Pakistan: Crisis and response

EDITORIAL: DAILY TIMES

The political crisis triggered by Maulana Tahirul Qadri’s long march, continuing rally in Islamabad and set of demands, and the suspiciously coincidental order of the Supreme Court ordering the arrest of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf and others in the RPPs case has revealed the divide in the polity and society. On the one hand stand Qadri and his supporters within the political parties, chief amongst them MQM and PTI. On the other side can be counted almost all the parties represented in parliament, government and opposition, civil society, the lawyers community, and concerned citizens. The former camp has come out through Qadri’s rantings and Imran Khan’s so-called charter of seven demands with ideas that stripped of their verbiage, amount in essence to a return to the affliction of anti-democratic forces putting the cart before the horse, or more accurately, red herrings to sabotage the historic elections due soon. The other camp is agreed on the historic nature of this conjuncture, when Pakistan is poised for the first time in its history to witness a consensual convergence of almost all shades of political opinion on the way forward: fair and free transparent elections through a consensus-based Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) under a consensual caretaker setup whose neutrality will be beyond doubt because it will enjoy the confidence of both government and opposition. It is strange then that the anti-democratic camp is still railing on about rejecting just these consensual rules of the game framed after a great deal of thought and discussion in parliament, and enshrined in the 18th Amendment. The qualified criticisms being levelled at the CEC of being too old to ‘resist’ the machinations of the parties in government and the opposition make no sense when these governments will cease to be in power once the Assemblies are dissolved and the caretaker setup takes over. If the caretaker setup to come is being criticised as some kind of underhand deal (muk-muka) amongst the parties in parliament, surely this is an illogical stance given that inherently the government and opposition are rivals in the elections and have framed these rules of the game to avoid the usual accusations of election rigging that have bedevilled every such exercise in the past. On the touchstone of the constitution, best democratic practice and intent, therefore, the critics are making no sense. The people of Pakistan may or may not be happy with the performance of the incumbent governments during the last five years, but only uninformed and foolhardy elements without an iota of understanding of our past want to throw the baby of democracy out with the bathwater of these governments. The ‘crisis’ engendered by these sinister simultaneous moves aside, the demands of Qadri have exposed his hand. He wants, as in the past, the military and judiciary to settle the fate of the country. Powerful as these institutions are, this is neither their remit nor in accordance with any constitutional or democratic principle. The days of imposed governments manipulated into power by hook or by crook by the establishment may or may not be over (the jury is still out), but the situation and the conspiratorial moves to deny the people the right to bring in another elected government for the first time in the country’s history through fair elections cannot and should not be denied them, especially when the moment is tantalisingly close (this very closeness may well explain the frantic efforts to sabotage the electoral exercise). It is the interests of all political parties, arguably even those supporting Qadri for whatever misconceived reasons, that the electoral exercise is allowed to proceed on time and without putting obstacles in its path. Authoritarian, military, imposed governments are littered through Pakistan’s passage through time, but each one has left a bigger mess in its wake than when it started. The lesson is inescapable: our discontents with democracy and its failings notwithstanding, there is no way forward in the foreseeable firmament other than letting the democratic political process play itself out in what promises to be an increasingly credible manner since it enjoys across the board consensus, and using the space and freedoms only democracy allows to tackle the very serious problems confronting the country and our society.

Victory in Afghanistan? Not without U.S. troops

During the Vietnam War, Sen. George Aiken, a Vermont Republican, was famous for suggesting that we declare victory and go home. (What he actually said is a little more nuanced, but that was the popular perception.) President Obama seems to be pursuing a version of this strategy in Afghanistan. At least that is the inference one can draw from his claims of success at a news conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Friday in which the two leaders unveiled an acceleration of the timetable for U.S. troops to step back from combat. While Obama conceded that we had "probably not ... achieved everything that some might have imagined us achieving in the best of scenarios," he nevertheless tried to put a smiley face on the war effort. "Did we achieve our central goal? And have we been able, I think, to shape a strong relationship with a responsible Afghan government that is willing to cooperate with us to make sure that it is not a launching pad for future attacks against the United States? We have achieved that goal. We are in the process of achieving that goal." There is actually an important difference between the last two sentences. Which is it: Have we achieved the goal or are we in the process? If the latter, then that would argue for a continued U.S. commitment to Afghanistan; if the former, then it suggests our mission is complete. The reality is that, though the U.S. is arguably making progress, we are a long way from our ultimate objective defined in the U.S.-Afghan security partnership agreement signed by Obama and Karzai in May: "sustainable self-reliance in security, governance, economic and social development." Yes, there has been substantial success in routing the Taliban out of its strongholds in Helmand and Kandahar provinces, as I have seen for myself on repeated trips to southern Afghanistan. After years of increased violence , enemy-initiated attacks fell 7% from January to November 2012 compared with the same period a year earlier. And as Obama said, the Afghan government is more or less cooperating with us, despite considerable friction over the handling of detainees, government corruption and other difficult issues. But recent security gains remain incomplete. Commanders have never had the resources to launch a "clear and hold" campaign in the east as they did in the south. As a result, Haqqani sanctuaries remain intact an hour's drive from Kabul. And even maintaining the incomplete and tenuous gains of the last few years will be impossible unless Afghanistan continues to receive substantial U.S. assistance. The Defense Department's Report on Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan concedes that only one of 23 Afghan army brigades is able to operate on its own. The Afghan forces, though fighting hard and taking considerable casualties, still need American "enablers" such as artillery, air support, medevac, logistics and intelligence. Afghanistan will not even have a functioning air force until 2017 at the earliest. Delivering all that support, and maintaining a separate special operations capacity to hit top-level terrorist targets, will require a substantial presence of American troops. Afghanistan is a big country. Personnel based in Kabul cannot effectively assist Afghan units in Kandahar or Khost or hit terrorist targets there. There must be at least a handful of bases outside the capital area, and each one will need to be defended and supplied. Quick-reaction forces and medical facilities must be on call in the event of trouble. How substantial a presence? Retired Lt. Gen. Jim Dubik, a former commander of the training mission in Iraq, estimates in a recent report for the Institute for the Study of War that 23,000 to 28,000 troops would be needed. Retired Lt. Gen. David Barno, a former commander in Afghanistan, estimated in a December 2010 report for the Center for a New American Security that 25,000 to 35,000 troops would be needed. (Barno has since said that we could get by with substantially fewer, but he has given no reasons why his earlier analysis doesn't hold.) That is a far cry from the figures now leaking out of the Obama administration. Rumor has it that the administration would like to pull out perhaps half of the 66,000 troops this year and almost all the rest in 2014, leaving behind as few as 3,000 personnel. Or maybe none at all: Talk of a "zero option" has been getting louder from the White House. Obama has a perfect right to decide that the costs of victory in Afghanistan are too high. But if so, he should level with us instead of insulting our intelligence by claiming that we have already won a war that shows no sign of ending any time soon.

Afghanistan’s improving ways

By David Ignatius

For Americans weary of nearly a dozen years of war, Afghanistan often seems like a country where nothing ever changes and the same story of ethnic and tribal struggle repeats itself in an endless loop. But Afghanistan’s demographics have changed in significant ways over the past decade. Rather than being mired in a perpetual feudal twilight, Afghanistan is actually becoming a modern country. The statistical evidence of change, gathered from sources including data from the U.S. Agency for International Development, is overwhelming. Even discounting for the upbeat tone of the USAID summary of “Achievements in Afghanistan,” there still appear to be important demographic improvements on the ground. The urbanization and economic development that have reshaped Afghanistan do not mean that the country will have a bright political future or that the Taliban won’t regain a measure of power after U.S. troops leave in 2014. But the future won’t simply be a replay of the past. The Afghanistan movie won’t just restart where it left off when the Taliban were driven from power. “The Taliban won’t have a free run,” says a senior Indian official in a conversation here about Afghanistan’s future after U.S. troops leave. “This is not 1990 again. Afghanistan is a changed place.” The most obvious change is urbanization. Close to half the population now lives in cities and towns. Kabul is a city of 5 million people, and the populations of Herat, Jalalabad and Kandahar have all tripled in the past decade. This urbanization weakens ethnic and tribal affiliations and helps women get access to jobs and education. While still primitive in some rural areas, the country is also getting plugged into the global grid. More than 20 million people, or two-thirds of the country, now have access to mobile phones, up from zero a decade ago. Saad Mohseni, who runs MOBY Group, the country’s biggest media company, estimates that 60 percent of the population watches some television each week, and nearly 95 percent has access to radio. The billions that America pumped into the country helped foster corruption, to be sure, but the money didn’t all vanish into bank accounts in Dubai. Gross domestic product per capita has increased nearly fivefold since 2002, with an annual growth rate of about 9 percent. Only 18 percent of the population has access to reliable electrical power, but that’s triple what it was a decade ago. The improvements in health are striking, even after a decade of war. Access to basic health services is available to more than 60 percent of Afghans today, up from 9 percent in 2001. Life expectancy has increased from 44 years to 60 in the past decade; the maternal mortality rate has declined 80 percent; the under-5 mortality rate has dropped 44 percent. The number of primary health-care facilities has increased nearly fourfold. Afghanistan has rebuilt an education system that had nearly stopped functioning. In 2002, only 900,000 students were in primary school, nearly all boys. Today, 8 million students are in school, more than a third of them girls. University enrollment jumped from 8,000 in 2001 to 77,000 in 2011, and about 20 percent of these higher-education students are women. Literacy is currently about 35 percent, but it’s expected to grow to 55 percent in 10 years and 80 percent in 20, unless disaster strikes. The gains women have made are an especially visible index of change, but they are also a reminder that progress is fragile and could be reversed by the Taliban. In addition to the vastly larger number of female students, women now hold 27 percent of the seats in parliament, three Cabinet posts and 120 judicial positions. By the end of this year, at least 30 percent of government employees will be women. Afghanistan is a democracy, too — corrupt and capricious, but for now it’s probably the freest country in the neighborhood, compared to Pakistan, Iran and the central Asian nations. It has a free and independent media, producing everything from an Afghan knockoff of “American Idol” to situation comedies to versions of “Sesame Street” dubbed into Dari and Pashto. For many Americans, the Afghan War feels like defeat — a painful waste of money and lives. Many people felt that way when the Vietnam War ended, little imagining the economic boom that would eventually come to that country after so many decades of brutal suffering. History is mysterious that way; sometimes the deeper transformations are invisible at the time. Who can say what the future holds for Afghanistan? Surely, the country’s turmoil and suffering won’t end when U.S. troops depart; the situation may get much worse. But it’s a mistake to assume that nothing changed during America’s years of struggle there, or that many of those changes weren’t for the good.

Obama's plan to stem gun violence

President Barack Obama on Wednesday proposed background checks on all gun sales and bans on military style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines as part of a package of steps to reduce gun violence in the wake of the Newtown school massacre last month. With relatives of some of the 20 children killed in the Connecticut rampage looking on, Obama signed 23 executive actions -- which don't require congressional approval -- to strengthen existing gun laws and take related steps on mental health and school safety. He also called on Congress to reinstate an assault weapons ban that expired in 2004, to restrict ammunition magazines to no more than 10 rounds, and to expand background checks to anyone buying a gun, whether at a store or in a private sale at an auction or convention.

Pakistan Says Preacher and Crowd at Risk

Two days after a charismatic preacher swept into the capital surrounded by thousands of supporters, Pakistan’s government responded by rejecting his political agenda and hinting that an operation to dislodge him was imminent. Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters on Wednesday that there were indications that suicide bombers planned to target the preacher, Muhammad Tahir-ul Qadri, who is in a bulletproof container near Parliament. Mr. Qadri and his boisterous supporters, estimated at 25,000 people, could be the subject of a “targeted operation” as early as Thursday, Mr. Malik said. “For the safety of the women and children in the protest, I request you to leave by tomorrow,” he said at a news conference. Mr. Qadri, 61, who has demanded that the government resign to make way for a caretaker administration, insisted that he was standing firm, but also suggested the standoff could be resolved within a couple of days, although he declined to specify how. “We are in the victory zone and about to achieve our target,” he told The New York Times, speaking inside the fortified container, mounted on the back of a truck, from which he has delivered several fiery speeches. “The march will be successful in the next one or two days at most.” Earlier, the information minister, Qamar Zaman Kaira, mocked Mr. Qadri’s demands at a news conference, and accused him of using the many women and children among his supporters as “human shields.” But Mr. Kaira said, “The people will not stand by him.” The government was showing some teeth after Mr. Qadri managed to lead his supporters into the capital, despite numerous obstacles, leaving officials looking outwitted. The government’s authority was also challenged on Tuesday by the Supreme Court, which ordered the arrest of the prime minister, Raja Pervez Ashraf, as part of a corruption prosecution. The government has signaled that it intends to challenge the order when the case comes to court on Thursday morning; officials see the move as part of a long-running proxy battle between the chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, and the president, Asif Ali Zardari. Pakistan’s military, meanwhile, has been grappling with its longtime foe India in the disputed province of Kashmir, where at least five soldiers from both sides have died in a series of skirmishes over the past two weeks. In the latest episode, Pakistan said Wednesday that Indian troops had shot a Pakistani soldier at a position named Kundi, and lodged an official complaint with New Delhi. India denied responsibility. The tensions have raised worries that months of steady diplomatic progress between the rival neighbors could be undone. But hopes for a resolution of the dispute rose late on Wednesday when, after a phone conversation between senior commanders on both sides, India said an agreement to calm the situation had been reached. Pakistan’s director general of military operations, Maj. Gen. Ashfaq Nadeem, spoke for 10 minutes with his Indian counterpart, Lt. Gen. Vinod Bhatia, an Indian spokesman told reporters. The spokesman, Col. Jagdeep Dahiya, told Agence France-Presse that the Pakistani general “said strict instructions have been passed not to violate the cease-fire.”

Zardari: Not to use force against sit-in

GEO TV

President Asif Ali Zardari has ruled out the possibility of any operation against the participants of the sit-in being staged in Islamabad with Thehrik-e-Minhajul Quran leader Tahirul Qadri in the lead. President Zardari telephoned Najam Sethi, the host of Geo News program 'Apas Ki Baat', telling him no use of force will be undertaken against the marchers in Islamabad at any cost. The clarification from the head of the state came when all sorts of speculations were being made about government's next line of action to deal with the massive sit-in in the capital.

Pakistan’s army lurks behind cleric 20

http://www.torontosun.com

BY TAREK FATAH

We should be worried about the potential destabilization of a country with 200 nuclear-tipped missiles

A Canadian cleric, who has twice played a part in backing military juntas in nuclear-armed Pakistan, is back in that country. And once more, he appears to be facilitating a military takeover in Islamabad. Tahir-ul-Qadri is better known for his role in the creation of the infamous “Anti-Blasphemy Law” of Pakistan, that has brought untold misery to religious minorities and agnostics. In the 1980s, Qadri backed the military junta of the Islamist General Zia who had overthrown former prime minister Z.A. Bhutto. In 1999, he backed the administration of General Pervez Musharraf, which had staged a coup against former prime minister Nawaz Shariff. By the time democracy was restored in Pakistan, Qadri had emigrated to Canada, where he went into political hibernation until he became eligible for a Canadian passport. With that in hand, Qadri left Canada to manage his worldwide network of devotees, who believe the Prophet Muhammad has appeared in Qadri’s dreams and gives him instructions. In September, Qadri landed in hot water in Denmark, where Integration Minister Karen Haekkerup pulled out of a conference when she discovered Qadri was one of the speakers, saying he had helped fashion Pakistan’s anti-blasphemy law. A Muslim member of the Danish parliament, Naser Khedar, wrote: “… thanks to Tahir-ul-Qadri the horrible blasphemy laws were adopted and are still in force — laws that have resulted in the death of many Christians — and Muslims.” Qadri denied he had anything to do with Pakistan’s blasphemy law. He told an audience it “is not applicable on Jews or Christians and minorities. It is just to deal with Muslims.” He also denied the allegations by Haekkerup and Khedar, claiming, “The way he (Gen Zia) was formulating the blasphemy law, I was totally against it.” However, within days, a new video emerged showing Qadri saying the exact opposite. He was shown boasting in Urdu before an audience that he alone was responsible for crafting the blasphemy law. On the tape, he says in Urdu: “Let me put it on the record, it was me and only me who is responsible for that law … No one else has made any contribution in making this law.” As for his claim made in English on Danish TV that the blasphemy law is inapplicable to non-Muslims, the leaked video showed him making this claim in Urdu: “Whosoever insults Prophet Muhammad and commits blasphemy, whether he is Muslim or Kaafir (infidel non-Muslim), man or woman, he or she should be murdered and kicked like a dog into hellfire, even if they repent ...” Now Qadri, travelling as a Canadian, has come back to haunt Pakistan by besieging the parliament in Islamabad with about 50,000 of his devotees. He told AFP, “We will stay in Islamabad until this government is finished, all the assemblies are dissolved, all corrupt people are totally ousted, a just constitution is imposed, rule of law is enforced, and true and real democracy is enforced.” However, many observers believe the real powers behind Qadri are his former mates in the Pakistan Army and their allies in the judiciary, who are using him as a front man in order to cling to power, while Pakistan’s Supreme Court has ordered the arrest of the prime minister. (Qadri has denied these allegations.) In the meantime, the rest of us should be worried about the potential destabilization of a country with 200 nuclear-tipped missiles and the role played by Qadri in that.

Asif Ali Zardari ready for 'any situation'

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari was not going anywhere and was ready to face "any situation", his spokesperson has said, adding that he was extending his stay in Karachi from where he would monitor political developments. Zardari has also reiterated that general elections would be held on time. Denying reports of Zardari planning to leave for Dubai to avoid the uncertain political situation in the country, his spokesperson Farhatullah Babar said the president has reiterated government's resolve that elections will be held on time and not be delayed in any case, Dawn News reported. "He is not going anywhere and is ready to face any situation," Babar said, adding the president preferred to monitor fast changing political developments in Islamabad while sitting in Bilawal House, Karachi, for next few days despite the fact that he has been staying there for almost a month. The spokesperson said the overstay in Karachi had nothing to do with Pakistani-born Canadian cleric Tahirul Qadri. "The president will follow his own schedule. Qadri's presence in Islamabad or anywhere else is not a factor in the determination of president's schedule," he said. Qadri and thousands of his followers are sitting near parliament house for "change in the present electoral system and now dissolution of federal and provincial governments". Babar said the president was closely watching Qadri's protest programme and developments following the Supreme Court ordering the arrest of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf. Zardari believes that there are two aspects of the Supreme Court's order - one is legal and the other is political, he said. "As far as the legal aspect is concerned, Law Minister Farooq Naek has informed the president about the whole situation and repercussions of the Supreme Court's order and about its political fallout, the president will soon consult coalition partners," the spokesperson said.

Kaira hits out at Tahirul Qadri

Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira says assemblies and the election commission cannot be dissolved at the whim of one person Minister for Information and Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira has termed Tahirul Qadri's demands unconstitutional and unrealistic saying the assemblies and the election commission cannot be dissolved at the whim of one person. Talking to the media persons in Islamabad today‚ he questioned as to how the demands made by the chief of Minhajul Quran could be fulfilled within the parameters of the constitution. He said the parliament and the judiciary have shut the doors for the establishment of a dictator government and bringing amendments in the constitution through unconstitutional manner. The information minister said the election commission has been constituted by a committee of the parliament and there is the constitutional modus operandi for the removal of the election commission as is for the judges of the courts. Election Commission is a constitutional office and it cannot be dissolved at whim. Similarly‚ caretaker set-up will be installed in accordance with the constitutional provisions. Neither the president nor the army and the judiciary have any role in setting up an interim set-up. Referring to the demands of Tahirul Qadri made today‚ the information minister said the person who the other day declared us an ex-government‚ is making demands to the same govt. today. He asked Tahirul Qadri to stop hoodwinking the people and stop using women and children as a shield. "If Tahirul Qadri wants to bring reforms‚ he should register his political party‚ abandon his Canadian citizenship and then go to the people‚ seek their vote and fulfill his objectives‚" said Kaira. The information minister assured that free and fair elections will be conducted on time. All the political parties have full confidence on the election commission. "The Supreme Court has also directed to hold the elections on time and we have also given assurance to the court in this regard." Criticizing the tone and tenor of Tahirul Qadri‚ he said the chief of Minhajul Quran should abide by the norms of decency. "Tahirul Qadri should keep his tone under control otherwise political parties will reciprocate in the same manner‚ concluded the information minister.

PM takes notice of Peshawar sit-in

RADIO PAKISTAN

Prime Minister has taken immediate notice of the demonstration by protesters from Khyber Agency who are staging a protest in front of Governor House Peshawar Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf has taken immediate notice of the demonstration by protesters from Khyber Agency who are staging a protest in front of the Governor House Peshawar over the killing of their loved ones yesterday. Speaking to the Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa‚ Barrister Masood Kausar over telephone‚ the Prime Minister directed him to engage the elders to end the grievances of the protesters. The Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assured the Prime Minister that he will submit a report promptly after discussing it with the affected people and put up recommendation for decision of the Prime Minister.

Pakistanis protest killing of 18 in village raid

Associated Press

Hundreds of villagers from northwest Pakistan protested Wednesday the killing of 18 of their relatives in an overnight raid that they blamed on security forces, displaying the bodies of the victims in the provincial capital. The Pakistan military has been waging a campaign against militants in tribal areas such as the Khyber Agency, where these deaths occurred late Tuesday, and according to human rights groups and residents sometimes commit rights abuses. About 3,000 people gathered Wednesday outside the house of the governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Peshawar. They said gunmen wearing military uniforms stormed homes in their area and shot villagers dead. Shabir Ahmed, a soldier from the paramilitary Frontier Constabulary, said his four brothers and father were present at their home when uniformed gunmen stormed his house, opened fire and killed them. "I want to know who killed my brothers and father and why?" he said, demanding justice. But an official with the Frontier Constabulary, which operates in the area, said the villagers had been killed by militants. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media. Human rights groups have accused the Pakistani military of widespread human rights abuses in their counter-insurgency campaign in the tribal areas. In a December report, Amnesty International accused the Pakistani military of regularly holding people without charges and torturing or otherwise mistreating them in custody. The London-based group said in the report that some detainees do not survive and are returned to their families dead, or their corpses are dumped in remote parts of the tribal region. The military rejected the allegations and in a statement called the report "a pack of lies." Amnesty also criticized the Taliban for a range of rights abuses, including the killing of captured soldiers and innocent civilians. The militants have carried out scores of attacks around the country that have killed thousands of people.

CM Hoti handover keys of buses to six girls colleges

THE FRONTIER POST

Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Amir Haider Khan Hoti Tuesday here at a special ceremony gave keys of busses to Principals of six Girls Colleges in the province. He said that the present government has spent considerable resources on promotion of higher education particularly girls education. Spreading the light of education was the only way forward to battle specific circumstances confronting the region.

It merits a mention here that the he had promised these colleges for provision of buses during his visits to the concerned districts. He said that girl's colleges were in dire needs of buses for transport. Keys of buses were given to principal of Government Girls College Sarai Saleh Haripur, Government Girls Degree College Boni Chitral, Government Girls Post Graduate College Kohat, Government Girls Degree College Khwaza Khela Swat, Government Girls Degree College Lund Khwar Mardan and Government Girls Degree College No. 2 Haripur. Principal of the colleges received the Keys while drivers of the buses were also present on the occasion. Provincial Minister for Higher Education Qazi Muhammad Asad, Secretary Farah Hamid, Muhammad Kabir Afridi, Chief Planning Officer Higher Education Muhammad Ihsan, Muhammad Zaman, Javed Akhbar, Central President PSF Bashir Khan Sherpao, ANP district officer bearers Haripur, Chitral and Kohat and others were also present on the occasion. Govt to provide healthy activities for youth: Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Amir Haider Khan Hoti has said that his government was committed for provision of opportunities of healthy activities to youth and has undertaken practical measures for promotion of healthy activities of education, sports and tourism. He was talking to a delegation of ANP Chitral. Other members of the delegation were president ANP District Chitral Syed Muzafar Asli Shah, General Secretary Aziz Beg, former MPA Zafar Ahmad, Maqsood-ur-Rahman PSF Chitral, Aziz Ahmad, President ANPChitral Women-Wing Khadija Sardar, Sifat Bibi, Principal Government Girls Degree College Sarwat Jehan, Prominent para glider of Chitral Shahzada Farhad Aziz and Sajad Hussain. Matters pertaining to progress on development schemes of the present government in Chitral and people problems remained under discussion. They thanked the chief minister on present government development efforts in education communication and health sectors in Chitral. The chief minister offered cheque of grant worth Rs. 1 million to president and vice president Hindukush Association for Para gliding Chitral for promotion of Para gliding. He lauded Chitral youth interest in Paragliding and assured government support in this cause. He issued directives to concerned departments for inclusion of para gliding in sports and tourism events.

Bara tribesmen stage sit-in outside Governor House

The Express Tribune

A large number of people on Wednesday staged a sit-in in front of Governor House in Peshawar, protesting against the killing of the 18 people whose mutilated bodies were recovered from the Bara area of Khyber Agency Tuesday evening. The bullet-riddled bodies were found in the Alam Gudar area. Reporters and media personnel present on the protest site estimated that around 5,000 people took part in the sit-in underway on Sher Shah Suri Road, right in front of Governor House. Bara tribesmen are sitting outside Governor House with caskets of their family members who were killed. The protestors, including family members of the deceased and social activists, chanted slogans against the army and the security agencies stationed in Khyber Agency and blamed them for the killings. The tribesmen from Bara said that the people killed were not militants but ordinary citizens, who they said were murdered in cold blood by the security agencies.

Pakistan’s Newest Martyrs: Why Anti-Shi‘ite Violence May Be the Country’s Biggest Problem

TIME.COM

For days, they refused to bury their dead. On a main road in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, hundreds of mourners from the local Hazara community, adherents of Shi‘ite Islam, watched over the nearly 90 coffins in below freezing temperatures. The victims of an increasingly bloody wave of terror were no longer willing to inter the corpses of their loved ones for the world to forget about them. Among the dead was Irfan Ali, a brave and much liked young activist who had to abandon his education because of the appalling security situation in the province of Baluchistan, where Quetta is the capital, yet devoted much of his time telling the world about the suffering of his people. Last Thursday, Ali felt he had cheated death the first time. He tweeted that he had narrowly escaped a bombing in Quetta. When he went to tend to the victims, a second deadlier blast struck the billiards hall in Quetta, raising the death toll to nearly 100. It was the greatest single tragedy to visit the community. The tragedy jolted many Pakistanis, bringing tens of thousands around the country out onto the cold streets. Protests and candlelight vigils sprouted in many cities. Ali, the slain activist, was a familiar face at such protests. In recent photographs, he was seen holding up the image of a Pashtun politician, who was assassinated by the Taliban last month. This time, many protesters held aloft portraits of Ali’s smiling face, some adorned with words from his Twitter bio: “I am born to fight for human rights and peace. My religion is respect and love all the religions.” The protests were eventually heard. Some of the largest crowds had gathered in Karachi, outside the private residence of President Asif Ali Zardari. On Monday, the government dispatched Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf to Quetta to meet with the victims. Chief Minister of Baluchistan Nawab Aslam Raisani, a figure of clownish incompetence with a taste for the good life, was told there was no job waiting for him when he returned from his latest foreign jaunt. The provincial government was sacked, having forfeited its mandate. And a form of emergency rule imposed under the province’s more stolid governor. It was enough to persuade the families of the Hazara victims to bury their dead, but more will need to be done to stop others from being sent to an early grave. Last year, over 400 Shi‘ites were killed across Pakistan, double the number killed in 2011. A significant minority in majority Sunni Pakistan, Shi‘ites comprise roughly a quarter of the country’s population. At least a quarter of the recent death toll belongs to the Hazara community in Baluchistan, who migrated there over a century ago from neighboring Afghanistan. Seeking safety, many have been making journeys onward. Last Thursday’s attacks, though deadlier than previous ones, were depressingly familiar. In recent years, Shi‘ite pilgrims from the Hazara community have been hauled off buses bound for pilgrimages in Iran to be lined up and summarily shot. In other parts of the country, as far apart as Karachi in the south, Lahore to the east, the northern hills of Gilgit, Parachinar near the Afghan border, and Dera Ismail Khan in the northwest, Shi‘ite worshippers have seen their processions routinely attacked. On each of these occasions, Shi‘ite worshippers had gathered in the streets, as they have done for centuries, to mourn the memories of their ancient martyrs. They left having to mourn the loss of new ones. The seventh century massacre of their most revered saint, Imam Hussein, and his followers, becomes not just a retelling of the foundation of their faith. It is relived as a parable for the present, the story of a vulnerable minority brutally slaughtered for its beliefs. The responsibility for these attacks has often been claimed by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), probably the most dangerous group operating in Pakistan today, and its militant allies. LeJ began life as an even more vicious offshoot of the banned anti-Shi‘ite organization, the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP). A decade ago, the group found common doctrinal ground with newcomers from al-Qaeda and proffered its deep and pervasive network. Al-Qaeda maintained operational control, LeJ supplied the foot soldiers. The lethal combine has been blamed for attacks such as the 2008 bombing of the Islamabad Marriott and the 2009 Lahore attack on the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team. The failure to stop these militants is the collective failure of Pakistan’s power elites: the politicians, the army and the judiciary. Less than 24 hours after the Quetta attacks, Malik Ishaq, a notorious LeJ leader, was in Karachi inciting further anti-Shi‘ite hatred. “I don’t have fun making speeches,” the self-confessed killer of Shi’ites told his supporters. “You know what I have fun doing.” Ishaq was shockingly released from prison in 2011 after the courts said they didn’t have enough evidence to convict him. As is often the case, witnesses are not protected and are either eliminated or reduced to a terrified silence. The prosecution and the police fail to marshal the evidence necessary to support a conviction. There are also questions that analysts raise about Islamabad’s intelligence agencies’ links to sectarian groups like the LeJ and its parent organization, the SSP. Ishaq has barely been prevented from roaming around freely. He was briefly taken into custody once only to be released again. He and his cohorts are also the beneficiaries of sordid deals with Pakistan’s power elites. When the army’s headquarters were under siege in 2009, Ishaq was reportedly flown from prison to help negotiate a stand-down. The Punjab government, lead by the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-N, has courted votes alongside leaders of the anti-Shi‘ite SSP. The failure of Pakistani authorities to protect the Shi‘ite population and act against their killers is eroding faith in the state and its institutions. Their failures amount, as Human Rights Watch has said, to complicity. It also raises troubling questions about Pakistan’s identity. In 1947, after the partition of the subcontinent, Pakistan was founded ostensibly as a state for the region’s Muslims — and the minorities that live there. The founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, was himself a secular man of a Shi‘ite background. Over the decades, various minorities have found themselves under siege. Prejudiced laws against the Ahmadi Muslim sect have seen the group’s leadership take exile as its followers have either abandoned the country, fall foul of its blasphemy laws or lose the loved ones in terrorist attacks by the same groups that have targeted the Shi‘ites. The beleaguered Christian community fares no better, similarly trapped between militant violence and laws that make them vulnerable to persecution. The old Parsi community has dwindled sharply, with an estimated three times as many living in Toronto as do in Karachi. For the Shi‘ites, it was supposed to be different. They have long lived peacefully alongside the majority Sufi-inspired Sunni community, marching together at the same annual Muharram processions. There were always levels of prejudice, with bigots comparing Shi‘ites to “cockroaches” and hard-line Deobandis — adherents of a puritanical South Asian strain of Sunni Islam — declaring them heretical. But the Pakistani mainstream never considered them a separate minority. In public, for example, Shi‘ite politicians are not identified by sect. If, however, Shi‘ites are not going to feel safe in Pakistan, it will have grave consequences not just for the country but also the wider region. Pakistan’s Shi‘ite population is second only to neighboring Iran, where Shi‘ites are the majority and Shi‘ite Islam is embedded in the heart of the country’s politics. In the long term, it could be the most destabilizing of all of Pakistan’s problems — with the violence not restricted to a remote borderland, but tearing into the country’s very fabric.

Internal Forces Besiege Pakistan Ahead of Voting

By DECLAN WALSH

Barely a year after fears of a possible military coup plunged Pakistani politics into chaos, the country is in crisis again — this time besieged on multiple fronts by forces that threaten the civilian government just a few months ahead of elections. An enigmatic preacher is camped before the gates of Parliament with thousands of followers, demanding the government’s immediate ouster. The top court on Tuesday suddenly ordered the arrest of the prime minister. Violence is surging, with militants stepping up deadly attacks against both government forces and religious minorities. And relations with India have dipped, after ill-tempered border skirmishes in which soldiers on both sides were killed. As it is all unfolding, the country’s powerful military command, long at odds with the government of President Asif Ali Zardari, is in sphinx mode. The army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, and his commanders have maintained a cool distance from the unfolding political chaos, their silence stoking speculation about whether the military’s days of political intervention are really, as it claims, over. “It’s the silence of the legions that is unnerving,” said Ayaz Amir, an opposition member of Parliament. More than anything else, there is a sense that gears are again shifting in Pakistan, in a direction few dare to predict — bad news for Mr. Zardari’s government, of course, but also potentially for American interests, which see stability in Pakistan as crucial to a smooth withdrawal in Afghanistan next year, as well as a guarantor of the security of the country’s nuclear arsenal. “There’s a sense that things are snowballing — hard to predict in any way,” said Cyril Almeida, a senior writer at Dawn newspaper. The chief catalyst of this jolting change comes in the form of a 61-year-old preacher, Muhammad Tahir-ul Qadri, who catapulted himself into the political limelight less than a month ago, and now finds himself issuing ultimatums to Mr. Zardari from inside a bulletproof container within view of the soaring presidential residence. A giant rally in Lahore last month signaled the start of Mr. Qadri’s assault on Pakistan’s political classes, which he derides as incompetent and irredeemably corrupt — a resonant message in a country of high unemployment and crippling electricity shortages. He drove home his message with an intensive television advertising campaign, paid for with generous amounts of money, the origins of which he has not fully explained. On Monday evening, he stepped up the attack, leading tens of thousands of followers into the heart of Islamabad, where he renewed demands that Mr. Zardari resign immediately. The crowd fell short of the promised “million-man march,” but was enough to spook the government: by Tuesday morning, he had pushed forward to a square in front of the Parliament. “There is no Parliament; there is a group of looters, thieves and dacoits” — bandits — he said in a thundering voice, pointing to the building behind him. “Our lawmakers are the lawbreakers.” The dramatic climax of that speech, however, came not from the preacher himself, but from the marble-walled Supreme Court about 200 yards up the street. As Mr. Qadri spoke, news broke that Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had issued an order for the arrest of the prime minister, Raja Pervez Ashraf. The report visibly thrilled the crowd, prompting loud cheers and a sense that the promised “revolution” was going their way. It was a typical surprise maneuver from Chief Justice Chaudhry, a mercurial judge with a stubborn streak who, over the past year, has carved out an influential space through aggressive judicial action. A bruising court battle with Mr. Zardari claimed the career of the previous prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, who was forced to resign in June; the chief justice has also called senior generals to account for human rights abuses and election-rigging efforts stretching back two decades. The move against Mr. Ashraf was not entirely unexpected; a corruption case against him, related to his three-year stint as minister for water and power, has been pending for more than a year. But its timing was striking. Speculation that the judge and the preacher acted in concert, perhaps with the backing of powerful generals, has electrified the political firmament. Mr. Qadri, in his speech, impatiently dismissed such a notion: his support came from God, the Prophet Muhammad and the 180 million people of Pakistan, he said. And in the nearby garrison city of Rawalpindi, the generals, led by General Kayani, watched and waited. Rumors that they are manipulating events from behind the scene are unproved. But, equally, they have done nothing to help the Zardari government. While Pakistani military rulers once purged their disdain for civilian rule through bloodless coups, the latest breed of generals has chafed under new constraints — the military’s damaged popularity after the humiliating American commando raid in May 2011 that killed Osama bin Laden, sharp scrutiny from an emboldened media, and judicial challenges from Chief Justice Chaudhry’s court. General Kayani, in particular, has stressed that the military’s role in politics is over. But senior generals continue to wield heavy influence behind the scenes — foreign policy is effectively the army’s domain — and contempt for Mr. Zardari’s governance is palpable in military circles. But the opposition challenger Nawaz Sharif, who was himself deposed as prime minister by Gen. Pervez Musharraf in 1999, is not much more appealing to the generals. And so there is continuing uncertainty about the military’s commitment to allowing elections to take place within the next four months, as scheduled. The drawing rooms of the political elite have been humming with speculation of a “soft coup” — the imposition of a technocratic government, backed by the generals — for several years. But for now, the army seems content simply to watch as Mr. Qadri takes his “people’s revolution” to the streets of Islamabad, where he has promised an uprising along the lines of the Egyptian revolt in Tahrir Square. “The government is twisting in the wind, and they are just watching it happen,” said Mr. Amir, the opposition politician. The difference with Egypt, of course, is that Pakistan has no dictator to overthrow. And while Mr. Zardari’s government has faced criticism as having governed poorly in many respects, it has made considerable strides in anchoring the country’s democratic structures. Through a series of constitutional amendments, all of them approved by the opposition, Mr. Zardari has gradually devolved power to the provinces, reduced his presidential powers and made the electoral process more transparent. Now, advisers say, he is intent on completing the government’s term in March — the first time in Pakistan’s history that a civilian government would have seen out its five-year term. But first that government must make it through the coming days. The law minister, Farooq Naek, said Tuesday that he would challenge the arrest order against Mr. Ashraf in court on Thursday. But the most potent test could come from Mr. Qadri, whose supporters were bedding down in neat rows of tents in Islamabad on Tuesday night, waiting for the next speech from their leader on Wednesday morning. Having shut down the center of Islamabad, and dominated the news cycle, Mr. Qadri is unlikely to surrender the limelight easily. His well-organized supporters insist they will not budge until their demands are met, and are encouraging other Pakistanis to join them. If that happens, the government may have little option but to break up the protest by force. And it would be at that point that the army, sitting quietly on the fence, would be most likely to step in.

Pakistan: Events of yesterday

The country is thrust into deeper uncertainty. Tuesday, January 15, was a day of high drama and an interesting, if not intriguing, coincidence in Islamabad. Only on the night before Dr Tahirul Qadri had arrived in the heart of the Capital at the head of a massive rally seeking instant dissolution of parliament, to be followed by drastic electoral reforms. His rally was not in millions that he had promised yet it was big enough and apparently charged enough, to jolt the residents of the city out of their usual nonchalance about national politics. But what really made the day singularly different from any before were the proceedings in the Supreme Court. During the course of hearing of a petition about electoral reforms Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry made an observation that the general election should be held on time - to be interpreted by some as an indirect warning to Dr Qadri not to fiddle with the electoral process and election schedule as mandated by the constitution. We don't know whether or not Dr Qadri felt the heat of the CJP's observation. But the apex court's order in another case thereafter for the arrest of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf along with other co-accused sat so well with Dr Qadri and his fellow-marchers that it sent the entire rally into a trance. As soon as Qadri heard the Supreme Court order he ended his speech, announcing that 'half of my mission has been accomplished, the rest would be over by tomorrow'. Undoubtedly, to those who keep finding some kind of a 'conspiracy' behind Dr Tahirul Qadri's out-of-season march on the Capital to create chaotic conditions justifying intervention by those who open their innings uttering words 'my dear countrymen'. They also cite Dr Qadri's comment of the night before when he prefixed the present governments and their chief executives as also the president of the country with the word 'former'. Was he in know of the 'conspiracy' to wrap up the present democratic dispensation. And if he was, was he also a partner in it, there were some conjectures? But seen independently and objectively, there is just no connection between these two narratives, except that they happen to have come in train. These situations - Dr Qadri's march on Islamabad, Supreme Court's observation on his call for new Election Commission of Pakistan and the same court's order to arrest the prime minister and others for their alleged involvement in the Rental Power Plants scam - could be defused before they came to the cusp. Dr Qadri's march should not have been entertained by the authorities. If the Punjab government and its federal counterpart and their intelligence agencies had failed to figure out the purpose of Dr Qadri's long march especially as he had left no one in doubt he is out to disrupt the ongoing election preparations the Capital's administration miserably failed to handle it. From the word go it was on the defensive, retreating before the marchers till they reached the D Chowk. Here is a man who wants to impose his will by force and thus derail the electoral process so painstakingly stitched up and the governments allow him to do so by holding that it is every Pakistani's right to hold demonstration at the D Chowk in front of the parliament. It was a big mistake; he should have seen the difference between a lawful demonstration and the one being held in violation of the Constitution. By conceding him the facility of reaching the parliament without much of hindrance the authorities tend to convey that whosoever can manage a crowd of some thousand protestors in front of the parliament has the right to subvert the will of other 179.9 million Pakistanis. As to Dr Qadri's take on the poor quality of political leadership one has no beef; yes it lacks all that is expected of it and it's not there. But it is not for Dr Qadri to decide who should be elected, let the people make their choice through a fair, free and transparent election. That Imran Khan's PTI has a strong feeling that it is being overshadowed by Qadri's game is a strong reality that has translated into former cricket captain's 7-point agenda. Addressing a press conference, he demanded, among other things, President Zardari's immediate resignation. There are few takers for an imminent change in the leader of the house and jurists maintain that the government can employ delaying tactics that may well lead to the natural demise of the present parliament on 16 March 2013. Many argue that under the NAB Ordinance, arrests can only be made if investigation is complete and the person has been found guilty. The NAB investigators have not finished their job as yet. The court has ordered them to finish it in 24 hours and then proceed "without hesitation." The ball is in NAB's court. They were so far avoiding it. Now they will either say the PM has not been found guilty or, if found guilty, order his arrest. In the meantime, the President has called a meeting of its coalition partners in Karachi and it seems unlikely that even the PML (N) would support a change in the status quo, however superficial, at this late stage, a scant 55 days prior to the scheduled dissolution of the federal and provincial parliaments. Greater the crisis, more the need for dialogue. The situation underscores the need for reflecting deeply and mulling over the events of yesterday in particular.

Another premier gone?

WHEN RAJA Pervez Ashraf was elected as Pakistan’s prime minister following Yousaf Raza Gilani’s ouster, his tainted reputation preceded him in the media and political circles. Notoriously referred to as ‘Raja Rental’ for allegedly accepting kickbacks for rental power projects (RPPs) as the water and power minister, Ashraf’s ascent to the position of chief executive was widely criticised. There were apprehensions that he, too, will refuse to follow the Supreme Court’s order to write the Swiss letter regarding President Zardari’s graft cases and also pave way for his own political demise. However, it’s not the Swiss letter than has taken Ashraf down; it’s his alleged involvement in the corruption pertaining to the RPP contracts. The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered for the arrest of 16 people, including the premier, involved in the RPP cases. The SC’s ruling comes as yet another blow to the PPP-led government, which has teetered on the verge of collapse several times during its tenure. While it has faced several challenges related to governance, perhaps the greatest hurdles it has found in its path have been at the behest of Pakistan’s activist judiciary. The PPP lost its premier, Yousaf Raza Gillani, to the Swiss letter case and its US ambassador Hussain Haqqani to the Memogate case. And now it appears that its second chief executive is also on his way out. Sceptics, however, are questioning the timing of this ruling, which came while Tahirul Qadri’s long march was in full swing in Islamabad. In fact, when Qadri announced this development during his speech, his supporters, who had earlier clashed with the police on Tuesday, celebrated by chanting “long live the Supreme Court”. Many suspect that the SC, which has been accused of being in cahoots with the military, strategically timed the ruling to coincide with the march. The armed forces have been rumoured to support Qadri, who had been vociferously pressing for the dismissal of the incumbent federal and provincial governments. Hours after his deadline for the government’s ouster expired, the judicial verdict corroborated allegations that the “invisible hand” of the military is possibly propping up the Sufi cleric’s campaign. So, how will the government now manage this new crisis? Chances are that the resilient PPP will prepare to elect another premier, just two months in advance of the parliamentary elections. But irrespective of the government’s next move, it is very important that the latter is given a chance to complete its tenure for the sake of democracy.

Pakistan: Jaws of conspiracy snapping shut?

EDITORIAL : DAILY TIMES

Tuesday’s events have destabilised the political system and the country as a whole. First came Maulana Tahirul Qadri’s ultimatum of Monday night that the governments should dissolve the Assemblies and go home. He gave a deadline of 11:00 am Tuesday to carry out his ‘directive’. As it turned out, the logic of ground realities ensured that 11:00 am came and went and nothing stirred except the agitated supporters of Qadri in the rally in Islamabad. Qadri’s address to the rally was interrupted by another bombshell. The Supreme Court (SC) ordered the arrest of Prime Minister (PM) Raja Pervez Ashraf and others in the Rental Power Producers (RPP) case. The order is questionable on a number of grounds. First and foremost, the order was passed on the basis of a preliminary investigation report presented by NAB before the SC, which carried a rider that the recommendations of the report were subject to legal advice, which the court did not wait for. Nor did the bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry wait for the lawyers of the government and NAB, who were not able to appear on the day, to present their side of the story. The order therefore is flawed on the benchmark of an incomplete investigation, arrest orders without any conviction by a court of law, arbitrary, and ex parte. Although the order evoked immense joy amongst the rally participants and Qadri went so far as to say that half the work was done, the other half would follow the next day, it also aroused a great deal of anxiety, not only amongst the supporters of the government, but across the political spectrum. Criticism of the court’s order followed, with great suspicion being voiced about the legality of the order as well as its timing. The SC has unfortunately, through this step, opened itself up to a new controversy, which cannot be good for the standing of the judiciary. Whether the order was passed coincidentally at the exact moment Qadri and his followers were hurling all kinds of demands and threats against the political system on Constitution Avenue in Islamabad or, as some critics have said, was playing to the gallery by the SC, we leave to the imagination of the reader. In the RPP hearing in question, the NAB chairman was castigated and issued a contempt notice on the grounds that NAB had misused the name of the SC to dismiss two NAB investigators in charge of the case. Further, the NAB chairman was made responsible for putting the name of the PM and others named to be arrested on the Exit Control List and told he would be held responsible if any of these people left the country. This development produced its toll. The Karachi stock market crashed by 525 points. The SC’s order for arresting the PM provoked angry, sometimes violent protests in interior Sindh, including exchange of firing in Hyderabad between protestors and shopkeepers, blocking of the National Highway, large parts of Karachi shut down, and the country braced with bated breath and in shock for further trouble. Imran Khan joined the MQM’s chorus in support of Qadri’s agenda, with the rider that the PTI would prefer change through the ballot box, whereas Qadri claimed that his 40,000 supporters at the Islamabad rally were sufficient to prove that the government had lost its mandate and should immediately go. Not only the conspiracy minded, even ordinary citizens are forced to speculate that this series of developments coming thick and fast on each other’s heels could not be a coincidence, and that suspicion centres on a deep rooted conspiracy to abort the upcoming elections that are to be held under the constitution in the light of the 18th Amendment, which enjoins the treasury and opposition to come to a consensus on a Chief Election Commissioner and a caretaker setup that would be non-partisan and conduct free, fair and transparent elections. The historic nature of the moment is not lost on those with a sense of history. It may not be an accident therefore that these ‘concerted’ moves appear just as the country is poised to stabilise the polity through an agreed procedure and move on to a relatively consolidated democratic system. The actors up front are obvious: Qadri, MQM (half in half out), Imran Khan (in but with a difference), and sundry others who either do not have a stake in the present dispensation or want a shortcut to power. What is not obvious are the possible hidden hands orchestrating these moves and playing the situation like piano keys. This discordant melody can and will be exposed only in the fullness of time. Meanwhile, the advice to all citizens is: fasten your seat belts.

Pakistan: Crash of stocks

THE FRONTIER POST

The country’s stock market crashed on Tuesday after the Supreme Court ordered the arrest of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf in the famous rental power plants case that surfaced corruption of billions of rupees at a time when the PM was the minister in-charge of water and power sector. The decision came in a petition by PML-Q lawmaker Faisal Saleh Hayat who alleged wide ranging corruption against Raja Pervez Ashraf. The Supreme Court, on March 30, directed NAB to proceed against ministers of water and power from 2006 The NAB, on April 20, submitted before the SC that it issued arrest warrants for 16 accused including the chief executive of the country. The prime minister is accused of taking kickbacks in rental power projects and is also accused of buying property abroad from money earned through corrupt means. As for Pakistani stocks, the Karachi Stock Exchange 100 shares index fell by 570 points in floor trading in the day soon after the SC decision. This is the same KSE that touched thee 100 Index hovering around the unprecedented level of 16,250 points only a week or fortnight before. Was it mere coincidence or a well thought out plan, the fact remains that the verdict was proclaimed when the Tehrik-i-Minhajul Quran chief Allama Dr Tahirul Qadri was just concluding his address in Islamabad after the huge long march originating from Lahore. Soon after, the KSE dropped by around 3.5 per cent to 16,084 points down by 525.29 points from the Monday’s close. Rupee also lost its value in parity with dollar to sell at more than Rs99 for the first time in the country’s history – a historic low. This low, causing from both the loss of stocks and the currency is a natural outcome of an economy is also a dismal record of the tenure of the Pakistan People’s Party-led government which failed in reforming the national economy. Even remittances of $48bn by overseas Pakistanis during this period have not boosted the rupee or lend strength to the stock market. The external sector is also under a similar pressure as the balance of payments position continues to deteriorate on the heels of rising current account gap and heavy debt payments in addition to foreign exchange reserves falling to a little above than $13 billion. The government’s failure in augmenting the recovery of federal revenue is a further addition to the list of failures in meeting different economic targets. The whole scene portrays a grim economic picture because the government more or less wasted the IMF standby arrangement of $13.1 billion to reform the economy by introducing reforms to bring down inflation, repairing macroeconomic regime by withdrawing subsidies and bringing other reforms.

Khomeini’s Granddaughter On Iran’s ‘Critical Situation,’ Sanctions, Facebook

http://www.rferl.org

According to Zahra Eshraghi, whose grandfather, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founded the Islamic republic, Iran "is on the edge of the precipice.” Eshraghi -- who is married to Mohammad Reza Khatami, the brother of former reformist President Mohammad Khatami -- recently gave an interview to the Iranian website Anarpress and said, “Everyone knows that the country is facing a critical situation.” She said politicians should find a solution quickly to the crisis the country is facing, though it may be too late. “Maybe they thought we could act independently and that we don’t need the world,” she said. “We should be up front. As much as [the West is] likely to need us, we need them." The 49-year-old mother of two also talked about the negative impact sanctions are having on the Islamic republic. “For example, Tehran’s air pollution,” she said, “for which the sanctions -- and the bad gasoline that is being used – are to blame. This pollution should be considered a silent death, meaning that we in Tehran are breathing poison every day.” Eshraghi said the country is in a “red” – or high -- alert situation. Cars and traffic are the main contributors to Tehran's critical level of air pollution and Western sanctions on fuel imports have forced the country to rely on locally produced gasoline, which is said to be more polluting. Asked whether she feels hopeful about Iran’s future, she answered that only reforms can save the country from the crisis it is facing. “If these people remain with the same thinking, nothing will change because this way of thinking does not want Iran to progress and bring peace and calm,” she said. “The only way for them is to accept reforms.”Eshraghi, an active Facebook user with a large following, also said she has heard that the social-networking site will soon be unblocked by the regime. “Only now [authorities] have understood that [such a] platform cannot be harmful,” she said, adding that she has learned much from her interactions with young Iranians on Facebook. The social-networking site is a good tool for gauging public sentiment, she said. “From the number of likes and comments I get on pictures I post, I can understand whether that individual is, at the time, popular or not," she said. "For example, I posted pictures of Hassan Khomeini (Khomeini's prominent grandson) and [Mohammad Khatami]. I’ve told them many times that their pictures received few likes, and it shows that their popularity has decreased.” Elsewhere in the interview, Eshraghi, who under Khatami headed the youth department of the Interior Ministry, criticized President Mahmud Ahmadinejad for preventing the work of nongovernmental organizations, which had flourished under his predecessor. She said she and many other people in the NGO field were forced to stop their activities after Ahmadinejad came to power. Eshraghi also said that because of the vetting of election candidates by the powerful Guardians Council, reformists cannot introduce any strong candidates. "[Reformists] cannot present anyone because there is a filter called the Guardians Council," she said. Asked about pressure by the regime on former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, she said Khomeini once referred to him as “a pillar” of the 1979 revolution. “I’ve heard [Khomeini] tell [Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei], “When you and [Rafsanjani] work hand in hand together, the revolution will be. And when you separate from each other, the revolution will disintegrate.” Rafsanjani, whose influence has significantly diminished in recent years, has come under criticism for refusing to speak out against the opposition Green Movement. Rafsanjani's daughter, Fazezeh, is currently in jail and his son, Mehdi Hashemi, is free on bail.

Pakistan: Military, Supreme Court working together against govt

Fawad Chaudhry – aide to Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf – said on Tuesday there was “no doubt” the country’s powerful military and Supreme Court were working together to topple the government. Chaudhry was speaking to Reuters after the Supreme Court ordered the arrest of Ashraf in the Rental Power Plants case. PM Ashraf – popularly known as Raja Rental – was accused of receiving kickbacks in the rental power projects and of buying property in London from the money earned through corruption in various scams. The Express Tribune approached political parties for their comments on this recent development. Awami National Party “It’s an order from the highest court and will be obeyed but our [government’s] legal advisors are trying to find if Ashraf enjoys immunity in this case,” ANP Senator Haji Muhammad Adeel told The Express Tribune. Expressing doubts over the timing of the court order and Tahirul Qadri’s long march, Adeel said he fails to understand why SC decided to issue the verdict now when the country is experiencing political turbulence. Pakistan Peoples Party While speaking to Express News, PPP leader Aitzaz Ahsan said Ashraf will remain the prime minster even if he is imprisoned. “Ashraf will be the premier until a no-trust motion is moved against him,” he said. Muttahida Qaumi Movement MQM leader Wasay Jalil said it is premature to comment on the issue as they don’t have details apart from what has been broadcast. Jalil also said they have not received any formal invite for the allies meeting scheduled to be held in Karachi today.

Pakistan: Countering Militancy in PATA

INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP

International Crisis Group’s latest report, assesses the impact of the military-led response to extremist violence on PATA’s security, society and economy. More than three years after military operations sought to oust Islamist extremists, the region remains extremely volatile. The military’s continued control over the governance and administration of the region and the state’s failure to equip the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) police with the tools they need to tackle extremist violence lies at the heart of security and governance challenges. “While the militants continue to present the main physical threat, the military’s poorly conceived counter-insurgency strategies and failure to restore responsive and accountable civilian administration are proving counter-productive”, says Samina Ahmed, Crisis Group’s South Asia Project Director. “Neither the federal nor the provincial government is fully addressing the security concerns of residents”. Although some serious efforts have been made to enhance police capacity, they remain largely insufficient, and the KPK force is still not properly trained or equipped and lacks accountability. The larger challenge remains the reform of the region’s complex legal framework, which makes upholding the rule of law a daunting task. While formally subject to Pakistan’s basic criminal and civil law and falling under the provincial KPK legislature, PATA is governed by various parallel legal systems that have isolated it from the rest of the province. Instead of reforming a legal system that undermines constitutional rights and the rule of law, the military has been vested with virtually unchecked powers of arrest and detention. Pressing humanitarian needs remain unmet because of continued instability and short-sighted military-dictated policies that include travel restrictions on foreigners and stringent requirements for domestic and international non-governmental organisations. Islamabad and Peshawar should end PATA’s isolation and fully integrate it into KPK, removing the region’s legislative and constitutional ambiguities and revoking all laws that undermine constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights. The military’s control over the security agenda, governance and security must be replaced by accountable, responsive civilian institutions. A deteriorating justice system needs to be strengthened and the police force given the lead in enforcing the law and bringing extremists to justice. “The state must restore the trust of PATA residents by convincing them of its sincerity, effectiveness and accountability”, says Paul Quinn-Judge, Crisis Group’s Asia Program Director. “Helping them to rebuild their lives and livelihoods, free of the fear of militancy, would go a long way toward inoculating them against extremism and should be at the heart of counter-terrorism strategy”.

Indian Army: Three ceasefire violations reported after yesterday's flag meeting with Pakistan

The Northern Army Commander, Lieutenant General KT Parnaik, has said there have been three incidents of ceasefire violations since the flag meeting between India and Pakistan yesterday afternoon. "Two of them were reported from the Mendhar region. Firing was reported even at the time of Army Chief's address," Lt Gen Parnaik said. "We have not responded to these because they were not effective but we are watching them," he told NDTV, adding Pakistan had planted mines in Indian territory. "During the ceasefire violations, they would fire on the pickets and taking advantage of the night, some terrorists have probably come in and they have planted some mines. These were discovered and we have uncovered these mines, they are Pakistani mines. We had shown these to the Pakistani Brigadier who had come (for the flag meeting)," said Lt Gen Parnaik. At a 35-minute flag meeting between the two side in Chakan-da-bagh in the Poonch sector yesterday, India lodged a strong protest against ceasefire violations by Pakistan along the Line of Control (LoC) and also expressed concern at the barbaric way Pakistani troops treated the bodies of Indian soldiers killed after an ambush last week. (Read) Lt Gen Parnaik said, "At the end of the meeting, they remained arrogant and adamant. They were not ready to admit anything. Their body language was that of reluctance." He denied Pakistan's claims that Indian troops had crossed over to their side of the Line of Control on January 6. India maintains its troops had opened fire following a Pakistani mortar attack. Two days later Pakistani troops violated ceasefire and mutilated the bodies of two jawans - Lance Naiks Hemraj Singh and Sudhakar Singh; Hemraj's body was decapitated and the head is missing.Army Chief General Bikram Singh has said the beheading is "unacceptable" and "unpardonable". "They (Pakistan) have planted lies to justify what they have done. India reserves its right to retaliate at the time and place of its choice. We won't remain passive when attacked. Today, he asserted that the Indian Army is prepared to face "all challenges to national security and foil the designs of the enemy." Addressing the 65th Army Day parade in New Delhi, General Singh praised the conduct of the Indian soldiers on the border. "Our soldiers are doing their duty following the rules of engagement to the highest standards, he said. (Watch) After the killing of the two Indian soldiers, the BJP sharply criticised the government's policy on Pakistan. Yesterday, at one of the martyr, Lans Naik Hemraj's village, Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj said, "The incident that has happened, we should take revenge... If we don't get this (Hemraj's) head, we should get ten of theirs (Pakistan army's)," Ms Swaraj said. (Read) But this morning the BJP's response was more muted. It assured the government of its support while calling for tough measures on Pakistan. (Read) That came after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh phoned Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley last evening and discussed the issue. That was followed by the National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon briefing this morning on the situation at the Line of Control (LoC).

Pakistan is losing its Shias

Daily Times

Amir Husain

There is most definitely a programme of ethnic and religious cleansing underway in Pakistan, where Shias are being identified and murdered in large numbers All political and social issues ultimately find settlement not on paper, via signed agreements or in international fora housed in fancy buildings, but in the minds and hearts of people. Lasting solutions and sustainable arrangements usually come about only when the people involved have decided to adopt a mutually tolerant line of thinking. This is why long running conflicts can be so hard to address, as they involve inspiring change at the most basic human level: a change of hearts and minds. In Pakistan, we have seen how irreconcilable the situation can become when hearts and minds are turned away from the mainstream due to sustained policies of callous indifference and unfairness. Sub-populations at the receiving end are given to believe over time that they are ‘the other’, the ones who are different and perhaps even the enemy. They become divested from the status quo, their thought turns and their actions then unfold within the context of a negative, hopeless worldview. A round of action and counter-action only reinforces the roles of both the oppressor and the oppressed in the eyes of the world. This is what happened in the pre-1971 Pakistan. A chain of events led to the slaughter of large numbers of east and west Pakistanis and to the eventual formation of Bangladesh. The situation today, we are told, is quite different. We are told that things are more in control, that insurgencies and genocides may be happening but they do not involve large numbers. We are led to believe that because the areas where these things occur are contiguous to the rest of the country, they can be managed more effectively, unlike East Pakistan. That may be, but there is most definitely a programme of ethnic and religious cleansing underway in Pakistan, where Shias are being identified and murdered in large numbers. This one-sided slaughter has been going on since the time of the Wahabi-inspired General Ziaul Haq, who, to please his Takfiri Middle Eastern backers, allowed foreign terrorists and their madrassah ‘factories’ to be imported en masse into the country. This ethnic cleansing has reached fever pitch now. The Hazara community is being wiped out and they have nowhere to turn. As we speak, they are seeking protection from the army chief himself, who has failed to respond to the demands of the community even though the coffins of dead Shias lay across the cold streets of Quetta for three days running. Many apologists would ask, but what can the army do? Why does the Balochistan government not do something? What a pathetic and sorry question that would be. Balochistan’s security has been managed by the army for a long time. The paramilitary and Frontier Corps, which are large forces, come under the de facto command of the military and are handled by deputed Pakistan army officers. The entire intelligence network in the province is controlled by the military. There is no police presence in Balochistan to speak of that can take on and cleanse Middle East-funded Takfiri terror organisations, or segments of the rabidly anti-Shia Punjabi Taliban, which once (or possibly even now?) enjoyed the backing of segments of the intelligence community. If the army can ensure the security of housing colonies owned by generals, can it also not be expected to protect a community that is being wiped out in a province it all but controls? The murders and killings of Hazaras are not the only act of violence against Shias. Prominent Shia leaders are identified all over the country and murdered while the Parachinar area has seen terrible conflict involving the Toori tribe. Shia areas in the north were cut off from Pakistan for more than a year, and it was only possible for Shia Pakistanis to access their own country by first entering Afghanistan to go around the blockade imposed against them by terrorists. This happened right under the nose of their own armed forces. So today if the Shia of Pakistan ask is this our army, are these our generals, would they be unjustified? They are essentially placing their hope in General Kayani and asking him to provide an indication that this hope is not misplaced. Can Shias think of Pakistan as home? Will the only institution that can guarantee the security of Pakistan do anything to make them feel safe within the borders of the country? The Shia coffins lying in the streets of Quetta patiently await the GHQ’s answer. This is a far more pressing question to address than the one tiny Indian bunker that has appeared on the LoC. That is a triviality in comparison. Perhaps the great generals of Rawalpindi will deem it worth their while to give an answer before hearts and minds are turned unalterably, once more.

No country for Pakistani Shiites

Shiite Muslims buried the victims of Quetta attacks after Pakistan's prime minister imposed governor's rule in Balochistan. But activists say the government is still refusing to act against perpetrators of the attacks. On Monday (14.01.2012), Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf announced that the government of the southwestern Balochistan province had been dismissed and the province's chief minister, Nawab Aslam Raisani, had been sacked. The decision came in response to an attack on Thursday in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, against the ethnic Hazara community belonging to the minority Shiite denomination of Islam. The twin bomb blasts killed at least 86 people, mostly the Shiites. The provincial government was widely criticized for failing to counter terrorism in the province, which has seen a pro-independence movement for the past nine years. "After complete consultation, we have invoked Article 234 of the constitution in the province," Prime Minister Ashraf said in a televised news conference in Quetta in the early morning hours Monday. Ashraf said the province's governor would now be put in charge. Ashraf, however, did not say anything about the operation against the militant Sunni group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which claimed responsibility of the Quetta attacks.Of late, Pakistan's Sunni militant extremists with links to al Qaeda have intensified their attacks on minority Shiites, whom they do not recognize as Muslims. The Hazara Shiites of Quetta had earlier refused to bury the dead until the provincial government was dismissed and the military took over the security of the city. Hundreds of people in Quetta - including men, women and children - spent four nights camped in freezing cold to protest against what they called the government's failure, or the lack of will, to protect Hazara Shiites. They also demanded that the government must act against militant groups in the province, which in the past had also targeted Shiites. The Quetta killings sparked protests in various parts of Pakistan. Civil society activists, political workers and common people staged sit-in demonstrations in many Pakistani cities to show solidarity with the Hazara Shiites. 'Sectarian cleansing' 2012 was one of the deadliest years for Pakistan's Shiites. Human rights groups say that more than 300 Shiites were killed in Pakistan last year in sectarian conflict. One of the attacks on an imambargah, a Shiite place of worship, in the garrison city of Rawalpindi near the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, killed at least 23 people and wounded 62 in November. On February 17, a suicide bomber killed 31 Shiites in the restive northwestern Kurram region, one of the seven semi-governed tribal agencies bordering Afghanistan. Pakistani experts say that although the lives of Shiite Muslims are under threat all over Pakistan, those living in Balochistan and the northwestern Gilgit-Baltistan region face a systematic onslaught by the Taliban and other militant groups. Some experts have gone so far as to call it a "sectarian cleansing" of Shiites.In August last year, several gunmen, who were in the guise of Pakistani security officials, stopped a bus traveling from Rawalpindi to the northwestern Gilgit region and dragged the passengers off the bus. The gunmen asked the passengers to show their identity cards to ensure they belonged to the minority Shiite community, after which they brutally killed 22 of them at point blank range. The Taliban claimed responsibility of the attack. Pakistani human rights groups accuse the country's security agencies of backing Sunni militants and failing to protect the minority groups of the country. No action against terrorists Bostan Hazara, leader of the secular Hazara Democratic Party, told DW that his party had agreed to call off protests and bury the victims after the prime minister sacked the provincial government. However, he said that if the government did not act against the terrorists, the Hazara Shiites would resume protests. The Shiite and civil society activists have welcomed the imposition of the governor's rule in the province, but experts warn that sacking the elected civilian government in the province and calling in the army to control security matters can prove to be a double-edged sword for the insurgency-marred province."The imposition of governor rule is extremely disappointing and despicable,” said Malik Siraj Akbar, editor of the radical "Baloch Hal" magazine. “The way a democratic government - although corrupt and incompetent - has been dismissed clearly shows that Islamabad treats Balochistan as a colony where it does not respect the public mandate." Akbar believes the governor's rule in the province will not solve any problems until the government goes after the militants. But Sikandar Hayat Janjua, member of the socialist Awami Workers Party, told DW in an interview from Karachi that it would be foolish to expect that the government would launch an operation against the Sunni militants. "Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is a militant wing of the [Inter-Services Intelligence], and no organization would like to act against its own wing," Janjua said. Akbar, who lives in exile in the US, is critical of Pakistan's central government's overall treatment of the Balochistan province. He opposes the government's decision to give policing powers to paramilitary forces in the wake of the governor's rule in the area. "National and international human rights groups have blamed the military's Frontier Corps (FC) for carrying out widespread human rights abuses in the province. It is believed to be involved in enforced disappearances, torture, and murder of Baloch political workers. The FC is a part of the problem and not the solution," Akbar commented. Failure of the state Pakistani analysts say that the Quetta killings and the imposition of the governor's rule in Pakistan's volatile province have again exposed the risks the Pakistani state has been confronting for many years. If the government is seen as losing further control, it may risk disintegration.Ali Chishti, a security and political analyst in Karachi, argues that the Pakistani state has failed to protect not just the Shiites but most of its citizens. "Pakistan is headed in a completely wrong direction and faces an existential threat due to its policies,” Chishti said. Many Pakistani analysts trace the origins of sectarian violence in Pakistan to the Afghan War of the 1980s. They say that Pakistan's former military dictator Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq made it a state policy to fund and arm extremist Wahhabi groups in the 1980s, using these organizations against the Shiites to kill Iran's support in Pakistan and to increase its influence in Afghanistan. London-based Pakistani journalist and scholar Amin Mughal said that the policy of supporting groups like the Taliban had backfired and that the Pakistani state was no longer in a position to control the situation. "It is a logical consequence of state policies which are based on religion," Mughal told DW, adding that the only way out of the crisis was for "true secular parties" to come to power and change the course of state affairs.

Karzai: Afghanistan will be 'more secure' following US troop withdrawal

A decision on immunity for U.S. troops staying in Afghanistan after the 2014 planned withdrawal will be made by the end of the year, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Monday. "The issue of immunity is under discussion (and) it is going to take eight to nine months before we reach agreement," Karzai told a news conference in the capital, Kabul, after returning from meetings with U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington. The Afghan government rejected an initial U.S. proposal regarding the question of immunity and a second round of negotiations will take place this year in Kabul, he said. Those negotiations could involve Afghanistan's Loya Jirga, a "grand assembly" of political and community leaders convened for issues of national importance, he added. When asked if security would deteriorate in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of the NATO-led force, Karzai replied: "By no means... Afghanistan will be more secure and a better place." The Obama administration has been considering a residual force of between 3,000 and 9,000 troops in Afghanistan to conduct counterterrorism operations while providing training and assistance for Afghan forces. But the administration said last week it did not rule out a complete withdrawal after 2014. The United States is insisting on immunity from prosecution for any U.S. troops that remain.

China ready for worst-case Diaoyu scenario

According to Japanese media, Japan's Self-Defense Forces have scrambled fighter jets against China's military aircraft, including fighter jets, which flew to the Diaoyu Islands. It was the first time that military aircraft from both China and Japan confronted each other over the Diaoyu Islands. All of East Asia is now facing intense uncertainty. Thanks to Japan's arrogance toward China, the Diaoyu Islands dispute has come to this point. Japanese politicians, including Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara and former prime minister Yoshihiko Noda, are to blame. China and Japan may stand at a turning point that leads to confrontation. The resentment toward each other has come to the highest level since World War II. The Sino-Japanese relationship is looking dim. Japan has mistakenly estimated China's strategic stance toward constant external provocations. A year ago, Japanese politicians wouldn't have thought that China would send fighter jets. Some Japanese believed China had to be restrained at any costs to ensure a peaceful period of strategic opportunities. But the fighter jets yesterday proved them wrong. How far the Diaoyu crisis goes depends on whether Japan is just putting on a show by intercepting China's military aircraft or it really wants to confront China. If it chooses the latter, then it is choosing a military clash. Chinese society is tired of simple verbal protests toward Japan. The Chinese people hope the country will carry out actions against Japan's provocations. China's sending fighter jets to the islands reflects Chinese public opinion. A military clash is more likely. We shouldn't have the illusion that Japan will be deterred by our firm stance. We need to prepare for the worst. China and Japan are likely to become long-term rivals or even enemies. Japan has become the vanguard of the US' strategy which aims to contain China. Chinese society should reach consensus on a number of issues. First, China should firmly respond to any Japanese provocation. It won't be the initiator of the war, but it shouldn't be hesitant to take military revenge. Meanwhile, it will not take the lead in escalating the war, nor will it be afraid of any escalation. Last, but not least, China's strategic aim is to make Japan accept China's current position on the Diaoyu Islands, rather than extend the crisis to disputes over historical issues. China should have the courage to face military confrontations with any rival when provoked. At the same time, we should remain cool-headed. China and Japan have been cooperating in trade and other economic fields. We should try not to let political confrontations affect business. This will minimize China's losses, which conforms to China's overall interest and would help the nation gain support from the public in any confrontation. The Diaoyu crisis is a test of China's unity in the Internet era. China's strength has enabled it to take countermeasures against Japan and face any uncertainty. This requires society to remain united.

The People’s Love for Chávez Continues

Playing with fire: Pakistan must crack down on terrorism for its own sake

indiatimes.com The recent border skirmishes and cross-LoC exchange of fire between Indian and Pakistani troops have posed yet another challenge to the bilateral engagement process between the two countries. This comes at a time when the two-way dialogue - suspended in the wake of the 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai - was showing signs of recovery. The recently inked liberalised visa regime and gains made in bilateral trade exemplify this point. Having said that, renewed border tensions show that elements inimical to the peace process continue to operate with impunity to the detriment of both countries. It's no secret that Pakistan's intelligence agency, the ISI, remains a state within a state and continues to patronise known anti-India terrorists such as Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed. Despite New Delhi handing over several dossiers to Islamabad on Saeed's involvement in the 26/11 attack, the latter remains a free Pakistani citizen. That Saeed has recently warned that things could turn ugly in Kashmir highlights the immunity he enjoys as a key collaborator of anti-India sections of Pakistan's security establishment. Tellingly, Saeed's warning comes at a crucial juncture for Pakistan and the larger subcontinent. With the clock ticking on the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in 2014, Islamabad has an important choice to make. It can either go back to its tactic of treating Afghanistan as affording strategic depth against India and continue using terrorism as an instrument of state policy. Or it could genuinely crack down on all terrorist groups operating from its soil. Pertinently, Islamabad's policy of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds has only brought the scourge of terrorism on its own citizens. As highlighted by last week's string of bombings across that country that left at least 140 dead, Pakistan itself is in a state of crisis. For durable peace to prevail in the region, it's imperative that Pakistani society wages a war against extremism that is eating away at the innards of the Pakistani state. For this the political class in Pakistan must unite against all jihadi groups threatening to turn that country into an Islamic caliphate. With general elections in Pakistan just around the corner, Pakistani political parties would do well to shun their Machiavellian intrigues of the past and present a modern vision of Pakistan, strengthening democratic institutions there. This would not only unleash the tremendous potential in Pakistani people but also have a transformational impact on South Asia as a whole.