Pakistan

This article opens up a contradiction that is hard to fathom:

Link to IHT Article

By Carlotta Gall
Tuesday, December 18, 2007

. . . .

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's military and intelligence agencies, apparently trying to avoid acknowledging an elaborate secret detention system, have quietly set free nearly 100 men suspected of links to terrorism, human rights groups and lawyers say.
. . . . .
The issue of the missing had become one of the most contentious between Musharraf and the Supreme Court under its former chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry.

The Kashmir earthquake has brought together the people of Pakistan, together with the sympathies of the world. It is a tragedy to lose even a single soul but, given the enormous reality of the event, the humanitarian response by individuals, governments and community groups has been as good as could reasonably be expected. Rescue of earthquake victims from twisted concrete is always a race against time, and the clock has run out.

by Akber Choudhry

While Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan brought much needed change and common sense to the country, it is becoming hard for even his staunchest supporters to support him any more.

Like drunkards, it has become the inevitable sad end of military rulers that they fade into ignominy, ranting and raving and becoming even more meaningless. And in case it is not obvious, completely out of touch with reality.

President Musharraf is not at this stage yet, but has definitely started to trudge in that direction. Why? A very simple reason: when policies and statements do not relate directly to a loss of votes, they become detached from reality. What is reality? Reality is the man on the street -- the shrewd but simple man or woman who can see the truth when they encounter it.

ISLAMABAD: The inflow of foreign direct investment
(FDI) in Pakistan marked an impressive increase of 61
percent in the first six months of this financial
year, according to the data released by State Bank of
Pakistan on Monday.

In the period from July to December the country had
received $445 million as foreign direct investment as
against $277 million in the same period last fiscal.

The key sectors which attracted a significant amount
of FDI are oil and gas $107.1 million, communication
$60 million, power $37.4 million, chemicals $28.1
million, trade $23.3 million, financial business $45.4

4.2pc reduction in poverty, claims Economic Survey

Per capita income $652; GDP growth 6.4pc; defence spending Rs 180bn; base year changed from 1980-81 to 1999-2000

By Nadeem Malik

ISLAMABAD: The Economic Survey 2003-04, declaring all is well, claims 4.2 per cent reduction in poverty, 652 dollars per capita income and a lower fiscal deficit of 3.3 per cent of GDP.

One key factor that helped derive such astounding set of numbers is the size of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at Rs 5,480 billion, or $95 billion, after changing the base year from 1980-81 to 1999-2000.

As a result, all statistics calculated in relation to GDP have yielded 20 per cent better ratios straightaway. "The rising trends in poverty have been arrested and a reversal has taken place," Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz announced here Friday at the Planning Commission Auditorium.

A great pillar of Islamic scholarship in the Western world has fallen.

Dr Annemarie Schimmel, described by some as the scholar- hermit has died.

We've all learned in the last 50 years, that everything pales, democracy pales, the prospect of nuclear war pales, everything pales when measured against the balance of what Washington thinks is its interests. September 11th came and General Musharraf did what any smart military or political leader would have done. When the United States threatened Pakistan: 'either you join us in the war against the Taliban or we will bomb you', of course, he joined.

Kasi's body reaches home. Hundreds of people wearing black armbands shouted anti-American slogans when the coffin of Aimal Khan Kasi, who was executed in US on November 14 for killing two CIA agents, reached Quetta International Airport on Monday afternoon.
At about 3:30 pm, the PIA authorities handed over the coffin of Aimal Kasi to the chief of the Kasi tribe, Nawab Abdul Zahir Khan Kasi, who along with Malik Zikriya Khan Kasi and other tribal elders placed it in an ambulance.