Bharat Rakshak

Despite Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s many positive signals and calls for an early restoration of the broad gauge peace process, Delhi’s posture remained unchanged during 2013 and beyond. It only agreed to meetings – as between the commerce ministers last month – outside that framework in an attempt to narrow the scope of diplomatic engagement. Normalisation, in other words, was acceptable if it proceeded piecemeal and not as an across-the-board process.Pakistan went along with this approach in a spirit designed to preserve the momentum of normalisation. But a new government in Delhi will present an opportunity for a reset in ties. Islamabad will therefore have to re-evaluate how long it will accommodate a selective engagement approach if there is no Indian reciprocity on restoring the broader dialogue.
In several recent track II meetings with former Indian officials the impression they conveyed was that there is no traction among their policy community for a revival of the composite dialogue. Instead there is a marked preference for limited engagement on issues prioritised by India. Dialogue, yes; normalisation, yes, but reconfigured on India’s terms. Movement on trade would be fine, as would dialogue on terrorism and maintaining tranquillity on the Line of Control – but these issues would be addressed individually and not as part of a wider normalisation framework.

Some here might argue that partial normalisation is better than none so why not press ahead with selective engagement – trade after all benefits Pakistan too. This view overestimates the role trade alone can play to power a peace process in a strategic environment that remains fraught and prone to tensions. There are several reasons why a fragmented dialogue will not achieve genuine or enduring normalisation and place relations on a steadier track. The most fundamental is sustainability. Past experience testifies that moves to open up trade are often set back or stall due to non-trade factors – incidents on the Line of Control in Kashmir are the latest example of this.To be sustainable, building economic ties also requires addressing issues of discord between the two countries, which periodically and inevitably spark tensions and cause normalisation to regress. Also trade ties will not achieve their full potential unless contentious areas are simultaneously tackled. ( Where is the Tedi Finger Icon)It will be a mistake to settle for a fragmented or partial normalisation process. The comprehensive eight-issue framework drawn up in 1997, during Prime Minister Sharif’s second term, endured because it reflected the priorities and concerns of both sides. This process was sustained from 2004 to 2008 and then again in 2011-12. The renewal of a full-fledged comprehensive peace process remains the most viable means to manage differences and build on areas of convergence between the two neighbours. Limiting the bilateral engagement to a single track will neither build sustainable economic ties nor make longstanding differences go away.

Rajagopal wrote:Crowd sets fire to Hindu center in Pakistan. (Pakistan reaching the purity levels of distilled water. )

comment says it best:

"Same old, same old: Friday after prayers, the boys got psyched when the Imam started frothing spittle into his beard... and now there's nothing to do. Boring, boring, boring.... but wait! There's Hindus/Buddhists/Christians in town! One of them must have been doing something to the Quran! Hot damn! Let's riot! Woohoo!"

http://news.yahoo.com/crowd-sets-fire-h ... 38718.html

VikasRaina wrote:You are small hearted hindu with no memory of past threads.

Were we all not till like few hours back, calling Sindhis the peaceful Sufi song loving long lost birathers who are being butchered by Pakjabi Army and somehow India should save them by sacrificing its soldiers and that only Pakjabis were fundamentalist and terrorist loving momins while Sindhis were somehow stuck with the love fest they had started in 1947 with Pakjabis and traitors from India.

Thank-You Sindhi Islamic zeolites for proving that BRF is sometimes so ahead of the curve that it can kiss its own backside. You have proven that in your nation of terrorists, no malasi community is of any lesser shade of green.

I swear When the time would come, you too would be asked to pay for your crimes just like Pakjabi terrorist. You will be the first one to taste the neo deserts of Arabia when River Sindhu would refuse to flow into the land defiled by your presence and the Arabian sea rushes up to let you taste the Arabian zam zam cola made of salted sea water. …………………….{Snipped} …………….

……………….. For a long time I have been a strong holder of the view that we have a ‘Sufi Sindh’ and a ‘secular Balochistan’ as opposed to a ‘religiously inclined KP’ and ‘radical Punjab’. The first two labels now increasingly appear as myths. Even a couple of decades ago, what happened in Larkana this weekend, could not have been imagined in Sindh. However adamant our complacency may be, however strong our delusions may be, the fact remains that Sindh’s soul has been captured and Balochistan’s heart has been assaulted. ……………………

Anujan wrote:^^^
Actually apparently the Momeen stole some gold from a Hindu. The fellow lodged a FIR. Momeen accused him of desecrating a Quran and burned down a nearby hindu temple.

partha wrote:Ah, ok. So as usual this will lead to calls for laws against "misuse of blasphemy laws" by RAPEs. They never call for scrapping of blasphemy laws.

SSridhar wrote:On another note, 'arun's post of Marvi Sirmed's article shows that radicalism is spreading far and wide and rapidly too. Pakistanis like Marvi cannot be surprised by this phenomenon.

Three Hindus were injured when unidentified miscreants hurled acid at them while they were celebrating Holi festival on Monday.

according to paramedics their condition was critical.

Pakistan will grant on Friday Most-Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India with a condition of receiving a substantial concessions in trade from New Delhi.

The decision is expected to be announced after a special cabinet briefing to be headed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, a well-placed source in the ministry of commerce told Dawn on Monday.

Commerce Minister Khurram Dastagir Khan had made a conditional offer for granting MFN status to India in January, and had sought access for 250 to 300 items at lowered duties.

At the time of the MFN offer, the commerce ministry has not linked the trade liberalisation with the resumption of suspended talks, which raised questions from other stakeholders for ignoring their issues while given the concession to India.

As a result, the decision was delayed which was scheduled to be announced in the middle of February during the proposed visit of Indian Commerce Minister Anand Sharma. However, delay in decision led to postponement of the Indian minister visit to Pakistan.

Earlier, the granting of MFN status to India was part of the composite dialogue, which was suspended since January 2013.

A high-powered committee headed by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had been constituted to handle the issue and opposing groups.

Mr Dar will brief the cabinet about the offers from India before the cabinet approves the recommendation of granting MFN to India.

The cabinet decision, according to the source, will be conditional that Pakistan will allow import of all commodities from India via Wagah border and will abolish the negative list of 1,209 items in one go. {How can Pakistan call its own actions conditinal ?}

After the cabinet approval, these decisions will be announced through a statutory regulatory order (SRO).

Items placed on the negative list are not allowed for import from India. At the same time, currently only 137 items are importable from India via Wagah border.

The source said that India has offered to lower its duties to 7.5pc in a period of six months after Pakistan’s announcement of the MFN for India, which will be further lowered to 5pc in a period of one year. India is not willing to remove NTBs and customs duties.

Major beneficiary of the concession in tariff will be textile sector, based in Punjab.

Similarly, India will reduce its list of sensitive products to 100 items immediately after the announcement of the decision, while Pakistan reciprocates the decision in a period of five years.

At the same time, the cabinet will also approve the decision like opening of Wagah border for 24 hours and shifting of cargos from trucks to containers.

The ministry of commerce, however, said that India would not be given transit facility to Afghanistan and Central Asian Republics through Wagah route. This will be done in the second phase in future, the source said. or

Ahead of the announcement, the ministry of commerce has started intense consultations with media persons to brief them about the positive aspects of decision. The last round of consultation with opposing stakeholders has also started and will conclude in the next couple of days.

The ministry of commerce has come up with a lot of excuses and explanation in a brief for media to defend the decision of giving MFN status to India, apparently criticising the previous governments in denying this right to India.

The brief has calculated nine advantages of granting MFN to India including potential export gains for some product group--- textile ($1 billion), cement ($300 billion, may be million), chemicals ($200 million), agricultural products ($300 million), mineral products ($100 million) etc.

In this particular case, reports suggest that the allegation against the Hindu boy was made to prevent him pursuing a First Information Report (FIR) about a robbery at his house a few days earlier. The culprits were probably known to the man and apparently demanded he withdraw his case, otherwise they would accuse him of blasphemy. Most disturbingly, it seems as though the allegation was widely publicised via mobile phone texts and was broadcast on a local television station as well.

The range of institutional failures this incident represents is manifest. Reports say that gangs of young men on motorcycles formed the bulk of the mob; young, unemployed, frustrated men with no access to entertainment are historically prone to violence, and their participation is one aspect. The local television channel, if it broadcast the allegation, is representative of a puerile, irresponsible media. Participation of, and coordination by, local Muslim clerics can’t be ruled out, given growing religiosity and clerical power in the rural areas as well as past instances of their culpability.

anupmisra wrote:3 Hindus get acid burns in Karachi while playing Holi.

Three Hindus were injured when unidentified miscreants hurled acid at them while they were celebrating Holi festival on Monday.

according to paramedics their condition was critical.

Pakistan and Bahrain on Tuesday signed six documents relating to mutual cooperation in various sectors

The two sides will also discuss ways to increase export of Pakistani manpower to Bahrain and to facilitate the one hundred thousand strong Pakistani community residing in the Kingdom

Foundation linked to the Pakistani army has been providing Bahrain thousands of soldiers for its crackdown on protests

In March, as a government crackdown on pro-democracy protestors intensified in Bahrain, curious advertisements started appearing in Pakistani media. "Urgent requirement - manpower for Bahrain National Guard," said one. "For service in Bahrain National Guard, the following categories of people with previous army and police experience are urgently needed," said another, with "previous experience" and "urgent need" underscored

In an apparent reference to reported shift in government’s policy over Syria in the aftermath of $1.5 billion ‘friendly donation by Saudi Arabia,’ Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain on Tuesday urged Pakistan’s armed forces to not follow any ‘anti-state orders’ of the government with regards to sending troops abroad.

he alleged that the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was putting the honour and respect of the country at stake for dollars

In our struggle we had suffered grief, sorrow, worries and repression and destruction Don't forget long term memory loss Altafbhai!

Agnimitra wrote:

SSridhar wrote:On another note, 'arun's post of Marvi Sirmed's article shows that radicalism is spreading far and wide and rapidly too. Pakistanis like Marvi cannot be surprised by this phenomenon.

I sometimes wonder whom they write these articles for (expressing surprise or shock or disapproval at the spread of hate and persecution in Pakistan). Who is really the target audience? These articles only seem to appear in Pakistan's English press, once in a while. Not in the Urdu press (don't know about Sindhi press, etc.). Maybe its just a little liberal bubble that certain RAPEs like to be a part of now and then, to see and be seen - not just among themselves but internationally.

Paul wrote:Time to procure another 500 CBU 105ss and Popeye Glide bombs.

King Hamad bin Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa will make an unprecedented visit on Wednesday to the Joint Services Headquarters (JSHQ) in Rawalpindi....Pakistan has been looking at the visit as an opportunity for expanding trade and promoting investment links but Bahrain appears more interested in bolstering defence relationship....It is routine for Pakistani services chiefs to pay courtesy calls on foreign heads of state and government while visiting Islamabad, but a trip by a foreign leader to the JSHQ is exceptional. At the JSHQ, King Hamad will meet the three services chiefs.

Pakistan had previously aided Bahrain in setting up its naval forces and 18 per cent of the Gulf state’s air force comprises Pakistani personnel. It is estimated that over 10,000 Pakistanis are serving in security services of Bahrain.

Amid controversy over $1.5 billion received by the Nawaz government from Saudi Arabia, President Mamnoon Hussain backed on Tuesday the government’s policy and expressed the hope that it would help overcome the prevailing economic crisis...“Sometimes one has to adopt hypocrisy in international relations,” the press release quoted the president as saying.

Subsequent to these events, two schools of thought have emerged in Pakistan, one that interprets Jinnah’s August 11 speech as the final word on the legislative future of Pakistan and the other one that dilutes that speech with other sayings by Jinnah on different occasions. In the latter, the spirit and tempo of the Khilafat Movement still persists and dictates its terms. The latter school is divided into two sub-schools: the first considers the territory of today’s Pakistan as meant for a minuscule Caliphate (sometimes the concept of Caliphate is substituted with that of a centralised, military-led government) while the second considers Pakistan an area to be prepared for merger into a bigger Caliphate. Both these sub-schools draw their strength from Iqbal’s vision.

arun wrote:Joh Lahore mein g**du, woh Lusaka mein bhi g**du:

Pakistani rape suspects’ case for April 23

Prosecution alleges that Ahmad, Wagas and two accomplices identified as Zaheer Muhammed and Sadiq Muhammad, performed a sexual act against the order of nature and committed gang-rape to the prejudice of the alleged victim.

Nandu wrote:http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/23/magaz ... laden.html
An excerpt from Carlotta Gall's upcoming book The Wrong Enemy: America in Afghanistan. 2001-2014. Any guesses as to who she thinks the real enemy is?

partha wrote:

Nandu wrote:http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/23/magaz ... laden.html
An excerpt from Carlotta Gall's upcoming book The Wrong Enemy: America in Afghanistan. 2001-2014. Any guesses as to who she thinks the real enemy is?

Oh ok, so Pasha didn't wait until retirement to go rogue.

Anujan wrote:http://www.dawn.com/news/1094145

Amid controversy over $1.5 billion received by the Nawaz government from Saudi Arabia, President Mamnoon Hussain backed on Tuesday the government’s policy and expressed the hope that it would help overcome the prevailing economic crisis...“Sometimes one has to adopt hypocrisy in international relations,” the press release quoted the president as saying.

America’s failure to fully understand and actively confront Pakistan on its support and export of terrorism is one of the primary reasons President Karzai has become so disillusioned with the United States. As American and NATO troops prepare to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of this year, the Pakistani military and its Taliban proxy forces lie in wait, as much a threat as any that existed in 2001.In January 2013, I visited the Haqqania madrasa to speak with senior clerics about the graduates they were dispatching to Afghanistan. They agreed to let me interview them and gave the usual patter about it being each person’s individual choice to wage jihad. But there was also continuing fanatical support for the Taliban. “Those who are against the Taliban, they are the liberals, and they only represent 5 percent of Afghans,” the spokesman for the madrasa told me. He and his fellow clerics were set on a military victory for the Taliban in Afghanistan. Moreover, he said, “it is a political fact that one day the Taliban will take power. The white flag of the Taliban will fly again over Kabul, inshallah.”Pakistani security officials, political analysts, journalists and legislators warned of the same thing. The Pakistani military was still set on dominating Afghanistan and was still determined to use the Taliban to exert influence now that the United States was pulling out.
Kathy Gannon of The Associated Press reported in September that militants from Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, were massing in the tribal areas to join the Taliban and train for an anticipated offensive into Afghanistan this year. In Punjab, mainstream religious parties and banned militant groups were openly recruiting hundreds of students for jihad, and groups of young men were being dispatched to Syria to wage jihad there. “They are the same jihadi groups; they are not 100 percent under control,” a former Pakistani legislator told me. “But still the military protects them.”
The United States was neither speaking out against Pakistan nor changing its policy toward a government that was exporting terrorism, the legislator lamented. “How many people have to die before they get it? They are standing by a military that protects, aids and abets people who are going against the U.S. and Western mission in Afghanistan, in Syria, everywhere.”
When I remember the beleaguered state of Afghanistan in 2001, I marvel at the changes the American intervention has fostered: the rebuilding, the modernity, the bright graduates in every office. Yet after 13 years, more than a trillion dollars spent, 120,000 foreign troops deployed at the height of the war and tens of thousands of lives lost, Afghanistan’s predicament has not changed: It remains a weak state, prey to the ambitions of its neighbors and extremist Islamists. This is perhaps an unpopular opinion, but to pull out now is, undeniably, to leave with the job only half-done.
Meanwhile, the real enemy remains at large.

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Water and Power on Wednesday said that the construction of Dasu Dam will be initiated by the end of this year with the financial support of the World Bank.After completion of its first phase the dam will generate 2160MW electricity. The project is on track, financing line up and the dam will be constructed in phases due to financial constraints, explained Chairman WAPDA Syed Raghib Shah to the committee. This is for the first time that that WB is providing financing for land acquisition of the project. The WB has shown full commitments to provide financing for stage one and it will provide $700 million, ICBC China $2 billion and Deutsche Bank $1 billion and the remaining will be arranged by WAPDA/GoP. Chairman WAPDA claimed that the project will complete in 2019, which will store one million acre feet water apart from cheaper power generation. Initially two tunnels will be construction in phase one. After completion all phases, the dam will be able to generate 4320 MW hydel power with total cost of $8 billion. He also informed the committee that the dam will give more benefits once another dam, Diamer Basha completed.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar got caught with his hand in the cookie jar recently. The goodies in this instance were a $ 1.5 billion bailout deposited into Pakistan’s coffers by what Mr Dar described as a “friendly donor who wished to remain anonymous”. Within hours a foreign news agency revealed Pakistan’s secret Santa as none other than the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA)

Some media people have even thrown around the religious term Qarza-e-hasana, which is a loan given purely to seek the blessings of the Almighty, with the understanding that the borrower may or may not return it.

Nawaz Sharif’s kid-glove handling of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi’s political front, the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat party, which recently boasted of ‘scoring a century’ (of Shiite killings) in Quetta at a rally there {Pee-aref lingo! }, appears in part due to their mutual secret Santa based in Riyadh.

Aalim Deen Mehsud, a local commander of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in the North Waziristan tribal area, was trying to remove explosive material from a mortar shell, triggering the blast, a security official said.

"He was trying to cut the shell with a hand saw and take out the explosives when the explosion occurred, killing himself, four women and a child of his family," the official told AFP.

Two other children were injured in the blast, the official said.

"He was trying to cut the shell with a hand saw and take out the explosives when the explosion occurred, killing himself, four women and a child of his family," the official told AFP.