Musharraf’s ADC now Military Secretary of Zardari

ISLAMABAD: The ADC of former president Pervez Musarraf has been made the Military Secretary (MS) of President Asif Ali Zardari.

Lieutenant Colonel Adnan was promoted to the rank of Brigadier and has been appointed as the MS. He will resume his new office from August.

Sources said that the current MS Major General Mian Hilal has been transferred.

He was promoted to the rank of Major General and has been appointed as General Officer Commanding Bahawalpur.—DawnNews

Four Sindh-based students back home from Kyrgyzstan

KARACHI/HYDERABAD/SUKKUR: Four students in Sindh have reached home safely after witnessing the violence in Kyrgyzstan.

Two sisters, Amna and Lubna, arrived in their hometown in Padidan, District Naushero Feroz, on Wednesday. They were greeted by family, friends and neighbours at the railway station and a string of visitors kept coming throughout the day.

“The situation in Osh was really bad,” Lubna told The Express Tribune, as she expressed her gratitude to the government for rescuing them. “We would like to request the government to save our future and allow us to complete our final year of medicine from a university in Pakistan,” she appealed.

Cyclone Phet moves past Karachi, hits Thatta

KARACHI: According to Met Department the Cyclone Phet has moved past Karachi without hitting the coast and now passing along the coastal line of Thatta.

More rains are also expected in Karachi, Met Office said.

Moreover cycle control center said that Coastal belt will experience heavy rainfall within 24 hours.

Earlier Director General of Meteorological Department Qamaruz Zaman Chaudhry said Cyclone Phet had hit south of Karachi on Sunday evening. The intensity of the cyclone was category one and the costal areas of Thatta and Karachi were the center of the cyclone.

Zaman said the cyclone would cause 3 to 5-meter high waves in Thatta’s coastal areas, while 2 to 4-meter high waves were expected in Karachi’s coastal areas. According to Met Department, more downpours were expected during the next 36 to 48 hours.

The Zardari we do not get to know

KARACHI: Considered as one of the most powerful personalities of the country, President Asif Ali Zardari in his private life presents a picture very different from what is portrayed by both the national and international media.

On his recent visit to Karachi, The Express Tribune pieced together the way Mr President lives – what his likes and dislikes are, who he meets, and what he does when he wants to relax.

A humble personality by appearance but also seen as an arrogant party chief, Zardari is very much a family man. He makes it a point to make time for his family members, especially when he comes to Karachi. Every day, he calls his father, Hakim Ali Zardari, at different times to check on his health. The elder Zardari has been unwell of late and has been receiving treatment at a local hospital.

No Spinzone: Pakistan in the closet

No this can’t be! Our Foreign Office is not a khushamadi tattu (kowtowed), or is it? There is still a modicum of decency in that dwindling bastion of babudom that once made our foreign policy. It values its foreign secretaries past. Why then is the current captain of the ship, the foreign secretary, loathe to own a coffee table book on Pakistan edited by his predecessor? Is it because the book’s history ends with Pakistan’s birth in 1947 instead of stretching to the present to sing hosannas of the Bhuttos?

Is this the famous book (titled ‘Pakistan’) our leaders present to foreign dignitaries to showcase Pakistan? I ask my host Riaz Mohammad Khan, pointing to his book lying on a side table. “No” he says. I let the subject pass and move to matters more profound, err… like India. Sure, how goes with his Indian interlocutor, the affable S.K. Lambah on Kashmir? I ask. “Not too great!” he says blandly. After enabler Tariq Aziz left along with buddy Musharraf, the Foreign Office (read Asif Zardari) asked Riaz to keep the Indo-Pak dialogue going.

Food for political thought

Even though he was widely dubbed as Mr 10% for most of the 1990s, President Asif Ali Zardari is now reportedly, a man of simple tastes.

According to a report published in The Express Tribune on May 31, Zardari has “a set choice of menu.”

“‘Asif Saheb takes toasted brown bread, a choice of egg with a glass of milk or a fresh juice for breakfast,’ according to an attendant. ‘For meals, he likes simple daal and rice with mixed vegetables.’ In case he has guests over, then special arrangements are made for meat items like chicken roast or fried fish.

Another staff member at Bilawal House said that depending upon his mood, Zardari has a taste for mushroom pizza which is usually ordered from the Marriott Hotel.

Riaz Lalji returns home

KARACHI: Business tycoon Riaz Lalji has returned home on Monday after remaining missing for nearly 24 hours in Karachi with his driver and gunman.

Karachi CCPO Waseem Ahmed said that they are making all efforts to hunt down the kidnappers.

Talking on Riaz Lalji’s return, Interior Minister Rehman Malik lauded the police in their efforts for his successful recovery.

Present government in no danger, says Zardari

NEW YORK: President Asif Ali Zardari has voiced full confidence in the stability of Pakistan’s present democratic set-up, saying neither the government nor the parliament was in any danger.“The 18th Amendment to the Constitution is a reflection of the great maturity, I feel, democratic forces in Pakistan have achieved,” he said when asked during an interview with Newsweek whether the government was in danger of falling.

“I think all the political forces sitting today in the parliament have reinvented themselves,” the president observed during the interview published in the US weekly magazine’s latest issue.

Normality, Pakistani-style

Facebook banned; Sindh and the centre fighting over VAT implementation; scorching summer creating electricity and water shortages; cricket in turmoil, again — give it to me, I’ll take it all.

If the alternative is some kind of national crisis that can potentially derail the democratic project, I’ll take the mini crises.

And that’s all we look set for in the weeks ahead. El Presidente is in a relaxed mood, talking privately about completing his term, happy in the knowledge that his foreign benefactors continue to support him. The army doesn’t like him, but it’s still willing to tolerate him given the paucity of alternatives.

Kasab’s extradition: Zardari disappointed by India’s refusal

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari expressed disappointment over India’s failure to extradite Ajmal Kasab to Pakistan.

The president said, in an interview to a foreign magazine, that non-state elements like Kasab can become a cause for war among countries.

Zardari said that he was disappointed by Indian attitude on the issue of handing over Kasab.