Pakistani Talk Show Capital Talk 7 Sep 2010 with Hamid Mir: Discussion on MQM Chaif Altaf Hussain’s call for martial law type action to replace corrupt system. Guests: Abdul Rasheed Godil (MQM), Hassan Nisar (Analyst), Hanif Abbasi (PML-N), Nazar Muhammad Gondal (PPP)

Pakistani Talk Show Capital Talk 6 Sep 2010: Hamid Mir visits Karachi’s Qasba Colony, Kati Pahari and Sohrab Goth areas where there is growing perception that the Taliban and the extremist elements have made inroads. Is this perception true? Find out in this report..

Pakistani Talk Show Capital Talk with Hamid Mir: How and who abducted, tortured and humiliated The News’ investigative reporter Umar Cheema. Cheema gives details of the episode himself. Guests: Umar Cheema (The News), Ansar Abbasi (The News), Pervaiz Rasheed (PML-N), Qamar Zaman Kaira (PPP), Pervaiz Shaukat (Pres PFUJ)

Pakistani Talk Show Capital Talk with Hamid Mir: Quaid’s Vision of Unity, Faith and Discipline and as things stand today. Has the flood exposed the strengths and weaknesses of the political parties, leaders as well as of the nation? Guests: Nabeel Gabol (PPP), Haider Abbas Rizvi (MQM), Sahr Bano (PML-F), Nazeer Leghari (Columnist)..

In the program “Policy Matters” (Dunya TV, August 28)), Hamid Mir (of Jang and Geo) mentioned recovery of Gwadar as one of the achievements of civilian governments.

He made the same statement in another television program some time ago and also in one of his columns.

Either he did not know the whole truth or did not want to tell it. In the process, he must have misinformed lakhs of viewers and readers.

The fact is that the government of Prime Minister Feroz Khan Noon paid a huge sum (8,400,000 in 1958 dollars). Is getting back the country’s own territory by paying a huge amount “an achievement?”

The story of cash for territory was first published in The Civil and Military Gazette, the second biggest English daily of Lahore. The embarrassed government denied it vehemently. However, there was deafening silence when Time magazine published the same story a week later.

Noon himself admits having paid money. “Compensation had to be paid naturally, …(“From memory,” by Firoz Khan Noon, page 299″) He admits that he did not consider using force due to fear of Britain, whose protectorate was Oman. “If the Pakistan Army were to occupy this territory, would the British Government start bombing a Commonwealth country [Pakistan] of which Queen Elizabeth was symbolic head?” (same page). He also admits that negotiations, started in 1949, did not result in getting back the territory mainly due to British pressure. Ultimately, it was Britain that negotiated the deal. (Not Akbar Bugti, as claimed by Mir.) Rather than swallowing uncritically a half truth fed him by somebody, Hamid Mir should have gone for the full truth. If he cared about his credibility and reputation, that is.
–
Allah Hafiz!
Muhammad Abd al-Hameed
Author, “Ghurbat kaise mit sakti hai”

READ BELOW—->>>

GWADAR: The Sons of Sindbad

TIME, September 22, 1958

One of the last remaining foreign-flag enclaves on the continent of Asia was erased last week. In the first international cash-for-territory deal since the U.S. paid $25 million for Denmark’s Virgin Islands in 1917, the republic of Pakistan purchased the sun-blanched, 300-sq.-mi. peninsula of Gwadar (pop. 20,000) from the Sultan of Muscat and Oman. Price: $8,400,000 cash and a percentage of any oil ever found on Gwadar’s rainless shores.

Gwadar, which in the Baluchi language means Gateway of Winds, has been a haven for Arab seamen since the fabled Sindbad the Sailor cruised its coasts. The place passed into the hands of the Sultans of Muscat and Oman in the 18th century when Syed, heir to the Muscat sultanate, tried to seize the throne, failed, and fled across the Arabian Sea to escape his father’s wrath. Gwadar at that time belonged to the Khan of Kalat, who welcomed Syed in princely fashion and made him a handsome offer. “You can have the revenues of as much land as you can see,” declared the Khan. The wily Syed shinned up the tallest date palm in sight and laid claim to everything on the horizon. Syed later made peace with his father, whom he succeeded. But he continued to collect Gwadar’s revenues, and Gwadar passed into the possession of the sultanate.

Maidens & Dhows. Gwadar was then the haunt of pirates and pearl divers. Later, in the iQth century, its freebooters prospered by procuring black-eyed Persian maidens for sale in Arabia’s slave markets. The British, lords of India and protectors of Muscat, ended this racket. Since World War II smuggling has been Gwadar’s chief industry. As the new republics of Pakistan and India, trying to husband their precious foreign exchange, clapped stern restrictions on luxury imports, the enterprisers of Gwadar took to their dhows to keep Karachi’s shops well filled with the restricted items. When the Pakistanis tried to check the flow with a fleet of patrol boats, the smugglers installed powerful diesel engines in their dhows, sped to secret rendezvous with mysterious tramp steamers far offshore, then raced for the Gateway of Winds faster than Pakistan customs launches could follow. From Gwa-.dar the smuggled stuff poured into Pakistan’s markets by camel train, fishing boats and trailers pulled by souped-up Chevrolets along the sandy beaches.

Last Killing. Last week’s sale, accomplished under Britain’s good offices, came as no surprise to the freewheeling middlemen of Gwadar. In anticipation that Pakistan’s customs restrictions would soon surround them, the smugglers had changed their occupation to just plain importers, stuffed their mud-walled warehouses and piled the beachfronts with great dumps of cosmetics, transistor radios, automobile parts, nylons and U.S. cigarettes. The Pakistanis, too pleased at plugging the hole to begrudge Gwadar its last killing, ran up their green and white flag and announced that they hope to develop the place as a navy and air base, eventually to deepen its shallow port until it ranks after Karachi as the republic’s second seaport.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,863885,00.html#ixzz0xxoYCPMh

Pakistani Talk Show Capital Talk: Hamid Mir visits flood affected areas in Quetta, Sibi, Dera Murad Jamali in Balochistan and presents first-hand view on the plight of the affected people. Guest: Ali Ahmed Kurd

Pakistani Talk Show Capital Talk with Hamid Mir: discusses the absence of Early flood warning system and water management such as in River Thames and in Venice in Pakistan. Why dikes were broken and water diverted? Who controls water management in Pakistan? Guests: Mir Zafar Ullah Jamali (Ex-PM), Faisal Karim Kundi (DS-NA), Sardar Zulifqar Khosa (PML-N) Dr Farrukh Saleem (Analyst), Jamshed Dasti (PPP)

Pakistani Talk Show Capital Talk with Hamid Mir discusses aftermaths of the devastating floods that have affected 20 million people and how the crisis can be handled on people level. Guests: Justice (R) Fakhruddin G Ibrahim, Irfan Siddiqui (Columnist), Dr. Salman Asif (UN), Jawad Ahmad (Singer), Dr. Tahira Abdullah (Human Rights)

Pakistani Talk Show Capital Talk with Hamid Mir discuss Pakistan floods and flood relief efforts being made by people and civil society. Guests: Nazar Muhammad Gondal (PPP), Jamal Leghari (PML-Q), Ahsan Iqbal (PML-N), Ataullah Qasmi (Poet), Shahzad Roy (Singer & social worker)

Pakistani Talk Show Capital Talk: Hamid Mir visits flood affected areas of Jaffarabad, Jacocabad, Shikarpur, Sukkur in Sindh and presents first-hand the plight of the people..