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Friday, August 8, 2014
Afghan Presidential Rivals Sign Unity Deal
Rival Afghan presidential candidates have pledged to resolve their election dispute and form a “national unity government” before NATO leaders gather in Britain early next month to discuss Afghanistan's future.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and United Nations officials in Kabul helped brokered the deal after extensive negotiations with presidential hopefuls, Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah.
Speaking to reporters alongside Kerry in the Afghan capital, both Ghani and Abdullah promised to cooperate in speeding up an internationally-supervised audit of the disputed June 14 runoff vote. Ghani hoped that the process will be completed by the end of this month and the next president will be inaugurated to end political uncertainty in the country.
“We affirmed today again both our support for this process of audit and our commitment to abide by its results. But to underline our sense of unity of purpose we are affirming that we will form a government of national unity to implement what we promised during the campaign," said Ghani.
For his part, Abdullah suggested the formation of the national unity government, and not the audit process, has become a priority for both the sides.
“We have agreed on this mutual program. We are committed to work together to develop it further and our teams will start working on the details of it for a few days, leaving the outcome of the elections aside or what has happened in the past but rather looking towards the future for the interest of the national unity of government with every eventuality which might come up as a result of the audit process," said Abdullah.
Former finance minister Ghani was ahead when the preliminary results were announced early last month. But Abdullah, a former foreign minister, rejected the outcome, claiming that two million fake votes were cast for his rival. His supporters had threatened to establish a parallel government, revising fears of political chaos along ethnic lines.
The political turmoil prompted Secretary Kerry to visit Kabul last month to persuade the two candidates to agree to a full audit of the disputed vote and to form an inclusive government.
But the audit has since been marred by controversies and walkouts by the two sides over how to disqualify suspicious votes.
Ghani and Abdullah also disagreed on the nature of a national unity government verbally agreed to in July.
Speaking at Friday’s press briefing, Kerry acknowledged an initial lack of clarity on both issues, but says they have now been worked through.
“That is why both the candidates are here today to say they are not asking for further [auditing] criteria or changes. And they have agreed on a process, they will stay with the process and they will abide by the process. That is an accomplishment," said Kerry.
The political deal brokered by the U.S. secretary of state seeks the creation of a new chief executive position in the governing system to accommodate the losing candidate in the future administration.
Kerry dismissed suggestions the move will undermine the constitution of Afghanistan. He said he hoped political transition will be complete before NATO leaders gather for the September summit in Wales to discuss post-2014 plans for Afghanistan.
İhsanoğlu to PM Erdoğan: It’s not me who received medal from Israeli lobby
The main opposition parties’ presidential candidate, Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, on Aug. 8 left aside his mild tone in responding to claims from competitor Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that it was in fact Erdoğan and not he who received a medal from Israel.
While speaking at a meeting hosted by the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) on Aug. 8, İhsanoğlu responded to the prime minister’s comments, which claimed he was an “Israel man,” during his campaign.
“He [Erdoğan] is lying about me when he calls me an ‘Israel man,’” İhsanoğlu said. “I haven’t received any medals from Israel. I haven’t received a medal of courage from the Israeli lobby [the American Jewish Congress],” he added.
A decade ago, the New York-based American Jewish Congress awarded Erdoğan its “Profile of Courage” award in 2004 for what it said was his stance on fighting terrorism and working toward peace.
However, the association recently said Erdoğan has become the world’s “most virulent anti-Israel leader” and demanded he return the award, which they gave him partly for his efforts to broker peace between Israel and Palestinians, in 2014.
“I received the Medal of al-Quds Star from the Palestinian president for my service to the Palestinian cause. They appreciated me, not somebody else. I did completely what he [Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas] said,” İhsanoğlu said.
In the summer of 2013, Abbas decorated then-secretary-general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) İhsanoğlu with the Medal of al-Quds Star, which is the highest medal from the State of Palestine.
During the decoration ceremony, Abbas said “The medal comes in recognition of İhsanoğlu’s efforts in support of the city of al-Quds [Jerusalem] and the issue of Palestine.”
Meanwhile, İhsanoğlu emphasized how he was engaged in cooperation with TOBB President Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu in improving Turkey’s trade relations with Muslim countries during his term of office as the OIC chief from January 2005 to December 2013.
“Due to the heroism in our policy, however, [foreign] investments ran away [from Turkey]. The insulting remarks that we used against them,” İhsanoğlu said, in an apparent reference to the government’s policy in the Middle East. He underlined how in the past, Turkey was acting carefully and not taking sides in conflicts between Arab countries.
“Syria and Iraq have gone. The Gulf has given up. Our relations with the West are being influenced because of these reasons. Our economy won’t continue to be positive,” İhsanoğlu added.
U.S. conducts airstrikes on ISIS militants in Iraq

Pakistan: Orders issued for Qadri’s arrest: sources

Pakistan: Punjab govt given two-hour ultimatum to remove all barricades as PAT supporters storm Model Town
http://tribune.com.pk/Pakistan Awami Tehreek workers on Friday managed to infiltrate barricades around PAT chief Tahirul Qadri’s residence in Model Town, Express News reported. While talking to the media, PAT spokesperson Qazi Faiz gave a two-hour ultimatum to the Punjab government to remove all barriers in Model Town, warning that upon failure of doing so Youm-e-Shuhda would transform into Youm-e-Inqilab. According to Express News, police have launched a crackdown against PAT workers in Model Town. “If the government doesn’t remove these barriers within two hours, PAT workers will remove them themselves,” said Faiz, adding that Punjab police should allow workers to enter the secretariat peacefully to mark Youm-e-Shuhuda. Earlier, Express News footage showed police running away from protesters as they poured into Model Town. An Express News correspondent present at the location said workers wanted the protests to remain peaceful but were forced by the police to step out and remove the barricades themselves. Earlier today, Qadri urged his supporters to remove all barriers and overcome all obstacles and continue gathering at his residence to transform the future of the country and fight for their rights.
Pakistan: If the Army steps in, it will be PML-N’s fault
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan on Friday lambasted the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, saying that when he was demanding justice, no one paid heed and now that he is planning to take to the streets, people were worried that it may result in the imposition of a martial law.
“If the army steps in, it will be because of you! The high-handed measures (that the government) is taking, I can tell you with confidence: there is no question that they can stop the Azadi March,” Imran told a press conference in Islamabad.
“We have the right to peaceful protest. If they try to stop a peaceful protest, then there is likely to be violence,” warned the PTI chairman. “All our demands are according to the Constitution. We have no other option left but to come out on the streets to protest,” he added.
He said August 14 would see a war between two ideologies — between monarchy and the will of the people.
Khan said the provincial government in Punjab had turned the police force into Gullu Butt.
He said PTI wanted democracy to flourish in the country, adding that if the Punjab government did not mend its ways, the army would indeed take over.
“Our aim is to reform Pakistan’s electoral system,” the PTI chief said, adding that on August 14 his party would present a list of demands before the government.
Pakistan: PAT workers storm barricades around Model Town
Pakistan Awami Tehreek workers on Friday managed to infiltrate the barricades set up by Lahore police around PAT chief Tahirul Qadri’s residence in Model Town, Express News reported.
An Express News correspondent present at the location said workers wanted the protests to remain peaceful but were forced by the police to step out and remove the barricades themselves.
Earlier today, Qadri urged his supporters to remove all barriers and overcome all obstacles and continue gathering at his residence to transform the future of the country and fight for their rights.
Express News footage showed police running away from protesters as they poured into Model Town.
Pakistan: Nawaz regime extends section 144 in Islamabad

Preventing a Slaughter in Iraq
Speaking at the White House, President Obama again pressed Iraqi politicians to resolve their differences. A move by Iraq’s government to appoint a prime minister who could credibly unify the country and lead the counterattack against the extremists has stalled. That division, Mr. Obama said, plays into the terrorists’ hands.
After so many years in Iraq, Americans are justifiably skeptical about what military involvement can accomplish anywhere — and the Middle East is so complicated that even seemingly benign decisions can have unintended consequences.
The United States, Turkey and other allies should move quickly to meet the Kurds’ needs for ammunition and weapons as well as advice on more effectively deploying the pesh merga and integrating Kurdish operations with Iraqi security forces. Under pressure from the United States, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq finally agreed this week to cooperate with the Kurds and to provide air support, and should continue to do so. That will still leave Mr. Obama with the task of framing a broader strategy that involves Saudi Arabia, the Arab League and the United Nations, just to start.
Iraq crisis: who are the Yazidis and why is Isis hunting them?
Raya Jalabi
The Iraqi ethnic and religious minority descends from some of the region’s most ancient roots and face executions for a reputation as ‘devil worshippers’Reports that Islamic militants have trapped up to 40,000 members of Iraq’s minority communities have spurred the US into considering a military-led humanitarian action. Most of the trapped people are members of the Yazidi religion, one of Iraq’s oldest minorities. They were forced to flee to Mount Sinjar in the Iraqi north-west region, or face slaughter by an encircling group of Islamic State (Isis) jihadists. The UN has said that roughly 40,000 people – many women and children – have taken refuge in nine locations on the mountain, “a craggy, mile-high ridge identified in local legend as the final resting place of Noah’s ark”. Gruesome images of brutally slain people have emerged in the past week, as local officials say that at least 500 Yazidis, including 40 children, have been killed, and many more have been threatened with death. Roughly 130,000 residents of the Yazidi stronghold of Sinjar have fled to Dohuk, in Iraqi Kurdistan to the north, or to Irbil. Reports of violence, repression and murder by Isis and other extremist groups have become increasingly prevalent in Iraq. Christians have also been targeted for their faith. The country’s largest Christian city was all but abandoned on Thursday, as Isis advanced through minority communities in the north-west. On Thursday, the UNSC condemned the Isis attacks on the Yazidi community, saying those responsible could face trial for crimes against humanity.

Who are the Yazidis?A historically misunderstood group, the Yazidis are predominantly ethnically Kurdish, and have kept alive their syncretic religion for centuries, despite many years of oppression and threatened extermination. The ancient religion is rumoured to have been founded by an 11th century Ummayyad sheikh, and is derived from Zoroastrianism (an ancient Persian faith founded by a philosopher), Christianity and Islam. The religion has taken elements from each, ranging from baptism (Christianity) to circumcision (Islam) to reverence of fire as a manifestation from God (derived from Zoroastrianism) and yet remains distinctly non-Abrahamic. This derivative quality has often led the Yazidis to be referred to as a sect. At the core of the Yazidis’ marginalization is their worship of a fallen angel, Melek Tawwus, or Peacock Angel, one of the seven angels that take primacy in their beliefs. Unlike the fall from grace of Satan, in the Judeo-Christian tradition, Melek Tawwus was forgiven and returned to heaven by God. The importance of Melek Tawwus to the Yazidis has given them an undeserved reputation for being devil-worshippers – a notoriety that, in the climate of extremism gripping Iraq, has turned life-threatening. Under Ottoman rule in the 18th and 19th centuries alone, the Yazidis were subject to 72 genocidal massacres. More recently in 2007, hundreds of Yazidis were killed as a spate of car bombs ripped through their stronghold in northern Iraq. With numbers of dead as close to 800, according to the Iraqi Red Crescent, this was one of the single deadliest events to take place during the American-led invasion. The Yazidis had been denounced as infidels by Al-Qaida in Iraq, a predecessor of Isis, which sanctioned their indiscriminate killing. Vian Dakhil, a Yazidi MP in Iraq, broke down in tears on Wednesday, as she called on the parliament and the international community to “Save us! Save us!” from Isis.
Researcher Cale Salih (@callysally) interviewed the Yazidis’ spiritual leader Baba Sheikh for the New York Times last month. She wrote:
The rise of Islamic fundamentalism more broadly has pushed thousands of Yazidis to seek asylum in Europe. According to some estimates, 70,000 people, or about 15% of the Yazidi population in Iraq, fled the country. For a religion that does not accept converts and strongly discourages exogamy, the assimilation of Yazidi youth in Europe threatens the faith’s continued existence. “People have gone out of fear of attacks or fear of racism. This makes it hard to protect the faith,” said Baba Sheikh. [...] For the past several years, Baba Sheikh, the Yazidis’ spiritual leader, tells me he has canceled the official yearly religious ceremony at Lalesh temple, the holy site of the Yazidis, out of fear of attacks.
CNN Video Report: On frontlines of battle with ISIS
Tens of thousands of religious minority Yazidis are trapped on a mountaintop by Islamic State forces. Ivan Watson in Irbil reports on the bloody onslaught.
Ninth polio case detected in Pakistan
http://www.thehindu.com/A five-year-old child has been detected with polio in Pakistan’s Sindh province, making him the ninth confirmed case this year in the area, officials said on Friday. Umair was among the four children from across the country whose samples were sent to Islamabad’s National Institute of Health for examination, which confirmed after six weeks, Dawn online reported. “So far he is the oldest among the children inflicted with polio in Sindh and he was allowed to be administered with polio drops just once a few years back,” a health official said. The official said that the victim was among the children whose families stubbornly stopped them from being vaccinated. The total number of polio cases detected in Pakistan this year has risen to 105.
Pakistan: IDPs pose polio threat to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa children
By Ashfaq Yusufzai
Unvaccinated children from North Waziristan could infect other children, international health officials say.About 160,000 unimmunised children have come to KP since the June start of Operation Zarb-e-Azb, the military counter-insurgency operation in North Waziristan, WHO Health Cluster and Emergency Co-ordinator Dr. Fawad Khan said. The unvaccinated children are the result of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)'s campaign against immunisation in areas it controls or controlled, doctors say. KP children who either missed a vaccination or are too young to have been vaccinated could be at risk. "We are tracking the displaced people in Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Dera Ismail Khan, Peshawar and elsewhere to give them the oral polio vaccine [OPV]," Dr. Elias Durry, WHO emergency co-ordinator for polio eradication in Pakistan, said. "It is of paramount importance to vaccinate the displaced people repeatedly because they bear a potential risk to the local children." "We have already administered the OPV to 200,000 people at 40 transit points to the displaced population, but there's a need to vaccinate all the 950,000 displaced persons regardless of their ages," Khan said. "We are launching a 10-day campaign to administer OPV to the displaced population to not only protect them, but also to protect the KP children." TTP at fault for the disease's spread IDPs and officials are faulting the TTP for the disease's spread. Pakistan is one of only three countries where polio remains endemic. As of July 31, it had confirmed 102 cases of polio this year, according to the Polio Global Eradication Initiative. The TTP have deprived 700,000 children in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of access to the OPV, Dr. Abdul Latif, polio co-ordinator in Waziristan, said. The Taliban are solely responsible for inflicting lifelong disability on the children, he said. "The infected children will remain a burden to their families even when they grow up, because of disabilities," he said. Children in KP have also suffered. "The parents of 35,000 children refused to let their children have OPV in every campaign in KP," he said. "Defiance by parents of OPV has greatly hurt the polio eradication effort." Parents condemn militants Aggressive efforts to eradicate polio are unlikely to materialise as long as the Taliban exist, Dr. Raees Khan of the KP Health Department said. "The army should kill all the Taliban militants to safeguard the country's children." "Despite our willingness to vaccinate our children, we weren't able to do it," Gulzar Mehsud, an internally displaced person (IDP) with a polio-stricken son, said. "They targeted schools and healthcare facilities to leave us without medicine and education." "The TTP has no mercy for children," he said. "My son fell victim to polio because of the Taliban's opposition … my family has been cursing them for rendering him handicapped." Muhammad Hanif, father of 6-month-old Habiba, who was diagnosed with poliomyelitis July 15, also condemned the TTP. "The local prayer leader said vaccination was against Islam, and my daughter is paying the price," he said. "Now we are sure that the Taliban are the enemies of children."
PAKISTAN: ‘Join Azadi March for your own sake’
http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan in a message to the nation on Thursday urged the people to step out and join his ‘Azadi’ march to Islamabad on August 14. He said that people should join the march for their own future and not for the sake of Imran Khan. “I have everything, but I am concerned about my nation,” read the message in Urdu. “If you do not step out on August 14 to fight for your rights, there will be no change in the country.” The PTI chief has closed doors on negotiations with the government and is set to lead a “million-man” march to the federal capital on August 14 to end Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s “monarchical rule”. A PTI core committee meeting is scheduled for Sunday to finalise preparations.
Pakistan: Revoke Suspension of Rights in Islamabad
Pakistan: PAT chief Dr Tahirul Qadri Qadri put under virtual house arrest
http://www.nation.com.pk/PAT chief Dr Tahirul Qadri’s movement was confined to his residence on Thursday as the police lay siege to his house and the party secretariat and blocked the main roads leading there, by erecting barriers and placing containers in the Model Town neighbourhood. Heavy police contingents are on guard around the Minhaj-ul-Quran Secretariat as well to cope with any emergent situation. Several police pickets are also set up in the locality and barriers erected to restrict the movement of PAT workers. “We are strictly ordered to stop Qadri from leaving his residence and his supporters to converge in front of the secretariat,” a police officer told reporters at a picket set up close to the party headquarters. Even the police on Thursday was unwilling to allow the vehicles of the opposition leaders who wanted to visit the secretariat. “We will not allow any vehicle of the opposition leaders as there is a possibility that they may take Qadri along with them on return,” a police officer commented, requesting anonymity. Following a heavy deployment of police force, Model Town appears to be a “no-go area.” On the other hand, the provincial hierarchy is yet to decide whether or not a full-fledged operation be launched at the PAT Secretariat to capture Qadri who is wanted by the police in connection with a criminal case. Lahore police Wednesday booked the PAT chairman on the charge of waging a war against the state, hurling threats and inciting violence. Police sources claimed the first information report (FIR) was sealed on the government orders and further proceedings were deferred as the investigation of the case has yet to be handed over to any investigator. Political pundits say the government is using the FIR as a bargaining chip to reach some settlement with Qadri. Instead of acting according to the law, cops ready to raid are awaiting government instructions to begin ‘capture Qadri’ operation at the PAT Secretariat. The PAT chief has not approached the courts for pre-arrest bail. “The decision to arrest Tahirul Qadri will be taken at the highest level. Police are there and are ready to raid, but the government has yet to give a green signal to the law-enforcing agency,” a police investigator disclosed to The Nation. As the riot police reached the PAT headquarters late Wednesday, a large number of the party workers, armed with rocks and sticks, gathered outside the secretariat to support their chief. Local residents are facing immense problems because of the police blockade as they are not being allowed to go to their residence in cars. The police have also hired hundreds of containers from different companies to block the entry and exit points and some others spots in Lahore. As the Martyrs’ Day announced by PAT is approaching fast, both the PAT and the government are busy in preparations. The PAT is preparing for observing the day while the government machinery is all set to stop the movement by using various tactics. However, a large number of PAT workers from different parts of the province managed to reach PAT headquarters on Thursday. A camp was also set up by the female wing of PAT in front of Qadri’s residence. Meanwhile, a large number of PAT workers were seen sitting in front of the PAT Secretariat. More than 30 buses were also seen parked at a public park in front of the PAT Secretariat to provide transport facility to the workers on August 10. To combat the possible police attack, the PAT workers have collected a huge stock of sticks and foam pads as preventive measures. Some PAT leaders claimed that ahead of Youm-e-Shuhada, more than 500 activists were arrested by the police across the Punjab. Since his landing in Lahore, the Canada-based cleric has been threatening to overthrow the PMLN-led regime by leading a revolution with the support of opposition parties. Although Qadri was literally put under house arrest, a senior police officer denied the reports.
Pakistan: Jamhooriat running scared and wolves at the door
Imran Khan stands isolated. Tahirul Qadri is a shady character and is of no account. If both these propositions are correct what is the government’s problem? Why is it so out of breath? If Shahbaz Sharif’s interview to Javed Ch on Wednesday evening is any guide, he urgently needs to practice some yoga to calm himself. I saw only the last part of the interview but what I saw was not reassuring. His finger, perhaps the most expressive part of his personality, did not stop wagging and he went on talking, now attacking the Chaudhrys, now Imran Khan, then Tahirul Qadri. For the record it should be noted that there couldn’t be a friendlier interviewer than Javed Ch…who gave a master class in how to conduct a supportive interview. All the same, piya ukhrey, ukhrey lag rahe thay. Thanks to Imran and Qadri the prime minister has suddenly rediscovered the virtue of political consultation. These past few days he has been hectically meeting a bee-line of ‘political leaders’. The problem is that apart from the chief of the Jamaat-e-Islami the rest of this lineup resembles nothing so much as a collection of cloth or paper tigers, who between them cannot muster a crowd of 5,000 on the roads of Islamabad. Stalin’s timeless question comes to mind: “How many divisions does the Pope have?” How many divisions can our friend Syed Khursheed Shah muster? For all practical purposes the PPP is dead in Punjab. Of what good is its ‘moral support’ to a beleaguered prime minister? The government is relying on gimmicks – a rough translation of the Urdu word ‘shosha’ – to defuse the threat of the long marches: lengthy Independence Day celebrations, the free distribution of national flags (who’ll pay for them?), and now declaring August 17 as Youm-e-Falasteen. The danger from the long marches is real. Shoshas and photo ops with paper tigers don’t add up to much of a response. In Turkey Tayyip Erdogan faces serious opposition from secular forces. But he also enjoys massive public support and whenever his opponents take to the streets, as at the time of the Taksim Square riots last summer, his Justice and Development Party has responded with massive public rallies of its own. Ask the PML-N to hold a public rally in its Lahore stronghold. The Punjab government can strain every muscle in its body, put the entire administrative machinery of the province to work, and it will be hard put to gather a decent crowd on the Mall. This precisely is the government’s problem. It has the legitimacy and the mandate of the last elections. It has the support of cardboard warriors. The trading classes of Lahore are on its side because the PML-N is the party of no taxes – no taxes for Liberty Market, Hall Road, Brandreth Road, etc, the first and golden principle of its real manifesto. But it lacks the ability to mobilise street power. On the other hand, the isolated Imran, the good-for-nothing Qadri, they alone in the crucial province of Punjab have street power. Khan is able to hold political rallies. He gives a call for a long march and the government’s sleep is gone and the Khadim-e-Aala goes into hyper-excitement mode. Tahirul Qadri issues verbal directions and an army of charged activists, men, women and youngsters suddenly appears, ready to brave all odds…down to standing up to the police and facing live bullets. Qadri may not be able to win any elections but he sure as hell can bring a massive crowd on the Grand Trunk Road. The nightmares the government is going through are on this account: beyond gimmicks and shoshas, the support of paper tigers and the power of prayer, it has only the Punjab police to rely on. The same police being made a scapegoat for the Model Town killings are now expected to defend the approaches to Islamabad. The one thing working to the government’s advantage is the apparent division between Imran Khan and Qadri and their failure so far to coordinate a joint march on the capital. Who is to blame and who is not to blame for this is a complicated story. But it boils down to Imran’s inability thus far to carry the majority of his so-called core committee with him. They want to go it alone, forgetting the sage advice that in politics division is suicide. On a dark horizon the one silver lining for the embattled Sharif Baradran (what a mouthful) is the continuation of this division. If both insist on marching separately the government has a remote chance of dealing first with one and then the other. But if the two marches converge the first to melt will be the cordons of the Sher Jawans of the famous Punjab Police. Next to disappear will be the paper tigers. What will remain is the immortal power of prayer. Fighting a real war in North Waziristan and suffering heavy casualties is the army. Busy with their antics are the politicians. The relevant versus the irrelevant: seldom was the divide between the military and political class so profound. The generals watch quietly. The question is whether they have made up their minds one way or the other. The nation is being misled by newspaper headlines. There is no middle way, no compromise possible, between the battling sides. Imran and Qadri are playing for broke. They lose this round and their marches come to nothing and they will be pushed so far back that it will be a long time before they recover. Long marches cannot be announced every other day. The Baradran can agree to no compromise because they know that on a downhill slope one step back can easily lead to the fatal depths – your enemies will always want more. Thus both sides cannot emerge as winners. When were we that lucky? The next few days are therefore crucial but if the Khan and Qadri are able to knock at the doors of Islamabad together we are headed for an impasse: the prime minister, the Baradar and their ministers confined to their houses and fighting their battle on television, while the initiative will be with the marchers. Who will break the impasse? Not Sirajul haq, not Mehmood Khan Achakzai….who can only issue statements in defence of democracy. Ultimately, whether we like it or not, it will be the call of the generals. This crisis and the way it is playing out are leading to that conclusion. There are two aspects to every crisis: what should be and what is. What we desire, what we think is best, does not always come to pass. So it is now, a government elected with a comfortable majority barely a year and a half ago but in deep trouble already, and facing a serious challenge to its survival. This is the situation we face and this is what we must tackle instead of going on and on about the great merits of democracy. The prime minister says woh dat jain ge – he will stand firm – against any unconstitutional move. He stood firm against un-constitutionalism even in Oct 99. That did not save him from being bundled off to Saudi Arabia, just as Bhutto’s defiance did not save him from a fate worse than any the Sharifs had to endure. So it is the practical we must deal with, leaving the romance of poetry and high rhetoric to a more leisurely contemplation. If Imran and Qadri manage to come to Islamabad, finger-wagging will be of little of use. The gates of interventionism will open. The outlook is thus grim. But this is a land with more holy shrines and mazaars than any other on the planet. So who can discount the possibility of miracles? As far as can be made out, this remains the government’s best hope.Ayaz Amir
Pakistan: Poor governance

Pakistan: Crisis, impasse, outcome
Pakistan: Sharifs, not me, planning to flee country
Video Report: President Obama Makes a Statement on Iraq
President Barack Obama said on Thursday he had authorized U.S. air strikes to blunt the onslaught of Islamist militants in northern Iraq and began airdrops of supplies to besieged religious minorities to prevent a "potential act of genocide."
Obama, in his most significant response yet to the crisis, said he approved "targeted" use of air power to protect U.S. personnel if Islamic State militants advance further toward Arbil, the capital of the Kurdish semi-autonomous region in northern Iraq, or threaten Americans anywhere in the country.
Lahore Police Clash: Three police personnel injured in clash with PAT workers

Pakistan: ‘Martial law administratorship to remain a dream for Nawaz’

Pakistan: Opposition warns federal govt not to take corrosive measures, show maturity
With the temperature rising in Islamabad just seven days before Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf’s (PTI) planned Azadi march, opposition groups in the National Assembly on Thursday advised the government to show maturity and work to reduce the mounting tension. Voicing their concerns over the reported crackdown against political workers, particularly in Lahore, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Awami Muslim League (AML) urged the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) to handle matters with tact. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who made a rare appearance in the National Assembly during its ongoing session on Thursday, did not move to activate his mic or issue a statement. In another telling move, the estranged PTI chief Imran Khan was conspicuous in his absence. Khan has not attended any sitting of ongoing assembly session. However, the PTI was not totally unrepresented in Thursday’s session. PTI’s Makhdoom Javed Hashmi said that the situation has become serious as the government has started arresting political workers despite the fact no unconstitutional step had been taken. Alleging that the government had virtually sealed Lahore and has seized thousands of motorcycles so that people could not participate in rallies, AML chief Sheikh Rashid claimed such tactics by the government would only prompt the likes of PPP and MQM to join the PTI march. Having already met with the premier at the PM House on Thursday, MQM leader Dr Farooq Sattar asked the government to reduce the tension by showing political maturity. He urged the government to avoid registering cases on political grounds. Joining the chorus, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah shared his concerns and asked the government not to arrest political workers. Shah urged the government to adopt its current trajectory and deal with the present political circumstances in the country. Referring to media reports that the government had started seizing motorbikes as well as closing petrol pumps due to the fear of PTI’s August 14 march he said, “Please don’t worry about the long march of the PTI as it is the constitutional right of any political party to hold a rally.” He also asked political forces hell-bent on dislodging the government not to take any step that was against democracy. “I want to tell the Prime Minister that all political parties, which have representation in the Parliament, believe in supremacy of the Parliament. In case someone takes any step against democracy history would relate them with dictators,” he added. Shah referred to the politics of the past when both the PML-N and PPP had less than cordial relations. “We have learned our lessons.” The PPP and PML-N though worked to restore democracy through their sacrifices and now it is up to them how they strengthen it. Reiterating PPP’s stance of not supporting any unconstitutional or undemocratic step, Shah said that today there were variety of rumors all around with some saying democratic system was going to be derailed while others were talking about revolutions. “We do not want to save anyone but wanted to strengthen the democracy and Parliament.” Earlier, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Sheikh Aftab Ahmed responded to the complaint of the opposition and clarified that his government would not create hurdles for those who wanted to join the PTI march.http://mediacellppp.wordpress.com/
Pakistan: US to stay neutral if govt is changed constitutionally

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