2. Nawa-i-Waqt editorially hailed stand President Zardari had taken during his meeting with US envoy Mark Grossman and termed it as bold.  As usual, the US demanded that Pakistan do more but Zardari in turn, demanded that US stop drone attacks and refused to release Shakeel Afridi. Zardari also condemned the blasphemous film, the edit noted with approval. (Nawa-i-Waqt Edit)

3. Daily Pak’s edit on Zardari- Grossman meeting has welcomed President’s call to the US to stop drone attacks. This is not a new demand; it was made earlier also but the US did not agree. The drones are killing innocent people and this in turn increases the risk of terrorist attacks on Pakistan. The US should understand that terror strikes on Pakistan have increased dramatically after Pakistan joined the US war on terror. (Daily Pak Edit)

4. Ausaf edit on Zardari-Grossman talks says the US special envoy raised the issue of Dr Shakeel Afridi with the President and Foreign Minister whereas political and military leadership refused to play any role in the release of the doctor. Dr Afridi had committed sedition and he should not be handed over to the US. Edit says that nobody will dare to go Dr. Afridi’s way once they saw his fate. (Ausaf Edit, 16 September)

INDIA
1. SM Irfan writes that the attack on the Mehran and Kamra bases had been carried out by India as India did not like Pakistan purchasing 3 civilian planes from USA. He claims that India destroyed 2 aircrafts by attacking the Mehran naval base and one was destroyed in the attack at the Kamra air base. (Baad-e-Shimal)

2. Chief Executive of Harvest Trading, Ahmed Jawad said that since India had a predominantly vegetarian population, it was a good opportunity to export fruits and vegetables to India. (Nawa-i-Waqt)

3. British MP George Galloway announced that he will visit J&K with a delegation and stated that since India was the largest democracy, it has to stop human rights violations. (Urdupoint)

4. Muhammad Mirza Naim writes that foreign NGOs were spreading propaganda that Pakistan was not a safe place for minorities as some Hindu families from Sindh’s interiors, after reaching India, stated that they did not want to go back to Pakistan. He suspects that somebody has forced Sindhi Hindus to say this, and avers that it was wrong to say Pakistan wasn’t safe for religious minorities. Naim compares Pakistan’s situation to that in India and writes that Pakistan had given freedom of religion whereas it was a crime in some Indian states. Naim writes that till date, there had been no communal riot in Pakistan whereas major communal riots had taken place in Punjab and Assam. Pakistan was a religious state and Islam was its identity and hence, only a Muslim could become the head of state but in India, which is a democracy, no Muslim has been made the PM so far; he says, in the US, Christianity was a basic condition to Presidency. Naim writes that every single incident in Pakistan is propagated as if it were engulfing the entire community. (Urdupoint)

5. Al Qalam Weekly in an editorial on the India-Pak Foreign Ministers meeting says nothing had been resolved inn the negotiations the two countries held for more than half a decade. The issues had only gotten more complicated.  The visa policy had been softened and cultural exchanges had been given prominence; but the emphasis was on forgetting the past. Edit says that Kashmir was the primary dispute and if India was not ready to resolve it as per Pakistan’s demands, this dispute should at least be resolved as per Kashmiri demands. Edit questions why India was not ready to resolve issues like Siachen, Sir Creek and water through talks. Edit alleges that India tried to protect its interests in the name of negotiations. The visit of Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna to Pakistan at the time of ‘Youm-e-Difa-e-Pakistan’ and avoidance of Kashmir, Siachen and water issues was equal to allowing the enemy’s agenda to destabilize Pakistan. The pledge of fighting the war against terrorism was taken without discussing the Kashmir issue as India plans to suppress jihad-e-Kashmir. Edit writes that India had destroyed Pakistan’s agriculture through water terrorism and if India is given access to Pakistan’s markets, it will inflict further damage to Pakistan’s economy. (Al Qalam Weekly Edit, 14 September to 19 September)

6. Responding to a petition, PEMRA informed the Lahore High Court that it had banned a private TV channel for telecasting Indian TV serials. (Jang)

TERRORISM/EXTREMISM
1. Protests were on going in Islamic countries against the anti-Islam film; the US claims to be a champion of peace but actually it is following the road of chaos. This situation could initiate wars and the world could plunge into destruction. (Ausaf Edit, 16 September)

2. Jinnah’s edit on anti-Islam film says the US had decided to alert its soldiers in Muslim nations for controlling the protests. Edit condemns this action and considers the film to be a US conspiracy. This proves the theory that 9/11 was pre-planned. Edit urges the Muslim world to show unity and fight such conspiracies. (Jinnah Edit)

3. A photograph shows hundreds of people protesting in Lahore against the anti-Islam film. The photo also has a youth with a naked sword. The protest was reportedly organized by JuD. (Ausaf, 16 September)

POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS
1. Dr. AQ Khan said that the people were not ready to trust PML-N and PPP anymore and that the corrupt leadership had ruined the country. He said that the US and India could never be Pakistan’s friends. He said that the money in Swiss Bank should be brought back to Pakistan and advised Nawaz Sharif to quit politics. (Daily Intekhab, Khabrain)

2. Speaking to PPP workers in Toba Tek Singh, President Zardari said that party activists will be provided jobs and other amenities and that a party office will be opened in Lahore very soon. He said that issues of party workers will be resolved on priority basis; he is confident that PPP would form the next government in Punjab. (Urdupoint)

3. PML-F has not been able to make up its mind whether it wants to join the meeting called by President Zardari with all coalition parties. The ANP is attending this meeting and it has also decided to take up the issue of the recent municipal system ordinance in Sindh. (Kawish)

4. Baloch nationalist leader Sardar Ataullah Mengal said that the PML-N recommending him as the caretaker PM was a joke. Mengal said that his father would never accept this offer. (Daily Intekhab)

5. Speaking on a television channel, former president Pervez Musharraf said that those who wanted to hang him were enemies of Pakistan. He said he was not responsible for the present conditions in Pakistan. Musharraf said that the Army sacrifices the constitution to save the country and said that the Army should save the country at present too. He clarified that he was not instigating the Army. He dismissed reports of differences with any Army general – he said Gen. Mahmood had differences with him over the Osama bin Laden affair and had led a delegation to Mullah Omar. Musharraf said that he doubted bin Laden had been living in Abbotabad for 5 years. He said that Pakistanis who could not understand the issues of Balochistan wanted to see him hanged. Refuting Talal Bugti’s claims, Musharraf asked; “ If the government wanted to kill Akbar Bugti, why would it have sent 4 officers for talks with him” and pointed out that these four officers  had died in the very blast that had killed Akbar Bugti. He said that though the Pakistani Army was capable of striking down US drones, any such action could lead to the US mounting air attacks on Pakistan, which the Pakistani Army could not handle. Musharraf also said that Afghan President Karzai was not trustworthy. (Ibrat, Jang)

6. JI’s Prof Ibrahim said that the nexus of JUI-F chief Fazlur Rehman with President Zardari was an obstacle in the revival of MMA. (Daily Hazara News)

7. PPP (Sherpao) chairman Aftab Ahmad Sherpao said that his party would contest the upcoming elections on the agenda of Pakhtun interests. He said that the Pakhtun people had been deprived as part of a conspiracy. (Jinnah)

8. PPP central leader and Nusrat Bhutto’s closest associate Muslim Bhutto has announced joining APML.  Musharraf appointed him as APML’s central vice president. (Jinnah)

ECONOMY/ENERGY/WATER
1. Japan’s international agency has clarified that it is not giving any loans to Pakistan for construction of the Bhasha Dam. (Jang)

2. Pakistan will import 1000 megawatt of electricity costing Rs. 7 to Rs. 8 per unit from Turkmenistan soon. (Ausaf, 16 September)

3. In the first month of the current financial year, there was a 144% increase in export of ornaments, an 18-23% increase in export of cement, and a 96% increase in export of precious stones. (Nawa-i-Waqt)

4. Ibrat edit on Thar coal says, a few days ago, President Zardari had given instructions to expedite the Thar Coal project  but just last week, the federal government announced that the Thar Coal project is not feasible. President Zardari has given his approval for another project worth USD 4 billion.. And for this project,  according to the Minister for Water and Electricity, coal worth $1 billion would be imported from Australia and generators will be imported from China; USD 1 billion will be spent on transporting coal to power houses and another USD 1 billion will be spent on circular loans. Edit says it is clear that the Ministry is in no mood to extract power from Thar Coal and the bureaucrats will not want to explore alternate sources of energy as they want to create an energy crisis. Some mafia groups thrived on such crisis as they were not concerned about the people’s hardship. Edit says if the government had other plans regarding Thar Coal, they should be made public as it was no use keeping the project in animated suspense. (Ibrat Edit)

SINDH
1. Anti-America protests gathered momentum in Pakistan and 2 persons were killed during protests in Karachi and Hyderabad. (Kawish)

2. Target killings continue unabated in Karachi and nine more were reported killed. (Kawish)

3. Awami Awaz’s edit on UN team’s visit says the team had a meeting with the Sindh CM and asked him about the 323 people abducted from Sindh; the team also questioned him about the state of human rights in Sindh. The UN delegation enquired about reports of agencies abducting people and why the Sindh government was not doing anything for their release. Though there is democracy in the country, the agencies continued to be as powerful as they had been under dictatorship. Edit says that if there were a joint effort from the judiciary and the parliamentary bodies, abductions and recovery of tortured bodies could be checked. (Awami Awaz Edit)

BALOCHISTAN
1. Chief of Jamhuri Watan Party Talal Bugti called on the UN working group and presented a list of missing persons. He appealed that the UN play its role against the human rights violation in Balochistan. His list carries 600 names with their complete bio-data. Bugti informed the UN delegation about the recovery of mutilated bodies and claimed that 13000 people of the Bugti tribe were missing but they had collected data of only 600 people. Bugti said that they did not have access to many areas and hence, had not been able to collect data from those places. Bugti said they didn’t expect much from the UN team but keeping in mind the situation in Balochistan, the UN could deploy its forces in Balochistan any time in the future. (Urdupoint)

2. Nawa-i-Waqt edit on UN team’s visit  says the chairman of Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, Nasrullah Baloch submitted a list of 1400 missing persons, whereas as per government sources, the number of missing persons is no more than 80. The government claims that 53 of them have already been traced. Edit expresses concern over the wide disparity in the two lists. (Nawa-i-Waqt Edit)

POK/ G-B NEWS
1. Baad-e-Shimal editorial notes that the task of arresting the terrorists in Gilgit-Baltistan has been assigned to secret agencies.  The price on heads of 40 terrorists had been announced and during the last 6 months, the number of absconding terrorists had crossed 80. (Baad-e-Shimal Edit)

2. Former AJK Premier Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhary said that there were grave allegations of corruption against the current AJK government; he said he would continue his struggle for improvement. He vowed to construct a ‘Martyrs’ Memorial’ at Pothi Makwala from where jihad had started. He asserted that Asif Ali Zardari had given him the responsibility to carry out PPP’s election campaign in Pakistan. (Daily Dharti)

3. AJK Chief Secretary Arbab Shahzad Rahim said that the redevelopment project in the 2005 earthquake-hit areas would be soon completed. He said that delays and slow progress on construction projects in Rawalakot, Muzaffarabad and Bagh would not be tolerated. He asserted that the AJK government expected more development funds from Islamabad. (Daily Dharti, Jang)

4. President of PTI (Diamir) Sher Alam, Information Secretary Saeedullah and others criticized the resolution passed in the Gilgit-Baltistan legislative assembly announcing G-B as a constitutional province. In a statement, they said that Gilgit-Baltistan was a part of Kashmir. They said that as per the administrative set up, both Gilgit-Baltistan and AJK were under the federal government of Pakistan. All nationalist parties as well as PML-N have opposed this resolution. (Baad-e-Shimal)

7. A 20-member peace committee has signed the code of conduct for implementing law and order in Gilgit-Baltistan. 10 members each from Shia and Sunni communities are included in the peace committee. (Baad-e-Shimal)

8. Ahle Sunnat O Al Jamaat and Anjuman Imamia have signed the code of conduct to establish peace in Astore (Gilgit-Baltistan) at a meeting held at the Deputy Collector’s office. (Ausaf, 16 September)

9. The promise to give a special salary package to teachers of the Agha Khan Education Service has not been met as yet. The teachers have warned of protests in case the package is not disbursed by next month. (Baad-e-Shimal)