With Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone neck and neck in most opinion polls, the second preference votes of the Liberal Democrat candidate, Brian Paddick, and those of the minor parties are likely to prove the deciding factor.

As they hit the rain-soaked streets of the Capital to drum out the vote, both of the main candidates are now focusing on portraying themselves as the least-worst option.

Mr Livingstone has taken out newspaper adverts, posters in Tube stations and sent a million postcards to households around London branding Mr Johnson "a joke". The campaign literature says: "Don't Vote For a Joke - Vote For London'".

The Conservative challenger's message as he met commuters at Waterloo station before taking his battlebus to canvass deep into the traditional Labour stronghold of Haringey in north London was “anyone but Ken”.

Under the London mayor electoral system, voters are invited to indicate a first and second choice. When the votes are counted, all candidates apart from the top two will be eliminated, and their second preferences redistributed.

Although Thursday is polling day, the final declaration will not be made until between 6pm and 9pm on Friday at City Hall.

With opinion polls putting him at around 12 per cent, it is the second preferences of Mr Paddick which are likely to prove crucial.

He has consistently refused to offer any advice to his backers over who they should choose as their second choice.

Meanwhile, Mr Livingstone has submitted a formal complaint to the Market Research Foundation over a series of opinion polls by YouGov, including one due to appear on the morning of polling day itself, which give Mr Johnson double digit leads.

The mayor's campaign say YouGov's methodology is doubtful as it uses online polling, and complain that publication of the poll could skew the outcome of the contest.

Mr Johnson's team counter that Labour have been deploying dirty tricks by telling elderly voters, who are generally more likely to take part in elections, that the Conservatives would scrap the Freedom Pass, which gives free travel to the over-60s.

London’s Mayoral election on Thursday
'Pakistan Times' UK Bureau

LONDON (UK): The incumbent Mayor of London Ken Livingstone face a most challenging task yet in the Thursday’s British capital Mayoral election , with Conservative party MP Boris Johnson and former police chief Brian Paddock of Liberal Democrat Party poised to stretch him to the limits.
Housing, transport, gun crime and Olympic funding have dominated the campaign in the run up to the crucial election, as the three major parties pulled out all stops to claim the control of the City Hall and with it 11 billion pounds spending budget.

The polls have put Livingstone and Johnson in a neck and neck race and if the 43-year old Oxford educated Tory MP and former television game show panellist pull off one of the biggest upsets in recent political history, it could well pave the way for Conservative Party success in the next UK parliamentary polls.

Analysts says Boris will have dealt a crushing psychological blow to Labour morale by putting out of power its most important figure at a time when a faltering Prime Minister Gordon Brown can ill afford more turmoil.

In addition to these three main candidates, there are seven others in the fray from the right-wing British National Party to Green Party.
Ken Livingstone,62, who won the elections in 2000 and 2004 has strong support in ethnic minorities and is strongly banking on the support of capital’s Muslim community to return him to office for another term of four years.

The polls open at 7 am and continue till 10 in the evening.
The Londoners will also be voting for 32-member London Assembly whose one key contestant is MP George Galloway, a keen Pakistan supporter.●

South Asia awaits Indian Prime Ministers bold Speech to bring peace

(A speech that he could have given and should have given)

My dearest Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and Sri Lanka brothers and sisters:

Our tryst with destiny on the 15^th of August 1947 turned into a nightmare for the penury stricken citizens of our country. All our countries are held hostage to the extremists on all sides. When “we bicker” and kill each other, “they” profit. South Asia remains the only island of poverty in Asia, and many parts of South Asia are worse off than Sub-Saharan Africa.

To eliminate conflict from the Subcontinent, we want to bring prosperity to all the countries. Because the republic of India is the largest and most powerful country in South Asia, we want to be magnanimous. The new century awaits a vision from us. Our future generation will not forgive us, if we do not correct course and move forward in peace.

As the Prime Minster of India, I have already consulted all major parties in the country, and we have consensus. We will try this out. If it works, we will have a prosperous region. If it does not work, India will continue its march towards progress alone and wait for other countries to join us, when and if they are able to.

As a representative of the Lok Sabha we proclaim the following:

1) The Republic on India opens its universities to all citizens of Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. Special quotas will be created to the IITs and research programs.

2) India will plan to build 100 new women’s hospitals and 100 new women’s IT universities in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh where medication and services will be provided free of cost.

3) India also forms the Earthquake Relief, Tsunami Relief task force for South Asia and will move 50,000 of its soldiers to specially build a Disaster response academy with representation from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Our SAARC response team will provide help to our countries but also be available to disasters throughout the world

4) India unilaterally opens her markets to Pakistan and Bangladesh. We will expect the same courtesy for Indian products in 10 years.

5) Immediate curtailment of Indian defense budget by 25%. We expect all countries to match that budget cut, and we expect that the amount be re-directed towards poverty alleviation plans.

6) Immediate and forthwith action against the Tamil Tigers with the full might of the Indian forces to eliminate them from India and choke their supply lines.

7) India will hold referendums in Behar and Assam to resolve all issues.

8) India is ready to accept China’s claim in Aksai Chin if China accepts the Indian claim on Aranchul Pradesh. We also accept the current boundary between China and India as the permanent boundary, eliminating any need for belligerence. India will stamp out all Tibetan rebels in India and expect China to stop aiding the Naxalites in Nepal and India

9) Immediate withdrawal of Indian forces from Jammu and Kashmir, Sicahen and Sir Creek

10) Our conflict in Kashmir got us started on the wrong footing. We need to address that and solve it now.A referendum in Jammu and Kashmir to confirm the re-drawing the boundaries based on the Chenab solution, with the river Chenab being the boundary between India and Pakistan. All of Kashmir would be totally demilitarized under UN supervision and joint patrolling by India and Pakistan and a joint SAARC defence force

11) Using the Indian and Pakistani currency in all of Jammu and Kashmir, and possibly in the entire Subcontinent.

12) Creation of joint task force to develop the water resources of Jammu and Kashmir to create a Switzerland in the area. India pledges $5 Billion to the endeavor. Our plan would be to get $20 billion per year from tourism from the area.

13) We will ask for a permanent South Asian member of the UN Security Council seat to be rotated by all members of South Asia.

14) I have talked to the Pakistani , Bangladeshi, Sri Lanka prime ministers and they are amenable to revamping the SAARC. We need years of peace to begin moving towards the goal of a South Asian Union patterned on the EU.

15) India will spend $5 Billion to build roads from Delhi via Pakistan to Europe and Central Asia. Indian trucks would run on the elevated highways and high speed trains would run non-stop directly to Kabul, Teheran, Beijing and Europe via Pakistan.

TURKEY HOLDS JOINT AIR FORCE EXERCISES WITH PAKISTAN

By John C. K. Daly

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

While American and European airspace is crisscrossed with commercial aircraft, Eurasia's airspace is increasingly resounding to the roar of military aircraft. Last week the Commonwealth of Independent States held its “Ariel” exercises stretching from the Polish border to the Pacific, while in Afghanistan International Security Assistance Force aircraft carry out daily raids against the remnants of the Taliban.
Now the Pakistani and Turkish air forces are carrying out a joint aerial operation, “Operation Indus Viper 2008,” in Pakistan's skies.

Operation Indus Viper 2008 began on April 21 and is scheduled to last for 10 days. The operation is based at the Pak Faza'ya (Pakistan Air Force, or PAF) facility at Mushaf in Sargodha at the Mushaf in Sargodha base in eastern Pakistan's Punjab province. Five Turk Hava Kuvvetleri (Turkish Air Force, or TuAF) F-16 C/D fighters and 50 personnel from 191 Filo are participating in the joint exercise (Zaman Gaztesi, April 22).

The deputy chief of the air staff, Air Marshal Rao Qamar Suleman, said, "The event will not only give an opportunity to the combat crews of both air forces to interact more closely but will also help in strengthening the brotherly relations that the two nations enjoy" (www.paf.gov.pk). Suleman added that Operation Indus Viper 2008 marked the beginning of a new era with the air forces of the two countries and that the TuAF had consistently maintained its historic traditions, earning a well-deserved name in the ranks of modern air forces.

Turkey’s Ambassador to Pakistan Rauf Engin Soysal and TuAF Deputy Commander, First Air Force Command Major General Sirin Unal of the First Air Force Command Eskisehir, visited the PAF Mushaf Airbase to observe Operation Indus Viper 2008 exercises (Associated Press of Pakistan, April 26). While there, Mushaf Soysal and Unal attended a briefing on Indus Viper 2008 arranged by PAF’s Combat Commanders School, and they subsequently met with the pilots and staff of both the air forces involved in the exercise.

Operation Indus Viper 2008 is not the first joint air exercise carried out by the two nations. At the Operation Indus Viper 2008 concluding ceremony, PAF Acting Chief of the Air Staff (ACAS) Air Marshal Shahid Lateef reminded his audience that contacts between the two air forces went back more than a decade and said, “It was indeed a great honor for the PAF to have Turkish Air Force F-16s participate in our 50th anniversary celebrations in 1997. The Indus Viper exercises ... are indeed an extension of the 1997 co-operation. We are thankful to the TuAF for providing our aircrew and combat controllers the opportunity of gaining useful experience. This will go a long way in helping the PAF to prepare for inter-operability with other air forces of the world” (Daily Times, April 30). Lateef concluded his remarks by lauding the PAF’s current transformation, noting that “in a few years we will be a modern combat outfit ready to undertake integrated operations with any other air force in the world” (The News International, April 30).

The two Air Forces share a number of common characteristics, not least of which is that both are engaged in operations against indigenous terrorism and that they both operate substantial numbers of American aircraft. Security concerns may well have been behind the fact that when the PAF issued a press release on April 14 about the forthcoming exercise, it omitted the operation’s specific dates and duration, saying only, “To benefit from each other’s expertise and professional experiences, the PAF and TuAF are conducting a joint exercise in Pakistan this month. The exercise will benefit both participants, hone their professional skills and further enhance existing brotherly relations between the two nations and their Air Forces” (www.paf.gov.pk).

An interesting aspect of the joint operation is what strengths the two Air Forces bring to the exercise. Besides its recent aerial operations over northern Iraq, the TuAF has had a lot of air combat interdiction experience over the Aegean against Greece’s Hellenic Air Force (HAF), which flies both F-16s and Mirage 2000s.

Furthermore, outside of the United States, the TuAF is the only NATO Air Force that has facilities and training apparatus matching what the USAF has at Nellis Air Force Base for the Red Flag exercises, which provides a substantial body of experience for the PAF to tap. TuAF pilots are used to the tactics of the Israeli Air Force because of joint training scenarios, most notably, the “Anatolian Eagle” exercises, which have been held annually near Konya since 2001.

Besides USAF, TuAF and IAF aircraft, the PAF sent six F-16s to participate in the Anatolian Eagle exercises in 2004 and 2006, but the PAK has more limited experience than the TuAF with Israeli aircraft and tactics (www.tsk.mil.tr). The PAF’s strategic vision is “India specific,” designed and equipped to meet the threat from India, and TuAF pilots will undoubtedly be interested in learning more about the tactics that the PAF has developed to neutralize such a numerically superior potential enemy.

The most interesting post-op discussions will undoubtedly occur in the PAF Mushaf officers’ mess, when PAF and TuAF pilots exchange their stories. A likely topic will be America's reliability as an arms supplier, especially inasmuch as both nations have suffered F-16 embargoes, Turkey after its 1974 operation in northern Cyprus and Pakistan in the wake of its 1999 nuclear tests. As interesting as these conversations will be, it seems rather unlikely that they will ever appear in print.

Saudi Arabia ‘to support Pakistan through thick & thin’ By Hanif Khalid 4/30/2008

Islamabad
Saudi Arabia Ambassador Ali bin Saeed Awadh Asseri has said that his country is true friend of Pakistan and “We will support Pakistan through thick and thin.” He said Saudi Arabia would never interfere in the internal affairs of Pakistan. In an interview with ‘The News’, the envoy disclosed that Saudi Consulates in Islamabad and Karachi are issuing over 1,000 work visas every day to Pakistanis travelling to the Kingdom for employment. “The number is constantly increasing with the passage of time and, I am sure, there would more opportunities for our brothers in Pakistan to find jobs in Saudi Arabia in the future,” he said.

He said, “At the same time, I would like to stress that the environment is becoming increasingly competitive in Saudi Arabia and there is a need for enhancing the professional skill and competence of those who are desirous of travelling to Saudi Arabia for seeking jobs.”
The ambassador said that high-level delegations of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan would be exchanged in the near future. He said, “The new government in Pakistan is settling down and, I am sure, once that happens, there would be initiatives coming from the two countries to take steps to further strengthen the existing bonds of friendship and brotherhood.”

About the attacks on religion of Islam and the character of Holy Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) by some European newspapers and individuals, the Saudi ambassador said that Saudi Arabia condemns these dastardly and sacrilegious attempts of attacking the fair name of Islam and our Holy Prophet (PBUH).
Regarding reforms in UN Security Council, Ali bin Saeed said that there are moves afoot to enhance the number of permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. There are varied opinions in this regard emanating from various countries of the world. One such opinion deals with giving the over one billion Muslims of the world a permanent voice in the UN Security Council.

About terrorism and extremism, the ambassador elaborated that Saudi Arabia is totally committed to fighting the twin curse of terrorism and extremism until it is completely eliminated from the face of the earth.

About strengthening the bilateral trade between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, the ambassador said, “Ever since my appointment in Pakistan as the Saudi Ambassador, I have been stressing on the need for increasing trade volume between the two brotherly countries.”

“Saudi Arabia has reformed and liberalised its internal environment to encourage investment from abroad and any initiative by businessmen from Pakistan would be particularly welcomed,” he said.
About the relationship of Saudi Arabia with the newly installed government in Pakistan, he stated that the relationship between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia transcends all artificial barriers imposed by time and space.

These relations are deeply rooted in our shared religion, traditions, values and culture.
This is the reason why relationship between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan is cited as an abiding example of mutual trust and faith,” he said.

As a Star Trek fan, we remember the Borg collective and their collective mantra Resistance is futule, you will be assimilated". So it is with the Pakistani establishment. After much hullabaloo, the much vaunted heralding of democracy was to usher in an era of peace and prosperity. They blew hot in cold Murree and then blew cold in hot Dubai.

The result is back to square one, as the establishment wanted. A PPPP-PMLQ-ANP-MQM alliance against the right leaning PMLN rebels without a cause.

 This picture is worth a thousand words.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—If one has all the recordings of events where these brothers spoke, in each event they have spoken nothing but revenge against Musharraf.

There is a difference between bind hate and honest criticism. Blind hate leads to blind stupidity and this is exactly what we are seeing in Pakistan. I have not heard them talk about the poor of Pakistan. I think they both should be investigated for destabilizing Pakistan for personal revenge...Ahmed Quraishi

Up till now Nawaz Sharif is worried about his own grudges and not about Pakistan or the people of Pakistan. There is so much talk that Aitzaz Ahsan and many lawyers are funded by Nawaz Sharif and Co. These brothers are becoming so frustrated that Pakistan’s interest does not appear to be their first priority anymore. The more they see Musharraf’s confidence the more they get frustrated. It seems like their father was the one who kept them in control. Today he is not around and these brothers have no more parental guidance. This revenge must stop now.

Recrimination politics, Revengeful vendettas, and ethnic cards to not play well with Pakistanis in the long run. Pakistanis are amazed at the Sharif brothers and their one point agenda--the removal of Mr. Musharraf. The PMLN will either be thrown into the dustbin of history like the Khaksars, NPP, or Conventiona Muslim League, or it will vigorously compete with the PPPP in the Punjab and remain a nuisance value as a provincial party of Northern Punjab-Potohar region.

Mr. Zardari has turned out to be a much more suave politician than his resume would tell us

The transit fee of $145 million is ridiculous. In the early days of the pipeline, Pakistan was to get about a 500 million to $900 million. With construction, security and maintenance cost. India seems to have gotten a good bargain. Pakistani negotiators have not done a good job in getting a good deal for the project.

Many may ask "what's in is for me". What advantage does Pakistan get from the IPI pipeline except headaches.

Pakistan and India set to announce IPI gas transit fee

* Expected to agree on 40 cents per mmbtu
By Zafar Bhutta
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and India are set to announce the gas transit fee within a week for the transmission of gas to India under the billion dollar Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline project, sources told Daily Times on Wednesday.

The sources said that Pakistan and India are expected to agree on 40 cents per million British thermal units (MMBTU) as the gas transit fee. If both countries agree to this rate, Pakistan would receive around $148 million per annum from India in transit fee.

If international norms applicable to gas transit fees are adhered to, the transit fee under the IPI deal will amount to $180 million per annum. But the two countries are expected to sign the agreement at the lower rate, the sources said.

India sought Pakistan’s agreement on a transit fee lower than international standards in talks between two sides on April 25 in Islamabad. The Pakistani side had argued for a transit fee corresponding to international norms, but agreed to fixing the transit fee a little lower than international standards for the sake of inking a deal it termed as a ‘peace pipeline’ between Pakistan and India.

Sources also said that India wants Pakistan to fix the transit fee for the lifetime of the project, without any further revisions to the transit fee. However, Pakistan is of the view that the mechanism for determining the transit fee should be linked to the international gas sales price, and that the transit fee should also be open to revision according to variations in the gas price charged by Iran.
The sources said there had never been an agreement anywhere in the world where a transit fee was fixed and did not allow for revisions. International norms require revisions in transit fees as the gas price is revised by gas exporting countries, they added.

The sources also said transportation charges would be determined after the project feasibility report was finalised, and that a company would be set up to implement the project and ensure its security according to a mutually agreed framework.

Meanwhile, Pakistan and Iran have agreed on the draft of the Gas Sales Purchase Agreement (GSPA) for the IPI project, and both sides are ready to sign on it. The Cabinet Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) has also received of the copy of the GSPA draft, the sources said

Pakistan's Moment

We Will Fight Terrorism -- Our Way

Villagers harvest wheat Saturday on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan. (By Anjum Naveed -- Associated Press)

Wednesday, April 30, 2008; Page A19

It is important for Pakistan -- which has transited from an authoritarian regime to democratic governance -- that the message of this first critical post-election period be bold and clear. Like newly elected governments in other democratic societies, we intend to set the tone and agenda. We want to show the world that our nation is back in business, with an overwhelming mandate from our people.

This is not an easy transition. The scars of the past decade are deep. The problems facing our country are great. But the sacrifices of millions of Pakistanis -- including Pakistan's quintessential democratic leader, Benazir Bhutto -- were not made so that our new government could be timid. We know our people expect action and progress. Our boldness is a manifestation of our awareness of the stakes -- both of success and failure.

My government is a coalition of modern, moderate, innovative, progressive democratic forces determined to jump-start the economy and to rebuild the social fabric of Pakistan. We have already freed political prisoners and lifted press censorship. We have released detained judges and will restore an independent judiciary, the centerpiece of civil society. We will strengthen and protect our neglected democratic infrastructure, especially Parliament. We will reform our tribal areas economically, politically and socially through measures that address the needs of the people and will integrate these areas into mainstream society.

The world is rightly concerned about the threat of terrorism and expects its elimination to be our government's highest priority. We intend to vigorously continue the war against terrorism with the support of the people. Pakistan must fight terrorism for Pakistan's sake. Past efforts have suffered because of the view that Pakistan sought to combat terrorism only in response to international pressure.

Our strategy against global terrorism will be multifaceted. We will combine the use of force against terrorists and civil dialogue with those who, because of religious or ethnic considerations, were misled into supporting extremists. In the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, people and tribes along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan were swept into a wave of violence and anti-Western sentiment. Pakistan will not negotiate with terrorists, but it will not refrain from talking to insurgent tribesmen whose withdrawal of support could help drain the swamp in which terrorists fester and grow. Yet no talks will be held with anyone refusing to lay down arms.

Our policy aims to marginalize terrorists in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and our North-West Frontier region, where the rule of law had been abandoned and territory all but ceded to al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Negotiations with the various tribes are being pursued with the help of the secular Pashtun nationalist Awami National Party, which has intimate knowledge of tribes and clans in the area and which, along with my Pakistan People's Party, received the bulk of the votes of ethnic Pashtuns in the Feb. 18 parliamentary elections.

Erroneous comparisons have been made between our new policy and the failed deals reached with tribal militants along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in 2004 and 2006. Those agreements were signed after militant groups bruised Pakistan's security forces in battle. Now we are negotiating from a position of strength. Militants have been asked to surrender their weapons and unequivocally give up violence. We will not cut off our ability to use force or lower the vigilance we maintain to guard against violations of the peace agreements.

We intend to restore order and to give the people an option other than collaborating with murderers whose sole goal is chaos and anarchy. We will welcome our tribes back into society while respecting their conservative interpretations of Islam, as long as they give up violence and refuse to acquiesce to the intimidation of terrorists.

Since the anti-Soviet resistance of the 1980s, the security and prosperity of Pakistan and Afghanistan have become interdependent. The border between our countries is porous, not least because some 3 million Afghan refugees still in Pakistan need to maintain ties with their kin. We intend to work with the Afghan government to secure the border and to ensure the repatriation of the refugees with dignity, security and full economic opportunity.

We understand that unemployment, inflation and poverty are corrosive elements that, if left unaddressed, can create hopelessness and ennui that undermine authority. Our government confronts high global food and oil prices and has inherited food shortages exacerbated by the smuggling of Pakistani wheat across our borders. Yet our government plans to be the safety net that ensures equity and protects people. We seek and expect the support of the international community in attaining these objectives.

There are moments in all nations' histories that divide the past from the future, that define nations' souls. This is such a moment for Pakistan. God willing, we will demonstrate to our people and to the other 1.3 billion Muslims on this planet that democracy works and is the best guarantee against terrorism, injustice and hopelessness.

The writer is prime minister of Pakistan and vice chairman of the Pakistan People's Party.

When they called it the peace Pipeline, India's RAW must have felt the blow. Now instead of blowing up pipelines in Pakistan, will RAW will be working to keep it safe?

This means that RAW sponsored the BLA and the BLF just ran out of luck. The day the IPI agreement is signed the BLA becomes the biggest loser, as it is about ready to lose its biggest benefactor--India.

It will be Khalistan in reverse. Pretty soon, the BLA guys will he left hanging out to dry--or hanging from the nearest tree.

Not only the BLA but the Baluch Sardars will also protect the pipeline because it will be profitable for them to keep the gas flowing to India.

India is a participant in the $7 Billion investment and is hungry for gas. It has come a full circle. For years it would not accept a pipeline through Pakistan. It wanted an under water pipeline from Qatar or Saudi Arabia to be constructed to India.

Pakistan has been working for more than a decade for the TAPI Pipeline. Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India Pipeline.

With oil prices skyrocketing, India's thirst for cheaper imported gas has acquired a greater urgency than ever before, considering what the Hindustan Times has termed as the growing "supply-demand mismatch" reflected in the recent news that "as against an overall requirement of 77 million standard cubic meters per day (mmscmd) of gas between April 2007 and January 2008, only 37 mmscmd was supplied". A Times

Last weeks insurgent attack in the citadel of NATO and the heart of Mr. Karzai Forbidden City informed the entire world that the Mayor of Kabul's writ does not go beyond his palace. President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov of Turkmenistan is now free to bypass the infestation of chaos called Kabul and directly work with Iran and Pakistan to build the TIPI (Turkmenistan-Iran-Pakistan-India) Pipeline.

The only way  TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Iran-Pakistan-India) would be successful if the Pashtun parts of Afghanistan are brought under Pakistan. Who would know that Badshah Khan's vision and Chaudhry rehmat Ali's proposal and Iqbal dream would come through because of Pipelinistan.

As soon as China joins the pipeline efforts, the entire dynamics of the region will change. With TPC (Turkmenistan-Pakistan China (TPC) or Iran-Pakistan-China (IPC) TIPI or TAPI coming into existence, the importance of Gwador will be greatly enhanced as compared to Iran's Chahbahar. Neither Iran nor India have the wherewithal to compete with China's clout on developing Gwador as a major port connected via Pakistan to China.

Pakistan could then work with Kazakistan, and Iran's nemesis, Azerbaijan to build oil pipelines through its territory and sell them to India.

Mr. Zardari knows which side of the bread is buttered. His alliance with the PMLN during the election was to put pressure on Mr. Musharraf to get the NRO signed. With the NRO out of the way and the NAP headed towards dissolution, Mr. Sharif is as expendable as a used Kleenix. Mr. Zardari has calculated that if Mr. Nawaz Sharif's friend Iftikhar Chaudhry is reinstated, the constitutionality of the NRO will be questioned and Mr. Zardari may be in jeopardy of paying for his crimes in a former life as Mr. 10%.

The new judges also gave the Prime Minsitership to Mr. Zardari by overturning the parliament's law that required a graduation degree to be a member of parliament. Mr. Zardai is not a graduate and with the removal of this last impediment to the road to Premiership.

The PMLN has publicly announced that if the MQM is included in the Federal cabinet the PMLN will withdraw from the government.

Now is the test!

PPP, MQM strike deal By Azfar-ul-Ashfaque

KARACHI, April 28: After a series of talks, the Pakistan People’s Party and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement finally struck a power-sharing deal and agreed to form a coalition government in Sindh.
Apparently because of the fragile political situation, the parties were reluctant on Monday to divulge details of the power-sharing formula.
Sources confirmed that an accord had been reached under which the MQM would get eight ministries and five advisers in the Sindh cabinet.
The sources said that the MQM would join the PPP-led government by Friday. They also said that the party leadership was interviewing 50 MPAs to select eight ministers and the process might take two to three days.
According to sources in the MQM, Syed Sardar Ahmed, Shoaib Bukhari, Adil Siddiqui, Askari Taqvi, Raza Haroon and Faisal Subzwari were likely to be made ministers while M.A. Jalil and Ashfaq Mangi would be made chief minister’s advisers.
It is learnt that the PPP would also accommodate two MNAs of the MQM in the federal cabinet.
PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari is reported to have given his consent to the deal and he is expected to travel to London soon to meet MQM chief Altaf Hussain.
It is learnt that Prime Minister’s Adviser on Interior Rehman Malik and Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad were instrumental in reviving dialogue between the two parties after the MQM announced on April 13 that the talks had failed and it would sit in the opposition.
The reasons which the party had given for the failure of talks were the appointment of Dr Shoaib Suddle as Sindh police chief and ‘non-serious’ attitude of the PPP.
However, back-channel contacts continued and a committee comprising representatives of both parties met on April 22 in Islamabad. Another round of talks was held in Islamabad on April 26 in which the draft of an agreement was prepared.
It may be noted that the MQM had withdrawn unconditionally its candidate for the election of prime minister and the party’s MNAs voted in favour of PPP candidate Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani. Subsequently, on April 2, Mr Zardari visited the MQM headquarters and expressed his gratitude for MQM’s gesture.

Pakistani Britons have signed affidavits and are suing the British Government for collusion in the torture. These stories are horrendous and unacceptable. Pakistan has to keep its moral high ground. It can steep to the level of government run by the "mukhabarat". Confessions should be illegal, as in the USA.

Pakistanis should not torture period. Pakistanis should never torture other Pakistanis.

The new government in Pakistan, tall on promises, and short on delivery, as in the last two stints has not done anything to empower the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. The new parliament is too busy sloganeering and throwing shoes at each other. The issue of he judiciary is being discussed in Dubai while the parliament in on a break (as usual). One would have expected that a powerful National Assembly would have worked overtime. It however decided to to go on break. There is no C-SPAN type of 24/7 coverage of the National Assembly, so the Pakistani people do not know what the representatives are doing.

What piece of major legislation has been passed by the NA? Both Zardari and Gilani have been jailed. One would have expected huge jail reforms and reforms to increase the number of High Courts, and creation of Small Claim courts.

Zilch, Nothing, Nada, Zero!

MI5 accused of colluding in torture of terrorist suspects

British agents alleged to have questioned men at Pakistani interrogation centre after they had been brutally mistreated

This article appeared in the Guardian on Tuesday April 29 2008 on p1 of the Top stories section. It was last updated at 00:35 on April 29 2008.

The London headquarters of MI5. Photograph: Frank Baron

Officers of the Security Service, MI5, are being accused of "outsourcing" the torture of British citizens to a notorious Pakistani intelligence agency in an attempt to obtain information about terrorist plots and to secure convictions against al-Qaida suspects.

A number of British terrorism suspects who have been arrested in Pakistan at the request of UK authorities say their interrogation by Security Service officers, shortly after brutal torture at the hands of agents of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), has convinced them that MI5 colluded in the mistreatment.

Those men have given detailed accounts of their alleged ordeals at the hands of the ISI over the last four years. Some of them appear to have been taken to the same secret interrogation centre in Rawalpindi, where they say they were repeatedly tortured before being questioned by MI5.

Tayab Ali, a London-based lawyer for two of the men, said: "I am left with no doubt that, at the very worst, the British Security Service instigates the illegal detention and torture of British citizens, and at the very best turns a blind eye to torture."

One man from Manchester says that in 2006 he was beaten, whipped, deprived of sleep and had three fingernails slowly extracted by ISI agents at the Rawalpindi centre before being interrogated by two MI5 officers. A number of his alleged associates were questioned in Manchester at the same time and two were subsequently charged. This man's lawyers say his fingernails were missing when they were eventually allowed to see him, more than a year after he was first detained. They say they have pathology reports that prove the nails were forcibly removed.

A second man, from Luton, Bedfordshire, alleges that two years earlier he was whipped, suspended by his wrists and beaten, and threatened with an electric drill, possibly at the same torture centre. His interrogation was coordinated with the questioning of several associates at Paddington Green police station, west London, and the questioning of a further suspect in Canada.

MI5 does not dispute questioning him several times during his 10 months' detention in Pakistan. At his trial, the judge accepted he had been mistreated but said he believed the claims were exaggerated.

No attempt was made to extradite either man to be questioned by police officers in the UK, and they received no assistance from British consular officials. They were eventually arrested on arrival in Britain after being placed aboard aircraft and flown in without extradition hearings.

The accusation that MI5 is at the very least turning a blind eye to the torture of British citizens - and may have actually colluded in their torture - is to surface in a number of forthcoming court cases, including the trial of the man who lost his fingernails, an appeal lodged by the man from Luton after he was convicted of terrorism offences, and a separate civil action being pursued on his behalf.

MI5 is thought to be considering a defence based on its officers' insistence that they had no reason to know that the ISI might have been torturing the men - a position that Pakistani lawyers and human rights activists in Pakistan and the UK say beggars belief. Even a high-ranking Scotland Yard counter-terrorism detective has conceded privately that there is little doubt that the Luton man was tortured.

The Guardian is aware of claims by a number of other British citizens that they were tortured after being detained as terrorism suspects in Pakistan.

The allegations being made by these men and their lawyers, which are detailed in today's Guardian, are expected to be raised by human rights groups. Andrew Tyrie, Conservative MP for Chichester and a campaigner against the abuse of the human rights of terrorism suspects, is considering asking a series of questions about the matter in the Commons.

Under the Criminal Justice Act 1988 it is an offence for British officials to instigate or consent to the inflicting of "severe pain or suffering" on any person, anywhere in the world, or even to acquiesce in such treatment. Any such offence could be punished by life imprisonment.

Last week it was disclosed that eight men freed from US custody at Guantánamo Bay had issued writs against MI5 and the Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, alleging they were complicit in their illegal detention and subsequent abuse.

The Security Service declined to comment on the allegations, but pointed to recent reports by the all-party Intelligence and Security Committee, which said all MI5 officers receive training about possible mistreatment of detainees held by foreign intelligence agencies.

The Foreign Office said it was aware of five British citizens being detained in Pakistan over the last four years for questioning about alleged terrorism offences, but would not say how many were detained before 2004. It admitted it had attempted to seek consular access to only two of these people, but declined to say how many had been seen by other British officials.

The FO also declined to say how many had complained of mistreatment, saying: "We have a duty to respect the privacy of the individuals concerned."

A convicted spy on death row is with his family. Shoab Akhtar, the treasure of Pakistani cricket has to be severely reprimanded, strictly warned, but he also has to be forgiven cherished and nurtured.

he has to go to counseling and anger management workshops. Actually the whole country should. A ban for sic months is good enough--imposed retroactively.

"hazaroun saal mein sukhanwar paida huta hai" (or words to that effect)

KARACHI, April 28 (Reuters) - Fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar made an unconditional apology on Monday to a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) tribunal hearing his appeal against a five-year ban.

Shoaib was suspended earlier this month for repeated disciplinary violations, the most recent being his criticism of board policies when the new central contracts were announced in January.

"I would like to apologise from the bottom of my heart for any grief and embarrassment I have caused with my actions and sayings to the nation, my team and the Pakistan Cricket Board," said the 32-year-old in a statement read out by his lawyer Abid Minto.

"I have resolved to alter my habits and to refrain from any such actions in future."

Former high court judge Aftab Farrukh, heading the three-man tribunal, said: "His apology will be given due consideration ... and taken as a cause for leniency."

Shoaib, suspended on six counts of indiscipline, filed his appeal earlier this month with his lawyers saying then that the ban was illegal and unconstitutional.

(Editing by Rex Gowar and Tony Jimenez)

Afghanistan: Key Road Toward Pakistan To Improve Trade, Security By Ron Synovitz

The new road is seen as vital to improving security along Afghanistan's southeastern border

(epa)

A contract has been signed for a $100 million highway project in Afghanistan intended to dramatically reduce travel time from Kabul to border areas near Pakistan's volatile tribal region of North Waziristan.

The 100-kilometer stretch of road will link the provinces of Khost and Paktia to Afghanistan's "ring road," which will circle the country. The contract was signed on April 26 by the Afghan and U.S. governments. The project is being funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and is scheduled to be completed in 2009.

The new asphalt road is seen by Kabul as one of the most important reconstruction projects in southeastern Afghanistan. One reason is its economic impact. The road is intended to reduce travel time between Kabul and the Khost by four hours, making it much easier for agricultural produce from the border areas to be transported elsewhere in the country.

Loren Stoddard, the director of USAID's Agriculture and Alternative Development program in Afghanistan, explains that the primitive condition of roads on the Afghan side of the border has kept economic activity in Khost tied more to Pakistan's tribal regions than Kabul.

"The Khost area has long been isolated from the rest of Afghanistan," Stoddard says. "Khost has a fairly vibrant economy because of its closeness and interaction with the Pakistan economy, but it has always been somewhat of a regional economy that has been tied more to Pakistan than to the rest of Afghanistan. What we expect with this road is that Khost's economy will then begin to be somewhat more oriented toward the rest of Afghanistan, which is new."

Improving Security

Kabul also considers the road development as vital to the goal of improving security along Afghanistan's southeastern border with Pakistan. Khost lies at a strategic position across from Pakistan's tribal region of North Waziristan, an area that serves as a base for Al-Qaeda-linked militants, as well as pro-Taliban fighters who signed a peace accord earlier this month with Pakistan's new government. Despite the accord, militants continue to use Pakistan's tribal regions as a staging area for crossborder attacks.

Security officials say road improvements to Khost would make it easier for Afghan and international security forces to rapidly send ground troops and equipment into blocking positions along the border just a few kilometers from the Pakistani tribal town of Miram Shah.

Indeed, U.S. military officials in Afghanistan have told RFE/RL that completion of Afghanistan's ring road -- as well as secondary roads to connect that main highway to Afghanistan's provincial administrative centers -- is central to their strategy of deploying "rapid-reaction forces" overland for counterinsurgency operations.

That is why the regional and national highway system meant to link Afghanistan's major cities and economic centers has been a focus of the U.S. military and reconstruction aid groups since the collapse of the Taliban regime in late 2001. Work began in 2002 to rebuild and improve the ring road's southernmost section, much of which had been destroyed by the Taliban in late 2001 as the regime fled Kabul.

Reconnecting Kabul with the western Afghan city of Herat required some 700 kilometers of USAID-funded construction work through the cities of Ghazni and Kandahar, and through volatile provinces like Helmand and Zabul where the Taliban remains active.

Complete 'Ring'

In October 2007, the Asia Development Bank approved a loan of more than $170 million to make the ring road a complete circle within the country by building a northwestern spur between Herat and the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif. Work on that final segment of the ring road continues and is expected to be completed by December 2009.

USAID says the latest road improvements certainly will make it easier for surplus food production to be sent from Khost to parts of Afghanistan where there are food shortages. It also is expected to increase international trade through access to Pakistan's nearby rail head, providing a shorter, alternative route for freight to Kabul and relieving the heavily congested freight-traffic route from Jalalabad through the Khyber Pass and on to the Pakistani city of Peshawar.

Stoddard agrees that the new road will help Afghanistan benefit from legitimate trade by increasing its exports to international agriculture markets.

"Afghanistan is famous for some big export products like pomegranates," Stoddard says. "Some of the best pomegranates in the world actually come from Afghanistan. And even in this area, in the area of Paktika, Paktia, and the Khost area, we see a solid [base of] pomegranate [production]. Also dried apricots, almonds, and walnuts. So there [are] a number of tree fruits -- that's probably the way you would identify them -- that come out of these three provinces. And by having this piece of road between Khost and Gardez and being able to get into the ring road, we expect that those products would be able to be consolidated with other similar products from around the country so we could get higher volume exports."

But as with any development project in Afghanistan's isolated provincial regions, meeting the time schedule for the Paktia-Khost road also depends upon maintained security along the proposed route. Work on the ring road's southern segments often was delayed by kidnappings and killings of foreign engineers in provinces like Zabul and Ghazni.

Afghanistan: Key Road Toward Pakistan To Improve Trade, Security By Ron Synovitz

The new road is seen as vital to improving security along Afghanistan's southeastern border

(epa)

A contract has been signed for a $100 million highway project in Afghanistan intended to dramatically reduce travel time from Kabul to border areas near Pakistan's volatile tribal region of North Waziristan.

The 100-kilometer stretch of road will link the provinces of Khost and Paktia to Afghanistan's "ring road," which will circle the country. The contract was signed on April 26 by the Afghan and U.S. governments. The project is being funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and is scheduled to be completed in 2009.

The new asphalt road is seen by Kabul as one of the most important reconstruction projects in southeastern Afghanistan. One reason is its economic impact. The road is intended to reduce travel time between Kabul and the Khost by four hours, making it much easier for agricultural produce from the border areas to be transported elsewhere in the country.

Loren Stoddard, the director of USAID's Agriculture and Alternative Development program in Afghanistan, explains that the primitive condition of roads on the Afghan side of the border has kept economic activity in Khost tied more to Pakistan's tribal regions than Kabul.

"The Khost area has long been isolated from the rest of Afghanistan," Stoddard says. "Khost has a fairly vibrant economy because of its closeness and interaction with the Pakistan economy, but it has always been somewhat of a regional economy that has been tied more to Pakistan than to the rest of Afghanistan. What we expect with this road is that Khost's economy will then begin to be somewhat more oriented toward the rest of Afghanistan, which is new."

Improving Security

Kabul also considers the road development as vital to the goal of improving security along Afghanistan's southeastern border with Pakistan. Khost lies at a strategic position across from Pakistan's tribal region of North Waziristan, an area that serves as a base for Al-Qaeda-linked militants, as well as pro-Taliban fighters who signed a peace accord earlier this month with Pakistan's new government. Despite the accord, militants continue to use Pakistan's tribal regions as a staging area for crossborder attacks.

Security officials say road improvements to Khost would make it easier for Afghan and international security forces to rapidly send ground troops and equipment into blocking positions along the border just a few kilometers from the Pakistani tribal town of Miram Shah.

Indeed, U.S. military officials in Afghanistan have told RFE/RL that completion of Afghanistan's ring road -- as well as secondary roads to connect that main highway to Afghanistan's provincial administrative centers -- is central to their strategy of deploying "rapid-reaction forces" overland for counterinsurgency operations.

That is why the regional and national highway system meant to link Afghanistan's major cities and economic centers has been a focus of the U.S. military and reconstruction aid groups since the collapse of the Taliban regime in late 2001. Work began in 2002 to rebuild and improve the ring road's southernmost section, much of which had been destroyed by the Taliban in late 2001 as the regime fled Kabul.

Reconnecting Kabul with the western Afghan city of Herat required some 700 kilometers of USAID-funded construction work through the cities of Ghazni and Kandahar, and through volatile provinces like Helmand and Zabul where the Taliban remains active.

Complete 'Ring'

In October 2007, the Asia Development Bank approved a loan of more than $170 million to make the ring road a complete circle within the country by building a northwestern spur between Herat and the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif. Work on that final segment of the ring road continues and is expected to be completed by December 2009.

USAID says the latest road improvements certainly will make it easier for surplus food production to be sent from Khost to parts of Afghanistan where there are food shortages. It also is expected to increase international trade through access to Pakistan's nearby rail head, providing a shorter, alternative route for freight to Kabul and relieving the heavily congested freight-traffic route from Jalalabad through the Khyber Pass and on to the Pakistani city of Peshawar.

Stoddard agrees that the new road will help Afghanistan benefit from legitimate trade by increasing its exports to international agriculture markets.

"Afghanistan is famous for some big export products like pomegranates," Stoddard says. "Some of the best pomegranates in the world actually come from Afghanistan. And even in this area, in the area of Paktika, Paktia, and the Khost area, we see a solid [base of] pomegranate [production]. Also dried apricots, almonds, and walnuts. So there [are] a number of tree fruits -- that's probably the way you would identify them -- that come out of these three provinces. And by having this piece of road between Khost and Gardez and being able to get into the ring road, we expect that those products would be able to be consolidated with other similar products from around the country so we could get higher volume exports."

But as with any development project in Afghanistan's isolated provincial regions, meeting the time schedule for the Paktia-Khost road also depends upon maintained security along the proposed route. Work on the ring road's southern segments often was delayed by kidnappings and killings of foreign engineers in provinces like Zabul and Ghazni.

It is absolutely mind boggling that the American media always blames Pakistan for the creation of the Taliban but forgets to mention the fact that the CIA was instrumental in creating the Taliban

During the House Committee on Foreign Affairs discussion recently. Republican congressman Dana Rohrabacher named the Clinton administration, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia for creating the Taliban. “Let me repeat that: The Clinton administration, along with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, created the Taliban,” Rohrabacher 

The Talibaan were a construct of the CIA! See Congressional records and visits to Texas ranches.

“In the 1980s, the CIA provided some $5 billion in military aid for Islamic fundamentalist rebels fighting the Soviet occupation in Afghanistan, but scaled down operations after Moscow pulled out in 1989. However, Selig Harrison of the DC-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars recently told a conference in London that the CIA created the Taliban “monster” by providing some $3 billion for the ultra-fundamentalist militia in their 1994-6 drive to power.” Times of India, March 7, 2001

The Taliban was a construct of the CIA and was armed by the CIA, ISI and the Saudis as a counter to a resurgent Russian-backed communist party and an antidote to the civil war in Afghanistan. Pakistan supported the Taliban in conjunction with the CIA who were arming it right up till 2000. The Taliban were visiting Governor Bush’s ranch in Texas.

CNN CROSSFIRE: Aired September 10, 2002 - 19:00 ET
Have U.S. Efforts in Afghanistan Been Successful if bin Laden is Alive?; Will Fingerprints Stop Terrorists From Entering the Country?

MCDERMOTT: It certainly is an improvement for the women of Afghanistan. But you’ve got to remember that of American policy, we put the Taliban there. We gave the money to the..

CARLSON: I beg your pardon?

MCDERMOTT: … Pakistanis.

CARLSON: You’re breaking news here, Congressman. I don’t think this has ever been reported before in the United States.

MCDERMOTT: Oh, yes, it has been. We funded the Taliban through the Pakistanis, and all that money — we could have cut off that money and stopped what was going on. We knew what was going on there.

http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0209/10/cf.00.html

http://www.house.gov/international_relations/fc071200.pdf

U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON : 68-482 CC 2000
GLOBAL TERRORISM: SOUTH ASIA-THE NEW LOCUS
HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED SIXTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION, JULY 12, 2000, Serial No. 106-173

“the United States has been part and parcel to supporting the Taliban all along and still is”

I need to point out the fact that Pakistani pleas for sanity in Afghanistan were ignored in 2001. Those who want to understand the irked Pakistani must know that the in 2001 the US installed a non-Pashtun, anti-Pakistan government in Kabul. The must also know that NATO allows the puppet Karzai government to continue to bark at Pakistan.

The Pakistanis also know that despite being clod war allies for 50 years, Pakistan was threatened with annihilation in 2001. They also remember that $450 million paid for F-16s was never returned.  Neither were the planes ever delivered. It is a matter of historical record that Pakistan never got ht money back and did not get the planes either. The delivery of Soya beans does not make up for paid-for but undelivered F-16s. Pakistanis also remember that the world and Afghanistan abandoned 2 million refugees in Pakistan. The Pakistanis also note that the world does not support the liberation of Kashmir.

The “war on terrorism,” focused primarily on a fictional global insurgency named “al Qaida,” that, in fact, fought for American interests in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Croatia and Chechnya is an exercise in hypocrisy. The more “evidence” that is provided to us, to prove the al Qaida connection to every act of terrorism, the more evident it becomes that the war is a fraud, based on a cover-up of a treasonous attack, intended to whitewash history and to paint America as a heroic nation, dedicated to bringing freedom and democracy to all people. The United States’ claim to be promoting democracy, while it exports state terrorism, has demolished the hopes of all those who still believe in American “good will,” all over the world.

Informed people all over the world cannot fathom how the American administration can seriously claim to be pursuing “al Qaida-connected terrorists,” when they know that “al Qaida,” the terrorist organization never existed. Thanks to revelations by British MP Robin Cook in the Guardian, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,12780,1523838,00.html

and French intelligence agent Pierre-Henry Bunel at the Wayne Madsen Report,

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=BUN20051120&articleId=1291

people know that when the United States needed a new enemy, after the demise of the Soviet empire, they decided to call “the base” (an international computer data base in Saudi Arabia of Afghan fighters), designated as “al Qaida” [an email address], an international terrorist network.

“Bin Laden was, though, a product of a monumental miscalculation by western security agencies. Throughout the 80s he was armed by the CIA and funded by the Saudis to wage jihad against the Russian occupation of Afghanistan. Al-Qaida, literally “the database”, was originally the computer file of the thousands of mujahideen who were recruited and trained with help from the CIA to defeat the Russians.” - Robin Cook

“The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al Qaida. And any informed intelligence officer knows this. But there is a propaganda campaign to make the public believe in the presence of an identified entity representing the ‘devil’ only in order to drive the ‘TV watcher’ to accept a unified international leadership for a war against terrorism. The country behind this propaganda is the US and the lobbyists for the US war on terrorism are only interested in making money.” - Pierre-Henry Bunel

“Elements associated with al Qaida” has become the new official catch-all phrase, used as often as possible, to incite terror among the American people and to justify new attacks by American forces and American-supported militia groups. We are going into Pakistan in force, to train new Pakistanis to fight other Pakistanis that we had trained too well in the past. How will we separate the “friendly” al Qaida from the unfriendly ones, when we bundle the whole bunch together under the rubric “al Qaida?”

Why are Islamists like Ayman al Zawahiri considered al Q., after they provided the US Islamic fighters in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Macedonia, as well other Islamic recruits who served US interests in Chechnya?

http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/?p=143

The Islamic mercenaries were fighting for us when the embassies were bombed in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, even after bin Laden and Zawahiri announced the establishment of “The International Islamic Front for Holy War Against Jews and Crusaders,” (an umbrella organization linking Islamic extremists in scores of countries around the world, the bin Laden group that was renamed Al Qaida). The militant group, now called al Qaeda was the instant answer to the 9/11 attacks, even though it was never what it was alleged to be, the ultimate terrorist bogeyman. The conjunction of US and al Qaida interests all over the Muslim world should warn thinking individuals, whenever attacks happen to occur in just the places that the neocon war planners would most like to invade.

It is more than reasonable to question where al Qaida ends and the secret world of their CIA trainers begins. Was it other trained al Qaida agents who pre-planted the demolitions that brought the towers down, obtained US security codes, timed the attacks into ongoing war games and stood down fighter cover, or was that part of the act of war the CIA’s domain? Questioning further along that line, was Pakistan’s ISI (secret service) still acting as the CIA’s surrogate, when ISI head General Mahmud Ahmad allegedly had Sheik Omar wire Mohammed Atta $100,000? According to Chossudovsky:

“The FBI had information on the money trail. They knew exactly who was financing the terrorists. Less than two weeks later, the findings of the FBI were confirmed by Agence France Presse (AFP) and the Times of India, quoting an official Indian intelligence report (which had been dispatched to Washington). According to these two reports, the money used to finance the 9-11 attacks had allegedly been “wired to WTC hijacker Mohammed Atta from Pakistan, by Ahmad Umar Sheikh, at the instance of [ISI Chief] General Mahmoud [Ahmad].” 10 According to the AFP (quoting the intelligence source):

“The evidence we have supplied to the U.S. is of a much wider range and depth than just one piece of paper linking a rogue general to some misplaced act of terrorism.” http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=CHO20020620&articleId=371

The name “Sheikh Omar” should set off alarms to those who are paying attention. He was the one who Bhutto fingered on the David Frost interview on 2nd November 2007 (2:15),

“Omar Sheikh, the man who murdered Osama bin Laden.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnychOXj9Tg

Omar is mentioned in connection with a man that Bhutto feared might be involved in threats against her.

President Musharraf, in his book In the Line of Fire stated that the Sheikh was originally recruited by British intelligence agency, MI6 to go to the Balkans. Here is another shadowy figure linked to al Qaida, Western intelligence agencies and the US program, organized by Bill Clinton, to bring radical Islamist Jihadis to the war in Yugoslavia. They fought on the US side, in a war prosecuted by the United States, as an Islamic paramilitary force. The Grassy knoll by peter Chamberlin

To put salt on open wounds, the US signed a Nuclear deal with arch-rival-India, not the major Non-NATO ally (Pakistan). Many Pakistanis wonder why $30 Billion were offered to Turkey to support war in Iraq, while Pakistan only received 1 billion to Pakistan for fighting Al-Qaeda and the Talibaan. You need to look at the situation with sanity and calm. Selective amnesia is the favorite tactic those who have an agenda. President Ayub Khan in 1966 said is best in his best selling book Pakistanis need “Friends no Masters”.

Pakistanis desire want and cherish American friendship however Pakistanis are not the “little brown brothers” who can do the bidding of anyone. Pakistan is a 150 million strong nuclear state and a crucial pivot on the war on terror. President Musharraf said it quite bluntly, “no one can do more” and the West will go down on their knees and fail if Pakistan without the help of the ISI and the Pakistan army. Those who deal with Pakistan need to learn some manners and some appreciation of the sacrifice of 1000 Pakistani soldiers who died fighting the war on terror. Pakistanis are sick and tired of lectures on “do more”.Pakistan and

Pakistanis cannot do more. If anyone can find others who can do more, please use them!

On deconstructing the wrong paradigm

http://moinansari.wordpress.com/2007/11/27/u-turn-in-our-thinking-deconstructing-the-wrong-paradigm/

Rebutting Cohen

http://moinansari.wordpress.com/2007/11/30/rebuttal-to-cohen%e2%80%99s-four-crises-and-a-peace-process-kargil-internationalized-the-kasmir-issue-and-put-a-death-knell-to-simla/

Criticism of Benazir Bhutto. Pre-Assassination

http://moinansari.wordpress.com/2007/12/09/response-to-benazir-bhuttos-blatent-banal-blathering-about-demcoaracy-in-the-christian-science-monitor/

Another prophecy of doom

http://moinansari.wordpress.com/2007/11/27/here-we-go-again-another-indian-prophecy-of-doom-the-first-one-came-in-1947/

Pakistanis want to hear “Thank You” for the US

http://moinansari.wordpress.com/2007/11/27/pakistanis-want-to-hear-thank-you-and-are-sick-of-do-more/

Pakistanis to USA: We want “Friends Not Masters”

http://moinansari.wordpress.com/2007/11/27/%e2%80%9cfriends-not-masters%e2%80%9d-a-response-to-deception-hiding-in-plain-sight-pakistan-and-nuclear-proliferation-by-chuck-leddy/

Say Thank You

http://moinansari.wordpress.com/2007/11/27/ingrate-friends-should-say-%e2%80%9cthank-you%e2%80%9d-instead-of-%e2%80%9cdo-more%e2%80%9d/

Pakistan US Relations should be normal not transactional

http://moinansari.wordpress.com/pak-american-relationship-should-not-be-transactionalit-should-be-normalread-bidens-only-comments/

Response to Congressman Hoyer on Pakistan

http://moinansari.wordpress.com/2007/11/27/letter-to-congressman-hoyer-about-pakistan/

On inadequate US Aid

http://moinansari.wordpress.com/2007/12/09/us-may-boost-accountability-for-aid-to-pakistan-pakistan-should-revise-the-bill/

Where is Osama Bin Laden

http://moinansari.wordpress.com/2007/12/09/2008-where-is-the-world-is-osama-bin-laden-someone-knows/

Pushing Pakistan’s wrong buttons:

http://moinansari.wordpress.com/the-land-of-lincoln-pushing-pakistan’s-wrong-buttons-us-desire-for-regime-change-in-pakistan-may-boomerang/

Pakistani infrastructure needs> Build Pakistan up as a bulwark against American enemies”

About the inane discussion of taking out Pakistan’s Nuclear weapons.”

Taking out Pakistani Nuclear weapons.”

This was an angry reaction to Benazir Bhutto’s unpatriotic comments. According to tradition, we should not say bad things about a dead person. May God Bless her soul.”

Every time something bad happens, anti-Pakistan elements come out of the woodwork. Here is a response to the talking heads.”

The Democrats don’t get it!
http://moinansari.wordpress.com/pakistan-the-new-pressler-amendment-should-be-countered-with-request-for-a-marshall-plan-for-pakistan/

Discussion of taking out Pakistani nukes: The White House should immediately repudiate this aggression and arrest Anti-Americansim”

Discussion of taking out Pakistani nukes: The White House should immediately repudiate this aggression and arrest Anti-Americansim”

Wish List from Pakistan to Santa America”
Perpetual Mimetic warfare
The Worst Islamphobes
Where are the Pakistani nukes?

On Liaqat Ali Khan: Who killed him?
On deconstructing the wrong paradigm. Why the US Think Tank industry is wrong!
Rebutting Cohen. He is an Indian agent!
Another prophecy of doom for Pakistan. Blah Blah Blah!
Pakistanis want to hear “Thank You” for the US
Pakistanis to USA: We want “Friends Not Masters”
America: Say Thank You”
Pakistan US Relations should be normal not transactional”
Response to Congressman Hoyer on Pakistan”
On inadequate US Aid to Pakistan”

….Pakistanis are not stupid and have their nukes hidden”

The Democrats don’t get it

Where in the world is Osama Bin Laden

The speech that Bilawal Bhutto should have given. The words that Zardari should have shouted. The thoughts that Fahim should have communicated

The CIA Connection…….The Benzair Bhutto Assassination was pre planned, the Zia model with a twist. The continued CIA involvement in Pakistan. The Great Game continues. When the Elephants dance the grass gets stamped upon…Pakistanis suffer. The purpose of this assignation is to destabilize Pakistan and find a reason to secure the Nukes

Criticism of Benazir Bhutto’s 5E Campaign program

Criticism of Benazir Bhutto. Pre-Assassination

Who killed Liaqat Ali Khan?
On deconstructing the wrong paradigm of the USA media
Rebutting Cohen
Pakistanis are immune to another prophecy of doom
Pakistanis want to hear “Thank You” from the ingrate Americans. Nothing is good enough!
Pakistanis to USA: We want “Friends Not Masters”
Say Thank You
Pakistan US Relations should be normal not transactional
Response to Congressman Hoyer on Pakistan”
On inadequate US Aid to Pakistan
Where is Osama Bin Laden
Where are the Pakistani nukes?

Where is Leadership of the PPP? Why is it behaving like Nero. Stop the arson and the carnage. Ask for a national Day of prayer and reconciliation

Open Letter to Mr. Bilawal Bhutto

The CIA connection—Benazir Bhutto assassination was pre-planned, the Zia model with a twist

Benzir Bhuttos revenge from the grave: Annointing a despised and corrupt politician Mr. 10% as her successor

Open letter to Mr. Zardari

The 4th Bhutto assassination is a message to the USA. Hands Off Pakistan

Here we go again! Another Indian prophecy of doom. The first one was in 1947

We would like to refer our readers to the an article on “Toppling the US military” that is worth its weight in gold. Search for it on this site. See: “Kissinger threatened Zulifiqar Ali Bhutto”

SYRIA: More questions about alleged nuclear site

Professor William Beeman at the University of Minnesota passed along a note today from "a colleague with a U.S. security clearance" about the mysterious Syrian site targeted in a Sept. 6 Israeli airstrike.

The note raises more questions about the evidence shown last week by U.S. intelligence officials to lawmakers in the House and Senate. 

The author of the note pinpoints irregularities about the photographs. Beeman's source alleges that the CIA "enhanced" some of the images. For example he cites this image:

The lower part of the building, the annex, and the windows pointing south appear much sharper than the rest of the photo, suggesting that they were digitally improved.

The author points to more questions about the photographs of the Syrian site.

1. Satellite photos of the alleged reactor building show no air defenses or anti-aircraft batteries such as the ones found around the Natanz nuclear site in central Iran.
2. The satellite images do not show any military checkpoints on roads near the building.
3. Where are the power lines? The photos show neither electricity lines or substations.
4. Here is a link to a photo of the North Korean facility that the Syrian site was based on. Look at all the buildings surrounding it. The Syrian site was just one building.

Now compare this photograph of the site:

To this one:

The site looks like a rectangle in the first shot, but more like a square in the second shot. Huh?

Thanks to Beeman, a professor of anthropology and Middle East studies as well as a member of the blogosphere, for allowing us to share his colleague's comments.

The judges are not being restored this week. There will be a lot of "sound and fury, signifying nothing". All the spin in the world cannot obfuscate the fact that the judges have not been restored within the stipulated 30 days. Obsessed with the gears of power, both Zardari and Sharif missed meeting the president of Iran where some long term Pakistani-Iranian strategies on Afghanistan, Baluchistan and and FATA could be jointly discussed.

There is a huge problem for Pakistanis right now. A looming food crisis is not being addressed by the government, too busy fighting over ministries, seats, and packages for the MNAs.

The much heralded supremacy of the parliament has gone the way of the first PPPP and the first PMLN governments. The entire subject has not been discussed in parliament--rather in the kitchen cabinets of Mr. Sharif and Mr. Zardari---and lest we forget in Dubai.

Shouldn't these matters be discussed threadbare in Islamabad in the National Assembly of Pakistan? Whither democracy?

Flexible PML-N seeks to save face: Monday, April 28, 2008, By Dilshad Azeem

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz is all set to seek face-saving arrangements with the Pakistan People’s Party on the reinstatement of the judges within the deadline, The News has learnt.
“The PML-N will show more flexibility on the constitutional package if the judges are reinstated within the April 30 deadline, as we need to save face before the people,” a key leader of the Nawaz League told this correspondent here on Sunday.

Apart from the clauses of the proposed constitutional package, the major controversy remains on the PPP’s insistence to bring the package and the resolution on the judges’ restoration simultaneously in the National Assembly, the source maintained.

At the same time, two other coalition partners of the government, the Awami National Party (ANP) and the Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), have not been taken into confidence over the constitutional package or about the exact timing of bringing a resolution to reinstate the judges.
The PPP and PML-N are not in a position to get two-thirds majority either in the National Assembly or the Senate without the ANP and JUI-F’s support. Both these smaller parties have their own demands to be presented before the two leading ones when the constitutional package is presented before them.
“The PML-N will seek some arrangements to de-link the constitutional package from the resolution so that the differences are hammered out separately. Definitely, we are flexible and will be more in case the PPP accepts our major demand of meeting the deadline,” the source further said.
The PPP-PML-N committee working on the package and finalising the draft resolution for the reinstatement of the judges would meet in Dubai with the PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari today (Monday) in a last ditch effort to fulfill the promise the two major parties had made with the public in last

March 9 Murree Declaration.
Asif Zardari has extended his stay in Dubai and called the committee members there to sort out the differences. “The Nawaz League’s main stress would be to meet the deadline or it would cause serious problems for us as far as the public opinion is concerned.”

Law Minister Farooq H Naek, Leader of the House in Senate Raza Rabbani and Information Minister Sherry Rehman are from the PPP side and Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Khawaja Asif and Ishaq Dar are the PML-N representatives in the committee.

“The PML-N will back the PPP in fixing the tenure of the judges in the constitutional package in case our demand of April 30 is accepted by Asif Ali Zardari and it is de-linked from the resolution,” the PML-N member further said.

In off-the-record chat, the source admitted that there was still a deadlock mainly on the PPP’s wish to link both the resolution and the package and bring these together. “If we accept their demand for fixing the tenure of the chief justice up to three years, it means he is not reinstated,” he said in a frank manner.

According to information, deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has to stay till 2013 at his position under the pre-Nov 3, 2007 position. And if a term for three years is restricted, he would retire in the ongoing year.

Both PPP and PML-N, in the Murree Declaration, had announced to restore the judiciary in accordance with their status of November 2, 2007. This means there must not be any fixed tenure for the chief justice.

Gulf firms to invest in farms in Pakistan

Updated at: 1910 PST, Monday, April 28, 2008  

ISLAMABAD: The worldwide shortage of food grains coupled with high food prices is driving leading food companies and investors from the UAE to Pakistan in search of lucrative deals in the agriculture sector in of one of the world's major food exporters.
With the entire world passing through an era of record food prices, and an acute food shortage predicted in the near future, leading Gulf investors are planning joint ventures and direct investments in Pakistan's farm and livestock sectors, Express TV reported.

Big UAE companies are also planning to develop their own farms for wheat, rice, sugar, cotton, fruits and vegetables in Pakistan, said Bilal Pasha, Commercial Consul at the Pakistan Consulate in Dubai.

He said: "A few big companies from the UAE have shown keen interest in setting up big corporate farms in Pakistan. Big food traders and manufacturers from the UAE, such as Al Ghurair Group, Emirates Investment Group, Effco from Sharjah and Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) Group, are going to play a vital role in Pakistan's agricultural field. Some dairy companies from the UAE and Saudi Arabia are also setting up big diary farms inPakistan."

Companies from Qatar and other Middle Eastern countries are also keen to invest in agro-industries in Pakistan, he added.

MAF is setting up two shopping malls in Pakistan and the group is also keen to procure most of the fruits and vegetables required for its GCC shopping malls from Pakistan, Pasha said.

Ganging Act of British Rule in the Subcontinent revived

Apparently the channels have been banned in the "largest democracy in the world" because the Pakistani channels discussed and showed the mass graves of Kashmiris. The mass graves are for victims of the excesses of the 100,000 Indian security forces that are present in Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

Obviously the present puppet government in Occupied Jammu and Kashmir does not want the denizens of the valley to be aware that the Indian Security forces murdered and then buried innocent Kashmiri civilians in mass graves.

"suchai jhup nahin sukti banawat keh asoolon seh

kushboo aa nahin suktee kaghaz keh phoolon seh"

APHC (M) Chairman Moulvi Umar Farooq:
The order is an act of frustration.  Pakistan media had begun to comment on Human Rights situation in Kashmir, especially the issue of unmarked graves. And the move has watered down the goodwill generated by releasing Pakistani films in India and dented the claims about improving situation in the state.
The situation appears to be heading toward 1947 situation when hot potatoes were stuck into the mouths of people who listened to Radio Pakistan. But I believe the blocking of TV channels is not going to make a major difference. We have called a meeting to discuss the situation and if need arises we can also talk to cable operators.

Hurriyat (G) chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani:
It will not affect emotional, cultural and religious bond that people of Kashmir share with the people of Pakistan.  The move to stop airing Pakistani channels shows an inherent contradiction in Indian policies. They talk of normalization of situation, trade and friendship, and at the same time they ban Pakistani channels in Kashmir.
Pakistani leadership should learn a lesson from this move. India is neither sincere in normalizing the relations with Pakistan nor resolving Kashmir issue. Pakistan should try to harmonise the internal situation in their country and continue the support at diplomatic, moral and other levels for Kashmir cause.
Even mainstream parties like National Conference, PDP and CPI (M) sounded resentment over blocking of channels like PTV, ARY, Geo and Aaj and cautioned that relations could be strained. Tarigami termed the order highly objectionable while Sagar termed it an irrational step.

National Conference leader Ali Mohammad Sagar:
The order specifically directs airing of Pakistani channels should be stopped though permission is needed for airing all the foreign channels. It is not the right approach. It is an irrational step at a time when India speaks of normalizing relations with Pakistan. Barring these channels will create bitterness. Even during times of war the channels were not barred.
They talk of selling walnut and carpets to Pakistan and at the same time ban channels; it does not work in the times of globalization.   

Muhammad Yusuf Tarigami, state secretary CPI (M):
It is unhealthy on behalf of the administration. This gives a negative message. More responsible environment is created when information flows freely. The government must reconsider the decision withdraw this highly objectionable order.

PDP General Secretary Nizam-u-Din Bhat:
If cable operators have been asked to stop airing only Pakistani news channels though several foreign channels are on the scene, then the order goes against the freedom of press. Greater Kashmir

Govt gags cable TV in Kashmir Bans Pak channels

Javed Shah
Srinagar, April 23: Authorities have imposed a ban on airing of four Pakistani television channels in Srinagar.
According to an order issued Wednesday by district magistrate Srinagar, Sheikh Ajaz Iqbal, the cable operators have been asked to immediately stop airing PTV, Geo, Aaj and Ary channels.The beaming of the channels, according to Iqbal, requires permission from Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India.
“In case they (the cable operators) fail to implement the order, action as required under…the Cable Television Network (Regulation) Act 1995 shall be initiated,” he said.The government didn’t give any reason for banning the channels which are quite popular in Kashmir.
Meanwhile, the cable operators have termed the ban on the Pakistani channels as “authoritarian” and asked the government to reconsider it.Irfan Bakshi, who holds rights of cable television network in the Valley, told Etalaat that the ban will badly affect their business.
“A large number of people in the Valley watch the channels, the ban will deprive them of their favourite programs,” Bakshi said.He said he apprehended that the ban was politically motivated.
“The authorities have asked us to obtain the permission from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry but the motive behind might be political, we have no choice but to stop beaming the channels.”
Iqbal, the district magistrate, told Etalaat that it’s obligatory for the cable television operators to seek permission of the Information and Broadcasting ministry for airing the channels which are operating from the foreign soil.

India takes Pakistan TV channels off air in Kashmir

Thu Apr 24, 2008 6:47am EDT By Sheikh Mushtaq

SRINAGAR, India, April 24 (Reuters) - Indian authorities have blocked cable TV operators from broadcasting four Pakistani television channels in Kashmir, a move the region's separatists described as "cultural aggression" by New Delhi.

Pakistani television channels are very popular in Muslim-majority Kashmir and cable TV provides the main form of entertainment for people in the troubled region.

More than 50 channels, including three Islamic ones, are usually available, showing news, films and other entertainment in Hindi and English. Some channels also broadcast in the Kashmiri language.
"After receiving orders from the administration, we immediately blocked all four (PTV, ARY, Aaj and Geo TV) channels," Irfan Ahamad, a leading cable TV operator said in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir.

Officials said the cable operators did not have the necessary government clearance to broadcast the channels.

Militant groups that had once shut cinemas, liquor shops and beauty parlours after a separatist revolt began in 1989 in the Kashmir valley were outraged.

"It is another indication of naked aggression by Indian authorities," read a statement from Kashmir's hardline separatist leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chief cleric and chairman of Kashmir's main separatist alliance, All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom Conference), termed the ban on Pakistani TV channels as "cultural aggression" by Indian authorities.

"Kashmir has religious and cultural links with Pakistan and it is unethical to ban Pakistani TV channels," local newspapers quoted Farooq as saying.

More than 43,000 people have been killed in Jammu and Kashmir, mainly Hindu India's only Muslim majority state, since a revolt against New Delhi broke out in 1989.

Human rights groups put the toll at about 60,000 dead or missing, but the level of violence has fallen since India and Pakistan, which claim Kashmir in full but rule it in parts, began a peace process in 2004.
Half a dozen alcohol shops, a cinema hall and some beauty parlours have reopened in Srinagar and other parts of the region since then.

But people are still killed in daily shootouts and occasional bomb attacks.
On Wednesday, Indian security forces shot dead three senior members of Kashmir's main rebel group, Hizbul Mujahideen, in separate shootouts, police said. (Editing by Bappa Majumdar and Alex Richardson)

Congo spotlight on India and Pakistan By Martin Plaut BBC News

Pakistan is the biggest contributor to the UN peacekeeping effort

A BBC investigation into United Nations peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo has put the spotlight on Indian troops for the first time, and revived questions about Pakistani troops there.

Much of the report is based on confidential UN documents.

Concerns were first raised within the UN about Indian troop activities in eastern DR Congo in July, 2007.

After discussions between the UN and India, it was agreed that a UN investigation team would "determine whether the allegations are credible and require full investigation by India and the United Nations".

That team identified five areas involving Indian troops in which a UN report says allegations have been "corroborated":

• The illegal purchase of gold from rebels of the FDLR - the former Rwandan army that fled to Congo following their involvement in the Rwanda genocide of 1994
• The use of a UN helicopter to fly into the Virunga national park, to exchange ammunition for ivory with the rebels
• The exchanging with the rebels of UN rations for gold
• The buying of drugs from the rebels
• The failure to support the disarmament of this rebel group.

'Trivial'

It says there is sufficient evidence to take action against three named Indian peacekeepers over attempts to trade in gold (some of which turned out to be counterfeit) and the unlawful detention of one of the traders.

It says that there is insufficient evidence to act against Indian peacekeepers over the other allegations.

The memo, from the UN's Vladislav Guerassev, says the allegations "may have the potential to damage the reputation of the Indian military and the United Nations".

Therefore it says the Indian authorities "may wish to consider other avenues of inquiry, which fall outside the purviews of the (UN's Investigation Division) investigations."

In response to the allegations the Indian High Commission in London told the BBC that the allegations over trading in gold were a "trivial case" and that the three soldiers concerned were being investigated by the UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS).

If found guilty, they would face disciplinary action, the High Commission said.

It also said that the OIOS "has affirmed that there is no evidence of any other allegation against the Indian troops in DR Congo" including the allegations of "the arming of a militia".

'Alienating Pakistan'

The BBC first reported into allegations of corrupt practices by Pakistani peacekeepers in the DR Congo last year. These took place in a different area of eastern Congo to the activities of the Indian troops.

They did give us arms. They said it was for the security of the country

Mateso Ninga
rebel leader

Now the BBC has found evidence that a UN enquiry into what took place in the gold mining town of Mongbwalu appears to have been blocked for political reasons.

Those close to this investigation told us that elements of the investigation were suppressed for fear of alienating Pakistan, which is the largest troop contributing country to the UN.

When the BBC last year published the first allegations that Pakistan peacekeepers had illegally traded in gold, as well as providing weapons to some of Congo's most notorious militia, the FNI, the reaction of the Pakistani authorities was one of denial.

In May 2007 the military spokesman at the time, Maj Gen Waheed Arshad, said the reports were "not only malicious but misleading and distorted" and without evidence.

Hard to believe

The UN's own report, dated 2 July 2007, which it has never published, concludes that the Pakistani contingent in Mongbwalu did indeed trade in gold with a group of Indian traders based in East Africa.

Mongbwalu - could one man have organised $7m in gold trade from here

The UN goes on to hold just one Pakistani army officer responsible for what took place. It is hard to believe that one single officer, based in an isolated Congolese village, could organise a trade involving an estimated $7m in gold passing through four countries, but that was the UN's conclusion.

On the question of re-arming the FNI militia the UN report, which removed the names of those involved, was unequivocal: "In the absence of corroborative evidence, (the UN's Investigation Division) could not substantiate the allegation that (Pakistani peacekeepers) deployed to Mongbwalu had supplied weapons or ammunition" to FNI fighters.

Travelling back to eastern Congo the BBC has now found evidence the UN says it was unable to discover.

One needs to ask what interests Pakistan peacekeepers could have in doing that

Maj Gen Athar Abbas
Pakistan military spokesman

We interviewed several residents of the town, who told us they had seen FNI militia who were disarmed one day, in the town the next day with the same weapons.

We spoke to a man whose family members died fighting for the FNI.

"The FNI commanders - these were Dragon Masasi and Kung Fu Nyinga - took a vehicle to meet and negotiate with one of the Pakistani officers," he said.

"They went in and came back with seven boxes of ammunition. After receiving these boxes, all the militia - including my young brothers - took their arms to go and attack the Congolese army."

We also went into the maximum security prison in the capital, Kinshasa, to interview the two FNI leaders named above.

Kung Fu - real name General Mateso Ninga - was clear about what had taken place. "Yes, its true, " he said. "They did give us arms. They said it was for the security of the country. So they said to us that we would help them take care of the zone."

'Thirst for gold'

In fact the UN had compelling evidence of its own, which it failed to refer to in its report. This was the testimony of a Congolese army officer involved in the disarmament process.

Digging for gold in eastern DR Congo

He told the investigators during three interviews that he had repeatedly seen militia disarmed, yet had seen them with the same arms soon thereafter.

Asked why this was he put it down to what he called the "thirst for gold" on the part of one of the Pakistani officers.

Unofficially UN officials now accept that the trade in gold and the re-arming of the FNI militia did, indeed, take place.

And one Pakistani officer is reported to have been disciplined. The UN's Department of Peacekeeping Operations says it has been sending Pakistan "notes verbal" since last year in an attempt to discover what disciplinary measures these were, but has received no reply.

In response to the latest BBC report, the current Pakistani military spokesman, Maj Gen Athar Abbas, said the BBC was showing a "biased attitude towards Pakistan".

Maj Gen Abbas said there was "no evidence" of Pakistani troop involvement in the illegal exploitation of gold or the rearming of a militia. "One needs to ask what interests Pakistan peacekeepers could have in doing that" he said.

He also argued that the BBC was wrong to rely on the evidence of Mateso Ninga, a "criminal in the prison".

He also denied that the UN had been prevented from investigating the allegations.

For 7 years, Pakistanis did not face the problems that they are facing now.

As soon as the chosen government of Prime Minister Aziz left, the problems of the common man have increased exponentially. A booming economy is now in the doldrums. Inflation is out of control, and food shortages are the norm.

Both the PPPP and the PMLN are not deadlocked, one minority party has the majority party in a headlock. The one trick pony wants to bring a revolution and abrupt change in the system. This will only lead to chaos.

Instead of focusing on food, Iran, China, India, and the possibilities, the party of Mr. Nawaz Sharif as usual is focusing on revenge, recrimination and blaming the past. The people will tolerate this for a while, but there is a limit to the patience.

If this trend continues, the bums will be thrown out sooner than later.