PAKISTAN SECURITY BRIEF

Stranded in Saudi: 700 innocent Pakistanis duped by Turkish company

2013-02-11T07:43:00.002-08:00

The dreams of earning a decent living for their families back home have been shattered for 700 Pakistani workers. Trapped in Saudi Arabia, deprived of their passports and not allowed to work, these honest and hard working Pakistani citizens have been swindled of their life savings in a fraud case involving a Turkish construction company and its Saudi employees.

Talking to The Express Tribune about their ordeal, the workers revealed that they arrived in Saudi Arabia towards the end of 2011 and since then have not been allowed to work or travel outside the Kingdom.

A Turkish company, MAAPA Construction and Trade had hired these Pakistani workers through different travel and recruiting agencies during 2011 after payment of a hefty sum against visa issuance. The stranded workers revealed that these agencies included Al Jawad recruiting agency and Iqra recruiting agency, among others.

However, once the labourers reached the kingdom, they were informed that the company did not have enough work. “We gave our passports to our respective agents and were issued Iqama (residence permit), but before we could begin work we were informed by a Saudi agent that the company did not have enough work, advising us to wait. He added that the company will call us when they need us,” they revealed.

As it turned out, the visas issued to the Pakistani’s were in fact illegal. As the fraud came to light, a case was registered at Emara (Governor House), Riyadh and the passports of the 700 workers were confiscated by Governor House Police. The case is currently under process.

The Turkish company, instead of helping the stranded Pakistani citizens, blamed their manager for issuing fake visas for work that never existed. The manager and his Saudi counterparts are now under arrest.

“When we met the manager of the company, he confided to us that the visas we are holding are illegal. He said the company would help us in the deportation process,” according to Zeeshan Ahmad, one of the stranded workers.

Ahmad said this was unacceptable. He added that the Pakistani workers are demanding that they be reimbursed for their expenses and be allowed to exit properly from the Kingdom, since they did not commit any fraud.

However, the Pakistani workers are stuck. It has been almost a year since the case was first registered but no respite in sight for these workers, who are not allowed to transfer their work permits to another company.

“We are not sure how much time it will take. We are innocent; we paid a handsome amount and came to, the kingdom for a better future. Instead we are suffering for someone else’s crime,” said Shahzad Kashmiri, another Pakistani worker.

“We went to the embassy of Pakistan, hoping to receive help. Despite our frequent visits and our meeting with ambassador Muhammad Naeem Khan, no progress has been made on our behalf as yet,” said Kashmiri. No Pakistani official at the Foreign Office was available for comment on the issue.

Desperate for salvation and faced with a lack of response from the Pakistani embassy in Riyadh, these labourers are now appealing to President Asif Ali Zardari, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and the Minister for Overseas Pakistanis to take notice of the case and give them the opportunity to travel back to their homeland.

First in history: Rupee weakens to 100 against dollar

2013-02-11T07:42:00.003-08:00

The Pakistani rupee on Monday sank to an all-time low against the US dollar over forex reserve fears as the country repayed $146 million to the International Monetary Fund.

The rupee fell to 100.1 to the greenback in trading in Karachi, down from 99.30 on the open market Friday, and has now lost 39 per cent of its value against the US currency since March 2008.

“We have traded the dollar at Rs100.1, although there is a slight difference on the open market,” said currency dealer Mohammad Arshad.

The official inter-bank rate for the dollar is Rs98, but Mohammad Sohail, who heads brokerage firm Topline Securities, confirmed it had crossed 100 on the open market.

Pakistan had a $10.7 billion IMF loan until September, but had drawn only about a third of it. The government has indicated it would not seek a new loan.

Pakistan repaid $145.79 million to the IMF on Monday and is scheduled to repay another $375 million on February 26, according to Syed Wasimuddin, spokesman for the country’s central State Bank.

So far Pakistan has repaid $2.57 billion, $1.5 million this fiscal year, ending June 30, according to the central bank.

“The rupee is likely to remain under pressure because of IMF repayments,” said Sohail.

“The foreign exchange reserves have declined to $8.7 billion as of January 31 from $10.8 billion at end-June 2012,” said the central bank last week.

The IMF last November urged Pakistan to reduce its large budget deficit to bolster the struggling economy’s resiliency, noting that foreign exchange reserves under $10 billion were below adequate levels.
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Negotiations with the Taliban

2013-02-11T07:40:00.002-08:00

For the first time since its formation in December 2007, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has made an open offer of dialogue through the media. Negotiations have been held with it in the past and a number of peace treaties were inked. However, people — whose identities were not disclosed — held these negotiations in secrecy and the details were not officially released to the media. Peace deals were negotiated by the political administration, assisted in some cases by parliamentarians elected from the area and agreements were approved by serving or retired senior army officers. Now, the TTP has demanded national level political leaders as guarantors to ensure that the government honours any ceasefire deal that is inked.

Foreign militants entered Waziristan after Nato operations in Afghanistan started following the 9/11 attacks. In South Waziristan, they took refuge in the land of Ahmedzai Wazir, in the spring of 2002. Negotiations were held with nine sub-tribes of Wazirs by the political administration for expulsion of these militants. The tribes were not comfortable with the presence of strangers and made a commitment that they would not allow them to operate in their areas. However, foreign terrorists, guided by a few local facilitators, initiated the killing of prominent Maliks who could have led the tribals against them. Subsequently, the Ahmedzai tribe showed its inability to evict the foreigners but assured support to the security forces in case they initiated an operation. A number of targeted operations were conducted in 2002. However, the strength of the militants continued to increase and by mid-2002, Waziristan had become the headquarters of al Qaeda.

Operations against tribal criminals, launched by the Frontier Corps and the political administration, had been a normal practice in Fata for a long time. However, dealing with hardcore terrorists was a new phenomenon. Induction of the army in Fata led to civil-military friction and the authority of the political agents was diluted. Since the leadership in Islamabad had little idea about Fata, it relied heavily on the opinion of senior Pashtun military officers dealing with the area. Focused operations in Waziristan in 2002-03 could have eliminated the menace of terrorism but instead, the course of negotiations was preferred. The terrorists took full advantage of these peace agreements, increased their strength and spread their organisation to other parts of Fata and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P). By 2007, they were completely or partially ruling about 17 administrative units of Fata and K-P. The Pakistan Army has now managed to evict them from about 15 administrative units but North Waziristan is still under their control.

The government should consider the TTP dialogue offer, not because it is likely to resolve the issue of terrorism but because a majority of the population prefer this option over the use of force. Nawaz Sharif wants the government to initiate dialogue and Imran Khan, for many years, has been opposed to military operations and is convinced that engaging the TTP in dialogue is the best option. The TTP has never hidden its agenda. It believes that the present governance system is unIslamic and wants to change it through jihad. The initial ceasefire offer made by Asmatullah Muawiya was conditionally linked to amendments in the Constitution to make it Sharia-based.

During negotiations, the TTP’s official viewpoint will become clear to those who still have doubts about it. The point that they will take advantage of these talks to gain time is not valid as, except for drone strikes, no operation is in progress in North Waziristan. They are virtually ruling that area and are under no pressure. In all probability, they will present unreasonable and unconstitutional demands for renouncing violence. If they are reasonable and sincere, it would be best for Pakistan. If they are not, at least the people will finally know their real intentions and this may lead to the development of a national consensus on a few points — the TTP are a threat to internal security, they are not waging jihad against the US, they will not lay down arms once the US exits the region, they want power and negotiations are not the only solution to eliminate terrorism from Pakistan.

Pakistan Taliban 'bans vulgar films, Viagra'

2013-02-11T07:39:00.002-08:00

The Tehreek-e-Taliban has warned shopkeepers in Karkhano market, Peshawar to stop selling “obscene films” and Viagra-style male potency pills.

Shopkeepers told AFP Monday that they found handwritten pamphlets containing the warnings on Saturday.

“Selling sex drugs, vulgar films and obscene movies are against Sharia,” said copies of the pamphlet distributed in the name of TTP Khyber.

“All those involved in this business are warned to quit this occupation and start a lawful business or face the consequences,” it said.

Those who received the threatening letter spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity because of fear of reprisals.

Dozens of shops in Karkhano openly sell pornographic films and male potency tablets, according to witnesses.

The market borders the Khyber district, where fighting has recently intensified in a long-running military operation against the Taliban and other militias on the Afghan border.

Shopkeepers selling music and films are routinely threatened in the area, where hundreds of DVD and CD shops have been bombed in the past by militants who deem their business un-Islamic.

At least 10 people were killed and 26 wounded Friday when a bomb exploded near a DVD shop in Kalaya, the main town of Orakzai tribal district.

US tests withdrawing military equipment through Pakistan

2013-02-11T07:38:00.003-08:00

The US military has started to withdraw equipment from Afghanistan through Pakistan ahead of next year’s deadline for combat troops to leave the war against the Taliban, an official said Monday.

The US military has started to withdraw equipment from Afghanistan through Pakistan ahead of next year’s deadline for combat troops to leave the war against the Taliban, an official said Monday.

Two convoys, each hauling 25 shipping containers, entered Pakistan at the Chaman and Torkham border crossings on Sunday as part of the US redeployment of equipment from Afghanistan, US Lieutenant Colonel Les Carroll told AFP.

“The passage of these convoys marks the first US shipments from Afghanistan through Pakistan since July 2012,” Carroll said.

Pakistan in July temporarily stopped NATO traffic after gunmen attacked NATO trucks, killing a driver, in the northwestern border town of Jamrud.

Islamabad also imposed a seven-month blockade on NATO traffic passing overland to Afghanistan after US air strikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on November 26, 2011.

Carroll told AFP that the two convoys had been sent through Pakistan as a “test” as the military decides how best to withdraw the huge amount of US and NATO equipment in Afghanistan, more than 11 years after a US-led invasion brought down the Taliban.

“There are still 100,000 men and 200 bases. Some of the equipment will stay (in Afghanistan), some of it will be redeployed,” Carroll said.

“We have got to use any feasible way to do that. The northern route and of course air are other solutions.”

Pakistani-US relations have now largely recovered and the outgoing US commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, and his successor, General Joseph Dunford, on Thursday held talks with Pakistani army chief of staff, General Ashfaq Kayani.

The New York Times reported last month that in the next two years NATO forces are expected to remove about 70,000 vehicles and 120,000 shipping containers from Afghanistan, and the way out will require rail lines and well-surfaced roads.

Although Pakistan is the most efficient and cheapest route, the blockade and Pakistan’s past demands for more money have made Western officials wary of over reliance on Islamabad.

The New York Times said officials in Uzbekistan have offered to provide a land route for equipment leaving northern Afghanistan if vehicles and military supplies can be left behind for them.

The so-called Northern Distribution Network accounts for just over 50 per cent of NATO cargo transport and 40 per cent for the United States, which also receives around 30 per cent of its supplies by air.

A Pakistani customs official in Jamrud said that Sunday’s containers came from Bagram, the largest US-run air base in Afghanistan, and were trucked into Pakistan under tight security provided by paramilitary troops.

Hanif Khan Marwat, the president of the All Pakistan Goods Carriers Association, said the convoys were on their way to the port city of Karachi.

“The containers are carrying military equipment. This is the first time that such a big number of trucks are coming back to Karachi with NATO equipment,” he said.

Spiralling violence

2013-02-07T05:25:00.000-08:00

Bad news comes our way too often. We all know that violence has grown rapidly in the country, affecting the lives of thousands. But it is only when actual figures are placed before us that we realise just how bad things are — and how quickly they seem to be worsening.

According to a weekly monitoring report compiled by the Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen) and covering the period between January 26 to February 1 this year, at least 73 people were killed across the country in 43 incidents of violence. For a single week, this is a huge number. The report shows that 77 per cent of the victims were civilians, and of course, aside from those who died, many others were injured. For the week covered in the latest Fafen report, target killings claimed the most lives, with 25 people gunned down in Karachi alone. Terrorist activities killed 16 people and injured 18 others. Thirty-eight people were killed in Sindh and 21 in Balochistan as a result of targeted killings, terrorism and tribal conflicts.

In addition, a counter-terrorism operation in the tribal belt killed 13 militants. Sectarian, ethnic and militant forces lay behind the terrorist killings. Attacks on schools were also reported, from the tribal areas and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

We also know violence has not fallen since that week. The pace at which it continues to increase, in so many different forms, is deeply disturbing. We have already lost too many lives to bullets and bombs. Those completely uninvolved in conflict are most often the victims. It is essential that we find a way to stop this bloodshed.

This senseless violence has continued far too long. Its acceleration across the country is something we need to think very deeply about, given the deep scars it has already left on society and the fresh wounds it continues to inflict. Only when we find a way to stop this mayhem will the injuries heal, the trauma begin to fade and some sense of normalcy return to the lives of people who today, live in a state of constant fear, with possible death lurking everywhere.

Balochistan insurgency: Provincial panel orders ‘tough’ action

2013-02-07T05:23:00.002-08:00

A top provincial committee has ordered tough, targeted and indiscriminate action against militants to improve the law and order across the troubled province.

The Provincial Apex Committee was formed late last year on the recommendation of the federal cabinet’s panel on Balochistan to ensure a coordinated and integrated approach to law and order matters.

The high-powered committee comprises the governor, corps commander, Frontier Corps and police chiefs, and chief secretary.

In Wednesday’s meeting, the committee called for better coordination and cooperation among the law-enforcement agencies in order to ensure peace in the volatile province.

The committee was told that the government has set aside Rs50 million for the rehabilitation of reconcilable insurgents. Of this amount, Rs5.5 million has already been released and will be given as a stipend to militants who renounce violence and end ties with banned outfits.

The committee observed that there were only 88 missing persons in the province and efforts to locate them were ongoing, according to a handout.

The committee was also told that there has been a marked decline in the kidnapping-for-ransom cases and security forces had launched targeted operations against anti-social elements. It also appealed to the ulema to play a part to ensure sectarian harmony in
the province.

Governor Nawab Zulfiqar Ali Magsi, who chaired the meeting, said that the families of the Quetta blast victims were being given compensation and the process had already started.

The committee reviewed the security situation at prisons across Balochistan and decided to boost security to pre-empt terrorist attacks.

The committee was briefed on the role and functioning of the Balochistan Levies and Balochistan Constabulary and the governor ordered both forces to be more efficient and effective in maintaining public order.

Security forces kill 12 suspected militants in Orakzai Agency

2013-02-07T05:22:00.000-08:00

Security forces killed 12 suspected militants in an air raid in Orakzai Agency Fighter jets targeted militant hideouts in the Mamozai are of Upper Orakzai.

According to sources, five hideouts were destroyed in the attack.

Earlier on February 6, eight suspected militants were killed in a similar raid. It was the fifth such attack on militants this year. According to security forces, the previous four air raids killed around 38 militants, while 11 hideouts were destroyed. However, the exact figures are difficult to verify.

Strategic importance of Orakzai Agency

Orakzai Agency is strategically an important area. Covering an area of 700 square miles, the agency shares its borders with Kurram and Khyber agencies, Hangu district and Kohat, Darra Adamkhel.

It is the only agency among seven that does not share a border with Afghanistan. Its estimated population is 450,000. Since 2010, most of the agency was believed to be a safe haven for local and foreign militants, but security forces launched an operation to eliminate them. The operation is still continuing.

Around 97% of the agency has been reclaimed from militants.

Half of all Afghans paid bribes in 2012: UN report

2013-02-07T05:19:00.002-08:00

The cost of corruption in Afghanistan has risen sharply and half of all citizens paid a bribe to public officials last year, a new United Nations study said Thursday.

More than 11 years after a US-led invasion led to billions of dollars in aid flowing into one of the world’s poorest countries, Afghanistan ranks among the most corrupt nations on earth.

And Western nations due to pull their troops out next year have linked future financial support to the aid-dependent nation to a crackdown on graft.

The report by the UN office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Afghanistan’s anti-corruption unit says that while there has been “some tangible progress”, the total cost of corruption increased to $3.9 billion in 2012 — 40 percent up on 2009.

“The bribes that Afghan citizens paid in 2012 equals double Afghanistan’s domestic revenue or one-fourth of the Tokyo pledge,” the report says, referring to the $16 billion promised by donors at a conference in Japan last year.

“Nobody doubts the seriousness of the issue, the art is to design the correct strategy to remedy the situation,” said UNODC regional representative Jean-Luc Lemahieu.

The report shows that corruption appears to be increasingly tolerated by ordinary people.

More than 68 percent of those surveyed considered it acceptable for a civil servant to top up a low salary by accepting small bribes — up from 42 percent in 2009, the report noted.

And 67 percent considered it “sometimes acceptable” for a civil servant to be recruited on the basis of family ties and friendship networks — also up from 42 percent four years ago.

While the cost of corruption had risen, the total number of people paying bribes had dropped from 58 percent in 2009 to 50 percent last year — but they were paying more often.

The survey was based on a representative sample of 6,700 citizens interviewed across the country.

President Hamid Karzai in December blamed foreigners for most of the corruption in Afghanistan and said the withdrawal of NATO troops in 2014 would help rid the country of graft.

The Afghan government has previously pointed the finger at the contract systems of the international community for spreading corruption, although it admits graft is rife within its own ranks.

Architect of US drone war faces public spotlight

2013-02-07T05:18:00.004-08:00

The hard-nosed architect of the US drone war against Al-Qaeda, John Brennan, will face tough questions about secret assassinations Thursday from senators weighing his nomination to lead the CIA.

The confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee promises to focus a rare public spotlight on President Barack Obama’s covert campaign to hunt down Al-Qaeda suspects worldwide in drone bombing raids.

The administration has sought to shroud the raids in secrecy but the threat of lawsuits and frustration from lawmakers has piled pressure on officials to publicly defend the conduct of the drone war.

Although Brennan is expected to be approved as the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency, some senators see the hearing as a chance to question the legality of the drone campaign and to extract details that the White House has long refused to divulge.

Two days before the hearing, a Justice Department document leaked to news media that outlines the legal justification for killing a US citizen abroad. The document, which says an American can be targeted if he is a senior, “operational” figure in the Al-Qaeda terror network, reportedly had been passed to lawmakers last year.

Brennan, 57, a veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency, where he worked for 25 years, is widely portrayed as the most influential figure in the administration when it comes to the drone war and counter-terror policy.

“John has been the czar of American counter terrorism for the last four years. He has been central to every decision and a key interlocutor with foreign governments, especially the Saudis,” Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer and a fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank, told AFP.

Critics paint Brennan as running roughshod over legal concerns and presiding over a shadow war in which the US president wields enormous power but is not held accountable by the courts, Congress or the public.

“Brennan has been something of a Forrest Gump of toxic national security policies, having been in the room when everything from torture to the killing of an American citizen was being debated,” said Christopher Anders, senior legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.

Senators “should not vote on his nomination until all Americans know whether the decisions Brennan made at CIA headquarters and in his White House office comply with our laws and uphold basic American values.”

But former officials and colleagues say Brennan is no villain and instead has exerted a restraining influence, rejecting requests for broader strikes from the CIA and the military and pushing through stricter rules to avoid local backlash or civilian casualties.

“His emphasis has been to avoid large ground wars a la Bush and emphasize light footprints, drones and working with partners like France in Mali,” Riedel said.

Some rights advocates and commentators have called for placing the drone strikes entirely under military control, to make the raids more transparent and remove the “covert” authority that maintains a veil of secrecy.

Brennan, a former CIA station chief in Saudi Arabia, was on a short list for the CIA director’s job when Obama entered office in 2009. But he bowed out in the face of opposition over his role as a senior official when the spy agency used harsh interrogation methods, including waterboarding or simulated drowning, that have been widely condemned as torture.

In his written responses to the intelligence committee before the hearing, Brennan said he was aware of the interrogation methods but had no role in their “creation, execution or oversight.”

He said he raised objections to the methods with other officials privately and then publicly criticized the approach after he left the CIA.

Brennan said such harsh methods sometimes produced information but ultimately were “counter-productive.” Obama has banned the techniques.

Asked about former secret CIA prisons overseas or how the United States planned to hold terror suspects captured abroad, Brennan said: “The CIA is out of the detention business and it should stay that way.”

Scouts vehicles being used to smuggle arms and explosives

2013-02-07T05:13:00.003-08:00

Pakistan’s porous western borders, which continue to play host to militancy and terrorism, are now facing a new threat that has developed innovative ways to smuggle arms.

As the country struggles to eliminate terrorism, recent reports suggest that women and children and vehicles used by scouts are now being used to smuggle weapons and explosives in different parts of the country.
Intelligence and law enforcement agencies recently released a report identifying sources of this smuggling mafia. The report states that official scouts vehicles, used as protective cover against authorities, lead the way while a convoy transporting arms and explosives follow them in the northern areas of the country.

the smuggling mafia operates. Smugglers usually use their privately owned vehicles while transporting arms and explosives but a scouts car now leads the way to ensure clearance from the police force at different check posts.

The report revealed that in some cases women along with infants were also being used to facilitate smuggling. Women clad in the burqas usually accompany the smugglers while they are transporting their consignment from one place to the other.

The report states that various police and custom officers also facilitate these smugglers at different check posts.

Besides the porous western borders of the country, Darra Adamkhel, southern Peshawar and Sakhakot Market – situated in the northwestern region of Mardan – are considered to be places where the weapons and explosives are manufactured.

The smugglers follow five routes to smuggle weapons. The first route usually starts from Darra Adamkhel and ends at Rawalpindi. The smugglers travel from Darra Adamkhel to Peshawar from where they go towards Attock, Haripur and then through Wah to reach Rawalpindi.

The other route is from Darra Adamkhel to Peshawar and then moving towards Mansehra from where they go towards Kaghan, Chilas and then Gilgit.

Two other routes begin from the Sakhkot Market and then move towards Mardan from where one route leads to Rawalpindi while the other route ends in Gilgit.

A fifth route that is used by smugglers only during the summers originates through Chitral, passes Ghizer and ends in Gilgit.

People versus the pulpit

2013-02-04T22:40:00.000-08:00

Both political scientists and historians make a common mistake by concluding that there was a conflict in history over the separation of ‘church’ and ‘state’. In fact, there was never a conflict between these two. Rather, both of them were partners. The real conflict was over the separation of the ‘church’ and ‘politics’. The emperors or kings themselves represented the state as King Louis XIV of France said, “I’m the state.” The kings were the owners of their realm/state as feudal lords owned their fiefs. In addition, three conservative forces — the clergy, the military and feudal lords — supported the kings because they had common interests.

In history, the actual conflict started between church and politics, and not church and state, when new stakeholders or commoners entered the arena, claiming that the rulers had to have the support of the people and not of the pulpit, in order to rule. The basis of this claim was a new idea of ‘majority rule’ or ‘government by consent of the people, i.e., liberal democracy’ promoted by Western political philosophers. From the seventeenth century onwards, religion had problems with democracy and not with the state. Religion did not have space for democracy nor did democracy have any room for religion because both were incompatible. A state could be based on the will of God, as religion suggests, but democracy is based on the will of the people only. Going by this, the whole Christian world, in so far as the government and its institutions are concerned, denies and defies the authority of God by applying democracy in their societies. For example, the Americans, though they trust in God, believe in democracy and follow the Constitution, not the Bible.

Democracy is purely a Western and secular concept having space for all religions without distinction. In simple words, a democratic state cannot promote one particular religion but can give people the right to practise whatever religion they want. The First Amendment to the US Constitution prohibits the state to establish any religion or prefer one religion to the other. In religion, anything repugnant to the ‘revealed teachings’ is forbidden and punishable. Similarly, in a democratic state, all acts contrary to democratic principles, as laid down in the secular Constitution, are unacceptable. In a true democracy, people through their elected bodies can make or unmake anything or can even declare lawful same-sex marriages or the use of marijuana. Through democracy, the Western world has provided an antidote to the baleful and retrogressive leanings of religion.

Western liberal democracy and religion contradict each other. This is why true democracies in the world are also secular, including that in modern Turkey. All conservative forces of the past, the kings or queens (almost all European nations still have monarchs), clergy and military are still there in modern democracies of the West but these forces have surrendered before the will of the people. The most powerful armies of the world today, such as that of the US and European nations, have accepted the civilian supremacy as desired by their people.

In Pakistan, the conservative political forces are not yet ready to accept the will of the people in its true spirit. For many political forces in the country, particularly the religious parties, democracy is merely a tool to hold on to political power and they want to use it to promote religion or their vested interests. It makes sense when Sufi Muhammad, the founder of the Tehreek-e-Nefaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi, and the Taliban leadership pronounce that Western democracy has no place in Islam. However, some people might cite the example of Iran as a democracy. But the truth of the matter is that Iran is not a democracy but the worst form of an electoral dictatorship of clerics because the right to participate in elections is highly restricted. It is also naive to say that there are different shades of democracy. Pure democracy has only one shade, i.e., respect for the will of the people. Impure or fake, democracy has as many shades as one can come up with.

On Kashmir day, PM pledges full support

2013-02-04T22:39:00.002-08:00

Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said on Monday that Pakistan will stand by the people of Kashmir till a peaceful resolution to the dispute is achieved.

In a message issued on the occasion of Kashmir day, Prime Minister Ashraf said: “On behalf of the government, I reaffirm Pakistan’s commitment to a just and peaceful resolution to the Kashmir dispute,”

He said the government will continue to extend its unwavering political, moral and diplomatic support to the cause, which has been on the agenda of the United Nations for the past six decades, however, remains unresolved.

The premier said that the right to self determination of the people of the region will be achieved through a free and impartial plebiscite in line with the UN Charter and the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council.

Ashraf said Pakistan supports dialogue with the Indian government and has introduced confidence building measures (CMB) is this regard.

“We have initiated CBMs in good faith and hope that they will mitigate the sufferings of the Kashmiri populace,” Ashraf said.

Highlighting the importance of the occasion he said that, “February 5 is observed as Kashmir Solidarity Day by the people of Pakistan every year to reaffirm our resolve to stand by our Kashmiri brethren.”

Eye on transition: New govt in Balochistan ‘within days’, say officials

2013-02-04T22:38:00.003-08:00

A new coalition government is likely to take shape in Balochistan within a “few days”, political leaders and government officials said on Monday.

The new set-up will be cobbled together by all coalition partners in the erstwhile Nawab Aslam Raisani administration. Politicians and senior government officials told The Express Tribune that four political parties – Pakistan Peoples Party, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl, Awami National Party and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid – and Balochistan National Party-Awami will form the new government with the help of independent lawmakers.

“A new government will be put in place a few days before the dissolution of the assembles,” a senior government official said, requesting anonymity. “Under the Constitution, restoration of the provincial government is essential for the formation of an interim set-up in the province,” the official added.

President Asif Zardari had deposed the Raisani administration on the advice of Premier Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and imposed governor’s rule in the province on January 13 following a four-day-long protest sit-in by the Hazara Shia community in Quetta.

Key coalition partners – JUI-F and BNP-A – and some legislators from the PPP had opposed the move and instead called for an “in-house change”. Last month, they threatened a province-wide campaign against the “unconstitutional step” of the president.

The government did not budge. Instead, a joint sitting of parliament was convened to validate the governor’s rule. Under the Constitution, the president is bound to get a parliamentary nod for his proclamation within 60 days failing which would result in the restoration of the Raisani government.

The joint session was, however, postponed after a key government ally – the Muttahida Qaumi Movement – refused to validate governor’s rule.

Aurangzeb Khan Kasi, president of ANP’s Balochistan chapter, claimed that the new government will be installed “within a few days”. “The PPP leadership has taken other parties into confidence on the matter,” Kasi told The Express Tribune.

The PML-Q, which is also privy to the plan, opposes the possible move. “It will have a strong reaction from the people,” Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed told The Express Tribune. He was referring to the Hazara Shia community that had called for the dismissal of the “incompetent” Raisani administration.

Senior JUI-F leader Maulana Muhammad Khan Sheerani has been meeting leaders of different political parties to sell his formula for the restoration of government in Balochistan. Senator Mushahid said the PML-Q leadership refused to buy the Sheerani formula in Monday’s meeting.

On a side note, Senator Mushahid agreed, however, that the restoration of the provincial government was essential for the formation of a caretaker government.

“An interim set-up in the province cannot be formed without consensus between the chief minister and the opposition leader in the provincial assembly,” Advocate General Amanullah Kanrani told The Express Tribune.

But Jam Muhammad Jamali, the former deputy chairman of Senate, does not agree.

“The federal government can file a reference in the Supreme Court seeking its opinion on the formation of a caretaker government without restoring the most corrupt and incompetent government in Balochistan,” Jamali told The Express Tribune.

A constitutional expert said the Raisani administration could be “technically” reinstated the moment governor’s rule was lifted. “Raisani will have to resign to make way for a new chief minister,” he added.

ANP’s Kasi said such a mechanism is under consideration. All coalition partners in the Raisani government have consensus on such “in-house change”. They had offered this option to Premier Ashraf in their Jan 13 meeting before the imposition of governor’s rule.

Governor Nawab Zulfikar Magsi’s brother Tariq Magsi – who was a minister in Raisani’s cabinet until December 18, 2012 when he resigned to sit on opposition benches – is aspiring for the office of leader of the opposition after the restoration of the provincial government.

Constitutionally, an interim chief minister has to be picked by the chief minister in consultation with the opposition leader.

Under CM Raisani, the provincil government had been a unique parliamentary experience till its suspension, where 64 out of its total 65 MPAs were holding cabinet portfolios or other government positions. Sardar Yar Muhammad Rind, the PML-Q lawmaker, was deprived of a public office by Raisani due to their family feud.

Rind pretended himself to be a one-man opposition in the provincial legislature. However, he could not sit on the opp

To be a journalist in Pakistan

2013-02-04T10:07:00.002-08:00

It is sometimes a surprise to outsiders — expecting censorship and oppression — that Pakistan has such a free and vibrant media. Speaking in 2010, the political theorist Noam Chomsky remarked that Pakistan’s media was less censored than in neighbouring India, generally described as the world’s largest democracy. “In Pakistan, I listened to and read the media which go to an increasingly large part of the population,” he said. “Apparently, the government is willing to say to the media that you have your fun, we are not going to bother you. So they don’t interfere with it.”

The faults of the current government may be many and various, but it has certainly done a lot to further freedom of expression, a right which is laid down in the Constitution of Pakistan. At times television channels and newspapers have been criticised for behaving unethically, but particularly in the last decade, they have played a significant role in uncovering corruption and acting as a check on power. Embezzlement in the Pakistan Railways, bribery leading to $500m losses at the Pakistan International Airlines, and the rental power projects corruption case were all unveiled by journalists.

However, while reporters critical of the government may face less official interference today than they did before the return to civilian rule in 2008, the picture is not universally positive. Last year, a United Nations report ranked Pakistan as the second-most dangerous country in the world for journalists. The Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent international body working for press freedom, ranked it as the most dangerous in both 2010 and 2011. Reporters Without Borders, another independent body, consistently ranks Pakistan in its top 10 most hazardous places for journalists. The high death toll in the profession explains why. Since 2000, more than 90 journalists have been killed in Pakistan, and hardly any of the cases have been solved. Someone was sentenced for the murder of Daniel Pearl, the American journalist kidnapped and killed in Karachi in 2002, but this was the exception rather than the rule. Most journalists dying in the pursuit of their profession are Pakistani citizens rather than foreign correspondents, and their killers have not been held to account. At least eight journalists were killed in the country in 2012 alone, including four in the month of May.

One of the murders that took place that month was of Razzaq Gul, an Express News correspondent who was found, riddled with bullets, in Balochistan. Some have alleged that the security forces were involved. Another was Abdul Qadir Hajizai, who was shot in the province by armed men on motorbikes, an attack thought to be carried out by the Baloch Liberation Front. A high profile example of the threat to journalists came late last year when a bomb was found in Hamid Mir’s car. It was blamed on the Taliban.

Anyone who has visited a newspaper office recently will be aware of the heightened risk. The attack on Malala Yousufzai in October saw sustained negative press for the Taliban. The extremist group promptly threatened media offices unless they got ‘balanced’ coverage, leading to ramped up security measures. It is unsurprising that the threat was not taken lightly. In June, Taliban gunmen had shot at the building of Aaj TV, an Urdu-language news channel, wounding two guards. The Taliban have warned repeatedly that media outlets will be targeted as long as coverage fails to reflect its positions and justifications.

The Human Rights Watch World Report, which came out this week, notes that “a climate of fear impeded media coverage of the state security forces and militant groups.” The report suggests that journalists avoid reporting on “human rights abuses by the military in counterterrorism operations”. The threat to journalists comes from terrorists, but also from the powerful security establishment. Politicians of all stripes are freely criticised in the media, but it is more unusual to read investigations into the military or its senior officers. There appears to be a level of self-censorship, whereby journalists know which areas they can push and which they can’t.

Pakistan is home to an array of violent militant groups, pushing for a greater hold on society. To an extent, the dangers faced by journalists are the same as those faced by every other citizen: an increasingly poor law and order situation where no one can really be protected. This is demonstrated by the fact that so many of last year’s journalist deaths took place in Balochistan, a province where the writ of law is practically non-existent after years of a bloody tussle between separatists and security services.

While non-state actors such as the Taliban, Baloch nationalists and other militant groups pose a threat to the freedom of Pakistan’s press, elements of the state itself also play a part. The military and intelligence establishment is over-powerful, and the relationships between state bodies are broadly dysfunctional. As well as the military and civilian divide, the struggle between the government and the judiciary has been well documented. An independent judiciary is a crucial part of a functioning democracy, and in some respects, the current outfit has fulfilled its task of acting as a check on governmental power. However, civil society campaigners have noted that the judiciary is actually impinging on free speech, using contempt of court laws to restrict the publication of negative stories about — you guessed it — the judiciary.

Against this context, is freedom of expression really possible? Most societies accept certain limits on free speech: for instance, wilfully misrepresenting facts, or inciting racial hatred. In Pakistan, blasphemy laws and considerations about morality set the parameters. That aside, there is a commendable commitment from the government to the principle of free speech and a free press. This is a fundamental part of a healthy democracy. But it is only one part. Another crucial aspect to a functioning civil society is law and order, and the safety of citizens. Until that can be guaranteed, it is likely that self-censorship on certain topics will continue. After all, journalists are only human.

Zardari, Karzai commit to peace deal in six months: Statement

2013-02-04T10:06:00.002-08:00

Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari vowed Monday to achieve a peace settlement for Afghanistan within six months, after talks hosted by Britain.

Following the talks at British Prime Minister David Cameron’s Chequers country retreat near London, the three leaders also said they supported the opening of an office in Qatar for the Taliban to hold talks.

“All sides agreed on the urgency of this work and committed themselves to take all necessary measures to achieve the goal of a peace settlement over the next six months,” they said in a joint statement issued by Cameron’s office.

The three leaders also called on the Taliban “to take those steps necessary to open an office and to enter into dialogue”.

“President Karzai, president Zardari and the prime minister affirmed that they supported the opening of an office in Doha for the purpose of negotiations between the Taliban and the High Peace Council of Afghanistan as part of an Afghan-led peace process,” the statement said.

The talks in Britain were aimed at boosting cooperation in cementing an Afghan peace and reconcilation process amid growing fears that civil war could erupt when international troops leave Afghanistan in 2014.

Tourism, Terrorism and Empire

2013-02-01T21:29:00.002-08:00

In the life of many white westerners is a chapter devoted to the finding of oneself. This chapter may not occur at any given point in life, although most attach it to a life crisis; a divorce, a bankruptcy perhaps, the lazy end of youth and the horror of a boring, comfortable adulthood. At this point, the subject is expected to challenge one’s own thoughts and beliefs and gain some deep, inner knowledge of oneself that renders the memory of youth/rejection/illness far enough to be forgotten. All of this must be done through the encounter of something inexorably challenging and physically different: and located as far as possible from the new cars and perfect houses of white middle class life, ideally in a land foreign enough and far enough to merit the respect of others either awaiting or nostalgic about their own journeys of discovery

Enter India; the land of the friendly brown people, exotic enough to be sensual, and yet dirty and smelly enough to be real; two essential ingredients in discovery destinations of the wealthy, white seeker. In the world of cheaply bought jet-travel, no other country has been able to harness through clever marketing and strategic imaging; the market made available by the Western search for fulfillment. Be it the old people in the movie Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, or the wry truth speaking slum observing author Katherine Boo of
“Beyond Beautiful Forevers”; India has cornered the market on providing rare, jewel like insights into self and spirit to a class of curious Westerners rapt by its complexity and uncertainty. It’s a perfectly brewed cup for those planning a search for the unique and un-replicable, for near every slum is a luxury hotel with the comforts of home, and inside the most rural of villages a helpful man who speaks English. The results are tremendous; India today is a clearly marked stop on the Westerner’s road to authenticity; yoga is the new religion in Brooklyn and chai the favorite drink at any Starbucks.

If India is the land of the friendly brown people, where the battling of filth, heat and mosquitos and such authentically sub-continental discomforts provides the visiting Westerner with a sense of challenges overcome and comforts confiscated; Pakistan predictably is its opposite. If Indians have managed to forge a reputation on welcoming whites seeking their wisdom, stoically swallowing their self-righteous judgments on their society, Pakistan has cornered the market on the sinister, the sly and the un-quantifiably dangerous. The Westerners that do waft into Islamabad (no one even bothers with Karachi or Quetta or Peshawar) are a straggly bunch, aid workers or journalists small in number and scared in nature. They stay in their hotels and count the uncertain seconds to their departures, warily eying everyone they encounter for the suspicious slump of a suicide jacket, or the bumping bulge of a bomb. Scenes from Zero Dark Thirty dominate and stories from Seal Team Six loop in an eternal circle.

Their fears are not Pakistan’s problem. Unlike India, terror-riven, naughty Pakistan banks not on drawing people to its shores, but on keeping the white people away. Americans cannot easily get visas and even their wars on Pakistani territory are fought by remote control, they cannot like but neither can they stop looking, they don’t like what they see but are obsessed by what they cannot see. And while it may seem different, the Pakistani recipe is not too far from the Indian one; as tourism and terror both yield dollars. If India has captured the corner of the white heart devoted to romancing self-discovery, Pakistan has gouged out the space for secret terrors via drones or droves of tourists; Pakistan and India are thus reaping their takes from their own little slices of the Western imagination.

At the same time both India and Pakistan, tragically or comically, opportunistically or cleverly remain defined by those whose superiority was technically overthrown when the British chopped up the subcontinent and all the brown people, Indians and Pakistanis clapped and cheered and called it the end of Empire.

Balochistan peace hurdles

2013-02-01T21:28:00.002-08:00

IF Baloch nationalist leader Akhtar Mengal does return to take part in the next general election as announced, it’ll be a significant development and may help stabilise Balochistan.

The last election was boycotted by all nationalist forces following the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti in a military operation just over a year earlier and the disastrous consequences of an alienated Baloch nationalist leadership and electorate are there for all to see.

Not only did the last elections see many credible leaders sitting on the sidelines, it also witnessed the coming to power of a coalition government headed by a largely dysfunctional chief minister whose lifestyle and health issues kept him away from his seat of power for long periods.

All this while the province was being ruled by armed bands striving for separation and not shying away from drawing innocent blood; murderous anti-Shia gangs; pro-government thugs run allegedly by the intelligence agencies and a belligerent paramilitary Frontier Corps.

This lethal combination where respect for law and civil conduct took a back seat inflicted such wounds on large swathes of the Baloch population — the Shia-Hazara community as also non-Baloch settlers — that some fear they may never heal.

It is difficult to speculate confidently how many people from among the Baloch ‘missing’, the Shia-Hazaras and the settlers (the last mentioned mostly falling victim in the earlier half of the strife) actually died. But given Balochistan’s population even a few thousand would be a huge number.

While the Baloch alienation went from bad to worse, the plight of the Hazaras manifested itself in passive protest and eventually saw the dismissal of the Raisani government and the imposition of governor’s rule as per the protesters’ demand last month.

But some who follow and understand the dynamics of the politics and the ‘games’ being played in the province are not optimistic that though significant, this dismissal would bring longer-term relief to the community given that underlying factors remain.

It isn’t rocket science to know what’ll placate the Baloch: a sense of ownership over their own destiny and resources, and provision of justice, particularly a commission which transparently investigates all allegations of rights abuses, especially the ‘kill and dump’ cases.

In fact, the first step towards assuaging Baloch anger would be to ensure that ‘real’ representatives are allowed to run and win in a free, fair election and there is no attempt to engineer a result.

If such elected representatives are able to form a government, it would be safe to assume that addressing the genuine grievances of their people will be a top priority. And the incoming government will have unprecedented resources at its disposal.

The latest constitutional amendments and the National Finance Commission award would ensure that; and the government would also have significant autonomy in how it allocates its resources. Even this, in all probability, is unlikely to placate the
separatists.

But a more representative government may be better placed to initiate a quiet dialogue with the separatist leadership. It will also be mindful of its mandate in keeping an eye on the excesses of the state apparatus and unlikely to look the other way as the Raisani government did.

Peace in Quetta city, with its delicate ethnic balance disturbed by the mass arrival and settlement of Afghan Taliban and their ideological allies and supporters in an apparently planned move is an issue far more difficult to address let alone resolve.

While a lot of focus has rightly remained on the Shia faith of the Hazaras as they have been hunted and hounded by armed religious zealots’ murder squads, very little is said about other motives such as material gain and property prices.

A Baloch analyst says that despite the murder and mayhem associated with the Balochistan capital, property prices have not nosedived. “The city is a valley, a small bowl. Land here isn’t infinite. For every property being sold, there are many buyers.”

The analyst also points out that billions in ‘drug money’ from Helmand, Kandahar and other poppy-growing neighbouring provinces of Afghanistan are being invested heavily in the Quetta real estate. And whether it is the settler or the odd Shia Hazara who sells, the buyer is always the same.

“You’ll find the bulk of the buyers belonging to one ethnic group: the Afghan Pakhtuns, whether they have been regularised and able to buy directly or purchasing through third parties i.e. proxies,” the analyst said.

He also said the traditional commercial stakeholders of the city were Hazaras and Hindus but the balance started to tip with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the late 1970s when not just refugees but millions of dollars of ‘war’ money started to flow in.

However, if one looks at Google images of the areas along the western and eastern bypasses of Quetta, it isn’t difficult to immediately observe how large, relatively well-laid out settlements were created to cater to the exodus from Kandahar following the US action in the wake of 9/11.

Where in much older and well-settled parts of the city, residents say, there was little provision of services like natural gas, water, electricity etc, the big plots and the houses built on these were connected without even the usual requirement of furnishing proper paperwork or allotment letters.

It was as if a powerful hand was guiding the process and facilitating the guests. But there are bigger prizes to be had in Quetta.

Marriabad, home to the tragically well-known Alamdar Road, where there is a large Hazara settlement for the past several decades, now forms the biggest real estate prize particularly from the security angle. It is barely a stone’s throw from the city’s sought-after cantonment.

For peace in Quetta, while it is rightly said a clampdown on terrorist organisations such as Lashkar-i-Jhangvi is an imperative, it is also important that other factors such as a shrinking supply of land and who covets whose property are also taken into account. Or else a solution will not be forthcoming.

Why so late, General?

2013-02-01T21:26:00.002-08:00

Generals in Pakistan excel at showing their dovish side and subjecting their peers to a measure of scrutiny only once they have retired. The latest example of a military man trying to rehabilitate his image now that he is out of uniform is Lt Gen (retd) Shahid Aziz, who is finally ready to spill the beans about the Kargil operation that took place in 1999. Much of what he says was already suspected. Pervez Musharraf, as chief of army staff, kept just about everyone in the dark about Kargil, including everyone save three other people. Aziz himself, as director general of the analysis wing, did not know about the operation till it had already commenced. Then prime minister Nawaz Sharif, the man who should have had the ultimate authority to order the Kargil operation, was also not consulted on the matter.

What’s truly tragic about the Kargil operation is how we never seem to learn from our follies. Our 1965 war with India was also sparked by a similar incursion into Indian Kashmir, the details of which resided
exclusively with Ayub Khan and a few of his trusted subordinates. Unlike Kargil, that turned into a full-scale war because no one was around to tell Ayub Khan what a calamitous mistake he had made. At least in the case of Kargil, Nawaz Sharif was able to order a withdrawal of troops after being forced to do so by then US president Bill Clinton. That move is likely what triggered the military coup, showing that in Pakistan doing the sensible thing never pays off.

As for General Aziz, he needs to explain why he did not resign despite his strong reservations about how Kargil transpired. Indeed, Aziz subsequently went on to accept a promotion from Musharraf and become chief of general staff of the army. Although it is preferable that Aziz spoke out now and left a record of the Kargil fiasco for posterity, we need more generals who are willing to risk their careers and go public with such damning details when it can still make a difference.

Pakistan accuses India of 12 beheadings since 1998: Report

2013-02-01T21:25:00.000-08:00

Pakistan has accused India of decapitating 12 soldiers in cross-border attacks since 1998 and registered a protest with a UN watchdog, a newspaper reported Wednesday, after deadly army clashes earlier this month.

The accusations are contained in a series of classified documents presented to the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) which monitors the disputed Kashmir border, according to The Hindu newspaper.

The report reads, “In classified protests to a United Nations watchdog that have never been disclosed till now, Pakistan has accused Indian soldiers of involvement in the torture and decapitation of at least 12 Pakistani soldiers in cross-Line of Control raids since 1998, as well as the massacre of 29 civilians.”

The report follows a series of killings of soldiers on both sides earlier this month along the de facto border known as the LoC.

Pakistan says three of its soldiers were killed in firing by Indian troops while India accuses Pakistani troops of killing two of its soldiers on January 8, one of whom was beheaded. Pakistan has denied responsibility.

The situation along the LoC has calmed since the two armies agreed a ceasefire on January 16.

The newspaper quoted an unnamed senior Pakistani army officer stating that, “Ever since 9/11, we have sought to downplay these incidents, aware that a public backlash [could] push us into a situation we cannot afford on the LoC, given that much of our army is now committed to our western borders. Each of these incidents has been protested by us on both military and UNMOGIP channels.”

An Indian military spokesperson said the issue had “not been raised by Pakistan in communications between the two Directors-General of Military Operations.”

Polio transmission: India may restrict travel from Pakistan

2013-02-01T21:21:00.002-08:00

India may be the first country to impose travel restrictions on Pakistan because of its polio problem which threatens to become an international headache.

India Today reported on January 28 that the Delhi government has written to its transport and railway authorities to allow screening of children coming from Pakistan or going there. It wants the health department to set up a permanent system at the Ambedkar Stadium and Old Delhi railway station where the Samjhauta Express arrives. Such screening is also carried out in Jammu and Kashmir as well as Munabao, in Rajasthan from where a train goes to Karachi.

Delhi has been polio-free since 2009, said the newspaper.

“We will be pushed back by at least two years if another case now comes up,” Delhi health minister Dr AK Walia said in the news report. Indian alarm can be seen in the light of reports earlier this month that samples of a strain of polio virus linked to Sukkur were found in Cairo. Egypt has been polio-free since 2004.

The panicked Pakistani Embassy in Delhi has written to the Pakistan Polio Cell about this news that Delhi wants to take no chances.

An official working with the PM’s polio cell said, “This is a crucial time for Pakistan to take the polio issue seriously. Lowering the number of cases in 2012 was a big achievement but now transmission of the virus to other countries is a serious cause of concern.”

For its part, the Civil Aviation Authority has told all airport managers to fully cooperate with health officials to set up vaccination counters in all international departure lounges in Pakistan.

Deal in the making: Pakistan Army likely to begin training Afghan forces

2013-01-29T09:07:00.002-08:00

Islamabad and Kabul are close to signing a deal that will allow the Pakistan Army to train Afghan national security forces, in the latest sign of improving ties between the neighbouring nations.

The progress was made during talks between visiting Afghan Defence Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi and army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani at the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi on Monday.

Pakistan has long been offering Afghanistan to train its army but, until now, Kabul had shown little interest, largely due to the trust deficit between the two countries.

The talks, led by the Afghan defence minister and the Pakistani army chief, proved to be decisive as the two sides agreed to explore the possibility of “military training exchanges,” a senior military official disclosed to The Express Tribune.

The official said the Afghan delegation would visit military institutions as part of efforts to assess how the two neighbours could enter into an accord to strengthen military-to-military contacts.

He added that that Pakistan has one of the best military training institutions in the region and this could help Afghan forces, including its officers and soldiers.

A statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) also hinted at progress in talks over military training.

The statement said the two sides discussed matters of professional interest, with particular focus on “enhancing mutual defence cooperation and measures that the Afghan National Army and Pakistan Army intend to initiate for an enduring training relationship.”

Another official said that the visit is “likely to mark a new page in the history of Pak-Afghan relations.”

“It is also of note that General Bismillah is a non-Pashtun, a Tajik, by origin. This vindicates the fact that Pakistan is moving ahead with the vision of a broad-based relationship with Afghanistan,” said the official.

Pakistan is considered crucial for the peace process in Afghanistan because of its historic ties with Afghan insurgents, including the Taliban.

The official said General Kayani told the Afghan defence minister that Pakistan would make all-out efforts for a “peaceful, stable and united Afghanistan”.

Gen Kayani maintained that the release of Taliban detainees was part of Pakistan’s ‘sincere efforts’ to help the Afghan-led and Afghan-owned reconciliation process.

He also assured the Afghan delegation of full support to bring normalcy to the border region, which “should have a direct and positive effect on the stability in Afghanistan so that situation could become ripe for the drawdown of Isaf forces in 2014”.

The two sides also discussed the possibility of converting the existing trilateral border control mechanism into bilateral arrangement once the US-led foreign forces leave the country.

In his remarks, the Afghan defence minister thanked Pakistan for releasing some important Taliban prisoners, which, he said, would help kick-off a broad-based intra-Afghan dialogue.

The Afghan defence minister also called on President Asif Ali Zardari and discussed defence cooperation and the fight against extremism.

President Zardari said Pakistan attached great importance to its ties with Afghanistan and added that the delegation’s visit would help further cement relations.

Pakistan-India bus, trade resume as tensions ebb

2013-01-29T09:06:00.002-08:00

A cross-border bus service between India and Pakistan, suspended along with trade after deadly army clashes earlier this month, resumed Monday in a sign of easing tension between the neighbours.

Officials said 64 passengers from Pakistan crossed the de facto border in Kashmir into India while 84 went in the other direction on the bus service from Poonch to Rawalakot.

Cross-border trade, which had been encouraged in recent years as a means to improve strained relations between New Delhi and Islamabad, was also set to resume on Tuesday after being frozen for the last two weeks.

“We are assessing losses the traders suffered because they could not send perishable items across on time,” Shant Manu, secretary for industries and commerce in Indian Kashmir, told AFP.

The recent flare-up along the Line of Control (LoC) that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan saw a total of five soldiers killed earlier this month, with fears that tensions between the two countries could escalate.

A ceasefire agreement on January 16 between commanders in both armies has held, however, with politicians on both sides seen as keen to avoid wrecking recent progress in their slow-moving peace process.

The cross LoC bus service from Poonch on the Indian side to Rawalakot on the Pakistan side began in 2005 to enable members of divided families in the region to meet each other.

Another bus service that departs from the Uri sector of Indian Kashmir to the Pakistani side has been closed because of heavy snowfall in the area.

Pakistan-India ties: ‘Dialogue process has not been derailed’

2013-01-29T09:05:00.000-08:00

Indian High Commissioner Sharat Sabharwal insisted on Monday that despite recent clashes on the Line of Control (LoC), the process of dialogue between India and Pakistan has not been affected.

“Peace between India and Pakistan is in favour of both the countries,” he said, while addressing the media on the occasion of India’s Republic Day.

Sabharwal said India wants good relations with Pakistan and vowed that a peaceful, democratic and stable Pakistan was in the interest of his country.

The high commissioner said that the ceasefire on the LoC was a good and welcoming step, and added that things were now heading towards settlement.

Referring to Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid’s statements, Sabharwal said that the peace process between Islamabad and New Delhi had not been derailed and no irreversible damage had been made to the process.

Sabharwal further clarified that reports on the Indian government sending the Pakistan hockey players back were a “misconception”, insisting that it was the sole decision of the event’s organisers.

Replying to a question, he said all investigation and information regarding the ceasefire violation was shared between the two countries at various levels.

Speaking at the occasion, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that while “ups and downs” in the countries’ ties were common, he was optimistic that the dialogue process would continue.

The minister noted that despite recent clashes, Pakistan did not suspend its visa service for senior citizens.

Malik congratulated India on its independence day and went on to advise the Indian government to provide security to Bollywood super star Shahrukh Khan.

The new face of folk music

2013-01-29T09:02:00.003-08:00

WHAT I don’t understand,” says Chris Wood, “is why, when young people see so much misery, injustice … around them, they don’t see music as an expression of disgruntlement. Where are the young protest singers? Instead, we get this limp, bedroom ukulele music that keeps turning up on mobile phone ads.”

In 2011, fiddler and folk-singer Wood won the best original song category at the Radio 2 Folk awards for ‘Hollow Point’, his affecting account of the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian who was shot dead by London police in 2005. “Awake arise you drowsy sleeper,” the song begins, its title a reference to the type of bullet fired by the police.

For most of the 1980s and ’90s, singer-songwriters barely got house room on the folk scene, as Celtic instrumentalists and traditional singers dominated. But since their inception in 2000, the Folk awards have highlighted changes in the scene — and not just in subject matter. The original song category boasts an especially strong shortlist this year, and all four nominees are women.

Kathryn Roberts knows all about the pitfalls of trying to write modern folk songs from her time with 1990s “brat folk” group Equation. The mother of five-year-old twin daughters, Roberts re-emerged last year with the album Hidden People. Made with her husband Sean Lakeman, who had also been in Equation, the album featured ‘The Ballad of Andy Jacobs’, a poignant song set against the tumultuous backdrop of the miners’ strike of 1984.

The song would be a shoo-in to win at the awards were it not for the quality of the other contenders: Karine Polwart’s ‘King of Birds’, Emily Portman’s ‘Hatchlings’ and Anais Mitchell’s ‘Tailor’. ‘King of Birds’ also has a political undercurrent. Awash with allegories, the song, from Polwart’s album Traces, subtly mixes what might be called new folk and old: it weaves the Occupy London demonstrations into a challenging narrative that features wren birdlore and the history of St Paul’s Cathedral.

“In structure and melody, it’s not really a folk song, but what’s folkie is the intent,” says the 42-year-old from Stirlingshire, Scotland, who made a leap of faith when she quit the band Malinky to concentrate on her own songwriting nearly a decade ago.

“Most mainstream pop is about love, but folk songs don’t tend to do that,” she adds. “I don’t think any of the nominated songs could have been written by anyone who doesn’t love or isn’t versed in traditional song. We’re not going for the modulated final chorus and the big bridge.”

Legends, fantasies and mythology populate the idiosyncratic lyrics of Emily Portman, who wrote ‘Hatchlings’ on the cliffs at Tynemouth, on the northeast coast, where she was living at the time.

Anais Mitchell’s songs are the product of a similarly racing imagination, something she attributes to being raised by hippy parents on a 200-year-old Vermont farm. She would roam its 150 acres, thinking up Tolkienesque tales about all the fairies and unworldly creatures that, she believed, lurked in the woods.

Vividly lyrical, her music has been highly acclaimed, especially Hadestown, her extraordinary 2010 concept album and folk opera — a modern take on the myth of Orpheus attempting to rescue his wife, Eurydice, from the underworld. She describes ‘Tailor’, from the album Young Man in America, as a song about “searching for an identity but doing it to please someone else, the father figure or lover”.

Are any of them, I wonder, ever tempted by pop? Kathryn Roberts is amused by the notion. “What’s that Taylor Swift song? ‘Never Ever Getting Back Together’ or something? It’s a great pop song, full of hooks, the perfect teenage girl’s song. But I’d never ever be able to do a song like that. Ever. I like stories