Someday , someone will blame MQM for division of Sindh......if it happens. 

Lets recap the present situation.

PPP , with malafide intent, triggered the confrontation by postponing 
the AJK, elections on two Karachi seats, ,  from where MQM had won in 
the last elections ,  on the pretext  of insecurity. 
In protest Governor Ibad resigned and MQM left the coalition. 
To teach MQM a lesson Sindh Assembly passed a Bill reverting to 
Commissionerate system, as MQM had a hold in urban areas when Nazim 
system was in vogue. PPP wanted to control the Golden goose , Karachi, 
through a pliable Commissioner. The Bill was signed hurriedly as an 
act by the acting Governor Nisar Khuro. (The resignation of Ibad had 
not been accepted) 
Zulfiqar Mirza issued a poisonous statement, igniting an already 
combustible situation. 
Then he retreated . 
Karachi saw a flow of blood. 
Governor Ibad was asked to take back his resignation but the deed had 
already been done by Khuro as planned. 
Soon thereafter PPP  surrendered and held the by-elections on two AJK 
seats , from where the two MQM candidates retained their seats. Why 
they took  panga in the first place? 
Then came overtures from PPP to MQM to rejoin the coalition. MQM 
refused. 
Altaf Hussain gave an  inflammatory statement and then apologized, 
when reaction flared up in rural areas. 
On a demand by  MQM  that Nazim system has to be  restored , PPP 
compromised by agreeing to reestablish it    in Karachi and 
Hyderabad , two major cities where MQM has majority . An ordinance 
was again issued  to that effect. 
ANP and nationalist parties threatened protests and strikes for 
creating  this artificial divide  between Sindh urban and Sindh Rural, 
conveniently forgetting that they are enjoying  the benefits of Quota 
system between Sindh rural and Sindh urban. 
As a final turn about PPP somersaulted and today had another Ordinance 
signed  changing  back to Nazim system of 2001 for  the entire 
Province. 
If there can be a more glaring example of self serving interests than 
this , I would like to know of  it. 
PPP once tried to put ISI under Rehman Malik and was told to lay off. 
PPP desperately tried not to restore Judiciary but capitulated under 
lawyer’s long march. PPP broke written and verbal  agreement with NS. 
PPP accpeted Qatil League as a partner . PPP has only one aim. To stay 
in power at any cost and till  the ground in favor of  next generation 
of Bhuttos. Every other principle and points of good governance be 
damned. Only survival and pelf matters. 
So who would you blame for the present crises? Or if eventual division 
of Sindh takes place.? 
If you disagree with the chronological events please do correct me . 
Otherwise keep this post in safe custody. Ten years from now you may 
like to refer to it as prophetic. 
 

20 years of Junoon‏

Junoon may not be a part of Pakistan’s mainstream music after Ali Azmat calling it quits in 2005, but lead guitarist and founder Salman Ahmad believes it’s “time to put the ‘Junooni’ spirit back into your lives”.
As the latest reminder of the band’s contribution to the country’s music scene, Ahmad is set to celebrate Junoon’s 20^th anniversary.  “We are reaching Junoon’s 20^th anniversary, so I’m excited about more projects coming up regarding that,” Ahmad told The Express Tribune.The musician will be performing with the band’s former bassist Brian O Connell.
“Brian O’ Connell is performing on Junoon’s 20^th anniversary celebration concert at the Asia Society on September 24 in New York,” Ahmad broke the news on his Twitter page after announcing September 30 as the day when “Rumi taught Junoon how to play” two decades ago.
Ahmad is also planning to launch an album to mark two decades of Junoon. The album will be featuring Strings, Bilal Khan, Outlandish, Usman Riaz and Laal’s Taimur Rahman, “who are recording their favourite Junoon tunes”.
The musician has also invited his Twitter followers to suggest songs for the album. To make them join the celebration, the artist has promised to promote their Junoon-inspired videos uploaded on YouTube: “Share your personal Junoon stories, sing, play guitar, lip-sync to Junoon’s songs… you are the star on YouTube.  Shoot a three-minute video.”
Ahmad currently has multiple projects at hand, starting from flood relief activities for Pakistan to international music ventures. Additionally, Indian film-maker Mira Nair, has offered Ahmad to join her upcoming project based on Mohsin Hamid’s novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist.
“I met Mira in June in New York, where I was performing. She told me that she was about to start shooting in August and would be considering new music for The Reluctant Fundamentalist and asked if I was interested. I’m a huge admirer of her movies like Mississippi Masala, Monsoon Wedding and Salaam Bombay. So, saying yes was a no brainer,” says Ahmad.There is no news about Ali Azmat performing with the other band members, possibly because he and Ahmad have not been very ‘friendly’ ever since they kick-started their solo careers.  

Junoon (Urdu: جنون, literal English translation: "obsession/passion") is a sufi rock band from Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan, formed in 1990.^[1] The band is directed by founder, lead guitarist and songwriter, Salman Ahmad, who was soon joined by keyboardist Nusrat Hussain and vocalist Ali Azmat.^[2] Junoon is Pakistan's most successful band; the Q magazine regarded them as "One of the biggest bands in the world" and The New York Times called Junoon "the U2 of Pakistan".^[3] Since their inception, the group has released a collective total of seventeen albums: seven studio albums; one soundtrack; two live albums; four video albums; and three compilations. Junoon is also South Asia's most successful band of all time with more than 30 million albums sold worldwide.^[4]

Pioneers of sufi rock,^[5][6] with such an original sound they achieved success during the early 1990s. Its members were signed to major record label EMI Recordsand afterwards released their self-titled debut album Junoon in 1991.^[2] After two years, the band recorded their second album Talaash (1993) with their new bassistBrian O'Connell after Nusrat Hussain left the band. The release of their second album began to create a cult following for the band. In 1996, Junoon released their third album Inquilaab, and it was only then that Junoon developed a nationwide fan following, with blending rock guitars and bluesy vocals with eastern elements like the use of tablas, raga-inspired melodies, traditional Pakistani folk music, and Eastern inspired poetry.^[2] The following year, the band recorded the critically acclaimed Azadi (1997), being the band's first international record deal, and making it Junoon's debut album in India. The band went on to record and release Parvaazin 1999. The band found renewed success and popularity starting with 2001's Andaz and through 2003's Dewaar and their supporting tours.

After the release of their seventh studio album, vocalist Ali Azmat and lead guitarist Salman Ahmad went on to pursue a career as a solo singer, while bassist Brian O' Connell returned to his native United States.^[7] Although Junoon's two other members, Ali Azmat and Brain O'Connell, left the band in 2005, Salman Ahmad continues to perform as a solo artist under the "Junoon" label and has moved to New York. In 2010, Junoon released the soundtrack album Rock & Roll Jihad based on Salman Ahmad and Junoon's musical journey throughout the years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junoon_(band)

US is stripped of its AAA credit rating for the first time

American government debt is no longer one of the world's safest investments according to ratings agency Standard & Poor's, which last night stripped the world's biggest economy of its top credit rating for the first time.

 

 The move is a major political embarrassment coming less than a week after high-stakes wrangling among Republicans, Democrats and The White House pushed the US to the brink of default.

 

China attacks US debt 'addiction' after America loses AAA credit rating

 

China has rebuked the United States for its "addiction" debt and warned of further turmoil in financial markets after Standard & Poor's stripped the world's biggest economy of its AAA credit rating for the first time.

 

China, America's largest creditor, said it had every right to demand the nation address its structural debt problems and ensure the safety of the $1.2 trillion of US debt that it holds.

It warned that the rating cut would be followed by more "devastating credit rating cuts" and global financial turbulence if the US fails to learn to "live within its means".

"The US government has to come to terms with the painful fact that the good old days when it could just borrow its way out of messes of its own making are finally gone," China said in a commentary carried by the Xinhua News Agency.

As the West contemplates a new bout of financial meltdown, the second biggest economy on Earth might appear to be well placed to ride above the angst ripping through the markets – or even use its wealth to come to the rescue of the richer world.

 

On the surface, China seems to have many reasons to smile. In the first half of this year, it registered growth of 9.5 per cent, with exports 24 per cent higher than in the same period of 2010. It sits on a $3trillion mountain of foreign reserves, and has become the lender of last resort to the US administration. Foreign governments, meanwhile, have muted criticism of its human rights record: as Hillary Clinton has remarked, “How do you talk tough to your banker?”

The idea of a country in which hundreds of millions are relatively poor riding to the rescue of the West seems paradoxical. But China’s rise has fanned expectations that it is ready to become a “responsible stakeholder”, in the words of World Bank President Robert Zoellick, and play its full role in helping to steer the world economy to safety.

Certainly, China’s leaders, in their immaculate business suits, have made clear their disapproval of Western profligacy, shaking their luxuriant heads of glossy black hair at the failure of the Obama administration and European governments to put their houses in order. And they have been only too willing to highlight the way in which the People’s Republic restored strong growth after the economy suffered a short-term dip at the end of 2008.

Yet the depressing truth is that China finds itself in a series of binds which limit its ability – or its willingness – to play the global role that should go with its economic weight. To some extent, this is due to the nature of the world around it. For instance, Beijing would like to reduce its dollar holdings, given the greenback’s dismal performance. But the Chinese are far from impressed by the financial management of the eurozone – and there is no other currency market which can absorb the sums involved.

Ramazan moon sighted,
first fast on August 2

The Central Ruet-i-Hilal Committee announced on Monday that the moon of the holy month of Ramazan-ul-Mubarak has been sighted in the country.

The announcement was made by Chairman of the Central Ruet-i-Hilal Committee, Mufti Munib ur Rehman, after chairing the meeting of the committee held at Meteorological (Met) Office here on Monday. He announced that Ramazan-ul-Mubarak 1, 1432 Hijri, will fall on August 2, 2011.

He said “we believe in an amicable settlement of all matters through process of dialogue”.

During the announcement, he also criticised the unilateral decsion of Masjid Qasim Ali Khan adding that the clerics of Masjid Qasim Ali Khan should have co-operated and consulted with the central Ruet-e-Hilal committee.

Earlier the Central Ruet-i-Hilal Committee had met for sighting of the Ramazan-ul Mubarak moon on Monday in Karachi at the Met Office building.

CIA Chief in Pakistan Exits;
Led OBL Hunt Team

The CIA station chief who oversaw the intelligence team that found Osama bin Laden has left Pakistan for medical reasons and is not returning, the second time the agency's most senior officer in Pakistan has left in the last seven months, according to U.S. and Pakistani officials.

The Islamabad station chief -- one of the agency's most-important positions in the world -- arrived only late last year after his predecessor was essentially run out of town when a Pakistani official admitted his name had been leaked. The departure of two station chiefs in such a short amount of time threatens to upset a vital intelligence office. U.S. officials, however, insisted that the quick turnover would not harm U.S. intelligence efforts in Pakistan.

In fact, both US and Pakistani officials hope the station chief's exit will lead to improved relations between Pakistan's intelligence agency, known as the ISI, and the CIA.

That is because, according to three US and Pakistani officials, the departing chief of station had an "extremely tense" relationship with his ISI counterparts including Director General Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha. One US official said the CIA chief was due to depart in a few months as a result of his poor relations with the Pakistanis.

The CIA-ISI relationship has been strained to the breaking point since Pakistani intelligence officials discovered the CIA secretly recruited Pakistani agents to help find Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, a military town that is a 90-minute drive from Islamabad. The two intelligence agencies have been official allies since 9/11, but the ISI has punished the CIA for the unilateral raid. Since then, the Pakistani military has kicked out all but a handful of Special Operations Forces working near the border with Afghanistan; dozens of CIA officials left the country out of fear of retribution or exposure; and U.S. officials have been regularly stopped by police in northwest Pakistan asking for paperwork that allows them to travel, something they say was unnecessary last year.

In one case, U.S. officials were stopped at a toll booth, and a group of Pakistani journalists were waiting for them to arrive. In another case, CIA officials were stopped at a checkpoint in Peshawar and held long enough for the media to show up and take their pictures.

"Pakistan has been harassing U.S. personnel working in the country for months," complained a U.S. official.

Pakistan even threatened to impose more formal restrictions on the travel of all U.S. diplomats and require prior notification, but dropped the demand when the U.S. threatened similar restrictions for its diplomats inside the United States, according to one U.S. official.

The tension seems to stem from the ISI's belief the CIA is still running a clandestine network of American and Pakistani intelligence agents without sharing enough information about their identities or their assignments with the ISI.

The CIA has pledged to provide that information, but Pakistani intelligence officials don't seem to believe their assurances.

As one Pakistani intelligence official put it, "There is no trust."

The feeling is often mutual, which is why the CIA did not tell the ISI it had been tracking bin Laden in Abbottabad since last fall out of fear its cover would be blown. The recently departed station chief helped create that lack of trust by overseeing the intelligence gathering that led to Osama bin Laden's death, which included a network of undeclared Pakistani agents. Pakistani officials rounded up at least five Pakistanis accused of helping the CIA launch the Abbottabad raid, although only one remains in custody.

In Pakistan, the CIA station chief was reviled for his role in the raid, but in Washington, according to one official, he was widely praised. He "had the agency's full confidence," one U.S. official said.

 

The tension with the ISI began shortly after the recently departed station chief arrived. He helped try to release Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor who shot dead two men who Pakistani officials admit were working for the ISI. Davis told U.S. officials and Pakistani police that he shot the men believing he was being robbed by armed Pakistanis.

But the tension seems to also have been a product of a personality clash. A senior U.S. official who used to serve in Islamabad criticized the just departed station chief for not working hard enough to develop personal relationships with his Pakistani counterparts. Their relationship, the senior official said, was much worse than the relationship with the previous station chief as well the relationship cultivated by Vice Adm. Michael LeFever, who only recently departed as the top U.S. military officer in Pakistan.

U.S. officials declined to provide details about the station chief's illness.

The CIA declined to comment for this story.

Bad Marriage vs. Divorce

Recently, there have been some small signs of a thaw between the two agencies. The ISI granted 87 visas for CIA officers, bringing the CIA back to full strength in Pakistan, according to a Pakistani official. The official also said the U.S. and Pakistan agreed on a handful of "major" issues during a recent meeting between ISI Director Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha and acting CIA director Michael Morell, although the official would not provide details.

"The freefall has been arrested," said one Pakistani official close to the military.

But a U.S. official complained those visas were not good enough, since they were single entry and only valid for a few months. A separate, senior U.S. official said some of the visas were issued to officers who are no longer working in Pakistan.

The two agencies are far from recovering even the tense relationship they had late last year, when the previous station chief was outed, according to two Pakistani officials, in response to a court case filed in Brooklyn naming Pasha as a defendant.

But both sides say they are trying to work through the current tension.

"A bad marriage," a U.S. official said, "is better than a divorce."

Pak's latest Bombshell:
Hina Rabbani Khar

Pakistan’s latest mechanism to create unrest in India has finally made it to the country. The reigning Foreign Minister of Pakistan, Hina Rabbani Khar, is creating more news than her country’s foreign policy.

Being the youngest and first woman foreign minister of Pak, Hina has garnered more footage for her style rather than the political agenda that she’s here to discuss.

Dressed in a plain blue suit with her head covered by a dupatta, Hina landed on the Indian soil to initiate peace talks between the two nations. But, it seems that this time, people are more interested in talking about the minister’s fashion sense than the political agenda.

The Roberto Cavalli shades and Birkin bag by Hermès gave her a strong, formal look. The string of pearls around her neck and diamonds on her finger added to the glam quotient of the 34-year old, mother of three.

Her arrival has caused a flutter in the virtual world too. Indians seem to be smitten by her style and persona. Posted an Indian fan on one of Hina’s communities on Facebook, “OMG, Pak foreign minister "Hina Rabbani Khar" is tooooo sexy for politics.....i love her....(sic)”

Another Indian admirer remarked, “too sexy..india se wapas mat jane do,sania mirza k badale le lo ise.. :)) (sic)” (Too sexy. Don’t let her return from India, exchange her for Sania Mirza).

From one social networking site to another, people are simply going gaga about this young and charming minister.

Shereen Sikka tweeted on the micro-blogging site, “Hina Rabbani... VERY CHIC! makes me wanna watch the news more often;) (sic)”

Now that Indians are sending out messages to the minister, wonder what Hina has to say to the proposal.

Born into one of Pakistan’s most prominent and influential political families, Hina Rabbani Khar carved a niche of her own when she became the youngest and the first woman Foreign Minister of her country on 20 July, 2011.

The 34-year-old hospitality graduate faced her first big test just six days into office, when she travelled to India for bilateral peace talks between the neighbouring nations.

Even before the stunning Ms Khar set foot on Indian soil, local media and social networking sites went abuzz over “how Pakistan had put it’s best face forward”.

And once the mother of three landed at the New Delhi airport, her Roberto Cavalli shades (which covered half her face) and oversized Hermes black Birkin bag, not to mention the exclusive South Sea pearls around her neck and ears, won the approval of the fashionistas on this side of the border. While her 17-lakh Birkin bag was one of the top trending items on Twitter, Khar’s looks and attire fetched more newsprint than the peace talks itself.

Speaking of the real purpose she was here, Khar failed to create a stir. While she chided the Indian media for their “dated” rhetoric in the discussion on terrorism, which has soured relations between the two countries, she herself said nothing we hadn’t heard before. Worse still, she referred to the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks as “the Mumbai incident”.

Ms Khar, we’d like to remind you that over 160 lives were lost and several hundred were injured in the attacks. You might call it just “an incident” in Pakistan — in your words, the one country in the world that faces the challenge of terrorism “on a daily basis, on an hourly basis,” but don’t make that mistake here.

As if to make up for her irresponsible statements, Khar paid obeisance at the dargah of the famous Sufi saint Nizamuddin Auliya at New Delhi and prayed for peace between the two countries.

As Khar flies out of India, she might have won many admirers in the fashion circuit, but as a Foreign Minister she left much desired.

Background and Political Career

Khar was born on 19 January 1977 in Multan, Punjab, Pakistan. She is the daughter of politician Ghulam Noor Rabbani Khar and niece of Ghulam Mustafa Khar. She graduated with a B.Sc. (Hons) from Lahore University of Management Sciences in 1999 and received her M.Sc in Hospitality Management from the University of Massachusetts in 2001.

Married to a businessman named Imran Khan, the couple has two sons and one daughter. A polo enthusiast, Khar is the co-owner of the Polo Lounge, a popular upscale restaurant located on the Lahore Polo Grounds.

She served as the State Minister for Economic Affairs and Statistics in the cabinet of Yousaf Raza Gillani. On 13 June, 2009 she became the first woman to present a budget speech in the National Assembly.

She was appointed Minister of State for Foreign Affairs on 11 February 2011, as part of Prime Minister Gillani’s cabinet reshuffle. After Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s resignation as foreign minister, Khar was officially appointed foreign minister on 19 July by President Asif Ali Zardari and was sworn in on 20 July.

Hina Rabbani’s face may be new, but her lies are old

In her interactions with the Indian media on Wednesday, Pakistan’s foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar chided them for their “dated” rhetoric in the discussion on the problem of terrorism, which has soured relations between the two countries.

Khar’s point was that Pakistan is today the one country in the world that faces the challenge of terrorism “on a daily basis, on an hourly basis” but that the Indian media were not reflecting its predicament, but instead focusing excessively on Pakistan’s sponsorship of terrorism in Indian soil.

She then provocatively referred to the 26/11 attack on Mumbai — in which terrorists from her benighted country, brainwashed by ISI militarists, set sail for India and waged war — as “the Mumbai incident”, and suggested that the trial of its perpetrators in Pakistan was proceeding at a faster pace than the trial in India of the accused in the 2007 bombing of the Samjhauta Express.

Both of Khar’s statements project a flawed equivalence between Pakistan and India.

It is of course true that Pakistan today faces terrorism “on a daily basis, on an hourly basis”. But the difference, Ms Khar, is that these are the poisonous fruits of the jihadi tree that your country’s leaders have themselves planted.

It was your country’s military leaders and their ISI cohorts who spawned terrorist groups ( or “non-state actors”, as you call them) as part of your agenda to engage India in “proxy war” — first in Punjab, then in Kashmir, and then elsewhere in India. And you’re now reaping the grim harvest of that cynical power game.

So while we sympathise with the loss of innocent lives even in Pakistan, please forgive us if we don’t see the Pakistani state as quite the victim in the same way as we see ourselves when you send murderous gangs to wage war in our cities.

You’ve been heralded, in over-the-top media accounts in India, as the new face of Pakistani diplomacy.

You’ve taken the high moral ground by claiming that India-Pakistan relations mustn’t be held hostage to the vicissitudes of history.

But the words you speak reek of the same, tired dishonesty that we’ve heard down the ages.

From the dark night on which your country was born, it has nursed — as this son of one of Pakistan’s iconic politicians noted — a venomous obsession with India. India’s very existence as a secular democracy and as a home to millions of Muslims calls the bluff of the Two Nation theory, on which basis Pakistan was founded.

It was your covetous lusting of Kashmir that poisoned your countrymen’s mind and led them into three disastrous wars with India. And when that didn’t work, you bred jihadi serpents and set them loose in our garden.

If you really mean what you say and want to make a new start with India, there’s much that you and your country can do.

For a start, it would help if you called it the “Mumbai terrorist attack organised by Pakistani handlers” — not “the incident”.

Second, you can show earnestness of purpose by addressing the core problem of terrorism that is tearing your country’s soul apart — and inflicting grievous pain when it strikes in our cities. Up until now, all we’ve heard are wholesale denials of culpability, even when they’ve been laid bare for the world to see, and persistent coddling of terrorists.

And if you really want to open a new chapter in relations with India, stop lusting after Kashmir, and let your countrymen’s minds be healed of the jihadi fervour that currently overwhelms them.

Perhaps then we might begin to unburden the baggage of history that weighs our two countries down.

'What's the big fuss over Khar's fashion?'

She is rich, stylish, and travels the world - so what's the big deal about Pakistan's youngest and first female foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar's Birkin bag, Roberto Cavalli shades and Jimmy Choo heels that were on view during her visit here, ask Indian and Pakistani designers.

Her classic black Hermes' Birkin could cost anything above $10,000-$15,000, her Roberto Cavalli shades cost over $500 and the Jimmy Choo heels over $900.

Karachi-based designer Huma Adnan admits Khar, whose three-day trip to India concluded Thursday, is one of the most stylish politicians in her country, but finds it strange that there is so much discussion in India over her dressing.

"I know Hina for the past 15 years. She is a public figure with a very conservative and neat look. Her sense of using right accessories makes her different from other politicians. But the fact that she wears high-end brands should not be a topic of discussion. She belongs to a rich family, owns property in Punjab...so why not," Adnan asked while speaking to us over the phone.

When Khar landed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here Tuesday for talks with her Indian counterpart S.M. Krishna, her blue ensemble, teamed with a simple string of pearls, oversized handbag and shades grabbed many eyeballs.

A post-graduate in hospitality and tourism from the University of Massachusetts, Khar has her roots in a wealthy feudal family of southern Punjab and owns Lahore's posh Polo Lounge, a haunt of the rich and the powerful.

In past appearances across the border, she has been spotted sporting bags from luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Prada and Salvatore Ferragamo.

Designer Fahad Hussayn from Lahore said: "I believe a woman always picks up an accessory that is driven by her persona. And with how she carries herself, you can tell the style statement is not newly acquired."

Khar likes her subdued, yet stylish dressing - something she proved with the cream ensemble she wore during India-Pakistan talks here.

Aamna Isani, a senior fashion journalist from Karachi, feels proud that Indians are lauding Khar's dress sense.

"It's good to know that a Pakistani leader is emerging as a style icon. The last fashion icon we had was Benazir Bhutto, who represented a perfect mixture of style and grace," Isani told us.

"When it comes to designer brands, this is not the first time a Pakistani leader has come out with such an image. Pakistan leaders have always been very stylish and fashion-conscious - from Mohammad Ali Jinnah to Bhutto...so why fuss over Khar's style," she added.

Even Indian designer Anjalee Kapoor of label Anjalee and Arjun Kapoor, supported the young minister.

"No one has the right to comment on the materialistic things Hina Rabbani carried. It's her personal style. As far as she can afford it, everything should be fine. It hardly matters if Pakistan is a poverty-stricken state. She belongs to a well-off family...so it's okay," Kapoor told us.

Pam Mehta said that Khar looked extremely graceful in her kurta and pants, "and kept in tune with the traditional look and workmanship with fine embroidery and an extremely fresh colour palette. The accessorising was subdued and controlled with subtlety of white pearls and a classic Birkin in black and and sophisticated black shoes. Her look was not overstated, and it was overall a very sophisticated"

The Twitter world reacted strongly to the 34-year-old's upmarket dressing. Some, including actress Gul Panag, gave it a thumbs up, while others questioned the viability of flaunting expensive brands.

"I like the way Hina Rabbani looks. With her movie star sunglasses, head covered, Birkin in tow. May be she is brilliant too," Gul posted.

However, well-knonw media person Rajdeep Sardesai did not react positively to Khar's expensive style statement.

"Rumour has it that Hina Khar came to Delhi with a $10,000 handbag. And we thought pak was in an eco crisis! (sic)," he posted on Twitter.

Sardesai's wife Sagarika Ghose, herself a well-known journalist, said: "Hina Rabbani Khar is beautiful but obviously part of disconnected Pak elite. 10 thou $ Hermes bag when country devastated? not the right note."

Another Twitterati, Saumya Sharma, said: "Hina Rabbani Khar loves Birkins and pearls. Her country is devastated, suicide bombing is literally an industry, economy non-existent.. .and that's what she wants to talk about on a state visit?? NICE! Khar wearing Hermes and Jimmy Choo doesn't excite me. I'd much rather have a national leader like Indira Gandhi - always wore Indian handlooms."