Thursday, April 30, 2009

Zardari meets Libyan president Gaddafi


TRIPOLI: President Asif Ali Zardari has met with the Libyan president Colonel Muammar Gaddafi here on Friday, Geo news reported.The meeting discussed the issues of mutual interests besides extending cooperation in various other sectors from both countries.
The President Zardari and other Pakistani officials, accompanying him, received welcome honoree party hosted by President Gaddafi himself while Libyan senior army officials and ministers also attended the party.Earlier, President Zardari was accorded warm welcome at airport in Tripoli and his daughter Asifa was also present on the occasion.

State within a state


Editorial:THE NEWS
The Taliban in Orakzai Agency are reported to have occupied three homes and ten businesses belonging to Sikhs, to press for their demand that 'jaziya', a tax imposed non-Muslims, be paid. The militants had previously demanded a sum of Rs50 million, which they later reduced to Rs15 million. This of course is extortion. There is no other name for it. Over the past weeks it has become obvious the Taliban are engaged in a game of plunder. This too is how they inspire desperate young men to join them. The motive is base greed and not religious zeal. In Swat there are already stories of Taliban members who have -- almost overnight -- accumulated enormous amounts of wealth. Rugs, chandeliers and other items taken away from the homes of wealthy families forced to flee now adorn the homes of militants everywhere. This then is what the struggle is all about. Extortion is of course not new to the Taliban. For years, Maulana Fazalullah was reported to have collected money and jewellery from women in Swat to fund 'jihad'. Threat and coercion underlay these efforts.

The tiny Sikh community still based in our tribal areas has often done well in terms of business and trade. The action against them is just another means to amass money. It is sad our legislators have not spoken up for the rights of the minorities who live in Taliban-controlled areas. Even in cities still outside Taliban rule, they have been targetted for violence and victimized. These most vulnerable of citizens need to be protected. The Taliban's efforts to create a state within a state, to set up their own rules that deviate from state laws, work against the interests of many not able to defend themselves. The question is if anyone will move in to help them and prevent the kind of abuse to which a peaceful community has been subjected to in Orakzai.

School blown up by ignorant Taliban

BANNU: An explosive device planted at a girls’ school in Nurar area went off early Thursday, completely destroying three rooms of the building. Sources said unidentified miscreants had planted the explosive at Government Girls Primary School, Kotka Attaullah in Nurar area that went off at 4 a.m. completely destroying three classrooms while other rooms also suffered partial damage. The security forces rushed to the scene and cordoned off the area. The explosive planted in two rooms of the school were defused. The miscreants targeted the school for the second time. Five girl schools have faced terror acts in the district so far.

Next two weeks critical to Pak govt’s survival: Petraeus


Commander of US Central Command (CENTCOM) Gen David Petraeus has told US officials the next two weeks are “critical to determining whether the Pakistani government will survive”, FOX News reported on Thursday. “The Pakistanis have run out of excuses ... [and are] finally getting serious” about combating the threat from the Taliban and Al Qaeda, said the general. But Petraeus also said wearily that “we’ve heard it all before” from the Pakistanis, and he was looking to see concrete action aginst the Taliban in the next two weeks before determining America’s next course of action. According to Fox News, Petraeus and senior administration officials believe the Pakistan Army is ‘superior’ to the civilian government.

Elimination of poppy cultivation key to defeat menace of terrorism in region: PM


Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on Thursday urged the Nato and ISAF to effectively deal with the issue of poppy cultivation in Afghanistan and drug trafficking which still remains the main source of funding for extremists and terrorist elements.

This has led to exporting numerous problems to Pakistan and stressed that the elimination of poppy cultivation is the key for defeating the menace of terrorism in the region, he added.

The prime minister was talking to an eight-member delegation of the British Select Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Commons headed by Mike Capes which called on him here at the PM House on Thursday.

The prime minister said that “the UK Policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan: The Way Forward” announced by the British Prime Minister yesterday has many aspects which require careful examination and further clarifications.

He said that the policy acknowledges Pakistan’s position that military option alone cannot resolve the problems of insecurity, insurgency and terrorism while placing emphasis on the development dimension which his government has been advocating since long.

He however stressed that the policy must also recognize that the problems faced by Pakistan today are rooted in decades old conflict in Afghanistan; that Pakistan and Afghanistan have distinctly different political and institutional traditions and hence they must not be bracketed together for finding solutions of the problems faced by them.

The prime minister assured the British delegation of his government’s steadfast and unwavering commitment to fight the menace of extremism and terrorism but highlighted the urgency of capacity building of Pakistani Law Enforcing Agencies and Armed Forces as promised by important countries like US and UK.

The prime minister apprised the British MPs of the sense of anxiety generated amongst the people of Pakistan in and outside the country because of the arrests of Pakistani students in UK and urged them to play their role in ensuring that the people of Pakistani origin are not discriminated against in any way.

He added that since no evidence was found against the arrested Pakistani students, they should not be deported and be allowed to complete their studies.

He welcomed the heightened exchanges between Pakistan and UK in all levels and underlined the importance of people to people contacts and parliamentary exchanges for eliminating any possible misperceptions and misunderstandings in otherwise cordial relations between the two countries.

The British delegation expressed their understanding of the ground realities and the challenges being faced by Pakistan. They agreed with the prime minister on the need of evolving mechanism to check cross border movement of undesirable elements from both sides.

The leader of the delegation appreciated Pakistan’s role and sacrifices in the campaign against terrorism and assured that the British government will extend full support in this regard.

Pakistan army pushes Taliban back

BUNER VALLEY, Pakistan- The Pakistan army battled through mountain passes on Thursday in a third day of fighting to evict Taliban fighters from a strategic valley, after U.S. President Barack Obama welcomed its newfound resolve.


The militants were still controlling parts of Buner valley, just 100 km (60 miles) northwest of the capital, Islamabad, though troops had secured the main town of Daggar on Wednesday after helicopters dropped them behind enemy lines.

Obama told a news conference in Washington on that Pakistan's army had begun to realize that homegrown militants and posed a bigger current threat to the Muslim nation's stability than India, despite three wars between the two old rivals.

"On the military side, you're starting to see some recognition just in the last few days that the obsession with India as the mortal threat to Pakistan has been misguided, and that their biggest threat right now comes internally," Obama said.

"And you're starting to see the Pakistani military take much more seriously the armed threat from militant extremists."

The Taliban's creeping advance from their stronghold in Swat valley, unnerved many Pakistanis and raised fears in Washington that its nuclear-armed ally was becoming more unstable.

Obama said he was confident about the security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.

SWAT NEXT?

On Thursday troops used helicopter gunships and artillery to target militants hideouts in Buner, and hundred of families were seen streaming out of the valley, their vehicles laden with whatever belongings they could carry, including cattle.

"We are leaving but we don't know where we will be going. There was shelling over my village the whole night," said an old woman, her head and face covered, as she sat on the back of a pick-up truck.

Military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas said security forces has won control of at least two passes on Thursday, but were having to move carefully because of roadside bombs.

He also delivered a warning to the Taliban in Swat for failing to keep their side of the bargain after the government accepted demands to establish Islamic sharia courts across the Malakand Division of North West Frontier Province, which includes Swat, Buner and several other districts.

"The terrorism, terrorizing of people of the area is continuing unabated and this we consider a gross violation of peace deal," Abbas told a news conference in Rawalpindi, the garrison town neighboring Islamabad.

Abbas said the militants had refused to disarm, had abducted security forces personnel and killed policemen and civilians.

U.S. officials have urged Pakistan to follow through on this week's offensives in Dir and Buner rather than let the enemy regroup, and speculation was mounting that once the army has secured Buner it will turn its attention to the Taliban in Swat.

Abbas gave no casualty update from the fighting in Buner and Lower Dir, where an operation began on Sunday, but as of Wednesday more than 120 militants had been killed.

OBAMA "GRAVELY CONCERNED"

Before the military offensive in Buner, Western allies, who need Pakistan's support to defeat al Qaeda and stabilize neighboring Afghanistan, were worried the government seemed too willing to appease militants.

"I am gravely concerned about the situation in Pakistan, not because I think that they're immediately going to be overrun and the Taliban would take over in Pakistan," Obama told a news conference in Washington on Wednesday.

"I'm more concerned that the civilian government there right now is very fragile and don't seem to have the capacity to deliver basic services: schools, health care, rule of law, a judicial system that works for the majority of the people."

Mounting insecurity in Pakistan was underlined by ethnic violence in the southern city of Karachi, where paramilitary troops were given orders to "shoot on sight" to restore order.

At least 27 people were killed in clashes on Wednesday, many of them ethnic Pashtuns, illustrating another strand of the tensions between the people of the northwest and those from other parts of the country.

Obama is due to meet Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari and Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Washington on May 6-7.

U.S. lawmakers said they planned to accelerate the flow of more than $400 million in aid to Pakistan to help with counter-insurgency operations. The U.S. is also giving $1.4 billion in economic aid for Islamabad.

Developing Story

The number of confirmed cases of swine flu has jumped to 236 cases worldwide, the World Health Organization said today.cnn

Pakistan army: Taliban holding town hostage

ISLAMABAD — Troops sent to repel a Taliban advance toward the Pakistani capital killed 14 suspected militants, the army said Thursday, and accused insurgents of holding an entire town hostage.
In another development that sent a shudder through Pakistan, officials said gun attacks in the mega-city of Karachi killed at least 34 people and threatened to ignite ethnic tension.
President Barack Obama said he was "gravely concerned" about the nuclear-armed country's stability, while Pakistan's president urged the public to support the army offensive so that the Islamic nation would remain under "a moderate, modern and democratic state."
Security forces backed by warplanes began pushing into Buner, a district some 60 miles (100 kilometers) from Islamabad, on Tuesday after Taliban militants from the neighboring Swat Valley infiltrated the area under cover of a peace pact.
On Thursday, troops ousted militants from the Ambela Pass leading over the mountains into Buner and were inching toward the north, army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said.
Soldiers opened fire on four suspected suicide car bombers who drove toward them near the pass, Abbas said. Two vehicles exploded while the other two managed to drive away. No troops were hurt, he said.
Troops also destroyed four militant vehicles in Dir, a district to the west, Abbas said. At least 14 militants were killed, and one soldier was injured in the previous 24 hours, he said.
Abbas also said militants, who have kidnapped dozens of lightly armed police and paramilitary troops, had burned a police station farther north and sealed off the town of Sultanwas.
"The people of Sultanwas are in great distress," Abbas said at a news conference. "Nobody is being allowed to move out of Sultanwas,"
A Taliban spokesman could not be reached immediately for comment.
Security forces barred some reporters from entering Buner and telephone connections were cut, making it hard to verify the army's account of the fighting.
U.S. leaders sharply criticized Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari's decision to sign a law imposing Islamic law in Swat and the surrounding Malakand region in an attempt to halt two years of bloody and inconclusive fighting.
Defenders of the pact say the Islamic law concession will isolate hard-liners bent on destabilizing the country and bolster thin public support for a crackdown. Officials said Thursday the Islamic courts will be up and running within days.
The "time has come for the entire nation to give pause to their political differences and rise to the occasion and give full support to our security forces in this critical hour," Zardari said in a statement late Wednesday.
"This is the only way to demonstrate our will to keep Pakistan as a moderate, modern and democratic state where the rights of all citizens are protected," he said.
The Obama administration, determined to stop militants from using Pakistan as a base for attacks in Afghanistan, is asking Congress for more money to aid the Pakistani army.
In a news conference Wednesday marking his first 100 days in office, Obama said Pakistan was potentially unable to deliver basic services to its population such as health care and education.
Obama expressed confidence that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal will be secured because he said he believes Pakistan's army will do the job. But he left the door open for U.S. action if necessary.
Pakistan's stability is complicated by deep ethnic and sectarian tensions that are likely to grow as a result of a marked slowdown in economic growth.
Competition for jobs and political power is sharpest in Karachi, a teeming southern port with a history of ethnic violence where Wednesday's shooting broke out.
Much of the tension has been between the Pashtun population, who dominate the violence-plagued northwest, and Urdu-speaking Mohajirs descended from migrants from India.
The main Mohajir political party that runs the city, the Muttahida Quami Movement, has been outspoken against the Pashtun-dominated Taliban and has warned that the militants represent a growing threat in Karachi, Pakistan's 16-million strong commercial hub.
The city was largely crippled Wednesday after two MQM activists were gunned down by unknown shooters, sparking street violence that had abated by dawn.
Paramilitary rangers roamed the city's trouble spots Thursday, as hospital doctors and police said the death toll had reached 34, with about 50 others injured.

Karachi tense after fresh wave of ethnic violence

KARACHI: Karachi remained tense on Thursday, a day after at least 29 people were killed and over 42 others were injured in a fresh wave of ethnic violence in the city's different areas. About 20 vehicles were torched during the unrest.

Rangers were on the patrol on Thursday and shoot-at-sight orders were in place in the city.

Tension and panic gripped parts of the city as unidentified attackers went on a shooting spree, killing most of the victims at point-blank range.

City police chief Wasim Ahmed told Dawn that 20 people had been killed in the violence across the city, including ‘16 Pathans and three Urdu-speaking people.'

Police said that the trouble began early in the morning when armed men who had taken position on the hills in North Karachi fired volleys of bullets upon Zarina Colony, a shanty town in the foothills. A worker of the Muttahida Quami Movement was killed at around 10:30 a.m. when he came under fire.

Police said a sub-inspector and a constable were shot and wounded when law-enforcement personnel went to fetch the body.

The SP of North Karachi, Dr Farooq Ahmed, told Dawn that police and Rangers returned fire, forcing the gunmen to retreat. ‘Later, police and Rangers conducted a siege and search operation on the hills, arrested 16 people and seized some weapons,’ he added.

Witnesses said special commandos from Rangers also reached the troubled hills and flushed the armed men out of the area. They said a Rangers man was shot and wounded in the action.

Most of the violent incidents took place in Khawaja Ajmair Nagri, Surjani Town and New Karachi Industrial Area. The violence-hit areas wore a deserted look as shopkeepers pulled down their shutters and vehicular traffic disappeared.

An MQM worker was shot dead in Shah Faisal Colony. His body was first taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre and then to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for post-mortem.

Police surgeon Dr Hamid Padhiar told Dawn that 12 people were brought dead to the Abbasi Hospital. ‘Five bodies were later shifted to the JPMC,’ he added.

The director at the emergency centre of JPMC, Dr Seemin Jamali, told Dawn that 11 bodies and 18 wounded people were brought to the hospital. ‘Four wounded victims later died,’ she added.

Civil Hospital’s medico-legal officer Dr Sarwat Channa said that a man was brought dead from North Nazimabad and another man from Teen Hatti.

‘A man with a bullet wound was brought to the facility from Gulistan-i-Jauhar,’ he added. Vehicles were torched in North Karachi, Landhi, Malir and Al-Fallah.

The dead were identified as Zahoor Shah, Sanubar Khan, Din Mohammed, Javed, Jalil, Amjad, Mehmood, Shahid, Juma Khan, Sanwal, Dost Ali, Jameel, Sarfaraz, Khalid, Shah Khalid and Hanif.

Sources said that two bullet-riddled bodies were found at a post office in Sachal area. The bodies were taken to the JPMC late in the night.

WHO confirms 148 swine flu cases in nine countries



GENEVA -- A total of 148 laboratory-confirmed human cases of swine flu A/H1N1 infection have been officially reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) as of 19:00 GMT Wednesday, the UN agency said. Those cases were reported from nine countries, including 91 from the United States, with one death, and 26 from Mexico, with seven deaths, the agency said in a latest update.

The other seven countries that have reported laboratory-confirmed cases with no deaths include Austria (1), Canada (13), Germany (3), Israel (2), New Zealand (3), Spain (4) and Britain (5), the agency said.As the swine flu situation continues to get worse, the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday raised the pandemic alert level to Phase 5, indicating that a full pandemic is imminent.

"I have decided to raise the level of influenza pandemic alert from Phase 4 to Phase 5," announced WHO Director-General Margaret Chan at a teleconference for the media late Wednesday, following close consultations with international experts.The number of confirmed human swine flu cases in the U.S. has risen to 91, including five that need hospitalization, with a Mexican toddler becoming the first fatality from the deadly disease in the country, Richard Besser, acting director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Wednesday.

According to data posted on the CDC's website, the U.S. states with confirmed cases are: Arizona, California, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New York city, Ohio and Texas.

Mexico Limits Many Activities as Flu Alerts Are Increased



By DENISE GRADY
NYT.COM
As the swine flu virus spread to new locations as far apart as Peru and Switzerland on Thursday, Mexicans braced for a national shutdown of offices, restaurants, schools, museum and even the stands of soccer stadiums in an attempt to slow the spread of the disease.

In a nationally televised speech Wednesday night, Mexican President Felipe Calderon said that, as of Friday, many public services would be closed through Tuesday, encompassing a long holiday weekend. Most federal offices will be closed, restaurants, schools and museums will remain shuttered, and spectators will be barred from all professional soccer matches.

Churches are expected to be nearly empty on Sunday.

Officials in Asia and Europe also scrambled to confront the sickness, but Hong Kong’s chief executive, Donald Tsang, that “pandemic flu will continue to spread and Hong Kong is very likely to be affected.”

Senior European health officials prepared for emergency talks Thursday in Luxembourg to mold their own response, and governments in Asia stepped up preparations for a potential pandemic.

In Hong Kong, where health checks are being conducted on passengers arriving at the city’s airport, janitors put up fresh sheets of plastic film over elevator buttons so that any sick people pressing the buttons would not share their germs with too many people who pressed the same buttons later.

In China, the official Xinhua news agency reported that Vice Premier Li Keqiang had toured the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Beijing on Wednesday and had called for manufacturers to produce more face masks, sterilization chemicals and flu medicines.

Mr. Li said that China still did not have any confirmed cases of swine flu, according to Xinhua.

The measures came after the World Health Organization raised its alert level on swine flu to Phase 5 on Wednesday, based on the flu’s continuing spread in the United States and Mexico. Phase 5, the next-to-highest level in the worldwide warning systemhttp://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/phase/en/index.htmlW.H.O. alert system, has never been declared since the system was introduced in 2005 in response to the avian influenza crisis. Phase 6 means a pandemic is under way.

Worldwide, at least 12 countries have confirmed cases of swine flu. Switzerland became the fifth European country to report a case of the disease in a 19-year-old student, while in South America, Peru reported its first case, according to news reports.

“All countries should immediately activate their pandemic preparedness plans,” Dr. Margaret Chan, the W.H.O. director general, said at a late-night news conference in Geneva on Wednesday. While she emphasized the need for calm, at times she spoke as if a pandemic had already begun, saying, for instance, “W.H.O. will be tracking the pandemic.”

Governments around the world sought to balance precaution against panic, offering a raft of wildly differing responses.

In Britain on Thursday, authorities launched an advertising campaign urging people to sneeze into tissues and to wash their hands after doing so. The campaign was called “Catch it, bin it, kill it.”

But in Mexico, the epicenter of the disease, Mr. Calderón urged much broader precautions. People should stay inside their homes during the holiday hiatus, he said, and the shutdown and restrictions could possibly be extended further into next week.

The Mexican minister of health, Jose Cordova, said all nonessential federal services will shut down, and Mexico City extended the federal ban to include health clubs, gyms, museums and movie theaters.

Police stations, airports, bus stations and the capital’s subway system were to remain open under the federal plan, along with banks, food stores, pharmacies and gasoline stations.

Some 2,500 Mexicans have been sickened since the swine flu outbreak began last week in the town of La Gloria, 110 miles east of Mexico City. Mexico has reported just 99 confirmed cases of swine flu to the W.H.O., along with eight deaths, although as many as 168 people are suspected to have died from the disease there.

The only death from swine flu outside Mexico was reported Wednesday in the United States — a 23-month-old child from Mexico who was being treated in Houston.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 91 confirmed cases from 10 states, up from 64 cases in 5 states on Tuesday. The number of confirmed cases was almost certain to grow as laboratories completed further tests on cases now termed “likely” or “probable.”

The first infection in Switzerland was confirmed Thursday morning as health ministers from the European Union gathered in Luxembourg to coordinate efforts in how to manage the flu outbreak on the continent. Cases of swine flu have already been confirmed in Germany, Spain, Britain and Austria, and some of the ministers expected the flu to spread in the coming days.

Dr. Chan, in her remarks, emphasized that flu epidemics tended to take much higher death tolls in poor countries than in rich ones, and said her organization and others would need to make special efforts to help poorer nations.

She called for global solidarity, saying, “After all, it really is all of humanity that is under threat during a pandemic.”

President Obama, terming the outbreak “cause for deep concern but not panic,” took the unusual step Wednesday of using a prime-time televised news conference, convened to mark his 100th day in office, to deliver a public health message to the American people.

“Wash your hands when you shake hands, cover your mouth when you cough,” he said from the East Room of the White House. “It sounds trivial, but it makes a huge difference. If you are sick, stay home. If your child is sick, take them out of school. If you are feeling certain flu symptoms, don’t get on an airplane.”

With public health officials recommending that schools close if there are more confirmed or suspected cases, Mr. Obama urged parents and businesses to “think about contingency plans” in case of such closings. Government preparedness plans may include steps like ensuring that laboratories can test for the disease and that health systems can identify and treat cases, track an outbreak and prevent the virus from spreading in hospitals and clinics. Governments should also decide on measures similar to those already taken in Mexico, such as closing schools and discouraging or banning public gatherings.

“The more recent illnesses and the reported death suggest that a pattern of more severe illness associated with this virus may be emerging in the U.S.,” the C.D.C. said on its Web site. More hospitalizations and deaths are expected, the site said, because the virus is new and most people have no immunity to it.

The outbreak has caused such concern because officials have never seen this particular strain of the flu passing among humans before, said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

“There is no background immunity in the population, and it is spreading from human to human — all of which has the potential for a pandemic,” Dr. Fauci said.

The disease centers’ count of 91 confirmed cases in the United States did not include some later reports by states that confirmed cases after the C.D.C. tally was posted. In addition, there were suspected cases in Louisiana and Delaware. Kits being provided to the states and other countries will allow them to test for the virus on their own and obtain results within a few hours.

New York City added five new confirmed cases, bringing its total to 49. All have links to Mexico or St. Francis Preparatory School in Queens, where the virus first surfaced in New York, health officials said. The city identified five more probable cases.

The total in Canada rose to 19, from 16. In Mexico, more than 150 people are suspected to have died from the flu, and almost 2,500 are thought to have been infected.

Kathleen Sebelius focused on the outbreak on Wednesday during her first news conference as the secretary of health and human services.

“We’re determined to fight this outbreak and do everything we can to protect the health of every American,” Ms. Sebelius said.

She noted that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had recommended that schools close only if a student is found to be infected. More aggressive steps are under discussion, Ms. Sebelius said, but officials realize that school closings can cause problems for families.

“What happens to parents? Where do children go?” she asked.

Dr. Besser, who joined the news conference via a video feed, said the most recent cases included patients of a broad range of ages, with two-thirds of all cases occurring in people under 18.

“There have been five hospitalizations so far, including the child who died. But we have a number of suspect cases that have been hospitalized and we expect that number to go up,” Dr. Besser said.

Dr. Besser said that a quarter of the nation’s stockpile of 50 million treatments of antiviral medicines would be distributed to states by Sunday.

The United States has no plans to close international borders because, Dr. Besser said, such closings are not effective in slowing pandemics. When Hong Kong was hit with severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, “increased border screening on entry and exit was not an effective way of identifying cases or preventing transmission,” he said.

Nonetheless, Customs and Border Protection agents have stepped up efforts to spot sick travelers and are passing out travel health advisories.

Some elected officials have begun to question the decision to leave the borders open. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was grilled by senators on Wednesday who asked whether her agency was doing enough to stop the virus from spreading from Mexico. The senators, including John McCain of Arizona and Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, asked several times why the administration had decided against closing the border and banning travel to Mexico.

Senator Susan Collins of Maine urged that customs officials inspect more thoroughly and that the agency consider using heat sensors that allow agents to detect fevers among travelers entering the country.

Pakistan : Help the displaced




Dawn Editorial
Even the conservative estimates are staggering. The UN’s World Food Programme is working with a figure in the region of 600,000 but it is believed that the number of internally displaced persons in the NWFP and the tribal belt could be as high as one million. Poor civilians have been caught in the crossfire between militants and security personnel, and also been used as human shields by the Taliban.

Hundreds of thousands have fled Waziristan, Bajaur, Darra Adamkhel, Swat, Kurram, Orakzai, Mohmand and now Buner and Lower Dir. Those fortunate enough to escape are living in appalling conditions in refugee camps or seeking shelter with relatives, often of straitened means. The government is right in asking for international assistance for these victims of the conflict raging in northern Pakistan. That said, its own track in providing succour to the displaced is anything but encouraging.

Granted that Islamabad and the government in Peshawar have much on their plate vis-à-vis the fight against militancy. But it is imperative that people in dire need are taken care of by the state. Failure to do so will breed more resentment which will be readily tapped by the Taliban. If abandoned by the state, children and youth who have grown up in conflict zones and now have no options may easily choose to side with the militants. That way they will gain an identity and a form of respect in certain circles. And they won’t go hungry either.

Take what happened in Bajaur which is to date perhaps the only real success story in the battle against the Taliban. Residents were promised a massive rehabilitation and reconstruction programme but little activity has been seen on the ground. This inaction could have severe repercussions. Already refugees from Bajaur have turned violent at the Jalozai camp in Nowshera because of the state’s failure to create conditions that would facilitate their return. How can these impoverished people be expected be move back to Bajaur when their houses have been destroyed and little is left of local infrastructure?

The government has to stop dragging its feet on this tinderbox issue. The scale of the problem is only going to increase if the recent operations in Dir and Buner are part of a wider, sustained strategy. Most Pakistanis applaud the government for finally taking a stronger line against the militants. But they do so from the comfort of their homes. The displaced who are forced to flee the theatre of battle may have a different take on the matter.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Pakistan is not Taliban Empire': Taseer



Governor Punjab Salman Taseer has urged women to play their dynamic role in containing terrorism and extremism.

Addressing the first convocation of the Government College University (GCU) Faisalabad here Wednesday, he said that Pakistan is grappling with big challenges of extremism and terrorism.

Government is exploiting its resources to tackle these issues, however, women should also come forward and play their role in weeding out the sentiments leading to terrorism and extremism.

He said that girls' schools in northern areas are being closed and bombed while anti state activities are also rife in these parts of the country.

Education is imperative to foil their conspiracies against the solidarity and integrity of Pakistan; he said and added that government was making sincere efforts for the promotion of education.

Governor also quoted his meeting with US Representative Holbrook and said that he had made it clear that Pakistan was not Somalia or Sudan and could not be isolated from the rest of world. A sizable number of Pakistanis are playing their positive role in different countries.

Pakistani doctors in sufficient number are present in US while 5 % NASA engineers also belong to Pakistan. He termed Pakistan as a liberal, progressive Muslim democratic country and said that we are facing threats of terrorism and extremism. "God forbid, he said and added that any loss to Pakistan in this fight would have negative repercussion on international community", he added.

He said that Pakistan is a diverse, ethnic and linguistic identity and success of democracy in this part of world was imperative for the future of democracy and Pakistan.

Governor said that President Asif Ali Zardari was elected with a majority vote while Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and Speaker National Assembly Fahmida Mirza were also elected unopposed. In spite of these facts, we decided to set up coalition governments to involve all political forces.

He said that future of Pakistan is directly linked with democracy. A new democratic culture cropped up immediately after martyrdom of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto on February 18, he added.

Governor said it was the miracle of democracy that participants of Tokyo conference decided to give record aid to Pakistan. Out of this pledged amount, maximum funds would be spent on education, development of infrastructure and social sectors.

He said that 70% population is comprised youth with less than 25 years. This youth is actually our present and future and they have to lead Pakistan during next 50 years.

"Pakistan is not Taliban Empire", he said and added that Islam is a religion of peace, love and tolerance. Suicide attackers should know that it is a liberal Islamic democracy and we would not allow handful extremists to spoil its Islamic and democratic fabric.

He said that it was an era of science and technology and we must concentrate on modern scientific subjects to compete with rest of the world and to facilitate our masses.

Taseer said that hundreds of youth is deprived of education in Pakistan. Hence, educated class being a privileged one should focus on others crumbling under the scourge of illiteracy.

Governor said that country was facing ticklish issues of extremism and terrorism and President Asif Ali Zardari has decided to remain part of the provincial coalition in order to face prevailing challenges.

He also assured that funds withheld by HEC would be released very soon.

Earlier, in his address of welcome Dr. Shahid Mehboob Rana Vice Chancellor GCU enumerated the achievements of the university and said that it was catering to the needs of 10,000 students belonging to various disciplines.

He said that in 2002, the University started with only 7 Master Level Programs but now it has been able to offer a wide range of basic and applied subjects and it is offering research-based M. Phil and PhD programs in thirteen and eight subjects respectively.

He also highlighted some of the significant achievement of the University which include establishment of 27 Departments in the areas of Science, Arts, Social Sciences, Law, Pharmacy and Engineering, strong linkages with renowned Industrial & Business Organizations, Research Institutions and Universities, financial incentives for University Teachers who publish their research works, procurement of instruments to facilitate research students and faculty member to carryout advance research in pure and applied sciences. He said that in field of Sports, the GCU athletes have secured top positions at national and international level.

Vice Chancellor stressed the need for special grant of Rs 100 million from Punjab Government for the construction of an Auditorium, Central Library and a Mini Sports Complex.

Later Governor awarded degrees to 2,980 graduates of 2003-2005 and 2004-2006 sessions.

Rana Muhammad Farooq Saeed Khan Federal Minister for Textile Industry, MPAs Dr. Asad Moazzam, Maj (Retd) Abdur Rehman Rana and Haji Liaqat Ali Nazar were also present on the occasion.

$55B to go to poor nations



The World Bank said Saturday it would provide poor countries with more than $55 billion for public work projects left in limbo when the recession dried up capital investment.
The goal is to create jobs and lay the foundation for future economic growth and poverty reduction. Africa is expected to see a largeportion of the investments, given the continent's needs.

''As developing countries are facing the trials of the global economic crisis, it is vitally important that economic stimulus packages in the developed world are accompanied by support for those who cannot afford multibillion bailouts,'' the bank's president, Robert Zoellick, said.

The announcement came as the bank and the International Monetary Fund held their spring meetings this weekend.

An organization set up by the bank's private sector arm will make $10 billion available for lending; the bank will provide the other $45 billion.

''These public-private partnerships in the infrastructure sector are a key component not only of the immediate response to the crisis but also of a long-term economic growth,'' France's finance minister, Christine Lagarde, said.

Germany's development minister, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, said that when funding sources became scarce, it left projects ``high and dry. And yet they are needed as key elements of development. Services such as water sanitation, energy, transport and telecommunications are vital in the fight against poverty.''

The bank said the financial crisis has depressed investment in such projects, particularly in developing countries. The total yearly financial gap for infrastructure investments, including maintenance, in developing countries could range from $140 billion to $270 billion.

The initiative follows a tripling in lending, to $12 billion, to support health, education and other safety net programs in poor countries.

Civilians Flee as Pakistani Forces Hit Resistance



By CARLOTTA GALL and SALMAN MASOOD
NYT.COM
SHEIKH JANA, Pakistan — The Pakistani forces air-dropped commandos into the main town in Buner on Wednesday and quickly retook control of it from Taliban militants who flooded into the area last week, the military said. But the district was far from recaptured and the military may be in for a hard fight.

Villagers who fled the fighting and made it to this village on the plains said the military was bombing in Buner with fighter jets and firing rockets from helicopter gunships as Pakistani troops battled the Taliban on the ground for a second day.

Despite a curfew imposed by both the Taliban and the army, one villager, Walayat Khan, a cowherd in his 20s who did not know his exact age, said everyone was trying to get out of the district.

Some people were leaving on foot, as few vehicles were available. Those who left were forced to use back roads since the Taliban and military forces had blocked the main arteries leading into and out of Buner.

Mr. Walayat left his village, Kowgah, at dawn with 18 members of his family, mostly women and children, after jets bombed two nearby villages held by the Taliban on Tuesday afternoon. He left his brother and elderly father behind in the house, he said.

“Jets dropped bombs three times,” he said. “There was smoke and dust; I could not tell if they hit houses. We packed our things and then started moving because we thought they might hit us as well.”

Coming after intense criticism, both here and in Washington, of the military’s inaction, the air and ground campaign against the Taliban was the most intense waged by the army in six months.

Commandos of the Special Services Group were air-dropped into Daggar, the administrative center of Buner, a district of about one million people just 60 miles from the capital, Islamabad, the military said.

The use of the American-trained special counterterrorism forces, jets and mobile units was a sign of the military’s seriousness of purpose in this fight, said a former government official, who did not want to be identified while discussing national security matters.

No civilians were displaced in Daggar, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, the military spokesman, said at a news briefing in Rawalpindi. That part of the operation appeared to have gone fairly smoothly.

But elsewhere heavier fighting was reported. Military units backed by paramilitary forces were deployed in a three-pronged attack against the Taliban in Buner from neighboring districts, General Abbas said.

Those forces met fierce resistance in areas in the north, south and west of Buner — in Nawagin, Pir Baba and Sultanwas, where the Taliban have established positions, he said.

“We are facing stiff resistance in the area of Ambala,” General Abbas said, referring to the area near Mr. Walayat’s village, where local people said the Taliban were firmly entrenched and blew up a bridge on Tuesday to block the army’s advance.

Taliban were also reported to be patrolling a key road in the north near the Pir Baba shrine and the boundary with the Swat Valley, which is a stronghold for the militants. They were also firing on helicopters from the mountains, local reporters said.

Heavy fighting was also under way in Karakar, in the north of the district, where the Taliban were holding hostage about 70 police officers and members of the Frontier Constabulary. Eighteen of the men were later released, General Abbas said, without providing more details.

He said the army was concerned about hurting civilians. “Our constraint is that we are launching an operation in an area where militants have held the local population hostage,” he said. “We are trying to ensure there is minimum collateral damage and minimum displacement of local people.”

Civilians driving on the roads, including students, were wounded when their vehicles came under fire, local reporters said. Several civilians, including a child hit by a bullet, were taken to the hospital in Swari, reporters for the newspaper Dawn said.

People were unhappy with the military operation, Mr. Walayat said. But his relatives in the neighboring district of Swabi who gave shelter to the extended family said they supported it.

They live less than six miles from the boundary with Buner and said Taliban militants had come into their area just two days ago.

“People are happy with the operation because the government gave them a deadline to leave and the people are saying that the Taliban really want to take over Tarbela Dam and Islamabad,” said Yaqoub Khan, 42, a farmer who has made space in his house for 18 relatives who fled the fighting.

“If they had not come, the Taliban would have established positions here in this village by now,” he said.

Killings by the Taliban have shocked the local people, another relative said. Five days ago militants cut the throats of eight local policemen operating a post in the village of Chingalay in the south of Buner, just a few miles from Sheikh Jana.

“They cut their tongues out as well,” said Afsar Khan, 47, who saw the bodies of two of the policemen when he attended their funerals nearby.

Yet he said he doubted the military would be able to stop the Taliban advance. “This thing will expand,” he said. “It started from Afghanistan, then we saw Bajaur, Swat. Buner was the only place they could not gain a foothold,” he said.

But the local resistance in Buner to the Taliban also failed. “We expect this thing will come here as well,” he said.

World Health Organization Raises Swine Flu Alert Level




By DENISE GRADY
NYT.COM
The global spread of swine flu, a pandemic, is highly likely, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday and raised its alert level to Phase 5, the next-to-highest level in the worldwide warning system.

Phase 5 has never been declared before. Phase 6 means a pandemic is under way. The health organization’s said its decision was based on the continuing spread of swine flu in the United States and Mexico, particularly the increasing numbers of unexplained cases among people not exposed to travelers or to institutions like schools or hospitals where many people have close contact with one another and high rates of transmission might be expected.

“All countries should immediately activate their pandemic preparedness plans,” Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the organization, said at a news conference in Geneva. “Countries should remain on high alert for unusual outbreaks of influenza-like illness and severe pneumonia.”

The first death from swine flu in this country — of a 22-month-old child from Mexico who was being treated in Houston — was reported on Wednesday, along with more infections and hospitalizations. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 91 confirmed cases from 10 states, up from 64 cases in 5 states on Tuesday.

Dr. Chan emphasized the need for calm, but at times spoke as if a pandemic had already begun, saying, for instance, “W.H.O. will be tracking the pandemic.” She also emphasized that flu epidemics tended to take much higher death tolls in poor countries than in rich ones, and said her organization and others would need to make special efforts to help poorer nations.

She called for global solidarity, saying, “After all, it really is all of humanity that is under threat during a pandemic.”

President Obama planned to use his opening remarks at a prime time news conference on Wednesday to discuss the worsening outbreak. “This is obviously a very serious situation,” Mr. Obama said, according to excerpts of his prepared text released by the White House, “and every American should know that their entire government is taking the utmost precautions and preparations.”

Preparedness plans referred to by Dr. Chan include things like making sure that laboratories can test for the disease and that health systems can identify and treat cases, track an outbreak and prevent the virus from spreading in hospitals and clinics. Governments should also decide whether to take measures like closing schools and discouraging or banning public gatherings to prevent disease transmission. Mexico, for instance, has prohibited people from eating in restaurants and is allowing restaurants to provide only take-out food.

“The more recent illnesses and the reported death suggest that a pattern of more severe illness associated with this virus may be emerging in the U.S.,” the C.D.C. said on its Web site. More hospitalizations and deaths are expected, the site said, because the virus is new and most people have no immunity to it.

The outbreak has caused such concern because officials have never seen this particular strain of the flu passing among humans before, said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

“There is no background immunity in the population, and it is spreading from human to human – all of which has the potential for a pandemic,” Dr. Fauci said.

Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that officials had no way of predicting whether the outbreak would become more serious.

“You don’t know if this is a virus that will fizzle in a couple of weeks or one that will become more or less virulent or severe in the diseases it causes,” Dr. Besser said.

He said officials must follow government plans for a pandemic because of that unpredictability, just in case.

“If we could see into the future, it would be wonderful so that we could tailor all our responses specifically to what is occurring,” Dr. Besser said.

The disease centers’ count of 91 confirmed cases in the United States did not include later reports by Maine and Nevada of confirmed cases there, which were announced after the C.D.C. tally had been posted. In addition, Louisiana and Delaware had suspected cases. Kits being provided to the states and other countries will allow them to test for the virus on their own and obtain results within a few hours.

New York City added five new confirmed cases, bringing its total to 49. All have links to Mexico or St. Francis Preparatory School in Queens, where the virus first surfaced in New York, health officials said. The city identified five more probable cases.

The total in Canada rose to 19, from 16. In Mexico, more than 150 people are suspected to have died from the illness, and almost 2,500 are thought to have been infected.

The outbreak was the focus of Kathleen Sebelius’ first news conference as health secretary on Wednesday, and she promised a vigorous fight against the disease.

“We’re determined to fight this outbreak and do everything we can to protect the health of every American,” Ms. Sebelius said.

She noted that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had recommended that schools close only if a student is found to be infected with the swine flu virus. More aggressive steps are under discussion, Ms. Sebelius said, but officials realize that school closings can cause problems from families.

“What happens to parents? Where do children go?” she asked.

Dr. Besser, who joined the news conference via a video feed, said the most recent cases included patients from a broad range of ages, with two-thirds of all cases occurring in people under the age of 18.

“There have been five hospitalizations so far, including the child who died. But we have a number of suspect cases that have been hospitalized and we expect that number to go up,” Dr. Besser said.

He added: “It’s a serious outbreak, and we’re taking aggressive measures.”

Dr. Besser said that a quarter of the nation’s stockpile of 50 million treatments of antiviral medicines would be distributed to states by Sunday.

The United States has no plans to close international borders because, Dr. Besser said, such closures are not effective in slowing pandemics. When Hong Kong was hit with severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, “increased border screening on entry and exit was not an effective way of identifying cases or preventing transmission,” Dr. Besser said.

Nonetheless, Customs and Border Protection agents have stepped up efforts to spot sick travelers and are passing out travel health advisories telling people whether to see a doctor if they become sick.

“Individuals who are identified as sick are referred to public health professionals for evaluation,” Dr. Besser said.

Elected officials have begun to question the decision to leave the borders open. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was grilled by senators on Wednesday who asked whether her agency was acting aggressively enough to stop the virus from spreading from Mexico into the United States. The senators, including John McCain of Arizona, and Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut asked several times why the Obama Administration had decided against closing the border, and banning travel to Mexico.

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine took issue with Ms. Napolitano’s decision to use only “passive inspection techniques,” to monitor people entering the United States. She urged that the customs officials conduct more aggressive inspections and that the agency consider using heat-sensors that would allow agents to detect people who are entering the country with fevers.

NWFP, Fata, Balochistan most ‘food insecure’





ISLAMABAD: The NWFP, Fata and Balochistan are the most ‘food insecure region’ in the country while northern Punjab is the least.

Food accounts for about 60 per cent of total expenditure for an average farming household in Pakistan.

According to the findings of a baseline survey conducted by the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and released here on Tuesday, there are a number of constraints to crop production, such as inadequate access to affordable credit, high cost of agriculture inputs like seeds, fertilisers and pesticides, unreliability of water supply and low returns on investments.

The survey was conducted between January and June last year in 1,012 villages in the four provinces as well as in AJK, Fata and the Northern Areas in collaboration with the Ministry of Food, Pakistan Agriculture Research Council and the Agriculture Policy Institute.

The focus of the survey was on household food security conditions, scope for enhancing crop productivity and opportunities to increase income for poor farmers of small and medium resource.

‘The data of the study confirms that education is a major determining factor in reducing household vulnerability and improving food security as educated family members are more likely to have higher incomes,’ said Wolfgang Herbinger, WFP’s country representative in Pakistan.

According to the survey, a majority of farmers use local non-improved seeds and the use of fertiliser is much less than the recommended levels.

The overall productivity levels are low in the country, except for northern Punjab.

Commenting on the survey report, Food Secretary Mohammad Ziaur Rehman said there was an urgent need to increase the supply of improved seeds. ‘Empowering small farmers and building their knowledge base through farmers field schools along with easy access to credit are basic requirements for increasing agricultural output,’ he added.

The survey said that 64 per cent of farm households in Sindh relied on off-farm employment, compared to the national average of 28 per cent.

Taliban raze houses of Sikhs in Orakzai





KOHAT: The Taliban on Wednesday night demolished 11 houses of the Sikh community in the Orakzai Agency for refusing to pay ‘Jazia’.

The action was ordered by the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan chief for Orakzai Agency, Hakeemullah Mehsud, after the deadline given to the Sikh community for payment of Jazia passed on Wednesday.

Earlier, the Sikh community had postponed its decision about vacating the area following the demand of the Tehrik-i-Taliban for payment of ‘Jazia’ being non-Muslims for their protection.

They gathered in the Merozai area to finalise their decision for leaving the area, but a dispute erupted over the issue among them and the meeting was postponed till Thursday.

The Taliban had asked the Sikh community living in the tribal area for centuries earlier this month to pay annual Jazia because ‘Sharia had been enforced in the area and every non-Muslim had to pay protection money’.

The Sikh community comprising 30 to 35 families shifted from the Feroze Khel area to the nearby Merozai in Lower Orakzai Agency because they could not arrange Rs150 million demanded by the Taliban.

The Taliban had forcibly occupied shops of two Sikh businessmen, Sewa Singh and Kalak Singh, and houses of several Sikhs to force them to pay Jazia. Later, the Sikh community refused to pay Jazia and decided to leave Orakzai and settle in some other area.

Most of tribal families belonging to a particular sect have also migrated to different parts of Hangu and Kohat due to the fear of Taliban.

100 days - and shock defection - boosts Obama’s grip on power


President Obama can celebrate his 100th day in office today knowing that he is one step closer to securing unfettered power in Washington – and domination across ever bigger swaths of America.

The dramatic defection of veteran Senator Arlen Specter from Republican ranks has put Democrats on course to gain a congressional “super-majority” for the first time in a generation.

This makes it easier, if not certain, that Mr Obama will be able to make rapid progress with key items on his bulging legislative agenda such as healthcare reform as well as speeding through nominations that have stalled in the Senate.

Mr Specter, who has served Pennsylvania in the Senate for 29 years, described his switch of affiliation as “painful”, but declared that Republicans had “moved far to the right” in recent years and “I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats”.
Mr Obama, who was handed a note informing him of Mr Specter’s decision during a morning meeting, spoke to the Senator just before the announcement yesterday and told him that Democrats would be “thrilled to have you”.
The defection means that the party is likely to get the 60 votes needed to overcome Senate delaying tactics known as filibusters when Minneso-ta’s supreme court rules later this summer on whether Democrat Al Franken’s razor-thin election victory there should stand.
Although Mr Specter, 79, said he had reached the decision gradually, secret negotiations on Capitol Hill and repeated overtures from Vice-President Joe Biden in recent weeks are believed to have tipped the balance. It is understood that the Democratic leadership has promised to give Mr Specter strong backing – and to discourage others from standing against him – in next year’s Pennsylvania primary.
He had faced a tough contest for the Republican nomination in his home state where he was being challenged by former Congressman Pat Toomey, a staunch conservative. Polls showed that his approval ratings are 35 per cent higher among Democrats than Republicans in Pennsylvania.
As one of just three Republicans in Congress to have backed Mr Obama’s $787 billion (£537 billion) stimulus Bill earlier this year, Mr Specter said he was aware his vote had caused “a schism which makes our differences irreconcilable”. He added: “I am unwilling to have my 29-year Senate record judged by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate. I have not represented the Republican Party. I have represented the people of Pennsylvania.”
Although the addition of Mr Specter and Mr Franken would give the Democrats a filibuster-proof majority for the first time since 1979 when Jimmy Carter was President, it does not guarantee that Mr Obama will be able to get all his legislation through Congress.
Pointing out that he remained opposed to the Employee Free Choice Bill – which would abolish the requirement to hold secret ballots for union organising – Mr Specter said: “My change in party affiliation does not mean that I will be a party-line voter any more for the Democrats that I have been for the Republicans.”
Healthcare and energy reform are looming. Democrats have promised to employ a technique called “reconciliation” to push through health legislation with as few as 51 votes, but recognise a 60-seat majority will be needed to approve bitterly contested measures to limit carbon emissions. Mr Specter, as a Senator from a coal-mining state, may now join others – both Democratic and Republican – in seeking to secure concessions on this Bill from the Administration.
His presence in the Democratic caucus may also help to speed through some of the nominations that have languished in the Senate. The greater significance of the defection, however, is likely to be its consequences for a Republican Party that now looks marginalised in many regions as it retreats into a Southern redoubt.
Among 435 members of the House of Representatives, there is not a single Republican from New England. In the Senate, they have just two, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe. “Ultimately, we’re heading to having the smallest political tent in history the way things are unfolding,” said Ms Snowe yesterday. A Washington Post poll on Sunday showed that only 21 per cent of voters now regard themselves as Republicans.
Rush Limbaugh, the right-wing talk radio host, who, with Dick Cheney, has increasingly become the voice of the party since the election, welcomed Mr Specter’s departure. “It’s ultimately good,” he said. “You’re weeding out people who aren’t really Republicans.”
How filibusters are used
— The filibuster rule in the US Senate allows the minority party to block legislation with 40 of the 100 votes. The filibuster is the act of holding the floor, preventing a vote
— Senators have been required to stand and speak nonstop for hours, reading from recipe books, the Bible or popular literature in an act of defiance
— Filibustering has been used to block everything from judicial nominations to civil rights legislation. Strom Thurmond, a Southern Democrat, holds the record for a filibuster, when he spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes against the Civil Rights Act of 1957

— The practice was nearly eliminated in 2005 when Republicans threatened to use a “nuclear option” – overriding a Democrat filibuster of President Bush’s judicial nomination

Taliban Advance in Pakistan Prompts Shift by U.S.




The Pakistani government's inability to stem Taliban advances has forced the Obama administration to recalibrate its Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy a month after unveiling it.

What was planned as a step-by-step process of greater military and economic engagement with Pakistan -- as immediate attention focused on Afghanistan -- has been rapidly overtaken by the worsening situation on the ground. Nearly nonstop discussions over the past two days included a White House meeting Monday between Obama and senior national security officials and a full National Security Council session on Pakistan yesterday.

A tripartite summit Obama will host here next week with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Afghan President Hamid Karzai will center heavily on the Pakistan problem rather than the balance originally intended, officials said.

New consideration is being given to a long-dormant proposal to allow U.S. counterinsurgency training for Pakistani troops somewhere outside the country, circumventing Pakistan's refusal to allow American "boots on the ground" there. "The issue now is how do you do that, where do you do it, and what money do we have to do it with?" said a senior administration official who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity yesterday.

On Capitol Hill, anxious lawmakers proposed breaking $400 million out of the administration's pending $83 billion supplemental spending request in order to fund immediate counterinsurgency and economic assistance to Pakistan. "We could pass it really quickly, in just a matter of days," said Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), who just returned from Pakistan. Waiting for debate and approval of the entire supplemental, Kyl said, "could be too little, too late."

"Certainly, we are discussing with the administration what is needed, and I think that all of us are very concerned about what's happening in Pakistan," House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters.

The administration shares that concern, even as it is struggling to retain control of its own policy and its full spending request, including money for the Iraq and Afghan wars and other issues. "Our position is that if, in fact, some money would be able to be fast-tracked so that we could get started earlier [in Pakistan], given the urgency of the situation, that's a good idea," the senior administration official said. "But we wouldn't want to do anything to jeopardize" the rest of the supplemental. "We do not support anything that derails that."

The breakout proposal, the subject of a meeting of national security deputies at the White House yesterday, appeared to have lost steam by the end of the day. But administration officials said they were hopeful that some provision could be agreed on to make funds more quickly available for Pakistan.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, returned last weekend from his 11th trip to Pakistan "more concerned than I've seen him after any prior visit," a Pentagon official said, adding that at a meeting with senior aides Monday, "the word [Mullen] used was 'alarmed.' "

"We're not saying the sky is falling," the official said, "but it's raining pretty hard in Pakistan."

The level of concern -- always high where nuclear-armed and politically tumultuous Pakistan is concerned -- began to rise two weeks ago, when the Pakistani Parliament passed an agreement to authorize sharia, or Islamic law, in the Swat Valley, about 100 miles northwest of Islamabad. Taliban forces had expanded in the area, and the agreement was part of a deal in which the government said the extremists would lay down their arms.

Instead, the Taliban advanced farther east, to within 60 miles of the capital, with no apparent government resistance. On Sunday, after increasingly stern public statements from the administration and some Taliban withdrawal, the government launched a military offensive in the area, backed yesterday by helicopter gunships.

But on the eve of Obama's first meeting with Zardari, tensions were running high between the two governments. "We see more duplicity than ambivalence" about the fight against extremists, one participant in the administration's strategic review of the region said of Pakistani authorities.

Other officials expressed skepticism that the Pakistani offensive would continue. "The test of all these Pakistani military operations -- because we've seen them from time to time in the past -- is always their sustainability," Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said.

Beyond this week's combat, officials said they were still looking for Pakistan to begin moving large quantities of its half-million-strong military away from the eastern border with India, its historic adversary, and toward Taliban and al-Qaeda sanctuaries in the west.

Pakistanis in US stage protest demo against Talibanization

WASHINGTON: Pakistani community, residing in United States, staged a protest demonstration against the rising Talibanization in Pakistan in front of Pakistan Embassy here on Tuesday.

Protesters submitted memo draft for the President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani.

Demonstrators asked Pakistani government through reminding memo that the government violated the fundamental human rights of people in terms of Swat peace accord with Taliban while pressing Gilani administration for taking people into confidence for alleviation of the growing unrest in country.

It is demanded in memo that government becomes serious about providing basic human amenities for the people in Swat akin to people in Islamabad.

They also declared government failed to retaliate Nizam-e-Adl propaganda lodged by Taliban.

Dir fast moving to normalcy

DIR: Curfew still remained enforced after actions against the miscreants in Tehsil Maidan of district lower Dir, while the life here fast returning to normalcy after successful operation.

On the other hand, a Jirga of the local elders at Timargarh is underway, in which, Jirga elected representatives will discuss prevalent situation in the area with the officials.

Security forces have advised Tehsil Maidan people not to leave their hearth and homes and go out of the area, as the actions against the miscreants have been completed. Pamphlets have also been airdropped asking for support of the people by pointing out the miscreants. The pamphlet further warned that action would also be taken against those helping the miscreants.

Sources said that heavy guns from district headquarters Timargarh kept shelling Maidan area last night, but no loss of life was reported. Sources said that life in Maidan area remained suspended due to closure of link-roads under curfew, causing inconvenience to the people. However, life in all other areas of Dir lower including Timargarh has returned to normal and the people have heaved a sigh of relief.

A Jirga of local elders is underway at Lal Kalay area of Tehsil Maidan, which would elect their representatives, who would be meeting Dir peace Jirga members and in-charge forces action, brigadier Amalzada at Timargarh FC Headquarter to discuss the situation in the area.

Sources close to security forces told that curfew was likely to be lifted from Tehsil Maidan by this evening.

Troops secure 'key town' in Buner



BUNER :Troops took the main town in Buner on Wednesday after being dropped by helicopters behind Taliban lines on the second day of an offensive, a military spokesman said.

The Taliban's advance into a region just 100 km (60 miles) northwest of Islamabad earlier this month had sent shivers through Pakistan and heightened fears in the United States that the state was becoming more unstable.

Pakistan's demonstration of military resolve in Buner valley will likely reassure US President Barack Obama and Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai when they meet Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari in Washington May 6-7 to discuss regional strategy.

Taliban fighters held the entrances to the valley, but they risk being caught between security forces at their front and rear after the successful airdrop.

"The airborne forces have linked up to police and Frontier Constabulary in Daggar," the military spokesman said. "A link up with ground forces is in progress."

Residents saw troops rappel down ropes from helicopters outside Daggar, the main town in Buner, while firing and explosions were also heard intermittently.

"We saw a helicopter dropping troops on the hills early this morning. It came about seven or eight times," said Arshad Imran standing in the town's central bazaar. "We hear sound of explosions off and on and we can see helicopters flying over the mountains."

The military estimated some 500 militants were in the Buner valley and that it might take a week to clear them out.

Jet fighters and helicopters gunships provided air support for army and paramilitary troops leading the offensive on Tuesday.

The military has said a few hundred militants holed up in the mountains never represented a real threat to the capital.

But, Ikram Seghal, a retired army officer turned analyst, said the Taliban could have used Buner to advance on Tarbela, a dam regarded as critical for water and electricity supplies, before reaching Islamabad.

"It is very important psychologically, tactically and strategically to make sure that Buner is cleared of these Taliban," said Seghal.

US Encouragement

The Pentagon urged Pakistan to remain on the offensive.

"The key is to sustain these operations at this tempo and to keep the militants on their heels and to, ultimately, defeat them," Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said.

Washington is considering rushing hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency aid to Pakistan, the US Senate's second-ranking Republican, Jon Kyl of Arizona, told reporters.

Pakistan is desperate for military and economic aid to fight an insurgency that has washed back across the border from Afghanistan.

The first military operation began in Lower Dir on Sunday, and a military spokesman said 10 soldiers and around 70 militants were killed in three days of fighting there. Independent casualty estimates were unavailable.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Operation launched in Buner: ISPR




ISLAMABAD :Pakistan Army and para-military forces, backed by Pakistan Air Force, have launched an offensive against militants in Buner, the second district of Malakand agency after Lower Dir, said Director-General of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Athar Abbas, here on Tuesday.

70 MISCREANTS KILLED, 10 FC MEN MARTYRED IN LOWER DIR "The operation against Taliban was launched in the afternoon and the Inspector-General of Frontier Constabulary is heading the operation in which Pak Army and other paramilitary forces are taking part," said Athar Abbas while addressing an official briefing to media.Abbas said that over 70 militants were killed in Lower Dir operation, while 10 security forces personnel were martyred. He said that fighter jets of Pakistan Air Force were also taking part in the operation.

"The terrorist have compelled the government to take the action against them after they entered Buner from Swat and were building bunkers and fortifying their installations in the district," he said, adding: "About 300 militants entered Buner from Swat and captured army checkposts, initiated armed patrolling and were forcefully recruiting local youths in their militia."

Abbas told media that the government would not allow anyone to violate writ of the state, adding that a major offensive had been launched to flush out militants from Buner. He said that the miscreants had threatened the residents and restricted the women to their houses.

"The government issued warnings to them for vacation, but they ignored the warnings. The local residents were living under fear and stress in these circumstances," he added. Abbas also announced the completion of operation in Lower Dir, launched on Sunday, saying that till that time, the militants had been wiped out from the Dir district.

"Military offensive has been concluded in Lower Dir and all the militants have been flushed out from the area. In the operation 70 to 75 insurgents were killed while 10 FC men martyred," he added.

AFP ADD: the United States on Tuesday welcomed Pakistan's military operations against Taliban militants in the north-west and voiced hope the offensive would be sustained.

"We think that the military operations that are under way in Buner and Dir districts are exactly the appropriate response to the offensive operations by the Taliban and other militants over the past few weeks," Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell told a news conference. "We are very much encouraging of those efforts and stand ready to help them in any which way that we could."

He added that it was crucial the Pakistani military keep up the offensive and said it was unclear if Taliban forces would be pursued beyond Buner and into the Swat Valley.

"The test of all of these Pakistani military operations - because we've seen them from time to time in the past - is always their sustainability," said Morrell. State Department spokesman Robert Wood said separately that the offensive was more than a gesture of goodwill by President Asif Ali Zardari, who has faced growing criticism in Washington over his response to the militants.

"I don't think it's a question of goodwill. This is something that's in the interest of the government of Pakistan," Wood said. "These Taliban and other extremists have posed an existential threat to Pakistan.

Pakistani Military Moves to Flush Out Taliban


New York Times

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — After a week of strong criticism here and abroad over its inaction, the Pakistani military deployed fighter jets and helicopter gunships to flush out hundreds of Taliban militants who overran the strategic district of Buner last week, the military said Tuesday.

The campaign began Tuesday after government forces completed a two-day operation against Taliban militants in a neighboring district, Dir, the military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Abbas, said.

The Taliban advance into Buner, just 60 miles from the capital, not only brought heavy pressure on the military from the United States and other Western countries. But it has also fortified a growing consensus among Pakistani politicians and the general public that the Taliban have gone too far and that the military should act to contain the spread of the insurgency.

Under threat of military action, the Taliban staged a show withdrawal from Buner at the end of last week, Major General Abbas said. But he said the militants were in fact trying to expand the space they control beyond the valley of Swat, which borders Dir and Buner.

At a news conference, he played three tapes of telephone intercepts of the main Taliban leader, Mullah Fazlullah, talking to one of his commanders about making a show withdrawal for the media while telling their men to put away their weapons and lie low.

“In Buner people are living under coercion and in fear,” General Abbas said. “There was no reason to intimidate people in Buner, and the militants started intimidating people and forcibly recruiting young people to take them back to Swat for military training.”

“The government acted with patience but eventually there was no other way except to launch an operation,” General Abbas added.

Earlier in the day the chief official at the Interior Ministry, Rehman Malik, gave an indication of the tougher government stance toward the Taliban, saying that the Taliban had ignored repeated government requests to leave Buner.

“I warn them to vacate the area,” he told reporters. “We are not going to spare them. Action will be taken if anyone tries to block our efforts to re-establish the writ of the government in Buner and other areas.”

Several events contributed to the shift among politicians and the public. The televised flogging of a girl in Swat by the Taliban several weeks ago shocked many in the country. A radical cleric, Sufi Mohammed, who helped negotiate the peace deal in Swat, said recently that Pakistani institutions such as parliament and the high courts were un-Islamic, angering politicians from all parties.

Finally, the militants’ move into several new districts last week girded the Pakistani army to move against the Taliban.

The military may have a difficult fight ahead. The Taliban have already been digging trenches and fortified positions, Major General Abbas said.

There are also indications that the fighting in Dir has been heavier than Pakistani officials have acknowledged and that the civilian cost has been high. The military said some 70 militants had been killed over three days of fighting.

But over 30,000 civilians have fled their homes in the region and reported seeing bodies lying in the streets and the fields as they fled, Amnesty International said Tuesday.

Officials in a local hospital in the town of Timergara, in Dir, confirmed that five civilians had died, including two women and one girl, said Amnesty, which has been in contact with local Pakistani human rights organizations.

“Neither the Taliban nor the government forces seem to care about the well-being of the residents of Lower Dir,” said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific director in a statement.

“The Taliban show no compunction about using civilian areas as combat zones,” he added, “even knowing that the military will respond with indiscriminate long-distance shelling and aerial bombardment.”

In the main town of Mingora, in Swat, the Taliban distributed fliers warning journalists of dire consequences if they continued reporting that criticized the Taliban or accused them of sabotaging the peace deal to introduce Islamic law, or sharia, in the area.

The fliers, which were issued by the Commander of the Suicide Bombers of the Taliban Movement of Swat, said journalists who did not cease such would be taken before sharia courts and would face “horrible consequences.”

At least two Pakistani news agencies ordered their reporters out of Swat on learning of the fliers. Four local journalists have been killed in Swat in recent months and editors said they were taking the threats very seriously.

Dir is a critical mountainous region that joins Swat to the restive tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan, and Buner lies to the south and east opening the way towards the Indus River and the capital Islamabad.

By establishing government control in Dir, the military will have blocked off an escape and resource supply route to the militants in Swat. But Buner is a much bigger task. The military estimates several hundred militants have infiltrated the district from Swat since last week.

Thousands displaced in Lower Dir, says AI



PESHAWAR: The Amnesty International (AI) reported on Monday that thousands of civilians had abandoned their homes to escape clashes between security forces and Taliban in Lower Dir district.

The report says that eyewitnesses from Maidan in Lower Dir told AI that bodies were lying on the streets and fields because people were too afraid to move them. At least five civilians were confirmed dead at the district hospital in Timergara, including two women and a girl.

Several villages in Maidan, including Islamdara, Kankot, Maidan Khas and Lal Qila, seem to have been targeted by government artillery and helicopter gunship helicopters after Taliban forces fired on security forces from residential areas.

Eyewitnesses could see at least 10 houses completely destroyed while another 40 to 50 with partial damage.“Neither the Taliban nor the government forces seem to care about the well being of the residents of Lower Dir,” said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific director.

“The Taliban show no compunction about using civilian areas as combat zones, even knowing that the military will respond with indiscriminate long-distance shelling and aerial bombardment.”

The report further mentions that observers in Timergara told the AI that thousands of civilians had abandoned their homes in Maidan and moved towards neighbouring areas in Chakdara, Mardan and Charsadda.

An eyewitness in Maidan said civilians were moving through the fields to escape the firing on the main roads.A local non-governmental organisation working in Lower Dir, al-Khidmat (affiliated with the Jamaat-e-Islami) told AI that it had registered at least 33,000 displaced persons in the last two days.

The civilians fleeing Lower Dir would join more than half a million people already displaced by the fighting, according to the most recent figures from the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR.

“Pakistan is now facing a serious displacement crisis, as hundreds of thousands have been forced out of their homes, including tens of thousands now living in camps formerly used to house Afghan refugees,” Zarifi said.

“While the politicians in Islamabad and Washington talk about geopolitics, people in these quiet villages have their lives shattered. It’s about time for the world to turn its attention to the people of NWFP, who are facing severe problems right now.”

The fighting in Lower Dir began when the Taliban fired at a convoy of security forces moving towards the town of Lal Qala.The report further states the local government sources told AI that eight government troops and 47 Taliban fighters had been killed, including Qari Shahid, the Taliban’s commander in the region.

However, the AI admits that it could not independently confirm the numbers of the fatalities due to the intensity of the fighting. According to local military officials, the Taliban in Lower Dir are now led by two new commanders, Hafizullah and Mullah Mansoor.