Desperate Geo Looks To India

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Such are the attempts being made by GEO TV when on Tuesday, it urged the leading media houses of India including Zee News to extend an arm of help in the face of their ban in Pakistan.

Geo has asked these Indian media houses to ‘move the Pakistani establishment including President Musharraf for the restoration of GEO’s services’.In a letter sent by the group, it informed Indian media about the atrocities and hardships that media is facing after the imposition of Emergency in Pakistan on Nov 3, 2007.

They requested Indian media to take their cause to the world and continue the coverage of incidents in Pakistan through establishing contact with GEO TV.

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Fact File: 60 Years of Pakistan Leadership

President Pervez Musharraf has started his second term in office as a civilian President of Pakistan. Through out the 60 in Pakistan’s history, the helm of leadership has been exchanging hands from civilian to military heads and vice versa. Here’s presenting a quick chronological overview of Pakistan’s leadership since the country’s independence on 14th August 1947. All links to the names mentioned below are courtesy of the Wikipedia website.

Emergency to be lifted on Dec 16

Hours after being sworn in for a second five-year term last night, President Pervez Musharraf announced on television and radio that he intended to lift Pakistan’s state of emergency on Dec. 16.If he goes ahead with the move, it could be an important step in Pakistan’s recent tumultuous politics, which has seen the president impose emergency rule on Nov. 3, suspending the Constitution, dismissing the Supreme Court and arresting thousands of opponents. It remains unclear what the step could actually mean, and whether Musharraf will release all of the political opponents that remain in detention, or try to prosecute them, and what his response will be if protesters take to the streets after the emergency is lifted. Hundreds of lawyers clashed with the police in the eastern city of Lahore on Thursday demonstrating against his new term.

“Right now, I think the dust is settling down and everything is under control,” said Musharraf, speaking on television beside a Pakistan flag. “I have my intention that I will make this move on Dec. 16.”

He also praised the newly appointed COAS, General Kayani and stated that he was the best person and a the most responsible commander to lead the Pakistan Army in to the future.

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Gul to be replaced by Yasir Arafat

All-rounder Yasir Arafat will replace injured fast bowler Umar Gul in the Pakistan squad preparing for the second test against India starting in Kolkata on Friday. Arafat would fly to India on Thursday night and would be available for selection.Gul, who missed the first test which India won by six wickets, has been ruled out of the three-match series because of a nagging back injury. Arafat, 25, last played for Pakistan in the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa in September.

The Pakistani squad has been riddled with several fitness issues lately much to the concern of fans back home. Strike bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami did not bowl at the nets on Thursday for the second consecutive day because of chest infections and captain Shoaib Malik is doubtful because of an ankle injury. Opening bat Salman Butt has influenza and batsman Misbah-ul-Haq is recovering from a viral infection.

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Pakistan rejects Bush’s remarks on anti-al-Qaeda operation

While on one hand, Washington has praised the steps taken by Islamabad with General Musharraf stepping off the position of COAS, it has prompted an angry response from Pakistan over remarks from U.S. President George W. Bush that he would still send U.S. troops into Pakistan if he had actionable intelligence that Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders were hiding somewhere in the country.

“Such concerns have been expressed on a number of occasions. We have made it clear that any such action would be unacceptable,” Foreign Office spokesman Muhammad Sadiq said stating that any direct action by U.S. troops would be counter-productive.

Bush declared that he would authorize direct U.S. military action if he had actionable intelligence that senior al-Qaeda leaders were hiding in Pakistan. In a recent interview with CNN, Bush said his stance had not changed when questioned about his declaration.

Sadiq said that Pakistan and the U.S. were partners in the anti-terror war and the positions of both were well defined and understood. He said operations against al-Qaeda and other “terrorist entities” had been carried out by Pakistan’s own forces and would pursue the same policy in future.

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PIA off EU banned airline list

The European Commission has lifted all restrictions on Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flying in the 27-nation bloc while keeping Indonesian airlines on its list of banned carriers.

Updating its list of carriers banned throughout the European Union, the European Union’s executive arm also lifted its ban on Surinam’s Blue Wing Airlines. In March the Commission banned most of the Pakistan airline’s planes amid safety fears concerning the ageing fleet. PIA and Blue Wing “have successfully completed the implementation of a corrective action plan following their inclusion in the list,” the Commission said in a statement.

“Their oversight authorities have produced evidence that they verified the measures taken by the airlines and that these measures provide for long-lasting sustainable solutions to avoid the same problems recurring in the future,” it added. EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot said the latest airline blacklist shows “that when airlines take rapid and sound corrective action to comply with safety standards, they can be withdrawn from the list quickly.”

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Fact File: General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani

With General Pervez Musharraf stepping down as COAS yesterday, his successor, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the former head of Pakistan’s main spy agency (ISI) has been brought in to the limelight in a time when the image of Pakistan Armed Forces is being heavily undermined owing to the recent geo-political events taking place in the country. General Kayani has been spoken of as a ‘quiet soldier’ who gets ‘a lot done without making much noise’. A clear indication of this fact being that he has so far ensured that he remains sidelined from the political grapevine. Will he be able to keep that up in times to come is a question everyone is asking. A lot is expected of him with regards to reforming not only the image of Pakistan Army but also establish and promote its credibility while keeping at distance from the unstable political environment.

Here are five important facts about General Kayani that you may or may not know:

1- Born into one of northern Punjab province’s largest and most powerful clans, Kayani, 55, studied at a Military College Jhelum, before training at the U.S. Army’s Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and also graduating from the National Defense College in Islamabad.

2- After fighting as a lieutenant in the 1971 war against India, Kayani was appointed as the deputy military secretary to Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 1988. He won accolades for sensitively overseeing troop movements in a tense 2001-2002 border standoff between Pakistan and India as the army’s chief operational commander.

WeCite Overview: General Musharraf’s Tenure

 

The 8 year tenure of General Musharraf has come to an end. Whether it is a sigh of relief for many or a cause for concern for others or both can only be seen in times to come. Following is a brief overview of the outgoing COAS’s tenure as the Chief of Pakistan Army as well as the President of Pakistan.  

General Musharraf becomes President Musharraf

Today, President General Pervez Musharraf relinquished the charge of the Chief of the Army Staff and handed over the coveted post to General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, a day ahead of taking oath as a civilian President for a five-year term. The change of command was witnessed by the Services Chiefs, Corps Commanders, Principal Staff Officers and senior officers here at an impressive ceremony here at the Army Stadium overlooking the General Headquarters.

Attired in the khaki ceremonial dress, with glistening medals, Musharraf looked confident as the outgoing COAS handed over the traditional command stick to Kayani, a formality signifying the change of command.

“I am lucky that I have commanded the best army of the world,” General Musharraf said and added that it was an integrated and binding force that always kept the nation’s security, honour and dignity foremost.

A contingent of Pakistan Army comprising troops from Frontier Force Regiment and Azad Kashmir Regiment presented salute to General Pervez Musharraf. He reviewed the parade and the Army Band played the drum solo.

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WeCite Review: Om Shanti Om

Farah Khan’s previous venture, Main Hoon Na was quite a disappointment to begin with. Honestly, I expected a lot more from the likes of her and all the teasers for Om Shanti Om that I had been seeing for months actually made me hopeful that this time around it would be a better deal. And what did I get: a typical bollywood masala flick with no trace of logic. Nevertheless, I liked the movie. Yes, you heard me. I did like it despite an all out completely illogical grapevine of twists and turns that take place in the second half of the movie. Let’s take you through the story and then I’ll come to why I liked the movie

The making of Beijing Olympics Logo

Is this how they came up with the 2008 Olympics logo? Click below to find out.

All Eyes On General Kiyani

To this date, the person taking over from Gen Pervez Musharraf as the new Chief of Pakistan Army has been careful so as to avoid the country’s political battlefield. While mounting international pressures have resulted in Gen Musharraf stepping down before he is sworn in for another five-years as a civilian president soon, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has been concentrating his time and efforts on the borders and visiting the troops fighting pro-Taliban forces up North.The General’s top most priority will now be leading the most disciplined and organized group within Pakistan: The Pakistan Army and he is well aware of the hot seat he will be in. More than any thing else, he knows that before him four army chiefs have seized power in military coups in the past 60-years.

Angelina Jolie’s nude shock

“I was really surprised that I felt exposed. There are certain moments where I actually felt shy - and called home, just to explain that the fun movie I had done that was a digital animation was, in fact, a little different than we expected. I didn’t expect ourselves to come out as much. I didn’t expect it to feel as real, so it was kind of funny at first.”

Speaking to Yahoo Entertainment recently, Angelina Jolie has said she felt “exposed” after seeing herself naked in computer-animated movie ‘Beowulf‘. The Hollywood beauty was so shocked by how “real” the animation looked, she warned long-term partner Brad Pitt about the sexy nude scenes.

Angelina, who was pregnant with her daughter Shiloh when she worked on ‘Beowulf’, admits her baby bump caused some problems for the animators.

“I was three months pregnant for some of it. You wouldn’t know though. We did the mapping of my body before and they worked wonders. It was a pleasure.”

The film sees Angelina play a temptress killer lizard, painted gold and sporting a tail, and Angelina admits: “I really did love my tail.”

‘Beowulf’, directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring British actor Ray Winston, has been released since November 16, 2007.

Minister LAMBASTED for deposed judges eviction notice

The back-lash of the eviction notice to the former CJ and deposed judges issued by the caretaker Interior Minister, Lt. Gen. (retd.) Hamid Nawaz Khan was seen in full swing today as several of the deposed judges slammed the notice back in the interior minister’s face reminding him that “the Judges Enclave has nothing to do with the interior ministry and they have no right to make any such demand!”

Justice Bhagwandas said the enclave fell under the purview of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. “The Chief Justice of Pakistan can issue such a directive, not the interior ministry. The chief justice cannot do it as he has been put under house arrest and is cut off from the outside world,” he said, adding that this was cruel joke with the judiciary.

In his defense, the Interior Minister stated that he was not aware that the judges’ residences are under the administrative control of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. The Interior Minister also did not know that a bureaucrat could retain his official residence for six months after retirement and even that period was extendable. His understanding about the one-month period of retention after retirement was based on personal experience as secretary defence, he said. Oddly enough, retired General Hamid Nawaz admitted that when he quit the Army he stayed in his official residence for more than a year.

So much for a caretaker government!

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“I don’t want to thump desks!” - Imran Khan

In contrast to Benazir and Nawaz Sharif seemingly eager to get aboard the ‘election train 2008′, Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf’s (PTI) chairman, Imran Khan, tore apart copies of the nomination papers in a press confrence! He stated that he refuses to be part of a fraud election and urged other political parties to withdraw from the upcoming elections as well.

“I cannot thump desks again in parliament for the entire four years!”

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