The Islamic Republic of Pakistan is truly an odd fish among the comity of nationspgbhat wrote:Editorial: Sectarian violence from Sindh to Gilgit ---- DT edit.
ExcerptThe Pakistan Ulema Council has condemned the killing of Allama Ali Sher Hyderi and has announced three days of mourning across the country {Snipped}
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Toba Tek Singh, an adaptation of one of Manto’s most famous short stories, deals with the exchange of lunatics between India and Pakistan at the time of Partition in 1947. The main character is a Sikh inmate of the lunatic asylum at Lahore. The lunatic, originally a resident of Toba Tek Singh, has come to be known by the name of that city, as he keeps asking everyone whether it is a part of Pakistan or India.
One of the lunatics at the asylum claims he is Jinnah, another calls himself Nehru, and yet another thinks he is Master Tara Singh. The stage adaptation, like the original story, is a powerful indictment of the insanity and barbarity that accompanied the Sub-continent’s Partition.
:Pakistan 'army death squad hangs Taliban body from lamp post'
Pakistani security forces have been accused of sending death squads to execute suspected Taliban militants, in one case hanging a body from a lamp post.
By Dean Nelson in Islamabad and Emal Khan in Peshawar
Published: 6:00AM BST 19 Aug 2009
The country's leading human rights lawyer, Asma Jahangir, accused the armed forces of waging a campaign of extra-judicial killings in the Swat valley and called for an independent inquiry after reports that 20 bodies were found in a mass grave at the weekend.
The Human Right Commission, which she founded, said it had compiled evidence that at least six of the dead had been shot by the security services.
It also alleged that more than 100 bodies have been found dumped in the streets of towns and villages in Swat since July 13 ………………
In Dargai in the neighbouring Malakand district, the body of a Taliban militant was left hanging from a lamp post with a note pinned to his body saying "anyone who joins the Taliban will meet the same fate". …………..
One man from Swat's capital, Mingora, told The Daily Telegraph his brother, a Taliban fighter, had been arrested by soldiers two weeks ago. He alleged that four days later his dead body was found dumped on wasteland by neighbours. Locals said the bodies of four more militants were found in similar circumstances.
An army spokesman denied any of those killed had been in its custody. But Asma Jahangir said she had hard evidence and challenged army claims that local mass graves contained the bodies of militants killed by other Taliban fighters.
"We have allegations to the contrary, from eyewitnesses, that these were militants but they were not killed by other militants. We're asking for an investigation because no-one should be above the law," she said. ………..
Telegraph, UK
Subject: Serious concerns over mass graves, extrajudicial killings, IDPs’ plight in Swat: HRCP
Lahore, August 12: A fact-finding mission of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) to Swat has documented accounts of extrajudicial killings by the security forces, discovery of mass graves in the conflict-hit region, and the continued suffering of the civilian population.
A number of Swat residents have reported sighting mass graves in the area, including at least one in Kookarai village in Babozai tehsil of Swat district and another in an area between Dewlai and Shah Dheri in Kabal tehsil, the three-day mission’s report said on Tuesday. Witnesses who have seen mass burials said that at least in some cases the bodies appeared to be those of Taliban militants, it added.
The mission expressed HRCP’s grave concern over the “worrying development” and also over credible reports of numerous extrajudicial killings and reprisals carried out by security forces. The mission said: “It is vital for the success of the military operation against terrorists that the security forces’ actions are distinguishable from the atrocities committed by the Taliban. ‘Taliban justice’ has been rightly condemned for its brutal and arbitrary nature and was crucial in helping turn the public opinion against the extremists. Treatment of individuals by government must aspire to a higher standard.
Human rights violations by security forces can only be discouraged if the State puts in place a transparent mechanism to monitor violations both during and post-conflict and fulfills its obligation of providing justice through due process.” ………………….
Asma Jahangir
Chairperson
HRCP
linkUS reaches out to religious parties in Pakistan
US President Barack Obama has started reaching out to some of religious parties, trying to improve Washington's image in the nuclear-armed state.
Obama's special envoy, Richard Holbrooke, is initiating dialogue between the United States and religious parties previous administrations had largely shunned, both sides said.
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Political Islam And Pakistan’s Intelligence Service
By Andre Gerolymatos 08-18-2009
Professor at Simon Fraser University and Chair of Hellenic Studies.
………………. Currently, Pakistan is a thinly veiled democracy and for most of its existence it has been ruled by the military. However, unlike Turkey in which the military has been the bulwark of secularism, in Pakistan the army is the medium by which political Islam is rapidly taking over the country. The roots of this state of affairs reach back into the British Raj and are the byproduct of divide and rule policies of colonialism.
It was British policy beginning in the late 19th century to enlist Indian soldiers from the so-called “martial races” of the Northwestern Frontier. ……………
As a result of the ‘martial races’ recruitment policy, a disproportionate number of South Asian soldiers and officers were recruited from Muslim and Sikh tribes. After Pakistan’s creation in 1947, successive Pakistani governments continued to recruit from the same geographical regions, following the British policy of cultivating the “martial races”. ………………
These recruits also served in Pakistan’s intelligence service (the ISI) and the fact that they have family and tribal ties in the troubled North-West region of Pakistan has created a unique relationship for Pakistan’s intelligence establishment with the Northwest Frontier.
In the early 1980s, for example, General Akhtar Abdur Rahman, the director of ISI was, like many Pakistani officers, a Pashtun from Peshawar on the Afghan frontier. In 1987, General Hamid Gul, a devout Muslim from the Punjab with close ties to the Saudis, replaced him as head of the ISI. ……….
Zia’s regime was given legitimacy by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979…………..
When the Americans decided to take on the Soviets in the region they also opted to work through Pakistan’s intelligence community. Under this arrangement, funding was channeled through the ISI to the mujahedeen. The ISI, in turn, used Pakistani Islamic organizations and parties to build up militant Islamists movements in Afghanistan. The Afghan-Soviet war, effectively, greatly enhanced the power of the ISI, while solidifying its links with Islamic militants both in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The power and influence of the ISI within Pakistan has continued to grow after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan as well as its contacts with radical Islamic organizations. The triangular link between the Pakistan government, the ISI, and fundamentalist mujahedeen continued under Benazir Bhutto (who came to power in December 1988). ……………..
Bhutto’s government was directly involved in infiltrating Taliban recruits into Afghanistan in the 1990’s, while Bhutto claimed that Pakistan was merely returning Afghan refugees to their homeland. Indeed, without ISI support, the Taliban could not have made the gains they did in Afghanistan during the early 1990’s.
The direct links between Pakistan’s government and the ISI continued after Bhutto. Several key members of Musharraf’s military regime, which came to power in 1999, including Musharraf himself, were also officers in the ISI. Due to their support of radical Islamic factions, the ISI has been linked to wide-ranging terrorist activities in recent years, including the Daniel Pearl murder, scores of assassinations within Pakistan, the bombing of a church in Islamabad, and more recently to the terrorist the attacks in Mumbai.
The ISI has been directly involved with the formation and ongoing support of the Taliban. After 1992, the ISI developed a strategy that not only undermined the secular Afghan government, but also nourished the Afghan Islamist movement. The ISI contributed to the formation of the Taliban and helped to recruit Pakistanis as well as Afghans. By 1993 the Taliban had become a formidable force with direct ties to the ISI and through it access to recruits from Pakistan’s religious schools.
The ISI’s deliberate entanglement with the Taliban and other extreme groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba has made political Islam a major factor in Pakistan. The ISI - created by the British, nurtured by the Americans and the Saudis - has become a serious impediment to Pakistan’s social and political evolution. The events in Mumbai in 2008 have demonstrated that parts of the ISI are now almost interchangeable with extreme Islamic organizations. Although it is difficult to determine to what degree militant Muslim groups have penetrated the ISI, it is clear that Pakistan’s intelligence establishment has become a fellow traveler of political Islam. Ultimately, this outcome will further contribute to the mutual paranoia that characterizes the Pakistan-India relationship.
Vancouver Sun
remarked Imran Shafi, a student of a private sector university located in the University Town.
and the power crisis in Pakistan . Nawaz said: “China has played a vital role in the development of Pakistan's social sector and its contribution in the defence domain is appreciable.” The envoy said his government would pledge all possible support to enable Pakistan to come out of its current economic crisis. How many more can it take 
by Saudi Arabian authorities, might have to undergo at least seven years imprisonment even if the Pakistan government files a petition to prove their innocence. In case of inaction on the part of Pakistani government, they would have to face the death penalty under Saudi law. 
- from their possession. Nice similarity between Razakar and Raza'c!ramana wrote:The next step on the Islamic trail for Pakis is to adopt "Quranic Cooking" and shun all native pr-Islamic cuisine. IOW they need to eat only that mentioned in the Quran or the Hadiths or what the first Razakars ate from the desert. All other victuals are haram and un-Islamic.
Arre boordi maan ko bhi nahin chchorda!shravan wrote:Umrah drug case
Arif Chowhan, his wife Shumaila Arif; Anees Ahmed, his wife Rabia Anees and their mother Zohra Moosan have been detained in Jeddah jail since June 1 after they were arrested by the Shurta (Saudi police).
The interior minister said Pakistan valued its friendship with Saudi Arabia.Guess What made 'em run to NigeriaGuruPrabhu wrote:Pakistan to help Nigeria build solid defence sector
http://www.afriquejet.com/news/africa-n ... 33533.html
Abbe said in recognition of the existing relationships between the two countries, the Pakistani proposal would be given due attention and treated on merit.
The HT headline says "NIgeria turns on India Inc." DDMitis making the headlines now, eh (pun subintended only)Nigeria Turns to India Inc- HT
Just read the first line of the article
In fact Mr Singh had noted a reduction in the intensity of infiltration into Kashmir compared to past years. This has also been corroborated by Indian army officials. Has some additional dossier of facts come to light since Mr Singh spoke that the defence minister has been forced to comment on it? Pakistan has already officially disavowed any planning in Pakistan about “attacks into India” and has asked New Delhi to consult before going public on issues within the Indo-Pak equation.
On the other hand, Pakistan can hardly issue guarantees that that there is no planning going on inside Pakistan by non-state actors for more attacks inside India. It has already admitted to it in the past: it had no clue that a “charity organisation” was plotting the 2008 Mumbai attacks and wants more evidence from India to punish those who did it. But the question of “camps along the LoC” is different. {No surprises usual denial}
Let us first set the record state. Such camps were functional along the LoC in the past. The entire world knew about them. Pakistani journalists knew about them and accounts were written about the heroism of their inmates in in-house journals that jihadi organisations published and circulated all over Pakistan. The truth is that Pakistan gave itself a bad name and endangered its own security at the hands of these “trainees” later on.
But if one talks about the camps today it will give rise to argument. If Pakistan is organising more non-state actors for assaults inside India who can they be? The one jihadi organisation it thought loyal to Pakistan stands banned and its leader is under trial for terrorism. Other non-state actors have gone and joined the Taliban and Al Qaeda and are at war with Pakistan, using the training taken at these camps against the Pakistan army.
The Foreign Office in Pakistan thinks that India should talk to Pakistan officially before going public with accusations of the above sort. Charges against Pakistan made public in India tend to stoke the fires of prejudice there and close the door on negotiation and reconciliation which is the only way to bring closure to the problem of infiltration. And if there are ambivalences in Indian perceptions they can best be resolved through mutually exchanged official messages.
Training camps are not something that can be concealed from the world in these days of satellite photography. Pakistan would be foolhardy in restarting something which has not succeeded in the past and which endangers its own internal security now. And it can’t send its regular troops into Kashmir. In the absence of consultations with India, Pakistan can, however, do what India is doing: go public with rebuttals that further spoil the bilateral relationship.
Given these circumstances, our suggestion to Prime Minister Singh is that he should decide quickly about restarting the stalled dialogue with Pakistan, preceded if he likes by some back-channel communication on what the resumed dialogue will discuss. New trouble is now emanating from such “unilateral” statements like the one he and his defence minister have now made.
They are more interested in contradiction inside Indiapgbhat wrote:Jaswant’s uncomfortable questions ---- Sarah Humayun
The ‘contradiction’ can point either way — towards a more or a less centralised India. Singh seems to view Indian Muslims’ need for a semi-autonomous space within the Indian political system with sympathy, yet he considers the path of reservation disastrous. What can Jaswant Singh’s answer be? Or has he merely raised a question? Only the book will tell us.
Maybe what got the BJP’s goat was that they had to find out? May be they couldn’t take the suspense?
I concur, thats what I felt the author was trying to figure out.Acharya wrote: They are more interested in contradiction inside India
Expansion of US embassy reflects focus on Pakistan: McHale
ISLAMABAD: US Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Judith McHale on Wednesday said the expansion of US embassy in Islamabad reflected Washington’s added focus on its relations with Pakistan. She said the US was focussed on efforts to expand its relations with Pakistan and intended to fulfil its commitments with the people of the country. “The expansion of US assistance to Pakistan in the years ahead requires more personnel in our embassy as we are going to assist Pakistan in various fields of economy,” she said in an interview with Radio Pakistan in Islamabad. She said that a small number of US Marines would also be deployed in the Islamabad embassy, which “is a routine matter and it must not be a cause for concern for Pakistani people”. app
North Waziristan seems to be the happening place.MIRAMSHAH: A militant on suicide mission rammed a vehicle packed with explosives into a checkpost on the Bannu-Miramshah road in North Waziristan on Tuesday evening, killing four security personnel and wounding eight others.
I highly recommend this movie : "Idiocracy". IMDB LinkPhilip wrote:The population "bomb" is not just one of increasing population,but one of an increasing population among the illiterate and lowest poorest levels of society in the developing world.Both India and Pak suffer from this problem.The educated lot,the Middle Class,are marryiing later and have smaller families thes days.If I'm not mistaken,a recent survey showed that in India,in the south,the fertility rate was declining when compared wiht the north.
Pak is displaying the added feature that its population of poor illeterate souls are like trapped rats in a cage,unable to escape from their misery and are fighting with themselves as a result.
Joe Bauers, an Army librarian, is judged to be absolutely average in every regard, has no relatives, has no future, so he's chosen to be one of the two test subjects in a top-secret hibernation program. He and hooker Rita were to awaken in one year, but things go wrong and they wake up instead in 2505. By this time, stupid people have outbred intelligent people; the world is (barely) run by morons--and Joe and Rita are the smartest people in America.
A new book, to be launched on Friday in New Delhi, may not provide the answers to all the questions that are being asked these days about the fanatic militants who pretty much have the run of Pakistan’s border tribal regions. But it is packed with much information about the rise of extremism and militancy in the border regions commonly known as FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) an ironic title for an area over which the Pakistani state can claim little control.
The Al Qaeda Connection (Viking/Penguin), by senior Pakistani journalist Imitiaz Gul, takes us through developments in FATA . . . For Gul, the turning point for Pakistan — more precisely, the point at which it began to lose control over events in FATA — was in March 2004, starting with an incident in Kaloosha in South Waziristan. Tribesmen of the Zillikhel clan, outraged at the rumoured killing by security forces of an Uzbek militant who had become a local hero, gunned down between 40 and 80 security personnel. In retaliation, the Pakistan Army along with a local force known as South Waziristan Scouts, launched the Kaloosha operation that ended for them in spectacular failure.
Recalling this incident in some detail, Gul describes it as the “catalyst for FATA’s Al Qaedaisation,” sowing as it did the seeds of animosity among the local tribesmen against the Pakistani state and its army, and for their banding together under the leadership of the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
The book also talks about the close ties between the Taliban and Punjabi militant groups raised for the jihad in Kashmir, such as Harkatul Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Toiba, known as the “Punjabi factor” in FATA.
Gul writes that the role played by the HuM chief as peacemaker between a Taliban-affiliated group and another linked to a Kashmir jihadi group in a tribal area of the North West Frontier Province “underlined the fact that activists of the all important organisations that had fought in Kashmir and were banned by the Pakistani government in January 200, had settled down in the tribal areas”.
It also examines the “ISI Factor” in militancy. Gul describes the ISI’s quest for “strategic depth” and its overarching role in the affairs of the state, relating his own experience of being blacklisted by the intelligence agency as a “security risk” in 1997. In interviews with ISI and Army officials, he is told that while the agency supported various Kashmir jihadi groups and Taliban in the past, since the Kaloosha operation, the outlook had changed now.
There is a chapter on who funds the militants. Pakistan is awash with all kinds of theories on this, and Gul mentions all of them, but cautiously enough with a question mark on each.
The downside of the book’s current feel is that it seems too much culled from news reports, rarely venturing beyond the reported, with the author underplaying his own vast knowledge of the subject, his Pashto roots and connections in the area that he has written about.
after kidnapping of two persons belonging to Shia community from Minyakhel area a week ago.
which was not acceptable to her family.... Per the JI leader, the embassy will be an 18 acre campus that houses 180 homes with about 250 elite marines and in total over 400 seciruty personnel.Acharya wrote:Expansion of US embassy reflects focus on Pakistan: McHale
ISLAMABAD: US Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Judith McHale on Wednesday said the expansion of US embassy in Islamabad reflected Washington’s added focus on its relations with Pakistan. She said the US was focussed on efforts to expand its relations with Pakistan and intended to fulfil its commitments with the people of the country. “The expansion of US assistance to Pakistan in the years ahead requires more personnel in our embassy as we are going to assist Pakistan in various fields of economy,” she said in an interview with Radio Pakistan in Islamabad. She said that a small number of US Marines would also be deployed in the Islamabad embassy, which “is a routine matter and it must not be a cause for concern for Pakistani people”. app
in Pakistan. May allah give more power to Paki jihadis in their fight against the kingdom of evil.Maulvi Faqeer said he would also talk to the Taliban leaders for changing the group’s name fromTehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan to Tehrik-i-Ittehad Taliban {TIT} as according to him the whole world had its eyes on the movement.
. :Frontier to move court against Punjab on flour ban
By Ali Hazrat Bacha
Thursday, 20 Aug, 2009 | 04:47 AM PST |
PESHAWAR: Taking strong notice of the ban imposed by the Punjab government on supply of flour to other provinces, the Frontier government on Wednesday warned to move the court if the decision was not taken back.
Speaking at a press conference here on Wednesday, NWFP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said the ban was in violation of Article 151 of the Constitution.
He said the Punjab government had imposed Section 144 on the movement of flour from the province, describing it as an unwise decision on part of the provincial government.
‘It is ironic that on one hand the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) considers itself a country level party and on the other it takes steps protecting the interests of Punjab only and neglecting the people of the other provinces,’ he maintained. ...................
Dawn
PM sacks acting chairman of Pakistan Steelshravan wrote:Secret $2.2 bn Pakistan Steel deal without bids
August 18, 2009
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“We didn’t place any media advertisement here or abroad for this project, but we had written letters to three or four companies to gauge their interest,” said Pakistan Steel Chairman Moin Aftab Shaikh, while making a startling revelation that there were no government rules that require an open invitation for offers on projects of such importance.
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When Moin Aftab Shaikh was asked by this correspondent why such secrecy was made an integral part of the memorandum when the Pakistan Steel is a public organisation, he replied: “This was not our requirement but the Chinese company asked for this secrecy clause and we agreed.” Mr Shaikh, however, didn’t agree that this secrecy clause has made this MoU even more suspicious.
Nice Developments. .... A major development indeed, where somebody is thrown out in Pakistan for being pro-Chinese, and he is thrown out by none other than Wazir-e-Azam himself.shravan wrote:On Tuesday, Premier Gilani had dismissed the then PSM chairman Moin Aftab Shiekh for corruption charges.
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Zardari leaving for China tomorrowRajeshA wrote: Not to forget Jardari ji, a la lala 10%, was expected to make his Umrah to Beijing in the coming weeks,
