THE LATEST COMMENTS ARE ON THIS PAGE.AFTER THIS TRY PAGES 37 , 36 ,35 and 34. OR CLICK THE NEXT PAGE LINK AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE TO SEE THE PRECEDING PAGE.THERE ARE THIRTY-eight PAGES IN ALL. THE OTHER PAGES CONTAIN COMMENTS ON EVENTS SINCE MAY 1997.THERE ARE LINKS TO INDEXES FOR 1999,1998 AND 1997 AT THE BOTTOM OF EACH PAGE

IF YOU WANT TO BUY A BOOK or CD CLICK, ON THE AMAZON

LinkExchange Member

Free Home Pages at Geocities

Pakistan and Politics

Events,Policies,Views,Leaders,Reactions,Comments,News,Politics,weather and worldheadlines

by ikram ul haq

Weather In some pakistani cities

Worlds Top News Stories

PAKISTAN AND ITS POLITICS

PAGE INDEX click on any link

RIBA/INTEREST/PROFIT,JUDICIARY SUBORDINATED, PROMOTIONS AND APPOINTMENTS --24JAN-05FEB

DEMOCRACY?,JUSTICE MARRI, INDIAN TERRORISM, CHIEF OF STAFF, NEW BANK PRESIDENTS, HABIB BANK DEPOSITORS BEWARE-- 07JAN-24JAN

HIJACKING ,HAPPY NEW YEAR 2000, FOG, BOMBBLASTS---12DEC-07JAN,2000

RIBA/INTEREST/PROFIT,JUDICIARY SUBORDINATED, PROMOTIONS AND APPOINTMENTS --24JAN-05FEB

• Jan24-The govt has constituted a committee to help the State Bank convert to an Islamic system in the financial field. Previous attempts in this regard have not proven successful as theoretically riba or interest of the present system is akin to profit rather than interest. Since banks pay profits to depositors they will have to charge those taking loans accordingly. The international financial system also does not approve of free loans which removing riba would amount to. It is also somewhat strange that those who could benefit would be the counties rich rather than the poor as all loans in this country are disbursed to the rich elite rather than the needy poor
• JAN25--According to the News water heaters, gas heaters and airconditioners will now be installed at the residences of all Supreme Court judges who had been denied such facilities by the former PMLn govt
• Jan27-In a sudden development the military rulers announced that the judges of the SC and HC's will have to take a new oath under the PCO which resulted in 13 judges removal while 89 others took the oath.The CJ of the Supreme Court also refused and was replaced by Justice Irshad Hasan Khan
• Five bodies of Pakistani soldiers were handed over by the Indians on the LOC. They were killed in the recent clashes along the LOC
• Jan28-Air Marshal Farook Qari has become the deputy airforce chief and is expected to take over from the incumbent by the end of the year
• 29jan-A retired beaurocrat Shafi Niaz has been inducted into the NSC and a christian Derrick Cyprian became the minorities and sports minister in the cabinet
• Five people died and 38 were injured in two bomb blasts in Karachi. One of them took place at an afghan mosque and the other at the city courthouse
• Jan30-Three people were killed in bomb blasts in sialkot and muzaffargarh
• Feb02-The military rulers might feel the need to hold a referendum to create an impression that they have public support for their reforms suggests the FP
• Ashraf Nasir has been appointed chief secretary Balochistan vide Mirza Qamar Baig while Navid Ahsan has been appointed Secretary economic Affairs Division vide Javed Akram who becomes secretary Kashmir affairs
• Feb03--Five judges Rashid Aziz Khan CJ LHC, Nazim Siddiqui CJ SHC, Iftikhar Chaudhry CJ BHC, Qazi Farook, former CJ PHC and Rana Bhagwandas SHC have been appointed Judges of The Supreme Court bringing its strength to 11. Mian Allah Nawaz becomes the CJ Punjab High Court, Javed Iqbal becomes the CJ of BHC and Deedar Hussein becomes CJ of the SHC
• The Govt has established a National Nuclear Command Authority which will have as its members the head of govt, ministers of foreign affairs, defence and interior, CJCSC, Services chiefs, DG Strategic Plans and technical advisors if required. This authority will decide all matters in the nuclear arena
• Shakil Durrani is the new Chief Secretary AJK
• feb04-The kidnapped chief of Pakistan Petroleum Limited Munsif Raza was recovered after 13 days
• According to press reports the MQM continues inits attempts at creating ethnic dissension and hatreds against the Punjab, the army and the ISI. This is an agenda very similar to that followed by the Indians
• Munawer Basir Ahmed has been named to head Pepco which is a holding company to look after the restructuring, corporisation and privatization of Wapda which is tobe divided into 13 companies
• Mar05-Five major generals namely Imtiaz Shaheen, Ghulam Ahmed(ISI), Ali MJ Aurakzai(vCGS), Abdul Qayyum, former military secretary to than PM Benazir Bhutto, and Hamid Nawaz Khan have been promoted to the ranks of Lt Generals
• Rear Admiral Mahmood Ali has been promoted to the rank of Vice Admiral and appointed as VCNS
• Two AVM's Riazuddin Sheikh and Pervez Iqbal Mirza have been promoted to the rank of air marshal
• The controversial Brig Rashid Qureshi(ISPR) has been promoted to the rank of major general and appointed DG ISPR

DEMOCRACY?,JUSTICE MARRI, INDIAN TERRORISM, CHIEF OF STAFF, NEW BANK PRESIDENTS, HABIB BANK DEPOSITORS BEWARE --07JAN-24JAN

• Jan7-Police arrested two Indian trained terrorists from hyderabad who confessed to planting a bomb after receiving training in India. Many however regard some of the terrorism as being instigated by the MQM, PMLn, Indian oriented people and tribal terrorists who have access to such material
• The Indian govt has identified Ibrahim Athar, Shahid Akhter Saeed, Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Mistri Zahoor Ibrahim and Shaqir as those involved in the recent Indian plane hijack
• Jan8-Justice Nawaz Marri of the Balochistan High Court who was expected to become the next chief justice of the BHC was gunned down in Quetta. Tribal rivalries are being blamed
• Fog claimed 20 lives all over Punjab due to vehicle accidents due to poor visibility
• Justice® Fazal Elahi Khan has been appoinrted the CJ of the FSC on the retirement of Justice Mahboob Ahmed
• Jan9-Shoaib Akhter the Pakistani speedster has been allowed to play oneday cricket but is still banned from tests
• Jan13-In a move which belies understanding Justice Shabbir Ahmed of the SHC who was hearing the Nawaz Sharif plane case referred the case back to the ATC judge Rehmat Jaffery as he did not like the presence of military and intelligence personnel in the courtroom despite being informed that all visitors had valid passes. One assumes that the judge had probably been compromised…
• The musharraf govt is openly advocating the signing of the CTBT
• Musharraf's views on democracy seem to change day by day. He started out as a supporter of real democracy and has now reached the stage of supporting a selective process in which characters that he dislikes will not be tolerated. When talking to westerners he assures them that it will be restored while talking to Asians, Chinese and anti politician journalists he starts to sound like a cross between yahya, zia ,ayub and the world bank
• Jan15--Aftab Sherpao the former PPP leader has reportedly been arrested while other reports suggest that he has escaped to England
• The AJK cabinet has ben dissolved in an attempt to form a smaller council of ministers
• Jan16-Amar Khan who was working in a Nigerian bank has been appointed to head UBL in place of Zubyr Soomru
• Jan17-An Indian embassy staffer was arrested with an explosive device which he was supposed to hand over to an agent for exploding in one of rawalpindis busy bazaars. He was later expelled. A pakistani staffer was also expelled in retaliation by the indians
• The PMLn and the PPP also support signing the CTBT
• Jan18-A powerful bomb blast occurred in karachis terrorist ridden arambagh area killing eight and injuring numerous. Usually the mqm has been behind most of the violence in Karachi. 40 suspects have been arrested. A PMLn leader has also been arrested on suspicions of involvement
• The Supreme Court has reopened the case regarding the raiding of the supreme court in which all the accused had been pardoned by the SC during the nawaz era. The reopening raises several issues which include govt pressuer on the SC and incompetent judges
• The Chinese have rescheduled all loans to Pakistan till the year 2019
• Jan20--Nawaz Sharif has been indicted on four counts of kidnapping, murder, hijacking and terrorism in the plane case
• GDA and the PPP which had initially signaled support for the military coup are now calling for the restoration of democracy and threatening to move the courts against the NAB ordinance .Amongst political groups only the ANP is behind the military leadership
• The military it seems has been unable to agree on a candidate to replace rafiq tarrar. Reports suggest that aslam baig and ajmal khattak have been probed. Sahibzada Yaqub is another name that has been mentioned
• Jan21-Zakir Mahmood/Hussein of bank indosuez has replaced Shaukat Tareen as the head of Habib Bank who had become controversial as he helped Nawaz Sharif avoid paying back his loans and reportedly was also involved in creating fake cases against benazir and zardari
• The govt has allowed private cable TV channels. Such systems exist in Karachi on various levels and the govt will obviously find it difficult to register such cable operators
• It seems that nawaz sharif and his chief henchman saif ur rehman were preparing a plan to escape from jail. A case has been registered by the police
• It seems that the USA is fighting for India as a visiting US official has asked musharraf to control certain Kashmir liberation organizations,sign ctbt and nab ossama. However since the kashmiri organizations have nothing todo with the USA te request seems quite strange .
• Jan23-Pakistan lost seven soldiers in repulsing a cross river attack by the Indians in the Chamb sector of azad kashmir
• Construction work on the Peshawar--islamabad motorway being built by a Turkish consortium seems to have been stopped according to press reports
• Maj Gen Jabbar Bhatti has been posted as the Chief Of Staff to Musharraf vide Maj Gen Anis Bajwa who has taken up a UN assignment
• There seem tobe two semi criminals in the musharraf setup. One is Javed Jabbar who misused Nafdec funds in the Bhutto days to make an English film. The film was little more than an attempt to rip off state funds. The other is Farook Adam who was jailed for seven years in the Zia era for attempting to forment a coup while working at the military academy.The coup was led by a relative of airmarshal asghar khan whose son is also a minister in the present setup.Since Musharraf is dead set against allowing those involved in misdeeds back into govt such appointments which amount to rehabilitating criminals seem very odd
• On a cautionery note the musharraf govt now wants to privatize the Habib Bank totally. Since privatization has so far proven hazardous one would suggest that depositors move their funds to a reliable alternative in the interim until the new owners and their motives can be checked out

HIJACKING ,HAPPY NEW YEAR 2000, FOG, BOMBBLASTS---12DEC-07JAN,2000

• Dec12--At least 50 people were injured and 30 arrested in Lahore when demonstrators calling for the arrest of a serial child killer clashed with police who baton charged and fired teargas
• As usual it seems that NAB cant touch serving military officers and judicial officials on any charge.While there are persistent reports of corruption in the military and the judiciary no action is ever taken against them
• A known human rights activist Asma Jehangir was not allowed to travel abroad by the military authorities.She is however related to several industrialists
• The Musharraf govt(MG) in a continuation of previous policies has raised petroleum prices by 10%. Super now sells at Rs29 per litre. This is the third price increase since May1998which has cumulatively increased petroleum prices by about50%
• The MG intends to setup a micro credit bank to facilitate loans upto Rs50000 to ordinary people who are neglected by the bigger banks
• Dec13--The MG has signed debt rescheduling agreements amounting to $3billion
• Dec14--Lt Gen Tauqir Zia has replaced the loss prone Zafar Altaf as pakistans cricket establishment chief
• The Frontier Post suggests that the tainted Rafiq Tarar may also be on the way out and could be replaced by the another mohajir, retired fauji Sahibzada Yaqub
• Dec15-A bomb blast occurred in rawalakot(AJK) and in sialkot the front of a bus was blown off by a land mine
• Dec16--The MG has withdrawn a 10% withholding tax from saving schemes , enforced the agricultural tax and gst with minor increases in old age pensions and lower grade salaries. Rs7billion from the defence budget will also be spent on development
• Six mqm workers were given death sentences by an ATC for killing two armymen
• Police opened fire on a crowd looting atta trucks in Peshawar killing one
• Dec17-The MG a day after apologizing for the FCA fiasco again went after dollar investors by imposing a withholding tax on dollar account profits and discontinuing FEBC's and FCBC's and removing immunities on further purchases of dollar bonds.The immunities on dollar bonds purchased with FCA money were restored a day later
• A son of the former amir of bahawalpur was shot dead
• Intikhab Alam has been named the new coach of the Pakistan cricket team
• Dec18-Nine people were killed as a bomb destroyed a hotel in Mirpur(AJK)
• Former Punjab chief minister Arif Nakai was released by the NAB after making a payment of Rs1.5 million which he allegedly used from discretionary funds however he was apparently also disqualified for 21 years
• Dec19-two people were killed as cycle bomb exploded in sialkot
• The armies anti corruption drive is only against politicians and some beaurocrats.The private sector involved in such practices is apparently exempt as are the military , judiciary and most of the beaurocracy
• The MG has increased zakat allowance to an astronomical Rs500($10) per month,abolished the 20% secretariat allowance and decided to setup voluntary district advisory boards in lieu of elected local bodies
• one of the countries top industrialists naseem saigol has been released after paying dues of over Rs400 million
• Dec24-The Supreme Court has declared interest on loans tobe unislamic and asked the MG to introduce interest free banking.The govt will in theory have to setup profit based banking and equity based or participatory loans
• The MG seems in principle keen to sign the CTBT agreement. However opposition mainly from retired military and some religious circles say they maybe walking into a western trap which will then free others from pressure who will not sign and morally restrict Pakistan although it may make some some diplomatic sense
• Dec25--The countries cricket advisory board is to consist of miandad, ramiz,yawar, nasim and marketing professional wasim azhar
• An Indian plane was hijacked by five apparently kashmiri sympathisers over lucknow: was refused landing at Lahore, landed at amritsar , came back to Lahore, refueled ,refused landing at kandahar,flew to dubai and than back to kandahar where the hijackers after negotiations spread over eight days secured the release of three Kashmir movement supporters held in Indian jails and than vanished. The Indians say that the five were Pakistanis while there is no confirmation of that. Indian propaganda suggests that it might have been a setup to highlight Pakistani support for kashmiri independence.
• Dec28--In a Haripur village three apparent Shiites shot and killed 13 sunnis who had gathered at a funeral. The groups were opposed to the construction of an imambargah-a Shiite gathering place.Shiite opponents than ransacked a shrine and burnt down several shops and houses without any casualties
• The govt inits second phase arrested several politicians and beaurocrats including mahtab ahmed khan and azam hoti
• those said tobe in musharrafs favour from amongst the politicians include side heros such as imran khan, bashir bilour, fazlur rehman, qazi hussein ahmed,farook leghari and ajmal khattak. The Wali khan family has also not been touched apart from azam hoti
• Dec31-52 people were burnt alive as a bus crashed and caught fire on the motorway near kallar kahar
• Javed Iqbal who confessed to killing over 100 children surrendered after being on the run for almost a month
• The Peshawar ehtesab/NAB court fined Aftab Sherpao and zahir Shah one million each for misusing their office in distributing plots.Some say they are also disqualified for 21 years
• The ICC crickets ruling body in what seems tobe a politically motivated action has banned Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Akhter for a suspect action
• The MG has reduced rates on saving schemes by about 2% to encourage banking
• jan3-10 people were killed when a van collided with a train near chiniot
• jan4--A staffer of the pakistan embassy in Nepal was arrested and expelled for attempting to sell fake Indian currency
• Jan5-A heavy fire broke out on the Murree mall and destroyed several buildings in a 400 meter area
• Mian Ajmal has been appointed the Chief Justice of the Peshawar High Court. The former CJ Qazi Farook and the CJ's of Punjab and Balochistan Rashid Aziz and Iftikhar Chaudhry are expected tobe elevated to the Supreme Court
• A thick fog engulfs Lahore, faisalabad, multan, sorgodha and bahawalpur during the night and almost half the day causing problems in transportation and daily life. The reasons are an absence of rain, cold weather and absence of air movement
• The father in law of Benazir Bhutto, Hakim Zardari has been arrested for illegally selling state leased land. PPP leaders suggest that he had already been exonerated in the case and that the NAB was misleading the govt
• Jan6--The govt has cut the repo rate to 11% which will force banks to reduce lending rates to around 15%
• A bomb exploded in a hyderabad market injuring 27.two indian agents were arrested
• In an unfortunate decision the FSC ruled several sections of the family laws unislamic.For the time being an orphan grandson is to have no inheritance from a grandfathers estate.The govt has been asked to legislate on the matter. The Court also seems to have allowed verbal divorces without a notice period as well as unregistered marriages and multiple marriages without consent from previous wifes as well as an arbitration council for settling disputes between multiple wives and husbands.However unregistered marriages they say cause problem in matters of inheritance.The necessity of such a judgement seems tobe quite questionable
• maulana azhar one of those whom the plane hijackers got released has surfaced in Karachi with a statement that the hijackers did not identify themselves and had probably already slipped into Kashmir
• jan7-The MG has promoted seven air commodores to the rank of AVM

Links to other sites on the Web

Pakistan Web Directory
Informationtimes
The News International
World Bank's Pakistan Country Brief
News About Pakistan
One World Organization
Government of Pakistan

USA Online

This site has been visited times

1999 Index Page-Detailed listing of 1999 events

1998 Index Page-Detailed listing of 1998 events

1997 Index Page-Detailed listing of 1997 events

To See a list of Pakistans leaders

IF U R INTERESTED IN POLITICAL HAPPENINGS OVER THE PAST Three YEARS THAN CLICK THE LINK BELOW .U CAN MOVE BACK PAGE BY PAGE OR LOOK INTO THE INDEXES ABOVE FOR A SPECIFIC PERIOD

Previous page in this archive

© 1999

EMAIL ADDRESS OF THE SITE: ihaq@paknet2.ptc.pk

If U WANT TO WRITE DIRECTLY TO THE AUTHORCLICK HERE

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page

INSTANT SUBMISSIONYour Web Site On DIRECTORIES
FREE	CLICK HERE