Ausaf, editorial, June 5, 2011
Pakistan presented its federal budget this week. Many Urdu dailies have written editorials on the issue. The Ausaf Urdu daily commenting on the budget writes “we were hopeful that government expenditure would be brought down in the budget. But some 50 billion rupees have been allocated to the Interior Ministry. Members of Parliament will also receive 33 billion for development projects and the Prime Minister’s Secretariat has also been earmarked some seven billion rupees for its expenses.” The Daily has criticized the government for neglecting education in the budget. The Daily writes “the Education Ministry has been allocated rupees 39 billion while at least 150 billion was needed for the promotion of better education in Pakistan.” In this context the Daily opines that the “anti-education approach adopted by the government suggests that an educated Pakistan is not in the interests of politicians and the military leadership and that is why education is not the priority number one for the government.”
http://www.dailyausaf.com/news/id/57099/
The Jang, Editorial, June 05, 2011
The Jang Urdu daily in its analysis of the budget opines that “the measures announced in the federal budget suggest that it has been planned to receive the next installments of loans from the IMF. The budget has also tried to satisfy all the political parties. But nobody has cared for the masses.” The Daily adds “we are sorry to express that our leadership has no vision for Pakistan’s future.” The Daily writes that load-shedding has crippled employment opportunities and now subsidies on electricity have also been slashed which will impose a greater burden on consumers. “But the rulers have no concrete plans to solve the electricity crisis and have been offering them only lofty promises”, writes the Daily.
http://www.jang.com.pk/jang/jun2011-daily/06-06-2011/idaria.htm
Jang, opinion Column, June 3, 2011
A section of Pakistani columnists have decried the brutal killing of Saleem Shahzad, Pakistani journalist associated with Asia Times Online. Irfan Siddiqi, a columnist in Jang Urdu daily, writes that Shahzad was killed to stop him from publishing his findings on terrorist attacks on Karachi’s Mehran Naval base. Irfan writes that in the first part of his investigative report published in Asia Times Online - he had revealed that the attack on the Mehran base was carried out by Ilyas Kashmiri’s 313 brigades, which is a sub group of Al-Qaeda, and that an Al-Qaeda cell was operational at Karachi’s naval bases. The columnist writes that Shahzad had told his friends that the next part of the report would contain some stunning disclosures. “Perhaps this became the reason of his elimination,” he writes. “Now this story will remain unfinished. The complete truth will not come to the public. Truth not becoming public was the guarantee for some of the peoples’ continuance in their offices. He was tearing down the curtain to reveal the facts but he was silenced before he could do so. Now the second part of his story will not come to the fore and the story will remain unfinished. This is a city of half stories. Nobody is allowed to write the truth since it unmasks the faces and exposes people in high positions”, writes Irfan to castigate the killers of his slain friend.
http://jang.com.pk/jang/jun2011-daily/03-06-2011/col1.htm
Jang, opinion Column, June 4, 2011
Senior Pakistani journalist Nazeer Naji has termed Shahzad’s killing as a “great loss”. In his opinion column he writes “I do not know who gave martyrdom to Shazad? But I can say that whoever committed this barbarian act has deprived a valuable source from our military.” Naji further writes that “the death of Salim Shahzad is an irreparable loss not only to Pakistani journalism but also to the nation.”
http://jang.com.pk/jang/jun2011-daily/04-06-2011/col1.htm