Islam & Pakistan! Technology & Me!
The World
Oh Come on Indians! I’m not buying this load of crap!
8Stunned, shocked and silent I was when a handful of terrorists handicapped a metropolis like ‘Mumbai’. How indiscriminate they were in the way they showered innocent people with bullets, killing around 200 people.
But here’s when I started to smell something fishy. Did you see how much in control over the entire situation they were? Almost as if they had the nod of the security agencies to go and put up a thrilling action drama.
And to top it all, the haste with which the fingers started pointing towards Pakistan was ridiculously absurd and unacceptable to anyone in a stable state of mind.
How do you expect me to believe that the ‘terrorists’ managed to infiltrate the Indian waters when a major naval exercise was actually in progress? (more…)
Time to go solo: Stop Begging, Start Building!
23 years ago
By Laila Sohail
Saturday, 29th November – 2008
The economic crisis has taken us exactly where it was expected…straight into the account books of the big bosses at the IMF We may be told that it’s a do or die situation, but there are options available. We should first get the IMF off our back, and then work on our own development programs. What Pakistan needs right now, is an out of the box solution…and some courage.
The IMF is going to bail us out with 7.6 billion dollars. The interest rate is going to be between 3.51% and 4.51%, but an official announcement is yet to be made. Apparently that’s it. We take $4bn this year, $3.6bn the next, and repay it by 2016. Or at least that’s the part we are told. According to speculations, the deal comes with an implicit price. A 30% cut in the defense budget is demanded. Other cuts may ask for reducing the number of pensionable posts in the government and semi government departments, devaluing the rupee, increasing sales tax by Rs 50billion, and imposing a 7% tax on agriculture.25% of government assets may be kept as mortgage, and the future annual budgets may now be prepared by the IMF and not the Ministry of Finance, so now it is not only at the borders where our sovereignty is compromised.
There are also concerns about the very reasons for going to the IMF. The notion being that the whole economic crisis was exaggerated so as to leave no other options open. The IMF hawks want us to go under, America wants us to go under…and now the government wants us to go under. It may be the last nail in the package to ensure that even the economy is no more independent.
It does not really matter what the intentions of the IMF are. The fact is that the Fund is not a charity institution. Regardless of its noble claims of strengthening countries, it is at the end an institution working in its own interests, and one should not be naive enough to either deny or criticize that. The loans may be meant to stir up the economy, but history has shown us the failures of this policy. One can not blame the IMF for our own ineffectiveness. Borrowing to develop, and then borrowing again to finance the previous borrowing, is a policy that can now safely be called a failure, as we have no development, but only borrowing bills to show for it. (more…)
No to the President, No to the Media
63 years ago
If there was to be a sequel to the movie Mr. Bean’s Holiday, it would be called President Goes to the USA. While Mr. President had a rendezvous half way across the globe with ex girl friends and beauty pageant winners, those back home wished he hadn’t left Islamabad in the first place. The media got its much alleged freedom, but how has that helped us? If the media is so responsible and its role is so vital, why have things gone as far as they have? WHERE IS THE MEDIA? Where are the anchors and the journalists who wanted to jump at every chance? They have the resources to interview sought after terrorists, but lack the guts to confront those in the government. Mr. President, if you want to be the savior you claim you are, stop playing in the hands of our enemies, bring about change, or it will force itself on you.
By Laila Sohail
Monday, 27th October – 2008
One last shift: Let us stop banking on the USA
73 years ago
By Syed Ammar Faheem
Sunday, 19th October – 2008
America is collapsing under systems and practices of its own. In such turbulent times, when not only the USA but Europe as well, face this man made financial catastrophe – the world is looking towards China with hope and despair! Why are we still allied to the USA? How do we define the terms friend, ally and enemy? (more…)
Don’t listen to him, listen to Kayani…
83 years ago
By Syed Ammar Faheem
Monday, 6th October – 2008
Who is speaking through Zardari? He has termed the freedom fighters in the Kashmir valley as ‘terrorists’. The U-turns and immature statements made by the PPP government and the President have been depressing and frustrating at the same time. They seem to be adamant to change what we have stood for over the past 60 years. Zardari has also claimed that the USA and Pakistan have an understanding on US attacks inside Pakistani territory. Suspicions are now running deep in the Pakistani society! Frustration is growing by the hour!
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