Bashir Qureshi – it is the cause, and not the death, that makes the martyr

(Desk News/ Analysis) Our dear friend, our guide, and great leader Chairman Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM), Bashir Qureshi passed away and left the Sindhi nation crying behind. The people of Sindh wish he could have lived many more years to lead the nation towards a prosperous and developed Sindh.

The flooding of tweets and comments at social media and e-mails at Sindhi e-lists suspect that he has been poisoned because only a few days ago on the 23rd of March 2012 through the successful Freedom March/ rally in Karachi, he caused the deep security establishment of the country to lose its sleep forever. Many suspect he was martyred as Shah Nawaz Bhutto was martyred and his death was not his natural death. According to the statement of JSQM General Secretary Asif Baladi, “Bashir Qureshi didn’t have any heart-related disease. We see a conspiracy behind his sudden death.”  But as the regime being involved, chances of a fair investigation are less than slim.

Bashir Qureshi  was a great human being and a leader. He was a true disciple of Saeen GM Syed. He was a down to earth and a very caring and humble person. He was actually the continuation of the struggle of G.M. Syed for the independence of Sindh. Therefore, the deep security establishment could not digest his party’s successful freedom march in the capital of Sindh, Karachi; thus the establishment played its dirty role to remove him from the scene and as a result Sindh had lost her valuable son. On Facebook his party workers express that they will continue resistance against the slavery of the deep state and they will continue to go forward with his path of freedom of Sindh.

Napoleon had said, “It is the cause, and not the death, that makes the martyr.” Basheer Khan Qureshi fought for a noble cause. He is a martyr. And, martyrs never die.

Courtesy: Sindhi e-lists/ e-groups, twitter, social media, April 6, 2012.

Saparatist Sindhi nationalist leader & JSQM chairman Bashir Qureshi passes away

By: Amar Guriro

KARACHI – SINDH: Rrenowned Sindhi nationalist leader, chairman Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) Bashir Kahn Qureshi has died on late Friday night. He was 54.

Qureshi was on his way to a small village Dari Magsi in Sakrand, district Benazirabad (Nawabshah) at the time.

Urdu television channels reported quoting initial reports that he died of fatal cardiac arrest, but despite several attempts the cause of the death was not confirmed.

Qureshi was a brave leader and spent all his life spreading the message of Great Leader Saeen G. M. Syed throughout Sindh and also struggling for Independent Sindhudesh.

In his last mammoth rally of an estimation of 0.7 million people chanting slogans of “Na Khapae na khapae, Pakistan Na Khapae” (We don’t want Pakistan) on M.A Jinnah Road of provincial capital city of Karachi-Sindh, he demanded international powers to help Sindhis to get their independent country—the Sindhudesh.

Political analysts are of the view that Qureshi’s death is great loose of nationalists who wants their independent country, the Sindhudesh.

Pakistan has had so many “moments of reckoning” but here is another – By Najam Sethi

Matters are coming to a head in Pakistan. The deadlock in US-Pak relations over resumption of NATO supplies is veering towards confrontation. And the confrontation between parliament-government and supreme court-opposition is edging towards a clash. The net losers are fated to be Pakistan’s fledgling democracy and stumbling economy.

Pakistan’s Parliamentary Committee for National Security has failed to forge a consensus on terms and conditions for dealing with America. The PMLN-JUI opposition is in no mood to allow the Zardari government any significant space for negotiation. COAS General Ashfaq Kayani is also reluctant to weigh in unambiguously with his stance. As such, no one wants to take responsibility for any new dishonourable “deal” with the US in an election year overflowing with angry anti-Americanism. The danger is that in any lengthy default mode, the US might get desperate and take unilateral action regardless of Pakistan’ s concern. That would compel Pakistan to resist, plunging the two into certain diplomatic and possible military conflict. This would hurt Pakistan more than the US because Islamabad is friendless, dependent on the West for trade and aid, and already bleeding internally from multiple cuts inflicted by terrorism, sectarianism, separatism, inflation, devaluation, unemployment, etc. Indeed, the worst-case scenario for the US is a disorderly and swift retreat from Afghanistan while the worst-case scenario for Pakistan is an agonizing implosion as a sanctioned and failing state.

Pakistan’s largest telecommunication company “PTCL Internet Blackout in Pakistan”

Pakistan’s largest telecommunication company,PTCL, is suffering a country word service blackout. Users took to twitter to report service suspensions, they are unable to reach out to customer support for any explanation on the blackout.

Google , Facebook, YouTube and loads of other services not working in Pakistan. surprisingly twitter is the only site that’s working on PTCL right now, facebook is not even opening.

Read more » http://storify.com/BoloBhi/ptcl-internet-blackout-in-pakistan?awesm=sfy.co_mLa&utm_campaign=&utm_medium=sfy.co-twitter&utm_source=t.co&utm_content=storify-pingback

Three more Baloch youth killed under military custody as Chief Justice visits Balochistan

Three abducted youths killed under military custody and four Marri Baloch presented before Chief Justice today have again been disappeared.

Three more abducted Baloch youths killed under military custody,as Chief Justice of Pakistan arrived in Balochistan. According to reports three mutilated bodies were found in the Kanak area of Mastung, and Peer Soohri Darbar of Dera Bugti, on Thursday and Friday respectively.

According to an official of the Balochistan Levies, some passers-by spotted two bodies dumped in a deserted location in Kanak – the electoral constituency of Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Muhammad Aslam Khan Raisani – and informed the Levies Station.

The bodies were initially taken to a nearby state-run hospital in Mastung and later shifted to Provincial Sandeman Hospital Quetta for autospy. Where the bodies were identified as of Abdul Manan s/o Abdul Samad Perkani and Rahees Raisani. Both were abducted by Pakistani security forces.

Separately, on Thursday (05-04-2012) the body of Sabzal S/O Hayrdad Bugti’s was recovered in Dera Bugti area of peer Soohri darbar. Mr Bugti was abducted during a raid on his house from PeerKoh area of Dera Bugti. ….

Read more » balochJohd

Pakistan’s tax-GDP ratio is at the same level as Ethiopia and Afghanistan – Shahid Kardar

Tax reform agenda for next government

By Shahid Kardar

Pakistan has one of the lowest tax to GDP ratios and, even considering developing countries alone, it is in the bottom ranked nations in terms of the proportion of population registered as taxpayers – less than 5 percent. of household population. There is rampant tax evasion, partly with the collusion of the official machinery. Whereas 3.1 million people have the National tax Number, a mere 1.2 million filed an income tax return in 2010/11. What is even more startling is that of 47,800 companies that have NTNs, less than 16,800 filed an income tax return against 400,000 industrial electricity connections.

As admitted by FBR, there is a tax gap of 79 percent. (the difference between potential revenues under the existing system and that actually collected). Revenues can be raised through broadening of bases, improving the equity of the tax regime, incentivising documentation, checking evasion by embracing a zero-tolerance policy, checking harassment of, or collusion with, taxpayers by simplifying tax returns and making FBR a faceless bureaucracy, with interaction between taxpayers and tax officials limited through greater reliance on automated computerised systems.

The general tax reforms would include taxation of all incomes of same levels equally irrespective of source, with a swift reversal of the travesty of the recent amnesty granted to trading in shares. There is also need for legislation that will render all Benami Transactions illegal and subjecting all cabinet members, who should all be taxpayers, to detailed tax scrutiny throughout period of office, and they should all be taxpayers. The tax returns and Wealth Statements of all parliamentarians and holders of key public offices and their spouses (including Secretaries, Chief Justices, Chief of Army Staff, Governor State Bank, Auditor and Attorney Generals) should be public during period of office and one year thereafter. Finally, following good results of tax mobilisation initiatives, individual and corporate income tax rates and the GST rate could be lowered under a phased programme.

 

The specific reforms under different tax heads would be the following: For Income Tax: Greater dependence needs to be placed on technology and through that on the CNIC for tracking commercial transactions to identify potential tax evasion/evaders, including movements in bank accounts of large deposit holders. The FBR should periodically reconcile the property tax registers of all provincial governments, names of credit card holders and members of private clubs with those allotted National Tax Numbers, for the system to generate notices to non-filers. All presumptive taxes should be replaced by withholding taxes (which presently contribute 60 percent. of income tax revenues). And the rates of all withholding taxes should be increased by at least two percentage points as a revenue enhancing measure, to incentivise documentation and penalise those trying to avoid capture in the tax net. ….

Read more » The News

US-Pak relations

Fresh start awaited

Excerpt;

….. Pakistani politicians are notorious for saying one thing behind closed doors and something quite different in public. Be it fecklessness or an opportunistic streak that seeks to be on the right side of public opinion whatever the cost, Pakistani politicians have just not been able to tell the truth to the people, the ones whose interests they ostensibly represent. The truth is this: by closing the supply lines to Afghanistan, in boycotting Bonn and by succumbing to sundry other emotional responses since last November, Pakistan has put itself dangerously close to being definitively regarded as part of the problem in the ‘Af-Pak’ region and not part of the solution.

It’s not just the US that Pakistan has challenged, the mission in Afghanistan is still an international one and from Nato countries to other powerful states, all have a desire to prevent Afghanistan from descending into chaos and civil war again. Pakistan really cannot afford to be on the wrong side of that equation.

The problem is, with elections on the horizon and the right-wing mobilised and baying for blood, mainstream parties will not want to be seen to take the lead in restarting relations with the US, a relationship that is immensely unpopular after the active cultivation of anti-US sentiment over the years. Perhaps they may want to think about doing it in the national interest, the real, not perceived, one.

Read more » DAWN.COM

http://dawn.com/2012/04/06/fresh-start-awaited/