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Pak Accountability Act can backfire

2012-05-21T08:28:28Z

The Pakistan Accountability Act, moved in the US Congress this week, is aimed straight for the gallery as it neither addresses the vacancy of America's credibility nor touches the core of Pakistan's anxiety which leads to the complex cauldron that is AfPak
The Pakistan Accountability Act, 2012 , which was introduced in the US Congress this week, is a momentous legislation which implicitly puts a price for every American killed in the AfPak region to be picked up by the government of Pakistan. The tag - $50 million - is linked to the continuous US aid flow to Pakistan, which would accrue to the family of the deceased.

The legislation comes in the backdrop of the frustration that the international community feels with the fractious behaviour of Pakistan, a country that thrives on American money while at the same time supports the very radical groups which cause the killings of Americans. The US, obviously, does not take too kindly to abject betrayal by one of its most tamed allies.

The terms of this recently passed legislation imply that if passed, it would lead to the freezing of all aid to Pakistan except for the funds that are meant to help in securing nuclear weapons and facilities.

The Department of Defence has been entrusted with preparing a list of all Americans that lost their lives as a result of terrorist activities which flourish unfettered within the political frontiers of Pakistan and Afghanistan with covert or overt support of the Pakistani government.

However, the legislation seems to be silent about the degree of certainty required to hold Pakistan to account for the loss of American lives. In other words, the legislation is silent on whether a proper enquiry mechanism shall be put into place to determine the degree of involvement of Pakistan in these terror attacks or whether mere allegation or suspicion would suffice to entitle the USA to curtail financial aid to Pakistan.

The US-Pakistan relationship has been fairly rocky historically. Despite the fact that Pakistan is the most crucial and strategically placed ally for the US in the region, their relationship has been fraught with distrust. This is a fact that can be empirically documented by the level of financial aid provided to Pakistan by the US over the past six decades as well as by the off-now-on-again nature of its flow.

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, the United States decided to woo Pakistan with renewed vigour. The aid flow was dramatically stepped up by the George W Bush administration with the hope that a grateful Islamabad would play an auxiliary role in the US' war against the al-Qaeda and Taliban in Afghanistan.

These expectations were rudely dashed when unequivocal proof was available that the Pakistani government had secretly providing refuge to Osama Bin Laden in Abottabad. This shook Washington's faith in Pakistan's claimed commitment to US' interests in the AfPak region. Additionally, there was a lot of mud-slinging which resulted from the Pakistani military's failure to intercept and detect a foreign military raid.

Moreover, the location and circumstances that shrouded Osama Bin Laden's death exacerbated Washington's long-held suspicions on Pakistan's ostensible role in carrying forward the US' war against terror and the relationship between the two countries has been marred with suspicion ever since.

The turbulence in the relationship started unravelling when on January 27, 2011 Raymond Davis, a US national working at the consulate in Lahore shot and killed two men who approached his vehicle in broad day light in traffic. Though Davis claimed he had resorted to self defence from armed robbers, the Pakistani authorities accused Davis of murder and the court prohibited the government from releasing him despite immense insistence that diplomatic immunity shielded him from prosecution.

The controversy numbed the Pakistani leaders who had to maintain the delicate balance of International conventions on the one hand and the surge of public resentment on the other. This controversy turned out to have a direct bearing on the cordiality of the bilateral ties as it led to the postponement of the trilateral talks that were scheduled to happen between Afghanistan, Pakistan and USA in February 2011.

Hope of some reconciliation came on February 23 when the military officers from both sides met for a day-long meeting in Oman. Although this meeting was scheduled for much earlier, the main agenda of discussion was the issue of release of Raymond Davis. Soon after this meeting, the CIA had opened direct negotiations with the ISI to secure his release. However, the negotiations went on unsuccessfully into

mid-March when after a series for extremely protracted talks leading up to the pledge of a $2.3million 'blood money' payout to the family of Davis' victims, the official was flown out to the US. For the record, however, Washington denied any quid pro quo arrangement.

The outcome of the Davis affair left many in Pakistan feeling that their justice system had been heavily manipulated by the US government. This triggered a fresh wave of suspicion on the true nature of America's motives in Pakistan. Against this milieu, the discovery and subsequent killing of Osama Bin Laden by the USA on Pakistani turf proved to be the last nail in the coffin .

In the aftermath of the decade-long hunt and killing of Osama Bin Laden, Pakistan's credibility suffered a major setback as the discovery starkly contrasted with the claims of senior Pakistani officials that most wanted extremist figures were not finding any refuge in their home land.

In October 2011, the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton visited Islamabad along with a delegation to help assuage the acrimony that had ensued following the killing of Laden. She urged the Pakistani government to take positive steps to uproot the terror wings like the Haqqani Network that operate from within Pakistan.

The events transpired in 2011 have plummeted US-Pakistan relations to its nadir. In this context, the bilateral track requires trust building measures. Unfortunately, the Pakistan Accountability Bill will serve to be counter-productive.

In conclusion, the Bill lacks the necessary coercive elements required to persuade Pakistan or to alter its strategic calculus in the context of Afghanistan. It very well realises its importance to the US for successful completion of the counter-insurgency campaign and sustaining troops. More importantly, Pakistan continues to remain vital for the eventual peace negotiations with Taliban and other insurgent entities. Moreover, Pakistan's cooperation in persecuting al-Qaeda's top leadership will continue to drive US-Pakistan cooperation.

A $50 million fine is not sufficient to convince Pakistan otherwise. On the flip side, the Bill, far from proving a deterrent to Pakistan's complicity in the ongoing Taliban insurgency, may backfire and become a cause of its further alienation from the counter terrorism community.

(The writer is with Observer Research Foundation)

The Pioneer

“Permanent solution” for drone strikes needed: President Zardari

2012-05-21T06:32:21Z

ZoneAsia-Pk

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari pressed the United States during a Nato meeting on Sunday to help find a "permanent solution" to US drone strikes that have fueled tensions between the two uneasy allies.

"The president said that Pakistan wanted to find a permanent solution to the drone issue as it not only violated our sovereignty but also inflamed public sentiments," President Zardari's spokesman Farhatullah Babar said in a statement after the Pakistani leader met with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the sidelines of the summit.

The statement did not specify what such a solution might entail.

The tempo of drone strikes, the centerpiece of US strategy to fight militants based in Pakistan, has increased substantially since President Barack Obama took office in 2009.

Zardari also called for the United States to do more to make amends for the deaths of 24 Pakistani soldiers killed in November by US aircraft along the border with Afghanistan.

Pakistan has demanded a high-level apology for that incident, which the White House has resisted so far.

The Pakistani leader accepted a last-minute invitation to attend the Nato summit, focused on outlining a Nato path out of the long Afghan war. There, he is likely to be pressed by Western leaders to crack down on militants attacking Karzai's government and Nato forces in Afghanistan.

Pakistan defends its record against militants and points out that many of its own soldiers have died in that fight.

Zardari's talks with Nato leaders may be overshadowed by Nato demands that Pakistan reopen ground routes used to supply alliance soldiers in Afghanistan. Pakistan closed those routes after the November border deaths.

It's unclear whether a deal reopening those roads will occur this weekend as US officials had hoped earlier in the week.

Zardari also voiced support for efforts to broker a peace deal between the Afghan government and the Taliban, whose leaders are believed to live in Pakistan.

"The president said that Pakistan strongly supports an intra-Afghan and Afghan-led reconciliation process and believes that no military solution alone can find a permanent resolution to the problem of militancy and extremism," Babar said.

The Obama administration had hoped to make progress by the Chicago meeting in its effort to broker a peace deal. Initial talks were put on hold in March when the Taliban suspended its participation.

Zardari, who arrived in Chicago on Saturday, also met on Sunday with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, DawnNews reported.

During the meeting both leaders discussed establishment of peace in Afghanistan, the peace dialogue process, regional issues and its wellbeing. The two leaders also agreed on expanding the Afghan transit trade to Central Asia region.

A Faustian Bargain

2012-05-21T06:24:49Z

Tacstrat Analysis

Pakistan's attempt to exact token reprisal for the Salala Attacks did not culminate in the sought after apology from the US nor did it halt drone strikes past a month. It might have been perceived by our top echelons as an opportunity to re-draw our lines of engagement, and the political claptrap surrounding the Parliamentary Committee for National Security (PCNS) debates must have bolstered this stance. Difai Pakistan took to the streets clad in martial-rightwing chainmail issuing dire warnings in case of resumption of the supply route, and Khar went on to declare the two countries as strategic partners not allies.

But all good things come to an end; the ephemeral excuse of national interest could not hold ground for long in this case. So when the DCC (Defense Committee of the Cabinet) got on board the G-LOCS (Ground Lines of Communication), the early dissenters quietly returned to their camps. With promises of commission 'up to' a million dollars a day, the government began selling the newly negotiated terms as a strategic win to save face.

The US has asked Pakistan to provide security for trucks en route to Afghanistan. Security for NATO supplies had hitherto been provided by private contractors; the trucks would still get looted, providing Taliban with a steady supply of weapons and ammunition. A thriving black market selling items from computers to American flags was in the process of shutting down since supplies in the last six months had dwindled. So now Pakistan has been asked to deal with this issue of targeted pilfering.

If the Pakistani government agrees to this demand, then the small increase in price negotiated with the US comes to naught. Firstly the logistical costs of fuel, setting up bases and transferring say, the FC or Army troops there would cancel out any gains to be made from this newly drafted deal. If this doesn't involve chalking out a completely different assignment for the Army or FC, then it would materialize in the form of costs involving training a national guard for the supply route.

Secondly, Pakistani forces, or paramilitary posted along the Pak-Afghan border automatically become easy targets for Taliban and exercises for terrorists. To arm them to the teeth would require massive funds and even then the beauty of asymmetric warfare favors the Taliban. Pakistan is looking at bleak possibilities of immense loss of life, livelihood and reparations if it agrees to provide security along the border.

This Faustian bargain was inevitable, even warranted. However the new terms of engagement must be drawn with extreme caution. Pakistan shouldn't have to be the one apologizing for the Salala Attack by signing a regressive deal.

The Lying Game

2012-05-18T07:57:10Z

By Mir Jamshed Baloch
Area 14/8

Every nation has certain characteristics that define its people at all times and all aspects of their lives. These qualities are not static, but as the nation advances they can and usually do change. Amongst their many characteristics, Pakistanis can easily be associated with their incorrigible habit of lying. So be it the political parties which make false promises to the public, or the children of the elite who defend themselves in illicit activities, or students who deny cheating in their exams, or an employee concocting an illness for his absence from work; everybody lies to everybody.

However, the fact that lying is deeply entrenched in our lives, does not justify the practice. But there is always that point, that boundary line after which lying can become detrimental to oneself and the people around. Pakistanis have crossed that line and it's time to be honest about the state of the energy crisis.

As the energy crisis worsens with every hour, the economic and social wellbeing of the masses is turning into another playground for lying and deceit. Pakistan's energy shortfall is approximately 6000 MW. Cities across Pakistan experience approximately 10 hours of load shedding while rural areas have an average of 12 hours of power outages. Household appliances are at risk of short circuiting with the fluctuating supply of power, students have difficulty studying and preparing for exams and other mundane activities like storing food and sleeping soundly are becoming impossible. Businesses and industries have been immensely affected. Small entrepreneurs who already have limited resources are being forced to shut business down due to losses. Large scale industrialists daily suffer losses worth millions of rupees for running factories at less than their optimal capacity.

Responses to dealing with this crisis have become very chaotic. The government is urging people to conserve electricity and is trying to regulate nationwide load shedding. But these are secondary measures; without power generation there cannot be power conservation. Conferences and meetings are frequently held to accurately gauge the extent of the problem and find economical solutions but mostly to prove to the public how disturbed our leaders are about their problems. Experts and consultants are invited to give their recommendations which are mostly the umpteenth repetitions of previous recommendations. If by rare coincidence, the recommendations are pragmatic, they fail to see the light of day. In both scenarios, implementation emerges as a major challenge. Not to mention those ingenious ideas presented and enforced by our politicians. Our felonious Prime Minister just suggested printing more currency to inject funds into power generation. It is certainly not his honest intension to cause more inflation but it's a small price to pay for resolving a national crisis.

To add to the disarray, fraud and corruption cases over newly launched energy ventures not only sends recovery efforts back to Square One, but leave the additional mess of rectifying the damage from these illegal activities. One such example is of the rental power projects. It had immense potential to open up the Pakistani market to foreign companies and boost national supply of electricity. Unfortunately, contracts were not awarded transparently and unnecessary monetary advances were made to set up these plants.

If the government is working against the interests of the people, then it should be the responsibility of the opposing civilian leaders to a check on the government. But opposition parties in the government like to turn this into an opportunity to engage in vigilante policing to pit the public against their rivals. The more brazen politicians choose to point fingers at certain individuals who have stood in the way of developing projects like the Kalabagh Dam. Political parties often threaten to quit the government or stage protests all the while promising how their party could "fix" the crisis in a year or month or day. These threats have magnified manifold with the prospect of upcoming elections. In other words, while the public gets trampled under inept policies, all our "representatives" are worried about is their vote bank.

A new version of this vigilante policing has broadened its reach to include academics and scientists in their tussle against politicians. This week the public saw competing discourses about the Thar coal gasification project. Its in-charge, Dr. Samar Mubarak Mand has extolled the project and asserts it can resolve Pakistan's energy problem. Thar coal mines have the capacity to produce 50,000 MW electricity and 100 million barrel diesel per year to last the next 500 years. His claims have been refuted by the planning commission which wishes to scrap the project since the tests have not been so promising.

It is extremely alarming for the public to find two authorities squabbling on who is presenting the true picture. Sweeping statements and competing discourses stall decision making and contributes to a feeling of helplessness. Mistrust continues to fester in the masses and when patience wears out, their frustration takes the shape of street protests and destruction of public property.

Like the engineer who designed a water powered generator, Pakistan is blessed with talented professionals but they hardly have the opportunity to guide our national policies. Due to the overwhelming majority of illiterate politicians, the innocent public automatically reveres the scarce professionals present in policymaking even if that means asking a lawyer to consult in a financial conundrum. The mismatched qualification of the personnel assigned to a task produces irrelevant and redundant policies which are nothing but a waste of precious resources.

The lying game may be useful to keep our politics spicy and prevent our TV shows from descending into boredom, but it should not and must not be present when the lives of common man are at stake. It's time for Pakistan to adjust its bearings so that honesty instead of lying is synonymous with progress.

Zionist-Hindutvadi Plots Against Pakistan And Indian Occupied Kashmir

2012-05-18T07:52:04Z

How much more blood must be shed in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan before it is understood that the country is being torn to shreds from the inside out in a foreign-sponsored 4th Generation Warfare (4GW) campaign? How many more men, women and children must have their lives snuffed out before a little, not a goliath amount, but a little bit of attention is given to this horrific and blood-soaked crisis that deepens every day? The geopolitical implications will surely be drastically and negatively groundbreaking if Pakistan plunges into the unadulterated chaos that its enemies, "Israel," Hindutvadi India and the Zionist-occupied United States government, so passionately and stridently desire. Pakistan, the "child of Jinnah, child of 'Allama Iqbal", indeed stands on the brink.

Hideous sectarian killings across the country since the start of April have revealed the deepening of a plot engineered by the forces of Zionism and Hindutva, its ugly first cousin. Whilst the Zionist media coverage has typically and predictably attempted to depict the bloodshed as "Sunni-Shi'a" strife, it is quite revealing that its coverage has been scarce, with the weight of reportage being carried by Pakistani and Iranian outlets. Additionally, the evidence will show that this sectarianism, drenched in innocent blood, is a product of the Zionist-Hindutvadi nexus, with the sect of oppressed being butchered by the sect of the supremacist oppressor.

It began on April 9th, 2012 in Pakistan's turbulent Balochistan province, in which masked gunmen on motorbikes carried out a monstrous shooting spree, leaving 14 dead, including 2 women, and dozens of others wounded. The worst of the attacks was in the Hazara region at the busy Prince Road of Balochistan's largest city and provincial capital, Quetta, where four 4 Shi'a Muslims were shot dead (1), and then, according to later reports in theUrdu and Farsi presses, brutally mutilated, thus betraying the entire bout of killing as a specific targeted operation. As the casualties count rose to 6 dead and 3 critically wounded the following day, this notion was further confirmed when Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani fired six police officers for complicity in the Quetta bloodshed (2), revealing that the gunmen had "men on the inside" to protect their operation from scrutiny.

In response to the martyrdom of 6 members from their community, leaders of the Hazara Democratic Party, which represents the interests of the downtrodden Shi'a of Balochistan, adamantly and eloquently blasted the cowards that perpetrated the crimes. They then called for a 10 day strike, from April 20th to April 30th, demanding justice for their fallen. Hundreds across Balochistan honored the call by protesting and shutting down shops, markets and educational institutions (3). Following the call of the Hazara Shi'a, more than 2,500 Pakistanis, Sunni and Shi'a alike, in a beautiful and righteously ferocious display of solidarity, hit the streets of Islamabad right outside the Pakistani Parliament building and chanted for the government to take action against the persons responsible for the violence. Similar demonstrations were held in Quetta, Muzaffarabad and Multan, where protesters supplicated for the Quetta victims as well as the more than 2,000 Shi'a murdered in the Kurram region of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) since 2007 (4).

The ostensible drift from blood-spilling to reconciliation and justice came to a screeching halt on April 14th, 2012 as Balochistan was rocked by tragedy yet again. In the same fashion as the previous killings, masked gunmen laid siege to the Barori Road, Sabzol Road and Qali Chaltan Road areas of Quetta, firing shots at dozens of Shi'a Muslims, wounding at least six and murdering at least 10 (5). This death toll would rise to more than 30, including women and children, and on April 16th, another Shi'a was gunned down by masked men in Quetta, prompting Chief Minister Raisani to thunderously call for assistance from the Pakistani Army and declare that if something wasn't done to stop the atrocities soon, Balochistan would descend into civil war (6). The obvious purpose of the cowardly masked men's assault was to foment division but this has failed as Sunni-Shi'a unity protests raged forward, with women and children participating, and not just in Pakistan, but all over the globe, including America, the UK and Canada (7).

On April 18th, 2012, Imran Zaidi, the vice principal of Jinnah Polytechnic College and a Shi'a Muslim himself, was shot dead by masked men on motorbike in the important Pakistani port city of Karachi (8), once again betraying the signature of an intelligence agency's "targeted" operation. The massacring of Shi'a continued three days later, with another attack in Quetta by masked gunmen on motorbike, shooting two more innocents dead (9). Immediately following the latest round of killing in Quetta, protests across Pakistan erupted yet again with Shi'a marching through the streets of Lahore and joint Sunni-Shi'a rallies being staged in Abbottabad, Quetta, Rawalpindi and other cities (10). A sigh of relief swept through the nation when Pakistani security forces stormed the outskirts of Quetta in a search and seizure operation, uncovering the safehouse where the carnage has been launched from. Three terrorists were detained, all of whom were connected to none other than the Tehrik-I-Taliban of Pakistan {TTP} (11), the infamous and brutal proxy force of Pakistan's enemies. Two more fighters connected to the Shi'a killings,Ali Sher Haidri, spokesperson of the TTP-allied Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeT), and his well-known terrorist accomplice, Gul Jan aka Hafiz Naseer, were killed in another operation (12).

Created in 2004 to coincide with the inauguration of the CIA's genocidal drone program, the TTP is the perfected product of an ongoing, incestuous relationship between the Zionist entity's Mossad, Hindutvadi India's RAW and the CIA itself. One month after Mossad's false flag attack on September 11th, 2001 and just three days after the criminal invasion of Afghanistan, two "Israeli" agents with Mossad and IOF connections were apprehended inside the Mexican Congress building of Mexico City with 9mm handguns, nine grenades, C-4 explosives, three detonators, 58 bullets and fake Pakistani passports. Their mission was to destroy the Mexican Congress. This false flag operation was intended to be phase II of 9/11, triggering a NATO invasion of Pakistan. When the mission failed, the Zionist entity activated its contingency plan: the Dragon Policy, an updated version of the Oded-Yinon-strategy of balkanizing Islamic states on ethno-sectarian lines (13).

Following the failure in Mexico City, the upper echelons of Zionist and Hindutvadi intelligence erected four new clandestine agencies solely dedicated to the destruction of Pakistan, which would immediately be followed by the originally-intended aggression to denuclearize the bulwark of Islamic Resistance to international Zionism. The highest ranking figures of Pakistan's financial, political, military and religious sectors were on the hitlist and every successful attack was meant to soften up Pakistan for the imminent invasion. Using funds from the unlimited bank accounts of Mossad and Aman, the Zionism-Hindutva intelligence nexus established 57 training camps across the northern frontiers of India and occupied Kashmir, kidnaping and blackmailing Resistance fighters to fight against their own comrades while simultaneously forging alliances with mafia bosses and narcotics tycoons and training them in the finer arts of black ops. These various elements served as the perfect puppets as any rebellion whatsoever would be punished with imprisonment in the harshest of dungeons. These men would be deployed into the field under Mossad-RAW guidance and once an attack was completed, the Zionist media would report it as an 'act of Islamic terrorism.' If a 'checkout' was not secured, senior operatives of the "Israeli"-Indian nexus would finish the job (13).

The CIA and its corporate offshoot, Blackwater (also known as Xe and Academi), a festering bubble of anti-Arab, anti-Muslim hatred and deep pro-"Israel" sentiments, joined the Dragon Policy in 2004. Blackwater agents became integrated with the ordnance units of Mossad

and RAW. The CIA took a more proactive role by absorbing past recruits of the Zionist-Hindutvadi intelligence training camps and cultivated them into a powerful proxy force that specialized in guerilla tactics and sectarian warfare: the Tehrik-I-Taliban. The name was chosen for a very sinister, deceptive and specific reason: to despicably smear the real Taliban in occupied Afghanistan, a Resistance force fighting a '7arb el 7uriyeh (war of liberation)' against NATO invaders. It is classic psychological warfare. The Taliban, not surprisingly, has rightfully maintained its innocence and condemned Blackwater for being behind bombings and other provocations in Pakistan. Since its birth, the Tehrik-I-Taliban has murdered or wounded more than 100,000 Pakistanis and caused more than $50 billion in damage to Pakistan's economy.Prior to the most recent operation, the Pakistani army had already arrested hundreds of TTP militiamen. Proxy agents detained in Waziristan, Karachi and Balochistan were caught with sophisticated, military-grade weaponry manufactured by the Zionist entity (13).

This string of horrible bloodshed that claimed the lives of dozens of Shi'a Muslim men, women and children, along with several other Sunni Muslims who stood in solidarity with them, is reminiscent of a very similar Mosssad-RAW-backed TTP campaign that targeted prominent Shi'a and Sunni figures back at the start of 2012. Tearing Pakistan apart through the"sectarianism" of the Zionist-Hindutvadi Dragon Policy, leaving it open to denuclearization and balkanization and eventually fomenting the ethnic cleansing of all Muslims from occupied Kashmir is indeed the "endgame" plot (13).

The innocent Pakistani blood spilled throughout April means nothing to the supremacist oppressors or their quislings, and this is why the great Pakistani luminary Syed Zaid Zaman Hamid declared recently in one of his highly-regarded email bulletins that, "Pakistan's entire political leadership is now compromised to the enemies. These ones want to compromise our honor, faith, history, land and water," in fact, he continues, "the idiots we have today have already auctioned it." And if the Pakistani Armed Forces didn't perform the way that they did in Quetta, ending the catastrophe (at least for now), it is safe to say that the enemies would be further along in their plot.

Occupied Kashmir: The "Israeli"-Indian "Training Ground" For Anti-Pakistan Warfare

It is a well-established and internationally-accepted fact that the Zionist entity's military and arms industries are imposing behemoths and completely unrivaled on the international stage. What is lesser-known, or rather, ruthlessly suppressed by the Zionist media as a means of keeping it far from the global public's vision, is that "Israel" uses the occupied West Bank (and by extension, occupied al-Quds) as a laboratory for the research and design of its newest weapons. Zionist occupation forces use the hundreds of Palestinian villages in the West Bank as 'live' training grounds (14). Though this certainly qualifies as "sick," as well as "twisted," as Zionism always does, it gets even more depraved.

On March 27th, 2012, the undercover unit "Israeli" military intelligence known as Duvdevan, which is responsible for the murder of beloved Palestinian-Jewish activist and director Juliano Mer-Khamis (15), as well as a laundry list of extrajudicial executions dating back to the First Intifada, savagely murdered 28-year old Palestinian Rashad Shawakha and badly wounded two of his brothers during a 'live' training exercise in the occupied West Bank Village of Rammoun (16). For the very first time, as revealed herein by Mask of Zion's ever-vigilant and exceptionally reliable Kashmiri sources, it is now known that these slaughterous and utterly insidious "live training" and "weapons testing" methods have been exported to occupied Kashmir, the land known as "heaven on Earth" illegally occupied by Hindutvadi India for 65 years and already infested with Zionist-Hindutvadi training facilities for the Dragon Policy.

For the historical record, it is integral to note "Israel" is not only the top defense supplier for India (17), but the usurping Jewish entity and the Hindu supremacist regime are deeply intertwined at every level, from military to intelligence, economics to politics, communications to ideology, and this cooperation not only amounts to a frightening hegemonic agenda, but tens of billions of dollars in profit generation (13). The two occupation entities even collaborate in ventures to provide cell phone gaming services for their brainwashed populations (18); the Zionism-Hindutva relationship is one of the utmost geopolitical intimacy.

Ironically and ominously, although perhaps not unintentionally, one year ago to the day before the barbaric massacres of Shi'a Muslims began in Balochistan, a terrible tragedy occurred in occupied Kashmir that shocked and saddened the people of the Vale. Maulana Showkat Ahmad Shah, a pseudo-controversial but much-loved cleric who served as the President of Jamiat-e-Ahl-e-Hadith, was murdered in a brutal bombing during Friday prayers at a mosque in the Kashmiri capital of Srinagar. So abominable was the attack that it prompted a harsh condemnation from every major Azadi (Kashmiri word for freedom) organization throughout occupied Kashmir, as well as the government of Pakistan (19).

Survived by his wife, son, daughter and mother, well-known across the Vale for his honesty and dedicated to the cause of Azadi by all accounts, Shah had been arrested and imprisoned under the Hindutvadi occupation's draconian Public Safety Act (PSA) many times before, and on at least two other occasions, there were attempts on his life. Dating back to 1990, a phenomenon known in occupied Kashmir as the "unidentified killings" has claimed the lives of dozens of doctors, academics, clerics, philanthropists, Resistance fighters and human rights activists, including Muslims, Pandits and secularists. All evidence indicates that RAW's "Special Operations Group" is behind the murders (20). The most recent target, prominent religious scholar Peer Jalaludin, barely escaped with his life after being critically injured in a shooting. Azadi leaders pegged Hindutva as the culprit behind the barbarous attack, stating that it was trying to divide the Kashmiri struggle through sectarianism (21).

Mask of Zion contacted several Resistance fighters and Azadi activists to learn more about these disturbing developments and what was uncovered during these inquiries turned out to be nothing short of shocking and enlightening, as well as exceedingly revealing. One 46-year old veteran fighter, who, for security reasons asked to be identified by the alias "Rehman Zahid", an eloquent man with vast experience in the Azadi struggle as he fought the Hindutvadi occupation head-on during the epic Kashmiri intifada of 1989, explained to Mask of Zion the nature of what he referred to as "SOG," the RAW Special Operations Group, "The SOG is active all over Asia. It is in Pakistan and Sri Lanka, Nepal and Indonesia, Malaysia and as far north as Japan. It is responsible for assassinations and surveillance and anything else the accursed Hindutvadis ask for, may ALLAH (SWT) curse them to the hellfire. Curse them! But here, here in Kashmir, my beloved that they have been raping since before Palestine was raped by the Zionists, my land of treasures and rushing rivers, the SOG is subordinate to an 'Israeli' named Katzir. You know him, yes?"

"Yes, of course," I stated anxiously. Brother Rehman continued, "The 'Israeli' is governing dozens of SOG agents with full approval from the Hindutvadis in Delhi. He's integrated them into the units made up from the elites of his counter-terrorism team and calls these units the 'Yehoshua Brigades', named after Joshua from the Jewish Bible who was a destroyer and murderer of children, a rapist of land and thief of Canaan." Understandably, brother Rehman paused to take a deep breath. I saw this as an opportunity to interject, "These YehoshuaBrigades aren't regular military units then, and the operations of the SOG aren't normal operations, are they?"

The Kashmiri Resistance veteran paused for yet another moment and solemnly said, "No, not at all. He named them 'Yehoshua' because these units are those which will carry out Operation Kurukshetra, a creation of Katzir and the monster, {a reference to former Indian Chief of Staff, General Sundararajan Padmanabhan, the Hindutvadi fundamentalist architect of the Cold Start Doctrine known throughout the Vale for his sadistic brutality during the 1989intifada and the immediate years after it (13)} to cleanse us from the land like Joshua and his band of murderous yahoud cleansed Canaan thousands of years ago and cleansed it again in 1948. Every assassination that they've done in the last decade was designed to provoke us into attacking them so they can make Kurukshetra a reality. Curse them, ya ALLAH (SWT)! Curse them!"

"Would we be providing a most accurate description," I asked, "if we designated the YehoshuaBrigades, in all honesty, as an exclusivist Jewish-Hindu death squad motivated by the Zionist-Hindutvadi leadership's desire to attain ethno-religious and regional supremacy?" Without hesitation, Rehman Zahid, a man who had stared into the eyes of the cruel and torturous Indian soldiers who waged an unrelenting campaign of brutality under General Sundararajan Padmanabhan during the 1989 Kashmiri intifada, stated, "Absolutely. Absolutely accurate. Supremacist is what they are. Exclusivist! Separatist is what they are! They call us separatists but they are the separatists! They want to separate from all other humans, with yahoud being with yahoud and Hindutvadi being with Hindutvadi while we suffer under them. They think of us as dogs. Enemies of Islam! Enemies of humanity! Enemies of the Kashmiri, the Palestinian, the Lebanese! Enemies of Pak Sarzameen and the dunya and even the Akhira! Curse them! May ALLAH (SWT) give us strength to fight them and free ourselves from them!"

Brother Rehman had become thoroughly flustered and quite upset and therefore, out of respect for and empathy with him, I had no interest in prolonging the discussion for any serious length of time; I only had one more question, "Akhi Rehman, this information is indeed critical and it most certainly explains a great deal, but what about the assassination of Maulana Showkat Ahmad Shah? Was the attack on his person a hyper-specific one?" Obligingly, Rehman replied, "Not necessarily, but, Shahid Maulana was their highest-level target yet methinks. Every killing that Yehoshua does is based on its objective of driving us into civil conflict and hurting our struggle. There is another goal for them though. The explosive used to martyr Maulana, a sticky bomb, was a modified, military-grade version of what was used in the July 11th Bombings and the Malegaon Blasts {which were false flag attacks carried out by the Zionist entity's Mossad and Hindu supremacist elements close to RAW to set the stage for their 'masterpiece' false flag on 26/11, an event that 'changed the game' in the region (22)}. Yehoshua and Katzir's regular units and even the Hindutvadi occupiers themselves are always testing new weapons for 'Israel,' may ALLAH (SWT) curse them to the hellfire. We're like their playthings."

He continued, "We are armed with minimal weaponry here, anyone can see this, even the blind ones. What do they need heavy automatics, laser snipers, drones, pistols with silencers and upgraded military explosives for? Are they that afraid of our youths who pelt stones? Do our stonepelters make the Hindutvadi and the Zionist shake? Maybe we do, by ALLAH (SWT) maybe we do, but this isn't the reason. They're testing their weapons here because these are the weapons that they use on Pakistan to make chaos there. Kurukshetra is the final part of the Hindutvadi Cold Start Doctrine. Before Yehoshua Brigades are released to make the Kashmiri Nakba, India and the NATO will have turned Pakistan into Iraq or Libya with Cold Start, may ALLAH (SWT) damn them for what they did to those countries and the orphans.Yehoshua Brigades try and kill Peer Jalaludin, may ALLAH (SWT) protect him, right outside of his home with new never-before-seen heavy automatics and not even a week after this, not even a week by ALLAH (SWT)! These weapons are in the hands of TTP terrorists who spill blood in Pakistan. This is the pattern. Like I said, we are their playthings. Pak Sarzameen is the grand prize in all of this. We are the small fish."

I thanked brother Rehman for his time and Muhammad Isma'il Bhat, the friend of mine who put me in contact with the Kashmiri veteran, told me in the clearest language possible that everything he said was on the money. I relayed this information to human rights activists "Zubair Zubair" in Srinagar and "Abu Ghulam" in Kupwara, who had contributed to a previous earth-shattering Mask of Zion report on Pakistan and occupied Kashmir, and both of them reaffirmed it unequivocally. It was official. Occupied Kashmir, "heaven on earth," was being used by the Zionist entity and Hindutvadi India as a "live testing ground" for Dragon Policy directives that will later be carried out in Pakistan, with every killing aimed at disuniting the anti-occupation movement and delivering it into the jaws of destruction. The Kashmiri people were at the mercy of a Jewish-Hindu death squad known as the Yehoshua Brigades, with every moment of their day passing by as if it were their last.

Once again, this shows that the fates of the Pakistani and Kashmiri people are interlocked andAzadi for one from the machinations of Zionism and Hindutva means Azadi for the other. And with Kashmiris preparing to launch another intifada, like they always do, seemingly every two years (23), there is no doubt that this theme will permeate protests and marches. There is no doubt that they will demonstrate for dignity and with vigor. There is no doubt that the oppressed people of the Vale will not relent until their Zionist and Hindutvadi tormentors are brought to justice and it is known that Kashmiris are the "playthings" of nobody.

Conclusion: A Modern Day Agartala Conspiracy - The Separation of Balochistan and Operation Blue Tulsi Exposed

Aforementioned Pakistani luminary Syed Zaid Zaman Hamid has repeatedly likened what the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is fighting today to the "Agartala Conspiracy" of 1971, in which RAW, CIA and elements of the Soviet KGB created, trained, armed and funded the Mukti Bahini terror squads that broke down the Pakistani Armed Forces through guerilla warfare, setting the stage for the breakaway of East Pakistan, known today as the nation-state of Bangladesh. There was no "popular Bengali uprising" as it often parroted by Zionist media and academia, there was a plot of subversion directed by the enemies of Pakistan with Hindutva at the head (24). This is further confirmed by the Syed in which he points out that the Pakistani Army was 10,000 miles away from base, fighting 4GW in the streets while India invaded from three sides with 500,000 soldiers and 250,000 more Mukti Bahini terrorists. The "soldiers of Jinnah, soldiers of 'Allama Iqbal" were overwhelmed, and the dismemberment of Pakistan was completed (25). It is highly critical to add that the Zionist regime assisted India in this plot (26), as balkanizing and weakening Islamic states is a cornerstone of the Jewish supremacist entity's foreign policy, as discussed earlier in the chronicling of the TTP's history.

The modern day "Agartala Conspiracy" can be accurately referred to as the "Balochistan Conspiracy." Just before the Mossad-and-RAW-backed TTP began carrying out its latest massacre of Shi'a Muslims in an attempt to drum up more sectarian tension across Pakistan, which, by the way, is an ongoing machination as Pakistani security forces just stopped another possible attack on Kirani Road in the Hazara Town neighborhood of Quetta (27), a tragedy of literally mountainous proportions struck the Pakistan nation on April 7th, 2012 as an avalanche on the famed Siachen Glacier, a massively geopolitically important strategic nexus and integral, ancestral part of Pakistan's national and cultural heritage, slammed down upon the headquarters of the 6NLI battalion of the Pakistani Army, trapping at least 139 soldiers and civilians underneath the frozen tundra. Illegally occupied by Hindutva in April 1984 in Operation Meghdoot, Siachen is once again back in the spotlight and reminding Pakistanis that the agreement signed between their nation and India in 1989 to secure the withdrawal of all forces has been consistently ignored because of Hindutva's intransigence and its dreams of supremacist expansionism (28).

Developed by the Indian Armed Forces' Western Command in 1978 and actually engaged by the Indian Armed Forces' Northern Command, Operation Meghdoot was launched to capture Karakoram Highway (KKH), therefore disconnecting Pakistan's road links to China, as well as to capture the passes that connect Siachen Glacier to Gilgit-Baltistan, therefore confiscating yet another piece of land historically linked with occupied Kashmir. This act of Hindutvadi criminality was meant to bog down large numbers of Pakistan's best and brightest forces in high altitude warfare, while continuing the build-up towards the initiation of the Cold Start Doctrine and Operation Kurukshetra. Moreover, what is additionally and most importantly attached to the "bog-down" strategy of the illegal Indian occupation of Siachen is its policy of supporting terrorists in Balochistan, specifically the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and of course, the TTP (28). Hindutva and its allies in the CIA and Britain's MI6 are also funding, arming and training the Baloch Liberation Front (BLF), Baloch Republican Army (BRA) and Lashkar-e-Balochistan. RAW and CIA have set up 60 training camps across Balochistan to maintain this destabilization, which is occurring just 100 miles east of Iran (29).

Where there is Hindutva, Zionism is never too far away and this is especially true for Balochistan. Another vital asset of the gaggle of secessionist-terrorist elements being utilized by the enemies of Pakistan to plunge the Islamic nation into devastation is the shadowy group known as Jundallah, which has been trained and armed by Mossad for years now. Mossad has used Jundallah against the Islamic Republic of Iran on numerous occasions in bloody, bloody slaughterous attacks and even Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei himself has made mention of it (30).

In its typical use of its classic and favorite tactic, the false flag, operatives of Mossad have also posed as CIA agents and flaunted wads of American cash and US passports to recruit Jundallah into carrying out bombings against Iranian women and children to terrorize the Zionist entity's most hated enemy. While this has been analyzed in journalistic spheres on and off the Internet, what hasn't been discussed is that a main objective of this particular Zionist false flag was to drive a wedge between Pakistan and Iran and foment suspicion between them (31). Thankfully, despite the terrible, terrible loss of Iranian life, the brotherly Islamic Republics have gotten over this and are moving forward with an important gas project in the face of immense pressure from the Zionist-occupied United States government (32).

William Safire, infamous neconservative ideologue and member of the Jewish-Zionist brain trust that planned the annihilation of Iraq, was well-known for supporting the formation of a Kurdish state because it would weaken the Zionist entity's three greatest enemies, Iraq, Iran and Syria (33). This exact line of Zionist thinking is present in the minds of Safire's constituents at the powerful neoconservative think tank, the Brookings Institution, which produced a policy paper entitled, "Which Path To Persia?" that lays out numerous Israelcentric strategies for America and "Israel" to destroy Iran, including the launch of an insurgency in Balochistan with Pakistan being transformed into a total slave-state to support the terrorism against Iran by proxy. "Which Path To Persia?" was authored by notorious 'Iranophobe' and Jewish supremacist Kenneth M. Pollack, world-renowned lobbyist for the usurping Zionist regime Martin Indyk, Jewish-Zionist CIA stalwart and developer of Obama's Af-Pak strategy Bruce Reidel, Jewish supremacist defender of the criminal "Israeli" practice of "targeted killings" Daniel L. Byman and neoconservative shabbos goyimSuzanne Maloney and Michael E. O'Hanlon (34).

"Israeli" foreign policy advisor Oded Yinon's "A Strategy For Israel In The 1980s", the monumental 1982 paper that documented in detail how the Jewish occupation regime plans to balkanize its enemies through infiltration, subversion and terrorism, rendering them non-existent as robust nation-states and turning them into satellites of Zionist hegemony, was instrumental in the Jewish decimation of Iraq (35), and it is now being implemented in numerous nations across the continent of Africa (36). The Yinon plan is also very much underway in Pakistan, with the ultimate territorial goal of the Zionist entity being to break off Balochistan from the Islamic Republic, as well as a larger chunk of land in the western part of the country to make way for a gutted Afghanistan called "Pashtunistan (37)," thus crippling Pakistan in a devastating way, essentially reincarnating and modernizing the "Agartala Conspiracy" of 1971.

The convergence of Zionist-Hindutvadi objectives in Balochistan is by no means a coincidence. It is in fact exceedingly deliberate. A sister of the Dragon Policy, the Yinon-styled infiltration of Balochistan is a plot more than 10 years old known as "Operation Blue Tulsi." The resurrection of the BLA and its offshoots, the training camps set up for them, the bases set up by Mossad, RAW and the occasional cluster of CIA agents to run the terror squads, the BLA designs to overthrow the Islamabad government in 2004, the setup of a Baloch regime office in occupied al-Quds to better coordinate Mossad-RAW-CIA subversion schemes, the assassinations of top military and intelligence officials followed by their replacement with infiltrators from the Zionist-Hindutvadi nexus, and all other facsimile events are part and parcel of Operation Blue Tulsi (38), which is being executed simultaneously alongside Cold Start and Operation Kurukshetra.

On a side note, it is interesting to record that the "Pakistani" troops exported to Bahrain to be used in the crackdown on a revolutionary uprising in that country at the behest of its ruling regime, the criminal and barbaric Al-Khalifa monarchy, which has bragged about its ties to Mossad and has told all of its top officials not to refer to "Israel" as the "enemy" or the "Zionist entity (39)," are not from the nationalistic and anti-Zionist military-intelligence apparatus of Pakistan, but from Balochistan (40). Not only is Mossad-RAW-backed terrorism from Balochistan wreaking havoc on the lives of innocent Pakistanis and Kashmiris, but Bahrainis too.

With revelations having emerged from Jewish former US Ambassador to India John Gunther Dean that Mossad and RAW orchestrated the "accident" that murdered General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq in 1988 (41), it seems that there isn't a single segment of the tragic aspects of Pakistan's tumultuous history that Zionism and Hindutva didn't have their dirty hands in. Moreover, the Zionist-controlled United States has started bombing the "child of Jinnah, child of 'Allama Iqbal" once again with drones as sadistic revenge for cutting off NATO supplies to occupied Afghanistan (42); the latest attack has left four little Pakistani girls slaughtered (43). And with the egregious and monstrous human rights abuses in occupied Kashmir continuing en masse, as most recently evidenced by the Indian occupation army being implicated in punishing Kashmiris through slave labor (44), and the more than 1,332 Kashmiris locked up in Hindutvadi dungeons through the draconian PSA over the last three years (45), the aforesaid plans for another intifada in the Vale couldn't have come at a better time. The filthy and pernicious plots of the Zionist-Hindutvadi alliance against the peoples of Pakistan and occupied Kashmir must be confronted and stopped once and for all.

To reiterate, it indeed is not an exaggeration to suggest that Pakistan, occupied Kashmir, and, due to it being included in the enemy plots against these nation-states, the Iranian Islamic Revolution, stand on the brink of oblivion. The usurping Jewish entity and the Hindutvadi New Delhi regime are doped up on geopolitical and religious fundamentalism that is driving each and every decision that they make in pursuit of two separate empires: Greater "Israel", the Zionist confiscation and domination of all Arab lands between the Nile and the Euphrates, and Hindutva, the Hindutvadi confiscation and domination of every piece of territory within the Southeast Asia Subcontinent. Whoever stands in their way faces the unfortunately but nevertheless extremely real prospect of a ruthless militaristic backlash at the hands of these two supremacist allies. It is not only because of the "Israeli"-Indian drive for hegemony that Pakistan, Kashmir and Iran are being targeted, it is because of their defiance of their enemies' thieving thirst for Muslim land and treasure that they are in the reticle; they refuse to be subjugated, they refuse to bow before anyone except their Creator.

Pakistan, Kashmir and Iran, along with the Resistance parties in Syria, Lebanon, occupied Palestine, Bahrain, Iraq, Somalia, Belarus, Yemen, Bolivia, Venezuela and anywhere else in the world where there is struggle in the shadows against this mad and bloodthirsty nexus of supremacism and thuggery are humanity's last hope for a better world. A just world. A peaceful world. A world of tolerance and understanding. A world of brotherhood and sisterhood, free from internationalist Jewish usury and the ever-looming threat of Zionist-Hindutvadi expansionism. Such a world is possible and the aforementioned "Peoples of Resistance" show us that it is so day in and day out. May their miraculous defiance persist in inspiring us all and spread to every corner of the globe until Zionism, Hindutva and all of the marionettes attached to their machinations fade away into the most damned pages of history. If it does, Azadi for everyone is just around the corner.

~ The End ~

Sources:

(1) Gunmen Kill 14 People In Southwest Pakistan by Press TV

(2) Pakistan Sacks Seven Police Officers Over Shia Killing by Press TV

(3) Hazara Muslims Call For 10-Day Strike In SW Pakistan by Press TV

(4) Demo Held In Islamabad Over Shia Killings by Press TV

(5) Shia Massacre Continues In Pakistan by Press TV

(6) Another Shia Muslim Killed In Pakistan Sectarian Violence by Press TV

(7) Women, Children, Slam Shia Massacre In Pakistan by Press TV

(8) Shia Principal Killed In South Pakistan by Press TV

(9) 4 Pakistanis, Including 2 Shia Muslims, Killed In Violence by Press TV

(10) Pakistanis Rally To Express Outrage Against Persisting Shia Killing by Press TV

(11) Pakistani Police Arrest Three Militants Over Shia Killings by Press TV

(12) Pakistan Banned Group Confirms Spokesperson's Death by Islamic Republic News Agency

(13) The Salala Massacre: NATO's Naked Aggression Against Pakistan And The Hegemonic Israeli-Indo-American Strategy Behind It by Martin Iqbal and Jonathan Azaziah, Mask of Zion

(14) The Crisis Of Zionism: Undeterred By Unavoidable Realities by Joseph Dana, The National (UAE)

(15) Operation Phantasmagoria III: Juliano Mer-Khamis, Assassinated Hope by Jonathan Azaziah, Mask of Zion

(16) Israeli Undercover Unit's Murder Of Palestinian Civilian Was Part Of "Training Exercise" by Charlotte Silver, The Electronic Intifada

(17) Israel Now India's Top Defense Supplier by Yaakov Katz, The Jerusalem Post

(18) Extent, Tata To Launch Android Service In India by Meir Orbach, Ynet

(19) Killing Of Maulana Showkat Ahmed Shah In Kashmir Widely Condemned by Kashmir Global

(20) Mysterious Killings In IHK: A Conspiracy To Malign Liberation Movement by Raies Mir, Kashmir Media Service

(21) Indian Police Arrest 7 Youth In Srinagar by Kashmir Media Service

(22) 26/11: Mossad Terrorizes Mumbai by Jonathan Azaziah, Mask of Zion

(23) JKML Vows To Launch Massive Movement In IHK by Kashmir Media Service

(24) The Entire RAW-KGB Plan To Create Bangladesh Exposed! by Syed Zaid Zaman Hamid

(25) Agartala Conspiracy - Never Again! by Syed Zaid Zaman Hamid

(26) Israel And India: Brothers In Occupation Of Kashmir by Jonathan Azaziah, Mask of Zion

(27) Pakistani Police Thwart Bomb Attack On Shia Muslims by Press TV

(28) Siachen - The Geopolitics And Strategy In The Frozen Battlefield by Shahzad Masood Roomi, Brass Tacks Institute

(29) Foreign Powers Aiding Rebels In Balochistan by Brigadier General Asif Haroon Raja, The Asian Tribune

(30) Hezbollah Spices Up Israel-Iran Mix by Kaveh L. Afrasiabi, Asia Times

(31) False Flag by Mark Perry, Foreign Policy

(32) Gilani Orders Fast Progression Of Iran-Pakistan Project by Press TV

(33) Mearsheimer On Dual Loyalty And William Safire by Philip Weiss, Mondoweiss

(34) Which Path To Persia? Options For A New American Strategy Against Iran by Kenneth M. Pollack, Daniel L. Byman, Martin S. Indyk, Suzanne Maloney, Michael E. O'Hanlon and Bruce Riedel, Brookings Institution Press

(35) Jewish At The Root: Iraq's Destruction, Hell Weapons, Hatred, Networking And The Interconnectedness Of It All by Jonathan Azaziah, Mask of Zion

(36) The Zionist Infestation Of Africa: Zimbabwe To Uganda, Congo To Somalia And Beyond by Jonathan Azaziah, Mask of Zion

(37) Pakistan: Gateway To The Zionist Endgame by Martin Iqbal, Empire Strikes Black

(38) Operation Blue Tulsi - Indian And Israeli Plan; Operation Blue Tulsi: 15 Years In Planning, 10 Years In Preparation And Today In Execution by The Xavia Team, Pakistan Defence Forum

(39) Haaretz Wikileaks Exclusive / Bahrain King Boasted Of Intelligence Ties With Israel by Yossi Melman, Haaretz

(40) Intricacies Of Bahrain's Sunni-Shia Divide by Shirin Sadeghi, Al-Jazeera English

(41) Former US Ambassador Says Mossad May Have Knocked Off Pakistani President In '88 Over Nukes by Philip Weiss, Mondoweiss

(42) US Strikes Pakistan Despite Drone Ban by Al-Akhbar English

(43) Drone Kills Innocent Girls by The Nation (Pakistan)

(44) Indian Army Subjected Kashmiris To Forced Labour: IHK Regime by Kashmir Media Service

(45) 1,332 Kashmiris Booked Under Black Law In 3 Years: Omar by Kashmir Media Service

US –Pak relations in Weinbaum’s view

2012-05-16T10:11:41Z

ZoneAsia-Pk

Pakistan's relationship with the United States was hit hard in 2011, owing to various factors, prime amongst which were the May 2 raid to kill Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad and the attack on Pakistani armed forces' check-post in Salala in November.

Both countries have been unable to undo the damage and Pakistani parliament's review of relations has not deterred Washington from continuing drone strikes inside Pakistan's tribal areas.

To assess the state of US-Pakistan relations, Dawn.com spoke exclusively to Professor Dr Marvin G. Weinbaum, Director of the Pakistan Center at the Middle East Institute in Washington DC. He is a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. From 1999 to 2003, he served at the US Department of State's Bureau of Intelligence and Research as an analyst for Pakistan and Afghanistan.

What has been the response in Washington to the parliamentary review of Pakistan's relations with the United States?

It was interesting to see the Pakistani parliament debate the issue. Normally, the military in Pakistan decides the foreign policy. One wonders if the parliament was competent to examine the foreign policy vis-à-vis the United States.

Washington wants the reopening of supplies to Nato forces in Afghanistan, while the bottom line for Pakistan has been to stop the drone strikes. Drones are one area where the US is most reluctant to give up.

It is believed in Washington that Pakistani officials secretly endorse drone operations but publicly denounce them. Which of these statements is true?

Everyone realises that one could not have conducted the operations over the years without some cooperation from the Pakistani military authorities. The dispute between the two armed forces has been the issue of who to target. Pakistan does not mind if the US targets Al Qaeda. The raid on the Bin Laden compound was the only exception. Likewise, Pakistan does not mind if the drones strike on Hakeemullah Mehsud's people. Pakistan seems to have problems when the Americans go behind the Haqqani Network or the Quetta Shura. The cause for friction between the two countries on drones is over the issue of the targets.

What is going to be the impact of the bounty announced by the US government on Jammat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed?

The US has been watching the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in the context of the rise of the Pakistan Defence Council (PDC). The PDC has become much visible and the Pakistani civil and military authorities have done nothing to stop it. The objectives of the LeT are aimed at the South Asian region as well as American interests and beyond. The bounty could have been announced one or two years ago but it has come now as a mark of American frustration with Pakistan in the wake of the stoppage of the supply lines, the parliamentary debate and, most importantly, how groups like the LeT and even the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi have been given a free hand to operate.

What do you think are going to be the major transitional challenges in Afghanistan in 2014?

There are going to be different transitions and different challenges. For example, the security transition looks into the matter of transferring authority to the Afghan security forces, finances, competence of Afghan forces and their loyalties.

Afghanistan will also go through political transition as there is going to be a change in political leadership of the country. If the Afghans can't negotiate among themselves ahead of 2014, the Taliban are likely to take advantage of this and attain military gains which will eventually lead to a civil war. There is a need to sufficiently stabilise the security forces to avoid a civil war.

The third transition is going to be economic. Most of the economic growth in Afghanistan in the past one decade took place by the virtue of the money that came because of the military's presence there. Recently, there has been a sharp decline in military assistance. The challenge is how the Afghan economy is going to make an adjustment with where it is today and what it would look like by 2015.

After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Pakistan was left alone by the United States and even isolated due to its nuclear program. Now, it seems the US won't be there to help Pakistan grapple with the post-2014 challenges, such as the Pakistani Taliban, because Washington is still annoyed with Islamabad over Bin Laden's presence in Abbottabad. So, what do you think is going to happen to Pakistan?

In 1990s, there was no insurgency in Pakistan but now it has to calculate what the events in Afghanistan will lead to inside its territory. I do not think that the Pakistani government, or even the military, wants a complete Taliban victory in Afghanistan. They don't want to see a civil war in Afghanistan which would place Pakistan on the other side of the military influence of Iran, Russia and India. Taliban rule could lead to further isolation for Pakistan and could also lead to the rise of an uncontrollable Taliban in Pakistan.

What is the future of the Pakistani Taliban?

The Afghan Taliban, if they come into power, would like to realign themselves with the Pakistani Taliban. At this time, their top priority is to get into power in Afghanistan because of which one does not see a lot of realignment between the two. But once the Taliban in Afghanistan achieve their goals, they would want the Sharia law for Islamabad as much as they want it for Kabul.

Pakistan wants to be instrumental in bringing a peaceful settlement in Afghanistan. They do not want to run Afghanistan but want to make sure that they have their elements there who will take care of Pakistan's needs. This means, Pakistan would like to offer the Afghans so much domestic influence that they should be able to keep the Indians from getting too much of a foothold in Afghanistan.

What was the impact of Pakistan's boycott of the Bonn Conference?

I think Pakistan's boycott was emotional. It made no sense. Pakistan wants to be at the table whenever anything regarding Afghanistan is being discussed. The reason its absence did not matter much is because nothing significant happened in Bonn. Some speeches were made but nothing substantial took place there.

What do you think we should expect from Nato's upcoming Summit in Chicago?

Some tough decisions, such as the pace of withdrawal, have to be made at the Chicago Summit. Presumably, some bilateral strategic agreements are going to be signed. This is, therefore, an event of important interest for Pakistan.

Would you agree that Pakistan was not consulted while opening an office for the Taliban in Qatar or initiating the reconciliation process?

Pakistan has never objected to the Taliban setting up an office in Qatar. Pakistan was on board on that notion from the very beginning. That is why it never complained about it. For instance, when Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Bradar was secretly talking to the Americans, the Pakistanis immediately locked him up. The problem with Pakistan's strategy is that Islamabad can't make the Taliban deliver what it wants them to do. It is naïve to expect the Afghan Taliban to accept Hamid Karzai as a part of the political set-up or form a political party of their own to become a part of the electoral system.

Do you see a future relationship between the United States and Pakistan after 2014?

Both the countries can ill-afford a complete separation. They will struggle to find those areas of common interest that serve their purpose. There should be no illusions that it is going to be a broad-based strategic partnership. It is going to be a narrowly construed and transactional arrangement.

Why can't the two countries have a successful strategic partnership?

The military and the elements in the government are willing to develop a strategic partnership but the public opinion prevents it from happening. Political forces in Pakistan do not want a resolution of tensions between the two countries. Despite controlling the country's foreign policy, the military in Pakistan involved the public and the media in key debates concerning the relations with the United States as was seen in the Raymond Davis affair. The Bin Laden raid and the killing of soldiers last November has created a set of expectations among the public which serves as the limiting factor for the policymakers.

Pakistanis complain that the United States comes up with a new set of demands every time. When should one expect an end to future pressures on Pakistan to 'do more'?

I do not think that the US comes up with new demands all the time. We only keep repeating the old ones. The only new demand has come in the case of Hafiz Saeed.

Some sections of opinion in Pakistan believe that the United States is eying their nuclear program and would eventually take away the country's nukes.

That is nonsense. Anything that weakens the government in Pakistan should be treated contrary to the US interests. The US needs a predictable partner. A partner that is distracted from issues cannot be an interlocutor in any kind of negotiations. If the US has to worry about Pakistan's nuclear program, it would be for the fear of a break up within the Pakistani military. Does the US worry about it? Yes, it does. The US does not expect the imminent break up of the country but the consequences are catastrophic if junior officers (with support to Jihadi elements) turn on the senior officers causing a serious command-and-control challenge. Fortunately, we are not there at this point. It is not in the interest of the US or even India to deliberately weaken the Pakistani government or the military.

Dr. Chishti returns to Pakistan

2012-05-16T06:24:28Z

Area 14/8

Ailing microbiologist Dr Mohammad Khalil Chishti returned to Pakistan on Tuesday after the Indian Supreme Court allowed him to travel back on human grounds.

President Asif Ali Zardari had sent a special aircraft PAF 755 to New Delhi through Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Malik Hamad Khan. He was given warm welcome at the Islamabad airport.

Dr Chishti had gone to India in 1992 to see his ailing mother where he was implicated in a murder case.

Earlier, Interior Minister Rehman Malik had a telephonic conversation with Dr Chishti in which he conveyed President Asif Ali Zardari's message of well wishes to him.

The interior minister had assured the Pakistani scientist of all arrangements having been made for his arrival according to the directions of President Zardari.

Pakistan's first virologist, Dr Chishti was allowed to return back home after submission of half a million rupees as security on the directives of the Indian Supreme Court.

President Asif Ali Zardari had written a letter to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last month, seeking Chishti's release and repatriation to Pakistan on humanitarian grounds.

US-PAK relations post-2014

2012-05-14T12:00:00Z

By Nida Afaque
ZoneAsia-Pk

The Davis affair, OBL raid, Salalah attack, closure of NATO supply routes were one pitfall succeeded by another until one could only wonder: could this get any worse? The current state of affairs does not appear any less dismal. Persistent demands of abstaining from drone strikes from Pakistan's end have only fallen on deaf ears. Suspicions of al-Zawahiri's presence and the US House subcommittee's proposal of imposing conditions on aid to Pakistan indicate that reconciliation may not be around the corner. The looming withdrawal of coalition forces in 2014 also means an agreement acceptable to the regional powers has to be made before the forces exit Afghanistan.

What does this mean for Pakistan and where does it see its relations with America heading?

A good place to start is to understand United States' objectives for the region and the role Pakistan comes to play in achieving these objectives. The US wants to ensure that terrorists from this region are no longer a threat to its national security and that Afghanistan has a democratically stable government which works in the interests of the masses. Coalition forces have been carrying out a direct attack on terrorists and have recently started divulging power to Afghan National Forces and accepting many of their terms to culminate in the Strategic Partnership Agreement.

Over the years, Pakistan's role in the war on terror has become increasingly active. For a third world country, Pakistan has tried to relocate its meager resources and armed forces against terrorists taking refuge near the Afghan border. Thousands of lives have been lost and cities and towns have turned to dust. America, however, is not too sympathetic for it believes Pakistan is not mustering all the force it can behind this cause. One cannot blame Pakistan if they fall short in their efforts. America has not set a good precedent from the Soviet war and Iraq is still reeling from the effects of foreign intervention. It is thus quite natural for Pakistan to look out for itself by holding the Taliban card. Pakistan has protested against US demands and presence by boycotting the Bonn Conference and evacuating US forces from some of its airbases. But it will remain wary of taking drastic steps with matters like CSF funds still due unsettled.

The US needs the support of local powers to ensure sustainability of peace efforts. But reaching out to India, Russian and Central Asian republics over Pakistan only reflects American distrust of their so-called ally, Pakistan. Things are not too sunny for these Asian powers whose national economies and people are proving to be a handful for the governments. India is experiencing a decline in rupee against the dollar while Russia's domestic politics are a major concern for its public. Russia also continues to maintain a strong influence on the central Asian republics. Even China has been losing its manufacturing activities to other countries. Therefore, these countries may not be willing to wholeheartedly participate in achieving US's goals because of which US may have to resign to Pakistani assistance.

For Pakistan, diplomatic relations with the United States extend to the economic and social realms too. America remains amongst Pakistan's top trading partners and has carried out developmental projects to improve living and social conditions of its people. Collaborating with NGOs and local business partners the US has funded projects aiming to tap Pakistan's natural resources help alleviate the rampant energy crisis. Time and again US's strong commitment towards alleviating Pakistan's internal crises has surfaced, but this interest reflects US's own regional interests. The US has offered cheaper gas alternatives and has tried to revive the TAPI project which had until recently lost much of its fervor in an attempt to discourage the Iran-Pakistan pipeline project. For now, despite its level of dependence on the IMF and World Bank (both of which are highly influenced by the US), and an open call for sanctions by the US, Pakistan has decided to go ahead with the IP pipeline.

Contributions in the social sector have been more than significant. Since 2002, the US has been providing $ 2 billion aid annually to Pakistan making it the third largest recipient of US aid. Just last year $ 1277 million and $ 1143 million were allocated to military and civilian programs respectively. Some of their eminent projects include Fulbright Scholarship, BISP and HEC.

After 2014, the US will have a remarkably smaller force present and with no impending security mission, Pakistan can expect them to be more forthcoming in civilian projects. In fact, America has already started to improve its image by publicizing its share in agriculture, education and health sectors. This could help legitimize US aid and at the same time make a difference to Pakistan's paltry social welfare system.

While the governments of the two countries seem to be struggling to make things work, the masses may not harbor the same sentiments. Some conservatives have been remonstrating against US influence in Pakistan and have successfully organized themselves under the banner of Difa-e-Pakistan. Even though US aid to Pakistan is less than 1.2% of the GDP, this small amount of aid magnifies its effect in terms of the efficacy with which these institutions work, and the sectors it has been channeled towards. Breaking ties with US therefore might prove disastrous for the social welfare development, whereas aligning with them can open doors to diplomatic relations with other foreign powers. However, staying under US influence might only make us increasingly dependent, and with a strong backbone to structure and solidify the building blocks of our nation, these high levels of dependence may eventually compromise on our sovereignty. Such a mindset is also found on the American side which doubts Pakistan's intentions in the war on terror.

Times may be tumultuous but a complete breakdown of diplomatic relations will be prevented by the interdependence of the two countries. The recent setbacks have sent the relationship decades behind. American withdrawal from Afghanistan coupled with changes in the internal climate of Asia's regional countries will produce a shift in political and economic power dynamics.

These power dynamics may shift in favor of America. Its global power and influence is widely acknowledged. Neither Pakistan nor any of its other allies pose as a formidable competition to the US. Thus it is highly possible to expect Pakistan to bend to the terms demanded by US. But as Hafeez Malik suggests in US Relations with Afghanistan and Pakistan: The Imperial Dimension, America might lose its stronghold due to an "imperial overstretch". Pakistan's current civilian government has been resisting what they believe is unnecessary US interference. It did close down NATO routes, expel US forces from the Shamsi air base and may continue to stand against US imperialism. Pakistan may altogether decide to abandon the War on Terror and risk losing military and possibly civilian aid. Even worst is the possibility of US interpreting this to be a hostile move and giving in to its fears of a terrorist nation. We could then be looking at the latest venue of the War on Terror. Then again, we must not overlook the anxious efforts US is making to leave Afghanistan. Just like it came to accept Afghan demands for the transition process, it may also agree to do so with Pakistan. After all, it has repeatedly been stressed that Pakistan is an essential component to their operations in the region.

How the situation unfolds has yet to be seen but one thing is for certain; this is relationship is worth salvaging in some form than not having any relationship at all. The latest impasse is an opportunity for Pakistan and US to reach a common ground on contentious issues and build a relationship which is not based on merely temporary circumstances.

PTCL DNS issue making many websites inaccessible in Pakistan

2012-05-14T11:13:44Z

Dear web users this is to bring to your notice that many websites which are accessible all over the world without any issues are becoming inaccessible in Pakistan for many users who are using PTCL INTERNET connections.

Fortunately there is a solution to overcome this problem. All you have to do is use the following DNS IP:

DNS1: 8.8.8.8
DNS2: 8.8.4.4

These are Google based open DNS IP addresses and allow you to use INTERNET without any restrictions or problems. To change DNS setting please see this article: http://goo.gl/aQD2A

We hope you will be able to browse the INTERNET more freely and error free with these setting.

Substantial improvement make in Pak-Afghan-ISAF trilateral commission

2012-05-14T05:49:53Z

Tacstrat

The US and Pakistan achieved significant progress in the exhaustive weekend talks, sparking speculations Nato would invite Pakistan to Chicago Conference in return for country's pledge to reopen ground supply routes of the western military alliance.Diplomatic sources told The Nation both sides achieved appreciable success in Sunday's interaction at the forum of Pak-Afghan-Isaf Trilateral Commission and on its sidelines.

In a sign of easing tensions, the meeting came almost six months after US airstrikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, prompting the country to take retaliatory measures, including suspension of vital ground supplies of the Nato forces.US General John Allen, Pakistani army chief General Ashfaq Kayani and Afghan army chief General Sher Muhammad Karimi led their respective delegations at the trilateral military moot, primarily aimed at solving border management and coordination issues.Apart from talks between the Gen Kiyani and Isaf commander Gen John Allen, US technical teams remained busy in talks with their Pakistani counterparts to work out the nitty-gritty of the potential deal Pakistan and Nato are struggling to conclude.Pakistan's ambassador Sherry Rehman was also busy with senior officials of the US State Department to achieve some grounds to move forward, while Pakistan is also pursuing an indirect diplomatic path through the United Kingdom in breaking the impasse in ties with US.Unconfirmed reports said Nato has agreed to send formal invitation to Pakistan for participation in the Chicago Conference that would discuss US and Nato's forces draw down plans. This would follow Pakistan's opening of Nato land supply routes to Afghanistan, paving way for a deeper Pak-US engagement to reset their ties.Sources were of the view that the US could provide Pakistan with more than $1 billion, which Islamabad badly needs for country's national budget for the year 2012-2013. Pakistan government has been saying that it would revisit bilateral ties in the light of parliamentary recommendations, calling for halt to drone attacks and an unconditional US apology over Salala boderposts attacks.But the US has not been forthcoming on both these fronts. "US respects the parliamentary recommendations but it is entirely up to the President Obama's Administration to decide which one of them was acceptable for mutual benefit and which one not", a US diplomat said.The US Embassy spokesman Mark Stroh remarked that good thing is that both sides were still talking to each other to reach a conclusion. Sources within the European diplomatic missions in Islamabad also sounded upbeat that serious talks were underway to break the ice between Pakistan and United States and that Pakistan would most likely be invited to the two-day Nato Summit on May 20-21.They were hopeful that Pakistan's Defence Committee of Cabinet would decide to reopen Nato's ground supplies in its Tuesday's meeting. According to informed sources, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani during his visit to the United Kingdom had also given such indications to the senior British government officials.In an official response, ISPR said about the Trilateral Commission meeting: "Talks focused on border control measures, and mechanisms put in place to avoid untoward incidents on both sides of the Pak-Afghan Border."On Saturday General Allen held preliminary talks with General Kayani on how to improve security in volatile areas bordering the two countries. The talks are the most significant Pakistan has hosted with the international military alliance and the Afghan military for nearly a year.After Monday's sessions Gen Allen said he was "very encouraged" by the talks. "There was agreement these meetings are important to achieving continued progress toward... a peaceful Afghanistan so that Afghanistan can no longer be a safe haven for terrorists," Allen said, according to an Isaf statement.

NATO chief resolute on building missile defense system

2012-05-14T05:47:00Z

ZoneAsia-Pk

The Nato chief late Sunday expressed the Western alliance's determination to push ahead with building a missile defense system, following what he called the first successful comprehensive test of the concept.

"After the Chicago summit, we will continue to expand the system toward full operational capability," Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen wrote in an op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal.

"The alliance has already developed an initial command-and-control system to link the US assets with sensors and interceptors provided by European allies," Rasmussen pointed out. "I expect more announcements in the months and years ahead."

Nato leaders are hoping to declare the start of an "interim capability" for the missile shield at a summit in Chicago on May 20-21.

However, the alliance and Russia have failed to reach a compromise on the system, which Russia fears would thwart its nuclear deterrent despite Nato assurances that it is aimed at Iran and other threats.

Moscow has demanded legally-binding guarantees that the missile shield will not undermine its arsenal, but Nato refuses to enter into such an agreement and has instead offered political reassurances.

Rasmussen also announced that last month Nato conducted the first comprehensive test of the missile-defense capability, during which US ship, radar and satellite, as well as interceptor batteries from Germany and the Netherlands, conducted a series of simulated engagements to test the alliance's ability to defend against missile attacks.

He said the test was successful.

"The test was a clear demonstration of trans-Atlantic solidarity in action," said the Nato chief. "It also shows Nato's continuing determination to protect our members' territory and populations from attack and the threat of attack."

The Netherlands has already announced plans to upgrade four air-defense frigates with missile-defense radar, Rasmussen said.

France. he continued, plans to develop an early-warning capability and long-range radar.

Germany has offered Patriot missile batteries and is hosting the Nato command-and-control at Headquarters Alliance Air Command in Ramstein.

Meanwhile, Turkey, Romania, Poland and Spain have all agreed to host US assets, according to the Nato chief.

Reconciling with Reconciliation

2012-05-11T05:01:10Z

Spearhead Research

The US Ambassador to Pakistan has worked tirelessly to put US-Pakistan relations on a positive track and both he and his wife have earned the respect of Pakistanis. He was expected to stay at least another year so there is much speculation on the reasons behind his early departure especially because the announcement comes soon after the US Secretary of State stated in India that the US believed that Ayman al Zawahiri was in Pakistan and that the US wanted Hafiz Saeed brought to justice. Ambassador Munter has been trying to find middle ground in the stand-off between the US and Pakistan and there is no doubt that he discerned the pragmatic opinion in Pakistan that wants the relationship revived and the drift into corners that overrules this pragmatism. The US talks to Pakistan from a position of strength as it is perhaps the only country that has the power to shape external environments in pursuit of its interests. The US-India relationship gets a boost whenever high ranking US officials speak down to Pakistan from India and no doubt this goes down well with the Afghan government too. Pakistan understands the coercion and pressure especially when all US aid is tied to US determination of Pakistan's cooperation on counter-terrorism operations and actions against the use of IED's. The US has clearly spelt out that there will be no apology from the US over the Salala incident in which twenty four Pakistani soldiers were killed by US forces and no change in the policy on Drone strikes. The US has kicked the ball fully and squarely into the Pakistani court. The next call has to be by the government of Pakistan-an elected government that is trying desperately to balance civil-military relations and establish civilian supremacy over national security policy formulation.

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The Inadequacies of Pakistan’s Liberal Media

2012-05-08T11:52:41Z

By Omar Farooque
Area14/8

From a tool for state propaganda to playing whistle blower in high profile scandals,the media of a country yields incredible potential by holding the reigns to the sway of public opinion. The interminable manifestation of violence in the country fuelled by religious extremism has by design or default blackened more pages than any other subject in the past decade.

They lie at both ends of the spectrum each vociferous of its ideological spinal cord;from Nawa-i-Waqt with adherence to the two-nation theory as its slogan to the Daily Times that refuses to print remotely pro-radical news. But the bloodcurdling fatwas cum op-eds in right wing papers aren't solely responsible for invoking the honor of heaven bound ghazis and mujahids. Part of the onus for this must be borne by the liberal end of the spectrum that takes on an apologetic stance in matters of religious extremism. The sway towards violence,sensationalism and its successes are clear. So does this mean that the media has tried and failed in fulfilling its purpose of objectively disseminating information?

Policies pertaining to content apart,the influence of social factors is vital in determining the audience,scope and vision for a news organization. Sensationalism in electronic and print media,GEO TV's obscene fixation with death and flying carcasses,are issues regularly hashed out every time one of these organizations over step the line of what's viewer friendly and grotesque. Making money is of course important and sensational news always brings in more viewership;however the tendency to completely swing that way and forget the fact that these papers were birthed in the shadows of extremism and that their duty lies in tackling the lurking monster by educating the masses seems to fizzle out in reluctant apologetic hogwash.

When the right wing launches a tirade on how these 'liberal' papers have been funded by the US to be its mouth pieces and Zaid Hamid claims to back it with documental evidence,the legitimacy and authenticity of these institutions as sources of opinion and news drop several notches for the average man. While being in cahoots with Enemy number One is a definite no no,is this dubious source of funding the reason why you don't see people jumping OFF the Qadri bandwagon instead of ON it? Why is it that where so many channels of alternate news are present the antiradical papers still won't take a hardline approach towards extremism and fundamentalism? At best disapprove but no where will they outright condemn it and encourage people to do the same?

News of Quranic Verses being scratched off the Ahmedi Mosque was an incident that should've been condemned loudly,on the front pages,by every author with wide readership. A case for blasphemy should've been made and publicized to make apparent the gaping holes of justice in our society and our collective imagination.

This is less of an opinion piece and more of an experiment in order to learn why the liberal face of Pakistan hides behind its own veil of apology,diffidence and vacillation. What all has it achieved in terms of tempering extremism and what obstacles lie in changing the mindset of the average man,who's sociopolitical consciousness starts and ends with religion and what the Mullahs say.

Khar challenges US claim of Zawahiri’s presence in Pakistan

2012-05-07T11:44:03Z

Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar on Monday said that Pakistan had "no information about the presence of al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Pakistan."

"If anybody has any information in this regard, they should share it with Pakistan," said the foreign minister during a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS) here today.

Khar's statement comes immediately after comments made earlier today by the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is currently on a three-day visit to neighbouring India.

"There are several significant leaders still on the run. Zawahiri, who inherited the leadership from bin Laden is somewhere, we believe, in Pakistan," Clinton told a town-hall meeting in the Indian city of Kolkata.

During Monday's meeting of the PCNS, Foreign Minister Khar reiterated the stance that US drone attacks were "counter-productive" and a "violation of Pakistan's sovereignty".

"The US has been informed of Pakistan's concerns on drone strikes," she added.

The foreign minister said that talks were underway on the future of Pakistan's relationship with the United States in light of the parliamentary recommendations.

In an interview to an American television channel on Saturday, US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta had said that drone strikes will continue on targets inside Pakistan, rejecting the stance that the attacks were a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty.

"The United States is going to defend itself under any circumstances," Panetta had said.

The US has launched two drone strikes in Fata in the last six days. The latest, on Saturday, killed at least 10 people in the tribal North Waziristan agency.

Nine soldiers killed in NWA

2012-05-07T07:15:00Z

Security forces, engaged by terrorists in North Waziristan, suffered nine casualties in clashes with militants on Sunday. According to an ISPR statement, the security forces were continuously targeted by the terrorists at Amin checkpost in Miranshah. On Sunday, during an attack on a military convoy, intense exchange of firing took place in which nine troops were killed. Earlier, the security forces used helicopters and artillery to bomb militant hideouts in North Waziristan shortly after they fired rockets on a convoy of security forces, tribesmen in the region said. An army captain and two other security personnel were injured in exchange of fire, they said. The injured were airlifted to a military hospital in Bannu. Tribesmen said a rocket landed on a mosque Sunday evening, injuring up to 15 people. The shell hit the mosque at Zafar town in the outskirts of Miranshah as the security forces and suspected militants exchanged firing for several hours. Announcements were made through loudspeakers from mosques to rush to the mosque to shift the injured to the main hospital, residents said. An emergency was also declared in the agency's main hospital to treat the injured, they said. Clashes between the army and the militants began as the security forces started demolishing a garden, which officials said, was being used by the militants for attacks on the security forces. The garden is located in the outskirts of Miranshah. A shell also hit a vehicle, carrying suspected militants, killing three of them, a correspondent said on phone from the region. Shells also landed on houses and vehicles, causing huge flames, residents said. A shell also hit the residence of a local officer of education department in civil colony in the heart of the town. There was no report of civilian casualty as security forces had imposed weekly curfew in North Waziristan. The authorities clamp curfew on every Sunday for troops' movement in the region. Residents said people also fled to safer places as there had been no let up in exchange of firing the whole day. In other areas fighting forced the people in remain indoors.

Reducing gas supply to fertilizer industry costs Pakistan heavily

2012-05-07T06:18:59Z

ZoneAsia-Pk

In 2011 from January 1 till Oct 31, fertiliser plants on the SNGPL network received the equivalent of only 3.5 days of gas per week relative to other sectors who received 4 to 5 days of gas a week. It is important to note here that gas is used by the fertiliser industry as a raw material without which plants cannot manufacture urea, whereas for other sectors it is used as a cheaper fuel which do have other alternative sources, albeit expensive sources, available.

This according to a report prepared by International Resources Group for the Asian Development Bank and the Ministry of Planning and Development Government of Pakistan. "The System Level Economic Valuation indicates that reducing gas to the fertiliser sector costs the economy Rs196 million per mmscfd, while increasing gas to the power sector costs the economy Rs98 million per mmscfd," says the report.

Thus, using natural gas for fertiliser has a higher savings relative to using it for power generation by Rs23 billion. This compares well with the value from the economic model, which for the use of 100 mmscfd in the fertiliser sector gives a net benefit of Rs19.6 billion.

In a fertiliser plant, 100 mmcfd of gas can yield 1.43 tons of fertiliser with 75% of the gas being feedstock and 25% being fuel for the process. The value of the fertiliser in the domestic market (price to the farmer) is Rs22.3 billion. The alternative for the farmer is imported fertiliser priced at Rs37,200 per ton including transport and distribution costs, which is a total cost of Rs51.7 billion, at the time the report was released. The savings from domestic fertiliser production versus imports is the difference, which is Rs29.4 billion.

In a 220MW thermal power plant, 100 mmcfd of gas generates 11.1GWh of electricity, which has a fuel cost of Rs3.5 billion based on natural gas priced at Rs394 per million Btu. A 220MW thermal power plant requires 0.22 million tons of heavy fuel oil priced to generate the same amount of electricity. At Rs44,680 per ton, the fuel oil plant has a fuel cost of Rs9.9 billion. The savings from using domestic natural gas rather imported heavy fuel oil is the difference, which is Rs6.4 billion.

Gas has a higher economic value for fertiliser production compared to power sector. The System Level Economic Valuation indicates that reducing gas to the fertiliser sector costs the economy Rs196 million per mmcfd, while increasing gas to the power sector costs the economy Rs98 million per mmcfd.

The plant level comparison shows that using 100 mmcfd for fertiliser saves Rs29.4 billion compared to fertiliser imports, while replacing 100 mmcfd for power saves Rs6.4 billion compared to heavy fuel oil imports. Thus, using natural gas for fertiliser has a higher savings relative to using it for power generation by Rs23 billion. This compares well with the value from the economic model, which for use of 100 mmcfd in the fertiliser sector gives a net benefit of Rs19.6 billion.

The report observes that gas diverted from fertiliser plants is partly used to increase power generation in existing plants, both utility and captive power, and is partly conserved for future use.

The government in order to avoid a urea crisis such as 2011's should acknowledge that the only solution is to provide gas to all fertiliser plants in the industry. The other industries can import furnace oil which will be much more economical than importing urea. Otherwise sowing and harvesting targets will not be met and food inflation could arise.

The text of the entire report can be found on: http://www.pc.gov.pk/hot%20links/energysection/PakIEM_Policy%20Analysis%20Report.pdf

Who tops Pakistan news on social media?

2012-05-03T09:36:57Z

By Jahanzaib Haque

The need to be 'social' online is shaping up to be a new rat race for clicks, comments and user engagement among local news media outlets.

With an estimated 20 million Pakistanis online and over six million on Facebook, the ability to convert these numbers into tangible, easy-to-measure consumers of news content is, even at this early stage, a new measure of success.

Currently media groups are focused on growth and expansion of their user bases (via their sites or social media channels), experimenting with forms of content and content sharing mechanisms and for some, the first phases of trying to monetise their online presence - all of which is impacted by social media.

The local news media groups dominating on Facebook include the Jang Group, Express and Dawn, with Samaa close behind.

Note: All stats collected from Facebook and Twitter cited in the article refer to available data as of April 30, 2012.

Jang Group

The Jang group has established separate pages for each of their news brands, and segmented based on language as well. Their flagship brand Geo has separate English and Urdu pages.

The English page has 116,465 followers, while the Urdu page has 132,114 followers. Interestingly, the Geo English group's 'Talking about this' metric (a measure of how much conversation/stories are being generated by a page in a one week span) was lower (2,779) as compared to the Urdu page (6,192).

The Daily Jang is also on Facebook with 63,518 followers and 3,520 talking about this. The English daily, The News has 33,919 followers and 1,033 talking about this.

Geo News English also operates a Twitter account which has 16,678 followers. The account's Klout score (Klout is an online analytics company that measures an account's social influence by using Twitter data) is 52.

Express Media Group

The Express Media group has two of its brands, the flagship Express News and The Express Tribune on Facebook, though their Urdu daily newspaper, the Roznama Express is missing. The Express News page has 108,057 followers with 2,687 talking about this, while The Express Tribune page has 109,241 followers with 4,546 talking about this.

Express News' Twitter account has 13,509 followers with a Klout of 46, while The Express Tribune account has 20,016 followers with a Klout of 64.

Dawn Media Group

Dawn also has two separate Facebook pages; one for their website Dawn.com, and another for the Dawn News TV channel. TheDawn.com page has 58,842 followers with 894 talking about this, while the Dawn News page has 85,639 with 1,700 talking about this.

Dawn maintains two Twitter accounts for its news brands. The Dawn.com account has 9,725 followers with a Klout of 61, while the Dawn News account has 13,164 followers with a Klout of 42.

Other local News groups on social media

Samaa TV

Facebook likes: 92,524

Talking about this: 9,806

Twitter followers: 4,427

Klout: 41

Aaj TV

Facebook likes: 69,264

Talking about this: 2,131

Twitter followers: 4,043

Klout: 45

Dunya TV

Facebook likes: 30,685

Talking about this: 2,412

Twitter followers: 3,215

Klout: 28

Pakistan Today

Facebook likes: 17,609

Talking about this: 1,492

Twitter followers: 1,155

Klout: 36

The Nation

Facebook likes: 17,805

Talking about this: 801

Twitter followers: 3,493

Klout: 49

Business Recorder

Facebook likes: 5,559

Talking about this: 87

Twitter followers: 560

Klout: 28

Converse, converge, capitalise

In an online world increasingly dominated by dynamic communities such as those on Facebook and Twitter, media groups (and individual journalists) can now be part of the public conversation.

The plus side?

Instant feedback and measurable results.

The downside?

It's public, so media will be held accountable for its mistakes, and as in all good conversations, if the media group or individual is too slow in responding or too clunky and out of touch in their responses and content, they will die as quick a death.

They key to this new social media venture by local media groups will therefore be one of assimilation with their existing media models and existing business models i.e. monetisation of their online followers and fans.

In terms of assimilation, print and TV will both have to work on converging their online entities with their existing entities, ending the era of web operating as a separate unit. Newsrooms will have to be restructured to account for this change, and this will necessitate training staff to use and understand the value of online and weeding out those that do not and cannot change.

Additionally, programs and articles will have to rely on and refer to their online entities more (from the most basic "Join our Facebook page" to the more advanced "watch the behind the scenes edition of our show online").

Finally, editorial direction will almost necessarily be dictated to some extent by the internet, the one medium where the most two-way exchange of ideas between content creator and consumer occurs. It is likely that in a few years time, social media trends and responses to online articles and TV shows available on YouTube will shape traditional media content significantly.

Following just behind that will be the monetisation models, whether that is in the form of pay walls for specific online content or new forms of advertising and promotion, because eventually brands will want to leverage the news media's online clout.

Siachen: Who are we keeping secrets from?

2012-05-02T10:53:04Z

Tacstart

MORE than a week after the terrible avalanche at Gayari (in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir) buried nearly 110 Pakistan Army soldiers and another 70-odd civilians, there is no sign of recovery in spite of Pakistan using every possible effort and even heavy machinery to shift the thousands of tonnes of snow that has settled above the unfortunate victims of nature's anger. Any and every human being who can visualise the tragedy cannot remain unaffected.

General Kayani's anguish and palpable helplessness while on a visit to that area was writ large on his face and his words, and in our own helplessness we can only empathise with him and the Pakistan Army. The tragedy, so soon after the major earthquake further south, has once again brought the issue of the "Siachen conflict" to the fore, and the tragedy may still serve the two countries if a solution to it can be found on the basis of fair and established norms.

But the question now has to be raised: Can we look for a solution to this conflict and cooperatively try to maintain a peaceful environment in that region in the hope that natural disasters at least would become less frequent, if not totally eliminated? The obvious answer is yes, especially since the two countries had signed an agreement as far back as July 27, 1949, as to how the cease-fire line is to be drawn in this area; and this agreement has to be only implemented in word and spirit. That agreement, normally called the Karachi Agreement signed by senior military officers from both sides (as a follow-on to the cease-fire agreement), clearly demarcated the Cease-Fire Line (CFL) based on the factual position on the ground as on that day. However, the CFL was demarcated on a one-inch map but only up to what came to be known as Point NJ-9842. The bilateral agreement specifies that the final stages of the CFL would be demarcated up to Khor and "thence north to the glaciers."

Here we must note the use of plural in mentioning the CFL from this point onward. The CFL was left undemarcated at this point, no doubt, because it was not expected at that time that the high mountains to the north could become a source of conflict. But both governments had agreed that the line would continue to Khor, "thence north to the glaciers." Incidentally, the CFL (and its successor LoC) runs south to north for nearly 15-km before it stops at NJ-9842. The use of plural in mentioning glaciers clearly indicates that there is more than one glacier in consideration here. A well-established principle and custom of demarcating borders and lines of control in mountainous areas is to follow the high crest separating the two watersheds on either side. This is also why mountain passes usually mark the boundaries.

North of NJ-9842 there are two glaciers: the Siachen Glacier to the east of the high crest and the Baltoro Glacier (where the avalanche took place) to the west of the crest which goes by the name of the Saltoro Ridge. Indian Army posts defending the Siachen Glacier are located on the Saltoro Ridge which forms a natural watershed between the two glaciers; and hence natural and consistent with customary as well as formally defined borders. Logically, therefore, the Saltoro Ridge (which runs south to north before it alters towards the north-west closer to the K-2 mountain) should be defined and demarcated as the mutually acceptable line in terms of the Karachi Agreement.

Unfortunately, Pakistan has not been willing to accept what are well-established principles as well as the substance of the Karachi Agreement it had signed. The nomenclature of the AGPL (Actual Ground Position Line), adopted to give some space to Pakistan, which has told its people that its army is fighting in Siachen (though it is not even at its edge), does not provide any sanctity to the line. In terms of the terminology, the AGPL merely indicates the ground position of the two sides at a particular time with little or no obligation to maintain it at the CFL or LoC. The term was adopted on the request of Pakistan; but perhaps Pakistan did not realise that this would leave the region wide open to any future military deployment by either side since the LoC would not connect to a recognised and accepted border.

The term Siachen is used rather loosely even by people who know better; and so is the term "de-militarisation" which Pakistan has been seeking to adopt since 1948. De-militarisation is not an option unless we are willing to accept the same for the state of J&K! A few days earlier General Pervez Musharraf had claimed that Pakistan's aggression in Kargil was "tit for tat" for Siachen! He concedes that Pakistan had laid claim to some part of the Siachen Glacier which in his view was "no-man's land." This is indeed strange for a former DGMO, Army Chief and President of a country. Perhaps, the brave soldier had never read the Karachi Agreement? But responsible countries and professional armies don't start a war of aggression merely because the chief "felt very bad."

If we are to solve the problem in that area, the core issue is to make the map of Saltoro ridge and the location of Indian (and Pakistani) posts public. It is curious that such maps continue to be marked "Secret" even though the only people who know the exact position are the Indian and Pakistan armies along the Saltoro ridge! So, who are we keeping this secret from? Once the maps are made available to the public on both sides and its consistence with the Karachi Agreement re-emphasised, there would, no doubt, be greater acceptance of the reality and the utility of extending the LoC along the Saltoro ridge northward to K-2. Ultimately, this is the only solution to the battle against the elements.

What was the ‘OBL’ episode?

2012-05-02T07:08:11Z

Area 14/8

A year after the Abbottabad raid that plunged the US-Pakistan relationship to a new low, one big takeaway is that America's general public is finally familiar with the name of at least one Pakistani city (though this does not mean we and our media have a handle on its geographical location).

But on a more serious note, could there be an Abbottabad redux? Could there be another unannounced assault on Pakistani territory to take out a big-ticket terrorist?

If there is one thing President Obama has demonstrated in recent months, it is that he is influenced by the hard-line rhetoric emanating from the Republican presidential campaign trail. His continued refusal to apologise for last November's Salala attack, for example, is likely guided by the realisation that if he were to do so, his Republican opponents would accuse him of being weak. Authorising another commando mission, one assumes, would send a powerful message to his Republican critics.

Still, despite these domestic political considerations (crude though they may be, these factors exert great influence on US foreign policymaking), don't expect to see a repeat of May 2, 2011 anytime soon.

Consider what amount to the only two possible scenarios. One would involve US forces swooping into Quetta, the presumed base of Mullah Omar. Omar, of course, served as Osama Bin Laden's host in Afghanistan, and he represents one of the main reasons Washington deployed forces to that country in October 2001. The US government is well aware that Pakistan has no interest in apprehending him (and American officials are convinced Pakistani intelligence forces know where he is).

Still, there are many more compelling reasons for Washington not to do this. With fewer intelligence assets in Pakistan now, US officials may not know Omar's exact location. Additionally, at a time when Washington is eager to generate momentum that could set the stage for sustained negotiations on the Afghan endgame (talks that Washington acknowledges would need to include the Taliban), this would make for dreadful timing. And above all, given the perilous state of the bilateral relationship and understandable Pakistani concerns about sovereignty issues, the prospect of an unannounced American armed raid into a major urban area is highly unlikely. It is simply a bad idea.

The other scenario is a bit more realistic: an attempt to apprehend al Qaeda chief, Ayman al Zawahiri. US intelligence officials claim to have found major clues about his whereabouts from the troves of information seized in Bin Laden's compound. Documents made available through Wikileaks have placed him in South Waziristan back in 2003, with additional speculation that he was wounded in a missile strike there in 2008. However, intelligence uncovered in Abbottabad has US officials thinking he may now be based in an urban area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

So long as Washington believes al Zawahiri is in a settled area, it probably would not act. However, if it receives actionable intelligence that he has returned to the tribal belt-where Pakistani government sensitivities about sovereignty are not as acute-the US government could conceivably be tempted to take action. Al Zawahiri is, after all, a high-level Pakistan-based militant that both Islamabad and Washington want to be rid of. This is a man who recently released a video calling on Pakistanis to revolt against the nation's "treacherous army and bribe-taking government," who have "ruined your economy and destroyed your world as well as your hereafter. What then are you waiting for?" These are words pleasing to neither the American nor Pakistani governments.

Given the shared interests at play, and given the seeming genuine desire of each country's armed forces to realign their relations within a narrow counter-terrorism rubric, the US military may even consider consulting its Pakistani counterpart and proposing a cooperative arrangement if it determines the time is right for a raid.

Ultimately, however, in this case as well a raid is unlikely. The final Guidelines for Revised Terms of Engagement with the United States issued by the Parliamentary Committee on National Security call for "the cessation of infiltration into Pakistani territory on any pretext," and declare that "no overt or covert operations inside Pakistan shall be permitted." While Washington has resisted some of the other guidelines-particularly those outlawing drones-in its effort to bring some semblance of civility to the relationship, it probably will respect Pakistan's wishes on the former issues.

Tragically, more likely than another Abbottabad is another Salala. With US fighting intensifying in eastern Afghanistan, and with pressure for battlefield results mounting as the 2014 draw-down nears, the chances of this war violence spilling over the border remain high. The type of horrible accident that occurred last November could very well happen again.

Awan stripped of all party posts

2012-05-02T06:29:03Z

ZoneAsia-Pk

In the ongoing process of sidelining former law minister Babar Awan from the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), the party leadership on Tuesday decided to take away his last official post within the party folds, DawnNews reported.

The party leadership has decided to replace Awan with Rukhsana Bangash on his current post of secretary finance of the Pakistan People's Party.

Awan's name has also been removed from the party's web site after that he is no longer a member of Central Executive Committee of the PPP.

PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari has also issued orders to remove the camp office which was stationed at Awan's residence.

The former law minister has sent back the security convoy of the Rangers and the police and also returned his bullet proof car to the establishment division.

Meanwhile, Awan's brother Farooq Awan, who was working as a special adviser to the prime minister, also has presented his resignation to the prime minister.

Earlier Awan was removed from the law ministry, party's vice-presidency and membership of Parliamentary Committee on National Security ( PCNS).

Flipping Coins – President’s Ordinance to Suspend Section 111 of the Income Tax Ordinance

2012-04-30T05:43:08Z

Spearhead Analysis - 26.04.12

By Sara Eleazar
Research Analyst
Spearhead Research

After learning a valuable lesson following the Parliamentary Debate on the Accountability Bill, which has been categorically pigeonholed after three years of futile debate, the government decided to avoid stalling tactics such as taking a bill to the Parliament floor and passing it via presidential promulgation instead. The most recent of which is the suspension of article 111 of the Income Tax Ordinance which allows officials to tax income, assets and investment of a person whose nature and source are unexplained. This translates into a motion whereby the Federal Board of Revenue will not ask investors about the source of capital they trade with on the Stock Market for 120 days, making it possible for Pakistan's 34 billion dollar black market to whiten itself overnight. Thus no question raised, investors will be allowed to trade with all they have for motives thus detailed.

In an attempt to address the State Owned Enterprise morass that is only festering by the day, the President and the government are aiming to privatize SOE's via Stock Markets. This move needs to be carried out in a transparent and impartial way so that the government cannot be blamed for granting political favors; therefore the stock markets appear to be a viable means to ensure widespread ownership. However the current economic slump offers a major impediment to this enterprise; what with the rampant stagflation and increasing rate of unemployment, low productivity due to the energy crisis and increasing oil prices chances of ensuring funds for SOE privatization and widespread ownership seem bleak. Opening doors for black money to be circulated in an economy short of legal funds will be a pragmatic move at this point.

However, the process of SOE share valuation and bring their shares on the market lies in the currently unforeseen future. Lifting section 111 will only bring black money into circulation and leave the rest to hope that it is later invested in SOEs. This is hoping against hope as there is no one to ensure that the money won't be directed towards other markets for example real estate.

Legalizing corruption this way, might be a fortuitous way to re-plug in Pakistan's parallel economy the size of 1/5th of its formal economy, but could be a politically fatal move as well.

Other options for whitening black money included investment in infrastructure funds and treasury bonds instead of the stock market. This would help in documentation of the economy compared to money floating on the stock market where the investors can ensure their money's legality then exit with no questions asked.

On the up side this move will in the short run create a temporary bubble which will help bring in FDI and create the illusion of economic well being. This might be sustainable if the government supplements this plan via other investment opportunities and schemes and shelves this shady method. The following 120 days will decide whether this move spells political suicide for PPP or helps bolster the crippled economy.

Agni-V’s caveats

2012-04-25T06:14:25Z

Last week India test-fired the nuclear-capable Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), Agni-V which reportedly covered a range of more than 5,000 kms. V.K. Saraswat, Scientific Adviser to the Indian Defence Minister, in a fit of elation declared: "Today, we have made history. We're a major missile power." As usual, Indian media went ballistic beating its chest and crowing the success of its test, behaving like a hen that has laid an ordinary egg but cackles at the top of its voice as if it has laid an asteroid. Indian claim of the success being "overwhelming", prompts a closer examination of the test and explore caveats if any.

First a cursory glance at the history of Indian Missile program, which is presumably second only to China's in the developing world. The Indian space program began in early 1960s with cooperation from the United States, France, and the Soviet Union. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) was founded in 1969. By 1972, it had developed and tested the Rohini-560 two-stage, solid propulsion sounding rocket. India tested its Space Launch Vehicle 3 (SLV) in 1979 and launched a corresponding satellite in 1980. In 1987 the larger Augmented Space Launch Vehicle was flight- tested and used to place small satellites in orbit. The much larger Polar Space Launch Vehicle was first tested in 1994 and is currently used to launch Indian remote sensing, weather, and communications satellites.

India's ballistic missile program is in large part a response to China's capabilities and is administratively separate from the civilian space program but the Rumsfeld Commission had concluded that India used its commercial space launch program to develop the skills and infrastructure needed to support a ballistic missile program. India initiated its Integrated Guided Missile Development Program (IGMDP) in 1983 with the aim of achieving self-sufficiency in military missile production and development. The IGMDP comprises five core systems: the Agni ("Fire") series of MRBMs, Prithvi ("Earth") series of SRBMs, the Trishul ("Trident") short range SAM, the Akash ("Sky") medium range SAM, and the Nag ("Cobra") anti-tank guided missile. These have had their fair share of failures and success. Ironically, in the 1990s, the United States applied pressure on India to slow its missile development programs. This was motivated by concerns about an India-China-Pakistan arms race and the potential for India to be a proliferator of missile technology. As a result, India shelved its Agni medium range missile program but in 1997 it restarted the Agni program articulating its threat perceptions quoting Sino-Pak cooperation. Apparently, the Chinese modernization program stimulated the development of the Agni-III intermediate range missile and now Agni-V, the longer range version of it.

To start with Indian "Defence R&D Organization (DRDO)-contemptuously referred to as "DODO" by many international defence websites, citing DRDO's squandering of millions of dollars of a nation of starving populace on questionable projects like the Main Battle Tank (MBT) Arjun, being developed since 1974; the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas launched in 1983, which has become obsolete before it entered service and the ill-fated Akash, the Trishul's older sister, which has not shot down a single target in conditions akin to a battlefield.

Even Chinese analysts raised doubts regarding the effectiveness of Agni-V. Their opinion is relevant, because Agni-V is being projected to be China-specific. Chinese official TV channel CCTV, while acknowledging the successful launch of the missile, commented that India's missile program was riddled with problems. Chinese experts like Wu Xuelan, concluded that India does not possess a homemade high-precision guidance system for long range missiles to hit targets more than 5000 km away. New Delhi's dependence on foreign technology continues unabated. Additionally, India would be encumbered by the 50 tonnes weight of the Agni-V, which would pose a serious problem of quick transportation of the system, since India lacks the infrastructure like suitable roads. Indian exuberance at the test is premature because it would take them several years to operationalize the missiles and induct them into their armed forces. India has become the largest importer of weapons and its expenditure would touch 50 billion USD in the next couple of years. In its mad obsession to compete with China perhaps at the nudging of the US, is definitely going to bleed India dry. It would be better off pursuing more fruitful paths of indigenous development to help its starving teeming millions rather than rekindling fires of arms race. On the other hand, US duplicity is exposed; it is opposing Tehran's ambitions but approving Indian anti-China nuclear weapons' development program.

Govt may hold local body elections in Islamabad

2012-04-24T10:00:13Z

ZoneAsia-Pk

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Monday said the government was seriously considering to hold local bodies elections in the federal capital, and after the elections Islamabad will have a city Mayor.

"There should be Mayor of Islamabad like in New Delhi, Dhaka and various other capitals of the world," Gilani said in an interaction with media here at the PM House.

The prime minister said in this respect he has already taken President Asif Ali Zardari into confidence and would also consult other political parties.

"Bureaucracy is my darling," the prime minister remarked when asked as if the bureaucracy can oppose this idea.

About Seraiki province, Gilani said, with PPP, PML-Q, MQM, ANP, parliamentarians from FATA and independents as well as people within the PML-N supportive of the Seraiki province, we are close to build absolute consensus on this issue.

To a question, the prime minister those who were making hue and cry over the proposed capital of Seraiki province were not serious in the creation of the province and were playing only as spoilers.

"The people of Bahawalpur are with us. My elder son was elected unopposed as MPA from Bahawalpur and my maternal family also belonged to Rahim Yar Khan," he stressed.

To a question about the size of federal cabinet, the prime minister said after the 18th Constitutional Amendment the size of cabinet should be 11 per cent of the total members of both houses of the parliament, adding, but it would be applicable after the next general elections.

About tragic incident in Gayari sector of Siachen, the prime minister brushed aside all speculations and said it was a disaster, adding, "Our country's defence is in safe hands."

Gilani said issues of Siachen, Sir Creek and Kashmir are included in the composite dialogue process between Pakistan and India, adding, Siachen issue has been discussed between the two countries at defence secretary level.

About the next budget, the prime minister said that he has directed the ministry of finance to give first priority to energy issue with focus on addressing the electricity shortage, create 100,000 jobs for unemployed youth and provide relief to common man and farmers through various programmes and schemes.

About the issue of Nato supply, Gilani said, Pakistan wanted to have excellent relationship with the United States on the basis on mutual respect, adding, we also want good relations with other Nato countries.

The prime minister, however, maintained that any decision in this respect would be taken with the nod of parliament and within the ambit of the recommendations of the parliament.

This too will pass

2012-04-24T09:57:47Z

Spearhead Research

Analysts and pundits of a jiyala persuasion have taken much delight in circulating excerpts from a report issued by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) that is somewhat critical of the Supreme Court. Is the criticism justified? Not entirely, at least, not in my view.

The ICJ report makes a number of points regarding Pakistan's superior judiciary. It is critical of the judgment in the Nineteenth Amendment case relating to the appointment of judges; it notes criticisms regarding the quality of judges appointed under the current Chief Justice; it raises a number of concerns regarding the use of suo-motu powers; and it asks whether the judiciary's recent fondness for activism has caused it to encroach upon the province of the executive.

In my view, the fundamental problem with the ICJ report is that it approaches matters from an overly academic perspective. The ICJ report thus criticises the Supreme Court's views regarding the appointment of judges by arguing, in effect, that (i) international best practices allow for a degree of political involvement in the appointment of judges; (ii) the Supreme Court's hostility towards political involvement in judicial appointments was unwarranted; and (iii) the Supreme Court acted wrongly in the Munir Bhatti case by "reduc[ing] drastically" the powers of the parliamentary committee in relation to appointment of judges.

There are multiple problems with this approach. To begin with, the appointment of judges is not an ahistorical political choice that can be contrasted with some bland list of international precedents. Furthermore, Pakistan is a common law country and hence references to appointment mechanisms in Civil Code countries like Bolivia and Switzerland are irrelevant. More importantly, Pakistan shares a particular Anglo-Indian legal culture with India and Bangladesh and it is within that context that Pakistan's jurisprudence must be analysed. Had the ICJ undertaken that exercise, it would have noted that the current appointment mechanism is no different in its fundamentals from the appointment mechanism prescribed by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 1996 (via the Al Jehad case) and by the Supreme Court of India in 1994 (via the Advocates on Record case).

One point on which I do agree with the ICJ report relates to the shortage of judges. However, while the report only deals with the issue in passing, for me this is the ground on which the judiciary deserves to be most heavily criticised.

The power to appoint judges is a power that the judiciary has repeatedly fought for. With the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment and the decision in the Bhatti case, there is no legal or formal obstacle in the path of the various chief justices in appointing persons of their choice. And yet, the situation in both the Lahore and the Sindh High Courts is that there are a vast number of vacancies. I am sure that the various chief justices have no greater priority in their lives than the appointment of new judges. At the same time, the fact remains that almost 50 per cent of the Sindh High Court, and about 30 per cent of the Lahore High Court are missing.

The superior courts in Pakistan do not hesitate in reminding government officials that with power comes the responsibility to properly exercise that power. That advice applies equally well to their Lordships. It is also worth noting that the situation could have been a lot better had the Supreme Court not insisted on the wholesale removal of all "PCO judges", but instead attempted to sift through the appointments and retain the properly qualified.

Most of the ICJ Report is taken up with a discussion of the problems arising from the Supreme Court's embrace of judicial activism, inter alia, through the use of suo-motu cases. The discussion is finely nuanced and it makes a number of important points. For example, I agree it would be a good idea if the Supreme Court was to formulate clear rules regarding the acceptance and hearing of public interest cases. The relationship between the Supreme Court and the media is indeed one that needs to be examined. And the Supreme Court's embrace of judicial activism does regularly encroach upon the policy prerogatives of the executive.

Where I part ways from the ICJ report is again in relation to its failure to provide a broader context. More specifically, public interest litigation and judicial activism in Pakistan need to be examined, both within a broader South Asian context, as well as within the specific context of Pakistan's history.

Within the broader context of South Asia, the point to note is that judicial activism has been a consistent response to governmental failure. As activist as the judiciary in Pakistan has been, our embrace of public interest litigation pales to all that the superior judiciary in India has done (and continues to do). Pakistani courts rely regularly on Indian precedents in deciding uncontroversial matters. That same reliance carries over into matters of public interest.

Within the narrower context of Pakistan's recent history, it is important to note that many of the current judges were returned to power by a popular movement: like freshly elected members of Parliament, they have debts to pay. The votaries of the Judicial Revolution swore up and down the length and breadth of this country that, from war to pollution, the return of the 'asli munsif' would fix all our problems. Yes, the judges themselves made no such promises, but they watched and heard those promises be made. If today they err on the side of judicial maximalism, it is an understandable response.

The people of Pakistan are often told that the solution to bad democracy is more democracy. Much the same approach applies to judicial overreach. Just like we have no option but to grin and bear the antics of our political leaders, our political leaders have no option but to grin and bear the foibles of the Supreme Court. I concede that in the case of the judiciary there is no mechanism of accountability similar to the ballot box. Nonetheless, judges do operate with one eye turned towards posterity and judicial fashions do change over time, much like rising and falling hemlines.

Today is the era of judicial activism. This too will pass. Till then, we have to grin and bear it.

Pakistan to follow India in launching ‘long range missile’

2012-04-24T07:19:49Z

Tacstrat

Just days after India successfully test fired its first Inter Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), Agni-V, Pakistan has informed India that it plans to conduct a long-range missile test very soon.

Pakistan told India that they plan to conduct a 'long-range missile test in the Indian Ocean' anytime over the next five days. It has asked the Indian civil aviation authorities to issue a NOTAM (notice to airmen) to warn commercial airlines and pilots to steer clear of the area, reported Deccan Chronicle.

The move by Pakistan comes just five days after India test fired Agni-V to join the elite club of ICBM nations. AP
The move by Pakistan comes just five days after India test fired Agni-V and joined an elite club of ICBM nations. Only the permanent members of the UN Security Council - China, Russia, France, the United States and the United Kingdom - have such long distance missiles.

Agni-V, the ICBM test fired by India five days ago, is capable of carrying nuclear warheads and has been touted as being crucial for India's defence against China. The missile can carry a pay-load of 1 tonne, is 17 m long, 2 m wide and weighs 50 tonnes. After the missile is inducted into India's strategic forces by 2014-2015, India will acquire a strong deterrent capacity against China.

The missile has a range of 5,000 kilometres, a marked improvement over India's current missiles which can hit potential enemy targets over a distance of just 3,500 kilometres.