Monday Morning Blast in Rawalpindi ... An eyewitness account

Soaring meat prices start to bite
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
By Xari Jalil

Karachi

Even before the high prices of flour, edible oil and other essential commodities could be brought down, the prices of meat have begun to sky-rocket, thus becoming a grave cause for concern for the consumers.

At present, the current rate of mutton is between Rs250/kg to Rs270/kg, while beef is between Rs160/kg to Rs170/kg. The price of chicken has gone down by 10-15 rupees, since the outbreak of bird flu was reported. In fact, a high alert against the epidemic was declared a week ago. An earlier outbreak of bird flu occurred in 2006 followed by several cases in 2007 and those being reported these days.

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what is happening to the true green paki muslims. Are they forced to become vegetarians.

Re: # 326 what are you talking makes no sense, what is this fund business. I am supporter of mutual fund and well run company like adamji insurance.
We talk too much, we need to have section here so learn about stocks, deveopers, real estate etc. Currency rates all good thing. About KSE and how one can make money. Its gold mine and if you know to by proper shares and what price etc. It will great fn and we can become with little more money. Let us have +ve attitude, I always have. You are full of -ve attitude, you have lost lots money at KSE I am sure. bye

ahmedmadani, sovereign funds almost always pay egregious premiums, arab sovereign funds are the worst of the lot. They don't have the intellectual capacity to be activitst therefore their IRR is always lower than a traditional PE fund. Saving citibank? are you kidding? this is the problem with arablunchooses....compare arabs to the chinese...they declined citibank...why?

Re: # 322 Romair has point.
Gulf states are islands of wealth and helping world by lending money and saving big banks from going bankrupt.
They know how to make money and how to invest. Many big companies are owned by many wealthy groups from Gulf. They do not want to have problems of publicity so they are invisible.
When city bank went in trouble its indian manager went crying to arabs and they saved him from his financial ruins and bank was saved.
If I remember correct ( I do not remember or sometimes remember wrong) Romair once wrote about almost 20 billion dollars investment in Karachi by arabs to build new palacial place at two islands at Karachi. A new city can come there just likedubai. As usual poor people and fishermen do want little sacrifice from them to build and those anti development human rights people are looking for cause. No project will not go. Real money is in housing industry than manufacturing. Things will not change till poor are stopped from putting block to development all time.
Do not envy the resourceful finacial management of Gulf arabs but immitate them and become rich and better with money.

#323 Posted by chaltahai on February 11, 2008 4:37:30 am

Do you remember the saudi guy buying a whole bunch of MCI shares in 1999? I do..

Do you even remember MCI? I do...

bulleya, buying wstern symbols of industry buy paying premiums to market that are obscene just to put capital to work is stupid. Any CEO holding a sinking ship heads off to the gulf for cheap money. These are passive investors. Not those who create value either for the investment or for themselves (i.e. country in the long term)They compete with private equity by raising the cost of equity, which is fine for shareholders. But stupid they still are...

fuzair #: "There is probably a great deal of merit to greater decentralization of......Do the muhajirs get their own suba now?"

the more one travels the more one learns......when i was in the usa, i thought, like all americans (and all expats on this site) that i knew all there was to know about the world......until i moved and started living in other places.....

first of all, arabs (at least a major group of them) aren't as naive and as, "stupid" as everyone thinks they are.....the gcc is turning into a very large economic entity, which is flush with cash, and is ready to buy out the largest western symbols of industry......people are talking about china (and india)....keep an eye on the gcc........

anyways, the question is not of having a suba....the question of not trying to, forcefully, run historical civilizations which never existed on their own......it never works......south asia exists in such a state for a hundred years or so, and then breaks up for a thousand years......

.......uae is an ideal example.....seven sheikhdoms, each run differently - culturally, socially, ethically, financially - etc. from the other (as per the wishes of the ruling families in this case).......they have a single currency, foreign and defence policy......that's it.....rest is different.......laws on business, alcohol, dress, etc. are all different.....

similary, pakistan needs to be a union of independent provices/states......so what should the division be......well for starter. four provinces would be fine.......karachi would be in sindh.....

after that, they can divide further.....let the chief ministers run the provinces like prime ministers of their country......and one of them is elected figurehead prime minister of an entity called pakistan.......and let each provice establish its own domestic culture, policies etc.......

why are people in south asia so desparete to have large geographical areas as part of their countries, yet the migrate to tiny dubai at the drop of a hat....

as long as islamabad runs like dubai or lahore runs like singapore, and kohat runs like madina people in these cities should be happy, regardless of how large their country happens to be.........

Re: # 247
Mr Jayp kindly read my post no 103 with open eyes....
I never denied that ideology or for that matter what you call social set up has nothing to do with that...
You have given examples of so called other muslim countries...
Well suicide bombing has largely been a trademark of Arab nationals and they by no stretch of imagination are Pakistanis.....
Secondly other "non violent" countries do not have Afghanistan right next to their border and they never had the experience of huge amounts of American money to actually set up the apparatus...
The so called "cultural" factors only become active when there is a stimulus...
Factors are multiple and often complicated.....
And all I am asking is to be less arrogant....
Both of us are not intellectual giants.....
And when it comes to social sciences even giants can not be sure.....
It is a good thing to exercise caution and have a healthy dose of skepticism....

yar i recall the time when train-loads of tourists from Raja Travels would go to kashmir..now its trickled down to plane-loads :(

these tourists brought back warm feelings about kashmiri land and its people and some crappy overprised walnut wood shikaras, pencil-boxes and fake saffron. then offcourse the jihad happened supported by the religion of peace.

Romair,

Selig Harrison is a long-time Pakistan hater; suspect he is on RAW's payroll ;-) His book on Baluchistan is an excellent account of the insurgency and why it failed, despite its obvious anti Pakistan bias.

His analysis is occasionally on the money despite the crap about an Afghan empire (carved up by the Sikhs before the British came on the scene) or the Pathan animosity towards Pakistan: most of the Pathans I've known personally have been Pakistani nationalists, even those from the tribal areas! Which is not to say they loved Punjabis, but that they didn't hate Pakistan as a "Punjabistan" the way some Sindhis and Baluchis I've known hate it.

There is probably a great deal of merit to greater decentralization of Pakistan and greater provincial autonomy but it would have to be done, I think, along with breaking up the provinces along linguistic/ethnic lines a la India. However, breaking up Punjab, for e.g., into three or four provinces would raise the question of what to do about Sindh? Do the muhajirs get their own suba now?

Pew:

Thanks.

#313 Posted by bulleya on February 10, 2008 1:11:06 am



what will baluchistan do without pakistan.....they have nothing......they are in huge deficits......at best they can rent out their area for natural resources to someone....


that's funny coming from a purelander..considering pureland has prostituted itself out..

seriously...your "geo-strategic" location is like a parking spot in downtown Manhattan...your only use is to the people who rent you out..without a renter, you're worth diddly squat..and even when you are rented out, there's only so much you can make out of it...

Re: # 313 Bulleya

"......how many have indians have visited kashmir......"

Even now it is a dream destination for millions of honeymooners from the dusty plains of India. Domestic tourism is Kashmir's biggest industry.

Re: # 302 Arjun2

You had me in splits:) The wonders of the Internet and search capabilities. I noticed that Bulleya (formerly Romair) had in #302 said, '...I wanna go back and put on the uniform...". This burger's identification with the Yanks was so complete that he even adopted their slang! Never mind the fact that he wasn't going to don the uniform to distribute jalebis to the Taleban! And now in #314 he is self-righteously heaping scorn on Hamidm for advocating an anti-jihadist fight!
Thank you very much!

shankar #: "C'man yaar. Hamid's forte is his inimitable cynical wit.....Urstruly...morality, except those who agree with his brand of Islam."

hamidm mian is, hands down, by a long shot, the largest supporter of violence on this site......there is no one else who comes close.....and i am not talking about cynicism, and wit......unfortunately, he gave up on wit - his most valuable habit - when bush invaded iraq......

his violence does not bother a certain group of people, who agree with his political views......that is no difference than people who agree with obl's views and are not bothered by his violence......

urstruly, generally, does not support violence as a solution........though he does support a narrow self-centered interpretation of religion, which has little room for anyone other than those who agree with him......

so both have huge appeal for certain groups, but have very little room for those who disagree with them.......urstruly's view is to islamize those who disagree, and hamidm mian's view is to kill them.......

one does it through religious interpretations and arguments, the other through wit and political interpretations........

all in all, quite a few similarities between the two.......one loves his religion and ridicules the country he lives......the other loves the country he lives and ridicules the religion he is a part of.....neither has enough courage to move out the country or religion, respectively....

SR #: ....the best thing that could happen to pakistan is to be decentralized into autonomous regions, like the uae.....in fact this is the best thing that can happen to most regions, which are an amulgamation and combinaiton of multiple civilizations.......

there is absoutely nothing enchanting about people living in one large country.......as long as one lives in an efficiently running city, and has access to economic opportunities in surroudning cities/countries, all is well.....in the end we spend around 90%+ of our lives in the cities we live in........

how many people have visited waziristan from pakistan......how many have indians have visited kashmir......why in the world are people so emotionally attached to areas, they have nothing to do with.......

........the world works on the basis of economics.......and economics requires peace and a stable system (it doesn't even require democracy, as china and uae have shown; though democracy helps).......

.......so pakistan should break up (or crack) into four or so states.....these states should have their chief minister who runs the state, like uae states.......and then the chief ministers meet, every now and then, to decide a common foreign policy and defence policy, with common currenty etc.......

as for regions breaking off from this autonomous federated entity, i don't think they will break off so easily.......the good mr. selig seems to have limited knowledge of pakistan......

why in the world will tribal areas folks join with afghanistan.....they can do that today......people from afghanistan are flooding into pakistan......no one goes the other way.......tribal areas are funded by pakistan for electricity, economics etc........it is the opposite of taxation without representation......they have representation without taxation in pakistan.......

and how in the world will an independent pukhtunistan survive?

what will baluchistan do without pakistan.....they have nothing......they are in huge deficits......at best they can rent out their area for natural resources to someone....

.......and what will a rump landlocked punjab do......can it unite with indian punjab?.....it will be nobody.....

actually the only area in pakistan, which can survive independently is sind with karachi included.....it will have reveneus, a coast line etc........though ethnic conflicts.......the rest of pakistan can either be one country or a loosely federated union.....

so its time for pakistan to turn into a loosely federated union like uae.......i think it will start to progress and each region will be at peace with itself.....if you want shariah, instead of pushing karachi and lahore into it, you live in nwfp, which would be shariah state.....if you want to party, move to lahore and karachi, instead of trying to enforce enlightened moderation on waziristan......

exactly like uae.....you can party all night long in dubai, but cannot drink (?) in neighboring sharjah........sharjah and dubai are as close as islamabad and pindi (and as small)........

the problem is that this federating should happen peacefully and not violently........