Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's 31st death anniversary will be observed today

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was executed on April 4, 1979, a darkest day in the history of Pakistan. Bhutto wrote a book from his death cell, Titled "If I am assassinated," its last pages contained a quote from Russian author Nikolai Dostoevsky: "Man's dearest possession is his life, and since it is given to him to live but once, he must so live as not to be scared with the shame of a cowardly and trivial past, so as not to be tortured for years without purpose, that dying he can say, 'All my life and my strength were given to the first cause in the world - the liberation of mankind.' "As death stared the Z.A Bhutto in the face, he stared back. His past has no shame of cowardice. His daughter, too, gave her life in courage. I would like to express that this man is and was hero of Pakistan. Historians, Retired Judges of the Superior Courts and eminent lawyers have now unanimously admitted that Mr. Z.A Bhutto was hanged by a military dictator General Zia-Ul Haq by orchestrating a judicial trial to get rid of a popular leader. He gave Pakistan its first constitution, nuclear programme, held peace talks with India and brought 90,000 POW who were in Indian prison and were going to face war crimes. He liberated the small farmers and peasants from the repression and cruelty of big landlords and banished the jagirdari and sardari system declaring that all citizens are born equal and must live with equal rights. Z.A Bhutto was a Legend, who lived and died like a hero with courage, determination and devotion to his principles, when cruel dictator Zia was going to kill him, Z.A Bhutto could sign few papers and could live in exile but he was a real man, he was not a coward. He too could have made a deal and lived to fight another day; but only great men with principles sacrifice their life for their cause. He was a brilliant Diplomat who negotiated some of Pakistan's most enduring diplomatic policies as well as bargaining from a position of weakness against Indira Gandhi in Simla. He was a great diplomat; there is a story that the American President John F. Kennedy was much impressed with then Foreign Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. When they met, Kennedy walked with him in the Rose Garden and said, "Bhutto, if you were an American, you would be in my Cabinet". To which Zulfikar Ali Bhutto smilingly replied, "No, Mr. President. If I were an American, you would be in my cabinet".
Z.A. Bhutto is still our greatest leader and has been an inspiration to many. God bless his soul - forever in our prayer.I hope we get a leader like you, waiting for our new Bhutto in our great nation to heed the desperate call of our women, youth and elderly.
The greatest thing a man can do in this world is to make the most possible out of the stuff that has been given him. This is success, and there is no other.


The 31st death anniversary of former Prime Minister and founder Chairman of Pakistan Peoples Party Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto will be observed today (Sunday).
According to the Programme issued by the party, a two minute silence was observed at 02:12 am, the hour on which the Shaheed leader was put on gallows.Mehfil-e-Mushaira will also be held and the documentary of Shaheed Bhutto will be shown on Sunday.
Various programmes including seminars, workers' conventions have also been chalked out in different parts of the country to pay tribute to Quaid-e-Awam.Radio Pakistan and Pakistan Television have also made arrangements for a marathon transmission from 7.00 am to 11.00 pm tomorrow. The special transmission will highlight the life, struggle, services and revolutionary achievements of Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.Lovers of Bhuttos and Sympathizers of Pakistan Peoples Party across the country, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan have started to arrive at Garhi Khuda Bux Bhutto to pay homage to their great leaders.Meanwhile, a central executive committee meeting of the Pakistan People's Party will also be held at Naudero this evening which is expected to be chaired by President Asif Ali Zardari who is also the co-chairman of the party.
Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has said that today, we are solemnly observing the death anniversary of Quaid-e-Awam Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto who dedicated his life and comforts for the rights and betterment of the common man.
"Addressing a gathering in Karachi on January 2, 1974, Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto said "our cherished goal is the betterment of the lot of the common men.Each step closer to that goal fills my heart with immeasurable pleasure, for the attainment of that goal has been the sole object of my life and all my work."
In a message on the occasion being observed today (Sunday), the Prime Minister said instead of compromising on his noble mission, Shaheed ZA Bhutto preferred martyrdom and live to his own words, "if sacrifices are for a good cause, for a cause of national unity, for a cause of national consolidation or happiness then they are not in vain."At a time when the entire nation was beset with gloom following the Fall of Dhaka in 1971, it was the towering personality of ZA Bhutto who came forward and stemmed the tide of defeatism.The promulgation of Constitution of 1973 with the full support and consensus of all strands of political opinion is an abiding tribute to the leadership and statesmanship of Shaheed Zulifqar Ali Bhutto.His policy of 'bilateralism' served to correct the imbalance in Pakistan's foreign policy. His launching of Pakistan's nuclear programme to offset the Indian strategic dominance has turned out to be a sole guardian of our territorial integrity.Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani said the idea of political unity within the Muslim Umma was always close to his heart. His was the driving spirit behind extraordinary meeting of the Islamic Summit in Lahore in 1974.
So numerous are contributions of Shaheed Zulifqar Ali Bhutto that cannot be summed up in a few paragraphs. He sought to redefine the direction of Pakistan in accordance with the vision of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Allama Iqbal.

Pakistan tables long-awaited constitutional reforms

The Pakistani government introduced a constitutional bill in parliament Friday, transferring President Asif Ali Zardari's sweeping powers to the prime minister and possibly ending months of political wrangling.
The set of reforms, known as the "18th Amendment Bill" is expected to be passed by the two-chambered parliament, effectively turning Zardari into a titular head of state.

The development may help calm political opposition to Zardari, but the government is facing mounting pressure from an assertive Supreme Court to reopen corruption cases against the president after it threw out a controversial amnesty law in December.

"I suspect that after the signing of the 18th amendment, it (the unstable political environment) is going to change," said Samina Ahmed, South Asia director for the International Crisis Group. "Part of the problem is structural. Nobody knows where the locus of authority lies."

Because of that uncertainty, she said that all branches of government are trying to expand their powers at the expense of the others. "There's a little bit of muscle flexing all around," she said.

But if the 18th Amendment goes through smoothly, the center of authority goes to the parliament, "with the judiciary interpreting" -- possibly leading to a less assertive bench. "It will settle down," she predicted.

The proposed constitutional amendments transfer a number of the president's powers, including the authority to dissolve the national assembly and appoint military chiefs and the chief election commissioner. The bill also shifts Zardari's powers to appoint judges to a commission comprised of senior judges and government figures.

The bill is likely to be passed by far more than the two-thirds super-majority needed in the parliament because it has been drafted by a parliamentary committee made up of all political groups.

No date has been fixed when it will be adopted.

Syria 'Very Important' to Peace Efforts

VOA.COM
U.S. Senator John Kerry met with officials in Syria Thursday, saying the country maintains a "very important" role in achieving peace in the Middle East.

Kerry spoke to reporters in the Syrian capital, Damascus, after meeting with President Bashar al-Assad.

Kerry chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He said the United States remains concerned about the flow of weapons through Syrian territory to the Lebanese-based militant group Hezbollah. He said the movement of weapons must stop in order to promote stability and security in the region.

The U.S. has long accused Syria of supporting Hezbollah and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. The U.S. considers both groups terrorist organizations.

On Wednesday, Kerry held talks on Middle East peace efforts in Lebanon. He told Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri that he still hopes progress can be made in the coming weeks.

Kerry called the dispute between Palestinians and Israelis the "single most important" stability issue in the region.

The Obama administration has reached out to Syria in the past year by nominating the first U.S. ambassador to Damascus since 2005 and sending top diplomats to meet with the Syrian president.

The U.S. withdrew its last ambassador to Syria after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005. Many countries have blamed Syria for the assassination, but Damascus has denied any involvement.

'Pakhtoonkhwa' a milestone in Pashtun identity

A decision by a top Pakistani Parliamentary panel to rename North West Frontier Province as Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa could be an important milestone in the six decade-long struggle for the recognition of Pashtun ethnic identity.

The 26-member parliamentary committee on constitutional reforms yesterday achieved consensus on renaming NWFP as Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa.


The movement for renaming the NWFP, parts of which are now on the frontline of Pakistan’s campaign against the Taliban-led insurgency, saw many ups and downs over the past few decades as the country made its way though dictatorial regimes and democratic governments.

Since 1947, Pashtun nationalists like Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Khan Abdul Wali Khan and Ajmal Khattak led the movement for the acceptance of their people?s distinct identity.

The Awami National Party, which emerged as the ruling Pakistan People?s Party?s main coalition partner in the NWFP after the 2008 general election, pushed for changing the name of the province to Pakhtoonkhwa.

The party did not want to miss an opportunity as it was aware that President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani were in conformity with the demand.

Zardari and Gilani frequently referred to NWFP as Pakhtoonkhwa in public appearances, something that was unimaginable for Pashtuns.

Such developments rejuvenated the spirit of ANP leaders, who cashed in on the situation despite some opposition to the renaming of the NWFP from sections of people in the province.

"There has been a long debate as to why the ANP could not muster support for the name Pakhtoonkhwa despite the fact that Pashtuns are in a majority in the province," said legislator and dissident ANP leader Arshad Khan.

The proposal to rename the NWFP is part of a groundbreaking constitutional reforms package finalised by a parliamentary panel yesterday.

The package seeks to slash President?s sweeping powers and remove changes made to the constitutional by former military rulers Zia-ul-Haq and Pervez Musharraf to strengthen their grip on power.

The ANP pushed for the NWFP to be renamed Pakhtoonkhwa as Pashtuns comprise 75 per cent of the province?s population of 20 million, but the move was opposed by the opposition PML-N, which said the name would alienate minorities in the province.

The PML-N suggested non-ethnic names like Khyber and Abaseen (the Pashto name for the Indus river) before the parliamentary committee reached comprise by settling on Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa.

Analysts believe the compromise was influenced by senior ANP leader and Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmed Bilour?s veiled threat that the NWFP should get the name Pakhtoonkhwa or else the people could opt for the "Bengali model", a reference to breaking away of East Pakistan in 1971 due to ethnic divisions.

The ANP also showed flexibility on the issue of renaming the province as the party faced criticism from certain pockets, especially Dera Ismail Khan, the Hazara division and, ironically, people in some Pashtun-dominated areas.

The ANP also played down the demand by non-Pashto speaking people for a referendum on the issue and opted for its approval by parliament through a constitutional amendment.

"If the issue had gone to referendum, it would have been catastrophic for the ANP," said a senior government official on condition of anonymity.

The NWFP legislature had passed a unanimous resolution suggesting Pakhtoonistan as the new name for the province but it was modified to Pakhtoonkhwa to avoid controversies attached to the name since Partition.

Some circles in the ANP are still opposed to adding Khyber to Pakhtoonkhwa but the party?s senior leaders have pacified them by saying the opportunity to rename the province should not be missed.

"The opponents will call it Khyber and the supporters as Pakhtoonkhwa," said school teacher Khan Faraz.

"We have scores of other bigger problems like price hikes, shortages of flour, sugar and electricity and lack of employment," he added.

The residents of NWFP capital Peshawar have shown mixed reaction to the move to rename the province, with a majority adopting silent posture as no major celebrations were witnessed except for a gathering at Qayum sports complex that was attended by provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain.

About 2,500 people attended the gathering though Peshawar has a population of over 200,000.

U.S. campaign to reform Kandahar is rife with pitfalls

www.washingtonpost.com
The coming battle for control of this ancient crossroads city will be the toughest challenge of the war in Afghanistan -- not because it will be bloody, necessarily, but because it will require the hardest item for U.S. commanders to deliver, which is an improvement in governance.

Kandahar is the heartland of the Pashtun people -- a place of competing tribes and clans, of hidden wealth accumulated from drug trafficking and smuggling, and of notorious power brokers symbolized in the public mind by Ahmed Wali Karzai, the leader of the provincial council and brother of Afghanistan's president.

Reforming the local government is like disassembling a pyramid of pick-up sticks. One wrong move and the whole pile collapses. Yet if the United States accommodates the existing power structure, it will appear to be condoning corruption here -- a bad message for the public in Afghanistan and America alike.

Talking with U.S. officials about the coming campaign, I heard a range of good ideas but not a clear strategy. The American officials know they can't deliver on their counterinsurgency promise of protecting the population without breaking the hold of the local chieftains. Yet they are wary of toppling the system and opening the way for what might be even worse chaos -- and new resentment at American meddling.

The Kandahar campaign will have a military component as U.S. troops clear Taliban strongholds surrounding the city, such as Zhari, Panjwai and Arghandab. But in Kandahar, the problem isn't the enemy so much as our nominal friends such as Ahmed Karzai. The battle for the city will be political more than military -- and it will require skills and expertise that are in short supply.

"It's amazing what we don't know about Kandahar," says one of the top U.S. military commanders. He just supervised a special push to gather intelligence about power brokers, tribal leaders and their grievances and, as he put it, "who's who in the Kandahar zoo." Unfortunately, the United States is starting from a low base after years of intelligence collection that was "only marginally relevant to the overall strategy," according to a report in January by Maj. Gen. Michael Flynn.

Recognizing the severe gaps in their knowledge, U.S. commanders have adopted what might be described as "operational humility." They know they can make big mistakes if they aren't careful. Shaking up the power structure might put the United States on the side of the Pashtun man in the street, but it would open a power vacuum that could be exploited by the Taliban. Given the planned July 2011 start for withdrawal of U.S. troops, there isn't time for risky experiments in Kandahar. American officials worry, quite sensibly, about the law of unintended consequences.

So commanders are opting instead for an approach that one calls "re-balancing" the Kandahar power elite. The idea is to open up political space to tribes and clans that have been left out of the spoils system. "The basic problem in Kandahar is that you have a disenfranchised population," says Frank Ruggiero, a State Department official who is the top U.S. civilian representative in southern Afghanistan.

The tool that U.S. strategists hope to use to broaden the political base in Kandahar is the traditional Afghan forum known as the "shura." Officials are encouraging these gatherings regularly in the city and the surrounding districts, and urging local Afghan officials to make them more inclusive and a better forum for redressing grievances. They want to combine the shuras with better policing, aided by embedded U.S. trainers, and with new economic development projects.

Traveling here with Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, I attended a shura hosted by Tooryalai Wesa, the governor of Kandahar province. This was not exactly a gathering of the dispossessed. The most emphatic speakers around the table warned that the United States shouldn't go after Ahmed Karzai. "If he's not here, the balance will be unbalanced," Wesa said after the meeting.

Curbing corruption in Kandahar may be mission impossible. But it's the task that the United States has set for itself, by promising through its counterinsurgency campaign that it is working for a better and more just Afghanistan than what the Taliban offers.

It's this dissonance between ends and means that worries a visitor here this week. The hardest part of this war, paradoxically, isn't the fighting on the ground, which the U.S. military conducts brilliantly, but the struggle in the Afghan political sphere, where we know precious little.

U.S. campaign to reform Kandahar is rife with pitfalls

www.washingtonpost.com
The coming battle for control of this ancient crossroads city will be the toughest challenge of the war in Afghanistan -- not because it will be bloody, necessarily, but because it will require the hardest item for U.S. commanders to deliver, which is an improvement in governance.

Kandahar is the heartland of the Pashtun people -- a place of competing tribes and clans, of hidden wealth accumulated from drug trafficking and smuggling, and of notorious power brokers symbolized in the public mind by Ahmed Wali Karzai, the leader of the provincial council and brother of Afghanistan's president.

Reforming the local government is like disassembling a pyramid of pick-up sticks. One wrong move and the whole pile collapses. Yet if the United States accommodates the existing power structure, it will appear to be condoning corruption here -- a bad message for the public in Afghanistan and America alike.

Talking with U.S. officials about the coming campaign, I heard a range of good ideas but not a clear strategy. The American officials know they can't deliver on their counterinsurgency promise of protecting the population without breaking the hold of the local chieftains. Yet they are wary of toppling the system and opening the way for what might be even worse chaos -- and new resentment at American meddling.

The Kandahar campaign will have a military component as U.S. troops clear Taliban strongholds surrounding the city, such as Zhari, Panjwai and Arghandab. But in Kandahar, the problem isn't the enemy so much as our nominal friends such as Ahmed Karzai. The battle for the city will be political more than military -- and it will require skills and expertise that are in short supply.

"It's amazing what we don't know about Kandahar," says one of the top U.S. military commanders. He just supervised a special push to gather intelligence about power brokers, tribal leaders and their grievances and, as he put it, "who's who in the Kandahar zoo." Unfortunately, the United States is starting from a low base after years of intelligence collection that was "only marginally relevant to the overall strategy," according to a report in January by Maj. Gen. Michael Flynn.

Recognizing the severe gaps in their knowledge, U.S. commanders have adopted what might be described as "operational humility." They know they can make big mistakes if they aren't careful. Shaking up the power structure might put the United States on the side of the Pashtun man in the street, but it would open a power vacuum that could be exploited by the Taliban. Given the planned July 2011 start for withdrawal of U.S. troops, there isn't time for risky experiments in Kandahar. American officials worry, quite sensibly, about the law of unintended consequences.

So commanders are opting instead for an approach that one calls "re-balancing" the Kandahar power elite. The idea is to open up political space to tribes and clans that have been left out of the spoils system. "The basic problem in Kandahar is that you have a disenfranchised population," says Frank Ruggiero, a State Department official who is the top U.S. civilian representative in southern Afghanistan.

The tool that U.S. strategists hope to use to broaden the political base in Kandahar is the traditional Afghan forum known as the "shura." Officials are encouraging these gatherings regularly in the city and the surrounding districts, and urging local Afghan officials to make them more inclusive and a better forum for redressing grievances. They want to combine the shuras with better policing, aided by embedded U.S. trainers, and with new economic development projects.

Traveling here with Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, I attended a shura hosted by Tooryalai Wesa, the governor of Kandahar province. This was not exactly a gathering of the dispossessed. The most emphatic speakers around the table warned that the United States shouldn't go after Ahmed Karzai. "If he's not here, the balance will be unbalanced," Wesa said after the meeting.

Curbing corruption in Kandahar may be mission impossible. But it's the task that the United States has set for itself, by promising through its counterinsurgency campaign that it is working for a better and more just Afghanistan than what the Taliban offers.

It's this dissonance between ends and means that worries a visitor here this week. The hardest part of this war, paradoxically, isn't the fighting on the ground, which the U.S. military conducts brilliantly, but the struggle in the Afghan political sphere, where we know precious little.

Asfandyar praises media role on 18th amendment draft

ANP Chief Asfandyar Wali on Thursday hailed the role of media with regard to the draft of 18th amendment.Talking to media outside the National Assembly, Asfandyar wali said 18th amendment was not only limited to the name, adding that the province could not be deprived of its right.He said we have got our identity and we are now happy. Pakhtoonkhwa is not only the province for Pashtuns, ANP chief added.Asfandyar said name of Raza Rabbani will be written with golden words in the constitutional history of Pakistan.

Karzai Lashes Out at West Over Afghan Elections

President Hamid Karzai accused the West on Thursday of trying to ruin Afghanistan's elections, intensifying a showdown with parliament over whether foreigners will oversee a parliamentary vote this year.

Karzai's international reputation took a battering last year after a U.N.-backed fraud watchdog threw out a third of the votes cast for him in last year's presidential election. He is now wrangling with parliament and the United Nations over fraud protection measures for a parliamentary vote due in September.

"Foreigners will make excuses, they do not want us to have a parliamentary election," a defiant Karzai told a gathering of election officials. "They want parliament to be weakened and battered, and for me to be an ineffective president and for parliament to be ineffective.

"You have gone through the kind of elections during which you were not only threatened with terror, you also faced massive interference from foreigners," Karzai told the officials. "Some embassies also tried to bribe the members of the commission."

He singled out Peter Galbraith, the American former deputy of the U.N. mission in Kabul, sacked after accusing his boss of turning a blind eye to fraud, and French General Philippe Morillon, head of an EU vote monitoring mission.

"There was fraud in the presidential and provincial election, with no doubt there was massive fraud. This wasn't fraud by Afghans but the fraud of foreigners, the fraud of Galbraith, of Morillon and the votes of the Afghan nation were in the control of an embassy," Karzai said.

He accused Galbraith of telling an election official he would be "digging himself an early grave" if Karzai was declared first round winner and said Morillon had tried to block the announcement of results to force Karzai to accept a political alliance.

ELECTION STAND-OFF HURTS SUPPORT FOR WAR

Last year's election stand-off -- which ended when the U.N.-backed body ordered a second round but Karzai's opponent quit -- eroded support in the West for the eight-year-old war. A new election confrontation could further sour public opinion in a decisive year, when Washington is sending an extra 30,000 troops.

Ahead of September's parliamentary poll, Karzai issued a decree in February revoking the power of the United Nations to appoint the majority of members of the election fraud watchdog.

The lower house of parliament rejected Karzai's decree on Wednesday, a move diplomats described as a rebuke for the president, although the motion would still need to pass in the upper house to restore U.N. oversight of the vote.

Karzai told the election officials and reporters his decree was vital to Afghanistan's sovereignty.

The United Nations has called for reforms to Afghanistan's election commission to prevent fraud, before it will agree to free up donor funds needed to pay for the September 18 vote.

"The foreigners have said if you don't dismiss these men, we will not give you any money," Karzai said, adding he would announce changes to the election commission next week.

The fraud watchdog is a separate body, which was led by a Canadian during last year's election and ordered the election commission to overturn Karzai's first round victory.

New U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura accepted a compromise offer from Karzai this month that would let the United Nations appoint a minority of members of the fraud watchdog, rather than the majority as it did last year. Parliament's rejection of Karzai's decree means the status of that deal is now in doubt.

"I am working on it. That's all I can say," de Mistura told Reuters late on Wednesday.

BlackBerry Users Will Defect

Despite bells and whistles, the device misses the 'fun factor.'

Call it a matter of touch-screen envy, but many BlackBerry users are starting to feel the 24-month-contract itch.
And they're willing to switch to Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) iPhone or Google Inc.'s (GOOG) Nexus One, according to a recent study.
Conducted by the online market researchers Crowd Science, the survey results show that Research in Motion (RIMM) BlackBerry users are more likely to abandon the brand than iPhone or Android users. When asked of the likelihood of buying a particular brand of cell phone or smartphone if the purchase was made the following day, 39% of BlackBerry owners said they "definitely or probably would" nab an iPhone. And roughly one-third of the participants claimed they'd snatch up an Android phone.
Meanwhile, the fierce Google-Apple war seems to have bled into the user base.
An overwhelming majority of iPhone users -- 92% -- would likely stay loyal to the Apple device, and only a tad fewer Android owners -- 87% -- made a similar claim.
However, Apple zealots who unleash a fervent hatred for opposing teams may have met their indignant match. While 15% of iPhone users "definitely or probably would not" recommend an Android device, a whopping 45% of Android users would never dare give Steve Jobs' baby a thumbs up. Whether that's a product of outsider's scorn or buyer's remorse, the study didn't pose the question.
But as the battle between Apple and Google rages on, BlackBerry users look on with a degree of envy.
Despite commanding a hefty lead over the iPhone in the smartphone market share -- 42% versus 25%, respectively -- the numbers for RIM have begun to drop, along with Microsoft's (MSFT) Windows Mobile and Palm (PALM).
According to comScore, RIM's market share dropped a percentage point in the fourth quarter of 2009 from the third quarter, and Apple's rose 1.2%. PCWorld's Tony Bradley calculated that, given the same rate of rise and decline, Apple could surpass RIMM's market share by February 2012. And buoyed by the success of the Motorola (MOT) Droid, Android showed the biggest gains -- rising 2.7% to 5.2%.

Crowd Science Chief Executive John Martin addressed the study in the company blog. "These results show that the restlessness of BlackBerry users with their current brand hasn't just been driven by the allure of iPhone." He added, "Rather, BlackBerry as a brand just isn't garnering the loyalty seen with other mobile operating systems."So what's the allure of the competitors? Why are BlackBerry users more willing to jump ship?

BlackBerry has long been the choice of tech-savvy executives who are wirelessly tethered to their jobs. But as evidenced in the study, only 7% of BlackBerry owners still use their device exclusively for work. For years, the smartphone has ceased to be merely associated with work -- an evolution that Apple played a large role in influencing. However, the BlackBerrys, the Palm Treos, and the Windows Mobile devices never successfully adopted the veneer of "recreational smartphones" nearly as well as Apple or Android.

Put simply, iPhones, Droids, and Nexus Ones just look like more fun. And as the "fun factor" became a significant reason why smartphones became as popular as they did, any manufacturer still focusing on the business aspects fell out of favor with users.

What's the appeal of a physical keyboard if the iPhone can remember where you parked? Why use Microsoft Exchange when the Droid works seamlessly with Gmail -- a service more businesses are using anyway? Is there a point to waiting for a BlackBerry version of an app that has dozens of variants available in the App Store or Android Market?

Unless a new BlackBerry device sheds the brand's stodgy work image, RIMM is going to miss out on all the fun -- and customers.
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Russia's Medvedev promises 'crueler' measures

MAKHACHKALA, Russia – President Dmitry Medvedev made a surprise visit Thursday to the violence-wracked southern province of Dagestan, telling police and security forces to use tougher, "more cruel" measures to fight the "scum" responsible for terrorist attacks.

In his dress — a black T-shirt under a black suit coat — and rough language, Medvedev was following the lead of Russia's powerful prime minister, Vladimir Putin.

Twin suicide bombings this week in Moscow — which Islamic militants from the North Caucasus claim to have carried out — has refocused attention on the violence that for years has been confined to the predominantly Muslim republics in Russia's southern corner.

An explosion Thursday morning killed two suspected militants and wounded a third in Dagestan near the border with Chechnya. Police said the men may have been transporting a makeshift bomb. The day before, two suicide bombings in Dagestan killed 12 people, including nine policemen, a frequent target of attacks because they represent Russian authority.

The suicide bombings on the Moscow subway killed 39 people on Monday and have left nearly 90 hospitalized.

Federal Security Service director Alexander Bortnikov said the organizers of the Moscow attacks have been identified as "bandits" from the Northern Caucasus, and some have been detained.

"We know the personalities of organizers," he said in televised remarks. "We have detained a number of people, conducted interrogations, got evidence."

Medvedev said much more needed to be done to stop the attacks.

"The measures to fight terrorism should be expanded, they should be more effective, more harsh, more cruel," he said during a televised meeting with local officials.

In recent months, police and security forces have killed at least two high-profile Islamic militants, but they have been unable to capture the veteran Chechen militant Doku Umarov, who has claimed responsibility for the Moscow subway attacks.

"We have torn of the heads of the most notorious bandits, but clearly this was not enough. In any case, we will find them all and punish them," Medvedev said.

Swat operation saved country from terrorism

MINGORA: Lieutenant General Masood Alam, corps commander of Peshawar, on Wednesday said that successful military operation in Swat saved the entire country from the wave of militancy and terrorism.

He was addressing the soldiers in Frontier Constabulary (FC) camp in Kanju during his visit to Swat district. Operational commander for Swat Major General Ashfaq Nadeem, Brigadier Salman Akbar, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Police Malakand Division Qazi Jamilur Rehman and Commissioner Malakand Fazal Karim Khattak were also present on the occasion.

The corps commander said the militants were on the run from the area to Afghanistan and other tribal areas. He said those who had been arrested would be produced in the court of law. He said the role of Pakistan Army was to check the foreign aggression and safeguard borders and nobody would be allowed to harm national solidarity.

He said the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Maulana Fazlullah had tried to establish a state within state and challenged the writ of the government. He reminded that the provincial government had held talks and signed peace agreements with the militants but to no avail. The corps commander maintained that the security forces were compelled to take action against the TTP militants as they were carrying out terrorist activities.

UN Delays Release of Bhutto Assassination Inquiry Report

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday accepted a request from Pakistan's president to delay until April 15 the release of a report on the December 2007 assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. The report was to have been released on Tuesday.

At the request of the Pakistani government, the Secretary-General appointed an independent commission last June to investigate the assassination of Ms. Bhutto. The commission, led by Chilean Ambassador to the U.N. Heraldo Munoz, interviewed a number of people, including several high ranking government officials in Pakistan.

Mr. Ban's spokesman, Martin Nesirky, says the commission examined all "relevant facts and circumstances" into Ms. Bhutto's murder. He says the report is being held back because of an "urgent," overnight request Mr. Ban received from Ms. Bhutto's widower - Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari. "This was an independent commission, set up by the Secretary-General. It was a request that came from the authorities - the government in Pakistan. Therefore, if a request is received from the head of state and government of a country, then the Secretary-General has to consider that. And he [Mr. Ban] has decided to accept this request for a delay in the presentation of the report," he said.

Nesirky says neither the Secretary-General nor the government of Pakistan has seen the report's contents. "The intention is that it will not be seen by the Pakistan government until the 15th [of April]," he said.

Earlier, a U.N. official who had been briefed on the commission's conclusions told VOA that the report faulted the Pakistani government for failing to adequately protect Benazir Bhutto and for scrubbing down the crime scene soon after she was killed.

Efforts to reach the Pakistani U.N. Mission to ask why the government requested the delay were unsuccessful. A spokeswoman for the head of the commission declined to give a statement because, she said, the commission had just been notified of the delay.

Although Pakistan and the United States initially blamed Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud for Ms. Bhutto's death, close allies of the former prime minister assert that government officials or her political rivals might have played a role.

The independent commission was supposed to submit its report at the end of last year, but Mr. Ban extended its mandate because of what he said was a "substantial amount of information" collected by investigators, and the need for more investigation.

After the report is delivered to the Pakistani authorities, it will be up to them to determine who is criminally responsible for Ms. Bhutto's death.

Afghanistan is World's Top Hashish Producer

A new U.N. survey shows Afghanistan is not only the world's top opium producer, but it has surpassed Morocco in becoming the top global producer of hashish. From Paris, our correspondent has more on the findings by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.

The U.N. survey adds to international concern about Afghanistan's drug cultivation. While Afghanistan is not the world's-largest producer of cannabis in terms of acreage, it tops the list when it comes to producing hashish from the crop.

Overall, the study by the Vienna-based U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime found Afghan farmers produce between 1,500 and 3,500 tons of hashish per year.

Like opium, of which Afghanistan is also the world's top producer, cultivation of cannabis is largely concentrated in the more unstable south.

UN drugs office spokesman Walter Kemp says there is some good news in the report, farmers in other parts of the country appear to be turning away from drug cultivation.

"We see generally throughout the country, farmers in areas not in the south of the country are turning to alternatives, because they know that growing these illicit crops is illegal," said Walter Kemp. "Slowly, slowly, development assistance is coming through. The government and provincial governors are able to enforce the law better. International forces are also having their impact."

Afghanistan's illegal drugs industry amounts to a $3-billion a year business controlled by gangs and militants. The narcotics are smuggled through central Asian and Balkans routes and end up for sale in Russia, Western Europe and Asia.

Kemp says there are also serious concerns about the level of drug addiction among the Afghan population.

"The indications are that it is a serious problem in terms of opium consumption and also cannabis," he said. "But we will only have the hard date in the next few months."

The U.N. office also has a message for the international community.

"We are saying to governments that you have a strong responsibility not only to improve the situation in Afghanistan, but to stop the addiction in your own countries, which is driving this whole drugs trade," said Kemp.

In other words, the United Nations says fighting drug production and trade goes hand in hand with fighting the insurgency in Afghanistan.

Zardari wanted U.N. to quiz Rice, Karzai over Bhutto killing

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari asked the U.N. to delay a report on the assassination of Benazir Bhutto as he wanted investigators to quiz four personalities, including former U.S. top diplomat Condoleezza Rice, who had prior information on threats to her life.

Mr. Zardari is “said to have quietly given names of four international personalities — U.S. ex-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, Saudi Arabian intelligence chief Prince Muqrin (bin Abdul Aziz) and the UAE intelligence chief — to the U.N. inquiry commission to ask them: How did they know the secret in advance that Benazir Bhutto would be killed?,” The News daily reported on Thursday.

The U.N. commission has been asked to meet these “four indirect witnesses” before submitting its report on Bhutto’s assassination in 2007, the paper said quoting its sources.

This new information had also resolved a two-and-half year old mystery about which two countries had warned Bhutto about a possible attack on her life when she returned to Pakistan from self-exile in October 2007, the report said.

It identified the two countries as the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, “whose intelligence chiefs had warned the Pakistan People’s Party chairperson (about) threats to her life”.

It added that Prince Muqrin had warned Bhutto about threats to her life.

The report claimed that the U.N. commission was making contacts with the four personalities to “seek explanations from them as how did they already (know of) threats” to Bhutto’s life.

It quoted sources as saying that Mr. Zardari believed the “inside information” that could be shared by these four personalities “might greatly help the inquiry commission to identify the real killers whose secret plans somehow reached the intelligence agencies of Afghanistan, the U.S., UAE and Saudi Arabia, and which turned out to be prophetically correct”.

Pakistan’s permanent representative to the U.N. Hussain Haroon held talks with U.N. officials in New York to convince them that it was important to interview these four personalities, the report claimed.

Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar has said that Mr. Zardari wanted three friendly countries that had warned Bhutto before her return to Pakistan to share information with the U.N. commission.

Mr. Babar did not name these countries but media reports have said they are Afghanistan, UAE and Saudi Arabia.

Mr. Babar said one of these countries has shared its views with the U.N. commission and hoped the other two would also do so.

The News also quoted its sources as saying that Mr. Zardari was “not satisfied with the U.N. report” on the killing of Bhutto after he learnt that commission which was paid over half a billion rupees by the government of Pakistan to meet its expenses, did not contact the four international personalities.

The sources said Mr. Zardari knew the information given by these personalities to Bhutto as she kept him informed about these warnings.

Hours before her assassination, she had also told Mr. Zardari that Mr. Karzai had informed her that Afghan intelligence had information about a possible attack on her.

The sources said Ms. Rice was a “potential witness” because the U.S. provided a “steady stream of intelligence” to Bhutto about threats to her and advised her aides on improving her security.

The source said senior U.S. diplomats had multiple conversations, including at least two private face-to-face meetings, with top members of the Pakistan People’s Party to discuss threats to Bhutto’s life and review her security arrangements after a suicide attack on her motorcade the day she returned to Pakistan from exile in October 2007.

Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa new name for NWFP: Consensus at last

ISLAMABAD: The Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms on Wednesday concluded a landmark task by finalising its recommendations for the draft 18th amendment bill, after it arrived at a consensus on the renaming of the NWFP and the composition of the judicial commission.

The 26-member committee headed by Mian Raza Rabbani signed the final draft of the amendment package at the Parliament House and the draft is likely to be tabled in parliament in the next couple of days.

Renaming: In Wednesday’s deliberations, the Awami National Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz agreed to rename the NWFP Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa. However, the PML-Q and the PPP-Sherpao wrote a “note of reiteration” over the clause and vowed to vote against it whenever the draft is moved in parliament for approval.

PML-N demands: The parliamentary committee also included PML-N’s demands regarding the composition of the proposed judicial commission. The PML-N had demanded that the appointment of judges to superior courts should be based on the chief justice’s recommendations, who
must have the authority to appoint a retired judge, who never took oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO), as seventh member of the proposed commission. The committee also decided that the law minister, instead of the attorney general, would represent the government in the commission.

PPP-Sherpao chief Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao said his party supported Pakhtoonkhwa as the new name for the NWFP, as the provincial assembly had adopted a resolution in its favour. PML-Q’s Amir Muqam called the proposed name for the NWFP “highly biased”, fearing it will create linguistic rifts in the province.

Under the proposed package, the Council of Common Interest has been given additional powers and the provinces have been given more say on national matters by enhancing their representation in the council, which would be authorised to deal with all subjects put under part-2 of the federal list. The committee also proposed the abolition of Article 58(2b), which empowers the president to dissolve parliament.

Nothing less than Pakhtoonkhwa acceptable

PESHAWAR: Awami National Party (ANP) has stated that the NWFP renaming issue would be resolved till March 31.Talking to a private news channel on Sunday, ANP leader Senator Haji Adeel said that PML-N has sought time on the renaming of NWFP, adding that the issue would be resolved till March 31.Adeel said that no other name for the province would be accepted except Pakhtoonkhwa.He said that the Pakistan Muslim League-N had rejected the name of Afghania on the basis that Afghanistan has been claiming its ownership of the area spreading from Durand Line to Jhelum.
He said that the names like Abaseen and Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa can be accepted but no name without the word Pakhtoonkhwa would be accepted.
Adeel said Mian Nawaz Sharif had suggested Pakhtoonkhwa Khyber earlier but he is not firm on his stance.The ANP leader said that the name of Pakhtoonkhwa is being demanded by 12 of the 14 parliamentary parties and the entire nation.Meanwhile, PML-N leader Siddiqul Farooq has rejected ANP's claim that PML-N has sought time on renaming of NWFP.He was of view that the issue would be resolved in a meeting between leadership of both parties within few days.PML-N leader Pir Sabir Shah talking to ARY News on Saturday said that ANP had proposed three names for the province ie Pakhtoonkhwa, Pakhtoonistan and Afghania.Sabir Shah said his party has shown flexibility in its stance on the issue and accepted Afghania adding that now the ball is in Awami National Party's court.Meanwhile PML-Q leader Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has proposed the name of "Pukhtoon Abaseen" for NWFP.According to Dunya News, Chaudhry Shujaat, Senator Waseem Sajjad and Khalid Ranjha met to discuss the issue of a new name for NWFP.Shujaat has also convened a meeting of provincial leadership for today to discuss the issue.Pakistan Muslim League-N leader Iqbal Zafar Jhagra has said that his party does not consider the renaming of NWFP as an issue of its ego.

ANP Chief rules out meeting with Nawaz Sharif

The Awami National Party Chief Asfandyar Wali Khan on Monday ruled out meeting with PML-N Chief Nawaz Sharif for settling the controversy over renaming the NWFP and said that the matter would be decided by the Constitutional Reform Committee.

Talking to the media outside the parliament house, Wali said that it was previously a bilateral matter between ANP and PML-N but now since the matter had been taken up by the Constitutional Reform Committee it was no longer their issue to resolve.

The committee is the best forum for deciding the new name for the NWFP, he stated.

Wali said that they had waited for 63 years to rename the NWFP and that there was no harm in waiting for another two or three weeks.

He hoped that this issue would be resolved through the CRC forum. He said with the exception of PML-N and Q all political parties including the Baloch nationalists, were supporting them on deciding upon 'Pakhtoonkhwa' as the name for the NWFP.

Peshawar Explosion

At least five people have been injured in an explosion at Bilal market in Hayatabad area of Peshawar, police sources confirmed SAMAA on Sunday.The explosion hit a CD shop in Hayatabad’s Bilal market.The police and other law enforcement agencies have cordoned off the area. The rescue work has been initiated. The injured have been taken to Hayatabad Medical Complex. The police have asked the Bomb Disposal Squad to reach the site of the incident to investigate the nature of the explosion.AGENCIES ADD: A bomb attack Sunday wounded five people and destroyed a music shop in northwestern Pakistan, police said.A bomb planted near the shop exploded in a bazaar in the neighbourhood of Hayatabad in Peshawar, the troubled capital of Northwest Frontier Province which has seen several attacks blamed on Pakistani Taliban."The bomb was planted near the CD shop, at least five people were injured," Sher Akbar, a senior police official told AFP.The shop was destroyed while two nearby grocery shops were slightly damaged, he added.There was no claim of responsibility, but local police officials blamed the incident on 'miscreants', a term often used for Taliban militants.Attacks by Islamist extremists in Pakistan have killed more than 3,100 people since July 2007. Most of the violence is blamed on the Pakistani Taliban.Insurgents have also bombed dozens of entertainment shops in the northwest of the country in recent years, saying that music and images are against the teachings of Islam.

Obama makes surprise trip to Afghanistan

New York Times
President Obama made a surprise trip to Afghanistan on Sunday, his first visit as commander in chief to the site of the war he inherited and has stamped as his own.

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While there, Mr. Obama pressed President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan for a crackdown on corruption while strengthening the judicial system and promoting good governance, The Associated Press reported.

After a brief meeting with Mr. Karzai at the presidential palace in Kabul, Mr. Obama also praised steps in the military campaign against insurgents, but said Afghans needed to see conditions on the ground get better, The A.P. reported.

“Progress will continue to be made, but we also want to make progress on the civilian front,” Mr. Obama was quoted as saying, referring to anti-corruption efforts, good governance and adherence to the rule of law.

“All of these things end up resulting in an Afghanistan that is more prosperous and more secure,” Mr. Obama said, according to The A.P. He invited Karzai to visit Washington on May 12, the White House said.

For his part, Mr. Karzai promised that his country “would move forward into the future” to eventually take over its own security, and he thanked Mr. Obama for the American intervention in his country.

The president landed in Afghanistain, at Bagram Air Base, after a 13-hour nonstop flight for a visit shrouded in secrecy for security reasons and quickly boarded a helicopter for the presidential palace in Kabul. There, Mr. Obama and Mr. Karzai walked and chatted along a red carpet as they made their way to an Afghan color guard, where the national anthems of both countries were played, in a welcoming ceremony that lasted 10 minutes.

White House officials disclosed no information about the trip until Mr. Obama’s plane had landed in Afghanistan, and had even gone so far as to inform reporters that the president would be spending the weekend at Camp David with his family. In fact, Mr. Obama’s trip is occurring during the Afghan night, and he is expected to be on his way back to Washington before most Afghans wake up Monday morning.

Mr. Obama will also meet with some of the tens of thousands of American troops who have been sent to Afghanistan since he took office. His visit with the troops is particularly significant because it comes at the same time that military officials report that the number of American troops killed in Afghanistan has roughly doubled in the first three months of 2010, compared to the same period last year.

The number of soldiers wounded in combat has also spiked dramatically. Military officials have warned that casualties are likely to continue to rise sharply as the Pentagon completes the deployment of 30,000 additional soldiers, per Afghanistan strategy announced by Mr. Obama in November. The reason for the spike, military officials said, is because American forces are aggressively seeking out Taliban insurgents in the country’s population centers, and are planning a major operation in the Kandahar, the spiritual home of the Taliban, in the coming months.

Mr. Obama’s trip caps a high-profile week for the president in which he coupled a singular domestic policy victory — the signing of a health reform bill — with the foreign policy achievement: reaching an arms control agreement with Russia in which the two agreed to slash their nuclear arsenals to the lowest levels in half a century.

Coming on top of that, the Palm Sunday visit to American combat troops by their commander in chief could project the image of a president keeping on top of a number of issues at once.

At the same time, though, Mr. Obama’s visit has been a long time coming. While he visited troops at Camp Victory, Iraq, three months after he was inaugurated, the White House has held off on a presidential visit to Afghanistan as Mr. Obama went through a rigorous months-long review of Afghanistan strategy, and as that country endured the twists and turns of a disputed election.

Even after Mr. Karzai was inaugurated and Mr. Obama announced that he would send an additional 30,000 troops, Mr. Obama put off a trip as he focused on domestic priorities, including a health care bill.

In some ways, the Afghanistan visit serves as a stark reminder that even with health care done, there remain major challenges ahead.

9,000 Afghans die of TB every year

KABUL: According to a recent report written by World Health Organizaytion (WHO), around 9000 Afghans die every year due to affliction with TB (Tuberculosis) in Afghanistan. At a ceremony of the World TB Day held at the auditorium of Kabul Medical University, Dr Suraya Dalil, Policy and Planning Deputy Minister and Acting Public Health Minister of Afghanistan said that number of TB cases in Afghanistan is still shocking despite aggressive combat against this disease. Based on the recent report obtained from WHO (2009) around 51000 new TB cases are being detected among which 9000 die every year. 33000 of these cases, recently reported are women. That is women make 64% of overall TB clients attending health facilities. Among the 22 countries located in Eastern Mediterranean Region, Afghanistan has had the highest rate of TB cases. Added Dr Dalil, the Acting Minister of Public Health. In addition, she pointed that totally 26358 TB cases were detected during year 2009 all of whom were covered by National TB Control Program. Dr Suraya Dalil then added National TB Control Program which was severely damaged by a long term civil war had been resumed not so later than the establishment of Afghanistan Transitional Government. In 2003 the very first strategic plan for TB Control Program was established in cooperation with WHO and some other MoPH partners. Honorable Guest of the ceremony, Marshal Mohammad Qaseem Fahim, the First Vice President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan addressing the World TB Day also said that some chronic diseases such as TB are predisposed by poverty and social deprivation. And he requested the people to contribute to the fight back against Tuberculosis. He, afterwards, told that this disease usually affects individuals in various parts of the country, in particular, the remote areas; and the health workers are obliged to work for elimination of the disease. He highlighted the existence of Stop TB Partnership Board in Afghanistan as a positive action towards elimination of this disease. He pointed that the National TB Control Program of the Ministry of Public Health of Afghanistan has made astonishing achievements in combating Tuberculosis. Meanwhile, Prof. Obaidullah Obaid, chancellor of Kabul Medical University said that TB is a major problem in the world taking lives of thousands of people every year. He also indicated that The Stop TB Partnership Board has worked hard during the past two years so as to stop TB in Afghanistan as well as conducting public awareness programs for Stopping TB.

Kandahar, a Battlefield Even Before U.S. Offensive

NEW YORK TIME
By CARLOTTA GALL

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — American forces have begun operations to push back Taliban insurgents in this most important southern province, the birthplace and spiritual home of the Taliban, and a full-scale offensive is expected in coming weeks.

But the Taliban have already turned this city into a battlefield as they prepare for the operation, which American officials hope will be decisive in breaking the insurgency’s grip on southern Afghanistan.

When American forces all arrive, they will encounter challenges larger than any other in Afghanistan. Taliban suicide bombings and assassinations have left this city virtually paralyzed by fear. The insurgents boldly walk the streets, visit shops and even press people into keeping guns and other supplies in their houses for them in preparation for urban warfare, residents say.

The government, corrupt and ineffective, lacks almost any popular support. Anyone connected to the government lives in fear of assassination. Its few officials sit barricaded behind high blast walls. Services are scant. Security, people say, is at its worst since the fall of the Taliban government in 2001.

“They are focusing on the city,” said Hajji Agha Lalai, a provincial councilor and former head of the peace and reconciliation commission in Kandahar, who has extensive contacts with the Taliban. “The Taliban want to show themselves to the world, to show, ‘We are here,’ ” he said.

The intensifying Taliban campaign is a measure of the importance the insurgency places on Kandahar, where the bulk of the 30,000 additional American forces arriving this year are being deployed. That is a sign of its value to the Americans, too.

The scale of the coming American offensive is expected to dwarf the recent operation in Marja, in neighboring Helmand Province, where 15,000 American, NATO and Afghan forces were deployed to secure an area much smaller than this provincial capital of 500,000 people.

American forces have been preparing for Kandahar since last year, building a presence around this city and along the border with Pakistan to try to secure the province. But as a result, in the most important urban center in southern Afghanistan, life has rapidly deteriorated, residents say.

On March 13, suicide bombers killed 35 people, and the Taliban have issued repeated warnings that they are in the city and planning more attacks.

“We do not feel safe in town, and even for the men it is dangerous to go out,” said a female human rights worker who asked not to be named for fear of being singled out by the insurgents.

In the week before the bombings, officials said, the Taliban conducted a series of attacks on the police and other officials in the city, killing one or two police officers every night for several days and seizing their weapons.

A government official, the well-liked head of the province’s Information and Culture Department, Abdul Majeed Babai, was gunned down on his way to work on Feb. 24. He had received threats from the Taliban, who wanted him to leave his position, relatives said.

“The Taliban can walk around, and government officials cannot,” Hajji Lalai said.

The man nominally in charge of Kandahar Province, Gov. Tooryalai Wesa, sat alone in his office reading papers on a recent afternoon. The spacious lawns and rooms of his palace, thronged by tribal elders and petitioners a few years ago, stood empty and silent.

Outside the city, it is worse. Government services barely exist. Only 5 of 17 districts in the province are accessible for government officials. Four districts are completely under the control of the insurgents, according to Nader Nadery, deputy head of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.

Administrators and police chiefs are appointed to the districts, but they have so little backup and so few resources, they can do little. With 40 to 60 police officers in each district, they can barely guard the district center.

Health services and education are virtually absent outside the towns, and two-thirds of the province’s schools are closed, human rights officials say.

“If a single nurse or midwife is working in the districts, you can call me bad names,” a women’s activist, Shahida Hussain, said. “Even in the city, they don’t have enough equipment — forget the districts.”

Afghan officials in the district of Spinboldak on the Pakistan border said their area was more secure since American soldiers of the Stryker Brigade were deployed there last year to try to close down Taliban infiltration routes, or “rat lines,” as soldiers call them. The road to Spinboldak had grown safer, and a radio tower had been installed that would allow the government to reach Afghans throughout the border region, the governor, Mr. Wesa, said on a recent visit.

Yet the Taliban have repeatedly hit Stryker units in another strategic district, Arghandab, just to the north of Kandahar city with roadside bombs.

In Malahjat and Panjwai, agricultural districts to the west and southwest of Kandahar city, farmers say they are under constant threat from mines laid by the militants, as well as from American drones and helicopters combing the skies.

Villagers described at least three instances in recent weeks when drone strikes killed farmers digging ditches or bringing goods home from the market, as well as other cases when Taliban fighters were hit.

American helicopters swoop in on villagers who are on motorbikes or are working in the fields and hover over them until the men remove clothing and stand with their arms aloft to show they are not militants, said one man who frequently visits his village by motorbike from the city. He asked not to be named for fear of trouble from any side.

In addition to the dangers, residents say they are despairing about the political crisis gripping the province.

Real power rests with just two families who have prospered under the presence of American forces in the past eight years. One of them is the family of President Hamid Karzai, who is represented here by his brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, who heads the provincial council.

The other belongs to Gul Agha Shirzai, the former governor of Kandahar, and his brothers Bacha Shirzai and Razziq Shirzai, who have gotten lucrative security and construction deals with NATO forces.

Residents and elders accuse the families of persecuting rivals and excluding all other tribes from access to power. Their domination has undercut any popular backing for the government or the foreign forces supporting them.

“The first thing Afghans fear is the coming of more foreign troops, and the second thing they fear is the empowering of the current leadership and administration,” said Shahabuddin Akhunzada, a tribal elder from Kandahar city. His Eshaqzai tribe has complained of repeated arrests and political exclusion. The West’s acceptance of Mr. Karzai’s re-election despite widespread fraud was the last straw, he said.

US commander in Afghanistan bans burger and pizza bars at Kandahar base

If an army marches on its stomach, General Stanley McChrystal would prefer that it wasn't full of burgers and pizzas.

In an edict that will appal the units garrisoned at Kandahar airbase, but no doubt raise a smile from soldiers living off rations in forward operating bases, the famously sober US commanding general in Afghanistan has called for an end to the junk food culture that has taken root at the base.

With queues for Whoppers outside Burger King and troops ordering takeaways from Pizza Hut while others enjoy the occasional evening of line dancing, the square of shops and restaurants at the airfield could almost pass for smalltown America.

But the fact that these fast-food joints are just a few miles down the road from Kandahar, spiritual home of the Taliban and the focus of critical Nato operations this summer, has not impressed McChrystal.

Anxious that his men focus on the job at hand, McChrystal has ordered the closure of most of the all-American food outlets that have appeared over the years at Kandahar airfield.

As one of his top deputies put it in a written announcement: "This is a war zone – not an amusement park."

The closure of Burger King, Pizza Hut, Dairy Queen and Military Car Sales, where soldiers can buy pickup trucks to be delivered their home address, will all help the alliance "accommodate the troop increase and get refocused on the mission at hand", Sergeant Major Michael Hall said.

Their departure will remove the essential elements that made the "boardwalk"area of Kandahar airfield one of the oddest in Afghanistan. Just a few hundred metres from an airstrip that sends so many fighter jets, unmanned drones and helicopters out on missions around Kandahar and Helmand that it is the world's busiest, soldiers can shop for perfumes, cigars and high end electronics as well as eat junk food.

Inside a restaurant such as TGI Friday's, the only reminder that this is the most surreal outpost of the US casual dining giant is when the camouflage-clad customers dive under tables at the sound of a rocket attack alarm – an occasional hazard in Kandahar. TGI's is not yet on the McChrystal hit list, but a warning that some contracts will not be renewed suggests it may not last long.

The news is likely to delight US troops who live off rations in tiny outposts where occasional showers are the closest they get to luxury. Such frontline soldiers routinely disparage their colleagues who spend their tours among the creature comforts of the large bases.

But some US military personnel in recent months have told the Guardian that McChrystal's puritanical streak, which has also seen a ban on activities such as salsa classes, is an unnecessary added burden on soldiers on lengthy 12-month tours.

The mega-bases of Kandahar and Bagram will be the most affected by the new policy, and it is not clear whether Camp Bastion, the UK's giant facility in the desert of Helmand will lose the sea container that houses a tiny Pizza Hut.

It is the only such franchise on a base which McChrystal would otherwise find admirably austere – British troops' shopping opportunities are restricted to the Hobnobs, toiletries and Nuts magazines sold at the Naafi store, an outlet dwarfed by the giant US equivalents.

Pukhtunkhwa-Now or never

THE FRONTIER POST
Ghani Khan
Renaming of the North Western Frontier Province as Pakhtunkhwa has assumed importance in view of the fact that it is under active consideration of the Constitution Reforms Committee of the Parliament. The said committee is working under the Chairmanship of Senator Mian Raza Rabbani which has almost completed its task except certain important issues, which include the quantum of Provincial autonomy, the unification or merger of Pakhtun areas into one province and the renaming of North Western Frontier Province. The attitude of the Reforms Committee is friendly towards changing the name of the Frontier to "Pakhtunkhwa" as there is no harm, either covert or overt, in changing the name which is the demand of millions of inhabitants of the province. The demand for changing the name of the province has not emerged all of a sudden but in fact it is as old as the province. At the time when this province was formed in 1901, a Hindu scholar, Ram Chand belonging to Yar Hussain village in Swabi district had proposed in 1907-08 that this province be given a suitable (Pathan name) appropriate to the people inhabiting this province. This was the time when there was neither any movement for Pakistan nor any vision had come forth in this regard which only proves that the name Pakhtunkhwa is not against the integrity of Pakistan. After the creation of Pakistan, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan in his maiden speech in the constituent Assembly of Pakistan i.e. on 5th March, 1948 had demanded that now that Pakistan was an independent state, there was no need to keep Pakhtuns divided into so many different administrative units as that was the requirement of the British for their colonial needs. On this occasion he had proposed that such a united Pakhtun province be named as "Pakhtunistan", He had argued that this was essential to reflect the identity of the people of the province. But not only the reply of the then Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan to Bacha Khan's speech was un-accommodating but a member from Punjab and as well as a federal minister had gone so far as to say that " Pakhtunistan" was an un-Islamic name. To this Bacha Khan had replied that if Pakhtuns were Muslims, how their name was non-Muslim. Between that and this day an innocent demand was given political clolour. More than 40 years after the original demand was made by the great Pakhtun leader, Muhammad Afzal Khan popularly known as Khan Lala i.e. elder brother was the third person who in November,1990 touched this issue most forcefully on the floor of the National Assembly of Pakistan. This was as a result of his fight for the name in the Assembly single handedly that the issue never died thereafter. The Awami National Party's efforts for renaming of the province as Pakhtunkhwa cannot be qualified as forceful or much serious and this fact is evident from its reaction that when Muhammad Afzal Khan was fighting all alone on the floor of the Assembly facing the anger and annoyance of the Punjab, not a single member from ANP had supported him in order to keep its alliance with Mian Nawaz Sharif intact. Now the objective of renaming the province is being pursued in the Constitution Reforms Committee and there is no impediment as all other parties are supporting the renaming of the Frontier province as Pakhtunkhwa except the PML (N). Instead of Pakhtunkhwa, the PML (N) is suggesting a combination of two names i.e. Pakhtunkhwa-Abbasin or Pakhtunkhwa-Khyber or Pakhtunkhwa-Hazara. The PML (N) considers Hazara division to be a separate entity for the sake of securing its few seats in the provincial and National assemblies. To agree to their suggestion tantamounts to further disintegrating the province and this will be a price unbearable for its people. Some circles even now consider that this is not an opportune time to rename the Frontier province as Pakhtunkhwa as this is not just a change of name of a street or a road. They think that even the resolution of the provincial assembly in support of change of name is not worthy of respect as another assembly may suggest another name. So they think that there is no desirability of changing the name. To oppose certain suggestion is not unexpected or an unwelcome thing but to oppose an appropriate proposal on spurious grounds indeed becomes a matter of concern. It has always been striven to make the people of the province believe that in the name of Pakistan, the alphabet "ALIF" was indented by Ch. Rehmat Ali to stand for "Afghania" as a name for the province and the people of the province were expected to consider the concealed "ALIF" as a sufficient substitute for a proper name but ultimately when Afghania was demanded, it was also outrightly rejected. The committee representing the ANP and PML(N) is comprised of Pakhtuns from both sides. It is apparent that the Pakhtuns representing PML (N) were never in position to go beyond the instructions of Mian Nawaz Sharif and as such this was evident from day one that the committee will fail to arrive at consensus. Certain news stories suggest that the matter is almost settled and during their meeting for the purpose, the leaders of both the parties will take no time in reaching consensus and Pakhtunkhwa will be declared as the new name for the Frontier. It is believable because not only the ANP had almost surrendered itself to ML for nine long years in hope of getting the province renamed at the cost of its popularity and integrity and this was also the reason for the ANP members to leave Muhammad Afzal Khan high and dry when he badly needed their help. Mian Sahib ultimately opted to break the promise given to the ANP leadership. Once upon a time Mian Nawaz Sharif used to call the Frontier province as Pakhtunkhwa in his speeches on the floor of the National Assembly and therefore one is inclined to hope that he is not seriously opposed to the proposed change just to please a division which is 50 per cent Pakhto speaking, he might only be intending to gain some political importance through delaying tactics. But one cannot ignore the fact that Mian Sahib has always used negative politics as a means of popularizing himself in Punjab. If he persisted in his opposition to the change of name this will without doubt seriously damage the harmony which has always existed in the Frontier province but will also damage relations between the two provinces and the leaderships of both parties. It is advisable that to rename the Frontier province as Pakhtunkhwa may not be considered as an affront to the ideology of Pakistan or its stability as this is not a demand for a free and sovereign Pakhtunkhwa nor this is an issue like Kashmir or Palestine. It is worth mentioning that at present there is no opposition to rename the Frontier province as Pakhtunkhwa from Sindh and Balochistan. The Punjabis belonging to PPP from Punjab also seem to favour the change which is over due. It is hoped that Mian Sahib will not ignore the pleasure of millions of Pakhtuns for the sake of the so-called minorities which are existing in every province of the country and no country in the world is ever empty of minorities and therefore the yard stick which is applied to Pakhtunkhwa has no precedent at all in the entire world, if there was any they should bring it forward. Few words of advice for the leadership of ANP that the people and particularly intellectuals are afraid that ANP being habitually a party of compromise will eventually agree to two names in one i.e. Pakhtunkhwa-Abbasin or Pakhtunkhwa - Hazara. This will further complicate and compound the issue and in fact this will be even worse than NWFP. In Seventies; when the party had had the opportunity to declare Pakhto as the official language of the province, the party leadership succumbed to its compulsions and even today the party cannot defend itself on the issue. For renaming the Frontier province as Pakhtunkhwa, this is the most opportune time and if lost will be lost for ever so this is a matter of now or never and the party leadership must keep it in mind. The party should agree to 18th amendment only after Pakhtunkhwa is conceded and therefore the party has no option to retreat from its stand which is just, desirable and need of the hour not only in the interest of the Province but of the entire country.

Nawaz’s turnabout

The Frontier Post

Not even a nincompoop is wee bit surprised at this turnabout of Mian Nawaz Sharif, the PML (N) supremo. Shocked is only that bevy of palmed off media stars and fondling intellectual lights that had been projecting him disingenuously as a giant which he really is not. The street knows him for what he actually is: a pigmy and an imposter, given congenitally to opportunism and expediency, professing deceitfully commitment to principled politics with which he has no truck at all and which palpably is none of his forte. It is only the fawning crowd that had spuriously been painting him as a staunch lover of independent judiciary, but to the great amusement of the street which fretted sceptically how could he be, this erstwhile invader of the Supreme Court and the conqueror of the superior judiciary. Not the least bemused was the street by these equally deceitful cheerleaders’ chant that he was an unvarnished democrat committed to democracy and constitutionalism. It was too much of a joke that it could take. Not even the Atlantic’s entire waters can wash from the street’s searing memory that had he the required numbers in the Senate, this charlatan would have been sitting on this ill-starred nation’s neck today as its Ameerul Momineen for lifetime, a law unto himself and his word the law of the land, with the whole of the democracy and constitution shop rolled up and thrown into the junkyard for good. How could this cloned baby of the garrison hatcheries and the longtime loyal companion and toady of praetorian generals and dictators be taken as true in his tall assertions of civilian supremacy and subservience of the military to the civilian rule? That unsettling question has never left the street’s troubled mind. And not even a saintly sage could convince a starkly sceptical street that this compulsive neglector and irreverent of parliament in his glory times was now a devotee and fan of parliament’s supremacy. During his two prime ministerial stints, not just to the nation’s highest elected body he gave a short shrift in the making of state policies and decisions, he even kept his cabinets of ministers out of it. It was a select coterie of his kitchen cabinet that he would consult at best to run the country as autocratically as he runs his party despotically even today. Can anyone with a modicum of sense imagine for a moment that his party team on the parliamentary constitutional reforms committee was working on its own without any knowledge of him or any instructions from him? You must be kidding. How many times have you heard in these very recent times his party people saying on crucial issues that Mian Sahib would decide the party position or stance? And how many times have you heard them saying his word would be the last? So what is it that has prompted Mian Sahib to make this turnabout at the eleventh hour to put the almost entire finished work of the parliamentary committee in state of uncertainty and doldrums? What expediency is it that has motivated this grandee to this rash and reckless hatchet work? There must be a method to his madness, a shrewd operator as he is who like a seasoned businessman calculates carefully his costs and profits before embarking on a venture. He must have done this cost-benefit thing, carefully weighing what political gains are going to accrue to him, even though for the present it looks his seemingly idiotic move is likely to hurt him politically in the public eye. But for this, soothly, he is least bothered. With his enormous wealth, much of it slush, and with moneyed people and powerful feudal aristocrats holding pocket boroughs inhabited by enslaved electorates on his back he feels secure enough to romp home even amidst a miffed public. Still, if with his adventurous stroke his fawning cheerleaders in the media, in the intellectual nobility and in the civil society glitterati stand completely flummoxed, the street lies squarely prostrate. The street had hoped once the political elites are through with their constitutional game, they would find some time to think of the people’s multiplying miseries and travails. And they are indeed pathetically placed. They are being mowed down day in and day out by mounting problems of poverty and squalor, disease and aliments, joblessness and wants, price hikes and power and gas shortages, and official corruption and malfeasance. On top of it, criminality, lawlessness and terrorism have driven them to an utter sense of insecurity and sleepless nights. With his recklessness, Mian Sahib has dashed their hopes to the ground to become dust. What a love and affection for an unfortunate people!

Nawaz Sharif betrays democracy

Daily Times
ISLAMABAD: A day before the proposed 18th Amendment package was all set to be tabled before the parliament for approval, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) took a U-turn that created a virtual deadlock in the country’s politics.

Knowing that the Parliamentary Reforms Committee has included its proposals regarding the appointment of judges and admitting that renaming of the NWFP was not a major issue, PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif backtracked at the 11th hour in his press conference on Thursday, demanding that a “consensus” be made before presenting the package in parliament.

When some key members of his own party went on record in admitting that everything was settled and there was no hurdle in placing the package for approval, the sudden change in the stance of the PML-N created confusion in the political circles.

Some observers believe that this turn was at the behest of some quarters and the PML-N chief adhered to “some phone calls” he received just before his press conference.

Inside circles within the PML-N confided to Daily Times that this sudden move took many within the party by surprise since all issues apart from the renaming of the NWFP had been settled by the committee amicably.

Postponed: Minutes after Nawaz’s press conference, representatives of the government announced the postponement of the proposed joint session of parliament where President Asif Ali Zardari was supposed to deliver his 3rd address on the start of the new parliamentary year.

In his press conference, Nawaz denied that any agreement had been reached on the issue of the judges in the committee, and said his party had reservations over the proposed package.

Judges’ appointment: He said the issue of the judges’ appointment and the renaming of the NWFP had not yet been settled with the government, adding that judges should not be appointed on the basis of favouritism but through a transparent mechanism which ensures protection of the judiciary, and input from the government, the opposition and parliament.

A consultative meeting of the PML-N, chaired by Nawaz, was held at the Punjab House to discuss the proposed 18th Amendment bill and the issue of renaming of the NWFP before the press conference.

The PML-N chief demanded the government come up with complete consensus before tabling the amendment package in parliament.

He was of the view that President Zardari should address the joint session of parliament after a complete consensus on amendment package is developed and the differences are removed.

When asked whether his press conference was meant to create hurdles in the scheduled presidential address, Nawaz said his party wanted the president to fulfil his constitutional obligation, but only after getting a complete consensus on the 18th Amendment package

NWFP schools’ closure

The shortage of teachers has forced the closure of 367 government-run primary schools for girls and boys across the NWFP, more than 30 of them in Peshawar alone. As a result, over 36,700 students are now out of school, most of them in remote areas where there is no option of taking admission in another school.



The problem lies not in the shortage of teachers per se, but in the fact that the teachers in most of the now-closed schools, which were located in far-flung areas, managed to obtain transfers to other schools of their choice — mainly located in urban areas. The director of the Education Reforms Unit told this newspaper that security concerns and transport problems discourage teachers from working in remote areas. Furthermore, teachers in urban areas receive more attractive allowances.

This is an unacceptable state of affairs. The number of educational institutions, primary schools in particular, in the NWFP has always been far from adequate. The situation plummeted in recent years when the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and other militant outfits put schools, particularly those for girls, in their crosshairs. With this threat having been reduced to some extent, it is now essential that schools stay open and, indeed, try to increase the numbers of admissions.
That people want their children to have access to education is evident from the fact that the schools now closed remained functional for many years after their establishment, and were staffed by teachers appointed by the Elementary and Secondary Education department — teachers who have now abandoned their positions and left thousands of students in the lurch. The matter merits urgent attention by the authorities: education is not just a constitutional right but also plays a critical role in lifting people out of poverty and darkness. Proper education is also crucial to ensuring that anarchic elements never, in future, find the province conducive to their activities.

Blast on Bara Road in Peshawar kills four

PESHAWAR: Four people were killed and 25 injured when a powerful bomb exploded near the Bara Qadeem checkpost close to a market on the Bara Road on Thursday. Eight of the injured were children playing near the site of the blast.
Peshawar Cantonment Circle SP Tauseef Haider told this correspondent that the explosion took place just after an FC convoy had passed through the area.
Local people said it was a suicide attack. One of them named Rehman told reporters he had seen three people coming from the Bara side of the Khyber Agency. Two of them returned and the third was near the market when the blast took place.
But a bomb disposal official said the blast was caused by a time-bomb which appeared to have been placed on a table near a music centre in the market.

Karzai brother a concern in Kandahar campaign

WASHINGTON- Pentagon war planners see the controversial leadership role of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's half-brother in Kandahar as a challenge to their campaign to win over the city, officials said on Friday.
Ahmad Wali Karzai, the head of Kandahar's provincial council and one of the most powerful men in the south, has long been under scrutiny because of reports linking him to Afghanistan's entrenched heroin and opium trade and the CIA. He denies the charges and the U.S. spy agency would neither confirm nor deny any ties.
At a congressional hearing in December, Defence Secretary Robert Gates said the United States had problems with the president's half-brother but his dominant presence has taken on added importance for Washington now that efforts to win "hearts and minds" in Kandahar are beginning.
The campaign to gradually retake full control of Afghanistan's second-largest city will test U.S. President Barack Obama's strategy for reversing Taliban momentum after more than eight years of war."He's a challenge they're trying to work through over there," a senior U.S. military official said of the role played by Ahmad Wali Karzai.Another U.S. defence official said the United States has been pressing Karzai to limit his half-brother's role in Kandahar, asserting that the controversy further undercut efforts to establish his government's credibility in the city, known as the birthplace of the Taliban."Karzai's protecting him," the defence official said of the president's half-brother. "It has been a giant thorn in our side and terrible for the credibility of the government."

KARZAI DENIALS

President Karzai has long been dogged by accusations that members of his family are involved in drugs, undermining Western support, but he says he has seen no evidence of wrongdoing by his brother.General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said earlier this week that he envisions a gradual campaign in Kandahar aimed at delivering security and governance, as opposed to one big military assault.McChrystal has not given a timeline for the operation but told reporters last week in Kabul that troops would be at full force for Kandahar operations by the early summer.
The senior U.S. military official said preliminary talks with tribal leaders from Kandahar have begun, laying the groundwork for a larger number of troops later.
"You've got to work the population hard," the official said, referring to McChrystal's counterinsurgency strategy, which puts an emphasis on securing population centers over killing Taliban fighters.The official said each phase of the campaign would take a "considerable amount of time."
U.S. military and civilian leaders have stepped up pressure on Karzai in recent weeks to do more to combat corruption, suggesting Washington is increasingly concerned that Kabul's inaction undercut the campaign against the Taliban."There have been some actions taken to remove corrupt individuals and there's no question that there need to be more," U.S. General David Petraeus, whose Central Command oversees wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, told a Senate hearing this week without identifying anyone by name.Kandahar served as the spiritual seat of power for reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar before the militants were ousted from Afghanistan by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in 2001.Militants have since made substantial gains in the area.

China says it agrees with Afghanistan on politics

0 BEIJING – A top Chinese official reassured visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday that Beijing won't take a position when it comes to Afghan politics.
The remarks by top lawmaker Wu Bangguo reflect China's policy of ignoring the politics of neighboring states as long as they don't infringe on Chinese interests.
"I don't see any differences between us on political issues," Wu, the Communist Party's second-highest ranking official, told Karzai at the start of a meeting at the Great Hall of the People."We have made good progress in our practical cooperation. I'm sure your visit will give a great boost to the bilateral relationship," Wu said.Karzai faces criticism at home and among some in the West over corruption, cronyism, and electoral fraud that are blamed for stymieing development, fueling crime and driving some Afghans into the arms of the Taliban insurgency.Wu's comments seemed to ensure that such issues won't be raised in his talks with Chinese leaders, who oversee a one-party communist state that brooks no internal dissent or outside criticism.While China has no troops in Afghanistan — where Karzai relies on U.S. and NATO forces to prop up his weak government against the Taliban — its proximity and booming economy make it a valuable partner for the war-battered country.China is already a major source of consumer goods for the country and while two-way trade totaled just $155 million in 2008, according to Chinese figures, it appears to be growing quickly.A Chinese company has also pledged $3 billion to tap one of the world's largest unexploited copper reserves at Aynak in Afghanistan, and is favored to win the rights to iron deposits at Hajigak when bids are considered this year.
Karzai, traveling with a delegation of Cabinet officials and business figures, on Wednesday oversaw the signing of three agreements boosting economic ties.
The trip to Beijing also allows Karzai to further establish himself as a regional political figure with stature and independence.Karzai has participated as an observer in summits of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a grouping of Central Asian nations dominated by China and Russia that aims to challenge U.S. dominance. He has also cemented ties with India to balance the influence of neighboring Pakistan, with which Afghanistan has an acrimonious relationship.
And earlier this month, Karzai hosted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who used his brief visit to lob insults at the United States and argue that international forces in Afghanistan would only lead to more civilian deaths.
Karzai called Iran — with which Afghanistan shares a long land border — "our brother nation" with whom it had excellent relations.