Building trades union, women's economic group back Clinton

 Hillary Clinton has won the endorsements of North America's Building Trades and the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce, giving her the public backing of two large organizations as she works to make rebuilding roads and bridges and women's economic issues central to her campaign.

The building trades, an alliance of 14 national and international unions representing 3 million skilled craft professionals, announced its support on the heels of Clinton's plan to spend $275 billion to fix the nation's aging transportation system. The plan includes $25 billion for a national infrastructure bank, which has been blocked by Republicans during PresidentBarack Obama's administration.

"Her infrastructure plan is further proof that she understands that the state of our nation's infrastructure is a bellwether for the health of the American economy and for the economic prospects of American workers," said Sean McGarvey, the organization's president.

Clinton, who was campaigning Thursday in New Hampshire, has largely swept the support of organized labor in her primary campaign against Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley. The unions represent some of the Democratic party's most loyal supporters and the endorsements can bring organizational strength and voter outreach in the primaries and caucuses.

The U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce, meanwhile, represents about 500,000 female business owners, executives and workers. Their support for Clinton marks their first public endorsement of a presidential candidate. Much of the group's work focuses on increasing capital and access to federal contracts for female-owned companies as well as the number of women in leadership positions.

"For our detailed review, one candidate — Hillary Clinton — stands head and shoulders above the rest," said CEO Margot Dorfman, in a statement. "The election of Hillary Clinton as President of the United States will unleash the economic power of women and forge a bold new potential for every woman in America."

The endorsement comes as Clinton holds a female-focused campaign event in New Hampshire, a state where many of the top political positions are held by women.

Clinton has made expanding the economic clout of women with policies like paid family leave and equal pay a central theme of her campaign. Unlike during her 2008 presidential campaign, when Clinton shied away from focusing heavily on her gender, she often touts her potential to make history as the nation's first female president on the campaign trail.

#CaliforniaShooting - Remembering the San Bernardino victims

#CaliforniaShooting - Tough Talk and a Cowardly Vote on Terrorism

Investigators now believe that what initially seemed a workplace shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., was a well-planned attack by a married couple with at least some contact with Islamic extremists.

The evolving situation has forced Republican leaders and presidential candidates to contort themselves: talking tough on terrorism, yet ignoring the fact that the two were armed to the teeth with two .223-caliber assault rifles and two 9-millimeter semiautomatic pistols, and hundreds of rounds, all purchased legally. While the nation suffered through the shock of another bloody massacre, on Thursday every Senate Republican except Mark Kirk of Illinois voted against legislation to prevent people on the F.B.I.’s consolidated terrorist watchlist from purchasing guns or explosives.

The measure has been introduced repeatedly since 2007. The Government Accountability Office has documented that over years of congressional blockage, hundreds of suspected terrorists on the watchlist bought guns.

Another bill that would have expanded background checks to gun show and online firearms sales to screen out convicted felons and the mentally ill also failed on Thursday. The four Republican senators running for president — Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul and Lindsey Graham — all turned up to vote against these common-sense measures.

“If you need proof that Congress is a hostage to the gun lobby, look no further than today’s vote,” said Senator Dianne Feinstein, who sponsored the terror watchlist measure.

In the hours after the attack in San Bernardino on Wednesday, President Obama specifically mentioned that legislation as an important security measure. “Those same people who we don’t allow to fly can go into a store in the United States and buy a firearm, and there’s nothing that we can do to stop them. That’s a law that needs to be changed,” he said on CBS News. The George W. Bush administration backed the terrorist-list bill in 2007.

No matter. The House speaker, Paul Ryan, issued his party’s weak defense of arming potential terrorism suspects on Thursday morning: “I think it’s very important to remember people have due process rights in this country, and we can’t have some government official just arbitrarily put them on a list.” Mr. Ryan’s Senate colleagues demonstrated that they are more worried about the possibility that someone might be turned away from a gun shop than shielding the public against violent criminals.

At the Republican Jewish Coalition’s conference on Thursday, the Republican presidential candidates offered little but political attacks. Senator Cruz immediately blamed Mr. Obama: “Coming on the wake of the terror attack in Paris, this horrific murder underscores that we are at a time of war, whether or not the current administration realizes it or is willing to acknowledge it, our enemies are at war with us and I believe this nation needs a wartime president to defend it.”

Gov. Chris Christie injected more fear: “The president continues to wring his hands and say ‘we’ll see,’ but those folks dressed in tactical gear with semiautomatic weapons came there to do something. We need to come to grips with the idea that we are in the midst of the next world war.”

From Jeb Bush, a bizarre slam: “The brutal savagery of Islamic terrorism exists, and this president and his former secretary of state cannot call it for what it is.”

And Donald Trump, true to his birther views, insinuated that Mr. Obama was hiding something: “Radical Islamic terrorism. We have a president that refuses to use the term. He refuses to say it. There’s something going on with him that we don’t know about.”

Since the Paris attacks, Republicans have been trying to outdo each other in describing how they’d crack down on global terrorism. But when a mass shooting at home calls attention to laws that put guns into the hands of suspected terrorists, they ask for a moment of silence, while taking action that speaks volumes.

At UNGA, Afghanistan says Pak using terrorists as violent proxies

Perhaps, the first time Kabul has raised before the international forum Islamabad’s motives for backing Taliban and other terror outfits.

Hitting out at Pakistan for using terrorists as “violent proxies,” Afghanistan has blamed Islamabad’s “unnecessary anxiety” over its ties with India for a sharp spike in civilian and military casualties that made 2015 the bloodiest year since 2001.

“External support to the Taliban and other terrorist groups is primarily motivated by regional rivalry, with excessive and unnecessary anxiety and suspicion of one state over its rival’s otherwise ordinary relations with Afghanistan,” Mahmoud Saikal, Afghanistan’s Permanent Representative, told the United Nations General Assembly without directly mentioning India.

‘Unsavoury policy’

“This has resulted in an unsavoury policy of using violent proxies in pursuit of political objectives, which has created a significant trust deficit between Pakistan and Afghanistan and provides oxygen for terror to breathe,” he added.

Mr. Saikal was making the remarks at Monday’s Plenary Session on the Situation in Afghanistan.

“This year has been the bloodiest in Afghanistan since 2001, with a sharp increase in civilian and military casualties. We have come under high levels of attacks from foreign-based Taliban including the Haqqani network, Al-Qaeda, ISIS (Daesh), Hekmatyar’s faction, and other extremist groups,” he said.

The Haqqani network is blamed for some of the deadliest attacks in Afghanistan, including the Indian embassy bombing and the attack on Kabul Serena Hotel in 2008.

Capture of Kunduz

The peak of this was the Taliban’s temporary capture of Kunduz city in late September, during which together with hundreds of international terrorists they unleashed their reign of terror on the population, he added.

Mr. Saikal said the “foreign” orchestrators of this year’s ferocious attacks had taken advantage of three factors, including the withdrawal of international forces, and the strong belief of the terrorists that their attacks would make the political system collapse.

Lack of coordination of Pakistan’s untimely counter-terrorism operations with Afghanistan, allowing part of international terrorists to enter Afghan soil; and Kabul’s preoccupation with its 2014 political transition, involving two rounds of elections, which slowed down governance were the other two reasons he listed.

Regular attacks this year

“Alongside these threats, in 2015 Afghanistan continued to face regular attacks across the Durand Line by Pakistani security forces in clear violation of our sovereignty and territorial integrity.

“As a result of heavy artillery shelling in the eastern provinces many civilian and border police lives have been lost, and our citizens live in fear,” he said in his strongly- worded speech which is perhaps the first time Afghanistan raised before the international forum Pakistan’s motives for backing Taliban and other terrorist organisations. He said these issues were discussed with the Pakistan government “yet no action has been taken to rectify the situation.”

Pakistan’s U.N. envoy Maleeha Lodhi said that while Pakistan remained ready to assist in reviving an Afghan-led and owned peace process, it would do so only once requested by the Afghan government.

“But anti-Pakistan rhetoric from Kabul must cease.

“Pakistan remains committed to the principles of a peaceful neighbourhood and peace for development,” she said.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/at-unga-afghanistan-says-pak-using-terrorists-as-violent-proxies/article7937125.ece

Afghanistan - Ashraf Ghani: 'This is part of our shame'

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani says women’s rights are a priority commitment. But how is he planning on ensuring them and how will he fight corruption, security threats and human rights violations in his country?

2015 has been a tough year for Afghanistan. In the first eight months alone, the country saw a spike in the number of civilian casualties and 120,000 Afghans fleeing the country to seek asylum abroad,according to the United Nations.

In an exclusive interview with DW, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani described the year of 2015 as "one of the most difficult years, if not even the most difficult year of the last 15 years."

When asked if things could get worse, the president said it depends on how much regional cooperation Afghanistan could achieve. Ghani said cooperation with neighboring Paksitan was also crucial.

"Sovereignty of Afghanistan must be accepted categorically by Pakistan so that we can move forward."

Women's rights a top priority

According to Ghani, women’s rights are a top priority for him. "As long as I am president, the rights of women will be protected," he said.

When confronted with a photograph published by Human Rights Watch showing a 22-year-old Afghan woman who was sentenced to 100 lashes after being accused of sex outside marriage, Ghani held up the photo and said:

"This is part of our shame. We have inherited situations that are shameful, that are absolutely despicable.”

Government-affiliated militia groups violate human rights

Abuse of women isn’t the only problem Afghanistan is facing. According to a report by the United Nations from August 2015, local and national militia groups carried out deliberate killings, assaults, extortion, intimidation and property theft with the backing of the government.

But Ghani rejected these accusations in the interview, saying: "We don’t have militias."

The 65-year-old president, who assumed office in September 2014, then admitted that local police behaved like militias prior to his inauguration, saying the government has "taken systematic measures" to deal with the issue and to remove the powerful political protection these groups have had in the first six months of 2015.

"This is our shame," Ghani said, holding up a picture of an Afghan woman being lashed

"We've had a difficult legacy of 40 years, and cleaning up is not going to be a one day job. But we are engaged in a systematic effort, we have not allowed formation of new militia groups, and we are reforming the local police systematically so that there won’t be abuse," Ghani said.

Dealing with impunity and corruption

Reforming local police also means dealing with corruption, Ghani added in the interview.

"The Kabul Bank case that became the emblem of impunity has been dealt with. We’ve already collected 450 million dollars out of the 800 million dollars that was stolen from the public purse."

But just one month ago, the former CEO of Kabul Bank, Khalilullah Frozi, who was supposed to be serving a 15 year sentence for fraud, was released from prison and seen smiling with government officials.

Ghani said he was shocked to see the man free. "My shock didn’t turn into anger, but into action. And it sent a very strong signal that I will not tolerate it. (…) He's back in prison, in solitary confinement and under close attention."

"We've had a difficult legacy for 40 years and cleaning up is not going to be a one day job," Ghani told Tim Sebastian

Afghanistan's president added that he's also dismissed the officials that were involved in the scandal and has ordered a full inquiry to deal with the case.

Loss of confidence because of economic instability?

Since Ghani was elected, polls show many Afghans losing confidence in where their country is headed. According to a poll conducted by the Asia Foundation, 54 percent of those surveyed in 2014 thought the country was going in the right direction. This year that figure dropped to just 36 percent.

Ghani explains this loss of confidence from his people with the economic challenges Afghanistan is facing.

"We've had to deal with an economic transition cost by the departure of over 600,000 troops and contractors that were the most important consumers and spenders in the country. We've had to impose an austerity program because the promises of the Afghan government to the national community were not credible.”

Urging Afghanistan's elite to make the most of opportunities at home

What doesn’t help Afghanistan's economy is the fact that the families of elite leaders often live abroad, such as the families of Ghani's vice presidents, who live in Turkey and Iran, and the family of Ghani’s chief executive, who lives in India. In fact, the families of the top cabinet ministers, presidential advisers and deputy ministers all live outside of the country.

In the interview with DW, Ghani urged Afghanistan's elite to make the most of opportunities at home rather than moving abroad.

According to German authorities, some 31,000 Afghans arrived this year through October

"The privileged elites are part of the globalization moment that we live in. What is significant is to create opportunities for the generations to come. If the families of the privileged live abroad they are not going to have careers abroad. Their careers are back in Afghanistan. (…) If they live abroad they become dishwashers. They don’t become part of the middle class."

Ghani himself, however, did rather well when living abroad in the United States, completing a doctorate in anthropology and becoming a professor at Johns Hopkins University before returning to Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban.

Confronted with this fact, Ghani said: "The minute opportunity was created in 2001 I returned. I hope that the new generation of our friends will have the same sense of patriotism and respond to the conditions of our country."

The president said he was hopeful the Afghan people would succeed in dealing with the numerous issues the country is facing.

"We are a free society, we engage in debate, and that is our characteristic," Ghani said, adding: "Our job is to heal and to move forward. Not to perpetuate, not to get bogged down."

Pakistan - Brutal revenge: 8-year-old Christian girl kidnapped, tortured and stripped naked on street by Muslim men

A Pakistani Christian girl kidnapped, beaten and left naked on the street by a Muslim family who was seeking vengeance from her uncle.

In line with details, a Pakistani Christian girl namely Palwasha, who is merely 8-years-old, was abducted by a Muslim family when she was on her way back to her home from school. The kidnappers allegedly subjected her to physical torture after hooking her. Later on, they left her wounded but naked in a street near her house.

After a while, when the girl who was grasping at straws, became able to move, she ran home and told her family about all what had happened with her. Initially, the distraught Christian family, approached the local village elders, and sought their help. Nonetheless, they were shunned and were refused assistance of any sort.

Later on, the Christian family approached the local police station, but when they had reached the police station they found that a police complaint was already filed against them. The details have this that the vicious act committed by the Muslims was actually an act of vengeance from the girl’s maternal uncle.

The facts reveal that victim’s maternal uncle namely Iftikhar Masih was in a relationship with a Muslim girl who belonged to the family which had kidnapped, beat and striped her naked. In due course of time, when the family of the Muslim girl learnt about this relationship they started eyeing for a revenge from Iftikhar Masih.

In this regard, a law group in Pakistan, Organization for Legal Aid in Pakistan has stepped forward to help the persecuted Christian family. While at the same time, The American Centre for Law and Justice said the affiliated Organization for Legal Aid in Pakistan is preparing charges against the culprits. The case being prepared by the organisation revolves around the dispute; which the girl’s maternal uncle, Iftikhar Masih, is involved in.

American Centre for Law and Justice Senior Litigation Counsel- Shaheryar Gill says, “Our legal team in Pakistan visited the village and gathered the facts. We are now preparing a petition, seeking an order from the court directing the police to file criminal charges against the assailants.

If our petition is accepted, the charges will be filed under section 354-A of the Pakistan Penal Code, which severely punishes assaults and the use of criminal force against a woman resulting in stripping her and exposing her to public view. We request your prayers for justice for Parwasha and her family,” he added.

- See more at: http://www.christiansinpakistan.com/brutal-revenge-8-year-old-christian-girl-kidnapped-tortured-and-stripped-naked-on-street-by-muslim-men/#sthash.8t79YESh.dpuf

Pakistan: Ahmadi missionary attacked, tortured with razor blades

An Ahmadi missionary is subjected to heinous torture after he is ambushed upon entering his own home in a small village of the Punjab province in Pakistan.

According to details made available by local sources, the victim, an Ahmadiyya Imam - whose name and location are being withheld for safety reasons - was struck dozens of times with knife and razor blades by attackers who were reportedly hiding inside his house.

Reports say Ahmadiyya religious leader was surprised by four men hiding behind the door of his home. Attackers reportedly ripped off  victim's clothes and started slashing him with metallic objects including knives and razor blades.

The attack comes at the heels of another attacks on an Ahmadi business and a mosque 12 days ago in Jhelum, a city in the Punjab.

In Jhelum, on November 20th, an Ahmadi-owned wood factory was set ablaze by an enraged mob followed by an attack on an Ahmadiyya mosque in Kala Gujran area of Jelum. The incident, started on false rumors of Quran burning, had left hundreds unemployed and homeless after the factory fire and razing of the adjoining homes.

The Punjab province has seen the highest number of anti-Ahmadiyya and anti-minority extremist incidences that some claim has direct correlation with the provincial government's long-standing ties with several banned terrorists groups.

Most anti-Ahmadi Islamist extremist groups such as Majlis Khatim-e Nubuwwat, Pakistan Ulema Council, and Sunni Tehreek (ASWJ) are based in Punjab and headed by individuals known for continuous anti-Ahmadi campaigns in province neighborhoods, in the media and in social media.

Although a crack down on terrorism and legal action against all persons who spread hatred was called for in the National Action Plan established by the Government of Pakistan on January 2015 in the wake of the terrorist attack on school children in Peshawar, there hasn't been a visible let up in crimes against Ahmadiyya community.

If anything, says Imran Jattala, chief editor of Ahmadiyya Times, an increase has been observed in the anti-Ahmadiyya activities, specially in the Punjab. "Not only in physicals attacks against the Ahmadis, but there has been an explosion in streaming of hatred in social media.

"Pakistani mullah Tahir Ashrafi, for example, who is well known for befriending banned terrorist group leaders, chairs the very influential Pakistan Clerics Council, while he also plays full-time cheerleader for the campaigns spreading anti-Ahmadi hatred in the social media," Jattala said.

The name of the victim and location of the crime are being withheld by Ahmadiyya Times pending an official conformation by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at, Pakistan.

http://ahmadiyyatimes.blogspot.com/2015/12/pakistan-ahmadi-missionary-attacked.html

Pakistan's Insistence on Denial

Aparna Pande 

Pakistan has denied any wrong doing and committing any war crimes during the civil war of 1971 that resulted in the creation of Bangladesh from erstwhile East Pakistan. This doubling down on denial of an almost universally acknowledged fact came amidst a war of words between Islamabad and Dhaka that began with Pakistan'sForeign Office expressing "deep concern" and anguish" over the "unfortunate executions" of two Bangladeshi politicians accused of torture, rape and genocide during the civil war of 1971. Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid of the Jamaat e Islami and Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury of the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) had been convicted by War Crimes Courts set up by the Bangladesh government.

The legitimacy of the process that resulted in conviction and execution of Pakistani collaborators has been subject of some dispute and controversy but the fact of Pakistani forces terrorizing Bengali civilians is almost undisputed. Pakistan insists on denying war crimes against the people of Bangladesh and has reacted adversely and openly to executions in Bangladesh tied to the 1971 genocide.

In December 2013 when Bangladesh executed Abdul Qader Molla, a man accused of targeting Bangladeshi intellectuals on the eve of Pakistan's surrender to Indian and Bangladeshi forces, Pakistan's foreign office issued a condemnatory statement. Pakistan's National Assembly and the provincial assembly of the largest province, Punjab, both adopted resolutions condemning Molla's execution. This was followed by protests in Sindh organized by Pakistan's Jamaat e Islami and Jamaat ud Dawa (designated a terrorist groups internationally).

This time, too, the Jamaat e Islami has held protest rallies in Lahore against the Bangladeshi decision.

The 1971 civil war resulted not only in the loss of Pakistan's eastern wing, it was also a blow to the country's prestige. Bangladesh was from 1947 to 1971 the more populous but impoverished half of Pakistan. Islamabad has never honestly or seriously examined why the majority of its population chose to secede from the country with the help of India, which is often described by Pakistan's leaders as their country's arch-enemy.

Most independent analysts agree that around 1.5-2 million people were killed during the civil war and Pakistani-sponsored genocide of 1971. While Pakistan formally recognized Bangladesh in 1974 it never issued an official apology for its actions during the war. The 1972 Hamoodur Rehman commission report, constituted by the Pakistani government, accused the Pakistan army of senseless and wanton arson, killings and rape but the report was buried and found light of day decades later, only after being leaked to an Indian newspaper.

The closest any Pakistan leader came to issuing an apology to Bangladesh was former Pakistani military ruler General Pervez Musharraf. On an official visit to Dhaka in July 2002 Musharraf visited a war memorial at Savar, near the capital, Dhaka, and wrote in the visitors' book: "Your brothers and sisters in Pakistan share the pain of the events in 1971. The excesses committed during the unfortunate period are regretted. Let us bury the past in the spirit of magnanimity. Let not the light of the future be dimmed."

The recent statement by Pakistan's foreign office, however, demonstrates that instead of an acknowledgement of what happened in 1971 there is still an insistence upon refusal to accept historic facts. Pakistan's military, dominated by ethnic Punjabis, supports a national narrative based on denial and false pride. In that narrative Pakistan is always a victim of conspiracies of anti-Islamic forces, never the perpetrator of any wrongdoing. But without acknowledging the blunders of the past, it is difficult that Pakistan will ever be able to move forward.

An inability to reconcile errors and genocide of the past is a sure recipe to making similar blunders in the future. Right now the picture inside Pakistan is not pretty. Every province is facing insurgency or conflict of one kind or another. For Pakistan's Punjabi-led military, putting down ethnic rights movements takes priority over fighting Islamist terrorists it has nurtured for regional influence.

In Pakistan's financial capital and largest city, Karachi, the military is targeting the secular political party MQM (Muttahida Qaumi Mahaz), whom it accuses of engaging in criminal activities. The pursuit of the MQM detracts the army from locating elements of the Taliban, both Afghan and Pakistani, who seek a safe haven in that city. The core attitude of Pakistan's military, it seems, has changed little since Punjabi soldier went on rampage against Bengalis after the latter voted in 1970 for a political party whose worldview was unacceptable to West Pakistan's ruling elite.

Punjab, now Pakistan's most populous province with 53 percent of the country's population, provides 72 percent of Pakistan's army. It also is the home to the majority of foot soldiers for Jihadi groups wreaking havoc on Pakistan and its neighbors. That includes sectarian terrorists, Afghan Taliban and anti-India militants including groups like the one that was responsible for the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

The Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan and its allied jihadi groups have ensured that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the FATA region (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) are not secure or stable from Pakistan's perspective. Pakistan also faces an insurgency in Balochistan since the 1970s that has worsened in recent years with the 'kill and dump' policy adopted by Pakistan's military-intelligence establishment.

Not only is Pakistan being torn apart by these insurgencies, but its citizens are participating in insurgencies in other parts of the world. Pakistanis have been members of Al Qaeda and prominent leaders of that movement Khalid Shaikh Mohammad and Ramzi Yusuf considered Pakistan their home. That Osama bin Laden was found in a Pakistani garrisons city speaks volumes of the influence of global terrorists in that country.

These days, Pakistanis have been killed fighting on both sides of the war in Syria. Pakistani Sunnis have volunteered to fight for both the Al Qaeda affiliate Al Nusra Front as well as the ISIS in Syria while Pakistani Shias seem to be fighting as part of the Pakistani Shi'a militia Zainabiyoun Brigade.

Under such circumstances, Pakistan should be focusing on its internal challenges. Instead it is increasingly adopting a hyper nationalist stance against India and now Bangladesh. Afghanistan has been unhappy for years with Pakistan's support for the Taliban. Pakistan is becoming increasingly isolated in South Asia because it is insisting on denying facts that its neighbors know to be reality.

According to scholar and former Pakistani Ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, the roots of this lie in Pakistan's desire for parity with India. Pakistani leaders are obsessed with matching, or surpassing, India's stature, prestige and military capability. But Pakistan's denial of harsh realities and insistence on its 'we do no wrong' rhetoric has worsened its ties not only with India but its other neighbors as well.

Pakistan's ties with Afghanistan have deteriorated over Pakistan's security establishment insistence on following its age-old policy of supporting jihadi groups in Afghanistan. Kabul insists that Islamabad-Rawalpindi is responsible for the lack of stability and security within Afghanistan whereas Pakistan continues to deny that it is involved. As a result Pakistan's economy and its people are suffering because unless Pakistan allows transit to India, Kabul is refusing to allow Islamabad trade with Central Asia.

Even Iran, which was historically close to Pakistan, has turned hostile. Every few months, there are incidents reported of firing by Iranian border guards to "target terrorists" trying to enter Iran from Pakistan. Iran asserts- but Pakistan denies - that Pakistan is allowing Balochistan to be used as safe havens by Sunni jihadi groups like Jundullah that operate inside Iran.

The policy of encouraging Pakistani citizens to join jihadi militias after being trained by the army dates back to the 1971 civil war. The 'war criminals' currently on trial in Bangladesh were religious fanatics trained to augment Pakistan's military capability against its disaffected Bengali population. Now, Jihadis are expected to help the Pakistan army maintain control on Karachi and Balochistan while helping Pakistan extend its influence in Afghanistan and the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.

The insistence on denying that Pakistan committed atrocities during the Bangladesh war of 1971 reflects the refusal of the Pakistani elite to accept the folly of using jihad as an element of state policy. Denials notwithstanding, Pakistan's army attempted genocide in Bangladesh and still failed to hold on to its eastern wing. Instead of benefitting Pakistan, its current Jihadi policy will only radicalize its society further and increase stress along its various faultlines.

Pakistan Assists U.S. on San Bernardino Suspect Tashfeen Malik

Pakistani authorities are working with American officials to uncover details about the mother suspected of carrying out the San Bernardino shooting with her husband, sources told NBC News. Little is known about 26-year-old Pakistani national Tashfeen Malik, other than she was able to enter the U.S. on a fiancée visa, also known as a K-1 visa, allowing foreigners to travel to the U.S. for a wedding within 90 days.

Malik married 28-year-old Chicago-born husband Syed Rizwan Farook two years ago in Saudi Arabia after the pair met online, according to a family member and a friend. The couple — who had a six-month-old daughter — were both killed in a shootout with police following the rampage in which 14 people were shot dead.

A high-ranking official at the Interpol section of Pakistan's Interior Ministry told NBC News that "Pakistani authorities are in touch with Homeland Security" in a bid to trace details about Malik.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source said details sent through by the U.S. were scant so far but confirmed that "the work has started."The official added that until Pakistani officials had "a picture, or an ID card number, or a passport number, we can't follow any leads."

A senior member of the Federal Investigation Agency, which is Pakistan's FBI, said that it would not be "an easy search" for authorities. The source added: "We will need more data to get more data, if only because our systems are not that sophisticated." The K-1 visa program has one of the more rigorous security screening processes — presenting far more hurdles than other avenues for foreigners to enter the U.S. http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/san-bernardino-shooting/new-yorker-cover-satirizes-americas-obsession-guns-after-mass-shootings-n474501

Pakistani Terrorist Couple - Exclusive: Investigators piece together portrait of Pakistani woman in shooting massacre

BY MEHREEN ZAHRA-MALIK

Weapons confiscated from Wednesday's attack in San Bernardino, California are shown in this San Bernardino County Sheriff Department handout photo from their Twitter account released to Reuters December 3, 2015.

Read more at Reutershttp://www.reuters.com/article/us-california-shooting-pakistan-idUSKBN0TN1YX20151204#SQmqzyyGYx8m3EF2.99

Tashfeen Malik's path to accused mass killer in California began in a small city on the Indus River in Pakistan's Punjab province.

It was from here, when she was a toddler, that she moved with her father Gulzar 25 years ago to Saudi Arabia, where he became more deeply religious, more conservative and more hardline, according to a family member.

A picture slowly emerged on Friday of the role and possible motivations of 27-year-old Malik in this week's killing of 14 people in California, including her apparent pledge of allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State militant group, according to U.S. officials.

Malik, with her husband Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, is accused of storming a holiday party on Wednesday in San Bernardino, California, and opening fire in America's worst mass shooting in three years.

The intensive search for clues, extending to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, could help U.S. investigators piece together what drove Malik and her husband to leave their infant daughter with his mother, don assault-style clothing and carry out the shooting.

Malik, who entered the United States on a fiancée visa, and Farook, the son of immigrant parents from Pakistan who had worked as a health inspector, were killed in a shootout with police just hours after the attack.

U.S. investigators were evaluating evidence that Malik, a Pakistani native who had been living in Saudi Arabia when she married Farook, had pledged allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, two U.S. government sources said. They said the finding, if confirmed, could be a "game changer" in the probe.

CNN reported that one U.S. official said Malik had made the pledge to al-Baghdadi in a posting on Facebook on Wednesday, the day of the attack, under an account that used a different name.

Though large information gaps remain, it appeared to be the strongest evidence so far that the attack may have been inspired by Islamic State. But U.S. government sources said there was no sign that it had been directed by the militant group, which has seized swathes of Syria and Iraq and claimed the deadly Nov. 13 attacks in Paris.

FATHER BECAME "CONSERVATIVE AND HARDLINE"

Two Pakistani officials said Malik was from Karor Lal Esan, a city on the west coast of the Indus River in southern Punjab province. She moved to Saudi Arabia with her father, an engineer, 25 years ago, they said. She returned home five or six years ago to study at Bahauddin Zakariya University in Multan to become a pharmacist, they said.

"Our brother changed a lot since he went to Saudi," Malik's uncle, Javed Rabbani, said of Malik's father. "When relatives visited him, they would come back and tell us how conservative and hardline he had become," he said in an interview with Reuters.

A source close to the Saudi government said that during Malik’s time in Saudi Arabia nothing came to authorities’ attention there that suggested she was involved with radical Islamic groups. Malik was not on any Saudi law enforcement or intelligence watchlist, the source said.

Malik's father, Gulzar, had built a house in Multan, where he stays when he visits Pakistan, according to another uncle, Malik Anwaar.

He said Gulzar had a falling-out long ago with the rest of the family, citing a dispute over a house among other matters. “We are completely estranged,” Anwaar said.

Rabbani said he had been contacted by Pakistani intelligence as part of the investigation into the San Bernardino shooting.

Malik had two brothers and two sisters and was related to Ahmed Ali Aulak, a former provincial minister, the Pakistani officials said.

In southern Punjab, Islamist groups ranging from the Taliban to Lashkar-e-Taiba have historically found some support.

The exact circumstances of how Farook and Malik met remained unclear but they had apparently been married for two years. The Federal Bureau of Investigation said Malik was in the United States on a visa under a Pakistani passport.

While Farook had an active presence online, there were no immediate signs that Malik had left a digital footprint. But her name was attached to a gift registry for their baby hosted by the website TheBump.com. According to the registry, Malik's baby had been due on May 17.

Just hours before the couple opened fire on Farook’s co-workers in a government building in San Bernardino, they had dropped off their daughter at his mother’s house, telling her they had a doctor’s appointment.

Read more at Reutershttp://www.reuters.com/article/us-california-shooting-pakistan-idUSKBN0TN1YX20151204#SQmqzyyGYx8m3EF2.99

Pakistan can’t afford any more experiments

Chairman Senate Mian Raza Rabbani of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has termed National Security Council (NSC) a failed experiment during former military ruler Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s tenure, stressing the need for no more experimentation.

Speaking at a book launch ceremony here, he said the country cannot afford any more experiments. The Senate chairman however stressed the need for all state institutions to mull over security threats the country was currently facing.

The PPP stalwart said a new establishment would emerge as a result of public struggle but added that this establishment would be comprised of middle-class and intellectuals.

“Parliament’s supremacy would prevail in the new system.”

The idea and inception of the National Security Council – a principal forum that is mandated for considering national security and foreign policy matters with the senior national security advisers and cabinet ministers – was first conceived in 1969 under President Yahya Khan.

The idea of this institution remains highly debatable and controversial in the country’s political circles, who argue that the NSC provides legal cover for expanding the role and influence of the military in nation’s public and political affairs to subdue the popular democratic transitional process in the country.

The council was recreated by Musharraf in April 2004 under the National Security Council Act. Although, the NSC remains to stay as statue on the constitution, the council is not active since 2008, but the Defence Committee of the Cabinet (DCC) is reactivated in its place.

The NSC was abandoned by the PPP government, with a unified confirmations from the Parliament, and its functions has been taken under control by the Defence Cabinet Committee as of 2009.

The council was revived under Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who presides over meetings of the council when there is an emergency, such as hostilities between India and Pakistan, or a chance to discuss events related to terrorism and extremism.

سال میں چار بجٹ حکومت نے وطیرہ بنا لیا ہے ،خورشیدشاہ

https://ppppunjab.wordpress.com/

قومی اسمبلی میں اپوزیشن لیڈر خورشید شاہ کا کہنا ہے کہ مرکزی حکومت نے سال میں چار بجٹ پیش کرنے کا وطیرہ بنا لیا ہے۔پشاور میں زلزلہ زدگان کے لیئے سندھ حکومت کی جانب سے پچاس ہزار کمبل اور تین جنریٹرز پیپلز پارٹی کے سینئر رہنما خورشید شاہ نے خیبرپختونخوا حکومت کے حوالے کر دیئے۔ پشاور میں نیوز کانفرنس کرتے ہوئے ان کا کہنا تھا کہ قومی اسمبلی می تمام اپوزیشن جماعتیں الگ الگ نہیں بلکہ متحدہ اپوزیشن کا کردار ادا کر رہی ہیں۔ حکومت کی جانب سے چالیس ارب روپے کے نئے ٹیکس عوام کے ساتھ زیادتی ہے۔مرکزی حکومت نے رواں سال میں چار بجٹ پیش کرنے کا وطیرہ اپنا لیا ہے۔تمام اپوزیشن جماعتوں نئے ٹیکسز کے نفاذ کے خلاف قومی اسمبلی میں اواز اٹھائیں گی۔خورشید شاہ کا مزید کہنا تھا کہ ملک میں دہشتگردی کے خاتمے کا دعویٰ فی الحال غلط ہو گا۔تاہم دہشتگردی کے واقعات میں کمی رو نما ہوئی ہے۔اپوزیشن لیڈر کا کہنا تھا کہ پیپلز پارٹی میں انٹرا پارٹی انتخابات کرائے جائے رہے ہیں۔

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