Senator Dr Babar Awan of Pakistan Peoples Party said on Sunday that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz should show political maturity as the country was passing through difficult times. Addressing a press conference here, Babar said that PML-N Chief Nawaz Sharif should not adopt “a non-serious attitude and mislead the nation asking it to revolt against the government”.
Babar Awan said that Nawaz Sharif had not mentioned that what kind of revolt he was demanding from the people.”Whether it is against the parliament, constitution, democracy or law and order?”, he said.
He alleged that Nawaz Sharif preferred to leave the country instead of confronting the dictator. “ Why did he not announce rebellion at that time?” he asked.
He said that the PPP had always played the politics of federation and reconciliation while Nawaz Sharif, he claimed, was doing the politics of division and separation.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
ANP govt criticized for stalled health delivery
The Awami National Party-led provincial government has been under tremendous criticism from the masses for failing to resume the health services suspended for the past 10 days due to continuous strike by the doctors across the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The doctors continued the strike for 10th consecutive day on Saturday, which paralysed the health delivery in major hospitals of the province, particularly in Peshawar where doors of the three tertiary care hospitals Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH), and Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) had been closed for the patients for the past couple of days.
Hundreds of poor patients and their hapless attendants, after sensing that there was no hope for end to strike by the doctors had started leaving hospitals for homes.
Most of the wards, laboratories and operation theatres in the three teaching hospitals in Peshawar have been wearing a deserted look by persistent strike by the doctors.
The doctors want increase in salaries and went on a strike on the call of Provincial Doctors Association (PDA), representative body of the serving doctors. The provincial government has not been able to take note of patients suffering caused by doctors strike.
Majority of the patients and their exhausted attendants criticised the ANP-led government for the miseries they were facing at the public sector hospitals. Instead of strengthening these so-called hospitals, the ANP government closed its doors for the poor patients and left them at the mercy of doctors to suffer, a disappointed attendant, Ikhtiar Gul, who had taken his ailing brother to the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), remarked.
Some senior doctors affiliated with the Pakistan People s Party were making individual efforts to bring the protesting doctors and the government to the negotiating table, but in vain.
The PDA, on the other hand, has vowed to continue strike till acceptance of their lone demand, raise in salaries.
The authorities at the LRH and KTH Saturday made some alternative arrangements for the patients coming to the two teaching hospitals.
The doctors continued the strike for 10th consecutive day on Saturday, which paralysed the health delivery in major hospitals of the province, particularly in Peshawar where doors of the three tertiary care hospitals Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH), and Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) had been closed for the patients for the past couple of days.
Hundreds of poor patients and their hapless attendants, after sensing that there was no hope for end to strike by the doctors had started leaving hospitals for homes.
Most of the wards, laboratories and operation theatres in the three teaching hospitals in Peshawar have been wearing a deserted look by persistent strike by the doctors.
The doctors want increase in salaries and went on a strike on the call of Provincial Doctors Association (PDA), representative body of the serving doctors. The provincial government has not been able to take note of patients suffering caused by doctors strike.
Majority of the patients and their exhausted attendants criticised the ANP-led government for the miseries they were facing at the public sector hospitals. Instead of strengthening these so-called hospitals, the ANP government closed its doors for the poor patients and left them at the mercy of doctors to suffer, a disappointed attendant, Ikhtiar Gul, who had taken his ailing brother to the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), remarked.
Some senior doctors affiliated with the Pakistan People s Party were making individual efforts to bring the protesting doctors and the government to the negotiating table, but in vain.
The PDA, on the other hand, has vowed to continue strike till acceptance of their lone demand, raise in salaries.
The authorities at the LRH and KTH Saturday made some alternative arrangements for the patients coming to the two teaching hospitals.
Helpless patients suffer in doctors-govt tussle Ailing poor forced to visit costly private clinics
he strike of doctors continued in provincial capital on Friday as no genuine representation of young doctors was seen in wards, operation theaters and OPDs in major hospitals.The public sector health facilities throughout the provincial capital are simply crippled by the week long strike of young doctors under the banner of Provincial Doctors Association. The patients coming across from Khyber Pakthunkhwa and Fata to Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) and Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) are suffering due to extended strike by doctors as most of them are turning up to private clinics and laboratories where they are being charged heavily.Misal Khan, a retired government employee, who had brought his ailing wife to Lady Reading Hospital on Friday, said unavailability of doctors had added miseries of people like him. “I prayed doctors for examining of my wife after her INR test in LRH this morning but their response was very downbeat,” he told APP. Most of patients are visiting Dabgari Garden, a hub of medical practitioners where they are being looted due to extended strike of doctors and that diagnostic laboratories are getting double charges for X-rays, bone scan, CT scan, MRI etc tests from poor patients.The young doctors of provincial capital on the call of Provincial Doctors Association are on strike for almost one week to press government to fulfill their demands.A young doctor in LRH told APP that due to lackluster attitude of provincial government, the young doctors were actually forced to go for strike for the acceptance of their demands. He said young doctors should be given facilities on pattern of Punjab doctors.Meanwhile, Spokesman of Khyber Pakthunkhwa Health Department said most issues of doctors had been addressed and asked Provincial Doctors Association (PDA) to call-off their strike for best interest of people. He said the only unsolved issue was salary package, which could be addressed through discussion. The continuation of the doctors’ strike in current circumstances when province is confronted with several challenges like war against terror, the strike of doctors will added problems of people and doctors should call off the strike immediately to mitigate suffering of ailing humanity and victim of terrorism.The Spokesman said in these circumstances the doctors’ strike is very negative and counter productive, which are bringing bad name to medical profession and medical institutions and hoped that PDA would call of their strike in public interest immediately.Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health department in order to provide better services to medical practitioners and doctors took a proactive measures to accommodate students who had passed FCPS-I examination to meet the current and future needs.The Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa got recognized six institutions by the college of Physician and Surgeon in the month of February this year for post graduate training.These institutions include Saidu Group of Tecaching Hospitals, Gomal Medical College, Bacha Khan Medical College, Gastroenterology Unit of LRH, IKD and KCD. In the last twenty years this is the first ever expansion of the postgraduate teaching intuitions outside Peshawar.
Nation’s tragic catastrophe
Editorial:
Just forget about what the others say about us. Much of that is patently motivated discourse, self-serving hectoring or sheer jiggery-pokery. But there is no question about it that we really are in a state of war, under the siege as we visibly are of extremists and terrorists. They may be homegrown, they may be foreign proxies. Whatever they are, they have declared war on us, unmistakably now threatening viciously our very existence. And to contend with their vile challenge to the state, we stand in need of a war leadership. But the nation’s greatest tragic catastrophe is that what we have is a leadership not fit even for peacetimes. We need tall leaders with high minds, tremendous vision and enormous wisdom. Instead, what we have are small men with small minds, unable to see even beyond their own noses.
Unarguably, this war is no unidirectional fight. It is a multidimensional battle, to be fought out on multiple fronts and in the minds. The counter-offensive has to be multi-pronged, for which you need leaders who show themselves apart, not for custom-made robes, but for richness of intellectual faculties, creative thoughts and innovative ideas. But the leaders in the saddle across the spectrum have established beyond a shred of doubt that none of this is their forte. Clearly, this war has to be battled not just on the security front. It has to be fought as much on political and development planes. But this leadership is yet to show anything worthwhile on its slate by way of political initiative to cope with the existential threat of wicked terrorism monsters to the polity and to the state. So much so, it has spectacularly failed even to drive home to the mass of our people that the war we are now pitched is none else’s but our own.
Such an utter disappointment has indeed this leadership been that for almost two years it ran the crucial finance ministry on ad hoc basis. It had had no regular finance minister and the key portfolio of finance was handled by a variety of cabinet ministers as an additional charge. And shockingly enough, till now this leadership has unfolded no economic policy. At best, its act on the economic front is marked with firefighting; at worst, its economic policy boils down to begging and borrowing money from international donors. And no move whatsoever has it made to modernise the curricula of madrassas. It indeed gives the vibe that this task has never been on its agenda. At least, Pervez Musharraf made an attempt to this end, though he too in the end caved in to the awe of the clerical orders. This leadership has not even ventured on this task, feeling it safer to steer clear of this ticklish enterprise.
Even on the security front, this administration has not anything grand to boast of. The field is cluttered with its inactions, inertia and sloth. Even after three years, it is still hovering around the inanities of “has decided”, whereas by now it should be talking in the lingo of its decisions “being carried out decisively” and “curbing the terrorists crushingly”. Nothing of the sort is happening. No counter-terrorism strategy is visibly or perceptibly in play. And where order should have necessarily prevailed by now still reigning supreme are anarchy and chaos. No coordinations or collaborations between the various parts of the state security apparatus are in evidence. Each seemingly is working in its own light and in its own direction. And the lashkars and jaishes of all brands and hues are running their trades unimpeded and unobstructed, even the known outlawed ones openly under not-so-veiled new banners. And hate literature is circulating without any fears or inhibitions.
Not that the grandees occupying the opposition tents are showing any better. Superficiality and hollowness fills their camps as deafeningly as the official corridors, while the clerical orders for their own religiosity see spotless white what is visibly only opaque black. But none should harbour any hallucinations. The country is caught up dangerously in the stormy whirlpool of an existential threat which if not tackled unitedly would throw this nation in such an irreversible crisis that each and all will rue inconsolably. So each in own interest must see what is in the making and work to avert the otherwise inevitable grim eventuality at every cost. Terrorist are certainly no friends of this country and its people. They in reality are this nation’s foes.
Unarguably, this war is no unidirectional fight. It is a multidimensional battle, to be fought out on multiple fronts and in the minds. The counter-offensive has to be multi-pronged, for which you need leaders who show themselves apart, not for custom-made robes, but for richness of intellectual faculties, creative thoughts and innovative ideas. But the leaders in the saddle across the spectrum have established beyond a shred of doubt that none of this is their forte. Clearly, this war has to be battled not just on the security front. It has to be fought as much on political and development planes. But this leadership is yet to show anything worthwhile on its slate by way of political initiative to cope with the existential threat of wicked terrorism monsters to the polity and to the state. So much so, it has spectacularly failed even to drive home to the mass of our people that the war we are now pitched is none else’s but our own.
Such an utter disappointment has indeed this leadership been that for almost two years it ran the crucial finance ministry on ad hoc basis. It had had no regular finance minister and the key portfolio of finance was handled by a variety of cabinet ministers as an additional charge. And shockingly enough, till now this leadership has unfolded no economic policy. At best, its act on the economic front is marked with firefighting; at worst, its economic policy boils down to begging and borrowing money from international donors. And no move whatsoever has it made to modernise the curricula of madrassas. It indeed gives the vibe that this task has never been on its agenda. At least, Pervez Musharraf made an attempt to this end, though he too in the end caved in to the awe of the clerical orders. This leadership has not even ventured on this task, feeling it safer to steer clear of this ticklish enterprise.
Even on the security front, this administration has not anything grand to boast of. The field is cluttered with its inactions, inertia and sloth. Even after three years, it is still hovering around the inanities of “has decided”, whereas by now it should be talking in the lingo of its decisions “being carried out decisively” and “curbing the terrorists crushingly”. Nothing of the sort is happening. No counter-terrorism strategy is visibly or perceptibly in play. And where order should have necessarily prevailed by now still reigning supreme are anarchy and chaos. No coordinations or collaborations between the various parts of the state security apparatus are in evidence. Each seemingly is working in its own light and in its own direction. And the lashkars and jaishes of all brands and hues are running their trades unimpeded and unobstructed, even the known outlawed ones openly under not-so-veiled new banners. And hate literature is circulating without any fears or inhibitions.
Not that the grandees occupying the opposition tents are showing any better. Superficiality and hollowness fills their camps as deafeningly as the official corridors, while the clerical orders for their own religiosity see spotless white what is visibly only opaque black. But none should harbour any hallucinations. The country is caught up dangerously in the stormy whirlpool of an existential threat which if not tackled unitedly would throw this nation in such an irreversible crisis that each and all will rue inconsolably. So each in own interest must see what is in the making and work to avert the otherwise inevitable grim eventuality at every cost. Terrorist are certainly no friends of this country and its people. They in reality are this nation’s foes.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Karzai wants Afghans to take control of night raids
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ordered the Defense Ministry to take control of night raids, one of the most controversial tactics used by foreign troops fighting the Taliban, in a move likely to stoke tensions between Kabul and its Western backers.
NATO-led forces defended the night-time operations as "indispensable," but also said they supported Karzai's aim of making them Afghan-led and were working to achieve this.
Karzai, who has previously riled U.S. and NATO leaders with criticism of night raids, said in a statement from his office that Afghan troops should be carrying out the sensitive night raids themselves.
"President Hamid Karzai ordered the Defense Ministry to prevent foreign troops from uncoordinated and arbitrary operations and bring night raids under its control," the statement said.
"The president stresses that special operations and night raids must be independently conducted by Afghan troops."
Afghans say the raids, carried out in darkness on houses suspected of harboring insurgents or being used as a store for weapons, often lead to civilian casualties.
Foreign troops have defended them as key to gaining ground against insurgents, cutting down the leaders of a movement with more territory and influence than at any time since 2001.
"We know we would not have seen the gains and progress made to date without the conduct of targeted, intelligence-driven night operations," a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement.
"ISAF fully supports President Karzai's intent to have Afghan forces increasingly in the lead for operations...We are working together to move from always having Afghan force participation, as we do now, to operations being Afghan-led."
VIOLENT PROTESTS
Karzai said the operations alienate Afghans from their government through violence, and cause discontent. Last November he called for the U.S. military to end night raids.
His latest demands come at a time of high anti-Western sentiment in Afghanistan and days after deadly protests by thousands of people against a night raid by NATO troops in which four people, including two women, were killed.
Twelve people were killed during violent protests and clashes with police in usually peaceful northern Takhar province and more 80 were wounded.
Afghans, including Karzai, have condemned the raid and said the dead were four members of one family.
NATO said that four armed insurgents, two of them women and one a senior member of al Qaeda linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), were killed in the raid on May 18.
Despite the calls from Karzai for night raids to be banned, General David Petraeus, the commander of foreign troops in Afghanistan, has stepped up night raids since taking over running Afghan war last year.
Under a plan agreed by NATO leaders in Lisbon last year, foreign troops will begin handing over security responsibilities to Afghan troops from July with a plan to withdraw combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
Despite the presence of some 150,000 foreign troops, violence in Afghanistan last year reached its deadliest phase since the U.S.-led Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in 2001, with record casualties on all sides of the conflict.
The Taliban this month announced the start of a long-awaited "spring offensive" vowing to carry out attacks, including suicide assaults, on foreign and Afghan troops and government officials.
Peshawar Doctors’ strike continues.
The extended strike of doctors continued in provincial capital on Friday as no genuine representation of young doctors are being seen in wards, operation theaters and OPDs in major hospitals of the City.
The public sector health facilities throughout the provincial capital are simply crippled by the week long strike by young doctors under the banner of Provincial Doctors Association. The patients coming across from Khyber Pakthunkhwa and Fata to Lady Reading Hospital, Khyber Teaching Hospital and Hayatabad Medical Complex are suffering a lot of problems due to extended strike by doctors as most of them are turning up to private clinics and laboratories where they are being heavily charged.
Misal Khan, a retired government employee, who has brought his ailing wife to Lady Reading Hospital on Friday, said unavailability of doctors has added miseries of people like him. “I prayed doctors for examining of my wife after her INR test in Lady Reading this mourning but their response was very downbeat,” he told APP.
Most of patients are visiting Dabgari Garden, a hub of medical practitioners where they are being looted due to extended strike of doctors and that diagnostic laboratories are getting double charges for X-rays, bone scan, CT scan, MRI etc tests from poor patients.
The young doctors of provincial capital on the call of Provincial Doctors Association are on strike for almost one week to press government to fulfill their demands. A young doctor in Lady Reading Hospital told APP that due to lackluster attitude of provincial government, the young doctors were actually forced to go for strike for solution of their demands. He said young doctors should be given facilities on pattern of Punjab doctors. Meanwhile, Spokesman of Khyber Pakthunkhwa Health Department said most issues of doctors have been addressed and asked Provincial Doctors Association (PDA) to call-off their strike for best interest of people.
He said the only outstanding issue is salary package, which could be addressed through discussion. The continuation of the doctors’ strike in current circumstances when province is confronted with several challenges like war against terror, the strike of doctors will added problems of people and doctors should call off the strike immediately to mitigate suffering of ailing humanity and victim of terrorism.
The Spokesman said in these circumstances the doctors’ strike is very negative and counter productive, which are bringing bad name to medical profession and medical institutions and hoped that PDA would call of their strike in public interest immediately. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health department in order to provide better services to medical practitioners and doctors took a proactive measures to accommodate students who had passed FCPS-I examination to meet the current and future needs. The Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa got recognized six institutions by the college of Physician and Surgeon in the month of February this year for post graduate training. These institutions include Saidu Group of Tecaching Hospitals, Gomal Medical College, Bacha Khan Medical College, Gastroenterology Unit of LRH, IKD and KCD. In the last twenty years this is the first ever expansion of the postgraduate teaching intuitions outside Peshawar.
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa refuses ministers’ demand for pay raise
The ministers of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) asked the provincial government to increase their salaries. The K-P government, in an interesting turn of events, refused.
According to sources, some of the ministers reasoned that keeping in mind the general price-hike, the government needed to consider raising their salaries in the upcoming budget.
A minister, on the condition of anonymity, told The Express Tribune that they were being paid a mere Rs16,000 a month.
He added that some of the ministers were given official houses in addition to the monthly salary, while others were given housing rent apart from the salary.
“Our salaries are equal to that of a police constable and we cannot manage within that much,” the minister said. “This is not the first time that we have asked for our salaries to be increased … we discussed it with the chief minister earlier, but he flatly refused.”
K-P senior minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour was of the same view. “Yes, the salary of a minister is equal to that of a police constable and when the utility bills of a minister exceed the limit, the amount is then deducted from his or her salary,” Bilour added.
Low income is an issue which has also been at the heart of the doctors’ strike in the province. However, no one has paid heed to their demands either.
Bomb blast in NW Pakistan kills five
A bomb exploded in a market in Pakistan's Bajaur tribal region on the Afghan border on Saturday, killing five civilians and wounding 10, officials said.
Pakistan has seen a surge in militant violence since al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was killed in a U.S. raid in a northern Pakistani town on May 2. Pakistani Taliban militants allied with al Qaeda have vowed to avenge bin Laden's killing.
The latest blast occurred in Salarza area, about 15 km (9 miles) north of region's main town of Khar.
"The explosive was planted somewhere in a restaurant. Many people were there when it exploded," Saad Mohammad, a government official in the region, told Reuters.
He said five people were killed in the blast. Residents have formed a tribal force to fight Taliban militants in the area that borders Afghanistan.
A suicide car bomber killed 27 people in an attack outside a police station in the northwestern city of Hangu on Thursday.
Early this week, Taliban assaulted a heavily guarded naval base in the southern city of Karachi. Ten military personnel were killed and two aircraft destroyed in the attack.
Pakistan has seen a surge in militant violence since al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was killed in a U.S. raid in a northern Pakistani town on May 2. Pakistani Taliban militants allied with al Qaeda have vowed to avenge bin Laden's killing.
The latest blast occurred in Salarza area, about 15 km (9 miles) north of region's main town of Khar.
"The explosive was planted somewhere in a restaurant. Many people were there when it exploded," Saad Mohammad, a government official in the region, told Reuters.
He said five people were killed in the blast. Residents have formed a tribal force to fight Taliban militants in the area that borders Afghanistan.
A suicide car bomber killed 27 people in an attack outside a police station in the northwestern city of Hangu on Thursday.
Early this week, Taliban assaulted a heavily guarded naval base in the southern city of Karachi. Ten military personnel were killed and two aircraft destroyed in the attack.
Kuwaiti protesters call for PM ouster
Hundreds of Kuwaitis have held a protest rally in the capital Kuwait City to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad al-Ahmad al-Sabah.
The protesters gathered outside the national assembly in Kuwait City to press their demand for the premier's ouster in the 'Day of Rage' demonstration on Friday, IRNA reported on Saturday.
The demonstrators are angry at Sheikh Nasser's refusal to face questioning in the parliament for allegedly wasting public funds and committing financial and administrative irregularities.
The Kuwaiti prime minister, a nephew of the emir of Kuwait, has resigned six times since he was appointed premier in 2006.
He formed his seventh cabinet just two weeks ago. The Persian Gulf state has seen six cabinets resign and its parliament dissolved three times ever since Sheikh Nasser took office. In addition, development plans have stalled in the oil-rich state.
Earlier this month, two Kuwaiti lawmakers filed a petition against the country's premier over allegations of financial and administrative irregularities.
The two parliamentarians charge that Sheikh Nasser is responsible for squandering public funds and hindering the country's development plan.
The Kuwaiti premier has issued a passionate appeal for cooperation with the opposition lawmakers at a parliamentary session.
However, around 15 opposition members of the parliament walked out of the session to protest against the new cabinet.
Disputes between the Kuwaiti lawmakers and government have caused political crises in the country since early 2006 following Sheikh Nasser's appointment as prime minister.
The protesters gathered outside the national assembly in Kuwait City to press their demand for the premier's ouster in the 'Day of Rage' demonstration on Friday, IRNA reported on Saturday.
The demonstrators are angry at Sheikh Nasser's refusal to face questioning in the parliament for allegedly wasting public funds and committing financial and administrative irregularities.
The Kuwaiti prime minister, a nephew of the emir of Kuwait, has resigned six times since he was appointed premier in 2006.
He formed his seventh cabinet just two weeks ago. The Persian Gulf state has seen six cabinets resign and its parliament dissolved three times ever since Sheikh Nasser took office. In addition, development plans have stalled in the oil-rich state.
Earlier this month, two Kuwaiti lawmakers filed a petition against the country's premier over allegations of financial and administrative irregularities.
The two parliamentarians charge that Sheikh Nasser is responsible for squandering public funds and hindering the country's development plan.
The Kuwaiti premier has issued a passionate appeal for cooperation with the opposition lawmakers at a parliamentary session.
However, around 15 opposition members of the parliament walked out of the session to protest against the new cabinet.
Disputes between the Kuwaiti lawmakers and government have caused political crises in the country since early 2006 following Sheikh Nasser's appointment as prime minister.
Afghan army salary theft shows fraud widespread
The theft took just a few keystrokes — a couple of numbers changed on a spreadsheet and suddenly one soldier's salary was dumped into another's bank account.
For a long time, no one noticed. The three Afghan army officers didn't divert the salaries of active duty soldiers. Instead they kept deserters on the books and directed their pay into their own accounts. Sometimes they diverted bonuses.
When 14 soldiers at a northern Afghan army base were eventually charged in the theft, about $22,000 had been stolen.
That's not much in Afghanistan, where millions disappear from aid projects, government contracts and training programs. But the case is especially worrying as the U.S. looks to start drawing down forces this summer because the theft occurred in one of the army's elite commando units — using a system put in place precisely to prevent such fraud.
It's a reminder that turning the Afghan army into a professional fighting force will likely stretch far beyond the NATO allies' timeline to hand over control of security to the Afghan government by 2014.
Ten men were found guilty in a trial in April, and the three main conspirators received prison sentences of two to three years. All three plan to appeal.
Both Afghan officers and their American advisers praised the trial as proof that misconduct is being reined in.
"I'm upset that such an incident happened, but I'm glad that we are having the trial," said Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahi Azimi. "It is a lesson to others that anyone who steals in this way will end up in court."
The important thing, he said, is that the corruption was discovered and punished.
That almost didn't happen. If it weren't for the dogged pursuit by one military prosecutor, who withstood death threats and the anger of his superiors, the embezzlement would still be going on.
Lt. Abdul Wakil first became suspicious when an informant alerted him in late 2010 that money was somehow being stolen from the payroll at his base, the 5th Commando Battalion in Mazar-i-Sharif.
Wakil went to the commanding officer, Lt. Col. Mohammad Basir, with his suspicions. "He refused to listen. He said there was no problem," Wakil said.
Undaunted, Wakil started investigating on his own. As he examined the base's payroll documents, something strange popped out: The battalion never seemed to lose any soldiers.
Desertion is common in the Afghan army. Soldiers sign up for the mandatory three years, then leave whenever they've had enough. Sometimes they go AWOL for months, returning without explanation.
Normally a unit's payroll shows these fluctuations. But the 5th Commando Battalion had no deserters. No one ever left and came back in.
Then Wakil compared the electronic spreadsheet emailed to the bank with the official paper copy. The computer file was different. The deserters' bank account numbers had been changed to those of active duty soldiers.
Wakil took the evidence to his superiors and opened an investigation last June. It took months for him to follow the money trail and unravel who received the stolen funds and how much.
During that time, Wakil faced angry challenges from his superiors.
Basir, the commanding officer, said the allegations were impossible, and he seemed to have a point. The computerized direct-deposit system was set up precisely to prevent such fraud. Before, officers routinely skimmed off some of the rank-and-file's pay without soldiers ever realizing they were being cheated. Now salaries went directly into soldiers' bank accounts.
But, it turned out, there was another avenue for fraud.
"No one understands the banking system, so no one saw the problem," Wakil said.
As the investigation progressed, rumors started to fly about who might be charged.
Late one night, Wakil was awakened by a phone call. The caller said he knew about the investigation, then warned: "When you come out of the military court, we will kill you."
Wakil received three more death threats that week. Then he started getting threatening text messages. In one, the sender said he had enlisted 20 Taliban fighters to hunt Wakil down.
Wakil pressed on.
"These sort of things happen in Afghanistan," he said of the threats. "I have to do my job."
The head of the Afghan army's legal office in Kabul said corruption cases are notoriously difficult to pursue.
"The people who cheat the military, they are smart about it," Brig. Gen. Abdul Karim said. They know where the weaknesses are and the people to pay off. And it goes far beyond payroll theft, he said. Soldiers routinely sell weapons on the black market and bribe superiors for promotions.
And yet the army courts have pursued few corruption cases. Only about a dozen of the 783 cases heard in military courts in the past year involved corruption, Karim said. Most are for traffic violations, AWOL soldiers, lost weapons or immoral conduct, with an occasional serious crime like murder, he said.
Karim could recall only one other corruption case in which an officer was convicted: a colonel found guilty a year and a half ago of stealing $10,000 from a construction contract. He was sentenced to one year restricted to the base at reduced pay.
The convicted ringleaders in the Mazar-i-Sharif theft were the battalion's financial affairs officer, Lt. Col. Shamsudin, as well as two young sergeants under his command, Sgt. Ahmad Jawed and Sgt. Hemran.
Shamsudin received a three-year prison sentence, while Jawed and Hemran were sentenced to two years each. Seven others were convicted and ordered restricted to base for six months to one year at reduced salaries, including Lt. Col. Basir, who was convicted of negligence.
Shamsudin, Jawed and Hemran were fined $4,000, $19,000 and $7,400 respectively, fines the court said reflected twice the amounts they stole.
Jawed's attorney, Abdul Matin, said his client and the others were scapegoats and the case would not stop corruption in the military.
"Stealing money in the commando battalion is a reality," Matin said.
"The thought among the people is that this government we have is temporary. There may be another one in a few months or a few days," he said. "So everyone steals.
For a long time, no one noticed. The three Afghan army officers didn't divert the salaries of active duty soldiers. Instead they kept deserters on the books and directed their pay into their own accounts. Sometimes they diverted bonuses.
When 14 soldiers at a northern Afghan army base were eventually charged in the theft, about $22,000 had been stolen.
That's not much in Afghanistan, where millions disappear from aid projects, government contracts and training programs. But the case is especially worrying as the U.S. looks to start drawing down forces this summer because the theft occurred in one of the army's elite commando units — using a system put in place precisely to prevent such fraud.
It's a reminder that turning the Afghan army into a professional fighting force will likely stretch far beyond the NATO allies' timeline to hand over control of security to the Afghan government by 2014.
Ten men were found guilty in a trial in April, and the three main conspirators received prison sentences of two to three years. All three plan to appeal.
Both Afghan officers and their American advisers praised the trial as proof that misconduct is being reined in.
"I'm upset that such an incident happened, but I'm glad that we are having the trial," said Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahi Azimi. "It is a lesson to others that anyone who steals in this way will end up in court."
The important thing, he said, is that the corruption was discovered and punished.
That almost didn't happen. If it weren't for the dogged pursuit by one military prosecutor, who withstood death threats and the anger of his superiors, the embezzlement would still be going on.
Lt. Abdul Wakil first became suspicious when an informant alerted him in late 2010 that money was somehow being stolen from the payroll at his base, the 5th Commando Battalion in Mazar-i-Sharif.
Wakil went to the commanding officer, Lt. Col. Mohammad Basir, with his suspicions. "He refused to listen. He said there was no problem," Wakil said.
Undaunted, Wakil started investigating on his own. As he examined the base's payroll documents, something strange popped out: The battalion never seemed to lose any soldiers.
Desertion is common in the Afghan army. Soldiers sign up for the mandatory three years, then leave whenever they've had enough. Sometimes they go AWOL for months, returning without explanation.
Normally a unit's payroll shows these fluctuations. But the 5th Commando Battalion had no deserters. No one ever left and came back in.
Then Wakil compared the electronic spreadsheet emailed to the bank with the official paper copy. The computer file was different. The deserters' bank account numbers had been changed to those of active duty soldiers.
Wakil took the evidence to his superiors and opened an investigation last June. It took months for him to follow the money trail and unravel who received the stolen funds and how much.
During that time, Wakil faced angry challenges from his superiors.
Basir, the commanding officer, said the allegations were impossible, and he seemed to have a point. The computerized direct-deposit system was set up precisely to prevent such fraud. Before, officers routinely skimmed off some of the rank-and-file's pay without soldiers ever realizing they were being cheated. Now salaries went directly into soldiers' bank accounts.
But, it turned out, there was another avenue for fraud.
"No one understands the banking system, so no one saw the problem," Wakil said.
As the investigation progressed, rumors started to fly about who might be charged.
Late one night, Wakil was awakened by a phone call. The caller said he knew about the investigation, then warned: "When you come out of the military court, we will kill you."
Wakil received three more death threats that week. Then he started getting threatening text messages. In one, the sender said he had enlisted 20 Taliban fighters to hunt Wakil down.
Wakil pressed on.
"These sort of things happen in Afghanistan," he said of the threats. "I have to do my job."
The head of the Afghan army's legal office in Kabul said corruption cases are notoriously difficult to pursue.
"The people who cheat the military, they are smart about it," Brig. Gen. Abdul Karim said. They know where the weaknesses are and the people to pay off. And it goes far beyond payroll theft, he said. Soldiers routinely sell weapons on the black market and bribe superiors for promotions.
And yet the army courts have pursued few corruption cases. Only about a dozen of the 783 cases heard in military courts in the past year involved corruption, Karim said. Most are for traffic violations, AWOL soldiers, lost weapons or immoral conduct, with an occasional serious crime like murder, he said.
Karim could recall only one other corruption case in which an officer was convicted: a colonel found guilty a year and a half ago of stealing $10,000 from a construction contract. He was sentenced to one year restricted to the base at reduced pay.
The convicted ringleaders in the Mazar-i-Sharif theft were the battalion's financial affairs officer, Lt. Col. Shamsudin, as well as two young sergeants under his command, Sgt. Ahmad Jawed and Sgt. Hemran.
Shamsudin received a three-year prison sentence, while Jawed and Hemran were sentenced to two years each. Seven others were convicted and ordered restricted to base for six months to one year at reduced salaries, including Lt. Col. Basir, who was convicted of negligence.
Shamsudin, Jawed and Hemran were fined $4,000, $19,000 and $7,400 respectively, fines the court said reflected twice the amounts they stole.
Jawed's attorney, Abdul Matin, said his client and the others were scapegoats and the case would not stop corruption in the military.
"Stealing money in the commando battalion is a reality," Matin said.
"The thought among the people is that this government we have is temporary. There may be another one in a few months or a few days," he said. "So everyone steals.
Pakistan worried about Islamist infiltration: report
Top Pakistani military officials are concerned that their ranks have been penetrated by Islamists aiding militants in a campaign against the state, according to The Washington Post.
The top Pakistani military commander, General Ashfaq Kayani, was shaken by the discovery of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden close to a Pakistani military academy, the newspaper said.
He told US officials in a recent meeting that his first priority was "bringing our house in order," the paper reported, citing an unnamed senior Pakistani intelligence official.
"We are under attack, and the attackers are getting highly confidential information about their targets," The Post quotes the official as saying.
Western officials have long accused Pakistan's intelligence services of playing a double game by fighting Islamist militants who pose a domestic threat, but protecting those fighting American troops in Afghanistan.
The United States has put pressure on Pakistan to lead a major air and ground offensive in North Waziristan, the most notorious Taliban and Al-Qaeda bastion, used to launch attacks across the border in Afghanistan.
Pakistan has always maintained that any such operation would be at its own time of choosing.
It argues that its 140,000 troops committed to the northwest are too stretched those fighting militants who pose a domestic threat.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, visiting Pakistan on Friday, said the United States was more committed to Pakistan after the Osama bin Laden crisis.
But she urged the country to take decisive steps to defeat Al-Qaeda.
According to The Post, US officials say they have no evidence that top Pakistani military or civilian leaders knew about bin Laden?s hiding place.
Some say they doubt Kayani or Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, head of the military?s Inter-Services Intelligence agency, had direct knowledge, the report said.
Others however, find it hard to believe they did not, particularly because Kayani was head of the ISI in 2005, when bin Laden is believed to have taken refuge in Abbottabad, the paper noted.
US Navy commandos killed bin Laden there on May 2 in a raid that angered Islamabad because of US incursion on to their territory without prior notice.
The top Pakistani military commander, General Ashfaq Kayani, was shaken by the discovery of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden close to a Pakistani military academy, the newspaper said.
He told US officials in a recent meeting that his first priority was "bringing our house in order," the paper reported, citing an unnamed senior Pakistani intelligence official.
"We are under attack, and the attackers are getting highly confidential information about their targets," The Post quotes the official as saying.
Western officials have long accused Pakistan's intelligence services of playing a double game by fighting Islamist militants who pose a domestic threat, but protecting those fighting American troops in Afghanistan.
The United States has put pressure on Pakistan to lead a major air and ground offensive in North Waziristan, the most notorious Taliban and Al-Qaeda bastion, used to launch attacks across the border in Afghanistan.
Pakistan has always maintained that any such operation would be at its own time of choosing.
It argues that its 140,000 troops committed to the northwest are too stretched those fighting militants who pose a domestic threat.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, visiting Pakistan on Friday, said the United States was more committed to Pakistan after the Osama bin Laden crisis.
But she urged the country to take decisive steps to defeat Al-Qaeda.
According to The Post, US officials say they have no evidence that top Pakistani military or civilian leaders knew about bin Laden?s hiding place.
Some say they doubt Kayani or Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, head of the military?s Inter-Services Intelligence agency, had direct knowledge, the report said.
Others however, find it hard to believe they did not, particularly because Kayani was head of the ISI in 2005, when bin Laden is believed to have taken refuge in Abbottabad, the paper noted.
US Navy commandos killed bin Laden there on May 2 in a raid that angered Islamabad because of US incursion on to their territory without prior notice.
US gives Pakistan list of five 'most wanted' militants
As US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Pakistan Friday, the United States gave Islamabad a list of terrorist leaders it wants joint operation against them, officials said.
The list includes Osama bin Laden deputy Ayman al Zawahiri, along with Siraj Haqqani of the Haqqani network, Ilyas Kashmiri, the head of the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami and suspected al-Qaida leader, and Atiya Abdel Rahman, al-Qaida operations chief, the US TV reported, citing unnamed officials from both governments.
The list was discussed during separate meetings between senior Pakistani and US officials in the past two weeks, including Friday in Islamabad with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, according to a US official, a Pakistani government official and a Pakistani intelligence official.
The United States is optimistic Pakistan would provide intelligence for prompt and joint actions against these militants.
A US news paper has reported that United States believes all these wanted militants are present in Pakistan.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Beer Gardens Everywhere
There are some who thought, prematurely, that 2010 was New York’s summer of the beer garden, what with the World Cup and the opening of a half-dozen outdoor, German-style drinking establishments. But not unlike some genetically altered superweed, these ale-and-oompah joints have continued even this year to crop up everywhere you look. They have grown so thick, so fast, that certain neighborhoods (Astoria in Queens and Williamsburg in Brooklyn come to mind) could, with the proper vantage and the help of several pilsners, be mistaken for Bavaria.
It would seem that last summer’s sprouting of beer gardens is about to turn into this summer’s beer garden jungle.
There are now no fewer than 54 beer gardens in the city, according to Beer Gardens NYC, a nine-month-old iPhone application dedicated to tracking the phenomenon, and that does not include some that have been announced but are not yet open.
There are classic beer gardens (Hallo Berlin), hipster beer gardens (Radegast Hall), beer gardens catering to frat boys (Studio Square) and a beer garden in a former Brooklyn auto-body shop (Mission Dolores). There are also temporary beer gardens, like the one that Colicchio & Sons plans to run this summer on the High Line in Chelsea, and another that will soon supplant the riverside bar at the South Street Seaport’s Water Taxi Beach.
Beer gardens have achieved such cultural ascendancy that even grand masters are getting into the act. Recently, Joe Bastianich and Mario Batali announced the opening of La Birreria, an outdoor Italian-style drinking establishment, on the roof of Eataly, their Italian food megamall on 23rd Street. The beer garden offers an Alps-influenced menu and craft beers seasoned with fresh thyme picked, by hand, from the hills outside Rome.
All of which demands a question: How many beer gardens can one city — even a fiercely pro-beer-garden city like New York — possibly have?
“Basically, this is too much,” said Larry Spacek, manager of the Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden in Astoria, the 100-year-old paterfamilias of the New York beer garden world. “Everybody sees our success and is copycatting us. I don’t know if it is progress, but probably we are reaching an era of beer gardens.”
According to Mr. Spacek — he pronounces his name SPAH-check (“I am not related to Sissy”) — a successful beer garden requires both the beer and the garden, and if there also happen to be bratwurst, schnitzels and enough communal tables to, as he put it, “sit around with 600 other fellows singing karaoke,” that’s all to the good. The problem, he suggested, resides with those beer gardens lacking foliage. It is true, he acknowledged, that some of these less-than-green newcomers have cut into the Bohemian Hall’s business. “But sooner or later,” he said, “the fact that we are in a real park, with real trees, will bring people back. This is very important.”
Michael Momm, meanwhile, who helped open Zum Schneider on Avenue C in 2000 and now owns two Loreley beer gardens (one in Brooklyn, the other on the Lower East Side), claimed to be unbothered by the current beer-garden glut, competition being the natural outgrowth of capitalism. Mr. Momm said, somewhat shockingly, that in the recent past some of his rivals have spied on his establishments (“We’ve had people come in, talking to the staff, like where did you get your furniture and so forth”). But he chalked this up to the constant search for a tactical advantage in the dog-eat-dog beer garden trade.
“That’s how it goes,” he said. “I don’t necessarily see it as a threat.”
It is difficult to trace the precise genealogy of the city’s beer gardens — the first of which was said to be Castle Garden, which opened on July 3, 1824, in a former Army fort in Manhattan’s Battery Park. (It later preceded Ellis Island as New York’s primary immigrant processing center.) In the early 20th century, German sections of the city —Yorkville on the Upper East Side, for one — had several beer gardens, but they eventually suffered from anti-Teutonic sentiment during the two world wars.
Of the city’s extant beer gardens, the Bohemian Hall, owned and operated by the Bohemian Citizens’ Benevolent Society of Astoria, stands in a class by itself. Under it are the middle-aged beer gardens: Hallo Berlin on 10th Avenue (“New York’s wurst restaurant”); Killmeyer’s on Arthur Kill Road in Staten Island (sauerbraten, 57 different bottles of German beer); and Zum Schneider (fake trees, pretzels, St. Pauli Girl waitresses). Then, of course, there are the arrivistes: places like Berry Park in Williamsburg, with its D.J. booth and Tuesday night poker games, and Studio Square in Astoria, with — Was ist das? — sushi and panko-crusted chicken schnitzel fingers.
There is no doubt, however, that Mr. Batali’s La Birreria — which, its brew master said, will be the first beer garden in America to employ firkins, nine-gallon, old-English-style carbonation casks — represents the epitome of an increasingly baroque, gourmetized trend. One of its ales will be bolstered by ground Italian chestnut powder. Talk of the establishment is said to have begun six years ago at a “slow food” conference in Turin. “I hear beer garden and it connotes oompah bands and picnic tables,” said the brew master, Sam Castiglione, the founder of the Dogfish Head brewery. “But La Birreria will be a place for super-rustic, unfiltered, naturally carbonated beers accompanied by super-rustic, fresh-ingredient, Alps-inspired food.” Not to mention, he added, “The view is just epic.”
How did this come to pass?
Perhaps it’s no coincidence that New York’s drinking zeitgeist has passed, in succession, from the Belle Epoque-ish wine bar to the pre-crash Jazz Age cocktail lounge, to the Weimar-flavored biergarten, with its whiffs of hyperinflation and the Munich Beer Hall Putsch. Of course, it is also true that people like beer and will tend to drink it in large amounts, while sitting outside at long, communal tables in the sun.
“It’s a recession-friendly outing,” said Hope Tarr, who runs Beer Gardens NYC with her partner, Raj Moorjani. “If you take a date out in Park Slope or Manhattan, even to a modest restaurant, it’s a not inconsequential amount of money. But at a beer garden, you can get good beer for two to three dollars and, once the season starts, most have a grill menu, too. There’s probably still room for the market to grow. I don’t think we’ve reached the saturation point.”
That may seem like a difficult draft to swallow when — aside from the 8,000 square feet La Birreria takes up and the 3,500 square feet occupied by Bierhaus NYC near Grand Central Terminal and the 6,000 square feet currently consumed by Spritzenhaus, in Greenpoint, Brooklyn — there is Local West, another 6,000-square-footer, which will open next month at 1 Penn Plaza, near Madison Square Garden.
“People think that if they do this, they can get success,” Mr. Spacek said. “But they forget: It is not just about big wood benches and selling beer. It is about the environment you create — and how you feel.”
US put pressure on Saudi Arabia to let women drive, leaked cables reveal
The Obama administration has been quietly putting pressure on Saudi Arabia to allow women to drive, according to leaked US embassy cables. But the jailing of a woman protester, Manal al-Sharif, after she posted online a video of herself at the wheel of a car in Khobar reveals the extent of the US diplomatic failure.
The cables, part of the treasure trove allegedly given to WikiLeaks by the US soldier Bradley Manning, reveal previously unreported clashes over women's rights.
Dispatches from Riyadh describe Saudi Arabia as "the world's largest women's prison". Those words are a quote from Wajeha al-Huwaider, a female campaigner with whom US diplomats have been in contact. She posted a video on YouTube in 2008 of herself driving. Claiming millions of Saudi women were prisoners in their homes, she challenged male control over work and travel.
She regularly tried to take a taxi to neighbouring Bahrain. According to the cables, "al-Huwaider is divorced which means under Saudi law her ex-husband or her father or a brother would need to give her permission to leave the country. Although she holds a valid passport, every time she tries to leave ... she is stopped at the border to Bahrain and turned around."
The billionaire tycoon Prince Waleed, a Saudi royal, assured a visiting Democratic congressman in July 2009 that King Abdullah did support women's rights, the embassy noted optimistically. The driving ban was reportedly about to be overturned.
Speaking at his 99-storey Kingdom Tower in Riyadh, Waleed said the ban was merely a "demeaning" tribal custom and that he "relished relating his run-ins with the kingdom's religious conservatives. He was involved with the first public showings of films in the kingdom in many years. His wife has openly requested that women be allowed to drive. He supports French president Sarkozy's campaign against women wearing coverings hiding their faces."
Abdullah appointed the country's first woman deputy minister in 2009 and opened "with much fanfare" a mixed-sex science university, in front of foreign dignitaries including Prince Andrew.
The embassy noted approvingly "several subtle, symbolic gestures ... Saudi men and women, many of whom did not wear the face-covering niqab, mingled freely with international attendees throughout the ceremony. Male and female students stood side by side on stage for an emotive reading of a poem. The ceremony was interspaced with a movie showing (uncovered) young girls and boys studying together."
But there was an immediate backlash. Saad Nasser al-Shithri, a cleric from the council of senior scholars, appeared on the Saudi religious TV channel to defy the king. He denounced "mixing of the sexes" and "the teaching of deviant ideas such as evolution".
Abdullah was forced to sack him, but embassy contacts warned privately that Shithri was being regarded as a hero by unemployed young Saudis, who resented foreign students getting advantages, and by reactionary clerics, who feared a plot to impose western values.
Another cleric, Sheikh Salman al-Duwaysh, publicly attacked "mixing with women on the basis of claiming to educate them and to open the field for them to undertake jobs for which they were not created". He said such women had "abandoned their basic duties such as housekeeping, bringing up children ... and replaced this by beautifying themselves and wantonness".
The embassy was refused consent for a US "rhythm and oratory duo" called Teasley and Williams to play to a mixed audience at the university.
But the duo did appear at the Riyadh literary society before "an unprecedented mixed-gender audience (mixed by Saudi standards – the handful of women who attended sat in a screened-off block of seats across the aisle from the men). Nonetheless, the fact that women were even invited to a musical performance with men in Riyadh is remarkable".
Obama's envoy, Richard Erdman, privately scolded Saudi ministers to little effect. He "pointedly" told the notoriously reactionary interior minister, Prince Naif, that "no nation could prosper without the intellectual contributions and talent of all its citizens ... (ie women)". He said the same to the deputy foreign minister, who responded wryly that "customs were a hard nut to crack".
In a dispatch headed "Women need not apply", US diplomats recorded that US-educated Prince Mansur, the minister of municipal affairs, firmly rejected the notion that political development required the participation of women, saying issues such as women driving were "not fundamental to our society".
According to the US diplomats, the driving ban is in fact something of a charade which "dates from a 1991 fatwa issued by the late grand mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Baz. The grand mufti claimed that allowing women to drive would result in public 'mixing' of men and women, put women into dangerous situations because they could be alone in cars, and therefore result in social chaos."
The cable continued: "Women drive anyway: there are, in fact, many instances in which Saudi women defy the prohibition.
"Women drive on private property such as desert farms or residential compounds beyond reach of police.
"Embassy contacts and media report that in rural areas women routinely drive out of necessity, without being stopped.
Tension Marks Clinton’s Visit to Pakistan
NYT.COM
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited Pakistan on Friday in what officials described as an effort to measure Pakistan’s commitment to fighting Islamic extremism after the killing of Osama bin Laden badly strained relations with the United States. It did not appear to go well.
The atmosphere of her initial meetings — visibly frosty — underscored the tensions between the two countries, which have threatened to lurch into open confrontation since Navy Seals found and killed Bin Laden on May 2 in a military garrison town only 35 miles from here. Mrs. Clinton, the highest ranking American official to visit Pakistan, was joined by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, who arrived separately as part of a carefully orchestrated diplomatic encounter.
In contrast to the usual diplomatic pleasantries, however, Mrs. Clinton and Admiral Mullen appeared awkward and unsmiling at a meeting in the presidential palace with President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and the chief of the Army, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.
Otherwise the officials did not appear together or make a joint statement, and Mr. Zardari’s office limited access of journalists traveling with Mrs. Clinton even to the photo opportunity and did not allow it to be recorded.
In brief remarks directed at Mr. Zardari, Mrs. Clinton said the Obama administration recognized “the sacrifice that is made every single day by the men and women of your military and the citizens of your country,” according to a video of the encounter. Mr. Zardari’s response was inaudible because his staff had barred microphones.
Mrs. Clinton and Admiral Mullen appeared later at the American Embassy with no Pakistanis present and addressed the stress in the relationship. She joked about tense opening of the talks but made it clear in her remarks that the conversations were sharp.
“There is always a lot to talk about but this was an especially important meeting because we have reached a turning point. Osama bin Laden is dead but Al Qaeda and its syndicate of terror remain a threat to us both,” Mrs. Clinton said. She said the Pakistanis had agreed on “some very specific actions” they will take alone and with the United States but she did not elaborate.
“We both recognize that there is still much more work required and it is urgent,” she said.
Mrs. Clinton and Admiral Mullen referred to the recent strains but emphasized that Friday’s talks were frank and constructive. Admiral Mullen acknowledged that trust between the two nations’ militaries “still needs to be rebuilt” but said it was in the interest of both countries to work together.
“Now is not the time for retreat or for recrimination. Now is the time for action and closer cooperation, not less,” he said.
Mrs. Clinton and other officials have said there was no evidence that Pakistan’s senior civilian and military leaders knew Bin Laden was hiding for years in Abbottobad, the garrison town north of here. But they have vowed to press Pakistan to investigate whether any other lower-level officials were complicit in his ability to elude detection and for reassurances of a shared commitment to fighting extremist groups resident in Pakistan.
“We do have a set of expectations that we are looking for the Pakistani government to meet,” Mrs. Clinton said in Paris on Thursday before flying here overnight. When pressed, she added that those expectations involved issues “across the board.”
Mrs. Clinton postponed a visit to Pakistan earlier this month as the Obama administration gauged Pakistan’s reactions to the raid, which a senior administration official traveling with her noted created “a real risk of precipitous action.” Her visit with Admiral Mullen was unannounced because of security concerns, and lasted only a matter of hours.
In addition to a flurry of anti-American statements from senior government officials, Pakistan has taken deliberate steps to undercut security cooperation since Bin Laden’s death. Those steps included leaking the name of the station chief of the Central Intelligence Agency here and asking the Pentagon to withdraw some of the military advisers who have worked with the country’s security forces for years.
At the same time, though, the Pakistanis agreed to allow the C.I.A. to scour the walled compound where Bin Laden hid and to interview the wives who lived there with him. The military also returned the wreckage of the helicopter that the Seals destroyed after it crashed during the raid. “We’ve had some positive actions,” a second senior administration aboard the secretary’s plane said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Mrs. Clinton clearly hoped the meeting would be a step toward mending the relationship. In Paris on Thursday, she stressed the enduring importance of close cooperation with the Pakistanis in the fight against Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. She said it was in the national interest of the United States to have “a comprehensive, long-term partnership” with Pakistan.
“There have been times we’ve had disagreements; there have been times when we’ve wanted them to push harder and for various reasons they have not,” she said at a news conference in Paris.
“Those differences are real,” she went on. “They will continue. But the fact of the matter is the international community has been able to kill more terrorists on Pakistani soil than any other place in the world. We could not have done that without Pakistani cooperation.”
The raid that killed Bin Laden, however, was so secretive that American officials did not notify Pakistan’s leaders in advance, which many in Pakistan have viewed as an affront to the country’s sovereignty and pride.
“They had no idea we could or we would do what we did,” the second senior administration official said. “That has changed their perspective in ways that we’re still evaluating and they’re still trying to come to grips with.”
The political fury over the raid has lingered in both countries.
Lawmakers here have called for a re-evaluation of ties with the United States, even as legislators in Washington — and some administration officials — have called for reconsidering the billions of dollars in economic and security aid the United States has given Pakistan annually since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
“There are a lot of important choices that have to be made,” another administration official said. “The Pakistanis really have to make decisions themselves about what kind of country they want to live in.”
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited Pakistan on Friday in what officials described as an effort to measure Pakistan’s commitment to fighting Islamic extremism after the killing of Osama bin Laden badly strained relations with the United States. It did not appear to go well.
The atmosphere of her initial meetings — visibly frosty — underscored the tensions between the two countries, which have threatened to lurch into open confrontation since Navy Seals found and killed Bin Laden on May 2 in a military garrison town only 35 miles from here. Mrs. Clinton, the highest ranking American official to visit Pakistan, was joined by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, who arrived separately as part of a carefully orchestrated diplomatic encounter.
In contrast to the usual diplomatic pleasantries, however, Mrs. Clinton and Admiral Mullen appeared awkward and unsmiling at a meeting in the presidential palace with President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and the chief of the Army, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.
Otherwise the officials did not appear together or make a joint statement, and Mr. Zardari’s office limited access of journalists traveling with Mrs. Clinton even to the photo opportunity and did not allow it to be recorded.
In brief remarks directed at Mr. Zardari, Mrs. Clinton said the Obama administration recognized “the sacrifice that is made every single day by the men and women of your military and the citizens of your country,” according to a video of the encounter. Mr. Zardari’s response was inaudible because his staff had barred microphones.
Mrs. Clinton and Admiral Mullen appeared later at the American Embassy with no Pakistanis present and addressed the stress in the relationship. She joked about tense opening of the talks but made it clear in her remarks that the conversations were sharp.
“There is always a lot to talk about but this was an especially important meeting because we have reached a turning point. Osama bin Laden is dead but Al Qaeda and its syndicate of terror remain a threat to us both,” Mrs. Clinton said. She said the Pakistanis had agreed on “some very specific actions” they will take alone and with the United States but she did not elaborate.
“We both recognize that there is still much more work required and it is urgent,” she said.
Mrs. Clinton and Admiral Mullen referred to the recent strains but emphasized that Friday’s talks were frank and constructive. Admiral Mullen acknowledged that trust between the two nations’ militaries “still needs to be rebuilt” but said it was in the interest of both countries to work together.
“Now is not the time for retreat or for recrimination. Now is the time for action and closer cooperation, not less,” he said.
Mrs. Clinton and other officials have said there was no evidence that Pakistan’s senior civilian and military leaders knew Bin Laden was hiding for years in Abbottobad, the garrison town north of here. But they have vowed to press Pakistan to investigate whether any other lower-level officials were complicit in his ability to elude detection and for reassurances of a shared commitment to fighting extremist groups resident in Pakistan.
“We do have a set of expectations that we are looking for the Pakistani government to meet,” Mrs. Clinton said in Paris on Thursday before flying here overnight. When pressed, she added that those expectations involved issues “across the board.”
Mrs. Clinton postponed a visit to Pakistan earlier this month as the Obama administration gauged Pakistan’s reactions to the raid, which a senior administration official traveling with her noted created “a real risk of precipitous action.” Her visit with Admiral Mullen was unannounced because of security concerns, and lasted only a matter of hours.
In addition to a flurry of anti-American statements from senior government officials, Pakistan has taken deliberate steps to undercut security cooperation since Bin Laden’s death. Those steps included leaking the name of the station chief of the Central Intelligence Agency here and asking the Pentagon to withdraw some of the military advisers who have worked with the country’s security forces for years.
At the same time, though, the Pakistanis agreed to allow the C.I.A. to scour the walled compound where Bin Laden hid and to interview the wives who lived there with him. The military also returned the wreckage of the helicopter that the Seals destroyed after it crashed during the raid. “We’ve had some positive actions,” a second senior administration aboard the secretary’s plane said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Mrs. Clinton clearly hoped the meeting would be a step toward mending the relationship. In Paris on Thursday, she stressed the enduring importance of close cooperation with the Pakistanis in the fight against Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. She said it was in the national interest of the United States to have “a comprehensive, long-term partnership” with Pakistan.
“There have been times we’ve had disagreements; there have been times when we’ve wanted them to push harder and for various reasons they have not,” she said at a news conference in Paris.
“Those differences are real,” she went on. “They will continue. But the fact of the matter is the international community has been able to kill more terrorists on Pakistani soil than any other place in the world. We could not have done that without Pakistani cooperation.”
The raid that killed Bin Laden, however, was so secretive that American officials did not notify Pakistan’s leaders in advance, which many in Pakistan have viewed as an affront to the country’s sovereignty and pride.
“They had no idea we could or we would do what we did,” the second senior administration official said. “That has changed their perspective in ways that we’re still evaluating and they’re still trying to come to grips with.”
The political fury over the raid has lingered in both countries.
Lawmakers here have called for a re-evaluation of ties with the United States, even as legislators in Washington — and some administration officials — have called for reconsidering the billions of dollars in economic and security aid the United States has given Pakistan annually since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
“There are a lot of important choices that have to be made,” another administration official said. “The Pakistanis really have to make decisions themselves about what kind of country they want to live in.”
US, Pakistan need to redouble efforts to counter terrorism: Clinton
Acknowledging Pakistan’s sacrifices the United States said on Friday that both the countries needed to “redouble efforts” to counter extremism and terrorism. Terming the “al-Qaida syndicate” still a threat after the killing of its leader Osama bin Laden, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said: “The United States and Pakistan have worked together to kill and capture many terrorists on the Pakistani soil.” She said it could not have been possible without the close cooperation between the two governments.
Secretary Clinton, who was on a day-long whirlwind trip to Pakistan following the May 2 military operation by the US troops to kill the top al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, also acknowledged the sacrifices the country had made in the “war against terror.”
“No nation has suffered more than the Pakistanis,” said Secretary Clinton, who was flanked by Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen.
The two were talking to newsmen at the US Embassy here at the end of meetings with the top Pakistani civil and military leadership.
She assured full support of the United States to Pakistan in “the long haul”.
“We will continue to support Pakistan’s sovereignty, civilian elected government and its people, ... but Pakistan has to solve its problems itself,” she said.
She said her country desired a strong, democratic and stable Pakistan but pointed out that it was important for the people of Pakistan to choose what type of country they wish to live in. “Hard choices” need to be made for a better future, she added.
“We have to disrupt, dismantle, defeat and destroy al-Qaeda from Pakistan and the region.”
“We will do our part and look to Pakistan for decisive steps in the days ahead,” Secretary Clinton said.
Secretary Clinton, who was on a day-long whirlwind trip to Pakistan following the May 2 military operation by the US troops to kill the top al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, also acknowledged the sacrifices the country had made in the “war against terror.”
“No nation has suffered more than the Pakistanis,” said Secretary Clinton, who was flanked by Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen.
The two were talking to newsmen at the US Embassy here at the end of meetings with the top Pakistani civil and military leadership.
She assured full support of the United States to Pakistan in “the long haul”.
“We will continue to support Pakistan’s sovereignty, civilian elected government and its people, ... but Pakistan has to solve its problems itself,” she said.
She said her country desired a strong, democratic and stable Pakistan but pointed out that it was important for the people of Pakistan to choose what type of country they wish to live in. “Hard choices” need to be made for a better future, she added.
“We have to disrupt, dismantle, defeat and destroy al-Qaeda from Pakistan and the region.”
“We will do our part and look to Pakistan for decisive steps in the days ahead,” Secretary Clinton said.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
University of Peshawar :Sexual harassment
The issue of sexual harassment at the University of Peshawar (UoP) that echoed in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly in its last session is still pending as the committee formed by the assembly under Provincial Minister Sitara Ayaz has yet to submit its report to the chief minister.
Sources told The News that apart from the names provided by provincial legislator Nighat Yasmin Orakzai, some complaints were submitted to the university administration. Taking prompt action, the university administration suspended one Zahid Ali of the History Department and started probe against another teacher of the Electronics Department, the sources told The News.
After the action was taken against Zahid Ali, a committee was formed under Prof Dr Sara Safdar to look into the issue and submit recommendations to the university administration. The committee has held only two preliminary meetings so far to work out a strategy for probe into the issue and fix responsibility, the sources said.
The university administration is of the opinion that there was clear evidence against Zahid Ali on the basis of which the action was taken against him. According to reliable sources the action against him was taken on the basis of only one anonymous letter. The sources said Prof Dr Bashir, too, has been removed as provost of the university on the same charges. Dr Bashir had actually tendered resignation from his office about a week ago. However, the sources claimed that it was a forced resignation and the university wanted to provide a cover to him.
The committee formed by the provincial government has been collecting evidence against five teachers, who happen to be the senior most faculty members of the university and are holding key positions.
Talking to this correspondent, head of the committee and Provincial Minister for Social Welfare Sitara Ayaz said the committee had almost completed the job and would soon submit its report to the chief minister. She was of the opinion that some basic guidelines of the university were not followed in this case. Had those guidelines been followed, there would have been no such issue, she added.
She said the committee looked into each and every case, recorded statements and collected all possible evidence. She said the committee could not get the evidence as majority of the complaints had been made in anonymous letters and there were some sweeping statements having no solid proofs. “We would provide the names of the lecturers against whom complaints had been made. We would also give our recommendations and give whatever evidence we have collected,” she added.
When asked about the number of the people against whom the complaints had been made, she said that they were two or three. Majority of the faculty members of the university are seriously concerned over the issue. They are of the opinion that the issue got the undue and exaggerated coverage in the media. So far only seven people have been identified as allegedly involved in the issue and none has been found guilty.
The representative bodies of the teachers have also shown serious concern regarding the issue. The Peshawar University Teachers Association had declared that if anyone was found guilty, not only his membership would be cancelled but strict action would be taken against him.
The association had asked the university administration to launch a fair and prompt probe into the issue, fix responsibility and award exemplary punishment to those involved. It demanded that if the allegations held no ground, the mover of the issue should be sued in a court of law. The Tanzim-e-Asatiza had also made similar demands to the university administration.
Osama-Nawaz ties to haunt PML-N
Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s outburst against the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in the National Assembly, saying the party had become an orphan after the death of Osama bin Laden who used to finance Nawaz Sharif in the past, has dusted off an old controversy, which is set to blemish the PML-N leadership.
In fact, it was way back on April 30, 1999 that the slain PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto had accused Osama bin Laden, Mian Nawaz Sharif and a corps commander of toppling her first government in early 1990s. “Bin Laden financed an operation to topple me in cooperation with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the Pakistani intelligence services,” she had stated in an interview with the London-based al-Hayat newspaper. “Ramzi Yussef (implicated in the 1993 New York World Trade Centre bombing) tried to assassinate me on two occasions in 1993 to facilitate Nawaz Sharif’s rise to power. Yussef admitted to Pakistani investigators before his extradition to the United States that it was his duty to assassinate me, only because I was a woman in charge of the government,” she had added.
Almost 20 months later, Benazir repeated her allegations in more detail in an interview with Herald magazine on January 11, 2001. “Osama paid $10 million to overthrow my government during my first term. A serving Corps Commander held several meetings with PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and Bin Laden to chalk out the plan to topple my government. Osama bin Laden was told that a woman in the prime minister’s position in an Islamic country was against Islam and so he should give them money to overthrow her. Nawaz Sharif told bin Laden he would bring Islam to Pakistan.”
“No one had heard of Osama Bin Laden at that time, neither had me. He has become famous now. He would be sitting there and interfering with the government’s work,” Bhutto said and added that Osama also paid $10 million to a PPP member [of the National Assembly] to finance the no-confidence motion against her government, but they had voted against the motion.
However, the then ameer of the Jamaat-e-Islami, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, was the first Pakistani politician to have endorsed the allegation levelled against Osama and Nawaz Sharif by Benazir Bhutto, almost five years later. In an interview with Suhail Warraich that had appeared in the daily Jang on March 18, 2006, Qazi Hussain Ahmed said Bin Laden visited Mansoora and was willing to buy parliamentarians’ loyalties to ensure Nawaz Sharif’s election as prime minister. “Osama bin Laden said that if there was a way to buy votes [to topple Benazir Bhutto’s government and to bring Nawaz Sharif into power], he was willing to pay for them. Osama was a big supporter of the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad and Nawaz Sharif, who was the IJI president at that time,” Qazi Hussain Ahmed had added in his interview.
However, PML-N Information Secretary Siddiqul Farooq had rejected Qazi’s claim at that time, saying that Osama bin Laden never met Nawaz Sharif nor they ever talked about any political cooperation. “I want to keep it on record that American intelligence agencies, the then Pakistani government, the Inter Services Intelligence and other secret agencies, the Afghan Mujahideen, several religio-political parties including the Jamaat-e-Islami and Osama bin Laden were jointly fighting to liberate Afghanistan from the Soviet occupation. Bin Laden was a highly dignified person in the eyes of the US at that time. Later, differences developed between Osama and the US on the issue of Afghanistan and now they stand adversaries to each other. But Nawaz Sharif has no relevance to this situation,” Farooq said.
About Qazi Hussain’s claim that Osama wanted to see Nawaz Sharif as prime minister and was ready to buy loyalties of assembly members for this purpose, Siddiqul Farooq said: “It was Osama’s personal desire. And remember, Nawaz Sharif’s politics has been revolving around preserving and promoting the interests of Pakistan and its people”.
On March 21, 2006, hardly two days after Qazi Hussain Ahmed’s interview was published, a former ISI official Khalid Khwaja, who was considered close to Osama bin Laden, alleged that Nawaz Sharif had met Osama bin Laden and received funds from him to topple rival Benazir Bhutto’s government. “Let me tell you, Nawaz Sharif met Osama bin Laden on at least three occasions and was desperately seeking financial assistance to topple the Bhutto government,” Khalid Khwaja had told a Hong Kong-based web newspaper Asia Times Online in an interview which was also reported by Adnkronos International (AKI) on March 22, 2006. Killed in April 2010 after being kidnapped by Taliban militants, Khalid Khwaja, a retired officer of the Pakistan Air Force who was in the ISI in the late 80s, rejected a recent denial by the PML-N that its leader had only sought political cooperation from Bin Laden.
Khwaja said the al-Qaeda head wanted the secular PPP government overthrown to ensure that Pakistan continued supporting the Afghan jehad. Khwaja claimed that Bin Laden gave him funds, which he personally delivered to Nawaz Sharif. Giving a graphic account, he said Nawaz wanted to have a direct meeting with the Sheikh, which ‘I arranged in Saudi Arabia’. Nawaz met Osama thrice in Saudi Arabia. The most historic meeting between the two men was held at the Green Palace Hotel in Madinah. Osama asked Nawaz to devote himself to jehad in Kashmir. Nawaz immediately said: “I love jehad”. Osama smiled, and said: ‘Yes, you may love jehad, but your love for jehad is this much’, pointing to a small portion of a nearby pillar. “Your love for your children is this much,” he said, pointing to a larger portion of the pillar. “And your love for your parents is this much,” he continued, pointing towards the largest portion. Khwaja said such arguments were beyond the comprehension of Nawaz Sharif, who kept asking, in Punjabi, ‘Manya key nai manya?’ (Has he agreed or not to pay money?).
Going by Khalid Khwaja’s claim, Nawaz Sharif was hoping for a grant of Rs500 million. Although Bin Laden gave a smaller amount, Khwaja said he arranged for Sharif to meet the Saudi royal family, which had pledged political support for him and kept its word until he was dislodged by Musharraf in 1999. “It was the royal family that secured Sharif’s pardon and exile to Saudi Arabia,” he reminded. “Now with these immortal accounts secured in my memory, I see the denials in newspapers, that Nawaz had nothing to do with Osama, and I think how can people forget their mentors,” Khwaja added.
The alleged links between Osama and Nawaz Sharif were once again highlighted by the British author and journalist Simon Reeves in his book titled “The New Jackals: Ramzi Yousaf, Osama bin Laden and the future of terrorism”, which was published in September 2009. Simon also claimed that Bin Laden not only sponsored the election campaign of the former prime minister and PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif in 1988, but paid him large sums of money to ensure protection of al-Qaeda operatives in Pakistan and to ‘Islamise’ the state and society. According to Simon Reeves, the ABC News also confirmed the same incident of payoff by quoting former FBI agent Jack Cloonan who used to interrogate one of the key al-Qaeda operatives in US custody, Ali Muhammad. Cloonan, who is currently working as an ABC News consultant, claimed that Ali had once told him that Osama paid Nawaz’s representatives $1 million for not cracking down on the militants in the Frontier Province.
The book further states that after re-establishing al-Qaeda, one of Osama’s first actions was to try and guarantee the security of his men living in Pakistani refugee camps by throwing money at the election campaign of Sharif, ‘an energetic Pakistani politician’ standing for the election of Prime Minister. According to Simon Reeves, Nawaz Sharif had received the money from Osama with a promise to convert Pakistan into a strict Islamic state. An American website - History Commons - has not only confirmed Cloonan’s claim but has also mentioned another book by Scott-Clark and Levy, claiming that General Hameed Gul had contacted Osama Bin Laden who was then known to provide financial support to the Afghan mujahideen, to pay for a coup and assassination of the late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
However, the central secretary information of the Nawaz-led PML-N, Ahsan Iqbal has strongly rejected all these claims as a pack of lies.
In fact, it was way back on April 30, 1999 that the slain PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto had accused Osama bin Laden, Mian Nawaz Sharif and a corps commander of toppling her first government in early 1990s. “Bin Laden financed an operation to topple me in cooperation with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the Pakistani intelligence services,” she had stated in an interview with the London-based al-Hayat newspaper. “Ramzi Yussef (implicated in the 1993 New York World Trade Centre bombing) tried to assassinate me on two occasions in 1993 to facilitate Nawaz Sharif’s rise to power. Yussef admitted to Pakistani investigators before his extradition to the United States that it was his duty to assassinate me, only because I was a woman in charge of the government,” she had added.
Almost 20 months later, Benazir repeated her allegations in more detail in an interview with Herald magazine on January 11, 2001. “Osama paid $10 million to overthrow my government during my first term. A serving Corps Commander held several meetings with PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and Bin Laden to chalk out the plan to topple my government. Osama bin Laden was told that a woman in the prime minister’s position in an Islamic country was against Islam and so he should give them money to overthrow her. Nawaz Sharif told bin Laden he would bring Islam to Pakistan.”
“No one had heard of Osama Bin Laden at that time, neither had me. He has become famous now. He would be sitting there and interfering with the government’s work,” Bhutto said and added that Osama also paid $10 million to a PPP member [of the National Assembly] to finance the no-confidence motion against her government, but they had voted against the motion.
However, the then ameer of the Jamaat-e-Islami, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, was the first Pakistani politician to have endorsed the allegation levelled against Osama and Nawaz Sharif by Benazir Bhutto, almost five years later. In an interview with Suhail Warraich that had appeared in the daily Jang on March 18, 2006, Qazi Hussain Ahmed said Bin Laden visited Mansoora and was willing to buy parliamentarians’ loyalties to ensure Nawaz Sharif’s election as prime minister. “Osama bin Laden said that if there was a way to buy votes [to topple Benazir Bhutto’s government and to bring Nawaz Sharif into power], he was willing to pay for them. Osama was a big supporter of the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad and Nawaz Sharif, who was the IJI president at that time,” Qazi Hussain Ahmed had added in his interview.
However, PML-N Information Secretary Siddiqul Farooq had rejected Qazi’s claim at that time, saying that Osama bin Laden never met Nawaz Sharif nor they ever talked about any political cooperation. “I want to keep it on record that American intelligence agencies, the then Pakistani government, the Inter Services Intelligence and other secret agencies, the Afghan Mujahideen, several religio-political parties including the Jamaat-e-Islami and Osama bin Laden were jointly fighting to liberate Afghanistan from the Soviet occupation. Bin Laden was a highly dignified person in the eyes of the US at that time. Later, differences developed between Osama and the US on the issue of Afghanistan and now they stand adversaries to each other. But Nawaz Sharif has no relevance to this situation,” Farooq said.
About Qazi Hussain’s claim that Osama wanted to see Nawaz Sharif as prime minister and was ready to buy loyalties of assembly members for this purpose, Siddiqul Farooq said: “It was Osama’s personal desire. And remember, Nawaz Sharif’s politics has been revolving around preserving and promoting the interests of Pakistan and its people”.
On March 21, 2006, hardly two days after Qazi Hussain Ahmed’s interview was published, a former ISI official Khalid Khwaja, who was considered close to Osama bin Laden, alleged that Nawaz Sharif had met Osama bin Laden and received funds from him to topple rival Benazir Bhutto’s government. “Let me tell you, Nawaz Sharif met Osama bin Laden on at least three occasions and was desperately seeking financial assistance to topple the Bhutto government,” Khalid Khwaja had told a Hong Kong-based web newspaper Asia Times Online in an interview which was also reported by Adnkronos International (AKI) on March 22, 2006. Killed in April 2010 after being kidnapped by Taliban militants, Khalid Khwaja, a retired officer of the Pakistan Air Force who was in the ISI in the late 80s, rejected a recent denial by the PML-N that its leader had only sought political cooperation from Bin Laden.
Khwaja said the al-Qaeda head wanted the secular PPP government overthrown to ensure that Pakistan continued supporting the Afghan jehad. Khwaja claimed that Bin Laden gave him funds, which he personally delivered to Nawaz Sharif. Giving a graphic account, he said Nawaz wanted to have a direct meeting with the Sheikh, which ‘I arranged in Saudi Arabia’. Nawaz met Osama thrice in Saudi Arabia. The most historic meeting between the two men was held at the Green Palace Hotel in Madinah. Osama asked Nawaz to devote himself to jehad in Kashmir. Nawaz immediately said: “I love jehad”. Osama smiled, and said: ‘Yes, you may love jehad, but your love for jehad is this much’, pointing to a small portion of a nearby pillar. “Your love for your children is this much,” he said, pointing to a larger portion of the pillar. “And your love for your parents is this much,” he continued, pointing towards the largest portion. Khwaja said such arguments were beyond the comprehension of Nawaz Sharif, who kept asking, in Punjabi, ‘Manya key nai manya?’ (Has he agreed or not to pay money?).
Going by Khalid Khwaja’s claim, Nawaz Sharif was hoping for a grant of Rs500 million. Although Bin Laden gave a smaller amount, Khwaja said he arranged for Sharif to meet the Saudi royal family, which had pledged political support for him and kept its word until he was dislodged by Musharraf in 1999. “It was the royal family that secured Sharif’s pardon and exile to Saudi Arabia,” he reminded. “Now with these immortal accounts secured in my memory, I see the denials in newspapers, that Nawaz had nothing to do with Osama, and I think how can people forget their mentors,” Khwaja added.
The alleged links between Osama and Nawaz Sharif were once again highlighted by the British author and journalist Simon Reeves in his book titled “The New Jackals: Ramzi Yousaf, Osama bin Laden and the future of terrorism”, which was published in September 2009. Simon also claimed that Bin Laden not only sponsored the election campaign of the former prime minister and PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif in 1988, but paid him large sums of money to ensure protection of al-Qaeda operatives in Pakistan and to ‘Islamise’ the state and society. According to Simon Reeves, the ABC News also confirmed the same incident of payoff by quoting former FBI agent Jack Cloonan who used to interrogate one of the key al-Qaeda operatives in US custody, Ali Muhammad. Cloonan, who is currently working as an ABC News consultant, claimed that Ali had once told him that Osama paid Nawaz’s representatives $1 million for not cracking down on the militants in the Frontier Province.
The book further states that after re-establishing al-Qaeda, one of Osama’s first actions was to try and guarantee the security of his men living in Pakistani refugee camps by throwing money at the election campaign of Sharif, ‘an energetic Pakistani politician’ standing for the election of Prime Minister. According to Simon Reeves, Nawaz Sharif had received the money from Osama with a promise to convert Pakistan into a strict Islamic state. An American website - History Commons - has not only confirmed Cloonan’s claim but has also mentioned another book by Scott-Clark and Levy, claiming that General Hameed Gul had contacted Osama Bin Laden who was then known to provide financial support to the Afghan mujahideen, to pay for a coup and assassination of the late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
However, the central secretary information of the Nawaz-led PML-N, Ahsan Iqbal has strongly rejected all these claims as a pack of lies.
Pakistani militants have upper hand: Dhaka daily
The deadly attacks on military establishments in Pakistan indicate that militants have "an upper hand" over the government, a Dhaka daily said Wednesday and added that the developments were disquieting for the South Asian region.
Pakistan's military, "long the dominant voice in the country", needs to salvage its image, The Daily Star said in an editorial.
There have been a string of terror strikes in Pakistan ever since Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was gunned down in Abbottabad city May 2 by US commandos. On Sunday night, heavily armed terrorists struck at a key naval base in Karachi and destroyed two surveillance aircraft.
The Bangladesh daily noted the "absolute inability of the Pakistani authorities to prevent the militants from operating so freely as to target the country's military establishments".
"It will be easy to suggest that the Islamabad government take adequate measures to halt the drift to further chaos.
"The reality, however, is that for now the militants clearly have an upper hand. And the picture is disquieting for Pakistan and the region. Pakistanis deserve a better deal," it added.
Pakistan's military, "long the dominant voice in the country", needs to salvage its image, The Daily Star said in an editorial.
There have been a string of terror strikes in Pakistan ever since Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was gunned down in Abbottabad city May 2 by US commandos. On Sunday night, heavily armed terrorists struck at a key naval base in Karachi and destroyed two surveillance aircraft.
The Bangladesh daily noted the "absolute inability of the Pakistani authorities to prevent the militants from operating so freely as to target the country's military establishments".
"It will be easy to suggest that the Islamabad government take adequate measures to halt the drift to further chaos.
"The reality, however, is that for now the militants clearly have an upper hand. And the picture is disquieting for Pakistan and the region. Pakistanis deserve a better deal," it added.
Anti-Americanism rife in Pakistan army institution: Wikileaks
Officers received training biased against the United States at a prestigious Pakistan army institution, according to Wikileaks, underscoring concern that anti-Americanism in the country's powerful military is growing amid strains with Washington.
A U.S. diplomatic cable said the former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, Anne Patterson, found officers at the National Defense University (NDU) were "naive and biased" against the United States, a key ally which gives Pakistan billions of dollars of aid to help fight Islamist militants.
Fears the military could be harboring militant sympathizers have grown since U.S. forces found and killed Osama bin Laden this month in a Pakistani garrison town, where the al Qaeda leader had probably lived for several years.
Pakistan's military also controls the country's nuclear arms, and a series of attacks against military installations has heightened fears about the safety of those weapons.
"The elite of this crop of colonels and brigadiers are receiving biased NDU training with no chance to hear alternative views of the U.S.," the Wikileaks cable, which was published in the Dawn newspaper, quoted Patterson as saying.
"Given the bias of the instructors, we also believe it would be beneficial to initiate an exchange program for instructors."
Some of the officers believed the CIA was in charge of the U.S. media, the report said.
Anti-Americanism runs high among many of Pakistan's mainly Muslim people but it has deepened after bin Laden's killing in a secret U.S. raid which many Pakistanis see as breach of sovereignty.
Patterson said the United States must target a "lost generation" of military officers who missed training programs in the United States after Washington imposed sanctions against Pakistan in the 1990s for its nuclear program.
The cables also documented the account of a U.S. army officer, Colonel Michael Schleicher, who attended a course at NDU and corroborated the views expressed by Patterson.
"The senior level instructors had misperception about U.S. policies and culture and infused the lectures with these suspicions, while the students share these misconceptions with their superiors despite having children who attended universities in the U.S. or London," the cables quoted Schleicher as saying.
Hamayoun Khan, a teacher at NDU, however denied that anti-Americanism was being taught at the university.
"I haven't seen bias which she has mentioned here," he said.
Dawn said dozens of cables from U.S. embassies around the world also showed that the United States continued to intensely monitor Pakistan's nuclear and missiles programs.
In 2008, the U.S. deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Ankara, Nancy McEldowney, detailed her discussions with Turkish authorities about the U.S. desire to see action taken against suspicious shipments to Pakistan.
U.S. officials, according to the cable, "urged the GOT (government of Turkey) to contact the governments of Japan and Panama to request the shipment be diverted to another port and returned."
Pakistan's nuclear program came under increasing international scrutiny after the 2004 confessions of Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's atom bomb, about his involvement in sales of nuclear secrets to Iran, Iraq and North Korea.
The government pardoned Khan but put him under house arrest. A court in 2009 ordered his release.
A militant raid on a navy base in the southern city of Karachi this week has raised fresh anxiety about the ability of Pakistani security forces to protect installations and the country's nuclear arsenal.
A Taliban spokesman said militants had "so far" no plans to seize Pakistan's nuclear weapons.
"We will protect these weapons from dangers from foreigners," Ehsanullah Ehsan, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.
Many Pakistanis believe the United States and India would like to confiscate their nuclear weapons.
Rights group wants Saudi female driver freed
International and local rights groups lashed out Tuesday at the arrest of a Saudi woman for defying the kingdom's female driving ban, while other Saudi women posted video clips online showing themselves behind the wheel.
Having so far escaped the unrest sweeping the region, Saudi rulers have cracked down harder than usual on 32-year-old Manal al-Sherif after seeing her case become a rallying call for youths anxious for change.
Al-Sherif was arrested Sunday after a video clip was posted online of her much-publicized drive last week — part of an effort to bring attention to the Facebook and Twitter campaigns she helped organize to encourage women across Saudi Arabia to participate in a collective protest against the driving ban.
The Facebook page, called "Teach me how to drive so I can protect myself," was removed after more than 12,000 people indicated their support for its call for women drivers to take to the streets on June 17. The campaign's Twitter account also was deactivated.
Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that bans women — both Saudi and foreign — from driving. The prohibition forces families to hire live-in drivers, and those who cannot afford the $300 to $400 a month for a driver must rely on male relatives to drive them to work, school, shopping or the doctor.
The issue is a highly emotional one in the kingdom, where women are also not allowed to vote, or even travel without their husbands' or fathers' permission.
The arrest prompted calls Tuesday for al-Sherif's release from international rights groups as well as protests from local rights activists.
Human Rights Watch warned the arrest will hurt the country's image.
"Arresting a woman who drove her family around in a car and then showed it online opens Saudi Arabia to condemnation — and, in fact, to mockery — around the world," said spokesman Christoph Wilcke. "The longer she stays in prison, the more the kingdom will have to answer for."
A local rights group, the Association of Saudi Women's Rights, visited al-Sherif in the detention center in the eastern city of Dammam where she was ordered held for five days, and urged the Saudi government to "take a decisive stance and give women the right to drive their cars."
"This is a natural right," the group said.
Over the past couple of days, at least two young Saudi women appeared in online video clips driving their cars in support of al-Sherif and defiance of the ban.
One young woman, identified only as Ruba and dressed in the all-encompassing black abaya all women must wear in public, was shown driving inside a compound in Riyadh. "Ruba drove in Riyadh. Congratulations Ruba," the voice of her female companion is heard saying.
Another, a teenage girl whose name was not given, was filmed by a male companion in the eastern city of Jiddah. "After this car, turn right and slow down," he was heard saying.
Al-Sherif's arrest has prompted hundreds of activists to set up Facebook groups and campaigns calling for her release and an end to the driving ban. One group, called, "We are all Manal al-Sherif," had some 14,000 participants.
About 800 Saudi people have signed a petition urging Saudi King Abdullah to release al-Sherif and to make a clear statement on women's right to drive.
"We are fed up," Waleed Aboul Khair, a lawyer and rights activists said. "Be frank," he said, addressing the country's rulers. "For the first time in the history of the kingdom, we have hundreds of people calling for the king to be frank."
"The society has moved. The society is not silent anymore," Aboul Khair said.
There is no written Saudi law banning women from driving, only fatwas, or religious edicts, by senior clerics that are enforced by police. King Abdullah has promised reforms in the past and has taken some tentative steps to ease restrictions on women. But the Saudi monarchy relies on Wahhabi clerics to give religious legitimacy to its rule and is deeply reluctant to defy their entrenched power.
Al-Sherif was initially detained for several hours on Saturday but was released after she signed a pledge agreeing not to drive. She was taken into custody again before dawn on Sunday and ordered held for five days while the case was investigated.
The ruling establishment moved to blame outside forces.
The Saudi daily Al-Watan, which is owned by a member of the ruling family, claimed that al-Sherif broke down in "an episode of crying" during interrogation and blamed the campaign on "women from outside the kingdom."
Her lawyer, Adnan al-Saleh, told The Associated Press that al-Sherif has not spoken to reporters. "I am saying she didn't say a single word and we will sue," he said
Having so far escaped the unrest sweeping the region, Saudi rulers have cracked down harder than usual on 32-year-old Manal al-Sherif after seeing her case become a rallying call for youths anxious for change.
Al-Sherif was arrested Sunday after a video clip was posted online of her much-publicized drive last week — part of an effort to bring attention to the Facebook and Twitter campaigns she helped organize to encourage women across Saudi Arabia to participate in a collective protest against the driving ban.
The Facebook page, called "Teach me how to drive so I can protect myself," was removed after more than 12,000 people indicated their support for its call for women drivers to take to the streets on June 17. The campaign's Twitter account also was deactivated.
Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that bans women — both Saudi and foreign — from driving. The prohibition forces families to hire live-in drivers, and those who cannot afford the $300 to $400 a month for a driver must rely on male relatives to drive them to work, school, shopping or the doctor.
The issue is a highly emotional one in the kingdom, where women are also not allowed to vote, or even travel without their husbands' or fathers' permission.
The arrest prompted calls Tuesday for al-Sherif's release from international rights groups as well as protests from local rights activists.
Human Rights Watch warned the arrest will hurt the country's image.
"Arresting a woman who drove her family around in a car and then showed it online opens Saudi Arabia to condemnation — and, in fact, to mockery — around the world," said spokesman Christoph Wilcke. "The longer she stays in prison, the more the kingdom will have to answer for."
A local rights group, the Association of Saudi Women's Rights, visited al-Sherif in the detention center in the eastern city of Dammam where she was ordered held for five days, and urged the Saudi government to "take a decisive stance and give women the right to drive their cars."
"This is a natural right," the group said.
Over the past couple of days, at least two young Saudi women appeared in online video clips driving their cars in support of al-Sherif and defiance of the ban.
One young woman, identified only as Ruba and dressed in the all-encompassing black abaya all women must wear in public, was shown driving inside a compound in Riyadh. "Ruba drove in Riyadh. Congratulations Ruba," the voice of her female companion is heard saying.
Another, a teenage girl whose name was not given, was filmed by a male companion in the eastern city of Jiddah. "After this car, turn right and slow down," he was heard saying.
Al-Sherif's arrest has prompted hundreds of activists to set up Facebook groups and campaigns calling for her release and an end to the driving ban. One group, called, "We are all Manal al-Sherif," had some 14,000 participants.
About 800 Saudi people have signed a petition urging Saudi King Abdullah to release al-Sherif and to make a clear statement on women's right to drive.
"We are fed up," Waleed Aboul Khair, a lawyer and rights activists said. "Be frank," he said, addressing the country's rulers. "For the first time in the history of the kingdom, we have hundreds of people calling for the king to be frank."
"The society has moved. The society is not silent anymore," Aboul Khair said.
There is no written Saudi law banning women from driving, only fatwas, or religious edicts, by senior clerics that are enforced by police. King Abdullah has promised reforms in the past and has taken some tentative steps to ease restrictions on women. But the Saudi monarchy relies on Wahhabi clerics to give religious legitimacy to its rule and is deeply reluctant to defy their entrenched power.
Al-Sherif was initially detained for several hours on Saturday but was released after she signed a pledge agreeing not to drive. She was taken into custody again before dawn on Sunday and ordered held for five days while the case was investigated.
The ruling establishment moved to blame outside forces.
The Saudi daily Al-Watan, which is owned by a member of the ruling family, claimed that al-Sherif broke down in "an episode of crying" during interrogation and blamed the campaign on "women from outside the kingdom."
Her lawyer, Adnan al-Saleh, told The Associated Press that al-Sherif has not spoken to reporters. "I am saying she didn't say a single word and we will sue," he said
Pakistan :Slaughter of higher education
By Dr. Muhammad Hafizullah
“World has changed and the economic wheel is no more turned by the Capitalists and Capital, not by Fords, Tatas and Adamjees; but by the knowledge and skills of the dedicated and committed, by Einstein, Christian Barnard, Bill Gates and their followers”.
Prof. Zafar Ullah Chaudhry,
President CPSP.
The crowd has found the door into the secret garden. Now they will tear up the flowers by the roots . . . .
Alan Bennett (1969) Forty Years On: 78
There was a time, not so long ago, when the way into the secret garden of higher education even in the developed world was known to a very few. Over the last four decades in UK, successive governments have worked very hard to change things: increase accessibility of higher education from being the privilege of a middle class élite to being accessible to a huge section of society. In the 1960s only about one in 18 young people made their way to university; today in UK it is over 40 per cent, and it is the declared aim of government that half of all young people will go through higher education in the near future. Education policy announced by the elected government of Pakistan in 2009 committed to 7% of GNP to education with 20 percent going to higher education. The policy, also, aimed for increase in access to higher education to 10% by 2019 which translates to 2.3 times increase in current enrolment in universities. The envisage increase to 15% in 2020 means 3.8 times increase in enrolment which will be a herculean task by any standard. The goals that HEC has set for herself remain increase inaccessibility, relevance and maintaining quality.
Trevor Hussey and Patrick Smith wrote in ‘The Trouble with Higher Education -A Critical Examination of our Universities’ set in British scenario: “Let us start by stating the obvious. Education is of eminent value and profound importance to any liberal society. But how should we interpret that statement? With our contemporary commercial habits of mind, it was tempting to see it in terms of an investment that a nation makes so as to get a profitable return. Like buying shares or bonds, we invest in education so that it produces the people and ideas we need to repay the expense and make us even more prosperous.
There is, in this picture, a simple feedback loop: society invests in education and education repays with interest. By this means we can keep the tills ringing even in the face of severe international competition.”
HEC has been able to achieve a lot to be proud of! They have been able to create a vibrant university culture and enhance the choices available to students passing higher education.
At the time of independence Pakistan had only 2 universities; in 2005-6 we had 53 public universities. The number of universities has grown at a high rate in the last few years due to the higher education commission’s active encouragement. Pakistan today boasts of 133 universities: 73 in public sector and 60 in private sector. Of them we have 41 in Punjab, 39 in Sindh, 24 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 8 in Baluchistan. Of the rest 16 are housed in Federal area, 1 in Gilgit and 4 in AJK. Academic standards have been brought to internationally acceptable standards and quality enhancement cells are now operational in most universities. Major investments have been made in human resource development and around 8000 PhD scholars will be available in Pakistan in coming 5 years. These scholars are the real hope for a prosperous and educated Pakistan. The number of research papers has increased many folds and research is being recognised as a major responsibility of universities. The input in the form of improvement in infrastructure is obvious in most universities. The ultimate benefit of all this, of course, goes to general public.
In Pakistan only a meager 4% population in the age group from 16 to 26 years have access to university education. Total number of students enrolled in university is 244,513 males and 178,723 females. In 2004 total students enrolled for PhD were 4,662 males and 1,810 females. In 2004-5 total number of students studying for Masters were 65,000 males and 44,000 females. Students attending colleges for bachelors are 167,000 males and 128,640 females. This resulted in total enrollment of students in university from 276,000 in 2001 to 332,000 in 2002-3 and 423,000 in 2003-4. As per current data, 18 to 26 years of age enrolment in university in 2001-2 was 1.46% males and 0.87% females, total being 1.16%. In 2004-5 it increased to male 1.99%, female 1.41% and total 1.70%. But this has to be increase exponentially! Even if we double it up in five years still it remains abysmally low. Still a lot lower than most nations in the developing world!
Only in the field of medicine and health sciences, 57 development projects have been approved and implemented. In medical / health sciences 350 scholarships have been awarded for studies in technologically advanced countries and 444 scholarships for indigenous studies. Post-doctoral research facilities were offered under the scheme “Post Doctoral Fellowship for University Teachers” to 88 university teachers in Biological and Medical Sciences. Travel grants in Medical Sciences, Pharmacy and Nursing were awarded to 79 members of faculty of public and private sector universities and degree awarding institutions to present their research papers in International conferences abroad. As many as 63 Assistant Professors, Associate Professors and Professors were recruited in medical universities under the tenure track system. Pakistani Universities produced 105 PhD scholars in Medical/Health/Biological Sciences. HEC has 130 approved Ph.D. Supervisors in Pharmaceutical and Bio-medical Sciences working in universities and have 89 National Research Projects in progress in Medical Sciences. In Social Sciences/ Arts & Humanities 298 scholarships were awarded for studies in technologically advanced countries and 522 in Pakistan. HEC can be proud of producing 2,287 PhDs by Pakistani universities in Social Sciences.
The increase, the little that we had, has been proportional to the input in the form of budgetary allocation being 3,801 million in 2001-2, 8,375 million in 2002-3, increasing to 10,281 in 2003-4 the epic being 14,319 million in 2004-5. Suddenly education and especially higher education has lost priority in the eyes of those at the helm of affairs. Drastic cuts have been slapped on higher education –the worst so far. If enemies of Pakistan had to plan to inflict severe blow to the progress of country, they will neither target our nuclear arsenal nor State Bank but attempt to thwart the progress in higher education to ensure that Pakistan is deprived of future thinkers, scientists, engineers and doctors. They are the hope of tomorrow - the critical mass which can possibly revolutionise the condition and accelerate Pakistan’s journey to progress. Imagine the plight of a large developing country with deprived present but more importantly with no hope for tomorrow!
The only way forward for developing nations is to invest in education and perhaps more so in higher education. Those in power have to understand that the way to progress and earning a better place in the comity of nations is to equip maximal number of citizens with purposeful education. The education has to be directed and goal orientated. Education should create individuals equipped with skills - to be a driving force for the nation. These educated persons should contribute towards the country’s progress and not merely add to the pool of job seekers. Many exciting new fields await us; the need is to encourage the higher education to take on the challenges. Urgent steps need to be taken to reap the benefits of education and it will be most unfortunate to withdraw at this critical junction where the huge investment of last few years are about to bear the fruits. As very aptly quoted by Chairman HEC, we have to follow the advice of Rabindarnath Tagore, “if they answer not to your call walk alone, if they are afraid and cower mutely facing the wall, o thou of evil luck, open thy mind and speak out alone.”
‘Nawaz wants to become CIA, RAW agent’
PPP Parliamentary leader in the Punjab Assembly Zulfiqar Gondal has alleged that PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif has left the service of ISI and was now trying to become an agent of CIA and RAW by serving their objectives in the country.
Addressing a press conference at Lahore Press Club on Friday in connection with the new revelations of Wikileaks saying Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and MNA Khawaja Saad Rafiq called on US Consul in Lahore, Bryan D Hunt, in 2009 and reportedly said to him that deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry should be restored to vindicate the stance of PML-N but he should be removed after some time.
Gondal further alleged that the Sharif brothers would now collect donations from CIA and RAW on whose behest they were now attacking the ISI. Regarding the demand of Nawaz Sharif on presenting defence budget in parliament, Gondal said why Nawaz Sharif did not present it in parliament when he was the prime minister. He said the PPP had offered Nawaz Sharif to wait for the retirement of CJ Dogar which was due after two months, following which Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry would be restored. But he refused that, he added.
Nawaz Sharif is howling day in day out against the Army and ISI certianly joining the corrus of CIA. Damaging national institutions like this is surely an act of treason,as no one else than the enemies of pakistan will be taking pleasure out of it. Nawaz should tell the nation what has he done for Punjab in his party 3 years tenure.Punjab is as bad as it was before his party tookover, yes his palatial living is in much better shape than before.
91m Pakistanis lack access to sanitation
Around 91 million people are without proper sanitation conditions in the country inviting various viral diseases including diarrhoea, says a report. The Pakistan Council for Research of Water Resources (PCRWR) in its report said that 74 million people in rural areas and 17 million in urban areas were deprived of proper sanitation. Around 48 percent schools do not have toilets. In Punjab around 36 million people are without proper sanitation and 33.6 million belong to rural areas while 2.4 million are from urban Punjab, the report says.Around 22 districts of the province are also below than provincial average for access to sanitation facilities. Pakistan is the third largest country in the world in terms of deaths due to diarrhoea. Poor hygiene and lack of access to sanitation contribute to about 88 percent of deaths from diarrhoeal diseases.Pach year more than 200 million ton of human waste and vast quantities of waste water and solid waste go uncollected and untreated around the world, polluting the environment and exposing millions of children to disease.Around 2.6 billion people worldwide lack access to proper sanitation and two billion live in rural areas, 980 million are under 18 years, 280 million children under 5 years, the report added.One in two people in the developing world lacks access to sanitation, the PCRWR report added
Veena Malik bounces back
Veena Malik, whose car was hit by a speeding vehicle en route from Islamabad to Lahore on May 16, has recovered from her injuries and is set to make an appearance on television in the next couple of days.
Malik, who has been discharged from the hospital and is living in her Lahore residence these days, told The Express Tribune: “I have a slight pain in my arm, but I have recovered now although doctors have advised rest. I will make my appearance through television in the next few days”.
“I had some sessions with a psychiatrist, as I had some fear in my mind regarding driving again. I was driving myself when the vehicle hit my car, so I consulted a psychiatrist to avoid any problems when I drive again. Now I am fine, and won’t have any problem when I drive again,” Veena Malik said.
When asked about her upcoming projects, she replied: “I am going to focus more on my projects in Pakistan now. Yes, there are offers from Bollywood and I will do work there, but I will also be working here in Pakistan. Talks are underway, and before June 15 I will finalise agreements to host a program for a Pakistani TV channel. I will record a few episodes for my show before I leave for India.”
Speaking about the format of her upcoming talk show for a Pakistani TV channel she said: “This will be an entertainment show and I will be inviting Bollywood celebrities to my show and chit-chat with them. Bollywood celebrities who are much talked about in Pakistan will appear on my show and talk about different things.”
A source told The Express Tribune that Veena Malik, who is scheduled to leave for India after June 15 for two months, has also signed an Indian film which will feature Ajey Devgan in a lead role opposite her. The actor, when asked, neither denied nor confirmed this. She said: “Yes I have signed a film in India and will start shooting for it when I go there after June 15. The film is a romantic one, and I am working opposite one of the leading Bollywood heroes. I cannot reveal the name for now, and will announce it afterwards. However, the hero of my film is not Ashmit Patel.”
When asked whether she plans to work for the Pakistani television industry, which is doing pretty well these days, Malik said: “I have an offer to play a lead role in a drama serial by PTV. I am seriously considering it and might work for it after coming back from India.”
Malik, who couldn’t travel to participate in The Oslo Freedom Forum, a unique global affairs conference that take place in Norway every year, said she would be at the gathering next year. Previously, Mukhtaran Mai from Pakistan has been invited to the event.
“I am thankful to all my fans and supporters who prayed for me when I was injured. It is because of their prayers that I have recovered so soon. I thank all of them,” she said.
Source:
The Express Tribune
Car bomb destroys police station in Pakistan, 2 dead
Suspected militants drove a car packed with explosives into a police station in the Pakistani town of Peshawar on Wednesday, killing two policemen and wounding 20 people, the latest attack since Osama bin laden was killed this month.
The police station, where the office of the Criminal Investigation Department which also investigates militancy is located, was destroyed in the blast, a Reuters witness said.
Residents said the explosion rattled windows throughout town. Television showed police and soldiers cordoning off the affected district.
Two policemen were killed and 20 were wounded in the dawn attack, police said.
"The car was packed with explosives; it hit the gate of the police station," said senior superintendent of police Ejaz Khan.
Another police officer said about 20 policemen were present in the building when the explosion happened.
"A few of them are still screaming. We can hear it. We are trying our best to evacuate them," police inspector Bahadur Khan told Reuters by telephone from the scene.
"But there is little chance that we could recover them alive as it is taking so long to remove rubble," he said adding four wounded policemen had been recovered from rubble.
The bombing comes two days after a brazen raid on a heavily guarded Pakistani naval base in the southern city of Karachi in which 10 military personnel were killed and two aircraft destroyed. The Pakistani Taliban said they staged that assault to avenge the death of al Qaeda leader bin Laden.
Wednesday's attack in Peshawar occurred about 1 km (half a mile) from the U.S. consulate and in the same district where a car bomb exploded last week as a U.S. consulate convoy passed by. One man was killed and about a dozen people were wounded, including two U.S. nationals.
Peshawar is the gateway to Pakistan's turbulent northwest region believed to have become a hub of al Qaeda and Taliban militants.
The Pakistani Taliban also claimed responsibility for the attack on the U.S. convoy, the first attack on foreigners since a U.S. commando team killed bin Laden early this month.
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