Pakistan faces tough task rejuvenating battered Swat

www.reuters.com/
Nearly a year after a Pakistani army offensive cleared the Taliban from Swat, government efforts to stabilize the region through economic rehabilitation have yielded limited results.

While small businesses are recovering from two years of fighting, massive state funding is needed to create jobs and industries in the former tourist hub where militants blew up hotels, houses and girls' schools and beheaded tribal elders.

Only that, officials say, will prevent the Taliban from returning to recruit residents disillusioned with a government widely perceived as corrupt and inefficient.

"This is by far the most important drive to keep the Taliban away," chief regional minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti told Reuters recently.

The first phase will require $1 billion, he said. It's a daunting task for the government, which will be hard-pressed to extract money from a sluggish economy battered by the steep cost of fighting Taliban insurgents.

The drive to win over the population by providing better economic opportunities and basic services is moving at a slow pace, as evidenced by grim living conditions, joblessness and lack of industries.

Unemployment has eased a little after thousands joined a newly created community police force, which pays $112 a month.

Swat's most advanced medical facility, Saidu Sharif Teaching Hospital, lacks basic equipment. Cardiac arrest victims rushed to the emergency room have no access to defibrillators.

A young boy with a fractured skull lay disoriented in a bed waiting for results from a battered X-ray machine. A bloody bandage lay on the floor. Flies hovered nearby.

A poster of wanted would-be suicide bombers with code names remind patients of lingering security threats in Swat, 130 km (80 miles) northwest of the capital, Islamabad.

A suicide bomber recently killed 14 people and wounded 50 at a police checkpoint in Swat's main town, Mingora.

MUSIC HEARD AGAIN

Progress has been made, aid groups say. Reconstruction has partially started. More than 200 school demolished by the Taliban were repaired. Tent schools have gone up and issues like supplies of electricity, furniture and latrines are being tackled.

Some small shops are back in business. During the Taliban's reign of terror, which began with rebel incursions in 2007, militants destroyed pop music cassettes sold in Akthar Muneer's store and forced him to sell music calling for holy war.

Despite thousands of dollars in losses, he now draws enough customers to make a decent living because there is less fear on the streets of Matta, once a major Taliban bastion in Swat.

"People are comfortable listening to music again," he said.

But major economic development is needed to ensure the region doesn't return to the bloodshed that kept tourists away from the stunning valley, officials and residents say.

Two men who said they were beaten and forced to join the Taliban sat near a house that was flattened by the group, comparing those chaotic days to a more stable life now. They are happier but the future is uncertain.

"We expect a lot from the government," said one of the men, who looked far older than his 47 years, perhaps from the stress of fighting and the ruins it left behind. "We have no jobs now."

Pakistan seeks energy, economic help in US talks

WASHINGTON — Top diplomats from the United States and Pakistan said Wednesday they want much broader ties between the two countries after years of cooperation limited mostly to the joint effort to hunt and contain terrorists.

Launching a two-day, high-level strategic dialogue here, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi vowed to improve ties by expanding the current security focus to include energy, development, education and agriculture. All must be addressed to combat extremists, they said.

A healthy U.S.-Pakistan relationship is considered essential to winning the war on terrorism, but the United States won't promise a deal for nuclear energy assistance to match one that it has signed with Pakistan's archrival India.

Dealings between Washington and Islamabad have been frayed by ups and downs for decades, but relations deteriorated noticeably after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, as Pakistan came to believe America was bullying it on security matters, and Washington began to question Islamabad's commitment to defeating the al-Qaida terrorist network.

Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was a confidant of former U.S. President George W. Bush and was considered a strong ally against terrorism. But his close ties to the United States helped sink his political career at home. The number of Pakistanis who hold negative views of the United States are among the highest in the world, and suspicion about America's motives and its improving relationship with India run through every strata of Pakistani society.

Clinton acknowledged that "misperceptions and mistrust" have grown between the two countries, and said that overcoming the mutual suspicion requires sustained work across several areas of government.

"This is a new day," she said.

As they opened the discussions, neither Clinton nor Qureshi outlined specific programs. But Pakistan has put energy, including civilian nuclear power, at the top of its list of priorities.

Despite their pledges to help, U.S. officials have been noncommittal about how they will respond to Pakistan's desire to be recognized as a nuclear weapons power and forge an atomic energy deal.

U.S. officials have concerns about Pakistan's record in transferring nuclear technology to states such as Libya and North Korea. And neither Clinton nor special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke would offer any promises ahead of the talks.

Pakistan would like to have a civil nuclear cooperation pact with the United States similar to the one its nuclear rival India has. Such a deal likely would require at least tacit acknowledgment that Pakistan, which detonated its first nuclear bomb in 1998, is a legitimate nuclear armed power, something the United States has refused to do.

It also would require approval from Congress, which only reluctantly agreed to the civil nuclear deal with India despite far fewer proliferation concerns. But that has not dampened Pakistan's eagerness for an agreement, which it believes is critical to dealing with its energy shortages.

The Pentagon's top leaders credit Pakistan's ongoing military campaign against Taliban insurgents with helping to improve ties with the United States. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen praised Pakistan's determination in a campaign that some U.S. officials had worried would sputter.

The Pentagon leaders told Congress they think Pakistan now understands that the Taliban presents an acute threat to its own government.

The praise marks a change from last year, when top U.S. officials regularly complained that Pakistan could have done more to fight militants along its Afghan border.

Opening the wider talks with Clinton, Qureshi said Pakistan remains committed to fighting extremism as "a strategic and moral imperative." He noted that thousands of Pakistanis — civilians and soldiers — had been killed battling extremists and that Pakistan's concerns must be respected.

"You are fighting a war whose outcome is critical first and foremost, of course, for the people of Pakistan," Clinton told the foreign minister. "But it will also have regional and global repercussions, and so strengthening and advancing your security remains a key priority of our relationship."

At the same time, she stressed that that cooperation must be more than military assistance and must include methods to improve the lives of the Pakistani people so they will not be attracted to extremist ideologies. Among those are projects to ease Pakistan's crippling energy shortages, shore up its battered economy and improve development aid.

Clinton and Qureshi are heading their respective delegations, which also include top military, finance, agriculture and development officials.

Afghan Cops Aren't Ready to Serve

www.surgar.net
Mohammad Moqim watches in despair as his men struggle with their AK-47 automatic rifles, doing their best to hit man-size targets 50 meters away. A few of the police trainees lying prone in the mud are decent shots, but the rest shoot clumsily, and fumble as they try to reload their weapons. The Afghan National Police (ANP) captain sighs as he dismisses one group of trainees and orders 25 more to take their places on the firing line. "We are still at zero," says Captain Moqim, 35, an eight-year veteran of the force. "They don't listen, are undisciplined, and will never be real policemen."

Poor marksmanship is the least of it. Worse, crooked Afghan cops supply much of the ammunition used by the Taliban, according to Saleh Mohammed, an insurgent commander in Helmand province. The bullets and rocket-propelled grenades sold by the cops are cheaper and of better quality than the ammo at local markets, he says. It's easy for local cops to concoct credible excuses for using so much ammunition, especially because their supervisors try to avoid areas where the Taliban are active. Mohammed says local police sometimes even stage fake firefights so that if higher-ups question their outsize orders for ammo, villagers will say they've heard fighting.

America has spent more than $6 billion since 2002 in an effort to create an effective Afghan police force, buying weapons, building police academies, and hiring defense contractors to train the recruits—but the program has been a disaster. More than $322 million worth of invoices for police training were approved even though the funds were poorly accounted for, according to a government audit, and fewer than 12 percent of the country's police units are capable of operating on their own. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, the State Department's top representative in the region, has publicly called the Afghan police "an inadequate organization, riddled with corruption." During the Obama administration's review of Afghanistan policy last year, "this issue received more attention than any other except for the question of U.S. troop levels," Holbrooke later told NEWSWEEK. "We drilled down deep into this."

The worst of it is that the police are central to Washington's plans for getting out of Afghanistan. The U.S.-backed government in Kabul will never have popular support if it can't keep people safe in their own homes and streets. Yet in a United Nations poll last fall, more than half the Afghan respondents said the police are corrupt. Police commanders have been implicated in drug trafficking, and when U.S. Marines moved into the town of Aynak last summer, villagers accused the local police force of extortion, assault, and rape.

The public's distrust of the cops is palpable in the former insurgent stronghold of Marja. Village elders welcomed the U.S. Marines who recently drove out the Taliban, but told the Americans flatly they don't want the ANP to return. "The people of Marja will tell you that one of their greatest fears was the police coming back," says Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, who took over in November as chief of the U.S. program to expand and improve Afghanistan's security forces. "You constantly hear these stories about who was worse: the Afghan police that were there or the Taliban." The success of America's counterinsurgency strategy depends on the cops, who have greater contact with local communities than the Army does. "This is not about seizing land or holding terrain; it's about the people," says Caldwell. "You have to have a police force that the people accept, believe in, and trust."

More than a year after Barack Obama took office, the president is still discovering how bad things are. At a March 12 briefing on Afghanistan with his senior advisers, he asked whether the police will be ready when America's scheduled drawdown begins in July 2011, according to a senior official who was in the room. "It's inconceivable, but in fact for eight years we weren't training the police," replied Caldwell, taking part in the meeting via video link from Afghanistan. "We just never trained them before. All we did was give them a uniform." The president looked stunned. "Eight years," he said. "And we didn't train police? It's mind-boggling." The room was silent.

Efforts to build a post-Taliban police force have been plagued from the start by unrealistic goals, poor oversight, and slapdash hiring. Patrolmen were recruited locally, issued weapons, and placed on the beat with little or no formal training. Most of their techniques have been picked up on the job—including plenty of ugly habits. Even now, Caldwell says, barely a quarter of the 98,000-member force has received any formal instruction. The people who oversaw much of the training that did take place were contractors—many of them former American cops or sheriffs. They themselves had little proper direction, and the government officials overseeing their activities did not bother to examine most expenses under $3,000, leaving room for abuse. Amazingly, no single agency or individual ever had control of the training program for long, so lines of accountability were blurred.

Coalition efforts to build an Afghan police force were painfully slow at first. By 2003 the U.S. State Department decided to speed things up by deploying the Virginia-based defense contractor DynCorp International, which had held previous contracts to train police officers in Kosovo and Haiti. The company began setting up a string of training centers across the country. After the Defense Department took a role in overseeing that work in 2005, it squabbled constantly with State over whether the training should emphasize police work or counterinsurgency.

Neither the State Department nor DynCorp was prepared for the job they faced. Most of the recruits are rural villagers who have never been inside a classroom. Roughly 15 percent test positive for drugs, primarily hashish. Few know how to use a toothbrush or drive, and nearly 90 percent are illiterate. In 2005 DynCorp opened a new police academy on the outskirts of Jalalabad, and within a few months the academy's drains backed up. Maintenance workers discovered that the septic tanks were full of smooth stones—a toilet-paper substitute used by many rural Afghans. DynCorp had to bring in backhoes to repair the problem, and the company had to add two days of classes in basic hygiene.

The ANP still takes just about anyone who applies. "Our recruits are unemployed youth with no education and no prospects," says Police Col. Mohammad Hashim Babakarkhil, deputy commander of Kabul's central police-training center. Since January 2007, upwards of 2,000 police have been killed in action—more than twice the figure for Afghan Army soldiers. U.S. officers say as many as half the police casualties were a result of firearms accidents and traffic collisions.

It's practically impossible to produce competent police officers in a program of only eight weeks, says a former senior DynCorp executive, requesting anonymity because he continues to work in the industry. But that was the time frame State and Defense set for the course. "They were not going to be trained police officers. We knew that. They knew that," the former executive says. "It was a numbers game." In fact, the course has now been cut from eight weeks to six in order to squeeze in more trainees. ("We believe the training is appropriate under the circumstances," says Assistant Secretary of State David Johnson. DynCorp spokesman Douglas Ebner says the basic-training course is part of a more extensive 40-week program, and is supported by further "field monitoring, mentoring, and advising." Training hours have been extended to make up for the lost weeks, he says. DynCorp does "not make the policies, recruit the police candidates, or design the program," he adds, saying the company has "fully met" its objective of providing highly qualified police trainers.)

Whether or not recruits have mastered their subjects, almost everyone graduates. Even if they fail the firearms test, they're issued a weapon and put on the street. Only the Interior Ministry can flunk a candidate, and that rarely happens. "There were a lot of Afghans who seemed to have some patriotism and wanted to make their country better," recalls Tracy Jeansonne, a former deputy sheriff from Louisiana who worked for DynCorp from May 2006 to June 2008. "But a lot of the police officers wanted to be able to extort money from locals. If we caught them, we'd suggest they be removed. But we couldn't fire anybody. We could only make suggestions."

A former midlevel DynCorp official calls the program "dysfunctional." Requesting anonymity because he doesn't want problems with his former employer, he displays dozens of weekly reports sent to State and military officials; almost all include some mention of an Afghan police officer or commander as "corrupt." Yet of the 170,000 or so Afghans trained under the program since its inception, only about 30,000 remain on the force, according to State and Defense officials. "In terms of retention and attrition, we can say there's a problem," says Steve Kraft, who oversees the program for the State Department. The cops' base salary and hazardous-duty pay were recently raised to match Afghan Army levels, but no one knows if those changes are really helping. "Once they leave the training center, we currently don't know whether they stay with the force or quit," Kraft says. "The bottom line is, we just don't know."

And what has become of all the billions of dollars this program has cost America? Government investigators aren't entirely sure. Fundamental questions are raised in an audit of the Afghan police-training program released in February by the State and Defense departments' inspectors general. When State finally sent an "invoice-reconciliation team" to review expense receipts submitted under one particular contract, it discovered that $322 million in invoices had been "approved even though they were not allowable, allocable, or reasonable." What's more, the auditors said, half those invoices included errors.

The lapses don't stop there. The audit says State Department officials "did not conduct adequate surveillance for two task orders in excess of $1 billion." According to the auditors, State's contract supervisors didn't adequately oversee the use of government-owned property, failed to maintain contract files properly, and sometimes neglected to "match goods to receiving reports"—meaning, evidently, that they didn't verify that the U.S. government had actually received the goods it had paid for. (DynCorp's Ebner responds: "We are fully engaged with the Department of State to ensure complete and thorough reconciliation of all invoices, and recognize and welcome the emphasis on sufficient oversight personnel to complete this process.")

Those failures should have been no surprise. The audit also found that State routinely short-staffed its contract-monitoring office in Afghanistan. At one point, only three contract officers were on the ground overseeing DynCorp's $1.7 billion training contract. A former DynCorp official who worked in Afghanistan, asking not to be named because he remains in the government contracting business, says he asked the State Department repeatedly for concrete goals for the police contract but never got firm answers. "I'd ask them: 'Please explain to me what a successful training program was. What are the standards you want us to apply?' There was no vision for the future." (Assistant Secretary Johnson says, "From the start, our training program was based on a clear, professionally developed curriculum ... A simple head count of the number of individuals on the ground ignores the substantial back-office support our contract oversight personnel had from Washington.")

A new set of difficulties arose last summer. Caldwell's predecessor, Gen. Richard Formica, decided that Defense should take direct control of the training contract. To avoid a lengthy bidding competition, he suggested folding the police-training mission into an existing anti-drug and counterterrorism program overseen by the U.S. Army's Space and Missile Defense Command. Bids were limited to companies already under contract to the missile command, effectively shutting out DynCorp. In the end, only two firms wound up bidding: Northrop Grumman and Xe Services, formerly known as Blackwater.

DynCorp fought back. In December the company filed a formal protest to block the Defense Department from seizing control of the contract. Last week the Government Accountability Office upheld DynCorp's complaint and suggested that the competition be open to all comers, including DynCorp as well as Xe and Northrop. DynCorp's CEO, William Ballhaus, recently told investors that the company's contract had been extended until July in any case; now it seems the new bidding process will take much longer.

At Kabul's police training center, a team of 35 Italian carabinieri recently arrived to supplement DynCorp's efforts. Before the Italians showed up at the end of January for a one-year tour, the recruits were posting miserable scores on the firing range. But the Italians soon discovered that poor marksmanship wasn't the only reason: the sights of the AK-47 and M-16 rifles the recruits were using were badly out of line. "We zeroed all their weapons," says Lt. Rolando Tommasini. "It's a very important thing, but no one had done this in the past. I don't know why."

The Italians also had a different way of teaching the recruits to shoot. DynCorp's instructors started their firearms training with 20-round clips at 50 meters; the recruits couldn't be sure at first if they were even hitting the target. Instead the carabinieri started them off with just three bullets each and a target only seven meters away. The recruits would shoot, check the target, and be issued three more rounds. When they began gaining confidence, the distance was gradually increased to 15, then 30, and then 50 meters. On a recent day on the firing range only one of 73 recruits failed the shooting test. The Italians say that's a huge improvement. (DynCorp says its civilian police advisers are "highly qualified"; the average trainer has more than a decade of law-enforcement experience.)

Caldwell also says it's just easier to work with paramilitary police units, such as the Italians and the French gendarmerie, than with contractors. Active-duty police units have a coherent and disciplined chain of command, Caldwell says. "When I bring in a contractor unit I'm getting a different group of folks," he says. "It may be someone who was a state patrolman, a local sheriff, or a policeman from New York City, each operating under different standards and with different backgrounds." Everything has to be negotiated. "If I say to my contractor that I want to make a change, he may say, 'Well, I'm not sure if that's really the best way,' " says Caldwell. "But if I can bring in a gendarmerie force, they're ready to go ... and take instructions well."

By the end of October, Caldwell hopes to build the force to 109,000 members, including an "elite unit" that so far has roughly 4,900 members. That outfit is called the Afghan National Civil Order Police (ANCOP). It'll be used for particularly sensitive assignments like Marja. ANCOP members get 16 weeks of training, and they're required to have at least a third-grade proficiency in reading and writing. So far, reviews from Marja are mixed. "The new police are more organized, committed, responsible, and helpful than the previous police, who were more like a criminal gang," Assadullah, a school principal, tells Newsweek. (Like many Afghans, he uses only one name.) Local shopkeeper Hajji Noruddin Khan disagrees. "We are as disappointed with the new police as we were with the old police," he complains.

Quality matters. "In the rush to increase the number of trained police officers, we must remember that the end goal is a civilian police force capable of promoting good government, not a paramilitary adjunct for the counterinsurgency fight," warns Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson, the top U.S. Marine commander in southern Afghanistan, puts it more succinctly: "I'd rather have one well-trained cop than 10 untrained." Besides, the fact is that no one is quite sure how many Afghan police there really are. The Americans are only now in the process of trying to create a database that will positively identify and track recruits. Without such data, it's more than difficult to catch "ghost" troops who exist only as names on the payroll, not to mention possible Taliban infiltrators.

But the buildup continues, and so does the training. On the firing range just outside Kabul, one of the few decent marksmen is Khair Mohammad, an illiterate 24-year-old from northern Afghanistan. "I've already had a lot of practice shooting at the Taliban," he says. He's been a cop for two years, serving one year in Kandahar and another on checkpoints just outside Marja. "I lost a lot of friends in the fighting," he says. Now he's getting his first taste of formal training, and hoping to join ANCOP. He figures he'd earn about double the $180 a month (including combat pay) he's been getting. His trainers are doing their best to make him worth the extra salary. "One thing the police don't know is good relations with the people," says Carabinieri Lt. Col. Massimo Deiana. "We're trying to train them to respect and relate to people." If such a skill is teachable at all, it could be far more important in the long run than knowing how to shoot straight.

HEALTH CARE BILL:The Day After

Editorial: NEW YORK TIMES

It is worth pausing to dwell on what happened in the White House on Tuesday: President Obama, just over a year into a tumultuous presidency in which he was sometimes wrong-footed and often adrift, signed the most momentous social legislation in many years.
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Editorial Series

* Health Care Reform

The health care reform law is an overdue and vital step in the construction of a social safety net, which began after the Great Depression and slowly moved forward — often in a bipartisan manner — until it was interrupted by the Republican Party’s radical antigovernment fervor in the late 20th century.

It was a triumph for Mr. Obama and for the Democratic leadership in Congress. If Mr. Obama draws no other lesson, it is that his early and forceful personal engagement on big issues is indispensable. He waited a perilously long time to exercise his leadership on health care, but when he did, it paid off.

It is important to keep that in mind because Mr. Obama’s victory celebration had barely ended before people were asking, “Now what?” There was speculation, in some quarters, that the energy had been drained out of Mr. Obama and his Congressional allies by the struggle against a Republican Party whose only objective seemed to be to thwart the president, no matter his objective.

But there is important business ahead — lots of it. And while Mr. Obama deserves a break, he must build on this success, not rest on it.

First and foremost is the economy, specifically the creation of jobs. Mr. Obama offered a budget plan in February that called for cuts in discretionary spending and should have brought major Congressional action on jobs in return. After the Easter break, Congress will likely extend unemployment insurance and offer some fiscal relief to states. That may be enough for the economy to squeak through 2010, but persistently high joblessness is a plague that Congress may not confront in a comprehensive way unless Mr. Obama forces the issue.

He will also have to take the lead in improving the financial regulatory bills moving through Congress. Neither chamber’s version is adequate to fix the problems that led to the financial meltdown, and the banking lobby is working hard to render them even less effective.

Beyond jobs and financial reform — near-term issues that will bulk large in the midterm elections — there are longer-term issues. President Obama has promised to reform the country’s education system, and to address climate change and oil dependency by transforming the way Americans produce and use energy. In his campaign, he talked about immigration reform and restoring the rule of law to terrorist detention policies.

These are lofty objectives, and Mr. Obama may not reach them all. But the health care victory shows that big goals can be achieved — with Mr. Obama’s personal intervention and sustained leadership.

With rare exceptions, the Republicans are not going to help. Anyone who thinks otherwise should consider what Senator John McCain of Arizona said on Monday: “There will be no cooperation for the rest of the year.”

As shocking as that is from a man who more than once presented himself as a candidate for president, it sums up the political reality that Mr. Obama faces. Still, he should be able to sell the public at the very least on creating jobs and restraining a rapacious financial industry. The nation’s well-being depends on it.

Obama Attacks Wealth Inequality

New York Times
By DAVID LEONHARDT

For all the political and economic uncertainties about health reform, at least one thing seems clear: The bill that President Obama signed on Tuesday is the federal government’s biggest attack on economic inequality since inequality began rising more than three decades ago.

Over most of that period, government policy and market forces have been moving in the same direction, both increasing inequality. The pretax incomes of the wealthy have soared since the late 1970s, while their tax rates have fallen more than rates for the middle class and poor.

Nearly every major aspect of the health bill pushes in the other direction. This fact helps explain why Mr. Obama was willing to spend so much political capital on the issue, even though it did not appear to be his top priority as a presidential candidate. Beyond the health reform’s effect on the medical system, it is the centerpiece of his deliberate effort to end what historians have called the age of Reagan.

Speaking to an ebullient audience of Democratic legislators and White House aides at the bill-signing ceremony on Tuesday, Mr. Obama claimed that health reform would “mark a new season in America.” He added, “We have now just enshrined, as soon as I sign this bill, the core principle that everybody should have some basic security when it comes to their health care.”

The bill is the most sweeping piece of federal legislation since Medicare was passed in 1965. It aims to smooth out one of the roughest edges in American society — the inability of many people to afford medical care after they lose a job or get sick. And it would do so in large measure by taxing the rich.

A big chunk of the money to pay for the bill comes from lifting payroll taxes on households making more than $250,000. On average, the annual tax bill for households making more than $1 million a year will rise by $46,000 in 2013, according to the Tax Policy Center, a Washington research group. Another major piece of financing would cut Medicare subsidies for private insurers, ultimately affecting their executives and shareholders.

The benefits, meanwhile, flow mostly to households making less than four times the poverty level — $88,200 for a family of four people. Those without insurance in this group will become eligible to receive subsidies or to join Medicaid. (Many of the poor are already covered by Medicaid.) Insurance costs are also likely to drop for higher-income workers at small companies.

Finally, the bill will also reduce a different kind of inequality. In the broadest sense, insurance is meant to spread the costs of an individual’s misfortune — illness, death, fire, flood — across society. Since the late 1970s, though, the share of Americans with health insurance has shrunk. As a result, the gap between the economic well-being of the sick and the healthy has been growing, at virtually every level of the income distribution.

The health reform bill will reverse that trend. By 2019, 95 percent of people are projected to be covered, up from 85 percent today (and about 90 percent in the late 1970s). Even affluent families ineligible for subsidies will benefit if they lose their insurance, by being able to buy a plan that can no longer charge more for pre-existing conditions. In effect, healthy families will be picking up most of the bill — and their insurance will be somewhat more expensive than it otherwise would have been.

Much about health reform remains unknown. Maybe it will deliver Congress to the Republicans this fall, or maybe it will help the Democrats keep power. Maybe the bill’s attempts to hold down the recent growth of medical costs will prove a big success, or maybe the results will be modest and inadequate. But the ways in which the bill attacks the inequality of the Reagan era — whether you love them or hate them — will probably be around for a long time.

“Legislative majorities come and go,” David Frum, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, lamented on Sunday. “This health care bill is forever.”

•

Since Mr. Obama began his presidential campaign in 2007, he has had a complicated relationship with the Reagan legacy. He has been more willing than many other Democrats to praise President Reagan. “Reagan’s central insight — that the liberal welfare state had grown complacent and overly bureaucratic,” Mr. Obama wrote in his second book, “contained a good deal of truth.” Most notably, he praised Mr. Reagan as a president who “changed the trajectory of America.”

But Mr. Obama also argued that the Reagan administration had gone too far, and that if elected, he would try to put the country on a new trajectory. “The project of the next president,” he said in an interview during the campaign, “is figuring out how you create bottom-up economic growth, as opposed to the trickle-down economic growth.”

Since 1980, median real household income has risen less than 15 percent. The only period of strong middle-class income growth during this time came in the mid- and late 1990s, which by coincidence was also the one time when taxes on the affluent were rising.

For most of the last three decades, tax rates for the wealthy have been falling, while their pretax pay has been rising rapidly. Real incomes at the 99.99th percentile have jumped more than 300 percent since 1980. At the 99th percentile — about $300,000 today — real pay has roughly doubled.

The laissez-faire revolution that Mr. Reagan started did not cause these trends. But its policies — tax cuts, light regulation, a patchwork safety net — have contributed to them.

Health reform hardly solves all of the American economy’s problems. Economic growth over the last decade was slower than in any decade since World War II. The tax cuts of the last 30 years, the two current wars, the Great Recession, the stimulus program and the looming retirement of the baby boomers have created huge deficits. Educational gains have slowed, and the planet is getting hotter.

Above all, the central question that both the Reagan and Obama administrations have tried to answer — what is the proper balance between the market and the government? — remains unresolved. But the bill signed on Tuesday certainly shifts our place on that spectrum.

Before he became Mr. Obama’s top economic adviser, Lawrence Summers told me a story about helping his daughter study for her Advanced Placement exam in American history. While doing so, Mr. Summers realized that the federal government had not passed major social legislation in decades. There was the frenzy of the New Deal, followed by the G.I. Bill, the Interstate Highway System, civil rights and Medicare — and then nothing worth its own section in the history books.

Now there is.

US cooperating, not dictating Islamabad: Holbrooke

WASHINGTON : Pakistan’s anti-militancy actions have improved its image in the United States and the Obama administration is pursuing a cooperative relationship with the regional ally and not dictating Islamabad, US Special Representative Richard Holbrooke said Tuesday.

“We are out of the business of telling your country what you should do. Now we are listening to Pakistan,” Holbrooke remarked. He said the US-Pakistan relationship is getting “stronger and stronger.”

At a joint press briefing with Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir, the American envoy said “Pakistan’s (anti-militant) actions last year have had a deep effect on American public opinion. I think, you will see it Mr Secretary if you talk to ordinary Americans, you go to the (Capitol) Hill today, I think you will see much more appreciation for Pakistan than in previous trips.”

Holbrooke cited several examples of how the Obama Administration has been receptive to Islamabad’s ideas and has accordingly changed the policies it inherited.

Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir on the occasion said both Pakistan and the United States are working hard towards a stronger relationship.

“We want to establish long-term full-spectrum relationship with the United States.”

The top Pakistani career diplomat said Pakistan-US engagement is very important but “it is not about numbers” in terms of economic assistance.

“It is the relationship which is important.”

At the same time, he said, “there is the reality of interdependence” between Pakistan and the United States.

“It is not a donor-recipient relationship we are looking for, but a long long-term engagement.”

Pukhtunkhwa(NWFP)virtually turned into cultural wasteland

PESHAWAR: The North-West Frontier Province with its rich cultural heritage has been turned into a cultural wasteland for the last few years.

The most trumpeted cultural directorate is yet to become functional at the historic Gor Gathri complex, while artistes and singers are still under threat and yet to restart their career. Private cultural and literary functions are being held at their own risk.

“The government has made tall claims to establish cultural directorate and work for the benefits of the poets and artistes but no such promise has been fulfilled. The state-run television station in Peshawar too has no plan to air quality cultural or literary programmes for the last many months. The artistes and writers are demoralized with the Philistine attitude of the government. On the contrary whatever the government says is no more than hollow slogans,” deplored Prof Abaseen Yousafzai, a Pashto poet and chairman of the Pashto Department at the Islamia College University.

Providing protection and security to the artistes is another important issue. A year ago many singers and performing artistes were threatened with dire consequences if they did not give up their profession while some were even kidnapped for ransom and released on the condition of quitting the profession. Some started reciting na’ats.

Kafayat Shah Bacha who was a popular folk singer began sporting a beard and started reciting religious hymns. Many artistes left NWFP and moved to other cities in the country or abroad to escape the wrath of the militants. Haroon Bacha, another noted singer, sought political asylum in 2009 in the US.

“If there is no cultural activity, how can the singers and artistes survive? It is now the question of the survival of the artistes themselves, let alone the arts and culture in the NWFP,” observed a young singer, Bakhtiar Khattak.

“There are eight audio recording studios in the city, a few amateur singers turn up for singing as there is no academy or government sponsorship. It is at their own risk that they invest in a music chart and take it to private TV channel for airing without caring for its quality,” he said.

Prof Dr Rajwali Shah Khattak, director Centre of Pashto Language and Literature, University of Peshawar, told The News that it was unfortunate that owing to recent wave of militancy, Frontier cultural heritage was affected in several ways.

He felt bombing mausoleum of great Sufi poet Rahman Baba was a tragic incident not only for Pashtuns but for all human beings. “In Peshawar’s Dabgari Bazaar there were 30 to 50 shops where musical instruments used to be hand-made and put on sale but now only two rabab making shops are left there which I believe is a great cultural loss. We must try to revive our rich cultural heritage by organizing cultural and literary events otherwise posterity will not forgive us,” Dr Rajwali Shah Khattak said.

UK expels Israeli diplomat over Dubai slaying case

Britain has expelled an Israeli diplomat over the alleged use of forged U.K. passports in the assassination of a Hamas operative in a suspected Mossad hit.

Israel said it was disappointed but vowed to strengthen its relationship with Britain.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband told lawmakers on Tuesday that the Israeli diplomat, who has not been named, was removed from London following an investigation into the use of 12 fake U.K. passports in the Jan 20 slaying in Dubai.

He says a British investigation found “compelling reasons to believe that Israel was responsible” for the forged passports.

Israel's ambassador to Britain, Ron Prosor, said Israel was “disappointed by the decision of the British government” but affirmed his commitment to a relationship ``of mutual importance.''

Karzai holds peace talks with Hekmatyar group

KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai has met delegates from Afghanistan’s second-biggest militant group and is studying their peace proposals, his spokesman said on Monday.

Hezb-e-Islami is headed by warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who is black-listed as a terrorist by the United Nations and the United States. The latter accuses him of taking part in and supporting attacks by al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Karzai has been pursuing peace talks in the hope of ending the crippling insurgency led by the Taliban, while the United States implements a troop surge designed to weaken the militants.

Hezb-e-Islami had said it would only hold peace talks with Karzai’s government once all foreign forces had quit Afghan soil. The latest move could thus be seen as an early success in the president’s reconciliation efforts.

“I confirm that a meeting between the Hezb-e-Islami delegation and the president took place a couple of days back,” presidential spokesman Waheed Omar told AFP.

“They brought with them a peace plan, a proposal, and the president is studying it,” he said, confirming that the president had yet to respond to the plan.

The US State Department designated Hekmatyar, a former prime minister, as a terrorist in 2003, accusing him of taking part in and supporting al Qaeda and Taliban attacks.

Hezb-e-Islami’s spokesman Haroon Zarghon told AFP that the delegation of senior members handed Karzai a 15-point document they hoped would form the basis of peace talks.

Of the 15 points, “one of them is to set a clear timeline for the withdrawal of foreign forces and another the formation of an interim administration”, Zarghon said by telephone from an undisclosed location.

The delegation currently in Kabul is headed by Qutbuddin Helal, Hekmatyar’s deputy and also a former prime minister, Qaribul Rehman Sayeed, Ghairat Baheer and other prominent figures who formed Hezb-e-Islami, Zarghon said.

Talks: He said Hezb-e-Islami would “for Afghanistan’s well-being and prosperity” also encourage the Taliban to pursue peace negotiations. afp

Afghanistan Signs Understanding With UN to Fight Illegal Chemical Trade

Senior Afghanistan officials and the U.N. Environment Program have agreed to work together to fight the illegal trade in banned chemicals.

In a memorandum of understanding signed in Bangkok, the United Nations and Afghanistan took aim at chemicals that scientists say harm the ozone layer and contribute to climate change.

Afghanistan Ministry of Finance Deputy Minister For Customs And Revenue Sa'id Mubin Shah says the United Nations will help train Afghan customs officials to identify the dangerous chemicals.

"Especially in the current time in need of building our capacity for the customs officials; without capacity the official cannot do many things so that is why it is very important, and identification especially of the chemical which is destroying the ozone layer," he said.

The agreement sets up a framework for helping Afghan customs officers implement the Montreal Protocol.

The 1989 protocol calls for phasing out the use of chlorofluorocarbons and hydro-chlorofluorocarbons, which scientists say damage the ozone layer. The ozone layer blocks harmful ultraviolet rays from the sun.

Scientists also say that CFCs act as greenhouse gases, which contribute to climate change.

UNEP Regional Director Young Woo Park says the agreement will help reduce illegal trade in the banned chemicals in South Asia. "The country, as the world knows, has the internal war, but they still show the importance of the environment and they willingly sign this MOU to make to deal with one of the environmental issues - ozone layer destruction; also at the same time how to deal with the illegal traffic of chemical substances," he said.

Park says the trade is difficult to curb as the chemicals are cheap and there is easy access to supplies outside Afghanistan. But he says the Afghan government has pledge to halt the trade within its borders despite the country's war.

The UNEP estimates that local and international crime syndicates earn up to $30 billion annually from the illegal trade in environmentally sensitive commodities such as ozone-depleting substances, toxic chemicals, hazardous waste and endangered species.

Pakistan Day celebrated with renewed commitment

In the face of manifold internal and external challenges, the nation celebrated Pakistan Day on Tuesday with a pledge to make the country a strong, progressive and prosperous Islamic welfare state in accordance with the vision of the Father of the Nation Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

The day is celebrated every year in commemoration of 'The Pakistan Resolution' adopted on March 23, 1940.

The day was dawn with a 31-gun salute in the federal capital, and 21-gun salutes in provincial capitals. After Fajr prayers, special prayers were also offered for the country's progress, strength and solidarity.

Seminars and special functions were organised across the country to pay homage to the Father of the Nation Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and poet-philosopher Allama Muhammad Iqbal.

Speakers highlighted sacrifices rendered by the people for the creation of a separate homeland for Muslims of India.

It may be noted that The All India Muslim League held its annual session at Minto Park, Lahore, from March 22 to 24, 1940. On March 23, 1940, "The Pakistan Resolution" was adopted through which the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent pledged to create an independent homeland, where they could live in accordance with their religious and cultural values.

On this occasion, President Asif Ali Zardari conferred awards on outstanding civil and military personalities in recognition of their meritorious services at an investiture ceremony at Aiwan-e-Sadar. Similar functions were held at Governor Houses in the provincial capitals ie Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta.

Newspapers brought out supplements to highlight the importance of the day and the ideals of Quaid-i-Azam, under whose leadership Muslims passed Pakistan Resolution in Lahore on March 23, 1940, a momentous milestone in the history of Pakistan movement.

The public and private radio and TV channels also telecasted special programmes. Thanksgiving prayers were offered in places of worship.

Pakistan Rangers held a musical show to commemorate the Pakistan Day festivities at Wagha border on Tuesday. Singers flock at the Wagha border sang national songs to mark the occasion.

Power stays away in Peshawar on Pak Day

Residents of Peshawar didn’t get a respite from long hours of load shedding even on Pakistan Day (Tuesday) and several areas of the city don’t have power supply for last many hours.

In different areas of Peshawar, unannounced load shedding for long hours has been going on. In the important trade centre of the city, Sikandra Pura, load shedding for 4 hours at a time has affected domestic shoppers as well as the business class people.

In Jahangirabad on University Road, power supply is suspended since 8:00 am whereas in suburban and rural areas of the city load shedding continues for 12 hours.

According to PASCO authorities, the province’s power short fall is 600 MW and long hours of load shedding are meant to cover the difference between the demand and supply of electricity.

Obama Signs Landmark Health Care Bill

NEWYORKTIMES.COM
WASHINGTON — With the stroke of President Obama’s pen, his health care overhaul — the most sweeping social legislation enacted in decades — became law on Tuesday.

Mr. Obama affixed his curlicue signature, almost letter by letter, to the measure, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House, surrounded by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and a raft of other lawmakers who spent the past year on a legislative roller-coaster ride trying to pass it. Aides said he would pass out the 20 pens he used as mementoes.

The ceremony included two special guests: Vicki Kennedy, the widow of the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, who had been a driving force for health care legislation before his death last year, and Connie Anderson, the sister of Natoma Canfield, the Ohio cancer survivor whose struggle to pay skyrocketing health insurance premiums became a touchstone of Mr. Obama’s campaign to overhaul the system.

Mr. Kennedy’s son, Representative Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island, was also there, carrying a gift for the president: a copy of a bill his father introduced in 1970 to provide national health insurance. On it, the younger Mr. Kennedy had written a personal message to Mr. Obama.

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. began the ceremony with remarks lauding the president’s “perseverence” and “clarity of purpose.”

The White House took on a festive air for the occasion, as senators mingled in the grand foyer of the Executive Mansion before the signing ceremony. A Marine pianist was playing as lawmakers and other guests, including patients and their advocates, chatted in anticipation of Mr. Obama’s arrival. As they filtered into the East Room, many lawmakers took out cameras to photograph one another and record the moment.

The landmark bill, passed by the House on Sunday night by a vote of 219-212, will provide coverage to an estimated 30 million people who currently lack it. Its passage assures Mr. Obama a place in history as the American president who succeeded at revamping the nation’s health care system where others, notably Bill Clinton, tried mightily and failed.

The measure will require most Americans to have health insurance coverage; would add 16 million people to the Medicaid rolls; and would subsidize private coverage for low- and middle-income people. It will cost the government about $938 billion over 10 years, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, which has also estimated that the bill would reduce the federal deficit by $138 billion over a decade.

Despite the president’s signature, the legislative work on the measure is not over, nor is the intense partisan fight over it. Republicans are already vowing to repeal the bill. And the legislative battle will flare anew in the Senate on Tuesday, where lawmakers are set to take up a package of changes to the measure under the parliamentary procedure known as reconciliation.

Congress clears historic health care bill

WASHINGTON – Summoned to success by President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled Congress approved historic legislation Sunday night extending health care to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and cracking down on insurance company abuses, a climactic chapter in the century-long quest for near universal coverage.

Widely viewed as dead two months ago, the Senate-passed bill cleared the House on a 219-212 vote. Republicans were unanimous in opposition, joined by 34 dissident Democrats.

Obama watched the vote in the White House's Roosevelt Room with Vice President Joe Biden and about 40 staff aides. When the long sought 216th vote came in — the magic number needed for passage — the room burst into applause and hugs. An exultant president exchanged a high-five with his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel.

A second, smaller measure — making changes in the first — was lined up for passage later in the evening. It would then go to the Senate, where Democratic leaders said they had the votes to pass it.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the legislation awaiting the president's approval would extend coverage to 32 million Americans who lack it, ban insurers from denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions and cut deficits by an estimated $138 billion over a decade. If realized, the expansion of coverage would include 95 percent of all eligible individuals under age 65.

For the first time, most Americans would be required to purchase insurance, and face penalties if they refused. Much of the money in the bill would be devoted to subsidies to help families at incomes of up to $88,000 a year pay their premiums.

Far beyond the political ramifications — a concern the president repeatedly insisted he paid no mind — were the sweeping changes the bill held in store for millions of individuals, the insurance companies that would come under tougher control and the health care providers, many of whom would face higher taxes.

Crowds of protesters outside the Capitol shouted "just vote no" in a futile attempt to stop the inevitable taking place inside a House packed with lawmakers and ringed with spectators in the galleries above.

Across hours of debate, House Democrats predicted the larger of the two bills, costing $940 billion over a decade, would rank with other great social legislation of recent decades.

"We will be joining those who established Social Security, Medicare and now, tonight, health care for all Americans, said Speaker Nancy Pelosi, partner to Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in the grueling campaign to pass the legislation.

"This is the civil rights act of the 21st century," added Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, the top-ranking black member of the House.

Republicans readily agreed the bill would affect everyone in America, but warned repeatedly of the burden imposed by more than $900 billion in tax increases and Medicare cuts combined.

"We have failed to listen to America," said Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, leader of a party that has vowed to carry the fight into the fall's midterm elections for control of Congress.

The measure would also usher in a significant expansion of Medicaid, the federal-state health care program for the poor. Coverage would be required for incomes up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level, $29,327 a year for a family of four. Childless adults would be covered for the first time, starting in 2014.

The insurance industry, which spent millions on advertising trying to block the bill, would come under new federal regulation. They would be forbidden from placing lifetime dollar limits on policies, from denying coverage to children because of pre-existing conditions and from canceling policies when a policyholder becomes ill.

Parents would be able to keep children up to age 26 on their family insurance plans, three years longer than is now the case.

A new high-risk pool would offer coverage to uninsured people with medical problems until 2014, when the coverage expansion would go into high gear.

The final obstacle to passage was cleared a few hours before the vote, when Obama and Democratic leaders reached a compromise with anti-abortion lawmakers whose rebellion had left the outcome in doubt. The president issued an executive order pledging that no federal funds would be used for elective abortion, satisfying Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan and a handful of like-minded lawmakers.

A spokesman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops expressed skepticism that the presidential order would satisfy the church's objections.

For the president, the events capped an 18-day stretch in which he traveled to four states and lobbied more than 60 wavering lawmakers in person or by phone to secure passage of his signature domestic issue. According to some who met with him, he warned that the bill's demise could cripple his still-young presidency.

After more than a year of political combat, Democrats piled superlative upon superlative across several hours of House debate.

Rep. Louise Slaughter of New York read a message President Franklin Roosevelt sent Congress in 1939 urging lawmakers to address the needs of those without health care, and said Democrat Harry Truman and Republican Richard Nixon had also sought to broaden insurance coverage.

Republicans attacked the bill without let-up, warning it would harm the economy while mandating a government takeover of the health care system.

"The American people know you can't reduce health care costs by spending $1 trillion or raising taxes by more than one-half trillion dollars. The American people know that you cannot cut Medicare by over one-half trillion dollars without hurting seniors," said Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich.

"And, the American people know that you can't create an entirely new government entitlement program without exploding spending and the deficit."

Obama has said often that presidents of both parties have tried without success to achieve national health insurance, beginning with Theodore Roosevelt early in the 20th century.

The 44th president's quest to succeed where others have failed seemed at a dead end two months ago, when Republicans won a special election for a Massachusetts Senate seat, and with it, the votes to prevent a final vote.

But the White House, Pelosi and Reid soon came up with a rescue plan that required the House to approve the Senate-passed measure despite opposition to many of its provisions, then have both houses pass a fix-it measure incorporating numerous changes.

To pay for the changes, the legislation includes more than $400 billion in higher taxes over a decade, roughly half of it from a new Medicare payroll tax on individuals with incomes over $200,000 and couples over $250,000. A new excise tax on high-cost insurance policies was significantly scaled back in deference to complaints from organized labor.

In addition, the bills cut more than $500 billion from planned payments to hospitals, nursing homes, hospices and other providers that treat Medicare patients. An estimated $200 billion would reduce planned subsidies to insurance companies that offer a private alternative to traditional Medicare.

The insurance industry warned that seniors would face sharply higher premiums as a result, and the Congressional Budget Office said many would return to traditional Medicare as a result.

The subsidies are higher than those for seniors on traditional Medicare, a difference that critics complain is wasteful, but insurance industry officials argue goes into expanded benefits.

IDPs from Upper Kurram not being registered: UN

PESHAWAR: Two hundred families are migrating from Upper Kurram to Kohat every day but they are not being registered, said a report of a UN agency.According to the report, a new camp has been set up for the IDPs at Thog Siraj.It said 51 per cent affectees pouring in Hangu do not have computerized national identity cards.

Democrats predict historic House vote on health care

House Democrats are predicting that a rare Sunday session will produce one of the most significant legislative triumphs in decades: passage of a historic bill to overhaul the nation's health care system to provide coverage to millions of people who currently lack it.

Republicans resolutely opposed to the bill didn't concede defeat Saturday, but warned they will make Democrats pay dearly in the fall elections if the fiercely debated measure becomes law.

With President Barack Obama's emotional appeal from Saturday ringing in their ears, House Democratic leaders prepared for three showdown votes Sunday: on a "rule" to establish debate guidelines; on a package of changes to a Senate-passed bill, including deletion of special Medicaid benefits for Nebraska; and on the Senate bill itself, the focus of intense national debate for months.

Democrats need 216 votes to pass each one. With all 178 Republicans and at least two dozen Democrats vowing to vote no, the legislation's fate lies in the hands of about 20 Democrats who remained uncommitted late Saturday.

Party leaders appeared confident that most would break in favor of the bills. They pointed to Obama's emotional speech to the caucus at the Capitol, and they cited a sense of momentum from the handful of rank-and-file Democrats who have announced their support over the past several days.

Obama told House Democrats they have arrived at "one of those moments" when they can realize their highest aspirations in public life.

"This is one of those times where you can honestly say to yourself, 'Doggone it, this is exactly why I came here,'" he said. "'Because I believe so deeply in this country and I believe so deeply in this democracy and I'm willing to stand up even when it's hard.'"

If Democratic leaders prevail on all three House votes, Obama could sign the Senate version of the bill into law. The bill of "fixes" would go to the Senate under fast-track debate rules that would enable Democrats to pass it without facing a Republican filibuster.

Democrats control 59 of the Senate's 100 seats, one vote shy of the number needed to overcome bill-killing filibusters from a united GOP.

House Democrats have long insisted that senators agree to change the bill that the Senate passed on Christmas Eve. Since then, it became deeply unpopular with many Americans, because of the special deal for Nebraska, a new tax on generous employer-provided health plans and other aspects.

In a sign of increasing Democratic confidence Saturday, House leaders dropped plans for a controversial parliamentary tactic. They agreed to allow a simple yes-or-no vote on the Senate bill. By planning to pass the package of fixes on the same day, Democrats hope they can persuade constituents they did not support the Senate measure as a stand-alone bill.

The legislation, affecting virtually every American and more than a year in the making, would extend coverage to an estimated 32 million uninsured, bar insurers from denying coverage on the basis of existing medical conditions and cut federal deficits by an estimated $138 billion over a decade.

Congressional analysts estimate the cost of the two bills combined would be $940 billion over a decade.

House leaders continued to negotiate late Saturday with a handful of anti-abortion Democrats who threatened to switch from "yes" to "no" on the legislation without greater assurances that no federal money under the new laws would be used for elective abortions.

It was unclear whether Obama would agree to issue an executive order along those lines. Long-standing federal policy bars U.S. aid for abortions except in cases of rape, incest or when the mother's life is in danger.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats who joined Obama on Saturday spoke of the health legislation in historic terms, citing the many presidents who tried and failed to rewrite the nation's laws. Several cited tales of ordinary Americans struggling to pay bills when insurance companies denied or cut off coverage.

Republicans who vow to do all they can to stop the legislation in either congressional chamber "are not just delaying the inevitable, they are delaying the imperative," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Pakistan tribal council: Army must destroy Taliban

Pakistani tribesmen participate in traditional dance, after a tribal jirga or meeting in Peshawar,



ISLAMABAD – Hundreds of tribesmen from Pakistan's semiautonomous regions near the Afghan border ended a rare tribal council meeting Saturday with a declaration calling for the army to crush the Taliban.

The meeting, held in the northwestern city of Peshawar, was called by an umbrella group of aid organizations and political parties in an effort to bring together people from the violence-battered region.

Participants called for the army to escalate its attack against the network of Islamist militants across the tribal regions, dismissing Pakistan's earlier offensives as "military dramas."

"It should be a genuine military operation like the Sri Lankans did against the Tamil Tigers," said Sayd Alam Mehsud, a powerful tribal leader, referring to the brutal military campaign that destroyed the separatist Tamil army in Sri Lanka.

They also called for more power for traditional councils.

"If we strengthen these councils and make them more functional, I believe it will win us half of the war," said one participant, Salar Amjad Ali, 34. "We, the Pashtuns, live for our culture and tradition and we die for it."

Tribal councils — or "jirgas" — play a central role in the Pashtun culture that dominates the region along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. These often-lawless regions, havens for al-Qaida and Taliban fighters, have been the scene of bloody fighting and regular attacks by American drone aircraft as the Pakistani and U.S. governments try to defeat the Islamist militants. Smaller council meetings are used in tribal areas to decide matters ranging from local administration to criminal cases.

While Saturday's meeting was not a formal jirga, it is rare to have so many tribal leaders gather together.

A declaration at the end of the meeting called democracy vital to rooting out terrorism, arguing that Pakistan's powerful military — which many see as the true power behind the country's elected government — should keep out of politics.

"A sapling of terrorism cannot grow in democracy. Any attempt to derail democracy is like letting the terrorists walk all over us," the declaration said.

One organizer, Syed Alam Mehsud, said the meeting was a way to bring together people from the area that is suffering most in Islamabad's war against the militants.

"We have just tried to unite people for the sake of peace," he said.

Participants said they had little faith in the U.S.-Pakistan alliance, and that Washington and Islamabad were more worried about internal political issues than dealing with the deepset social issues at the root of much of the violence.

"If we do not address the mindset of the terrorists, we will not be able to eliminate terrorists," said Sayd Alam Mehsud.

The tribal leaders urged the government in Pakistan to reach out to the militants — but also to crush those unwilling to negotiate.

"We tribesmen are more patriotic than anybody else," said one participant, Din Mohammad Khan, who had come South Waziristan, where a government offensive that began last fall is thought to have killed hundreds of people — militants and civilians.

"Pakistan is ours. We are for Pakistan," he said.

Meanwhile, in the southern city of Karachi, police arrested three Taliban militants Saturday and seized a bomb-making factory, a counterterrorism official said.

Police raided a house in the city's industrial area and forced the militants to surrender after a gunbattle, said Raja Omar Khatab. No one was injured.

After their arrest, the suspects led police elsewhere to the bomb factory, and a large number of explosives, detonators and other bomb-making material was seized, he said.

Violence has surged in Pakistan in recent days as militants — thought to be part of a loose network of Islamist insurgents fighting the U.S.-allied Islamabad government — launched a wave of suicide bombings.

___

Dems face historic House vote on health care

WASHINGTON – House Democrats predict that a rare Sunday session will produce one of the most significant legislative triumphs in decades. Passage of a historic bill to overhaul the nation's health care system would provide coverage to millions of people who currently don't have it.

Republicans are firmly opposed to the bill and haven't conceded defeat. But they warn they will make Democrats pay dearly in the fall elections if the fiercely debated measure becomes law.

With President Barack Obama's emotional appeal ringing in their ears, House Democratic leaders prepared for a series of votes Sunday. Democrats need 216 votes to pass each one.

Clinton pokes fun at Dems, GOP and himself

Former President Bill Clinton poked fun at Republicans, Democrats, his own health and his audience of reporters Saturday night, telling the Gridiron Club's annual dinner he was there because "I really didn't have anything much better to do tonight."

Clinton, who stood in for President Barack Obama, said Democrats are going to pass health care.

"It may not happen in my lifetime, or Dick Cheney's, but hopefully by Easter," he said referring to his and the former to vice president's heart ailments.

Obama, who's preparing for Sunday's probable House vote on health care reform, spoke to the dinner via videotape, saying that when he called Clinton to stand in for him, the former president said, "Let me clear my schedule for the next three years."

The dinner marked the 125th annual gathering of the Gridiron Club, whose members include Washington based reporters.

In another reference to his health, Clinton said his favorite cocktail now was "Lipitor on the rocks," referring to the widely prescribed cholesterol-lowering medicine.

He said that when Obama appeared recently on Fox News the president was "keeping his word about meeting with hostile leaders without preconditions."

In a poke at Obama's combative chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, the former president said, "I found Rahm. I created him. I made him what he is today. I am so sorry."

In the 1990s, Emanuel worked in Clinton's White House.

China Says Western-Style Democracy Won’t Take Root There

NYT.COM
BEIJING — A Chinese legislative official has said that China will not adopt Western-style democracy, marking a rare instance in which a member of the government here openly rejects Western-style liberal political reforms.

The official, Li Fei, said in an interview published Saturday on the Web site of China Daily that “different countries have different election rules and a socialist China won’t follow Western election campaigns.”

Mr. Li is deputy director of the legislative affairs commission of the standing committee of the National People’s Congress, a rubber-stamp Parliament whose annual two-week work session ended on March 14.

Mr. Li told China Daily, an official English-language newspaper, that while some people wanted to expand direct elections, he believed that the priority was to improve on the so-called election system now in place. The Chinese system generally reinforces the rule of the Chinese Communist Party, which has governed the country in an authoritarian manner since 1949, when it won the civil war. Many Western scholars have said elections at local levels have not given voters true alternatives to the Communist Party.

Despite that, Chinese officials often say in public and in the Chinese news media that the country is moving toward democracy, implying that some form of a Western-style political system could take root here.

But there are times when an official states outright that people should not expect Western-style reforms in China. In March 2009, Wu Bangguo, chairman of the standing committee of the National People’s Congress, said China would never “copy” the systems of Western nations by adopting multiparty democracy.

Mr. Li’s interview with China Daily was the latest instance of such blunt talk, and it comes at a time of heightened tensions between China and the West. In particular, relations between China and the United States have hit a rough patch, with no sign that conflicts between the two will be resolved anytime soon. In recent weeks, Chinese leaders have vocally rejected demands by President Obama for China to revalue its currency, which White House officials and some economists say is undervalued, giving China an unfair advantage in world trade.

In criticizing Western democracy, Mr. Li asserted that the Western system of elections simply benefited the wealthy and was warped by capitalism.

“Western-style elections, however, are a game for the rich,” he said. “They are affected by the resources and funding that a candidate can utilize. Those who manage to win elections are easily in the shoes of their parties or sponsors and become spokespersons for the minority.”

Mr. Li added, “As a socialist country, we cannot simply take the Western approach.”

He made his remarks after the National People’s Congress adopted an amendment to the main electoral law on March 14. The amendment reportedly gives rural residents the same rights in selecting representatives to the National People’s Congress as residents in cities.

U.S. Turns a Blind Eye to Opium in Afghan Town

By ROD NORDLAND
New York Times

KABUL, Afghanistan — The effort to win over Afghans on former Taliban turf in Marja has put American and NATO commanders in the unusual position of arguing against opium eradication, pitting them against some Afghan officials who are pushing to destroy the harvest.

From Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal on down, the military’s position is clear: “U.S. forces no longer eradicate,” as one NATO official put it. Opium is the main livelihood of 60 to 70 percent of the farmers in Marja, which was seized from Taliban rebels in a major offensive last month. American Marines occupying the area are under orders to leave the farmers’ fields alone.

“Marja is a special case right now,” said Cmdr. Jeffrey Eggers, a member of the general’s Strategic Advisory Group, his top advisory body. “We don’t trample the livelihood of those we’re trying to win over.”

United Nations drug officials agree with the Americans, though they acknowledge the conundrum. Pictures of NATO and other allied soldiers “walking next to the opium fields won’t go well with domestic audiences, but the approach of postponing eradicating in this particular case is a sensible one,” said Jean-Luc Lemahieu, who is in charge of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime here.

Afghan officials, however, are divided. Though some support the American position, others, citing a constitutional ban on opium cultivation, want to plow the fields under before the harvest, which has already begun in parts of Helmand Province.

“How can we allow the world to see lawful forces in charge of Marja next to fields full of opium, which one way or another will be harvested and turned into a poison that kills people all over the world?” said Zulmai Afzali, the spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Counternarcotics.

“The Taliban are the ones who profit from opium, so you are letting your enemy get financed by this so he can turn around and kill you back,” he added, referring to how the Taliban squeeze farmers for money to run their operations.

The argument may strike some as a jarring reversal; in the years right after the 2001 invasion, tensions rose as some Afghan officials vehemently resisted all-out American pressure to stop opium production.

Though the United States government’s official position is still to support opium crop eradication in general, some American civilian officials say that the internal debate over Marja is far from over within parts of the State Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

A spokesman for the United States Embassy in Kabul, Brendan J. O’Brien, said officials would decline to comment while the matter was under review.

At the heart of the debate with Afghan officials is an important question of cause-and-effect: is poor security in Marja the reason there is so much opium, or is so much opium the reason there has been poor security?

“Every province in Afghanistan where you find opium cultivation, you have insecurity as a result,” Mr. Afzali said.

American military officials and United Nations drug officials see it the other way around. Opium cultivation has been largely wiped out in 20 provinces where security has been improved, and in the seven most insecure provinces, poppy is still farmed.

“Nothing can compete with opium in an insecure environment,” Mr. Lemahieu said. “A secure environment is the precondition for governance and a long-term solution.”

Although the International Security Assistance Force, the NATO force that General McChrystal commands, no longer carries out eradication programs itself, its official position is that it supports the Afghan government’s efforts to eradicate, and lends backup and protection to the provincial officials, who are responsible for carrying out the eradication program.

The ardently anti-opium governor of Helmand Province, Gulab Mangal, has a record of success, cutting back cultivation by 33 percent last year. But he, too, is willing to make an exception for the current harvest in Marja — for the moment.

“In general I’ve been told by my higher-ups that this year you will not eradicate there, because people have suffered a lot of hardships because of the fighting,” Mr. Mangal said. “We may do it next year.”

Mr. Afzali, however, said the Counternarcotics Ministry still hoped to prevail in time to eradicate the current crop in Marja.

Mr. Mangal said, “If they order me, I will start the destruction of Marja’s opium the same day.”

The problem of Marja’s opium harvest is being discussed intensely by General McChrystal’s advisers, but none of the proposed solutions have proved satisfactory. One idea was to buy up and destroy the opium harvest, but opponents of that proposal feared that it would only encourage more opium cultivation — and might be illegal under United States law, turning American troops into de facto drug financiers.

Another idea was to give incentives to farmers to change to legal crops next year, while this year concentrating on interdiction of smugglers and the laboratories they use to make opium or heroin from the poppy paste. That would institute a sort of “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy toward the cultivators and would present a thorny question: where would troops interdict the opium — just outside the farm gate, on the lane leading from the farm, on the road to town?

“How do you support the rule of law while providing a proper penalty and disincentive so they switch crops next year?” Commander Eggers said. “We are in a real dilemma.”

There is little time left to find an answer: two-thirds of Marja’s fields are now blooming with tall red poppies, and the forthcoming harvest would provide work for thousands of Afghans from outside the area because it is so labor intensive.

Helmand produces more than half of Afghanistan’s opium harvest, with 22 percent of its arable land devoted to poppies, even after Governor Mangal’s forces eradicated a third of the crop last year. His province was awarded a $10 million Good Performer’s Initiative grant by the American Embassy for that effort.

Afghanistan now produces 90 percent of the world’s opium. And one way or another the opium trade supports an estimated 1.4 million households in the country, which has a population of 25 million to 30 million. It also provides enormous amounts of money to the Taliban, with a recent United Nations study estimating the insurgents had earned as much as $600 million in taxes from farmers and traffickers just from 2005 to 2008.

The farmers themselves do not get rich on the harvest.

Hajji Said Gul, a 51-year-old farmer with nine acres of poppies in Marja, said that after he paid back loans to buy seeds, and gave the Taliban their 10 percent of the profits, he earned $500 an acre with each harvest. He is not worried about eradication. “The Taliban have already promised us that they will keep fighting the government and foreign forces until we collect our harvest from the fields,” he said. “All my hopes are related to the poppy harvest.”

Muhammad Nabi, 52, a tribal elder, said: “It’s better if they don’t destroy the crops this year. Next year, if they provide better security, reconstruction and work programs, then we guarantee they will not grow poppy.”

Opium prices now are at historic lows, after years of over-production in Afghanistan. A few years ago, farmers could earn 37 times as much from opium as from wheat, the favored substitution crop recently; now it is more like two or three times as much, United Nations officials say.

Mr. Lemahieu said he thought that provided an opportunity to persuade the farmers that if they changed to legal crops, the government would provide them with services like schools and clinics, and then they might be willing to accept lower profits.

“Between yesterday’s opium income and tomorrow’s legal income, today requires an increase in quality of life for the farmer and his family,” he said. Destroy his crop this year, Western officials say, and he won’t see anything but red.

Pakistan's Load shedding touches 20 hours

Pakistan’s power crisis worsened on Saturday as the shortfall exceeded 4,600 megawatts – according to sources – and unannounced outages spiralled to 20 hours in certain areas of the country.

While unannounced load shedding in suburbs of the country has gone up to 18 hours a day, villages are going as many as 20 hours without power. For rural areas, PEPCO has announced a load shedding schedule of four to six hours a day, but outages every day add up to eight or 10 hours.

The sources said 9,000 megawatts of power were being generated against a demand of 13,600 megawatts – translating into a deficit of 4,600 megawatts.

According to figures released by PEPCO on Saturday, hydel power generation stands at 1,462 megawatts and thermal power generation at 2,525 megawatts, while independent power producers (IPP) are contributing 5,235 megawatts to the total production. PEPCO’s latest export to KESC amounted to 690 megawatts.

Meanwhile, PEPCO spokesman Muhammad Khalid told Daily Times that 360 megawatts from three IPP units would be “added to the national grid tonight (Saturday)”.

He said the situation was likely to “improve in June, because melting glaciers would raise the level of water in Mangla Dam.

“We will add 640 megawatts of power to the national grid by March 31 from IPPs ... there are no other sources available for power generation.”

However, PEPCO sources said the supply-demand gap could rise further because of a shortage of water in reservoirs, and “it will affect power consumers more severely in June”.

The power shortfall, in turn, has sparked a potable water crisis in rural areas across the country, especially Sindh and South Punjab.

Water and Power Ministry sources told Daily Times that hydel power generation had gone down by 5,000 megawatts. The ministry is finding it hard to cope with the crisis, with most oil and gas fired power stations already operating at optimum levels. Currently, hydel power generation stands at 1,462 megawatts.

Nowruz without illusions

Obama's Nowruz message comes, he says, with "no illusions," and lacks the conspicuous respect for Iran's leaders he included last year, replacing it with an extended rebuke for putting down last summer's protests.


"Our offer of comprehensive diplomatic contacts and dialogue stands," he says in conclusion. "It is the Iranian government that has chosen to isolate itself.

Iranians celebrate Persian New Year, Nowruz

Iranians around the globe celebrate the Persian New Year, Nowruz, marking the first day of spring, as a time of renewal, hope and change.

For Iranians, Nowruz is a celebration of new beginnings, a time to visit relatives and friends, and pay respect to senior family members.

Preparation for Nowruz begins with spring cleaning, buying new clothes and setting the Haft Seen, a table containing seven items starting with the letter 'S' — Sabzeh (freshly grown greens), Samanu (sweet wheat paste), Senjed (jujube), Seeb (apple), Seer (garlic), Somagh (sumac) and Serkeh (vinegar).

Senior family members give presents to their juniors and people renew their friendships and start the New Year with kindness and amity.

Meaning 'new day,' Nowruz is celebrated by over 300 million people worldwide on March 21st, the day of the vernal equinox.

The ancient tradition of Nowruz and the rebirth of nature is observed in the Balkans, the Black Sea Basin, the Caucasus, Central Asia and the Middle East.

The United Nations General Assembly recognized March 21st as the International Day of Nowruz during its sixty-fourth session on Feb. 23, 2010.

The Assembly called on its Nowruz-celebrating member states to study the ancient festival's "history and traditions with a view to disseminating that knowledge among the international community and organizing annual commemoration events."

Nowruz was also registered on the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on September 30, 2009.

Afghans celebrate new year with hopes for peace

Afghans have travelled from across their war-ravaged country to the northern city of Mazar-I-Sharif united behind one wish: that the advent of the new year will bring them peace.
Up to half a million people are in the city, police said, to mark the spring equinox and the first day of the traditional Persian new year, called Nowruz and celebrated across Central Asia and Iran.Mazar is at the heart of one of the most peaceful regions of the country, but security is tight amid an escalation of Taliban activity in the north.City police chief Abdul Rauf Taj said 4,000 security personnel had been deployed against insurgent attacks and all visitors were being screened at seven check points around the city outskirts.
"Every person and every vehicle entering the city is being searched, we're in full control of security," he said, adding that 10,000 cars, each carrying between five and ten people, had entered the city in recent days.Insurgent activity has escalated in northern Afghanistan over the past year as US-led military efforts to eradicate the Taliban from their southern strongholds have intensified, driving the war north.
The Taliban have established shadow administrations across a swathe of northern provinces, including Kunduz, Balkh and Faryab, and military bases run by NATO allies such as Germany and Norway are being reinforced by US troops in an effort to reverse the trend, military and security officials have said.The US and NATO have more than 120,000 troops in Afghanistan fighting the insurgents, with another 30,000 arriving in coming months, mostly for deployment in southern Helmand and Kandahar provinces, Taliban hotbeds.After recent deadly and coordinated attacks in Kabul and Kandahar cities, tensions across the country have been running high ahead of Nowruz amid expectations of Taliban attacks on major population centres.For many people converging on Mazar-I-Sharif's breathtaking Blue Mosque, believed to be the grave of Islam's fourth caliph Hazrat Ali, peace was at the heart of their new year wishes.
The Taliban outlawed this celebration during their brutal rule of Afghanistan -- when Mazar-I-Sharif was never fully under their control-- from 1996 until the US-led invasion in late 2001.Since the Taliban's downfall, Mazar-I-Sharif has reclaimed its place as the centre of Afghanistan's Nowruz festivities, a blend of ancient Zoroastrian rites and Afghan traditions dating back thousands of years.
"One of my biggest wishes has been to participate in Nowruz celebrations here and I have finally made it," said Murtaza Rezayee, a student from the central province of Daikundi.Getting here wasn't easy, he said, as the road traverses the often treacherous Salang Pass, scene in February of one of Afghanistan's worst natural disasters when avalanches buried cars and buses, killing 170 people.
ut he said he had been saving up for five years, and his family sold a goat to help cover his travel expenses so he could bring in the year 1389 at Ali's shrine.
"I will make a wish," he said, adding: "My biggest wish is for peace for Afghanistan. Just peace."
Shopkeeper Besmiullah Abdul Saleem was more pragmatic, hoping the economy improves and business picks up -- as it has after previous Nowruz visits to the Blue Mosque.
"I come every year and thanks to Hazrat Ali my business has been very, very good. I owe everything to this," he said, as a sweep of his arm took in the turquoise tiles of the mosque and the white doves flying over it.But peace was also on his mind, he said, adding: "I think every Afghan will wish for peace before anything else."
For some Afghans, the shrine brings more than just luck and fortune; some believe it also has the power to cure the ill and infirm.
Shepherd Abdul Saleem said he had brought his "insane" daughter in the hope of a miraculous cure from the spirit of Ali."I took her to the clinic in our village but nothing happened, she's as she was before," he said, pointing to his eight-year-old daughter as she sat cross-legged beside him, her wrists bound with a scarf."I have heard from lots of people that when doctors can't do any thing, Ali can."So I have brought her here to Ali's court -- this is my last hope," he said.

Peshawar jirga criticizes Shahbaz’s statement

PESHAWAR: National peace jirga in Peshawar Saturday alleged that the statement of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif is an evidence of his association with the terrorists.

The national peace jirga was held under the banner of Aman Tehreek, which was attended by leaders of various political parties and representatives of civil society.

The jirga condemned the statement of Shahbaz Sharif regarding Taliban, saying that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz is a supporter of those terrorists who are working to destabilize the country.

The jirga demanded all the institutions to work according to the constitution for the stability of the democracy.

“Foreign aid given to eleminate terrorism should be used in terror-hit tribal areas and NWFP,” it added

In Pakistan millions of children forgo classrooms for hard labor

L.A.TIMES
ISLAMABAD— Abbas Sajeet is 11 years old, but he doesn't go to school. Instead, he earns 2,500 rupees ($30) a month as an auto mechanic in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

The money goes straight into the meager coffers of his seven-member family.

"Every day from the car garage, I see children walking to their schools," he says. "I wish I could go to school with them, finish high school and study engineering. After that, I would have a good job with a lot of money, and give it to my mother."

At least 10 million children are believed to be working in Pakistan at a variety of jobs, including some of the hardest and most poorly-paid.

Some clean upper-class homes and help baby-sit. Others craft bricks, weave carpets or work in mines. In some cases, families give their children as employees to landlords to pay off debts. That system, known as bonded labor, is likened by human rights activists to slavery.

The children who work often lose their chance to attend school and are vulnerable to abusive employers. Still, those are considered acceptable risks for the many poor families who need every member to pitch in for food, shelter and clothing.

The South Asian nation has come under international pressure to reduce child labor, but there is little regulation of the practice, despite laws protecting children from exploitation in the workplace.