Karachi Could Bleed To Pakistan's Death

Re: # 588

Pakistan's Karachi stock market has taken a nose dive along with the major markets around the world. KSE-100 dropped about 50%. Those who invested in KSE stocks in 2001-2 did as well or better than those who invested in NY, London, Mumbai or Shanghai. KSE increased 10-fold 2001-2007. Even after a 50% drop in KSE in 2008, investors have made 500% gain since 2001.
Riaz Haq, PakAlumni Worldwide

Re: # 596 Hamidm Boss

I never lost faith in your investing ability (read previous posts). As I was telling Bongdongs - you made out alright. Now, can you help answer the zakat and other issues that I raised?

Shagird

Re: # 592

bongdongs and pepe l'pew ,

.... bewakoof! .... when i bought in the dollar was at 61 and when i cashed out the dollar was 78 and change ....... a five lakh rupee certificate was worth 2.7 million in ten years .... now you two banias do the math and tell where you can get a 300% return ..... but like i said, the main purpose was to liberate kashmir which sadly did not happen

Published on Tuesday, May 5, 2009 by Reuters
Truckloads of Dead Civilians After Afghan Battle

by Sharafuddin Sharafyar

HERAT, Afghanistan - Villagers brought truckloads of bodies to the capital of a province in Western Afghanistan on Tuesday to prove that scores of civilians had been killed by U.S. air strikes in a battle with the Taliban.

The governor of Farah Province, Rohul Amin, said about 30 bodies had been trucked to his office, most of them women and children. Other officials said the overall civilian death toll may have been much higher, with scores of people feared killed while huddled in houses that were destroyed by U.S. warplanes.

U.S. forces confirmed that a battle had taken place with air strikes and said they were investigating reports of civilian casualties, but were unable to confirm them.

"There was an insurgent attack on an ANA (Afghan National Army) group and the ANA called for assistance, and some coalition troops joined them to help fight this group," said U.S. military spokesman Colonel Greg Julian. "There was close air support, but I can't give any detail on the type of aircraft."

He said U.S. and Afghan officials would head to the site on Wednesday to investigate the reports of civilian deaths.

"Once we get eyes on the ground we will have a better idea of what may have happened."

Ghulan Farooq, a member of parliament from the province, said he had been told by family members in the Bala Boluk district where the fighting took place that as many as 150 people had died. He said U.S. air strikes had destroyed 17 houses. Those figures could not be independently confirmed.

Lieutenant Colonel Khalil Nehmatullah, commander of an Afghan Army battalion in the province, said: "Unfortunately the Taliban took people into some buildings and forced them to stay in there after the security forces started telling them to evacuate."

"Arabs and Pakistanis were among the Taliban fighters who were armed with RPGs (rocket propelled grenades) ... the ANA entered the scene with help from a unit of U.S. marines, and they were fighting until 11 pm," he told Reuters. He said he did not know the extent of the civilian casualties.

EXECUTIONS

Amin said the battle in Farah province, a vast desert region on Afghanistan's western border, began after Taliban guerrillas moved into a village on Monday and executed three former government officials for cooperating with the state.

Before the reports of large numbers of civilian casualties emerged, the governor said four Afghan security forces members and about 25 insurgents had been killed.

The head of public health and hospitals in Farah province, Abdul Jabar Shayeq, said 11 civilians and three policemen had been admitted to hospital with wounds from the fighting.

Jalil Ahmad, a resident in the district, said earlier that some 100 Taliban fighters had taken up positions in residential areas to fight the Afghan and foreign troops.

"Civilian lives are in danger from both sides and they don't care about it," Ahmad said. "We beg President (Hamid) Karzai to save our lives."

Civilian deaths have become a bitter source of friction between Afghan authorities and U.S. forces. Washington says it is working harder this year to limit civilian deaths and investigate reports of such incidents more rapidly after the number of civilians killed by U.S. forces soared last year.

In the worst incident last year, the Afghan government and the United Nations said a U.S. strike killed 90 civilians. Washington initially denied it, but after three months said it had killed 33 civilians as well as 22 people it called militants.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is in Washington, where he will meet U.S. President Barack Obama for the first time since Obama's inauguration. Obama has declared Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan to be Washington's main military concern.

Last year more than 7,000 people, including 2,000 civilians, died in insurgency-related violence in Afghanistan, the United Nations and aid agencies say.

The United States plans to more than double its forces to fight the Taliban insurgents this year from 32,000 at the start of the year to 68,000 by the year's end. Other countries have around 30,000 troops in Afghanistan.

(Additional reporting by Golnar Motevalli, Hamid Shalizi and Peter Graff in Kabul; Writing by Peter Graff; editing by Ralph Boulton)
© 2009 Reuters

Tahmed writes "o get those funds you need to have something going for you"

Yeah you have to whore yourself to the corporate elite and kiss their buttocks so that they give you coverage on their media and frame your message based on manipulation within a two party dictatorship where corporate men interchange frequently with the political elite and ensure that corporations not only run private armies (as they did in Iraq) but that the state military as thugs at the top that interchange with defense industries. Who are you trying to fool tahmed. Never in the history of the world has such a barbaric nation become globally dominant as has the U.S., never before given the technology of butchering humanity at its disposal.

TNITC masadi

Re: # 592 Bongdongs

Hamidm mian must have figured out a way to hedge against currency devaluation. In any case, he is still ahead with 15% per year gain and a 60% currency devaluation over the same 10 year period. He has still more than doubled his money!

"this might surprise you, but the best investment i ever made was in pakistani government bonds that i bought over ten years ago ...... in us dollar terms (adjusted for exchange rate changes ) i made over 15% a year! .."
------------

yeah right!

Pakistan rupee on 05/05/99: 50.95
Pakistan rupee on 05/05/09: 80.05

so you lost 36% on currency itself over this time period and still made 15% annually?

Re: # 590 Hamidm ustaad

Mashallah!.

That sounds like a capital idea! Is there a way to hedge against currency fluctuation?

The return is 12.5% according to information on the website - not quite the killing you made, but good enough! BTW, there is a tax withholding (10%) on these for amounts over Rs.150,000/- maybe you can conjure up a scheme to ensure that multiple tranches can each be kept below the 150,000 threshold? I'll give you 2% for every 10% saved.

There is also the non-trivial matter of zakat 'as per the rules'. Do you know how 'non-Pakistani South Asians from a 'big neighboring country' who happen to be non-Muslims' can avoid paying zakat on account of them being non-Muslims? Is 'zakat' mandatory for non-Muslims (like Jaziya)? If you can handle the 'zakat' issue, I'll figure out how one can hoodwink the authorities of the 'big neighboring country' to directly invest in the same scheme without them knowing:)

I've known you for years now, and can do business with you!

Re: # 588

pepe l'pew,

... i recommend defense savings certificates ...... you can get a 15+% return and also help fund the liberation of kashmir .........

Re: # 565

[Then have some self respect & refuse the aid. You guys act if aid is your frikking birthright. Dont give me crap about Pakistan sacrificing. You hunt with the hound & run with the fox. You are trying the same spin doctoring that Hussen Haqqani is trying. Nice try, no cigar.]

Pakistan is like a whore to America. It takes America's money but does not enjoy the sex. Like any good client America does not understand why is the whore not having fun.

Re: # 584 Hamidm2

Which debt should I be buying? Fauji CornFlakes? Or Fauji Cement? (Reconstruction in FATA will eventually begin) WAPDA?
Enlighten me!

Riaz: hope you are tuned in. Since you are a serious S. Asian investor, and I have some serious money, do help me by relieving me of some of my money and directing it towards Pakistan! I will be eternally grateful!

Allah Hafiz

hamid,

{{i also could not find a place to pee in jinnah super and ended up peeing in the stinking open sewer that used to be a spring fed mountain stream in the early seventies}}

Next time try the railroad tracks...where are gopinath's genes when you need them?.. .

pmishra2...STFU, will ya. seriously you bore me with all that soviet newspaper discussion crap. :\

riaz gets funnier and funnier...but mostly in a sad moronic way...now he is onto explaining why the US has "failed"...its really funny how these fellows who survive by having some little job in the US economy are always giving lectures on how closed it is and how it will be soon destroyed.

He reminds me of some of the soviet newspapers discussion of US in the 60s and 70s. How it was going to be destroyed by racism and hegemonic capitalism and so on. We all know who was destroyed at the end of all that!!

Re: # 577

pepe l'pew,

..... this might surprise you, but the best investment i ever made was in pakistani government bonds that i bought over ten years ago ...... in us dollar terms (adjusted for exchange rate changes ) i made over 15% a year! ...... over the same period my 401k which invested in 'blue chip' stocks and 'aaa' bonds is now a 301K ......... thanks to my temporary loss of sanity, my kids us college education is paid for by the paki government .........

Re: # 569

riaz mian,

......now you have me really worried ! ..... since the us debt to gdp ratio is higher than pakistan's, does it mean that soon i will be living with load shedding, suicide bombings, open sewers and without indoor plumbing and organic baby leaf spinach? .......

...... i am a simple man and not very good with numbers and facts .... i trust you on these matters ....... all i know is that when i went to the redwings game yesterday the joe was full of working class people who had somhow managed to cough up seventy dollars a ticket and were guzzling eight dollar beers and eating five dollar hot dogs ..... on the other hand, on my last visit to islamabad i coughed up almost two thousand a head for lunch at the serena (the marriott was still closed after the bombing) and did not see any working class folks there other than imran khan and a few senators ....... i also could not find a place to pee in jinnah super and ended up peeing in the stinking open sewer that used to be a spring fed mountain stream in the early seventies ....... however, i must admit the urinals at the joe smelt just as bad! .... maybe there is something to this debt/gdp ration or maybe mike ilitch is just too cheap to build a new arena ........ i guess he is just another member of masadi's notorious us elite who has forgotten the days when he was a pizza delivery boy ......