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Posts tagged with: Islamabad
Apr 20, 2009    |       55 comments

Nazir Naji caught Abusing Journalist

Ahmad Noorani, a senior editor of The News from Islamabad while investigating a story regarding illegal allotment of plots to some journalists by the federal government calls up Nazir Haji on Friday 17th April later Nazir Haji calls back Ahmed Noorani twice and gets a mouthful of profanity, in response I must applaud Ahmed Noorani to have maintained his cool. Listen to the rated three part audio clips on PkPolitics, while the land scam investigative article can be read on The News website

Nov 26, 2008    |       9 comments

Dogar’s Daughter results linked with Islamic Medical College admission

As if the revelations could not get any worse – Ansar Abbasi in his article in The News today trumps Pakistan with an even more interesting investigation about the fiasco surrounding the Intermediate results of the daughter of Chief Justice of Pakistan Mr. Abdul Hameed Dogar.

What has come to light is that all this was orchestrated so she could get admission into Islamic Medical College as with her initial low grade at 640 Farah could not even apply to appear in the admission test which was scheduled for September 21st a fact which was confirmed by Major (retd) Munir Azam, who was associated with the college administration So in preparation to ensure that she appears in the admission test the bureaucratic wheels were set in motion and from the 10th of September the Chairman of the Federal School board was able to muster up the necessary re-examinations to gingerly tip Farah’s score over the magical 660 barrier.

On one hand every parent wishes for the best education for their children, but sadly the irony of this specific case is that she unfortunately happens to be the daughter of CJP Hameed Dogar, who was the judge to replace, the then Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry who was thrown out of office for a number of allegations of which one incidentally was helping his son Dr. Arsalan in his CSS exams. With such a torturous history it seems Justice Dog-ar has too been caught red handed literally with his pants down
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Oct 10, 2008    |       11 comments

PBC suspends lawyers: What Musharraf could not do!

Guest post by Silence from Islamabad Observer blog

The Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) has suspended the practicing licences of advocates Mahmood Ashraf and Rana Naveed, President and General Secretary, respectively of the Lahore High Court (Multan bench) for allegedly misbehaving with Latif Khosa, Attorney General of Pakistan, who also acts as an ex-officio Chairman of PBC. The PBC also restrained them from functioning as office bearers and operating the Bar accounts.

According to details, High Court Bar Association of Multan had banned Sardar Latif Khosa’s entry in Multan High Court Bar in a meeting of ‘General House’, yet he arrived at High Court Bar accompanied by lawyers belonging to People’s Lawyers Forum. The Secretary Bar, Rana Naveed and some other lawyers objected to Khosa’s presence there and ask him to leave and started to chant slogans demanding restoration of Chief Justice of Pakistan, Ifthakhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

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Oct 4, 2008    |       14 comments

Profiting from Religion: Land Grabbing Business and Christian Minority in Pakistan

Guest Blog by Silence from Islamabad Observer

Religion is basically meant to be personal belief of a person or group of people. It is outrageous, shameful and downright arrogant of the religious groups to use religion as a source of profits. However since the times immortal, criminals, religious clerics, land grabbers and even power hungry kings and democratic leaders have been using religion as a source of exploitation and profiting. “Crusade” of George W Bush in name of ‘war on terror’ and killing of innocent women and children by ‘Taliban’s’ in name of Islam are two sides of same coin. The basic goal is to exploit sentiments of religious groups for personal gains.

Religion is also a favorite tool of criminals and land grabbing mafias. The bloody episode of ‘Red Mosque’ in Islamabad, we witnessed recently, is not the only example. In every city and town, criminal gangs have occupied public or private land; they would build a ‘mosque’ on it and sell the adjoining lands for commercial or residential purposes. Even green belts, public parks and educational institutional institutions are not safe from these gangs. Whenever government authorities want to evict these gangs and demolish the illegal buildings, it would become a religious issue. If authorities demolish the illegally built mosque, it will bring a religious and political storm. The illegal mosques built on public lands in Islamabad were saved from being demolished by countrywide protests leading to interference of ‘Imam-i-Kaba’.

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Oct 2, 2008    |       58 comments

Tell me Sahar Ali

Guest Post by temporal of Baithak Blog

In the nearly 800,000 sq kms of land that covers all the vistas – from the parched deserts of Balochistan and Sind in the south to the peaks of K2 and Nanga Parbat in the north – from the (negroid) Makrani fishermen of the south to the blue eyed beauties of Kailash and Hunza – from the chattering elites, net journos and the do-gooders of Karachi, Lahore and other urban centers to the rural villages bereft of basic utilities – 97 % of the 160-170 million Pakistanis are united by their religion (Islam) and divided by the many gods they follow.

Did I utter a blasphemy?

Would you blame me for questioning when one group praising the Beneficent (Rehman) kills the other who believe in the Merciful (ar Rahim) ? How can the killer and the killed invoke the same Allah?
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Sep 21, 2008    |       8 comments

Islamabad Update: ~60 dead, 200+ injured including Czech Ambassador

The death toll continues to rise on last nights Islamabad bombing and news reports are tallying the count to be somewhere around 60 dead and over 200 injured. This sadly also includes a few foreigners and the highest dignitary killed yesterday is the Czech Ambassador to Pakistan Ivo Zdarek while his Vietnamese parter is also missing up until now. Ambassador Zdarek had moved to Pakistan a month ago and was staying at the hotel.

Czech Embassy officials said that Zdarek called his embassy from inside the hotel moments after the explosion asking to be rescued, but had not been heard from since and later Czech media reports said police had pulled the diplomat’s body from the smouldering ruins.

Loss of life in any measure is condemnable, but it is far more embarrassing to have a guest visiting our country suffering the ultimate tragedy. Our heart and prayers go out to each person [local or international] killed in the incident, I only wish we could have done more to avoid this ultimate disaster and also wish a speedy recovery to those injured.

It is probably yet another incident that my heart truly weeps at seeing our Pakistan bleed so profusely. We must join hands and work towards taking Pakistan out of this spiraling disaster

Sep 21, 2008    |       20 comments

Speaker Fehmida Mirza, hosting an Iftar in Marriott for Zardari

STRATFOR quotes sources in Geo News that the Speaker National Assembly Fehmida Mirza was hosting an Iftar dinner in Marriott today in honor of the President Mr. Asif Ali Zardari when the blast occurred at the Hotel but luckily Mr. Zardari was not there. With this information coming into light, one must look at this bombing not simply as a random attack but mostly an assassination attempt towards the new President

Pakistan’s National Assembly Speaker Fehmida Mirza was hosting an Iftar dinner reception in honor of President Asif Ali Zardari at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, when the hotel was bombed Sept. 20, Pakistani Daily The News reported. Zardari reportedly was not at the dinner, but the report said other important figures were present, without giving names. GEO News reported that some 100 people may have been killed in the attack. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.


Though Geo News for the moment has a report at the moment quoting Hashwani, the owner of Marriott that “There was no VIP or foreigner affected by the blast as most of the guests present in the hotel were rescued“. Though the facts are still to be deciphered with the on going investigation, but seemingly it might be important for the government to not expose this lapse in VIP security i.e. if at all such a breach did actually happen.

Sep 20, 2008    |       65 comments

Terrorism in Islamabad – Pakistanis Stand up and Say NO

Islamabad today was rocked by a massive explosion outside Hotel Marriott, as I write this post it still is burning and death toll continues to rise hovering around 34 dead & 170 injured in blast. The overall speculations can blame this attack on any of the terrorist organizations, some find a way to out the finger on the Taliban uprising, some find a way to blame the simmering political unrest while some feel the Indian spy agency RAW might have hand in all this. Whatever be the case Pakistan has suffered.

It is my analysis that the Indian spy agency RAW is the most likely to have a hand in this blast more in retaliation to the recent blasts in India. To make a killing blow on the eve of President Zardari speech to the joint session is a brilliant ploy to over shadow Zardari’s new making comments

What can we do !!! Simply sitting at home, writing emails & sending SMS’s will achieve nothing and the terrorists will run our country to the ground. If you believe in Pakistan we need to join hands and say STOP TO TERRORISM, mind you this STOP means a full out right condemnation against Talibans, against the American raids on Pakistan and our local armed uprising.

We have to join hands to help save Pakistan

Aug 28, 2008    |       6 comments

Nationwide Dharnas on 28th from 12:00-2:00pm

We apologize for any inconvenience in advance. as the judicial movement has exhausted all avenues for a amicable resolution and with the numerous broken promises by Asif Zardari in regards to Restoration of Judiciary, we feel its important to peacefully send a message and have decided to hold a Dharna for a period of two hours which might result in traffic being disrupted in certain section around the country at the following locations

For now our message is directed towards the ex-President Musharraf and the new incoming Presidential nominee Asif Zardari to undo the actions of 2nd November and restore that Judiciary as it stood then. Our message is strong enough to urge you to join us also if you do not want Zardari as President, you MUST join us today to fight for rule of law. Chaudhry Iftikhar did put a stay order on the illegal NRO which has sadly opened the door for the return of Asif Ali Zardari poised to make a mess out of our country
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Aug 18, 2008    |       5 comments

Safe Exit Today = Safe Entry for future Dictators tomorrow

With Musharraf’s last Presidential address barely an hour ago there is a definitely concern amongst many that it is welcome news to see the dictator stepping down but the news of safe passage to foreign lands is concerning as if Musharraf were to get up and walk away would in all likelihood mean that it opens the doors for future dictators to waltz in and ransack our country. An example needs to be set to ensure that such practices are not repeated ever again. I do not mean to extend and ask for capital punishment, but he must stand trial for his wrong doings [if any] and then allowed free passage if his hands are clean.

We must demand a fair trial for Musharraf, if guilty then an exemplary punishment be awarded so that in future no General should ever dare to violate the Constitution of Pakistan.

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Aug 7, 2008    |       9 comments

ISLAMABAD: Protest against abduction of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui (Thursday @ 5:30pm)

Peaceful Protest against abduction of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui by Pakistani Agencies in shameful manner and her selling to USA with her three children

Thursday, 07 August 2008, 5:30 p.m. (sharp) Parade Ground, Opp. Parliament Building, Islamabad

This is a wakeup call for Ibn-e-Qasims as Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, Prisoner # 650 calls you for help from Bagram Airbase where she’s being tortured and raped.

Protest to be joined by Doctors, Engineers, Lawyers, Teachers, Students, Civil Society Activists, Families and Children of Twin Cities

Pakistan Professionals Forum
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Jun 30, 2008    |       11 comments

GHQ to Islamabad

Published in The Nation
by M. Ashgar Khan

The shifting of the Army’s General Headquarters from Rawalpindi to Islamabad has been planned for some time and was given a fresh impetus during 2007. We have not been told what the total financial burden of this move will be but the cost of land alone at the prevalent rates in Islamabad is about Rs 100,000 to Rs 120,000 per sq yard.

The army would, of course, not be required to pay this amount for the land to the CDA but the CDA could earn this amount if they were to sell this land to civilians for residential or commercial purposes. The expenditure involved is believed to be more than the total Defence Budget of Pakistan for the current year and many times more than the education budget of the country. In a country where millions do not get a square meal a day, where we are woefully short of schools and medical facilities and where even clean drinking water is not available for the ordinary citizen, to spend such a large amount on moving an existing facility a few miles cannot be justified.
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Jun 21, 2008    |       12 comments

Zibahkhana, Pakistan’s First Horror Film

Credit to Changing Up Pakistan Blog for reviewing the Horror Film released by a Pakistan entrepreneur and film maker Omar Ali Khan. Omar’s unique entrepreneurial skills can be best appreciated in this chain of desert shops across Pakistan called Hotspot which serves the people of Karachi and Islamabad with some mouthwatering deserts

Zibahkhana [which literally translates from Urdu to “Slaughterhouse”] which is also referred to as ‘Hell’s Playground’, this is to my surprise not a new production as it was extensively covered a year back in the TIME magazine when it premiered in Islamabad at a private golf club.

TIME, June 12, 2007: When it comes to slasher films, most American teenagers know the rules: Make sure the gas tank is full; don’t take short cuts through the woods; don’t pick up hitchhikers; and don’t — ever — split up. But here in Pakistan, where the capital city doesn’t even have a movie theater and the country’s barely breathing film industry hasn’t produced a scary movie since the 1970s, it’s hardly surprising that the local kids are new to the genre. So, the script of Zibahkhana, Pakistan’s first horror movie in a generation, could allow its teenage cast to make every fundamental mistake the genre allows.

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Jun 14, 2008    |       27 comments

Long March and… a new generation learns to Mobilize

Burhan and Riaz Ahmed
International Socailists of Pakistan

History made an entire cross section of civil society of Pakistan learned and transformed from its own struggle against rules from above. Long march ended today at 6 am with thousands of agitators sending a strong message to those in corridor of power that they know how to mobilize nationwide and the next time the rulers will not have a chance.

We are in Rawalpindi rite now. Last nite we went to Isd. A Huge no. of people in Rawalpindi/Isd are disappointed at decesion to cancel Dharna. We asked 50 people and 80% of them disagreed with Aitzaz MAny young lawyers and civil society members were Dumbstruck. They were ready for further action but were let down by the leadership. when Aitzaz started his speech many students and activists felt that the Dharna would be canceled and then they started agitating.

People present there were not consulted at all before the cancellation. If cancellation was done because of logistical reasons then proper arrangements could have been done and funds could have been raised to help those willing to sit in front of the parliament. It was done in an undemocratic fashion.
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