Members of US Congress Pledge Support for Flood Victims in Sindh

– Several Members of US Congress Pledge Support for Flood Victims in Sindh – SAPAC Advocacy Campaign

By Khalid Hashmani

A two-day event dedicated to the flood victims in Sindh by Sindhi-American Political Action Committee (SAPAC) was hugely successful. The event was held in Washington DC from October 13 and October 14, 2011. The activities were held in several locations around the US congressional offices. The Sindhi-American community was joined by their friends participated in this focused campaign to draw attention of the US government and the US legislature to the destruction caused by recent floods in Sindh province of Pakistan. They urged members of congress for immediate help to the flood victims. The campaign began with meetings with the staff of 100 Congress members and cumulated in a congressional briefing with testimony from several academicians and NGO officials with eyewitness accounts. …

Courtesy: Sindhi e-lists/ e-groups, October 16, 2011.

Pakistan: 106 Trains stopped servicing

106 Trains stopped servicing due to Pakistan Railway’s inability to pay for diesel. Five hundred engines out of service due to inability to repair. Fifty out of service because of failure to change air filters. …

Read more » BBC urdu

Isaf Investigates Rocket Attacks from Pakistan

Written by TOLOnews.com

Isaf said on Sunday that it is investigating continued missile attacks from Pakistani soil into Afghanistan, and stressed that talks must occur before any “appropriate action” is taken.

Isaf spokesman General Carsten Jacobson said that the organisation is still trying to confirm whether it is the Pakistani army that is firing the rockets.

Referring to the huge presence of militants in border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan, General Jacobson said insurgents should not be allowed to use the area to the detriment of either country.

It is suspected that the Pakistani army has some role in the rocket attacks emanating from its soil. The attacks have continued for several weeks, targeting the border regions in Kunar and Nangarhar provinces. According to local officials, the attacks have killed dozens of people and displaced hundreds of families.

General Jacobson said: “Isaf is investigating this. The commander of Isaf has been talking to the Pakistan’s chief of staff. Just lately this is a matter of concern and we have to look at it.” ….

Read more » TOLONEWS

An important Tablighi organiser is ex-ISI chief

– by Adnan Farooq

The Tablighi Jamaat represents, according to Khaled Ahmed, ‘general trend of isolation and extremism represented at the base by Tablighis and at the apex by Al Qaeda.’ Political analyst, writer and columnist, Khaled Ahmed is a leading expert on Pakistan’s religious and militant outfits. He has held editorial positions at country’s leading English-language publications besides editing Urdu-language weekly Aaj Kal. In an interview with Viewpoint, he discusses the working of Tableeghi Jamaat. …

Read more » ViewPoint

http://www.viewpointonline.net/one-important-tablighi-organiser-is-ex-isi-chief.html

The season of revolts – By:Arif Ansar

Excerpt;

But the winter of discontent is still far off

The Arab Spring is now well underway and appears to have spread to other continents as well. Early signs of a European Spring are visible in UK and Greece, and there is an American version in the form of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Meanwhile, Anna Hazare provided a glimpse of how an Indian Spring may look like. The underpinnings of these protests may be different but at a broader level they signify the widening gulf between governments and their citizenry. In other words, hidden in these protests is a modern crisis of the nation-state system.

What triggered these public uprisings is hotly debated. However, in the context of the Arab world and Pakistan, the WikiLeaks disclosures may have played a major role. These secrets revealed how governments are playing a duplicitous role, especially about their dealings with the US. ….

…. Like many other outcomes of the linked and globalised world, these public revolts are also transnational in nature. There appears to be two contradictory forces at work: on the one hand the technological advancements and social media are making the borders increasingly irrelevant, and on the other, worsening economics is causing nationalism to resurge. The future of nation-sate structure is dependent on how it reconciles the pulls and tugs that emanate from within, with those that act upon it from outside.

To read complete article » Pakistan Today

Thousands of protesters fill New York Times Square

– Thousands of protesters fill NYC’s Times Square

by Associated Press

NEW YORK — Thousands of demonstrators protesting corporate greed filled Times Square on Saturday night, mixing with gawkers, Broadway showgoers, tourists and police to create a chaotic scene in the midst of Manhattan.

“Banks got bailed out, we got sold out!” protesters chanted from within police barricades. Police, some in riot gear and mounted on horses, tried to push them out of the square and onto the sidewalks in an attempt to funnel the crowds away. ….

Read more » The Wall Street Journal