24 comments Imran Khan presents a very logical perspective as to why this Army offensive does not necessarily mean an end to this war on terror. Collateral Damage which leaves more civilians dead in its wake will most definitely create more enemies then good.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rr-IFLJn00A[/youtube]
Credit: The Critic Magazine
9 comments Abdullah Saad discusses the operational assessment of Pakistan Army’s offensive in South Waziristan Operation Rah-e-Nijat (Path to Salvation). A definite read to understand the dynamics of this offensive that Pakistan needs to take upon itself to possibly clean up the shit left by the Americans and their disastrous War on Terror
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The United Nations is at the moment undergoing a very important debate on the Arms Trade Treaty which more or less has a very direct impact on the lives of everyone, specially in countries like Pakistan where there is an abundance of unregulated arms and ammunition. The Arms Trade Treaty is to control the conventional trade requiring states to authorize any international arms transfer which may originate or pass through their territory. The treaty was initially brought into effect in 2006 wtih a landslide vote in 2006 where 153 states voted in favor of this treaty while the USA was then the only state to vote against the Resolution. The major proponents of this bill have been UK, Argentina, Finland, Costa Rica, Japan, Kenya and Finland. It must be noted that armed violence claims at least 2000 deaths per day, and NGOs have calculated the cost to Africa alone of armed violence is 19 billion dollars per day.
It seems ironic that on one hand the US claims itself to be the police force for the world waltzing into countries like Pakistan trying to sweet talk its way on Anti-Terrorism offering to lend a helping hand [sic] to de-weaponize Pakistan. ironically on the very opposite end the US of A remains remains the only country not willing to come under an Arms Trade Treaty, which would help control and monitor the trade, trafficking of ammunition across the globe
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33 comments By Omar Javaid, Sr. Editor, Critic Magazine
Sounds familiar? I won’t bias you rather will try to be as neutral as possible. I know a few names pop in your mind when you read the title. Top of which would be … cough, cough … this makes me cough while typing, not strange though!
Since a couple of days I felt like writing something on the subject, wanted to expose, stripping out naked, revealing the ugly faces, but couldn’t not because I was afraid or didn’t had any material, but because what I intend to make obvious is already as obvious as the sun at noon on a clear sky, need less if I emphasize more. Incomprehensible though.
Truths are proven as correct, even if one try to disprove, honestly though. Hence the question, Is it just a myth or a conspiracies erected by the opposition against the leadership of this country? The allegations, the charges, the blame game, couldn’t all be the political gimmicks? The dyeing economy, the runaway inflation, shortages of essentials, the war on terror, increasing hostility at boarders, the threat of Blackwater (Xe) … et al, couldn’t all be blamed to the preceding governments … na its the terrorists! … right!?
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44 comments 
Kashmir policy, acquiring nuclear asset(s) and Army has been sensitive issues for Pakistan since its birth in 1947. Though there can be no disagreements that Army rule could not bring change by ridding corruption and opening flood gates of economic progress by sacking popular leaderships in their four trials in 1958, 1969, 1977, and 1999 respectively. Having said that there has not been a paradigm shift in the love for its main stream Army, lust for independence of Kashmir and acquiring a sustainable mechanism to hold on to nuclear assets for a just deterrent, and maintaining state sovereignty.
Kerry Lugar Bill entails conditions quite to the opposite of Pakistani people’s psyche and character. USA has always been supportive of Pakistan’s military regimes and to some critic it’s a long standing policy of the west to mentor its upcoming generals and through nexus of Judges and Generals bring about a Govt of military Generals after a brief spell of civil rule on the name of ridding corruption, economic progress, stability and accountability. Past state record of Pakistani governments supports itself of that version of theory.
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Ammar Faheem lashes out without mincing any words US Ambassador Patterson MUST be EXPELLED which comes in response to Anne Patterson’s statment regarding the Quetta Shura yesterday “You cannot tolerate vipers in your bosom without getting bitten our concern is whether Pakistan really controls its territory. There are people who do not threaten Pakistan but who are extremely important to us.’’ Signifying quite openly that America is gearing up for an offensive in Quetta. EXCUSE ME….. isn’t she a foreign diplomat issuing aggressive offensive orders against the state of Pakistan? Whatever happened to our Army?
On the other hand the very same day Rehman Malik, Pakistan’s Minister of Interior, who should have all knowledge of the in’s-n-out’s about our country is on record to have said “Over and again this topic has been coming up. But according to us the Quetta shura does not exist in Quetta” —- goodness gracious, it surprising that even our top notch minister has no clue whats up in Quetta, let alone prepare a for it
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61 comments 
Sunday’s Dawn has a report on the presence of Blackwater in Pakistan > there seems to be an apparent blanket of denial of their presence but tell tale signs continue to emerge that something is definitely afoot
Questions that must be asked of ourselves, (a) Can we trust our present leadership to tell us the whole truth, with honesty? (b) Can we trust America to NOT do such a thing and we believe the denial as per the US Ambassador, a representative of a country whose 233 year history is full of military operations, even if we were to, for a moment ignore this last decade of destruction and carnage?
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34 comments 
With effect from 1st July 2009 the US State Department has revised the pay scale of all US personnel and contractors stationed within USG civilian compounds in Islamabad from high of a $289/day to a present low of $110/day, while the lodging rates have dropped even more significantly from $213/day to a paltry $70/day. This is compounded with a 35% Danger Pay which is to-date the highest in the world going shoulder to shoulder with Afghanistan and Iraq, while Yemen and Lebanon come as second most dangerous place for US contractors and personnel receiving 30% danger pay
The sudden fall in lodging rates may suggest a massive acquiring of housing locations in Islamabad, while the simultaneous reduction in the ‘per deim’ pay scale for US personnel and contractors may suggest that they maybe living inside a ‘secure compound’. Such low rates across the world are seen in locations where the Americans have a proper base and a secure compound, while interestingly Karachi and Lahore fetch the same high living rates like before. Somethings definitely cooking in Islamabad
It seems all these reports quite apparently points towards a definite buildup of US military personnel and subsequent a good security cordon around them as well which may hint towards the presence of BlackWater / Xe, the American rogue militia
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127 comments 
With all the wheeling and dealing by our country’s leaders compromising on all national issue only to ensure that their own stay in power is secured it does seem that our very own leaders elected / burecratic and military have unleashed yet another wrath unto the people of Pakistan by allowing the menacing extra-military force called Blackwater to establish a strong foothold in Pakistan.
Blackwater or recently known as Xe is a rogue military force comprised of ex-military personnel that has had a very bad reputation of being instrumental in a number of assassinations and armed bullying in Iraq and Afghanistan and it appears that they are now being welcomed into Pakistan.
This is OUR country, and there is no justification to import a team of non-Pakistani militia to come into Pakistan and establish themselves for any reason what so ever. The excuse that is being thrown around is that they are entrusted with the elite task of protecting the interests of the American Embassy in Islamabad, which I believe is hogwash.
As responsible and patriotic citizens of Pakistan I believe we as a team can out-fox our corrupt leaders in exposing this menace, this same organization played havoc with the lives of Iraqi nationals, let them not trample over us. We can wield power in numbers, literally found at every corner of the street in Pakistan, we as patriotic citizens of Pakistan can be an invisible force that chooses not be be trampled by an external force trying to run our lives
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10 comments Many might want to take part in this survey on the presence of Blackwater in Pakistan, it is being conducted anonymously by Omar Javaid, a frequent writer on our blog and the author of Critic Magazine
Do answer the short few questions and then we can figure out the sentiments of Pakistani regarding the presence of Blackwater in Pakistan whilst you can also take a peak at the live results (approximately 100 responses)
6 comments Jameel Jaffer and Amrit Singh may not mean anything to most readers. Jameel Jaffer is a London, Ont. born litigator for the American Civil Liberties Union and Director of the ACLU’s National Security Project. Amrit Singh is Manmohan Singh’s daughter and is a Staff Attorney at the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project.
credit Ruby Washingon, NYT and wikipedia
Jameel Jaffer, was “instrumental in filing and fighting an unlikely Freedom of Information Act request that eventually unearthed thousands of pages of secret documents which illustrated damning evidence of U.S. government complicity in violations of international humanitarian law.” link. and link
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193 comments Over the past many years there has been a strong lobby of Baluchistan Separatists Movement who strive to separate the Province of Baluchistan from Pakistan. The efforts in recent times have gained significant foot hold to become the talk of the town in recent few months, Patriotic Pakistanis are generally averse to this proposition while the corrupt politicians continue to strangulate the province forcing the Baluchis to struggle for an independent Baluchistan.
A few years back in 2006 US Armed Forces Journal published a map outlining the new Blood Borders which discussed the possibility of a seperate Baluchistan, this map was met with severe outcry across Pakistan. The pros and cons of such a division are still heavily debated and only until recently has it started taking a turn for the worse
A reader of this blog, Basit, pointed about a surprising discovery in one of the forms published on the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) website, the form under question is the AR-11 [Change of Address] form which is used by non US Nationals to notify the USCIS of any change in address. Surprisingly the field “Country of Citizenship” lists Baluchistan (Pakistan) as an option. Within the list of countries listed, I was relieved to see Pakistan still listed, but cant seem to understand why they chose to list Baluchistan alone and conveniently forgot to list the more populus of our other three provinces like Sindh, Punjab or even NWFP.
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10 comments 
An exclusive Al Jazeera survey of public opinion in Pakistan has revealed widespread disenchantment with the United States for interfering with what most people consider internal Pakistani affairs. This survey was done interviewing more than 2,500 men and women across the rural and urban areas in all four provinces of Pakistan on July 26 and 27. The margin of error is + 2-3 per cent at 95 per cent confidence level. Al-Jazeera wraps up the results in a detailed analysis but a quick look at the survey is as follows
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It is often alleged that the Americans are controlled by an invisible Jewish lobby, which tend to control decisions impacting the Jewish settlements world over and more specifically the Palestine conflict. Recently I stumbled across an article written by Joseph Aron in the Jewish World Review in October 2007.
He analyzes a list that was then recently published in the Vanity Fair October 2007 issue which ranked the 100 most powerful Americans at that time and to no surprise Joseph Aron counted 51 Jews on the list, giving the Jewish lobby a simple majority, and that only includes proper Jews, he admittedly did not count the non-Jews which are heavily influenced by the Jewish lobby he says…
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33 comments “I am stuck, in middle of nowhere, or at the extremes of somewhere, I don’t know what is right or what is wrong, rather who is right or who is wrong. Height of epistemocracy I might be at, rather in a quest to know more, but got more questions than answers along the way. I am an empiricist, I want to see the missing links, between the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle of reality, but cannot; others though assumes, theorize the nature of connections among events, the reasons of causality, the triggering points of incidents, but I prefer not to deduce, as I don’t get pleased by the release of the excruciating mental tension, due to confusion, but people do rather, like those who train innocent children as suicide bombers.” … I might be lying…
It’s a cognitive requirement, to have a logic (illogic) of what is what, who is who and where is where, how is how, if not, our neural networks don’t abide, rather strive to connect the missing bits, scattered pieces, seemingly random events happening all around us. It happens naturally, unintentionally. Though intentionally we tend to resist, not often though, to keep events from explanations, and people disconnected from our judgments, labels, and tags like Kafir, Murtids, Taliban, etcetera.
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