In a webcast lecture, Professor Scott D Sagan said that if developed countries with competent civilian controls can make errors it was safe to assume that countries with “less vigorous civilian controls, less professionalised ” will behave in dangerous ways.
According to Sagan some states that have nuclear weapons don’t see them as a deterrent but as a shield behind which they can take more aggressive action. “If some militaries think war is inevitable in the long term they believe they can engage in preventive war. And if they think nuclear weapons are a good deterrent, it also gives them the incentive to use force at lower levels,” remarked Sagan. Such posturing was not witnessed even during the cold war. But, according to Sagan, we see this often between India and Pakistan, most notably during the Kargil conflict and even later.
Sagan explains Pakistan’s nuclear safety dilemma as: “The civilians are at the wheel. The military is at the accelerator and somebody is pulling the brakes.” This is neither “a rationally controlled operation nor proper nuclear signalling”. As witnessed during Kargil, he said, some of this signalling gave off vulnerabilities. Overall, he noted, Pakistan has a vulnerability-invulnerability problem. “Pakistanis keep their weapons in storage on military bases, and not in the high state of alert,” he said. “They know that those weapons are vulnerable in the event of an attack by India or the US.”
At least four were killed and more than 39 were injured when a powerful blast hit the Crime Investigation Department (CID) police station at University Road in Peshawar on Wednesday. According to details, the explosion occurred when an explosive-laden car rammed into the wall of the CID police station.
As a result, four persons were killed while more than 39 were injured. Many police personnel were among the injured. Senior Provincial Minister Bashir Bilour claimed that the car was carrying 300 kilogram of explosives which hit the police station building. Police started further investigation of the incident.
Where on one side Kalma Chowk Flyover would resolve many traffic issues and save the time for reaching one place to another, on the same side problems like Environmental effects and long halt traffic blocks also getting on the nerves of citizens. Ferozpur road is one of the busiest roads in Lahore and Kalma chowk is a centre point for half of the people of Lahore going to office, shop, schools or colleges. In order to improve the transport facilities and to keep the traffic flow smooth, it was decided to construct the flyovers and underpasses at Kalma chowk. Before its construction the people had to wait for long by standing on traffic signals and now on its construction they have an objection of traffic management and environmental effects. People cannot be happy in any way!
Need of Kalma Chowk Flyover
Due to the rapid growth in population there is tremendous increase in the traffic of Lahore city. People who used to travel between Barkat market, Liberty, Gulberg, Model town and Canal road have to pass from Kalma chowk. It is estimated that 4 lac vehicles pass daily from Kalma chowk. In the peak hours, traffic police has to manage the traffic manually rather to switch on the traffic signals and in the harsh summer season people have to wait for long in the severe traffic jams. In view of these issues Government of Punjab decided to construct flyovers and underpasses on Kalma chowk which would give much relief to the people who use to pass daily from Kalma chowk.
Criticism on Kalma Chowk Project
Conservation Society and Shajar Dost foundation did file a case against Chief Minster and Communication and Works (C&W) department. They challenged the project that it is not constructed according to Law and Pakistan’s environment protection act. The said that engagement of National Engineering Services PakistanLimited (Nespak) and National Logistics Cell (NLC), the commencement of work at the site, all violated the public’s fundamental right of a clean environment. They say that every big construction project should involve the public opinion and this project did not start by involving people who suffered with it. They raised a question on the development priorities of Punjab Government that recently Punjab had suffered devastated flood and now they are making huge expenditure on one road that is of 2.3 billion rupee project. Well regarding environment so there is no issue on rooted up the trees because in that region there are very less number of trees but they have an issue that there should be other alternatives rather to construct bridges.
Future of Project
Kalma chowk project is still a part of long debate. There are many positive and negative sides but people do realize the need of it. At the time of emergency no one wants to stick in traffic jams. Well the stay order has been given to the authorities and construction work is pending till next hearing in court.
The government has reached a secret understanding with the IMF under which the Reformed General Sales Tax will be imposed in the next fiscal budget, but will not be called the RGST or VAT, since the government may not be able to get the relevant financial legislation passed through the National Assembly.
What this simply means is that the economic mangers of the government, who held talks with an IMF team in Dubai and briefed them on the salient features of the next budget, have tried to fool the masses, urban based political players and business tycoons by leaking the false information that the RGST had been shelved. In reality, the official statement after the talks says discussions on the issue would continue in the weeks ahead and a fund mission would visit in July 2011. In essence, the economic managers have tried to camouflage a secret deal with the IMF.
In an interview, Grossman said the US “respected and recognised the sacrifice Pakistan had made in the war against terrorism”, but he remained non-committal on the question of drone strikes, wishing not to comment on demands by Pakistan that they should end.
Elaborating on the agreement brokered by Senator John Kerry earlier this week for joint action and intelligence sharing, Grossman insisted “joint meant joint” with neither country in the driving seat. Grossman said a step-by-step approach would be taken here as well “to see what we can do together. We need to work together and identify the threat jointly.”
Grossman said there was convergence between the US and Pakistan on many issues including the Haqqani network, which has been a major irritant between the two countries, adding Pakistan and the US “see more clearly now than they did a week ago.”
Pakistan is focusing on building low-yield, tactical nuclear weapons which it can use in case of skirmishes at the border with India. After disclosures that Pakistan is building its fourth reactor at the Khushab military facility, fresh estimates made by security and intelligence officials here suggest that Pakistan now has the capability to add 8-10 such weapons in its kitty every year.
The news is a surprise, if not shock, to the government here. Its belief, based on assessment by top scientists, was that Pakistan was unlikely to undertake this sort of expansion as it did not have enough uranium. Pakistan is internationally acknowledged to have a nuclear arsenal of 100 weapons but the recent focus on low-yield, also known as tactical, weapons has become a source of worry for India.
Indian officials said the manner in which Pakistan has carried out work on the fourth reactor, of which there was no trace as late as 2009, suggest a constant supply or uranium and that this could only have been made possible by China. “The cost involved is too high and then, of course, the amount of uranium required. It’s too much for Pakistan to achieve without support from China,” said a senior government official.
At least five miners were killed and almost 46 workers trapped inside when a coal mine in Balochistan, 35km away from the Quetta collapsed after gas blast. Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation owned the mine. President Pakistan Central Mines Labour Federation Bakht Khan cleared the accident and terror a more death toll. Local workers started rescue operation on their own and recovered a dead body.
Top US security officials said they had no verification that Pakistani leaders knew that Osama bin Laden was in Pakistan, and in reality had seen information to the opposite. “I have seen no proof since the bin Laden attack that signifies that the top management knew bin Laden was there,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen said.
Deputy Director of CIA Michael Morell met with DG ISI Lt. General Ahmed Shuja Pasha in Islamabad which they decided to carry on the combined action against Al-Qaeda and to limit the drone strikes on Pakistan earth.
Grossman would be meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and the military leadership. Marc Grossman arrived in Islamabad on Wednesday. This is Grossman’s second visit as part of attempt to cool tensions between the two countries after the United State action in Abbottabad.
It has been 39 years to the day since Don Gorske ate his first nine. At a ceremony in his honour at a McDonald’s in his hometown of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, he said he would continue to eat Big Macs “until I die”. Mr Gorske, 57, appeared in the 2004 documentary film Super Size Me, which looks at the impact of a daily diet of McDonald’s food. He is thin and his cholesterol is said to be low.
“When I was 19 years old I had eaten my first 1,000 Big Macs and I was kind of like, I thought how long before I hit 10,000?” he said before eating the world record 25,000th burger on Tuesday.
“Then it was like boy, by the time I hit 25,000 I will be old and retired. Well wouldn’t you know, I’m not super old, I am 50-something, but I am retired and stuff, but you don’t dream of living so long as to reach a milestone like that.”
In a webcast lecture, Professor Scott D Sagan said that if developed countries with competent civilian controls can make errors it was safe to assume that countries with “less vigorous civilian controls, less professionalised ” will behave in dangerous ways.
