Democracies must care for Pakistan’s minorities

One of the quintessential functions of a modern state is to foster the multi-faceted development of all its citizens. Ironically, however, few states fulfill this function in the world today. Volumes have already been written on the record of the state of Pakistan in this regard. Ever since M.A. Jinnah converted this once-great land of ancient, composite culture into a separate nation out of an undivided, secular India, selfstyled radical Islamists have been on the ascent in the state. Hell-bent on creating a feudal, irrational order based on the fanatic Wahhabi-Deobandi version of Islam, these obscurantist, reactionary forces have increasingly prevailed upon the state to resort to policies that would make the lives of people of all other faiths and values living in the country miserable. In the process, the plight of Pakistan’s minorities has gone from bad to worse over the years. Most of the minorities in Pakistan – Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Baha’i, Buddhists, Zoroastrians (Parsis), Ahmadis, Shi’ites and Mohajirs – non-Muslims and non-Sunni Muslims both – have either resorted to exodus or conversion. In the undivided British India non-Muslims formed more than a quarter of Pakistan’s population. On partition, they came to account for about 14 percent of its population, albeit concentrated mainly in East Bengal. Today, Sunni Muslims constitute 77% and Shias 20% its 175,646,000-strong population. Non-Muslims – Hindus, Christians and others – constitute 3%. Recent reports and studies of the Pakistan Human Rights Commission, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child, the US Commission on Freedom, the Jinnah Institute and other such bodies suggest the minorities’ situation has darkened further. The Pakistan Supreme Court has also confirmed this conclusion in some of its observations. It is unfortunate that the governments of the world’s leading democracies still continue to gloss over Pakistan’s minority rights violations. The agenda of Pakistan’s self-styled Islamists poses a great threat not only to its citizens but also to the entire civilized world. The world’s democracies have already suffered a lot on account of Pakistan- supported radical Islamism. If Washington and other democratic capitals of the world do not get tough with Islamabad and neutralize its radical Islamist forces in time, many more terror attacks might revisit them. Enlightened citizens of the democratic world must assert themselves and make their governments behave. They are subsidizing Pakistan with billions of pounds’ worth of aid. They could tell their governments this money cannot be allowed to go to tyrants. Pakistan is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It has already ratified the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Pakistan must ratify the UN’s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR) assuring its citizens all civil and political rights, including the right to life, freedom or religion, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, electoral rights and rights to due process and a fair trial. Pakistan, like most of the states in the Middle East, was born of Wilsonian ideas. It has claimed equality with sovereign nation-states in the world today. But it has cared little for its minorities. American citizens could impress upon their government the need to take appropriate measures aimed at making the state of Pakistan respect the rights of its citizens. They could insist that if the establishment in Islamabad does not cease oppressing Pakistan’s minorities, the country must be deprived of its current status in the comity of nations.

Malala Is Back: The Challenges Ahead for Girls' Education in Pakistan

http://www.theatlantic.com

People around the world watched in admiration and awe a clip from an interview with Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager who was shot in the head by the Taliban for standing up for girls' education. "I want every girl, every child to be educated," she said bravely in comments given before she had surgery at a hospital in England-apparently, she is now recovering well-and discussed the new Malala Fund to do just that. The fund's inaugural grant will help girls from the Swat Valley, where Malala is from, receive an education instead of entering the workforce prematurely. Girls' education in Pakistan, however, needs more than Malala's determination and courage. While the Taliban have certainly terrorized parts of the country, they are not to blame for the sorry state of girls' education in Pakistan. Over the years, Pakistan's various governments have made halfhearted efforts to address the shameful gender gap, but the proof of their failure is in the numbers:

The statistics are appalling. In 1981, 45 percent of male youth (15 to 24) in Pakistan were literate, versus only 24 percent of female youth--a literacy gap of 21 points. Since that time, while overall literacy rates have improved, Pakistan's gender gap has barely budged. In 2009, 79 percent of male youth were literate, but only 61 percent of female youth--a literacy gap of 18 points. Another way to understand Pakistan's slow progress on female education is by comparing it with Bangladesh. Formerly East Pakistan, Bangladesh became independent in 1971. Ten years later, Pakistan and Bangladesh were performing comparably on literacy. But Bangladesh has since raced ahead in female education and now literacy rates there are higher for female than for male youth. Between 2000 and 2005, Bangladesh managed to double female primary school enrollment to 90 percent. In Pakistan, female primary school net enrollment in 2010 was only 60 percent. Pakistan's educational system (and attitudes toward women more generally) are holding the country back. In 2010, only 22 percent of Pakistani women participated in the workforce, as opposed to 57 percent in Bangladesh. While it is now commonly acknowledged that a literate and educated female population can powerfully contribute to economic development--not to mention improve life outcomes for their families--Pakistan is missing the boat. The world rightly applauds the courage and determination of young Malala Yousafzai, but getting girls in school needs to be a national obsession for Pakistan if it hopes to tackle poverty and extremism.

TTP’s audacity

In essence, this peace offer of the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is no different from its earlier response to the government’s reconciliation overture. It wants the Pakistani state to surrender to its diktats, which not even a banana republic would acquiesce into. And yet the TTP spokesman has the gumption to surmise that the government seems “non-serious in peace talks”. In any case, his refrain that the TTP is willing to talk to the government for the sake of Islam should carry the cake. What people is he talking of when in its terrorist attacks and suicide bombings it has slaughtered no less than 40,000 innocent civilians? And those include, horribly, thousands of women and children. And numerous toddlers too. And yet with a pious face he wants the release of five militant commanders whose hands are red with this horrific carnage of the civilians that has left very many women widowed, very many children orphaned and deprived very many families of their breadwinners. Perfidy, after all, cannot be unlimited. What Islam is he indeed speaking of, which even its worst enemies admit, even if grudgingly, is a noble religion of peace and amity that abhors the murder of even an innocent nonbeliever, what to talk of an innocent Muslim? And yet the TTP and its cohorts have been slaughtering and maiming only their Muslim compatriots, and, more despicably, claiming the responsibility of each heinous murderous strike pridefully as if they have done some heroic deed. Absolutely contrite they are not at this repellent barbarity on their co-religionists. And with what moral authority is he asking for guarantors for peace talks when it was the militants who palpably broke the peace accords in the past? When the ANP concluded a peace deal with Fazlullah, he took it that Swat had been parcelled out to him to be his kingdom and started behaving like en emperor. So vain indeed was he that he even refused condescending to give an audience to the ANP peace negotiating team in his royal court. And when the ANP did a deal with his father-in-law Sufi Mohammad, he too started acting like a sultan of Malakand. Not even Baitullah Mehsud stuck to his peace vows. Apart from attacking the security forces, he kept sending suicide bombers to butcher the innocent civilians in markets and shopping plazas, hotels and restaurants, and on roads and streets. Given all this, it is not the militants who need mediators to stand guarantors in peace talks with the government; it is the other way round. It is the government that needs guarantees that the TTP would stand by the peace accord, if concluded any. Enough of the spokesman’s skullduggery. But facts are facts. Had indeed the TTP really changed, it along with its cohorts would have stopped with terrorist attacks, at least on the civilians, as a manifest of its seriousness in peace talks. But that mayhem of the civilians at its hands continues unabated. Indeed, going by its own claims it is now also quite involved in the incessant bloodletting in the port city of Karachi that has virtually turned into a live killing field. Wouldn’t then this peace offer of the TTP fit into line of thought of various observers that this overture is indeed the militant outfit’s ploy to gain time to refurbish the loss of strength it may have suffered due to the ongoing military operations in the tribal areas? Whatever it is, if the TTP is really for peace it must give an earnest of it first by declaring ceasefire and acting on it visibly. The states, it must understand, do go through difficult times when faced with violence and bloodletting. But bend or yield they do not and triumph ultimately. The outlawed outfit would do well to lay down the arms and seek whatever it wants through civilised democratic ways. Hasn’t the spokesman himself proclaimed that the TTP has “become a popular movement”? Then, shouldn’t it, instead of keeping up with the massacre and maiming of the civilians, get into the political mainstream and acquire what it wishes peacefull

President Zardari stresses on Pak-Afghan border management

RADIO PAKISTAN

President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday said that creation of enabling environment to facilitate trade and business activities between Pakistan and Afghanistan is of paramount importance for ensuring lasting peace in the region. The President made these remarks at the conclusion of 3rd Trilateral Summit between Pakistan‚ Afghanistan and United Kingdom held here in the outskirts of London. The President called for putting in place effective border control management system on both sides at formal border crossings between Pakistan and Afghanistan.The President said that any future Afghan plan must by definition include a roadmap for the early return of Afghan refugees to their homeland and adoption of effective measures for border management to address cross-border criminal activities. President Asif Ali Zardari while terming contribution of trilateral process as highly valuable said that it has made a good progress in a very short span of time and assured the participants of the summit that Pakistan would continue to play its due role in Afghan led and Afghan owned peace process. The President while reiterating Pakistan's commitment for a long term peace and stability in Afghanistan added that it is important to have realistic expectations from Pakistan and called for matching initiatives from Afghan Government and international partners to create the right mix for a real breakthrough. The President said that early conclusion of the proposed Strategic Partnership Agreement with Afghan Government would be a major step forward as it would send a clear signal that they are ready to work together for mutual interests. The President while highlighting the importance of Doha Process with Afghan Government underlined the need for bringing all Afghan stakeholders on board to obtain clarity and quality to talks. The President said that Pakistan is working on the Afghan roadmap for the peace process to the extent feasible and has started implementing specific requests made by the High Peace Council (HPC) which include release of Taliban detainees. The President thanked Prime Minister David Cameron for hosting the Summit and for extending warm hospitality to him and the members of his delegation.

U.S., France agree on need to hand over Mali operation to UN mission

Visiting U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Monday said France and the United States agreed on the need to hand over Mali military operations to a United Nations mission when it is "prudent." "We agreed on the need to as quickly as reasonably possible establish the African-led international mission in Mali and as quickly as is prudent transition that mission to the United Nations," he said after talks with French President Francois Hollande on issues concerning Mali, Syria and Iran. Biden hailed Hollande's "decisiveness" in Mali and commended France's leading role in the fight against terrorism at a press conference. "We support the political process led by France in order to restore a democratic governance in Mali," Biden said. He stressed the importance of working with "our regional partners to counter terrorism cross North African and beyond." President Hollande expressed his gratitude for U.S. political and logistic support to Mali operation. "I appreciated the support of the decision that I took which is the intervention of France on behalf of the international community in Mali," Hollande said. Hollande and Biden also discussed Iran's controversial nuclear program. "We regret that Iran is still refusing to be transparent and to respond to its international obligations. So we will raise up the pressure so that negotiations can lead to a solution," Hollande said. On his part, Biden reiterated U.S. offer for bilateral talks with Iran on its disputed nuclear program. Iran and the West are locked in a bitter dispute over the former's nuclear ambitions. The West accuses Tehran of developing nuclear weapon under the cover of peaceful nuclear program, a charge Iran has consistently denied. The two also held talks on ways to press for resumption of talks to end the deadlocked Middle East peace process. The U.S. vice president arrived in Paris on Sunday after attending the Munich Security Conference in southern Germany and will head for London for talks with British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Stifling free speech in India

http://gulfnews.com

By Amulya Ganguli, IANS

If intemperate politicians are having a free run in intimidating contrary views, it is because governments have tended to yield to extremists

Both Hindu and Muslim fanatics are up in arms against artistic and literary freedom in India. One of their targets is the old “sinner” Salman Rushdie. But there are two others. One of them is social scientist Ashis Nandy, who stirred a hornet’s nest by saying at the Jaipur Literature Festival that most of the corrupt people in the country happened to be from the lower castes (he said this in a certain context that was ignored). It is a slur which champions of these communities can hardly ignore — if only because their entire political career is based on promoting caste-consciousness that fuels antipathy towards the upper castes. Foremost among them is the Dalit (lower cast) czarina Mayawati, whose slogan at one time was: “Tilak, tarazu aur talwar, inko maro jootey char.” It meant: Beat with shoes the Brahmins (who wear tilak or a mark on their foreheads), Banias (who weigh the goods in their shops with tarazu or a pair of scales) and Kshatriyas (the warrior class who sport talwar or sword and hold second place after Brahmins in the caste hierarchy).Mayawati’s demand was that Nandy be arrested forthwith under an act which seeks to protect Dalits and adivasis (tribals) from atrocities. What she did not care to consider was whether the law, meant to safeguard these communities from a continuation of the centuries-old social denigration, could be applied to a scholarly thesis. It has to be noted that the person mentioned by Nandy in this context was former Jharkhand chief minister, Madhu Koda, a tribal, who is now in jail on charges of corruption. The point, however, is not about who is right and who is wrong. It is about whether a renowned sociologist has the right to express an opinion based on his study of the social and political scene — or whether he should be put in jail for saying what he believes to be correct. Nandy is not the first academic, of course, who has to confront the bigots. Not long ago, the Oriental Research Institute in Pune was vandalised because historian James W. Laine had worked there while preparing a biography of Shivaji, which was not liked by the present-day admirers of the Maharashtrian warrior hero. Arguably, if vandals and intemperate politicians are having a free run in the matter of intimidating those holding contrary views in their opinion, the reason is that the governments at both the centre and in the states have tended to yield ground to extremists. One notable instance of such a retreat was the banning of Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses by the Rajiv Gandhi government in 1988 under pressure from Muslim hardliners. The fact that the kowtowing did not satisfy them is, however, evident from Rushdie’s decision to stay away from the Jaipur Literature Festival last year because of the government’s reluctance to guarantee him protection. And this year too, he had to call off a visit to Kolkata for the same reason, along with filmmaker Deepa Mehta, in connection with the release of Midnight’s Children, a film based on his Booker prize-winning book of the same name. The government did not even allow the film to be shot in India for fear of offending fundamentalists. As a result, Mehta had to shoot the film in Sri Lanka. Another film, which is having to run the gauntlet of the Muslim militants is Kamal Haasan’s Vishwaroopam, even though it shows an Indian Muslim intelligence officer battling Islamic fanatics in Afghanistan and should be a matter of pride therefore for “patriotic” Muslims, as Haasan said. The standard explanation given by the Muslim radicals for lambasting Rushdie or Haasan is that they have hurt the community’s religious sentiments. It is the same argument which compelled Galileo to deny in the 17th century that the earth moved round the sun since his claim was found hurtful to the beliefs by Christians at the time. It took the Catholic church three centuries to offer a formal apology for its denunciation of the astronomer. Yet, this argument is offered time and again in 21st century India to satisfy the prejudices of the diehards. In view of the difficulties which his film faces, Haasan has even said that he may have to seek refuge in a secular country, just as painter M.F. Hussain had to flee from India and die in exile because of the threat posed by Hindu storm-troopers. Regrettably, it is no secret that the silent majority of Hindus and Muslims do not subscribe to the irrationalism of the fanatics. Yet, the government is reluctant to act against the trouble-makers in case it is seen to be directed against the community as a whole. Interestingly, the Marxists are no better despite their claim to be progressive, for it was when they were in power in West Bengal that the controversial Bangladeshi author, Taslima Nasreen, had to leave Kolkata because of the disturbances caused by a minor Muslim outfit. There is little doubt that the decline of the Congress and the growth of backward-looking parties based on specific castes and communities are responsible for the prevailing cultural terrorism.

Video: Malala Yousafzai: first interview since getting shot by Taliban

Malala: Schoolgirl Shot By Taliban Speaks Out

The Pakistani schoolgirl shot in the head by the Taliban makes her first public statement since she was nearly killed. In a video interview, 15-year-old Malala Yousufzai, who is having reconstructive surgery to replace part of her skull at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, said that she was "getting better, day by day". Speaking clearly but with a slight stiffness in her upper lip, she said: "Today you can see that I am alive. I can speak, I can see you, I can see everyone. "It's just because of the prayers of people. Because all people - men, women, children - all of them have prayed for me. And because of all these prayers God has given me this new life . A second life. And I want to serve. I want to serve the people. I want every girl, every child, to be educated. "For that reason, we have organised the Malala Fund." The teenager drew the world's attention when she was shot by Taliban militants on October 9 on a school bus in northwestern Pakistan. The Islamist group said they targeted her because she promoted girls' education and "Western thinking". Malala was airlifted to Britain from Pakistan in October to receive specialist medical care and protection against further Taliban threats. She is expected to remain in the UK for some time as her father, Ziauddin, has received a diplomatic post based in Birmingham. The video statement was published shortly after Queen Elizabeth Hospital said they had successfully operated to reconstruct her skull and restore her hearing. The video was filmed on January 22. The Malala Fund is a girls' education charity set up in late 2012. It launched with a $10m (£6.4m) donation from Pakistan.

Ravens win emotional Super Bowl against 49ers

The Baltimore Ravens reclaimed the greatest prize in North American sports after a dramatic, nail-biting 34-31 Super Bowl victory over the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.

Inspired by their power-packed quarterback Joe Flacco, the Ravens survived a ferocious comeback from the 49ers and a bizarre power outage that stopped the game for more than half an hour to win their second Super Bowl. John Harbaugh, the head coach of the Ravens, won the most anticipated sibling rivalry in American team sports against his younger brother Jim, who holds the equivalent job with the 49ers. And Ray Lewis, the combative 37-year-old Ravens linebacker destined for the Hall of Fame, ended his 17 season career with a second Super Bowl title, 12 years after he won his first. "What better way to go out?" said Lewis. "We did it! We did it!" The game, at the Superdome in New Orleans, was preceded by one of the most poignant moments ever witnessed in the 47 editions of the Super Bowl when a choir from Sandy Hook Elementary School joined Jennifer Hudson in a stirring rendition of "America the Beautiful". The 70,000 spectators rose to their feet, many with tears in their eyes, as the children sang, nearly two months after the deadly shooting rampage at their Connecticut school. "Our wish is to demonstrate to America and the world that, "We are Sandy Hook and we choose love," the school said in a statement. The action on the field was as wild as the parties that have taken place in Bourbon St in the days leading up to the game as the Ravens opened up a commanding lead. With Flacco, who was named Most Valuable Player, calling the shots and wide receiver Jacoby Jones scoring two of the most spectacular touchdowns seen in a Super Bowl, the Ravens looked to be cruising to victory when they led 28-6 early in the third quarter. Flacco made a great start, orchestrating a six-play, 51-yard drive on his team's first possession that culminated with a 13-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Anquan Boldin. In the second quarter, he threw a one-yard scoring pass to tight end Dennis Pitta, then a spectacular 56-yard scoring strike to Jones. The Ravens led 21-6 when Beyonce came out to perform a stunning halftime show then opened the second half with a Super Bowl-record 108-yard kickoff return for a touchdown from Jones that will be shown on highlight reels for generations to come. BLACK OUT But just when it seemed the result was a foregone conclusion, a section of the lights at the Superdome, hosting the Super Bowl for the first time since Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in 2005, blacked out. Play was stopped for 35 minutes while red-faced officials and technicians restored power. When it came back on, the game instantly took on a completely different complexion. With Colin Kaepernick finally finding his targets and making inroads with the football in hand, San Francisco piled on 17 unanswered points. When Kaepernick rushed for a touchdown himself with just 10 minutes to go in the final quarter, the margin was down to just two points and momentum was on their side. But Justin Tucker kicked a 38-yard field goal to give his five-team lead and the 49ers failed to score the touchdown they needed to win, getting only a two-point safety, as the Ravens defended their line for dear life. "Five yards short, all the work we did in the offseason, the whole entire season, everything came down to five yards and we weren't able to get it done," said dejected 49ers tackle Joe Staley. Both team played down the impact of the power outage, saying it was the same for both teams, while the Harbaugh brothers embraced each other as confetti rained down from the roof after one of the most emotional nights in American sport. "I just love him obviously. I think anybody out there who has a brother can understand what that is all about," John said. "The meeting with Jim in the middle was probably the most difficult thing I have ever been associated with in my life. I am proud of him."

Saudi protesters in Riyadh demand release of political prisoners

Saudi protesters have taken to the streets in the capital, Riyadh, to express solidarity with political prisoners and those arrested in demonstrations against the ruling Al Saud regime, Press TV reports.

On Sunday, the demonstrators called on Saudi authorities to release all jailed opposition activists and prisoners of conscience. Saudis staged a similar protest rally in Riyadh on January 29, calling for the release of prisoners detained during the anti-regime demonstrations. The demonstrators chanted slogans against the excessive use of force by Saudi forces in quelling the anti-regime protests and condemned the Al Saud regime’s suppressive actions against dissidents. Since February 2011, protesters have held demonstrations on an almost regular basis in Saudi Arabia, mainly in the Qatif region and the town of Awamiyah in Eastern Province. The demonstrations turned into protests against the Al Saud regime after November 2011, when Saudi security forces killed five protesters and injured many others in the province. Saudi forces have also arrested prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. In October 2012, Saudi officials warned that they would deal ‘firmly’ with anti-regime demonstrations. Amnesty International slammed the warning and urged the authorities to “withdraw their threat.”

South Africa finish off Pakistan in first Test

Dale Steyn bagged a career best 11 for 60 as South Africa routed Pakistan by 211 runs to win the first Test on day four at the Wanderers in Johannesburg on Monday. Pakistan were all out for 268 during an extended morning session as South Africa took a 1-0 lead in the three-match series with more than a day and a half to spare. Junaid Khan was the last man out adjudged leg before after a decision review off Steyn who finished 5 for 52 in the second innings. It followed his devastating spell of 6 for 8 in the first innings to destroy Pakistan for their lowest ever Test total of 49. "I bowled quite nicely," said man of the match Steyn modestly. "I've not been able to pick up wickets at the top in recent times but glad I did it here. We wanted to try and get these wickets as quickly as possible today." Having been set an improbable target of 480, Pakistan progressed to 203-4 continuing from their overnight 183-4 before the second new ball was taken. Steyn removed the overnight fifth wicket partnership of 127 between Asad Shafiq (56) and Misbah ul Haq (64) to break Pakistan's resistance. He also claimed tailenders Umar Gul and Junaid Khan to seal victory with four wickets during an unchanged 11-over spell in the morning. Wicketkeeper AB de Villiers also hogged the limelight equalling the world record for the most number of dismissals held by England's Jack Russell when Umar Gul became his 11th victim of the match. "You always get a bit nervous in milestone game, people could say that you are not totally focused. We knew we wanted to bat first, we were looking at 250-odd, but we left ourselves down a little bit," said South African skipper Graeme Smith who was victorious in his 100th Test as captain. "Blessed to have Steyn in the attack, No. 1 bowler in the world, he has been helped Morkel and Philander. Hopefully AB has silenced the critics with his keeping, our intensity on the third morning was very good," he added. "I think that was a great spell of innings, that hurt us really," said Pakistan skipper Misbah ul Haq of Steyn's sensational spell of 6 for 8 which bowled them out for 49 in the first innings. He was positive about the remaining matches in the series to be played at Cape Town and Centurion. "I think everybody knows that once we can see off the new ball, we can score runs, I think in the next match you will see that," said Misbah who top scored with a valiant knock of 64 in the second essay. MORNING SESSION South Africa have opted to take the extended half hour of the morning session needing just one wicket to win the first Test against Pakistan in Graeme Smith's 100th as captain. Pakistan are 266-9 continuing from their overnight total of 183-4 on day four of the first Test against Pakistan at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg on Monday having been set an improbable target of 480. Dale Steyn gets his fifth 10-wicket haul as Umar Gul is adjudged caught behind after decision review after getting a faint edge to AB de Villiers who equals the world record for the most number of victims in a match held by England's Jack Russell. Gul goes for 23 off 43 balls with three boundaries having added 21 for the ninth wicket with Junaid Khan. Junaid Khan survives after being bowled off a no-ball by Morne Morkel whom he hammered for a boundary a few balls earlier. Umar Gul lofts Dale Steyn to long on fence as the Pakistan tail continues to wag. Ajmal becomes AB de Villiers' 10th victim of the match as he eyes the world record of 11 dismissals held by England's Jack Russell set at the same venue in 1995/96. Morne Morkel removes Saeed Ajmal with a beautiful delivery which moves in the air to be caught behind by AB de Villiers in his first over the morning as Pakistan lose their eighth wicket. Ajmal goes for 11 off 16 balls with two boundaries after a brief stand of 22 with Umar Gul. Umar Gul has top edged Philander over the keeper for his second boundary. Saeed Ajmal manages to get a boundary to fine leg off Steyn with an edge which nearly hit his stumps but his next boundary to square leg is a more orthodox shot. Umar Gul has swung Philander to midwicket as the Pakistan tail wag. South Africa are racing to victory after taking the second new ball with Sarfraz Ahmed playing a Vernon Philander delivery onto his stumps as Pakistan lose their seventh wicket. Ahmed was undecided whether to play or leave it only succeeding in getting an inside edge onto his stumps after facing 11 balls for 6 runs. Umar Gul survives a confident leg before appeal off Dale Steyn who is bowling at full throttle. Dale Steyn's double strike with the second new ball to remove the overnight pair of Misbah and Shafiq has virtually ended any hopes of a miracle for Pakistan. Misbah's patient vigil which lasted more than four hours ends and with that Pakistan's hopes of delaying the inevitable. The Pakistan skipper made 64 off 167 balls and looked the most positive hitting four of his 11 boundaries in the morning. Dale Steyn strikes again removing Pakistan's captain Misbah ul Haq caught behind by AB de Villiers in his third over of the morning. Sarfraz Ahmed was lucky to survive after getting a leading edge off Philander which fell just short of the fielder at point. Dale Steyn strikes in his second over of the morning finding an edge off Asad Shafiq's bat to Kallis at second slip. Shafiq's resistance ends after facing 168 balls for 56 which contained nine hits having added just three runs to his overnight score. His fifth wicket partnership of 127 with Misbah last nearly 53 overs. Misbah edges a delivery from Vernon Philander's first over with the second new ball through the slip cordon for his fourth boundary of the morning. South Africa have taken the second new ball with Pakistan on 203-4 with Dale Steyn opening with a maiden over as Asad Shafiq offers a dead bat. Misbah ul Haq hits the third boundary of the morning this time against Kallis to bring up the 200 of the Pakistan innings in the 80th over. Misbah ul Haq reaches his 18th Test half century with his second boundary of the morning, a lovely cover drive of Morkel. Misbah's dogged half century came off 146 balls and contained nine boundaries. The fifth wicket partnership between Misbah and Shafiq surpassed the previous highest for Pakistan against South Africa of 109 made in 2010 in UAE. Kallis has sent down a maiden to Asad Shafiq. Misbah ul Haq gets the first runs of the fourth morning edging to third man boundary off Morne Morkel with the ball dropping short of a diving Jacque Kallis at second slip. Jacques Kallis opens the attack for South Africa on day four of the first Test against Pakistan in Johannesburg at Wanderers Stadium on Monday. Pakistan resumed from their overnight total of 184-4 needing to survive two days or get 297 runs to win after being set a record target of 480. Misbah-ul-Haq (44 not out) and Asad Shafiq (53 not out) have given them hope and dented South Africa's bid for an early finish.

Another terror attack

EDITORIAL : DAILY TIMES

Yet another black day has marked Pakistan’s long and bloody journey in the war on terror. A militant suicide attack on a military check post in Lakki Marwat in the tribal belt on Saturday has proved to be devastating as 13 of our soldiers were killed along with 11 innocent civilians. What is particularly disturbing about this attack is that one of the suicide bombers, in a bid to escape being caught by the security forces, ran into a private residential home and detonated himself, killing everybody inside. This is probably the first time a crime of this most worrisome nature has occurred. A private residence in the irrigation colony, located close to the check post, and its occupants were all used as a human shield by the suicide attacker. One wonders if this is some kind of new, ugly pattern that is emerging for the terrorists who have proved time and again that they do not discriminate between their intended targets — the security agencies and people belonging to different sects — and innocent bystanders. On Friday, a gruesome attack in Hangu saw a Shia mosque attacked but the damage left its bloody mark on a nearby Sunni mosque as well, with many worshippers from there being killed too. Are militants belonging to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) going all out to prove that, when it comes to their war, there is no one who is safe from attack? It seems as if they are trying, in their own bloody way, to separate the general populace from their intended targets by attacking anyone unlucky enough to be even remotely associated with them — the ostracise and kill method. This kind of attack is becoming more and more prevalent in the tribal areas and one is compelled to think that it can happen again anywhere, even in someone’s own house. This strike comes at around the same time as the US Secretary of State Leon Panetta’s statement on how the US will continue its open-ended drone war inside Pakistani territory. This is based on the fact that top al Qaeda leaders have been killed in these targeted strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. Due to these successes, the US will not consider halting the drone attacks. One asks here: should it? Stopping the drones seems like a very unwise move at this point in time. The militants are going from strength to strength, upping the ante on the nature of their attacks, killing men, women and children, and leaving no place safe. While the US is conducting drone strikes because it fears another attack on US soil, Pakistan ought to make use of the determination of the US while it can to rid itself of a common enemy. It has become obvious that our security forces and intelligence agencies are unable so far to take out the terror threat. It is then little wonder that our politicians, while publicly denouncing the drone strikes, due to fear of a public backlash, condone them in private. It is vital that Pakistan too up its game where our counter-terrorism strategies are concerned. We must increase our intelligence efforts and fully equip the police to deal with this militant menace. More concerted cooperation between these two wings will see terror attacks pre-empted and prevented, which is the only way to stop them from happening. A suicide mission is one that can only be averted before the bomber has been dispatched. The only way to provide some security to this country’s citizens is to bring together effective intelligence and police work to beat back the terrorists who have taken the entire country hostage.

Pakistan Government negligence: Past royal abode assaulted by today’s vandals

The rani of Gandhara couldn’t get any queenlier: fond of fresh water from the Indus, she would order her palace courtiers to form a human queue all the way from the Peshawar Valley to the rivers of Punjab. The man closest to the river would scoop water to pass it on, and the process would continue till a handful of the Indus had crossed several miles to reach the queen. Dwelling between the 5th and 2nd century BCE, this Buddhist regal figure has been a celebrated part of a rich folklore – songs and stories of which still echo from the coffee-hued ruins of ‘Rani Gat’ in Nogram village of Buner district. ‘Rani’ translates from Pashto as ‘queen’ while ‘Gat’ as ‘rock’ or ‘stone’. The famous mound of Rani Gat is regarded as the site where the queen would sit during her evenings for leisure. Sadly, this fascinating relic is a victim of vandalism and poor preservation techniques. “People visit here and climb up the walls most carelessly. The government must take serious notice of it and guards must do their duty and stop people and animals from destroying it further. There must be proper system for the visitors, complete with guides, historical material and drinking water facilities etc. Furthermore, the government must stop the illegal and frequent excavation in this area,” says Haider Ali Akhundkhel, a researcher and author who visits the site frequently. “This is the largest site in the Gandhara region. Sadly, the government does not realise its importance.” Not only are these ruins famous as the abode of a historic queen, but also as home to invaluable remains of shrines and monasteries, bearing evidence to a glorious Buddhist learning centre which the Gandhara civilisation begot. The legacy of the area includes remains from the Mauryan and Kushan empire, along with Greek influences emerging from Alexander the Great’s arrival to Taxila in 326 BCE. The Buner site includes a room carved out in a rock, of a unique design with holes and niches in it, where sculptor would sit along with carved Buddha statues. The architecture follows a style which is characteristic to the civilisation – making it an invaluable study resource. Hazir Gul, a member of the Suvastu Arts and Cultural Association told The Express Tribune that the site is being destroyed by locals who pilfer stones from it and use it in their buildings. He appealed the provincial government to take immediate steps for its conservation. Director Archaeology and Museum, Dr Shah Nazar Khan said, “We have some projects regarding its conservation in pipeline, work on which will soon be initiated” A series of excavations were carried out at the site in 1984, 1986, and 1989 with the help of Kyoto University in Japan, as a result of which several bronze coins belonging to the Kushan empire were discovered. These coins bore the Kharosti script – a script used to write the Sanskrit language in Gandhara.

IP gas pipeline: Why now?

The Cabinet formally approved the agreement to construct the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline and set up a ministerial committee to explore avenues for arranging $1.5 billion required for the project's implementation. Two major objections to the approval are apparent. First and foremost the government ministers continue to minimise US opposition to the IP gas pipeline and maintain that US sanctions against Iran are not binding on Pakistan. The United Nations sanctions, they further maintain, are binding but as they have not been imposed on Iran due to opposition in the Security Council by Russia and China, Pakistan can safely proceed with the project. This is factually correct; however, the Unites States extends considerable civilian and military assistance to Pakistan and it has made it clear to the government that any attempt to construct the IP pipeline would automatically lead to sanctions. The then US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, explicitly warned Pakistan in March of 2012 when she appeared before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations that implementation of the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project would automatically trigger US sanctions under the Iran Sanctions Act. She also noted that these reservations have been conveyed to Pakistan. In short there is no ambiguity that the sanctions would be levied in case Pakistan begins to lay the pipeline. At risk would not only be the US assistance which is considerable, including an additional 250 million dollars for the construction of the Diamer-Bhasha dam as a form of compensation for not building the IP gas pipeline but also assistance from the Friends of Development Pakistan consisting of countries on whom the US has considerable influence. Secondly; the government is less than six weeks away from completing its full five year tenure and the question is why did it wait for the last few weeks before signing a binding agreement with Iran? This sets an unfortunate precedence which one hopes would deter the ministerial committee from signing any binding agreement. Additionally, in the context of this particular project, it is unlikely that the ministerial committee would be able to generate the resources necessary to construct the pipeline. A much better option to deal with the massive energy crisis in Pakistan would have been to develop Thar coal for which donor assistance would have been relatively much simpler to procure. It is difficult to comprehend why the government with an overwhelming majority in Sindh province failed to develop Thar coal in spite of repeated promises that this was a priority project.

Pakistan: Terrorist offensive

THE FRONTIER POST

On Friday, terrorist struck Hangu outside a Shia mosque and put to death at least 26 innocent civilians. The vile attack was obviously the handiwork of sectarian monsters. On Saturday, terrorists audaciously attacked a military camp in Serai Naurang and killed 13 soldiers and 11 civilians. The outlawed TTP claimed the responsibility. And the two thuggish assaults in two consecutive days tell chillily how fatally is the country in the throes of a vicious multifaceted terrorism. And yet the partisans out there are quarreling obsessively over the creation of new provinces. Of what avail would indeed be new provinces when the country is so visibly enmeshed in a threat from a wild monstrosity that has put its very existence in great peril? Yet none seems much pushed about it. Not even the state. It is now for more than half a decade that the nation is in the grip of this blood-thirsty terrorism. And even as the state functionaries not infrequently assert that with their counter-terrorism actions they have broken its back, it is not even a bit on the slowdown. Rather, it is in ascendancy and on the offensive, while the state appears in retreat. None seems safe from its vileness. Not even the security establishments that indeed have lately been its most favoured targets. That speaks alarmingly of the unpreparedness of the state to face up to this monstrosity mightily. The weakest link in the state's counter action appears to be the provincial administrations and their security and intelligence apparatuses. The country for the most part is in the clutches of urban terrorism. And fighting out this terrorism is primarily the job of the provincial governments, the maintenance of law and order on their domains is whose sole responsibility. Yet, they all have perceptibly taken a backseat, conveniently assuming that combating terrorism is the federal government's, especially the military's, task. This intrinsically is wrong. The military can fight the rebels on the mountains and deserts, caves and forests, but not on the city streets. There the recalcitrant have to be taken on by the provincial law-enforcement agencies and intelligence apparatuses. And yet they all are sitting pretty. Outlawed terrorist outfits are blithely plying their trade of murder and hate under their very noses with impunity. Some have assumed new names, though deceptively but not so deceptively. All know who they actually are. Some have bothered not even to do that and they go by their own old names. One such rabid sectarian outfit has indeed been claiming the responsibility of murderous attacks on the Shia community almost in every part of the country. Obviously, it has its sleeper cells, lairs and hideouts in the urban centres. And yet where are the CIDs of the provincial administrations that this outfit goes on with its bloodshed business unrelentingly without its cells and lairs being tracked down and busted and its network being dismantled in any part of the country? Indeed, this sluggishness of the provincial intelligence networks has come quite handy to the inveterate detractors of this country to vilify and demonise the Pakistani state. They assert, to a great conviction of the world community and to Pakistan's great grief, that these extremist outfits are not being touched by the state security apparatuses as they use them for their own ends inside and outside the country. Even this tirade has failed to impel the provincial administrations to pull out their intelligence and security networks from the stupor and go cracking on them to make them combat the urban terrorism manly. All feel content with their law-enforcers giving the weight of explosives used in a terrorist attack once it has happened. None seems asking them why had they not stopped that explosive from being used. No questions are apparently asked and no answers sought. No heads roll. It is always business as usual. Apparently, there is no watertight collaboration and cooperation either between the federal and the provincial intelligence networks, which is yet another weak link in the state's counter-terrorism action. They rather appear in competition, and worrisomely, in rivalry. This is very dangerous, and irresponsible too. All seem ploughing a lone furrow, whereas an effective counter-terrorism action is admittedly a joint effort and a combined action of various state arms. But, gallingly, no state strategy is even in evidence to combine up disparate security actions into a coherent, concerted and orchestrated effort to attain the national objective of defeating terrorism and throwing it out of the land. And this is very disturbing. The way it is being presently fought, we are visibly losing this war against terrorism. But we have to win it, in any event and at our cost, for our own survival and for the survival of our posterity. The state must come into action, in whole, not in parts. Let there be a national coordinated action to take on the monstrosity of terrorism, to defang it, prostrate it and behead it. This is a must.

PM David Cameron hosts Afghan-Pakistan talks in UK

UK PM David Cameron is hosting key talks on the Afghan peace process, involving the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan, at his country retreat.

The talks at Chequers will focus on cross-border security and how to engage the Taliban in effective peace talks. It will be the third round of discussions since Mr Cameron instigated the trilateral process last year. Foreign ministers, military leaders and intelligence chiefs will attend the talks for the first time. Nato troops are scheduled to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. Mr Cameron hosted a dinner with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari at Chequers, north of London, on Sunday evening. Monday sees in-depth talks with both presidents and their key officials. UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said the goal was to help the two nations "build closer co-operation around their common interest in a secure future". As part of the process, Mr Karzai and Mr Zardari have agreed to work together on a framework of co-operation following the international troops' departure next year. With the Nato withdrawal looming, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has told the BBC he does not want a repeat of the mistakes made when Russia withdrew from Afghanistan a quarter of a century ago, plunging the country into civil war. Overcoming mistrust Downing Street said in a statement on Sunday: "This trilateral process sends a very clear message to the Taliban: now is the time for everyone to participate in a peaceful political process in Afghanistan. "As the prime minister has set out previously, a stable Afghanistan is not just in the interests of Afghans, but also in the interests of their neighbours and the UK." Overcoming mistrust between Afghanistan and Pakistan remains a central issue, BBC World Affairs correspondent Mike Wooldridge reports. The Afghan government has made it clear that it views the recent freeing by Pakistan of a number of Taliban prisoners as positive, he says. But it still wants the release of the former second-in-command of the Afghan Taliban, Mullah Baradar, in the hope that a senior figure like him could influence the Taliban to engage in talks with Kabul. For the first time, the trilateral talks will also include military and intelligence chiefs from both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Officials believe this could help in tackling some of the most sensitive issues to do with reconciliation efforts, our correspondent says. Mr Karzai told the BBC's Pashto Service that Afghan people should take the initiative for peace into their own hands. "As neither the communist government, nor the mujahedeen brought peace and security to the country, if we do not carefully manage our peace process the way we did not in the past, we will not achieve stability or security," Mr Karzai said. The first two rounds of the trilateral talks were held in Kabul and New York last year.

Cheers for François Hollande, hero of Mali

They put on their most colourful clothes, belted out music, danced and, repeatedly and rhythmically, chanted his name. The people of Timbuktu were demonstrating that the shackles of Islamist sharia had been broken and hailing their deliverer, François Hollande . There was no doubting the warmth and gratitude in the welcome given to the French President by Malians, on his first visit since sending in troops. But behind the scenes there are ominous signs that the swift campaign which had driven the jihadists from the territory they controlled is not the end of this war. Over the last few days there have been discoveries of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and the deaths of Malian soldiers from a landmine. At the same time the incendiary ethnic divisions that sparked the current turmoil have resurfaced just as the rebels are about to lose their final stronghold. There is an unofficial stand-off at the northern town of Kidal between French troops and their Malian partners, who are not being allowed into large parts of the town due to fears they would take murderous revenge on its Tuareg residents. Instead it is Chadian soldiers who are providing the African security presence. Tuareg fighters, armed with the looted arsenal of the Gaddafi regime which they served before it fell, had raised the flag of Azawad in Kidal. The rebellion was joined by al-Qa'ida in the Islamic Maghreb, who took over leadership and the weaponry, first sidelining and then driving out the Tuareg. Since then the community had been under attack from both sides, with Malian troops carrying our summary executions of "terrorist suspects". Under pressure from the French, Mali's interim President, Dioncounda Traoré, has begun talks with the Tuareg separatists, a deeply unpopular move among the army who carried out a coup last year. The United Nations' special advisor on prevention of genocide, Adama Dieng, warned that human rights abuses, already prevalent, will worsen further unless urgent counter-measures are taken. "We must tell President Hollande that he has cut down the tree but still has to tear up its roots. I am deeply concerned at the risk of reprisal attacks against ethnic Tuareg and Arab civilians." None of the unpleasantness was mentioned by officials during President Hollande's three hours and 48 minutes on the ground yesterday. In Timbuktu he visited the mosque of Djingareyber, an architectural masterpiece made out of mud 700 years ago, and the Ahmed Baba library where the jihadists had carried out their last concerted action before leaving the city – making a bonfire of priceless historic manuscripts. The area, normally crowded, was sealed off by French armoured personnel carriers. Two dozen dignitaries were there to meet Mr Hollande's party, which included the French Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius. "He is the man who saved Mali, it is an honour to meet him. Without him we would never have got rid of the Salafists," said Khalif Mualam Traore, a local imam. "They stopped people from thanking Allah at the end of prayers. They beat people for no reason." Umar Sekou, a hotel owner, pointed out that ethnic divisions continued under the jihadists. "They normally punished black people most severely, not the Arabs. That's because so many of them were foreigners from places like Algeria and Tunisia. After the French came, the Arabs fled with the jihadists, their shops and businesses got looted, we found weapons in their homes." Mr Hollande then visited the Ahmed Baba library, where he was shown the charred manuscripts, a reminder, said Irina Bokova, the director-general of Unesco who was accompanying the President, that the jihadists were intent on destroying Mali's history as well as oppressing its people. There were tumultous greetings at the square for the French President, with French soldiers and Malian police struggling to control the surging crowd of more than 5,000. "All Mali is grateful to him, but especially the women," exclaimed Hania Kalbati, a 24-year-old teacher. "We lived in a constant night, they took away all our freedoms. We could not work, we had to cover ourselves all the time in the darkest clothes. We are glad all that is over." But Mr Hollande told French troops at Timbuktu airport: "The conflict is not over, it would be a mistake to think that because we have restored order in towns like Gao and Timbuktu we can stop there."

Malala awake, talking after successful surgeries

Pakistani teen activist Malala Yousufzai was in stable condition at a British hospital on Sunday after undergoing surgeries to repair her skull and help her hearing, officials said. "Both operations were a success and Malala is now recovering in hospital. Her medical team are 'very pleased' with the progress she has made so far," the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham said in a statement. "She is awake and talking to staff and members of her family." Saturday's five-hour surgeries were the latest step on a long road to recovery for Malala, who was shot in the head and neck by Taliban gunmen in October for speaking out in favor of education for Pakistani girls. Last week doctors said they would use a titanium plate to cover an opening in her skull, and give her a cochlear implant to partially restore hearing in her left ear.The plate was necessary to replace a section of her skull about the size of a hand, which doctors removed to relieve swelling after the shooting. And the inner ear implant will restore some function to her damaged ear, doctors said last week. The 15-year-old became an international symbol of courage after she was shot by Taliban gunmen last fall for her crusade about girls going to school. She had blogged fearlessly about girls' education and accused the Taliban of thriving on ignorance. The Taliban forbid girls in the classroom and have threatened to kill anyone who defies them. Malala was in a school van on October 9 when the gunmen stopped the vehicle and shot her at point-blank range. She was flown to the British hospital six days later. Doctors there discharged her last month, and she has been recovering with her family at a temporary home nearby. Her father, who had been an educator in Pakistan, is now employed at the Pakistani Consulate in Birmingham. On Sunday, officials said Malala would remain hospitalized until she is well enough to be discharged.

Dangerous Gun Myths

The debate over what to do to reduce gun violence in America hit an absurd low point on Wednesday when a Senate witness tried to portray a proposed new ban on assault rifles and high-capacity magazines as some sort of sexist plot that would disproportionately hurt vulnerable women and their children. The witness was Gayle Trotter, a fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum, a right-wing public policy group that provides pseudofeminist support for extreme positions that are in fact dangerous to women. She told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the limits on firepower proposed by Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, would harm women because an assault weapon “in the hands of a young woman defending her babies in her home becomes a defense weapon.” She spoke of the “peace of mind” and “courage” a woman derives from “knowing she has a scary-looking gun” when she’s fighting violent criminals. It is not at all clear where Ms. Trotter gained her insight into confrontations between women and heavily armed intruders, since it is not at all clear that sort of thing happens often. It is tempting to dismiss her notion that an AR-15 is a woman’s best friend as the kooky reflex response of someone ideologically opposed to gun control laws and who, in her case, has also been a vociferous opponent of the Violence Against Women Act, the 1994 law that assists women facing domestic violence. But it is important to note that Ms. Trotter was chosen to testify by the committee’s Republican members, who will have a big say on what, if anything, Congress does on guns; and that her appearance before the committee was to give voice to the premise, however insupportable and dangerous it may be, that guns make women and children safer — and the more powerful the guns the better. Ms. Trotter related the story of Sarah McKinley, an 18-year-old Oklahoma woman who shot and killed an intruder on New Year’s Eve 2011, when she was home alone with her baby. The story was telling, but not in the way she intended, as Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, pointed out. The woman was able to repel the intruder using an ordinary Remington 870 Express 12-gauge shotgun, which would not be banned under the proposed statute. She did not need a military-style weapon with a 30-round magazine. But there is a more fundamental problem with the idea that guns actually protect the hearth and home. Guns rarely get used that way. In the 1990s, a team headed by Arthur Kellermann of Emory University looked at all injuries involving guns kept in the home in Memphis, Seattle and Galveston, Tex. They found that these weapons were fired far more often in accidents, criminal assaults, homicides or suicide attempts than in self-defense. For every instance in which a gun in the home was shot in self-defense, there were seven criminal assaults or homicides, four accidental shootings, and 11 attempted or successful suicides. The cost-benefit balance of having a gun in the home is especially negative for women, according to a 2011 review by David Hemenway, director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center. Far from making women safer, a gun in the home is “a particularly strong risk factor” for female homicides and the intimidation of women. In domestic violence situations, the risk of homicide for women increased eightfold when the abuser had access to firearms, according to a study published in The American Journal of Public Health in 2003. Further, there was “no clear evidence” that victims’ access to a gun reduced their risk of being killed. Another 2003 study, by Douglas Wiebe of the University of Pennsylvania, found that females living with a gun in the home were 2.7 times more likely to be murdered than females with no gun at home. Regulating guns, on the other hand, can reduce that risk. An analysis by Mayors Against Illegal Guns found that in states that required a background check for every handgun sale, women were killed by intimate partners at a much lower rate. Senator Patrick Leahy, the Judiciary Committee chairman, has used this fact to press the case for universal background checks, to make sure that domestic abusers legally prohibited from having guns cannot get them. As for the children whose safety Ms. Trotter professes to be so concerned about, guns in the home greatly increase the risk of youth suicides. That is why the American Academy of Pediatrics has long urged parents to remove guns from their homes. The idea that guns are essential to home defense and women’s safety is a myth. It should not be allowed to block the new gun controls that the country so obviously needs.

Raw Video: Egypt Security Forces Strip, Beat Protester

Afghanistan: the great game of thrones

Historian William Dalrymple's new book

charts the disastrous British attempt to set up a puppet king in Afghanistan in 1839, writes Manreet Sodhi Someshwar

Britain had conquered most of India by 1939, but its empire was stalled at Punjab by the powerful Sikh king Ranjeet Singh. Russia, the other big empire of the time, was moving south through Central Asia. What stood between these two empires was the fractious, mountainous region of Afghanistan, for centuries the gateway to Hindustan for invaders. But what if Russia decided to follow in the hooves of those conquerors? Eager to secure its prized treasure of India, Britain decided to pre-empt the Russians by invading Afghanistan. Thus began the Great Game, a term coined by Sir Henry Creswick Rawlinson, an Englishman who first sighted Cossacks in the disputed borderlands between Persia (today's Iran) and Afghanistan in 1837 and alerted his superiors. "As so often in international affairs, hawkish paranoia about distant threats can create the very monster that is most feared," writes William Dalrymple in Return of a King, a chronicle of the first Anglo-Afghan war from the spring of 1839 when the invasion began to the autumn of 1842 when the Union flag was lowered. The deposed Afghan king, Shah Shuja, had earlier sought British protection and had been living in Ludhiana, Punjab. The British decided to reinstate him on the throne and manage the country through this puppet. There was a second opinion to back the incumbent ruler and gain Afghanistan without bloodshed. However, the administration was rife with internal politics and nepotism, which resulted in twin policy tracks that were hostile to one another. The shah's backers won eventually and amassed an "army of the Indus" to defeat the incumbent ruler, Dost Mohammed Khan. It was made up of 58,000 men and 30,000 camels, and with Ranjeet Singh's assistance, was able to take Kabul and install the shah. Still, the British were loath to let Shah Shuja make decisions and this led to him being viewed by his people as a puppet. They worsened matters by having increasingly public liaisons with Afghan women, some of whom were married. The British were strangely sanguine: to fight the Opium war in China, they recalled a large contingent from Kabul, and reduced handouts to rebel groups who guarded their supply routes. The volatile situation was further compounded when they interfered in the mullahs' administration of justice. "All this came to a head in July 1840 when, at the instigation of Mir Haji, the ulema [Muslim scholars] began to omit proclaiming the name of Shah Shuja at Friday prayers, on the grounds that the real rulers were the kafirs," Dalrymple writes. Afghanistan was ripe for jihad and the Afghans rose in revolution. One of the original motives for the first Anglo-Afghan war was promoting commerce between India and Afghanistan. That initiative and the war ended with the British burning down the great Char Chatta covered bazaar, that visible symbol of bustling trade in Kabul. Originally built during the reign of Shah Jahan and renowned as a superb example of Mughal architecture, it was one of the greatest buildings in Central Asia. Carried out to avenge the killing of English official Sir William Hay MacNaghten, whose body was displayed on a butcher's hook at the bazaar, the savage destruction was chronicled by Mirza Ata, a historian, as another sign of British duplicity. Dalrymple quotes an Afghan proverb that sums up the popular Afghan sentiment towards the manner in which the English conducted themselves: "When you're not strong enough to punish the camel, then go and beat the basket carried by the donkey." In Return of a King, the eighth book from the best-selling and award-winning writer, Dalrymple asks why the English strayed so far from their original intent. In India, where Dalrymple has been based since the mid-1990s, the author is immensely popular but also draws his share of criticism. Sunil Khilnani, author of The Idea of India, has mockingly credited him with creating the genre of "Bollywood history". Historian Ramachandra Guha has said his "knowledge of this country is so superficial". However, Return of a King is based on rigorous scholarship. Dalrymple accessed a wide range of newly discovered material in Russian, Urdu and Persian from archives in South Asia, and delved into nine previously untranslated contemporary Afghan accounts, including the autobiography of Shah Shuja. Packed with colourful characters, his book is an engaging narrative about political ambition, cultural collisions and imperial hubris. Mark Twain said history doesn't repeat itself, it rhymes. In the case of Afghanistan, it clangs. Dalrymple picks startling similarities between the situation in Afghanistan in 1840 and the present. First, the political geography of Afghanistan continues to impact the way invasions evolve within the country. "The significance of Kabul's location is one issue - adjacent to both the Tajik population of Kohistan, on one side, and the eastern Ghilzais on the other." Another striking parallel is the continuing impact of internecine tribal warfare. Afghan President Hamid Karzai is from the Popalzai tribe and lacks a real power base; Shah Shuja was from the same sub-caste as Karzai and viewed as a British puppet. At the end of Kim, Rudyard Kipling's novel about the Great Game, his eponymous hero says: "When everyone is dead, the Great Game is finished. Not before." When the British withdrew from Kabul after two years of occupation, it was in the middle of a frozen winter. Of the 700 British soldiers and 3,800 Indian sepoys, only one survivor made it to the British garrison town of Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan. This half-dead man, Dr William Brydon, was immortalised in a painting titled The Remnants of War. So the first Anglo-Afghan war ended with Britain's greatest military humiliation: an imperial army routed by ill-equipped tribesmen. "The only man who gained from the war was the very man whom the war was designed to depose. In 1843, after staying as the guest of the Sikh Khalsa in Lahore, Dost Mohammed rode to Peshawar," Dalrymple writes. It was no accident that the first war for Indian independence, commonly referred to as the Revolt of 1857, came after the fiasco that was the first Afghan war. The sepoys who marched into the frozen Khyber hills, whose bodies were strewn in the Bolan and Khyber passes, fuelled the legends the Persian presses printed in Uttar Pradesh, home state of the sepoys and the catalyst of the mutiny. When the British first marched into Afghanistan, a tribal chieftain rode up to them. "You have brought an army into the country. But how do you propose to take it out again?" It is a question every invading army - the British, the Russians and now Nato - has been at a loss to answer.

Afghanistan: Act on UN Torture Report

The Afghan government should urgently adopt meaningful steps to end the widespread use of torture in government detention centers. A United Nations report, released on January 20, 2013, found that more than half of 635 pretrial detainees and prisoners convicted on national security grounds had been tortured or ill-treated while in Afghan government custody. The Afghan government dismissed as “exaggerated” the findings of the UN report, which concluded that government reforms – including better monitoring and training but no dismissals or prosecutions – had not significantly reduced torture. Instead, officials who engage in torture benefit from complete impunity from prosecution. On January 22, President Hamid Karzai ordered an investigation to determine whether there are abuses in detention and identify perpetrators. “The new UN report should sound alarm bells for the Afghan government to take decisive action to end torture,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “President Karzai needs to deliver on his recent promise to identify perpetrators of torture, and to make sure those responsible are immediately arrested and prosecuted.” The January report follows up an October 2011 UN report documenting systematic and widespread torture in Afghan detention centers. Torture of prisoners in Afghan government custody has been regularly documented over the past decade, including by the Afghan government’s independent human rights commission, as well as by Human Rights Watch and other nongovernmental organizations. In his January 22 order, Karzai created a taskforce to investigate the report’s findings and respond within two weeks “so that follow-up measures can be taken.” Unfortunately, Human Rights Watch said, the taskforce consists almost entirely of Afghan government officials who have little or no human rights expertise, and includes representatives of the state agencies with the worst records on torture – the Ministry of Interior Affairs and the National Directorate of Security. The failure to include representatives of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and civil society further undermines the credibility of the taskforce. “This government taskforce is little more than window dressing because it lacks the personnel, expertise and political will to credibly tackle the very serious problem of torture in Afghanistan’s detention facilities,” Adams said. “Afghanistan needs a fully independent and permanent anti-torture body staffed by experienced human rights advocates with the resources and powers to conduct long-term and consistent monitoring and reform.” The UN report found that torture was most common in detention facilities run by Afghanistan’s intelligence service and police. Since the 2011 report, abuses in police custody have actually increased, while there was some reduction in intelligence service abuses. A quarter of torture victims were children. Almost a third of the 79 interviewees who had been handed over to Afghan authorities by international military forces reported torture or ill-treatment in Afghan custody. Detainees told the UN investigators that torture was typically used to try to elicit confessions. Fourteen different forms of torture were reported, including suspension from ceilings, prolonged and severe beating including on the soles of the feet, twisting of the genitals of male detainees, electric shock, prolonged standing or forced exercise, prolonged exposure to cold weather, and threats of execution and rape. Many detainees described being subjected to varied and escalating torture if they refused to confess or answer questions in a way that satisfied interrogators. “It is astonishing that 11 years into the international intervention in Afghanistan, torture remains rampant,” Adams said. “Afghanistan’s international partners should be doing much more to press President Karzai to put in place credible and transparent systems to detect, deter, and punish perpetrators.”

Change of heart in Kabul

At long last the mistrust that had clouded the Pak-Afghan military relationship far too long seems to be dissipating, giving way to hope of constructive ties between the two sides to effectively cope with the security challenges following the withdrawal of coalition forces from Afghanistan next year. A high-powered Afghan delegation, headed by Defence Minister General Bismillah Khan Muhammadi, was recently on a visit to Pakistan, seeking co-operation between the two militaries - something quite unusual and a clear departure from the past, but certainly a welcoming development from Pakistan's point of view. Of course, there was a two-year-old invitation of General Kayani to the then Afghan chief and now defence minister. That the visit has now materialised is certainly indicative of the change of mind in the Afghan powerhouse military, though Pakistan has all along been supportive of Afghan efforts to find national solutions to their problems. But somehow Pakistan's image as a partner to Afghan Jihad and later on its support to the Taliban regime refused to fade out from the minds of the non-Pushtun military elite in Kabul. Given the in-depth deliberations the Afghan delegation has had with Pakistan army top brass, one tends to suggest that reality is finally catching up as the accusation that Pakistan is supportive of the Taliban or any other brand of insurgents in Afghanistan has not many takers in Kabul. That Pakistan has suffered as much as Afghanistan, if not more, at the hands of militants residing in the common border regions of the two countries is a strong reality for Kabul. Those militants with safe havens in the two countries are a common threat to both - that too is being realised in Kabul. That Islamabad is as much pro-Pushtun as it is pro-Tajiks, which General Bismillah is, or pro-Uzbek, is also being appreciated in Kabul. Afghans seem to have figured out. That there are some regional powers which consider the post-withdrawal Afghanistan an open invitation to establish their big-power ambitious agendas. But for all this the Afghan military leadership would not have come visiting Pakistan. Obviously, during the talks the Afghan team had with General Kayani at the GHQ Rawalpindi, the issues that came under sharp focus are the ones that are expected to dispel mistrust and try building constructive bilateral military-to-military relationship. Therefore, they discussed essentially three issues - to train Afghan security forces; to make border control mechanism a bilateral instead of the existing trilateral affair and to weed out militancy from the border regions. At the same time, Kabul seems to have recognised Pakistan's sincerity in weaning the Taliban away from militancy and to become part of the Afghan national reconciliation - in that General Muhammadi has appreciated the release of some Taliban leaders by Pakistan. Training of Afghan National Army has been Islamabad's standing offer to Kabul. At the Tokyo Conference on Afghanistan last July Pakistan committed a 20 million dollars assistance, but there was some reluctance on the part of the Afghan government. Some other countries, including India, were also found making such offers. But Kabul seems to have finally cast its vote in favour of Pakistan, as indicated by the composition of Afghan team of which two are linked with the training of Afghan security forces. They are scheduled to visit some of Pak Army's premier training stations and sites including Pakistan Military Academy, Kakul; Staff College, and School of Infantry, Quetta; and Combat Training Centre, Jhelum. Undoubtedly, the visit of Afghan military's top brass is the much-wanted and eagerly-waited development. It is, therefore, in the fitness of things that no effort is spared to convert this change of heart into a permanent reality. The bilateral gains made by Pakistan and Afghanistan are needed to be protected and preserved.

PTI’s popularity in question over delay in intra-party polls

The Express Tribune

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) seems to be losing its grip and popular support in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) due to lack of leadership and unity. Though the PTI is relatively popular in K-P, no provincial or district leadership exists since PTI Chief Imran Khan dissolved party cabinets to hold intra-party elections. The strategy of internalising democracy in the party may be failing because the PTI has been unable to hold elections for the past 18 months. Sources familiar with the matter say this is the result of lack of coordination between the central and provincial leadership, constant interference of the Central Executive Committee (CEC) in provincial affairs and the differences over the assignment of important portfolios. Party leaders contesting for different portfolios remain optimistic about PTI’s popularity despite internal rifts and challenges. The scuffles have resulted in the postponement of elections in three districts. PTI’s provincial convener Dr Meher Taj Roghani expressed concern over prolonged delay in holding party elections. “The election commission needs to hurry up,” he said, so that a better election strategy could be prepared. The uncertainty over rewarding party tickets to candidates hoping to contest the general elections is also not helping. In the past six months, local heavyweights, including Iftikhar Jhagra and Khwaja Muhammad Khan Hoti have left the party due to this. Both candidates have previously served as provincial ministers in the past. While PTI has partially held provincial intra-party elections, the provincial cabinet is yet to be announced. The chairman of the political science department at the University of Peshawar, A Z Hilali thinks that it is still too soon to predict the decline in PTI’s popularity. “We have an immature political culture in Pakistan. Things change very rapidly here when it comes to the popularity of political parties,” he said, labelling PTI as an “Imran-centric party”.

Drones must roll in Pakistan, says Panetta

The United States will have to keep up an open-ended drone war against al Qaeda militants in Pakistan and elsewhere to prevent another terror attack on America, US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has said.

The assassination of al Qaeda figures in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia with unmanned, robotic aircraft has provoked widespread criticism from human rights groups and some US allies, but Panetta said the US campaign had been effective. Asked if the CIA “targeted killings” should be curtailed in coming years, Panetta said in an interview on Friday that there was still a need to continue the drone strikes more than a decade since the attacks of September 11, 2001. “I think it depends on the nature of the threat that we’re confronting. We are in a war. We’re in a war on terrorism and we’ve been in that war since 9/11. The whole purpose of our operations was aimed at those who attacked this country and killed 3,000 innocent people in New York as well as 200 people here at the Pentagon,” he said, who is days away from retiring as the Pentagon chief. Before taking over as the defence secretary, Panetta oversaw a dramatic increase in drone raids in Pakistan as the head of CIA from 2009-2011. “I think we had a responsibility to use whatever technology we could to be able to go after those who not only conducted that attack but were planning to continue to attack this country,” he said. “It’s been an important part of our operations against al Qaeda, not just in Pakistan, but also in Yemen, in Somalia and I think it ought to continue to be a tool we ought to use where necessary,” he said. The CIA drone bombing raids, by Predator and Reaper aircraft armed with Hellfire missiles, have caused an unknown number of civilian casualties and prompted accusations that Washington is carrying out extrajudicial killings in the shadows with no genuine oversight by courts or lawmakers. Panetta, who as CIA director presided over the successful raid that killed al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, said the campaign still needed to be regularly reviewed but did not say he favoured turning over the spy agency’s drone war to the military.

Govt undecided about Waziristan polio drive

The government continues to be undecided about the vaccination of around 300,000 children in North and South Waziristan agencies due to the Taliban ban on administration of polio drops to children. However, parents have developed a mechanism to ensure provision of oral polio vaccine to save children from the crippling disease. Since imposition of ban on vaccination in the two tribal agencies in June last year, top Fata Secretariat officials and representatives of the United Nations’ agencies have been scratching their heads to hammer out a strategy for resumption of immunisation, but the efforts have yet to bear fruit. In the meantime, local residents have evolved their own ways to procure OPV and protect their children against the vaccine-preventable disease. Taliban groups in both tribal agencies have linked provision of polio drops to children to cessation of US drone strikes in the area and stopped parents from vaccinating their children against polio since June 2012. Taliban are skeptical that the US and the government might use polio campaign for espionage, arguing after surgeon Dr Shakil Afridi’s involvement in the fake vaccination campaign to reach Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad, it had been established that the enemies spied in the name of vaccination. The standoff between the government and Taliban has deprived around 300,000 children under five from the administration of oral polio drops in North and South Waziristan bordering Afghanistan. Local people said health officials could not store vaccines at the Agency Headquarters Hospital in Miramshah and others health facilities in North Waziristan due to reprisals by Taliban, who have cautioned to stay away from vaccination. Helpless parents in the volatile area have left their children at the mercy of Allah. “Nobody can talk about polio let alone administering OPV to children in Miramshah,” said a father, whose name has been withheld for security reasons. However, Taliban in South Waziristan had softened their stand and children were allowed to get vaccines in the hospital, but field workers could not conduct house-to-house campaign, said tribal elders from Wana, the administrative headquarters of the agency. “Children can take vaccines inside the government run- health centres in Wana,” said a local elder. During off-the-record discussion, members of many families from North Waziristan said they were taking polio vaccines in small cans and jars to their homes secretly from Bannu district and administered it to their children. “After realising that Taliban are reluctant to review their decision and the government is also least bothered about the issue, I have been bringing vaccines for my children from the government hospital in Bannu since,” said a tribesman from Miramshah. He said the people, who were conscious about their children’s health, concealed vaccines in their luggage on the way to North Waziristan from Bannu and provided it to minor children. An official at the district health office in Bannu said many parents from Waziristan visited the District Headquarters Hospital for immunisation to their children. “Many parents bring their children to the main hospital in the city for providing polio drops, while there are the people, who take vaccines to their homes in the tribal area,” the official said. He said health workers properly packed vaccines in flasks or bottles in the hospital and then handed them over to parents. The official said the health directorate had also deputed mobile teams at Derry Ghundai checkpost, which separates tribal area from the settled areas, to provide polio drops to children. The government instead of reaching these children has placed restrictions on parents and all incentives of the tribal people, including obtaining passports, national identity cards, domicile certificates etc, have been withdrawn by applying sections of the Frontier Crimes Regulation. An official at the Fata health directorate in Peshawar said the political administration was sitting idle and relying on elders and clerics to persuade Taliban Commander Hafiz Gul Bhadur to revoke vaccination ban. He said health officials in Peshawar awaited a breakthrough.

Sectarian attack in Hangu

EDITORIAL: DAILY TIMES

In the kind of tragedy the country seems all too familiar with by now, a suicide bomber has attacked a Shia mosque in Hangu, an area close to the tribal belt next to the Afghan border in northwest Pakistan, on Friday. The fatalities and casualties are devastating, with 24 dead and some 50 wounded. The bomber chose a location where Sunnis and Shias live in close proximity. The Shia mosque was close to a Sunni mosque and both sets of worshippers were at their respective places of worship. In what was no doubt a sectarian strike, the attack claimed the lives of many Sunnis as well, further proving that terror is indiscriminate. By attacking an area where both Shias and Sunnis so closely reside, the militants may be trying to scare Sunnis away from associating and living with or near their Shia brothers. After such an attack, one would not be surprised if there were an exodus of entire Sunni communities from Shia populated areas. This attack was bloody and it did not discriminate probably in the hope that in the aftermath, Sunnis would be alienated from the Shias. We are hardly a month into 2013 and already Pakistan has seen the worst kind of bloodshed of its Shia population. This is particularly worrisome because, when targeting a whopping 20 percent of the country’s population, the crime moves on from being murder to being all out genocide. On January 10 of this year, twin suicide blasts claimed the lives of 92 Shia Hazaras in Quetta in an attack that has been the worst human rights crime against the Shias in Pakistan’s history. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) (a supposedly ‘banned’ Sunni terror group) claimed responsibility for the attack on the Hazaras, claiming that they were infidels deserving of death. While no one has yet claimed responsibility for the Hangu attack, one would not put it past the LeJ to have orchestrated another gruesome strike. If this is the trend that keeps continuing, 2013 could well become the bloodiest year for Shias in Pakistan. This blatant criminality and murderous rampage is worsening because of one simple fact: terrorists have been emboldened by the sheer incompetence of those responsible for preventing such attacks. No one has ever been caught or punished for the murderous campaign against Ahmedis and other minorities in this country and no one has been detained and brought to book for the killings of so many Shias. The government and our security agencies have failed to come up with efficient strategies to pre-empt terror threats. It is common knowledge that blunt weapons and brute military might cannot be used to counter terrorism in cities and urban areas. While military operations may work to some extent in the tribal areas against militant insurgents, one cannot expect the army to go in and bomb entire cities. What is needed most urgently is precise and coordinated intelligence and police work. It is essential that our intelligence agencies predict and pre-empt any such deadly terror attack and work in tandem with the police to prevent suicide missions. Once a human ‘bomb’ is armed and off and running on his mission, nothing can stop him from carrying out his evil task, not even death. It is essential that the Centre work with the provinces to beat back the militants from urban centres as there has been a rise in Shia killings in Karachi and Quetta, as well as the northern areas. Intelligence must be improved and the police must be better equipped to deal with the menace that has begun to seep its way into our heavily populated areas. We are witnessing a genocide and if we do not halt it, it will not be long before it proves the curtain raiser for further destabilisation of the state and society.

Infected Sindh

The country’s first polio case of 2013, which Pakistan is observing as the year of children, has been detected in the Bin Qasim township of Karachi and measles took the life of thee more in Kandhkot, district Badin, making Sindh the most infected province where more than 450 have fallen prey to this disease although Punjab is also reported to have hit by this disease and the total number of children infected by measles is feared to have risen to about 500. As for polio, Pakistan figured high on the global map last year when about 200 cases were reported against 28 in 2006. According to a World Health Organization report, more than 3.5 million children missing polio vaccination in 2012 and 1.75 million of them were from Sindh. The parents of the newest victim also did not administer this vaccine to their child either. One reason of vaccination target not being achieved is the threat by militants particularly in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Federally Administered Areas where the campaign was suspended and resumed time and again because health workers continued to be targeted and around 20 of them also lost their lives in firing incidents. All the children falling victim to the disease are reported to be suffering from malnutrition. Another WHO report portrays a sorry picture of the outbreak of measles which has claimed the lives of at least 100 children between November and December last year and the scourge has entered January 2013 as well. Sindh is the worst-hit province and the disease seems concentrating more in areas hit by floods in 2010 and 2011 where people are still haunted by the disaster. Even a routine immunization coverage is not available to them and even their parents. Not only Sindh, but the epidemic is fast spreading to other parts of the country including Punjab and Balochistan. Thousands of children have been put at risk due to inadequate vaccination programme. The outbreak has prompted serious questions about efficacy of Children Immunization Programme being run by the federal government with a huge funding by the world organizations. The provincial governments have earmarked about 1.5 per cent of their annual budget outlay and this is like peanuts in grappling colossal health related problems. Even in overall scenario civil obligations get much less than what is required. Sindh needs more help than other provinces in fighting measles in particular and it is upon the Pakistan People’s Party-led government there that it meets the challenge. Not only this, the government in this province has to give a due to the flood stricken people whose miseries do not seem to be coming to an end soon.