by MJK on February 29, 2008
In a strange statement today, Israeli defence minister warned that Gaza would face a “bigger holocaust” if further rockets are fired from the Gaza Strip on Israeli cities. It is worth mentioning here that greater number of Palestinians are killed in the retaliatory fire by Israel. The casualities on Palestinian side not only include HAMAS members but also large number of innocent Palestinians. Israel has already cut off all basic facilities to the Gaza Strip and this new warning by Deputy Defense Minister is very shocking. I wonder how Jews can forget how much they suffered in the Holocaust which now they want to impose on the Palestinians. This statement seems to emerge from those who get their inspiration from Nazis and really influenced by their terror techniques. It is a shameful statement.
Israeli leaders are warning of an imminent conflagration in Gaza after Palestinian militants aimed rockets at the southern city of Ashkelon.
The deputy defence minister said the stepped-up rocket fire would trigger what he called a “bigger holocaust” in the Hamas-controlled coastal strip.
Israeli air strikes have killed about 30 Palestinians, including six children in the past two days. (BBC)
by MJK on February 29, 2008
As per the reports emerging, Saddam Hussain cousin would be executed within thirty days as the Presidency Council has approved it. Chemical Ali is held by Americans and will be handed over to the Iraqi authorities to carry out the verdict. Chemical Ali is blamed for the death of thousands of people during the Saddam government. His pleaded not guilty to the charges as he said he was carrying out his duty to follow Saddam orders. The timings of the decision are significant as the orders were stopped earlier because of its possible impact on the reconciliation efforts by the Americans to bridge the divide between different factions in Iraq.
Iraq’s three-member Presidency Council has approved the execution of Ali Hassan Majid, a cousin of Saddam Hussein known as “Chemical Ali,” said a high-ranking Iraqi government official today who was not authorized to speak on the subject.
The official said there was no date set for the hanging, which must be carried out within 30 days. He also said the Presidency Council had agreed only to the execution of Majid, not two codefendants also convicted in June of genocide and other crimes. (Los Angeles Times)
by MJK on February 29, 2008
The competition in the GSM arena in Pakistan is constantly increasing. Few years back there were just two operators but now the market is having five operators backed by strong international groups. Orascom, Singtel+Dhabi Group, Telenor, Etisalat and China Mobile are the backers of the five local operators. Since CMPak is the first international venture of China Mobile, they will make sure to make it a success story and to use it as a launch pad for their other international expansions in the near future. The aggressive network rollout of CMPak is evident from the amount of money they are pouring in the company. It is expected that by the end of the year, CMPak will be covering almost all the cities that Telenor and Mobilink have covered till date. With increased covereage will come the customers and hence growth. Since the market has already passed the bechmark 50% penetration levels therefore, the future competition will be less in getting new customers and more on acquiring the existing customers of other operators. Since the cost of switch over is very low and is an easy process, therefore, only dynamic and competative companies will survive in the Pakistani GSM arena.
China Mobile will pour another $800 million into its new Pakistan operation with the aim of boosting market share, Sohu IT reports. China Mobile invested $4.6 billion a year ago on buying 100% of the small operator now known as CMPak – its first offshore investment. The company will invest $400 million on network expansion, Vendors ZTE, Shanghai Alcatel Bell, Ericsson and Huawei all signed GSM expansion agreements in 2007.
However, it faces an uphill battle. Reportedly, only Pakistan’s three biggest operators are profitable. CMPak has a market share of less than 2%, but China Mobile aims to boost that to 20%-25% by the end of the year. (China Wire)
by MJK on February 29, 2008
The word is finally out in the international media that Prince Harry, 23, is fighting in Afghanistan for the past 10 weeks. He has been fighting in the most volatile and dangerous Helmand province. The media was informed about this news but they were asked to keep quiet on it. The news only emerged few days back in Drudge Report. Now that the news is finally out, lets see if the Britain still keep him in the War zone where he will face increasing risk of being targeted now. According to Prince Harry, he enjoys his life soldiering but wish he could inform him friends about it. The British army will now consider to shift him to another location keeping in mind his safety concerns because of his high profile.
The secret is out: Prince Harry has been serving on the front line with his British army unit in one of Afghanistan’s most lawless and barren provinces. Harry is the first royal to serve in a combat zone since his uncle Prince Andrew flew helicopters during Britain’s war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands in 1982.
British officials had hoped to keep the 23-year-old’s deployment secret until he had safely returned, but they released video of Harry serving in Helmand Province after a leak appeared on the U.S. Web site the Drudge Report.
The planned deployment had been disclosed to reporters, with no specific date, but was not reported previously under a pool agreement between the Ministry of Defense and all major news organizations operating in Britain, including The Associated Press. The news blackout was intended to reduce the risk to the prince and his regiment.
“I got here on Christmas Eve. And going from bullet magnet to anti-bullet magnet, most of the guys were pretty bummed that I was here because nothing was happening for the first few days that I was here. But things are picking up again now because it’s obviously quite boring when nothing is happening,” Harry said in one video. (AP)
by MJK on February 29, 2008
Today the oil prices touched their new high point of $103 due to the concerns about the American economy. Investors are pouring in their money in the commodities market after the major decrease in the interest rates by the US Fed. The increasing oil prices will have a major impact on Pakistan economy which heavily imports oil to satisfy its local demands. The thermal sources of electricity will also be affected by it and might make their continuous working uneconomic. Since increase in transportation costs contributes towards the overall inflation in the society, therefore every strata of the society will be affected by it. It is high time for Pakistan to look towards the other sources of producing energy and to fast develop the new oil wells, gas fields and coal mines.
Light, sweet crude for April delivery jumped to a new trading record of US$103.05 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange before slipping back to US$102.92 a barrel,up 33 cents. On Thursday, the contract jumped US$2.95 to settle at a recordUS$102.59 a barrel.
Shum warned that a price bubble was emerging in the crude futures market as investors ignored market fundamentals that have shown continuous increases in U.S. crude supply while several recent forecasters have lowered oil demand growth predictions for this year due to the slowing economy.
by MJK on February 29, 2008
Kamran Rasool, a former Defence Secretary has been appointed as the new chairman of Pakistan International Airlines. PIA is in crises for a long time and last year its financial loss reached Rs. 12 billion. It is worth mentioning here that Kamran Rasool was also Chief Secretary of Punjab and was removed by Chaudhries of Gujrat as he used to create obstacles in implementation of their projects. He is famous for his Golf background and the game has always helped him in his career. Although, famous turnaround experts like Tariq Karmani have failed to revive PIA, we still hope that Kamran Rasool will do something different.
Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) on Thursday reverted to its former system of management with powers shared by the chairman and the managing director in a bid to revive the sagging fortunes of the national carrier.
The reversion to the old system has cost the airline its chairman Mr Zaffar A. Khan, who resigned because of differences over the choice for the managing director’s post.
Mr Zaffar Khan, who saw the airline through the operational restrictions slapped by EU last year, had been holding both the offices of the chairman and managing director since April last year. His predecessors, Mr Tariq Kirmani and Mr Ahmad Saeed, had also held both the offices.
Federal Defence Secretary Kamran Rasool is the new chairman, while the position of managing director had gone to Aslam R. Khan, a former PIA officer.
Mr Zaffar Khan while talking to Dawn said that in principle he always supported the bifurcation of the offices of chairman and managing director. “However, the question was of appointing the right person.â€
Questions are also being raised about making such appointments at a time when a new government is about to take office.Mr Zaffar Khan said he had no regrets for leaving the office, except for the fact that he could not bring about a financial turnaround and stem the losses. Otherwise, he said, he had tried his best and made substantial improvements, which would be of benefit to the airline and his successors.
Mr Aslam Khan said he wanted to end uncertainty in the airline and would assure the employees that there would be no layoffs. The employees, he said, needed to be motivated and gelled together as a committed team. (DAWN)
by MJK on February 29, 2008
Why United States in asking Turkey now to stop its operations against the PKK rebels in Northern Iraq when it did nothing to stop PKK from launching cross border infiltrations in Turkey. The attacks on Turkish army was becoming a routine and bomb blasts were taking place in all major cities of the country. Even United States is itself launching cross border attacks inside Pakistan but it is asking Turkey to avoid it because it might hurt the interests in United States.
ANKARA, Feb 28: Turkey insisted on Thursday that its offensive against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq would continue “as long as necessaryâ€, while US President George Bush mounted pressure on Ankara to wrap up its incursion quickly.
As US Defence Secretary Robert Gates held talks in Ankara, Turkish warplanes bombed separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) positions in northern Iraq and intensive fighting was reported on the ground near a major rebel base.
Seven Kurdish rebels were killed during clashes on Wednesday, bringing to 237 the number of separatist fighters killed in a week of fighting.
In Washington, Mr Bush said the incursion, launched on Feb 21, should be “limited and… temporary in natureâ€. He urged the Turkish military “to move quickly, achieve their objective and then get out… as quickly as possibleâ€.
Speaking after meeting Robert Gates earlier, Turkish Defence Minister Vecdi Gonul refused to give a timetable for a pullout. “Turkey will remain in northern Iraq as long as necessary†and the troops will return home once PKK hideouts are destroyed, he told reporters.
“There is no need for us to stay there after we finish (off) the terrorist infrastructure… We have no intention to interfere in (Iraqi) domestic politics, no intention to occupy any area,†he said. (AFP)
by MJK on February 28, 2008
As we all know that Pakistan Peoples Party has some second thought about the next prime minister of our country. The name of Amin Fahim, which was first mentioned after the elections has now being thrown to the second place and Yousaf Raza Gillani, Shah Mehmud Qureshi and Ahmed Mukhtar are the new faces in the line. The simple reason given for the selection of these three people and dropping Amin Fahim is that the future Prime Minister should be from Punjab.
This compelled me to think once again if all those people who complain about discrimination based on their provinces are right and justified or is this something natural but we are taking it misinterpreting it? After the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, Chaudhries played the Punjab card and now Zardari is playing the same card. I was even more shocked to hear to the Mir of Hunza Ghazanfar Ali Khan telling the Geo Program “Aik Den Geo Kaay Saath” that he uses his wife links to claim his Punjabi origin because that is the best way to survive in Pakistan. I was a bit shocked and i am sure i am justified in this shock as to why we involve ourselves in such acts which is fueling nothing else but disintegration of our country. We have already lost half of our country to this discriminatory attitude and am sure if this trend continued, we will lose another half as well.
It is high time for us to stop these small acts of differentiation based on races and provinces and try to forge our combine unity as Muslims and Pakistanis.
by MJK on February 26, 2008
(Author: Blogger Hamza Khan)
Today i am going to explain the general description of the Assault rifle used by the Pakistan Army i.e G3. The G3 was originally produced by the German Company Heckler and Koch (HK). Due to its simplicity and cheap manufacturing, it was adopted as the standard assault rifle by more than 50 countries including Pakistan, Iran, Greece, Turkey, Mexico. It is licensed produced in Pakistan, Turkey and Iran.
Technical Description
The G3 works on the mechanism of ” Roller Locked Delayed Blowback”. In simple words the pressure generated by the firing cartridge pushes back the bolt which ejects the cartridge and loads a new round. The receiver of this gun is made up of stamped sheets made up of steel.
It is a select fire rifle i.e it has an option of firing in single shots and fully automatic mode. It has iron sights for aiming. Early versions had wooden butts and handgaurds, but the new ones have plastic handgaurds and butts. This rifle is chambered for 7.62×51mm Nato cartridge (energy genreated by this round is approximatley 2980-3340 EO, Joules).
Drawbacks
There are two main drawbacks. 1: This gun is too heavy. While most modern assault rifles weighs no more than 3.5kg, its weighs a hefty 4.5kg. This weight proves difficult in wartime situation when u are carrying heavy bag packs and u have to walk miles holding it. This is main reason why it got replaced by other rifle (still being used e.g in Pakistan and Iran).
2: Second big drawback is its cartridge (7.62X51MM). The gun is uncontrollable in fully automatic firing because of its powerful bullet as the recoil generated by its bullet is too much to accurately aim and fire it in fully automatic mode.
Specification
Calibre: 7.62×51mm NATO
Length: 1025mm
Weight:4.5kg
Magazine capacity: 20 rounds
Rate of fire: 700-800 rounds per minute RPM
