The Aug 3, 2010 issue of the Quetta based newspaper, Azadi, carried details of the 35-page document which contains 14 chapters and 85 clauses. Omar’s constitution emphasis’s that jihad should be strictly in accordance with God’s command and the sunnah (Traditions) and every mujahid should win a place in the hearts of the people. Three days later, Afghan police discovered the bodies of 10 unarmed medial aid workers who were killed in the northern province of Badakshan. Six of the slain men and women were foreign volunteers who had traveled half way across the globe to provide medical care to impoverished  Afghan villagers. The Taliban proudly claimed responsibility.

Another clause in the new constitution cites the sharia and enjoins humane treatment of captured Afghan and foreign troops. It emphasis’s that the “cutting of ear,nose and lips is strictly forbidden.” Despite this, the mutilated remains of two US marines taken prisoner in Logar province by the Taliban on July 23, 2010 were recovered five days later by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.

The constitution stipulates that alleged informs and spies should not even be arrested unless they are first made aware of Islamic techniques, warned and given the opportunity to repent. Yet a few weeks earlier, a 7 year old boy was hung on charges of spying. In July this year international media outlets reported that Mulla Omar had ordered his troops to kill or capture Afghan civilians, including women, who cooperate with  ISAF.

There have been scores of similar incidents in the guise of jihad. Afghanistan bleeds but Pakistan bleeds no less. More people have died in Pakistan because of terrorist act, perpetrated by the Tehreek-e-Taliban-Pakistan (TTP) and its supporters, in 2009 than in Afghanistan. Statistics compiled by the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies reveal that 3,021 people were killed and 7,334 were injured in 2,586 terrorist attacks which included 87 suicide bombings. The tally for Afghanistan, according to a UN report, was 2,412 civilian deaths.

The preceding years were no less conspicuous by violence. In Pakistan, the writ of the state was progressively eroded in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and in other parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This was largely because the military operations undertaken against the TTP during the Musharaf era were never carried through. The peace deals that were subsequently negotiated with the Taliban not only gave them the space to regroup and rearm but also enabled them to consolidate their hold on almost the entire tribal territories where they enforced their own laws, levied taxes and ran the administration.

Subsequently, Swat was virtually handed over on a silver platter to the Tehree-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat-i-Mohammadi of Maulana sufi Muhammad and to his firebrand son-in-law Mulla Fazlullah of the TTP, when the PPP led government allowed the former to impose his concept of Islamic justice under the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation. The punishments inflicted on ordinary people were as swift as they were brutal. The words of Maximilien de Robespeirre (1758-1794), “Terror is nothing else than justice, prompt, secure and inflexible,” proved true.

The government soon realized that appeasement never pays. The TTP promptly entered Buner while their influence spread like wildfire not only in the Malakand division but also over the entire province. Flushed with success, Sufi Muhammad declared the Constitution of Pakistan un-Islamic and vowed to impose the draconian rule of the Taliban not only in the country but also beyond. Military operations in Swat began on May 8, 2009 and after its successful culmination, in South Waziristan in the third week of October.

The difference between the Afghan Taliban and the TTP is not thicker that a thin sheet of paper. Their ideology is the same and both want to impose their obscurantist interpretations of Islam on the two neighboring countries. After the Afghan Taliban had captured Mazar-e-Sharif and all but defeated the Northern Alliance in May 1997, the abrasive Mulla Razzak, who had been appointed by the Taliban as their leader north of the Hindu Kush, bluntly asked the Pakistan ambassador to Afghanistan, Aziz Ahmad Khan, who happened to be in Mazar-e-Sharif at the time, when Islamabad would enforce Islam in the country.

The Afghan Taliban, the TTP and the extremist outfits in southern Punjab constitute a triangle of terror and the symbiotic relationship between them was in evidence in April this year with the abduction of two former ISI officials, Col Sultan Amir Tarar (r), alias Col Imam, and Sqn Ldr Khalid Khawaja (r) by an obscure Punjab based group with the fanciful name of Asian Tigers. The two were taken to a TTP – controlled area in North Waziristan where Khawaja was murdered in cold blood while Imam’s life was spared after intercession on his behalf by Mulla Omar. He reportedly remains in the custody of either the Afghan Taliban or their Pakistani counterpart.

Despite this, some distinguish between the Afghan and the Pakistani Taliban in the belief that the former are “Pakistan-friendly.” Even if the presumption of a friendly Afghan Taliban is true, a hidebound policy that does not take into account new realities can be disastrous. Short-term expediency is counterproductive if it impacts adversely on long-term national interests and, in this context, we must not ignore the irredentist ambitions of all Afghan groups, including the Taliban, who do not recognize the Durand Line as the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

In the ongoing military operations in Afghanistan and in the tribal regions of Pakistan the effectiveness of the overwhelming firepower available to both Kabul and Islamabad is substantially reduced against an amorphous enemy that avoids set-piece battles and relies exclusively on hit and run guerrilla tactics. furthermore the adversary is able to mobilize grassroots support for which it relies on the spirited dissemination of its skewed interpretation of Islamic doctrine. Just as the state needs to permanently win back its territorial sovereignty in parts of the country previously lost to the extremists, the people of Pakistan need to reclaim their religion from the same extremists. The only way to defeat the ideology of extremist violence disguised in the garb of false religion is through the Quran which describes itself as a Book “for people who think” and states categorically “Verily, the vilest of all creatures in the sight of God are those deaf, those dumb ones who do not use their reason.” The famous Egyptian-born theologian, Jalal-ud-Din-a- Suyauti, (d. 1505), who is credited with 981 works, belived that “everything is based on the Quran.” In other words, the Quran is Islam and there cannot be more precise definition of the religion.

written by: S Iftikhar Murshed

Thanks: The News

• Indian company controls dam on Kabul River, tens of dams control flow of Kashmir water into Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan
• Flood gates of Afghan Sarobi Dam, Indian Baglihar Dam were opened to drown Pakistani plains
• Two US allies, the puppet regime in Kabul and the ‘strategic ally’ in New Delhi, declare water war on Pakistan
• The tragedy one again raises question marks on the US double game against Pakistan in the region
• Melting glaciers have nothing to do with this tragedy; it also doesn’t explain why Kabul river surged

It’s not as if the clouds dodged borders and focused on Pakistan only. Pakistan’s water flows from Indian-occupied Kashmir and from US-occupied Afghanistan. A natural deluge should have shown some spillover effect into Indian and Afghan regions adjoining Pakistan. It is interesting that a second and a third wave of floods is expected in Pakistan when there’s no rain to justify it. Where is the water coming from? Here’s a perspective by Mr. Zaid Hamid, a security analyst at BrassTacks, and Ms. Gulpari Mehsud, a researcher at PakNationalists.com. [PakNationalists.com]

By ZAID HAMID & Gulpari Mehsud

Tuesday, 17 August 2010.

WWW.PAKNATIONALISTS.COM

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—There is a very sinister aspect to the floods in Pakistan that no one is discussing in the media. While there were rains and flooding in some rivers of the country, the size, scale and the gush of water suddenly pumped into these rivers defies logic. This is especially true considering that rains have slowed down since the breakout of the floods on 29 July.

It is two weeks since the rains stopped but water continues to rise in the rivers Indus and Chenab. There was no flooding in India or in Afghanistan. Never before have rivers in all the provinces of Pakistan flooded at the same time without a similar act affecting the upstream, the source. While some parts of the country, like some areas of Khyber Pakhtun Khwa saw flooding in 1929, the simultaneous floods covering all of Pakistan and in all of the rivers flowing in from Afghanistan and Indian-occupied Kashmir is something truly unprecedented.

This speed and quantity of the gushing water and the short span of time in which it picked momentum preclude the possibility that water from melting glaciers are solely responsible for the floods.

There is no evidence that suggests that glaciers decided to melt at a faster speed just in time for the heavy monsoon rains.

There is every likelihood that what we are seeing today is that the Indians and the US-backed regime in Kabul are using water as a weapon for the first time to deluge Pakistan. There is no doubt about it.

From an initial look at the data, it seems that a natural spill of heavy rain was exploited by releasing water reservoirs in Indian-occupied Kashmir and on river Kabul. Let’s remember that the Met Office in Pakistan had already forecast heavy rains almost ten days before the first downpour. Different people received this news in different ways. Pakistani politicians, inept and incompetent as usual, slept over it. The anti-Pakistan terrorists based on Afghan soil and supported by several countries used this information to exacerbate terror against Pakistani citizens in the southwestern province of Balochistan, knowing that the State machinery would be distracted.

Interestingly, even when it comes to water, it is Indians where are sitting to the left and right of Pakistan’s borders. The dam on Kabul river is handled by Indian personnel, while tens of dams choke Pakistan from the side of occupied Kashmir.

RIVER KABUL

In February, the Obama administration organized a meeting for senior government officials in Kabul and Islamabad who handle agricultural issues. The meeting was strangely held in Doha, Qatar, on US request. The agenda was to force the Pakistanis to grant agricultural concessions to the US-propped government in Kabul, without Pakistan getting anything in return.

But in the meeting, Mr. Zahoor Malik, a senior Pakistani bureaucrat leading the Pakistani delegation, raised the issue of an Indian company with close links to the Indian government building a dam on river Kabul near the border with Pakistan. It is not clear what the Americans and Karzai’s officials had to say about this. There is a track record, however, that the incumbent pro-US government in Islamabad has often swept such issues under the carpet in order not to jeopardize Washington’s support for the Zardari government.

All major rivers flowing into Pakistan including the Indus are blocked by Indian-built dams.

US and British officials often defend India and dismiss Pakistani concerns as ‘conspiracy theories.’ Some Pakistani analysts accuse elements within US government and intelligence of using Afghan soil against Pakistan.

But imagine this: India, a country that faces a debilitating conflict over Kashmir with Pakistan, goes to build tens of small and medium sized dams on all the rivers flowing down to Pakistan, and everything is supposed to work out smoothly? Not possible, even theoretically. But luckily Indian actions on the ground more than strengthen Pakistani concerns.

After the first wave of floods, the other rivers were flowing normally and no extraordinary rains followed. But suddenly Chenab and Indus Rivers overflowed and the flow picked up speed, turning into a flood. India’s Baghliar Dam in occupied Kashmir opened its flood gates to cause a tragedy in the plains of Pakistan [Sindh and Punjab]. While Sarobi Dam – the Indian-maintained dam near Kabul – controls the flow of Kabul River entering Pakistan.  The same thing happened here. Monsoons did not lash Afghanistan and there was no flooding there of any magnitude. But again, strangely, water flowing from river Kabul into Pakistan dramatically picked up speed as water levels increased turning into a flood. The speed with which this transformation occurred could have happened only because of one of two reasons: massive rains in Afghanistan or because Sarobi Dam released large amounts of water over a sustainable period of time.
PAKISTANI POLITICIANS

ANP, a US-allied party with strong links to Kabul and New Delhi and ruling the Pakistani northwestern province, has always opposed the construction of the Kalabagh Dam which would have saved thousands of lives and property had it been there. The ANP has argued that building the dam would drown the city of Nowshehra. Ironically, ANP’s lie was exposed when not only Nowshehra but also Charsadda drowned without the Kalabagh Dam being there and thanks to the artificial floods created in Kabul River by ANP’s Indian and Afghan patrons.

[Earlier this year, Washington and New Delhi came to ANP’s defense on the Kalabagh Dam project by lobbying the World Bank to refuse Islamabad’s request for funding the dam. The Bank obliged and said it can’t fund the project due to Indian objections.]

OUR RESPONSE

How Pakistan responds to this latest Indian water war and aggression is something that remains to be seen. What is confirmed is that the incumbent pro-US government in Islamabad is useless when it comes to defending the Pakistani interest. To be fair to this government, this unusual situation in Islamabad started under former President Musharraf and continues with the current ‘elected’ government with amazing continuity. This water aggression has proved more lethal than the TTP [so-called Pakistani Taliban] and the BLA insurgencies, both of which were started from the Afghan springboard to punish Pakistan.

Pakistan has taken another serious hit, more from its corrupt rulers than external enemies. These Indian Dams now need to be destroyed. India has declared war on us by exploiting and orchestrating these floods.

Mr. Hamid can be reached at info@brasstacks.biz and Ms. Mehsud can be reached at info@paknationalists.com Research associates contributed to this report.

CROSSTALK With Peter Lavelle: Is Pakistan Next On US Target List?

Russia Today TV

On this edition of CrossTalk with Peter Lavelle, his guests discuss whether Pakistan could be the target of the next American-led invasion in the region.

Guests include Dan Qayyum, analyst at the Pakistani alternative policy institute and news-service PKKH (PakistanKaKhudaHafiz.com) – South Asia analyst for ‘Fortress’ Defence Journal – joined by Anatol Lieven, (British author, journalist, and policy analyst) – presently a Senior Researcher (Bernard L. Schwartz fellow and American Strategy Program fellow) at the New America Foundation, where he focuses on US global strategy and the War on Terrorism, Associated Scholar of the Transnational Crisis Project, Chair of International Relations and Terrorism Studies at King’s College London – and Shuja Nawaz, political and strategic analyst based in Washington DC, author of “Crossed Swords: Pakistan, its Army, and the Wars Within,” is director of the South Asia Center of the Atlantic Council.

Watch Video: http://www.pakistankakhudahafiz.com/2010/07/26/us-should-pack-its-bags-dan-qayyum-pkkh-on-russiatoday-tv/

-         Foreign Presence Source Of Instability

-         Trial for American and Pakistani War Criminals

-         Afghan Resistance Is Legitimate

-         Cease All Military Operations in Afghanistan

-         Compensate Pakistan For War Losses

-         Shut Down Terror Export To Pakistan From Afghan Soil

A PakNationalists.com REPORT

Saturday, 17 July 2010.

WWW.PAKNATIONALISTS.COM

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—This is not the kind of reception US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expected in Pakistan.

Starting with ‘We, the people of Pakistan’, seven Pakistani civil society organizations and hundreds of Pakistani citizens from across the nation and their friends from around the world come together tomorrow to launch a ‘Stop The War’ campaign from the federal capital, timed with the arrival of Mrs. Clinton for crucial talks on the failed war in Afghanistan.

Tomorrow, Sunday, at 14:00 PST at the National Press Club, the Coalition of Conscience launches Stop The War: A Charter of Demands, a document that could become the biggest expression of popular sentiment in Pakistan in favor of ending the nation’s role in United States’ messy eight-year-old war in the region.

The document was jointly drafted by groups representing the spectrum of Pakistani public opinion, from liberal to conservative. The Coalition is made up of groups as varied as the Pakistani Defense of Human Rights, the Good Governance Forum, the Pakistani Christian Study Center and the Ex-Servicemen Society representing retired military servicemen.

The Coalition of Conscience is forwarding very specific demands to both the Pakistani and US governments. The Coalition is also not mincing words: it says it recognizes the legitimate Afghan resistance to foreign occupation in that country, accuses the United States and its allies of fostering anti-Pakistan terrorism from the Afghan soil and calls for the trial of war criminals involved in this war and in the murder of innocent Pakistani citizens in US aerial attacks on Pakistani soil. The Coalition calls for the trial of Pakistani leaders for complicity with Washington in conspiring against, and endangering the lives of, Pakistani citizens. This is an unprecedented demand that affects many Pakistani political and military leaders going back to the days of former president Pervez Musharraf, and the incumbents in power in Islamabad.

Here are some of the salient features of the document, ‘Stop The War: A Charter of Demands’, which will be formally released on the eve of Secretary Clinton’s arrival:

Ø  The Government of Pakistan is urged to exercise this nation’s legitimate right to secure its interests against all hostile bases inside Afghanistan [that are] supporting and funding terrorism and insurgency in Pakistan.

Ø  The Government of Pakistan must carry forward the inconclusive negotiations of 1996 and assist all Afghans (Resistance and Northern Alliance) to mediate peace. We welcome support from Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey and China with no covert agendas.

Ø  Support to insurgent and terrorist groups in FATA and Balochistan originates from Afghanistan

Ø  The Afghan movement is led by leaders who are indigenous to Afghanistan and legitimate representatives of resistance to foreign occupation

Ø  All Pakistani prisoners kept by coalition countries, Pakistan, and Afghanistan in illegal detention centers must be brought back immediately and subjected to Pakistani courts.

Ø  War reparations and criminal trials of coalition leaders who have knowingly falsified evidence in support of war before their own people; their Parliaments; and before the UN Security Council must be brought before Law. All Pakistani leaders guilty of same must be tried under Pakistan laws.

Click here to read the full document

By A. Khokhar

This has been the earnest desire of India that it could exercise a full control over this region. Afghanistan offers a strategic hub from where this entire region full of economic resources can effectively be kept in control.

Middle East, Iran, Pakistan and other Central Asian States like Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan for these countries Afghanistan remains in the centre. Who so ever can exercise power and influence and has Afghanistan under their feet; world is theirs. USA is here for the same.

In order to just avail a respite; a reduction of US allied forces has been announced but this may never happen that US will go away.

India being a declared strategic partner of USA, a limited leeway is allowed by USA to India and reportedly India is reasonably established now in Afghanistan. Most of the construction contracts like construction of Afghanistan parliament. TV stations, Bridges on the high ways, universities and colleges contracts are all with India.

The main super high way connecting Iran for access to Arabian Gulf at Iranian mega sea port Chabahar located next to Gowader is constructed by India. Construction of a main bridge on Iranian border; where others failed, India has recently constructed successfully and in 2007(if I am not wrong); it was handed over to Afghan government. All the telephone systems contracts are with India. For all this India is running some 11 conciliates in Afghanistan. India’s military presence is also being enhanced.

Whereas in this scenario Pakistan is considered a Vega bond that everyone likes to hate. So it remains in the grip of anarchy and chaos induced by CIA and RAW of India that world out there wants to see Pakistan depleted and defanged.

Meri dunya lut rahee thi, aur main behoosh tha

Tuckray, tuckray dil kay chunta;kis ko itna hosh tha

TTP since fully paid, supported and trained is the tool in the hands of USA and India. Because we have certain elements that would love to act as mercenaries and may do anything for money; they may sell even the entire Pakistan.

Ghairoon ko kab fursat hey dukh dainay ki

Jab houta hey; koee Apna hum dum hoata hey

KABUL: Ministers have agreed on a NATO plan for the gradual handover of security responsibilities in Afghanistan to Afghan forces. Earlier in the talks, ministers discussed the withdrawal of nuclear weapons from Europe.

NATO ministers agreed on conditions for handing over security responsibilities in Afghanistan to Afghan forces this year.

The alliance stressed that the transition would be gradual and that it would depend on the conditions being fulfilled rather than a timetable.

“It will not be a pullout. It will not be a run for the exit,” NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told a news conference on Friday after the meeting of foreign ministers in the Estonian capital Tallinn.

Rasmussen stressed there was a need for allies to provide more personnel to train Afghan forces. “What will happen is that we hand over lead responsibility to the Afghans and our soldiers will then move into a more supportive role,” he said.

The handing over of responsibilities is important if NATO is to reduce its troop commitment – which currently stands at more than 120,000 – in the country. With more than 4,000 troops, Germany has the third largest military contingent in Afghanistan behind the United States and Great Britain.

The first day of talks on Thursday was dominated by discussions about the US stockpile of nuclear weapons in Europe. Differences emerged between the United States and some European politicians such as Germany’s Guido Westerwelle, who thinks the weapons are a legacy of the Cold War.

“My personal view is: the presence of American nuclear weapons in Europe is an essential part of a credible nuclear deterrent,” NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said after the ministers’ first round of talks.

The 28-member organization is currently rethinking its entire strategy, and is set to establish a new official doctrine at a summit in November.

By: Farhat Taj

FATA continues to be used and abused as a strategic space by the security establishment of Pakistan in violent pursuit of strategic depth in Afghanistan. In short, strategic depth means Pakistan must have a pro-Pakistan government in Afghanistan by any and all means. People of FATA have suffered more than people in any other part of Pakistan due to this policy. They dread and hate ‘strategic depth’.

Some people of FATA drew my attention towards Zaid Hamid, who, they said, is a new charm offensive of the military establishment to popularise the notion of strategic depth among the youth from affluent families in the big cities of Pakistan. He is frequently given air time by the electronic media, also an evidence that the media, especially the Urdu media, is not free and has to toe the establishment’s line in security matters. Show biz celebrities have joined him. Those who oppose the strategic depth, especially the Pakhtun, who are the biggest casualty of it, are never given so much media attention.

The main concern of the people of FATA vis-a-vis Zaid Hamid is his use of a particularly narrow interpretation of Islam that proposes a belligerent agenda for the Pakistan Army and drawing on controversial Islamic literature. Thus the authenticity of the hadiths — sayings of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) — on Ghazwa-e-Hind that he often refers to in terms of the ultimate defeat of the Indians at the hands of the Pakistan Army is highly questionable.

Zaid Hamid claims in his speeches to young people that God determines the destiny of Pakistan. Pakistan will become a grand Caliphate. Pakistan army will cut India down to the size of Sri Lanka. Pakistan will lead the entire Muslim world and its army will be deployed in Palestine, Kashmir, Chechnya and Afghanistan. The corrupt judicial system, consisting of the lawyers and the Supreme Court of Pakistan, will be replaced by an Islamic judicial system that would ensure — Taliban style — speedy and cheap justice. He claims that the current elected set up in Pakistan is implanted by the CIA and prophesies that the current rulers in Pakistan will have their dead bodies hanging on poles in Islamabad, an indirect appreciation of what the Taliban did in Afghanistan with the dead body of Dr Najibullah, the then Afghan president. He openly threatens the nationalists, especially the Pakhtun and Baloch nationalists, for their aspirations. The Taliban government in Afghanistan, he declares, was Pakistan-friendly and condemns its removal by the US in the post-9/11 attack on the country. He glorifies the biggest mass murderer of the Pakhtun — General Zia, the former dictator of Pakistan.

Judging by the obscurantist message that he communicates, Zaid Hamid does not seem to be a new invention of the establishment. He is an addition to the long list of people who have been handpicked to promote an anti-people agenda in the name of religion and hate of India, like the people from the Jamaat-e-Islami. What seems to be new is his apparent ‘tolerance’ of the ‘un-Islamic’ lifestyle of the urban youth and in this context there are some interesting discussions about Zaid Hamid on some blogs and mailing lists. One blogger writes that Zaid Hamid is using a new strategy to communicate the same old conspiracy theories to young people. The strategy is that unlike classical Islamic scholars, joining Zaid Hamid’s group does not necessarily require the youth to shed their sophisticated lifestyle and adjust to hijab, a ban on music and gender segregation. The only thing they have to do is to glorify the Pakistan Army, including its pursuit of strategic depth, and hate Jews, Americans and Indians.

A writer on one of the mailing lists argues that Zaid Hamid is a Pied Piper for our youth from the prosperous sections of Punjab who have no dreams to be proud of. Zaid Hamid sells the dreams of conquering the world, though they are nonsense, yet still work for the youth who are now caught up in an identity crisis, continues the writer. The writer understands that the fault lies with the leftist intellectuals who have lost direction by joining NGOs and leaving the anti-imperialist struggle open for people like Zaid Hamid or Imran Khan.

Zaid Hamid, in his show, sets a dangerous agenda for the youth of Pakistan; the very same youth who are living a comfortable life in poverty-stricken Pakistan. They lack any ambitions in life to give it some purpose. This lack of goals is rooted in the identity crisis being faced by the Pakistani youth. The crisis is expressed in questions like these: what are we first of all: Muslim or Pakistani? Is our ultimate commitment with Pakistani citizenship or a global Muslim brotherhood? What kind of Pakistan should we aim at: a progressive multi-ethnic social democracy or some kind of medieval caliphate?

Secondly, one has to strive very hard for ideals. If the ideal is the former (multi-ethnic social democratic Pakistan), the youth from affluent families will have to share their riches with the poor, downtrodden fellow citizens. This is very hard for this class of people, otherwise I would at least have seen them working for bringing normalcy in the shattered lives of the people of FATA, who have been living in deplorable conditions in refugee camps for over two years now. In the latter case (caliphate) they can placate their conscience by attaching themselves with the higher ideal without having to give up something from their comfortable lives. The only thing they have to do is to support the belligerent agenda of the military establishment and their poor fellow Pakistanis can go to hell. Zaid Hamid’s campaign is like opium for the young that makes them run away from reality, i.e. Pakistan is a class-based multi-ethnic society that cannot be held together with mere Islamic rhetoric and military ambitions.

What is even more dangerous is the fact that Zaid Hamid is glorifying the same Taliban that the people of FATA hold responsible for their massacre at the behest of the military establishment of Pakistan. Case in point, Jalaluddin Haqqani who occupies North Waziristan. I would invite the young fans of Zaid Hamid to take a tour of FATA, or at least FATA IDP camps in various parts of the NWFP, to observe firsthand what the Taliban and the military did to these people. I would remind the youth that people all over FATA hold the generals of the Pakistan Army more than the Taliban responsible for the death and destruction in their area. They view the Taliban — all Taliban, good, bad, Afghan or Pakistani — as a creation of the intelligence agencies of our country. How much more do the people of FATA need to sacrifice for strategic depth in Afghanistan? The never-ending human sufferings in the area could transform into widespread anti-state sentiments. The youth around Zaid Hamid must know that the current pursuit of strategic depth may turn into — as rightly described in this paper’s editorial ‘Strategic death’? (Daily Times, February 3, 2010) –’strategic death’ for Pakistan rather than securing a friendly Afghanistan.

Have you heard about Allama Iqbal Faculty at Kabul University? Sir Syed Science Faculty Block at Nangarhar University? Liaqat Ali Khan Engineering Faculty at Balkh University? Rehman Baba High School in Kabul? And the sprawling ten-tower Jinnah Hospital Complex in Kabul and the Nishtar Kidney Hospital in Jalalabad?

Ø  Pakistan will issue 250,000 multiple entry visas to applicants across Afghanistan in 2010

Ø  28,000 Afghans have studied in Pakistani schools, colleges and universities in the past 30 years; Islamabad has longstanding policy of educating the children of Afghan refugees

Ø  About 500,000 Afghan children attend schools in Pakistan

Ø  The most successful professionals in today’s Afghan society had studied in Pakistan

Ø  Afghan graduates from Pakistani universities receive higher salaries than graduates from any other country in the region

Ø  Every single day in 2009, 52,000 Afghans entered Pakistan for business, education and tourism

Ø  Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara Afghans are as welcome in Pakistan as the Pashtun Afghans

Ø  Pakistan once hosted 5.5 million Afghans, a majority of them continue to live with their Pakistani cousins

Ø  When the world abandoned Afghanistan after 1989, it was Pakistanis who supported their Afghan cousins

By Ambassador Mohammad Sadiq

[This is a revised version by the author]

Monday, 29 March 2010.

WWW.PAKNATIONALISTS.COM

KABUL, Afghanistan—While addressing the media in Islamabad on 11 March 2010, President Hamid Karzai very aptly said Pakistan and Afghanistan were conjoined twins. The remarks were not new but they hit the headlines, showing that nature of relations between the two countries continued to baffle many.

Mark Twain, the great American writer, had famously said Johann Sebastian Bach’s music was better than it sounded. If Twain were around today, he would have pronounced Pak-Afghan relationship ‘better than portrayed.’

Some 52,000 Afghans crossed border with Pakistan everyday in 2009 for business, jobs, medical treatment, education and to visit relatives. This was a significant increase over a year ago when 44,000 Afghans traversed the border daily. More visitors now undertake documented travel between the two countries by obtaining visas or visit permits.

Our Missions in Afghanistan have geared up to issue quarter of a million multiple entry visas to Afghan nationals during 2010. Pakistan issues more visas to Afghans than the rest of the world combined. Pakistan does not charge any visa fee from Afghan passport holders.

Contrary to the craftily promoted perception that Afghans of only one ethnicity are welcomed in Pakistan, one finds people from all over Afghanistan in Pakistani cities. Our consular records show that visas issued to Afghan nationals closely represent the ethnic composition of the population.
Despite occasional ups and downs at certain levels, the overall bilateral relations remained remarkably frequent and cordial. This explains the continued presence of over three million Afghan refugees in Pakistan for last 30 years. At one point, over 5.5 million Afghans were living in Pakistan. 37 percent of the refugees who voluntarily repatriate to Afghanistan are back in Pakistan within weeks.

In last thirty years, Afghans of all ethnicities and of political views had taken refuge in Pakistan: whether it was mass exodus against the Soviet occupation or flight from atrocities of a decade long internecine war. They looked at Pakistan as a place where they could find safety, at least temporarily, for their families.

The world hurriedly left Afghanistan after the Soviet withdrawal. The unfortunate events of 9/11 have reengaged the world in Afghanistan but still little attention is paid to the honourable return of refugees to their homes. The international community’s attitude towards Afghan refugees is rather callous. Just one example: they were disenfranchised in the last Presidential elections because the international community claimed that it was short of funds!

Due to Pakistan’s longstanding policy on educating Afghan nationals, some 28,000 Afghans had attended Pakistani universities and colleges in last three decades. Today, 6,000 Afghan students are enrolled in Pakistan’s colleges and universities. This represents about 60 percent of all Afghans studying in institutions of higher education abroad. In addition, about half a million Afghan refugee children attend schools in Pakistan.
To facilitate the capacity building efforts of other donors, Pakistan also encourages third party sponsorship of training of Afghan students and officials in its institutions. Under this policy, over five hundred Afghan nationals attended courses in the field of agriculture from a few weeks duration to postgraduate degrees in the Agriculture University of Peshawar alone. Scores were trained in other professions ranging from medicine to civil aviation.

Over the years, Afghan students in Pakistan have mostly been allowed the same opportunities and treatment which are extended to our own nationals. A whole generation of Afghans is thus educated, and now gainfully employed, inside Afghanistan or abroad.

Most successful professionals in today’s Afghan society had studied in Pakistan. They dominate the work place not only in government offices, international organizations and NGOs but also as professionals, businessmen, and skilled and semi-skilled workers.

And more proudly, Afghan graduates from Pakistani universities are paid significantly higher salaries than graduates from any other neighboring country.

Pakistan is further providing 2,000 fully funded graduate and post-graduate scholarships to Afghan students in its institutions of higher learning over the next four years. The placements are being made in ten different fields from medicine to IT to agriculture. The first batch of the students under this programme had already left for Pakistan early this year.

Providing consistent and across the board education and capacity building opportunities is Pakistan’s greatest gift to the people of Afghanistan and it is considered so innate that it is hardly mentioned in any discourse in Kabul.

Another important area where Pakistan has been of unlimited help to the people of Afghanistan is healthcare. Afghans are provided free medical care in Pakistan’s government hospitals, a facility available to our own nationals.

Over 90 percent of Afghans who seek medical treatment abroad visit Pakistan. Most of the Afghan patients opt for free treatment at government or philanthropic healthcare facilities. Moneyed Afghan patients are welcomed by many countries but for their less fortunate compatriots only Pakistan has kept its doors opened.

Just a few examples of the effects of this facility: 40 percent of patients in Peshawar’s major government hospitals and 11 percent patients in tertiary hospitals all over Pakhtunkhwa province are Afghans; over 50 percent patients in major government hospitals in Quetta are Afghan nationals; and two Pakistani philanthropic hospitals perform free eye surgeries on about 30,000 Afghans every year.

Since 2001, Pakistan has also played an active, but unpublicised, role in Afghanistan’s reconstruction and providing humanitarian assistance.

Following are some of the major assistance projects which Pakistan had completed, or about to complete:

1.       A state of the art Allama Iqbal Faculty at Kabul University is completed.

2.      As a separate project, the Government of Pakistan is furnishing the Iqbal Faculty building.

3.      The building of Sir Syed Science Faculty Block is near completion in Nangarhar University, Jalalabad.

4.      The structure of Liaqat Ali Khan Engineering Faculty in Balkh University, Mazar-e-Sharif is almost complete.

5.      Rehman Baba High School in Kabul was completed, where 1200 students are currently enrolled.

6.      As another project on the same campus, hostel for 1000 students is under construction.

7.      Donated buses for the students of Kabul University.

8.     A sprawling Jinnah Hospital Complex with ten towers is under construction in Kabul. It will provide the most modern health facility in the country.

9.      Civil work on Nishter Kidney Hospital in Jalalabad is completed. Afghan doctors, paramedics and technicians to run this facility are also trained in Pakistan.

10.  A 200 bed Naib Aminullah Khan Logari Hospital is under construction in Logar.

11.   Donated mobile field hospitals and ambulances to several provinces.

12.  Construction of Torkham-Jalalabad Road in eastern Afghanistan is completed.

13.  On request of the Afghan Government, Pakistan has undertaken to convert Torkham-Jalalabad road in a dual carriage highway. About 60 percent work is already completed on this project.

14.  Built three intra-city roads in Jalalabad.

15.   Provided earth-moving and road building machinery to various provinces.

16.  Donated fifty buses for public transportation.

17.   Provided cash assistance to the Afghan Government.

18.  Distributed food packages to the needy and school supplies to students in large numbers.

Several other major projects, including two Eye Hospitals, Limb Centre at Badakhshan, two Nuclear Medical Centres in Kabul and Jalalabad, are in the pipeline.

Pakistan has committed US$330 million for reconstruction and assistance projects in Afghanistan. However, every dollar spent by Pakistan has more effect when it is compared with a dollar spent by other donors. Our foreign assistance accounting system does not add establishment, oversight and inspection costs to the projects. If expenditure in these heads is charged to the projects, our committed amount would easily increase by another 50 percent.

Pakistan was also instrumental in facilitating the launch of several industries in Afghanistan after 2001. For example:

20. State-owned National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) was the first foreign bank to operate in Afghanistan after 9/11. Two private Pakistani banks followed NBP to Afghanistan. The emerging banking sector of Afghanistan was heavily depended on Pakistan’s human resource in its initial phase.

21.   The telecommunication industry of Afghanistan drew Pakistani manpower, or Afghans trained in Pakistan, in its nascent stage.

22.  State-owned Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) pioneered the opening of Afghanistan to international air traffic. It was the first foreign airline to start operations to Kabul after 9/11. Ariana Afghan Airlines uses Pakistan’s civil aviation training facilities.
Robust trade and economic interaction is another important feature of Pakistan-Afghanistan relations. Pakistan is the largest trading partner of Afghanistan while Afghanistan is Pakistan’s third largest export market.

Pakistan has provided transit trade facility to Afghanistan for decades without any reciprocity. The two countries are presently engaged in negotiating an improved Transit Trade Agreement to further facilitate Afghan transit trade through Pakistan.
To enhance Kabul’s connectivity to the world, Pakistan plans to improve its road links and develop rail connections with Afghanistan.

A sad casualty of foreign occupation and long civil war was the performing art tradition of Afghanistan. Pakistan was instrumental in preserving some of this tradition: many performing artists took refuge, or grew professionally, during their stay in Pakistani cities. Today, a large number of Afghan artists have close links, and wide following, in Pakistan.

Pakistan is pursuing a close, friendly and cooperative relationship with Afghanistan. A peaceful, stable and prosperous Afghanistan is in Pakistan’s national interest while war and instability in Afghanistan is detrimental to our prosperity and stability. Contrary hypothesis promoted so assiduously by certain quarters is disingenuous.

The unique relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan – which is rooted in common religion, culture, tradition, history and values – is not just a relationship between two states or governments. It is way beyond this. It is between the two peoples and societies. Pakistan-Afghanistan relationship is unmatched in spirit, level of interaction and variety of interface by relationship between any other two nations.

Mr. Sadiq is Pakistan’s Ambassador to Afghanistan. This is the revised version of an op-ed he wrote and was published in Afghanistan’s English- and Dari-language newspapers on the occasion of Pakistan Day on March 23, 2010.

SHIREEN M MAZARI

The terrorist attack in Lahore targeting a Special Investigative Unit has once again highlighted all the things wrong with our government and the state structures, especially when it comes to dealing with the terrorist problem. The plethora of statements, coming from various segments of the state in the immediate aftermath of the blast, shows the confusion that still prevails when it comes to the terrorist threats. There seems to be no proactive policy at the macro level to tackle the issue pre-emptively with good human intelligence and isolation of the militants and their supporters amongst the populace. After all, without local informants and local support, non-state actors cannot get shelter. In military terms, for the militants, a local sympathetic population forms their rear and it is here that they blend in to carry out their lethal activities.

So the first job of the intelligence set-ups and the government should be to ensure that the local population not only does not support the militants but also gives information about suspicious activities in their neighbourhoods. It does not seem possible that strangers simply drove into Model Town, found the target and carried out their terrorism. In urban residential areas, especially, it is easy for terrorists to blend in and watch their targets once they have been correctly identified. At the very least the government needs to encourage local watch groups so that suspicious people or strangers are identified and checked. These are abnormal times and require measures on an emergency footing. Television can aid in educating the public on how to arrange for local watch patrols and so on.

Equally important, it is absolutely necessary for the government to move interrogation and other high profile targets out of residential areas where innocent citizens lives can be placed in jeopardy. Locating such centres in the midst of schools and homes is showing scant regard for the lives of the citizens. Ironically, this was not the first time that an intelligence office located in Model Town was targeted; yet the government made no attempt to remove this interrogation set-up from this residential area. It stands to reason that militants would want to get rid of detained people who may reveal sensitive information. So all such interrogation centres are high value targets for them.

At a more general level, the state needs to be clear who are the groups they are fighting in terms of the terrorist threat. We seem to be particularly weak on this count. The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the latest Lahore attack but Rehman Malik and Punjab’s Law Minister Rana Sanaullah have identified the hand of RAW and India in this attack. First, this raises the question of what linkage is there between India and the Pakistan Taliban? Second, since there now seems to be a fair amount of evidence of India aiding and abetting terrorism in Pakistan, why are we not taking up this issue, not only with India but also with the international community – especially India’s strategic partners like the US? What is stopping us from revealing the information we have on India’s covert terrorist activities in Pakistan?
Linked to this is the whole question of the presence of thousands of Americans across Pak-istan, mostly non-diplomats and linked to private security companies, who are carrying out all manner of clandestine activities in Pakistan which are harmful for this country.

Not only do they present a security threat to the neighbourhood in which they live, they also undermine the country’s security by conducting covert operations often without the knowledge of the Government of Pakistan. It is believed that the Model Town SIA building was also accessed by the Americans for interrogation purposes. If this is correct, then the government needs to answer to the people as to why this was being allowed in an urban residential area given the target they presented. But the issue is much more extensive. The government needs to collate how many American non-diplomat citizens are presently in Pakistan, where they are located, what they are up to and whether any of them have dual nationality of Israel. Their movements need to be kept under watch as well as limited to non-sensitive locations and areas – which would exclude the cantonment areas of the urban centres. It would appear the government is not clear on these numbers, nor on what different groups of Americans and US NGOs are up to. Yet without clear and precise information, no headway can be made in combating the terrorist threat effectively.

Linked to the criticality of information through good human intelligence, we also need to understand the multiple nature of the terrorist threat in Pakistan – ranging from the religious extremists to political separatists. Since the targets of these different groups are different and their methodology is also distinctive in each case, by understanding these characteristics better security arrangements can be made and pre-emptive action taken. Within this framework, it is also of crucial importance to be able to identify the funding sources of these groups including foreign state actors like India, and the US specifically in the case of Jundullah.

The mindsets of the terrorists need to be studied but not in a simplistic manner that seems to define the present approach where everyone is lumped together in one general category and simple explanations surround the whys of terrorist behaviour.

Patterns of behaviour if they are properly identified can predict possible future targets so that proper security measures can be taken instead of the present vague security barricades which have at best very limited utility.
Finally, the political one-upmanship that one saw in Lahore between the governor and the PML-N’s law minister shows the callous approach of the ruling elite to the plight of the ordinary people suffering the terrorism fallout. It is surely time for the rulers to get over their internecine political bickering and confront the task of dealing with terrorism at multiple levels and with a seriousness that is still not visible. Mere statements after the incident ring increasingly hollow as nothing seems to have changed by the time the next act of terror happens. The loot sales taking place in state institutions need to be replaced with serious governance and a focus on law and order that goes beyond crude police brutality and torture. And the shift in direction of governance has to be visible to restore a modicum of the people’s faith in their government.

‘It is Pakistan that needs to complain, and complain loudly’

An Interview with Ahmed Quraishi, by Jason Miks

The Diplomat

The Diplomat speaks with Pakistani commentator Ahmed Quraishi about the country’s current military offensive in Waziristan, relations with the US and what America should do to improve its image in Pakistan.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in Pakistan this month meeting key political leaders. What did you make of her comment that she finds it difficult to believe that nobody in the Pakistani government knows the whereabouts of top al-Qaeda members?

Ahmed Quraishi: It was very surprising to even the most hardened skeptics here in Pakistan to hear a US secretary of state saying this, because despite all we heard during the eight years of President [George W.] Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, no American official accused Pakistan or ‘rogue elements’ in the country of supporting or protecting al-Qaeda. If ever there were any grievances with Pakistan on this count, they were mostly focused on that Pakistan had done a very good job of cooperating with the Americans on al-Qaeda, but that progress was still lacking on the Afghan Taliban and its leadership. So in the entire eight years since September 11, no US official actually criticized Pakistan by saying Pakistan was somehow trying to protect al-Qaeda.

Second, the facts contradict what the secretary of state said. Everybody knows the vast number of al-Qaeda operatives that have been arrested have been arrested in Pakistan. And the big fish names, although there is close cooperation between the CIA and ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence], were arrested thanks to crucial information coming from Pakistani intelligence sources. This is, of course, natural seeing as it is our country, and it’s only to be expected that the ISI and other Pakistani government agencies should be at the forefront of finding these people. And they did.

And three, another crucial point is that if we’re going to throw blame at each other, then frankly speaking it is Pakistan that needs to complain–and complain loudly–at the failure of US intelligence and the US military back in late November and early December 2001 to corner and arrest Osama bin Laden. If you remember the battle in Tora Bora on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, that battle was instrumental at providing an escape route to the al-Qaeda chief and his liuetenanats. And the biggest blame for that actually goes to US intelligence, which relied on unreliable Afghan warlords on the ground who apparently took money, probably from al-Qaeda operatives, and let Osama bin Laden escape.

So if anyone should be complaining it should be the Pakistanis, who now have to deal with this country’s mess, basically because many of these people who should have been eliminated in Afghanistan were able to disperse and mostly head for Pakistan. And this is mostly because of the thin American presence in Afghanistan, the poorly secured military presence in that country and of course the poorly secured border.

One of the reasons Secretary Clinton was visiting was to try and improve the US image in Pakistan. How much of an image problem does the US have there?

Quraishi: In this whole debate about America’s image in Pakistan, and people talk of course about how America supported a military dictator [General Pervez Musharraf] and so forth, the reality is that the real grievances pertain to issues that are not really discussed very openly, especially in the American media, and which are not really known about by American public opinion. I’m talking about things like, for example, the fact that the US military and the Afghan army, which is being trained by the US army, suddenly removed all their posts from the Afghan side of the border when Pakistan began its military operation in South Waziristan.

This isn’t the figment of anyone’s imagination–it has been verified by people on the ground and was raised by the Pakistani chief with General Stanley McCrystal a couple of weeks back. This story was headline news on major Pakistani news channels and in newspapers, so it’s surprising that so little time has been given over to such grievances, which provide fodder to skeptics in Pakistan who question US motives in Afghanistan.

And of course we have a standing complaint that weapons and money that are sustaining terrorists are coming from Afghanistan. And it’s not just the factor of Afghan warlords and drug money and so forth. It’s beyond that. And we feel little time is given to this grievance in the US media. US officials know about it, and often discuss the issue with Pakistani officials, but they never talk about this openly. So I find it very funny when Secretary Clinton comes over here and says ‘you have some questions about our role, and we have some grievances about yours, but we need to reach some common ground.’ Sure. But this entire thing that is going on in the Af-Pak region is a result of US policy. And eight years on, this project is falling apart and isn’t showing any signs of being nearer a conclusion than it was, say, five years ago. So serious questions are arising about why in Pakistan we continue to be part of a project that shows every signs of failing, if it has not already failed.

What would you like to see the US doing differently to improve its image?

Quraishi: Two things. One is that in terms of foreign policy, on its policy on Afghanistan, it needs to take its Pakistani ally along as it moves on. What has happened over the past eight years is that Pakistan was not taken along in US planning on Afghanistan. A government was set up in Kabul that was decidedly full of anti-Pakistan elements, elements that are antagonistic to Pakistan. Now when I say this I don’t mean that the Afghan government should be pro-Paksitan. But they should not be antagonistic. So the United States and the different stakeholders in policy in Afghanistan, including the intelligence community and the military, will have to trust Pakistan and take it along as an ally, and not treat it as someone to be looked upon with suspicion, or to be used for logistical help it needs but to then not trust it on the long-term questions of what kind of government should be in Kabul and whether the Pashtuns need to be isolated from such a government or not.

Number two, the United States needs to understand that it is counter productive to try and interfere in the domestic politics of Pakistan. Very few observers in the United States discuss a very interesting thing that they have been doing in Pakistan, which is to try and micromanage that country. The very government we have in Pakistan right now, the elected government in Islamabad, wouldn’t have been in place without a deal that was discussed and tailored and finalized at the US State Department with the active participation of diplomats from the United States and United Kingdom. And, of course, with the full backing of Vice President Cheney at that time. That deal resulted in tailoring the political set up that you currently see in Pakistan, and it dealt with such minute issues as who would be the coalition partner, which parties could work with the United States, and which ones could not.

So this kind of micromanagement has really backfired–when the United States was tailoring this kind of deal with Musharraf, the anti-Americanism in Pakistan was not at a level it is at right now. So this tells you something at least about how the micromanagement has backfired and has produced possibly an exaggerated feeling of a threat among the ordinary Pakistani on the street.

As you mentioned, the Pakistani military recently embarked on a major offensive in Waziristan. What do you think the prospects for success are?

Quraishi: There’s no question that a ragtag army of mountain fighters who do not enjoy the full support of the people of the area they are based in–the people of that area are pouring into other parts of Pakistan where temporary camps have been set up for as long as this military operation goes on–that such a militia cannot sustain itself in the face of a large and well-organized army.

Of course, when the Pakistan army began the Swat operation in the spring of this year, there was a lot of skepticism–especially when almost 2 million people from that area poured into refugee camps, people were asking how that problem would be dealt with. But now, over 1.5 million people have been restored to their towns and villages in the Swat region, and that region is overwhelmingly secure now.

There’s no reason why this can’t be replicated in South Waziristan. It’s a small patch of land. The only uncertainty we really have is over the Afghan side of the border–there aren’t enough Afghan soldiers on that side, and there are no US military or ISAF on the other side. This is a constant problem and we know money and weapons are coming through from that side. The Mehsud terror militia is not sustaining itself from inside Pakistan. I understand that Pakistani officers have had assurances from General McCrystal that he will do what he can with the resources he has in Afghanistan to secure that area and ensure that such movement doesn’t occur backward and forward. But we’ll have to wait and see. At the moment though, the prospects look good.

How about exchanging Taliban Number Two Abdul Ghani Baradar for terror master Brahamdagh Bugti and the dismantling of the terror network targeting Pakistan’s Balochistan?

By Ahmed Quraishi

Tuesday, 2 March 2010.

WWW.PAKNATIONALISTS.COM

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—Pakistan has agreed to hand over Afghan Taliban’s number 2, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, to Afghanistan. How about asking for Mr. Brahamdagh Bugti in exchange? Or for the dismantling of the Afghan-based terror infrastructure targeting Pakistani Balochistan?

There are signs that Afghanistan’s role as a base for anti-Pakistan operations over the past seven years is gradually shrinking. But it is not completely over yet. The rollback in that role is directly linked to what the United States wants. And Washington’s recent change of heart regarding Pakistan’s role and legitimate regional security interests are the result of the Pakistani military standing its ground, not any genuine change of heart in US policymaking circles. This is why you did not see any US official jumping in excitement at the idea of Pakistani military training the Afghan National Army, which is what our army chief has proposed.

So the change in the US position may be tactical, forced by Pakistani straight talk. Examples abound, including how CIA dragged its feet before it finally began targeting anti-Pakistan terror groups and leaders in the border area.  There might have also been some visible decrease in the level of logistical support that the so-called Pakistani Taliban received from the Afghan soil [and not all of it from the proceeds of Afghan Taliban’s drug trade, as Afghan and American officials have been trying to convince their Pakistani counterparts].  Pakistani officials are yet to certify this decrease publicly. Granted that Admiral Mike Mullen is someone who genuinely tries to understand Pakistani concerns. And he has been doing his bit with apparent sincerity in the past few months. But there are still some tensions below the surface. A Time magazine story over the weekend tried to delink US connection to the Jundullah terrorist group and throw the entire responsibility at Pakistan, targeting Iranian paranoia by suggesting a Pakistani intelligence support for Jundullah ‘as a tool for strategic depth.’  This type of media leaks and background intelligence briefings have to stop. Enough of the demonization of Pakistan that the US media unfortunately spearheaded over the past three years, apparently through some kind of semi-official patronage. If US officials can bluntly accuse their Pakistani counterparts of sponsoring ‘anti-American articles’ in newspapers, whatever that means [What is ‘anti-American articles’ anyway?], surely Islamabad can pose the same question, especially when Pakistan’s case is stronger.

The same goes for the admirable US nudge to India to resume peace talks with Pakistan. Had things not gone wrong in Afghanistan for the grand US project, Washington was all set to introduce India as the new regional policeman in Afghanistan following the eventual pullback of NATO and US militaries from that country. Pakistan was being pushed to accept this as fait accompli and Mr. Zardari’s pro-US government was more than willing to play along. Again, a Pakistani public opinion that is not ready for such a major one-sided Pakistani concession probably threw a spanner in the works.

Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir must be commended along with his team for stating the Pakistani bottom line. Forget the US statements on the need for peace between Pakistan and India. The fact is that the US played the two countries against one another in Afghanistan in the past eight years. If Pakistan accepts, a photo-op would work just fine for Washington as it does for New Delhi. We’d be asking too much if we think anyone in New Delhi or Washington is really itching to help Pakistan resolve its grievances with India. It’s just that the regional dynamic is helping us at this point in time. So let’s make the most out of it while we retain the initiative. Instead of the theatrics, we must ask for something substantial this time. No more prolonged people-to-people exchanges. There is no problem between our peoples. And please, no more equating Pakistan’s responsibility for peace with India’s responsibility. The onus is on India. It is the bigger country. It can change the entire mood in the region by taking small steps to alleviate Pakistani insecurities. It can do so by taking steps in the water dispute, in improving how it treats Pakistani visitors, and by reducing tensions with the Kashmiri people on the ground.

Bottom line: Enough of selling ourselves cheap over the past eight years. Pakistan should secure its interests and accept nothing less.

An edited version of this op-ed was published by The News International.

Pakistan needs to do more on war-on-terror, the irritating sentence is very familiar to Pakistani ears.

Its time Pakistan should seriously œdo more even if it is irritating to Karzai.

After US attack on Afghanistan back in 2001, Pakistan had to withdraw its support to Taliban, and ever since has been facing security threats due to its policies perceived to be serving US interests more than Pakistan’s own national security needs. Pakistan has been and still is facing severe criticism internally as well as from certain external quarters for its most conspicuous U-turn against the Taliban.

The tribal areas of Pakistan since then are faced with growing militancy while the settled areas are also rattled by the militants. Despite deploying about 70,000 soldiers on western border with Afghanistan to fight terrorism and having lost many of its soldiers in this fight, Karzai and NATO most of the time press Pakistan for doing more.

The fact remains that Pakistan is not responsible for war and US casualties in Afghanistan. The Afghan economy is now a narco-economy with over $150 bn dollars worth of drugs produced, processed and shipped from Afghanistan. Most of the major government officials, governors and ministers in Karzai government are drug lords.

The writ of government still could not be extended beyond Kabul forcing Mr. Karzai to express his frustration by resorting to blame game to hide own weakness.

The Bush administration has been faced with sharp criticism at home and abroad over Iraq war where despite investing reportedly about $10 billion a month, US is fast loosing the war.

Whereas in Afghanistan, US/NATO forces despite having superior weapons and technology failed to contain the anti-coalition forces. The presence of aliens is viewed as occupation by the common Afghans who are to a large extent now supporting those fighting against US occupation. Coupled with this the killing of large number of innocent Afghan men, women and children every now and then in air strikes is turning public anguish against US presence.

In the wake of all these factors US policy — a set of forlorn wishes seems to boomerang in Afghanistan.

Taliban are now fighting positional wars with regular fronts in Khost and Kandahar regions. The weapons to Taliban are being supplied, as per more and more intelligence reports, by the Russian and even by Iranian sources. The contribution of Pakistani tribal areas in forging the strategic outcome of the war in Afghanistan is less than 10% from every strategic and military contribution. For all practical purposes, the war is an Afghan problem and is not being controlled or decided from the Pakistani tribal regions.

But the Afghan and US game is simple

• Blame Pakistan for all the sufferings and war in the country.
• Initiate a head-on collision between Pakistani State and Pakistani tribal militants.
• Create rift between armed forces of Pakistan and Pakistani society.
• Create environment for separation of tribal regions into an autonomous new country.
• And leading up to creation of enough chaos and anarchy in Pakistan to justify forced removal of Pakistani nuke assets.Â

Frustrated by apparent defeat in Iraq, loss of public approval and support in Afghanistan and failure to prove the campaign-fostered illusions that presence of NATO/US forces was aimed at liberating the Afghans, the US and Mr. Karzai seek escape by blaming others for all the ills.

Very systematically the local Taliban are infiltrated by the US assets led by Baitullah Mehsud to create hatred against the government and armed forces of Pakistan resulting in many attacks on law enforcement agencies. These US assets in the garb of “Taliban” have succeeded to a great extent to create a divide between the local Taliban and the State.

US assets within Pakistani political parties and media have been mobilized to create confusion among the Pakistani public about security situation and safety of nuclear program. Under a well-planned strategy pressure is being built against nuclear weapons of Pakistan by floating false propaganda.

The more sinister plan is being woven for turning Pakistani federation into confederation by supporting the sub-nationalists in NWFP and Balochistan. The efforts for separating FATA is already been initiated with bringing little known tribal leaders from FATA onboard. The demand for a separate province consisting FATA is being tucked down the throats of these unknown tribal leaders and press conferences and wide media coverage is being arranged for publicizing this demand and smoothening public opinion.

Few months’ back a selected group of little known tribal leaders was reportedly facilitated a trip to the US where they were assigned the task to promote the notion of separate province of FATA.

Civil society organizations have also been activated to make grounds for demand for making FATA a separate province. These NGOs funded by US and Western countries are constantly arranging seminars and propagating the idea while at the same time formulating suggestions for the same.

Just four days back the government of PPP has announced turning FATA into an elected council and for the purpose has sought suggestions from these NGOs and other stalk holders.

US have already committed pumping millions of dollars in for ‘development’ of FATA to be utilized through non-government organizations to win minds and hearts resulting in gaining local support.

The doctrine of greater provincial autonomy is also being promoted through the sub-nationalists who are in the first phase demanding total control of resources (which means the elements within provincial governments can blackmail and bypass the centre regarding important strategic issues in the future) as well as doing away with the concurrent list which will empower the sub-nationalists to post own trusted people on key posts who will in future carry on the agenda.

Many eyebrows were raised when soon after Yousaf Raza Gillani taking oath as prime minister announced abolishment of Frontier Crimes Regulations (40-FCR) without any planning. The decision was criticized both by the tribesmen as well as intellectuals even it was questioned by many quarters that on whose behest the prime minister announced such a decision in haste.

The game is exposed and now it is time that Pakistan develops some serious response to the challenge: Really, Pakistan needs to do moreâ to check the sinister game plan against itself.

So lets do more.

To start with Pakistan should immediately initiate three following steps:

1. Revive Pak-Afghan Jirga held in Kabul in August 2007 which had concluded with the agreement that Pakistan and Afghanistan governments will initiate talks with Afghan Taliban and bring them onboard the peace process. The process was abandoned later on after strong US objections to the idea.
2. Fence/mine the border to check any unwanted crossings and infiltrations. Install biometric system at border at selected crossings as being done in Chaman border crossing in Baluchistan.
3. Pakistan needs to redefine its Afghan Policy, ideally declaring neutrality in the conflict and offering to act as mediator between Afghan parties of conflict. Pakistan still does not have a defined anti-terrorism policy either.
4. Pakistan should immediate debate and discuss the Afghan and anti-terror policies in parliament and develop a national mandate through the political parties, elected representatives and the cabinet.
5. A high power parliamentary or judicial commission should be constituted to know and identify the causes, perpetrators, ideology, groups and militants behind the suicide bombings in the country against State and people. The crisis is huge enough to demand a public inquiry and expose of the phenomenon.

Reviving the jirga:

Last year in 2007, on the suggestion of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, a joint Pak-Afghan Jirga “ a commission for peace in the region was formed. The Pak-Afghan Jirga having full backing of NATO and US engaged about 700 tribal leaders and other influential elders from both sides held two meetings one each in both the countries. The meeting held in Kabul in August 2007 participated by tribesmen and other influential persons from both sides presented valuable suggestions to fight terrorism and bring peace in the region.

The ensuing Pak-Afghan Jirga was being viewed with great expectations to bring peace in the region particularly to deal with the violence in Afghanistan. The participating representatives of tribesmen from both sides suggested bringing Taliban onboard the peace talks for bringing stability in the region. However to utter dismay of the people of both the countries, the jirga the brain child of Afghan President Karzai, who was the main architect of the structure and mechanism of this jirga, was put on backburner due to reasons that a peace in Afghanistan clashed head-on with the US objectives in the region. Pakistani President Musharraf at he concluding session of the jirga meeting had declared Taliban as legitimate entity in the war and one of the delegates even went as far as demanding total withdrawal of the US forces! Obviously, US was not amused and decided to shelve the idea. Now it is the time that the concept be revived once again and brought in the limelight.

It is not some strange or alien idea as in the past during pre-Soviet invasion period tribal elders from Pakistan used to be invited to Kabul as official guests and also used to attend the proceedings of Loya Jirga of Afghanistan.

Fence/mine the border & install biometric system

Karzai’s ludicrous demands:

• Pakistan should stop Taliban from crossing.
• Pakistan should keep the refugee camps in Pakistan which act as safe areas for Taliban.
• Pakistan should allow more people to people contact between tribes across the border.
• Pakistan should not fence the border.
• Pakistan should not install biometric system to identity refugees from among the militants.
• Pakistan should do more to stop Taliban !!!!

Now what do we make out of this confused set of ridiculous demands??

It is obvious that Mr. Karzai is only interested in creating crisis and confusion for Islamabad and not in genuinely finding solutions to the problems of cross border movements. There is no way Mr. Karzai or his government can accept fencing of the border as that affects their drug trade as well and they are then not able to support the BLA as well as some terrorists in tribal regions. But it is time that Pakistan should do more.

Mr Karzai has been instrumental in worsening Pak-Afghan relations as the relations between the two countries witnessed a steep downtrend following a continuing vitriol from Karzai regarding the alleged œcross-border infiltration of the Taliban from Pakistan.

To interdict the so-called movement of militants across the border, besides conducting military operations in FATA, Pakistan also proposed to fence and mines the Pak-Afghan border which was turned down by the Kabul Administration. It is ridiculous that Mr Karzai constantly accuses Pakistan of ˜cross-border infiltration while at the same time advocates open borders between the two countries. During his visit to Pakistan in February 2006, Karzai opposed the fencing of the border and said he favored passport-free movement of people along the Pak-Afghan border.

Fencing and mining the border can be very effective in checking infiltration of unwanted elements into either of the two countries. If the Afghan president refuses to accept this fencing and mining idea, then Pakistan has no responsibility of any sort to check any cross- border movement. Enough is enough!

Many refugee camps were closed down in tribal agencies of Pakistan owing to the accusation by Kabul that these are being used as sanctuaries by militants but the action did not sit well with Afghan government unable to provide security and livelihood to own citizens. The strange dichotomy is that Kabul is reluctant to accept the remedial steps for controlling unwanted cross-border movement. It is nearly impossible to check each and every person crossing without putting a mechanism in place at the border hence either the border has to be fenced/ mined or biometric system has to be installed at Western border with Afghanistan as has been done in Balochistan.

Pakistan has installed the system in Balochistan at Chaman at Pak-Afghan friendship gate but again to utter disappointment some Afghans backed by some hidden hands time and again damage the gate and even a high official of Karzai government took part in one such attack aimed at damaging the system recently.

It dose not require a rocket science to understand that some vested elements in Karzai government have some sinister motives behind such acts. The number of those who daily cross over at only two crossing points of Chaman and Torkham is stated to be about 30, 000 with about 20,000 only at Chaman so put together with number of those crossing the porous border points could go much higher.

Hence fencing/mining is necessary in the first place while installing biometric system is equally important.

Needs for redefining Pakistan’s Afghan policy:

Since US attack on Afghanistan Pakistan has been carrying out a directionless Afghan policy. It is time Pakistan declares neutrality in someone else war. Pakistan has already done great damage to her security by supporting unequivocally and whole- hoggedly the US on its War-on-Terror.

We had used every possible mean to destroy our assets and good will in Afghanistan but despite damaging our presence in Afghanistan we get the blame for harboring Taliban and relations with Afghanistan remain sour.

The bad relations between the two important neighbors would only contribute to the instability of the region. It is, therefore, highly imperative for Pakistan to take an in-depth stock of its future relationship with Afghanistan, assets and presence there.

What is most disappointing that despite taking a complete U-turn against Taliban even then it did not win us the favor of the ungrateful Americans.

We must, therefore, in the best interest of Pakistan and its posterity realize that we can no longer continue with this state of affairs at the cost and expense of our own national security.

It is time that we adopted a more neutral policy towards Afghan conflict and could play the role of a mediator between the Afghan government and the Anti-Coalition forces including Taliban and Hizb-e-Islami. Pakistan can play the role it was playing in the post-Soviet invasion in Afghanistan by brining all those party to the conflict on a single platform to bring peace to the war-torn country.

It is time that Karzai should accept ground realities and stop opposing fencing and mining of border or installation of biometric system if he really is interested in effective checking of cross-border infiltration. It is time that Taliban are accepted as a reality and brought on board as agreed in Pak-Afghan jirga otherwise in plane diplomatic decent language borrowed from the Queen’s English – Pakistan should ask Karzai to “put up or shut up.”

Courtesy : http://www.brasstacks.pk