Akhtar shoots at Sachin and Musharraf in new book

Pakistan’s most controversial cricketer Shoaib Akhtar invited a little more drama on the eve of his book launch, tearing into Indian greats Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid while also taking shots at former national captain Wasim Akram and even the country’s former president Pervez Musharraf.

n the book titled “Controversially Yours” Akhtar says, “I think players like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid weren’t exactly match winners to start with, nor did they know the art of finishing the game.”
He then zeroes in on Tendulkar saying, “I bowled (Sachin) a particularly fast ball which he, to my amazement didn’t even touch. He walked away! That was the first time I saw him walk away from me-that, too, on the slow track at Faisalabad.”
Excerpts of the book released to the media have managed to create much hype but it is surprising that the bits about Tendulkar and Dravid were made public considering the fact that the autobiography will be first published in India.
But Akhtar is not one to shy away from such a situation and said in an interview to Times of India, “What I’ve written is my experience, put as honestly for others to know. This is the truth – for the world, it may be a big controversy.”
Akhtar, who called time on his career following the 2011 World Cup, has also shockingly admitted that he tampered with the ball claiming, “everyone tampers with the ball. I did so too. Tampering should be legalised.”
He has also dug deep into the working of the Pakistan cricket- the administration, his early career, former and current players and the class discrimination in the setup.
Taking a dig at Shoaib Malik, Akhtar has stated in his book that the Pakistani all-rounder was PCB’s stooge.
“Shoaib Malik doesn’t deserve to be captain and was made captain because he was a stooge of the PCB Chief Naseem Ashraf,” states Akhtar.
Another shocking revelation is one where he claims Wasim Akram attempted to finish his career.
“Wasim Akram threatened to walk out with half the team if I was included in the team. General Tauqir Zia backed Shoaib against Wasim,” Akhtar says of fissures previously unheard of.
Javed Miandad, Pervez Musharraf, Shah Rukh Khan and Lalit Modi have also come into the crosshairs in the autobiography.
The book is tentatively scheduled to be out today in India

Pak America Relations

WASHINGTON: US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen on Wednesday told the Wall Street Journal that attacks against US soldiers in Afghanistan will not be tolerated, DawnNews reported.

He stated that the partnership approach between the US and Pakistan would be hard to revive now.
Mullen told the WSJ that the US will be very firm in its approach with Pakistan and its battle against terrorism. He said that he believed that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had supported the Haqqani network, which is the militant group the US blames for the Kabul attack. Mullen blamed the ISI for providing “logistic support” to the Haqqani network.
He said the US wanted a strong relationship with Pakistan, however, given the current situation, it will take time to restore those relations and trust.

Supreme Court’s official website hacked

ISLAMABAD: A hacker on Tuesday defaced the official website of Supreme Court.
The hacker inserted derogatory and abusive remarks against the apex court and Chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry after gaining access to the website (www.supremecourt.gov.pk).
The court has taken notice of the hacking and initiated probe into the incident.
Official of the apex court noticed that the website was compromised around 08:00am, but believed that the hacker may have gained access earlier at night.
According to Mumtaz Ali, the network administrator at the Court, programmers were trying to restore the website back to normal.
“Our webpages are hosted on the government-owned National Telecommunications Corporation (NTC) servers, and managed by their technical staff. Our programmers are working to resolve the issue,” said Ali.
According to the network administrator, the court’s website only contains general information pertaining to judges’ profiles, the court’s annual reports and cause lists.
The possibility of sensitive data being compromised did not exist, he added.
The hacker, who calls himself ‘The Notorious Zombie_Ksa’ and belongs to a group named Pakbugs, left a message on the site’s homepage, claiming to have left the data intact, and that no other damage was done to the site.
The hacker claimed that he had tempered with the web pages to get the attention of the chief justice.
Among other things, he had asked the chief justice to order Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to block access to all pornographic content on the internet.
The group also claimed to have hacked the FIA and PTA’s servers in the past.

Taliban insists it controls Haqqanis, not Pakistan

KABUL: The Taliban took the unusual step Tuesday of insisting that it, not Pakistan, controls the Haqqani network, with Islamabad under growing US pressure to cut alleged ties with the group.
The militia advised Pakistan to prioritise “Islamic and national” interests and stand firm in the face of “America’s two-faced and implacable politics”.
“Neither are our bases in Pakistan nor do we need residence outside of our country,” said the English-language statement in the name of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan —the Taliban’s name for itself —on its Voice of Jihad website.
“All the military and civilian activities in the country are our own initiatives and our own actions.
“The respected Maulawi Jalaluddin Haqqani (the group’s founder) is (one of the) Islamic Emirate’s honourable and dignified personalities and receives all guidance for operations from the leader of the Islamic Emirate.”
Most analysts consider the Haqqani network a powerful Taliban faction loyal to Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar, with strong ties to al Qaeda.
“Our advice to the people of Pakistan and its government is that it should deliberate on America’s two-faced and implacable politics,” said the Taliban.
“It should always give precedence to its Islamic and national interests and they should have a firm belief that America will never be happy with them until they loot all their material and moral assets.”

Imran Khan and Shah Mehmood Qureshi with Kashif Abbasi on September 26, off the record