( and I seldom swear )

=======================================================

Leopard roams Pakistani prime minister's garden

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani hunters are trying to catch a wild leopard roaming the grounds of Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani's official residence, an official said on Monday.

The animal, first spotted on a closed-circuit television camera, slipped into the garden of the well-guarded Islamabad compound late last week, perhaps in search of prey such as wild boar that also roam the area.

"It's a big animal," said the prime minister's spokesman, Imran Gardezi, adding that Gilani had not left the residence and was carrying on with his duties as usual.

Wildlife officials armed with tranquillizer darts have been trying to catch the leopard. They almost had it cornered on Sunday, but it leapt over a six-foot (1.8 meter) wall topped with barbed wire into another part of the compound, Gardezi said.

Islamabad was built in the 1960s up against the forested foothills of the Himalayas and animals including wild boar, foxes, monkeys and porcupines are often seen in the city's green spaces.

But the leopard might not be allowed to roam free for much longer. "If it can't be caught alive today perhaps orders will be given to shoot it," Gardezi said.
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Re: Pakistan

Postby winston » Thu Aug 13, 2009 6:58 am

Militants hit at Pakistan nuclear weapons bases

The Taleban and al-Qaeda have attacked Pakistan's nuclear weapons bases at least three times in the past two years, it has been claimed.

The allegations, by a leading British expert on Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, added to fears that terrorists could acquire a nuclear device or could trigger a disaster by bombing an atomic facility.

Shaun Gregory, the director of the Pakistan Security Research Unit at Britain's Bradford University, gave details of three attacks since November 2007 and raised the specter of more in the future. In a paper for a journal on counter-terrorism, he said militants had struck a nuclear storage facility at Sarghoda on November 1, 2007; launched a suicide bomb assault on a nuclear airbase at Kamra on December 10, 2007; and set off explosions at the entrances to Wah cantonment, one of Pakistan's main nuclear assembly plants, in August 2008.

The attacks came despite an extensive security cordon and millions of dollars in US technical aid to prevent infiltration.

Anupam Srivastava, director of the Centre for International Trade and Security at Georgia University in the United States, who has advised the US government on nuclear security, said he believes there has been more than three attacks.

The attack on Wah killed 63 people, but the target was referred to at the time as a conventional weapons factory.

According to Gregory and other analysts, it is an assembly plant for nuclear warheads.

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
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Re: Pakistan

Postby winston » Tue Aug 17, 2010 1:56 pm

Nearly 1/5 of Pakistan under water !


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp ... &#38730012
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Re: Pakistan

Postby winston » Sun Mar 27, 2011 9:08 pm

At least they are more honest with their inflation numbers, unlike some countries who are growing strongly but reporting inflation numbers of less than 5% ...

Pakistan Central Bank Holds Discount Rate At 14.00%

The State Bank of Pakistan kept the discount rate at 14.00% as its double digit inflation showed signs of easing. Pakistan reported inflation of 12.9% in February this year (14.2% in January), down from the highs of 15.5% in December last year.

The Bank attributed the decline in inflation to a dissipation of the flood effect on food prices, incomplete pass-through of high oil prices, and a reduction and containment of the stock of government borrowings.

The Pakistan government forecasts GDP growth of 2.5% in the year to June 2011, down from its original target of 4.5%.

www.CentralBankNews.info
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Re: Pakistan

Postby winston » Sat May 21, 2011 9:36 pm

Pakistan Leaves Key Rate at 14% as Inflation Slows, Budget Cuts Probable By Farhan Sharif

Pakistan extended a six-month pause in interest-rate increases as inflation eased and the central bank awaits next month’s budget for signs the government will tighten fiscal policy and help contain prices pressures.

The State Bank of Pakistan left the discount rate unchanged at 14 percent, among the highest in the world, according to a central bank statement in Karachi today. The decision was predicted by all 10 economists and researchers surveyed by Bloomberg News.

The central bank raised rates in three consecutive meetings from July to November, blaming excess state spending for pushing inflation to more than 15 percent late last year. The government may be forced to cut spending in its budget after the discovery and killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan led some U.S. lawmakers to call for a reduction in aid.

Pakistan’s government needs external aid to support an economic growth target of 4.2 percent for the next fiscal year, as it seeks to reduce the budget deficit to 4.5 percent of gross domestic product. The shortfall is expected to reach 5.5 percent this year, compared with the official target of 4 percent, the Finance Ministry said April 27.

Fiscal Pressures
“The government is mindful of fiscal pressures and has expressed resolve to address these issues in the budget,” the central bank said in its monetary policy statement today.

The International Monetary Fund told Pakistani economic officials in a weeklong review of the economy that ended May 17 that the government needs to keep cutting the deficit to take pressure off monetary policy and allow more credit to companies.

The budget will target new areas for taxation to help increase revenue, Shaikh said today. “The budget will target economic stability, reducing the role of the government and encouraging private sector investment.”

IMF Conditions

The Washington-based fund stopped disbursing money to Pakistan in May last year after the country failed to meet conditions attached to an $11.3 billion loan first issued in 2008. In December, the IMF approved a nine-month extension of the loan to give Pakistani authorities time to comply with some elements of the agreement, including implementing an overhauled sales tax.

The Karachi Stock Exchange 100 Index has advanced 23 percent this financial year after advancing 36 percent in the previous year ended June 30.

The South Asian nation has received $14.6 billion in economic and military aid from the U.S. since 2005 to help revive growth and fight Taliban militants along the border with Afghanistan.

Pakistan’s consumer prices rose 13.04 percent in April from a year earlier, after a 13.16 percent gain in March, a Federal Bureau of Statistics report showed on May 3.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-2 ... bable.html
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Re: Pakistan

Postby winston » Sun Nov 27, 2011 10:53 am

What do you expect from Cowboys who are above international laws ?

Pakistan reviews US, NATO ties over lethal strike by Sami Zubeiri

Pakistan said it was reviewing its alliance with the United States and NATO after up to 26 soldiers were killed in cross-border NATO air strikes, plunging frosty US ties into deeper crisis.

Pakistan sealed its Afghan border to NATO, shutting down a supplies lifeline for some 130,000 US-led foreign troops fighting the Taliban, and called on the United States to leave a secretive air base reportedly used by CIA drones.

The US-led NATO force in Afghanistan admitted it was "highly likely" that the force's aircraft caused the deaths before dawn on Saturday, inflaming US-Pakistani relations still reeling from the May killing of Osama bin Laden.

In Afghanistan, Allen promised a thorough investigation "to determine the facts" and extended his condolences to the loved ones of anyone who died.

Source: AFP Global Edition

http://www.newsmeat.com/news/meat.php?a ... &buid=3281
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Re: Pakistan

Postby winston » Fri Dec 23, 2011 11:39 am

World Bank Sets $5.5 Billion in Aid for Pakistan

The World Bank on Thursday said it would provide Pakistan with $5.5 billion in development aid over the next two years.

http://www.newsmeat.com/news/meat.php?a ... &buid=3281
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