Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Pakistan: UNDP snubs Imran Khan’s claims
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Wednesday ruled out Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan’s charges of 'disruption' in its election project on May 11, 2013, Samaa reported. “None of our consultants were forced out of Returning Officers' (ROs) offices on the election day” Country Director UNDP Marc-Andre Franche told Samaa. Brushing aside Khan’s allegations, Franche also swore that not even a single of UNDP’s computers was switched off following President Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Mian Nawaz Sharif’s election victory speech on the night of election. “On May 11, six UNDP consultants rendered only technical assistance to ROs regarding new computerized result management system in place”, Franche explained. To a question, Franche said that none of UNDP consultants lodged a complaint that ROs showed them the door or their computers were forcibly shut down. It is noteworthy that speaking at a public rally in Bahawalpur Friday Imran Khan had alleged that after Sharif’s “declaration of a clean sweep in polls”, none of the data-enrtry operators sent a single computerized result copy to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). Another of Khan's accusations was that ROs coerced operators to hold up the operation. "Using this delay as a justification, the ROs sent handwritten results to ECP. This is how the results were rigged to defeat PTI in different constituencies." The UNDP project titled “Electoral Cycle Support to the Election Commission of Pakistan” was aimed at ensuring transparency in the May 11 polls. The UN agency had extended similar technical assistance to over 60 countries.
ANOTHER BOMB ATTACK ON EXPRESS NEWS TV’S PESHAWAR BUREAU CHIEF
The latest in a nearly year-old string of attacks on Express News personnel and installations Reporters Without Borders condemns today’s bombing of the home of Jamshed Baghwan, Express News TV’s bureau chief in Peshawar. It was the third attempt to target Baghwan and his family with an explosive device since March and the latest in an 11-month-old string of attacks on Express Media group personnel and installations, some of which have been claimed by the Taliban. Left in a milk pack in front of the house by men on a motorcycle, today’s home-made bomb damaged the outside of the building but caused no injuries when it was set off by a timer at 11 am. “We are outraged by this latest murder attempt targeting an Express News journalist and his family,” said Benjamin Ismaïl, the head of the Reporters Without Borders Asia-Pacific desk. “We urge the authorities to react quickly and to assign security personnel to protect their home.” “My family members and I are all safe, thank God,” Baghwan told RWB. “More than one kilogram of explosives was used in the attack. Today’s blast was bigger than the previous ones.” Asked who he thought was behind the bombs, Baghwan said: “The enemy is unknown. I am clueless as to why these elements are targeting my house. I see no reason to believe that these attacks are unrelated to my profession.” Although no group has claimed the bomb attacks on Baghwan’s home, the police think the same people were behind them, and that the motive may have been to put pressure on him and other journalists. Baghwan also expressed dismay at the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial government’s failure to protect him. “No-one from the government side has contacted me since these bombs started going off outside my home. I’ve not been provided any security nor has the information minister expressed any solidarity with me.” The attacks on Express News began in August 2013, when shots were fired at its headquarters in Karachi. It was the target of shots and bombs again in December. Three of its employees were shot dead in Karachi in January. And, on 28 March, shots were fired at a car carrying star programme host Raza Rumi, killing his driver and injuring his bodyguard. Some of these attacks have been claimed by Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, which said it acted to combat the negative coverage it was getting from Express News and other media. Pakistan is ranked 158th out of 180 countries in the 2014 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.
Pakistan’s New Security Operation Is a Humanitarian Crisis. The U.S. Is Partially To Blame.
By Osita Nwanevu
Two weeks ago, Pakistani security forces launched Operation Zarb-e-Azb, a major offensive against militants in Waziristan, a region near the country’s border with Afghanistan. Just days before, the C.I.A. had conducted its first drone strikes in nearly half a year against militants of the Haqqani network based in the very same region. The Pakistani government wants you to believe this was a coincidence. "Are you implying that these attacks have been coordinated?" Pakistani Foreign Minister Tasnim Aslamm demanded of a reporter asking about the strikes." If that is the case then you are wrong. There is no way we condone these attacks. We have condemned them." The C.I.A, for its part, hasn't said anything about taking part in Zarb-e-Azb, but the consensus among Pakistan watchers seems to be that the operation and the strikes are products of cooperation behind the scenes. "These strikes were almost certainly commissioned and supported by Pakistan’s military and intelligence services," wrote The New Yorker's Steve Coll. "It would seem unthinkable for the Obama Administration to act unilaterally with drones just when Pakistan was at last doing what it had long urged." The fact that neither the U.S. nor the Pakistani government—putative allies—have been willing to own up to their cooperation on this front says volumes about just how complex things have become in the region. It’s a world where, in the eyes of Pakistan's leaders, there exist good militants, and bad militants, and in-between militants and the only party they can safely criticize publicly with any consistency is the C.I.A., whose drone strikes, they maintain, are violations of sovereignty that do little more than kill innocents. The C.I.A., Pakistan argues, bears full responsibility for drone strikes and their consequences because the C.I.A. pulls the trigger—never mind the fact that Pakistan has always wanted to tell the C.I.A. where to shoot. And vice versa. In an October 2010 press briefing, then Assistant Secretary of State Phillip J. Crowley was open about the need for a Waziristan campaign. "We want to see greater action, particularly focused on North Waziristan," he told reporters. "We have said that publicly and privately.” Earlier that year, Pakistani military chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani had been directly asked by General Stanley McChrystal and other American officials to combat obvious Al-Qaeda and Pakistani Taliban activity in North Waziristan as soon as possible. Recently, Congress elected to take the arm-twisting a little further. The version of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2015 now pending passage in the Senate would have withheld $300 million in expected counterterrorism reimbursements to Pakistan had the military not launched a Waziristan campaign. Pakistan, it seems, has finally gotten the message, and Zarb-e-Azb may ultimately be a strategic success. But it has already been a humanitarian disaster. Over 500,000 refugees have fled from Waziristan into neighboring regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan over the past two weeks, leaving behind their homes and those too poor to hire others to help them move. Last week, refugees frustrated with the authorities' spotty relief distribution network, long waits in triple-digit heat, and shortages confronted security forces with protests in the city of Bannu. Meanwhile, a third week of jet strikes and shelling continues and the Pakistani Army’s ground campaign has only just begun. The number of casualties thus far is unclear, in part because the Pakistani military has banned journalists from entering the field of operations. Its own reports claim that 376 militants have been killed. No one seems willing to hazard a guess about the number of civilians lost. None of this should be a surprise to American officials. In 2009, a similar offensive, Operation Rah-e Rast, was launched against militants in the Swat Valley region bordering Waziristan. Five years later, the death count for civilians during the operation is still anyone's guess. Over two million people were displaced in an exodus from the region that was compared by U.N. officials to 1994's refugee crisis in Rwanda. This time around, Pakistan’s polio crisis has complicated the outflow of the displaced even further, as aid workers rush to vaccinate thousands of the unimmunized before they scatter across the country. Fortunately, these efforts could be helped by the $8 million in aid for the displaced pledged by USAID late last week. Additionally, recent history suggests that the Obama administration could be forthcoming with more money in the near future: after Operation Rah-e Rast, the U.S. pledged $110 million in aid for refugees from the Swat Valley. But, as is the case with much U.S. aid to Pakistan, it's difficult to ascertain where exactly that money went. Moreover, the amount was dwarfed by the $989 million in "security-related" aid given to Pakistan in fiscal year 2009—money that was presumably used in the operations that displaced the refugees in the first place. That year, then Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke called the notion that the United States deserved direct blame for the unfolding humanitarian situation in the Swat Valley “ludicrous." This was fair. It also would have been fair to ask where U.S. culpability for the civilian toll incurred by its Pakistani allies begins—a question made especially relevant by Operation Zarb-e-Azb, a campaign American officials have long wanted Pakistan to carry out. If the Obama administration really does have an obligation to continue the fight against the Taliban alongside Pakistan, it stands to reason that it has an additional obligation to minimize the costs that fight imposes on innocent civilians. For half a decade now, that obligation has grounded critiques of our drone policy. It should also ground critiques of all the other counter-terrorism strategies we endorse—whether or not the United States is directly behind the trigger.
Pakistan: Extremists Threat A Local Christian To Convert To Islam
A Christian businessman receiving threats from extremists as they make his life miserable.
A Christian man who is resident of a Christian colony in District of Nahla- Lahore has been lately receiving threats by extremists asserting: If you do not convert to Islam, you cannot continue your business. This Christian man is reported to own a shop offering meagre livelihood to him. He reveals that the extremists by force have closed his shop restraining him to approach police, threatening him death or a false complaint to the police otherwise. The troubled Christian approached a local Christian Human Rights activist for help who in turn guaranteed him all possible legal assistance, as he facilitated the distressed Christian man to file an FIR against the extremists in the nearby police station. The Human Rights Activist while stating this story to Fides said: At the basis of such acts of violence, which are very common in Pakistani society, there is a discriminatory ideology, because, according to the extremists, Christians should not be allowed to carry out economic or commercial activities, as they belong to the lower castes. They are considered ‘inferior’. So they should only do the most menial jobs. As reported another Christian man from the same area received similar threats from the extremists. Christian residents of the same colony in Nahla dread that their can be possible threats to other Christians of this area while further Christians become terrified of extremists. The Human Rights Activist said: This kind of daily pressures and discriminatory ideology is the basis of the constant bleeding of the Christian faithful who, slowly, are leaving Pakistan and are choosing other destinations, such as India or Europe, in the hope of living in peace. - See more at: http://www.christiansinpakistan.com/extremists-threat-a-local-christian-to-convert-to-islam/#sthash.3xNzAJlu.dpuf
Zarb-i-Azb: More IED factories, explosives recovered in NWA
Pakistan Army claims on Wednesday that three more IED making factories with large quantity of explosives, anti-tank mines, a suicide bomber training center, a media facility and a rocket cache were recovered from the cleared area in North Waziristan Agency during the military offensive. A spokesman for the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) told Dawn.com that Operation Zarb-i-Azb was progressing successfully as planned as six IEDs attached with four computers in a ready position were also recovered from a private hotel in the area. “Forces are making swift progress in NWA as forces are hitting and shelling militant hubs and hide outs,” he said. Sources said sniffer dogs are also being used in the cleared areas to find hidden explosives in the tribal agency bordering Afghanistan. Meanwhile, former DG ISPR Major General (retd) Athar Abbas demanded that the military should give access to the media to such areas which have been cleared by the troops. Earlier, Pakistani military helicopters shelled militant hideouts in Khar Warsak area of Miramshah, killing 10 insurgents. Nearly 500,000 people have fled the offensive in North Waziristan, which is aimed at wiping out longstanding militant strongholds in the area, which borders Afghanistan. Tens of thousands of families have left for the town of Bannu, close to North Waziristan, while hundreds more have moved further afield to the towns of Lakki Marwat, Karak and Dera Ismail Khan since the Operation Zarb-i-Azb began in mid-June.
Pakistan People’s Party gravely disappointed over the spying revelation
http://mediacellppp.wordpress.com/
Pakistan People’s Party has expressed grave disappointment over the revelation that the National Security Agency of the USA has been spying on the PPP in 2010 and called upon the government to take up the issue at diplomatic level and seek guarantees that such grave violations of international law do not take place in the future. According to media reports the declassified documents have revealed that the NSA has been spying on the PPP in 2010. The revelation of spying on a major political party of Pakistan is a grave, unwarranted and totally unacceptable interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign country and is condemned, Spokesperson of the Party said in a statement today. The PPP is proud of its record of always acting in supreme national interest, it owes no explanation to any foreign agency and no other country, regardless of its might and power, has any right to spy on it. Such insensitive operations and unacceptable interference in the affairs of a political party of a sovereign country will serve no purpose except to increase resentment and distrust, he said. Those who have violated the norms of responsible behavior by spying on the political institutions of a sovereign country owe an apology, he said.
Pakistan: Lack of federal govt’s will to support IDPs & Poor Planning on the issue
Yesterday at Senate session PPP Senator Sehar Kamran raised issue of IDP’s and pointed out lack of government will to support IDP’s and poor planning. Operation support of govt is only restricted to advertisements of one province, overseas Pakistanis are kept in isolation, they have always been standing with the country at all times of need, they want to help their displaced brothers and sisters but there is no communication, government had not announced any bank account where remittances could be sent. Op Zarb e Azab is offensive against terrorists, it aims at flushing out foreign and local militants from North Waziristan. Pak Army is fighting the enemies of Pakistan, it is a war for peace and stability of our beloved homeland. At this time when we need national unity and string resolve to eliminate terrorism, it is unfortunate to witness non-serious attitude of government. Either they should accept that government lack administrative skills and will to eliminate terrorism or there are vested interest behind. There has been no proper planning to manage issues of IDP’s and extend them open hearted support. Differences between KPK provincial and federal government have surface, parliament is kept in isolation and political will to bring National Unity is lacking. When operation Rah e Nijat was launched in Swat there was a complete harmony between government and army, the whole nation was united to support IDP’s, successful operation and rehabilitation of IDP’s was a remarkable achievement of PPP government, Today there is no sign of national unity, PMLN government has self centered agendas, no planning has been done for IDP’s. Interior Minister is nowhere, NDMA has not demonstrated any responsibility. State TV and Radio is not seen broadcasting any telethon. Government is lost. If we are not going to look after IDP’s today we will be denying our national obligations and basic human rights. PPP chairman was first to announce support to IDP’s, and first to announce support to Pak army. We stand today with our brave army fighting to protect Pakistan from those elements who martyred our great leader Shaheed Mohtarma Banazir Bhutto. Terrorist have been killing innocent civilians, attacking our security forces, blowing mosques, destroying our infrastructure and they have made heavy damages to our economy and social lives. It us time to purify our motherland from terrorists.
Open secret: Censorship in Pakistan
http://america.aljazeera.com/
by Saim Saeed
When Pakistani readers of the International New York Times opened the front page of the newspaper on March 22, they were confronted with an odd sight: more than a quarter of the page was blank. The e-paper filled in the missing bits: excerpts from Times reporter Carlotta Gall’s new book detailing the relationship between the Pakistani state and militant Islamist outfits, which the government preferred to keep hidden. Two months later, it happened again when an opinion piece on Pakistan’s blasphemy laws was blanked out. The big white spaces are less conspicuous than the violent attacks that journalists in Pakistan have repeatedly suffered. (The most recent was in April, when Geo TV journalist Hamid Mir was injured in a gun attack as he was exiting the Karachi airport.) Both, however, point to the muzzling of media outlets, which have come under attack from many factions, including Islamist militants, political parties, commercial interests and the state itself. According to a recent Amnesty International report, 34 journalists have been killed in Pakistan since 2008, when a democratic government returned to power. In only one case have the killers been convicted: Wali Khan Babar, a correspondent who also worked for Geo TV, was killed in January 2011 by suspected members of the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), a dominant, Karachi-based political party. Six men were convicted in March. Four received life sentences, and the other two, tried in absentia, were sentenced to death. The party denies having anything to do with the murder. In an “overwhelming majority of cases,” the Amnesty report finds, “the Pakistani authorities failed to carry out prompt, impartial, independent and thorough investigations into human rights abuses against journalists, or to bring those responsible to justice.” The perpetrators vary, from the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the military’s powerful intelligence agency; the MQM; and a range of militant outfits, including the Pakistani Taliban, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Al Qaida-linked groups. In the early ’90s, Pakistan had only one state-owned TV channel, which delivered the news at 9 p.m. every day. In 2002, then President Pervez Musharraf loosened regulations, allowing private ownership of media outlets. Now, the country has 89 privately owned TV channels and 115 FM radio stations. While radio reaches more Pakistanis than any other medium, television tends to be more influential in shaping political discourse. Most newspapers are written in regional languages, but the Urdu ones have a high circulation, despite the fact that nearly half of Pakistan’s 180 million people are illiterate. While English-language papers do not have a high readership across the country, they are influential because they cater to Pakistan’s educated elite. One of the most prominent media conglomerates is the Jang Group, which owns several Urdu- and English-language newspapers and Geo TV.
Despite the recent gains in media freedom, the state, and especially the ISI, keeps tight control over what is printed. Hamid Mir made an official statement about the threats he had received from “rogue elements” within the ISI. He cited his coverage of the killings of Baloch separatists, who have been fighting a low-intensity insurgency with the state for decades, as the reason he was made a target. Immediately after the attack, Geo TV, a privately owned channel, aired his suspicions about his attackers, accusing the ISI of the assault. For a few hours, the picture of Zaheerul Islam, the agency’s furtive chief, was ever-present in Geo’s coverage. The ISI’s response was swift. It filed a complaint against the network with the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulation Authority (PEMRA), and the Jang Group was fined, forced to issue an apology and its channel was blocked for two weeks. Yet even while the case was still pending, some cable operators preemptively took Geo TV off the air, citing government pressure. “This sets a very dangerous precedent and opens the door for future attempts to shut down news channels that are critical of the state and its agencies,” the Committee to Protect Journalists said in an open letter to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. “It was the first time Geo took Pakistan’s spy agency’s name openly on TV — but it has been taught a lesson,” said Taha Siddiqui, an independent TV journalist. “As we see, it issued an apology and yet is facing shutdown.” While the case is over, Geo continues to face pressure from both the state and other media companies that smell blood. In May, Mubashir Lucman, an anchor for a rival TV station, accused the channel of blasphemy for televising the wedding of an actress in which musicians were playing a religious song.
The ISI is also widely suspected in the 2011 death of Saleem Shahzad, a freelance journalist who, just days before being abducted, published a story about the alleged infiltration of the armed forces by Islamist militants, much to the army’s chagrin. He was kidnapped in a heavily guarded neighborhood in Islamabad, the capital, and was found by a ditch on the outskirts of the city two days later, bearing torture marks. A high-level judicial investigation was inconclusive. But before his disappearance, he discussed his fears and the agency’s attempts to reach him with Human Rights Watch, saying that he had received a murder threat. “In Pakistan, no matter what the political rivalries are, the ISI is always at the top,” said a copy editor at the English-language newspaper The Express Tribune, who did not wish to be named for fear of losing her job. (Disclaimer: The author of this article also works at The Express Tribune.) “In a recent story I wrote, I was asked to not name the ISI; the name was basically cut out and I was asked to just write ‘agencies.’ ” Criticism of the Pakistan army is only one “invisible red line” out of many, said Shoaib Hasan, a former BBC correspondent. “Others include the nationalist insurgency in the southwestern province of Balochistan and the state’s covert backing of Islamist militants.” Balochistan has been a particularly sore point for the military, which has been implicated in kidnappings and extrajudicial executions of Baloch residents whom it suspects of being insurgents. In response, many relatives of missing persons have held protests against the government. Last October, the members of Voice of Missing Baloch Persons (VBMP), an organization that pressures the government to release information about abducted citizens, walked from Quetta, the regional capital of Balochistan in southwestern Pakistan, to the nation’s capital in the north to raise awareness of the issue. The protesters were frequently harassed and threatened by government officials on their march to Islamabad. “When the VBMP long march reached Islamabad, we were told it will not be covered or will only be covered in the local edition,” said the Tribune copy editor. When the marchers arrived in the capital, Dawn, the country’s most widely read English-language newspaper, was one of the few to cover the story on its front page. The Tribune ran a two-column story without a picture on Page 4. The News, an English-language daily also owned by Jang, didn’t run the story, but alluded to it in a different article about “[l]eft-wing Pakistani activists” in London protesting in solidarity with the marchers; the piece was 120 words long. It was left to international channels Al Jazeera and the BBC to do more in-depth coverage. Many of those interviewed suspect that the ISI attacked Hamid Mir because of his coverage of the march, which included an interview with the leader of the march, Mama Qadeer Baloch.
And it’s not just what is reported but how it’s reported that is a source of tension. While doing an investigative story about the nationalist movement in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir for a local paper, TV journalist Siddiqui said, his editor told him that “the story could not contain the words ‘Pakistan-occupied’ or even ‘Pakistan-administered’ Kashmir. Instead it would go as ‘Azad Kashmir,’ which literally means ‘independent Kashmir,’ when in reality it’s not so.” Zarrar Khuhro, magazine editor at Dawn, said that the “decline of the power of the state” has prompted many nonstate actors — euphemistically referred to in the press as namaloom afraad, or unidentified persons — to bully the media as well. Journalists call out political parties for their coercive tactics. According to Hasan, the former BBC correspondent, newspapers were intimidated with veiled threats into covering speeches by MQM head Altaf Hussain and Shahi Syed, a regional leader of the Awami National Party. Islamist militant groups also use pressure tactics: a Guardian report from February detailed exactly how editorial policy at the Tribune changed in the wake of multiple attacks on its building and offices, at least one of which was claimed by the Pakistani Taliban, also known as the Tehrik-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and its affiliate Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Armed men, who still have not been identified, threw explosives and fired indiscriminately at the paper’s offices in August 2013 and then again in December. Three staffers were killed in another attack in January, also claimed by the TTP. In March, Raza Rumi, an Express News anchor known for his liberal views, was shot by armed men on motorcycles as he left the television studio in Lahore, allegedly for his criticism of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, which have consistently been used to target religious minorities. While he survived, his driver did not. Rumi has since fled the country. In an email interview, he wrote, “The teams that worked with me for my TV shows constantly told me not to speak about [the] blasphemy law and accept it as a fair law. I defied and faced the music, I guess.” Following the TTP attacks, The Express Tribune clamped down on its criticism of Islamic militants, who had telephoned the channel right after to claim responsibility. According to an email by editor Kamal Siddiqi to senior staff that was leaked to The Guardian, “[N]othing against any militant organization and its allies” should be published. Ayesha Siddiqa, an op-ed contributor to the Tribune and the author of a book on the Pakistani military’s business interests, complained to The Guardian about the lack of freedom in writing about militancy and the state. “I said to the editor, ‘What am I to do, start writing about cooking or films?’ Because that’s all that’s left.”
Either extradite or eliminate TTP chief: Pakistan to Kabul
ISPR DG says Fazlullah sitting in Kunar or Nuristan, Afghanistan needs to do something about it * Operation in North Waziristan will target all terrorists, including Haqqanis
Pakistan on Tuesday asked the Afghan government to either eliminate Pakistan Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) chief Mullah Fazlullah or extradite him to Pakistan. Inter-Services Public Relations DG Maj Gen Bajwa said that terrorists of all hues and colours are being killed in the military operation in North Waziristan Agency. Ruling out any discrimination in the operation against terrorists in North Waziristan Agency, Pakistan on Tuesday made it clear that it will never allow anyone to use its territory against any other country. Minister for States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) Abdul Qadir Baloch said this during a joint press briefing along with Minister for Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage, Senator Pervaiz Rashid and ISPR DG Major Gen Bajwa. The briefing was held for foreign media on the ongoing military operation, Zarb-e-Azb. The minister for SAFRON said that anybody involved in terrorist activities would be eliminated irrespective of the group he belonged to. He said the internally displaced persons (IDPs) of North Waziristan have given the supreme sacrifice for the country by leaving their homes and they are our national heroes. He thanked the Pakistan Army for providing support to the civilian administration to cope with the IDP crisis. ISPR DG Asim Bajwa said that the army will eliminate Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Mullah Fazlullah whenever he comes to Pakistan. Bajwa urged Afghanistan to do more to track down hardline cleric Fazlullah, who took over the TTP leadership last year after previous chief Hakimullah Mehsud was killed by a US drone. “This is something we have been crying hoarse – this has been raised at every level,” he said. “The leader of the TTP, Mullah Fazlullah is sitting across the border in Kunar or Nuristan and Afghanistan needs to do something about it.” Nervous laughter rippled around the room as Bajwa faced aggressive questioning about whether the military was pursuing the Haqqanis or allied Taliban commanders who stage attacks inside Afghanistan but leave Pakistani forces alone. Although Bajwa did not refer specifically to the Haqqanis, he promised that the military would go after “terrorists of all hue and color” and there would be no discrimination between Taliban factions. To a question, he said that it was totally Pakistan’s own operation and the country has only requested Afghanistan and ISAF to seal the border so that the terrorists do not cross the Durand Line. The ISPR DG made it clear that drone attacks were not part of the plan, as Pakistan was using its own air force very effectively and with precision. He said that Pakistan has an estimate on the number of terrorists in North Waziristan and not a single terrorist would be spared in the operation. About the success of the operation, he said that the target was to re-establish writ of the state in the agency, eliminate all the terrorists and make the agency ready for development works like those in South Waziristan. To a question about delay in the operation, Abdul Qadir Baloch said that there was a popular demand that peace should be given a chance and the government was extremely sincere in talks, but the TTP broke the dialogue process and started terrorist activities. Pakistan, he said, has given great sacrifices in the war against terrorism, and the terrorist sanctuaries present in FATA were not made by Pakistan. He said that Pakistan would not ask for any financial support from the international community but the world community should realise its responsibility and do what it was supposed to do. He said that target was to break the TTP and there were clear signs that it was breaking
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