Interview | Parvaiz Malik
This interview was published in Weekly Nidai Millat dated 23-29 Feb 2012. Due to a typing error on the second page Saad Rafiq Sb. name was published.
Monday, March 25, 2013
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Interviews
Interview | Bilal Yasin
Bilal Yasin is a staunch league worker and was elected MNA in the general elections of 2008. He was among those PMLN workers who were brutally tortured by the fascist state control forces of General Musharraff. The testimoney of his loyality and hard work for democracy and party can be seen in Hashmi's book "ہاں میں باغی ہوں " . This interview was published in weekly Nidai Millat dated 09-15 August 2012.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Interviews
Interview | Dr. Fakhur uddin
Dr. Fakhur Uddin is a veteran politician and was a PPP member for more than 30 years. He joined PMLN in March 2012. His first interview after joining PMLN was taken in the same month by nidai millet. It is presented here for the readers.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Interviews
Interview | Engr. Imran Ashraf
This interview was published in weekly Nidai Millat dated 29th March to 04th April 2012.
Monday, March 18, 2013
PMLN Manifesto 2013
PMLN's National Agenda for Real Change
Our manifesto for general elections 2013 is presented below. Readers can read the manifesto in English as well as in Urdu format.
This manifesto covers our framework and action plan for the revival of the sinking economy of Pakistan. It also highlights the steps taken by the PMLN governments in the past. This document is of extreme importance for Pakistan if we want to eradicate the corruption culture and put Pakistan on the way of development and integrity.
The Manifesto committee was headed by prominent educationist and economist Sartaj Aziz and had members from all the four provinces of Pakistan including AJK, FATA and Gilgit Baltistan.
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Interview
Interview | Raja Amir Aslam
This inteview was published in weekly Nidai Millat dated 24-30 May 2012.
Saturday, March 16, 2013
کالم کار - نصرت جاوید
کالم کار - نصرت جاوید
This column was published online @etribune dated Feb 20, 2013. The direct link to this column is given below.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/509915/can-our-elected-representatives-risk-staying-silent-now/
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Can our elected representatives risk staying silent now?
Khawaja Asif does not need a tutor to be told that no one from our national security elite will care to answer questions that members of the National Assembly have been pressing for non-stop since Monday evening over the frightening happenings in Quetta. After all, only three weeks are left in the constitutional life of this House. And as the next election draws close, our “representatives” cannot afford to appear to behave callously indifferent to the mass killings of the Hazaras and the fury they have unleashed all over the country.
Delivering an impassioned speech in the house Tuesday, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz member from Sialkot thus seemed justified in demanding a joint parliamentary session be summoned. He strongly believed that elected houses could still prove their worth and relevance by putting the heads of the national security outfits in the dock through proceedings of the proposed session.
An experienced player of power politics from Bahawalnagar, Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor, was presiding over the sitting in which Asif pressed for a joint parliamentary session. Ghafoor sounded cool but deadly when he cynically wondered whether such a sitting, exclusively focusing on the startling killings of the Hazaras in Quetta, would produce anything substantive.
The ever-alert Asif took no time to concede that perhaps another ‘in-camera’ session to discuss another national security issue would lead to nothing. It was time that the heads of our intelligence and security outfits were made to answer questions “with people and media representatives sitting in the galleries reserved for them”. Waseem Akhtar of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement forcefully endorsed the demand, but the wily Khursheed Shah knew his limits. He only promised that as Chief Whip of the ruling coalition, he would convey the desire to summon a joint parliamentary sitting on the Quetta carnage to the leader of the house, and “hopefully” the prime minister would decide to summon it within the week.
Without wasting time weighing the possibilities of a joint sitting in search of viable options to provide the Hazaras of Quetta some sense of security, I prefer to report the fact that with his Tuesday speech Asif had made startling confessions.
He also said many things which his party and leader may find hard to swallow.
With the full force of his lungs, for example, he declared that ‘the jihad’ Pakistan had been waging in Afghanistan since the 1980s was a “fraudulent project”. It empowered a peculiar creed of greedy mullahs, “who now encourage and protect the killers of Shias in Pakistan”. All of this is happening despite the fact that the father of the nation, himself was Shia.
Despite ferociously taking on the self-declared custodians of Pakistan’s ideology and security, Asif also remained bluntly honest by repeatedly admitting that mainstream politicians like himself had miserably failed to act responsibly and deliver. “Rather, we have become the willing tools and facilitators of various money-amassing mafias, who have also turned the military elite and big media houses into active partners in their crimes.”
Asif’s impassioned speech was heard in pin-drop silence, which strongly hinted a collective sense of guilt. While returning to their homes with heavy hearts, though, most legislators were stunned to find out that Dr Hafeez Shaikh had finally resigned. They appeared gripped with the fear that his resignation had provided solid content to an insidious rumour.
For the past six months, I have been repeatedly reporting in this column that the scheming drawing rooms of Islamabad were not waiting for fresh elections after completion of this government’s term.
Rather, they keep preparing us for a caretaker government of “able, honest, and patriotic technocrats”. This government, they claim, would work for at least three years to turn the economy around and address the backlog of issues that have been plaguing this country by taking “tough but unpopular decisions”. Hafeez Shaikh had always been considered tailor-made for the post of heading the interim government given the absolute trust he inspires from our military elite and many of its friends sitting in some powerful offices in Washington.
Even after getting confirmation of Hafeez Shaikh’s resignation from reliable quarters, I am still not willing to see him smoothly head towards the next destination he has doggedly set for him. Nawaz Sharif and his party is bound to resist him, but far more shocking will be the resistance he may see coming from a political heavyweight and personal friend of President Zardari, Asfandyar Wali. The Awami National Party has already conveyed its preference for the caretaker prime minister, both to the government and the opposition, and he is a retired judge from Balochistan.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 20th, 2013.
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Friday, March 15, 2013
کالم کار - جاوید اکرم
کالم کار - جاوید اکرم
This article was published in THE LAHORE TIMES, dated Feb 12, 2013. It is available online at http://www.lhrtimes.com/2013/02/12/from-omni-to-metro/
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From omni to Metro
By JAVAID AKRAM
Published: February 12, 2013
Shahbaz Shariff ultimately translated the voice and choice of the commuters of Lahore into the Metro Bus Service. Though many like me would not be the consumers of these red buses, but they have taken a sigh of relief viewing other folks in the comfort of it.
This project has lengthened the political life of iron merchant brothers. In their credits, two nation serving disciplines – Motorway and Metro Bus have been registered perpetually. These both accomplishments would produce more miracles. One wonder of surprising coincident has come on the surface but with dull shine. That is the inauguration of train shuttle service from Shahdra to Lahore on the very same date 10-02-2013 when Metro Bus Service was being inaugurated for the route of Shahdra to Gajjumatta. The train service started in haste is literally a clumsy mimicry of Shahbaz Shariff by the out-of-Bhutto-PPP. It would have been a de facto service, had it been kicked off earlier. Here from we can figure out that in a political market, one has to stay competitive. Ittefaq foundry brothers are gifted by the Nature in utilizing the faculty of concept engineering for buying and selling of political products. From the view of the projects, what they started and finished, it can be claimed that there is nothing any kind of anemic or undisciplined management behavior in them. What they planned, if not hampered by invisible destructive sources or forces, has never been infected. They have always given the measurable results on a phase-by-phase basis, which represent the ratio of required performance to measured performance. This is the capability index of both of these brothers. Unlike out-of-Bhutto-PPP they do right things at the right time. Under the cumbersome political Musharaf-hatched-circumstances, Nawaz and Shahbaz were made flown to Saudi Arabia for ten years under the tag of punishment. This is a normal and routinely going affair in the streams of Pakistani politics. This period of their stagnation fortified their strength to remain in a limb twisting game under foul umpires together with unfair referees. Being in Arabian Peninsula, they were far from political hive and spent a drone like life. Here they spent eighty percent of their time in planning and devising further moves in Pakistan enabling them successful. In brief they landed in the ground again like a defeated ambitious player under the loaded thrust for making or breaking the situation. In a nutshell, they are new like never before. Shahbaz Shariff gets the digital palpitation of the throbbing of arteries of political heart monitored on his mental screen. He learnt new efficiencies and burnt lethargic deficiencies. The gift of Metro Bus Service to the nation is a live testimony.
When I was writing this column, my English speaking son Fawad a student of PAF College asked his mother an inquisitive question “Will this Metro be omni available in Lahore?” His mother replied “No, but there used to be omni bus service in Lahore”. Oh my God! What she reminded me? With the speed of the light I went into my nostalgic memories – oh red omni bus, Route No.1 from RA Bazaar to Civil Secretariat! And there was also a bust stop of omni bus in Sadar bazaar at the eastern left side of Habib Bank building. Where those iron made buses vanished? This is not a far long past. After them Volvo buses had come. These were very strong buses of perhaps five gears. Where they went? The cars and motor cycles of these buses times are still with people and running perfectly well. Yes. You seem to understand me.
These buses disappeared by the black magic of the management crisis. And those black magicians of black corruptions who opened the parts and components of these buses and sold them in Bilal Gunj like markets, many of them are still alive on pension. Pakistan is a sheer victim of management crisis. The corruption in hundred percent cannot be cleansed. But 60 to 70 percent correction can be assured. Rest of the percentage of corruption can be endured. Now, the question is who produces the management crisis? The answer is; the architects of corruptions. But, it is strongly hopeful that no further corruption can destroy these red buses. Amen!
From the completion to inauguration of Metro Bus Service for Laborites, Shahbaz Shariff proved that he can hybridize the concept of anything into a best option. From here I am tuning his mental capacity. Pakistan needs the work speed model of Shahbaz Shariff. He completed this big project within shortest possible time. Kalma Chowk underpass is also near final completion. Many long bridges in Lahore are near finishing touch. Shahbaz Shariff demonstrated that he is a resource consuming, mind consuming and a target achieving politician with immaculate administrative skills. The people who heatedly argue and spend the little collection of their words speaking against Shahbaz Shariff that why he put the costly high budget in the bridges, underpasses, metro bus project only in Lahore ignoring other cities of the Punjab? let it be cleared to them. Lahore is a big cosmopolitan city. Secretarial headquarters of the Punjab are in Lahore. It was the priority to ease the traffic and facilitate the population of Lahore. Central headquarters are always under the top consideration. The criticizers should be rest assured that Shahbaz Shariff is not only a Lahore oriented man; he is also a Pakistan oriented politician. He visualizes the things in holistic manner. His elder brother Nawaz Shariff has been approached and nominated by Talibans as one of their guarantors. So we should think about the persons in politics with reference to their performance, not by virtue of personality cult.
I might be taking as a personal spokesman of Shahbaz Shariff or a lifafa-given journalist. There is nothing like that. How? Let me prove. From the first day of the birth of Pakistan it is being heard and seen that dirty politicians destroy the government funds unscrupulously and lavishly and produce nothing but only they enjoy and make us fool. Suppose for a moment that Shahbaz Shariff is also doing something like that or he is selling the iron of his own factories for such Lahore centered projects. If it is so, then under all circumstances this corruption is accepted. Why? Since, behind this corruption nation accommodating projects are being built. Before this time, there was only corruption and corruption and waste of time and injudicious expenditure of public money. But, on the contrary, Shahbaz Shariff erected the projects before our eyes. We must appreciate him and the speed of his work. Though it might be right that by doing great projects in Lahore, Shahbaz Shariff is confirming his seat from here for being the Chief Minister again; it is all welcome. Who was any previous Chief Minister other than Shahbaz Shariff who brought such kind of visible change in Lahore? There was no one. We must accept it. Next Chief Minister of the Punjab should be only and only Shahbaz Sharif. The poor class of the students who had never thought to have or buy the laptop, they have been given brand new laptop computers with dignity and honor. Obama in America cannot distribute laptops in huge quantity as Shahbaz Shariff did in Lahore. We should let Shahbaz Shariff work and come again as a Chief Minister of the Punjab. It is hundred percent sure that Shahbaz Shariff in future would work in the same pace and passion for the whole of the Punjab. The shuttle train service from Shahdra to Lahore started by out-of-Bhutto PPP is because of the Metro Bus Service. Indirectly its credit also goes to Shahbaz Shariff. In new assemblies, the federal management under the out-of-Bhutto PPP in the form of a hung parliament would have to work for the nation as Shahbaz Shariff laid the foundation. A candle gets light from candle. The writer is of the view that if we are busy in nagging, the nation would remain hung and suspended. Our country has already come into the situation where nothing is in oneness or absolute form. The use of aids has become our modus operandi. So, it must be followed that what others are doing for the betterment of the nation.
Many men of higher education I interviewed, they said that Metro Bus Service may be neglected if Shahbaz Sharif did not become the Chief Minister again. Their doubts are justified. But an officer of TEPA made us believe that it would not be possible. He explained that behind it, there is valid implementable legislation. And there is a hierarchical service structure of the officers who would and are responsible for the maintenance and proper look after of this grand Metro Bus Service.
Before proceeding to the concluding lines, it becomes morally bound to mention that other political stalwarts irrespective to their affiliations, difference of opinions, or being poles apart from other political peers, they must conceive their own nation serving projects with the dedication and eagerness of promotional devotion in the sole interest of their country folks. Others should build new hospitals, schools, colleges, body building health clubs, parks, libraries, bridges, underpasses, whatsoever can be imagined. Shahbaz Shariff is an exemplary model to be followed.
Javaid Akram is a freelance writer based in Lahore. He can be reached at lawsaves@gmail.com
The Lahore Times Read more: http://www.lhrtimes.com/2013/02/12/from-omni-to-metro/#ixzz2LkLiubH4
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Thursday, March 14, 2013
کالم کار - خرم اعزاز
کالم کار - خرم اعزاز
This column was published in Weekly Nidai-Millat Dated January 10, 2013
Monday, March 11, 2013
Interviews
Interview | Khawaja Saad Rafique
This interview was published in weekly Nidai Milat, dated July 19,2012
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Interview
Interview | Ch. Jaffar Iqbal
This interview was published in Sunday magazine daily Waqt Lahore, dated Feb 24, 2013
Friday, March 8, 2013
Interview
Interview | Hamza Shahbaz Sharif
This interview was published in weekly Nidai Millat on June 28, 2012
Thursday, March 7, 2013
News Report | Punjab Youth Festival 2012
Punjab Youth Festival 2012
This news report was published in weekly Nidai millat dated October 25-2012.
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Interviews
Interview | Ahsan Iqbal
This interview was published in Sunday Magazine of daily WAQT Lahore, dated 30th Sept. 2012
Friday, March 1, 2013
Interview
Interview | Khurram Dastgir Khan
Khurran Dastagir Khan is an engineer by profession. He is currently holding the position of central deputy secretary information PMLN. He is also an elected MNA from Gujranwala. This interview was published in weekly Nidai Millat dated October 04-10 2012
