NEW WORLD ISSUES: 2009

CIA terminates contract with Blackwater

The US Central Intelligence Agency has cancelled a contract with a security company formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide that allowed the company to load bombs on CIA drones in Pakistan and Afghanistan, The New York Times reported late Friday.
Citing intelligence officials, the newspaper said the contract gave Blackwater employees an operational role in one of the CIA’s most significant covert programs, which has killed dozens of militants with Predator and Reaper drones.

The contract with the company, now called Xe Services, was canceled this year by CIA Director Leon Panetta, the report said.
CIA spokesman George Little said Panetta had ordered that the agency’s employees take over the jobs from Xe employees at the remote drone bases in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the paper noted.
Panetta had also ordered a review of all contracts with the company, according to the report
‘At this time, Blackwater is not involved in any CIA operations other than in a security or support role.

The disclosure about the terminated contract comes a day after The Times reported that Blackwater employees had joined CIA operatives in secret operations against suspected militants in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Posted by worldissues Saturday, December 12, 2009 1 comments

14 militants arrested in Khyber Agency

At least 10 militants have been killed and 14 others arrested in Khyber Agency on Saturday.

Recovered cache of arms and ammunitions from Shalobar area of Bara Tehsil were also shown to the media. The weapons included Indian guns and explosives from China among others.

A large quantity of IEDS, anti-aircraft guns and jihadi literature were also recovered from the possession of militants and wwere shown to the media.

According to the FC officials, ten militants were killed while 87 others were arrested during the operation in Khyber Agency in the last 24 hours.

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Pakistan as a security state

Over the years, several readers state asked me why Pakistan must fright an criticize as of India. They insinuate to facilitate as we are less than no threat from our eastern neighbour, our armed forces may possibly realignment extra of its troops to the Afghan border anywhere extreme fighting is vacant on, and anywhere our embattled units may perhaps do with reinforcements.

For the solve to this question, we requisite to write into the secret recesses of the Pakistani security establishment’s psyche. The younger generations on together sides of the border noticeably have no absolute realization of the resentment and slaughter that attended partition.

I was three when we indoors in Karachi commencing New Delhi, and the story of how our work out was attacked on the way is segment of the species lore. I allow a nebulous recollection of Liaquat Ali Khan’s legendary native tongue in which he critical his fist in India’s direction in a show of defiance. He was assassinated shortly thereafter, in 1951.

For just a brief moment, step hooked on the shoes of a major army police man surveying the strategic scenario as of his GHQ in Rawalpindi, shortly taking into account the birth of Pakistan. He sees a large, hostile neighbour to the east. East Pakistan is separated as of West Pakistan by over 1,000 miles of Indian territory. Hordes of refugees are flooding crossways the border. countless of the services possessions to facilitate were to be transferred to Pakistan have been blocked by India.

Soon subsequently partition, hostilities begin in Kashmir, confirming the establishment’s the pits fears more or less Indian intentions. by no means care with the purpose of taking into consideration the original do violence to launched by tribesmen keen on Kashmir to relief their Muslim brethren, it was the Pakistan defense force to facilitate played a chief role. In the thinker of on the whole Pakistanis at the time, this was a legitimate promotion to be the cause of Muslim-majority Kashmir interested in the fold.

equal as a child, I remember inquiry constant hearsay as regards how India sought to ‘undo’ partition, and was waiting for the new state to collapse. Newspapers were a lot full of statements by leaders on together sides of the border hurling threats and accusations at each other.

Against this setting of panic about and paranoia, it is painless to see why the Pakistani leadership reached to the West to sustain security. India had by now traditional close relations together with the Soviet Union, and plates had not in good health commencing decades of chaos caused by war and civil strife.

each magnificence has collateral concerns, and needs wealth to speak to them. The undertaking of the leadership is to work out how utter to be had income preference be not speaking between the imperative of guarding state frontiers, and the wants of the population. In a democracy, these competing burden on the exchequer are mediated done parliament. But at what time the armed seizes check of the state, it can dictate the size of the cake it requirements for itself.

In Pakistan, where we now boast all the outer trappings of democracy, the militia has completed yes indeed with the purpose of chosen governments are too weak to challenge it either on the question of reserve allocation, or concluded primary security-related policies. The new army-inspired furore on the Kerry-Lugar Act is an indication of the grip the generals have on real power.

done the years, the military came to perceive to facilitate not together as of outer threats, it also had to guard not in favor of internal weakness. In the eyes of the military establishment, the supporting group of pupils and the free system were equally sources of instability, and in this way had to be held in reserve below exact check. What it disastrous to see (and at a standstill does not) is with the intention of its own repetitive interventions experience done more to weaken the fabric of the state than any added factor.

By appropriate the self-appointed guardian of ‘Pakistan’s ideological frontiers,’ the mass took on a third role, and one for which it needed the cooperation of the Islamic parties.

This suited the mullahs perfectly, as it acceptable them to move forward their reactionary agenda in a Muslim people where they were regularly thumped at the polls. This marriage of convenience was sacred during the Afghan war while jihadis on or after around the world flocked to fight the godless Soviet Union.

Generations of litter officers at the armed forces conservatory at Kakul have been educated with the purpose of India is the eternal enemy; and that civilians are a basic evil who have to be endured, but never trusted. A part of this teaching is the notion with the intention of one Muslim soldier is match to 10 Hindus.

These are the officers now manning the highest positions of the defence forces. They are furthermore the ones who have an effect on Pakistan’s foreign relations, especially with nations upsetting our security.

In the 1990s, when India ready quick economic strides, it became fair to even our martial establishment to facilitate Pakistan may well no longer compete in terms of predictable armed forces power. While we matched India’s nuclear programme at crippling expense, we may perhaps not save up and our traditional foe in terminology of planes, tanks and men.

higher than all, we had vanished the technological verge with the purpose of American missiles had given us. existence of sanctions triggered by our nuclear programme lie in the wake of the anti-Americanism so as to infects our police man corps, and throughout them, much of our media.

In tidy to refurbish the military balance, our establishment turned to the army of jihadis raised to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. what time the Kashmiri uprising began spontaneously following rigged elections in the too late 1980s, Pakistan reacted by elementary instruction Kashmiri choice fighters, and then infiltrating Pakistani terrorists belonging to various jihadi outfits. India responded by sending in some host divisions. This apt our generals fine, as they had joined down sticky to partially a million Indian soldiers by carriage in just a few thousand jihadis.

In Afghanistan, Pakistan’s fend for of the Taliban in this episode held out the contract of a biddable government in Kabul. These policies were curved on their head by 9/11, when all forms of terrorism began to be viewed as abhorrence by the intercontinental community. The Americans, in particular, put huge pressure on Musharraf to halt his use of Islamic holy warriors as proxies.

But old way of life die hard. India is still seen as the honestly foe. Above all, Pakistan’s generals are convinced that preferably fairly than later, the Americans pray be required to pull out out because of flagging broadcast support, a good deal as they did beginning Vietnam. In this scenario, they are reliable India would be asked to tread in to make sure that the Taliban do not send back to Kabul.

Should this happen, Pakistan would be enclosed by Indian forces, and this is the self-assurance state’s worst nightmare.

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A Long War With an Uncertain Outcome

The week spent on Capitol Hill by Administration officials explaining President Obama's Afghan surge has produced much predictable politicking. Republicans tried in vain to coax Gen. Stanley McChrystal into admitting their claim that Obama had denied him the resources he needs to win; and Democrats tried in vain to prod Kabul Ambassador Karl Eikenberry to reiterate his argument against a troop surge. Everyone stayed on message, but in explaining how the strategy might work, Generals McChrystal and David Petraeus made clear that U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan is not likely to end any time soon, or to produce a "victory" in the sense that Americans have used the term since World War II.

By declaring an intention to begin drawing down U.S. troops in July 2011 as Afghan security forces begin to take charge, Obama's West Point speech was criticized for giving the Taliban reason to lie low and wait out the Americans. It also, some argued, did little to discourage U.S. allies from hedging their bets — Pakistan's continued coddling of the Afghan Taliban, and President Hamid Karzai's reliance on self-serving warlords.

But the congressional testimony of those who will implement Obama's strategy makes clear that July 2011 is only an aspirational deadline. The decisions on the timing and scale of any troop withdrawal will be entirely conditions-based, McChrystal made clear, and he won't hesitate to ask for more troops if he thinks the situation demands it. (He didn't think it would, he assured legislators.) Still, the idea that any significant drawdown will be possible in 18 months requires a leap of optimism, given the state-of-play on the ground.

Indeed, if the key to withdrawing U.S. troops is the readiness of Afghan forces to take over, President Karzai on Tuesday had some sobering news. With "maximum effort," he said in Kabul, his own army would "hopefully" be in a position to provide security for the country five years from now. And, he hastened to add, simple economics dictated that an Afghan army big enough to take over from the Americans would have to be paid for by Washington for another 15 to 20 years.
Discussing deadlines right now was pointless, Petraeus suggested on Wednesday. A year from now, he said, Washington will have a better idea of whether the strategy is working. In the interim, the CENTCOM chief warned, things will get worse before they get better, and nobody should expect rapid progress. "Success will require steadfast commitment and incur significant costs," McChrystal added. "The sober fact is that there are no silver bullets."

What "Winning" in Afghanistan Means

All the senior figures in the Administration, when asked, insist they're in Afghanistan to win. It was left to McChrystal to warn Congress not to expect 1945-style unconditional surrender by the Taliban. In fact, the Taliban may not even be defeated in the sense that Americans typically use the term — McChrystal himself preferred words such as "disrupt" or "degrade." The general clearly recognizes that the Taliban are part of the fabric of Afghan life, and are unlikely to be eliminated. Victory, he said at one point, "could be similar to politics, where you defeat the other party in an election but you don't wipe them out." At another point, he defined the goal of the mission as "to prevent [the Taliban] from doing what they want to do," i.e. sweeping back to power in Kabul.

Right now, as McChrystal has repeatedly made clear, the insurgents are actually winning. The urgency of sending reinforcements is to stop them from overrunning any population centers, to halt their momentum and ultimately to fight them to a standstill. That would give space for the development of Afghan governance and security forces, but it would also enhance prospects for some sort of political solution. Karzai has already reached out to the Taliban leadership through intermediaries in Saudi-brokered talks that have gone nowhere.

It's generally acknowledged by Western officials that the outcome in Afghanistan will require a political solution that integrates most of those currently fighting for the Taliban. Right now, however, the Taliban have no interest in seeking compromise because they believe they can regain control of Afghanistan on the battlefield. Only if they're fought to a standstill, goes the argument, and if Taliban commanders see more to gain and less to lose in some form of power sharing, might they be prepared to settle for less than restoring what they lost when the U.S. invaded in 2001.

Even getting to that point is an uncertain bet, and will involve much tough fighting. The Administration has always insisted that its goal is to prevent al-Qaeda from renewing its sanctuaries in Afghanistan, and it was notable that McChrystal emphasized the importance of capturing or killing Osama Bin Laden in defeating al-Qaeda. By setting up Bin Laden's elimination as a benchmark of success, McChrystal raises an intriguing possibility. The U.S. commander led the Special Operations unit that eliminated Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq. If the war in Afghanistan is going to end on terms that are not an entirely comfortable fit with the American public's definition of "victory," eliminating the leader of al-Qaeda could be used to make up the difference.

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Need to take back Jinnah Pakistan.....

The detail is that Pakistan exists and has existed for 62 years — in what nature is fully a further matter. urging on that slash pray never cease, and they should not as it abortive at the start to withstand off in the real direction.

A authoritative argument has been finished by a few of the many who responded to stay fresh week’s row contrary to the refrain ‘bring nether Jinnah’s Pakistan’ — with the purpose of we should be looking and touching forwards fairly than retreating.

A contradict argument to this is to facilitate beginning before long when its birth the nation retreated 300 time insertion itself in mindset and religious-political intent back in the age of the Emperor Aurangzeb. (Had it elected to leave 400 time to the age of Akbar the awful it would have been on the pull up and courteous path.)

by way of the relatively recent coming on of the Taliban we say retreated equal additional in time, back to the 11th century and the Hashishi who well thought-out murder a devout due and who dreamed up in seventh heaven visions of paradise sooner than setting out to face martyrdom.

Having retreated and firmly embedded itself, if the terrain is put at the take-off point of Jinnah’s Pakistan we will take part in in piece of information advanced. here is no second day Mohammad Ali Jinnah to control us but we do have his lexis and his example to look to. The fact is that, for whatsoever reasons and through what on earth circumstances, Mr Jinnah managed to do pardon? few men give completed — he created a people and in doing so changed the stream of history. Professor Stanley Wolpert’s opens the preface to his book Jinnah of Pakistan along with this reminder.

All excessive men are controversial, so Jinnah, is substantially controversial equally in his own settle and particularly in the rural area out of which Pakistan was fixed (some 940,000 sq.km.). He learnt his politics on or after Dadabhoy Naoroji, Phirozshaw Mehta, Motilal Nehru, Gopal Gokhale and other men of substance.

His alleged motives for having done what he did show a discrepancy from the austere accusation of a grab for rule to the aura with the intention of he was caught in a sub- of his own making and counter to his private self-control the creation of Pakistan was strained upon him. My belief and so as to public by many is, intentional I'm sorry? we all know, to the Muslims of undivided India were a subject minority, Jinnah’s attachment was to facilitate in an self-reliant India they would become even more browbeaten and face even additional discrimination and therefore receive stumbling block as a society in building much of themselves.

Jinnah’s intent was to construct a homeland turning the minority addicted to a majority, not question to discrimination and challenges. He estimated the Muslims of his country to riot above themselves, to go in with the prevailing world, effort and prosper, in a terra firma open from bigotry, imbued with tolerance for their fellow human beings of no substance what did you say? creed or race. Such was his intent, of this I come up with no doubt. pardon? he subsequently had to work with after the birth of Pakistan caused him grief. His motive and intent being honourable, no blame can clip to him for where Pakistan find’s itself today.

He may enjoy failed, as all others did, to anticipate the horrors of partition, and the group migration and slaughter with the intention of took place, but three days prior to the birth of his territory he was quieten optimistic, he static had hopes with the purpose of he may well sway the hearts and minds of the men who would be the future law makers.

Apart on or after with the intention of most prominent of quotations from his Aug 11, 1947 tongue to the constituent assembly, once he made it in large quantities translucent that religion, caste or creed tolerate nil to do with the commerce of the state, a passage that nearly everyone fortuitously is quoted together with frequency in our push and media and in all books on paper about Jinnah, we must also bear in mind the language he beam nether in February 1935 to the fundamental Legislative school assembly when he told the members with the intention of “religion should not be allowable to befall addicted to politics … faith is merely a difficulty between man and God”.

A day later, he announced at a Muslim League meeting with the intention of the mistrust of constitutional safeguards for Muslims “was not a sacred question, but wholly a supporting problem”. All this was put paid to in stride 1949 by the men who followed him.

pardon? else did he discriminate these men to whom he was bequeathing a country? He told them that the first levy of a authority is to inflict and insist law and charge to look after the lives, properties and religious beliefs of the citizens. Not an awkward task, but one which successive governments come up with abortive to achieve. We are today paying heavily for their corruption and incompetence.

Jinnah came down brutal on inducement and corruption — he called them “a poison”. yet again he was thwarted. In his extremely lifetime the men who would start the country were devious and stealing, erroneously declaring properties owned in India so that they could grab come again? was absent abandoned by the Hindus who had fled. Dishonesty, join and shoplifting were quantity of Pakistan’s birth pangs and as well as the years they have blossomed exponentially.

The rot and ruin can only be retrieved if we have the will and skill to observe the words of the man who made us.

Posted by worldissues Sunday, November 8, 2009 0 comments

New Zealand's turnaround delights Vettori

The New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori believes his team’s conscious effort to improve in key areas helped them beat Pakistan and level their three-match series at 1-1.

They may have been beaten by 138-runs in the first match on Tuesday but the Black Caps hit back with a clinical performance in the second on Friday to win by 64 runs — a turnaround which delighted the New Zealand captain.

‘I think we wanted to improve on some key areas, made a conscious effort and it’s pleasing that we were able to turn around in a couple of days; now we must keep the pressure on Pakistan,’ said Vettori after the win.

The third and final match will be played on Monday.

New Zealand rode on a return-to-form century by Brendon McCullum (131) who added 126 for the second wicket with Martin Guptill (62) which built the foundation of an imposing total of 303-8 in 50 overs.

‘The partnership between McCullum and Guptill set up the victory for us, enabled us to achieve a 300-plus total and put pressure on Pakistan,’ said Vettori, who also identified Scott Styris’s three wickets in two overs as the turning point.

Pakistan got off to a solid start of 77 between Salman Butt (59) and Khalid Latif (45) and were 124-2 when Styris, bowling for the first time in nearly 13 months, grabbed three wickets off just 10 balls.

‘I was trying to get some quick overs,’ said Vettori of his decision to bowl Styris.

‘Those turned out to be the most influential overs. Scott came into the game to impress and did at a time when Pakistan were coming hard on us.’

Vettori praised his team’s fielding.

‘If you look at a couple of catches and Guptill’s run out of Butt then you realise that these can swing games your way,’ said Vettori.

Man-of-the-match McCullum said he wanted to prove his worth as opener.

‘There was some pressure on me coming into this match,’ said McCullum, who was relieved of vice-captaincy to improve his batting form.

‘Vice-captain or not, I am a senior player and wanted to prove my worth as an opener.’

McCullum, whose only one-day hundred (166) came against Ireland last year, said scoring his second was a big relief.

‘Probably I tried to be too aggressive at times, but this time I found the right tempo,’ said McCullum.

Pakistan coach Intikhab Alam blamed his team’s defeat on poor bowling and fielding.

‘We had a bad day,’ said Alam.

‘We probably gave away 30-40 extra runs and that made the difference. We must improve our fielding because New Zealand is one of the best fielding sides in the world, on a par with South Africa.’

Alam defended his decision to promote Shahid Afridi (no runs) and Kamran Akmal (four) to fourth and fifth in the batting order.

‘They were my decisions,’ admitted Alam. ‘Both batted well in the first match but didn’t click in the second.’

Posted by worldissues Saturday, November 7, 2009 0 comments

Highest cost of ‘ghairat’

The people like Imran Khan have been frothing at the mouth against the Kerry-Lugar act, insisting that we reject the $7.5bn, five-year aid package (extendable to 10 years). Our cricketing hero was holding forth on an Urdu channel the other evening, claiming that we could easily raise this amount by cutting expenditure and recovering money stashed abroad by corrupt elements.

According to him, we should not sell our ghairat so cheaply, and learn to stand on our own feet. But no such objections are ever raised when the IMF or the World Bank impose strict conditionalities on how their loans are to be spent. For years, we have accepted, often under duress, tough fiscal measures as part of these loan packages. And here we are, getting an outright grant of $1.5bn a year without any strings, and we are screaming like infants being forced to swallow a draught of bitter medicine.

Here’s sobering news for those who think it would be a simple matter to get this kind of money for the social sector: nearly 90 per cent of the non-development federal budget is spent on subsidies, defence and debt servicing, leaving around 10 per cent for administrative costs and the social sector. And if Imran Khan thinks crooks are going to queue up to return their ill-gotten wealth, he has a higher opinion of them than I do.

This is the kind of muddled, ill-informed thinking that marked our media’s interaction with Hillary Clinton recently. Watching the American secretary of state talking to some of the leading lights of our private TV networks, I was struck by how angry they all looked. Ms Clinton, on the other hand, was relaxed and articulate. She reminded me of a patient adult, gently chiding and cajoling a bunch of sulking teenagers.

One well-known anchor with an Urdu channel, his face contorted with rage, virtually shouted at her: ‘Do you know how many bases the United States has in this country?’ Smilingly, Ms Clinton countered: ‘Do you know how many billions of dollars the United States has given Pakistan?’And this is the bottom line. As both Ms Clinton and Senator John Kerry have said, if Pakistan doesn’t want the money, nobody is forcing it down our throats. But it seems that we want the money and keep our ghairat at the same time. For a country that has been surviving on external assistance for decades, the sudden realisation that we should stand on our own feet is odd.

Nawaz Sharif, rejecting the Kerry-Lugar act, asked how long we would go around with a begging bowl. I recall his ‘kashkol tor do’ (‘break the begging bowl’) campaign when he was in power in the 1990s. Thousands of ordinary Pakistanis (including my late mother, much to my chagrin) responded and sent personal savings to support this initiative. Nobody knows what happened to this money, but it certainly did not help in ending our aid dependency.

Interestingly, all those demanding that we reject the offer of American assistance are sleek and well-fed. In this entire long-winded debate, I have not heard anybody say one word about the illiteracy, poverty and disease the aid package is meant to reduce.

Critics have said that in the past, such initiatives did not make any difference, and things have not improved as a result of foreign aid. We forget that with our population growing as fast as it has in the past, we have created our own problems. The reality is that today, there are four times more Pakistanis than lived here in 1947. Without any foreign assistance, there would have been widespread starvation.

It is certainly true that huge amounts have been frittered away on useless projects, while much of this assistance has ended up in the personal accounts of politicians, bureaucrats and generals. Hence the American insistence on monitoring how money disbursed under the KLA is actually spent.

This entire bad-tempered discussion reveals the intensity of anti-Americanism that has been whipped up by a large section of the media. Virtually no anchor in Urdu chat shows challenges a panellist and asks him or her for proof for the most outlandish assertions. So widespread have these perceptions of American ill intentions become that a friend’s driver casually said the other day that the Americans were arming the Taliban. When I asked him why Washington would arm the foe that was killing US soldiers, he had no reply beyond ‘I read it in a newspaper.’

We have been so blinded by our rage against America that we forget that currently there is a clear convergence of interests between their goals and ours. Both countries want peace in Afghanistan and Pakistan; and both are fighting the forces of darkness. So while our approach and tactics may differ, we need to get along well enough to coordinate the fight more effectively.

In the real world, you do not have to love your allies to conduct a successful military campaign. In the Second World War, the Soviet Union fought with the US and Britain to defeat Hitler. Nazi Germany was the common foe, and the threat it posed brought the communists into the anti-fascist alliance. Clearly, there was no love lost between the USSR and the West, but common interests drew them together.

Critics of the act assert that this assistance is being offered in America’s self-interest, making it sound like an accusation that proves Washington’s bad faith. Actually, all countries act in their own self-interest. In this case, the American Congress and the administration are convinced that in order to stabilise Pakistan, it is necessary to address the many social and economic problems we are struggling with. And without a viable Pakistan, Afghanistan cannot be fixed. Hence the Kerry-Lugar act.

Who in Pakistan can possibly close his eyes to the reality of the situation we face today? Unless power generation is enhanced quickly, the economy will soon collapse completely. Parents are often forced to send their children to madressahs because there are not enough schools. Here they are often brainwashed into joining the terrorists who are threatening to destroy the state.

Large sums are needed to overcome these and other challenges. But money alone won’t solve these problems: political will and a consensus are needed. What we don’t need are mindless slogans of ‘go America go!’

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12 militants killed in South Waziristan clashes

The military said today that it had killed 12 Taliban militants as government troops pressed a major offensive in the South Waziristan tribal area bordering Afghanistan.

Some 30,000 troops backed by fighter jets and helicopter gunships launched a fierce air and ground offensive into the northwest region three weeks ago and the military has since claimed a series of successes.

It said troops on Friday penetrated into Makin, the hometown of slain Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud who was killed along with some of his family members in a missile strike fired by a US drone on August 5.

Security forces were also consolidating their positions at Sararogha and its surrounding heights in the rugged mountainous region, the military's media wing said in a statement.

‘In last 24 hours, 12 terrorists have been killed, and five soldiers including two officers were injured,’ the statement said.

The strategic town of Sararogha was a former operational base of Mehsud.

Security forces also captured a 30-feet long tunnel and ‘plenty of ammunition has been discovered and destroyed’, the statement said.

Pakistan, vowing to crush Tehrik-i-Taliban in the region, said so far 458 Taliban fighters and 42 troops had been killed in the offensive.

The casualty figures cannot be verified because communication lines are down and journalists and aid workers are barred from the area.

South Waziristan has been dubbed by Washington as the most dangerous place in the world because of an abundance of Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

The long-awaited assault on South Waziristan came after a spring offensive in the northwestern Swat valley. In July, the government declared the offensive a success but sporadic outbreaks of violence have continued in the valley.

The South Waziristan offensive has displaced more than 250,000 people and the United Nations has urged Pakistan to ensure safety and security of civilians during the operation.

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Can they ever work on it?

MINUS one lives. Pakistan’s favourite human pinata, Asif Ali Zardari, has been battered to within an inch of his presidential life; all that remains is for the end to be pencilled in and the orgy of ecstatic punditry to explode on your TV.
No? It ain’t over until it’s over? He may yet salvage his lame-duck presidency? Miracles do happen? Who are we kidding. President Zardari will either be plain ol’ Asif Zardari long before his term is officially set to end or he will be President Zardari sans the powers that attracted him to the office in the first place.

That the president’s free fall is largely of his own making is doubly satisfying to his enemies. But the rise and all-but-certain fall of Zardari raises the same troubling question that haunted the country in the ‘90s, the ‘70s and the ‘50s: can our politicians ever make it work?

There are so many cautionary tales, so few uplifting stories in this wretched place with its wretched politics and its wretched history. Zardari was never one of the good guys, but here’s the vexing thing about him: from a policy perspective, his government has got at least three major things right. On militancy, the economy and Pak-US relations – three foundational issues on which the medium-term future, at the very least, of the country itself rests – Zardari has made the right choices.

That a politician could pick the right course on major policy issues is reassuring to those who cling to the hope that democracy can, some day, one day, work here; that the same politician would also wantonly destroy his political capital overwhelms that tiny sliver of hope. One step forward, two steps back.

Not convinced of Zardari’s relative successes? It’s no coincidence that the internal consensus on the need to fight against militancy has come on the Zardari watch. Yes, his government has been ham-handed and inconsistent at times and has benefited from the rantings of Sufi Mohammad, the flogging video, the TTP’s foray into new areas and its relentless campaign of violence. But no one really doubts that Zardari would like to see the militants defeated. Unlike the dithering PML-N and the opposition of parties like the JI and Tehrik-i-Insaf, the government’s position is well known and it has nudged the country towards backing the fight against the militants.

On the economy, Zardari’s team has done no worse than many of its predecessors, and certainly better than the last phase of the Musharraf era. We can quibble over the details, but for a country that has for long been a ward of the IFIs, dependent on handouts from foreign governments and locked in a cycle of boom and bust, the Zardari era doesn’t look especially bad from a historical perspective.

On US-Pak relations, step back from the noise for a minute and ask yourself this: can we afford to have anything but friendly relations with a superpower that is billeted in our backyard? Again, Zardari has not calibrated the government’s policy towards the US as well as it could be, seemingly giving too much or voicing too little opposition when it is merited, but the general thrust of the policy has been correct.

So how has Zardari managed to turn such relative, emphasis on relative, successes into a situation where everyone is reaching for their keyboards to write his political obituary? In other words, what has he done wrong?

The facile answer is, the president should have avoided the mistakes he’s made. He should have restored the judges while he still could take credit for it. He shouldn’t have blundered into imposing governor’s rule in Punjab and trying to take over the government there when the numbers were against him. He should have realised the NRO was a ball chained to his ankle that his opponents, as well as some of his allies, could easily exploit.

But Zardari’s original sin, as it were, is something else: wanting to rule from the presidency. The bid to grab the presidency and lord it over the country and its politicians was a gamble that was never going to pay off. The irony is that Zardari regards it as his smartest move.

The presidency has historically been a poisoned chalice and Zardari grabbed it just as it had become the focal point of opposition. After Musharraf’s disastrous exit, the presidency needed to be aired out, cleared of the smoke and debris of intrigue and power games. Smart politics demanded that attention be deflected to other quarters, the prime minister’s seat, the cabinet, parliament.

Even for a people with a short collective memory, the Musharraf shadow was always going to cast a pall over the presidency for some time. By insisting on keeping it as a focal point, Zardari took the unnecessary risk of the people asking, how is this really different from the Musharraf days? And Zardari was always going to get nowhere in that debate.

Most, if not all, of Zardari’s problems flow from the fateful choice to become president. We can only guess at the reasons he opted to try and rule from there. Perhaps it was the presidential immunity from prosecution. Perhaps it was the physical security that the presidential palace offers. Perhaps the low level of public interaction expected of the occupant as compared to, say, the prime minister attracted a frightened Zardari. Perhaps it was just the irresistibility of absolute power and lording it over both the provinces and the centre thanks to the Musharrafian powers arrogated to the office.

We will never know for sure what Zardari’s reasons were, but we can see how bad an idea it was. A year into a five-year term, the death watch is on.

Some have bemoaned how on a day dozens of people were killed in Rawalpindi, the country was transfixed by Altaf Hussain cutting the president off at the knees over the NRO. But it wasn’t a case of misplaced priorities. Without political stability, it is difficult to have policies, let alone fight a war against a shadowy internal enemy.

And Monday showed us once again how political stability can be a chimera, vanishing in an instant and leaving the country rudderless. Tempting though it may be, there’s no point in blaming Zardari really. He’s only done what others have done before him and others will do after him.

Sixty-two years since its creation, the country still doesn’t have the answer to the question, can our politicians ever make it work?

Posted by worldissues Friday, November 6, 2009 0 comments

‘India must explain its conduct in sponsoring terrorism’

The Indian Foreign Secretary’s reported the remarks that the international community should put pressure on Pakistan ‘to implement its stated commitment to deal with terror groups,’ the Foreign Office Spokesman on Thursday stated that the international community is appreciative of Pakistan’s actions and commitment to fight terrorism.

She further said that the ‘terrorism is a regional and global issue,’, adding, ‘In fact, India must explain its own conduct in sponsoring and abetting terrorism and militancy in the region.’

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Iran tested sophisticated nuclear warhead...

The UN nuclear watchdog has asked Iran to give evidence that it has experimented with highly advanced nuclear warhead designs, a British newspaper reported Friday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) believes Iranian scientists may have tested components of the sophisticated technology, known as a ‘two-point implosion’ device, the Guardian reported.

This technology — whose existence is secret in the United States and Britain — would allow for the production of smaller and simpler warheads and reduce the diameter of a warhead and make it easier to put on a missile, it said.

The Guardian cited previously unpublished documentation in a dossier compiled by the IAEA, drawn in part from reports submitted by western intelligence agencies, and presented to Iran for response.

An unnamed European advisor on nuclear issues told the newspaper: ‘It is breathtaking that Iran could be working on this sort of material.’

Western powers have long feared that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, something it denies.

Iran and western powers are currently engaged in talks over how to procure nuclear fuel for an Iranian research reactor.

Under a UN-brokered proposal Iran would send its low-enriched uranium (LEU) abroad for conversion into fuel for the reactor. Iran says it would rather buy the fuel directly

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The 13 Indian fishermen arrested by Pakistani authorities....

The Pakistan's Maritime Security Agency said Friday it had arrested 13 Indian fishermen and seized three boats for illegally trawling in its waters in the Arabian Sea.

‘Our officials seized three Indian fishing boats, arrested 13 crew members 55 nautical miles inside our territorial waters and they have been handed over to the police,’ MSA spokesman Lieutenant Commander Shakeel Ahmed Khan said.

‘The arrested people seem to be fishermen, but they are still being interrogated by the relevant security organs to establish their exact identity and intent for operating in our waters,’ he said.

The South Asian rivals frequently seize each other's fishermen, accusing them of violating their respective zones in the Arabian Sea, before swapping hundreds of them in exchanges.

Authorities here estimate that more than 100 Pakistani fishermen are languishing in Indian jails while Indian authorities say nearly 500 Indian fishermen are in Pakistani prisons.

The relations between Delhi and Islamabad plummeted after 10 gunmen killed 166 people on a 60-hour rampage in Mumbai last November.

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30 killed in India bus crash

In India at least 30 people died on today in northern India when an overcrowded bus veered off a road and plunged into a gorge, police said.

The driver lost control of the bus while negotiating a turn in the Kangra valley in Himachal Pradesh state and the vehicle crashed into a river, police said.

‘The number of dead is 30 while 26 others have been injured,’ Rakesh Sharma, a senior government official, told.

The accident occurred 210 kilometres from Himachal Pradesh state capital Shimla.

According to Sharma the 32-seat bus was overloaded.

Police and locals were aiding in rescue efforts and the injured had been rushed to hospital in the hill town of Dharamshala.

India has a high annual road death toll, with accidents often caused by bad roads, overcrowding and poor vehicle maintenance.

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Today In Islamabad an army brigadier, driver injured in Islamabad gun-attack

A gunmen injured an army brigadier and his driver in Islamabad on Friday, as they opened fire on their vehicle, sources told DawnNews television.

Brigadier Sohail and his driver came under attack by unknown assailants in the I-8/4 sector of the capital, the television channel said.

SSP Islamabad Police Tahir Malik told DawnNews that both the brigadier and his driver have been shifted to a hospital and are now in stable condition.

‘We have collected a pistol from the site of the attack and are looking for further evidence,’ Malik said.

‘Unknown attackers were waiting for Brigadier Sohail to leave his house and opened fire at his vehicle as soon as it entered the main road,’ eye witnesses said.

A doctor at the capital’s Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences hospital said the victims were in a stable condition.

‘Two army officers, including one brigadier were injured when unknown gunmen opened fire on their vehicle,’ Doctor Nasir Ahmad told AFP.

‘Both have firearms injuries but both are stable,’ he added.

The attack was the 3rd targeting senior army commanders in the capital in around two weeks.

On October 22, a Pakistani brigadier on leave from a UN peacekeeping mission was shot dead in the capital Islamabad. There was a similar gun attack on another military jeep on October 27, but no one was wounded.

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In Wasington Mullen urges sustained relationship with Pakistan

In Washington Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman Joint Chiefs Staff has called for fostering a sustained US relationship with anti-terror ally Pakistan as he said Washington has obligation toward security of the region it abandoned two decades ago.

The top US military officer showed his appreciation for Pakistan’s response to the serious terrorist threat and said the Pakistani leadership, military and its people recongize the militant threat to their country.

Speaking at the National Press Club, he conceded the fact that Pakistan has deployed 30,000 troops to confront terrorists in their South Waziristan stronghold on the western Afghan border but also underlined the toughness of the challenge in the difficult mountainous terrain.

‘It’s a very tough fight; they are going into the heart of enemy territory right now. And I think it’s going to continue to be a very tough fight, but he (Army Chief Gen. Kayani) clearly, and the leadership, recognizes the seriousness of the situation.’

‘And if you just look at the bombings that have occurred in the last couple of weeks — and more and more Pakistani citizens who are getting killed — and I think they are responding in recognition of the seriousness of this extremist group.’

At the same time, Mullen said Pakistanis have concerns vis-a-vis India on the eastern border.

‘They’re still very concerned about India. That’s not going to go away overnight and we’re not going to wish that away.’

Mullen, who has made several trips to the region, said al-Qaeda militant leaders hiding along Pakistan-Afghanistan border pose a threat to the United States and its allies.

He said, although the terrorist threat has been rendered a little off balance, following recent anti-militant actions, the US and its allies should continue to pressure terrorists.

‘So we’ve got to ensure that we don’t lose focus there and we are able to, in my view, sustain this relationship with Pakistan. And when I go to Pakistan and Afghanistan, one of the first questions either asked or the question that is always on their lips is, are you leaving this time, are you going to abandon us again? Which we’ve done, so we’ve got — we’ve been there before and I think we’ve got obligations and responsibilities based on that before.

‘And in all that, there is a very, very significant threat to us, to the United States of America, which is sustaining itself there — albeit it’s a little bit off balance now. We’ve had some positive effects but I think we need to keep the pressure on.’

About Afghanistan, Mullen said the newly re-elected Afghan President Hamid Karzai must take significant measures to cut government corruption and establish its legitimacy.

‘We are extremely concerned about the level of corruption — it’s far too much endemic.’

Karzai, who sealed a victory this week after his opponent dropped out of a runoff election, ‘has got to take significant steps to eliminate corruption,’ Mullen said.

The chairman added that ‘it will be evident pretty quickly’ whether Karzai is serious about improving government legitimacy.

‘You have to have governance, not just in Kabul, ‘ but we also have to have it in provinces, in districts and the sub-districts,’ Mullen said. ‘The legitimacy really needs to be in the eyes of the Afghan people. That is, at best, in question and, at worst, doesn’t exist.’

The critique of the Afghan government comes as President Barack Obama and his advisors debate the US strategy in Afghanistan, which includes weighing a request from the top US commander there for additional troops. But Mullen said today that military success depends on improvements to the Afghan government.

‘If we don’t get a level of legitimacy and governance, then all the troops in the world aren’t going to make any difference,’ he said. Roughly 67,000 US forces and 42,000 allied troops are in Afghanistan.

Deliberations within the US national security apparatus about the way forward in Afghanistan are said to cover a spectrum of proposals ranging from deploying more troops to counter the insurgency to a narrower, scaled-down approach that targets terrorists.

Posted by worldissues Wednesday, November 4, 2009 0 comments

Gaultier to meet Ashour in squash World Open semis

The Gregory Gaultier, playing his first tournament as world number one, survived a severe test of character, temperament and brains before reaching the semi-finals of the squash World Open in a thriller lasting till beyond midnight here on Wednesday.

Gaultier was 1-3 down in the fourth game as well as two games to one down before beating Nick Matthew, the British Open champion from England, by 8-11, 11-8, 2-11, 11-6, 11-4 in the match of the tournament so far.

It lasted 82 fascinating minutes, during which the advantage swung backwards and forwards and in which Gaultier’s changes of pace in the second, fourth and fifth games proved decisive.

When Matthew was finally unable to respond to these variations Gaultier was at last able to score points with more penetration and regularity, and decisively regain a control that had appeared to be slipping away from him.

To do that it required mental qualities he might not have been able to summon a few years ago.

‘Yes, I was strong,’ he said, excitedly, still pumped full of adrenalin after the memorable win.

‘I said to myself the third was rubbish.’

‘I just didn’t play tactically as I was supposed to, and I was losing my focus.

‘So I put this game in the garbage can and I started again. I knew it was possible. And then I kept my focus all the way.

‘And I got my tactics right in the fourth and fifth. And when I got a lead in the fifth I kept my head down. I knew then I could run away with a few points.

‘As soon as I got a lead I felt confident. I could see that Nick (Matthew) was playing at the same pace, This was when I pushed myself to get in there - but it could have gone either way, because it was such a mental game.’

Matthew agreed.

‘Often we have very physical battles because we are perhaps the two fittest players on the tour, but this was tactical, very chess-like,’ the Englishman said.

Gaultier concluded that he would have to recover pretty quickly for Thursday’s semi-finals.

‘At the end of the day it was just a few points in it, and I am so pleased I made it. Tomorrow is another day. I am just going to get a good recovery and get my body ready to play again,’ said the Frenchman.

Gaultier will need to.

His next opponent is the defending world champion Ramy Ashour, who can be unstoppable when he hits a hot streak.

The Egyptian only did that in phases against Peter Barker, another top ten Englishman, whom he beat 11-8, 11- 3, 9-11, 11-8, after looking certain to win in three comfortably straight games.

But from 6-3 up in the third Ashour let Barker in, and caused himself a lot of worry and effort before surviving. Once he suffered a conduct stroke for throwing his racket, and it was only when he was 5-6 down in the fourth that he got his brilliant best back together again.

The other semi-final is between another Egyptian, Amr Shabana, three times the former world champion, and another Englishman, James Willstrop, the former world number two who is playing his best squash for four years.

Willstrop, seeded only 11 after being out for several weeks for an ankle operation, scored his second fine win in two days. Having overcome the top-seeded Karim Darwish on Tuesday he now beat Thierry Lincou, the former world champion from France.

The score was 11-9, 11-5, 11-5, and Lincou was never really in it after recovering a three-point deficit to reach 9-9 in the first game.

His movement seemed laboured and Willstrop, a fine stroke player, more often played conservatively in order to tease out errors from the 33-year-old from Marseille.

‘I played a cagey match and it worked,’ said Willstrop.

‘He really prevented me from attacking,’ said Lincou.

‘I thought he was impressive.’

Willstrop may need to be even more impressive against Shabana, who overwhelmed his compatriot Wael el Hindi by 11-1, 11-5, 11-9, barely putting a foot wrong.

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Technology not causing social isolation

In Washington a Contrary to popular belief, technology is not leading to social isolation and Americans who use the Internet and mobile phones have larger and more diverse social networks, according to a new study.

‘All the evidence points in one direction,’ said Keith Hampton, lead author of the report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project released Wednesday.

‘People’s social worlds are enhanced by new communication technologies.’

‘It is a mistake to believe that Internet use and mobile phones plunge people into a spiral of isolation,’ said Hampton, an assistant professor of communication at the University of Pennsylvania.

The authors said key findings of the study — ‘Social Isolation and New Technology’ – ‘challenge previous research and commonplace fears about the harmful social imp act of new technology.’

‘There is a tendency by critics to blame technology first when social change occurs,’ Hampton said.

‘This is the first research that actually explores the connection between technology use and social isolation and we find the opposite.

‘It turns out that those who use the Internet and mobile phones have notable social advantages,’ Hampton said. ‘People use the technology to stay in touch and share information in ways that keep them socially active and connected to their communities.’

The study found that six per cent of Americans can be described as socially isolated — lacking anyone to discuss important matters with or who they consider to be ‘especially significant’ in their life.

That figure has hardly changed since 1985, it said.

The study examined people’s discussion networks — those with whom they discuss important matters — and core networks — their closest and most significant confidants.

It found that on average, the size of people’s discussion networks is 12 per cent larger among mobile phone users, nine per cent larger for those who share photos online, and nine per cent bigger for those who use instant messaging.

The diversity of people’s core networks tends to be 25 per cent larger for mobile phone users, 15 per cent larger for basic Internet users, and even larger for frequent Internet users, those who use instant messaging, and those who share digital photos online.

At the same time, the study found that Americans’ discussion networks have shrunk by about one-third since 1985 and have become less diverse because they contain fewer non-family members.

The study found that on average in a typical year, people have in-person contact with their core network ties on about 210 days.

They have mobile-phone contact on 195 days of the year, landline phone contact on 125 days and text-messaging contact on the mobile phone 125 days.

They have email contact on 72 days, instant messaging contact on 55 days, contact via social networking websites on 39 days and contact via letters or cards on eight days.

The study involved telephone interviews with 2,512 adults between July 9, 2008 and August 10, 2008 and has a sampling error of 2.1 per cent.

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The higher penalty for women’s harassment approved

In Islamabad a rare show concern for women without a dissent, the National Assembly unanimously passed a bill on Wednesday to provide for a higher punishment for their sexual harassment, expanding the definition of the crime to facilitate prosecution.

The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, which must be passed by the Senate as well to become law, amends both the Pakistan Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure, increasing the punishment for the crime to up to three years in prison and a fine of up to Rs500,000 from up to one year and unspecified fine already provided in the PPC for a vague ‘insult (to) the modesty of a woman’.

The draft, fruit of a campaign by women activists, was introduced in the house early this year by then information minister Sherry Rehman, who won special plaudits from both sides of the house during speeches after the bill -- already approved by a 16-member standing committee on law with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani cited as its minister-in-charge -- was passed without a debate.

However, some members from the both treasury and opposition benches voiced fears about the possibility of misuse of the new law, particularly in rural areas to settle scores -- though some others dismissed such concerns -- and called for an effective implementation, possibly with amendments in other relevant law and rules governing police.

The bill is the second passed by the present 19-month-old lower in three months, the first being a private bill adopted by it in early August -- and later by the Senate -- to provide for monetary and other relief to sufferers of domestic like women, children and other vulnerable persons such as the elderly and domestic servants.

It will be followed by another pro-women bill, designed to make provisions for their protection against harassment at workplaces, which was put on the agenda of the house on Monday but was put off because of an opposition walkout to protest against the controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf that the government later decided not to bring for approval.

‘Harassment is one of the most common issues faced by the women of Pakistan,’ a statement of objects and reasons accompanying the new bill said. ‘They face intimidation in the marketplace, in buses, at bus stops and at workplace.’

It said this issue alone inhibited most women to move out of their houses for education, availing medical facilities and earning a livelihood.

The statement said that although the PPC already had some sections that ‘attempt to address sexual harassment to a certain extent, (their) the terminology is vague’ and open to interpretation.

It said the new amendment was ‘in the same spirit’ as of the PPC’s original section 509 and other relevant clauses providing protection to women but that it ‘elaborates and specifies what constitutes harassment of women in public, private and workplaces’.

‘This amendment will not only make public and work environment safer for women but will open up the path for more women to pursue livelihood with dignity,’ the statement said. ‘It will reduce poverty as more and more women will get the courage to enter the job market.’

The existing brief section 509 of the PPC on the subject of ‘word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman’, defines the culprit as one ‘intending to insult the modesty of any woman, utters any word, makes any sound or gesture, or exhibits any object, intending that such word or sound shall be heard, or that such gesture or object shall be seen, by such woman or intrudes upon the privacy of such woman’.

The proposed new section 509 with modified title of ‘insulting modesty or causing sexual harassment’, additionally defines the culprit as one who conducts sexual advances, or demands sexual favours or uses verbal or non-verbal communication or physical conduct of a sexual nature which intends to annoy, insult, intimidate or threaten the other person or commits such acts at the premises of workplace, or makes submission to such conduct either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s employment, or makes submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual a basis for employment decision affecting such individual, or retaliates because of rejection of such behaviour, or conducts such behaviour with the intention of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment.

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In Italy 23 US agents in CIA kidnapping trial convicts

An Italian judge on 4th November convicted 23 US and two Italian secret agents for the CIA's kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric in 2003 under the covert 'extraordinary rendition' programme.

The CIA's Milan station chief at the time, Robert Seldon Lady, was sentenced to eight years in prison and the other Americans to five years, all in their absence in the landmark trial.

The two Italians were given three-year prison terms following the first trial involving the transfer of a 'war on terror' suspect by CIA operatives thought to have sent scores of people to countries known to practise torture.

The CIA chief for Italy at the time, Jeffrey Castelli, and the then head of Italian military intelligence SISMI, Nicolo Pollari, were protected by state secrecy rules, while two other American defendants benefitted from diplomatic immunity, Judge Oscar Magi said.

Prosecutor Armando Spataro hailed the verdict, saying the trial, which opened in June 2007, had demonstrated 'the truth of the investigation.'

Spataro had sought a 13-year jail term for Castelli and Pollari, who was forced to quit over the affair.

Osama Mustafa Hassan, an imam better known as Abu Omar, was snatched from a Milan street on February 17, 2003, in the operation coordinated by the CIA and SISMI.

The radical opposition figure, who enjoyed political asylum in Italy, was allegedly taken to the US air force base in Aviano, northeastern Italy, then flown to the US base in Ramstein, Germany, and on to Cairo where he says he was tortured.

The 'extraordinary rendition' programme was set up by the administration of then-president George W. Bush in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.

The imam's captors failed to take many standard precautions, notably speaking openly on cell phones, leaving investigators to suspect that the Americans had cleared their intentions with senior Italian intelligence officials.

The rights group Human Rights Watch hailed the verdict, even though the two highest-ranking officials were not convicted.

'No one was found innocent,' noted Joanne Mariner, while lamenting those who 'got off the hook because of the Constitutional Court's overbroad interpretation of state secrecy.'

'The Italian government was found responsible for collaboratring with the CIA. It was a brave ruling for an Italian court,'

'And we agree with the prosecutors that diplomatic immunity is not meant to cover people involved in grave human rights abuses,' said Mariner, director of HRW's Terrorism and Anti-Terrorism Programme.

The trial was delayed as successive Italian governments sought to have it thrown out as a threat to national security. Defendants argued that state secrecy rules prevented them from being able to prove their innocence.

The issue went before Italy's Constitutional Court, which agreed that part of the investigation had violated state secrecy provisions but said the prosecution could use evidence obtained correctly.

Spataro earlier Wednesday rejected the court ruling, saying: 'There is no legal structure under which SISMI and the CIA could agree to carry out a kidnapping. It is absolutely against Italian law.'

The prosecutor lamented what he called the 'twisted logic' behind an operation that broke the law as well as sending a suspect to endure torture.

'This only give encourgement the multiplication of terrorists,' said Spataro, who became known for his work against the left-wing militant group the Red Brigades that was active in the 1970s. -

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NA told NRO bill stands withdrawn

In Islamabad Pakistan The government made it clear in the National Assembly on Wednesday that a bill seeking parliamentary approval for the controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance of former president Pervez Musharraf now stood formally withdrawn after Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told the house on Tuesday that it would not be moved for approval.

The PML-N member Ahsan Iqbal had sought a justification on whether a mere speech by the prime minister had removed the ordinance from the assembly’s legislative agenda, because it had become a bill and property of the house after being tabled last month.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Babar Awan quoted an article of the Constitution about collective responsibility of the cabinet and the house rules of procedure requiring the consent of the speaker for the withdrawal of a bill and said Mr Gilani’s announcement on Tuesday had fulfilled the withdrawal requirement.

‘This has been done through the prime minister’s speech and the bill stands withdrawn,’ he said amid cheers from the opposition which had agitated against earlier government plans to seek approval of the Oct 5, 2007, ordinance. ‘No further motion is required,’ the minister added.

The house earlier admitted a motion moved by Mr Awan seeking a debate on the law and order situation in the country.

The PML-N chief whip Sheikh Aftab Ahmed later told that it had been agreed with the parliamentary affairs minister to hold the debate on Thursday, though there was no formal announcement by Speaker Fehmida Mirza.

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Taliban said 'We are prepared for a long war'

In Peshawar a Taliban spokesman denied Tuesday that Pakistan army has won a series of battlefield victories in its offensive in tribal South Waziristan, saying the militants are drawing government soldiers into a trap.

They said that ‘We are prepared for a long war,’ Azam Tariq told an Associated Press reporter by telephone.

‘The areas we are withdrawing from, and the ones the army is claiming to have won, are being vacated by us as part of a strategy. The strategy is to let the army get in a trap, and then fight a long war.’

Tariq also denied army claims that hundreds of militants have been killed, saying only 11 have died so far.

In mid-October, the Pakistani government launched an offensive in the South Waziristan tribal region, viewed as the main stronghold in the country of both the Taliban and al-Qaida.

The military says it has pressed deep into Taliban territory and captured some Taliban strongholds. The offensive has drawn retaliatory militant attacks across Pakistan.

A few hours after Tariq's claim, the army announced that 21 militants had been killed in the past 24 hours in South Waziristan and that government forces were continuing to press into Taliban territory. It said in a statement that one government soldier had died in the past day.

Much of the fighting was in Sararogha, a Taliban base where militant leaders have long operated openly, occasionally even using it for news conferences. The army said it killed 16 fighters there as it tried to clear the town of militants.

What is actually happening, though, is impossible to confirm.

Now Pakistan has effectively sealed off the tribal areas, semiautonomous regions where the central government in Islamabad has long had only minimal authority.

Posted by worldissues Tuesday, November 3, 2009 0 comments

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