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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














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









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!’

Posted by worldissues 0 comments








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.

Posted by worldissues 0 comments






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





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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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 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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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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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 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





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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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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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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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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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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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





In Bollywood industry Katrina Kaif is one of Bollywood’s leading actresses – the most searched-for Indian female film star on the Internet and a former top model with an A-list boyfriend.

She is 25-year-old, whose latest film ‘Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani’ is released on November 6, said her rise to fame has not been easy and she is determined success will not go to her head.

‘It didn’t happen overnight. I was here struggling to make it as a model and tried my luck in acting,’ she said.

‘I didn’t know in the first place whether I wanted to be in acting but then good roles started coming and my films started becoming a hit. And here I am.’

Kaif, born in Hong Kong to a British mother and a father of Indian Kashmiri origin, made a faltering start in the 2003 film ‘Boom’ after being spotted in a commercial.

She has since notched up roles in high-profile films like the recent blockbuster ‘Blue’, the 2008 action comedy ‘Singh Is Kinng’ and the romantic comedy ‘Namastey London’ in 2007.

The actress in part attributes her rise to actor Salman Khan, with whom she starred in the 2005 hit comedy ‘Maine Pyaar Kyon Kiya’ and now dates, although she refuses to talk about her private life.

‘He was there to guide me in the industry when I was new over here and will always be special to me,’ she said.

Kaif said she was always confident of success, despite setbacks.

‘I have faced a lot of rejections and people always came up with one or the other excuse to reject me on flimsy grounds, but I kept going because I always knew someone would approve me,’ she added.

This year’s ‘New York’, about a group of friends in the city on the day of the September 11, 2001 attacks, was a critical and box office success – and the moment Kaif said she felt she had made it in India.

Kaif, brought up in France, Hawaii and London and one of seven sisters, said family values had helped her keep a perspective in a country that reveres Bollywood stars like gods.

‘I had a very frugal upbringing. My mother was into charity institutions and to date, she is involved in charity work, so I know what hardship means,’ she explained.

‘I never had pocket money and didn’t have access to material things.’

Her mother now lives in the southern Indian city of Chennai and works with orphans.

‘Lots of people feel that whatever I have earned is because of the goodness of her work,’ she said.

Kaif, who took Hindi and dancing lessons to help her acting career, said she never wanted to be a star.

As a skinny teenager, she said boys would not give her a second glance – though now her innocent beauty has brought worldwide fame among Bollywood fans.

‘As a girl I was fascinated about collecting marbles and my two elder sisters used to make me wash dishes in exchange for giving me marbles, which used to be the most precious possessions to me,’ she said.

‘I never knew that the marbles were very cheap and my sisters were fooling with me to do their work.’

Despite now being one of Bollywood’s biggest earners – at a reported 30 million rupees per film – Kaif said she is unchanged by fame.

‘I am still the same person. I am not a glamorous person in real life. I don’t buy handbags like lots of other women do,’ she said.

‘I don’t spend on shoes, too, and you will always find me in casual dress if I am not in a film costume.

‘I don’t want to look glamorous when I am off screen and I want to be as real as I can.’

As for criticism in the cut-throat world of Bollywood, where style often takes precedence over substance, she says she is ‘like every other girl’.

‘I am sensitive and I have my weakness. If people say, ‘You have not lived up to expectations’, I get upset,’ she added.

She further said that ‘I want to do good films. Eventually I want to be married and do things that will make me happy. I got this opportunity in the country by starting with nothing.’

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In WASHINGTON it is stated that the tiny infants are most likely to be hospitalized with swine flu, but people over the age of 50 are most at risk of dying in hospital from the disease, US researchers said Tuesday.

Further said that ‘despite having lower hospitalization rates, persons aged 50 years or older who were hospitalized with pandemic 2009 influenza (A)H1N1 infection were among those most likely to die,’ a study conducted by researchers at the California department of health showed.

Around 11 per cent of the 1,088 cases of swine flu reported in California between April 17 and August 22 died, the study showed.

The death rate for people 50 and older was around 19 per cent, compared to seven per cent for children under 18, who made up around a third of swine flu cases reported in California.

Nearly 12 infants out of 100,000 had to be hospitalized for swine flu in the first four months of the outbreak in California, giving the tiny tots the highest hospitalization rate of any age group.

‘The youngest age group, infants aged two months or younger, had the highest hospitalization rates but are too young to receive currently licensed influenza vaccines,’ the study said.

The findings support recommendations for caregivers of the very young to be given priority for swine flu vaccination, it added.

US health officials have repeatedly characterized swine flu as ‘a younger person’s disease,’ and put children and young adults under the age of 25 on a list of five priority groups for vaccination against the disease.

The others are health care workers, infant caregivers, pregnant women and adults up to age 65 with certain underlying health conditions.

The California researchers said the median age for hospitalized and fatal swine flu cases was 27 years — younger than is commonly seen with seasonal flu.

‘For seasonal influenza, persons older than 64 years, younger than five years, or who have specific medical conditions have higher rates of hospitalization and death,’ the study said.

Even though swine flu is perceived as causing ‘only mild disease,’ the researchers also found that about a third of hospitalized cases were severely ill and required intensive care.

Twenty per cent of pregnant women in the study spent time in the intensive care unit, and most hospitalized adults, and more than one-third of children, required mechanical ventilation.

The most common causes of death were viral pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome, the study said.

The United States is battling swine flu amid shortages of vaccine, which has seen states and counties cancel inoculation clinics, and of children’s anti-viral medicine, which last week saw federal authorities raiding the strategic stockpile for kids’ liquid Tamiflu.

Pandemic H1N1 flu has already claimed the lives of more children than seasonal flu typically does during an entire flu season, which runs from August until May.

More than 5,700 people have died worldwide since the virus was first discovered in April, with most of the deaths — 4,175 — in the Americas region, according to the World Health Organization estimation.

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The UN chief Ban Ki-moon yesterday urged Israel to end its ‘provocative actions’ in east Jerusalem and to abide by its commitments to freeze all settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.

‘The Secretary General is dismayed at continued Israeli actions in occupied east Jerusalem, including the demolition of Palestinian homes, the eviction of Palestinian families and the insertion of settlers into Palestinian neighbourhoods,’ a UN statement said.

‘The eviction today of a Palestinian family in East Jerusalem is just the most recent incident,’ it added.

Warning that such actions ‘stoke tensions, cause suffering and further undermine trust,’ Ban urged Israel ‘to cease such provocative actions.’

He also reiterated his call on Israel ‘to implement its commitments’ under the blueprint for Middle East peace put forward by the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations ‘by freezing all settlement activity, including natural growth; dismantling outposts; and reopening Palestinian institutions in East Jerusalem.’

Earlier Tuesday, dozens of Israeli settlers took over a house in mostly Arab east Jerusalem, armed with a court order secured after a protracted legal battle with a Palestinian family, witnesses and police said.

Members of the Al-Kurd family demonstrated in front of the house along with other Arab residents and pro-Palestinian activists as the settlers hurled the family's belongings out into the street, a neighbour told AFP.

Jerusalem police spokesman Shmulik Ben Rubi said police who were sent in to break up the demonstration arrested one activist.

Israel's support for Jewish settlements in east Jerusalem and its demolition of Palestinian homes built there without permits have drawn international criticism in recent months.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband called settlements in east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank an ‘obstacle to peace’ during a visit to Jordan on Tuesday and expressed ‘concern’ over the events at the Al-Kurd house.

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The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has conceded that the United States was also responsible for allowing Al Qaeda to enter Pakistan.

She said that Al Qaeda left Afghanistan. And we let them out, she told Greta Van Susteren of FOX News. You know, we should have taken them out when we had the chance back in 2001 and 2002 and they escaped. And they escaped into Pakistan.

Asked if the US was also responsible for Al Qaeda’s presence in Fata, Secretary Clinton acknowledged that if the US had done a better job in Afghanistan, Al Qaeda would not have slipped into Pakistan.

If we had done a better job going into Afghanistan and capture the people who had attacked us or killed them you know, we would be in a different position,’ she said.

Asked about the extent to which the developing US military strategy in Afghanistan bleeds into Pakistan, Mrs Clinton said: Absolutely. I mean when we first did our review upon taking office, we concluded that you had to look at Afghanistan and Pakistan together and in light of the war on terror that we had to wage.

To win the war against terrorists, she said, the US needed to build strong partnerships with both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The stronger partnership we have with Pakistan, the stronger their efforts to root out terrorists in their own country, the better the situation is across the border in Afghanistan.

The top US diplomat said she was impressed with the way the Pakistani military was confronting militants in South Waziristan.

We’re very impressed by the campaign against the Pakistan Taliban in (the Swat valley) and South Waziristan. But our point to our friends in Pakistan is that — that is an important and necessary step for you to take, but remember that there is a terrorist syndicate with Al Qaeda at the head.

She warned: You can’t just say your job is done because you’ve cleared out (Swat), you’ve cleared out South Waziristan, until we truly root out what is in my view the source of the syndicate and a lot of the problems that Pakistan, Afghanistan and the rest of us face.

Asked to comment on her statement in Lahore in which she blamed Pakistan for not doing enough to fight Al Qaeda, Mrs Clinton said it was part of her effort to build a better relationship with the country.

They said to me very clearly: Look, we have a trust deficit for you. And I said, well, look, that’s a two-way street. And I’m happy to take any of your questions. I’m happy to admit where we may not have always done as well as we could have in our relationship.

But a lot of people back home want to know, you know, how come Al Qaeda has a safe haven in Pakistan? How come we arrest somebody like Zazi and find out that he was trained in a training camp run by Al Qaeda in Pakistan?

She added: I think that’s the kind of relationship we need to have.

The United States, she said, was trying to rebuild a better relationship, removing this deep level of mistrust and suspicion about America’s intentions and actions that has built up over the last eight years.

Mrs Clinton said she came to Pakistan with the determination not to meet government officials alone but get to out into different settings, universities and business groups, and really listen to people.

Mrs Clinton said that while she acknowledges that the US should have done a better job in preventing Al Qaeda from entering Pakistan, Islamabad should also accept its responsibility.

There are home-grown terrorists here in Pakistan. They’ve made common cause with Al Qaeda. So we can look backwards through the rearview mirror and say we shoulda, coulda, woulda, and you shoulda, coulda, woulda, too, she said.

The other way of approaching this problem, she said, was to admit that both countries had a common enemy.

And we’re proud that you’re going to after the Pakistan Taliban, who are causing so much damage and destruction, that terrible bombing in Peshawar the other day. But that’s not enough. You have to help us get Al Qaeda. You will be more secure if you help us get the people who are helping to fund and train and equip the very people you’re going after in South Waziristan right now.

Mrs Clinton said she had lot of discussions with the Pakistanis over the Kerry-Lugar bill during his visit.

This really became a very big issue here in Pakistan, and I don’t think most of us in America really understood what the beef is.

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