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Archive for April, 2012

ZARDARI GOVT APPROVED BHOJA AIRLINES 28 YEAR OLD BOEING 737 FLYING COFFIN CRASHES

Posted by Dr. Manzer Durrani in Pakistan's Hall of Shame on April 20th, 2012

ZARDARI’S CORRUPTION NOW TAKING HUMAN LIVES :ZARDARI GOVT APPROVED BHOJA AIRLINES 28 YEAR OLD BOEING 737 FLYING COFFIN CRASHES:REHMAN MALIK AND KAIRA DO DAMAGE CONTROL. MQM MAKES POLITICAL MILEAGE OUT OF DISASTER

 

Zardari Governments coruption in Pakistan leads to a crash of a Bhoja Airlines “Flying Coffin.” Zardari Govt approved the license to operate to sub-standard Bhoja Airlines.  This airline is using 5 Boeing 737 planes, which are 28 years old and were deemed as non-flyable. Pakistan Civil Aviation through either incompetance or possible bribery approved the license to operate to Bhoja Airlines.  PIA had expressed reservations about approving licenses to private airlines, run by government favorites or those who have puportedly “bribed,” the corrupt Pakistan Government.

 

MQM VULTURES MAKE POLITICAL MILEAGE

All the opportunists vultures like MQM are out at Karachi Airport to get political mileage out of Pakistan’s human tragedy. Altaf Hussain, the carrion-eating vulture had his minions show up in front of media to provide hypocritical and false  sympathy to the suffering families. 

Bhoja Air is a small Karachi-based airline that began operating in 1993. It had suspended flights in 2001 because of financial troubles and had resumed operations in March.

The incident bore similarities to the July 28, 2010, crash of an Airblue passenger jet that killed all 152 people aboard. That aircraft was also flying from Karachi to the Pakistani capital, and was moving through heavy fog and rain when it slammed into a forested ridge outside Islamabad. The crash was believed to be the worst domestic aviation disaster in Pakistan’s history.

 Bhoja Airlines and several others which operate in Pakistan received licences to operate by the current PPP government. These new airlines are using superannuated aircrafts, which are literally “flying coffins.” the corruption of Zardari government is now taking lives of ordinary Pakistani citizens.  Also, Pakistan Civil Aviation is infested with corrupt “sifarishis,” employees, who are certifying “Flying Coffins,” for air service. 

As a cherry on this disastrous cake, Zardari let loose Rehman Malik and Kaira to do damage control.

Zardari has actually previously been convicted of corruption, and has spent a total of eight years in jail, and there are still outstanding indictments that are creating tensions in the National Assembly today.  An article in the New York Times entitled House of Graft: Tracing the Bhutto Millions, spells out in uncomfortable detail the shadowy world of the Bhutto-Zardari fortunes.  Documents offer an extraordinarily revealing look at high-level corruption in Pakistan, “a nation so poor that perhaps 70 percent of its 130 million people are illiterate, and millions have no proper shelter, no schools, no hospitals, not even safe drinking water.”

Among the deals that have come to light are a $200 million deal with French military contractor Dassault Aviation, which fell apart only after Bhutto’s government was dismissed; a leading Swiss company paid millions of dollars into offshore companies controlled by Zardari and Bhutto’s mother Nusrat; a gold bullion dealer in the Middle East apparently paid $1 million into a Zardari bank account.

There’s also evidence that the family amassed more than $1.5 billion in illicit profits through kickbacks in virtually every sphere of government activity, with accounts and transactions managed by a network of Western friends, lawyers and property companies.

Among the transactions Zardari exploited were defense contracts, power plant projects, the privatization of state owned industries; the awarding of broadcast licenses; the granting of an export monopoly for the country’s huge rice harvest; the purchase of planes for Pakistan International Airlines; the assignment of textile export quotas; the granting of oil and gas permits; authorization of sugar mills and the sale of government lands.

In 1993, he was convicted of money laundering, and in a separate case he and 128 others were indicted for conspiracy to murder his wife’s brother, Murtaza Bhutto. His release, re-arrest and the release again led to his exile in Dubai in 2005. Zardari has spent several years in jail, from 1997 and again from 1999 when he was sentenced over his connection to a Swiss company that had been hired to investigate corruption in the collection of customs duties.

PIA concerned over ‘permission’ granted to Indus Air by CAA

By  – Feb 9th, 2012 

Karachi: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has expressed reservations over permission granted to a new private airline, Indus Airline, to operate passenger flights by Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

Sources told The News Tribe that Civil Aviation Authorities (CAA) has recently permitted two new airlines, Indus Airline and Pearl Airline, to operate flight from Pakistan’s airports.

They said that the national flag carrier had expressed reservations over the permission granted to Indus Airline, arguing that this would further deteriorate the ailing financial health of the airline.

The sources said that the PIA management had conveyed its concerns to CAA through a letter.

The PIA authorities were of the view that operation of Indus Airline would cause technical as well as financial problems to national flag carrier.

The sources further said that Indus Airline had also applied for allotment of offices and hanger. Space for office of the airline has been approved while application for hanger is in process, they added.

Pakistan Air Crash: Passenger Plane Crashes Near Islamabad

Posted: 04/20/2012 11:09 am Updated: 04/20/2012 12:37 pm

Pakistanplanecrash1

Wreckage at the crash site

A passenger plane carrying 127 people has crashed into a residential area on its approach to Islamabad International Airport in Pakistan.

The Bhoja Air Boeing 737, flight BHO-213, was descending for landing when the incident happened as it flew from Karachi.

Pakistan’s Defence Minister said that the plane burst into flames a few miles from the airport near Chaklala, Rawalpindi, at around 18:40 local time.

There were 118 passengers and nine crew on-board.

Pakistani Police have said there is ‘no chance’ of any survivors.

Karachi and Islamabad airports have been besieged with distraught relatives of those on board.

The plane came down near a residential complex but it is unclear if there were any casualties on the ground.

Rescue teams are at the scene and emergency official Saifur Rehman said: “We can see the plane’s wreckage is on fire and we are trying to extinguish it. We are looking for survivors.”

Local TV footage shows people searching by torchlight amongst mangled wreckage.

The cause is unknown but heavy rain was reported in the area at the time of the crash.

Bhoja Air had previously stopped operating in 2001 due to financial difficulties and had only started operating again last month.

Pakistan’s worst air disaster happened only last July when a passenger plane crashed killing all 152 people on board.

THE 2010 AIR CRASH

Pakistan’s worst ever air crash kills 152

A Pakistani passenger jet crashed in bad weather today killing all 152 people on board in the country’s worst ever air accident.

By Rob Crilly in Islamabad

3:47PM BST 28 Jul 2010

The morning Airblue flight from Karachi was preparing to land when it went down in the fog-shrouded Margalla Hills to the north of Islamabad.

Rescue workers struggled to reach the crash site, trekking through forests made boggy by days of monsoon rain.

Officials said air traffic control had diverted the plane on its final approach, owing to rain and thick cloud – outside the normal route for aircraft flying from Karachi.

Rehman Malik, the country’s Interior Minister, said: “It’s a tragic, tragic accident. There will be a full investigation and it’s too early to say what caused the crash but the weather was not good.”

A plume of smoke rising into the low cloud from the forested hills could be seen from the Pakistani capital. Some onlookers scrambled past police cordons to climb into the hills where they helped rescuers digging among the wreckage with their bare hands.

Pakistan is in the grip of monsoon season and Wednesday brought heavy rain and low cloud to the Himalayan foothills around Islamabad.

Experienced pilots say the craggy hills and unpredictable wind patterns make landing awkward even in good weather. An earlier flight operated by Pakistan International Airlines had been diverted to Lahore on Wednesday.

Witnesses said the ill-fated Airbus A321 looked to be in difficulty as it approached the city.

“I wondered why the plane wasn’t flying higher as it was flying towards the hill,” said Anjum Rahman, who saw the plane from the window of her home. “Then within three or four minutes I heard a loud explosion.”

Relatives of the missing gathered at Islamabad airport and the city’s main hospitals desperate for word of their loved ones as rumours of survivors circulated.

Crowds clustered around ambulances as they began arriving at PakistanInstitute of Medical Sciences in the early afternoon.

Hope gradually faded as it became clear they were carrying badly charred bodies rather than survivors.

Huma Shahid said she was waiting for news of a cousin who was returning from Karachi where he had been on business.

“We came because we heard there were survivors – first five, then 45,” she said. “But so far nothing. People are getting angry,” she said.

It was not until late afternoon that rescue workers said they had accounted for all the passengers and no one had survived.

Airblue was set up in 2004, flying to the UK and Middle East as well as operating domestic services. Its modern fleet has a good safety record and its reputation for service has attracted many business travellers away from state-owned PIA.

The deadliest civilian plane crash involving a Pakistani jet outside the country was a PIA Airbus A300 that crashed into a cloud-covered hillside on its approach to the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, killing 167 people in September 1992.

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‘$94 billion or Rs 8500 billion graft and theft mars Gilani government’

Posted by Dr. Manzer Durrani in Corruption on April 19th, 2012

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:06:13 GMT

‘$94 bn graft mars Gilani government’

Islamabad: Pakistan has lost Rs.8,500 billion ($94 billion) in corruption, tax evasion and bad governance during the rule of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, graft watchdog Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) has said.

'$94 bn graft mars Gilani government'

TIP advisor Adil Gillani told The News that the impact of corruption is far more serious than what was believed. He said Pakistan will not need money from the outside world if the government can effectively check corruption.

The current Pakistani government that came to power in 2008 has been the worst in terms of corruption. Past records of corruption were broken and the country rose in the ranks of the most corrupt nations, the paper noted.

The National Accountability Bureau and the Federal Investigation Agency, instead of checking corruption, have been siding with the corrupt. These institutions have been helping the corrupt to get off the hook by distorting the evidence in favour of the high and the mighty, the TIP representative alleged.

Transparency International is headquartered in Berlin.

Source: IANS

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Falling Chairs

Posted by Dr. Manzer Durrani in Politics on April 19th, 2012

 

Falling Chairs  
Humayun Gauhar

As President Zardari stood up clumsily to deliver his annual address
to parliament his chair fell. His sage said it was a bad omen –
“Beware the ides of March” and all that jazz – for ‘The Chair’ is akin
to a throne, symbolizing power and office. “You will have to pray at
the shrine of a Sufi much bigger than any we have in Pakistan,” the
sage declared. So Zardari decided to go to the biggest South Asian
Sufi of them all, Hazrat Moinuddin Chishti (1141-1230 CE), whose
shrine is in city of Ajmer in India.

Many kings, presidents and prime ministers have gone to Ajmer.

Emperor Akbar is said to have gone to Ajmer to pray for a son.
Some say it was to a Sufi in Sheikhupura, I forget his name, but
that is another story. Either way, Akbar got a son and successor
from his Hindu Rajput wife and the Mughal dynasty continued.

The official reason for Zardari’s visit was that he went to honour

his late wife’s promise or ‘mannat’ to the pir, but the talk in the
bazaars is that it was the ‘bad omen’ that triggered it off. It could
have been both. Should it matter?

Yes it should, because the Pakistani state, ergo the people, must have
paid for some part of the visit, even though it is said that the
president paid for everything from his own pocket, including the one
million US dollar offering he gave to the shrine. Fine, but the
questions then arises: from where did he get so much money? Best to
leave it to the judges of our highest exalted court – the ‘Supreme’
one that is – to take suo moto notice. I don’t know how Muslims can
call any court ‘supreme’ and that too in an Islamic state since in
Islam only the court of God is supreme because only God is supreme

and sovereign. That’s yet another discussion. No one will object
because our people, particularly of Sindh and southern Punjab, have
a proclivity to go to Sufis dead or alive for blessings and intercession
with the Almighty. That in Islam no one can intercede with God on
anyone’s behalf is forgotten. And – you guessed it – that’s yet
another discussion.

So off our president went with son, daughter, sage, ministers,
sycophants, journalists, media and staff in tow, enough to require

two aircraft, one executive jet (wonder which anointed ones got to sit in
that one with the ‘royal’ family) and an army C-130, the type in which
this ‘royal’ family’s nemesis General Zia ul Haq crashed and perished
with many others. That particular aircraft, legend has it, was the
same that transported Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s dead body half way to his
ancestral graveyard in Sindh before returning to Rawalpindi halfway
with engine trouble and the body had to be shifted to another C-130.
Not that it means anything; else the sage wouldn’t have kept quiet. By
the way, such is our attraction for graves that Bhutto’s mausoleum has
become another saintly shrine. Why do you think that some Muslims
level them off every few years?

It was good that Zardari’s private visit included a ‘sumptuous’
semi-official lunch with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Not
that a constitutionally ceremonial president and a weak proxy prime
minister amount to much in this land of dynastic rule with the fig
leaf of British parliamentary democracy. But it is precisely because
of dynasty that Zardari wields real power, being Bhutto’s son-in-law
and co-chairman of his party, with his young son the chairman and icon
of the Bhutto cult, a symbolic figurehead so far. As for Mr. Singh,
real power lies with the daughter-in-law of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty
who is also the leader of the ruling party. No matter: jaw-jaw is
better than war-war a la Churchill.

Be all that as it may, our media’s hysterical hoopla that accompanied
the visit last Sunday was shameful. So obsessed was it with Zardari’s
lunch and pilgrimage that it callously paid scant attention to the
worst peacetime tragedy our army has ever faced when 135 of soldiers
were buried alive in an avalanche in Siachen. The two oldest
civilizations in the world have been at each other’s throats for 28
years in what is called the “highest war in the world”. Stupid. Both
have lost more soldiers to the elements there than to bullets. It’s
about geo-strategy and water. To get news about the Siachen tragedy

we had to turn to foreign channels. Shows how wonky priorities can get
when the collective mind is wonky: the difference between right and
wrong, relevant and irrelevant or less relevant is lost.

Our media went overboard on the visit because we as a people are
merrily unaware of where the limits of respect for state office end
and the courtier’s pathological sycophancy begins; of where
constructive criticism ends and national damage begins. There was
daydreaming galore by anchors, clapped out ambassadors, bureaucrats
gone to seed, generals put out to pasture, all masquerading as
analysts, most in awe of America, many members of the Langley Club

or on its waiting list.

That the Supreme Commander of our Armed Forces chose to go to

India in the face of this enormous tragedy was of no consequence
to him or to our media. Symbolism is an important balm for broken
hearts and destroyed lives, more, dare I suggest, than the symbolism
of a spiritual pilgramage. Would the great Sufi of Ajmer have missed
Zardari’s presence? Would he have any use for the one million US
dollars offering? Only his progeny would. Custody of shrines by
progeny is a booming business because illiterate, desperately poor
and helpless devotees can go there for, if nothing else, therapy of a
soul in turmoil, even if they know that only God can answer prayers
and that the piety that lay with the Sufi did not enter his genes to be
passed on to his descendants. In Zardari’s mind – and he is our best
political tactician, mind you – the symbolism of his pilgrimage to
Ajmer would hold importance with Sindhi voters, what with elections
looming.

Shrines often become political constituencies of Sufi progeny whose
habits their exalted forebear would have looked at askance. Their
graves are where the credibility and constituencies of ‘Mukhdooms’

or custodians lie. It’s as primitive and predatory as feudalism and
tribalism since all three societal forms prey upon the illiteracy,
poverty and helplessness of the hapless. Pathetic. Sufis are people
of peace, of love, of poetry and sometimes of trance and dance,
which is why the ascetic disapproves of them.

Only those who cannot see God with their inner eye, in their hearts
and in His creations pray to mortals or ask them to intercede with
Him. Human beings find it difficult to think in the abstract. Go to
mausoleums, certainly, because very pious and God-loving people

used to live there, but don’t imagine that they can do for you that
which only God can do. Genuine Sufis and mystics were incredible
people for they saw beyond logic and came to their deductions
through feeling with the mind and thinking with the heart. But
their followers and adherents don’t understand this and ascribe
to them and their progeny qualities that only God has. Here I go
drifting off into another subject.

Moinuddin Chishti is regarded as the greatest Sufi of the subcontinent
for helping people, which is why is called ‘gharib nawaz’ or helper of
the poor. The fire of the huge cauldron in which food is cooked and
distributed free has been alight for centuries. It takes a ladder to
get to its lip.

Back to the visit: Pakistan wants to be seen to be trying to improve
relations with India, if for nothing else than to score brownie points
with America. India has had the bad habit of linking disparate issues,
particularly terrorism with everything. But now it seems that it is
breaking that habit. India should remember that it is state terrorism
that begets non-state terrorism. I will not say more. No point in
laboring the obvious. America and India shouldn’t forget that no
country in the world has suffered more at the hands of homegrown

and foreign terrorism than Pakistan has and no country has lost
more soldiers and civilians in fighting terrorists. Good luck. Peace
is better than war.

 [email protected]

 

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Heartless Zardari absent from the front line? As Pakistanis anxiously awaited fate of their soldiers

Posted by Dr. Manzer Durrani in Pakistan's Hall of Shame on April 16th, 2012

Zardari Absent from the front line?
As Pakistanis awaited news of their soldiers, Zardari tried to buttress position of his government 
As a crisis unfolded last week for Pakistan’s army troops deployed across the country’s northern Siachen region bordering India, the glaring gap between Pakistan’s ruling class and the reality on the ground came to light.
The incident involved the lives of 135 Pakistani soldiers, buried under more than 20 metres of snow after a major avalanche struck the region.
Rescue efforts launched almost instantly in the aftermath of this calamity,were still ongoing several days later without any success in sight.
The incident is one of the worst of its kind ever to hit Pakistan’s army in one of the world’s most inhospitable terrains, made worse by terrible weather conditions.
Article continues below
It also came as a powerful reminder of a futile conflict which began in the 1980s. More than two decades later, the conflict on the heights of Siachen has become widely known as the highest altitude battlefield of its kind, without the possibility of an early end in sight.
But the difficult dynamics of this battle which stared Pakistanis in the face yet again in the past week, also abundantly illustrate a gap surrounding the country’s internal ruling structure.
As Pakistanis reacted in ways ranging from intense prayers for the safe return of the soldiers to simply awaiting news of rescue efforts, President Asif Ali Zardari, the head of state, was once again absent from the front line.
For Pakistanis familiar with Zardari’s history, this was not the first time that he had kept away in the face of adversity.
Four years after Zardari became Pakistan’s president — a position which by default makes him the supreme commander of the armed forces — his reaction to this latest episode was almost predictable. In the absence of Pakistan’s president from Siachen’s frontline, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, the army’s chief of staff, led the rescue efforts.
Likewise too, for those who have followed the Pakistan army’s continuing battle against Taliban and Al Qaida militants across the country’s tribal areas along the Afghan border, Zardari’s absence should hardly be surprising. To date, he has not shown up anywhere on the front lines where the battle involves a literally eyeball-to-eyeball conflict between Pakistan’s forces and militants in the tribal areas.
As Pakistanis awaited news of the Siachen soldiers, Zardari spent part of the past week seeking to buttress the position of his widely unpopular government. Nothing could have been a more telling description of where the government’s primary interest lies than Friday’s expansion of Pakistan’s cabinet.
Public apathy
Some of the country’s former ministers who previously served under the regime of Zardari’s Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) found themselves returning to the cabinet. The expansion, in a likely election year, said much about the motivation of the country’s ruling class.
In sharp contrast to the popular preoccupation, the news from Siachen, Islamabad’s ruling politicians instead appeared to have their attention squarely diverted towards the political future of the country particularly in relation to their own future.
Going forward no one should be surprised over the widespread public apathy across Pakistan towards the way their country is ruled. With a set of top rulers who are simply too detached from the most important affairs of the state, it’s no surprise that most Pakistanis feel deeply neglected and therefore disillusioned. For a country where politicians have seldom had opportunities of unfettered civilian rule as witnessed by Zardari and the PPP in the past few years, Pakistan is truly confronted with the tragic writing on the wall.
Ironically, it was the PPP under the rule of the late Benazir Bhutto, former prime minister and Zardari’s wife, which was widely seen as promoting the cause of democracy. But the party’s dismal performance in overseeing an improvement in living conditions has only made it increasingly unpopular under Zardari’s leadership in the past four years.
The decision to expand the cabinet may well be a desperate effort to win back some of the PPP’s popular support that has been squarely lost. But such patchwork can simply not be a substitute for popular support earned through hardwork and performance.
It is no surprise that many Pakistanis are asking; “Where is the government?” Others, having seen Zardari’s absence from Siachen in the past week, may well be pushed to ask the question; “Where is the president?”
Farhan Bokhari is a Pakistan-based commentator who writes on political and economic matters.

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Pakistan building its own fleet of military drones

Posted by Dr. Manzer Durrani in Defense on April 16th, 2012

Pakistan building its own fleet of military drones

Published 16 April, 2012 09:00:00
image

An American Predator drone flies in this undated photo. Pakistan is building its own fleet of military dones. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Department of Defense.)

Pakistan has pushed the United States for years to share its Predator drone technology. The United States has resisted so Pakistan is turning to China to help it build its own drone fleet. Though Pakistan is relatively tight-lipped about what it wants, a retired Pakistani general said they’ll likely be armed.

 

Listen NowListen Now

 

Pakistanis have routinely complained about American drone strikes inside their country’s borders.

Pakistan says it has asked the U.S. more than once to equip it with Predator drones, arguing it can do a better job of targeting insurgents and the Taliban.

But it says those requests have been turned down. Now, the Pakistanis are building an attack drone on home soil with foreign help.

In the fractious atmosphere of Pakistani politics where everybody appears to disagree on just about everything one issue unifies everyone: U.S. drone strikes.

American drones firing on targets inside Pakistan’s borders have sparked anger and indignation, but observers say some in the military are also upset because the U.S. refuses to share its Predator technology.

Retired Gen. Talat Masood said that may be understandable from a strategic point of view — but it isn’t helping improve relations between the two countries.

“I think the most insulting part has been the unilateral use of the drones rather than not supplying us with the weapons system,” Masood said. “One country has that option of not providing a weapons system to another. But then using that weapon system against an ally. That becomes a very, very complex issue. Even if there are certain tactical advantages of using drones in Pakistan.”

Reports of Pakistan working to produce its own drones began to surface in 2009. The most highly touted model is called the “Burraq,” named for a mythical winged creature that is said to have carried the Prophet Muhammed.

Masood said the military is working hard on it, but there’s no guarantee it will be flying anytime soon.

“I think they are on a high priority. There is no doubt about it, they are on a high priority,” Masood said. “But even if a weapons system is on a high priority because of the complexity and the advanced nature of its technology it may take some time before it is mastered and its full utilization is made.”

In fact, Pakistan already has a long history of designing and producing drones, many of them created by a man named Raja Sabri Khan.

His near obsession with unmanned aircraft started at a young age. Khan found himself compelled to do whatever it took to fund his research.

“I augmented my nonexistent earnings by teaching physics and doing fashion photography so these helped Pakistan’s first drones to be created,” Khan said.

His clear preference for model aircraft over fashion models carried Khan to the top of his industry. In fact, he said he’s sold his unarmed drones to a company he does not want to name in the United States.

Khan said the drones flying in American airspace are being used for law enforcement, security and even search and rescue. The FAA prohibits the use of unmanned aerial vehicles in U.S. airspace, so it’s not clear exactly how his drones could be flying in the United States. If they are, it’s probably not entirely above board.

But he is adamantly opposed to arming drones because of the risk that innocent people will be harmed.

Still, Khan expects Pakistan’s political and military leaders will push ahead, seeing a missile-firing drone as nothing more than the latest airborne weapon of war.

“I feel bombing civilians is unfair,” he said. “It’s something that cannot be condoned. But at the same time, a drone is nothing more than an aircraft without a pilot (on board). And if you use it to fight a war, I think political considerations far outweigh the idealistic side of the issue.”

There is another potential side effect of Pakistan’s determination to manufacture its own drone fleet. Masood said China has become a key partner in the development of the Burraq drone.

Masood said the U.S., which has cooperated with the Pakistani military on joint projects and training for years, should be paying attention.

“You can see how lasting those bonds are. And any country which has a defense relationship, which is strong and binding, then the relationship also becomes very lasting,” he said.

 

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