Terroristan - June 20, 2017

[Falijee]

"Good Haqqani" Supports America Against Pakistan !

To Win Afghanistan, Get Tough On Pakistan
Hussein Haqqani

The article dwells on Pakistan's duplicity . Accepting aid from America (money, weapons, diplomatic support ) and at the same time, supporting Taliban secretly as they fear Indian influence ( greatly overestimated ) . Denying support for Taliban and lying to the Americans . And at the same time, allowing the Americans to set up bases in Pakistan to carry on drone attack in Tribal Areas . The Americans now see Pakistan's duplicity and want to punish them !

[JE Menon]

Guys, does Pakistan not have an English-language TV news and discussion channel? I've not been able to find a single one, and missing out on all the fun...

[ramana]

Is GeoNews shut down?

Chetak, Need to keep track of KulBhushan Yadav story.

[JE Menon]

Geonews is online Ramana, but it's only in Urdu...

[Singha]

there is constant fighting going on in baluchistan , some twitter accounts do post the occasional photo or video.
https://twitter.com/Baloch_World/status ... 2609424384
here wounded baluchi freedom fighter records a message before signing off.

[Singha]

GOP is propping up islamist bandits to fight the baluchis
https://twitter.com/Baloch_World

[Falijee]

US Think Tanks Believe That Pakistan Is Still Aiding And Abetting The Haqqani Network In Afghanistan .

Murky U.S.-Pakistan Relationship Defined by Afghan War

For the last 15 years, the U.S. and Pakistan have struggled to navigate the murky nature of their relationship as they strive to bring security to South Asia. Today, while U.S.-Pakistani ties are fraught with mistrust – stemming from questions over the Pakistani military’s support for the Taliban, Pakistan’s knowledge of Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts before his death in 2011, and Islamabad’s true desire to achieve a stable Afghanistan – Pakistan nonetheless remains an important U.S. counterterrorism partner. Afghanistan is land locked . Depends on Pakistan for transit . Same tribal people live on both sides of the porous border.

Earlier this week, U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee members went to Pakistan to meet with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, to discuss regional security. At the meeting, Armed Services Chairman John McCain (R-AZ) said the U.S. and Pakistan “are united in our concern that the present situation in Afghanistan is not on a course for success” and that “close cooperation between the U.S. and Pakistan was essential for securing peace and stability in the region,” while Sharif referred to U.S.-Pakistani collaboration as “essential.” Sharif is just a "figurehead". Real power wielded by the Paki Army !

U.S. troop deployments to Afghanistan in the aftermath of 9/11 drove the Taliban and al Qaeda out of the country and forced them to seek refuge in neighboring Pakistan. Although Pakistan has aided U.S. efforts to dismantle core al Qaeda, it has been accused by U.S. officials and experts of harboring the Taliban leadership and the group’s deadliest faction, the Haqqani network, for the last decade and a half, despite persistent U.S. demands for Islamabad to destroy Taliban safe havens in Pakistan. These policies have led many in the U.S. to speculate about whether Pakistan should be labeled a friend or foe. At the least, the Non Nato Major Ally label for Pakistan should be canceled !

However, Pakistani officials, including current Pakistani Ambassador to the U.S. Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, insist that this is not the case, arguing that the Pakistani military has worked diligently to put the Taliban and the Haqqani network, “on the run” and has “eliminated all of their sanctuaries.” In fact, Chaudhry contends that Pakistan’s counterterrorism operations primarily in the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas, a mountainous region in northwest Pakistan where the Taliban established safe havens, have forced militants to cross the border into Afghanistan where they have developed new safe havens and triggered further instability in the country. The Good and The Bad Taliban argument ![/quote]

“Because these escaping militants could not be captured or stopped due to capacity constraints on the other side of the border [in Afghanistan], they established safe havens and sanctuaries inside Afghanistan,” Chaudhry told the Cipher Brief. “The renewed wave of insurgency in Afghanistan is being driven from these internal sanctuaries.”

Yet regional experts, such as Bruce Riedel, director of the Intelligence Project at the Brookings Institution, maintain that the Haqqani network still “operates as an extension of the Pakistani intelligence services.” “They receive safe havens and they receive sanctuary from the Pakistani intelligence service, and the Pakistani intelligence service often cooperates in the planning of operations with the Haqqani network, including planning of operations against American targets,” Riedel told the Cipher Brief. When asked about these accusations, Chaudhry responded, “It is totally an absurd suggestion, which does not even call for a comment. Pakistan's intelligence agency and our law enforcement authorities have played a critical role in decimating al Qaeda and other terrorist networks in the region.” Not only the Americans, but the Afghans also have evidence of Pakistani duplicity !

Despite such refutations, Dan Markey, Cipher Brief Network expert and academic director of the Global Policy Program at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, believes that Pakistan’s actions and policies have left American analysts “to conclude that Pakistan perceives strategic utility from its ties with the Haqqanis, a favored proxy force in Afghanistan.” “Fearing that unfriendly forces, perhaps even a pro-Indian government, would control Afghanistan, and assuming that the United States would eventually depart the scene, Pakistan has stuck by its traditional allies, and now, 16 years later, these same groups continue to provide Pakistan significant influence over Afghanistan's future, albeit only as a spoiler,” writes Markey. “Pakistan's commitment to this proxy strategy is the principal cause of mistrust and tensions with the United States,” he concludes.

A sign of any new approach by the U.S. may be revealed in the next few weeks when the Pentagon is expected to complete its review of U.S. policy in Afghanistan and the region.

[Falijee]

Journalist Harassed: Case transferred to cyber crime wing
The Express Tribune > Pakistan

ISLAMABAD:
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has told the Islamabad High Court that an inquiry against a journalist has been transferred from their counter-terrorism wing to the cyber crime wing. In a written reply, FIA’s deputy director Nauman Ashraf Bodla – accused of harassing journalist Taha Siddiqui, ( represents foreign media [ western and Indian ] and also has been active in criticizing intimidation of disappearing Paki reporters !) said that he had been tasked to probe activities of Siddiqui on social media and in this connection had called the journalist. However, the inquiry has since been transferred to the National Response Centre for Cyber Crime (NR3C) and has asked the court to direct Siddiqui may to report to the NR3C and join inquiry proceedings.

[Falijee]

Assistant Commissioner Sahiwal breaks into female doctors’ hostel to arrange ushers for VVIP visit

Assistant Commissioner of the Sahiwal division, Ayub Bukhari, barged into the girl’s hostel of the DHQ teaching hospital Sahiwal to try and force doctors to act as ushers for a VVIP visit to a coal field power project in Qadarabd. Is this considered "halal"? ; do the Mullahs know about it ? have the parents / husbands/ sisters/ brothers/ cousins / nephews/ neices / uncles/ aunts / grandma and grandpa expressed outrage at this harami behaviour

In a complaint letter signed by the Female house officers and Dr Ghazanfar Bukhari addressed to the principal of the Sahiwal Medical College, the complainants have claimed that AC Ayub Bukhari along with DMS DR Akhtar Raza entered the girls hostel at around 20 30 on July 1.The docotrs alleged this was “lawful rules and regulations of medical ethics.” typos?

The indignant letter said that the two officers after entering the premises ordered the doctors to proceed tomorrow to Qadarabad to perform their duties as ushers for the VVIP’s visit. The letter goes on to state that DMS Dr Raza and AC Bukhari did not approach any HODs prior to their entry and “went against the norms and customs of service and (in) this country, forcefully entering into girls’ rooms wihtout prior permission. What if the "female doctors" had been in their sleeping gear, and if Raza and Bukhari had a peek at them, and God Allah forbid their pictures might go viral on social media

A notification from the Assistant Commissioner’s office dated for the day after the alleged hostel invasion was issued in which 12 female doctors were called up to perform duties as ushers for the earlier mentioned VVIP visit to the power project in Qadarabad. The notification came only a day after the AC stormed the female hostels to personally order the students to go act as ushers. The "ordering of ushers" could well have been done, without barging into the females den near sleeping time !

It also raises questions over why exactly doctors are expected to do these needless duties normally reserved for young school children, when there is already a grave shortage of available medical professionals, especially in areas such as Sahiwal. And while it could be argued that the ladies called up for the task were only house officers and technically still students, the matter is a huge mismanagement of priorities. While their education may not be complete, calling in qualified doctors to spend their time ushering for VVIP’s, that already have sizable entourages to tell them where to walk, is a waste of precious human resources. Agree 400%

So not only has the Assistant Commissioner made the decision to use female doctors to collect a crowd for the VVIP visiting the power project, he has also used a needlessly heavy handed approach by entering and ordering hostels to direct them to fulfill his wishes, something the doctors have protested vehemently against. This was expressed in a letter of complaint penned by one of the physicians in which she explains how three men entered her room explicitly against her wishes. They then took seated her where the Assistant Commissioner was after they had rounded up all the house officers they could find and telling them that they would, with the permission of the principal, be taken to Qadarabad to act as ushers for the inauguration of a coal power project where a VVIP ( he should be named , as he is obviously partly responsible !)was due to visit.

It was also alleged by the complainant that not only did the AC come off in an angry and intimidating manner, but he also encroached upon to the personal property of the residents as he wished.

When asked to comment, the Assistant commissioner rebuffed our attempts at clarification choosing to hand the phone to a secretary and pleading prior occupation. Recent Paki media reports have hinted that "Daughter Of The Nation" Maryam Nawaz Sharif wants to play a "more active role" in the management of Paki politics . So someone should bring this to the attention of Madam Sharif for necessary action

[Falijee]

Nasir Khattak‏ @nasirjkhattak Jul 5

Nasir Khattak Retweeted Ijaz Ul Haq

Your nephew goes to Princeton & eats in Hooters, & your dad, the Hypocrite-in-Chief, shoved the sons of Afghanistan & Pakistan into jihad?!

Nasir Khattak added,
Ijaz Ul Haq @ijazulhaq

[Falijee]

How "Deep State" And Its Agents Are Managing Paki Perceptions On Social Media

Tweeting Hatred: The Hounding of Afghan Refugees in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – It was a day after deadly clashes between Pakistani and Afghan forces at the Torkham border crossing and a Twitter account in the name of Ayisha Baloch was on a characteristic rant: “It would have been better to feed a dog, rather than feeding Afghan refugees … Even dogs are more loyal than Afghans.”

With the fighting at Torkham in June 2016 barely over and two soldiers dead, a new hashtag appeared: #KickOutAllAfghans. Within hours it was top of Twitter’s trending list in Pakistan thanks to users such as one named Amreen Durrani, who tweeted: “These Afghans will [continue to] be unthankful and will conspire against Pakistan. I would strongly recommend to #KickOutAllAfghans.”

The border clashes were among several events over the past three years that have punctuated a sustained campaign of hatred that has poisoned attitudes to Afghan refugees among the general public in Pakistan. The digital mob, which has been raised in support of a slew of xenophobic hashtags, has coincided with what rights groups have called the “forced return” of some 600,000 Afghan refugees during 2016. So, it was not a spontaneous reaction but a well organized attempt to create hatred against their fellow Muslims from Afghanistan !

The 1.3 million Afghan refugees who remain in Pakistan already face police harassment and government deadlines to depart. Now there are some experts who believe they have also faced and will continue to be threatened by apparently organized hounding on social media.

With the fighting at Torkham in June 2016 barely over and two soldiers dead, a new hashtag appeared: #KickOutAllAfghans. Within hours it was top of Twitter’s trending list in Pakistan thanks to users such as one named Amreen Durrani, who tweeted: “These Afghans will [continue to] be unthankful and will conspire against Pakistan. I would strongly recommend to #KickOutAllAfghans.”

The hundreds of accounts used to direct anti-refugee propaganda include known Pakistani nationalists, some belonging to populist political parties and some self-identifying as patriots. Yet a closer examination of these social media accounts indicates that bots – computer-generated accounts – and “sock puppets,” a term used to identify fake accounts, may also have been involved.

The 1.3 million Afghan refugees who remain in Pakistan already face police harassment and government deadlines to depart. Now there are some experts who believe they have also faced and will continue to be threatened by apparently organized hounding on social media. These "poor refugees" have become a political football between the GOP and Govt of Afghanistan . The most famous Afghan refugee deported last year was Sharbat Gula, the National Geographic Cover Girl, who was sick and was given a hero's welcome back in Afghanistan !

“The fact that most of these accounts have no profile photos and usually have a bio that talks of their commitment to Pakistan, and especially its military, reflects that they are being run by a cell,” says Taha Siddiqui, a Pakistani journalist known for his critical stance on the country’s military who was recently summoned by the Federal Investigation Authority over his social media activity. Disagreeing with the national narrative and speaking the truth has become a crime in Pakiland

He believes there is a concerted effort on social media to post content that manages perception and controls the narrative, while declining to speculate on who may be directing the campaign. But one thing is clear, he says: “The purpose of their existence [is] to sell the state narrative with regards to flawed policies as the only truth on a space that is expanding in Pakistan.” The introduction of the Chinese Satellite and Internet System under the auspices of CPEC is further going to restrict media freedom !

The narrative goes as follows: Pakistan hosted millions of Afghans and yet their government is ungrateful and is conspiring against Pakistan with the help of India, so the refugees must be sent back home. The refugees themselves are portrayed as potential terrorists and criminals whose expulsion is necessary to restore peace inside the country. No narrative is complete without dragging the Hidden Indian Hand into the picture

The emergence of social media in Pakistan has seen much of the harshest propaganda move online. The hashtag #KickOutAllAfghans was soon followed by #AfghanRefugeesThreatToPak which also trended for days. Online trends have often mirrored offline rabble-rousing such as “Go Afghani Go,” a campaign in the Haripur district of KP in which protesters demanded the government expel Afghans immediately, accusing them of “creating a wave of terrorism and criminality.”

One Twitter handle, @ArmyDefender, used the hashtag #GoAfghaniGo, and tweeted: “For the betterment of Pakistan, let’s ask Afghans to leave our country.” The most recent tweets from this account use the hashtag #PakistanRejectsICJ, in connection to the pending case of an alleged Indian spy in custody of the Pakistani military at the International Court of Justice. The same hashtag has been continuously used by @AyishaBaloch, who is the top tweeter of the hashtag #GoAfghaniGo.

One of the most influential PTI social media activists is Farhan Virk. With more than 153,00 Twitter followers, he’s the pioneer behind many of the nationalist hashtags that trend for days in Pakistan. He explains that many of the hashtag trends are crowdsourced from a large WhatsApp group, consisting mostly of the PTI activists: “Most of the hashtags are decided keeping the public reaction in mind.” “Since we need more people to take part, we can’t run against the general tide or no one will join our hashtags,” he said. Virk denies having any connection with the media wing of military, the ISPR or any other government department. “Whenever you work for Pakistan, you get labeled … Of course, we can’t follow the narrative of RAW (the Indian spy agency), we have to follow the one being propagated by our own military.” “Blaming Afghan refugees for the state’s own failures is [a] continuation of the growing right-wing isolationism across the globe,” says Khadim Hussain, an analyst based in Peshawar. He says anti-refugee propaganda is just as useful to nationalist populists in Pakistan as it has been to Trump supporters in the U.S. or the leaders of the Brexit campaign in the U.K. “The elites accumulate all the wealth and power,” Hussain said, “and upon their failure to serve the public, they find easy scapegoats to appease the resentment of the masses; by blaming their failures to deliver upon refugees and naming them as a cause of diminishing job opportunities and growing crime rate.”

[Falijee]

Shamsi Air Base In Balochistan Was Built By The Sheikh Of Abu Dhabi

The Great Game: The Politics of Houbara Hunting in Pakistan
Long Article !

Washuk town is located almost in the centre of Balochistan – more than 455 kilometres to the south of Quetta, about 800 kilometres to the north of Gwadar, 150 kilometres to the east of the Pakistan-Iran border and over 200 kilometres to the west of Balochistan’s border with Sindh. Washuk’s eponymous district – carved out from Kharan district in 2005 – is surrounded by the mountains of Central Makran Range and shares a border with Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan province. A newly-built 235-kilometre road – part of the highway that constitutes the western route of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and connects Quetta and Gwadar – criss-crosses Washuk district, which is so vast that its land area is equivalent to almost 40% of the entire land area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Yet, its population, by some local estimates, is not more than 115,000. It is easy to get lost in this sparsely populated vastness, never to be found without help from local wanderers – the likes of Bukhsh. A large number of under- construction brick and mortar buildings mark the road that links Washuk with Kharan. As the road moves out of the town, human settlements start becoming thinner and the vacuous immensity of nature takes over – except for occasional mud huts and rows of date palms. About 30 kilometres to the north-east of Washuk town, a concrete and steel structure suddenly comes into view, made even more prominent by the empty landscape around it. It is an airstrip, complete with a residential complex and a hangar. The airstrip is located next to the small village of Shamsi (pronounced ‘Shamshi’ by locals). Currently under the control of the Pakistan Navy, the base is not functional these days – well, almost.

Once every 10 or 12 days, a plane arrives here to deliver provisions to officials guarding it. Before the navy, Frontier Corps (FC) was controlling it and, before the FC, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

When the base was under NATO control, the United States first used it as a logistical hub for its Operation Enduring Freedom against the Taliban government in Afghanistan, launched in 2001 right after 9/11. Later, the facility was used as a launching pad for unmanned aerial bombers known as drones that would target militants along either side of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The Guardian, a London-based newspaper, was one of the first media outlets to report about drones being flown from the base in Shamsi. In 2009, it said that America’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and a private security contractor, Blackwater, were working together at the base. The newspaper said Blackwater patrolled “the area round the Shamsi airbase” and helped to load missiles on to “CIA-operated drones that target al-Qaeda members”. An American newspaper, The New York Times, had reported a similar story four months earlier. A couple of years later, helicopters belonging to NATO forces in Afghanistan attacked a military checkpoint, known as Salala, in north-west Pakistan. The Paki Aam Abduls were blissfully kept unaware of this "secret" base, except in occasional news stories that leaked out

The November 26, 2011, attack left 28 Pakistani soldiers dead. In protest and retaliation, Islamabad asked Americans to vacate the facility in Shamsi. The airbase did not belong to Pakistan though.

It was built by Abu Dhabi’s ruling sheikhs to travel between their sheikhdom and Washuk for trips to hunt the houbara bustard, a migratory bird that escapes the winter’s chill in Central Asia by flying to Pakistan.

( where it was "hunted to death" by the "luxurious Sheiks" !)

The first Arabs arrived in the area in the late 1970s. The most prominent among them was Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan who at the time ruled Abu Dhabi as well as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a federation that includes the sheikhdoms of Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah and Umm al-Quwain alongside Abu Dhabi. His son and the current UAE ruler, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has also visited Washuk multiple times.In the early 1980s, the Arabs who used to land some 80 kilometres north of Shamsi decided to build an airstrip of their own, close to their hunting grounds.They approached Haji Abdul Karim Mirwani, a resident of Shamsi village, to acquire land for the project. By 1987, he had given 360 acres of his own land as a “gift” to the sheikhs. Where he once grew wheat and watermelons arrived massive construction machinery to build the airstrip. Mirwani says he transferred the land to the sheikhs through a zubaani, verbal, agreement (it was turned into an official lease agreement between Pakistan and the UAE in 1992).

The UAE rulers became extremely jittery about their security after reports emerged that the airbase in Shamsi was being used by Americans for drone attacks. A May 2005 diplomatic cable, revealed by Wikileaks in 2011, quoted Ahmed Al Musally, director of the Asian and African affairs department at the UAE’s ministry of foreign affairs, expressing his “displeasure [over] some details of the UAE’s cooperation with the US military in Pakistan [having] become public”.

Al Musally was concerned about the security of those royal hunters. “ … maybe they can’t do anything here [in the UAE], but they might try there (ie: Pakistan), especially when our leaders travel there.” Arab dignitaries were wary of their security even before that. A rectangular compound next to the airstrip has grey walls as high as 20 feet.These walls mark the boundary of a palace that the UAE sheikhs built in Shamsi – as per Mirwani, in 1990. The compound sprawls over 20 acres of land, also gifted by him.‘authorised Persons Only’ is written very prominently on its lone steel entrance – as high as 10 feet. A small patch of greenery lies just outside the gate – a testament to the Arab opulence that keeps the patch well-irrigated and pruned in a bone-dry, scraggy desert. All the "Arab Sheiks" like to "play" in private , whether in Pakistan, their own country , Europe or Massaland, away from the eyes of the prying public

The palace has 24 full-time employees – maintenance staff, auto mechanics, cooks, electricians, etc. Even though the sheikhs have not visited the palace for over 15 years now, the employees get their salaries regularly.

The compound is disconcertingly quiet. A year ago, its manager shot himself to death. Nobody knows why. A senior reporter in Quetta who maintained occasional contact with the manager speculates he could have been depressed..The palace employees do not speak about the incident but at least one of them admits to feeling lonely at times. The current manager was transferred here from Rahim Yar Khan where the UAE sheikhs own many vast properties. Given that the sheikhs from Abu Dhabi hardly ever visit Washuk these days, the government decided to let the sheikhs from Qatar hunt in the area during the outgoing hunting season (November 1, 2016 to January 31, 2017).

Sheikh Khalifa immediately expressed his disappointment over the allotment of his hunting grounds to the Qataris, says Nousherwani, who later visited Abu Dhabi to meet the sheikh. The locals, too, did not welcome the new guests and protested against the permission to let them hunt in Washuk. “This is Sheikh Khalifa’s area,” says Haji Muhammad Bukhsh, who has worked as a guide for the UAE royals since the 1980s. Mirwani only echoes a popular sentiment when he says: if the Qataris come here again, “we won’t be too happy with it”. The Qatar - Abu Dhabi difference being played in Pakiland !

The Qataris have been in the cross-hairs of Pakistan’s chaotic politics of late – and not just for hunting in the wrong places. During the last two months of 2016, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al-Thani, a former prime minister of Qatar and a prominent member of the Qatari royal family, sent two letters to the Supreme Court of Pakistan that was hearing petitions over alleged corruption and money laundering by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
The letters attempted to explain the sources of money Nawaz Sharif and his family have invested in various businesses and properties since the 1980s.
Al-Thani wrote that his father had “longstanding business relations” with Sharif’s father who had “expressed his desire to invest a certain amount of money in the real estate business of the Al Thani family in Qatar … an aggregate sum of around Dirhams 12 million”. The letters were subjected to intense media debate and judicial scrutiny before the Supreme Court rejected them late last month. The judges ruled that they do not offer a sufficient and credible explanation for the offshore businesses, properties and other financial dealings of Nawaz Sharif and his family. The Qatari Prince has decided that Ganja Sharif is too toxic for his taste

In Balochistan’s Nushki district, 16 members of a houbara-hunting party from Qatar were arrested on February 1, 2017. A report in daily Dawn said “an advance party of Qatar’s ruler … ignored Levies personnel’s signal to stop at their post for checking and tried to escape by breaking the barrier”. Another houbara-hunting convoy from Qatar was attacked in the same province’s Musakhel district by unidentified gunmen on the evening of January 15, 2017. Daily Dawn quoted a Levies official saying that the local district police officer and two other security officials were injured in the incident. So, the locals prefer the Abu Dhabians and not the Qataris !

A letter sent recently to the Chief Justice of Pakistan carries photographs of 27 checkpoints spread across Cholistan Desert in Rahim Yar Khan and its neighbouring Bahawalpur district. These checkpoints, the letter alleges, are manned by a “private army” consisting of the staff of UAE royals working “under the garb of game and hunting supervisors”.Headed by one Major (retd) Irfan, alleges another letter sent to the Herald, the “private army … has divided Cholistan in … [nine] different sectors”.These checkpoints are set up along various roads that link Abu Dhabi palaces in Bahawalpur and Rahim Yar Khan with either hunting grounds in Cholistan or with two private airstrips – called Al-Habieb and Al-Ghaba – in the heart of the desert. Pick-up trucks and jeeps can be seen patrolling here. A large part of Cholistan, criss-crossed by Abu Dhabi-built roads – which have milestones and signposts in Arabic – becomes virtually off limits for locals during the houbara-hunting season.
Officials at Houbara Foundation International deny these allegations. They say the only checkpoints in the area are set up by Punjab’s wildlife department and are manned by government functionaries only. So, the Arab Royals are "extra accomodated at the expense of the locals !

The letters list many similar incidents: a local landowner, Nawaz Nangiana, was “badly tortured” after he was taken to a checkpoint at Bijnot village; an old Cholistani, Mureed Las, was kidnapped by the private force; the son of one Haji Gul Mohammad Mahr was kidnapped and kept in custody for three days; his kidnappers also snatched 8,000 rupees from him. The letters accuse the employees of UAE royals of committing other wrongdoings as well. These actions, according to the writer of the two letters, who wishes to remain anonymous, include kidnapping and even rape and murder. He cites a story known publicly in the area that accuses some men at a checkpoint of killing two doctors of Ahmadpur Sharqia government hospital.“In [the] 1980’s three young girls of Khanpur were taken to the palace by one of the supervisors on the pretext of showing them around the palace. All three of them were [raped] … and the matter was hushed up …” At the orders of Shahbaz and Ganja ![/quote]

In January this year, officials at Rahim Yar Khan’s Sheikh Zayed Airport received a fax, alerting them about a plane carrying 14 passengers claiming to be an advance team for a sheikh’s hunting expedition – seven of them were guards, the rest were waiters.
They were all Indian nationals. The plane was just about to land when the fax arrived. Concerned about the safety of the airport and its staff, aviation authorities switched off all lights at the airport. They called in security and asked the plane to turn around and leave. Some sources claim that all 14 passengers were from the Indian army but there is no evidence to verify this claim..A different version of the same incident claims the plane was made to wait but the Indian nationals were never allowed to get off. They waited a few hours in the plane while an outraged UAE official spoke to Pakistan’s foreign ministry officials in Islamabad. So, the rumours about RAA agents in the entourage of the Sheikh were indeed true [/quote]

So, in the guise of houbara hunting the Royals Of UAE, Qatar etc will violate the sover-virginity of Pakistan many many times

[anupmisra]

FIA official arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting foreigner at Islamabad airport

An assistant director of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) was arrested Thursday on the charge that he sexually harassed an Afghan national at the Islamabad airport.

The complainant said she managed to flee the scene after raising an alarm. She added that other airport officials at the scene had laughed at her plight instead of coming to her aid.

The complainant said that she and her sister had been detained for not having the phone number of the hotel where they were supposed to stay in.

Jo LaWhore mein ...woh slummbad mein bhi...

https://www.dawn.com/news/1343628/fia-o ... ad-airport

[Prem]

https://tribune.com.pk/story/1452073/us ... an-mccain/

US prefers stable civilian government in Pakistan: McCain

SALMABAD: US Senator John McCain informed Pakistan’s key stakeholders that the Trump administration preferred a stable civilian dispensation in the country.The development came during a recent visit of a group of American senators led by Senate Armed Services Committee chairman McCain.
Sources close to the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government said the US delegation that engaged with the top civil and military leadership of the country made their assessment of the current political situation in the country besides communication on the critical question of terrorism and Pakistan’s Afghan policy.Sources added: But this can also not be overlooked that the Sharif Family and its supports have been giving hints that cases against them are being pursued due to the manipulations of some elements within the army and may have been communicating to international stakeholders to speak to the military establishment.

[Prem]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/06/opin ... d=tw-share
To Win Afghanistan, Get Tough on Pakistan

Reading Pakistan correctly has not always been easy for American officials. Pakistan was a key American ally during the Cold War, the anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan and the post-Sept. 11 operations against Al Qaeda. But for Pakistan the alliance has been more about securing weapons, economic aid and diplomatic support in its confrontation with India. The United States and Pakistan have both disappointed each other because of divergence in their interests in South Asia.slamabad’s response was to argue that Pakistan does, indeed, support insurgents in Afghanistan, but it does so because of security concerns about India, which is seen by generals and many civilian leaders as an existential threat to Pakistan.But that excuse is based on exaggerations and falsehoods. India has no offensive military presence in Afghanistan and there has never been any evidence that the Afghans are willing to be part of India’s alleged plan for a two-front war with Pakistan.Afghanistan’s president, Ashraf Ghani, recently asked India to train Afghan military officers and repair military aircraft after frustration with Pakistan, which failed to fulfill promises of restraining the Taliban and forcing them to the negotiating table.

Pakistan’s leaders question Afghanistan’s acceptance of economic assistance from India even though Pakistan does not have the capacity to provide such aid itself.Lying about easily verifiable facts is usually the tactic of governments fabricating a threat rather than ones genuinely facing one. As ambassador, I attended trilateral meetings where my colleagues rejected serious suggestions from Afghans and Americans to mitigate apprehensions about Indian influence in Afghanistan.While evidence of an Indian threat to Pakistan through Afghanistan remains scant, proof of the presence of Afghan Taliban leaders in Pakistan continues to mount. Mullah Omar, the Taliban’s leader, reportedly died in a Pakistani hospital in 2013 and his successor, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, was killed in an American drone strike in Baluchistan Province in Pakistan last year.The United States should not let Pakistan link its longstanding support for hard-line Pashtun Islamists in Afghanistan to its disputes with India.Both India and Pakistan have a lot of blood on their hands in Kashmir and seem in no hurry to resolve their disagreement, which is rooted in the psychosis resulting from the subcontinent’s bitter partition. The two countries have gone through 45 rounds of summit-level talks since 1947 and have failed to reach a permanent settlement.Linking the outcome in Afghanistan to resolution of India-Pakistan issues would keep the United States embroiled there for a very long time. The recent rise in Islamophobia in India and a more aggressive stance against Pakistan by Prime Minister Narendra Modi should not detract from recognizing the paranoiac nature of Pakistan’s fears.
The Bush administration gave Pakistan $12.4 billion in aid, and the Obama administration forked over $21 billion. These incentives did not make Pakistan more amenable to cutting off support for the Afghan Taliban.The Trump administration should now consider taking away Pakistan’s status as a major non-NATO ally, which would limit its priority access to American military technology. Aid to Pakistan should be linked to a sequence and timeline for specific actions against Taliban leaders.Sanctions against individuals and institutions involved in facilitating Pakistan-based Taliban leaders and pursuing Taliban reconciliation talks without depending on Pakistan could be other measures signaling a firmer United States stance.
Moving away from an incentive-based approach would not be punishing Pakistan. The United States would be acting as a friend, helping Pakistan realize through tough measures that the gravest threat to its future comes from religious extremism it is fostering in its effort to compete with India
Negotiating a peaceful settlement with the Taliban also remains desirable, but it is important to remember the difficulties 21st-century negotiators face while seeking compromise with seventh-century mind-sets..

[sanjaykumar]

Both India and Pakistan have a lot of blood on their hands in Kashmir and seem in no hurry to resolve their disagreement, which is rooted in the psychosis resulting from the subcontinent’s bitter partition.

Is that something like the global war on terror being rooted in the psychosis of the crusades?

[yensoy]

https://tribune.com.pk/story/1452073/us ... an-mccain/
US prefers stable civilian government in Pakistan: McCain

Mr Obvious, we would all love for that. The problem is that so-called "stable civilian government" doesn't call the shots when it comes to things that affect us and US. I think McCain should take sanyas.

[RCase]

Ok guys, now that Modi has finished his Israeli trip, time for some regular Paki programming and bombast ...

https://tribune.com.pk/story/1451136/cp ... nt-5003520

CPEC will allow Pakistan to become global leader hmm... Isn't Pakistan already a global leader (in IT)?
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is an economic revolution and China’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) covers countries and regions with a population of over four billion , said economic experts during a consultative session on ‘Special Economic Zones under CPEC’.

Experts participating in the session were of the view that CPEC is a 3,218 kilometre long route, to be built over the next several years, consisting of highways, railways and pipelines.

They said that CPEC has drawn global attention and provided Pakistan a unique opportunity to become a global economic leader.

I guess we need to have realistic definitions of these acronyms:
OBOR - One Bully, One Rogue
CPEC - Ch*dai of Pakistani Eunuchs by China

[JE Menon]

One Bully One Rogue - Masterpiece RCase!!!

CPEC - Colonizing Pakistan to Enrich China

[LokeshC]

Inspired by RCaseji :One Bully, one R*ndy.....

[RCase]

One Bully One Rogue - Masterpiece RCase!!!

CPEC - Colonizing Pakistan to Enrich China

JEM - Your CPEC definition is the PG version! China is basically going to do a cheer haran of Bakistan. How can a bhikari mulk enrich China? It is more like Enslavement.

[LokeshC]

Enslavement is just part of it. Bakistanis may not get as hurt as we expect them to be. Allow me to explain.

CPEC works like this:
Bakistan gets a loan at 18 - 24% (larger than my credit card rate!!) to pay Chinese companies build a road from an illegally occupied region to another illegally occupied region.

Then Bakistan does three things, it floats a bunch of low interest bonds like sukuk bonds 7 - 8 % (or whatever tf it is) OR get low(er) interest loans to pay off Chinese loans, OR get IMF to write off their debts.

Basically, earlier, Bakistani Ponzi scheme was run by the Jernails. Now its being run by China. Jernails have now a risk free source of money. China happy, Bakis happy, 3.5 happy. The lower middle class Bakis and poor Bakis are enslaved anyway and it does not matter if a pork eating blothel is the one whipping their backs or if its the enforcer of the friendly neighborhood zamindar.

The only ways Bakis will suffer is 3.5 withdraw from the Ponzi scheme. Then China blothel will eat Bakistani elites for breakfast (and lunch, and dinner).

[arun]

Citizen of the Mohammadden Terrorism Fomenting Islamic Republic of Pakistan, one Kunwar Khuldune Shahid, writing in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on the reaction of the Islamic Republic’s media to our Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel.

Apparently our PM Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel has accentuated talk of “Yahood-o-Hanood ki Saazish” in the Mohammadden Terrorism Fomenting Islamic Republic of Pakistan:

As India and Israel Embrace, Talk About a 'Zionist-Hindu' Conspiracy Is Spiking in Pakistan

Even though conspiracy theories and anti-Semitism are ubiquitous in Pakistan, Narendra Modi's visit to Israel has led them to alarming new heights

Kunwar Khuldune Shahid |  Jul 06, 2017 12:18 PM

The three most popular articles on Dawn, Pakistan’s most popular English newspaper, this Wednesday, related to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Israel visit. That level of interest, and its frequently conspiracist turn, isn’t surprising for anyone familiar with popular Pakistani narratives on most issues, domestic or foreign.

That a ‘Zionist-Hindu’ conspiracy is behind most of Pakistan’s problems is an idea held by many of the country’s officials, and that the jihadists targeting the state are actually Jews or Hindus, a popular conspiracy theory.

That the Indian intelligence agency’s Research & Analysis Wing is trying to enforce radical Islam through these jihadist groups, is the implied narrative of the Pakistani state, which stresses that the likes of Taliban are funded by India and linked to the Mossad as well.


The Pakistani Defense Minister issued a nuclear threat to Israel last year over a fake news report, and it isn’t uncommon for state officials to highlight proximity to Israel as a feature of its nuclear-capable ballistic missiles’ reach.

It is under this backdrop that the mainstream news channels have been busy underlining the ‘joint Indian-Israeli plot to destroy Pakistani nuclear weapons’ or Israel’s long-held desire to ‘rule the world’ with New Delhi’s help, as the actual reason behind Modi’s visit.


While some English publications covered the Israeli foreign ministry’s recent statement that there was ‘no difference between Lashkar-e-Taiba or Hamas’, the mainstream media, especially the popular Urdu publications, interpreted the Israel: India alliance against terrorism as a hostile Israeli declaration against Pakistan.


With Pakistani nationalism deemed synonymous with Islam, and perpetuated as such in school curricula, the Modi-Netanyahu meeting was commonly characterized as a ‘declaration of war against Islam’ in the Pakistani media and among mainstream opinion makers as well.


Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Army Chief Gen. Raheel Sharif pray near Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Sun Weidong inaugurating a new trade route between Pakistan and China. Nov. 13, 2016

While the conspiracy theorists are interpreting the meetup as the formal Indo-Israeli announcement of the ideological – and nuclear – war against Pakistan and Islam, the more realistic discussion on developments in Tel Aviv has centered around the arms deals between the two states, which of course have direct strategic implications for Pakistan.

Where the realists and conspiracists overlap is in delineating the commonalities in the Modi and Netanyahu-led governments, and the occupations of Kashmir and Palestine respectively. Underscoring the ‘troika’ of Trump, Modi and Netanyahu and their ‘anti-Muslim agendas’ is also an area in which the two camps find common ground.

Even though the Israeli Defense Force’s actions are often used to create a false equivalence between Zionism and Islamism among the progressive circles in Pakistan, the critique of state brutalities in Kashmir or Palestine is mostly based on genuine human rights concerns among the liberal opinion-makers.

Pakistan is among the 31 states that don’t recognize Israel. While the liberal sections of the population, and those representing the country overseas, would have you believe that this is owing to the occupation of West Bank and Gaza – which doesn’t explain the refusal to recognize Israel between 1948 and 1967 –popular opinion in the country is against Israel’s right to exist.

Like most Muslim countries, this sentiment is rooted in the prevailing anti-Semitism in the country, which is inherent to Islamism – an ideology which dominates Pakistani policymaking. This is why yahoodi, the Urdu word for Jew, is a common slur in the country, and yahoodi saazish (Jewish conspiracy) a ubiquitous two-word explanation for most of its ills.


The irony in Pakistan’s ideological position on Israel is that these are the only two post-colonial states founded on religious nationalism. This is what has prompted arguments in favor of Pakistan reviewing its stance on Israel being published in the local media as well.

This, however, remains a fringe opinion even in liberal circles, with support for Pakistan’s ties with Israel being deemed synonymous with ignoring the Palestinian plight – although no such sensitivity is on display for Tibetans, Turkestanis, Cypriots or Kurds, with China and Turkey among Pakistan’s closest allies.

This taboo on diplomacy with Israel, coupled with prevailing anti-Semitism and ensuing conspiracy theories, have ensured that any meetings between officials of the two states have remained behind the scenes.

In 2012, former president Pervez Musharraf said in an interview with Haaretz that ‘relations with Israel could help Pakistan’. It was Musharraf’s foreign minister Khursheed Kasuri’s meeting with his Israeli counterpart in 2005 that remains the only publicly acknowledged talks between the two states.

But while the then mulling of diplomatic ties with Israel might’ve been a corollary of Pakistan firmly being in the U.S. camp, Washington’s recent snubbing of Pakistan and the growth of its relations with New Delhi, seemed to have closed that particular window for Islamabad, which has put all its bets on Beijing.

Even so, with Pakistan militarily spearheading the Saudi ‘Islamic’ coalition aligned against Iran, Tel Aviv and Islamabad’s interests in the Middle East shouldn’t clash. But the growing Indo-Israeli defense ties, and conflation of militancy affecting the two states, could mean Pakistan upping the ante vis-à-vis Palestine, as a global vehicle for its Kashmir narrative – especially among the Arab states.

This should mean ‘Zionist-Hindu conspiracies’ skyrocketing in the near future.

Kunwar Khuldune Shahid is a Pakistan-based journalist and a Correspondent at The Diplomat. His work has been published in The Guardian, The Independent, Foreign Policy, Courrier International, New Statesman, The Telegraph , MIT Review, and Arab News among other publications. Twitter: @khuldune

From Haaretz:

As India and Israel Embrace, Talk About a 'Zionist-Hindu' Conspiracy Is Spiking in Pakistan

[SSridhar]

Apparently our PM Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel has accentuated talk of “Yahood-o-Hanood ki Saazish” . . . .

And with the deteriorating US-Pakistan relationship, Pakistan should start shouting the familiar 'Yahud-Hunud-Nazara' conspiracies and tie itself up in knots. Time is ripe.

[Peregrine]

'Pakistan's strategy of using terror proxies costly, ineffective'

WASHINGTON: The Trump administration needs to place "greater pressure" on Pakistan to make it realise that its "longstanding strategy" of using terror proxies in war-torn Afghanistan is both costly and ineffective, according to a top US expert.

Pakistan has not deviated from its basic commitment to supporting its favoured proxies in Afghanistan, Daniel Markey from Global Policy Program at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies said in an op-ed in The Cipher Brief, a global security news platform.

"As for placing greater pressure on Pakistan to change course, the United State needs to demonstrate that Pakistan's longstanding strategy of using terrorist proxies is both costly and ineffective," he said on Thursday.

"Sadly, that message was never delivered convincingly by the George W Bush or Obama administrations," Markey said as he recommend that an escalation of US military action directed at Taliban leadership with the principal aim of compelling negotiations is now probably Washington's best hope for anything other than a very long Afghan stalemate.

Or worse, another escalation of violence that could collapse the Kabul government and prompt a humiliating American withdrawal, he said.

"Pakistani leaders would prefer that Washington accept their concerns as legitimate and lend support to a brokered peace process for Afghanistan that would deliver a significant share of national power to pro-Pakistan groups and demonstrate Islamabad's dominant regional role," he wrote.

According to Markey, Washington has succeeded on multiple occasions in getting Pakistan to bring Taliban negotiators to the table.

"The trouble is that these negotiators — and their Pakistani patrons — have not shown themselves to be serious when it comes to seeking a negotiated settlement," he said.

"To the contrary, US officials perceive that the Taliban have used talks as a stalling tactic and a pretext for other diplomatic games intended to confer greater international legitimacy on the insurgency and to call into question that of the Afghan government in Kabul," the US expert said.

Pakistan's Ambassador to the US Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry told The Cipher Brief that it is "totally an absurd suggestion" that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency maintains close ties to the Taliban and the Haqqani network. Clapistani denial means that the the statement is a "Statement of Facts"

"It does not even call for a comment. Pakistan's intelligence agency and our law enforcement authorities have played a critical role in decimating al-Qaeda and other terror networks in the region," Chaudhry said.

He said that building mutual trust between Pakistan and the US would be important to promote peace in the region.

"The history tells us that when our two countries collaborated with mutual cooperation, positive results were achieved, for example, in the fight against al-Qaeda. That is why we believe that trust and mutual respect should constitute the key pillar of Pakistan-US relationship as both the countries genuinely desire peace and stability in the region," he said.

However, top American counter-terrorism experts have refuted the Pakistani diplomat's claims.

Bruce Riedel, director of the Intelligence Project at the Brookings Institution, said the Haqqani network still operates as an extension of the Pakistani intelligence services.

"They receive safe havens and receive sanctuary from the Pakistani intelligence service which often cooperates in the planning of operations with the Haqqani network, including planning of operations against American targets," he said.

Bennett Seftel, deputy director of analysis at The Cipher Brief, said that many in the US have been dismayed by the Pakistani government's lack of willpower to force the Taliban to the negotiating table and end the ongoing military stalemate in Afghanistan.

"A sign of any new approach by the US may be revealed in the next few weeks when the Pentagon is expected to complete its review of US policy in Afghanistan and the region," Seftel wrote in the report.

Cheers

[nirav]

Guys, does Pakistan not have an English-language TV news and discussion channel? I've not been able to find a single one, and missing out on all the fun...

a big loss for you nazreen ..

[arun]

'Pakistan's strategy of using terror proxies costly, ineffective'

WASHINGTON: The Trump administration needs to place "greater pressure" on Pakistan to make it realise that its "longstanding strategy" of using terror proxies in war-torn Afghanistan is both costly and ineffective, according to a top US expert.

Pakistan has not deviated from its basic commitment to supporting its favoured proxies in Afghanistan, Daniel Markey from Global Policy Program at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies said in an op-ed in The Cipher Brief, a global security news platform.

.............{Rest Snipped}................

The referenced article by Daniel Markey in The Cipher Brief.

Pakistan’s Proxy Strategy Principal Cause of Mistrust for U.S.

Expert Commentary...

Pakistan’s Proxy Strategy Principal Cause of Mistrust for U.S.

July 6, 2017 | Daniel Markey

Despite Pakistani claims to have taken action against all terrorist groups on its soil, U.S. government officials have continued to signal that neither anti-Afghan Taliban groups like the Haqqani Network or anti-Indian groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) have been specifically targeted in any of the Pakistani military's security operations. To the contrary, media reports suggest that Haqqani members have been warned of impending operations beforehand. Top LeT leaders still speak before large gatherings in Pakistan’s major cities. The Obama Administration was unable to certify to Congress that Pakistan had taken steps against the Haqqanis, and U.S. President Donald Trump’s joint statement with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week reflects Washington’s continuing dissatisfaction with Pakistan on the problem of cross-border terrorism.

Pakistan’s inadequate action against the Haqqani network and other groups is routinely portrayed by its own leadership as a matter of prioritizing threats. Naturally, they explain, Pakistan is itself a victim of terrorism and is devoting its greatest resources to fighting anti-state groups at home like the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). In time, they claim, Pakistan will tackle other groups that threaten their neighbors.

Years ago, these claims were somewhat more convincing than they are today. The notion that Pakistan had to first get its own house in order before taking on more ambitious agendas was at least logical, if not terribly satisfying. But over time, U.S. officials have lost patience. They continue to see evidence of official Pakistani collusion with these groups without countervailing indications of any real crackdown.

American analysts have been left to conclude that Pakistan perceives strategic utility from its ties with the Haqqanis, a favored proxy force in Afghanistan. In this respect, Pakistan's policy in Afghanistan has not wavered significantly since the early post-9/11 period. Fearing that unfriendly forces, perhaps even a pro-Indian government, would control Afghanistan, and assuming that the United States would eventually depart the scene, Pakistan has stuck by its traditional allies, and now, 16 years later, these same groups continue to provide Pakistan significant influence over Afghanistan's future, albeit only as a spoiler.

Pakistan's commitment to this proxy strategy is the principal cause of mistrust and tension with the United States. It is not the only reason for instability in Afghanistan, but it is a main one, and it is the primary threat to peace with India, where the next terrorist outrage could always escalate into war.

Strictly speaking, Pakistan’s leaders are not lying when they claim to prefer stability in Afghanistan, not least because Pakistan is now battling its own insurgents, the TTP, who find safe haven inside Afghanistan. Pakistan is a big loser from Afghanistan's instability, as it has been for decades.

That said, Pakistan is simply not convinced that turning against its Afghan proxies would end instability inside Afghanistan. Pakistanis tend to perceive that the Afghan state is very weak and not capable of controlling its territory without massive external assistance. They suspect that U.S./NATO support for Kabul is likely to dry up before Afghanistan becomes self-sufficient. Moreover, Pakistanis anticipate that any serious move against the Haqqanis would come at a steep cost; the Haqqanis would turn their guns on Pakistan and, perhaps worst of all, Pakistan would sacrifice its most effective tools against Indian influence in Afghanistan.

As a consequence, Pakistan has not deviated from its basic commitment to supporting its favored proxies in Afghanistan. Pakistani leaders would prefer that Washington accept their concerns as legitimate and lend support to a brokered peace process for Afghanistan that would deliver a significant share of national power to pro-Pakistan groups and demonstrate Islamabad’s dominant regional role.

To date, however, even when Washington has participated in the Afghan “reconciliation” process, it has refused to adopt Pakistan’s position. For the United States, the diplomatic goal is to secure peace for an independent Afghan state that would no longer spawn international terrorists, not to hand Islamabad a victory against India and Pashtun nationalists. The irreconcilable differences between U.S. and Pakistani positions, along with skepticism shared by Kabul and the Afghan Taliban about the value of diplomacy, explain why talks have yielded so little progress in recent years.

Washington has, on multiple occasions, succeeded in getting Pakistan to bring Taliban negotiators to the table. The trouble is that these negotiators – and their Pakistani patrons – have not shown themselves to be serious when it comes to seeking a negotiated settlement. To the contrary, U.S. officials perceive that the Taliban have used talks as a stalling tactic and a pretext for other diplomatic games intended to confer greater international legitimacy on the insurgency and to call into question that of the Afghan government in Kabul.

With the U.S. expected to send an additional 4,000 troops to Afghanistan in the near future, the Trump Administration appears to believe that reversing former President Barack Obama’s effort to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan could lead the Taliban and their Pakistani backers to recalculate the utility of peace talks. Moreover, Obama’s critics are right to cite his artificially short surge timelines as one reason for the failure of his Afghanistan strategy. A credible commitment is a necessary part of wearing down any adversary, especially an insurgency.

Then again, the Afghan Taliban are still equally likely to believe they can escalate the violence and wear down the patience of this new White House as they did the last one. The incremental addition of U.S. and NATO troops may temporarily slow or stall Taliban advances, but is not likely reverse them.

As for placing greater pressure on Pakistan to change course, the United States needs to demonstrate that Pakistan's longstanding strategy of using terrorist proxies is both costly and ineffective. Sadly, that message was never delivered convincingly by the George W. Bush or Obama administrations.

Costs can be raised – for instance, by conditioning or ending U.S. aid, and even threatening to name Pakistan as a state sponsor of terrorism and imposing sanctions. Of course, these steps could also risk U.S. interests in other aspects of the relationship with Pakistan and should not be taken lightly.

Even these coercive steps are not likely to work unless Pakistan's leaders also believe that changing course will make them more able to advance their core interests in Afghanistan. Short of the U.S.-led coalition actually “winning” the war on the battlefield – a task that proved beyond the means of over 100,000 U.S./NATO forces – such a reversal of Pakistan's perspective is most likely to happen if U.S. forces get significantly better at targeting Haqqani and Taliban leadership. Pakistan might then finally question the effectiveness of its Afghan proxies and conclude that a peace settlement, even one mainly on Kabul’s terms, represents the best available option.

In short, an escalation of U.S. military action directed at Taliban leadership with the principal aim of compelling negotiations is now probably Washington’s best hope for anything other than a very long Afghan stalemate, or worse, another escalation of violence that could collapse the Kabul government and prompt a humiliating American withdrawal.

[Amber G.]

Deep State's " Honour And Dignity" AKA "Echendee" Takes " A Big Hit "

Pak intelligence officials 'angry' over Raymond Davis's memoir

But according to Malik.. this is all due to RAW
RAW paid Raymond Davis to write anti-Pakistan book, says Rehman Malik

ISLAMABAD: Terming CIA contractor Raymond Davis’s book, The Contractor, a pack of lies, former interior minister Rehman Malik has claimed that India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) had paid Davis to write the book in order to malign Pakistan’s army and democratic institutions.

[Real Q: Did Raw pay Malik to say this and DAWN to publish this story?]

[Falijee]

Bahawalpur "Tragedy" : Shell Petroleum To Be Milked For Rs 250 Million

Bahawalpur tragedy: Ogra imposes more than Rs250m penalty on Shell

Holding Shell Pakistan Limited (SPL) responsible for the Ahmedpur Sharqia incident, the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) has imposed a penalty of Rs10 million on SPL and has additionally ordered it to pay Rs1m each to the families of the deceased and Rs500,000 each to the injured victims of the incident. In its report on the oil tanker accident at Ahmedpur Sharqia, Ogra has stated that although the oil tanker had been outsourced, the responsibility of maintaining standards lay with Shell since it was the licensee of Ogra. Because of its "almost insolvent" status, the GOP is always on the lookout to beg, borrow, blame someone for any sort of problem on the "sacred soil" of Pakistan ! As we hear in the Paki media, most of the "social services" have been outsourced to NGO's based in Germany, UK, US , Japan etc etc !

According to Ogra's three-member committee, the tanker did not meet the technical standards required to carry 50,000 litres of petrol and it did not meet the regulations of Ogra and the Department of Explosives. Additionally, the tanker was carrying a fake fitness certificate. Wow; lots of "accusations" in one sentence

The Ogra report attributed the ignition of fire to a lack of awareness among the general public and the lack or delay in response from the local government and motorway police to cordon off the area.

[/size] Should the school curriculum not be amended to lay more emphasis on practical and useful knowledge useful to the awaam (like danger of spilled petrol !) rather than Islamayat and Pakistanayat, which has been "fed" to the Aam Abduls for the last 70 years

The SPL also failed to submit a detailed report, only submitting a short preliminary one. Blame Shell Oil again !

The report recommended greater vigilance regarding safety standards for oil marketing companies (OMC), also asking them for a "timeline action plan for conversion of tank lorries of their contractor/haulier to the applicable safety laws and regulations". It recommended the Oil Companies Advisory Committee to ensure an aggressive campaign to make the public aware of hazards, and the local governments and departments to revisit their plans for patrolling and quick response. What right does OGRA have to preach all sorts of measures to make the "public aware of such hazards" , when foreign and Pakistani news media have speculated that the Crown Jewels Of Pakiland AKA The Bum is "on the road " 24/ 7 in vans and trucks to avoid the watchful Amreeki eyes in the sky ! What could potentially happen if an "nuclear accident" were to happen on the highways and biways of Pakiland !

The death toll from the Bahawalpur oil tanker explosion climbed to 214 on Thursday, according to medical sources. Apart from more than 150 people killed immediately in the fire, more than 100 people had suffered burn injuries in the incident which took place on June 25.

The cause of the fire has not been made official yet, but it is believed that a spark from the many cars and motorcycles that raced to the scene may have ignited the fuel. Firefighters fought the flames for over two hours before extinguishing the fire.

Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has constituted a four-member inquiry committee to investigate the inferno. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif met the victims of the tragedy on Monday and told reporters that the government would provide jobs to those who were injured in the explosion and relatives of the affected families. He vowed that the incident would be thoroughly investigated and those found guilty of dereliction of duty would be punished. He said, "We have to look at the condition of the tanker."

At the cost of not sounding cynical, I see some "scope" over here for the resourceful Paki Govt to "milk" some sort of foreign organization for "funding" on one pretext or the other ( eg. to rehabilitate the affected victims, to send them abroad for "burn treatment" , to showcase them to foreign reporters etc etc !)

[Amber G.]

Meanwhile ..in G20 Pakistan is never too far away from Xi's mind..

Concluding the meeting immediately after the Prime Minister's (Modi's) remarks, Xi appreciated India's strong resolve against terrorism and the momentum in BRICS introduced under India's chairmanship and through the outcomes of the Goa Summit in 2016.

[anupmisra]

‘465 executed since lifting of moratorium on death penalty’

a total of 465 prisoners have been executed since the country lifted moratorium on the executions in December 2014. The organisation regretted that such a high number of the executions has made Pakistan “fifth most prolific executioner” in the world, following China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

...is exceedingly used as a political tool, sometimes even as a jail overcrowding solution

more and more cases of wrongful executions were surfacing since lifting of the moratorium

the Supreme Court acquitted two brothers languishing in Bahawalpur jail for 11 years on death row, only to find they had already been “executed” a year ago

Bakistan, a global beacon of human rights, is in the super league now. In august company of super stars like their sugar daddy.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1343720/465-e ... th-penalty

[anupmisra]

Why Hindutva loves Israel
A statement, not a question, by an extremely pained momeen of al bakistan. The tears are flowing in bucketfuls.

There are many parallels between Hindutva and Zionism.

There is an unholy nexus between two ideologies of hate. Joining forces with the US neo-cons, it is a powerful axis, which is united in its visceral hatred of Islam and has long plotted against its followers.

As a beaming and effusive Netanyahu put it, after hugging the guest for the sixth time, Israel has been waiting for this moment for 70 years.

Yasser Arafat used to frequently visit India rather than his fellow Muslims next door in Pakistan

Today, the secular, socialist and democratic republic of Gandhi and Nehru has never been closer to the Zionist, apartheid Israel.

Under Modi, India has given an elaborate burial to the policy of paying lip service to the Palestinian cause.

Having visited some Gulf states in the past few years and establishing a good rapport with their leaders, he (sic., Modi)isn’t too worried about upsetting the Islamic world.

Eyeing the world power status, India has been on an unprecedented shopping spree for the world’s finest and fiercest weapons.

the Gandhian nation is the world’s largest importer of arms right now, even though nearly half of its population still struggles below poverty line and yearns for the basics like water, healthcare, education and electricity.(Don't forget the toilets...mention the toilets, please)

Israel has been one of India’s largest suppliers of arms – many of them US-made and provided with the help of the US taxpayers’ money – after Russia and the US.

For years, the Israelis have been training Indian forces and intelligence agencies in fighting ‘Islamic militancy’, given their vast experience of ‘dealing’ with the Palestinians.

It is widely known that Hindutva has been inspired by the Nazis and Mussolini’s Fascists.

The extermination of Jews at the hands of Hitler has long been idealised by the Sangh as the ‘final solution’ to deal with India’s own minorities.

Indeed, the Hindutva ideologues have long admired Israel, hoping to replicate its apartheid model of the supremacy of one religion and culture. ...Israel is everything that the RSS has wanted India to be since long and Modi is making it happen.

The Muslim world, preoccupied with its own internecine conflicts and domestic economic issues, is indifferent to the clear and present danger.

, , and triple

By the way, in case you could not tell, "The writer is an award-winning journalist."

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/214894 ... ves-Israel

[sudhan]

Before the Chinese started plaiting knots in their own langots in Sikkim the bakis were being pounded whack-a-mole style. Now, there is almost radio silence there, I haven't seen news of piglets or uniformed pigs getting whacked.. did we give the pigs some respite?

[Falijee]

According to this "unconfirmed rumour" on Hajam Sethi's "Such Gup" Imran Khan, AKA Taliban Khan has undergone PLASTIC SURGERY ON HIS AGEING FACE

Close to the action

Well-groomed reminds us, we hear The Great Khan has had another discreet facelift and is preparing for the day The Man of Steel meets his denouement via the courts. We hear he has cancelled his July holiday plans with his sons and wants to stay close to the action in Isloo.

PS: "Cosmetic Surgery" halal or haram according to The Book . Any hadiths on this during the Golden Days of Malsi

[Falijee]

Another "conspiracy theory" , according to Hajam Sethi's Such Gup ( The Paki Press has also been reporting the "runaround" by the Qatari !)

The buzz in Isloo is that the standoff between the JIT and the Qatari prince continues, not only because His Highness won’t come to Doha’s Pakistan Embassy to bear witness but also because he wants to bring his lawyer and accountant to the meeting. The JIT is saying “no” to the latter – and His Highness says that like all people of wealth, he does not go to meetings regarding his investments without his money managers.

PS: This is the "Arbi" version of the "infamous" Paki Echendee.

PPS: Ganja should get even and deny him permit for the "annual houbara hunt" !

[Falijee]

"Paki 007" Comes Out In Support Of Shuja

RAW paid Raymond Davis to write anti-Pakistan book, says Rehman Malik

ISLAMABAD: Terming CIA contractor Raymond Davis’s book, The Contractor, a pack of lies, former interior minister Rehman Malik has claimed that India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) had paid Davis to write the book in order to malign Pakistan’s army and democratic institutions.

Mr Malik, who was interior minister in 2011 (and was also sometimes being referred as 007 in Paki Media Circles !) when Davis was acquitted of shooting two people in Lahore, issued a detailed statement on Thursday regarding so far undisclosed developments that had unfolded in the aftermath of Davis’s arrest.

Mr Malik claimed that the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government and the military establishment had decided not to release Davis till he was acquitted by a court of law. “A high-level meeting had decided that neither would Davis be deported nor would he be granted diplomatic immunity, and that we would wait for the decision of the court in the matter and no action would be taken through any executive order,” he said, adding that the name of Davis had been placed on the Exit Control List immediately. ( Having a British Passport himself, he cannot be put on "ECL" )

He said that later in a meeting at the President House, the then Inter-Services Intelligence director general, Gen Shuja Pasha, had told the political leadership that the Americans wanted to exercise the right of Diyat (blood money) under Islamic law. “The matter was dealt with the cooperation of the Punjab government, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Interior,” he said. ( Just a "few days ago" Shahbaaz Sharif came out with a statement saying that that "he had nothing to do with Davis's release" )

Commenting on Davis’s claim regarding Gen Pasha’s role in pushing for diplomatic immunity, Mr Malik said: “No such role was played by the then ISI DG in the release of Raymond Davis, as claimed in his controversial book,” said the PPP senator. Is he spokesman for Shuja

He urged the nation not to fall prey to Indian conspiracies and not to project Davis as a hero. “He is nothing but an agent to the RAW,” he claimed. “I have documentary proof that Davis was approached by Indian agency RAW’s Additional Secretary Jagnathan Kumar for writing the book The Contractor in order to malign Pakistan’s premier agency ISI, the Pakistan military and the civilian leadership,” he said.

Documentary evidence (copy of RAA cheque, copy of Raymond Davis Bank A/c showing deposit will be published "next week" )

Mr Malik claimed that after returning to the US, Davis had fallen on hard times and had attempted suicide several times. “Only last year, Raymond Davis was under a huge debt of $700,000 and his wife Rebecca has taken separation from him. Due to his miserable financial condition, he became an easy prey and was sponsored by RAW and the book was written through a ghostwriter.”

Wow. ! All this in one sentence , with a straight face ! No wonder , the title of "007" was given to him

He said he was astonished how an impoverished Davis had decided to circulate a free PDF version of his book on the internet and via WhatsApp. The more the world knows about Pakistan, the better the world will be !

Earlier, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf general secretary Shah Mehmood Qureshi, the then foreign minister, had claimed that he had resigned from the ministry on the issue of immunity granted to Davis. Commenting on this, Mr Malik said: “I would like to clarify that nobody wanted to give immunity to the US spy as claimed by Mr Qureshi and that he never resigned from the ministry over the issue of Raymond Davis... prime minister Gilani had dissolved the cabinet on Feb 9, 2011 to reshuffle and Mr Qureshi was offered the portfolio of Ministry of Water & Power or Agriculture...in the presence of other cabinet members, he had resented and walked out insisting that he wanted to be foreign minister.” Malik is still "batting" for Dus Percenti's PPP, while Qureshi, being a " lotta politico", sensing the shifting political winds, has switched to PTI, where he will be "competing" with Madame Jalebi for Foreign Ministershp , if Immy comes to power. IMO, Qureshi did not want to take the (Davis ) flak, therefore he quit PPP

The former interior ministry also revealed that back then he had been approached by Dr Fozia Siddiqui, sister of detained Afia Siddiqui, who had proposed that government consider an exchange of her sister with Davis. It is a plausible scenario, but Massa would not have agreed !

“It was a good idea to get Siddiqui back to Pakistan, subject to the clearance of the court,” he added. “I had earlier gotten her two sons recovered from Afghanistan and handed them over to her family.” He said he had spoken about this to former US secretary of state John Kerry, who had promised to take up the matter with Washington. However, Mr Malik said, he never heard back from him on the subject. US not interested !!![/quote]

[Falijee]

RAA and Mossad Anti Pakistan Conspiracies being hatched by the Hindu And The Zionist without the watchful eyes of the See-Eye- A. And The Eye- Ess- Eye

[Falijee]

Germany rejects asylum requests of 13,481 Pakistanis

At least 14,000 Pakistanis have submitted asylum requests to German authorities in the current year during January-May .According to the figures released by Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, only 519 Pakistanis have been permitted asylum in the country whereas all other requests have been rejected.With the latest development, the asylum percentage for Pakistanis has remained only 3.7 percent till date in 2017. The number is higher than the last year but lesser than the years previous to it.

So, basically, less than 4-5% of the claims were deemed genuine, and the rest ( 95-96% ) were determined to be "bogus" ( economic migrants "trying" to flee Pakiland, either to collect "welfare" or get menial jobs, and gradually "graduate" to I.T. - the other kind !) .
PS. Wonder if Interior Minister (and defacto PM ) Nisar is going to accept them back quietly or is he going to "make a fuss"( as before ) saying that "there is no proof that they are Pakistanis as they are without any documentation". Remains to be seen ! Start planning in advance for "special immigration counters" at Karachi and Isloo Airport to handle the extra "workload"

[Falijee]

FO welcomes UN sanctions on Jamaat-ul-Ahrar

Deep State must have classified this organization as "Bad Terrorist"- targets Pakistan onlee! ( subsidiary of TTP) unlike Salahuddin of Hizbul-e- Mujahideen , ( "Good Terrorist - onlee targets "enemy India " ) who was recently designated as a "Global Terrorist " (by Massa) . Paki FO,at that time expressed "regrets" on this US decision and did not "welcome it "

[Gagan]

Ok guys, now that Modi has finished his Israeli trip, time for some regular Paki programming and bombast ...
I guess we need to have realistic definitions of these acronyms:
OBOR - One Bully, One Rogue
CPEC - Ch*dai of Pakistani Eunuchs by China

Bismillah! Subhanalla! Jazakulla!