At least three people were killed including two policemen and several others injured when a suicide bomber rammed his explosive laden vehicle into the Karak Police Station near Peshawar on Saturday. The building completely collapsed following the explosion.

According to eyewitnesses, the suicide bomber wanted to take his explosive laden pickup van into the Police Station and when the Policeman on the gate tried to stop him he rammed his vehicle into the gate causing a loud explosion. This blast also damaged a mosque next to the police station.

District Police Officer (DPO) Sajid Mohmand said, “two policemen and one civilian are killed.At least 23 people are wounded, 14 of them are Policemen. The blast also damaged a nearby mosque in the city.”

The injured were taken into the nearby hospitals where most of them are stated to be in stable condition.

There were two suicide bombers. One blew him up at the gate of police station, killing a policeman there. And, “another suicide bomber brought his vehicle with explosives into the building and blew him up, killing a child and a coach driver,” DPO said confirming, “the attacker detonated his pick up van at the gate of the main police station in Karak town.”

Relief operation was immediately initiated by the rescue workers. Bomb disposal squad and other law enforcing agencies have started their investigations.

The injured were shifted to District Headquarters Hospital Karak , some of them are listed in critical condition. Hospital sources have confirmed the death of three victims, while the number of casualties is feared to rise. Local hospital doctor Nazrul Islam said, “We have received three bodies and 26 wounded.”

Karak is a district in the North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan. It is situated to the south of Kohat District and on the north side of Bannu and Lakki Marwat districts on the main Indus Highway between Peshawar and Karachi. It is 123 km from the provincial capital Peshawar.

While it lies between violence hit areas of Lakki Marwat and Kohat, this was the first suicide attack in the area. The local people said the incident is first of its kind in Karak history.

District Karak has been known for its literacy rate. It has the highest literacy rate after Islamabad and Wah. Since both Islamabad and Wah are mainly composed of temporarily migrated people, therefore Karak is ranked as the highest educated district.

There have been no claim for the responsibility of this attack. But the militants to avenge the military operations in the tribal areas have targeted several times the police force, security forces and government offices.

A week later two police stations were targeted in the northwestern district of Mansehra, killing an area police chief and wounding several officers.

A Dubai based trading firm sold sugar to Pakistan at 18 percent lower than global benchmark but could not supply the entire quantity demanded in the recently issued tender, reports indicate Friday.

Through the government managed Trading Corporation of Pakistan, Islamabad had issued a tender to purchase 200,000 tons of sugar.

But the country purchased 50,000 metric tons of refined sugar at $585 a ton from Sadan General Trading LLC, a Dubai based firm , reports Bloomberg.

The price is 18 percent below the current rate in London, a global benchmark for refined sugar. Sadan was unable to supply more at the contracted prices.

The Trading Corporation of Pakistan on Feb. 11 scrapped a tender to buy 150,000 tons of white sugar after a dispute with the lowest bidder.

Pakistan requires a total 1.2 million tons to bridge a gap in supplies that has pushed prices to near a record. It plans to import 500,000 tons by June and another 700,000 tons by July.

With a spree of success in arresting three high value Taliban leaders, Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence, ISI, seems to be winning hearts and minds of American media and analysts.

“Pakistan’s military leadership has turned around and now we can see the sincerity in their action,” said a terrorism expert on MSNBC this morning.

Scot Joel, another terrorism expert on ABC Thursday morning claimed, “ISI has changed their attitude towards Quetta Shura and it is indeed a very welcome move.”

New York Times Thursday quoted a NATO commander in Afghanistan saying: “I believe that General Kayani and his leaders have come to the conclusion that they want us to succeed.”

Over all mood of American media seems to turning positive towards Pakistan with many commentators appreciating and acknowledging the leadership of Pakistani military and intelligence agencies, led by General Ashfaq Kayani and Lt. General Ahmed Shuja Pasha.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday told BBC that the Pakistani leadership “recognises that standing firm against the threat is important to the country’s future”.

In an interview to BBC in Saudi Arabia she said: “I would underscore, that the cooperation is increasing, and it is very valuable.” She further added: “I can express our appreciation for the increasing cooperation between the United States and Pakistan.”

Examiner reported Thursday that information provided by the recently captured Taliban second in command, Abdul Ghani Barader had led to the arrest of two additional senior Taliban leaders inside Pakistan.

Mullah Abdul Salam and Mullah Mohammed both self-proclaimed governors of two key provinces in Afghanistan were arrested by Pakistan Inter Services Intelligence, Pakistani officials have confirmed.

“These were two separate raids conducted chiefly by the ISI,” said an Intelligence source in Pakistan’s capital. He insisted that Americans may have had only ancillary role in the latest bout of success against the Taliban. “We are getting good- actionable intelligence from him,” he said referring to Barader.

Mullah Abdul Salam ran the Taliban’s shadow government in the province of Kunduz and Mullah Mohammed ran their operation inthe Afghan province of Baghlan.

Kunduz and Baghlan provinces had fallen to the Taliban but Obama administration’s re-engagement in Afghanistan seems to be yielding result. Both of these leaders had sneaked into Pakistan recently, reports suggest.

ISI, our sources claim, is on a major mission to capture the Taliban leaders that have snuck in since 2001. “Arrest of Baradar and these two governors are clear indication that ISI has turned on the heat,” said a security analyst.

Quoting American officials, New York Times reported Thursday that the Taliban’s second in command Baradar was providing a wealth of information on the Taliban’s operations. “For the past several days, he has been interrogated by both Pakistani and American officials,” report said.

Foreign direct investments in Pakistan declined by 54.6%, past seven months of the fiscal year with investments falling to only $1.18 billion, State Bank of Pakistan confirmed today.

According to State Bank Of Pakistan the FDI flow into the state during July to November period of this fiscal year fell by 54% but when combined with portfolio investment reported a decline was 25.6%.

State Bank in an email stated, “investments have fallen to $1.18 billion from $2.59 billion a year earlier. Global funds bought $290.7 million more Pakistani stocks than they sold in the seven months, compared with net sales of $355.8 million a year ago.”

In Geneva on 19 January 2009 , Global foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows were estimated to fall by 21% in 2008 to an estimated $1.4 trillion, and were estimated to further decline in 2009.

Political instability, terrorist attacks, power, gas and water shortage and weak law order control has led to falling trend in FDI. These are the major reasons due to which the foreign investors are not interested in investing their capital in Pakistan.

Pakistani firms are unable to sign agreement with foreign investors due to the prevailing abysmal law and order situation.

According to economists, “although the global economic meltdown was also a reason of slow growth in FDI, the domestic shocks were major contributors in the declining trend of FDI. November was the third consecutive month in which the country posted decline in foreign direct investment. We were expecting some increase in the FDI during the current fiscal year ahead of positive economic indicators. The ongoing war in the northern areas and suicide attacks in different cities had restricted the foreign buyers from new investment in Pakistan.”

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on has said, “FDI had posted a decline of 52.2 percent during July-November period of current fiscal year. Although, some increase was registered in portfolio investment in the first five months of current fiscal year, FDI still remained on decline.”

FDI reduced to $774 million during July-November of current fiscal year in last fiscal year it was $1.62 billion, depicting a decrease of 846.7 million dollars. Portfolio investment have reached to $311.3 million in July-November of fiscal year 2010. In 2009 it was 162.9 million dollars. The government expects gross domestic product will grow 3.3 percent this fiscal year.

Current global economic recession, and falling profits have caused many companies to cut capital expenditures and reduce FDI. This economic crisis has affected every region with varying geographical impacts. This crisis originated in developed countries and their major effects on the developing world have been indirect up till now which has affected FDI flow.

The share of foreign direct investment, flowing into Pakistan, is negligible when compared to the opportunities and economic fundamentals of the country. The FDI inflow into the country is less than one per cent of its total, made globally. Since 1996, when received highest amount, FDI in Pakistan has been experiencing a declining trend.

According to UNCTAD, “all experienced sharp foreign direct investment declines, except for the Netherlands and China. The overall environment for international investment is slowly improving. As a consequence, it expects global FDI flows will rebound modestly in 2010. The economists say improving conditions will ultimately encourage companies to invest more in foreign countries this year, prompting a stronger recovery in 2011.”

To emerge as a promising nation Pakistan has to provide conductive environment for external economic flows.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Pakistan is a major external source to meet obligations of resource gap, human resource development and goal achievement. The FDI has played a vital role in the economic growth of Pakistan.

Cotton prices continued to climb Thursday in Pakistan breaking all previous records for better quality crop. On previous day spot rate at the Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) increased by Rs 75 to Rs 4,700, breaking all previous records.

More than 17000 bales of cotton sold within the range of 4600-5500. One contract from Khanpur was executed at Rs 4950 which was the highest in the current season.

Phutti prices in both the Punjab and Sindh were same at Rs 2050-2350, they added. Some cotton analysts said that the mills, which were trying to purchase fine quality, offering high prices to save themselves from future losses.

The basic reason behind the surge in prices is short supply of cotton despite having good crop of cotton during the current season, they said. They said that the country imported one million bales of cotton from neighbouring India, and still it needs to import more than two million bales of cotton to make up the balance, they said.

The emerging circumstances are in favour of ginners, because they are in commanding position, sometime ago, the mills were sidelined as they were anticipating that the ginners will oblige them by lowering prices, instead, they (mills and spinners) were trying to get better quality after paying high rate. On Tuesday the NY cotton futures finished near a four-week high on all-around buying sparked by a bullish government supply/demand report, and some follow-through interest should lift prices this week, brokers said.

The key March cotton contract rose by 3.00-cent limit to end at 72.16 cents per lb, with the session low at 69 cents. It was the highest finish for cotton on the spot daily charts since the middle of January, when it traded near 73 cents. Volume in the March contract hit 21,875 lots at 2:54 pm EST (1954 GMT).

A three-judge bench, comprising Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed and Justice Sair Ali yesterday rejected the government’s report on missing persons case and ordered them to re-submit an updated copy.

Justice Jawed Iqbal termed the government’s report as a mere ‘paperwork’. Justice Sair Ali has said ,
“the reports showed the level of interest the government was taking in the case and its proceedings. “

Attorney General Anwar Mansoor, recommended the court to constitute a commission for the recovery of missing persons but Justice Javed Iqbal asked the Attorney-General to present an example of a positive outcome from any government commission. He expressed his dissatisfaction over the proposal, saying “since 1947, 31 commissions have been set up so far, but not even a single one can be termed satisfactory except the Hamoodur Rahman Commission Report of 1972.”

AG Anwar Mansoor said that he would consult the Prime Minister in this regard.

Justice Javed Iqbal warned that the court should not be regarded as a weak institution, and said that the court can order action against the culprits with a strike of pen only.

On 6th February,2010, Interior Minister Rehman Malik asked officials of law enforcement agencies and provincial governments to expedite investigations into the cases of missing persons after registering FIRs. He asked them to make serious efforts to trace the whereabouts of all missing persons.

Later this month Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani had directed the Interior Minister Rehman Malik to take concrete and immediate steps for the early recovery of missing persons from the province of Baluchistan.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has also directed the interior minister to ensure early recovery of the missing persons.

Over 400 cases have been reported since 2002 by The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan; and hundreds more are estimated to be missing .

This three-judge bench, comprising Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed and Justice Sair Ali, has been hearing the cases of missing persons for four years on petitions filed by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Defence of Human Rights and former PPP senator Farhatullah Babar.