Pakhtunkhwa not allowed!According to Nawa-e-Waqt, senator from the NWGP Ilyas Bilour kept naming his province as Pakhtunkhwa during his speech at the Senate. After some time leader of the house Waseem Sajjad got up and remarked that no province of that name existed in Pakistan and if he wanted to talk about another province he should go to the country where it existed. After this there was pandemonium in the house and the session had to be postponed sine die.
An Urdu purple patch
Columnist and Urdu stylist Irfan Siddiqi wrote in Nawa-e-Waqt: 'May your boards creaking under viands meant to regale foreign guests be blessed, but tell me if we are the vanguard of America's crusade and have made sacrifices for it, and have willingly populated the cages of Guantanamo Bay, if Mullah Umar is going from pillar to post because of our loyal swordsmanship, if we have given everything on lease, from our military bases to our faith and spiritual belief, if we have stuck this policy of shame and humiliation on our helmet like a panache, then why are the whiplashes applied to our bare backs? Why are our heroes describes as villains and why are nuclear assets looked at with the eye of suspicion and ill-will? Can these courtier spokespersons of the magic tongue apply the balm of comfort on our lacerated breasts? Will the bud of truth burst forth from the bough of the tongue of anyone?'
India wants Pakistan as 'mandi'
Quoted in Nawa-e-Waqt Baloch Sardar Ataullah Mengal said that that India didn't want Pakistan as its friend, it wanted to convert Pakistan into its mandi. He said Hindu banya was carrying a scale (tarazoo) in his hand while negotiating friendship with Pakistan.
CIA arranged Shehbaz's marriage
Daily Insaf reported that the marriage of Shehbaz Sharif and Tehmina Durrani was organised through intrigue and international spying in 2003 by CIA and Pakistani intelligence agencies. The aim was to separate Shehbaz from the Sharif family and make him available to Musharraf as an ally. Shehbaz himself was increasingly isolated within the Sharif clan and wanted a place in politics for himself. The Sharif family is shaken by the development and is very upset. Those who favoured the marriage could be Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan who was put off by Nawaz Sharif's decision to keep Javed Hashmi as the chief of the party in Pakistan. He wanted the job for himself and was also close to Shehbaz. Shehbaz himself did not get along with other PMLN members: Zulfiqar Khosa, Tahmina Daultana, Saad Rafiq, etc. Tehmina Durrani was a linked to the intelligence agencies and had earlier liaison with Shehbaz Sharif. Nawa-e-Waqt quoted Shehbaz Sharif as saying that his brother Nawaz was his murshid (spiritual leader) and that he wouldplay a role in lowering military dictatorship in its lehed (grave).
More corruption under Musharraf
Secretary Information of PMLN said to Nawa-e-Waqt that contrary to the claim of President Musharraf corruption at the upper levels had increased which included corruption inside NAB. He said railway minister General Javed Ashraf incurred a loss of Rs 26 billion to the railways while references against him were set aside. Nawaz Sharif as prime minister spent Rs 16 crore on the PM House while now the expenditure was Rs 85 crore. He said if were made chief of NAB he would extract Rs 30 billion from former rulers and ministers in three months.
Weapons came from the army depots!
Daily Khabrain quoted Nawab Akbar Bugti as saying that the government should prove that he was receiving Rs 12 crore annually as rent from the Sui lands. He said weapons that were used against the Sui fields were worth 50 crore and were not bought by the Baloch but came from the army depots.
Who killed Prof Azizul Haq?
Writing in Khabrain, Raja Anwar revealed that during a Punjab university election one Barkaat was killed and the responsibility for the killing was wrongly placed on Jamiat and its leader Javed Hashmi. The murder was actually committed by Prof Azizul Haq, an ex-employee of Atomic Energy Commission, who thought he could become the Mao Tse Tung of Pakistan through a violent revolution. He got two members of his Young People's Front, Arif Raja and Javed Ali Khan, to open firing during the counting of the vote. Four months after Barkaat's murder, Prof Aziz was killed by one Saeed for having illicit relations with his wife. According to the writer, Prof Azizul Haq was a jinsi mareez (sexually obsessive) whose death was described as naqabal-e-talafi nuqsaan (irreparable loss) by PPP's Maulana Kausar Niazi.
Who is Imtiaz Sheikh?
According to Khabrain, the Sindh minister Imtiaz Sheikh whom his chief minister Dr Ghulam Raheem fired was the son of a poor farmer of Shikarpur. In 1978 he qualified in the CSS exam and became assistant commissioner in the province. He was transferred to Punjab for some time but was assistant collector Jacobabad in 1989. His quality of life changed and when he became deputy commissioner in Dadu and Nawabshah, he looked positively prosperous. He was later additional secretary in Sindh and in 1990 was secretary to chief minister Jam Sadiq who had betrayed his party, the PPP. He got many papers signed from Jam Sadiq at his deathbed and gave lucrative jobs to his relatives and friends. He acquired 6 kanals of precious land in Karachi. After Jam Sadiq, Imtiaz Sheikh got his promotions and became secretary health of the province. In 1997 he resigned and entered politics. At that time he was known as a billionaire. In 2002 he fought election from his party Democratic Alliance but was defeated in Nawabshah. Then he joined PMLQ and was returned in a by-election in Ghotki and was taken as revenue minister in Sindh cabinet. The chief minister's report against him shows him gaining in wealth at each stage in his career.
Pak generals and wealth
Writing in Nawa-e-Waqt, historian Dr Safdar Mehmood stated that an American agency has published a report that a Pakistani general was worth Rs 20 crore while a Lt-Gen got Rs 15 crore as personal 'assets'. The writer thought it was too little and therefore insulting. He recalled that in 2004 a former corps commander flew into Lahore from Karachi and sold his plot of land for Rs 3.5 crore and flew back the same day.
Two books two stories
Author and columnist Raja Anwar wrote in Khabrain that two books had recently come into print. Javed Hashmi's Haan main Baghi hun and Tariq Khurshid's Sue-e-Dar. Both were students at Punjab University. Javed Hashmi was a Jamiat leader and a follower of Maulana Maududi while Tariq was associated with the Left. Tariq was sent to Libya by vice-chancellor Islamabad University Kaniz Yusuf after the fall of Bhutto, but when he returned after 8 years he was sent to jail by Zia for the Libya Conspiracy Case. Javed Hashmi was in jail under General Musharraf. After the fall of Bhutto he became a minister in General Zia's cabinet which he now confesses to have been his mistake. In his book he has refrained from attacking anyone but Ghulam Mustafa Khar whom he has flayed alive.
Was Pakistan made to collect transit fee?
Columnist Abdul Qadir Hassan wrote in Jang that some people were saying that opening trade routes with India would give Pakistan the opportunity to collect transit fee but Sardar Mengal was saying that Hindu banya was merely trying to snap up Pakistan as a home market (ghar ki mandi). Was Pakistan created to collect rahdari (transit fees)? There is an honourable way of doing business. Friendship with India would be just like friendship with America, exploitative and coercive and against the interests of Pakistan.
PPP is too tough on MMA
Talking to Nawa-e-Waqt, PMLN MNA Mr Saad Rafiq said that the PPP was not giving a good impression through its contacts with Musharraf. PPP should soften its hard approach towards the MMA, he said. PMLN was not being organised in accordance with the wishes of Nawaz Sharif and that Zulfiqar Khosa's view that Nawaz Sharif had not acted correctly in 1999 by dismissing Musharraf was wrong.
'Pakistanis' in Bangladesh
Reported in Jang magazine, there were 2.37 lakh 'Pakistanis' in Bangladesh in 66 scattered camps who are at times called Biharis because they speak Urdu. They are still loyal to Pakistan and want to be sent to Pakistan although some would like to take Bangladesh nationality and become normal citizens. They say that they were 9 million to begin with but after 1971 half a million fled to India and Pakistan while fully 8 million are unaccounted for. They said that 3 million were massacred and are buried under the monument in Dhaka that says 3 million Bangladeshis killed by Pakistan army were lying underneath. The 'Pakistanis' living in the camps said that money was collected in Pakistan for them but no progress had been made to repatriate them.