Pakistan’s Triangle of Hate

By MOHAMMED HANIF

Pakistan has found a new ally in its never-ending war against India — and he is the public face of our most ruthless killers.

For years Liaquat Ali, better known as Ehsanullah Ehsan, was a familiar and dreaded figure on national media. It seems that after every atrocity committed by the Pakistani Taliban, or Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), he would make triumphant statements in audio messages or bloodcurdling videos, putting the fear of God in Pakistani media and causing revulsion among Pakistani people.

Soon after the TTP killed three employees of Express TV in January 2014, the television channel invited Ehsan on the air by phone. He very calmly explained the reasons for the murder, and the interviewer promised — respectfully, repeatedly — to give him more airtime, while begging for guarantees that there would be no further attacks.

Ehsan later claimed responsibility for an Easter Day attack in a park in Lahore last year, which killed dozens of people. He had previously claimed responsibility for an attack on a girl named Malala, who was shot in the head on her way to school, adding that the TPP would hunt her down if she survived.

With his appearance, the Pakistani Army seemed to be sending this message: You can kill thousands of Pakistanis, but if you later testify that you hate India as much as we do, everything will be forgiven.

There was some pushback. State media regulators banned a detailed interview with Ehsan before it aired after families of Taliban victims expressed outrage. The parents of students slain at the Army Public School in Peshawar in 2014, where Taliban attackers butchered more than 140 people, mostly students, wanted Ehsan hanged in front of the school.

But the army has preferred to parade him and his winning smile in front of TV cameras, and to release footage of him telling salacious stories about how his Taliban colleagues had three wives or how the current TTP leader took away his teacher’s daughter by force. The purpose seems to be to suggest that the Taliban are not a formidable force with an ideology and deep roots in Pakistani society, but rather a bunch of sexual perverts bankrolled by India. India, forever our existential enemy.

There is, it’s true, evidence that India has funded groups to strike at Pakistan for interfering in Kashmir. But do we really need to enlist our children’s killers in our campaign against India? Pakistani society is still deeply divided over what the Taliban represent. Some see them as barbarians at our door who want to destroy the last vestiges of our faltering democratic and civil order. Others think of them as our misguided brothers: The Taliban, too, want a just society; it’s only their methods that are unacceptable. They are brave, and we are a little bit proud of them: In Afghanistan, these fallen brothers, our creation, are still managing to keep America at bay.

But when they wage the same brave fight in Pakistan, we recoil.

The Taliban were supposed to be our assets in our historic feud with India. When India and Pakistan were on the verge of another war in 2008, the Taliban leaders of the day vowed to fight alongside Pakistan’s soldiers.

“If they dare to attack Pakistan, then, God willing, we will share happiness and grief with all Pakistanis,” said Maulvi Omar, the Pakistani Taliban’s spokesman then. “We will put the animosity and fighting with the Pakistani army behind us, and the Taliban will defend their frontiers, their boundaries, their country with their weapons.”

Today, while the nation is still trying to decide if yesterday’s monster can be today’s patriot, the Pakistani Army has already made it clear that it wants to have the last word on the subject.

The leading English daily Dawn reported last year that the civilian and military leaderships were divided over what to do with Pakistani anti-India militant groups, which are often accused of waging attacks in India. The army declared that the story was a national security breach, and demanded stern action against both the people who had leaked information about those disagreements and the people who had dared to write about them. A high-powered investigation was set up to look into what has come to be known as the Dawn Leaks.

Last week, after reviewing the results, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ordered the removal of two of his close aides and referred a journalist to a newspapers’ representative body. The army spokesman tweeted: “Notification is rejected.” The army won’t abide any discussion with civilians over who is a good or bad militant, or a good or bad Pakistani.

Many Pakistanis still love the army. And many politicians fear it. They look to it to remove their rivals, accusing one another of being security threats, if not outright traitors. Many political parties are asking for Mr. Sharif’s head for daring to have a closed-door discussion about what might be wrong with the army’s idea of good and bad.

Most countries have an army, but in Pakistan it’s the army that has a country, goes the saying. If the politicians want to take the country back, they’ll have to stop calling one another traitor just to please the army.

Pakistan - What should be done with Ehsanullah Ehsan(TERRORIST)?

By: Mohammad Shehzad

No soldier will fight terrorists bravely if Ehsanullah Ehsan is given amnesty in the name of ‘doctrine of necessity’

Unlike Phoolan Devi, Ehsanullah Ehsan was not a victim of social injustice that could have pushed him to join Tehrik Taliban Pakistan (TTP) as its ‘spin doctor’. He was not a peasant farmer exacting revenge on the Armed Forces to reclaim his land in Okara. He was not a freedom fighter forced to wage an armed struggle against an oppressor or outlaw like Sultana Daku or Robin Hood out to rob the rich to help the poor. The unscrupulous are free to burn the midnight oil to project Ehsan as a poet like Bulleh Shah, a civil right activist like Dr Martin Luther King, a revolutionary like Che Guevara, a missionary like Mother Teresa or a saint like Ghulam Farid, but people of conscience shall always curse him as a savage that he is.

The TTP’s endless sins are known to all. There is not an inch of land in Pakistan that it has not soaked with the blood of innocent people. It has shattered the most invincible of places like the General Headquarters, Naval Headquarters, Air Force Headquarters, offices of intelligence agencies, police academies, army and police recruiting centres, courts, and airports like sand piles. As the self-claimed sole custodian of Islam, it did not even spare mosques, imam baaras, hospitals, schools, colleges, universities, and public gatherings.

No faith permits killing of women, children, and elderly people in war. Islam even urges us to protect the enemy’s trees. But the TTP vandals are alien to any principle of Islam or humanity. Comparing them with beasts would be an insult to the latter because they would kill only for food and attack in defence. Can there be any justification for killing patients at hospitals, little children at schools, and worshippers at mosques? Phoolan Devi was gang raped in front of hundreds of villagers but did she exact revenge on her enemies’ children, mothers, sisters, parents? Did Sultana Daku behead his enemies and play football with their decapitated heads? Did he put a bullet through a school-going girl’s head?

Watch Ehsanullah Ehsan’s confessional video; do you see a guilty and repentant terrorist or a celebrity like the chaiwala.

His beard is smoothly trimmed. He is wearing a starched kameez, waistcoat, and a chic chitrali cap. He is fresh and is smiling. His body language, confidence and composure do not reflect any sign of regret, rather, it exuberates an unshakable faith i.e. he was not arrested but had voluntarily surrendered, thus, it may seem to him that he is not less than a saint or a wali and a full amnesty along with a high-paying job like that of an emissary of peace is his right.

What was the logic behind arranging his interview with Geo Television’s Salim Safi? (Thank God, Pemra blocked it!) It would have just presented him as ‘subhkabhula’ (better late than never) and earned him some public sympathy. It will be one of the worst moves by the government if it plans to spare him like Asmat Mavia, under the cover of an amnesty. The list of Ehsan’s ‘accomplishments’ is long. Each of his ‘feats’ entitle him to legal consequences. The deadly terrorist had proudly claimed on December 4, 2009, the killing of 37 worshippers - most of them serving or retired army officers — in an attack at the Parade Lane Mosque, Rawalpindi, with this statement: "We are not against innocent people of Pakistan, but against those officers and ministers who are American by hearts and minds and Pakistani just by faces."

After Malala Yousaf zai was attacked, the ‘devil’ had announced that she was spreading immorality. On June 27, 2012, he released a video showing severed heads of 17 Pakistani soldiers with this message: "We want rulers to end alliance with the US and impose Sharia in Pakistan". Later on February 17, 2014, he released another video in which TTP terrorists were playing football with severed heads of 23 FC soldiers. This is Taliban’s sharia!

For this ‘poet’, the killing of 141 people including, 132 schoolchildren at the Army Public School Peshawar, and murder of 22 people at Bacha Khan University, Charsadda, was in revenge for Operation Zarbe Azb. The Army will badly hurt its own men — the soldiers and officers — who lost their lives while fighting the TTP monsters. No one will ever send their child to join the Army if Ehsanullah Ehsan was not served justice. No soldier will fight terrorists bravely if Ehsan is given amnesty in the name of ‘doctrine of necessity’. Then, the jails will be good only for politicians, journalists and civil rights activists; and gallows for elected prime ministers! The message sent out will be: you are free to join any terror group, kill as many people as you can. Just don’t forget to surrender in the end. We will make you a hero for life! The doors of repentance are open for any sinner in any faith but the key is the right punishment here. What happens in the hereafter, leave it to God.

ISIS is on the decline in the Middle East, but its influence in Pakistan is rising

By Fatima Bhojani

When Noreen Leghari disappeared from her hometown of Hyderabad, Pakistan, in February, her parents thought she had been abducted. But then she reached out to them on Facebook.

"I’ve joined Daesh," said the 20-year-old medical student, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State, "I’m in Syria for jihad. Stop searching for me."

Leghari, who had been in contact with extremists online for a year, was actually in the Pakistani city of Lahore. In April, security forces stormed her hideout there, killing one of her two accomplices — whom she had also married — and recovering two suicide vests and hand grenades. Leghari had planned to detonate herself at a crowded church two days later, on Easter Sunday.

It was the latest example of the Islamic State's growing reach in Pakistan, where the group is finding willing recruits through its efforts online even as its territory is shrinking in Iraq and Syria. Even young Pakistani women and educated youth from liberal families have proven susceptible to the lure of the Islamic State's brand of extremism.

In another case, three young men, all graduates of elite Pakistani universities, were inspired by the Islamic State and gunned down 47 Shiite Muslims on a bus in Karachi. The subsequent investigation unraveled a cell of a dozen women raising funds for Islamic State operations, including the bus massacre. While there are no concrete numbers on how many Islamic State members are in Pakistan, a report issued last January by the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based defense think tank, estimated the group had recruited 2,000 to 3,000 individuals in the country.

Security experts say that number is relatively low, especially when compared to the recruitment levels of more established terror groups like al-Qaeda or the Taliban. But they agree the threat to Pakistan is real and rising. "Clearly you can no longer say that the IS is not a problem," said Moeed Yusuf, an analyst at the United States Institute of Peace, a U.S. government-backed conflict resolution organization.

The first signs of the Islamic State's presence in Pakistan appeared in late 2014, while the country was aggressively cracking down on the Taliban. Women and girls from Islamabad's Jamia Hafsa — a madrassa adjacent to Lal Masjid, the infamous militant mosque in the heart of Pakistan’s capital — addressed a message to the chief of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, “the caliph” and to "our brothers, the mujahideen."

"We pray for you every night here in the land of Pakistan," said one of the women in Arabic, standing in a black burqa, against the backdrop of Islamic State flag. The video ended with this declaration: "Oh Allah, establish the Islamic Caliphate regime in Pakistan and everywhere."

While the Jamia Hafsa was inviting the caliphate to Pakistan, a confidential government report indicated that the Islamic State had already arrived. The provincial government of Baluchistan warned security agencies of extensive Islamic State recruitment in the tribal areas. It also said the group was cooperating with local outfits to plan attacks on minorities and government buildings.

At the same time, pro-Islamic State pamphlets and propaganda were being distributed for the first time in the city of Peshawar and in Pakistan's tribal areas, the largely ungoverned terrain along the border with Afghanistan. The following month, two suspects were arrested for putting up Islamic State posters in Lahore, and law enforcement took down four Islamic State flags near a state-owned armaments plant 20 miles from Islamabad.

The Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, also chimed in with their support for the terrorist organization: "We are with you, we will provide you with mujahideen and with every possible support."

While leaflets and graffiti are alarming, they don’t necessarily demonstrate any concrete planning or actions. But in January 2016, Hafiz Saeed Khan, the head of the TTP's Orakzai branch, was appointed as the chief of the Islamic State Khorasan, the official Islamic State chapter that operates in Afghanistan-Pakistan. Five other commanders and the Taliban spokesman defected along with Khan and pledged allegiance to al-Baghdadi. (Khan was killed in a drone strike last August.)

Since then, the Islamic State has claimed several attacks in Pakistan, either carried out by its Khorasan chapter or by existing militant factions. The group has made extensive use of such allies, who hold similar sectarian ideologies. Rather than sending its own fighters or planning attacks directly from Syria, the Islamic State recruits online, while also tapping into well-established local networks, bringing disaffected rivals (like Taliban commanders) into the fold or reinvigorating militant groups degraded by Pakistan's crackdown.

In return, the local militants earn attention by linking up with an internationally known organization, and down the line, may even receive operational support.

"These local groups want to make a big impact," says Muhammad Amir Rana, a Islamabad-based security analyst. "This is good for Daesh as well because they have a partner without spending resources." The Islamic State also shares its ruthless outlook with local organizations. "The groups operating in Pakistan have a brutal tendency to begin with, and the IS is an extremely brutal organization,” said Ihsan Ghani, the head of Pakistan’s National Counterrorism Authority, to The Post.

In one of the deadliest attacks claimed by the Islamic State, 88 people were killed and hundreds injured when a suicide bomber detonated his vest inside a Sufi shrine in February. The attack came just three weeks after 25 civilians were killed and scores injured in an explosion at a market, which was claimed by Islamic State partner Laskhar-e-Jhangvi-Alami and the TTP. When casualty reports are added up, Islamic State-claimed attacks have killed or injured more than 800 civilians in Pakistan so far, even as the military claims it has arrested more than 300 Islamic State operatives and thus thwarted its expansion.

Government and security officials have adopted contradictory stances on the Islamic State, mostly downplaying or outright denying the threat posed by the group — while also, on rare occasions, acknowledging the gravity of the situation.

Pakistan - The crippling standoff

Afrasiab Khattak


Before the political uncertainties generated by the Supreme Court decision on Panama leaks could subside, a fresh public stand off between the civil and military leadership on what is called the Dawn leaks ushered a new challenge to the state system. So much has already been written about the aforementioned controversies and there is no use getting into their details as these are mere pretexts for justifying defiance and confrontation.

The real issue behind the dangerous current polarisation is the question of power. Who will wield the real state power, the elected civil government as per the 1973 Constitution or the security establishment which has been ruling the roost as per traditions established in the post-Zia “republic “? The de jure or the de facto?

It wouldn’t be fair to blame just one side for the monstrous deformities of this so-called republic. Weakened and overwhelmed by the savagery of prolonged martial law of General Zia (that enjoyed full and generous western support during Afghan “Jihad”) the political parties accepted this moth eaten republic in the hope that they will be able at some stage in the future to evolve it into a genuine republic. Political parties did participate in the musical chair game in 1990s that was directed by the security establishment. Political parties meekly followed scripts for the so-called long marches (equivalents of sit ins or dharnas of recent times) aimed at overthrowing the governments of their rivals.

General Musharraf’s martial law had a sobering effect on the old political parties and they realised that they can’t afford blind confrontation and that they will have to abide by certain rules of the game for achieving evolutionary development in the democratic system. The new consciousness and maturity of political parties led to the Charter Of Democracy (COD) signed by Mian Nawaz Sharif and Shaheed Benazir Bhutto in 2006. The COD was formally signed by the leaders of the two major political parties but it was supported and upheld by all the democratic forces of the country.

It contained not only a pledge for restoration of democracy by removing the dictatorship but it also carried a commitment for introducing constitutional reforms. The democratic struggle based on this consensus led to the general elections of 2008 and the 18th Constitutional Amendment in 2010. Although there were some deviations from the letter of COD by its signatories, its spirit, by and large, ushered in a new era of democracy. In 2013 the elected assemblies completed their five years constitutional term, despite difficulties of the objective and subjective nature, for the first time in the country’s history, and power was peacefully and smoothly transferred from one elected government to another.

PML-N was expected to push the overbearing security establishment back for the simple reason that its leader Mohammad Nawaz Sharif is the authentic leader of Punjabi bourgeoisie with a strong political base in the biggest province of the country. And then as a Muslim Leaguer it wasn’t supposed to be easy for the Punjabi dominated security establishment to label him as “security risk” as they have been doing with non-Punjabi leaders.

But as we have seen it was not to be.

Firstly, because PML-N has successfully cut itself from the source of democratic strength by putting its back on the elected bodies. Under the stewardship of Nawaz Sharif the present system is anything but a parliamentary democracy. Marginalisation of the parliament has led to the marginalisation of the democratic system. Secondly, the security establishment after loosing hope in the old political parties has successfully produced test tube politicians and political parties. It has scripted sit-ins and agitations by test tube politicians to weaken the elected civilian government. Security establishment has also manipulated the prolonged war on terror to strengthen its grip on the formation and execution of state policies along with maintaining its economic empire.

Be that is it may, the current crippling stand off between the civil and military leadership can have disastrous unintended consequences. Without a credible constitutional arbiter the system is faced with becoming totally dysfunctional (if it isn’t already there). State institutions are in a collision course with the danger of the constitution becoming totally irrelevant. By jumping into every major political controversy the higher judiciary is not far from losing its credibility. Foreign dignitaries visiting Pakistan or other countries entering into dialogue with Pakistan will face a real dilemma in choosing their interlocutors from Pakistani side. All Parliamentary Parties delegation led by the Speaker of the National Assembly completed a successful visit to Afghanistan this week but the relations between the two countries nose dived with the visit of the representative of the security establishment just two days after the visit of parliamentarians.

It is as if the civil and military components live in two parallel universes. Why would foreign countries or private parties invest in a country overburdened with so many uncertainties? The main arena for the success or failure of the state is economy, which is going to be the worst victim of the current paralysis. States can’t be run forever on an ad hoc basis. A country run forever on adhocracy may win a battle or two but it’s sure to lose the war. Relations with three neighboring countries out of total four are in the worst shape as reports about military clashes are continuously pouring in from all the three borders.

But the most dangerous fact is that Pakistan is at war with itself.

As if the internal terror problem was not enough there is a new craze for lynching people under the allegations of blasphemy. There isn’t a single day when there aren’t reports about frenzied mobs attempting to lynch the alleged accused person or persons. The state is loosing its writ to fanatic mobs in broad daylight. How are these fanatics different from anti-state terrorists? Hasn’t the state legitimised the weaponisation of blasphemy by using it against dissidents? It’s impossible to find answers to these questions as the state isn’t speaking with one voice.

Again be that as it may the country’s leadership is legally and morally bound to take short term and long term measures for overcoming the crisis. Even if we are so dumb to be unable to lean from experience of the other countries don’t we know that the internal collapse of state system in our own country in 1971 led to international intervention resulting in the disintegration of the country?

Video - Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari addressing 3rd International Sufi Conference at Karachi

In a polarized world, we need Sufi to bridge gap, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari

Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that now as the world becomes increasingly polarized, today we need the Sufi, more than ever before. We need that universal language of the mystic to unite us. “To bridge the gap across religions, cultures and people. To remind us that at our very core, we are all one;  we are all the same,” the PPP Chairman stated while addressing 2-day International Sufi Conference organization by Sindh Culture Department at a local hotel here today.

Scholars on Sufism from twelve countries were invited to the Conference to share Sufi pearls with a carefully selected audience. Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, PPP Sindh President and Minister for Food Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, Minister Culture Sardar Ali Shah and others also spoke on the occasion.

“Let me begin by welcoming our foreign scholars and other distinguished guests who have travelled to be a part of this conference. When scholars of your stature and your beliefs sit together, and deliberate, it brings me great hope for the future of humanity,” he said.

https://mediacellppp.wordpress.com/2017/05/05/in-a-polarized-world-we-need-sufi-to-bridge-gap-bilawal-bhutto-zardari-tells-sufi-conference/

Bilawal Bhutto condemns Afghan shelling

Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has condemning Afghan forces shelling on Pakistani territory at Chaman border.

In a statement, the PPP Chairman expressed concern and grief over the martyrdom of children and women along with other innocent Pakistani citizens.

He said such incidents were occurring due the absence of a foreign policy of the Nawaz Sharif government adding that situation in the region is worsening due to the country having no full-fledged Foreign Minister since over four years.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari expressed sympathy and solidarity with the families of the martyred and those injured in the Afghan shelling and firing.

https://mediacellppp.wordpress.com/2017/05/05/bilawal-bhutto-condemns-afghan-shelling/

Pakistan - Ehsanullah (Terrorist) and our crisis of education

By:   

Umair Rasheed

An education system based on dialogue among multiple political actors in Pakistan is our best bet of ever producing thinkers who may find a viable way out of our crisis.

Liaqat Ali alias Ehsanullah Ehsan’s recent confessional statement made headlines for the now clichéd reference to foreign sponsorship of Pakistan-based terrorist outfits. Linked to this were details about the nature of the right-wing militancy we confront today and the state institutions we rely upon to fight it.

For instance, Liaqat Ali said he was a public-sector college student in Mohmand Agency when the TTP formed in 2008. This, coupled with the gory lynching of a student at Mardan University, makes it obvious that the genesis of our contemporary crisis cannot simply be pinned on the madrassa system. Ours is a crisis of education in general.

Today’s public education infrastructure was set up during colonial rule. By now, Thomas Babington Macaulay’s infamous note is quite well known for advocating a system that produced good colonial subjects — who could then serve the state bureaucracy.

The religious movements, mutated versions of which haunt us today, had first emerged in northern India around the same time, in the late 19th century. Associated with seminaries in Deoband, Rai Bareli, Lucknow and Delhi, their central concern was safeguarding religion in the private domain against a secular public sphere (economy and statecraft) that was fast coming under colonial control. Imparting religious education thus became a tactic toward this end.

Regardless of internal differences, these movements were united in their rejection of ‘modern’ education offered at institutions like MAO College of Aligarh, set up by modernist Muslim reformer Syed Ahmed Khan. Thus compared to the modernist Muslim subjects graduating from the aforementioned — revivalist and reformist seminaries were producing men of a very different (Muslim) subjectivity.

And it didn’t take them long to enter the public domain of politics — during the Khilafat movement. With the emergence of Syed Abu’l Ala Maududi’s Islamist project, multiple Muslim subject positions existed, each with its own understanding of religion’s role in state and society, by the time state control was transferred to the natives in 1947.

Though, at that time, modernists controlled public education institutes — Islamists like Maududi also targeted them to disseminate their message among those who would be assuming future leadership roles in state bureaucracy and economy. The traditionalists, meanwhile, continued imparting religious education at seminaries, the number of which increased manifold in later years.

But the public domain of Pakistani politics also included actors representing minority religions or whose politics were rooted in ethno-nationalist, class — or gender-based identities, rather than in religious identity. Yet instead of managing this diversity by constituting democratic pathways to power — in the post-Partition years, those controlling state institutions used the Islamists and traditionalists to crack down on diversity of all sorts, meanwhile, projecting their (modernist) identity onto society.

This was a time when the modernist state elite was equally averse to Bengali, Pukhtun, Baloch and Sindhi nationalists; the Communist Party; and Islamists like Maududi. Yet failure of three decades of top-down attempts to popularise the modernist project — as well as lack of workable framework vis-à-vis centre-province as well as cross-border relations — wrought change. Thus those controlling state institutions began courting both Islamists and traditionalists to legitimise crackdowns on nationalists and leftists, while rallying urban public opinion behind a hawkish foreign policy.

General Zia ul Haq and his contemporaries were products of this three-decade long process, whose imprints still feature on a Pakistani political spectrum that has firmly shifted towards the centre-right.

Had there existed a constitutional framework with democratic pathways to power — competing political actors would have been forced to take mandates to the public, thereby positioning the latter as arbiter of political destiny.

In terms of public education, no particular actor therefore could have used this as a tool to disseminate their views, to the detriment of others. Instead, multiple actors would have been led to engage in rational dialogue while designing the public education system. It’s likely that the resultant framework may not have been fully conducive to nurturing critical thinking. But it would have been, and could still be, our best bet of ever producing critical thinkers, rather than technicians with a nationalist subjectivity devoid of the historical, philosophical and scientific knowledge needed to question received wisdom.

Perhaps, foreign states have been funding the TTP all along. But they clearly had no role in constructing the education infrastructure that produces men like Ali or those who run our civil and military bureaucracies. The institutions responsible were set up by the state itself and, in the case of seminaries, by citizens harbouring specific political agendas. Insofar as some of these men have been working against the Pakistani state ‘at the behest of foreign states’, it would seem that our education system has either failed to prevent them from ‘falling prey to propaganda’ or else been complicit in preparing them for future careers in terrorism and vigilantism.

Finally, that Ali confessed by video to the media rather than before a court of law — highlights the grim reality that our education system has not just led us to this crisis, but that it has also constrained our collective ability to imagine a way out. All it has enabled us to thus far do is resort to exceptional measures like broadcasting confessions, leaking reports to media, establishing military courts, and launching military operations.

Nothing short of an overhaul of the education system, based on dialogue among political actors concerned, may help break this impasse.

Pakistan - Polish TV presenter expelled for violating visa rules

Pakistan expelled popular Polish presenter, traveller and writer Martyna Wojciechowska on Thursday for violating visa rules, reported Radio Poland.

Martyna Wojciechowska claimed that she was detained by Pakistani military intelligence while filming a TV series in that country.

Poland’s foreign ministry said that Wojciechowska’s crew did not comply with instructions from the Pakistan authorities. It added that Wojciechowska, the former editor-in-chief of National Geographic Poland magazine, on Thursday left Pakistan with her crew on a flight to Poland.

Wojciechowska said in a post on Facebook: “In the north-western part of Pakistan, close to the border with Afghanistan, where we were filming another episode of the ‘Woman at the Edge of World’ program, we were detained by the Inter-Services Intelligence.”

She added: “Our equipment was forcibly confiscated and we were prevented from working. We spent the next days under house arrest under constant police and military supervision.”

She said that after almost 24 hours travelling through the mountains under escort, she arrived in Islamabad with her colleagues.

The Polish foreign ministry said that according to the authorities in Pakistan the “television journalists made recordings in restricted areas without the appropriate visas (they used tourist visas), the required journalistic accreditation and administrative permits for access to restricted areas."

It added: "The team did not comply with the instructions of the local authorities.”

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Pakistan - LUBP comment on ISPR’s slap to Saudi-backed PM Nawaz Sharif

There are occasions when the establishment in Pakistan gets frayed and fractured. The current slap by ISPR to the Saudi-backed coward, PM Nawaz Sharif is a case in point. From sitting in General Zia’s lap to collaborating with General Kiyani in derailing the democratically elected PPP, government, Nawaz Sharif has remained a loyal poodle of the establishment and its Takfiri “assets” for the past 4 decades.

Some months back, an opportunist hack and PML N sycophant published a dubiously sourced story about how Nawaz Sharif and his brother are serious about taking on their support base of ISIS-affiliated Deobandi Salafi terrorists. Not only did Nawaz Sharif deny his own sycophant multiple times after this story was published; he has now thrown him and other PML N staffers and cabinet members under the bus.

Tariq Fatimi was removed by NS from his post through a notification issued today from PM office. Hours after the Prime Minister’s Office issued the directives, however, Inter-Services Public Relations said the Army had rejected the report, calling it ‘incomplete’.

Director General ISPR Major Asif Ghafoor said in his tweet:

“Notification on Dawn Leak is incomplete and not in line with recommendations by the Inquiry Board. Notification is rejected.”

In standing up to the establishment, Former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani did the opposite and stood by Hussain Haqqani in the aftermath of the #Memogate Crisis.

In that instance, it was opportunists with dubious (PML N and JI) pasts like Haqqani who threw his leader under the bus while enjoying the comforts of the safety awarded to him by the US. YRG had to pay heavily for his stance. Nawaz Sharif, on the other hand, will figure out another compromise that will cost Pakistan.

Nawaz Sharif is great at making deals. When the military dictator General Musharaf deposed him, Nawaz Sharif cut a deal with him and ran off to Saudi Arabia for nearly a decade. Even after purchasing the loyalty of much of the judiciary, Nawaz refused to initiate prosecution proceedings against Musharaf for his 1999 coup. He will figure out something this time as well.

Pakistan's DawnGate - ''Tweeting defiance''

ZAHID HUSSAIN

WHAT had been simmering for a long while erupted into the open last week when the military, through the DG ISPR’s tweet, publicly rejected a ‘notification’ issued by the Prime Minister’s Office. The letter, which was in fact meant for various ministries to take action and dubbed by the media as a ‘notification’, brought the conflict brewing between the civil and military leadership over the ‘Dawn leaks’ to a head.

Such a blatant gesture of defiance towards the civilian authority has set a new and highly dangerous precedent. The latest confrontation with the generals could not have come at a worse time for a beleaguered prime minister fighting a desperate battle for political survival. The situation has become more serious with the major opposition political parties putting their weight behind the military.

While the controversy over the Dawn report may have triggered the latest crisis, there are a number of other factors that have contributed to the current civil-military stand-off. There is an almost complete breakdown of trust between the two branches of state. The latest round of confrontation has also removed any illusions about improving civil-military relations with the change of army guard. This goes to show once again that it is the institution and not just the individual that matters in this tricky relationship.

The latest confrontation with the generals could not have come at a worse time for the beleaguered PM. It has been a long and eventful fortnight for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif where nothing seems to have gone right for him. First it was the damning Supreme Court ruling in the Panama case, then came the controversy over the mysterious visit of Indian business tycoon Sajjan Jindal, and finally the defiant ISPR tweet throwing down the gauntlet.

It was not just the issue of an Indian family friend calling on the prime minister, but the timing and circumstances of Jindal’s visit that provoked criticism. What added to the controversy was the security establishment’s lingering suspicion regarding Sharif’s ‘soft-pedaling’ on India. Jindal’s tweets censuring the Pakistani military and intelligence agencies came in handy for the opposition to question the patriotism of the prime minister. A section of the media also went full-throttle fuelling the fire.

In the midst of all this, the Prime Minister’s Office notified the termination of the services of the prime minister’s special assistant on foreign affairs Tariq Fatemi and a senior information ministry official as per the recommendation of the investigation commission probing the Dawn report. The order was instantly rejected by the military for being incomplete. However, no substantial reason was given for the rebuttal. What is worse is that it triggered a media war with the commentators and TV anchors fighting it out on behalf of either side. The free-for-all turned the fracas into something uglier.

Interestingly, the opposition political parties jumped into the fray aligning themselves with the army’s position for purely opportunistic political reasons — they wanted to further weaken the Sharif government without realising the long-term ramifications of this for the system. However, this kind of political expediency is not new to our political culture. The PML-N too has played the same game in the past.

Surely, the government must share the blame for these heightened tensions. The confusion within the administration was apparent from the statement of the interior minister questioning the authority of the Prime Minister’s Office to issue such an order. He contended that this was the responsibility of his ministry. This speaks volumes for Sharif’s style of governance.

But the main issue is not who was authorised to issue the ‘notification’; the entire approach to the case was problematic. The serious divide between the civilians and the military members of the

commission was known. This was the main reason for the long delay in finalising the report, even though it still appears inconclusive. The military leadership seems to have had strong reservations over the findings of the commission and its recommendations.

For the past few months, backchannel efforts were on to resolve the differences. Some compromise was apparently reached whereby Fatemi was to be removed, even though there was no substantive evidence of his being directly or indirectly involved in the so-called leak. But the military seemed to be unhappy with the wording of the ‘notification’ that implied it was just a change of portfolio. Was that such a big deal for the army that it had to issue a public rejection? It surely would have been better had the entire report been made public. There is certainly some credence to the argument that the entire issue of the ‘leak’ was blown out of proportion. It could have easily been dealt with through some administrative action rather than forming a joint investigation committee. It was apparent from the outset that such a motley team of investigators would not be able to reach a conclusion to the satisfaction of all sides. For sure, this build-up of the narrative about national security having been breached incensed the army rank and file, bringing the leadership under huge pressure. Not surprisingly, the issue was raised during the visit of the new army chief to various garrisons.

It had become an emotional issue and thus needed more prudent handling. Moreover, it had become the main obstacle in the way of making any effort to improve civil-military relations. The role of the opposition in whipping up differences has also contributed to the heightened tensions. The present political crisis has given space to the military to assert itself more strongly.

This deepening civil-military conflict is dangerous not only for the country that is facing grave external and internal security challenges, but also for the democratic political process. The confrontation will not only harm the present political set-up; it will also have a negative impact on the institution of the armed forces. The responsibility lies with both the civilian and military leaderships to resolve this stand-off before it is too late. This open defiance of constitutional authority must stop.

Pakistan - Dealing with Dawngate

By Mohsin Raza Malik


After a brief respite of a few months, troubled civil-military relations take center stage in Pakistan once again. On Saturday, a scene was created when the DG ISPR strongly reacted to a notification issued by the Prime Minister’s Office in connection with the recently-concluded Dawngate inquiry report. Calling it ‘incomplete and not in line with recommendations by the Inquiry Board’, he out-rightly ‘rejected’ this notification through a tweet. Shortly after this, in rather a tit-for-tat response, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar severely criticised the ‘Twitter-happy’ DG ISPR, after declaring his tweets poisonous for the democratic institutions in the country. He also criticised the way the military presented the recently captured TTP’s spokesperson Ehsanullah Ehsan before the media.

In fact, Saturday’s episode has badly exposed the miserable state of civil-military relations in the country. Obviously these relations are not as ideal and harmonious as they are generally portrayed. There is a considerable communication gap between the civilian and military leadership in Pakistan. So in the absence of some effective and operational modes of communication between the two, the DG ISPR has chosen to communicate its institutional viewpoint through Twitter while the Interior Minister considered it appropriate to pay in the same coin by instantly holding a press conference. We have long been observing key PML-N leaders like CM Punjab Shahbaz Sharif and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali actively playing a role to diffuse civil-military tension by interacting with the senior military leadership. However, disadvantageously, this time the Interior Minister has himself become an instant source of civil-military confrontation.

The controversial notification signed by the Secretary to the Prime Minister Fawad Hassan Fawad was issued apparently in the light of recommendations by the Dawn Leaks Inquiry Committee. Through this notification, Syed Tariq Fatemi, the Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Foreign Affair was to be removed while the Principle Information Officer Rao Tahseen Ali was to be proceeded against E&D Rules 1973. On the other hand, the matter of daily Dawn was referred to the All Pakistan News Paper Society (APAS) for ‘necessary disciplinary action’. Reportedly, Tariq Fatemi has already refused to tender his resignations over Dawngate allegations. Now Rao Tahseen Ali is also likely to challenge his removal in the court of law. Certainly, after its rejection by the military, this notification has lost its significance and effectiveness. So now the federal government has hinted at issuing another fresh notification to this effect.

Considering it a ‘breach of national security’, the military has been hyper-sensitive to the Dawngate issue since the publishing of this controversial news story in October last year. Soon after this controversial publication, the top military commanders expressed their serious concerns over “the feeding of this false and fabricated story” during a Corps Commander’s Conference. A few months ago, some junior garrison officers asked COAS General Qamar Bajwa many inquisitorial questions about the Dawn Leak probe during his visit to Lahore Corps Headquarters. The recent tweet by the DG ISPR reflects the military’s strong resolve to logically conclude the Dawngate question.

Federal Government’s Dawngate handling has been anything but satisfactory. It first tried to ignore this issue. Later, in the face of strong pressure from the military, it reluctantly formed an Inquiry Committee. There were raised many questions about the impartiality of the head of this committee who was also dubbed as a PML-N loyalist. This Inquiry Committee took much time to reach a ‘consensus conclusion’. Now as this committee has submitted its report, the government is dilly-dallying over implementing its recommendations in letter and spirit. It is wildly believed that the PML-N government is trying to save the skin of an important member of the ruling family by scapegoating other state functionaries and ministers. Therefore, it first removed the Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid even without any formal inquiry. Now it has scapegoated Tariq Fatemi and Rao Tehseen Ali. The ruling political party also looks reluctant to take serious action against the Dawn newspaper.

We can determine the exact nature and magnitude of Dawngate scandal only if the federal government makes the inquiry report public. The concern is that the controversial news story was more a fabricated story than mere a leaked one. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali has repeatedly been pledging to make the Dawngate inquiry report public. However, now if the federal government does not want this report to be public owing to its obvious skeletons in the cupboard, then it should at least try to adequately address the genuine concerns of the military over this issue.

It is quite an inappropriate or rather a laughable decision made by the federal government to refer the case of Dawn newspaper and its responsible journalists to the APNS for a disciplinary action. In fact, the APNS is the representative body of newspapers’ owners and publishers, to protect their rights and interests. Obviously it has nothing to do with the enforcement of media ethics for working journalists. Therefore, instead of the APNS, the Press Council of Pakistan (PCP) is the appropriate regulatory forum to take necessary disciplinary measures against any print media journalist. However, the Dawngate scandal is beyond the ambit of PCP too as it is essentially a probed case involving the breach of national security.

The Dawn newspaper never formally apologised over the publication of this news story. The version of this newspaper’s journalists was that they tried to authenticate or confirm the contents of this news story before publication from the relevant officials and politicians but none of them confirmed it anyway. So one wonders why this newspaper preferred to rely on an un-disclosable source, ignoring altogether the fact of rejection of this story by the concerned responsible individuals.

The civilian leadership is always supposed to protect its security agencies against all sorts of hostile foreign propaganda. It is really regrettable that the people at the helm in Pakistan mostly look towards international power brokers to come into the corridors of power and stay there indefinitely. While doing so, they hardly feel any hesitation in maligning and undermining the armed forces of the country. The 2011 Memogate controversy and the current Dawngate issue essentially indicate the same tendency among our politicos. Observably the federal government is by all means trying to brush the Dawngate issue under the carpet. Now let’s see whether something substantial comes out of the Dawngate or it simply goes the way of the Memogate.

Bilawal Bhutto condemns putting off-air two Bol Network Channels by Federal government

Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto has condemned putting off-air two Bol Network Channels by Federal government through PEMRA and warned Sharif brothers to desist threatening free media.

“World is celebrating Press Freedom Day and the Nawaz Sharif government is attacking media on the day” the PPP Chairman said in a statement.

He pointed out that history has record that Sharifs have never tolerated free media and free judiciary and applied dirty tools to rope in them through carrot and stick policy.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said the Party’s Parliamentary leaders in the Senate, National and Provincial Assemblies have been asked to submit resolutions against the highhanded action by Nawaz Sharif government against the electronic media and condemn the same in unequivocal terms.

He demanded immediate restoration of the channels whose licenses have been revoked.

https://mediacellppp.wordpress.com/

Trump promised to free a Pakistani surgeon who helped find bin Laden. He’s still in prison.

By Rick Noack

Before being elected, President Trump made a promise he said would take “two minutes” to fulfill: Facilitating the release of Shakil Afridi, who helped the CIA find Osama bin Laden in 2011 and was subsequently arrested by Pakistani authorities.

But 103 days into Trump's administration — and on the sixth anniversary of the raid in which bin Laden was killed in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad — the Pakistani surgeon is still being held on vague charges. His case adds to concerns that the administration is not willing to back foreigners who have risked their lives for the United States during conflicts abroad. Such worries have mounted since Trump temporarily banned Iraqi translators who worked alongside American soldiers from entering the United States shortly after his inauguration.

In the case of Afridi, Trump had initially committed to help. “I would tell them, 'Let him out,' and I'm sure they would let him out,” said Trump, speaking to Fox News one year ago. But the then-presidential candidate soon learned the hard way that Pakistan had no intention of resolving the dispute quickly.

The covert 2011 U.S. raid in Abbottabad — conducted without the prior knowledge of Pakistani authorities — left officials there deeply embarrassed. Days after bin Laden's death, Afridi was captured and accused of having run a fake vaccination program for the CIA to obtain DNA samples that could prove the al-Qaeda leader was in the city.

The program was reportedly launched under the assumption that bin Laden lived in the Abbottabad compound together with other family members. Whether Afridi actually managed to collect samples from bin Laden's family remains unclear.

Western medical charities subsequently warned that the fake immunization scheme undermined their credibility in the country and posed a serious challenge to their own vaccination programs.

The criticism came at the right time for Pakistani authorities who sought to prosecute Afridi. A government commission initially said the hepatitis immunization program constituted “a case of conspiracy against the State of Pakistan and high treason.” But officials later announced that Afridi had instead been sentenced for alleged ties to Islamist militant groups. /blockquote> The surgeon's role has been openly praised by American officials, but he was viewed as a traitor by many in Pakistan, where authorities have made clear they are willing to risk a possible deterioration of U.S.-Pakistani relations over the case. Only days after Trump's inauguration, Pakistan denied travel documents to the imprisoned doctor’s family, a move viewed as a show of resolve to Trump.

Following Trump's 2016 remarks, the then-GOP presidential candidate immediately faced a strong backlash from Pakistani authorities. The country's interior minister, Chaudry Nisar Ali Khan, said “the government of Pakistan and not Mr. Donald Trump” would decide the fate of the doctor.

“Pakistan is not a colony of the United States of America,” said Khan at the time. “He should learn to treat sovereign nations with respect.”

But Pakistan is also a sovereign nation that has for years heavily relied on American aid. Since 9/11, the United States has paid Pakistan billions of dollars to support some of the country's counterterrorism operations.

U.S. frustration with Pakistan's alleged lack of commitment to fighting terrorism has led to cuts in both civil and military aid in recent years. Although officials recently asked the United States for assistance in curbing attacks from militants within Pakistan and signaled willingness to discuss Afridi's case with the Trump administration, Pakistani media outlets reported last month that the country was not ready to “compromise on national interest” — a reference to the imprisoned doctor.

During the first days of Trump's administration in February, Afridi's family was still optimistic about efforts to free the surgeon. Calling him a “true American hero,” his brother told The Washington Post's Pamela Constable at the time: “[Trump] is a man of action who does what he says.”

But for now, there has been no action, and Afridi will mark the sixth anniversary of his arrest in a Pakistani prison.

Bilawal Bhutto condemns insulting misbehavior of PTI Minister towards PPP Woman MPA Nighat Orakzai

Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has condemned the insulting misbehavior of PTI Minister towards PPP Woman MPA Nighat Orakzai on the floor of Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa Assembly.

In a statement issued here, the PPP Chairman made it clear that his Party won’t tolerate insult or abusive language towards womenfolk whether in Assembly or outside.

He said that attitude of Provincial Ministers in the KPK Assembly was very sad and Imran Khan should bridle such people in his party.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that PPP stands as guarantor for the protection of women and their rights.

https://mediacellppp.wordpress.com

Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto message on World Press Freedom Day

Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that any attempt for gagging freedom of the press would be tantamount to weaken democracy and encourage discrimination and disparity in the society.

In his message on the World Press Freedom Day, PPP Chairman said that PPP was the pioneer of the struggle for press freedom and protection of journalist fraternity in Pakistan. “PPP and journalists have fought together against the dictatorships who ousted democracies and gagged the press through ruthless regimes,” he added.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said PPP leadership had undergone world’s worst media trial in the history at the hands of tin-pot dictators and other opponents but it always stood for freedom of press because our Party’s ideology was to build a society based on tolerance and proactive progress.

PPP Chairman further expressed concern that Pakistan’s ranking on the World Press Freedom Index has come down to 139^th position in 180 countries, which is very poor and needs to be improved to create better image of our nation in the world.

He criticized the bottlenecks being created by the PML-N government against the passage of right of access to information legislation and pledged that PPP legislators will support such laws at every elected forum.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari held out assurance to the media persons in Pakistan of every effort to lay foundations of model press freedom environment and promoting media literacy among the masses.

https://mediacellppp.wordpress.com/

Pakistani, Afghan Spymasters Hold Rare Talks

The Spy chiefs of Pakistan and Afghanistan have held official talks in Kabul on bilateral security and counterterrorism cooperation.

Director General of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, ISI, Lt. General Naveed Mukhtar, traveled to the Afghan capital Tuesday in a bid to ease tensions between security establishments of the two countries, Pakistani and Afghan security sources confirmed to VOA.

There were no immediate details available from the meeting General Mukhtar held with his Afghan counterpart, Masoom Stanekzai, who heads the National Directorate of Security, or NDS.

The ISI chief’s visit came as Afghanistan and Pakistan consistently accused each other’s intelligence agencies of sheltering and supporting anti-state militants, who plot deadly terrorist attacks in both the countries.

General Mukhtar is also scheduled to meet with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. The two intelligence agencies had signed an initial agreement of cooperation shortly after Ghani assumed office in 2014 to help address mutual concerns, but news of the deal was leaked to Afghan media prematurely, preventing the cooperation from taking root, according to Pakistani officials.

The Taliban has announced its so-called “spring offensive” in Afghanistan. The Afghan government claims sanctuaries on Pakistani soil have enabled the insurgents to prolong the conflict in the country.

Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah reiterated Monday the Islamist insurgency announced and planned its “spring offensive in a neighboring country”, though he did not name Pakistan

Pakistani authorities reject the charges and say they are making all possible efforts to strengthen security along a 2,600 kilometer border with Afghanistan to prevent terrorist infiltration in both directions.

On Tuesday, the Pakistan military said it repelled an attack on two security outposts by militants from across the border in Afghanistan. It said three assailants were killed and several were wounded while others were forced to retreat. The militant assault took place in Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal district of South Waziristan. A high-powered Pakistani parliamentary delegation also visited Afghanistan this week for talks with counterparts and the Afghan leadership. Ayaz Sadiq, speaker of the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, led the 15-member delegation to Kabul, which returned to Islamabad on Monday.

Sadiq described the meetings as highly successful and productive.

On Tuesday, the speaker briefed Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif about the visit, officials said.

“The prime minister stated that exchanges of parliamentary delegations between the two countries would further strengthen bilateral relations and will go a long way in realizing the shared objective of regional peace and stability,” an official statement quoted Sharif as saying.


https://www.voanews.com/a/pakistani-and-afghan-spaymasters-hold-rare-talks/3834478.html

Women defy local traditions in Pakistan's Swat Valley

In rural Pakistan, a system of informal justice reigns. Men make the decisions, and women sometimes face brutal treatment. A group of them are fighting back, report Naila Inayat and Jennifer Collins from the Swat Valley.

In the green hills of Pakistan's Swat Valley, it's the jirga that rules. Acting as the local council and court, this body's word is law here, and it has traditionally been completely composed of men.

Not anymore.

These days, 25 women sit on the floor of a small room and discuss child custody issues and other legal and judicial matters.

Leading the group is Tabassum Adnan (photo above), a local woman who turned traditional Pakistani gender roles on their head in 2013 by forming the first female jirga in the region. Here the Taliban once held absolute sway and in 2012 shot then 15-year-old activist Malala Yousafzai in the head for being insistent on girls going to school.

Adnan said she decided to set up a women's jirga after witnessing the failure of the system of informal justice to protect a local woman.

"I have always supported the idea of clemency," Adnan told DW. "A young girl was attacked with acid. When her case was presented to a male jirga, they promised their full support, but they didn't help at all."

The girl begged for justice, which she did not receive. She died soon after.

Unofficial justice

Pakistan's Supreme Court outlawed jirgas five years ago, but the ruling hasn't affected those in rural areas, far away from the strong arm of the central authorities. The Grand Swat Jirga - made up of men - is consulted in rape and murder cases, while the 25-member female jirga deals with domestic violence, inheritance, healthcare and other social issues, including child marriages.

Child marriages are common Pakistan as part of the wani tradition: A female child is married off in compensation for a crime committed by a male relative. The male jirgas usually side with the men, said Adnan.

Read: Pakistani women: Between glory and misery

The child marriage cases are especially important to Adnan, who at age 14 was forced to marry a man two decades her senior. Adnan stayed in the abusive relationship for 20 years, became a drug addict and lost a kidney before she finally got a divorce - against the wishes of her family and the norms of this conservative society.

"My immediate family did not support me in the least," Adnan said. "But I stood up for myself and stopped being miserable."

While the women's jirga is gaining credibility within the former Taliban-held territory, conservative critics fail to see a place for the female council.

"In our society there is no concept of a women's jirga," said Mehboob Ali, a resident of the Swat Valley. "It is a fake jirga created to get foreign funding. NGOs based in Pakistan always initiate such ventures, which later no one even remembers."

Others, like former head of the male jirga, Inam-ur-Rehman Kanju, are more tolerant, and say they have faith in the female council.

"We pray for their success," Kanju said. "Sometimes we invite them to our meetings so that they can learn how a jirga is run. They have a long way to go, but we don't have problem with their jirga."

Big steps

The women's jirga is already changing attitudes as Kanju's acceptance indicates. Adnan, also speaker of the first women's assembly, established last year to address the rights of local women, has been invited to be the first woman to be part of the Grand Jirga of Swat.

The women's jirga acts as a counterpoint to the justice dispensed by the all-male jirga

The woman's jirga has had successes. In one case, a man broke into a local woman's house, robbed her and pulled out all her teeth with a knife. The female jirga helped bring him to justice, seeking help from local law enforcement that resulted in the man being sentenced to four years in jail. Adnan says the jirga makes a point of bringing criminal cases such as this one to the attention of police and the courts, which have typically ignored women.

Read: Why is the gender gap widening in Pakistan?

Still, despite progress, death threats have forced Adnan to conduct the women's jirga in secret. But she is determined to continue to fight for equality.

"I want to get rid of the typical chauvinistic customs where women are only restricted to stereotypical roles," Adnan said. "I want to promote female empowerment."