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by Michael Parenti

When I recently went to Alta Bates hospital for surgery, I discovered that legal procedures take precedence over medical ones. I had to sign intimidating statements about financial counseling, indemnity, patient responsibilities, consent to treatment, use of electronic technologies, and the like. ….

Read more » Common Dreams

(Includes ATDT Excerpt on Backdrop for Asghar Khan’s Petition)

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday fixed February 29 to hear the petition filed by Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) leader Asghar Khan 16 years ago pertaining to Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) distributing money among politicians.

Meanwhile, the former ISI chief Gen. (Retd) Durrani submitted an affidavit confirming the accusation.

The petition has called upon the apex court to punish the politicians and political groups who have been receiving pots of money from the agency.

Various politicians had demanded the petition to be heard.

Air Marshal (retd) Asghar Khan, in 1996, wrote a letter to then chief justice Nasim Hasan Shah against former army chief Mirza Aslam Baig, former ISI chief Lt-General (retd) Asad Durrani and Younis Habib of Habib and Mehran Banks, relating to the disbursement of public money and its misuse for political purposes.

Aboard the Democracy Train Excerpt (P. 27)

Elections Were the Tip of the Iceberg

As a guest of the interim Prime Minister Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, I had witnessed how state funds and propaganda were used to defeat Benazir. But I was still an onlooker, without inside knowledge of what had transpired in the inner circles. Then still an inexperienced reporter, I couldn’t guess how the establishment defeated the PPP, which, right or wrong, had the support of the masses.

In 1996, some clues emerged. Retired Air Marshal Asghar Khan filed a case in the Supreme Court, alleging that the powerful secret service wing of the army – the ISI – had rigged the 1990 election. Based on Asghar Khan’s petition, former ISI chief, Lt. Gen. Asad Durrani took the stand in the Supreme Court and provided an affidavit that the army had indeed distributed Pkr 140 million (USD 1.6 million) to anti-PPP candidates, only a few months before the October 1990 election.

The anti-PPP candidates banded in the IJI comprised feudal, Islamic and ethnic parties that resolutely opposed Benazir’s populist rule. Subsequently, we learnt that the care-taker President Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, who had stayed mum while Chip probed him – had actually taken PKR 5 million (USD 59,000) from the ISI. Meanwhile, Nawaz Sharif – who was ushered in by the military to succeed Benazir as prime minister – was revealed to have received PKR 3.5 million (USD 41,000) from the spy agencies.

Apparently, the army was so scared that Benazir would be elected back into power that their IJI coalition distributed state funds among various interest groups to prevent her return.

As I covered national politics, Asghar Khan talked to me in earnest, as though I was a player rather than a reporter. Then in coalition with the PPP, he told me that Benazir and Nawaz ought to unite to repeal Article 58-2(b). This was the constitutional clause introduced by Gen. Zia ul Haq that allowed presidents like Ghulam Ishaq Khan to dissolve the assembly.

Although, I shared Asghar Khan’s desire for principled politics, it surprised me that he seemed clueless about Benazir’s approach of doing whatever it took to return to power.

Courtesy: Aboard The Democracy Train

http://www.aboardthedemocracytrain.com/court-revives-investigation-on-isi-money-for-politicians

By Nandalal_Rasiah

(Via SepiaMutiny Newsfeed):  A Malayali civil engineer and  former software developer, Shemeer Padinzjharedil, came to a conclusion that many BPs have already done through deduction: India is likely a dangerous place for women relative to the Western world.  Inspired to debunk the results of a Thompson-Reuters poll of gender ‘experts’ perception of danger to women, where three of the five worst offenders were south asian countries, Shemeer thought the reported statistics would paint a different picture.  Given the survey  combined questions about statistics with reporting bias problems (sexual assault, trafficking, non-sexual assault) and factors (cultural and religious) for which one could combine statistics about which I would be more comfortable citing (maternal mortality, female literacy and other health stats), he faced a difficult task.  Given that the solid numbers are unambiguous, Shemeer decided against deconstructing this picture and sought, instead, to flesh it out with self-reporting by building a site where anyone can report violence: www.maps4aid.com  The site is in it’s infancy but you can already see some trends: centers of population and urbanized areas report the most violence regardless of the category.  A second site, blogs4aid, has handy bar graph breaking it out by state.  For 2010 you may find a few surprises:

Read more » Brown Pundits

MQM was the only political party that had not signed the NFC Award for over five years. It was the MQM that opposed the Kalabagh Dam project because the people of Sindh had rejected it.

“Which political party had presented the bill on Karo-Kari, Women Rights in the National Assembly? Will be people of Sindh not think about it and remain helpless before the feudal lords and thieves?”

“It is the time for the people of Sindh to decide that they will get elected candidates from middle class nominated by the MQM and inflict a crushing defeat on the feudal lords.”

Addressing the so-called Sindhi nationalists he said, “Your politics of divide and rule has come to an end. The Urdu-speaking Sindhis and the Sindhi-speaking Sindhis have united like an iron wall. Today’s public meeting has driven the last nail in the coffin of the so-called nationalists, and it has rejected hatred.”

“We all need peace, love and brotherhood and this was the message given by Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai.”

“The province of Sindh contributes over 70 per cent in the national exchequer. If it is given its due share according to its population and according to its contribution, feudalism, barbarism and injustices prevailing in Sindh will come to an end. Schools will be opened, educational institutions will be established, centres for women development will be built, and technical universities would be set up. The people of Sindh will work hard and provide a life of dignity and honour for their children.”

“If the province of Sindh is given its legitimate share, no one will remain unemployed here. We have to make Pakistan strong by making Sindh prosperous.”

“The MQM manifesto embodies the Last Sermon of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). The rich and the poor, the black and the white, and the servant and the master are all equal before Allah.”

“When Altaf Hussain speaks about the revolution it means bringing a change. It means abolishing the age-old and rotten feudal system and breaking the status quo. The change means giving the reign of power in the hands of the poor and middle class people and doing away with the culture of dynastic politics.”

“How long will the people of Sindh continue to lead a life of helplessness before the feudal lords and not think about bringing a change in their circumstances? Today Sindh needs a genuine leadership instead of thieves and robbers.”

“We should remove the distinction of new Sindhi and old Sindhi by embracing each other. We are all Sindhis. Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah had said that The Muslims are free to go to their mosques, the Hindus are free to go to their temples, and the Christians are free to go to their Churches and the religion is a personal matter.

“I say to the people of Sindh, particularly the younger generation, and I humbly request that the law and order situation in Sindh should be improved. Incidents of kidnappings for ransom and tribal feuds should be finished.”

“Sukkur has always been neglected. Federal and provincial governments must allocate additional funds for development works in Sukkur. The federal and provincial governments should contribute equal funds for building a hospital with modern facilities in Sukkur.”

“There is no university in Sukkur and other adjoining areas hence a university should be established in Sukkur for the promotion of higher education. A medical college and Polytechnic institutes should also be established. The condition of Ghulam Muhammad Mehr Medical College should be improved for imparting medical education in a better way.”

“Electricity and gas supply in Sukkur and the adjoining areas should be ensured. Railways system in Sukkur has also worsened. Special funds should be made available for the rehabilitation of the Railways system in Sukkur.”

Mr Hussain announced one million rupees for Sukkur Press Club and called for establishing an institution for giving training to the journalists.

Mr Hussain said that doctors were killed in Karachi under a conspiracy and Shia, and Sunni lawyers were being killed. He sympathised with the bereaved family members and said that the people of Pakistan would frustrate the nefarious conspiracy to create Shia-Sunni strife by remaining united.

Mr Hussain said that if the religious and political parties want Pakistan to survive and prosper, they should raise the slogan of finishing the feudal system.

» YouTube

All of the time, in more ways than one. So, first to our blow-hot, blow-cold prime minister who has executed another dizzying U-turn. This time on his statement that the Sipah Salaar-e-Azam (an honorific bestowed upon the Sipah Salaar by Akram Shiekh, who is also Mansoor Ijaz-of-the-Murky-Memo’s counsel) and the DG ISI had acted improperly in submitting a reply to the SC without the government’s approval.

We are now told that he had said what he said under “a unique situation when there was no clarity”, but that now, “since there is clarity and now we have all met … that (remark) does not pertain to these two gentlemen”. I don’t know if your head is spinning reader, mine surely is. It’s so bad actually that I am now going for a walk with my beloved Labrador, Mister, to try and clear my head. I only hope I can get this piece done by my deadline.

Now, that was good! A crisp sun shines down on a Lahore that was freezing till yesterday — no gas, thank you very much. While the walk was bracing, my head is still buzzing at the extent of Makhdoom Sahib’s naiveté. However, here goes another effort at writing.

So then, the three protagonists met and clarity came, eh? Was it in the form of a demand that the PM withdraw his remarks and mayhap the army would let the government off the hook? Or were there any other quid pro quos to off-set the PM’s humiliation? And if there weren’t any, why? Should one of them, indeed, not have been ISPR’s withdrawing its harsh and insolent statement against the PM? Once bitten twice shy they say, but he simply will not learn: I’ll bet the PM will be bitten again.

And now to Mamogate or Meemogate, depending on which TV channel you prefer. I attended the first hearing of the Commission and, even before proceedings started, told my nephew who was with me that this was going to descend into a complete farce. And what do you think made me say that? Only the fact that whilst a twice-elected former prime minister accompanied by seven senior leaders of his party, all former chief ministers and federal ministers (two of them flying in from Karachi for the hearing) attended; whilst senior Grade-22 ‘bloody civilian’ bureaucrats attended, two army officers, one Grade-21 and one Grade-22 did not deign to attend. All had been issued like summons. The portends were clear from the start.

Look at where we are today; just look at what the world is saying about us Pakistanis, our politicians, our army, our intelligence services, even our superior judiciary. Just read reports in the international press from the Christian Science Monitor to the Washington Post to the Wall Street Journal. Indeed, see what the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) has said. In short, that we are an irresponsible, unfair, inequitable, capricious, bitter people.

Neither are we stopping here. On the very day that some of these negative stories came out accusations were made against the interior minister no less, of planning to murder Mansoor Ijaz no less, if he came to Pakistan. The purported reason for the belief: that he was Benazir Bhutto’s ‘security chief’ the day she was killed! I ask you! The Commando was in power then, Rehman Malik, good bad or ugly, was not in government then. For God’s sake, what is going on? How many self-inflicted wounds can this poor country suffer?

Someone had it right the other day on TV, talking about the various shenanigans going on: “Who will want to visit a country: investor, tourist, anyone, when in the highest of the country’s courtrooms allegations of ministers committing murder are being bandied about”? Let me add: “Who will wish to visit a country where the government, the army and the judiciary are seemingly at each other’s throats, and no one knows whether he/she is coming or going”?

We Pakistanis can still recover some dignity, save some little face if we grow up. That is all I will say on this theatre of the absurd. But for the particular reading of the Sipah Salaar-e-Azam and his men I give here an excerpt from the Christian Science Monitor story of Januaray 25th: “But Ijaz’s criticism is not limited to the civilian leadership, with whom he has developed a high-level of personal animosity. Asked whether Pakistan’s traditionally pro-military judiciary should be doing more to probe his allegations that ISI chief General Shuja Pasha met with Arab leaders to discuss the possibility of a coup, Ijaz responds: “You’re damn right they ought to ask that question. If the Supreme Court is not willing to, you can be sure [I will].” Warning: this may well develop into a Hoar Choopo Gannay situation, sirs.

In the end, let me go back a little. On the day that the Supreme Court took up regular hearing of the Mamo/Meemogate petitions with Asma Jehangir arguing, I met my friend and (junior) schoolmate, Khawaja Asif outside the court. When he asked me what I was doing there, I said, “I am here to witness the collective suicide of the political class”. I stand by what I said that day.

P.S. I haven’t slept well since watching the video of the beastly TTP shooting fifteen personnel of the Frontier Constabulary in cold blood just a few days ago. What I still cannot fathom is the extent of the cruelty of the murderer making a speech while the poor unfortunates stand there waiting to be shot in the back of the head. Might one ask why when there is much breast-beating when Nato kills our soldiers, there is not a squeak out of anyone when the TTP does likewise?

Courtesy:  The Express Tribune, January 27^th, 2012.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/327621/making-absolute-fools-of-ourselves/

While many of us are working to ensure that the Occupy movement will have a lasting impact, it’s worthwhile to consider other countries where masses of people succeeded in nonviolently bringing about a high degree of democracy and economic justice. Sweden and Norway, for example, both experienced a major power shift in the 1930s after prolonged nonviolent struggle. They “fired” the top 1 percent of people who set the direction for society and created the basis for something different.

Both countries had a history of horrendous poverty. When the 1 percent was in charge, hundreds of thousands of people emigrated to avoid starvation. Under the leadership of the working class, however, both countries built robust and successful economies that nearly eliminated poverty, expanded free university education, abolished slums, provided excellent health care available to all as a matter of right and created a system of full employment. Unlike the Norwegians, the Swedes didn’t find oil, but that didn’t stop them from building what the latest CIA World Factbook calls “an enviable standard of living.”

Neither country is a utopia, as readers of the crime novels by Stieg Larsson, Kurt Wallender and Jo Nesbro will know. Critical left-wing authors such as these try to push Sweden and Norway to continue on the path toward more fully just societies. However, as an American activist who first encountered Norway as a student in 1959 and learned some of its language and culture, the achievements I found amazed me. I remember, for example, bicycling for hours through a small industrial city, looking in vain for substandard housing. Sometimes resisting the evidence of my eyes, I made up stories that “accounted for” the differences I saw: “small country,” “homogeneous,” “a value consensus.” I finally gave up imposing my frameworks on these countries and learned the real reason: their own histories.

Then I began to learn that the Swedes and Norwegians paid a price for their standards of living through nonviolent struggle. There was a time when Scandinavian workers didn’t expect that the electoral arena could deliver the change they believed in. They realized that, with the 1 percent in charge, electoral “democracy” was stacked against them, so nonviolent direct action was needed to exert the power for change.

In both countries, the troops were called out to defend the 1 percent; people died. Award-winning Swedish filmmaker Bo Widerberg told the Swedish story vividly in Ådalen 31, which depicts the strikers killed in 1931 and the sparking of a nationwide general strike. (You can read more about this case in an entry by Max Rennebohm in the Global Nonviolent Action Database.)

The Norwegians had a harder time organizing a cohesive people’s movement because Norway’s small population—about three million—was spread out over a territory the size of Britain. People were divided by mountains and fjords, and they spoke regional dialects in isolated valleys. In the nineteenth century, Norway was ruled by Denmark and then by Sweden; in the context of Europe Norwegians were the “country rubes,” of little consequence. Not until 1905 did Norway finally become independent.

When workers formed unions in the early 1900s, they generally turned to Marxism, organizing for revolution as well as immediate gains. They were overjoyed by the overthrow of the czar in Russia, and the Norwegian Labor Party joined the Communist International organized by Lenin. Labor didn’t stay long, however. One way in which most Norwegians parted ways with Leninist strategy was on the role of violence: Norwegians wanted to win their revolution through collective nonviolent struggle, along with establishing co-ops and using the electoral arena.

In the 1920s strikes increased in intensity. The town of Hammerfest formed a commune in 1921, led by workers councils; the army intervened to crush it. The workers’ response verged toward a national general strike. The employers, backed by the state, beat back that strike, but workers erupted again in the ironworkers’ strike of 1923–24.

The Norwegian 1 percent decided not to rely simply on the army; in 1926 they formed a social movement called the Patriotic League, recruiting mainly from the middle class. By the 1930s, the League included as many as 100,000 people for armed protection of strike breakers—this in a country of only 3 million!

The Labor Party, in the meantime, opened its membership to anyone, whether or not in a unionized workplace. Middle-class Marxists and some reformers joined the party. Many rural farm workers joined the Labor Party, as well as some small landholders. Labor leadership understood that in a protracted struggle, constant outreach and organizing was needed to a nonviolent campaign. In the midst of the growing polarization, Norway’s workers launched another wave of strikes and boycotts in 1928.

The Depression hit bottom in 1931. More people were jobless there than in any other Nordic country. Unlike in the U.S., the Norwegian union movement kept the people thrown out of work as members, even though they couldn’t pay dues. This decision paid off in mass mobilizations. When the employers’ federation locked employees out of the factories to try to force a reduction of wages, the workers fought back with massive demonstrations.

Many people then found that their mortgages were in jeopardy. (Sound familiar?) The Depression continued, and farmers were unable to keep up payment on their debts. As turbulence hit the rural sector, crowds gathered nonviolently to prevent the eviction of families from their farms. The Agrarian Party, which included larger farmers and had previously been allied with the Conservative Party, began to distance itself from the 1 percent; some could see that the ability of the few to rule the many was in doubt.

By 1935, Norway was on the brink. The Conservative-led government was losing legitimacy daily; the 1 percent became increasingly desperate as militancy grew among workers and farmers. A complete overthrow might be just a couple years away, radical workers thought. However, the misery of the poor became more urgent daily, and the Labor Party felt increasing pressure from its members to alleviate their suffering, which it could do only if it took charge of the government in a compromise agreement with the other side.

This it did. In a compromise that allowed owners to retain the right to own and manage their firms, Labor in 1935 took the reins of government in coalition with the Agrarian Party. They expanded the economy and started public works projects to head toward a policy of full employment that became the keystone of Norwegian economic policy. Labor’s success and the continued militancy of workers enabled steady inroads against the privileges of the 1 percent, to the point that majority ownership of all large firms was taken by the public interest. (There is an entry on this case as well at the Global Nonviolent Action Database.)

The 1 percent thereby lost its historic power to dominate the economy and society. Not until three decades later could the Conservatives return to a governing coalition, having by then accepted the new rules of the game, including a high degree of public ownership of the means of production, extremely progressive taxation, strong business regulation for the public good and the virtual abolition of poverty. When Conservatives eventually tried a fling with neoliberal policies, the economy generated a bubble and headed for disaster. (Sound familiar?)

Labor stepped in, seized the three largest banks, fired the top management, left the stockholders without a dime and refused to bail out any of the smaller banks. The well-purged Norwegian financial sector was not one of those countries that lurched into crisis in 2008; carefully regulated and much of it publicly owned, the sector was solid.

Although Norwegians may not tell you about this the first time you meet them, the fact remains that their society’s high level of freedom and broadly-shared prosperity began when workers and farmers, along with middle class allies, waged a nonviolent struggle that empowered the people to govern for the common good.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License

George Lakey is Visiting Professor at Swarthmore College and a Quaker. He has led 1,500 workshops on five continents and led activist projects on local, national, and international levels. Among many other books and articles, he is author of “Strategizing for a Living Revolution” in David Solnit’s book Globalize Liberation (City Lights, 2004). His first arrest was for a civil rights sit-in and most recent was with Earth Quaker Action Team while protesting mountain top removal coal mining.

Courtesy: Common Dreams

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/01/26-3

by Nadeem F. Paracha

Excerpt;

…. Political Islam’s consequent failure to produce the desired results that its intellectuals had promised, and also its doctrinal involvement in the armed “jihad” in Afghanistan, generated the creation of modern-day Islamic militancy.

This militancy too faced the same problems in trying to triumph with a singular concept of Islam and the sharia in the face of the social and religious complications that run across Muslim countries.

So much so that by the late 1990s, Political Islam had devolved into what we now call “Islamic fundamentalism,” and/or stripped clean off its intellectual moorings and reduced to being an ideology of pure terror and having a myopic and narrow understanding of Islam and of the West. Entities like the al Qaeda, Tehreek-e-Taliban and the many militant outfits that were active in Kashmir (Harakat ul-Mujahedeen, Jaish-e-Muhammad, Lashkar-e-Taiba), are clear examples.

So it was heartening to hear Kashmir leaders like Bhatt and Yasin distancing themselves from those aspects of the movement that have caused nothing more than bloodshed, pain and chaos, more at the cost of the Kashmiris’ rather than their ‘occupiers.’

Read more » DAWN.COM

WASHINGTON — President Obama is losing the war in Afghanistan to the Taliban, argued Rep. Louie Gohmert after listening to Tuesday’s State of the Union address. So he proposed one way to win: create a new, friendly state within the borders of neighboring Pakistan.

The Texas Republican took issue with Obama’s assertion that “the Taliban’s momentum has been broken.” He said he had just visited Afghanistan and came away with a very different sense from talking to members of the Northern Alliance, a multiethnic confederation of warlords and other forces who led the U.S.-backed ouster of the Taliban in 2001.

Gohmert argued that, far from being broken, the Taliban are feeling powerful enough to demand that members of the Northern Alliance apologize before the United States leaves in 2013. “If you look at the objective facts … they’re not on the run,” Gohmert said.

His solution was first to supply more arms to the Northern Alliance. But then, he said, the Afghan border with Pakistan needs to be shored up.

“Let’s talk about creating a Balochistan in the southern part of Pakistan,” Gohmert told The Huffington Post, referring to a region of Pakistan that constitutes nearly half that vital if troublesome ally.

“They love us. They’ll stop the IEDs [improvised explosive devices] and all the weaponry coming into Afghanistan, and we got a shot to win over there,” said Gohmert, who accused Obama’s national security advisers of giving the president bad intel on Afghanistan.

“His strategy of working from ignorance and thinking we have them on the run is no way to go through life, son,” Gohmert said. “I’m about to borrow from an ‘Animal House’ line, but anyway, that’s no way to go through life when you’re that ignorant of what’s really going on.”

The White House did not answer a request for comment, and Gohmert’s office did not elaborate on how the United States could even discuss carving off Balochistan from a country that is both an ally and a nuclear power.

The United States recently has been talking about a truce with the Taliban. Gohmert, a member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, characterized such efforts as begging, backed by an offer to “let all these Taliban murderers” go free.

Courtesy: Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/25/louie-gohmert-afghan-strategy-balochistan-pakistan-taliban_n_1232250.html

By Abdul Hafeez

Karachi: As Pakistan’s civilian government and military establishment are mending ties which strained after memogate controversy, ISI chief is likely to be given extension by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

However, sources said the spymaster who was given extension twice after reaching the age of retirement in 2010 and 2011, is reluctant to continue his job.

A Pakistani newspaper claimed that civilian and military leaders had decided to lower temperature in the ‘national interest’ and it was evident from General Kayani’s visit alongside Let Gen Pasha to Prime Minister House on Tuesday.

Sources said that Pasha during corps commanders meeting had offered his resignation and was unwilling to continue. However, Gen Kayani has desire that Pasha should get extension for another term.

In case, Pasha refused to get extension, the prime minister after consultation with the army chief would appoint new ISI head in March that might be Let Gen Zaheerul Islam, currently working as corps commander Karachi, or Major Gen Naushad Kayani, now working as Director Gen Military Operations.

However, sources told The News Tribe that Major General Sahibzada Asfandyar Pataudi, a paternal uncle of Indian film star Saif Ali Khan might be appointed ISI chief.

Indian media, shortly after the US raid in Abbottabad that killed Osama bin Laden, had published reports, speculating that Saif Ali Khan’s uncle might be a new ISI chief if Pasha resigned from the post.

Interestingly, Saif Ali Khan is going to release his new movie Agent Vinod, in which he played RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) Agent and Kareena Kapoor, a leading bollywood heroin would be playing ISI agent role. One could imagine how Saif would deal with the ISI spy.

Courtesy: The News Tribe

http://www.thenewstribe.com/2012/01/26/pasha-likely-to-get-extension/#.TyFfVIHZXTp

The distressing 11.56 minute footage, circulated through YouTube, is quite evidently a trophy video, the guards happy to pose as they strip their victim, tie his hands and feet, and beat him mercilessly while discussing among themselves other severe options of dealing with him. …..

Read more » The Hindu

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/article2826161.ece

Top Judge

Passport please – By Dr Mohammad Taqi

The Supreme Court must clarify if Husain Haqqani’s passport was taken away on its directive or with its knowledge. Nothing unlawful has been proved against him and Article 9 must be upheld now

MIA — Mansoor Ijaz absconding! Well, at least so far the man has been living up to every expectation: megalomania, narcissistic tantrums, a desire for media attention (the Americanism for which is rather impolite to quote here) and the prediction that when the time comes, he will go MIA.

The so-called Memogate case was a farce from the word go but has really become a circus now with the main petitioner not willing or not interested in pursuing the charges and the star witness — not the accused — absconding. Even in the old Urdu/Persian adage ‘muda’ee sust, gawaah chust’, it is the accuser who is slack (in pressing the case) while the witness is overactive or oversmart. Okay, Mansoor Ijaz is the accuser-cum-witness but an absconder all the same. Let’s face it, the only potential smoking gun in this case could be a voice recording, which, had it existed, would have surfaced by now. Minus that, Ijaz will remain a no show. Indeed, the only party that now remains overzealous is the superior judiciary.

After Mansoor Ijaz played hooky, the judicial commission headed by Balochistan High Court’s honourable Chief Justice Qazi Faez Issa said that the commission will not travel abroad to record Ijaz’s statement but will send its secretary to meet him aboard his flight to Pakistan. Directives were issued again that ‘foolproof security’ be provided for his ‘arrival, stay and departure’. And just in case they have to wait on him this third time as well, the commission will write to the Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan requesting an extension in its four week deadline to finish the probe. Is Mansoor Ijaz’s plane Air Force One now? Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani was not that off the mark to question the vice-regal protocol Ijaz has been demanding.

What if he says no to the gracious offer to be interviewed mid-air, citing concerns — say about surface-to-air missiles — will the lordships, in their full regalia, proceed to the tarmac to record his words of wisdom? What about the scores of attorneys and their legal teams to represent Ijaz or cross-examine him; will they tag along too? Are the umpteen petitioners and their uncle also going to accompany them?

One can only wish that the Pakistani superior judiciary, restored through toil and blood, had shown similar interest and perseverance in clearing the backlog of over 1.5 million cases pending at various levels of the legal system. Some diligence — at least in an inquisitorial role — to probe the parallel justice system of ‘Dar-ul-Qaza’ set up by Mullah Fazlullah and Sufi Muhammad, might have gone a long way to give reprieve to the people of Malakand when they had needed it most.

The perception that the judiciary is increasingly becoming part of the problem, and not the solution, is being echoed consistently by the leaders of the successful lawyers’ movement, the outspoken Ali Ahmed Kurd being the latest. The two most important concerns are that firstly, the judiciary is expanding its jurisdiction beyond the ‘ancient mere stones’ and secondly, how fundamental rights are being rendered subservient to state security while holding the latter to be synonymous with the public interest.

That great torchbearer of the separation of powers, Thomas Jefferson, had aptly noted: “Judicial activism makes a mere thing of wax in the hands of judiciary, which it can give the shape as it wishes.” The pronouncements from the august SC bench in the recent past have raised serious concerns about what shape the lordships wish to give things in Pakistan. Some of the verbiage in the December 30, 2011 Memogate judgement should have raised not just eyebrows but red flags. Alas, that seasoned campaigner, Asma Jahangir, was the only one to point out that the drastic mutations being (re)introduced will come back to haunt everyone.

In his conforming note, honourable Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan wrote: “Security of person is one of the most important fundamental rights. It is inextricably linked with the security of the state…Security of person in the absence of a strong, secure and stable state would be inconceivable. It would be as imaginary as drinking water from a mirage. Therefore, fundamental right of person would stand infringed the moment something tending to imperil the security of state is done.”

This note has an uncanny resemblance to the language used by the late Justice Munir in support of his validation(s) of the Ayub coup d’état. In addition to claiming, “That which is otherwise not lawful, necessity makes lawful,” Justice Munir had also introduced two other perversions: 1) salus populi suprema lex (the safety of the people is the supreme law) and 2) salus republicae est suprema lex (the safety of the state is the supreme law). He had additionally cited cases dealing with appropriation of citizens’ property or liberty for defence of the realm. In essence, this abhorrent anomaly — which even Hans Kelsen had to distance himself from — has provided cover to every military adventurist in Pakistan and contributed to the national security state paradigm where the ‘realm’ can take away the individual’s rights to liberty, property, adult franchise and self-governance.

Unfortunately, the very first casualty of this reincarnation of Justice Munir was Husain Haqqani’s fundamental right to liberty in the present case. The court has virtually flipped on its head Article 9 of the constitution that “no person shall be deprived of life or liberty save in accordance with law”. While convoluted reasoning was presented to justify why the petitioners’ fundamental rights were infringed, Haqqani’s rights were trampled upon.

Some analysts have dismissed that there was any nexus between the army, the petitioners — especially Nawaz Sharif — and the judiciary. Maybe they were not in cahoots and it is all merely a confluence of interests. But from what some of us have gathered, the plan to drag Husain Haqqani into court and put him on the exit control list (ECL) was well underway before he landed in Pakistan. In fact, his flight home was being monitored by the brass via the defence attaché at the Pakistani embassy in Washington, DC. No sooner did he land than his travel documents and passport were snatched away. The question is: on whose orders and by whom?

The SC must clarify if Husain Haqqani’s passport was taken away on its directive or with its knowledge. Nothing unlawful has been proved against him and Article 9 must be upheld now. The SC must return Haqqani’s passport please — or say that they do not have it.

The writer can be reached at mazdaki@me.com. He tweets at http://twitter.com/mazdaki

Courtesy: Daily Times

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=20121\26\story_26-1-2012_pg3_2

“Husain Haqqani faced a vicious media trial following which the Supreme Court of Pakistan on a petition filed debarred him from travelling abroad, despite the fact that he has not been charged with any crime,” said Sheila Varadan, International Legal Advisor at the ICJ Asia-Pacific Regional Office. “Husain Haqqani continues to receive threats and has been painted as disloyal to the country. There is, though, no proof of any betrayal of his duties as an Ambassador of Pakistan to the United States.”

“We are calling on the Pakistani Authorities to respect Husain Haqqani’s right to be presumed innocent and to remove the restriction on his right to leave the country and any other restrictions on his right to freedom of movement,” added Varadan. “They must also ensure his personal safety at all times and respect his right to a fair and impartial hearing throughout the Inquiry process.”

Courtesy: Pakistan Today

A morning show broadcast in Pakistan on Jan 17, 2012, on Samaa, a Pakistani television channel, has catalysed what could well be the beginning of a media consumer rights movement.

In the show, Subah Saverey Maya kay Sath (Early Morning with Maya), the host Maya Khan, charges through a public park looking for dating couples to interrogate. With her is a battalion of other women, who join her in self-righteously lecturing the couples they come across – does your family know you are here, why don’t you meet at home if you are engaged, and, most outrageously, if you are married, where is your nikahnama (marriage certificate)?

When the harassed couples ask for the camera to be turned off, the Samaa team pretends to acquiesce but carries on filming with sound. As several people have pointed out, this intrusive behaviour could result in putting those couples in life-threatening situations in a country where forced marriages and ‘honour killings’ continue to be the norm. ….

Read more » Beena Sarwar

Courtesy: ARY News Tv » YouTube

Sindh Assembly

SA thumbs down to any change

By: Ramzam Chandio

KARACHI – The Sindh Assembly on Friday sent a clear signal not to accept any amendment in Article 239(4) of the Constitution, relating to two third votes of provincial legislature mandatory for altering/creating new province within any province.

The law minister while supporting the proposed resolution of a lawmaker from NPP promised before the House that the resolution would be taken up in the Assembly for discussion on the next Monday. The Sindh Assembly, which met at 11:30hours, against schedule of 10:00am, with Speaker Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, consumed over ten minutes on arguments and counter arguments on a request of Masroor Ahmed Jatoi from NPP, who wanted to move a resolution out of turn, opposing any amendment in Article 239 (4) of Constitution. After question-hour session, NPP MPA Jatoi, stood on his feet and urged the chair to allow him to move a resolution out of turn. The proposed resolution of Mr Jatoi was also distributed among the media persons in press gallery, carried signatures of lawmakers of the ruling PPP, PML-F, NPP and ANP. ….

Read more » The Nation

A whistle blowing hero to some, a villain doing the Pakistan military’s dirty work to others, Ijaz is above all a mysterious anomaly.

By Issam Ahmed

Islamabad, Pakistan – A multi-millionaire American businessman at the center of a political crisis in Pakistan refused to travel to Islamabad Monday to testify before a Supreme Court commission, saying he feared for his personal safety. ….

Read more » csmonitor

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2012/0125/Who-is-Mansoor-Ijaz-The-US-businessman-behind-Pakistan-s-Memo-gate

THE high drama over memogate has given way to low farce. Yesterday, the high-powered judicial commission formed to assist the Supreme Court ascertain the ‘origin, credibility and purpose’ of the memo tried several times to convince a reluctant Mansoor Ijaz to travel to Pakistan and appear before the commission. ….

Read more » DAWN.COM

It seems at the first sign of cracks in a democratic setup in Pakistan, a battle cry goes out from media pundits, back-door politicians and professional pontificators alike to end or derail the democratic process. As the knives and bayonets are sharpened, headlines like “End the farce”, “Noose tightens” and “Government isolated” dominate in the media.

Many affluent Pakistanis, enjoying the fruits of Western democracies, hypocritically chime in to denigrate democracy and espouse the benefits of a return to strict authoritarian rule or a managed democracy for the unwashed masses in their native land. The mainstay of their argument is that a “controlled” political process can deliver peace, order and stability which the country desperately needs and which the natural chaos of a parliamentary democracy cannot hope to emulate. “The man who has gotten everything he wants is all in favor of peace and order.” Jawaharlal Nehru

The propagandists and doomsayers who predict the end of democracy are helped by the macabre political situation prevailing in the country. The Prime Minister is being held in contempt and has had to appear before the Supreme Court for balking on writing to the Swiss courts to reopen the President’s past corruption cases. A former envoy to the US has taken protection in the PM House, possibly seeking protection from the country’s security services who may seek to harm him for allegedly instigating a memorandum inviting foreign intervention to check the power of the country’s military.

The government has been forced to have a pro-democracy resolution passed by the “sovereign and supreme” Parliament requesting all institutions to respect the primacy of democratic institutions. It is a wonder that a democratic government, constantly watching its back, is also expected to focus on urgent issues facing the country like poverty, hunger, unemployment and the sorry state of government hospitals and schools.

Conditioned by years of playing second fiddle to autocrats and their henchmen, politicians and civil society are reluctant to stand together to fight the misleading allure of authoritarianism or a managed democracy. This is surprising because the non-democratic road in Pakistan is well travelled, taken a great toll on the country, and shaken its foundations to the core.

A strong case can be made that the three long periods of dictatorship in Pakistan’s history, Ayub 1958-69, Zia 1977-1988 and Musharraf 1999-2008 greatly contributed to the disintegration of the country and the spread of a retrogressive Islamic ideology, sectarianism and violence. The “men on horseback” trained in a unitary environment failed and will continue to fail because they are unable to understand the discordant demands of a multi ethnic society.

There is also little evidence that a “controlled” political environment is any less corrupt or can ensure long-term economic prosperity when compared to a parliamentary democracy. It can be argued that whitewashing authoritarianism every few years, does not remove its intrinsic violence and corruption and the way its tyrannies intrude into ordinary lives.

It seems ridiculous to imagine that a command decision made by an unelected leadership can be implemented without question in a complex nation of a 180 million people. History has proven time and time again that changes needed for the betterment of the people require discussion and consensus and not heavy handed approaches to be effective. Given the opportunity, the people will support liberal democracy and its ideals of tolerance, due process and constitutional rights.

Governmental legitimacy should continue to be derived from the ballot box. A silver lining often ignored by pessimists is that Pakistan has legitimate political parties, an increasingly independent judiciary and vibrant media, which are prerequisites for preserving and enhancing a democratic society. Pakistanis also have a history of fighting dictatorship and checking obscurantism through democratic means when allowed.

The critical issues of corruption and poor governance, disillusioned populace and a young population with few economic prospects have to be addressed quickly. This requires Pakistan to come up with a new generation of leaders, who are capable of relaying the foundations of State in crisis and who are also capable of defending its populations’ interests better, based on unwavering respect for different State institutions.

Courtesy: Pak Tea House

http://networkedblogs.com/t98py

By Myra MacDonald, Reuters

One of Pakistan’s most bizarre political dramas appears to be running out of steam.  What began as an unsigned memo seeking American help to rein in the military escalated into a full-blown power struggle between the civilian government and the army after Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz accused then ambassador to Washington Husain Haqqani of writing it. Haqqani, who denied involvement, resigned and returned to Pakistan to clear his name.  But that did nothing to stem a crisis in civilian-military relations which carried uncomfortable echoes of the 1990swhen government after government were dismissed in a decade which ended in a coup in 1999.

With Haqqani now living in virtual house arrest in Pakistan, the so-called “Memogate” affair is far from over – it remains subject to judicial and parliamentary enquiries. But after weeks of drama, from coup rumours to allegations the army had already sought Gulf backing to take over - both denied by the military – to unusually spirited criticism of the army by the government, to the more farcical circulation of an old video featuring Ijaz commenting on naked female wrestling – the media feeding frenzy triggered by the memo appears finally to be satiated. Ijaz, meanwhile, has said he is unwilling to travel to Pakistan to testify, citing fears for his safety, diminishing his utility as a star player.

As things stand, not only has the government led by the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) of President Asif Ali Zardari survived, but it may even be on course to pull off an unprecedented feat in Pakistan – to serve its term, hold elections and hand over power to another democratically elected government. And while elections are not due until 2013, it is widely expected to hold them early with a real possibility of winning enough seats to stake a claim to lead a new coalition. Pakistan’s constituency-based system makes it hard for outsiders like the Tehrik-e-Insaf Pakistan (PTI) of rising politician Imran Khan to break the traditional grip of the PPP and its main rival, the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

Yet to suggest that the civilian government has come out on top in its confrontation with the generals would be to vastly overstate the significance of  “Memogate”,  and to grossly underestimate the distribution of power in Pakistan.

Step away from the minutiae of Memogate and look back over the period since the civilian government took office in 2008. It began its term hoping to improve relations with India, a crucial factor in determining the civilian-military imbalance within Pakistan. The rivalry with India has traditionally helped the army to bolster its power as it soaks up resources in military spending to counter what it sees as an existential threat. It has also fuelled support for Islamist militant groups to counter India in Kashmir and Afghanistan – groups whose relationship with the Pakistani state ran  through the army’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, again increasing its power relative to the country’s civilian politicians.

Conversely, peace with India would expand the space available to a civilian government by increasing trade,  allowing a greater share of a growing economy to be used on non-military spending, and cutting off the oxygen which helped Islamist militant groups to flourish.  You might even argue that the government’s desire to improve relations with India was as much to do with countering the power of the army at home as it was to end a bitter divide dating back to partition in 1947.  Extend that argument further and you can begin to understand why the army, whose DNA is configured to confront India, might have been genuinely alarmed by the memo, which not only talked of clipping its powers to manage Islamist militants, but offered to bring Pakistan’s nuclear weapons under international supervision.

Indeed, back in 2008 Zardari even went so far as to suggest that Pakistan could adopt a policy of “no first use” of nuclear weapons - a huge encroachment on the power of the military which considers nuclear weapons its own preserve, and sees the credible threat of first use as necessary to offset India’s conventional superiority.  The suggestion enraged the army – one diplomat told me that the language used by senior officers  to describe Zardari’s offer, particularly after a good few glasses of Scotch, did not bear repeating.

The November 2008 attack on Mumbai by Pakistan-based militants put paid to any idea that civilian politicians could carve out an independent foreign policy as both the military and the civilian government closed ranks in defending the country against Indian outrage.  From then on, the government more or less ceded the space to the army in setting foreign and security policy.

Occasional attempts by civilians to assert themselves – the army blamed ambassador Haqqani in 2009 for provisions in the U.S. Kerry Lugar aid bill giving the government greater power over the military – were quickly beaten back.

Meanwhile, the United States made clear its principal interlocutor in setting Afghan policy was the army;  it feted its chief, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, in Washington, while the government took the rap for the kind of cooperation with the Americans that was becoming increasingly unpopular at home.  Far from winning the struggle with the military, the civilian politicians ended up in a worse position, with responsibility but no power, while the army had power but no responsibility.

It did not help that the political elite was widely seen as corrupt -  to a Pakistani public struggling to understand the peculiar relationship between the United States and Pakistan, and dealing with the spillover from the Afghan war in the form of gun and bomb attacks -  by far the easiest explanation was that the country had been sold out to U.S. interests by crooked politicians.

The government appointed by Zardari survived, almost against all expectations, by cutting one political deal after another with opposition politicians.  Yet the flexibility which allowed Zardari to make deals was also his downfall – the government seemed unable to see anything through and to the charge of corruption was added incompetence in governance.  After two consecutive years of devastating floods, a global financial crisis and a turbulent relationship with the United States (how much easier it was, the critics would say, when Washington simply had to pick up the phone and speak to the general in charge), the government’s track record is not looking good.

The country is fragmented by a competition for power between the military, the government, the judiciary and the media, among others.  Even some of the old certainties are breaking down. The “Military, Mullah, Militant” nexus which gave a semblance of stability to past military dictatorships has been challenged by groups like the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and their Punjabi allies who are fighting the same army which once nurtured the cause of Islamic jihad. Even the Lashkar-e-Taiba, traditionally the militant group closest to the military establishment, appears to have gone its own way in the execution of the Mumbai attacks.  The trope that Pakistan could be defined by the three A’s – “Army, Allah and America” – makes little sense any more when Washington and the Pakistan Army are at each other’s throats and its people killed by those who claim to fight in the name of Islam.

Meanwhile, the country faces a bitter separatist insurgency in Baluchistan,  and continued violence in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) bordering Afghanistan. The urban middle classes – squeezed like middle classes everywhere else in the world by the global financial crisis – are in little mood to share even more of their declining incomes to pay for Pakistan’s rural poor let alone to fund economic development in areas like Baluchistan and FATA which have long been seen as peripheral to the country’s Punjab heartland.

Ultimately, and frustratingly for those of us who prefer facts over propaganda, substance over politics, perception rules. Whatever the underlying reasons, when Pakistanis look back at their latest experiment in democracy over the last three years, their perceptions – at least as far as individual self-interest is concerned – will be negative.  And bear in mind, in Pakistan’s previous cycles of military and civilian rule, the yearning for order has  eventually triumphed. Military coups were always welcomed.

What happens next? We don’t know. The country is in some ways ripe for European-style fascism to pull its many fragmented parts together – think Italy, a country united for only 60 years, linguistically divided, economically struggling, harking back to the glory days of the Roman Empire and finding common ground only in religion, when Benito Mussolini rose to power.  But since history never repeats itself exactly, the model will be different. If such a sudden shift happens, it will likely be born out of a 150-year old Islamist response to British colonialism in South Asia.

Or Pakistan will quite literally “soldier on”. Elections will be held; a new civilian government will take office; and the army will continue to define foreign and security policy. It may even eventually take over again if the next government ends up being as disappointing – at least by its own definition – as the current one. The expected crisis, or failed state, will never quite materialise, but nor will Pakistan become successful. Then as the United States gradually withdraws from an unwinnable war in Afghanistan, Pakistan will be forgotten by all but those who live there or in the neighbourhood.

And historians will puzzle over why so much ink was spilled over “Memogate”, and why so much airtime was so loudly filled.

Courtesy » Reuters

http://blogs.reuters.com/pakistan/2012/01/25/obituary-of-a-scandal-a-first-draft-on-pakistans-memogate/

Reblogged from Baaghi:

Appeared as my weekly column BAAGHI in Daily Times on Monday January 23, 2012 Umpteen talk shows on 24/7 ‘breaking news’ media in Pakistan tell us almost daily how bad is democracy, how this democracy is worse than the dictatorships we have had, etc. TV presenters and reporters show little care for facts-based evidence to substantiate their claims. The act not only goes largely unchecked but brings more ‘ratings’ as a bonus. Who would like facts to come in the way of a good story? The recently …

» YouTube

KARACHI: The Sindh government has not yet spent even a single penny from the Rs1.15 billion it has received from the Central Zakat Fund in addition to the Rs2.5 billion allocated by Sindh for the reconstruction of houses damaged or destroyed in the 2010 floods, said Sindh Zakat and Ushr Minister Sajid Jokhio on Monday. ….

Read more » DAWN.COM

Excerpt;

….. The prime minister is within his constitutional authority to remove the two chiefs, and therefore under what law would the Chief Justice of Pakistan interfere in the prime minister’s authority and ask for a no-removal guarantee by the latter? Giving such a guarantee would clearly restrict the constitutional powers given to the elected prime minister. Was the CJP overstepping his constitutional mandate? The CJP can re-interpret or use his own discretion, but not without undermining the Constitution.

Such an action by the CJP could set a dangerous precedent and could undermine the recent thawing of government-army tensions. The Chief Justice of Pakistan is humbly advised to re-trace his missteps on this matter. Meanwhile, the government would be ill-advised to give in writing that it will not remove the army and the ISI chiefs.

Courtesy: The Express Tribune, January 25th, 2012.

It was General Kayani’s strong warnings that prevented Nato strikes into Pakistani territory, claims the military. This is a cause for celebration. For it seems that the western forces in Afghanistan take heed to the Pakistani military chief’s warnings. This would, in turn, present a solution to the drone strikes, the latest of which we saw in the Datakhel area in North Waziristan on Monday. All the army chief has to do to stop them is to protest. Taking credit for one development means taking responsibility and blame for another.

There is, clearly, a lack of objective standards with which the military’s performance is to be evaluated. A pick-and-choose approach doesn’t hold water in any other government department, why should it here?

Much confusion persists, as always, on the role of the military. The military’s top spymaster, for instance, reportedly, met with former president Pervez Musharraf in Dubai the other day. Under what mandate did this meeting take place? The chief of an organisation that is tasked with counter-intelligence should not be going about liaising with political figures. If he can meet with the latter, then nothing much could be found wrong with the spy chief’s meeting with US national Mansoor Ijaz in London. It seems that the agency’s penchant for “political management” (as a former spy chief called it) has not ended.

A recent report by the Human Rights Watch bemoans the encroachment on civil institutions by the military. The report highlights the threats to journalists and political activists in Balochistan and the tribal areas in particular and the rest of the country in general and points to the general malaise regarding the intelligence agencies regarding them.

But since the HRW report also lashes out at the US for its policy of drone strikes, we know what part of the report the establishment will pick and choose to publicise.

Courtesy: Pakistan Today

http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2012/01/pick-and-choose/

ISLAMABAD – (Reuters) – The death of a senior al Qaeda leader in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan’s tribal badlands, the first strike in almost two months, signaled that the U.S.-Pakistan intelligence partnership is still in operation despite political tensions.

The Jan 10 strike — and its follow-up two days later — were joint operations, a Pakistani security source based in the tribal areas told Reuters.

They made use of Pakistani “spotters” on the ground and demonstrated a level of coordination that both sides have sought to downplay since tensions erupted in January 2011 with the killing of two Pakistanis by a CIA contractor in Lahore.

“Our working relationship is a bit different from our political relationship,” the source told Reuters, requesting anonymity. “It’s more productive.”

U.S. and Pakistani sources told Reuters that the target of the Jan 10 attack was Aslam Awan, a Pakistani national from Abbottabad, the town where Osama bin Laden was killed last May by a U.S. commando team.

They said he was targeted in a strike by a U.S.-operated drone directed at what news reports said was a compound near the town of Miranshah in the border province of North Waziristan.

That strike broke an undeclared eight-week hiatus in attacks by the armed, unmanned drones that patrol the tribal areas and are a key weapon in U.S. President Barack Obama’s counter-terrorism strategy.

The sources described Awan, also known by the nom-de-guerre Abdullah Khorasani, as a significant figure in the remaining core leadership of al Qaeda, which U.S. officials say has been sharply reduced by the drone campaign. Most of the drone attacks are conducted as part of a clandestine CIA operation.

The Pakistani source, who helped target Awan, could not confirm that he was killed, but the U.S. official said he was. European officials said Awan had spent time in London and had ties to British extremists before returning to Pakistan.

The source, who says he runs a network of spotters primarily in North and South Waziristan, described for the first time how U.S.-Pakistani cooperation on strikes works, with his Pakistani agents keeping close tabs on suspected militants and building a pattern of their movements and associations.

“We run a network of human intelligence sources,” he said. “Separately, we monitor their cell and satellite phones.

“Thirdly, we run joint monitoring operations with our U.S. and UK friends,” he added, noting that cooperation with British intelligence was also extensive.

Pakistani and U.S. intelligence officers, using their own sources, hash out a joint “priority of targets lists” in regular face-to-face meetings, he said.

“Al Qaeda is our top priority,” he said.

He declined to say where the meetings take place.

Once a target is identified and “marked,” his network coordinates with drone operators on the U.S. side. He said the United States bases drones outside Kabul, likely at Bagram airfield about 25 miles north of the capital.

From spotting to firing a missile “hardly takes about two to three hours,” he said.

DRONE STRIKES A SORE POINT WITH PAKISTAN

It was impossible to verify the source’s claims and American experts, who decline to discuss the drone program, say the Pakistanis’ cooperation has been less helpful in the past.

U.S. officials have complained that when information on drone strikes was shared with the Pakistanis beforehand, the targets were often tipped off, allowing them to escape.

Drone strikes have been a sore point with the public and Pakistani politicians, who describe them as violations of sovereignty that produce unacceptable civilian casualties.

The last strike before January had been on Nov 16, 10 days before 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed in what NATO says was an inadvertent cross-border attack on a Pakistani border post.

That incident sent U.S.-Pakistan relations into the deepest crisis since Islamabad joined the U.S.-led war on militancy following the Sept 11, 2001 attacks. On Thursday, Pakistani foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar said ties were “on hold” while Pakistan completes a review of the alliance.

The United States sees Pakistan as critical to its efforts to wind down the war in Afghanistan, where U.S.-led NATO forces are battling a Taliban insurgency.

Some U.S. and Pakistani officials say that both sides are trying to improve ties. As part of this process, a U.S. official said, it is possible that some permanent changes could be made in the drone program which could slow the pace of attacks.

The security source said very few innocent people had been killed in the strikes. When a militant takes shelter in a house or compound which is then bombed, “the ones who are harboring him, they are equally responsible,” he said.

“When they stay at a host house, they (the hosts) obviously have sympathies for these guys.”

He denied that Pakistan helped target civilians.

“If … others say innocents have been targeted, it’s not true,” he said. “We never target civilians or innocents.”

The New America Foundation policy institute says that of 283 reported strikes from 2004 to Nov 16, 2011, between 1,717 and 2,680 people were killed. Between 293 and 471 were thought to be civilians — approximately 17 percent of those killed.

The Brookings Institution, however, says civilian deaths are high, reporting in 2009 that “for every militant killed, 10 or more civilians also died.” Pakistan’s interior minister, Rehman Malik, also said in April 2011 that “the majority of victims are innocent civilians.”

Still, despite its public stance, Pakistan has quietly supported the drone program since Obama ramped up air strikes when he took office in 2009 and even asked for more flights.

According to a U.S. State Department cable published by anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks, Pakistan’s chief of army staff General Ashfaq Kayani in February 2008 asked Admiral William J. Fallon, then-commander of U.S. Central Command, for increased surveillance and round-the-clock drone coverage over North and South Waziristan.

The security source said Pakistan’s powerful spy agency, the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence, also was supportive of the strikes, albeit privately.

(Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball in Washington; Editing by Ron Popeski)

Courtesy: Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/22/us-pakistan-drones-idUSTRE80L08G20120122

via » Siasat.pk

Courtesy: DAWN News Tv

Via » Siasat.pk

Reblogged from Indus Asia Online Journal (iaoj):

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His Father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence. The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence. Finally the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at …

» YouTube

NEW YORK: Pakistan’s fledgling democratic government, under increasing pressure from the military, appeased extremist groups, ignored army abuses and failed to hold those responsible for serious abuses accountable in 2011, New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch has said. ….

Read more » The Express Tribune

More details » BBC

(New York) – The Indian government during 2011 failed to hold rights violators accountable or to carry out effective policies to protect vulnerable communities, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2012.

The government took no action to repeal the widely discredited Armed Forces Special Powers Act, disregarding the recommendations of political leaders and advisers, Human Rights Watch said. The government also ignored the urgent need for police reform despite widespread complaints of torture and unlawful killings as well as deplorable working conditions for police personnel….

Read more » Human Rights Watch

ISLAMABAD: Lt General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the chief of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), held a secret meeting with former President General (retired) Pervez Musharraf in Dubai advising him not to visit Pakistan, sources told DawnNews on Monday.

“General Pasha, who has remained very close to the former president, held a meeting with him (Musharraf) in Dubai and advised him not to return to the country as the situation is not conducive for his return,” said an insider while requesting anonymity from this correspondent.

The Senate on Monday also passed a resolution demanding the arrest of the former military ruler on his return. Interior Minister Rehman Malik also announced that Musharraf would be arrested the day he landed in Pakistan.

The sources claim that Pasha strictly advised Musharraf to not to return.

It is yet not clear whether the meeting was held on the directions of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party government or if it was a private meeting. However the sources insist that it was a private meeting between the two.

The sources also claim that Pasha enjoys a long history of relations with the former dictator.

In 2008, during the last year of Musharraf as president, Pasha was appointed to the key posting of Director General (DG) of Military Operations Directorate. Later General Kayani, after becoming the chief of Army Staff, promoted him as Lt Gen and appointed him the chief of the ISI.

Currently two important cases against Pervez Musharraf have been registered in Pakistan. An Anti Terrorists Court (ATC) in Rawalpindi has already declared Musharraf a proclaimed offender in the Benazir Bhutto murder case. Musharraf was also nominated in Akbar Bugti’s murder case in Balochistan.

The sources also claim that Musharraf, after meeting with the ISI Chief, called a meeting of his party on January 25th for revisiting his decision to return to Pakistan.

Courtesy: DAWN.COM

ISLAMABAD: Secretary Election Commission, Ishtiaq Ahmed Khan, Monday said, though staying the set by-polls was a violation of the Constitution, but EC would honour Supreme Court’s order, Geo News reported.

Addressing a press conference here, he said that Supreme Court of Pakistan did not hear us out on the issue of by-elections. ….

Read more » The News

Sindhi culture day

- Sindhi is a very sweet and melodious language. Writes Dr. Annemarie Schimmel, Harvard professor of  linguist: “Since every word in Sindhi ends in a vowel, the sound is very musical.”

Sindhi is a very rich language with a vast vocabulary; this has made it a favourite of many writers and so a lot of literature and poetry has been written in Sindhi. Writes K. R. Malkani in “THE SINDH STORY”: ‘The Sindhi language and literature reflect the rich variety and quality of Sindhi life and thought. Sindhi has 125 names for as many varieties of fish. From Hyderabad to the sea, a distance of less than one hundred miles, the Sindhu river has half a dozen names — Sahu, Sita, Mograh, Popat, Bano, and Hajamiro — to reflect its many moods. The camel has a score of names, to indicate its age, colour, gait and character.’

It is the language of Saints and Rishis of ancient Sindh. It has been the inspiration for Sindhi art, music, literature, culture and the way of life. Many great poets and literatis have been profoundly inspired by the beauty of Sindhi language.

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