Pak Tea House » Yusuf Raza Gillani
Things More Important than Sovereignty and Honor
Zia Ahmad Two days ago, a motley crew of a handful militants raided and occupied a highly sensitive and supposedly heavily fortified Naval air base in Karachi. The ensuing battle lasted for sixteen plus hours at the cost of ten military personnel, fourteen injuries and two surveillance planes. Bear in mind, these are the official numbers. We can’t really blame the people if they find the official toll of damages suspect and assume a higher count of casualties. It is also said that a contingent of a hundred commandos was deployed to reclaim the naval base. Let’s run the numbers again: … Read entire article »
Filed under: Al Qaeda, Army, Karachi, Taliban, Terrorism, violence, Yusuf Raza Gillani
Pakistan PM Gilani defends military, intelligence in wake of bin Laden raid
By Issam Ahmed Analysts see the Pakistan prime minister’s speech as an attempt to counter popular anger and outflank the political opposition regarding the US raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound. Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani speaks during parliament session in Islamabad, on May 9. Gilani on Monday strongly defended his military and intelligence agencies, calling allegations of complicity in sheltering Osama bin Laden ‘absurd’ and vowing to launch an investigation. Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani strongly … Read entire article »
Filed under: Army, ISI, Yusuf Raza Gillani
Overcoming Pakistan’s Demographic Challanges
On July 11, 2010, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani delivered a speech in Islamabad to commemorate World Population Day. He announced that in order to highlight the crucial connection between demographics and economic growth, 2011 would be designated “Population Year” in Pakistan. “All hopes of development and economic prosperity would flounder if we as a nation lose the focus and do not keep [the] population issue in the spotlight,” he declared. Hopefully that spotlight comes with a long shelf life. Pakistan faces acute population challenges. If they are to be overcome, they will need to be illuminated for far more than a year. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Pakistan, Yusuf Raza Gillani
Its The Efficiency Stupid!
By D. Asghar Our beloved Premier Gilani has issued an executive order to curtail the two day weekend to a one day weekend in the government offices. The move on the surface seems to be of well intentions and to increase and enhance productivity. This is also due to the fact that electricity is not a major issue in winters and hence the business of the government can be conducted in a more conducive and viable environment. The underlying issue here in my opinion is not the weather or number of days. The bigger issue is lack of proper metrics to measure productivity. In this day and age, where we are in the electronic age, very sadly a lot of public departments are still running on paper and antiquated filing system. If you … Read entire article »
Filed under: Pakistan, People's Pakistan, Yusuf Raza Gillani
We Shall Overrun: The Young, Urban, Middle Class Pakistani Manifesto
By Nadeem F. Paracha http://blog.dawn.com/2010/03/20/we-shall-overrun/ 1. Asif Ali Zardari is the devil incarnate. 2. The Pakistan Army is the saviour. 3. The Taliban are resisting American imperialism. 4. We hate American foreign policy unless it suits us. We are against American imperialism if it means we have to ditch the Taliban as that would be against the aspirations of our founding father, Mohammed Bin Qasim. We will no longer shop at Marks and Spencer because they are somehow connected to Israel. However, that does not mean we will switch off our computers and cell phones whose chip technology has been made possible due to major contributions from Israeli scientists. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Al Qaeda, Army, baluchistan, Benazir Bhutto, Democracy, FATA, Humor, India, Iran, Islam, Islamabad, Pakistan, Punjab, Punjabi, Religion, Taliban, USA, Writers, Yusuf Raza Gillani, Zardari
Giving credit where it is due
Published in the Daily Times Giving Credit Where it’s Due (Daily Times 04/26) By Agha Haidar Raza Pakistan recently had two major delegations visiting the US. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi led the first contingent under the auspices of a new ‘Strategic Dialogue’ with the US. In the second trip, Prime Minister Gilani led his team to President Obama’s first Nuclear Summit. Attended by over 47 heads of state, the summit was the largest gathering of world leaders to descend upon the US soil since the 1940s. Recognised as one of the world’s safe-keepers of a nuclear stockpile, Pakistan gained a nod of approval from the world’s seven nuclear bomb carriers. I am unaware if many journalists or citizens in Pakistan read foreign newspapers, magazines or even blogs, but over the course of the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Army, Benazir Bhutto, Constitution, Democracy, Economy, Egalitarian Pakistan, India, Islamabad, Judiciary, Liberal Democratic Pakistan, Pakistan, public policy, state, Taliban, Terrorism, USA, Yusuf Raza Gillani, Zardari
It is not perfect, but it is still a historic Constitutional Amendment
Daily Dawn Editorial, Published April 09, 2010 http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/editorial/historic-940 They’ve done it. Proving all the naysayers wrong, dismissing all the conspiracy theorists, rejecting all those who would be spoilers, the National Assembly of Pakistan has approved a constitution that for the first time in decades will have the broad support of the people’s elected representatives. Such was the bonhomie in the house yesterday that regular watchers of parliament may have rubbed their eyes in disbelief: was that really Chaudhry Nisar, leader of the opposition, the PML-N attacker-in-chief, a seemingly perennially angry man, praising the PPP co-chairman, President Asif Ali Zardari? Yes, it was. It was that kind of a day. A historic day in Pakistan’s parliamentary history, one that the MNAs deserve a heartfelt thanks for. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Democracy, Islamabad, Liberal Democratic Pakistan, Pakistan, Yusuf Raza Gillani, Zardari
SHAME: "Progressive" 18th Amendment Ends Forever The Possibility Of A Non-Muslim Prime Minister!
By Yasser Latif Hamdani I know the self styled “progressives” hate it when I bring up Pakistan’s founding father but here I am forced to do so again: Even now there are some States in existence where there are discriminations made and bars imposed against a particular class. Thank God, we are not starting in those days. We are starting in the days where there is no discrimination, no distinction between one community and another, no discrimination between one caste or creed and another. We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of one State. - Mahomed Ali Jinnah, The Founder of Pakistan Sadly - Modern Pakistan is one of those states Jinnah warned against! If we started with this fundamental principle, well we have been moving backwards for over … Read entire article »
Filed under: Constitution, Democracy, Pakistan, People's Pakistan, Religion, secular Pakistan, Yusuf Raza Gillani
General in the Hood
(The views expressed here are not necessarily subscribed by the PTH – Editors) THE TIMES OF INDIA By Indrani Baghchi March 22, 2010 Those who know him say he is a brooder. But those who know him well will tell you that’s just one of the layers to the deeply complicated and thinking mind of Pakistan army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. The bluster that marked Musharraf has been dumped for quiet gravitas as the man from Rawalpindi goes about turning friends like the US and Britain into closer allies and outmanoeuvering not-so-friendly neighbours like India and Afghanistan at international fora. In a country brought to its knees by terror, corruption and an inept political system, the former ISI chief is putting up a masterly show as he calls the shots. Sitting with foreign minister S … Read entire article »
Filed under: Afghanistan, Army, Benazir Bhutto, FATA, India, Islamabad, Pakistan, south asia, Taliban, Terrorism, USA, Yusuf Raza Gillani, Zardari
Army Chief Driving Pakistan’s Agenda for Talks
Pakistan military is at it again. The news that Army Chief is driving Pakistani policy agenda in Washington is another sign shown by the Pakistan Army that bloody civilians are not to be trusted, yet again. After making a mess of Pakistan by running proxy policies in its Eastern and Western borders, why is the Army taking a lead in developing the new policy for the next decade. Has Army not learnt from the past? In a democratic state, it is the government that sets the policies and leads all policy discussions with the foreign nations. All of us who wish to see democratic rule thrive must condemn this manoeuvre by the Pakistan Army. “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it” (AZW) Cross Post from The New York … Read entire article »
Filed under: Afghanistan, Army, Democracy, FATA, India, Islam, Islamabad, Liberal Democratic Pakistan, Media, Pakistan, state, strategy, Taliban, Terrorism, USA, war, Yusuf Raza Gillani, Zardari
Khuda Hafiz Pakistan
by Nirupama Subramanian Cross Post from http://beta.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article258515.ece “There is a Pakistani in every Indian; and an Indian in every Pakistani,” President Asif Ali Zardari famously said two years ago. Those words rang in my head with new resonance as I packed my bags and left Pakistan recently after a nearly four-year-long assignment as this newspaper’s Islamabad-based correspondent. It should have been easy to leave a country that is by word and deed hostile to India, and where the state machinery treats every Indian as a “RAW agent”, spending considerable human and material resources on the surveillance of the only two Indian journalists — from The Hindu and Press Trust India — that are permitted to be based there. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Afghanistan, Army, culture, Democracy, India, Islamabad, journalism, liberal Pakistan, Media, Pakistan, Society, Terrorism, Yusuf Raza Gillani, Zardari
Pakistan: democratic governance is the only way forward
by Raza Rumi Given the average shelf life of any civilian government, it is almost miraculous that the incumbent government has survived and there are signs that its removal is not immediate. The longevity of civilian order has less to do with the inherent strengths of its style of governance or delivery of public goods that it had promised in its manifesto. The survival of this government is an outcome of the lack of options … Read entire article »
Filed under: Democracy, Liberal Democratic Pakistan, Pakistan, Politics, public policy, state, Yusuf Raza Gillani, Zardari
Coming Full Circle
By Cyril Almeida From www.dawn.com, Published February 12, 2010 http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/columnists/13+cyril-almeida-coming-full-circle-220-za-02 Our boys in uniform have a spring in their step again. Domestically, they have taken on two enemies and appear to be winning: the civilian government has been reduced to parroting the army’s line on security issues, while the TTP is a significantly degraded force. Regionally, they can barely suppress their grins. In a few short weeks, the Americans have gone from threatening a ‘Pakistan first’ option in the war against Al Qaeda and associated movements to desperately seeking someone in Islamabad, or more accurately Pindi, who can put them in touch with the Taliban’s so-called ‘reconcilable’ elements. It’s not quite a wave of triumphalism that is sweeping over the army but there definitely is a widely shared sense of validation. And that should worry … Read entire article »
Filed under: Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, Army, Democracy, Egalitarian Pakistan, FATA, India, Islamabad, North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan, People's Pakistan, Taliban, USA, war, Yusuf Raza Gillani, Zardari
For Every Decent Human Being
By Bilal Qureshi Isn’t it time? For every decent human being, it is sickening to see people being butchered the way human beings are slaughtered in Pakistan these days. Human life has no respect or value for barbaric animals responsible for these bombings and suicide attacks. And if the news of bombings and killing was not enough, I was horrified to learn that Lahore’s commissioner (incorrectly) blames India for these attacks while Punjab’s law minister (correctly) believes that the thugs being smoked out from Swat and Wazirstan are actually behind these attacks to force the government to back down. Isn’t it time for Pakistan to get united? Isn’t it time stop obsessing about India? Isn’t it time to be realistic? … Read entire article »
Filed under: Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, Army, baluchistan, Democracy, History, Identity, India, Islamabad, journalism, Pakistan, Parliament, Politics, Terrorism, violence, Yusuf Raza Gillani, Zardari
Afghanistan's Great Game And Superficial Analysis By US Foreign Policy Analysts
By Yasser Latif Hamdani The article below from Examiner epitomizes bad analysis that some in the US insist on carrying out which is damaging to the much flaunted “common objective”. God forbid if the author is right, it just means that the US is pursuing a perilous path by ignoring advice from Pakistan’s hardened policy hands. The author is absolutely wrong when she says the Pakistan Army “has never been excited” about US aid and intervention. The Pakistani military has always been very close to the Pentagon. What Obama needs is a sustainable strategy which brings on board every key player including Pakistan’s civilian federal government and the Pakistan Army. This means that the US will have to address Pakistan’s concerns vis a vis Indian involvement in Afghanistan. All of India’s so called interests in Afghanistan are Pakistan specific. Furthermore, the US needs … Read entire article »
Filed under: Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, Army, India, North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan, Politics, Terrorism, USA, violence, war, World, Yusuf Raza Gillani, Zardari
PTH biweekly Cartoon
Picture of the Week
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Sunrise at the Arabian Sea, Charna Island
24 Dec 2011
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