Pakistan Information & News

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim will be sworn in as a member of parliament on Thursday, his party said, after a landslide by-election victory that ended his decade-long political exile. Anwar, who was sacked as deputy premier in 1998 and jailed on sodomy and corruption charges, returns to parliament as the head of the Pakatan Rakyat opposition alliance which controls a third of the lower house. “The parliament speaker has said Anwar will be sworn in as an MP on Thursday,” said Tian Chua, information chief of the Keadilan party which leads the three-member alliance. “We will all be there to welcome Anwar as the leader of the opposition and the parliament will be very different with his voice,” he told AFP on Wednesday. “It is a real morale boost for the Pakatan Rakyat in parliament.” Anwar on Tuesday won the by-election in his old constituency of Permatang Pauh with a thumping majority, despite claims of a “dirty tricks” campaign mounted by the ruling coalition to sideline him. The 61-year-old opposition leader spent six years in jail before the sodomy conviction was overturned in 2004. But he now faces new sodomy charges levelled by a former aide which he says have been concocted by the government. Anwar has said that the Pakatan Rakyat will be able to form the next Malaysian government by mid-September. He needs to secure the support of 30 government defectors in order to topple the coalition.

Popularity: 3% [?]

 Son. Dad I have a special report for school. Can I ask you a question? Dad: Sure son what’s the question? Son. What is politics? Dad. Well son let’s take our home for example.

 I am the wage earner so let’s call me the management and your mother is the administrator of the money so let’s call her the government. We take care of you and your needs, so let’s call you the people. We will call the maid the working class and your baby brother the future. Understand? Son. I am not really sure dad I will have to think about it. That night the boy is awakened by his baby brother’s crying so he went to see what was wrong. Discovering that the baby had a heavily soiled nappy the boy went to his parent’s room and found his mother fast asleep. He than went to the maid’s room, where, peeking through the keyhole he saw his father in bed with the maid. The boy’s knocking went totally unheard. The boy went back to his room and went to sleep and the next morning.

Son. Dad I think I understand politics. Dad. That’s great son explain it to me in your own words. Son. While the management is screwing the working class, the government is fast asleep, the people are being completely ignored and the future is full of shit.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Now Obama is hunting for votes out West, Democrat on Saturday rejected the idea that the region’s sparsely populated states aren’t important in the race and renewed his promise to appoint a high-level adviser on Indian issues if elected.

Obama also cast his usual message in more Western-friendly terms, talking about clean-coal technology as a way of protecting Montana’s beautiful mountains and civil liberties as part of the state’s tradition of independence.

An Obama supporter had scolded all the presidential candidates earlier for not addressing Western issues.

Montana and neighboring states have only a handful    of delegates, but every one of them is valuable as Obama seeks to keep Hillary Rodham Clinton from narrowing his lead heading toward the nomination convention.

Obama, speaking at the Montana Democrats’ annual Mansfield-Metcalf Dinner, mocked the suggestion from Clinton’s campaign earlier this year that his lead is suspect because he won lightly contested small states that hold caucuses while losing some big states with primary elections.

“There are people saying Obama wins all these little states, all these caucus states, these small little Western states. I don’t know about you, but I think they’re pretty important,” Obama told the crowd of 4,000.

And in a state where more than 6 percent of the population is American Indian, Obama talked about improving health and education for Indians. He promised to appoint a senior White House adviser on the subject and host an annual meeting of tribal leaders.

Read more at Mail

Popularity: 1% [?]

An ailing, 81-year-old Fidel Castro resigned as Cuba’s president Tuesday after nearly a half-century in power, saying he will not accept a new term when parliament meets Sunday.

The end of Castro’s rule — the longest in the world for a head of government — frees his 76-year-old brother Raul to implement reforms he has hinted at since taking over as acting president when Fidel Castro fell ill in July 2006. President Bush said he hopes the resignation signals the beginning of a democratic transition.

In the pre-dawn hours, most Cubans were unaware of Castro’s message, and Havana’s streets were quiet. It wasn’t until 5 a.m., several hours after Castro’s message was posted on the internet, that official radio began reading the missive to early risers.

By sunrise, most people headed to work in Havana seemed to have heard the news, which they appeared to accept without obvious signs of emotion. There were no tears or smiles as Cubans went about their usual business.

“He will continue to be my commander in chief, he will continue to be my president,” said Miriam, a 50-year-old boat worker waiting for the bus to Havana port. “But I’m not sad because he isn’t leaving, and after 49 years he is finally resting a bit.”

Castro temporarily ceded his powers to his brother on July 31, 2006, when he announced that he had undergone intestinal surgery. Since then, the elder Castro has not been seen in public, appearing only sporadically in official photographs and videotapes and publishing dense essays about mostly international themes as his younger brother has consolidated his rule.

Popularity: 2% [?]

It makes me real sad when i heard about the bomb blast in karachi on Benazir carnival. What kind of our leaders are? despite the Govt warning Benazir came back and in this kind of situation she is doing rally or carnival with flood of peoples.

The innocent peoples die. But Benazir will keep on going in the lust of premiership despite those deaths. In the modern world the democracy cannot be only obtained by rallies, bloodshed and public demonstrations. It can be done through table talk.

It was better for Mrs Bhutto to arrive at Islamabad and talk with top brass along with other officials to make the pathway towards democracy.

Our leader are graduated from harward or Oxford but their political mentality is same as our local colleges indisciplined politics.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Benazir Bhutto so called daughter of the east is comming back to Pakistan on 18th October. Every body is interested in her post dated events after arrival but in my case i am more interested in knowing that what she did in her exiled life.

Do she bringing some better governance ideas or the same stories as we did face in her two terms. I hope she learnt a lot in her long rest and will handle the pakistan politics in better way.

There are a lot of challenges in her way. On the one side is military establishment, and the other side is religeous, q league and foreign issues.

I als hope she will manage to adjust in a good manner and will helpful in putting back the nation in a democratic path.

But i suspect if the conditions goes against her then she may face a situation which An Sang Su Chi of Myanmar is facing.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Will president Musharaf keep his promise on unform? It seems to be doubtful because  last time he also promised to the peoples of Pakistan but he did not keep his words. There is a very big problem in Pakistan  leaders, they think that they are the best among all. No body care about constitution, law, order, principles even the feelings of people. Now the peoples dont feel confidence in their leaders due to which the country is always at the risk of crises. Since 1947 except Mohammad Ali Jinnah .Pakistan dont had any leader on which the peoples showes their confidence and i dont think in near future there is any chance.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Adil Najam
Report from News (21 February, 2007):
A fanatic shot dead Punjab Minister for Social Welfare Zill-e-Huma Usman “for not adopting the Muslim dress code” at a political meeting here at the PML House on Tuesday. A party worker caught the accused, Maulvi Sarwar, and handed him over to the Civil Lines Police. Huma was at the PML House to hold an open Kachehry. As she was busy meeting the PML women activists, the accused sitting in the audience approached her with a pistol and pumped bullets into her head from a point-blank range… The accused, M Sarwar Mughal — popularly known as Maulvi Sarwar — is a resident of Baghbnapura in Gujranwala. Two police stations of Gujranwala and the Tibbi police of Lahore had booked Maulvi Sarwar for the murder of six women, but he was acquitted for want of sufficient evidence. His alleged spree of killing “immoral” women [...]

Original post by Adil Najam and plugin by Elliott Back

Popularity: 1% [?]

Guest Post by Aqil Sajjad
Pakistan has seen many elections in its checkered history and almost all were labeled rigged, unfair or engineered by one political party or another. For the upcoming elections, the opposition has already started voicing its fears of manipulation by the government, while the latter promises to conduct free and fair elections.
In addition to the controversy over rigging, several other structural flaws exist in our political system. These prevent elections from being a meaningful exercise for the genuine empowerment of the people. This article is an attempt to highlight some of the systemic issues – that have gone largely unnoticed thus far - and initiate a debate on possible solutions.
Hopefully we will take up the discussion, and the government, the election commission and the various political parties will either implement the following suggestions or provide sound arguments for not doing so.
1. The election commission shall be made [...]

Original post by Adil Najam and plugin by Elliott Back

Popularity: 1% [?]