Happy Birthday to my Leader Quaid-e-Azam Barrister Muhammad Ali Jinnah on his 135th Birthday.
you live in our hearts and minds, and will continue to do so, and we will never abandon our struggle for a home you dreamed for us, for which creation of Pakistan was the first step.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah (December 25, 1876 – September 11, 1948) was a Muslim lawyer, politician, statesman and the founder of Pakistan. He is popularly and officially known in Pakistan as Quaid-e-Azam (“Great Leader”) and Baba-e-Qaum (“Father of the Nation”).

“My message to you all is of hope, courage and confidence. Let us mobilize all our resources in a systematic and organized way and tackle the grave issues that confront us with grim determination and discipline worthy of a great nation.”
Message to the Nation October 24, 1947.

These are the golden words from Father of the nation, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the one man, who led from the front and gave us Pakistan.

On December 25, 1876, Karachi witnessed an unusual Dawn, somewhere near the winding streets, was Wazir Mansion where Mithibai gave birth to a son, an infant who later would make news around the globe. After early schooling form the same city, he went to London to conquer hallmarks of law and would return to Hindustan to work for uplifting and salvation of the suffering Muslims..

14th August, 1947 was the day when a new map was drawn on the face of earth and that of a land where Muslims and other minority would like according to their beliefs and customs with full freedom.

Quaid left us with a treasure of quotations, principles and golden words, which can help us, reshape our life for betterment of self and fellows. So, as the New Year unfolds, let’s us all resolve to learn and work for a better and prosperous Pakistan. This homeland is Quaid’s trust in us, he has left his most precious achievement in our hands, now it is our duty to step forward and do the needful, on all platform to keep the flag fluttering high in skies.

Pakistan Paindabaad!

Source (Dawn) A taxation system would be introduced in Gilgit-Baltistan on subjects falling under the jurisdiction of the GB Council.

The decision was taken at a meeting between Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan and the Gilgit-Baltistan Council here on Friday.The meeting discussed introduction of the taxation system. However, tax rates would be discussed later in the month.

It was decided that the tax rate in the region would be half of that in the rest of the country.

Further the limit for minimum taxable income would be higher for Gilgit-Baltistan.

Chairing the meeting, Federal Minister Mian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo said that Gilgit-Baltistan Council and the government are working according to the mandate of Gilgit-Baltistan Self Governance and Empowerment Order 2009.

He said that hydel power, mineral resources, forests and tourism are subjects of GB council which is responsible for legislation on these subjects and for the development of these sectors.

“We need to develop these resources locally through concrete measures,” the minister said.

“Besides increasing bilateral trade with China and development of industrial zone in Gilgit-Baltistan is also essential for the region.”

The meeting was attended by Governor GB Pir Karam Ali Shah, Chief Minister Syed Mehdi Shah, GB Minister of Law, Engineer Usman Khan, Secretary Kashmir Affairs and GB and Chief Secretary GB and other members of GB Council.

The meeting noted that progress and development planning have to be within the framework of Gilgit-Baltistan Self Governance & Empowerment Order 2009, which is drafted with the consensus of all stake-holders and is approved by the Parliament of Pakistan. The federal minister agreed to the proposal that the session of GB council to be held up to 50 days a year and the process of legislation be made more effective.

Next meeting in this connection would be held on Sept 30 in which a final decision would be taken on these proposals.

Source(PakistanToday) The change in the governance status of Pakistan’s Northern Areas was Pakistan’s signal to India to jumpstart backchannel talks on Kashmir, a US Embassy cable said. The cable had been sent by the US Embassy to its government on 1-9-2009 and was released by Wikileaks on August 30.
“The intention of the government of Pakistan in making the reform is to signal Pakistan’s willingness to jump-start the back-channel talks on Kashmir to India. The back-channel deal under President Musharraf would have granted the Northern Areas to Pakistan and ceded Indian-held Jammu and Ladakh to India,” the cable said.“The actual reforms for self-rule, as they are being touted, will appeal to the residents of Gilgit-Baltistan who will appreciate, at a minimum, recognition of the name they themselves use to describe their home. Whether the reforms will meet the other purpose suggested by Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan Awan, of curbing the appeal of Talibanisation, remains to be seen,” the cable said.
Prime Minister Gilani had announced on August 29 changes to the governance of Pakistan’s Northern Areas, the northern-most region of the country. The region will be henceforth known as Gilgit-Baltistan under the new Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self-Government Ordinance of 2009.

Source (Gulfnews) Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has approved $90 million (Dh330 million) for the restoration of the strategic Karakoram Highway (KKH) linking Pakistan and China out of the financial help provided by the Chinese government, said an official statement yesterday.

The credit facility had been extended by Beijing as part of a larger concession facility for flood reconstruction activities in communication, energy and transport Sectors, it said.

“The operationalisation of Karakoram Highway has been a priority of the government due to its strategic significance and being an important means of communication for the people, as well as important trade route,” the statement said.

Also known as Friendship Highway, the 1,300km KKH connects China’s Xinjiang with Pakistan’s Gilgit-Baltistan region through the Karakoram mountain range.

Some 200 Chinese workers and 810 Pakistanis lost their lives while building the KKH, mostly in landslides and falls.

Cut off

The October 5, 2005 earthquake in Pakistan badly damaged some KKH sections and the road link between Pakistan and China was temporarily cut off until repaired by the Pakistan army engineers.

In view of the planned Diamir-Basha dam project in the region, realignment studies are underway with the help of the Chinese.

A 20km section of the KKIH was inundated and damaged last year when a massive landslide blocked the Hunza river and created a lake.

The government is pursing a plan to rebuild the damaged portion.

Source(Tribune)The Karakoram Highway (KKH) is a strategic road for Pakistan. It is used by national as well as international traffic since it provides for a land border between Pakistan and China. And for the people of Gilgit-Baltistan, it provides a crucial land link to the rest of the country.

However, in recent years, it has suffered considerably from the elements. And while this is only to be expected, given the harsh terrain and unpredictable weather of the regions it traverses, what is worrying is that those in charge of its maintenance do not seem to be doing their job.

The highway is badly damaged in some places and the result is that while previously it would take between 15-16 hours to travel from Islamabad to Gilgit by bus, now it takes well above 20. Moreover, a large stretch of the highway between central Hunza and Upper Hunza remains blocked for the last 20 months because of the massive landslide at Attabad.

Because of this, people are suffering economically and even health wise, due to a shortage of medicines or because they cannot easily reach a hospital. Once travelling on the KKH was considered a thing not to miss out on, but now it is a positively painful experience. Of course, this cannot be good for one of the regional economy’s mainstays: Tourism.

Muhammad Ali

Source (Dailytimes) Attabad Lake, which was formed by massive land sliding in January 2010, still poses immense problems for locals of the Hunza Valley and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB).

It has not only affected trade between the valleys but also affected international trade between Pakistan and China.

People on both sides of the lake use boats to travel, to exchange grocery and for trade purposes.

Talking to Daily Times, residents of Hunza Valley showed their reservations and concerns about the delayed relief work at the spillway of the lake.

A local trader, Shahid Ali Jan, who used to buy different things from Sost, a border city with China, and sell them in GB and Punjab, told about the problems he and other traders were facing.

He said that most of the boats were without life jackets, which are essential in such crossings.

Shahid added that people of the community used to exchange goods and grocery on daily basis, but following the disaster at Attabad it had all been disturbed. “The service has been suspended for the past one and a half year,” he said, and urged the regional government to take appropriate measures to have it restored.

A resident of Gojal, Muhammad Ali, said that it was very hard to travel with family in the lake as his children and family members were afraid of travelling in a boat.

He said that his mother was a patient and for better treatment he had to travel several times across the lake.

About latest developments he said, “We are unaware about this new development. Why did it happen so abruptly?” He said that the government had, earlier, announced free boat service but later it started charging poor people, who had already faced a massive disaster.

He added that the role of government and other agencies in this calamity had been less than satisfactory.

“The federal government, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and Force Command Northern Area (FCNA) responded well by showing presence at the scene earlier,” he said, adding, “They provided helicopter services for the evacuation and transportation of goods, but again the local administration misled the officials about realities on the ground.”

Principal Secretary to GB Governor, Hafeezur Rahman, is not much satisfied with the relief works of FWO at spillways.

Talking to Daily Times, he said that the Chinese engineers offered to work here with latest technology and more speed but GB chief minister while relying on FWO turned down the offer.

He said that now there was no relief work in the area which was causing troubles to the residents. Talking about alternate of the Karakoram Highway, he said that it cost more than Rs 80 million to build an alternate road.

He said that negotiations were underway with the Chinese engineers to construct a tunnel here.

A massive landslide struck Hunza Valley in northern Pakistan on January 4, 2010, which buried the village of Attabad, destroyed 26 homes and killed 20 people.

As weeks passed, the problems compounded because the landslide did more than destroying a village.

It also blocked the Hunza River, created a 25-kilometer long lake that inundated several villages and submerged the Karakoram Highway, which effected 173 families, 1,773 men, women and children.

The highway frequently blocked by rockfalls, most of which could be cleared in days, but work was still in progress at Attabad in mid-March 2010.

The water level in Attabad Lake later climbed up to about 400 feet and it submerged an area spreading to 25 kilometres area.

A spillway was also built by army engineers to avert a possible disaster, which diverted water back to its old route winding into the Gilgit River.

Efforts to expand the spillway at Attabad Lake have been under way since 2010. However, despite numerous attempts, which include controlled blasting, the lake has not been drained successfully.

This Attabad Lake also cut off the village of upper Hunza from rest of the world due to blockage of the Karakoram Highway.

Source(The Nation) Whether or not the elevation of the Federally Administered Northern Areas to provincial status, and renaming as Gilgit-Baltistan, has met the demands of the local population, it has certainly provided India a new battlefield on which it can fight Pakistan, with the added advantage that it also involves India taking on an anti-Chinese posture. This further involves the USA, which sees India as its future regional counterweight against China, in a position where it works against Pakistani interests. According to a report in this newspaper, Indian attention is already moving in this direction, intercepted messages have shown that the so-called Balwaristan National Front, or BNF, will attempt to disrupt the Pakistan-China trade, which is an important part of the economy of the area, through demonstrations.
Expatriates from the area in the USA are to play their role by supporting a certain Imtiaz who is playing a role for the independence of the area. This is evidence that the USA is involved in the Indian machinations, and wants to foment trouble in the area, where it fears the growth of Chinese influence. Apart from its opposition to China, India is also only too happy to involve the USA in a covert operation that puts it in opposition to Pakistan in the disputed territory of Kashmir, of which Gilgit-Baltistan is a part, the former Gilgit Wizarat of the old state, which broke away from Indian control in 1947.

Sucre(Express Tribune) Shahid Karim is walking proof that good people still exist. The 20-year-old, belonging to a poor family from Hunza, came across a bundle of Rs25,000 in cash lying on a footpath in a major market in Gilgit last week. Instead of pocketing the unattended money, the boy went to a media office in Gilgit, hoping that journalists there would help ensure that the money reaches whoever lost it.

“I just wanted the money to go back to whoever lost it, nothing else,” he told The Express Tribune on Sunday. He said that he informed the journalists there about the amount, requesting them to publish a story so that the person can come to him and collect his money. “It has been four days since then but nobody contacted me for the money,” he said, adding that the cash was still with him.

Shahid Karim lives in Gilgit and works at a private printing press for a salary that he says hardly meets his daily transportation expenses. He says that it is poverty that kept him away from school in his childhood. He says that his four brothers are also illiterate like him, and have been working for his father, who owns some land in Danyore.

Karim said that when he found the money, the first thought that came to his mind was how helpless the man who lost it must feel. “If I kept the money, I could have covered my expenses for six months easily,” he said, adding that his parents always taught him to be honest.

Amid the negative publicity from terrorism and political unrest, politicians termed the housekeeper’s honesty, “the real face of Pakistan”.

Last year, a hotel employee in Gilgit became a local hero after he found and returned over $50,000 in cash to a Japanese hotel guest.

Source (J.E. Dyer – Hotair)The Hudson Institute has an article this week that provides an excellent summary of disquieting events in Pakistan’s remote northern province of Gilgit-Baltistan. Why should we care? Chinese troops. Regional analysts fear Gilgit-Baltistan is becoming a gateway for China to exert military and political influence in Central Asia. Exhibit A in their assessment is the presence of up to 11,000 Chinese troops in the province. (This MEMRI summary has additional details.)

The Chinese military deployment is of concern for two principal reasons: its potential relevance to the coalition effort in Afghanistan and Pakistan (AfPak), and its importance to Beijing’s project of bisecting Asia with a Chinese-built, Chinese-controlled transport corridor. Such a corridor would benefit commerce and travel, but would also be of unique significance to the Asian balance of power.

China is very unlikely to take any overt military action against coalition forces in Afghanistan. But China and Pakistan could well make common cause there, backing or opposing local factions to induce an outcome they regard as favorable. The visit of a high-level Chinese military delegation to the AfPak border in October – sponsored by Pakistan – got little coverage in Western media, but raised hackles in the Asian press (see the MEMRI summary). Notably, NATO was kept well away from the event.

It would hardly be unprecedented for China to arm factions that are fighting the US or other foreign powers. The relative political concord between NATO and Russia in Central Asia is no doubt a motivating factor for the Chinese, who don’t want to see their Asian rival profiting from a NATO-guaranteed settlement. But Chinese objectives in Central Asia go beyond the disposition of Afghanistan. The troops in Gilgit-Baltistan have been engaged in tunneling projects and road- and rail-building. These efforts will certainly affect the opportunities for commerce through Central Asia, but they will also help China achieve the strategic advantage of spanning Asia’s temperate zone and major waterways, which neither Russia nor India does.

This advantage is useful beyond commerce, and even beyond the race for oil and mineral resources. Improved roads and rail into northern Pakistan, along with a series of mountain tunnels, constitute military assets, forged through a region sensitive for both India and Russia. Given China’s improvements to the Pakistani port of Gwadar, a project launched in 2007, this infrastructure, when completed, would give China a strategic land link with the Indian Ocean – on the other side of India. With a Pakistani alliance and an advantageous outcome in Afghanistan, China would be in a position to bypass and flank both her continental Asian rivals, trumping them or holding them at risk in multiple ways.

China’s Central Asian gambit is in an early stage at present. The mere idea of road and rail improvements is not something to be resisted, but the US must still take note that China, whose intentions may come into conflict with ours, has moved troops into Pakistan’s territory at a time when our relations with Islamabad are worsening. Failing to reckon with such interrelated developments was one of our chief vulnerabilities during the Johnson years of the Vietnam War.

Regarding China and strategic advantage in Asia, we might take a cue from the old strategy of Great Britain. It would be as problematic for the US to see one nation achieve ascendancy over Asia as it would have been for Britain to see one nation achieve it over Europe. Britain addressed that problem by two methods: promoting a balance of power on the continent and being a friend (if a selective one) to nationalist movements and the establishment of smaller nations. America has no wish for a career of conquest or occupation in Asia, but discouraging the consolidation of an empire there is both central to our security and consonant with the promotion of democracy.

Source (Anna Mahjar-Barducci – hudson-ny.org) China has been deploying thousands of soldiers in the strategic Gilgit-Baltistan, a mountainous area in northern Pakistan, and a region historically contested by Pakistan, India and its inhabitants.

Although cooperation between Pakistan and China is not new — it was China in the 1970s that supported Pakistan’s attempts to acquire its nuclear capability — the deployment of Chinese troops in Pakistan, however, indicates a worrying alliance for the US. The US would do well to monitor these developments before a catastrophic scenario, especially for its troops, takes place.

The presence of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army [PLA] in the contested Gilgit-Baltistan region, where a nascent revolt against the Pakistani rule is taking place, constitutes the direct involvement of Beijing in the dispute over Kashmir, making any future understanding between Pakistan and India more difficult, and can only arouse a new and serious rift between New Delhi and Beijing.

According to Mumtaz Khan, director for the International Centre of Peace and Democracy in Toronto, many Western analysts who view China’s stance merely as a bargaining chip against India will unfortunately soon realize that China is redefining its priorities and interests in South Asia and beyond. “The current involvement of China in Gilgit-Baltistan and Pakistan administered Kashmir consists of more than just providing military and diplomatic support to Pakistan. Soon, Pakistan will swap its role to take the backseat as China exerts itself as a major player in the Kashmir issue” and maybe also in Afghani one.

The Gilgit-Baltistan region borders Afghanistan to the north; China to the northeast; the Pakistani administrated state of Azad, Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) to the south, and the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir to the southeast. Recently, the New York Times reported that two major developments are taking place there: a rebellion against the Pakistani rule, and the influx of an estimated 7,000 to 11,000 soldiers of the PLA.

China’s Grip on Pakistani Strategic Area

“China wants a grip on the strategic area to assure unfettered road and rail access to the Gulf through Pakistan,” stated the NYT. Beijing intends to create a corridor from the Indian Ocean up to the Chinese province of Xinjiang. The first cornerstone of this grandiose project has been the construction of the Gwadar Port, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf and outside the Strait of Hormuz. It is near the key shipping routes used by the mainline vessels that have connections to Africa, Asia and Europe, and it enjoys a high commercial and strategic significance.

The port was financed and built by China and inaugurated in 2007 by the former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. At present, it takes a Chinese tanker about 16 to 25 days to reach the Gulf. Once high-speed rail and road links through Gilgit-Baltistan are completed, however, China will be able to transport cargo to and from Xinjiang to Gwadar and to other Pakistani port facilities, within 48 hours.

PLA’s soldiers in Gilgit-Baltistan are also expected to work on the infrastructure in the region. According to reports, China is planning the construction of roads and bridges; a high-speed rail system, and nearly two-dozen tunnels. As the whole area is closed to foreign observers, news can only be obtained through intelligence information, as well as satellite imagery that shows construction activities are underway throughout the region.

Many of the PLA soldiers are supposedly currently building the railroad. Others are extending the Karakoram Highway, which connects China and Pakistan across the Karakoram mountain range, and engaged in activities for constructing dams, expressways and other projects.

Their presence is also apparently meant to deter any possible disturbances from the local population, within which are simmering rebellious sentiments against the Pakistani rule.

China and Pakistan’s Common Interest is India

The presence of Chinese soldiers on Pakistani soil is not an ordinary matter. If all Pakistani governments have always objected to the deployment of U.S. troops in the country, why is there such openness towards the Chinese army?

The alliance between the U.S. and Pakistan appears to be becoming less and less sound. The U.S.-led war against the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and other terrorist groups in Afghanistan is quickly deteriorating into a growing open conflict with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)., which represents the core of Pakistani military power and can also act independently from Pakistan’s government. The agency is responsible for the creation of the mujahiddin movement in Afghanistan during the war against the USSR; and later, for the movements for the “liberation” of Kashmir, as well as the first attack on World Trade Center, and the attacks on hotels and a Jewish Habad Cenmter in Mumbai. . The main ISI’s concern, however, is India’s rule in Kashmir. This is why the ISI, in order to confront New Delhi, is providing help and shelter to Islamist groups ready to fight for the “Muslim” Kashmir.

China and Pakistan share many common interests: both have territorial disputes with India. China and India, whose populations, combined, make up slightly less than 40% of the world population. They are also both striving for strategic regional supremacy. By linking its western province to the Indian Ocean, China will not gain just a strategic stronghold and access to the Persian Gulf, but also could significantly influence the geopolitics and trade in the Indian Ocean Region, as well as in Central Asia.

A Possible War Between Pakistan/China and the US

The possible scenarios coming out of the present situation are also dangerous. A deterioration of the relations between the U.S. and Pakistan over the war in Afghanistan could lead to a direct confrontation — in which event, the involvement of the giant China, as Pakistan’s ally, might be inevitable. The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reports that already a delegation of the Chinese Army visited the Pakistan-Afghan Border last October[5].

The same MEMRI’s analysis also predicts that in a possible war between Pakistan/China on the one hand and the US on the other, Russia would be on the side of the West. Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister, Sergei Ivanov, has said that Russia does not want the international troops to leave Afghanistan. Moscow, concerned about development in this region, has begun strengthening the Afghan police forces by supplying weapons and ammunition.

In the meantime, the relationship between Pakistan and Russia are marred by the Cold War legacy, and will take a long time to get normalized. MEMRI reports that the Urdu-language Pakistani daily Roznama Nawa-i-Waqt has warned that “another enemy of Pakistan” –. Russia – has been added to the list of the countries influencing Afghanistan; and that the presence of Russian troops in Afghan will reinforce anti-Pakistan forces in Afghanistan.

Conclusion

Before apocalyptic scenarios become a reality, it would help if Washington exerted exert maximum efforts — and firmness — to convince Pakistan not to continue on such a dangerous path. Two new war fronts seem rapidly to be opening: Afghanistan on one side, and Kashmir on the other.. The explosion of a possible war could involve both fronts, the Afghani and the Kashmiri, where the US ally, India, might pay a heavy price, finding itself between two enemies: Pakistan and China.

The US will admittedly have a hard role, given the fact that relations between the Washington and China are already fragile, especially since the “Star Wars arms race” launched by China in 2007, but it is urgent that serious efforts be made.