M WAQAR.....
"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary.Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."
--Albert Einstein !!!
NEWS,ARTICLES,EDITORIALS,MUSIC... Ze chi pe mayeen yum da agha pukhtunistan de.....(Liberal,Progressive,Secular World.)''Secularism is not against religion; it is the message of humanity.''
تل ده وی پثتونستآن
won a majority of seats in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) elections amid incidents of violence claiming three lives.
Those who were declared successful included former AJK prime ministers Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry, Farooq Haider, Sardar Yaqoob and Sardar Attique.
Senior politicians like Chaudhry Abdul Majeed, Sardar Qamaruz Zaman, Siyab Khalid, Chaudhry Ismail and Tariq Farooq also won their seats.
According to the unofficial results announced late on Sunday, elections were postponed in three constituencies after the death of three people in the violence.
Elections were held on 37 seats of the AJK Legislative Assembly and according to the last unconfirmed reports, Pakistan People’s Party was ahead of other contestants with 19 seats, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) bagged seven, Muslim Conference (MC) four while two independent candidates were also declared successful.
The unofficial results revealed that in LA-1, Mirpur 1, PPP candidate Afsar Shahid succeeded with 10,152 votes. Masood Khalid, an independent candidate, was the runner up.
PPP’s Arshad Hussain succeeded from LA-4, Mirpur 4, another PPP candidate Chaudhry Pervaiz Ashraf secured his seat for Legislative Assembly from LA-5, Bhimber 1. From LA-6, Bhimber 2, independent candidate Ali Khan Swati was declared successful. In LA-7, Bhimber 3, PML-N candidate Chaudhry Tariq Farooq was the successful candidate, LA-8, Kotli 1 went to Muslim Conference candidate Malik Muhammad Nawaz. Voters elected PML-N candidate Rao Naseer LA-10 Kotli 3 and Chaudhry Yasin of the PPP from LA-11.
PPP’s Matloob Inqalabi, Muslim Conference’s Sardar Attique, and PPP’s Qamar Zaman succeeded in their respective constituencies.
The polling for the AJK elections in Lahore had been suspended after a scuffle between supporters of the PPP and the PML-N candidates. The PPP claimed that PPP workers Afzal Butt, Khalid Usman and PPP Punjab General Secretary Samiullah Khan were injured by the PML-N attackers. The polling started at 8am but the atmosphere soon became charged and Presiding Officer Malik Tahir Iqbal decided to suspend the polling.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani talked to AJK Prime Minister Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan over telephone and discussed the overall political situation in AJK.
Both the leaders agreed to work for the development, progress and prosperity of the people of AJK.
The Gujranwala police have registered cases against 100 PML-N and PPP workers after a clash during polling at LA-31 Jammu-II on Sunday.
Pakistan Peoples’ Party Sindh Women Wing Secretary Information
Sharmila Faruqui has said that PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif has been working on agenda of Taliban and anti-Pakistan forces by propagating against the Pakistan Army.
In a statement issued here on Sunday, she said: “Nawaz Sharif was meeting a hidden agenda to defame the Pakistan Army and destabilize the country on the instructions of his foreign bosses”.
She said the stability of the country is in civil-military mutual cooperation adding that but Mr. Sharif wanted to damage the interests of the country at national and international level by leveling false allegations on the Pakistan Army and the democratic government.
“Maulvi Nawaz Sharif having a specific “Jihadi mindset” wanted to meet nefarious designs of Taliban and extremist forces while such mindset could not be taken as a peaceful religion of Islam,” she said.
She said that it was the PPP led democratic government which fully supported the Pakistan Army to secure peace in Swat, FATA and Wazirstan and to foil conspiracies against the country. “Pakistan Flag is being hoisted in Swat once gain due to mutual cooperation of the PPP government and the Pakistan Army,” she said adding that we could not allow any one to try to weak our defense by launching negative propaganda against our armed forces.
She said the PPP government would continue fully backing the armed forces to maintain peace in the restive parts of the country.
She said that one person ‘Maulvi Mushtaq’ damaged democracy by awarding death sentence to an elected and popular Prime Minister Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who was completely innocent in the case adding that now another Maulvi Nawaz Sharif was showing his frustration by leveling false accusations against the democratic government and the Pakistan Army.She said that Mr. Sharif has been continuing negative propaganda campaign against the Pakistan Army as he was suffering from frustration due to not being in power.She said that Mr. Sharif should not damage the interests of the 18 karore people of the country because of his frustration.
“Nawaz Sharif should play role of a politician and not as Maulvi Mushtaq,” she said. She further said that law minister of the Punjab government; Rana Sanaullah was not a law minister but minister for terrorism.
She said that statements of Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif in Lahore had exposed him and proved that he and his brother Nawaz Sharif was meeting hidden agenda of Taliban and anti-Pakistan elements.She said that how the Taliban could be taken as peaceful while they were carrying out attacks on mosques, Imambargahs, girls’ schools and public places.
The U.N. World Food Program announced Monday it will cut food assistance to more than 3 million Afghans in about half the country's 34 provinces because of a shortage of money from donor nations.
The U.N. agency said it had planned to help feed more than 7 million people in Afghanistan this year, but a shortage of donor funds means 3.8 million people will be helped through meals provided at schools and training and work programs. The program said it needed an additional $220 million to continue its work in Afghanistan at the level originally planned.
The program will focus food assistance on helping the most needy Afghans, especially women and children, said Bradley Guerrant, the agency's deputy country director.
"We are working hard to raise the funds needed to restart these activities as soon as we can," he said.
Two roadside bomb blasts killed seven civilians Monday in Ghazni province in eastern Afghanistan, the Interior Ministry said. A vehicle struck one of the bombs in Qarabagh district, killing four civilians, including two children, the ministry said. Another vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Ghazni city, killing three civilians.
Pakistan People's Party (PPP) has secured majority in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly by securing 19 seats in elections on Sunday.
According to unofficial results of 34 seats so far, Pakistan Muslim League (N) stood at second position by grabbing nine seats, Muslim Conference got third position with four seats besides two independents.
The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) candidate and former Prime Minister of AJK Barrister Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry from LA-3 (City Mirpur-III) and President PPP AJK Ch. Abdul Majeed LA-2 (Chakswari Mirpur-II) have won their seats.
Among the other PPP winners were Afsar Shahid LA-1 (Dadayal Mirpur-I), Syed Azhar Hussain Gillani (LA 39, Valley-4), Sardar Yaqoob (LA 19 Rawalakot-3), Afsar Shahid (LA-39, Valley-4), Chaudhry Akbar Ibraheem (LA-34 Jammu-Gujarat), Abdul Salam Butt (LA-40, Valley-5) Sardar Qamar Zaman (LA-14, Bagh-II), Chaudhry Abdul Majeed (LA-2, Mirpur), Sardar Ghulam Sadiq (LA-18, Ponch-II) and Mian Abdul Waheed (LA-23, Neelum-1) Mutloob Inqalabi and some others.
President Muslim Conference Sardar Attique Ahmad Khan (LA-13,Bagh-1) and central PML(N) AJK Raja Farooq Haider also won their seats.
The result of one constituency from district Bagh has been held.
Brigadier General Ali Khan was close to retiring at the end of a distinguished career in the Pakistani Army when he was detained early in May - and accused of links with an outlawed Islamist group.
His arrest, which became public Tuesday, shocked fellow officers at army headquarters and again raises the specter that senior ranks of the Pakistani officer corps may be infiltrated by Islamist militants.
Brigadier Khan is the most senior officer to face such allegations since 1995, according to a CNN analysis of previous cases.
Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said Khan was believed linked to Hizb ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation). He said efforts were underway to arrest members of the group who had been in contact with Khan.
"The military has zero tolerance for any such activity and strict disciplinary action will be taken against those involved," said Major General Abbas.
Pakistani officials say Brigadier General Khan, who is 59, had an administrative role at army headquarters in Rawalpindi. His work did not involve counterterrorism and he did not command any unit. But he would have seen plenty of sensitive information.
Khan comes from a military family stretching back three generations, and has a son in the armed forces. Pakistani media report that one of his brothers is a colonel with the intelligence service.
Reuters news agency quoted Khan's wife as dismissing the allegations as "rubbish," saying her husband was "an intellectual, an honest, patriotic and ideological person."
"It's a fashion here that whosoever offers prayers and practices religion is dubbed as Taliban and militant," Reuters quoted her as saying.
One of his brothers, Bashir Khan, told the Pakistani television network Aaj that the brigadier had been in the army for 25 years – serving with UN peacekeepers in Bosnia and spending time in the United States. In 2008, Khan received the highest honor available to soldiers of his rank.
Khan's detention comes amid heightened concern about religious extremism within Pakistan's armed forces.
Hizb ut-Tahrir says it is committed to non-violence but has urged soldiers to rebel against the military hierarchy and its goal it to establish a global Islamic Caliphate.
Pakistani sources tell CNN that in the aftermath of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, it produced pamphlets urging soldiers to turn against their commanders.
The group was outlawed by General Pervez Musharraf in 2004 but a Pakistani court subsequently overturned the ban. It is also active in the United Kingdom, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Simon Valentine, a British researcher who has studied extremism in the Pakistani armed forces, said that while Hizb ut-Tahrir doesn't advocate violence "a cardinal element of its ideology and modus operandi is to infilitrate the armed forces and, once gaining sufficient support, cause a military coup."
"Despite claims of zero tolerance of HuT within the Army," he said, "militant Islam, including the HuT, has much support from the grass roots to the highest level within all branches of the armed forces."
Valentine, who has researched Hizb ut-Tahrir in depth, said its views enjoy widespread support throughout Pakistani society.
"Such militancy as seen in the HuT is fuelled by an increasing anti-Americanism which is rife throughout Pakistan," he told CNN.
Hassan Abbas, a scholar at Columbia University who has written extensively about Pakistani military intelligence, the ISI, told CNN he suspected there was more to the case than any alleged contacts with Hizb ul-Tahrir.
"Association with such a group would not be enough to hold him for six weeks," especially as Khan was weeks away from retirement, he said.
Abbas, author of "Pakistan's Drift into Extremism: Allah, the Army and America's War on Terror," said there is an alarming trend that includes Pakistani pilots refusing to bomb militant strongholds, and units surrendering to militant groups rather than fire on them.
Last month, Pakistani Taliban insurgents stormed the Naval Air Station in Karachi, apparently armed with inside information on its layout and security. They destroyed two U.S. supplied surveillance aircraft.
Days before he was abducted and murdered, Pakistani journalist Syed Shahzad described that attack as "the violent beginning of an internal ideological struggle between Islamist elements in the Pakistani armed forces and their secular and liberal top brass."
He went on to quote unnamed sources in the ISI, Pakistan's military intelligence service, as saying: "It was shown several months ago that the Pakistan navy is vulnerable to Islamists when a marine commando unit official was arrested.....Now, they (intelligence) realize how the organization (navy) is riddled and vulnerable to the influence of militant organizations."
Last year two serving officers - including a colonel – and two former officers were indicted in a court martial for allegedly planning a terrorist attack on the Shamsi airbase.
Shamsi - in Balochistan province - is a remote base reportedly used by the United States drone program. The four were alleged to have been in contact with Hizb ut-Tahrir. They have pled not guilty.
And in 2004, several lower-ranking air force personnel were convicted in connection with assassination attempts against Pakistan's leader at the time, General Pervez Musharraf.
One of them, Abdul Islam Siddiqui, was hanged but maintained he was innocent of involvement. Other soldiers said they had been tortured into implicating him.
Valentine, who is a regular visitor to Pakistan, said Khan's arrest may be "part of an attempt to bolster the army's reputation amid accusations that it is pro-militant," in the wake of the raid by U.S. special forces that killed bin Laden.
But Hassan Abbas believes the military had no desire for the Khan case to become public. "The military is in deep crisis in the aftermath of Abbottabad," he says. "They would have preferred to hush this up."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ Rates of diabetes have exploded in the past three decades with an estimated 350 million people in the world now suffering from the disease, according to new research.
Almost every region of the planet has seen a rise in diabetes prevalence or has failed to reduce levels of the disease, a major international study has revealed.
The condition, which is the result of poorly controlled sugar levels in the blood, can lead to serious compliations such as damage to the kidneys, blindness, nerve damage, heart disease and limb loss.
Each year, high blood sugar levels and diabetes kill three million people worldwide.
Increasing life span and increasing body weight are thought to be the main factors causing diabetes rates to rise, especially among women, say researchers.
But genetic factors in some ethnic groups, nutrition in the womb, diet in early life and levels of physical activity have also played a role in the rising diabetes rates.Scientists analysed blood sugar data on 2.7 million people aged 25 and over throughout the world and used the results to estimate diabetes prevalence.
Their results showed that the number of adults with diabetes more than doubled from 153 million in 1980 to 347 million in 2008, considerably higher than a 2009 estimate of 285 million.
Across the three decades, the proportion of men with diabetes rose by 18% from 8.3% to 9.8%. The proportion of women with diabetes increased even sharper, from 7.5% to 9.2%, an increase of 23%.
The findings were published in a special online report by The Lancet medical journal.
Professor Majid Ezzati, from Imperial College London, who co-led the investigation, said: "Diabetes is one of the biggest causes of morbidity (illness) and mortality worldwide.
"Our study has shown that diabetes is becoming more common almost everywhere in the world. This is in contrast to blood pressure and cholesterol, which have both fallen in many regions.
"Diabetes is much harder to prevent and treat than these other conditions."
Between 85% and 95% of diabetes cases fall into the type 2 category, which is linked to lifestyle. Type 1, or insulin-dependent, diabetes is a separate auto-immune disorder and much less common.
The study showed that diabetes rates had risen most dramatically in Pacific island nations, where a greater proportion of people have the condition than anywhere else in the world. In the Marshal Islands, one in three women and one in four men have diabetes.
Elevated blood glucose and diabetes prevalence was also high in southern Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, central Asia, north Africa and the Middle East.
Among high-income countries, those of Western Europe had seen a relatively small increase in diabetes prevalence. Rates were highest in the US, Greenland, Malta, New Zealand and Spain and were lowest in The Netherlands, Austria and France.
They are the faces of civilians caught in the crossfire in Afghanistan. Facing internal conflict, the number of people fleeing their homes in Afghanistan has more than doubled compared to this time last year, says Refugees International, an advocacy group for displaced persons.
"In the first five months of 2011, we have more than 91,000 people fleeing their homes. And this is in comparison to last year at the same time period when there was 42,000," Refugees International advocate Lynn Yoshikawa said.
"They are living in cramped corridors ... sharing homes, living outside in tents. They have a lot of difficulties with breathing conditions, very limited access to medical facilities to address the problems. A lot of it is chronic," said Yoshikawa.
Yoshikawa visited tent cities across Afghanistan earlier this year with her colleagues, taking photos of the refugees' living conditions and sharing them publicly for the first time with CNN. In describing the makeshift camps, Refugees International representatives say some were situated along major roads within Afghanistan's capital of Kabul, thrown together with discarded objects such as old cars, plastic tarps and torn sheets.
The humanitarian group warns that Afghans continue to be driven from their homes by coalition air strikes and special forces raids.
"There is still a lot of displacement happening and it's not being properly addressed," said Yoshikawa. "The military isn't reporting people that they see displaced from their military operations. That prevents humanitarian agencies from going to respond because often these are areas inaccessible because of these high levels of conflict."Gen. David Petraeus, outgoing Commander of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan, has long said the military tries to be as careful as possible.
A U.S. State Department's spokeswoman said Friday that despite President Obama's announcement to withdraw 33,000 troops from Afghanistan within the next 15 months, the United States is committed to Afghanistan's long-term stability.
"We do continue to support efforts internally in Afghanistan to ensure that refugees are well managed," said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland. "With regard to the larger question of security in Afghanistan ... our goal is not to allow more insecurity but continue to transfer increasing security to the Afghans. Refugees and other folks who need protecting we have in mind as this strategy evolves with Afghans gaining more strength."
Yet questions remain about the extent of corruption within Afghanistan's security forces, including local police, who Refugees International says are now also driving Afghans from their homes.
"We talked to displaced people who said the Afghan local police, which are supported by U.S. military... are extorting money from people, demanding taxes, using their power to abuse civilians. They've also been implicated in allegations of murder and torture in these communities," explained Yoshikawa.Afghan government officials have often said they are already trying to improve their security forces. Nuland says the United States is working closely with Afghans to ensure there are "good human rights standards" and "anti-corruption standards"
Refugees International says larger humanitarian concerns remain, with many displaced families fearful of returning home after fleeing violence.
The group says that many of those critical local police units, tasked with protecting Afghan residents, are now so corrupt that they should not be funded until strict recruiting and discipline standards are met.
Former President General (Retd) Pervez Musharraf has said the PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif has fallen in army and ISI phobia and making wrong statements to take credit for action which he has never taken.
In an interview with a private TV channel, the former military dictator said Mian Nawaz Sharif
was opposed to nuclear tests and these were carried out under pressure of institutions.
He also referred to the PML-N chief’s claim that Kashmir issue was nearly resolved during the Indian Prime Minister AB Vajpayee’s visit to Pakistan and said that that there was not a single world about Kashmir in the joint statement issued at the end of the Indian leader’s visit. He described Nawaz Sharif as the biggest enemy of Kashmiris and said that he in fact sold out Kashmir and now by speaking lies, he is trying to muster support.
Musharraf said Pakistan was in worst type of economic condition during the days of Nawaz Sharif while he (Nawaz) now talks of country making great progress during his rule.
He said it is beyond one’s comprehension how bin Laden stayed in Abbottabad for five years. He said the drone attacks were damaging the sovereignty of Pakistan and a way out will have to be found.
The former army chief said it is not appropriate to remain silent while the Pakistan Army was being criticised. He said army is a well organised institution but there could be some extremist elements at the lower level.
He regretted that while the country suffered the most in the war on terror, it is being made target of criticism and threatened.
Musharraf said terrorist attack at PNS Mehran base was a security failure which must be investigated.
In reply to a question, Musharraf said he cared for the Sharif family more than Nawaz Sharif. He reminded that he secured permission from Saudi Arabia for treatment abroad of Shahbaz Sharif when he fell ill.
He said whatever Nawaz Sharif says about him (Musharraf) is nothing but a bundle of lies. He said he failed to understand the problems of Nawaz Sharif and said that he put behind the bars Najam Sethi and Husain Haqqani and he (Musharraf) got them released
The ‘International conference on the global fight against terrorism’ on Saturday, posthumously awarded former prime minister Benazir Bhutto for her leading role in the fight against terrorism. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani conferred the award, which was received by Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari, the middle child of late Benazir. President Asif Ali Zardari, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Sudanese President Omer Al Bashir were also present at the occasion.
Parachinar, in Pakistan's tribal north west, remains under siege. The only road connecting this district bordering Afghanistan to the rest of Pakistan has been blocked by Taliban fighters since 2007.
The blockade was briefly lifted in March, or so the Pakistani government proudly announced. The road was open again and travellers would be protected, they said. Owais, a 25-year-old recent graduate of engineering, was one of the few who took the risk and decided to visit his family.
On March 25, his Toyota HiAce and two other vans were stopped on the Thal-Parachinar road by Taliban fighters. Owais and 44 others were kidnapped.
The Taliban freed the women and children, but killed seven - some claim ten - of the abducted passengers. A further 30 men remained in captivity for close to three months.
After protracted negotiations between tribal elders, the Pakistani government, and varying Taliban factions, 22 of the captives were set free on June 21. Owais was one of the lucky ones.
"They have been handed to the government forces of the Frontier Corps and are on their way home," a friend of Owais told Al Jazeera.
Reports suggest the Taliban were paid a ransom of at least 30 million rupees, roughly $350,000. Eight men remain in captivity. And the road, though no longer described as "blocked", still remains highly insecure.
In his speech this week announcing the military transition in Afghanistan, President Barack Obama once again emphasised Pakistan's crucial role in combating extremism.
"Of course, our efforts must also address terrorist safe havens in Pakistan," he said. "No country is more endangered by the presence of violent extremists, which is why we will … work with the Pakistani government to root out the cancer of violent extremism, and we will insist that it keeps its commitments."
The siege on Parachinar is prime evidence to caution the "mission accomplished" rhetoric already employed by US policy makers. It speaks to the Taliban's tight hold on the crucial border region, the absence of Pakistani government forces, and the challenges that lie ahead in reaching any meaningful conclusion to the "war against terror".
"The whole Kurram region has turned into a detention centre for the people," says local journalist Zulfiqar Ali, referring to the tribal agency of which Parachinar is the administrative capital. Pakistan's tribal areas are divided into seven agencies, with Kurram bordering Afghanistan's Khost province.
On the road to Parachinar, passenger vehicles are frequently attacked and food convoys are torched. Since 2007, hundreds of people have been killed in Kurram due to the violence, while the United Nations says at least 30,000 families have been forced to abandon their homes and move to camps for Internally Displaced People.
But escaping the region has become a difficult task. For residents to make it to Peshawar, the nearest Pakistani city, they have to first go into Afghanistan. That route has often been closed due to military operations by the Pakistani army. And even if they make it through, they face tremendous risks in Afghanistan - because the same fighters are active across the border.
"People cannot even travel there to bury their dead," a local human rights activist told Al Jazeera in condition of anonymity, due to the risks involved in discussing the matter.From sectarianism to militancy
The only road connecting Parachinar to the rest of the country has been blocked since 2007.
The recent troubles in Kurram began as sectarian violence but analysts and local sources say the situation was hijacked by Taliban fighters who use the tribal areas to launch attacks against NATO in Afghanistan.
"Local sectarian groups do not have enough resources to block the road," says Ali. "It is purely a militant issue now."
The Shia are a slight majority in Kurram Agency, an area of about 500,000 residents. During the Afghan Jihad, when the tribal regions were used by the CIA as the training grounds for anti-Soviet fighters, the region saw an insurgence of Sunni hardliners.
"There have been sectarian tensions between Sunni and Shia in Kurram for decades," says Reza Jan, Pakistan Team Lead at the American Enterprise Institute. "But in the past, Sunni-Shia clashes were usually minor. Clashes, when they did occur, were resolved fairly quickly by local leaders and authorities."
After the fall of the Taliban government in Kabul, and Pakistan's crackdown on radical elements in Punjab, the tribal areas became the hub of both Pakistani and Afghan insurgents. But many among the armed groups consider Kurram's Shia tribes - who refused to shelter fighters - as apostates. And Kurram's Shia paid a heavy price as a result.
"The Tareek-e-Taliban's current leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, is known to be fervently anti-Shia," says Reza Jan. "Before he led the TTP, he was the TTP commander for Kurram, Orakzai and Khyber agencies where he made a name for himself through his brutality towards Kurram's Shia."
For the past three years, locals have desperately looked for help, mainly from Islamabad - but also from Kabul. In 2008, they accepted a peace deal with the Taliban. The exact components of the deal are seen differently by analysts, but the purpose was clear: they wanted an end to the violence and a lifting of the blockade on the road.
"The Mari agreement in 2008 gave the government full authority to use force against any militants blocking the road," says Ali. "Why has the government not been able to deliver?"
Failure of the state
With Pakistan's security apparatus always focused on India, the insurgency in the tribal areas did not recieve sufficient attention in its early years.
As sectarian violence began to be dominated by the Sunni Taliban, the Pakistani government relied on the Frontier Corps, a federally-controlled paramilitary force. But the Frontier Corps was ill-equipped in counter-insurgency and failed to stem the Taliban's rapid growth.
In 2009, two Pakistani generals told the Associated Press that, of $6.6 billion in US military aid provided during the previous six years for counter-terrorism measures, only $500 million had been used for that purpose. The rest of the funds were used towards Pakistan's "defence against India".
Since April 2010, the Pakistani army has reportedly paid more attention to the problem and launched operations in central and lower Kurram agency. But the army's repeated reliance on peace deals with the insurgents suggests they have failed in rooting out the problem.
"It does not mean the state is not trying," says Irfan Ashraf, a journalism lecturer at neighbouring Peshawar University. "The fact of the matter is that [the] state is too weak to resolve the issue. And it is not accepting its weakness."
More people have been displaced by these recent operations. And the route via Afghanistan has also now closed, limiting the flow of food, medicine and other supplies.
"If a sack of flour costs 2000 rupees in Islamabad, it cost us 6000 in Parachinar," one local, recently relocated to Islamabad, said.
The presence of the army in the region has also limited media access, pushing the issue out of the public discussion.
"Anything that is security related is a 'no go area' for media and the rest," says Ashraf. "The media looks up to the security forces, and the official line of the security forces is that it is quiet there."
When the government announced the reopening of the road in March, it was on the back of a peace deal. Signed in 2008 at the height of the sectarian violence, the deal was being implemented three years later, when local dynamics had changed. Sectarianism was the smaller problem for locals. By then, the Taliban were dominating the area.
The deal itself is not problematic, but the peace deal's reported mediators, the Haqqani "independent militia", appears to have become one of the main sources of the abuses now.
"The Haqqanis - with backing from the state - were able to broker a deal between Shia and Sunni. They, in return, would be given transit rights through Kurram," says Reza Jan.
"The Haqqanis essentially fashioned themselves as the guarantors of the deal."
Not only has the deal brought more problems for the locals as the Haqqani fighters move around more easily, it has also brought US drone aircraft. The population, once caught in constant sectarian violence, now finds itself again under siege - by the Taliban and the Pakistani army on the ground - and US drones amid the skies.
agreed on Saturday to join forces in combating militancy as they attended a counterterrorism summit in Tehran under the cloud of an Afghan hospital bombing that killed 60 people.
The joint statement by the three neighbours also came hot on the heels of an announcement by US President Barack Obama that Washington will withdraw 33,000 of its 99,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of next summer.
"All sides stressed their commitment to efforts aimed at eliminating extremism, militancy, terrorism, as well as rejecting foreign interference, which is in blatant opposition to the spirit of Islam, the peaceful cultural traditions of the region and its peoples' interests," the statement said.
"All sides agreed to continue meeting at foreign, interior, security and economy ministers' level to prepare a roadmap for the next summit due to be held in Islamabad before the end of 2011," added the statement carried by Iran's official IRNA news agency.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Iranian and Pakistani counterparts Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Asif Ali Zardari held three-way talks on Friday ahead of a six-nation counterterrorism conference on Saturday.
The three leaders discussed "ways of battling terrorism, extremism and drug trafficking," IRNA said.
In his speech at the opening session of the two-day summit, Karzai said that despite his government's efforts, militancy was on the rise both in his country and in the region.
"Unfortunately, despite all the achievements in the fields of education, infrastructure and reconstruction, not only has Afghanistan not yet achieved peace and security, but terrorism is expanding and threatening more than ever Afghanistan and the region," the Afghan leader said.
The Pakistani president said: "Terrorists violate both human and divine values by inflicting death and destruction on fellow human beings. They have no religion."
He said attacks had resulted in the deaths of 35,000 people in Pakistan, 5,000 of them law enforcement personnel, and material damage totalling $67 billion.
In his speech to the opening session, Ahmadinejad again accused Iran's archfoe, the United States, of using the September 11, 2001 attacks as a "pretext" for sending troops to the region.
"In light of the way it was approached and exploited, September 11 is very much like the Holocaust," the Iranian leader charged.
"The American government used the attacks as a pretext to occupy two countries, and kill, injure and displace people in the region," he added.
"If the black box of the Holocaust and September 11 is opened, many of the realities will come to light. But unfortunately despite worldwide demand, the American government has not allowed it."
Ahmadinejad has repeatedly courted controversy by questioning the accepted version of both the September 11 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people in the United States, and the Holocaust.
He has dubbed 9/11 a "big lie" and a "suspect affair" similar to the Nazi Holocaust, which he dismissed as a "myth" shortly after coming to power in 2005, triggering an international outcry.
In his message to the counterterrorism conference, which was also attended by the leaders of Iraq, Sudan and Tajikistan, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also spoke out against what he charged was Western abuse of the terrorist threat.
"The diabolical calculation of the dominating powers is to exploit terrorism as a tool to gain their illegitimate aims and they have used it in their plans," he said in the message which was read out to the conference.
"In their view, terrorism is whatever threatens their interests. They consider those who are fighting for their legitimate right against occupiers as terrorists but do not consider their mercenaries and malicious groups who harm innocent people as terrorists."
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said the next conference of the six nations would be held in Baghdad next year, and a permanent secretariat would be opened in Tehran.
The farmer picking apples in the outskirts of Kabul must pay the Taliban $33 to ship out each truckload of fruit. The governor sends in armed men to chase workers off job sites if the official bribes aren't paid. Poor neighborhoods never get their U.N.-provided wheat, long since sold on the black market.
These are some of the elements, large and small, that together form the elaborate organized crime environment Afghans contend with daily. And despite the hoped-for success of the U.S. military surge and President Barack Obama's claims of significant progress, Afghanistan's resemblance to a mafia state that cannot serve its citizens may only be getting worse, according to an upcoming report by the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank.
The 46-page study, to be released next week, looks specifically at Afghanistan's heartland: the rural areas of Ghazni, Wardak, Logar and other provinces just beyond the periphery of Kabul. Unemployment is high, government presence is low and the insurgency operates with impunity. Corruption and cooperation with the Taliban reach the highest levels of local governance.
"Nearly a decade after the U.S.-led military intervention little has been done to challenge the perverse incentives of continued conflict in Afghanistan," the research group says. Rather, violence and the billions of dollars in international aid have brought wealthy officials and insurgents together. And "the economy as a result is increasingly dominated by a criminal oligarchy of politically connected businessmen," the report concludes.
The sobering analysis of a culture of corruption that long predates the U.S.-military effort comes as Obama tries to highlight military and other gains in Afghanistan as proof that Americans can leave. The widespread abuse of power from simple shakedowns to outright collusion with the Taliban will surely outlive the presence of American combat troops.
In announcing that he would pull out 10,000 soldiers this year and 23,000 more by the end of next summer, Obama made it clear that his timetable for a U.S. military drawdown was not going to be beholden to further security advances or the ability of American and Afghan forces to maintain their recent gains. Obama didn't mention the issue of corruption.
But regardless of how many troops are withdrawn, and how fast they come home, Obama acknowledged the U.S. withdrawal by 2015 will create challenges for the country. "We will not try to make Afghanistan a perfect place," the president said. A responsible end to the war is achievable, but he warned of "dark days ahead."
For ordinary Afghans, the situation in the center of the country provides a valuable case study. There, the Pashtun majority lives alongside Hazaras and Tajiks. Foreign money has created competition even among the insurgent groups as fighters loyal to Mullah Omar's Taliban vie with the Haqqani network and local militants for a share of the riches. Citizens end up squeezed by them and government officials, the report argues.
In the district of Qarabagh, southwest of Kabul, insurgents share an informal alliance with the local commander, Gen. Bashi Habibubullah. In nearby Ghazni city and elsewhere, rich chromite mines were plundered for export for the benefit of the provincial governor, Usmani Usmani.
Usmani was eventually removed from his post but only after becoming a "particularly embarrassing example of corruption," according to Candace Rondeaux, International Crisis Group's senior analyst for Afghanistan. To move the chromite — a mineral that goes primarily to Pakistan and then to China for stainless steel production — Usmani contracted the help of insurgents. They would then coordinate attacks to distract security forces away from outgoing trucks, Rondeaux said.
The pervasiveness of the corruption hasn't escaped the attention of American officials, either. In a 2009 diplomatic memo released by the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, former Ambassador Francis Ricciardone noted how "conversations paint a picture of criminal enterprise masquerading as public administration in Ghazni."
At the most micro of levels, there are the apples. The taxes may pale in comparison to the weapons and drug trades, but with insurgents gaining a large chunk of the revenues from hundreds of thousands of exports each year, the profits help feed the conflict. And for farmers living close to subsistence levels, the extortion may make survival even a challenge.
Ultimately, the enduring corruption and collusion between political elites and insurgents may not define the post-war Afghanistan or what America's nearly 15-year legacy will mean when all U.S. troops have departed. But it does challenge any notion of a clean exit.
While the focus in Washington has centered on bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table, Rondeaux said her research of everyday life in Afghanistan shows it would be a mistake to see a political solution as a solve-all to the country's problems.
"It will not address the growing organized crime networks in Afghanistan," she said. "The U.S. and its partners can withdraw their forces and make power-sharing arrangements. It doesn't mean these will hold, or that Americans should feel comfortable with how they are leaving this place.
In the interview with ARY channel, Pervez Musharraf accuses former premier Nawaz Sharif of maligning the army
Pakistan's former president Pervez Musharraf lambasted former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in a television interview aired on Friday , branding him a "liar" and accusing him of maligning the army.
In the interview with ARY channel, he said Nawaz Sharif was suffering from "paranoia" and that was why he "speaks against me day and night."
"He is a compulsive liar," said the former military ruler, who had toppled Sharif's government and seized power in October 1999 in a bloodless coup and sent him into exile in 2000 for a decade.
Musharraf claimed that as prime minister, Sharif had agreed to a "sell out" on Kashmir issue during the visit in February 1999 of then Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to Lahore.
He ridiculed Sharif for taking credit for the nuclear weapon tests conducted by Pakistan in May 1998 in a response to similar tests earlier by rival India.
"Nawaz Sharif was against conducting the tests but agreed under pressure from others," he said, wihout identifying who exerted the pressure.
Musharraf, who has been living in self-imposed exile since leaving Pakistan in 2008 and has formed his own political party under the name of All Pakistan Muslim League, also answered questions about the May 2 US operation that killed Osama Bin Laden on Pakistani soil.
He said it was wrong that questions raised by the operation were not answered with promptness. For three days after the incident no one from the government or the military spoke on the matter and "this silence was a wrong strategy."
Musharraf voiced skepiticism about the claim that Bin Laden had been living in the garrison town of Abbottabad for five years, saying it "does not logically appeal to me that he was there for all these years."
At the height of the storm which swept Pakistan after the May 2 killing of Osama bin Laden, army chief General Ashfaq Kayani spoke for 1- hours, then told his officers they could ask whatever they wanted, and lit a cigarette.
"This is a very delicate situation," he said, in answer to a question about relations with the United States at the National Defense University on May 19. "It's not an easy one."
"If we come out of it, keep our relevance and show them we are part of the solution, not part of the problem, we will succeed," Kayani said in one of a series of "town hall" meetings he held to revive army morale.
Those meetings have since fueled speculation - particularly in the United States - that the most powerful man in Pakistan, by opening himself up to questions, is fighting for survival.
Participants at the meeting, however, said Kayani showed no outward sign of being under pressure as he sat in full dress uniform at a table on the same level as his audience.
Equipped only with a file, ash tray and glass of water and facing rows of some 80 officers along with a few civilians, he patiently answered questions from all ranks.
"In uniform, we tend to see everything in black and white," Kayani said when a young colonel asked why Pakistan kept a relationship United States if Washington did not trust it.
"In the real world there are a lot of grey areas and you have to deal with it."
A Reuters correspondent attended the meeting, but since it was off-the-record did not report it until after participants themselves relayed to the media versions of what Kayani had said. Kayani's comments were reported by participants and verified by Reuters.
The Pakistan army, the last line of Defense in a country battling a growing Islamist militant insurgency, has come under intense pressure since U.S. forces found and killed bin Laden in the garrison town of Abbottabad on May 2.
Its inability to find the al Qaeda leader and to detect the U.S. helicopter-borne raid in which he was killed has left it facing its most severe crisis since its humiliating defeat by India in the 1971 war in which then East Pakistan won independence as Bangladesh.
In some ways it is even worse than 1971, when state-run media suppressed the worst of the news in a war happening far away from the traditional heartland of the country.
This time, U.S. forces carried out a raid undetected deep within the heart of Pakistan, not far from the prestigious Pakistan Military Academy.
That same month militants attacked a naval base in Karachi and blew up two maritime patrol aircraft.
Nobody knows what is going to happen next.
DRAWING OUT QUESTIONS
Yet no one expects Kayani to step down any time soon, or at least not until he has restored confidence within the army. And nor do they expect his most senior officers to turn against him.
"The army as an institution is under attack so if the Corps Commanders ask him to leave, that unleashes a very explosive dynamic," said Imtiaz Gul at the Center for Research and Security Studies in Islamabad.
"That's why the Corps Commanders will never ask him to step down."
In inviting questions, Kayani was following a military tradition where officers encourage their men to express their doubts before going into battle, but after the orders are given, expect them to be followed without question.
"In the military, it is regarded as a reflection of loyalty if you are frank," said General (retired) Ehsan ul-Haq, when recalling meetings of the Corps Commanders, the army's top officers with command over troops across the country.
"There is a discussion (among the Corps Commanders), but there are no fireworks," said Haq, a former head of the military's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency and then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
"There is a lot of poise and dignity in how you address issues."
At the evening meeting at the National Defense University, Kayani, far from appearing on the defensive, actively encouraged questions.
When a young female student put up her hand to ask a question and the officer running the event said there was no more time - it was by then nearly midnight - Kayani insisted on answering it.
The student asked about the threats Pakistan faced. Kayani in response made no mention of Pakistan's traditional rival India -- the subject did not come at all in four-hour long session. "What worries me is the indirect threat and that is the economy," he said. "If you want to be secure ... you have to address your internal situation and the economy is the major issue."
And rather than relying on the Americans for money, Pakistan should reform its economy and raise taxes domestically. "We have to stand up on our own feet and we cannot do this unless we have a strong economy," he said.
UNPRECEDENTED CRITICISM
U.S. media reports that Kayani is fighting for survival have infuriated the military which sees them as a deliberate attempt to malign the army.
Those have been accompanied by unprecedented domestic criticism of the army, which peaked after Pakistani journalist Saleem Shahzad was kidnapped in Islamabad and beaten to death at the end of May.
Shahzad had previously spoken of being threatened by the ISI over his reporting, and suspicion immediately fell on the powerful intelligence agency. It denied involvement.
And while the army still enjoys high approval ratings in Pakistan, its critics accuse it of sucking up scarce resources in military expenditure focused on India.
They also blame it for cultivating Islamist militants in the past for use against India, who are now increasingly slipping out of its control and turning on Pakistan.
There are, moreover, unquestionably strains within the military, a Muslim army which for 10 years has been asked to suppress the anti-Americanism which threads through society and fight in a campaign which many see as "America's war."
Some of those strains rose to the surface this week when the army said it had arrested a brigadier over links to the banned Hizb-ul-Tahrir, an Islamist political group seeking to overthrow the civilian government and establish an Islamic theocracy.
Kayani himself has also been the subject of private grumblings in the military after he obtained last year a three-year extension to his term of office to November 2013 - effectively strangling promotions further down the line.
But barring another big unexpected event which dents the army's credibility further, there appears to be little evidence to suggest that Kayani is about to be forced out.
Over tea, biscuits and sandwiches which followed the meeting at the National Defense University, he appeared relaxed and smiling as he chatted to participants.
"As long as you are in the (army chief's) seat, there is no threat to you," said Imtiaz Gul.
, Pakistan's minister of state for foreign affairs, is being widely tipped to be elevated as a full-fledged foreign minister ahead of crucial talks with India next month, official sources said today.
Khar, 34, is the daughter of veteran politician Malik Ghulam Noor Rabbani Khar and the niece of former governor Malik Ghulam Mustafa Khar. She was a member of the PML-Q party during former military ruler Pervez Musharraf 's regime and joined the ruling Pakistan People's Party ahead of the 2008 general election.
Insiders in Pakistan's foreign office said that Khar had emerged as a front-runner in the race for the slot of foreign minister, which has been vacant since previous incumbent Shah Mahmood Qureshi was removed during a cabinet reshuffle in February.
Other candidates vying for the position, including federal ministers Sardar Aseff Ahmad Ali and Makhdoom Sahabuddin and national assembly speaker Fehmida Mirza, were no longer considered strong contenders for the slot, the sources said.
The move to appoint a full-time minister for the foreign office has gained urgency as talks between the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan are expected to be held next month.
Former federal law minister Babar Awan has asked the Sharif brothers to tell the nation as to why they had fled the country twice, saying the state is like a mother and every sincere son cannot leave his mother alone in critical situation. Talking to reporters on Supreme Court premises on Thursday, Babar said that after a devastating defeat of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab elections, its top brass would again take off to a foreign country. He said that unlike the Sharifs, PPP leadership would not leave its motherland in any untoward situation as they belonged to a party that was quite popular among the masses for giving sacrifices for the cause of the nation and country. The former law minister also said that the PPP was determined to respond to any decree given by “Maulvi” Nawaz Sharif. “The political environment is quite sound in Gilgit-Baltistan, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, but the Lahore thrown is uneasy for which the Sharifs have constituted a bullets-and-abuses squad for giving a flurry of decrees (against the ruling PPP),” he added.
The assets declared by the ruling elites of the Sindh and Punjab assemblies demonstrate the laughably pitiful attitude of Pakistan parliamentarians to hide their wealth details.
The Election Commission of Pakistan has made public the asset details of the ‘filthy rich’ ruling elites of the two provincial assemblies, in which they sound quite ‘timid’ in revealing their otherwise aristocratic lifestyles.
Despite the fact that Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif has assets worth over 175 million rupees in the United Kingdom, including a 146-million-rupee mortgaged property there, no record of his believably big assets in Saudi Arabia is provided in his assets returns.
Perhaps the huge brigade of vehicles parked at his Raiwand residence are just ‘delusional’ entities, as according to the asset details with the ECP, Shahbaz actually owns only one car ‘gifted’ to him, 2006 model Toyota Land Cruiser.
On the other hand, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah conveniently managed to conceal the actual worth of his land details by attaching a two-line note right at the top of his assets returns which read: “These represent costs/valuations made by government agencies several years ago. No fresh valuations are available.”
The value of the imported bullet proof Toyota Land Cruiser that belongs to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s son Abdul Qadir Gilani, according to his assets returns, is 128 million rupees.
He has 500 tolas of gold that value 13 million rupees, according to the asset details with the ECP, but considering the current market price of gold being 49,110 rupees per tola, the 500 tolas of gold do not value less than 24 million rupees, The Nation reports.
The ‘poorest’ parliamentarians include Shazia Mari, Faisal Sabzwari, Nadia Gabol, Farah Deeba and several others, who do not have any movable or immovable property registered in their names, and are perhaps leading their ‘miserable’ lives with sheer reliance either on petty savings, small investments or some divine intervention!
Sindh Minister for Electric Power Ms. Shazia Marri on Friday condemned the offending statements of PML-N Chief Nawaz Sharif and Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif against the President Asif Ali Zardari and termed it ‘unwise’. Speaking at the floor of the house in Sindh Assembly on Friday, she lamented Sharif Brothers for being undemocratic in the democratic environment. She said they had been promoting their hostile politics of the past during the tenure of democratically elected government of PPP, which would never be accepted.
Pakistan must be a part of the Afghan peace process, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Congress on Thursday while announcing that senior Afghan, Pakistani and American officials would meet next week for further talks on this issue.
But the outgoing Defence Secretary Robert Gates said that success was possible in the war in Afghanistan even if Pakistan failed to fully cooperate in countering militants along its border.
In an interview to the AFP news agency, Mr Gates said that “some positive steps” by Pakistan were needed but “as long as the picture stays mixed like that, that we can be successful”.
In her opening remarks before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Secretary Clinton disclosed that the United States had also included Iran in the peace process.
US Special Representative Marc Grossman was leading an active diplomatic effort to build support for a political solution to the Afghan war, she said.
“What we call the Core Group — Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States — has met twice and will convene again next week,” Mrs Clinton said, without saying where this group would meet.
But diplomatic sources told Dawn that the meeting would be held in Kabul on June 27 and Mr Grossman would lead the US delegation.
Reports in the US and international media suggest that senior American officials have already had several meetings with senior Taliban officials in Germany and other places. Pakistan also participated in these meetings. “Pakistan must be part of this process,” said Secretary Clinton, indirectly confirming Pakistan`s participation.
The US, she said, was also engaging other countries in the region “around a common vision of an independent, stable Afghanistan and a region free of Al Qaeda.”
The talks with those nations, she said, were also progressing smoothly. “We believe we`ve made progress with all of the neighbours, including India, Russia, and even Iran.”
Secretary Clinton noted that last Friday the UN Security Council voted unanimously to support reconciliation by splitting its sanctions on Al Qaeda and the Taliban into two separate lists.
This, she said, opened the door for the insurgents to abandon the terrorists and choose a different path.
“We welcome these steps, and for the United States the key diplomatic priority and indeed a lynchpin of this entire effort is closing the gap between Kabul and Islamabad.”
Secretary Clinton recalled that earlier this month, Pakistan and Afghanistan launched a joint peace commission and held substantive talks at the highest levels.
“Also, very significant, was the full implementation on June 12th of the Transit Trade Agreement, which will create new economic opportunity on both sides of the Durand Line and lay the foundation for a broader vision of regional economic integration and cooperation,” she said.
Secretary Clinton said that she recently visited Pakistan, and had, “as we say in diplo-speak, very candid discussions” with its leaders.
“The United States has clear expectations for this relationship, and as President Obama said last night, the United States will never tolerate a safe haven for those who kill Americans,” she said.
“We are looking to Pakistan to take concrete actions on the goals we share: Defeating violent extremism, which has also taken so many innocent Pakistani lives; ending the conflict in Afghanistan; and securing a stable, democratic, prosperous future.”
President of Pakistan, on advise of the Prime Minister and approval by the federal government, has promulgated the Regulations “Action in Aid of Civil Powers - 2011” for FATA and PATA to carry out operation in Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa (KPK) against miscreants who are waging war against the state of Pakistan, it is officially stated here Thursday. An official of the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (SAFRAN) said that Pakistan has been facing a critical challenge from miscreants on its North-Western borders where hundreds of civilians and law enforcement agencies’ personnel have embraced martyrdom.
Miscreants are bent upon the destruction of our schools, hospitals, mosques and employ all means to erode the writ of the Government.
With a view to meet the challenges of such an extraordinary situation, these Regulations have been enacted.
The official said that Regulations will provide a legal framework for the armed forces that have been called upon by the Federal Government to conduct operations in KPK against the miscreants who are waging war against the state of Pakistan, attacking its infra-structure by raising unlawful private armies and trying to assert unlawful control over the territories of Pakistan.
The Regulations, he noted, permits incapacitating of the miscreants by interning them only during the duration of the action in aid of civil power operation and thereafter they shall be handed over to the concerned law enforcement agency for bringing them to justice.
He asserted that the Regulations guarantee interned miscreants proper health facilities and a right to meet their families.
The Regulations also create an obligation on the armed forces to comply with principles of humanitarian law and meet human rights standards while conducting operations and exercise necessary precautions before using force, failing which the personnel of armed forces shall be made liable to strict disciplinary/criminal penalties.
The official added that Regulations demonstrate improved control of the armed forces by the civilian democratic government which retains the power to withdraw the armed forces by recalling the requisition of the armed forces.
The Regulations also provides an interim framework for collection and preservation of the evidence against the terrorists and in thai sense it shall be supportive of prosecution efforts. The Regulations also create an obligation to carry out extensive de-radicalization program of the detainees and they explicitly prohibit torture, he opined.
New footage shows the Saudi-backed Bahraini regime's continued crackdown on peaceful anti-government protesters in the Persian Gulf nation.
The footage posted on Youtube shows regime forces firing at a group of Bahraini youths and arresting a young boy.
On Wednesday, regime forces attacked an anti-government rally held to protest harsh prison sentences handed down against Bahraini opposition activists. The security forces fired tear gas and sound grenades on protesters as they were heading to the Martyr Square, formerly called Pearl Square, in the capital of Manama.
A special security court in Bahrain sentenced eight prominent activists and opposition leaders to life in prison on Wednesday on charges of “plotting to overthrow the government” during demonstrations in the Persian Gulf island kingdom earlier this year.
Khalil al-Marzouq, spokesman of Bahrain's main opposition al-Wefaq, said the party would not meet the government's Thursday deadline for responding to the invitation to dialogue, and could not say if it would join.
“Those people are a critical portion of the movement. How can there be a dialogue while they are in prison” he said.
The Wednesday trial was one of several taking place in Bahrain as part of the government's crackdown on popular protests. Despite the lifting of an emergency law, the Manama regime continues to try civilians in its so-called special courts.
Dozens of people have been killed and hundreds, including doctors and journalists, were arrested in the Saudi-backed crackdown on peaceful protesters in Bahrain since mid-February.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have rebuked the Manama regime for its brutal crackdown on civilians.
An Afghan special court overturned a string of results Thursday from last year's fraud-hit parliamentary polls, causing deep splits in the political system with US troops poised to start withdrawing.
The head of the tribunal, Sidiquallah Haqiq, read out a list of provinces where results had been recalculated at a press conference in Kabul.
Lawmaker Mohammad Farhad Azimi, deputy secretary to the lower house, said that up to 60 separate results from the 249 seat Wolesi Jirga were affected.
"They have introduced one to two new lawmakers in around 28 to 30 provinces," he told AFP. "This is wrong, it is a political decision."
The court's move threatens to reopen deep splits between President Hamid Karzai and lawmakers opposed to him, potentially seizing up the heart of the political system shortly before foreign troops are due to begin pulling out.
Lawmakers hostile to the special court, set up on Karzai's orders to investigate allegations of widespread fraud at elections in September, accuse the president of trying to use it to boost his support levels in parliament.
The special court says Afghanistan's election commission should disqualify lawmakers whose elections it says are invalid, but as the commission does not recognise the court's legitimacy the future is unclear.
Many lawmakers also reject the court's authority and a row over the issue delayed the inauguration of parliament, raising the spectre of a constitutional crisis when lawmakers threatened to open it without Karzai.
Parliament was finally opened in January in Karzai's presence but the special tribunal continued its investigations.
Lawmakers in parliament on Thursday held an angry debate in which many insisted they would not accept the tribunal's decisions.
"The special court has no legal legitimacy," said Farkhunda Zahra Nadery, a Kabul lawmaker whose vote share was increased by the tribunal but who rejects its legitimacy.
"The members of the lower house parliament are very angry and are unanimous in rejecting this decision."
The debate came just hours after US President Barack Obama announced that 10,000 troops would leave Afghanistan between July and the end of this year, effectively marking the beginning of the end of the US war.
All foreign combat troops are due to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014, despite concerns from experts over whether Afghan forces and officials will be in a position to take control by then.
Analysts in Afghanistan predict that the complicated saga around the status of the lawmakers could rumble on for some time.
Martine van Bijlert of the Afghanistan Analysts Network wrote this month: "It is a standoff -- one of Afghanistan?s many -- with the main protagonists milling around, watching each other wearily, trying to gauge the others plans, waiting for a chance to strike, while all the while pretending to be minding their own business. And one that could go on for quite a while longer."
President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan welcomed the decision to withdraw more than 30,000 American troops over the next year, calling it the “right decision for the interest of both countries.”
“The Afghan people’s trust in the Afghan army and police is growing every day and preservation of this land is the job of Afghans,” said Mr. Karzai in remarks at a live broadcast Thursday morning.
But even as many senior Afghan officials echoed the president in supporting the withdrawal, closer to the ground, local leaders and ordinary people expressed fears of civil war, renewed Taliban encroachments and even government collapse.
Afghan security officials and politicians, including Mr. Karzai, have endeavored to project an image of Afghan self-sufficiency even though in most places the Afghan National Army remains heavily reliant on NATO forces, which are dominated by Americans. However in the mountain districts of eastern Afghanistan, the orchards of Kandahar Province and in the Parliament, which hears from elders and security officials across the country, many expressed deep doubts.
“I am totally against Barack Obama’s this decision with cutting the numbers of its soldiers; our national forces are not well trained and not well equipped,” said Mohammed Naim Lalai Hamidzai, the chairman of Parliament’s National Defense and Security Committee.
“They should keep training and equipping our forces until 2014 and then extend their existence in Afghanistan for 5 more years in the country and once our forces stand on their own feet then they can go and leave our country,” he said. “The Pakistani I.S.I. has infiltrated inside our national forces and the Iranians as well,” he added, referring to Pakistan’s powerful intelligence service, “and our national troops have been invited into parties they are not united parts of our army. They belong to some political parties so how can they fight the insurgents?”
Even in southern provinces such as Zabul where the governor is optimistic about the ability of Afghan army troops and the national police to maintain security, there is still a need for equipment, training and logistics. “We are leading the surge in some in some of the districts ourselves and the A.N.A. and A.N.P. are improving and fighting militancy on their own,” said Jan Rasoolyaar, the deputy governor for Zabul Province. “There is security even in far districts. The only thing that we still need is aerial and logistical support from the Americans.”
However, in neighboring Kandahar and Helmand, where the fight to force out the Taliban has been fierce and is still going on, local politicians expressed serious misgivings.
In order to bring a tenuous peace to the contested Kandahar districts of Zheri and Arghandab, the Americans had to bring in an entire brigade — roughly 5,000 troops. The security situation, while much improved, is hardly settled. In Zheri, the district governor said that despite hard fighting by NATO and Afghan troops over the last 10 months, the Taliban still had a presence.
“We have a problem in Zheri district, the enemy is still around, even I.S.A.F. is unable to secure the district and if the Americans pull out things will get worse,” said Niaz Mohammed Sarhadi, the district governor.
“The Americans are carrying out raids against enemy and the Taliban are active in the district, carrying out assassinations, planting mines and ambushing security
forces,” he said, adding, “The Afghan forces are not improved in their capability and quality, so this is not an appropriate time for withdrawal, this drawdown will send a negative message to civilians,” he said.
The district governor of Arghandab described the Taliban as waiting on the district’s outskirts like wolves outside a pen of sheep. “As soon as the Americans leave it will have a negative effect on security in Arghandab,” said Haji Shah Mohammed Ahmadi. “Now we are standing at a very sensitive points, the enemy is all around just waiting for a chance,” he said.
Ordinary Afghans reacted with a combination of conspiracy theories and fears. Older people said they saw a reprise of the Russians’ retreat in the late 1980s. “The Russians also did the same thing and they were cutting numbers of their troops step by step, just as Barack Obama is announcing,” said Wali Jan, 60, a taxi driver who takes passengers from Kabul, the capital, to Nangahar, a predominantly Pashtun province of eastern Afghanistan.
“After they leave Afghanistan, I am sure the civil war will begin because people who were helping the foreigners will face attacks and the Taliban will take the revenge on them,” he said.
President Barack Obama announced Wednesday night that all the 33,000 additional U.S. forces he ordered to Afghanistan in December 2009 will be home within 15 months.
In a nationally televised address from the East Room of the White House, Obama said 10,000 of the "surge" forces would withdraw by the end of this year, and the other 23,000 would leave Afghanistan by September 2012.
U.S. troop levels
Calling the deployment of the surge "one of the most difficult decisions that I've made as president," Obama said the military campaign was "meeting our goals" in Afghanistan and the drawdown would begin "from a position of strength."
"Al Qaeda is under more pressure than at any time since 9/11," Obama said. "Together with the Pakistanis, we have taken out more than half of al Qaeda's leadership. And thanks to our intelligence professionals and special forces, we killed Osama bin Laden, the only leader that al Qaeda had ever known. This was a victory for all who have served since 9/11."
At the same time, Obama said the Afghanistan drawdown and the simultaneous winding down of the war in Iraq would help the United States begin to refocus attention and resources on efforts to resolve economic and other problems and to unify a politically divided nation.
"America, it is time to focus on nation building here at home," the president said.
The troop withdrawals from Afghanistan will begin next month, as Obama promised when he ordered the surge in a speech 18 months ago at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York.After the departure of all the surge forces, the total U.S. military deployment in Afghanistan will be slightly fewer than 70,000 troops.
Obama's time frame will give U.S. commanders another two "fighting" seasons with the bulk of U.S. forces still available for combat operations.
It also will bring the surge troops home before the November 2012 election in which Obama will seek a second term.
Initial reaction was varied, with outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates supporting Obama's decision while congressional leaders were divided between those who wanted a faster withdrawal and others calling for caution in leaving Afghanistan.
"It's important that we retain the flexibility necessary to reconsider troop levels and respond to changes in the security environment should circumstances on the ground warrant," said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, in a statement. "It is my hope that the president will continue to listen to our commanders on the ground as we move forward. Congress will hold the administration accountable for ensuring that the pace and scope of the drawdown does not undermine the progress we've made thus far."
Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, was more blunt, saying: "This is not the 'modest' withdrawal that I and others had hoped for and advocated."
Democratic colleagues of Obama expressed support for starting the withdrawal but said more troops should be included and they should depart faster than the president announced.
"It has been the hope of many in Congress and across the country that the full drawdown of U.S. forces would happen sooner than the president laid out -- and we will continue to press for a better outcome," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, said in a statement.
Trepidation about what's next
Two candidates for the Republican presidential nomination to run against Obama next year expressed reservations about the withdrawal strategy, but differed in their reasoning.
"We all want our troops to come home as soon as possible, but we shouldn't adhere to an arbitrary timetable on the withdrawal" from Afghanistan, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said in a statement. "This decision should not be based on politics or economics."
In his own statement, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, who was Obama's ambassador to China until recently, called for shifting the Afghanistan mission to "a focused counterterror effort which requires significantly fewer boots on the ground than the president discussed tonight."
"We need a safe but rapid withdrawal, which encourages Afghans to assume responsibility, while leaving in place a strong counterintelligence and special forces effort proportionate to the threat," Huntsman said.
What happens to "civilian surge" as troops return home?
According to senior administration officials, the troop surge fulfilled a strategy to refocus the U.S. war effort from Iraq to Afghanistan.
Due to the surge, the officials told reporters, the military mission in Afghanistan has made great progress toward its objectives of dismantling and defeating al Qaeda in the region while stabilizing the country to prevent it from again providing a safe haven for the planning of terrorist attacks on the United States.
The killing of bin Laden in early May and the success in reversing Taliban momentum in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar enabled the beginning of a troop withdrawal that will culminate with handing over security responsibilities to Afghan forces in 2014, the senior administration officials said on condition of not being identified.
In the speech, Obama announced that Chicago will host a NATO summit in May 2012 to review the Afghanistan mission and strategy going forward.
Gates -- along with Afghan war commander Gen. David Petraeus -- had pushed for an initial drawdown of 3,000 to 5,000 troops this year, according to a congressional source. Gates also urged the president to withdraw support troops only -- not combat troops.
Obama, however, ultimately decided to adopt the more aggressive withdrawal plan. The senior administration officials said Obama's withdrawal schedule fell within the range of options presented to him by Petraeus. The general has been nominated to become CIA director to succeed Leon Panetta, who will take over as defense secretary when Gates steps down at the end of the month.
In a statement after Obama's speech, Gates said it was "critical" that U.S. forces continue to "aggressively" carry out the surge strategy of degrading the capability of the Taliban while bolstering Afghan security forces.
"I support the president's decision because it provides our commanders with enough resources, time and, perhaps most importantly, flexibility to bring the surge to a successful conclusion," Gates said, signaling Pentagon control in deciding which U.S. forces to withdraw.
This week, Gates acknowledged that the president must take into account public opinion and congressional support for further military engagement.
"Sustainability here at home" is an important consideration, Gates said, noting that people are "tired of a decade of war."
CNNMoney: The cost war in Afghanistan
Public exhaustion with the conflict is reflected in recent public opinion polls. Nearly three-quarters of Americans support the United States pulling some or all of its forces from Afghanistan, according to a June 3-7 CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey.
That figure jumped 10 points since May, likely as a result of the death of bin Laden, pollsters said.
Republicans -- who have been the strongest supporters of the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan -- are shifting their opinion on the conflict. In May, 47% of Republicans said they favored a partial or full withdrawal of American troops. That figure rose to 60% this month.
The sharp divisions have been reflected in Congress, where Democrats and Republicans are increasingly split.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, called Tuesday for a "substantial and responsible reduction" in troop levels, arguing the war has become fiscally irresponsible and more resources need to be focused on domestic problems.
The United States has spent roughly $443 billion on the war in Afghanistan, according to budget analysts. According to Travis Sharp, a researcher at the Center for a New American Security, the troop reductions Obama announced would bring a savings of about $7 billion in fiscal year 2012.
Until Wednesday, Obama had said publicly only that troops would begin coming home in July, and he recently indicated the initial number withdrawn would be "significant."
Senior administration officials told CNN that planning for the announcement began in January, when the president summoned top members of his national security team into the Oval Office and tasked them with coming up with a plan for the drawdown.
The calculations that went into the drawdown decision included the fact that "remarkable" and "unexpected" progress had been made degrading al-Qaeda's infrastructure in its bases in the tribal regions of Pakistan over the prior 18 months, one of the officials said.
Additionally, the Taliban have been rolled back from their heartland regions in southern and southwestern Afghanistan, both in northern and southern Helmand Province and around the key city of Kandahar, which had been their de facto capital. This progress fulfilled the administration's pledge to reverse the momentum of the Taliban, which had been one of the key rationales for the surge.
Another factor favoring the drawdown was the growth in Afghan army and police forces of 100,000 men in the past year, the officials said.
The military progress has enabled some political progress, with Afghan security forces preparing this year to take over seven areas in Afghanistan that are home to some 20% of the population.
Special forces operations against the Taliban "middle management" in Afghanistan have put significant pressure on them and have opened up more opportunities for "reconciliation" with the Taliban, the officials said.
A White House official said the administration is "not starry eyed" about the prospects of discussions with the Taliban and does not anticipate anything like "the Treaty of Versailles," which ended World War I. However, the official said, there are now between "10 and 20 leads" that the United States is aware of that may lead to substantive talks with the Taliban.
The official said the leads are in the "exploratory" phase and that the United States has briefed Afghan President Hamid Karzai about them.
The deployment of U.S. forces hasn't been popular with many Afghan leaders, who criticize the presence of the Americans in their country. It's a message that's not lost on Karl Eikenberry, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan.
"When we hear ourselves being called occupiers and worse, our pride is offended, and we begin to lose our inspiration to carry on," Eikenberry said Sunday during a speech at Herat University in western Afghanistan. "At the point your leaders believe that we are doing more harm than good, when we reach a point that we feel our soldiers and civilians are being asked to sacrifice without a just cause ... the American people will ask for our forces to come home."
Two Saudi women said they drove their cars on Wednesday in a new protest against a ban on women driving in the conservative Muslim kingdom.
Their actions came in response to a call on the Internet for women in Riyadh to get behind the wheel, after a show of defiance on Friday in which 42 women took to the road.
Azza Shamassi, in her thirties, said she had driven her car Wednesday, just as she has done "every day since last Friday", despite a harassing message stuck to the windscreen of her car.
The handwritten note read "Plz do not drive" on one side and carried an insult on the other, witnesses said.
"This threat will not stop me," Shamassi said.
Sara al-Khalidi also said she has been driving since Friday's protest, saying she had driven again on Wednesday before being stopped by a traffic policeman, who told her that police were looking for her and that she should drive home without stopping.
She said that "people encourage me when they've seen me driving these last few days".
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have both expressed support for Saudi women who wish to drive.
No law forbids women from driving in Saudi Arabia but a religious edict stipulates that women must be driven by a male chauffeur or family member.
President Barack Obama is set to announce on Wednesday the first phase of a withdrawal from Afghanistan that could see up to 10,000 U.S. soldiers leave the country by the end of the year.
Defense officials have been quoted as saying that President Obama will call for an initial withdrawal of 5,000 troops, followed by an additional 5,000 by the end of 2011.
But White House Spokesman Jay Carney warned against media speculation on Tuesday, saying the president will explain how he will implement the strategy he outlined in December 2009 on drawing down American troops.
Obama announced the July start for the withdrawal in December 2009, when he presented his overall strategy for Afghanistan at the U.S. military academy at West Point, New York.
In his Wednesday night speech at the White House, President Obama is also expected to reaffirm the U.S. and NATO commitment to completely transfer security responsibilities to Afghan forces by 2014. The United States currently has about 100,000 troops in Afghanistan.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday the president has to take into account sustainability at home, both in Congress and among the American public, as well as conditions on the ground in Afghanistan.
Gates acknowledged concerns in the United States about Afghanistan, saying the American people are "tired of a decade of war." He noted there are "a lot of reservations" in Congress about the war and the level of U.S. commitment.
Gates spoke Tuesday at the State Department, before heading to the White House with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for consultations with the president about Afghanistan.
White House spokesman Carney said the president has remained focused on achieving his objectives in Afghanistan. He noted, however, that Obama's objectives there do not require defeating the Taliban, but rather "reversing the momentum," which he says the military has been achieving.
Up to five million people in Pakistan are at risk from floods this year, partly due to poor reconstruction and the inadequate rehabilitation of survivors who are still reeling from last year's epic deluge, the U.N. said on Wednesday.
Monsoon floods began roaring through Pakistan in late July last year, leaving one-fifth of the country -- an area the size of Italy -- underwater, disrupting the lives of more than 18 million people.
The government and aid organisations were criticized for being too slow to respond while the military, seen as a far more efficient institution, took the lead in relief operations.
As Pakistan braces itself again for its annual monsoon season -- which runs from late June to early September -- the U.N. says authorities and the aid community have learnt lessons and are better prepared -- even for the worst case scenario.
"Since the beginning of March, we have been in close contact with the government to make sure response is up and running and that we are better prepared this year," said Manuel Bessler, head of the U.N. emergencies office (OCHA) in Pakistan.
"The most anticipated scenario is two million affectees and the worst case scenario is five million. We are prepared for these two scenarios," he told AlertNet by phone from Islamabad.
Last year's flooding -- which went on for almost three months and wiped out villages from the far north to the deep south of the country -- is considered to be one of the worst humanitarian disasters in recent times. Around 11 million people were left homeless, 2,000 were killed, infrastructure such as bridges and roads washed away and millions of acres of crops destroyed.
POOR RECONSTRUCTION
Based on forecasts from the Pakistan Meteorological Department, this year's monsoons are, in general, likely to be 10 percent below normal.
But despite this, millions could be hit by floods, partly because infrastructure such as dykes and embankments were "weak" and could have been strengthened better, said Bessler, who heads the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
A lack of funds has meant that some communities have not been able to adequately reconstruct their homes or regain financial income after losing their livelihoods as farmers, making them more susceptible this year.
The U.N. last year appealed to the world for almost $2 billion -- the biggest appeal ever launched by the body for any humanitarian emergency -- to help survivors. Yet, 30 percent of the appeal remains unfunded almost one year on.
"The vulnerabilities are higher this year than last year," he said. "This a because of poor timing and a lack of funding which has meant that perhaps, things were not be done to the level they could have been."
Also, environmental conditions such as increased snow melt in mountainous areas was leading to high water levels in rivers, while ground water levels were already high after last year's deluge, reducing its absorption capacity.
Bessler said the humanitarian community were prepositioning relief items --- tents, water and sanitation equipment and filling up warehouses with food items, as well as establishing coordination structures with authorities at federal and provincial levels.
"The monsoon will happen -- its just a question how big and if external assistance is needed by Pakistan," he said.
"We have to be ready because this would be a major failure if the government and humanitarian community have not learnt the lessons from last year's experience."
www.guardian.co.uk Military court finds eight campaigners guilty of plotting coup during protests in Sunni-ruled kingdom
Eight Bahraini rights activists have been given life sentences by a military court, which found them guilty of plotting a coup against the government during two months of unrest that rattled the country earlier this year.
Another 13 demonstrators were given sentences of between two to 15 years, as the government attempts to crush dissent that has erupted in the tiny kingdom in February following popular uprisings elsewhere in the Arab world.
The verdicts were immediately condemned by rights groups who said all those found guilty had been campaigning to end discrimination at the hands of the Sunni dynasty. Almost all activists who took to the streets of Manama in February and March were Shia Muslims, who make up 70% of Bahrain's population, but feel largely disenfranchised.
Bahrain's ruling dynasty had instead claimed that the men were part of a "sedition ring", backed by Iran and Hezbollah, who were trying to topple the regime.
Among those given life sentences were leading members of opposition political groups. Leading rights activist Adbul Hadi al-Khawaja, whose daughters Zainab and Maryam are prominent members of the Bahrain human rights movement, was one of those condemned to life in prison. Zainab was reportedly removed from the courtroom after protesting against the sentence
Among those who received lesser sentences was Ibrahim Sharif, a secular leftist Sunni, who was accused by a state-run newspaper of having links to "a foreign country" – a veiled reference to Iran.
The Guardian spoke to Sharif at the former focal point of the rights demonstrations in Manama in February where he said he was the only prominent member of the Sunni community to be campaigning more openly for equal rights for the kingdom's majority Shia base.
"Things have to change here, or else the country will suffer and the kingdom could be imperilled," he said at the time, standing in Pearl roundabout, a landmark in the central city that was later demolished under government orders.
As verdicts were read in a military court this morning, members of the public gallery chanted "solidarity, solidarity, we shall overthrow the regime". Bahraini security officers were congratulating each other inside the courthouse, according to bystanders present.
The trials were held despite the government pronouncing the end of three months of martial law earlier this month, which had given the exclusively Sunni security forces extra powers of detention and arrest.
Activists called for protesters to again take to the streets in Manama on Wednesday in defiance of the verdicts and the government, which has vowed to continue a crackdown on dissent. Up to 30 doctors and nurses from key city hospitals were last week also put on trial accused of subversion and if using government facilities for political purposes.
