Bharat Rakshak

Pakistan must give up its ‘rhetorical alliances’ that can only take it to a certain point — a lesson it should have learnt after the experience with China

In the matters of foreign policy there are no permanent friends or foes — something that Pakistan is learning the hard way. It is known in Pakistan that as long as the storm does not hit, whether it is domestic or foreign policy, the policy makers will not move an inch. The dearth of strategic foreign policy has limited Pakistan’s options and is moving the country to isolation in the international system. This reality had hit the foreign policy making quarters of Pakistan after back to back shocks by two of its celebrated ‘natural’ allies due to which, now, Pakistan is desperately trying to open up towards Russia, and normalization of relations with India is in progress.

The first blow came in April 2011 when China, in clear words, held the ‘safe havens’ in Pakistan responsible for the militant activities in their Xingiang province following the lead of the US. But more serious concerns came in the aftermath of the raid on Osama bin Laden and the blockage of the supply line, with the inner sources in the policy making circles claiming that China had indicated that it would not stand by Pakistan in its adventures with the US. It was as if the ground slipped from beneath the policy makers in Pakistan; after all, China was perceived as an ‘all weather’ ally of Pakistan against the US and India. Moreover, at the SCO summit in June 2012, the Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang, who is in line to be the next Premier, in his talks with S M Krishna categorised Sino-Indian ties to be the most important bilateral relations in the 21st century. The statement came as a surprise, but interestingly, Pakistan did not launch a hue and cry campaign with the Chinese government, the way it blasted the US for its nuclear deal with India. In the policymaking circles of Pakistan, frustration became evident that it was not just the US that was realigning with India, but the Chinese also extended an olive branch to the Indians; which meant that Pakistan lost its Chinese card. However, Pakistan chose to remain silent on the issue so as not to bust the illusion of ‘Pak-Cheen dosti’ (Pak-China friendship) to its own public.

If that was not enough, Pakistan got its second shock when the Saudi Arabian government rejected Pakistan’s desperate plea to handover Abu Jindal, an Indian national, who also had a Pakistani passport and identity card and was one of the masterminds of the Mumbai attacks, to the Pakistan authorities. Instead, Saudi Arabia chose to hand over Abu Jindal to the Indian authorities who would use him to find more links between the Mumbai attacks and the security agencies in Pakistan. Pakistan had not completely digested this move when, according to the sources within the establishment of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia sent an under the table warning to Pakistan to ‘sort out the house’ — in other words, to tackle the problem of militants’ safe havens — an American line that Saudi Arabia reiterated.

In the aftermath of these events; in the past two years, the myopic ideas of Pak-Cheen dosti and the ‘Islamic brotherhood with Saudi Arabia’ have died down within the policymaking circles, especially within the Pakistan army, which now feels isolated in a troubled neighbourhood. The ideas of a crude realist foreign policy are assuming dominance over a religiously and emotionally motivated foreign policy that Pakistan followed in the past 65 years.

As a brigadier in the army said, “It is not the United States that has ruined Pakistan; the Chinese and Saudis have done worse to this country internally.” What the people know on the ground is the fabricated reality of China as an evergreen friend of Pakistan who will not allow the US to bully Pakistan. Pakistan has been bullied for the past six years, and there is nothing that China has done or would want to do, partly because it has too much at stake with the US. For China, Pakistan matters very little in the broad geo-political game.

This was also revealed in one of my meetings with a US diplomat who felt surprised at the attitude of the Chinese government towards Pakistan on his trip to China. “The rhetoric we heard in Pakistan is overwhelmed with the ideas of Pakistan-Chinese cooperation, friendship and alliance, but in Beijing there is little talk about Pakistan, and only the junior level diplomats are assigned to work on Pakistan.”

What Pakistan is undergoing now after being hard hit by its ‘natural’ allies is a desperate attempt to find new friends in the region and the world at large — possibly those significant countries that Pakistan soured relations with over religious issues or during the Cold War when it chose to be in the camp of the US. As mentioned earlier in the analogy of the storm, the realignment with Russia should have come right after the end of the Cold War, but it did not. It comes at a time when Pakistan is in a weaker position and has very little to offer in return; thus President Putin mentioned while cancelling his trip to Pakistan that it was more ‘rhetoric’ than actual words.

Pakistan must give up its ‘rhetorical alliances’ that can only take it to a certain point — a lesson it should have learnt after the experience with China. Real alliances are developed in the right time, with the right understanding of the geo-political events. Unfortunately, as Michael Kugelman mentioned in one of his blogs in a Pakistani national daily, there are no experts on the US in Pakistan. I would add to his analysis by claiming that Pakistan has no experts on China either. And the experts in the Pakistan military are not trained to think liberally and strategically due to their narrow training as military officers, rather than as diplomatic officers.

It is based on this hard-hitting reality and need that Pakistan is realigning its alliances in the region, something that is likely going to influence South Asian social, political, and economic dynamics.

Pakistan has approved a liberalised visa agreement with India that will relax curbs on issuing travel documents to traders, elderly people, tourists, pilgrims, members of the civil society and children, Xinhua reported.

The two countries had signed the agreement in September during the then Indian foreign minister S.M. Krishna's visit to Islamabad.

Pakistan Information Minister Qamar uz Zaman Kaira told a news conference Wednesday that at a cabinet meeting presided by Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, the members unanimously accorded approval to the relaxed visa agreement with India which he hoped will promote people-to-people contacts.

A 38-year-old visa pact has been replaced with the new pact, which says that visa has to be issued in a period of not exceeding 45 days of application.

Under the new system, one can visit five places instead of three at present and those above 65 and children below 12 years of age and eminent businessmen are exempted from police reporting.

Under the category of "Visitor visa", in the new pact, single entry visa is to be issued for six months. But the stay should not exceed three months at a time. Earlier, only single entry visa for three months used to be issued for meeting relatives, friends, business or other legitimate purpose.

Under the new Category II, a "Visitor visa" for a maximum five specified places may be issued for a longer period, up to two years with multiple entries to senior citizens (above 65 years old), spouses of a national of one country married to a person of another country and children below 12 years of age accompanying parents as given earlier.

The new "Group Tourist visa" will be issued for no less than 10 people and no more than 50 people. Valid up to 30 days, this visa will have to be applied through tour operators registered by the two governments.

The Pakistan cabinet also approved three agreements regarding customs and certification issues, which were also signed by officials of the commerce ministries of both countries in September.

Hina Rabbani Khar’s latest revelations on human rights (HR) in Pakistan at the United Nations’ Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in Geneva give a satisfactory picture of conditions in the country. It shows that every problem that faces Pakistan stems from terrorism, extremism and drones, all three, as the Minister said, being the product of the CIA-sponsored jihad against the Soviet Union. She preferred listing the legislation on human rights such as the establishment of the National Commission for Human Rights; constitutional reforms; rectification of International HR Treaties, etc, over telling the mission about the practical steps taken by the government in improving the lot of an ordinary person in Pakistan through these laws. To strengthen her case against what generally is perceived to be the poor rights situation in the country, she ignored matters such as the blasphemy laws, sectarian killings, forced disappearances, plight of religious minorities, maltreatment of women, and the military’s repression in Balochistan.

She talked about thriving media but did not reveal that in this year alone eight journalists have been killed and that Pakistan is considered the most deadly country in the world for journalists.

She flaunted the laws made so far for women but failed to mention that since January this year, 4,585 cases of violence against women have been reported across the country. That does not include women killed in the name of honour in 436 cases.

On enforced disappearances she referred to the recent visit of the UN working group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances. However, the involvement of the military and intelligence agencies in abducting people, on which the ruling of the Supreme Court is awaiting action by the government for presenting the disappeared people in court, found no mention. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan’s fact finding mission on Balochistan has proved that the Frontier Corps and intelligence agencies are generally believed to be involved in enforced disappearances; and in some cases their involvement had been proved beyond doubt.

Karachi found no mention in Hina Rabbani’s speech, where, to date a total of 1,345 people have been killed in targeted attacks and 227 political activists have been murdered.

Sectarian killing was skipped totally, therefore the case of the Shia community, especially the Hazaras, who are being killed by the dozen did not find mention.

The story depicted by Ms Khar was so incredible that even a country like Belarus, which itself enjoys a bad reputation on HR, condemned Pakistan over the state of HR and demanded Pakistan improve the situation. Britain and the US have asked for electoral reforms to improve the participation of women and their rights. Sweden and Switzerland have been quick to point out the malaise in the education sector. A recent UNESCO report said at least 5.1 million Pakistani children are out of school, 63 per cent of whom are girls. What made Ms. Khar camouflage the HR situation in Pakistan is perhaps her misconception that the world trusts Pakistan’s verbal assurances on HR. *

More than 5.7 million animals with an approximate value of Rs120 billion were sacrificed this Eidul Azha in Pakistan, but Syed Saydin says these numbers have not affected the local market positively.
Though Pakistani leather is considered to be the second best in the world, the chairman of Pakistan Tanners Association says the growth rate for the country continues to decline.
“In India, the growth rate is 22.68 percent, 20.7 percent in China and 17.51 percent in Bangladesh. Unfortunately, the growth rate in Pakistan is declining by 3.94 percent,” he says.
The association says hides obtained from animals sacrificed this year have an estimated value of Rs7 billion.
Leather from all over the country is brought to Lahore, the location for Pakistan’s biggest market for the product.
Khawaja Sajjad, the market’s general secretary, says the population boom has divided resources between a greater number of people.
“The material has not increased. Someone who would sacrifice a goat earlier, now only gets a share in the cow, so total resources remain the same,” he said.
Due to lack of production facilities for value-added goods, leather is usually sold to other countries in raw form, where it is processed into finished goods and sold at high prices.
However, if investment is made in industrial infrastructure, a lot of this revenue can be retained by Pakistan.

There are about 10 to 15 major jihadi outfits in the country, mostly located in Punjab, with a couple of them having emerged in Sindh, in recent years. These outfits get a regular supply of jihadis from the 30,000 or so madrassas spread all over the country. Both these institutions — jihadi outfits and the madrassas — are the residual but have decidedly criminal legacies of the first Afghan war and the now-defunct Kashmir jihad. Perhaps, angry at the khakis for abandoning the Kashmir jihad, these institutions have now started biting the very hand that had been feeding them, funding them, arming them and training them on how to kill.

Pakistan police probe Lahore school attack

Hundreds of protesters on Wednesday ransacked the school and set fire to its furniture over claims that a teacher insulted the Prophet Muhammad.

Farooqi Girls' High School is considered one of the better educational institutes in Lahore.

But officials say that it upset hardliners - who came from outside the Lahore area - when the teacher made a mistake while copying Islamic text from an exercise book in a rush.

The text was distributed among pupils as part of their homework to be done during Eid holidays from 26 to 29 October, lawyer Jawad Ashraf told the BBC.

Officials say that the mob was mostly made up of people from outside the Lahore area

Mr Ashraf is representing school principal Asim Farooqi, 77, who is now in police custody.

Girl killed in Pakistani-administered Kashmir acid attack

Local police officer Raja Tahir Ayub told the BBC that the girl's father became enraged when he saw his daughter "looking at two boys" riding on a motorcycle outside their home on Monday.

Police say that the parents suspected she was having illicit relations with one of the pair.

"He took his daughter inside, beat her up and then poured acid over her with the help of his wife," Mr Ayub said.

Police say that that the couple did not take their daughter to hospital until the next morning, and she succumbed to her injuries on Tuesday evening.

Anindya wrote:5,000 Pakistani cricket fans may get visas

lakshmikanth wrote:Acid burns for more than 10 hours.

This is not just 7th century, it is the efficiency of modern science combined with 7th century evil that takes it to such stratospheric heights of evil.

Anindya wrote:5,000 Pakistani cricket fans may get visas

“During the investigations into the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, it came to light how Pakistani terrorists and Inter-Services Intelligence [ISI] misused visas in plotting terror attacks against India. During interrogations, 26/11 handler Syed Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal has said Sajid Mir and Major Abdurrehman, who were behind the Mumbai attacks, had visited India after they got visas to witness India-Pakistan cricket series in 2005,” the official said.

Notably, Sajid Mir, the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander responsible for building his organisation’s international network, and Major Abdurrehman are alleged to be closely linked to the ISI. In fact, they were on a reconnaissance mission to Delhi and Mumbai a year before David Coleman Headley visited Mumbai to identify the targets for the 2008 attacks.

The official pointed out that another area of concern was the disappearance of Pakistan nationals. “It is estimated that there are over 7,000 Pakistanis who are still in India after their visas had expired. They are a potential threat to the nation’s internal security.” The MHA’s official figure of overstaying Pakistani nationals as on December 31, 2009 is 7,691, though many of them are Hindus and Sikhs.
....

eklavya wrote:And it gets sicker ...

Girl killed in Pakistani-administered Kashmir acid attack

Local police officer Raja Tahir Ayub told the BBC that the girl's father became enraged when he saw his daughter "looking at two boys" riding on a motorcycle outside their home on Monday.

Police say that the parents suspected she was having illicit relations with one of the pair.

"He took his daughter inside, beat her up and then poured acid over her with the help of his wife," Mr Ayub said.

Police say that that the couple did not take their daughter to hospital until the next morning, and she succumbed to her injuries on Tuesday evening.

lakshmikanth wrote:Acid burns for more than 10 hours.

This is not just 7th century, it is the efficiency of modern science combined with 7th century evil that takes it to such stratospheric heights of evil.

KARACHI: Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Zaka Ashraf labeled the upcoming India-Pakistan series as a “revival of friendship” between the two subcontinent archrivals and a step forward, despite the fact it was Pakistan’s turn to host its neighbor.

“It’s neither India’s series nor it’s Pakistan’s series, it’s a series to revive friendship,” he said.

Bangalore and Ahmedabad will host the Twenty20 games while Chennai, Kolkata and New Delhi will host the ODIs.There will be no match at Mumbai.

“We will send a delegation prior to the tour to see the security arrangements,” Ashraf said.

disha wrote:

lakshmikanth wrote:Acid burns for more than 10 hours.

This is not just 7th century, it is the efficiency of modern science combined with 7th century evil that takes it to such stratospheric heights of evil.

Just shows how sick they have become. Imagine the suffering the kid had - at the hands of her parents! Pure inhuman - evil.

I want to puke.

partha wrote:^
What kind of a field marshall is Kayani who has not launched a single raid into Islamabad? To make it worse, he belongs to Zia Ul Phuk era. Shame on you Kayani.

Ameet wrote:Pak to give Malala's father embassy job in UK to avoid shame of him seeking asylum

http://www.dnaindia.com/world/report_pa ... um_1759306

Sources said that Interior Minister Rehman Malik has assured Yousufzai of a job at the Pakistan High Commission in London. Malik, however, said he has assured that Yousufzai won't apply for asylum there.

You may not know this rising star in the
Salafist standup community, but he’s a
big name in Pakistan. He’s the founder
of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the biggest and
meanest of the Kashmir-born irregular
guerrilla armies, though officially his only
connection is to Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD),
the political wing.
Lashkar-e-Taiba means “Army of the
Good Folks” – pretty funny right there,
but then “Pakistan” means “Land of the
Pure,” which is hard to top. Pakistan is
the comedy capital of the world, if you
like your standup rough. One of Saeed’s
funniest lines, one that had every cop on
the subcontinent cracking up, was when
he said with a straight face, “No LeT man
is in JuD and I have never been a chief of
LeT.” Yeah, and Allah didn’t make little
green apples.

Rishi wrote:War Nerd (Gary Brecher) of exile.ru has moved to nsfwcorp.com and has written a nice essay on the shitpile that is Pakistan and Hafiz Saeed.

http://www.nsfwcorp.co/u6u0f

The site is subscription only but has been unlocked for 48 hrs (won't copy article here due to copyright).

Please do read "Hafiz Saeed: Putting the Ha in jihad"

So Saeed has seen generations of these kids come and go—especially “go,” because the life span of a Jihadi is shorter than a squirrel’s.

It’s a grim thing, watching a country that was once world class go totally insane.

CRamS wrote:When was TSP a world class country?