cnn.com
President Barack Obama bluntly defended his administration's response to the undersea gusher fouling the Gulf of Mexico on Monday, telling an interviewer he has met with experts to learn "whose ass to kick." "I was down there a month ago, before most of these talking heads were even paying attention to the Gulf," Obama told NBC's "Today" show in an interview that aired Tuesday. "A month ago I was meeting with fishermen down there, standing in the rain talking about what a potential crisis this could be."
A variety of critics have accused Obama of being too cerebral in his reaction to the undersea gusher now fouling the Gulf of Mexico, of failing to put the full force of the administration and of putting too much trust in oil company BP. NBC's Matt Lauer asked Obama about the criticism that he should spend more time in the Gulf instead of with experts and "kick some butt."
Obama told NBC his deliberations have been more than academic.
"I don't sit around talking to experts because this is a college seminar," Obama continued. "We talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose ass to kick."
The disaster was uncorked by an explosion aboard the offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon on April 20 that killed 11 workers. The rig sank two days later, and estimates of the amount of oil pouring into the gulf from the undersea blowout grew rapidly in the following week.
Obama made a May 2 visit to the Coast Guard command center in Venice, Louisiana, warning during a rain-spattered news conference that the problem may take "many days" to solve. The Coast Guard and the Department of the Interior, which oversees offshore oil drilling, were already heavily involved with well owner BP in trying to corral the leak.But by then, conservative commentators -- some of whom had defended the Bush administration's lackluster response to 2005's Hurricane Katrina -- were billing the disaster "Obama's Katrina," and complaints about the pace and the amount of muscle the White House has put behind the cleanup have come from a handful of Democrats as well.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
North Korea leadership changes strong on family ties
cnn.com
Dramatic changes in North Korean leadership this week appear to be paving the way for an eventual transfer of power from leader Kim Jong Il to his youngest son, analysts say.
Jang Song Thaek, Kim's brother-in-law and long thought to be Kim's right-hand man, was promoted to vice-chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission at the Supreme People's Assembly, the communist nation's parliament, on Monday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency report.
Jang's appointment is crucial, according to Kim Sung-han, a professor at Korea University in Seoul, because he's seen as providing a support network for Kim's son and his nephew, Kim Jong Un. Not only is Jang family, but he's a top official in the military as the vice-chairman of the NDC.
His appointment signifies the power succession process is taking place and that he plays a key role as "liaison between the party and the military," said Kim Sung-han.
Parliament also named Choe Yong Rim as the country's new premier Monday, replacing Kim Yong Il. It was not immediately known why Kim, elected to the post in 2007, was removed in favor of Choe."The Prime Minister used to work with Kim Jong Il's father, Kim Il Sung. He is very close to the Kim family," said Han Park, a professor at the University of Georgia. "That has some succession implications.
"So, the fact that young Kim Jong Un, the presumed successor, is the son of Kim Jong Il and grandson of Kim Il Sung -- so that kind of legitimacy of authority stems from the family, as opposed to the person's capability or leadership ability," Park said.
Dramatic changes in North Korean leadership this week appear to be paving the way for an eventual transfer of power from leader Kim Jong Il to his youngest son, analysts say.
Jang Song Thaek, Kim's brother-in-law and long thought to be Kim's right-hand man, was promoted to vice-chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission at the Supreme People's Assembly, the communist nation's parliament, on Monday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency report.
Jang's appointment is crucial, according to Kim Sung-han, a professor at Korea University in Seoul, because he's seen as providing a support network for Kim's son and his nephew, Kim Jong Un. Not only is Jang family, but he's a top official in the military as the vice-chairman of the NDC.
His appointment signifies the power succession process is taking place and that he plays a key role as "liaison between the party and the military," said Kim Sung-han.
Parliament also named Choe Yong Rim as the country's new premier Monday, replacing Kim Yong Il. It was not immediately known why Kim, elected to the post in 2007, was removed in favor of Choe."The Prime Minister used to work with Kim Jong Il's father, Kim Il Sung. He is very close to the Kim family," said Han Park, a professor at the University of Georgia. "That has some succession implications.
"So, the fact that young Kim Jong Un, the presumed successor, is the son of Kim Jong Il and grandson of Kim Il Sung -- so that kind of legitimacy of authority stems from the family, as opposed to the person's capability or leadership ability," Park said.
Pak military provided Rs 110 billion more than bud estimates
Pakistan is planning to buy more fighter jets, surveillance planes and submarines and the nation's military has been allocated billions of rupees over and above the defence budget for making such high-end weapon purchases.
A part of the special funding for the defence will also go to provide more sophisticated weapons to the military for undertaking counter insurgency operations against Taliban militants in the country's restive north west.
Islamabad last week hiked defence spending for 2010-11 to Rs 442.2 billion ($ 5.18 billion) up from Rs 342.9 billion allocated in the last fiscal.
Besides the defence budget of Rs 442.2 billion for 2010-11, the government has allocated Rs 110 billion out of budget estimates for the Armed Forces Development Plan, ongoing anti-militancy operations and a key defence initiative.
The aim of this initiative is to enable the military to acquire fighter jets and surveillance aircraft, submarines and other weapons and technology to effectively counter external threats and terrorism.
Pakistan recently received upgraded F-16 fighter jets, P-3C Orion maritime reconnaissance and helicopter gunships from the US. But under new plans Islamabad wants to buy more submarines and other weapon systems.
Last year too, the government on the insistence of the military also provided an additional Rs 49 billion to meet the expenses of anti-militancy operations.
But now a whopping Rs 110 billion is being provided for military.
Media reports said, a sum of Rs 60 billion has been reserved for the Armed Forces Development Plan, which is aimed at equipping the armed forces with the latest technology and weapon systems. Islamabad has been reserving funds for the Armed Forces Development Plan for the past few years and the average annual allocation has been about Rs 100 billion.
A part of the special funding for the defence will also go to provide more sophisticated weapons to the military for undertaking counter insurgency operations against Taliban militants in the country's restive north west.
Islamabad last week hiked defence spending for 2010-11 to Rs 442.2 billion ($ 5.18 billion) up from Rs 342.9 billion allocated in the last fiscal.
Besides the defence budget of Rs 442.2 billion for 2010-11, the government has allocated Rs 110 billion out of budget estimates for the Armed Forces Development Plan, ongoing anti-militancy operations and a key defence initiative.
The aim of this initiative is to enable the military to acquire fighter jets and surveillance aircraft, submarines and other weapons and technology to effectively counter external threats and terrorism.
Pakistan recently received upgraded F-16 fighter jets, P-3C Orion maritime reconnaissance and helicopter gunships from the US. But under new plans Islamabad wants to buy more submarines and other weapon systems.
Last year too, the government on the insistence of the military also provided an additional Rs 49 billion to meet the expenses of anti-militancy operations.
But now a whopping Rs 110 billion is being provided for military.
Media reports said, a sum of Rs 60 billion has been reserved for the Armed Forces Development Plan, which is aimed at equipping the armed forces with the latest technology and weapon systems. Islamabad has been reserving funds for the Armed Forces Development Plan for the past few years and the average annual allocation has been about Rs 100 billion.
Nato supply trucks torched by militants
Suspected Taliban gunmen torched 50 Nato supply trucks on the outskirts of Islamabad last night , killing at least seven people, in the most audacious assault yet on the military supply chain in Afghanistan.
Militants have regularly ambushed western supply convoys near the Afghan border, but this was the first attack near the Pakistani capital.
Police said at least 10 gunmen struck just before midnight at a depot in Tarnol, on the Grand Trunk Road that links Rawalpindi with Peshawar. They opened fire on the trucks, killing drivers and security personnel, before setting them alight.
Police arrived, sparking an exchange of fire, and the attackers escaped to the west on motorbikes and in small pickup trucks. At first light, six hours later, flames were still licking through the hulks of charred military vehicles and fuel tankers. Plumes of thick black smoke rose into the sky near the capital.
The assault called into question security arrangements in the capital, whose streets have become clogged with police and military checkposts since the Taliban stepped up their assault last year.
Police officers combing the area said they had arrested 26 suspects. "We are still trying to find out what happened," said Shah Nawaz, the police chief at Tarnol station.
Pakistani police often indiscriminately arrest people after major incidents only to release them later. The interior minister, Rehman Malik, ordered an inquiry within three days.
The convoy originated in the port of Karachi, 700 miles to the south, and was due to climb over the Khyber Pass into Afghanistan. Over 75% of military supplies for western troops in Afghanistan and 40% of fuel needs pass through Pakistan.
The supplies include food and vehicle but not usually weapons or ammunition, which are ferried by air.
Ambushes on Nato convoys in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, have declined in recent months following concerted army operations in the nearby Khyber and Orakzai tribal areas.
The last attack was in April when militants torched a dozen trucks and killed four police in northern Punjab, between Islamabad and Peshawar.
Many of the Nato supply runs are managed by trucking families from the tribal belt, particularly Waziristan and Khyber. A police source in Karachi said they ensured safe passage by paying protection money to militant groups on the 1,200-mile route.
However, it is impossible to pay off every group along the road. "When you reach here, it's a free for all," said Rahimullah Yusufzai, a veteran journalist in Peshawar. "You can't pay everyone off; and some groups are ideologically committed and won't take money."
The attacks are a costly irritant to Nato and an embarrassment to Pakistani security forces, although they have a limited impact on western military supplies due to the high volume of traffic.
Still, the US has started to explore new trucking routes through Central Asia, although these may require compromise with Russia, the regional power.
Militants have regularly ambushed western supply convoys near the Afghan border, but this was the first attack near the Pakistani capital.
Police said at least 10 gunmen struck just before midnight at a depot in Tarnol, on the Grand Trunk Road that links Rawalpindi with Peshawar. They opened fire on the trucks, killing drivers and security personnel, before setting them alight.
Police arrived, sparking an exchange of fire, and the attackers escaped to the west on motorbikes and in small pickup trucks. At first light, six hours later, flames were still licking through the hulks of charred military vehicles and fuel tankers. Plumes of thick black smoke rose into the sky near the capital.
The assault called into question security arrangements in the capital, whose streets have become clogged with police and military checkposts since the Taliban stepped up their assault last year.
Police officers combing the area said they had arrested 26 suspects. "We are still trying to find out what happened," said Shah Nawaz, the police chief at Tarnol station.
Pakistani police often indiscriminately arrest people after major incidents only to release them later. The interior minister, Rehman Malik, ordered an inquiry within three days.
The convoy originated in the port of Karachi, 700 miles to the south, and was due to climb over the Khyber Pass into Afghanistan. Over 75% of military supplies for western troops in Afghanistan and 40% of fuel needs pass through Pakistan.
The supplies include food and vehicle but not usually weapons or ammunition, which are ferried by air.
Ambushes on Nato convoys in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, have declined in recent months following concerted army operations in the nearby Khyber and Orakzai tribal areas.
The last attack was in April when militants torched a dozen trucks and killed four police in northern Punjab, between Islamabad and Peshawar.
Many of the Nato supply runs are managed by trucking families from the tribal belt, particularly Waziristan and Khyber. A police source in Karachi said they ensured safe passage by paying protection money to militant groups on the 1,200-mile route.
However, it is impossible to pay off every group along the road. "When you reach here, it's a free for all," said Rahimullah Yusufzai, a veteran journalist in Peshawar. "You can't pay everyone off; and some groups are ideologically committed and won't take money."
The attacks are a costly irritant to Nato and an embarrassment to Pakistani security forces, although they have a limited impact on western military supplies due to the high volume of traffic.
Still, the US has started to explore new trucking routes through Central Asia, although these may require compromise with Russia, the regional power.
Ambassadors laud Pak Army’s successful operation in Swat
MINGORA: The ambassadors of 13 Islamic countries visited Swat on Tuesday and highly lauded the successful military operation by the Pakistan Army against militants.
The ambassadors of Libya, Malaysia, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkey, the UAE, Brunei Darussalam and Indonesia visited Mingora Circuit House where they were received by the in-charge of Operation Rah-e-Rast, Major General Asfaque Nadeem, who briefed them about the latest security situation and the sacrifices made by the Pakistan Army for the establishment of the government’s writ in Swat and Malakand. The visiting dignitaries were also briefed about developmental projects and the reconstruction and rehabilitation programme.
The foreign dignitaries were warmly received by the people of Swat when they arrived at Wadodia Hall, Saidu Sharif. The Wadodia hall had been decorated with flags of the Islamic countries.
The ambassadors said that relations between Pakistan and their countries are deep-rooted, friendly, and that they will continue to support Pakistan. They said that Pakistan and their countries enjoyed very close, friendly and strong relations, which, they added, would further grow with the passage of time
The ambassadors of Libya, Malaysia, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkey, the UAE, Brunei Darussalam and Indonesia visited Mingora Circuit House where they were received by the in-charge of Operation Rah-e-Rast, Major General Asfaque Nadeem, who briefed them about the latest security situation and the sacrifices made by the Pakistan Army for the establishment of the government’s writ in Swat and Malakand. The visiting dignitaries were also briefed about developmental projects and the reconstruction and rehabilitation programme.
The foreign dignitaries were warmly received by the people of Swat when they arrived at Wadodia Hall, Saidu Sharif. The Wadodia hall had been decorated with flags of the Islamic countries.
The ambassadors said that relations between Pakistan and their countries are deep-rooted, friendly, and that they will continue to support Pakistan. They said that Pakistan and their countries enjoyed very close, friendly and strong relations, which, they added, would further grow with the passage of time
NATO helicopter shot down in Afghanistan; 4 killed
KABUL, Afghanistan – A NATO helicopter was shot down in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing four troops, the alliance said.
The helicopter was brought down by hostile fire in volatile Helmand province, NATO said in a statement. It gave no other details.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi claimed responsibility on behalf of the insurgents, saying militants shot down the helicopter with two rockets.
Helmand provincial government spokesman Daoud Ahmadi said the attack occurred about midday in Sangin province.
Both U.S. and British troops are operating in Helmand, part of a band of provinces across southern Afghanistan that are the Taliban's heartland.
United States troops have been building in the south as part of President Barack Obama's surge strategy to try to bring an end to the nearly nine-year-old insurgency.
Obama last December ordered some 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, and most of them are due to be deployed in the south.
U.S. commanders are planning a major operation in Kandahar that they hope will turn the tide of the war in time for American troops to begin withdrawing on Obama's stated timetable starting in July 2011. Helmand province abuts Kandahar.
Insurgents have stepped up attacks ahead of the Kandahar operation. The spike in violence has killed 28 NATO troops this month, including Wednesday's casualties.
The helicopter was brought down by hostile fire in volatile Helmand province, NATO said in a statement. It gave no other details.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi claimed responsibility on behalf of the insurgents, saying militants shot down the helicopter with two rockets.
Helmand provincial government spokesman Daoud Ahmadi said the attack occurred about midday in Sangin province.
Both U.S. and British troops are operating in Helmand, part of a band of provinces across southern Afghanistan that are the Taliban's heartland.
United States troops have been building in the south as part of President Barack Obama's surge strategy to try to bring an end to the nearly nine-year-old insurgency.
Obama last December ordered some 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, and most of them are due to be deployed in the south.
U.S. commanders are planning a major operation in Kandahar that they hope will turn the tide of the war in time for American troops to begin withdrawing on Obama's stated timetable starting in July 2011. Helmand province abuts Kandahar.
Insurgents have stepped up attacks ahead of the Kandahar operation. The spike in violence has killed 28 NATO troops this month, including Wednesday's casualties.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Pakistan needs aid for development of tribal areas
ISLAMABAD, June 8 (APP): Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani said Pakistan needs aid from the international community to carry out its social and economic development programme for tribal areas. In an interview to a Belgian newspaper Le Soir, the Prime Minister said, “after the successful military operations, we now need a social and economic development programme.” He said the government has already measured local needs and damages done by the insurgents and schools, bridges and public buildings have to be constructed and it is now that they have to win the hearts and minds of the people.
He said, “We have told the European Union that we will need its aid.”
“We are looking beyond terrorism. We are going for a long run relationship with Europe. For the tribal zones, where we are militarily involved, we don’t only need Europe, but the whole world,” he added.
The Prime Minister said the present military efforts weigh on the economy and “we need an exit strategy: the military is not a solution”.
“The army shouldn’t stay longer than necessary in these zones ·
unless to install the authority,” he added.
To a question, he said, “We control the strongholds of the insurgents of South Waziristan, Orakzai, Malakand and Swat.”
The militants are in retreat, looking for places to establish themselves, territories where they could demoralize the Pakistani security forces, he added.
He pointed out the reaction of terrorists is to attack civil populations - weak targets, but the government is certainly not losing the control of the territory.
“We can find them for example in Sindh or Punjab. But that doesn’t mean that they control Punjab.”
To a question about the attack in Lahore on the Ahmadi community, the Prime Minister said Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) took protection of the minorities to the heart.
“For the first time we have appointed a minister from a minority - a Christian - who is in charge of minorities. After the attack took place, I sent him together with the Minister of Home Affairs to Lahore,” he added.
He said the government had condemned the attacks. The terrorists have no religion, no frontiers, their only agenda is to destabilize the country and that is why they want to provoke sectarian violence, he remarked.
Prime Minister Gilani said the attacks did not have a religious significance as the terrorists want to use sectarian conflicts as aninstrument.
“Besides, we are tackling the laws that are discriminatory against minorities,” he added.
He said during the previous Musharraf government he was in 1prison. “I even heard on the television during my detention that we are a country with an energy excess.”
He said in 1994 Benazir Bhutto had introduced a programme of IPPs, independent electrical power plants, that were strongly criticized by the opposition.
“But without these IPPs, the situation would be even more serious. Yes, we have problems of energy supply caused by a bad planning, inherited from the previous regime.”
The Prime Minister said to have new power projects, the government needs a time of three years, even in short term.
“In the medium term we have planned at five years and the long term at more than twenty years. We have explored everything: coal, water, thermo, solar, nuclear energy and windmills. It will take time. But we don’t have a deficit of more than 2000 MW,” he added.
He said, “We have told the European Union that we will need its aid.”
“We are looking beyond terrorism. We are going for a long run relationship with Europe. For the tribal zones, where we are militarily involved, we don’t only need Europe, but the whole world,” he added.
The Prime Minister said the present military efforts weigh on the economy and “we need an exit strategy: the military is not a solution”.
“The army shouldn’t stay longer than necessary in these zones ·
unless to install the authority,” he added.
To a question, he said, “We control the strongholds of the insurgents of South Waziristan, Orakzai, Malakand and Swat.”
The militants are in retreat, looking for places to establish themselves, territories where they could demoralize the Pakistani security forces, he added.
He pointed out the reaction of terrorists is to attack civil populations - weak targets, but the government is certainly not losing the control of the territory.
“We can find them for example in Sindh or Punjab. But that doesn’t mean that they control Punjab.”
To a question about the attack in Lahore on the Ahmadi community, the Prime Minister said Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) took protection of the minorities to the heart.
“For the first time we have appointed a minister from a minority - a Christian - who is in charge of minorities. After the attack took place, I sent him together with the Minister of Home Affairs to Lahore,” he added.
He said the government had condemned the attacks. The terrorists have no religion, no frontiers, their only agenda is to destabilize the country and that is why they want to provoke sectarian violence, he remarked.
Prime Minister Gilani said the attacks did not have a religious significance as the terrorists want to use sectarian conflicts as aninstrument.
“Besides, we are tackling the laws that are discriminatory against minorities,” he added.
He said during the previous Musharraf government he was in 1prison. “I even heard on the television during my detention that we are a country with an energy excess.”
He said in 1994 Benazir Bhutto had introduced a programme of IPPs, independent electrical power plants, that were strongly criticized by the opposition.
“But without these IPPs, the situation would be even more serious. Yes, we have problems of energy supply caused by a bad planning, inherited from the previous regime.”
The Prime Minister said to have new power projects, the government needs a time of three years, even in short term.
“In the medium term we have planned at five years and the long term at more than twenty years. We have explored everything: coal, water, thermo, solar, nuclear energy and windmills. It will take time. But we don’t have a deficit of more than 2000 MW,” he added.
How the iPhone 4's super-LCD works
Once he got his demo working, Steve Jobs dazzled the crowd Monday with one of the iPhone 4’s snazziest features: an ultra-high-resolution display that puts to shame any other cell phone on the market.
With a resolution of 960 x 640 pixels, the iPhone 4 crams more graphical ability into a 3.5-inch diagonal space than any other gizmo on earth (at least that anyone is aware of). With a density of 326 pixels per inch, Jobs claims it's better than the human eye can even detect at a standard viewing distance. In other words, if Jobs is correct, you’ll have to hold the phone right up to your face to see the iPhone 4's pixels at all.
Jobs called it the Retina display, but that’s not a technical term, just a snazzy marketing name for the screen.
What’s really behind the technology?
For starters, it’s a simple function of shrinking pixel size, something that engineers have been working on since the dawn of LCD technology. By shrinking pixels down smaller than ever, more can be packed onto a surface, and as long as the gadget has the video processing capability to support all those pixels, you’re going to get an awesome-looking experience.
But iPhone 4 has more than just raw pixels. Apple is also touting its optical lamination process, which basically adheres the glass directly on top of the LCD so there’s no gap between the two. As Displayblog explains, this "improves sharpness and clarity of the display by eliminating light refraction, which is caused by the small distance between the glass surface and the LCD that exists on pre-4 iPhones."
Finally there’s IPS, an acronym Jobs threw out but didn’t really explain. IPS stands for in-plane switching, and it’s an older technology dating to 1996 that was designed to allow for wider viewing angles on LCD devices. IPS was pricey, so it didn’t really catch on back in the day, but Apple brought IPS back with the iPad and is now extending it to the iPhone 4. It works by arranging the crystal structure within the LCD such that the crystals are parallel with the glass screen above. Traditional LCD screens have crystals at odd angles, which decreases brightness and makes viewing at odd angles difficult, but IPS corrects that problem by creating order from the chaos. You can dig deep into the technical details of IPS with PCTechGuide.
With a resolution of 960 x 640 pixels, the iPhone 4 crams more graphical ability into a 3.5-inch diagonal space than any other gizmo on earth (at least that anyone is aware of). With a density of 326 pixels per inch, Jobs claims it's better than the human eye can even detect at a standard viewing distance. In other words, if Jobs is correct, you’ll have to hold the phone right up to your face to see the iPhone 4's pixels at all.
Jobs called it the Retina display, but that’s not a technical term, just a snazzy marketing name for the screen.
What’s really behind the technology?
For starters, it’s a simple function of shrinking pixel size, something that engineers have been working on since the dawn of LCD technology. By shrinking pixels down smaller than ever, more can be packed onto a surface, and as long as the gadget has the video processing capability to support all those pixels, you’re going to get an awesome-looking experience.
But iPhone 4 has more than just raw pixels. Apple is also touting its optical lamination process, which basically adheres the glass directly on top of the LCD so there’s no gap between the two. As Displayblog explains, this "improves sharpness and clarity of the display by eliminating light refraction, which is caused by the small distance between the glass surface and the LCD that exists on pre-4 iPhones."
Finally there’s IPS, an acronym Jobs threw out but didn’t really explain. IPS stands for in-plane switching, and it’s an older technology dating to 1996 that was designed to allow for wider viewing angles on LCD devices. IPS was pricey, so it didn’t really catch on back in the day, but Apple brought IPS back with the iPad and is now extending it to the iPhone 4. It works by arranging the crystal structure within the LCD such that the crystals are parallel with the glass screen above. Traditional LCD screens have crystals at odd angles, which decreases brightness and makes viewing at odd angles difficult, but IPS corrects that problem by creating order from the chaos. You can dig deep into the technical details of IPS with PCTechGuide.
Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkey agree to enhance cooperation against terror
Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkey on Monday reiterated that terrorism is a crime against humanity and agreed on various steps to decisively counter the lethal nexus of terrorism, extremism and narcotics.The understanding was reached at a trilateral meeting of the three countries in Turkey, which was attended by Turkish Foreign Affairs Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Afghan Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Zalmai Rassoul and Foreign Minister Mahkdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi.The ministers of Afghanistan and Pakistan also condemned the Israeli aggression on the Freedom Flotilla, and underlined their solidarity with the government and people of Turkey. They also paid their condolences to the people of Turkey and families of the victims.The three ministers also condemned the terrorist attacks in their countries resulting in the loss of lives, and paid tribute to sacrifices made by the security forces in defending their citizens.The meeting took place on the basis of the decision taken at the Third Trilateral Summit held in Ankara on 1st April, 2009 to supplement the trilateral summit process.Referring to the decisions taken at the fourth trilateral summit held in Istanbul on 25 January 2010, the ministers underlined the importance to improve relations among their respective countries at all levels.The three leaders also discussed the implementation of the decisions taken at the previous summit.
Peace in Swat
Dawn Editorial
On Thursday, a statement released by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan welcomed the restoration of peace in Swat, citing the reports of a fact-finding team. This is encouraging and testifies to the Pakistan Army’s efforts since the military operation was launched last year. However, lasting stability hinges on several factors and requires more than the efforts of the army alone.
First, the security forces must refrain from adopting a ham-fisted approach. No illegal practices should be associated with the army. Yet the HRCP fact-finding team says that the security forces were in some areas committing human rights violations. These include extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions and the forced displacement of families of suspected militants. This is counterproductive and must cease since it tarnishes the image of the army while alienating the local people.
Secondly, the role played by the army in maintaining peace must slowly but surely be handed over to non- military agencies such as the police. The task of infrastructure development and rehabilitation must also be entrusted to civi- lian bodies. That the army repaired and rebuilt over 200 schools is praiseworthy, for instance, but sends the signal that civilian organisations are not in charge. The confidence of the people will not be restored unless the region appears safe enough for the army to be seen to be taking a back seat.
Third, the region needs a more efficient justice system. This will not only restore confidence in the state but also reduce the need for illegalities such as arbi-trary detention and extrajudicial killings. Only 57 of the nearly 3,000 cases registered against suspected militants since May 2009 have so far been decided, and there have been three convictions. This is unsurprising since there is only one anti-terrorism judge for the seven districts of Malakand division. Such deficiencies must be addressed if peace in Swat is to be sustainable.
On Thursday, a statement released by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan welcomed the restoration of peace in Swat, citing the reports of a fact-finding team. This is encouraging and testifies to the Pakistan Army’s efforts since the military operation was launched last year. However, lasting stability hinges on several factors and requires more than the efforts of the army alone.
First, the security forces must refrain from adopting a ham-fisted approach. No illegal practices should be associated with the army. Yet the HRCP fact-finding team says that the security forces were in some areas committing human rights violations. These include extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions and the forced displacement of families of suspected militants. This is counterproductive and must cease since it tarnishes the image of the army while alienating the local people.
Secondly, the role played by the army in maintaining peace must slowly but surely be handed over to non- military agencies such as the police. The task of infrastructure development and rehabilitation must also be entrusted to civi- lian bodies. That the army repaired and rebuilt over 200 schools is praiseworthy, for instance, but sends the signal that civilian organisations are not in charge. The confidence of the people will not be restored unless the region appears safe enough for the army to be seen to be taking a back seat.
Third, the region needs a more efficient justice system. This will not only restore confidence in the state but also reduce the need for illegalities such as arbi-trary detention and extrajudicial killings. Only 57 of the nearly 3,000 cases registered against suspected militants since May 2009 have so far been decided, and there have been three convictions. This is unsurprising since there is only one anti-terrorism judge for the seven districts of Malakand division. Such deficiencies must be addressed if peace in Swat is to be sustainable.
Pakistan's heatwave and a deadly lack of energy policy
www.guardian.co.uk
From the whitewashed mansions of Clifton, Karachi, to the dusty village shacks in Gujar, Punjab, the two words heard most regularly on the lips of Pakistanis right now? Load-shedding, the political euphemism that is used by everyone – be they state official, liberal intellectual or housemaid – to discuss the country's long, daily blackouts. Power cuts and energy shortage are nothing new for the subcontinent; in six decades of being, Pakistan's infrastructure has never been able to cope with basic rate of growth and demand for energy – let alone been able to provide unlimited, uninterrupted electricity for its people. And yet, the country's current energy crisis is unprecedented: in the last two years it has become nothing short of a national disaster.
Just over a week since I arrived back in London – having spent six days criss-crossing the Punjabi province – and Pakistan is being held hostage to the most punishing heatwave in living memory. Record-breaking temperatures of 53C were recorded across the country last week, the death toll is consequentially rising even faster than the mercury. The heat is brutal, penetrative and unbearable to be caught outside in, but the real killer seems to be Pakistan's energy policy. Or, as it might be more accurately defined, the distinct lack of one.
Up to 12 hours of the day are routinely being endured without electricity across the country. Cities and villages take it in turns to have the lights turned out … to keep them on. Tolerating the current heat without power, without working fans, fridges, air conditioning (for those lucky enough to have afforded installation in the first place) and light, is not just a matter of inconvenience though: heatstroke, food poisoning and dehydration are killing in their hundreds while the death of livestock, paralysis of small and large business and the real threat to livelihoods and families is hurting further. The wealthy will switch on their generators to keep a running supply of power every time the electricity trips; the poor are simply left to swelter and suffer.
Foresight has rarely been a historic strength of Pakistani administrations, the last government failed to add a single megawatt of new power to the national grid under almost a decade of rule. The farcical current regime, led by Asif Ali Zardari, has been forced to scramble for a solution only to land itself between a rock and a nuclear place. An energy programme to tackle the problem long term, facilitated by the actual building of power plants and coal-mining projects (rather than through the financial aid pledged by Obama's administration), has been laid on the table by the Chinese government.
Given that the two countries would be co-operating in a civil nuclear programme to build several new nuclear power plants, the project has been met with the wholesale disapproval of the US government. China has cited the rules under its membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), which make it clear that no nuclear trade can be entered into with a country that has not signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. This, despite legislation being passed to enable similar nuclear trade between the US and India. Hypocritical twitchiness from the White House is nothing new. In this case, it does the US little favours in terms of its public perception from the region. Any attempt to block an essential power-generation deal between China and Pakistan will only be viewed with the same bitter contempt the public have for the daily US drone attacks to the country's tribal regions.
Pakistan consumed just 0.39% of the world's total electricity consumption last year, but energy providers such as Pepco (a nationalised company) are still unable to cope and meet the 4,000-5,000 megawatt shortfall in electricity needed to keep powering the country. No new dams have been built or planned for, although almost a third of the country's electricity is generated through hydropower. Meanwhile, the Thar coalfield in Sindh (the second largest province in Pakistan) contains an estimated 175 billion tonnes of deposits. If a Chinese-funded coal-mining power project is to go ahead, this could provide decades of cheap (albeit highly polluting) power. The country also has vast reserves of natural gas. And yet, with 65% of the country's supply delivered by thermal power – mostly generated through costly imported oil – no steps have been taken to switch to natural gas power production.
There is little doubt that Pakistan's ruling elite are to blame for short-sightedness, for being too greedily corrupt to install basic, decent utilities for the country's people. Now that moves could be made to correct this can only be a hopeful sign for the future. The Chinese policy, to offer trade and build projects rather than cash aid, is a sound one that further cements the historic relationship between the two countries. Unless the US has firm plans to propose a similar project, its intervention as a "special ally" is not only unwelcome but entirely unnecessary.
From the whitewashed mansions of Clifton, Karachi, to the dusty village shacks in Gujar, Punjab, the two words heard most regularly on the lips of Pakistanis right now? Load-shedding, the political euphemism that is used by everyone – be they state official, liberal intellectual or housemaid – to discuss the country's long, daily blackouts. Power cuts and energy shortage are nothing new for the subcontinent; in six decades of being, Pakistan's infrastructure has never been able to cope with basic rate of growth and demand for energy – let alone been able to provide unlimited, uninterrupted electricity for its people. And yet, the country's current energy crisis is unprecedented: in the last two years it has become nothing short of a national disaster.
Just over a week since I arrived back in London – having spent six days criss-crossing the Punjabi province – and Pakistan is being held hostage to the most punishing heatwave in living memory. Record-breaking temperatures of 53C were recorded across the country last week, the death toll is consequentially rising even faster than the mercury. The heat is brutal, penetrative and unbearable to be caught outside in, but the real killer seems to be Pakistan's energy policy. Or, as it might be more accurately defined, the distinct lack of one.
Up to 12 hours of the day are routinely being endured without electricity across the country. Cities and villages take it in turns to have the lights turned out … to keep them on. Tolerating the current heat without power, without working fans, fridges, air conditioning (for those lucky enough to have afforded installation in the first place) and light, is not just a matter of inconvenience though: heatstroke, food poisoning and dehydration are killing in their hundreds while the death of livestock, paralysis of small and large business and the real threat to livelihoods and families is hurting further. The wealthy will switch on their generators to keep a running supply of power every time the electricity trips; the poor are simply left to swelter and suffer.
Foresight has rarely been a historic strength of Pakistani administrations, the last government failed to add a single megawatt of new power to the national grid under almost a decade of rule. The farcical current regime, led by Asif Ali Zardari, has been forced to scramble for a solution only to land itself between a rock and a nuclear place. An energy programme to tackle the problem long term, facilitated by the actual building of power plants and coal-mining projects (rather than through the financial aid pledged by Obama's administration), has been laid on the table by the Chinese government.
Given that the two countries would be co-operating in a civil nuclear programme to build several new nuclear power plants, the project has been met with the wholesale disapproval of the US government. China has cited the rules under its membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), which make it clear that no nuclear trade can be entered into with a country that has not signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. This, despite legislation being passed to enable similar nuclear trade between the US and India. Hypocritical twitchiness from the White House is nothing new. In this case, it does the US little favours in terms of its public perception from the region. Any attempt to block an essential power-generation deal between China and Pakistan will only be viewed with the same bitter contempt the public have for the daily US drone attacks to the country's tribal regions.
Pakistan consumed just 0.39% of the world's total electricity consumption last year, but energy providers such as Pepco (a nationalised company) are still unable to cope and meet the 4,000-5,000 megawatt shortfall in electricity needed to keep powering the country. No new dams have been built or planned for, although almost a third of the country's electricity is generated through hydropower. Meanwhile, the Thar coalfield in Sindh (the second largest province in Pakistan) contains an estimated 175 billion tonnes of deposits. If a Chinese-funded coal-mining power project is to go ahead, this could provide decades of cheap (albeit highly polluting) power. The country also has vast reserves of natural gas. And yet, with 65% of the country's supply delivered by thermal power – mostly generated through costly imported oil – no steps have been taken to switch to natural gas power production.
There is little doubt that Pakistan's ruling elite are to blame for short-sightedness, for being too greedily corrupt to install basic, decent utilities for the country's people. Now that moves could be made to correct this can only be a hopeful sign for the future. The Chinese policy, to offer trade and build projects rather than cash aid, is a sound one that further cements the historic relationship between the two countries. Unless the US has firm plans to propose a similar project, its intervention as a "special ally" is not only unwelcome but entirely unnecessary.
Karzai’s Isolation Worries Afghans and the West
New York Times
By ALISSA J. RUBIN
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan observers and Western officials are interpreting the forced resignations of Afghanistan’s two top security officials as another worrying sign of President Hamid Karzai’s increasingly impulsive decision making and deepening isolation from his backers, both within Afghanistan and abroad.
The two men who resigned over the weekend, Interior Minister Hanif Atmar and the intelligence director, Amrullah Saleh, had strong relationships with American and British officials and were seen as being among the most competent of his cabinet members, said several Western officials in Kabul. Mr. Saleh, in particular, had built an intelligence agency that the West had come to depend on in a region where reliable partners are hard to find, they said.
Their ready dismissals have left the sense that, in trying to ensure his own survival, Mr. Karzai will not hesitate to make decisions counter to the interests of his staunchest Western allies or the Afghan government as a whole, or even to make decisions that seem counter to his own long-term interests.
“This is the beginning of the unraveling of the Afghan government,” said Haron Meer, a political analyst and former aide to Ahmed Shah Massoud, the leader of the Northern Alliance, which fought the Taliban when they ruled Afghanistan.
“This is a signal that Mr. Karzai is oblivious about this situation,” he said. “Afghan people want a government where people are appointed based on merit, and instead he is doing the opposite. He is removing two of the best managers in his cabinet.”
To some, the forced departure of the two men is a troubling indication of the president’s mounting insecurity and his fear that even those closest to him are not looking out for him.
Compounding those fears is Mr. Karzai’s lack of faith in the Americans and his uncertainty about whether they will back him over the long term. That impression has been reinforced by President Obama’s pledge to start withdrawing troops in July 2011 and his administration’s arm’s-length relationship with President Karzai.
“The root of this is the perception that President Karzai got last year from the kind of cold reception that he got from the American administration, and that made him feel insecure,” said Ahmed Ali Jalali, who was Afghanistan’s interior minister from 2003 to 2005. He now teaches at the National Defense University in Washington.
The insecurity has left Mr. Karzai alternately lashing out in anger and searching for new allies, turning to Iran and elements within the Taliban. Both are antagonistic to American interests.
“He is trying to create new networks, new allies and contacts both inside the country and outside the country in case there’s a premature withdrawal, so a lot of this is more of a survival gesture,” Mr. Jalali said.
Since late March, the president has lashed out at the NATO coalition, accusing it of perpetrating fraud in the presidential election last year and for behaving in ways that made the Westerners seem almost like “invaders.” While the anger was glossed over in a visit to the United States in May, the distrust has remained, Western officials said.
At a peace convention, or jirga, last week, Mr. Karzai got an endorsement of his long-held plan to release Taliban prisoners. On Sunday, he issued a decree to release those held without enough evidence for trials, in an apparent effort to prove his bona fides to his enemies and show that he could deliver.
But such a move is highly controversial, both within the country and for the NATO coalition. Some of the Taliban held in Afghan and American detention have killed fellow Afghans; some have killed NATO troops.
Ostensibly Mr. Atmar and Mr. Saleh were forced to resign over security lapses during the jirga that allowed the Taliban to fire rockets at the opening ceremony. Beyond that, however, the two men and Mr. Karzai had a number of differences.
Mr. Saleh, whose National Directorate of Security runs detention centers that hold a number of detainees, was opposed to any casual release of Taliban fighters. In some cases his men died while capturing Taliban operatives with the assent of Mr. Karzai or his close aides, according to people close to the presidency.
Mr. Karzai appears determined to proceed anyway, without, in the view of his critics, getting anything in return. The move has heightened fears that he is grasping at straws in his effort to win political support from any quarter.
“It’s one thing if there is a grand bargain for peace that is endorsed by the Parliament, and on one side Karzai releases some Taliban and on the other side Afghanistan gets something,” said an Afghan businessman who closely watches politics, but who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he has business with Mr. Karzai’s government. “But what does he get for this? Nothing.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Karzai’s internal political support appears to be ebbing. During the election campaign, he garnered the support of Shiite Hazara leaders and the former commanders Karim Khalili and Hajji Muhammad Moheqiq, as well as the Uzbek commander Abdul Rashid Dostum.
All have since drifted away, and neither Mr. Dostum nor Mr. Moheqiq attended the peace jirga. While none of the former warlords are beloved in Afghanistan, Mr. Karzai had previously calculated that it was better to have them in the tent than outside it.
Now they are outside in any case, saying Mr. Karzai has failed to make good on promises to award their supporters powerful positions in the government in exchange for helping Mr. Karzai win re-election. While that is not Mr. Karzai’s fault — he tried, but many of his cabinet nominees were rejected — it has left him alone and reaching out to the Taliban.
“We don’t know what destination our government is going towards,” said Shukria Barakzai, a member of Parliament and a supporter of Mr. Karzai. “But unfortunately we are going backward, not forward.”
By ALISSA J. RUBIN
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan observers and Western officials are interpreting the forced resignations of Afghanistan’s two top security officials as another worrying sign of President Hamid Karzai’s increasingly impulsive decision making and deepening isolation from his backers, both within Afghanistan and abroad.
The two men who resigned over the weekend, Interior Minister Hanif Atmar and the intelligence director, Amrullah Saleh, had strong relationships with American and British officials and were seen as being among the most competent of his cabinet members, said several Western officials in Kabul. Mr. Saleh, in particular, had built an intelligence agency that the West had come to depend on in a region where reliable partners are hard to find, they said.
Their ready dismissals have left the sense that, in trying to ensure his own survival, Mr. Karzai will not hesitate to make decisions counter to the interests of his staunchest Western allies or the Afghan government as a whole, or even to make decisions that seem counter to his own long-term interests.
“This is the beginning of the unraveling of the Afghan government,” said Haron Meer, a political analyst and former aide to Ahmed Shah Massoud, the leader of the Northern Alliance, which fought the Taliban when they ruled Afghanistan.
“This is a signal that Mr. Karzai is oblivious about this situation,” he said. “Afghan people want a government where people are appointed based on merit, and instead he is doing the opposite. He is removing two of the best managers in his cabinet.”
To some, the forced departure of the two men is a troubling indication of the president’s mounting insecurity and his fear that even those closest to him are not looking out for him.
Compounding those fears is Mr. Karzai’s lack of faith in the Americans and his uncertainty about whether they will back him over the long term. That impression has been reinforced by President Obama’s pledge to start withdrawing troops in July 2011 and his administration’s arm’s-length relationship with President Karzai.
“The root of this is the perception that President Karzai got last year from the kind of cold reception that he got from the American administration, and that made him feel insecure,” said Ahmed Ali Jalali, who was Afghanistan’s interior minister from 2003 to 2005. He now teaches at the National Defense University in Washington.
The insecurity has left Mr. Karzai alternately lashing out in anger and searching for new allies, turning to Iran and elements within the Taliban. Both are antagonistic to American interests.
“He is trying to create new networks, new allies and contacts both inside the country and outside the country in case there’s a premature withdrawal, so a lot of this is more of a survival gesture,” Mr. Jalali said.
Since late March, the president has lashed out at the NATO coalition, accusing it of perpetrating fraud in the presidential election last year and for behaving in ways that made the Westerners seem almost like “invaders.” While the anger was glossed over in a visit to the United States in May, the distrust has remained, Western officials said.
At a peace convention, or jirga, last week, Mr. Karzai got an endorsement of his long-held plan to release Taliban prisoners. On Sunday, he issued a decree to release those held without enough evidence for trials, in an apparent effort to prove his bona fides to his enemies and show that he could deliver.
But such a move is highly controversial, both within the country and for the NATO coalition. Some of the Taliban held in Afghan and American detention have killed fellow Afghans; some have killed NATO troops.
Ostensibly Mr. Atmar and Mr. Saleh were forced to resign over security lapses during the jirga that allowed the Taliban to fire rockets at the opening ceremony. Beyond that, however, the two men and Mr. Karzai had a number of differences.
Mr. Saleh, whose National Directorate of Security runs detention centers that hold a number of detainees, was opposed to any casual release of Taliban fighters. In some cases his men died while capturing Taliban operatives with the assent of Mr. Karzai or his close aides, according to people close to the presidency.
Mr. Karzai appears determined to proceed anyway, without, in the view of his critics, getting anything in return. The move has heightened fears that he is grasping at straws in his effort to win political support from any quarter.
“It’s one thing if there is a grand bargain for peace that is endorsed by the Parliament, and on one side Karzai releases some Taliban and on the other side Afghanistan gets something,” said an Afghan businessman who closely watches politics, but who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he has business with Mr. Karzai’s government. “But what does he get for this? Nothing.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Karzai’s internal political support appears to be ebbing. During the election campaign, he garnered the support of Shiite Hazara leaders and the former commanders Karim Khalili and Hajji Muhammad Moheqiq, as well as the Uzbek commander Abdul Rashid Dostum.
All have since drifted away, and neither Mr. Dostum nor Mr. Moheqiq attended the peace jirga. While none of the former warlords are beloved in Afghanistan, Mr. Karzai had previously calculated that it was better to have them in the tent than outside it.
Now they are outside in any case, saying Mr. Karzai has failed to make good on promises to award their supporters powerful positions in the government in exchange for helping Mr. Karzai win re-election. While that is not Mr. Karzai’s fault — he tried, but many of his cabinet nominees were rejected — it has left him alone and reaching out to the Taliban.
“We don’t know what destination our government is going towards,” said Shukria Barakzai, a member of Parliament and a supporter of Mr. Karzai. “But unfortunately we are going backward, not forward.”
US audit says Afghan forces overrated: report
A US government audit has found deficiencies in the training of Afghan security forces, the Pentagon said Monday following a newspaper report that said their capabilities had been overrated.
The Financial Times said the findings of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction cast doubt on a 25 billion dollar effort to build up the country's security forces, a cornerstone of President Barack Obama's exit strategy.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman acknowledged that the audit, which has not been released yet, reviewed the adequacy of the training of the Afghan security forces and found "some shortcomings in there."
"I'm sure the command will be addressing it," he said.
General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, immediately changed the method for assessing Afghan security forces upon being briefed on the audit findings, Susan Phalen, a spokeswoman for the auditors said.
However, she declined to say whether the audit found that the previous method had inflated the capabilities of the Afghanistan security forces.
Phalen said the report was in its final phase but was still under review.
The Financial Times said the report will say the standards used to appraise the Afghan military and police from 2005 until recently were woefully inadequate.
The old rating system measured forces on factors such as equipment and training rather than anything more accurately reflecting their fighting abilities, the audit will say, according to the FT.
"It became clear to us that the assessment wasn't giving a clear picture of the actual operational readiness of Afghan National Security Forces," said Colonel Dennis Devery, deputy director of the ANSF assistance bureau.The report looked at the surge in Afghan army units considered "fully capable" for combat. None met the standard before 2008, but 22 units were considered ready by May 2009.
"The system deliberately exaggerated the combat capacity of Afghan troops, and it disguised the true level of attrition and desertion," said Anthony Cordesman, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
A new assessment system is now in place, measuring troop units on their operational effectiveness.
Afghanistan's ability to take over responsibility for securing its borders and quelling the Taliban insurgency is seen as vital to Western plans to end engagement in a war NATO and its allies have been fighting since 2001.
The Financial Times said the findings of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction cast doubt on a 25 billion dollar effort to build up the country's security forces, a cornerstone of President Barack Obama's exit strategy.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman acknowledged that the audit, which has not been released yet, reviewed the adequacy of the training of the Afghan security forces and found "some shortcomings in there."
"I'm sure the command will be addressing it," he said.
General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, immediately changed the method for assessing Afghan security forces upon being briefed on the audit findings, Susan Phalen, a spokeswoman for the auditors said.
However, she declined to say whether the audit found that the previous method had inflated the capabilities of the Afghanistan security forces.
Phalen said the report was in its final phase but was still under review.
The Financial Times said the report will say the standards used to appraise the Afghan military and police from 2005 until recently were woefully inadequate.
The old rating system measured forces on factors such as equipment and training rather than anything more accurately reflecting their fighting abilities, the audit will say, according to the FT.
"It became clear to us that the assessment wasn't giving a clear picture of the actual operational readiness of Afghan National Security Forces," said Colonel Dennis Devery, deputy director of the ANSF assistance bureau.The report looked at the surge in Afghan army units considered "fully capable" for combat. None met the standard before 2008, but 22 units were considered ready by May 2009.
"The system deliberately exaggerated the combat capacity of Afghan troops, and it disguised the true level of attrition and desertion," said Anthony Cordesman, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
A new assessment system is now in place, measuring troop units on their operational effectiveness.
Afghanistan's ability to take over responsibility for securing its borders and quelling the Taliban insurgency is seen as vital to Western plans to end engagement in a war NATO and its allies have been fighting since 2001.
40 closed schools made functional in Peshawar
PESHAWAR : As many as 40 primary schools (for boys and girls) located in rural areas of the capital city have been made functional after remaining closed for quite some time, Daily Times has learnt.
Around 57 schools, including 55 for girls, were closed as the teachers appointed there had got themselves transferred to urban areas, an official of the Elementary and Secondary Education Department said.
The official said teachers have been appointment at the schools located in different parts of the provincial metropolis on the directives of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Education Minister Sardar Hussain Babak.
He said that the remaining 17 schools would also be made functional soon.
Around 57 schools, including 55 for girls, were closed as the teachers appointed there had got themselves transferred to urban areas, an official of the Elementary and Secondary Education Department said.
The official said teachers have been appointment at the schools located in different parts of the provincial metropolis on the directives of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Education Minister Sardar Hussain Babak.
He said that the remaining 17 schools would also be made functional soon.
Swat normalcy owes to sacrifices of security forces: Owais Ghani
Swat owes its normalcy to the sacrifices and professional contribution of Pakistan’s security forces that have created an example for rest of the world by ridding Swat of terrorists in a record time.This rich tribute was paid by Governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Owais Ahmad Ghani after witnessing the photo exhibition ‘Swat Smiles Again’ arranged by Communication Research Strategies (CRS) at National Art Gallery of PNCA.
The Governor said it was very difficult for anyone to feel the agony and pain the people of Swat went through during the period of turmoil.
“Now Swat is back to normalcy and it was political will of the government and resolve of Pakistani forces backed by the people of Pakistan that had made this day possible,” he added.
Appreciating the effort of CRS, he said, the organizer had done a great job in bringing the true picture of Swat of today to the general public.
‘Swat Smiles Again’ was inaugurated by the Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on May 29, 2010 and the ceremony was attended by the Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Minister of Information and Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira and Farah Naz Ispahani besides local dignitaries and distinguished diplomats.
Speaking at the occasion, the CEO CRS Aniq Zafar said, the exhibition ‘Swat Smiles Again’ was a bid to show to the world that Pakistani nation was capable enough to unitedly handle any kind of challenge.
He hoped that the exhibition will succeed in letting people see that Swat is ready to welcome them again.
‘Swat Smiles Again’ displays about 300 masterpieces by 14 professional photographers who have visited Swat region in past few months.
From breathtaking landscapes to brilliant smiles, revival of business activity and restoration of educational infrastructure the exhibition presents the vibrant Swat as it has always been.
The major contributors to the exhibition include Tanveer Shahzad, Gulrez Ghouri, Irshad Sheikh, Azhar Hafeez, Furqan Bhatti and Rubina Bokhari.
Prime Minister gave away prizes in five categories of Best Smile, Landscape, Business, Civil Military Bond and Agriculture to Irshad Sheikh, Gulraiz Ghouri, Tanveer Shahzad (2 awards) and Azhar Hafeez respectively.
The exhibition will be open for general public on May 31, 2010 as well.
The Governor said it was very difficult for anyone to feel the agony and pain the people of Swat went through during the period of turmoil.
“Now Swat is back to normalcy and it was political will of the government and resolve of Pakistani forces backed by the people of Pakistan that had made this day possible,” he added.
Appreciating the effort of CRS, he said, the organizer had done a great job in bringing the true picture of Swat of today to the general public.
‘Swat Smiles Again’ was inaugurated by the Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on May 29, 2010 and the ceremony was attended by the Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Minister of Information and Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira and Farah Naz Ispahani besides local dignitaries and distinguished diplomats.
Speaking at the occasion, the CEO CRS Aniq Zafar said, the exhibition ‘Swat Smiles Again’ was a bid to show to the world that Pakistani nation was capable enough to unitedly handle any kind of challenge.
He hoped that the exhibition will succeed in letting people see that Swat is ready to welcome them again.
‘Swat Smiles Again’ displays about 300 masterpieces by 14 professional photographers who have visited Swat region in past few months.
From breathtaking landscapes to brilliant smiles, revival of business activity and restoration of educational infrastructure the exhibition presents the vibrant Swat as it has always been.
The major contributors to the exhibition include Tanveer Shahzad, Gulrez Ghouri, Irshad Sheikh, Azhar Hafeez, Furqan Bhatti and Rubina Bokhari.
Prime Minister gave away prizes in five categories of Best Smile, Landscape, Business, Civil Military Bond and Agriculture to Irshad Sheikh, Gulraiz Ghouri, Tanveer Shahzad (2 awards) and Azhar Hafeez respectively.
The exhibition will be open for general public on May 31, 2010 as well.
peace restored in Swat
Incharge Security Pakistan Army in Swat, Colonel Aftab has said that complete peace has been restored in the area and tourists could visit here without fear and hesitation.Addressing a seminar held in connection with tourism on Sunday, the Incharge security of Pakistan Army said that after restoring peace in the area Pak Army is taking steps to promote tourism in Swat.He said that Pak Army has given several suggestions to restore tourism and these suggestions are in the process of implementation. He said that for this purpose they will organize several tournaments, tourism festival and several other ceremonies to attract the tourists.
Pakistan Army has established check posts for the safety and protection of the masses and it has complete control over the city.
GM Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa Tourism, Mushtaq Khan and other participants gave suggestion for the restoration of tourism in the area.
Pakistan Army has established check posts for the safety and protection of the masses and it has complete control over the city.
GM Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa Tourism, Mushtaq Khan and other participants gave suggestion for the restoration of tourism in the area.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Pakistan`s mosques, media and intolerance
Pakistan has been fighting Islamist militants for years, but tough measures are needed to overturn a system breeding religious intolerance after the long failure of authorities to confront mullahs and hardline groups.
Analysts say the notion of religious mistrust is deeply entrenched in the predominatly Muslim country -- even in the school system -- and it is now up to leaders to mobilise public.
Last week's massacre in the city of Lahore of more than 80 Ahmadis - a minority religious sect deemed non-Muslim and heretical by the constitution - has generated a heated debate in Pakistan, a US ally, on how to tackle the issue.
In a sign of how hatred is propagated, The News newspaper said one of the two surviving gunmen caught by security forces said he had been persuaded that Ahmadis were "blaspheming" Islam.
Identified as Abdullah, he told investigators that his mentors had him believe that Ahmadis were drawing caricatures of Prophet Mohammad during a recent online contest and "so their bloodshed was a great service to Islam", the newspaper said.
That raised alarm bells in a country combatting militancy.
"The nagging feeling that the government has already lost the battle against extremism has now acquired the force of conviction," Zafar Hilaly, a former ambassador, wrote in The News last week.
After joining the US-led war on terrorism after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Pakistan mounted a crackdown on militancy, outlawing several groups, arresting hundreds of suspects and warning hardline mullahs against delivering hate speeches and distributing hate literature.
ISLAMIC SEMINARIES
The government also vowed to reform tens of thousands of Islamic seminaries, known as madrassas, many of which are considered as breeding grounds for militancy.
Almost none of these measures, however, has been implemented.
Most outlawed groups have re-emerged under new names. Radical clerics still deliver fiery speeches against sects.
The US Embassy acknowledged the difficulties, given the importance placed on Pakistan helping Washington battle al Qaeda and its extremist allies.
"We recognise this is a problem," an embassy official said, adding that the embassy encouraged Pakistanis to take part in exchange programmes to see a multi-faith United States.
Analysts say Pakistani leaders dating back to the 1970s, however popular, took no action to counter radicals.
Hasan Askari Rizvi, a Lahore-based political and security analyst said governments have lacked the stomach to implement reforms, particularly in school curricula.
"In textbooks used in government schools, Pakistan is equated with Muslims...They teach Pakistan is a country only for Muslims. They don't teach that non-Muslims also live here," he said.
Journalist and analyst Ahmed Rashid described school programmes as "the most sensitive issue. But it is an issue in which any attempt to change the curriculum would have a whole host of fundamentalist groups oppose you."
In 1974, Pakistan's first popularly elected Prime Minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, bowed to Islamic groups and won approval of a constitutional amendment declaring Ahmadis as non-Muslims.
He also switched the weekly day off from Sunday to Friday.
But much of the upsurge in militancy occurred in the late 1970s and 1980s during the "Islamisation drive" by late military leader General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq and Pakistan's support for the US-baked Afghan jihad or holy war against the Soviet invasion which saw a rapid growth of radical groups and madrasas.
Haq introduced several laws, such as the notorious blasphemy law, which are deemed discriminatory against non-Muslim minorities and fuelled tensions between different Muslim sects.
Subsequent governments did nothing to reverse the laws.
Military dictators, who ruled Pakistan for more than half of its existence, have also used militant groups to further policy objectives in Afghanistan and India and marginalise liberals.
"In earlier years, in order to pursue its foreign policy using the instrument of jihad, the state actively sought to create a religiously charged citizenry," said Pervez Hoodbhoy, a physicist and analyst.
"But, now that the Pakistani military and political establishments have become a victim of extremism, they are foundering in confusion."
Former President Pervez Musharraf, a military ruler, though he espoused a modern and liberal version of Islam, repeatedly failed to get the laws reviewed while in office from 1999-2008.
Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, a pro-West politician and a vocal opponent of the militants, was killed in December 2007 in a suicide attack blamed on militants linked to al Qaeda.
Civilian leaders are made even more cautious now in tackling radical groups by the tremendous fear of militants who have unleashed bomb and suicide attacks across the country.
"Religious intolerance is getting worse in Pakistan because the political leadership lacks the will to fight this," said analyst Rizvi. "They don't want to face the wrath of mullahs."
Analysts say the notion of religious mistrust is deeply entrenched in the predominatly Muslim country -- even in the school system -- and it is now up to leaders to mobilise public.
Last week's massacre in the city of Lahore of more than 80 Ahmadis - a minority religious sect deemed non-Muslim and heretical by the constitution - has generated a heated debate in Pakistan, a US ally, on how to tackle the issue.
In a sign of how hatred is propagated, The News newspaper said one of the two surviving gunmen caught by security forces said he had been persuaded that Ahmadis were "blaspheming" Islam.
Identified as Abdullah, he told investigators that his mentors had him believe that Ahmadis were drawing caricatures of Prophet Mohammad during a recent online contest and "so their bloodshed was a great service to Islam", the newspaper said.
That raised alarm bells in a country combatting militancy.
"The nagging feeling that the government has already lost the battle against extremism has now acquired the force of conviction," Zafar Hilaly, a former ambassador, wrote in The News last week.
After joining the US-led war on terrorism after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Pakistan mounted a crackdown on militancy, outlawing several groups, arresting hundreds of suspects and warning hardline mullahs against delivering hate speeches and distributing hate literature.
ISLAMIC SEMINARIES
The government also vowed to reform tens of thousands of Islamic seminaries, known as madrassas, many of which are considered as breeding grounds for militancy.
Almost none of these measures, however, has been implemented.
Most outlawed groups have re-emerged under new names. Radical clerics still deliver fiery speeches against sects.
The US Embassy acknowledged the difficulties, given the importance placed on Pakistan helping Washington battle al Qaeda and its extremist allies.
"We recognise this is a problem," an embassy official said, adding that the embassy encouraged Pakistanis to take part in exchange programmes to see a multi-faith United States.
Analysts say Pakistani leaders dating back to the 1970s, however popular, took no action to counter radicals.
Hasan Askari Rizvi, a Lahore-based political and security analyst said governments have lacked the stomach to implement reforms, particularly in school curricula.
"In textbooks used in government schools, Pakistan is equated with Muslims...They teach Pakistan is a country only for Muslims. They don't teach that non-Muslims also live here," he said.
Journalist and analyst Ahmed Rashid described school programmes as "the most sensitive issue. But it is an issue in which any attempt to change the curriculum would have a whole host of fundamentalist groups oppose you."
In 1974, Pakistan's first popularly elected Prime Minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, bowed to Islamic groups and won approval of a constitutional amendment declaring Ahmadis as non-Muslims.
He also switched the weekly day off from Sunday to Friday.
But much of the upsurge in militancy occurred in the late 1970s and 1980s during the "Islamisation drive" by late military leader General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq and Pakistan's support for the US-baked Afghan jihad or holy war against the Soviet invasion which saw a rapid growth of radical groups and madrasas.
Haq introduced several laws, such as the notorious blasphemy law, which are deemed discriminatory against non-Muslim minorities and fuelled tensions between different Muslim sects.
Subsequent governments did nothing to reverse the laws.
Military dictators, who ruled Pakistan for more than half of its existence, have also used militant groups to further policy objectives in Afghanistan and India and marginalise liberals.
"In earlier years, in order to pursue its foreign policy using the instrument of jihad, the state actively sought to create a religiously charged citizenry," said Pervez Hoodbhoy, a physicist and analyst.
"But, now that the Pakistani military and political establishments have become a victim of extremism, they are foundering in confusion."
Former President Pervez Musharraf, a military ruler, though he espoused a modern and liberal version of Islam, repeatedly failed to get the laws reviewed while in office from 1999-2008.
Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, a pro-West politician and a vocal opponent of the militants, was killed in December 2007 in a suicide attack blamed on militants linked to al Qaeda.
Civilian leaders are made even more cautious now in tackling radical groups by the tremendous fear of militants who have unleashed bomb and suicide attacks across the country.
"Religious intolerance is getting worse in Pakistan because the political leadership lacks the will to fight this," said analyst Rizvi. "They don't want to face the wrath of mullahs."
Friday, June 4, 2010
Afghan peace delegates urge action on Taliban
Delegates to a peace conference in Afghanistan asked Friday that Taliban prisoners be freed from Afghan and international detention centers. They also urged the Taliban to cut its ties with al Qaeda.The suggestions are among 200 that delegates to the conference, or jirga, made to authorities.
The delegates also recommended that names of all Taliban members be removed from blacklists maintained by the United States and United Nations. Those lists contain the names of suspected militants that U.S. authorities and their allies would like to arrest.The recommendations follow several days of meetings involving delegates from around Afghanistan.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai planned the peace gathering with tribal leaders to discuss a reintegration plan for Taliban members who renounce violence and lay down their arms.
The Taliban released a press statement a day before the attack, calling the peace meeting a "foreign scripted peace jirga."
Suspected militants fired rockets, detonated explosives and engaged in an intense gun battle with security forces Wednesday as Karzai spoke at the peace meeting nearby.
The delegates also recommended that names of all Taliban members be removed from blacklists maintained by the United States and United Nations. Those lists contain the names of suspected militants that U.S. authorities and their allies would like to arrest.The recommendations follow several days of meetings involving delegates from around Afghanistan.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai planned the peace gathering with tribal leaders to discuss a reintegration plan for Taliban members who renounce violence and lay down their arms.
The Taliban released a press statement a day before the attack, calling the peace meeting a "foreign scripted peace jirga."
Suspected militants fired rockets, detonated explosives and engaged in an intense gun battle with security forces Wednesday as Karzai spoke at the peace meeting nearby.
Pakistani Official Admits Militancy’s Deep Roots in Pakistan
The New York Times
LAHORE, Pakistan — Days after one of the worst terrorist attacks in Pakistan, a senior Pakistani official declared in a surprising public admission that extremist groups were entrenched in the southern portion of the nation’s most populous province, underscoring the growing threats to the state.
The statements by the interior minister, Rehman Malik, after the killing of more than 80 people at two mosques last week here in Lahore, were exceptional because few Pakistani politicians have acknowledged so explicitly the deep roots of militancy in Pakistan. They also highlighted the seeming impotence of the civilian government to root out the militant groups, even in Punjab Province, providing a troubling recognition that decades of state policy to nurture extremism had come home to roost in the very heart of the country.
The extent of the problem has become an increasing concern for the United States, which has pressed the government to deal with the issue with renewed urgency since the failed attempt by a Pakistani-American to explode a car bomb in Times Square.
“We’re dealing with a problem that is so deeply burrowed into the bosom of the society,” said a senior Western official about the difficulty of loosening the grip of the militant groups. “And we’re dealing with a government that is unhappy within itself.”
The problem for Pakistan, Western officials and some Pakistani politicians said, is not only the specific acts of terrorism by these groups, but the far more pervasive jihadi mentality that has been nurtured in the society by an extensive network of extremist madrasas and mosques.
Mr. Malik’s remarks — in which he rattled off a host of extremist groups once supported by the state — were a nod to these larger problems. In contrast to the tribal areas at the nation’s periphery, where the military is battling the Pakistani Taliban on several fronts, militants were “now active” in the southern part of Punjab and were trying to “destabilize the country,” he said.
Though Mr. Malik seemed to hint at possible military action in Punjab, the civilian government, led by the Pakistan Peoples Party, the more secular of the political parties in Pakistan, has little leverage to make it happen.
The Pakistani military, which still holds most power, has shown little interest in taking on extremist groups in Punjab. The province is a major recruiting area for the army, and many of the militant groups there were created by the state decades ago and have been fostered since as arms of Pakistan’s enduring anti-India strategy.
To a large degree, they have slipped from the control of their handlers in the military and intelligence services, according to Western diplomats and Pakistani security experts, and have linked up with Taliban fighters and other militant groups that are now striking deeper into Pakistan in an effort to overthrow the state.
Today these militants move back and forth easily between the tribal areas for training and Punjab, where they carry out a rising number of spectacular attacks.
“They — Lashkar-e-Janghvi, the Sipah-e-Sohaba Pakistan and Jaish-e-Mohammad — are allies of the Taliban and Al Qaeda,” Mr. Malik told reporters in Lahore after the mosque attacks.
The loose conglomerate of militants that Mr. Malik listed is now being grouped by officials and others under the name of the Punjabi Taliban, a designation that itself highlights the expanding nature of the threat in Pakistan’s most important province and the militants’ shifting ambitions. Under that rubric also falls Lashkar-e-Taiba, an anti-India militant group. Like the others listed by Mr. Malik, Lashkar-e-Taiba has been banned by the state, but continues to operate under a different name and apparently with the blessing of the military.
The Punjabi Taliban took credit for the assaults on the two Ahmadi mosques last Friday. At least one of the men arrested by the Pakistani authorities in connection with the Times Square bombing case is connected to Jaish-e-Mohammed, according to law enforcement officials in Karachi.
Adding to the difficulty of clamping down on the groups, the Punjabi government, led by Shahbaz Sharif, a leader of the more conservative Pakistan Muslim League-N and a chief political rival of President Asif Ali Zardari, has stopped short of condemning the militants. In some respects, he has treated them as allies.
Two months ago, Mr. Sharif asked the Taliban to stay away from Punjab, arguing that his party and the Taliban had a common enemy in the United States. The Punjab government is “in a state of denial,” said Arif Nizami, a columnist with the newspaper The News. Mr. Sharif played down the attack on the two mosques in Lahore, Punjab’s capital. Instead, he visited the wounded survivors in a hospital quietly at night without the usual television coverage.The groups hold such sway that Pakistani politicians frequently pander to some, like the pro-Taliban Sipah-e-Sohaba Pakistan, during elections.
In a bold illustration of the power of one of the militant groups in southern Punjab, the provincial law minister, Rana Sanaullah, campaigned alongside the leader of Sipah-e-Sohaba, Maulana Muhammad Ahmed Ludhianvi, during a March by-election for the provincial assembly in the city of Jhang.
In an interview, Mr. Sanaullah, said he saw nothing wrong with campaigning with Mr. Ludhianvi. It was a good thing, he said, because it helped bring groups that he described as no longer militant into the democratic mainstream. “If they want to be law-abiding citizens, we should allow them to be,” Mr. Sanaullah said.
Mr. Sanaullah was not alone in seeking votes from Sipah-e-Sohaba. A candidate for the National Assembly running for the Pakistan Peoples Party also won with its support earlier this year.
Though security is a paramount concern, government officials and others acknowledge that the problem of militancy will not be solved by military force alone. Having been nurtured through generations, it will also not be undone quickly.
A program announced by Mr. Zardari two years ago to rein in the madrasas has yet to get off the ground, blocked by bureaucratic inertia and fears of a backlash from powerful conservative religious groups, Pakistani officials say. As state-sponsored education becomes too expensive for poor parents, the number of madrasas has actually increased in the past three years, to more than 17,000 in 2010 from 13,000 in 2007. At least several thousand of the madrasas churn out militant students, experts say.
LAHORE, Pakistan — Days after one of the worst terrorist attacks in Pakistan, a senior Pakistani official declared in a surprising public admission that extremist groups were entrenched in the southern portion of the nation’s most populous province, underscoring the growing threats to the state.
The statements by the interior minister, Rehman Malik, after the killing of more than 80 people at two mosques last week here in Lahore, were exceptional because few Pakistani politicians have acknowledged so explicitly the deep roots of militancy in Pakistan. They also highlighted the seeming impotence of the civilian government to root out the militant groups, even in Punjab Province, providing a troubling recognition that decades of state policy to nurture extremism had come home to roost in the very heart of the country.
The extent of the problem has become an increasing concern for the United States, which has pressed the government to deal with the issue with renewed urgency since the failed attempt by a Pakistani-American to explode a car bomb in Times Square.
“We’re dealing with a problem that is so deeply burrowed into the bosom of the society,” said a senior Western official about the difficulty of loosening the grip of the militant groups. “And we’re dealing with a government that is unhappy within itself.”
The problem for Pakistan, Western officials and some Pakistani politicians said, is not only the specific acts of terrorism by these groups, but the far more pervasive jihadi mentality that has been nurtured in the society by an extensive network of extremist madrasas and mosques.
Mr. Malik’s remarks — in which he rattled off a host of extremist groups once supported by the state — were a nod to these larger problems. In contrast to the tribal areas at the nation’s periphery, where the military is battling the Pakistani Taliban on several fronts, militants were “now active” in the southern part of Punjab and were trying to “destabilize the country,” he said.
Though Mr. Malik seemed to hint at possible military action in Punjab, the civilian government, led by the Pakistan Peoples Party, the more secular of the political parties in Pakistan, has little leverage to make it happen.
The Pakistani military, which still holds most power, has shown little interest in taking on extremist groups in Punjab. The province is a major recruiting area for the army, and many of the militant groups there were created by the state decades ago and have been fostered since as arms of Pakistan’s enduring anti-India strategy.
To a large degree, they have slipped from the control of their handlers in the military and intelligence services, according to Western diplomats and Pakistani security experts, and have linked up with Taliban fighters and other militant groups that are now striking deeper into Pakistan in an effort to overthrow the state.
Today these militants move back and forth easily between the tribal areas for training and Punjab, where they carry out a rising number of spectacular attacks.
“They — Lashkar-e-Janghvi, the Sipah-e-Sohaba Pakistan and Jaish-e-Mohammad — are allies of the Taliban and Al Qaeda,” Mr. Malik told reporters in Lahore after the mosque attacks.
The loose conglomerate of militants that Mr. Malik listed is now being grouped by officials and others under the name of the Punjabi Taliban, a designation that itself highlights the expanding nature of the threat in Pakistan’s most important province and the militants’ shifting ambitions. Under that rubric also falls Lashkar-e-Taiba, an anti-India militant group. Like the others listed by Mr. Malik, Lashkar-e-Taiba has been banned by the state, but continues to operate under a different name and apparently with the blessing of the military.
The Punjabi Taliban took credit for the assaults on the two Ahmadi mosques last Friday. At least one of the men arrested by the Pakistani authorities in connection with the Times Square bombing case is connected to Jaish-e-Mohammed, according to law enforcement officials in Karachi.
Adding to the difficulty of clamping down on the groups, the Punjabi government, led by Shahbaz Sharif, a leader of the more conservative Pakistan Muslim League-N and a chief political rival of President Asif Ali Zardari, has stopped short of condemning the militants. In some respects, he has treated them as allies.
Two months ago, Mr. Sharif asked the Taliban to stay away from Punjab, arguing that his party and the Taliban had a common enemy in the United States. The Punjab government is “in a state of denial,” said Arif Nizami, a columnist with the newspaper The News. Mr. Sharif played down the attack on the two mosques in Lahore, Punjab’s capital. Instead, he visited the wounded survivors in a hospital quietly at night without the usual television coverage.The groups hold such sway that Pakistani politicians frequently pander to some, like the pro-Taliban Sipah-e-Sohaba Pakistan, during elections.
In a bold illustration of the power of one of the militant groups in southern Punjab, the provincial law minister, Rana Sanaullah, campaigned alongside the leader of Sipah-e-Sohaba, Maulana Muhammad Ahmed Ludhianvi, during a March by-election for the provincial assembly in the city of Jhang.
In an interview, Mr. Sanaullah, said he saw nothing wrong with campaigning with Mr. Ludhianvi. It was a good thing, he said, because it helped bring groups that he described as no longer militant into the democratic mainstream. “If they want to be law-abiding citizens, we should allow them to be,” Mr. Sanaullah said.
Mr. Sanaullah was not alone in seeking votes from Sipah-e-Sohaba. A candidate for the National Assembly running for the Pakistan Peoples Party also won with its support earlier this year.
Though security is a paramount concern, government officials and others acknowledge that the problem of militancy will not be solved by military force alone. Having been nurtured through generations, it will also not be undone quickly.
A program announced by Mr. Zardari two years ago to rein in the madrasas has yet to get off the ground, blocked by bureaucratic inertia and fears of a backlash from powerful conservative religious groups, Pakistani officials say. As state-sponsored education becomes too expensive for poor parents, the number of madrasas has actually increased in the past three years, to more than 17,000 in 2010 from 13,000 in 2007. At least several thousand of the madrasas churn out militant students, experts say.
Pakistan balks at taking on the Punjabi Taliban
Despite the numerous, heinous attacks carried out in Pakistan's major cities, the Pakistani government is hesitant to take on the myriad of home-grown and supported terror groups known as the Punjabi Taliban. Yesterday, Rehman Malik, Pakistan's Minister of the Interior, "said that no military operation is planned against banned outfits in Punjab, rather effective action would jointly be taken to eliminate them," according to a report in the Associated Press of Pakistan.
What that "effective action" may be is not yet clear, but one thing that is clear is that there are tens of thousands of trained terrorists in Punjab. According to a September 2009 report in Newsline, the district of Bahawalpur, ust one of many in Punjab province, "alone could boast of approximately 15,000-20,000 trained militants" from the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Jaish-e-Mohammad, and Lashkar-e-Taiba. These terror groups, which were created and supported by Pakistan's military and religious establishment over the past four decades, are entrenched in Punjab.
The New York Times has a good read on the situation in the Punjab. Pakistani politicians openly and proudly campaign with the leaders of these "banned" groups to garner votes while the government pretends the problem doesn't exist. Even though NATO supply terminals have to be shut down throughout the Punjab due to terror threats (these terminals have been hit in Mianwali in Punjab in the past). All the while, the number of madrassas in Punjab grows.
A program announced by Mr. Zardari two years ago to rein in the madrasas has yet to get off the ground, blocked by bureaucratic inertia and fears of a backlash from powerful conservative religious groups, Pakistani officials say. As state-sponsored education becomes too expensive for poor parents, the number of madrasas has actually increased in the past three years, to more than 17,000 in 2010 from 13,000 in 2007. At least several thousand of the madrasas churn out militant students, experts say.
Former President Pervez Musharraf also claimed he instituted changes to clean up the madrassa system in Pakistan to prevent the schools from being used to recruit jihadists. That, like his jihadist purges of the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, clearly did not work out to well.
What that "effective action" may be is not yet clear, but one thing that is clear is that there are tens of thousands of trained terrorists in Punjab. According to a September 2009 report in Newsline, the district of Bahawalpur, ust one of many in Punjab province, "alone could boast of approximately 15,000-20,000 trained militants" from the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Jaish-e-Mohammad, and Lashkar-e-Taiba. These terror groups, which were created and supported by Pakistan's military and religious establishment over the past four decades, are entrenched in Punjab.
The New York Times has a good read on the situation in the Punjab. Pakistani politicians openly and proudly campaign with the leaders of these "banned" groups to garner votes while the government pretends the problem doesn't exist. Even though NATO supply terminals have to be shut down throughout the Punjab due to terror threats (these terminals have been hit in Mianwali in Punjab in the past). All the while, the number of madrassas in Punjab grows.
A program announced by Mr. Zardari two years ago to rein in the madrasas has yet to get off the ground, blocked by bureaucratic inertia and fears of a backlash from powerful conservative religious groups, Pakistani officials say. As state-sponsored education becomes too expensive for poor parents, the number of madrasas has actually increased in the past three years, to more than 17,000 in 2010 from 13,000 in 2007. At least several thousand of the madrasas churn out militant students, experts say.
Former President Pervez Musharraf also claimed he instituted changes to clean up the madrassa system in Pakistan to prevent the schools from being used to recruit jihadists. That, like his jihadist purges of the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, clearly did not work out to well.
Bannu Medical College students's protest.
PESHAWAR: For three days recently, more than 70 male and female students of Bannu Medical College stayed in the provincial metropolis to stage protests and interact with whoever could help them in seeking resolution of their problems.
This was a desperate attempt to invite attention of the authorities to the sorry state of affairs at their college, which was established in 2006 by the then chief minister Akram Durrani as he tried to bring every conceivable project to his native Bannu. Four years later, it is still lacking in many respects.
The students were hoping that their protests in Peshawar and better media coverage would prompt the provincial government to take measures to upgrade facilities at the college for meeting the standards required for its recognition by the Pakistan Medical and Dental College (PMDC).
Their protests made an impact as Chief Minister Ameer Haider Hoti convened a high-level meeting on June 2 to discuss the needs of Bannu Medical College. If properly implemented, some of the decisions that were taken would help resolve the problems highlighted by the students. The Khalifa Gul Nawaz Teaching Hospital, named after a freedom-fighter, would be made fully operational by the end of the year, an endowment fund would be set up to offer incentives and hire the needed teaching staff and request would be made to the federal government and PMDC for provisionally recognizing the college.
The students, though, are sceptical as in the past also promises were made and forgotten following their earlier protests. However, they are determined to pursue the matter as the first batch at the college is now in the fourth year and non-recognition of Bannu Medical College by the PMDC would render them ineligible to appear in the MBBS examination.
The 500 students of the college had earlier organised demonstrations in Bannu and set up camps selling pakoras and sewing clothes as a mark of protest against the government’s apathy to solution of their problems.
A group of students narrated their woes as they sat down with this writer while camping in Peshawar recently as part of their protest campaign. They had been on strike since May 13, refusing to take classes and instead agitating on the streets. Their major concern was non-recognition of their college by the PMDC due to its various deficiencies.
Initially, 50 students yearly were being admitted, then the number was raised to 100 without providing the requisuite facilities. The intake of students is now 153 and the college strength would rise to 653 later in the autumn when new admissions are given. This has led to overcrowding in the classes, laboratories and hostels, which in case of male students were set up in rented buildings and lack basic services. There are more than 200 female medical students belonging to places all over the province and they too are suffering due to the plethora of problems at the college.
The Khalifa Gul Nawaz Teaching Hospital is not yet fully functional. Work on its construction started in 2004 but only six out of the 11 planned blocks have been built until now. Shortage of teachers is a serious issue. Ninety sanctioned posts of the teaching faculty are still vacant. The PMDC in its last report following a visit by its designated inspection team noted that the college was being run with 20 percent of the required teaching staff only.
According to the students, the problems at Bannu Medical College kept piling from the tenure of its first principal, Dr Omar Ali Khan, who was followed by Dr Shafiullah and was recently replaced by Dr Khan Nawaz. The college principal was normally entrusted with four posts, making it difficult for him to concentrate on his job.
The Ittehad-e-Talaba, the united platform of the protesting students, highlighted many other problems concerning their inadequate library, the non-operational Self Learning Resource Centre, the poorly maintained laboratories, security concerns, etc.
The Bannu Medical College is the third biggest college in terms of students’ strength after the Khyber Medical College, Peshawar and Ayub Medical College, Abbottabad. However, it is fifth in order of merit primarily due to its many inadequacies on account of the government’s inability to meet its needs. The college could slip further in ranking if remedial measures weren’t taken to resolve its many problems.
This was a desperate attempt to invite attention of the authorities to the sorry state of affairs at their college, which was established in 2006 by the then chief minister Akram Durrani as he tried to bring every conceivable project to his native Bannu. Four years later, it is still lacking in many respects.
The students were hoping that their protests in Peshawar and better media coverage would prompt the provincial government to take measures to upgrade facilities at the college for meeting the standards required for its recognition by the Pakistan Medical and Dental College (PMDC).
Their protests made an impact as Chief Minister Ameer Haider Hoti convened a high-level meeting on June 2 to discuss the needs of Bannu Medical College. If properly implemented, some of the decisions that were taken would help resolve the problems highlighted by the students. The Khalifa Gul Nawaz Teaching Hospital, named after a freedom-fighter, would be made fully operational by the end of the year, an endowment fund would be set up to offer incentives and hire the needed teaching staff and request would be made to the federal government and PMDC for provisionally recognizing the college.
The students, though, are sceptical as in the past also promises were made and forgotten following their earlier protests. However, they are determined to pursue the matter as the first batch at the college is now in the fourth year and non-recognition of Bannu Medical College by the PMDC would render them ineligible to appear in the MBBS examination.
The 500 students of the college had earlier organised demonstrations in Bannu and set up camps selling pakoras and sewing clothes as a mark of protest against the government’s apathy to solution of their problems.
A group of students narrated their woes as they sat down with this writer while camping in Peshawar recently as part of their protest campaign. They had been on strike since May 13, refusing to take classes and instead agitating on the streets. Their major concern was non-recognition of their college by the PMDC due to its various deficiencies.
Initially, 50 students yearly were being admitted, then the number was raised to 100 without providing the requisuite facilities. The intake of students is now 153 and the college strength would rise to 653 later in the autumn when new admissions are given. This has led to overcrowding in the classes, laboratories and hostels, which in case of male students were set up in rented buildings and lack basic services. There are more than 200 female medical students belonging to places all over the province and they too are suffering due to the plethora of problems at the college.
The Khalifa Gul Nawaz Teaching Hospital is not yet fully functional. Work on its construction started in 2004 but only six out of the 11 planned blocks have been built until now. Shortage of teachers is a serious issue. Ninety sanctioned posts of the teaching faculty are still vacant. The PMDC in its last report following a visit by its designated inspection team noted that the college was being run with 20 percent of the required teaching staff only.
According to the students, the problems at Bannu Medical College kept piling from the tenure of its first principal, Dr Omar Ali Khan, who was followed by Dr Shafiullah and was recently replaced by Dr Khan Nawaz. The college principal was normally entrusted with four posts, making it difficult for him to concentrate on his job.
The Ittehad-e-Talaba, the united platform of the protesting students, highlighted many other problems concerning their inadequate library, the non-operational Self Learning Resource Centre, the poorly maintained laboratories, security concerns, etc.
The Bannu Medical College is the third biggest college in terms of students’ strength after the Khyber Medical College, Peshawar and Ayub Medical College, Abbottabad. However, it is fifth in order of merit primarily due to its many inadequacies on account of the government’s inability to meet its needs. The college could slip further in ranking if remedial measures weren’t taken to resolve its many problems.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Mardan , No girls college in Katlang
MARDAN: Imagine a higher secondary school with 1,700 students against its capacity of 1,200 and 120 to 130 of them crowding a class.
This is the state of affairs in the Government Girls Centennial Higher Secondary School in Katlang in Mardan district. The sad part of the situation is that it is the only school of its kind in Katlang, where no girls college exists despite having a population of more than 200,000.
Katlang is a rural area 20 kilometres north of Mardan city. It was declared a tehsil by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ameer Haider Hoti during his visit to Katlang on March 6. Katlang has fertile agricultural land and is located in an area containing archaeological sites dating back to the Gandhara civilisation.
The higher secondary school for girls is in Katlang town, which is centrally located in an area containing more than 25 villages. Teaching staff at the school complain that it is overburdened due to absence of a similar institution or girls college in the area.
Principal of the school Mrs Naseem told The News there were only 13 teachers in the school, meaning that the ratio was one teacher per 130 students. She lamented that the ratio of teacher per student was three times more than the educational policy of the government, which is one teacher for 40 students.
“We have requested several times verbally and in writing the high-ups of the Education Department for the provision of more teachers at our school but to no avail,” she said. According to the principal, the school administration often refuses admission to students, as the school cannot accommodate more because of overcrowding. She said it was a routine that desperate parents from the surrounding villages visit the school to seek admission for their daughters.
“When we deny them admission, the parents lament that they will stop sending their daughters to school as there is no other educational institution run by the government for girls in the area. The parents tell us they cannot afford to educate their daughters in the expensive private schools,” she explained.
Mrs Naseem remarked that the teachers ask four girls to share a single desk, as all classes are overcrowded. “There are about 120 to 130 students in a class. How can a single teacher concentrate while teaching so many students in a class?” she asked.
Saba, a Grade 9 student, told The News she aspired to continue her studies but feared that her dream of receiving higher education would not be fulfilled as there was not a single college for girls in the Katlang area and her parents could not afford to send her to the college in Mardan city.
“I know that many girls in my neighbourhood have given up their studies after passing the intermediate examination because of absence of a girls college in Katlang,” she said. Another student of Grade 9, Lubna said her father was a peon in a high school and his salary was just Rs6,000 which was hardly enough for making both ends meet. “How can he bear expenses of my education?” she innocently asked.
Lubna appealed to the government to award scholarships for the needy girl students to enable them complete their education and become useful citizens. Shah-i-Sultan, father of a girl student, said that there were girls colleges in Mardan city but it was not possible for poor parents to bear the expenses of sending their daughters there for higher education.
“The government should set up a girls college in Katlang and also open another higher secondary school in our area to meet the demand for female education and save the future of the girls,” he stressed.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Peruvian child becomes symbol of US undocumented
Seven-year-old Daisy Cuevas, thrilled to see herself on television with U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama, didn't quite understand the predicament in which she had innocently placed her undocumented Peruvian parents.
"She laughed, she jumped up and down. She was excited" after the encounter at Daisy's suburban Washington, D.C., elementary school, the girl's maternal grandfather, Genaro Juica, told The Associated Press.
The TV appearance made the pigtailed second grader a voice of the estimated 12 million immigrants living in the United States illegally — and a source of pride for Peru's president, who visits Washington on Tuesday.
"My mom says that Barack Obama is taking away everybody that doesn't have papers," Daisy told the U.S. first lady on May 19 at the New Hampshire Estates Elementary School in Silver Spring, Maryland. "Well, that's something that we have to work on, right, to make sure that people can be here with the right kind of papers," Michelle Obama replied.
"But my mom doesn't have papers," said Daisy, a U.S. citizen by virtue of her birth.
The color immediately drained from her mother's face. She ran crying to call her parents in Lima, then went into hiding, fearful of being deported.
These are tense times for people like Daisy's mother, a maid who arrived in the United States with her carpenter husband when she was two months pregnant with Daisy.
Daisy's parents are fearful of U.S. anti-immigrant sentiment, which for many Latin Americans is epitomized by an Arizona law taking effect in July that gives police the right to demand ID papers of anyone suspected of being in the country illegally.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has said it is not pursuing Daisy's parents. Immigration investigations, it said in a statement, "are based on making sure the law is followed and not on a question-and-answer discussion in a classroom."
Nonetheless, Daisy's mother asked the AP after the May 19 incident not to name her or her husband.
And Juica, heeding an attorney's advice, asked the news agency not to take photographs of him or other relatives in Peru.
Daisy, meanwhile, has become a celebrity in Peru.
"I'm really proud that a young girl of Peruvian origin is highlighting the enormous problem with Latin American immigration in the United States," President Alan Garcia told reporters last week.
He said it would be scandalous if her parents were deported.
"Do you know how much President Obama and Mrs. Michelle Obama would stand to lose?" he said. Garcia called the Arizona law a "completely irrational response" to the illegal-immigration question, and said he would express his thoughts on the matter to President Obama during his visit to Washington.
An estimated 1.5 million Peruvians currently live in the U.S. Of those, three in five are either undocumented or in the process of legalizing their status, said Peru's consul-general in Washington, Cesar Augusto Jordan.
Peruvian Foreign Minister Jose Antonio Belaunde said in a Radioprogramas radio interview that he considers Daisy a "successful ambassador" for compatriots in similar predicaments.
While Daisy has automatic U.S. citizenship and lives full time with her parents, her 9-year-old sister, July, has not been so lucky. July was left behind with her grandparents when her parents moved to the United States to escape poverty.
The two sisters met for the first time last year when Daisy spent a month visiting her grandparents in the working-class San Juan de Lurigancho district of Lima.
But July misses her parents, who are unlikely to visit Peru because of their illegal status in the U.S.
July has only seen them in photographs and in video chats with a webcam.
"She cries," Juica said.
"She laughed, she jumped up and down. She was excited" after the encounter at Daisy's suburban Washington, D.C., elementary school, the girl's maternal grandfather, Genaro Juica, told The Associated Press.
The TV appearance made the pigtailed second grader a voice of the estimated 12 million immigrants living in the United States illegally — and a source of pride for Peru's president, who visits Washington on Tuesday.
"My mom says that Barack Obama is taking away everybody that doesn't have papers," Daisy told the U.S. first lady on May 19 at the New Hampshire Estates Elementary School in Silver Spring, Maryland. "Well, that's something that we have to work on, right, to make sure that people can be here with the right kind of papers," Michelle Obama replied.
"But my mom doesn't have papers," said Daisy, a U.S. citizen by virtue of her birth.
The color immediately drained from her mother's face. She ran crying to call her parents in Lima, then went into hiding, fearful of being deported.
These are tense times for people like Daisy's mother, a maid who arrived in the United States with her carpenter husband when she was two months pregnant with Daisy.
Daisy's parents are fearful of U.S. anti-immigrant sentiment, which for many Latin Americans is epitomized by an Arizona law taking effect in July that gives police the right to demand ID papers of anyone suspected of being in the country illegally.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has said it is not pursuing Daisy's parents. Immigration investigations, it said in a statement, "are based on making sure the law is followed and not on a question-and-answer discussion in a classroom."
Nonetheless, Daisy's mother asked the AP after the May 19 incident not to name her or her husband.
And Juica, heeding an attorney's advice, asked the news agency not to take photographs of him or other relatives in Peru.
Daisy, meanwhile, has become a celebrity in Peru.
"I'm really proud that a young girl of Peruvian origin is highlighting the enormous problem with Latin American immigration in the United States," President Alan Garcia told reporters last week.
He said it would be scandalous if her parents were deported.
"Do you know how much President Obama and Mrs. Michelle Obama would stand to lose?" he said. Garcia called the Arizona law a "completely irrational response" to the illegal-immigration question, and said he would express his thoughts on the matter to President Obama during his visit to Washington.
An estimated 1.5 million Peruvians currently live in the U.S. Of those, three in five are either undocumented or in the process of legalizing their status, said Peru's consul-general in Washington, Cesar Augusto Jordan.
Peruvian Foreign Minister Jose Antonio Belaunde said in a Radioprogramas radio interview that he considers Daisy a "successful ambassador" for compatriots in similar predicaments.
While Daisy has automatic U.S. citizenship and lives full time with her parents, her 9-year-old sister, July, has not been so lucky. July was left behind with her grandparents when her parents moved to the United States to escape poverty.
The two sisters met for the first time last year when Daisy spent a month visiting her grandparents in the working-class San Juan de Lurigancho district of Lima.
But July misses her parents, who are unlikely to visit Peru because of their illegal status in the U.S.
July has only seen them in photographs and in video chats with a webcam.
"She cries," Juica said.
Obama administration concerned about Gaza incident
President Barack Obama voiced "deep regret" over Monday's deadly Israeli commando raids, and the White House said he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed by phone to reschedule White House talks "at the first opportunity."
In a statement issued by presidential aides in Chicago, where Obama and his family have been spending the Memorial Day weekend, the president was said to have "expressed the importance of learning all the facts and circumstances" surrounding the incident involving aid ships seeking access to the blockaded Gaza Strip.
"He said he understood the prime minister's decision to return immediately to Israel to deal with today's events," the statement said. Netanyahu had been scheduled to meet with Obama Tuesday at the White House.
At the State Department, spokesman P.J. Crowley said, "Ultimately, this incident underscores the need to move ahead quickly with negotiations that can lead to a comprehensive peace in the region."
The United States has been trying to restart direct peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians, but progress toward this achievement has lagged severely in recent months. At least nine people were killed and dozens wounded in the incident Monday.
The raid brought heightened attention to Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip, imposed after the Palestinian militant group Hamas seized control of the tiny Mediterranean territory in 2007. The blockade — along with Israel's fierce offensive against Gaza in the winter of 2008-2009 to stop Hamas rocket fire — has fueled anti-Israeli sentiment around the Muslim world.
Obama, who has been pushing to reinvigorate the peace process, also has a meeting scheduled June 9 with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Washington.
In a statement last week, the White House said that Obama and Abbas planned to discuss the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian proximity talks and ways the U.S. can work with both parties to move into direct talks. They also will discuss U.S. efforts to support the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Obama and fellow Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel discussed the need for a renewed Middle East peace process earlier this month during a private lunch at the White House.
Speaking to reporters afterward, Wiesel said the meeting was a "good kosher lunch" between friends. But he said the conversation did turn serious, as the two Nobel Peace Prize winners discussed the administration's attempts to break the deadlock in the Israel-Palestinian peace talks.
Obama's meeting with Wiesel, a strong supporter of Israel, comes during a period of strained relations between the U.S. and Israel. The author said he believes tensions between the two countries are lessening.
Wiesel survived the Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Last June, when Obama visited Germany, Wiesel accompanied the president on a tour of Buchenwald.
Relations between the two countries were tested when Israel announced plans for additional settlements in a part of Jerusalem that Palestinians consider as the likely capital of a new Palestinian state. The announcement came as Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, were preparing to have dinner with Netanyahu, in an incident that turned out to be an embarrassment for the Israeli leader.
In Washington on Monday, protesters outside the Israeli Embassy displayed large Palestinian flags and called for the embassy's shutdown. They held a moment of silence for those who died.
Basil Bakir, 50, of Rockville, Md., attended the event with his wife and teenage son. Bakir, a native of the West Bank city of Nablus, said he has friends and relatives in Gaza.
"We are here to show the world that we support Gaza," Bakir said, holding a small Palestinian flag.
"They are suffering over there," he said.
US ‘regrets’ deaths in Israeli raid on aid flotilla
WASHINGTON: The US “deeply regrets” the loss of life during an Israeli raid on an aid convoy to the Gaza Strip and is looking into the details of the incident, the White House said on Monday. “The United States deeply regrets the loss of life and injuries sustained and is currently working to understand the circumstances surrounding this tragedy,” White House spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement. Up to 19 people aboard a flotilla of ships carrying aid destined for the Gaza Strip were killed, when Israeli navy commandos stormed the vessels in international waters. The incident prompted a wave of international condemnation, as Israel said it was forced to board the ships to uphold a blockade of the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory. Israeli officials also said activists on board the convoy had attacked its troops first and that they acted in self-defence.
Major deadly violences in Pakistan in 2010
xinhuanet.com
Pakistan witnessed some deadliest incidences of violence so far in 2010. The violence has been on increase in Pakistan's heartland eastern part, Punjab.
Major incidences of violence starting from the bloodiest attack on the very first day of the year are given in chronological order bellow.
May 28: More than 95 people were killed and 108 others were injured as gunmen armed with hand grenades and suicide jackets stormed into two Ahmadi mosques in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore during Friday prayers. The two attacks were carried out nearly simultaneously, at Garhi Shahu and Lahore Model Town, 15 km apart. Militants' groups identified themselves as Al-Qaeda Al- Jihad and Tehrek-e-Taliban Pakistan-Punjab. One attacker was killed, another suicide bomber was captured by worshippers.
April 19: At least 23 people were killed and more than 40 others were wounded after two bomb attacks hit the northwest Pakistani city of Peshawar. The first attack occurred when a bomb exploded outside a school run by a police welfare foundation, killing one person and injuring another 10. The second attack involved a suicide bomber who had targeted a political rally near crowded market area.
April 17: At least 41 people were killed and more than 50 others injured after two suicide bombers attacked an Internally Displaced Persons(IDPs) camp in northwest Pakistan's Kohat city.
April 16: At least 10 people were killed and another 35 were injured after a suicide bomb attack took place at a hospital, in the southwest Pakistani city of Quetta. A TV cameraman, as well as two police officers were among the dead in the attack.
April 5: At least 49 people were killed and more than 50 others were wounded after a suicide bomber attacked a political party rally in the Lower Dir district, bordering tribal areas in Pakistan. Minutes after the blast unknown militants attacked the U. S. consulate in the city of Peshawar. It has been reported that at least seven people were killed in the attack in Peshawar.
March 13: A suicide blast near the city of Mingora, northwest Pakistan's Swat Valley, left 10 people killed and 37 others injured.
March 12: Two suicide bomb attacks in Lahore resulted in the deaths of at least 45 people and wounded 100 others. Both of these bomb attacks reportedly targeted military vehicles as they were passing through a crowded area.
March 8: A suicide bomb attack killed at least 13 people in Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore, provincial capital of Punjab, and wounded more than 60 others. The bomber reportedly rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into a building that housed an anti- terrorist wing of the federal investigative agency.
March 5: 12 people were killed and another 25 were injured in the Hangu district of northwest Pakistan when a suicide bomber targeted a convoy of vehicles traveling from the Hangu district to the Kurram region.
Feb. 18: A bomb attack in crowded a market resulted in the deaths of at least 15 people and wounded more than 100 others in Pakistan's Tirah valley of the Khyber tribal region.
Feb. 11: Two bomb explosions in Bannu district in the northwest, near a police compound, left at least 12 people killed and another 20 injured.
Feb. 5: At least 13 were killed and 50 injured in a blast in a mini bus near Nursery Road in Karachi. After two hours the second planted bomb blasted at motorcycle stand emergency gate of government Jinnah hospital killing 10 and injuring dozens others including rescuers.
Feb. 3: At least 10 people were killed, including three U.S. soldiers, when a bomb blast hit a convoy near a school in the northwest region of Pakistan. Three schoolgirls were also among the dead and it is believed that this blast injured up to another 70 people within the area.
Jan. 30: A suspected suicide bomber killed at least 16 people and wounded 20 others, when he attacked a checkpoint in the northwestern Pakistani town of Khar, headquarters of Bajaur tribal region.
Jan. 1: At least 105 people were killed and dozens of others injured when a suicide bomber blew up his vehicle in a crowd watching a volleyball game in the southern district of Lakki Marwat in the northwestern part of Pakistan.
US fears Pakistan's power cuts are militants' gain
FAISALABAD, Pakistan — Mohammad Rafiq has worked in Pakistan's weaving factories for 35 years, minding the looms that turn thread into cotton fabric. But lengthy power cuts often leave him and his fellow workers idle and losing wages.
Outages of up to 18 hours a day are threatening the government's credibility at a time when the U.S. is pressing it to step up its fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida. Mindful that a bad economy could mean more recruits to the militant cause, Washington has pledged $1 billion to improve the power supply, including upgrading thermal and hydropower plants as well as modernizing distribution.
Unless things improve, "I'm afraid I'll lose my job and the owner will close the factory," said Rafiq, 52, with a gesture of helplessness, his arms covered in white cotton fluff. "I'll have no future."
The shortfall is estimated at 4,000 megawatts, one-fourth of maximum capacity, and practically no one in the nation of 180 million can escape the outages. They disrupt the work day. They shut down fans and air conditioning. Urban dwellers often return to a dark home, unable to watch a cricket match on TV or have a cold drink. The blackouts are even worse in villages.
The summer, when temperatures can reach 122 degrees (50 degrees Celsius), has only just started and already rallies against blackouts are drawing hundreds of protesters. Some have turned violent, smashing cars and property.
Markets that stayed open until midnight or later have to close at 8 p.m. under a government conservation program which has also nixed late-night weddings that are the norm. Text messages offer "Brand New & slightly used Diesel and Gas Generators" but few can afford them.
Things will soon get better as new power plants come on line, promises Tahir Basharat Cheema, managing director of Pakistan Electric Power Co., but he makes no excuses for the state-run company's failures.
"I'll be very, very frank: Electricity should be available and it should be available all the time," he said. "I apologize to the people like anything because it has been people like us who have missed the bus, who haven't really done their work at the right time."
The shortages began 10 years ago with a boom in consumer spending on household appliances that drove up electricity usage 15 percent in 2007 alone. It exposed deeply ingrained problems with the power supply — outdated transmission systems, widespread electricity theft, corruption and bureaucratic infighting that stalled power generation projects, and even outdated records that leave bills unpaid.
Outages are particularly painful in industrial cities like Faisalabad, 260 kilometers (160 miles) south of Islamabad in Punjab province, the center of Pakistan's textile industry which accounts for 40 percent of factory jobs. Garments and textiles make up more than half the country's exports.
Eighteen months ago, the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics surveyed 400 Punjab factories and said power cuts have slashed industrial output by 25 percent. Since then, the situation has only become more dire.
On a rare day when the power was on in Faisalabad, sweaty men and boys shuffled between rows of clacking 1960s-era looms in a warren of worn brick workshops. Two skinny goats hung out under dusty shade trees.
"This is the only work that I know. I'd be jobless if these factories close," said 24-year-old Mohammed Younus. He has been working since age 14 to support his parents and 10 siblings. "What else could I do, besides taking up burglary or theft?"
Rafiq, a father of six, earns a cent and a half for every yard (meter) of cloth produced, bringing home $30 a week — when the power stays on. Lately, his family has had to cut down on food and he has been borrowing to pay for essentials like flour and sugar.
Things had been slightly better in the past two weeks, with only four to six hours of outages daily, "but before that we were close to starving," he said.
Cheema, the power company chief, said the new power stations coming on line this year will provide 3,400 megawatts, and added that officials have also signed off on long-term hydroelectric projects.
He expected outages of six hours daily at most in cities and eight hours in villages this summer, "But the difference is, our industry will have continuous supply during this time. This is the change from the last year — that it has been prioritized."
That would be welcome news to Waheed Raamay, chairman of Faisalabad's Council of Loom Owners, though he remains pessimistic. "I think these problems will keep on and the industries will continue suffering. We talk to the labor and they are so frustrated," he said. "Eventually I think a revolution will come in Pakistan."
Breaking old habits will likely prove a big challenge.
Forty minutes into an hourlong interview at an official guesthouse, Cheema pressed a bell and summoned a staffer to shut off the chandelier lights. But the wall-mounted air conditioning and two ceiling fans stayed on.
"People of Pakistan are not conservation-minded. We are a very wasteful nation, allow me to say so," he said. "I'm sorry, I didn't even look. I'm very clear about these things, I don't let anybody use electricity when we have God's light outside."
Afghanistan's neighbours stir a witches brew
When Afghan elders gather under a giant tent in Kabul for a peace jirga this week, they will have to be protected not just from militants trying to bomb the meeting from the hills above, but also insulated from a half dozen neighbours all battling for influence.
With the U.S. endgame in sight, Afghanistan's direct and near neighbours have stepped up efforts to undercut each other, advance strategic interests and exert influence on a negotiated settlement of the nine-year conflict, says Ahmed Rashid, journalist and author of "Taliban", the widely acclaimed bestseller.
There are two parallel and dangerous rivalries unfolding in Afghanistan: a proxy war between India and Pakistan that is now every bit as deadly as their 60-year duel over Kashmir, and another between Iran and the United States tied to their geopolitical tussle over a range of issues.
On top of this are the Chinese and the Russians exerting a pull on Afghanistan. China's interest is largely commercial, eyeing the country's vast untapped mineral deposits. Russia on the other hand, while shedding few tears at America's predicament, is concerned in the longer term over instability spilling into central Asia.
Of all the neighbours, Pakistan holds the highest cards in any possible deal with the Afghan Taliban to bring an end to the conflict, says Kamran Bokhari, Middle East and South Asia director at global intelligence consultancy
Its long-running ties to the group and the cross-border linkages to its own Pasthuns make it a central player. Indeed the Pakistanis don't even want Afghanistan to conduct separate negotiations with the Taliban.
"For Pakistan all roads to Kabul must go through Islamabad," says Bokhari.
Pakistan has been especially concerned about expanding Indian involvement in Afghanistan seeing it as an encircling gesture and will do everything possible to checkmate New Delhi.
At same time though, Bokhari said, a lowered Indian presence doesn't necessarily mean Pakistan's stock goes up proportionally. This is not the 1990s when Pakistan had close ties with the Taliban and everyone else was locked out of Afghanistan.
Indeed its unclear what kind of grip Pakistan has over the Afghan Taliban following the U.S. invasion in 2001 forcing Pakistan to switch sides and scale back ties to the group.
Besides Pakistan itself is now caught in the flames of extremist fire. Bokhari says its a misconception to think that Pakistan wants a Talibanised Afghanistan. "It's every bit a worry for Pakistani generals, they are fighting these forces on their side of the Durand Line."
India, on the other hand, was seriously rattled when the U.S. and NATO agreed at the January 28 London conference on Afghanistan to begin re-integrating Taliban fighters, says Rashid. Karzai went further by demanding reconciliation with the Taliban led by Mullah Mohammed Omar.
It is since trying to regain ground, reactiving links with Iran, Russia and the central Asian republics all of whom had backed the Northern Alliance against the Taliban in the 1990s.
"India sees the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban and Al Qaeda working closely with anti-Indian groups based in Pakistani Punjab, such as Laskar-e-Taiba who have begun to re-infiltrate into Indian Kashmir to restart the guerrilla war which has been dormant since 2004," said Rashid.
COMPLICATED TUSSLE
If the competition between India and Pakistan is a stumbling block in Afghanistan, the tussle between Iran and the United States is just as complicated. The Iranians, according to Bokhari, are in the middle of a high-stakes game with the United States on a range of issues and Afghanistan is tied to it.
"They are looking at Afghanistan and saying this is part of the bigger package. They are telling the Americans in back channel negotiations that if you want to leave Afghanistan you have to recognise we have a stake here just as in Iraq."
At the same time, in the shorter term, Iran's intelligence services and members of the Revolutionary Guard have been backing elements of the Taliban even though there is no love lost between Shi'ite Iran and the Sunni Taliban.
The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, told reporters over the weekend that the U.S. had evidence the insurgents were being trained inside Iran and that weapons found in Afghanistan had come from Iran.
Finally the Chinese have extended themselves into Afghanistan, eyeing its untapped mineral resources to feed its surging demand. China's involvement in Afghanistan is primarily economic and stability is key to its interests.
"Unlike the West pushing for democracy, the Chinese would rather have the Afghans choose a type of government based on local culture, customs and domestic conditions," Shanthie Mariet D'Souza, a visiting scholar at Singapore's Institute for South Asian Studies, said in a piece for Eurasia Review.
Beijing is also content to let all weather ally Pakistan lead the policy to Afghanistan, and has in the past not been overly critical of approaches to the Taliban.
With the U.S. endgame in sight, Afghanistan's direct and near neighbours have stepped up efforts to undercut each other, advance strategic interests and exert influence on a negotiated settlement of the nine-year conflict, says Ahmed Rashid, journalist and author of "Taliban", the widely acclaimed bestseller.
There are two parallel and dangerous rivalries unfolding in Afghanistan: a proxy war between India and Pakistan that is now every bit as deadly as their 60-year duel over Kashmir, and another between Iran and the United States tied to their geopolitical tussle over a range of issues.
On top of this are the Chinese and the Russians exerting a pull on Afghanistan. China's interest is largely commercial, eyeing the country's vast untapped mineral deposits. Russia on the other hand, while shedding few tears at America's predicament, is concerned in the longer term over instability spilling into central Asia.
Of all the neighbours, Pakistan holds the highest cards in any possible deal with the Afghan Taliban to bring an end to the conflict, says Kamran Bokhari, Middle East and South Asia director at global intelligence consultancy
Its long-running ties to the group and the cross-border linkages to its own Pasthuns make it a central player. Indeed the Pakistanis don't even want Afghanistan to conduct separate negotiations with the Taliban.
"For Pakistan all roads to Kabul must go through Islamabad," says Bokhari.
Pakistan has been especially concerned about expanding Indian involvement in Afghanistan seeing it as an encircling gesture and will do everything possible to checkmate New Delhi.
At same time though, Bokhari said, a lowered Indian presence doesn't necessarily mean Pakistan's stock goes up proportionally. This is not the 1990s when Pakistan had close ties with the Taliban and everyone else was locked out of Afghanistan.
Indeed its unclear what kind of grip Pakistan has over the Afghan Taliban following the U.S. invasion in 2001 forcing Pakistan to switch sides and scale back ties to the group.
Besides Pakistan itself is now caught in the flames of extremist fire. Bokhari says its a misconception to think that Pakistan wants a Talibanised Afghanistan. "It's every bit a worry for Pakistani generals, they are fighting these forces on their side of the Durand Line."
India, on the other hand, was seriously rattled when the U.S. and NATO agreed at the January 28 London conference on Afghanistan to begin re-integrating Taliban fighters, says Rashid. Karzai went further by demanding reconciliation with the Taliban led by Mullah Mohammed Omar.
It is since trying to regain ground, reactiving links with Iran, Russia and the central Asian republics all of whom had backed the Northern Alliance against the Taliban in the 1990s.
"India sees the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban and Al Qaeda working closely with anti-Indian groups based in Pakistani Punjab, such as Laskar-e-Taiba who have begun to re-infiltrate into Indian Kashmir to restart the guerrilla war which has been dormant since 2004," said Rashid.
COMPLICATED TUSSLE
If the competition between India and Pakistan is a stumbling block in Afghanistan, the tussle between Iran and the United States is just as complicated. The Iranians, according to Bokhari, are in the middle of a high-stakes game with the United States on a range of issues and Afghanistan is tied to it.
"They are looking at Afghanistan and saying this is part of the bigger package. They are telling the Americans in back channel negotiations that if you want to leave Afghanistan you have to recognise we have a stake here just as in Iraq."
At the same time, in the shorter term, Iran's intelligence services and members of the Revolutionary Guard have been backing elements of the Taliban even though there is no love lost between Shi'ite Iran and the Sunni Taliban.
The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, told reporters over the weekend that the U.S. had evidence the insurgents were being trained inside Iran and that weapons found in Afghanistan had come from Iran.
Finally the Chinese have extended themselves into Afghanistan, eyeing its untapped mineral resources to feed its surging demand. China's involvement in Afghanistan is primarily economic and stability is key to its interests.
"Unlike the West pushing for democracy, the Chinese would rather have the Afghans choose a type of government based on local culture, customs and domestic conditions," Shanthie Mariet D'Souza, a visiting scholar at Singapore's Institute for South Asian Studies, said in a piece for Eurasia Review.
Beijing is also content to let all weather ally Pakistan lead the policy to Afghanistan, and has in the past not been overly critical of approaches to the Taliban.
New boats headed to Gaza to challenge blockade
Pro-Palestinian activists promised Tuesday to send two more boats to challenge Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip as international outrage mounted over a botched Israeli raid that left nine people dead.
Also Tuesday, the U.N. Security Council called for an impartial investigation of Israel's deadly raid, condemning the "acts" that resulted in the loss of life. After an emergency meeting and lengthy negotiations, the council agreed on a presidential statement that was weaker than that initially demanded by the Palestinians, Arab nations and Turkey.
Israeli officials have not identified the nine dead or the estimated 34 who were wounded in the raid, but said they would release the names of the dead later Tuesday. They said 50 of the 679 activists aboard the flotilla have been taken to Israel's international airport for deportation. The others, they said, have refused to identify themselves and will remain in detention in a prison in southern Israel.
The renewed challenge to the three-year-old blockade of Gaza comes at a time of increasing criticism within Israel of the raid, which set off a firestorm of condemnation across the globe.
Israel has not allowed access to the activists who were taken off the six boats in the flotilla and there were conflicting accounts of what happened during the early Monday assault on the high seas.
Israel said it opened fire after its commandos were attacked by knives, clubs and live fire from two pistols wrested from soldiers after they rappelled from a helicopter to board one of the six vessels.
Late Monday, it released a grainy black-and-white video that it said supported its version of events, and Turkish TV also showed soldiers under attack.
But activists reporting before communications to the ships were cut said the Israelis fired first.
The flotilla was the ninth attempt by sea to breach the blockade Israel and Egypt imposed after the militant Hamas group violently seized the territory of 1.5 million Palestinians in 2007. Israel allowed five seaborne aid shipments to get through but snapped the blockade shut after its 2009 war in Gaza.
Greta Berlin of the Free Gaza Movement that organized the flotilla said Tuesday that another cargo boat was off the coast of Italy en route to Gaza. A second boat carrying about three dozen passengers is expected to join it, Berlin said.
"This initiative is not going to stop," Berlin said from the group's base in Cyprus. "We think eventually Israel will get some kind of common sense. They're going to have to stop the blockade of Gaza, and one of the ways to do this is for us to continue to send the boats."
She denied Israeli assertions that activists attacked Israeli commandos first and alleged that the edited footage of attacks released by the Israeli military and Turkish TV had presented an inaccurate account.
She also denied that the activists were armed.
Israeli media reports immediately after the raid focused on the attacks on the commandos but by Tuesday, newspapers and analysts reflected another view: That Israel should not have sent commandos to board the ship and that intelligence-gathering was faulty. The front-page headline in one paper, Maariv, referred to the "debacle" of the raid alongside the "bravery" of the soldiers who were taken off guard.
Retired general Shlomo Brom asked why the ships' engines weren't sabotaged rather than boarded by commandos who slid down ropes from a helicopter on to the ships' decks while wearing asbestos gloves that didn't allow them to handle a weapon.
"The entire intelligence community had all the time it needed to follow the protesters' plans and preparation. Drones provided constant streaming videos of the ships, and it's safe to assume other means of tracing and sabotage were used: Signal jamming, signal tapping, possibly even live agents," Brom said.
"And still, based on the commandos' testimonies yesterday, it's clear they were not prepared for what awaited them on the deck."
Analyst Sever Plocker demanded the resignation of the defense minister, Ehud Barak.
"It doesn't make a difference how the decision was made to fall into Hamas' provocation trap," he wrote on the front page of the country's biggest daily, Yediot Ahronot. "Only one thing matters: Ehud Barak failed and must resign."
Israel had urged the flotilla's organizers not to try to breach the blockade, promising to transfer some, if not all of the cargo to Gaza if the boats agreed to dock at a southern Israeli port. The military said Tuesday that the first transfer would take place later Tuesday, but gave no further details on how much would be transferred or whether any goods would be withheld because they were considered a security risk.
Tensions along the Israeli-Gaza border were tense following the naval raid, and on Tuesday morning, the Israeli military said Gaza militants infiltrated Israel and exchanged fire with troops. Israeli rescue services said two militants were killed, but the military would not immediately confirm that.
Also Tuesday, the U.N. Security Council called for an impartial investigation of Israel's deadly raid, condemning the "acts" that resulted in the loss of life. After an emergency meeting and lengthy negotiations, the council agreed on a presidential statement that was weaker than that initially demanded by the Palestinians, Arab nations and Turkey.
Israeli officials have not identified the nine dead or the estimated 34 who were wounded in the raid, but said they would release the names of the dead later Tuesday. They said 50 of the 679 activists aboard the flotilla have been taken to Israel's international airport for deportation. The others, they said, have refused to identify themselves and will remain in detention in a prison in southern Israel.
The renewed challenge to the three-year-old blockade of Gaza comes at a time of increasing criticism within Israel of the raid, which set off a firestorm of condemnation across the globe.
Israel has not allowed access to the activists who were taken off the six boats in the flotilla and there were conflicting accounts of what happened during the early Monday assault on the high seas.
Israel said it opened fire after its commandos were attacked by knives, clubs and live fire from two pistols wrested from soldiers after they rappelled from a helicopter to board one of the six vessels.
Late Monday, it released a grainy black-and-white video that it said supported its version of events, and Turkish TV also showed soldiers under attack.
But activists reporting before communications to the ships were cut said the Israelis fired first.
The flotilla was the ninth attempt by sea to breach the blockade Israel and Egypt imposed after the militant Hamas group violently seized the territory of 1.5 million Palestinians in 2007. Israel allowed five seaborne aid shipments to get through but snapped the blockade shut after its 2009 war in Gaza.
Greta Berlin of the Free Gaza Movement that organized the flotilla said Tuesday that another cargo boat was off the coast of Italy en route to Gaza. A second boat carrying about three dozen passengers is expected to join it, Berlin said.
"This initiative is not going to stop," Berlin said from the group's base in Cyprus. "We think eventually Israel will get some kind of common sense. They're going to have to stop the blockade of Gaza, and one of the ways to do this is for us to continue to send the boats."
She denied Israeli assertions that activists attacked Israeli commandos first and alleged that the edited footage of attacks released by the Israeli military and Turkish TV had presented an inaccurate account.
She also denied that the activists were armed.
Israeli media reports immediately after the raid focused on the attacks on the commandos but by Tuesday, newspapers and analysts reflected another view: That Israel should not have sent commandos to board the ship and that intelligence-gathering was faulty. The front-page headline in one paper, Maariv, referred to the "debacle" of the raid alongside the "bravery" of the soldiers who were taken off guard.
Retired general Shlomo Brom asked why the ships' engines weren't sabotaged rather than boarded by commandos who slid down ropes from a helicopter on to the ships' decks while wearing asbestos gloves that didn't allow them to handle a weapon.
"The entire intelligence community had all the time it needed to follow the protesters' plans and preparation. Drones provided constant streaming videos of the ships, and it's safe to assume other means of tracing and sabotage were used: Signal jamming, signal tapping, possibly even live agents," Brom said.
"And still, based on the commandos' testimonies yesterday, it's clear they were not prepared for what awaited them on the deck."
Analyst Sever Plocker demanded the resignation of the defense minister, Ehud Barak.
"It doesn't make a difference how the decision was made to fall into Hamas' provocation trap," he wrote on the front page of the country's biggest daily, Yediot Ahronot. "Only one thing matters: Ehud Barak failed and must resign."
Israel had urged the flotilla's organizers not to try to breach the blockade, promising to transfer some, if not all of the cargo to Gaza if the boats agreed to dock at a southern Israeli port. The military said Tuesday that the first transfer would take place later Tuesday, but gave no further details on how much would be transferred or whether any goods would be withheld because they were considered a security risk.
Tensions along the Israeli-Gaza border were tense following the naval raid, and on Tuesday morning, the Israeli military said Gaza militants infiltrated Israel and exchanged fire with troops. Israeli rescue services said two militants were killed, but the military would not immediately confirm that.
Lahore's Jinnah Hospital Attacked
At least two gunmen disguised in police uniforms attacked a hospital in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore late yesterday, killing six people in a failed attempt to free a captured militant being treated there, officials said.
The gunmen managed to escape but left without securing the release of the militant, who allegedly was among those who attacked a minority sect in Lahore on Friday and killed 93 people, said Rana Sanaullah, the law minister of Punjab Province, where Lahore is the capital.
The gunmen stormed Jinnah Hospital in a hail of gunfire shortly before midnight and briefly took several patients hostage, Sanaullah said. One of the gunmen climbed on the roof to shoot at police as they surrounded the building, he said.
Four of the six people killed in the attack were policemen, said Punjab’s police chief, Tariq Saleem. Seven people were wounded, he said.
Also yesterday, Pakistan lifted a ban on Facebook after officials from the social networking site apologized for a page deemed offensive to Muslims and removed its contents, said the InFormation Technology Ministry. Pakistan had imposed the ban amid anger over a page that encouraged users to post images of Islam’s Prophet Mohammed.
Many Muslims regard depictions of the prophet, even favorable ones, as blasphemous.
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