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Vous avez fait supérieur travail The first time I heard about Jehanzeb Khan was in 2006 in Paris. I had a businessman friend who worked with French companies, he took me to a dinner party. It was a gathering of Paris's Businessmen , which was being attended by the Chief Executives, Directors and General Managers of big French companies. During the dinner, a French businessman revealed that he went to Karachi a few months ago on a tour, during which, his opinion about Pakistan and Pakistanis changed. I asked him "In what connection did you visit Pakistan?" He told me "I was taken to Pakistan by Jehanzeb Khan". After the Dinner I asked Makhdoom Abbas "Who is this Jehanzeb Khan?" Makhdoom looked at me and In turn asked me "Don't you know Jehanzeb Khan?" I nodded my head to show my ignorance. Makhdoom then told me "Jehanzeb Khan is the Commercial councilor In Pakistan Embassy in Paris and is extremely reknowned in French Buisness a...

Tuesday, June 30, 2009 By Ansar Abbasi   ISLAMABAD: The appointment of a grade 20 district management group (DMG) officer as Pakistan's ambassador to France has sparked inter-service rivalry between the two top groups of the civil bureaucracy with the Foreign Service of Pakistan (FSP) determined not to swallow this appointment while the DMG has started questioning the performance of the FSP, terming it "white elephant". In a rejoinder to a series of articles that have appeared in the print media criticising the appointment of Jehanzeb Khan as ambassador to France, a group of young DMG officers lamented that the FSP officers have launched a vicious media campaign against a competent DMG officer. E-mailed to The News by a DMG officer, the rejoinder bemoaned that the media too has gone one-sided without crosschecking the facts about the officer, who is in the middle of the storm. The officer, who has requested anonymity, wondered what the foreign service baboos have done for...

Monday, June 29, 2009 By Mariana Baabar   ISLAMABAD: Institutional rumblings against the appointment of a junior Grade 20 DMG officer Jehanzeb Khan as Pakistan's ambassador to France threatens to snowball into a full blown controversy and blow up in the government's face, unless remedial measures are taken by the prime minister's office, sources in the Foreign Office (FO) claimed. The appointment of a junior official in one of the most important capitals was deemed bad enough by FO top honchos but the issue assumed altogether new and unacceptable proportions, as per FO sources, with Jehanzeb's appointment being made in place of the distinguished career officer Jalil Jillani, who is now reportedly being accommodated as Ambassador to Brussels. Tongues are already wagging about the 'real undeclared reasons' for this appointment and why the government, despite the open opposition by FO top hierarchy, is insistent upon the imposition of a Grade 20 officer presently ...

Pakistan ambassador to France, Mr Jehanzeb Khan, is under the spot light of media for being the first ever DMG officer to be made Ambassador of Pakistan to France. The Foreign Office group is opposing this appointment since they consider it a DMG takeover of Foreign Services department. While the DMG side thinks that they are the perfect lot who are more competent then their colleagues in Foreign Services and hence the best officers should be assigned to the role instead of the people serving in the Foreign Services. For the convenience of our readers, i will highlight that DMG and Foreign Services are two different fields chosen by the candidates while applying for CSS exam. DMG is involved with the management of districts while the Foreign Services personnel are involved with managing our foreign relations and hence both are two totally different fields and have nothing in common. Today two different stories emergedin The News, one by the DMG officer which was published by Ansar A...

Monday, June 29, 2009 By Qudssia Akhlaque, The News Daily ISLAMABAD: A large number of officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have petitioned that the prime minister revisits government decision allowing a serving District Management Group (DMG) officer to gatecrash into the elite Foreign Service and grab the prized ambassadorial post in Paris. Serving career Foreign Service officers have taken a tough stand against the unprecedented move by the PPP-led government to appoint a Grade-20 DMG officer, Mohammad Jehanzeb Khan, currently serving as Secretary Livestock & Dairy Development, Punjab, as ambassador to France. Several senior officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs signed a petition seeking review of the decision by the prime minister and handed it to the offices of the Foreign Minister and the Foreign Secretary for submission to the Prime Minister's Secretariat. Indications are that if the prime minister does not intervene to stop the controversial posting of t...

NIZHNY PANJ, Tajikistan — In August 2007, the presidents of Afghanistan and Tajikistan walked side by side with the U.S. commerce secretary across a new $37 million concrete bridge that the Army Corps of Engineers designed to link two of Central Asia's poorest countries. Dressed in a gray suit with an American flag pin in his lapel, then-Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said the modest two-lane span that U.S. taxpayers paid for would be "a critical transit route for trade and commerce" between Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Today, the bridge across the muddy waters of the Panj River is carrying much more than vegetables and timber: It's paved the way for drug traffickers to transport larger loads of Afghan heroin and opium to Central Asia and beyond to Russia and Western Europe. Standing near his truck in a dusty patch on the Afghan side of the river, Yar Mohammed said it was easy to drive drugs past the Afghan and Tajik border guards. "It's an issue of money...

Danish Scientist on TV: Nano-thermite Behind Collapse of WTC Buildings on 9/11, Not Planes Clare Swinney Uncensored Magazine April 13, 2009 On the morning of April the 6th, Professor Niels Harrit of Copenhagen University in Denmark, who is an expert in nano-chemistry , was interviewed for an entire 10 minutes during a news program on the topic of the nano-thermite found in the dust from the World Trade Centre, (WTC). During this news report, Harrit, who is one of the nine scientists primarily responsible for the pivotal paper entitled: 'Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe' , talks about how their research, which was conducted over 18 months, led to the conclusion that planes did not cause the collapse of the three buildings at the WTC on 9/11. He says that they found such large quantities of nano-thermite in the dust from the WTC, that he believes that this compound, which has the ability to melt metal, must have been...

  By Eduan Maggo, Copy editor Published: June 27, 2009, 22:43 In four decades, Michael Jackson changed the face of popular culture forever, lending his eccentricity to his art. "And now everyone's a fan." This status update on Facebook captures the feeling of many Michael Jackson fans. Let's face it, the man the world has come to know as the King of Pop hadn't been so popular in the autumn of his years. The question we must now ask is, will he be remembered for his famous eccentricities, the life that, on the whole, was miserable - or for the undeniable impact he has had on almost every realm of popular culture? Born Michael Joseph Jackson on August 29, 1958 the Gloved One was an entertainer for almost his whole life. The man now understood to be a troubled genius had his skill and talent honed by a father who relentlessly pushed his offspring to excel. A musical prodigy, Jackson became an instant star at age 11. Then a fresh-faced pre-teen, Jackson quickly emerge...

Dubai: Strapping on a mask, flippers and peering into a giant tank where more than 40 sharks are minding their own business - you might take a second to wonder before jumping in to join them - will they eat me? Dubai Aquarium and Underwater Zoo has just launched its shark dive in the world's biggest suspended tank, at Dubai Mall. "Suspended" because there is another floor below it so 10 million litres of water are held up by columns that distribute the load into the building's foundations. But the answer is no, the sharks -sand tigers, grey reef, tawny nurse, leopard, blacktip or zebra sharks - will not eat you because they get fed everyday at 4pm. Their predatory instincts have been conditioned out of them through regular feeds and training. "People would not believe that you can train sharks," said Paul Hamilton, head curator of Dubai Aquarium, "but you can train them to feed on a particular type of food at a particular time of day." It took abou...

By Ashfaq Ahmed, Chief Reporter Published: June 14, 2009, 00:04 Dubai: The Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has finalised plans to integrate water transport with the Dubai Metro and public buses, a senior official has said. "We will link water transport including water buses, ferries and traditional abras at four locations providing a smooth link for commuters to switch from one mode of transport to another suiting their journey plan," said Dr Khalid Al Zahed, Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the RTA's Marine Agency. The Marine Agency is responsible for developing water transport strategies in line with Dubai's plans to encourage more people to use public transport. He told Gulf News in an exclusive interview that at least four metro stations on both sides of the Dubai Creek would be linked with water transport through air-conditioned walkways. Al Gubaiba marine transport station will be the major one to be linked withAl Gubaiba metro station and pub...

The European Union has rejected Irans accusations that the Western media helped engineer post-election unrest as protests in Tehran continue.

Roznama Express June 24, 2009 Pakistan's mass-circulation Urdu-language newspaper Roznama Jang quotes senior Pakistani military officials as saying that Israel and India are fomenting trouble in Pakistan's Baluchistan and Waziristan region. According to the report, senior military and national security officials have submitted to the Pakistani government "irrefutable evidence" of the involvement of Indian and Israeli secret agencies in Baluchistan and the tribal region of Waziristan and Malakand. The Urdu daily did not disclose the names of the Pakistani officials, but added that there is irrefutable evidence that Indian and Israeli agencies are providing financial aid and modern weapons to the militants in the tribal region. According to Roznama Jang, the military leadership has urged the civilian government to take up the issue at diplomatic levels with the nations whose secret agencies are supporting Taliban commanders Baitullah Mehsud and Maulana Fazlullah. The ag...

By Gideon Levy I remember the image from my childhood: the amputee salesman knocking on our doors in the evening and offering his forlorn-looking wares - floor rags and razor blades from a wooden suitcase. He would arouse a mixture of terror and compassion in us, but no one wanted his merchandise. I was reminded of him last week when I saw pictures of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knocking on the doors of the leaders of Italy and France, among the last friends of Israel. From capital to capital, our Benjamin Netanyahu went around suggesting that the open balconies in the settlements be enclosed. Everywhere he went, he heard the same thing. The doors were slammed in the face of the salesman, and Netanyahu for his part persevered, suggesting an arrangement maybe like the Italian hill town of San Gimignano, with its houses built upwards, trying in vain to continue juggling. Even Silvio Berlusconi, whose pro-Israel positions are sometimes ridiculous and embarrassing, slammed the d...

By Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz Newspaper, Israel A second IDF soldier has refused to continue following orders unless his complaints of violence toward Palestinians are investigated, Haaretz has learned. As with another infantry man from the same brigade - who was sentenced to 30 days in military prison last week after refusing to participate in his unit's operations in the territories - the second soldier, who can only be identified as A., came to his decision following a raid by the brigade's Haruv battalion in the village of Kifl Hares in the West Bank on March 26. A. told his friends that soldiers from the platoon acted with unusual violence toward the residents of the village. "We were sent to look for firearms, but didn't find any weapons," the soldier said. "So we confiscated kitchen knives. But what I was most shocked about was the looting. One soldier took 20 shekels. Soldiers went into homes and looked for stuff to steal." A. also told of an assaul...