Category: Politics
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Cyber Crime Bill to be used against Anti-Govt emails & SMS
Minister of Interior Rehman Malik has taken action to prevent people from spreading malicious and concocted stories against the civilian leadership of the country through emails and text messages. He warned that offenders will be apprehended within 48 hours and be punishable upto 14 years in Jail. It was surprising to note that the Government…
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Bhagwandas Report – Oil companies given free-hand to fix Oil Prices
Many in Pakistan may have already glanced through this front page story in Dawn, I feel this is a very valuable piece of information to keep in mind when we try to understand the oil-scam in Pakistan. In 2001 an Oil Companies Advisory Commission comprising of all oil companies in Pakistan under the watchful eye…
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MPA Shumaila Rana caught red-handed in Credit Card Fraud
An MPA Shumaila Rana who has been a member of the Punjab Assembly on a chosen reserved seat for women has recently been caught red handed using a stolen credit card and making two separate purchases to the tune of Rs. 80,000 [~$1000]. The owner of the credit card Zaira Malik when she reported them…
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PEMRA Blocks Dawn TV’s show We Are Soldiers
Late Friday night I received a couple of SMS’s alerting me that PEMRA had suddenly pulled and banned a much popular military show called ‘We Are Soldiers’ off-air. This news came a day before the episode on Special Services Group and Marines was to be aired on Saturday at 7:05 pm, but according to a…
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The Carbon Tax Fiasco
Cyril Almeida a columnist in Dawn has penned an excellent article on the recent controversy regarding the petroleum carbon tax. It is a fact that in March 2009 the government had imposed a Petroleum Developmental Levy which resulted in an increase in the price of petroleum goods by a few rupees. The then, newly restored…
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Judicial Taliban
Lawyers have emerged as a great force in Pakistan who carries weight in the future law making and day to day running of the judiciary as well as executive in the country. Pakistan’s short history is full of lawyer’s contributions and in particular judges who never bow before a dictator to take oath under any…
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Foreign Policy ranks Pakistan as the 10th Most Failed State
Nothing to be proud off but in a survey conducted by Foreign Policy Magazine where they evaluated 177 countries across the world Pakistan was ranked as the 10th most failed state where Somalia was ranked as the most failed state followed by Zimbabwe, Sudan, Chad, Congo, Iraq, Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Guniea and then Pakistan…
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Sindh Assembly honors Michael Jackson with a Minute of Silence
As I write this blog post I have been at a loss of words, I was shocked to read at the PKKH website that today [Saturday 27th June] the Sindh Assembly kicked off its session with a minutes silence in honor of Michael Jackson, yes you read that one correct ‘the moonwalking maestro – Jacko’…
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Zardari throws out Quaid-e-Azam from the Presidency
I was alerted of this development earlier in the afternoon courtesy of blogger Farhan where he wrote a blog post The Terrible Blunder at Presidency. Caught up in work, I made a mental note to check it out in detail, but at 9pm Geo reportedly carried a news item along the same lines showing picture…
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Zardari’s Freudian Slip
Much could be said about the lackluster reception accorded to the Pakistan Cricket Team upon its return to Pakistan after having won the Twenty20 World Cup in England. The heroic reception at the airport was put off due to security issues and instead the Prime Minister and the President both decided to honor the champions…
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The women who walked – and walked
This is an abridged version that was published on 4th June in The News extracted from a recent report by AIRRA (Aryana Institute for Regional Research and Advocacy) based in Peshawar, whose members traveled to the IDP camps for these interviews. We write here some of the stories the women of Swat told us. They…
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A Global issue of Terrorism – Stop Criticizing Pakistan
Pakistan has been in massive fluctuations since the Pakistani government started operation in Swat and the other heaven like valleys in Northern Areas against Taliban. Some of the parties are criticizing the Government owing to operation. All the International countries like US, European etc are also in the favor of operation against the militants. Before…
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IDP Crisis, More transparency, please
Voices of reason and critique are often drowned in the sounds of gunfire and heavy artillery shelling. This current operation ‘Rah-e-Rast’, or what is being termed as a ‘War for Pakistan’s survival’, has resulted in an exodus of almost 3 million people which might just be another number for those who are at the helm…
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Khashkelis Feudalism Issue at a standstill
Have been silent about the many developments that have been taking place with regard to the regularization and restoration of the village to the Khaskelis as they were so confident of “winning” this final round — because one of their own representatives whom they trust implicitly (and who has since become a minister without portfolio)…
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IDP Crisis: A tragedy of errors and Cover-ups – HRCP
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has published a very comprehensive report on the IDP situation in NWFP titled A tragedy of errors and Cover-ups:The IDPs and outcome of military actions in FATA and Malakand Division its quite a comprehensive report. I have taken the liberty to extract some critical sections which caught my…