Pak nukes not safe, former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi says

Pak atomic program not safe in Zardari presence: Qureshi

GHOTKI: Former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi Sunday alleged that Pakistan’s atomic program was not safe as long as Asif Ali Zardari was the President of the country.

Addressing a large public gathering here, Qureshi said: “Pakistan’s atomic program was not safe in the presence of Zardari …. I would make more disclosures on the threat posed by Zardari to the atomic program at Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s rally in Karachi (on Dec 25).”

Earlier, Shah Mehmood Qureshi formally announced joining Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in the presence of its Chairman Imran Khan.

He claimed that government’s rhetoric of reconciliation is nothing but a programme to save their term, calling it a ‘kursi bachao program’.

Qureshi regretted that the successors of Benazir Bhutto buried her legacy and vision. ….

Read more » The News

http://www.thenews.com.pk/NewsDetail.aspx?ID=27407&title=Pak-atomic-program-not-safe-in-Zardari-presence:-Qureshi

Sindh Agriculturalists and US Aid-supported highly efficient Tube-Well

USAID/Pakistan Highlights U.S. Commitment to Helping Mitigate the Pakistan Energy Crisis through Tube Well Efficiency Improvement Program (TWEIP) in Pakistan

USAID is working with Pakistani farmers to reduce peak electricity demand through a USAID program that helps farmers replace irrigation tube well pump sets with new energy efficient pump and motor sets

via » Sindhi Excellence Team, Sindhi e-lists/ e-groups, November 1, 2011.

IQRA Program

– Information on 30 million “Improving the Quality of Reading Activity (IQRA)” Program in Sindh

by Khalid Hashmani, McLean

Recently, the US government issued “Request for Agreement (RFA)” documents for engaging NGOs for a US $ 30-million “Improving the Quality of Reading Activity (IQRA)” Program in Sindh. This RFA was issued in conjunction with the $ 155 million agreement between Government of Sindh (GoS) and the US Aid Agency. The full RFA document is available at http://www.usaid.gov/pk/docs/USAIDPakistanRFA-391-11-000005.pdf

Those interested to be active participant in the “Improving the Quality of Reading Activity (IQRA)” Program must read read the full document at above link.

Courtesy: Sindhi e-lists/ e-groups, September 30, 2011.

A sad day for the freedom of press in Pakistan – By the intimidation and threats of MQM, the talk show Bolta Pakistan suddenly stopped, and then the senior journalist and anchor person, Nusrat Javed, was fired from Aaj News Tv.

Nusrat Javed, one of the senior most journalists and host of Bolta Pakistan at AAJ TV has been reportedly fired from AAJ TV and his program was taken off air after 10 minutes of airing.

Nusrat said that MQM threatened the owners or management of AAJ TV that if they want to guarantee safety of 600 employees, then Nusrat should be fired.

More details → PKPOLITICS

Courtesy: → Aaj News Tv (Bota Pakistan with Nusrat Javed & Mushtaq Minhas)

via → ZemTv → YouTube

Arshad Sharif of DAWN TV under threat

Censoring Dawn TV‏ – by A. H. Nayyar

A very interesting thing happened this evening (28th July).

DawnTV was airing Arshad Sharif’s talk show Reporter. The topic today was growth of Islamic militancy, especially Jundullah within Pakistan’s military and its connection with Jaish-e-Muhammad and Lashkar-e-Tayyaba.

He started by showing a documentary on how Jundullah started in Quetta cantonment, how it spread across different formations of the military, showing some footage that looked original.

The discussants with Arshad were Air Marshall Shahzad Choudhry, Zahid Hussain and ret Gen Hamid Nawaz. As the documentary started, we saw, Hamid nawaz getting up and leaving.

Arshad then showed another short documentary which gave public sentiments on such trends in the military. Then came a commercial break.

After the break, the viewers saw that the program has been taken off the air. Instead Dawn started airing a completely different and old episode of Reporter. Clearly, the live program was censored. And clearly, from the top military brass.

What does the military have to hide that needed this censoring? Any comments from anyone knowledgeable?

I truly fear for the life of the brave journalist who had prepared the documentary.

Courtesy: → LUBP

via → LIC blog

Would GEO and Express TV disclose how much money they get from Americans?

By Farrukh Siddiqui

Editor, State of Pakistan blog

One of the objectives of Kerry-Lugar aid bill for aid to Pakistan is to “support for promotion of a responsible, capable,and independent media.”

According to this RT TV broadcast of March 10, 2010, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UQCki_nC9c ,  the US government planned to spend $50 million on this objective. According to another report  dated Feb. 27, 2010 by the examiner , “the Obama administration plans to spend nearly $50 million on Pakistani media this year to reverse anti-American sentiments and raise awareness of projects aimed at improving quality of life, confirms a Washington insider. “

The history of collaboration between the agencies of the US government and some “ independent “ Pakistani media organizations is old. But more recently it was GEO TV that went public with jointly produced programs with Voice of America.

The following press release  dated Nov. 13, 2005 ( http://islamabad.usembassy.gov/pakistan/h05111301.html) of the US Embassy in Islmamabad is self-explanatory:

VOA Launches Urdu TV For Pakistan

11/13/2005 Washington, D.C. – The Voice of America (VOA) will launch Beyond the Headlines-its new television program in Urdu-on Monday, Nov. 14. The half-hour program will air on GEO TV in Pakistan at 7:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and on selected international satellites, including AsiaSat (Virtual Channel 409) and IOR (Virtual Channel 420). …..

Read more : http://www.yousufnazar.com/?p=1219