From the monthly archives:

October 2008

PTCL To Contribute 1Crore For Balochistan Earthquake

by Qurratulain Akhtar on October 31, 2008

PTCL has announced this amount out of the net profit company had in the first quarter of the year 2008. President PTCL, Walid Irshaid addressing a press conference on Tuesday reported that PTCL earned total revenues of about Rs16.6 billion in the first quarter of year 2008, out of which the net profit was Rs3.2 billion.

I’m quite sure that not only the PTCL, but almost all cellular services are having enough good amount of revenues, and taking out a little for the victims will not make harm to them, so they should have a look at this area. Not particularly the victims of Balochistan quake, but a lot of areas are looking for their help!

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Balochistan Pleads Help

by Sana Saleem on October 30, 2008

One of the most deadliest earthquakes to hit Pakistan measured a 7.6 on the Richter scale, effecting Kashmir and the northern area. On Wednesday 29th of Oct an earthquake jolted  Baluchistan. Today the people of Baluchistan need us expecting aid to flood in full vigor. The nation set standards with exemplary rescue and relief work in Kashmir quake. Today history must repeat itself and the nation needs to stand side by side in this time of need. Baluchistan has been highlighted with complains of negligence making this a time for us to aid their insecurities.

 

Often in times of chaos we find a realm of peace and unspoken bonds. It is a time where the primary focus remains facilitating the needy. We need to do our little bits and make them effective. It is with  unanimous support that rescue ideas can be implemented. The army has already started the initial rescue work. For the rest of us there is a lot that we can do. I would like to highlight the plea of ‘Mission Rescue Pakistan’  as they have made arrangements to gather commodities. A relief camp will be set up to gather ‘commodities’ not ‘cash’ in Karachi :

 

The Appeal:

We are setting up relief camp, to help the earth quake victims of Baluchistan. We have already got the permission from CDGK, and probably we will be setting up the place opposite to Park Towers in Old Clifton Area.

We will try to make it operational from Saturday Morning, and will operate it for 3 days. We will be needing Volunteers from Mission Rescue Pakistan, to spend time their. 

All Interested volunteers, please feel free to contact me or Naveed on following numbers:-

 

Fawad- +92321-2437256

Naveed: +92345- 2208122

 

The procedure is simple: we will collect commodities here, and will transport it to Quetta, two volunteers will be flying to Quetta, to make sure the smooth distribution of the commodities. 

 

At Pro-Pakistan we are welcoming anyone and everyone who wishes to highlight such appeals. If you wish to participate, arrange or are aware of any such activities we would be more than pleased to help you. The death toll continues to rise as temperature continues to fall. The people are in need of immediate relief. With the help of everyone it would become a lot easier to provide immediate relief to the effected people. Do the little bit that you can in what ever way appropriate as everything makes a difference. Everyone of us is required at this particular time and even a little bit can help ease their problems. Its in these times that I can really look around and feel blessed. In times of need the minutest of things inspire you to a great deal. Although it might not mean as much but I just wanted to mention a few people who have shown such interest in the plea of the victims. Thank you !

 

In the end there are a few people that I would like to mention 

A fellow blogger odzer , for having such keen interest in the wellness of the people of Pakistan and effected people in general. These are the small bits that motivate one to work harder and realize that there are still people out there who really care for victims in general regardless of race,creed,religion or ethnicity.

 

Mission Rescue Pakistan Team, for taking an immediate step towards establishing relief camps. Also for always being keen to help the nation in general. The national attitude will help us reinstate the current situation we are all effected by.

Lastly but most important the Pro-Pakistan team who have always been forthcoming in highlighting everything and anything to do with Pakistan without bias. Thumbs up for my team :)

 

PS: Am sure the list will need a lot of updation quite soon :)

*updated*

Special thanks to Ammar Yasir (RONIN) from teak-break for taking the initiative of highlighting the appeal. A very positive gesture as always expected from the tea-break team :) . Appreciations for taking an immediate and effective step towards highlighting the plea of the victims *thumbs up*

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Pro Pakistan Babajee

by MJK on October 30, 2008

Pro Pakistan Babajee

Sometimes i wonder how many such people we are left with in our country? Do you think we will soon be over with this Pro Pakistan spirit?

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Telenor Bought 60% Shares in Unitech Wireless in India

by MJK on October 30, 2008

Telenor has entered into an agreement to buy 60% share holding in Unitech Wireless India, which will give it a license to enter Indian market. Unitech Wireless is a new startup with around 250 employees and pan Indian license in all 22 license circles of India. Unitech Wireless plans to launch its service in 2009.Telenor India

The Indian market is currently experiencing a major growth in mobile penetration and its current mobile penetration stands at 26% with a total population of 1.2 billion. Therefore, there is tremendous potential in the market for growth and all major operators are vying to enter the Indian market. Telenor is already operating in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Malaysian markets. Recently, telenor profits have been hit by the turmoil in the Asian markets.

“Gaining access to the world’s second largest mobile market is a major achievement for Telenor. Entering the Indian mobile market gives Telenor a unique possibility to further enhance the Telenor Group’s position as one of the leading emerging markets operators, and enables us to take part in the development and growth opportunities in one of the fastest growing telecom market in the world,” said Jon Fredrik Baksaas, President and CEO of Telenor.

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Kashmir Issue - Headache of the people of subcontinent?

by MJK on October 29, 2008

By Manzoor Ahmed

The British Parliament passed Independence Act, in 1947, miserably failed in its full and satisfactory implementation, and thus left a bleeding wound in the Sub-Continent in the shape of Kashmir dispute. The rulers in Pakistan and India further exploited the issue and used it as a pretext to impoverish their peoples. Neither Kashmir issue was resolved nor the people were developed, both the Kashmir issue and the poverty of the people in both countries travel hand in hand.

A simple legal and political issue of the right of accession got the shape of such dragon, which devoured the development of the peoples in both countries. This issue paved the way to the acquisition of weapons of mass destruction in both the countries at the cost of the human development. It provided a pretext to the rulers in both the countries to make the lives of its own people in the hell by not diverting funds to their development.

The religious parties and groups hijacked the issue, started arm struggle against each other, and rendered it a tool for the accumulation of money from the people. They are funded at the expense of the people of both the countries. Both the countries are stuffing facilities in the Kashmiris in the hope to get their support which further fragmented them and despite hot struggle since 1988 and martyrdom of thousands of people, no result was obtained. If the issue is viewed as a legal person, it becomes evident that Indians played a foul play by sending army to Kashmir by considering it as a part of India. Whereas, Kashmir was a State; had yet to decide to join any country. Neither the ruler gave an opportunity to the Kashmiris to decide whether they wished to join Pakistan or India nor India showed any patience in the resolution of this dispute. Kashmir was, is and will remain the unfinished agenda of the partition of the Sub-Continent. The Indian Independence Act 1947 is yet to be fully implemented by the British Government if they consider their Parliament fully sovereign and champion of the human rights. It was the high-handedness of India to ignore the wishes of the people of Kashmir despite being claiming the largest democracy in the World. I am against neither India nor any other Country of the World because I want to have a clear and unbiased mind towards the resolution of all the problems. I love humanity whether of my Country or of any other Country. I do not want to confine my thinking only to a certain aspect of a matter. When the Indian Prime Minister promised with the people of Kashmir of plebiscite, also took the issue to the U.N.O. then why the issued was ignored for the last 60 years. History shows us that those people who sincerely devoted themselves to any cause, they achieved the desired results eventually but what is the flaw in the liberation of the Kashmir? I am of the opinion that the Kashmiri people are themselves are responsible for the delay in their liberation. Those who had the capability to play a vital role in the liberation either went abroad and settled there peacefully or are just holding conferences, seminars and spend their wealth in vain.

The British Government ignored the Kashmiris for all the times but it is also ironical that the majority of the Kashmiris preferred to live in the Britain and are just wasting their time in holding conferences, seminars, rallies and debates. They are asking those for the help who have created this problem for them. They are playing a key role in building the economy of that Country which has tried to destroy their specificity in the World and have left them on the mercy of India and Pakistan and the “helpless” U.N.O which has no force to implement its authority in an area without the wishes of the aggressor. It was the responsibility of the Kashmiri leaders to show their people their actual enemy but even their own leaders visit all those countries for merry-making who have closed their eyes and ears to the Kashmiri people. It was the responsibility of the Kashmiri leaders to organise their people at all levels for winning for themselves the right of self-determination from the people of the World.

Late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was indeed a great and shrewd leader when in 1976, he said that Pakistani people can help the Kashmiris people but could not get independence for them from India. In this way, he sent a strong message to the Kashmiris to be united in their cause of independence and mobilize all their monetary, military, political resources to their mission. It they are clear in their approach then they should arm themselves instead of killing themselves on the Indian forces having guns in their hands. Demonstrations, processions are meaningless when the opposite party is armed with sophisticated weapons. I salute to the Kashmiri mothers, sisters, daughters who are courageous and always encourage their men. Now it is the responsibility of the men of Kashmir to show masculinity in their cause of independence instead of telling stories of the Indian atrocities to the print and electronic media. They should speak that language with the brute Indian forces in which they speak with the Kashmiri people.

Kashmiri people are very intelligent, brave, rich in wealth and firm in their determination and struggle but have weakened themselves by living in almost every country of Europe and America. They should come back along with their wealth which they have kept in the banks of foreign countries for the last 60 years instead of depending on our resources. They will have to sacrifice their wealth and comfortable lives abroad for the independence of Kashmir. How long the people of Pakistan will suffer for their independence. Like the brave Afghans, who expelled the Soviet Union from their country, they will have to expel the Indian Army by creating such atmosphere inside Kashmir which may render their presence impossible. Seminars and Conferences were held for the last 60 years without any result. If the Kashmiri leaders travel the whole World, they will find no friend anywhere who may guarantee to achieve independence for them. This recipe of preaching of the helplessness of the Kashmiri people or atrocities of the occupied forces has become out-dated and should be discarded. Those sitting permanently in the United Nations have now their own priorities and are unwilling to listen to the cries of the people of Kashmir.

In such circumstances, it is the great injustice with the already impoverished people of Pakistan to do more while the Kashmiri themselves pay lukewarm attention to it by leaving their homes in Kashmir and preferring to live abroad. Indeed the Kashmir issue is a fertile issue for those leaders among the people who use the name of Kashmir but spoil the wealth, time and resources of the people. Every strategy was used to resolve this issue by the Governments of Pakistan and India but faced failure and they will face failure in the future until the active participation of the people Kashmir.

The British Government created problem for the Kashmiri 60 years ago, Almighty God created problems for the British in Afghanistan and they remain day and night in fear of death along with their sophisticated weapons in hand.

I request those powers who have created this problem to compel India to accept the right of self determination to the Kashmiri people and in this way they will also take some mercy on the people of Pakistan that their leaders will not be able any more to use huge funds for this problem by ignoring the most deserved people of their Country.

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DHA Valley Ballot Result of Successful Candidates

by MJK on October 29, 2008

I just came across the formal result of DHA which includes the list of Successful candidates. You can access it by clicking here.

Thanks for visiting Pro-Pakistan!

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Provincial Discrimination against NWFP

by MJK on October 29, 2008

A lot of incidents happen in which bias is shown against minority provinces in Pakistan. People do come out and complain but that complain always fall on deaf ears. But recently, the government at the center and WAPDA set an extreme example but reducing the monthly electricity bill of all three provinces except NWFP.

Provinces

The details of the incident is such that this month our democratically elected PPP government increased the electricity rates all across the country and that change was incorporated in the monthly bill. After protests from different quarters of the country, the government decided to reduce the bill by 40%. The problem started when the government only allowed the decrease in the bill for the three provinces leaving NWFP consumers to pay the full bill. It is worth mentioning here that NWFP is the largest producer of electricity in the country and as i have said before, the recent power shortage can also be attributed to some inter provincial politics. In such scenario not reducing electricity bills of NWFP consumers is nothing different then what we did with the people of Bangladesh some three decades back.

It is also worth mentioning here that NWFP is already facing flour shortage and its price is double to triple that of its neighboring province Punjab. Moreover, NWFP is the worst affecte’s of War on Terror. In all these scenarios this new biased attitude of center government speaks volumes of why there is so much inter provincial politics in our country.

It is time that we wake up to such discriminatory attitude because it will harm our country and we cannot afford to have another partition after the debacle of 1971. We want to unite our provinces under a stronger and unbiased federation.

I will also mention a fact that the so called ANP government has yet to take this discrimination with the federal government. I think Asfandyar Wali is too busy in hiding himself from terrorists to think about the people of the province.

The News Reported this story on 29th October, 2008

PESHAWAR: A large number of people of the provincial capital have expressed anger at the discriminatory attitude of the Wapda towards Frontier consumers, threatening not to deposit their electricity bills if they were not given 40 per cent cut like other provinces.
The electricity consumers of Badhber, Surizai, Garhi Qamardin, Bahader Kelay, Achar, Dora Road, Small Industrial Estate, Murshid Abad, Landi Arbab and other localities were anguished at what they believed was discriminatory attitude of the government authorities.
“The federal minister for water and power himself has said on the state television that the government would give 40 per cent relief on the bills and those who had already deposited their electricity bills would be compensated in the next month by adjusting the amount paid earlier. However, when I went to the concerned office on Kohat Road I was told that the package was not for Frontier,” Hayat Khan, a villager of Garhi Qamardin, told this scribe.
The people were shocked when they learnt that there was no relief for power consumers of the Frontier while the facility had already been extended to the Punjab and Sindh consumers.
They demanded of the government to come up with uniformed policies for all the citizens as such discriminatory actions would anger the people of the province. People across the country are already fed up with the 12 hours load-shedding a day that has paralysed the life.
Chief Minister Ameer Haider Hoti admitted during a function on Monday that the people had suffered due to 20-hour loadshedding in some areas. This is for the first time in recent history that people of the country are facing such a worst power crises and the government authorities seem to have failed completely to overcome the problem.

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Deadliest Earth Quake Hits Quetta

by Qurratulain Akhtar on October 29, 2008

Associated Press reports:

A strong earthquake struck villages in southwestern Pakistan before dawn Wednesday, killing at least 100 people, injuring scores more and destroying hundreds of homes, officials said.

The death toll was expected to rise as reports arrived from remote areas of Baluchistan province, an impoverished area bordering Afghanistan.

“It will be much more,” Sohail ur Rahman, a top civilian official in one of the affected districts, told Dawn News television.

Zamaruk Khan, the minister for revenue and rehabilitation, said “more than 100″ people have been found dead so far and the government is readying food, shelter and medical care for survivors.

A reporter for AP Television News saw dozens of bodies and injured in a hospital in Zaras, in the Ziarat district. A doctor there, Mohammed Irfan, said the hospital was unable to cope with the injured it was receiving.

The quake struck two hours before dawn and had a preliminary magnitude of 6.4, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. It was a shallow 10 miles below the surface and was centered about 400 miles southwest of the capital, Islamabad.

The worst-hit area appeared to be Ziarat, where hundreds of mostly mud and timber houses were destroyed in five villages, said the mayor, Dilawar Kakar. Some were buried in landslides triggered by the quake, he said.

Kakar said 120 about people were injured.

“Rescue work is being carried out by the villagers themselves, but a larger operation is needed here,” he said.

The army said it was rushing medical teams on helicopters to the affected villages.

Pakistan is prone to violent seismic upheavals. Wednesday’s quake was the deadliest since a magnitude-7.6 quake devastated Kashmir and northern Pakistan in October 2005, killing about 80,000 people and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.

Baluchistan is home to a long-running separatist movement, but is not considered a major battle ground in the fight against Taliban insurgents that plague other border regions.

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Another killed in the name of honor

by MJK on October 27, 2008

My day started pretty good today: I forgot to read the newspaper in the morning. The day went fine till I came back home about an hour ago, when a newspaper was waiting for me as I sat for dinner, and that was when I thought that my day has had one of the worst endings today.

It hasnt been long since the burying of alive women in Baluchistan when we come across yet another ruthless murder in Sindh that happened in March this year. A 17 year girl, Taslim Solangi, was made to run for her life in front of hungry dogs, and then shot dead once she fell to the ground of wounded and tired legs, all in the name of the much spoken of ‘honor killing’ by the elders of the tribe. It has been found that the culprits wanted to get hold of her father’s land, and hence, they did so in order to pressurize him. Another man from the area was fined and threatened by the killers and elders of the tribe to confess having an illicit relationship with the girl, so as to justify their act of ‘honor killing’. The father of the girl is said to have surrendered his land to the killers in order to prevent any further bloody incident.

In May of this year a Jirga, an illegal tribal court, was held against a girl of 17 years in which she was declared as Kari (having had an illicit relationship with someone). This was done, according to the tribal traditions, to justify her earlier murder by members of her own family. The Jirga was held at Hajna Shah Goth, Ahmedpur, Pir jo Goth, Khairpur Mirs District under the chairmanship of Mr. Sain Allad Dad Solangi, the head of the Solangi tribe of Sindh province.

According to the information, received only recently, after a land dispute, Ms. Taslim Solangi, age 17, was pressured to ask her parents to hand over all their property, including six acres of cultivated land and cattle farms to her uncle. On her refusal the perpetrators abducted her father, Gul Sher and detained him at his younger brother’s house.

At the same location on March 7, 2008, Taslim was subjected to the cruelest possible ordeal. She was made to run before a pack of dogs that bit at her legs until, exhausted, she fell to the ground where they continued to maul her. She was subsequently shot by Zameer Solangi in the presence of her father in order to intimidate him. Also present were Mr. Karim Bux, who is also an uncle of the girl and a councilor in local bodies. It was due to the influence of these persons that the police took no action in the killing and land dispute. Later, in May Mr. Karim arranged a jirga in order to justify the killing and obtain impunity for all his brothers. The Jirga was conducted by Mr. Sain Allah Dad, a powerful land lord of the Pir Jo Goth. Furthermore, Mr. Abdul Qayum, a wealthy person of the area, was fined Rs. 400,000 and threatened by the killers and the elders of the tribe to confess to the crime of having had an illicit relationship with Tasleem. He was threatened with death if he refused to do so.

In the absence of rule of law and a proper prosecution system the powerful people, who are at the same time representatives of people at different levels, are enjoying impunity and using their power against a very marginal section of the society. The family of Gul Sher has left their house and village and all his property is under the control of killers. However, as stated earlier, the police and people’s representatives have taken no action in their support. The powerful people know that police and law can be purchased at any price so they enjoy the weaknesses of authorities.

The Asian Human Rights Commission urges the government to have a proper investigation into the horrific murder of Ms. Tasleem Solangi on the pretext of honor killing. The dreadful death of this innocent girl was purely for the purpose of grabbing her father’s land. This is yet another example of the use of honour killings in order to settle personal disputes.

It is ironic that this coldblooded murder took place in the constituency of the Chief Minister Sindh, and the area of the Pir of Pagaro. The daughter of the CM was also elected on women’s seat from the same area. Also present at the scene was the councilor of the local bodies who also happens to be an uncle of the girl. No wonder the police deny having known about any such incident. Are we waiting for yet another statement like that of an MPA from Baluchistan, who at the burying alive of five women in Baluchistan said that people out there should not mess with the Baloch rituals and traditions?

Incidents like these make me think why we still haven’t been engulfed by an angry sea, or swallowed by the hungry earth. When girls like Taslim die with a longing for justice, when bystanders cannot speak of the crime, when the powerful back the offenders, and the criminals walk the face of the earth with impunity, we do not deserve to ask for all the troubles to lift, and for harmony to fall to us from heaven. May God grant us forgiveness and the strenth to fight such evil!

http://www.ahrchk.net/statements/mainfile.php/2008statements/1743/

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