Pakistan Rocked

Faisaluno/Ijaz: Since Army is running the show, and will make the major decisions, I think it should be considered ok to discuss it on an earthquake thread......

I know the military inside out. At all levels. I am even now getting to know them as a businessman. Here are the facts:There are two types of corruptions: Financial corruption and Professional corruption, i.e. stealing money or not doing one`s professional job properly.

- Financial corruption in Pakistan is not dependent on the institution. It is dependent on the opportunity. The military is, hands down, internally, financially, the most honest insitution I have ever dealt with in Pakistan. Never had to pay a penny to get anything done. While even getting a passport or phone connection could cost money in civil.

However, the reason is that uptil the rank of Brigadier, there really isn`t any opportunity to be corrupt in the military. Hence a tradition of corruption has not developed. Corruption is still considered bad, unlike in civil services. However, wherever there is a chance, it does occur. The Army Rangers on the Indian border, controlling smuggling have a chance and are corrupt. The C-130 pilots who make foreign trips are corrupt. The Generals (not all) who sign financial arm deals are corrupt.

In addition, the military has institutionalised corruption. It has made it legal. It is the biggest business entity in Pakistan, and uses great influence and nepotism to run its business. A massive corruption incidence was unearthed in Lahore Defence. It is corrupt there like all businesses are.

Interestingly, in the Army, during Zia`s days, he noticed that all the top grads from PMA were opting to join the Supply branch of the Army, and not the fighting branches. Why? Because one can make money there. So he fired the PMA commadant......

Having said this, the military is still a nunnery in comparison to corruption in Civil Services, Politics etc. However, the same military officer, when he goes into politics and civil services, and gets a chance to be corrupt, does become corrupt.....Notice Ayub Khan and his family. Suprisingly, Musharraf has remained clean so far........

- In professional area, the miltiary is no doubt very disciplined. And not corrupt. Here its achilles heal is that the Army genrals, though professionally dedicated, are not very competent. Everyone else is quite competent.

And everyone is willing to risk their lives for Pakistan, at huge odds, against much more powerful enemies. And will risk it during an earthquake. Even the ones who are corrupt. The miltiary has a very strong tradition of fighting when asked........You are seeing that during this earthquake. The Brigadier who lost his son is on the job immediately, while it is hard to find a single civil servant working in the area. No doubt the civil servants are tending to their family. But the Brigadier is still there...........

it is interesting to note that while Iqbal was a pan Islamist and a universalist (note Cheen-o-Arab hamara sara Jahan hamara) and decidedly against nationalism (vide: in Taaza khudaon mein) but the Pakistanis are generally nationalist, at the most pan- islamists and rarely if ever universalists.

Hindvi

Most nationalists are good people. Most universalists are either idealists (some would call them fools) or very evil people.

Thank God for Pakistani nationalists. They are the ones who will stand by Pakistan right now.

Thank you Ijaz gul for an informative article, will you be kind enough to tell us little bit more about Hazara fault, ...did Britishers knew about it before 1947,...please tell us more about it....I noticed one time, in Abbottabad,.. when PWD people were demolishing a Britishers built single storey government building ,.that it had very broad and deep foundations,..and the upper portion was light weight and flexible..... may be they knew about the quake risks in the area ...please discuss ....thank you

Mr Ejaz Gul
somewhere in your article you wrote.

``Satellite pictures show formation of a lake on one of the tributaries of Neelum River which could bring floods in the area.``

and Rogger Bilham has also noted this


http://cires.colorado.edu/~bilham/Kashmir%202005.htm

its full image is at

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpegMod/PIA03028_modest.jpg


Now this is quet threatening... It means that after the Winters are over....and Rivers start
filling up.... there is a Chance of a massive Flood.....

Has any one noticed it so far....??

#10 faisal

``pak has the lowest tax to gpd ratio in the world. in layman terms, this means that the biggest tax cheats in the world are pakistanis. ``

This is collosal bullshit myth that is being drilled into the minds of Pakistani people by the international monetary institutions (aka aalmi soodkhor) and their appointed agents like Musharaf and Shortcut Aziz, Mouinuddin and other assorted Chawals and dallals. The fact of the matter is that these institutions have made tremendous ``investment`` in Pakistan by lending it huge amount of debt. They want their return on investment. The only way to do it is by taxing the society. That is the reason our second largest expense, after spending on defense, goes to debt servicing. It is like a credit card, in layman terms. So the military i.e. Na Pak fauj is used to collect revenue and to make sure that no populist civilian government may emerge who would refuse to pay the debt further. In order to serve these two purposes if military has to raise its weapons agansit its own people then so be it. This is the core reason that this corrupt regime, even though it has rendered extraordinary services to America in its War of oppression on helpless countries, it has not even initiated the matter with Americans that our debt should be forgiven. This debt business is the cash cow for corrupt generals and vulture like poilticians on two sides. One one sides they obtain debt in the name of Pakistani nation, benefits of which never reach to Pakistanis, and on the other hand they can impose any taxation on people without impunity.

The truth of the matter is that Pakistan is one of the most heavily taxed countries on this planet. In some case the tax is several hundered percent. For example about 10 years ago the cost of 1 kilo of sugar at factory gate was 25 paisas. The millowner decalred its wholesale price to be about six rupees and after tax the consumer was getting it at Rs. 18 in the market. Similarly at the same time, a sac of cement at factory gate was costing about Rs. 4, the manufacturers retail price was Rs. 60-80 and after tax the consumer was buying it for Rs. 220. Every product that is produced in Pakistan is similarly taxed. There is tax on seeds, there is tax on fertilizers (several hundered percent); there is exurbitant tax on pesticides (who is there is no agriculture tax); electricity; clothes; petrol every thing yu name it is either owned by state or it is taxed several hunederd percent. This is called indirect taxing. In this case the government reserve the right to not to show how much tax it is collecting from consumer because it is not itemized and fused into the price. The reason is simple. Government does not feel itself obligated to be accountable to people. There is taxation but no representation of the people. Pakistan has become the most unjust and corrupt society in the world for that very reason. Because the fukking napolean bonaparts have no accontability. This is the reason every Muslim in Pakistan has a religious obligation to change this unjest and corrupt system.

{img src=``http://cires.colorado.edu/~bilham/KASHMIR/KashmirHazardBig.jpg``}


This is the hypotheses

[img src=``http://cires.colorado.edu/~bilham/KASHMIR/LandslidesKashmir.htm``]

Original Caption Released with Image:
This image acquired by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer on NASA`s Terra spacecraft on October 11, 2005, depicts a 30-kilometer (19-mile) wide region southeast of the epicenter of the magnitude 7.6 Pakistan earthquake on October 8, 2005, between Muzaffarabad and Uri in the Pir Punjal range of Kashmir. The center of the image is at about 34 degrees, 13 minutes North; 73 degrees, 42 minutes East. A large landslide is visible (brown color) to the south of the main river (Jhelum River) crossing the image. The landslide appears to have blocked the flow of a small river. A number of smaller landslides are also visible, mostly along the main river and other valleys. For a 3D perspective view of this image, see PIA03030.

Ijaz,
Can you throw more light on the first picture? Does it mean that the next earthe quake would happen further North west of the latest one (somewhere in the border of Pakistan/Afghanistan)?

Thanks,
Avkrishna

avaishka,
No these are eight hypotheses and the first one on the extreme left is right on target. In terms of probability, it could be calculated at a low rating, but that is how accurate seismologists can get in this discipline. The poineering work on this is attributable to some excellent Indian scientist. However, they were more biased towards Kangra.

As for further North West, I did discuss with my friend Sher Bahadur, who is a geologist. He maintains that it could. My own uneducated view is that the Kohistan Massif has also been shaken and the Nanga Parbat Massif is also moving. So What? I cannot comment.
Cheerios

I myself was in Muzaffarabad on 11th Oct. I actually planned to see a friend who lived only 7-8 km away from the main city on the raod leading to Neelum Valley. We could go only less than 1 km in our vehicle as there was no road to be seen anywhere. All we could see was the newly shaped terrain, with coninuous landslides. Those who were willing to continue on feet had to return because of the eminent threat of slides. When the aftershocks would subside, the rain would play its role in making things more miserable.

The next whole week I witnessed no different scenes in NWFP. In Batgram my own family had to spend nights under open skies. Some of them are still in great wide open, exposed to the elements and constant fear of further damage. Least visibel are the psychological scars but u sense them only when you engage them in a connecting conversation. I very rarely find the courage to do it. Now I have returned to Islamabad, bringing few of my klan members to the relative safety. But how safe we really are? or thousands others who have actually become the main characters of this tragic drama, unlike me who just witnessed it from the sideline.
The scale of the devastation makes you dumbfounded.

I`ve seen some satellite imagery on few interacts. Here is another link where you can see Muzaffarabad beofore and after the disaster.

http://www.spaceimaging.com/gallery/AsiaEQViewer.htm

Re: # 30

Thank you Ijaz gul for an informative article, will you be kind enough to tell us a bit more about Hazara fault, ...did Britishers know about it before 1947...??,...please tell us more about it....I noticed one time, in Abbottabad,.. when PWD people were demolishing a Britishers built single storey government building ,.that it had very broad and deep foundations,..and the upper portion was light weight and flexible..... may be they knew about the quake risks in the area ...please guide us, where can we find more about it ....thank you