Islamabad: July 13, 2011. (PCP) Human Rights Focus Pakistan (HRFP) organized a Press Conference on “the minorities’ issues”. The Minorities leaders of Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and others also speak at the conference.
Naveed Walter President HRFP said in his news conference “The minorities’ role in the movement of Pakistan, in the formation of Pakistan and in the development of Pakistan is not unknown. The minorities showed their fully confidence on the leadership of Pakistan‘s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Quaid-e-Azam), was actually a confidence on the vision, thought and philosophy of state when the minorities leadership gives their right of confidence in the favor of Pakistan”.
The HRFP states that the founder of Pakistan said in his first constituent Assembly on August 11, 1947.
“You are free; you are free to go to your temples, and you are free to go to your Mosques or to any other place of worship in this state of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed that has nothing to do with the business of the state” (Muhammad Ali Jinnah , a founder of Pakistan’s presidential address to the first constituent Assembly on August 11, 1947)
Naveed Walter said more, the Human Rights Focus Pakistan (HRFP) and the minorities’ leaders’ demands to the Government,
1. The minorities have faced the problems, must be solved and the immediate steps must be taken by the Government. The violence against minorities must be ended and the minorities rights must be restored accordingly the UN charter of Human Rights.
2. The discriminatory laws against minorities must be reviewed and the blasphemy laws 295 (B/C) must be repealed because the minorities have reservations on these laws. Also, the prisoner victims must be released on immediate basis and they and their families must be secured.
3. In Balochistan province and in the other parts of Pakistan , where the Government’s rite is not visible, the justice and security must be provided to the minorities there.
4. The legislation is needed in the favor of women in specific; to solve their problems especially in the hadood ordinance & rapes and Government must take the steps to decrease the incidents /cases of violence against them.
5. The minorities & women must have the basic human rights and the Government have to take the steps and it must ensure that the mechanism in which the justice, rehabilitation and security is reachable to them easily.
6. The Government has to give the free of cost, the legal and rehabilitation aid to minorities & women.
7. Same like the Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) the minorities demand the double vote electoral system. The representation of the minorities in Assemblies must be increased.
8. “Hindu marriage registration act” and those Hindu’s Mandirs( Temples ) must be given to Hindus leadership who are still under the custody of Government of Pakistan .
9. The devaluation of federal ministry for minorities must be cancelled.
10. The honor killing cases against women must be ended and ensured.
11. The 5% quota to minorities is given but its implementation does not exist still.
12.Announcement : Human Rights Focus Pakistan and the minorities leaders and their organizations announce that the “Minorities Rights Rally “ will be launched on the August 11, 2011( minorities day ) in front of Parliament House , Islamabad .
Mr. Haroon Sarab Diyyal ( Hindus Rights Activist ) , Miss Sonia ( Coordinator for HRFP – Azad Jammue & Kashmir-AJK), Mr.Samuel Yaqub (Christians Rights Activist) ,Saradar Jagmohan Singh ( Sikhs Rights Activist ) and Daniel Masih (Minority Political worker) also speaks at the news conference .
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Friday, July 15, 2011
The #pakistan Autonomous Region of #China
With all the talk between Pakistan and China (actually, more of it coming from Pakistan) of being great friends and neighbors, one has to wonder if one day Pakistanis may wake up one day to find themselves part of an Autonomous Region that has always been part of China, according to Chinese revisionists. The Financial Times recently had an article detailing the great works China is performing in Pakistan to help India’s kissing cousin develop its military, its energy resources and its transportation infrastructure.
Of course, China’s alliance with Pakistan serves to poke a stick in America’s eye. The Americans have seen their credibility with the Pakistanis decrease nearly daily since the assasination of bin Laden. A closer relationship with Pakistan also helps China leverage negotiations with India on issues ranging from trade through territorial disputes.
Still, China may eventually rue the day it built the bed into which it crawled with a fundamentally fundamentalist, corrupt, poverty-stricken and unstable country. China’s prognostications of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries may undergo a major test when it finds Chinese merchants or engineers or even soldiers under fire from Islamic extremists.
Then, perhaps, China will begin to understand that with wealth and standing in the world comes commensurate responsibility and accountability.
Of course, China’s alliance with Pakistan serves to poke a stick in America’s eye. The Americans have seen their credibility with the Pakistanis decrease nearly daily since the assasination of bin Laden. A closer relationship with Pakistan also helps China leverage negotiations with India on issues ranging from trade through territorial disputes.
Still, China may eventually rue the day it built the bed into which it crawled with a fundamentally fundamentalist, corrupt, poverty-stricken and unstable country. China’s prognostications of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries may undergo a major test when it finds Chinese merchants or engineers or even soldiers under fire from Islamic extremists.
Then, perhaps, China will begin to understand that with wealth and standing in the world comes commensurate responsibility and accountability.
Search for Swiss couple abducted in #pakistan unsuccessful
Pakistani law enforcement agencies were searching for a Swiss couple abducted in country's south-western province of Balochistan last week, a senior government official said on Wednesday.
Olivier David Och, 31, and Daniela Widmer, 28, were taken away by gunmen on July 1 in Loralai district when they arrived from the central province of Punjab.
'We have no information yet where they are right now. There have been no developments in the investigations so far,' said Sohailur Rehman Baloch, the top civil administrator in Loralai. 'But we have dispatched teams to different areas to find them.'
A Taliban commander who spoke on condition of anonymity said last week that the couple had been moved to South Waziristan in the area controlled by a pro-government Taliban leader Maulvi Nazir.
Nazir is believed to have an agreement with the government under which he focuses only on fighting foreign forces in Afghanistan and avoids attacks inside Pakistan.
'There are reports here that the Swiss people (the couple) is with Punjabi Taliban and we don't know yet whether they will keep them in South Waziristan or move them further towards North Waziristan,' said the commander when contacted this week.
'Whatever demands they put - either of ransom or of exchange of prisoners - would come once the abducted people is at a safe place,' he added.
Punjabi Taliban is a term used for those militants who are from Pakistan's largest province but fighting alongside militants from tribal areas. They are believed to be very close to al-Qaeda.
But Pakistani Taliban have not yet taken responsibility for the kidnapping and when contacted their official spokesmen refused to comment on the case.
Baloch said that the government was clueless where the couple was. 'We are still searching for them and hope that they have not been yet been moved to the tribal belt.'
The Swiss entered Pakistan on June 28 from India and were on their way back to Europe though Iran and Turkey.
Baloch said that officials from the Swiss embassy in Pakistan were in constant contact with the Pakistani government on the issue. 'Some of their officials have visited Loralai to get first hand information on ongoing investigations.'
Olivier David Och, 31, and Daniela Widmer, 28, were taken away by gunmen on July 1 in Loralai district when they arrived from the central province of Punjab.
'We have no information yet where they are right now. There have been no developments in the investigations so far,' said Sohailur Rehman Baloch, the top civil administrator in Loralai. 'But we have dispatched teams to different areas to find them.'
A Taliban commander who spoke on condition of anonymity said last week that the couple had been moved to South Waziristan in the area controlled by a pro-government Taliban leader Maulvi Nazir.
Nazir is believed to have an agreement with the government under which he focuses only on fighting foreign forces in Afghanistan and avoids attacks inside Pakistan.
'There are reports here that the Swiss people (the couple) is with Punjabi Taliban and we don't know yet whether they will keep them in South Waziristan or move them further towards North Waziristan,' said the commander when contacted this week.
'Whatever demands they put - either of ransom or of exchange of prisoners - would come once the abducted people is at a safe place,' he added.
Punjabi Taliban is a term used for those militants who are from Pakistan's largest province but fighting alongside militants from tribal areas. They are believed to be very close to al-Qaeda.
But Pakistani Taliban have not yet taken responsibility for the kidnapping and when contacted their official spokesmen refused to comment on the case.
Baloch said that the government was clueless where the couple was. 'We are still searching for them and hope that they have not been yet been moved to the tribal belt.'
The Swiss entered Pakistan on June 28 from India and were on their way back to Europe though Iran and Turkey.
Baloch said that officials from the Swiss embassy in Pakistan were in constant contact with the Pakistani government on the issue. 'Some of their officials have visited Loralai to get first hand information on ongoing investigations.'
US should cut aid to #pakistan for its 'War of Terror' on women #fact #fail
To push Pakistan's improved cooperation in fighting terrorists, the US has suspended millions in military aid. Will it also have the spine to cut aid over Pakistan’s abhorrent treatment of women?
By Walter Rodgers
posted July 13, 2011 at 1:32 pm EDT
To push Pakistan toward more cooperation in fighting terrorists, the United States has suspended hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid. Will it also have the spine to cut aid over Pakistan’s abhorrent treatment of women?
The fact remains that Pakistan has long been a country that collectively wages a war of terror against 49 percent of its own population: against its wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters. Yet outsiders scarcely hear a whimper about this story.
RELATED: US cuts aid to Pakistan: Six key questions
Rape, domestic violence, sexual harassment, honor crimes, abuse, and discrimination against women remain serious problems in Pakistan. TrustLaw, an organization that provides legal aid and information on women’s rights, ranks Pakistan as the third most dangerous country for women (behind Congo and Afghanistan). If successive US administrations and Congress don’t use more muscle against these criminal human rights violations, it is because they don’t want to.
Sexual assault is so common it’s not reported
Recently an elderly Pakistani woman was forcibly paraded naked through a Punjab village. The reason? The woman’s grown son was having an adulterous relationship.
According to the latest Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Report, 3,000 women were raped in 2010 and 791 murdered in so-called “honor killings.”
Azra Rashid, a Canadian-Pakistani women’s rights activist, says those numbers are grossly underestimated. “Sexual assault is so common women don’t even report it. Girls grow up not even knowing it’s sexual assault when they are touched inappropriately.” Ms. Rashid says as a young girl she was often groped and fondled going to the market.
Why don’t Pakistani women report these crimes to police? Not long ago, one young Pakistani woman and her sister went to a police station to report a missing brother. The two girls were detained and repeatedly gang-raped by the police.
RELATED: The five most dangerous countries for women
Rashid says, “At best Pakistani police don’t believe rape victims, the politicians don’t care, and Pakistanis have come to accept this as part of their daily reality.”
A leading Pakistani politician was recently quoted as saying if a woman is raped, and she can’t bring four independent witnesses who saw the act, she should not bother to report it. This, despite the fact that the law no longer requires four witnesses to prove rape. Pakistan has improved its laws protecting women in recent years, but lack of enforcement and entrenched attitudes block progress.
It's not just rape
It’s not just rape. The ex-husband of a female Pakistani friend threatened to throw acid in her face if she went out with another man. It is not uncommon to see Pakistani women with faces scarred by such acid attacks. Ireland’s Refugee Document Center reporting on crimes against Pakistani women said that “in extreme cases punishments can include women being buried alive.” Pakistani men are rarely convicted of crimes against women.
Rural land or cattle disputes are often settled by having one party give the other an underage daughter. Rural Pakistan is the 14th century. The countryside is quite familiar with wealthy landlords locking up nubile young serf girls in pens and using them for their pleasure. Domestic house maids in cities are so vulnerable their condition is said to be worse than that of slaves. “The entire patriarchal society is run by men, and warped,” says Rashid.
RELATED: Top 10 countries for women: Global Gender Gap Index 2010
In a high-profile case, Mukhtara Mai was gang raped on orders of her village council in 2002 because her brother had allegedly committed adultery with the daughter of a feudal lord in an opposing clan. Yet all but one of the 14 accused men were acquitted this year.
In a 2005 Washington Post interview, then-President Pervez Musharraf acknowledged rape as a problem in Pakistan, but added, “A lot of people say that if you want to go abroad and get a visa or Canadian citizenship and be a millionaire, get yourself raped.”
US should not fear playing hardball
The US government largely winks at all this, giving Pakistan upward of $3 billion a year in economic and military assistance. But why should any American woman’s (or man’s) taxes be used to prop up a Pakistani government that views crimes against its own female population as acceptable?
Some apologists cluck and say “Don’t dump Pakistan. It has 100 nuclear weapons.” Yet in the cold war the United States courageously championed the cause of Soviet Jews when the Russians had thousands of nuclear weapons.
RELATED: The top 5 Al Qaeda leaders still hiding in Pakistan
To those worrying that if Washington were to dump Pakistan it might fall into China’s orbit, the appropriate response should be “Good! They deserve each other.”
Fear of an erratic Pakistan and our own shameless political expediency should not be the driving force behind US policy toward Islamabad. Those are the values of moral and political bankruptcy. Great democratic nations do not abandon the weak, the abused, and the raped for political convenience.
Walter Rodgers, a former senior international correspondent for CNN, writes a biweekly column.
By Walter Rodgers
posted July 13, 2011 at 1:32 pm EDT
To push Pakistan toward more cooperation in fighting terrorists, the United States has suspended hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid. Will it also have the spine to cut aid over Pakistan’s abhorrent treatment of women?
The fact remains that Pakistan has long been a country that collectively wages a war of terror against 49 percent of its own population: against its wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters. Yet outsiders scarcely hear a whimper about this story.
RELATED: US cuts aid to Pakistan: Six key questions
Rape, domestic violence, sexual harassment, honor crimes, abuse, and discrimination against women remain serious problems in Pakistan. TrustLaw, an organization that provides legal aid and information on women’s rights, ranks Pakistan as the third most dangerous country for women (behind Congo and Afghanistan). If successive US administrations and Congress don’t use more muscle against these criminal human rights violations, it is because they don’t want to.
Sexual assault is so common it’s not reported
Recently an elderly Pakistani woman was forcibly paraded naked through a Punjab village. The reason? The woman’s grown son was having an adulterous relationship.
According to the latest Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Report, 3,000 women were raped in 2010 and 791 murdered in so-called “honor killings.”
Azra Rashid, a Canadian-Pakistani women’s rights activist, says those numbers are grossly underestimated. “Sexual assault is so common women don’t even report it. Girls grow up not even knowing it’s sexual assault when they are touched inappropriately.” Ms. Rashid says as a young girl she was often groped and fondled going to the market.
Why don’t Pakistani women report these crimes to police? Not long ago, one young Pakistani woman and her sister went to a police station to report a missing brother. The two girls were detained and repeatedly gang-raped by the police.
RELATED: The five most dangerous countries for women
Rashid says, “At best Pakistani police don’t believe rape victims, the politicians don’t care, and Pakistanis have come to accept this as part of their daily reality.”
A leading Pakistani politician was recently quoted as saying if a woman is raped, and she can’t bring four independent witnesses who saw the act, she should not bother to report it. This, despite the fact that the law no longer requires four witnesses to prove rape. Pakistan has improved its laws protecting women in recent years, but lack of enforcement and entrenched attitudes block progress.
It's not just rape
It’s not just rape. The ex-husband of a female Pakistani friend threatened to throw acid in her face if she went out with another man. It is not uncommon to see Pakistani women with faces scarred by such acid attacks. Ireland’s Refugee Document Center reporting on crimes against Pakistani women said that “in extreme cases punishments can include women being buried alive.” Pakistani men are rarely convicted of crimes against women.
Rural land or cattle disputes are often settled by having one party give the other an underage daughter. Rural Pakistan is the 14th century. The countryside is quite familiar with wealthy landlords locking up nubile young serf girls in pens and using them for their pleasure. Domestic house maids in cities are so vulnerable their condition is said to be worse than that of slaves. “The entire patriarchal society is run by men, and warped,” says Rashid.
RELATED: Top 10 countries for women: Global Gender Gap Index 2010
In a high-profile case, Mukhtara Mai was gang raped on orders of her village council in 2002 because her brother had allegedly committed adultery with the daughter of a feudal lord in an opposing clan. Yet all but one of the 14 accused men were acquitted this year.
In a 2005 Washington Post interview, then-President Pervez Musharraf acknowledged rape as a problem in Pakistan, but added, “A lot of people say that if you want to go abroad and get a visa or Canadian citizenship and be a millionaire, get yourself raped.”
US should not fear playing hardball
The US government largely winks at all this, giving Pakistan upward of $3 billion a year in economic and military assistance. But why should any American woman’s (or man’s) taxes be used to prop up a Pakistani government that views crimes against its own female population as acceptable?
Some apologists cluck and say “Don’t dump Pakistan. It has 100 nuclear weapons.” Yet in the cold war the United States courageously championed the cause of Soviet Jews when the Russians had thousands of nuclear weapons.
RELATED: The top 5 Al Qaeda leaders still hiding in Pakistan
To those worrying that if Washington were to dump Pakistan it might fall into China’s orbit, the appropriate response should be “Good! They deserve each other.”
Fear of an erratic Pakistan and our own shameless political expediency should not be the driving force behind US policy toward Islamabad. Those are the values of moral and political bankruptcy. Great democratic nations do not abandon the weak, the abused, and the raped for political convenience.
Walter Rodgers, a former senior international correspondent for CNN, writes a biweekly column.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
people of #pakistan call POTUS @BarackObama monkey-face @whitehouse #racism #USA
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#pakistan becoming paranoid over #Afghanistan
The recent border row between Afghanistan and Pakistan yet again underlines their difficult bilateral relationship.
The Durand Line or the disputed border running 1,500-miles in a difficult terrain is a 19th century demarcation that divided a Pashtun inhabited area. It divided the families and tribes into two different countries, but did little to snap their traditional linkages and belief systems. Thus, the passage of time has done little to extinguish their desire to be united under a common homeland -- Pashtunistan, an idea that stokes fear of disintegration among the Pakistani establishment.
Taliban elements, belonging primarily to the Pashtun ethnic identity receive considerable support from Pashtuns, on both sides of the border. An anathema to the civilized world, Taliban have been provided refuge and protection by the Pashtu tribals, as accorded by the code of “Pushtunwali,” which demands hospitality, honor and protection to the guests. Such hospitality has over the years converted this “ungoverned space” into a sanctuary, to carry out attacks inside the Afghan territory.
In addition to the repeated Taliban forays, the recent incidents of firing of rockets and mortars from within the Pakistani territory into Afghanistan have added fresh complexities to the difficult Af-Pak relations.
Afghan officials say that since late May, some 800 rockets, mortars and artillery shells have been fired from Pakistan into Afghan villages, leaving dozens of civilians dead and injured. Many families in the Kunar province abutting the Af-Pak border have fled their homes. Pakistan, on the other hand, has denied hitting Afghanistan intentionally, but acknowledged its military has been targeting militants to halt cross-border raids and that some rockets may have strayed off course.
Popular angst has resulted in protestations through rallies in capital Kabul and near the border in the city of Asadabad in Kunar, with demonstrators threatening to take matters into their own hands if Afghan forces fail to fight back.
While for many the border rows are part of the normal bickering between the two nations, which aren’t in best terms with each other, at the center of the problem of this is the Pakistan fear of being left out of a negotiated deal with the Taliban.
The increase in tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan comes as the draw down of US forces commences from Afghanistan posing fresh challenges to the project of pacifying the volatile southern and eastern parts of the country. There is a serious search for the political solution to the Afghan war. The Afghan government and the US are seeking to negotiate with the Taliban independently of Islamabad.
In this context, Afghans perceive the incidents of cross border firing as a way of Pakistan demonstrating its ire at being bypassed. For the Pakistani establishment, Taliban remains a “strategic” asset to be positioned in a post US negotiated deal in Kabul. To be left out completely isn’t actually a scenario that is acceptable, even when its relations with the US have ebbed in the post-Osama era.
Pressure on Pakistan has started mounting with the Obama administration suspending hundreds of millions of dollars of aid to its military -- a move that is clearly directed at penalizing Pakistan for denying visa to American military trainers, asking US to vacate the Shamsi airbase in Balochistan and to press its army to fight militants more effectively.
This is further pushing Pakistan to the borders of paranoia. While Pakistan has signaled its willingness to accept the border, Afghanistan refuses to accept any such demarcation.
Further, Pakistan fears Pashtun nationalism raising its ugly head, a nightmare scenario for the Pakistan army. Such an eventuality would trap the army permanently in extinguishing the flames leaving little space and capacity for the Pakistani army to orchestrate a favorable dispensation in Afghanistan.
The project of stabilizing Afghanistan through a negotiated settlement with the Taliban will, thus, continue to be obstructed by an insecure Pakistani establishment. The latter will find ways to position itself as a serious impediment to any reconciliation efforts if it is not involved in the final settlement plan.
(Shanthie Mariet D’Souza, Ph.D., is Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), National University of Singapore (NUS) in Singapore. She can be reached at: shanthied@gmail.com)
The Durand Line or the disputed border running 1,500-miles in a difficult terrain is a 19th century demarcation that divided a Pashtun inhabited area. It divided the families and tribes into two different countries, but did little to snap their traditional linkages and belief systems. Thus, the passage of time has done little to extinguish their desire to be united under a common homeland -- Pashtunistan, an idea that stokes fear of disintegration among the Pakistani establishment.
Taliban elements, belonging primarily to the Pashtun ethnic identity receive considerable support from Pashtuns, on both sides of the border. An anathema to the civilized world, Taliban have been provided refuge and protection by the Pashtu tribals, as accorded by the code of “Pushtunwali,” which demands hospitality, honor and protection to the guests. Such hospitality has over the years converted this “ungoverned space” into a sanctuary, to carry out attacks inside the Afghan territory.
In addition to the repeated Taliban forays, the recent incidents of firing of rockets and mortars from within the Pakistani territory into Afghanistan have added fresh complexities to the difficult Af-Pak relations.
Afghan officials say that since late May, some 800 rockets, mortars and artillery shells have been fired from Pakistan into Afghan villages, leaving dozens of civilians dead and injured. Many families in the Kunar province abutting the Af-Pak border have fled their homes. Pakistan, on the other hand, has denied hitting Afghanistan intentionally, but acknowledged its military has been targeting militants to halt cross-border raids and that some rockets may have strayed off course.
Popular angst has resulted in protestations through rallies in capital Kabul and near the border in the city of Asadabad in Kunar, with demonstrators threatening to take matters into their own hands if Afghan forces fail to fight back.
While for many the border rows are part of the normal bickering between the two nations, which aren’t in best terms with each other, at the center of the problem of this is the Pakistan fear of being left out of a negotiated deal with the Taliban.
The increase in tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan comes as the draw down of US forces commences from Afghanistan posing fresh challenges to the project of pacifying the volatile southern and eastern parts of the country. There is a serious search for the political solution to the Afghan war. The Afghan government and the US are seeking to negotiate with the Taliban independently of Islamabad.
In this context, Afghans perceive the incidents of cross border firing as a way of Pakistan demonstrating its ire at being bypassed. For the Pakistani establishment, Taliban remains a “strategic” asset to be positioned in a post US negotiated deal in Kabul. To be left out completely isn’t actually a scenario that is acceptable, even when its relations with the US have ebbed in the post-Osama era.
Pressure on Pakistan has started mounting with the Obama administration suspending hundreds of millions of dollars of aid to its military -- a move that is clearly directed at penalizing Pakistan for denying visa to American military trainers, asking US to vacate the Shamsi airbase in Balochistan and to press its army to fight militants more effectively.
This is further pushing Pakistan to the borders of paranoia. While Pakistan has signaled its willingness to accept the border, Afghanistan refuses to accept any such demarcation.
Further, Pakistan fears Pashtun nationalism raising its ugly head, a nightmare scenario for the Pakistan army. Such an eventuality would trap the army permanently in extinguishing the flames leaving little space and capacity for the Pakistani army to orchestrate a favorable dispensation in Afghanistan.
The project of stabilizing Afghanistan through a negotiated settlement with the Taliban will, thus, continue to be obstructed by an insecure Pakistani establishment. The latter will find ways to position itself as a serious impediment to any reconciliation efforts if it is not involved in the final settlement plan.
(Shanthie Mariet D’Souza, Ph.D., is Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), National University of Singapore (NUS) in Singapore. She can be reached at: shanthied@gmail.com)
#pakistan to lose $170 million as BP prefers payments abroad
Pakistan is set to lose around $170 million in duties, taxes and liabilities as British Petroleum (BP) shrugs off repeated warnings to receive payments within the country, sources said on Monday.
According to the sources, there was no headway as BP refused to take the state directives seriously.
In the wake of the worst oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year, BP trimmed its global operations to compensate billions of dollars in damages. In line with the global strategy, BP sold its Pakistan assets to United Energy Group (UEG) in December, 2010 for $775 million.
The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) have been issuing written warnings to BP to ensure that the money for its deal with UEG is transferred in Pakistan, hence the payment of each penny in terms of taxes/ duties and other liabilities is promptly made to the national exchequer, The News learnt on Monday.
The Federal Board of Revenue in a meeting on June 18 on the execution of the agreement in respect of Badin-II, Badin-II revised, Badin-III and Mehran blocks concurs with the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, “guarantees/parent company guarantees/watertight guarantees available with the ministry petroleum shall be invoked as and when required, for payment of taxes due or likely to be assessed along with pending tax liabilities in the cases of E&P companies,” said a letter of the FBR made available to The News.
The Oil and Gas Development Company Limited’s (OGDCL) takeover and operatorship can save Pakistan from huge losses in terms of finances, as well as energy resources.
Now when petroleum products’ prices are showing upward trend, every barrel of oil and every BTU of gas matter for Pakistan, it is believed that those in the helm of affairs in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources and PakistanÃs top leadership will move quickly to stop transfer of BP-UEG $775 million deal outside the country, besides ensuring that operatorship of sold out blocks goes into OGDCL’s hand, which being a state-run giant can better manage exploration and production activities in all the blocks being offered by BP to UEG.
“We have not yet received replies of the letters sent by the Ministry of Petroleum, OGDCL and DG, Petroleum Concessions to BP-Pakistan for clearing the expertise of UEG for effectively handling E&P operations of blocks in Pakistan,” a senior official of the Ministry of Petroleum confirmed to The News on the condition of anonymity.
BP Pakistan spokesperson was not available for her comments on the issue despite repeated attempts.
BP Pakistan filed application for assignment of working interests to UEG for Badin-I, Badin-II, Badin-II Revised, Badin-III, Fateh Shah (Mehran), Mirpurkhas, Khipro, Digri, Sanghar South and offshore Indus S, U, V and W blocks.
Currently, OPPI also has working interest in Badin-II, Badin-II Revised, Badin-III and Fateh Shah (Mehran) leases with 25.5 percent, 25.5 percent, 30 percent and 37.5 percent, respectively. The deal between BP Pakistan and United Energy Group Limited has had hit snags since January as it is not submitting the required information to its regulators.
BP, Pakistan has informed the Ministry of Petroleum that the unadjusted base price of the sale of upstream assets to UEG sale purchase agreement of the transaction is $775 million with the effective date of January, an official announcement of BP said.
BP does not have a good record for transfer of amount of its deals in the past. It deprived Pakistan of lawful duties and taxes of roughly $40 million, when it transferred the money of its deal with OPI Inc, a local firm for purchase of two blocks in Sindh in 2002. BP and OPI deal for sale and purchase of assets in oil and gas sector was the first deal for which the buyer (BP) transferred money to the seller (OPI Inc) aboard, an official of the ministry said. Repeating its history again, BP is going to set aside the government’s directives for transfer the amount for its deal with UEG in Pakistan.
BP’s deal with UEG is a question mark from the day one and now instead of coming up with the facts and figures, it is creating an impression that its $775 million deal with UEG is going to be Pakistan’s largest foreign direct investment in recent years, the official said.
In fact, this impression is meant to mislead Pakistan’s top leadership and let BP go with $775 million without paying any taxes and duties to the state, the same official said.
Badin and other fields on BP sale list are producing for long and now they have reached a stage where they require huge investment, high technology, consistent monitoring and careful handling.
So far, nothing has been made public for the satisfaction of the government authorities and taxpayers as if UEG meets there criteria and above all its capabilities have been evaluated properly and professionally.
The OGDCL, which holds over 25 percent shares in BP Pakistan JV operated leases and blocks in Badin, Mirpurkhas areas.
A letter addressed to Zaheer Alam of BP Pakistan, a copy of which is available with The News, BP was asked to submit an additional information/data pertaining to UEG with a focus on technical, financial and management information for further examining the capability of the new operator.
The OGDCL also declined BP Pakistan Exploration and Production Inc, current operator, for waiving the requirement of notice period pursuant to Article 3.3 of OGDCL by saying, “OGDCL’s technical and financial professionals are engaged in reviewing the annual report and associated materials of proposed successor operator UEG, already provided by BP Pakistan, the letter added. BP Pakistan through another letter was also asked to explain its position in maintaining/enhancing the production vis-a-vis carrying out exploration activities in acquired licences/leases, said a letter of DG, Petroleum Concessions sent to Tariq Khamisani, President, BP Pakistan.
They were also asked to provide definite plans and commitment of proposed assignee for carrying E&P activities in licences/leases, the letter added.
In the given situation, transfer of operatorship of its key producing blocks to a company such as UEG with no practical experience of exploring and producing oil and gas could be a serious issue.
According to the sources, there was no headway as BP refused to take the state directives seriously.
In the wake of the worst oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year, BP trimmed its global operations to compensate billions of dollars in damages. In line with the global strategy, BP sold its Pakistan assets to United Energy Group (UEG) in December, 2010 for $775 million.
The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) have been issuing written warnings to BP to ensure that the money for its deal with UEG is transferred in Pakistan, hence the payment of each penny in terms of taxes/ duties and other liabilities is promptly made to the national exchequer, The News learnt on Monday.
The Federal Board of Revenue in a meeting on June 18 on the execution of the agreement in respect of Badin-II, Badin-II revised, Badin-III and Mehran blocks concurs with the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, “guarantees/parent company guarantees/watertight guarantees available with the ministry petroleum shall be invoked as and when required, for payment of taxes due or likely to be assessed along with pending tax liabilities in the cases of E&P companies,” said a letter of the FBR made available to The News.
The Oil and Gas Development Company Limited’s (OGDCL) takeover and operatorship can save Pakistan from huge losses in terms of finances, as well as energy resources.
Now when petroleum products’ prices are showing upward trend, every barrel of oil and every BTU of gas matter for Pakistan, it is believed that those in the helm of affairs in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources and PakistanÃs top leadership will move quickly to stop transfer of BP-UEG $775 million deal outside the country, besides ensuring that operatorship of sold out blocks goes into OGDCL’s hand, which being a state-run giant can better manage exploration and production activities in all the blocks being offered by BP to UEG.
“We have not yet received replies of the letters sent by the Ministry of Petroleum, OGDCL and DG, Petroleum Concessions to BP-Pakistan for clearing the expertise of UEG for effectively handling E&P operations of blocks in Pakistan,” a senior official of the Ministry of Petroleum confirmed to The News on the condition of anonymity.
BP Pakistan spokesperson was not available for her comments on the issue despite repeated attempts.
BP Pakistan filed application for assignment of working interests to UEG for Badin-I, Badin-II, Badin-II Revised, Badin-III, Fateh Shah (Mehran), Mirpurkhas, Khipro, Digri, Sanghar South and offshore Indus S, U, V and W blocks.
Currently, OPPI also has working interest in Badin-II, Badin-II Revised, Badin-III and Fateh Shah (Mehran) leases with 25.5 percent, 25.5 percent, 30 percent and 37.5 percent, respectively. The deal between BP Pakistan and United Energy Group Limited has had hit snags since January as it is not submitting the required information to its regulators.
BP, Pakistan has informed the Ministry of Petroleum that the unadjusted base price of the sale of upstream assets to UEG sale purchase agreement of the transaction is $775 million with the effective date of January, an official announcement of BP said.
BP does not have a good record for transfer of amount of its deals in the past. It deprived Pakistan of lawful duties and taxes of roughly $40 million, when it transferred the money of its deal with OPI Inc, a local firm for purchase of two blocks in Sindh in 2002. BP and OPI deal for sale and purchase of assets in oil and gas sector was the first deal for which the buyer (BP) transferred money to the seller (OPI Inc) aboard, an official of the ministry said. Repeating its history again, BP is going to set aside the government’s directives for transfer the amount for its deal with UEG in Pakistan.
BP’s deal with UEG is a question mark from the day one and now instead of coming up with the facts and figures, it is creating an impression that its $775 million deal with UEG is going to be Pakistan’s largest foreign direct investment in recent years, the official said.
In fact, this impression is meant to mislead Pakistan’s top leadership and let BP go with $775 million without paying any taxes and duties to the state, the same official said.
Badin and other fields on BP sale list are producing for long and now they have reached a stage where they require huge investment, high technology, consistent monitoring and careful handling.
So far, nothing has been made public for the satisfaction of the government authorities and taxpayers as if UEG meets there criteria and above all its capabilities have been evaluated properly and professionally.
The OGDCL, which holds over 25 percent shares in BP Pakistan JV operated leases and blocks in Badin, Mirpurkhas areas.
A letter addressed to Zaheer Alam of BP Pakistan, a copy of which is available with The News, BP was asked to submit an additional information/data pertaining to UEG with a focus on technical, financial and management information for further examining the capability of the new operator.
The OGDCL also declined BP Pakistan Exploration and Production Inc, current operator, for waiving the requirement of notice period pursuant to Article 3.3 of OGDCL by saying, “OGDCL’s technical and financial professionals are engaged in reviewing the annual report and associated materials of proposed successor operator UEG, already provided by BP Pakistan, the letter added. BP Pakistan through another letter was also asked to explain its position in maintaining/enhancing the production vis-a-vis carrying out exploration activities in acquired licences/leases, said a letter of DG, Petroleum Concessions sent to Tariq Khamisani, President, BP Pakistan.
They were also asked to provide definite plans and commitment of proposed assignee for carrying E&P activities in licences/leases, the letter added.
In the given situation, transfer of operatorship of its key producing blocks to a company such as UEG with no practical experience of exploring and producing oil and gas could be a serious issue.
Senator Corker Calls Suspension Of US Military Aid To #pakistan An “Honest Re-evaluation” That Is “Long Overdue"
Senator Bob Corker, R-Tenn., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Monday the Obama administration’s decision to temporarily suspend $800 million in U.S. military assistance to Pakistan is an “honest re-evaluation” of U.S.-Pakistan relations that “is long overdue.”
“While it is important for us to maintain relations with Pakistan, the administration’s decision to temporarily suspend roughly $800 million in military assistance is the right one,” Sen. Corker said.
“For far too long, Pakistan’s actions have been inconsistent - to say the least - and the time is right for us to engage in a sober conversation about our relationship and expectations.
"Our national security is greatly affected by what happens in Southwest Asia, so the American people need to be certain that we have a real and lasting partnership with the Pakistanis, who we depend on for security and intelligence cooperation in the fight against international terrorists. With so many taxpayer resources at stake, this honest re-evaluation and conversation is long overdue.”
“While it is important for us to maintain relations with Pakistan, the administration’s decision to temporarily suspend roughly $800 million in military assistance is the right one,” Sen. Corker said.
“For far too long, Pakistan’s actions have been inconsistent - to say the least - and the time is right for us to engage in a sober conversation about our relationship and expectations.
"Our national security is greatly affected by what happens in Southwest Asia, so the American people need to be certain that we have a real and lasting partnership with the Pakistanis, who we depend on for security and intelligence cooperation in the fight against international terrorists. With so many taxpayer resources at stake, this honest re-evaluation and conversation is long overdue.”
#Pakistan's demographic dilemma
Pakistan's 2011 census kicked off in April, but less than three months later, it is embroiled in controversy. Several members of the Sindh Census Monitoring Committee have rejected as "seriously flawed" the recently completed household count. They allege that census workers, directed by an unspecified "ethnic group," have counted Karachi's "inns, washrooms, and even electric poles" as households in an effort to dilute the city's native "Sindhi" presence.
These Census Monitoring Committee members are not the only Pakistani politicians to be concerned about the census. Pakistan is experiencing rapid urbanization; while a third of the country's people have long been rurally based, at least 50 percent of the population is expected to live in cities by the 2020s. Pakistan's political leadership draws much of its power from rural landholdings, power that could be greatly reduced if a census confirms this migration toward cities.
This politicization underscores the perils of census-taking in Pakistan. In many other nations, it is a routine process completed regularly. Yet in Pakistan, myriad factors -- from catastrophic flooding and insufficient funding to the turbulent security situation and intense political opposition -- have conspired to delay it for three consecutive years, making the country census-less since 1998.
Accurate census data enables governments to make decisions about how to best allocate resources and services. In Pakistan, such decisions are critical. Consider that its current population, estimated at about 175 million, is the world's sixth-largest. It has the highest population growth, birth, and fertility rates in South Asia -- one of the last regions, along with sub-Saharan Africa, still experiencing young and rapidly rising populations. Additionally, with a median age of 21, Pakistan's population is profoundly youthful. Two-thirds are less than 30 years old, and as a percentage of total population, only Yemen has more people under 24.
According to some demographers, these conditions present opportunities. If a large, youthful population enters the workforce in droves, it can spark economic growth and free up state resources to be used for social welfare. In an era of endlessly bad news about Pakistan, it is tantalizing to envision the effects of attaining this "demographic dividend" in the country. Imagine a million new employees flocking to Pakistan's burgeoning IT industry, a scenario economist Shahid Javed Burki predicts could generate $20 billion in export earnings. Or visualize a new generation of engineers and scientists unlocking the potential of Pakistan's massive underground mineral reserves, estimated to be valued in the trillions of dollars.
Such cheery thoughts, however, overlook the dreadful state of Pakistan's school system and economy. If Pakistanis are to enter the workforce, they will need to be properly educated -- yet a staggering 40 million out of Pakistan's 70 million 5-to-19-year-olds are not in school. Additionally, if Pakistanis are to be gainfully employed, the economy must be large enough to absorb them, no simple feat in a labor economy that at present creates only a million new jobs a year, yet could face 175 million potential workers by 2030 (current unemployment runs at about 15 percent, and underemployment is substantial as well). Unsurprisingly, Pakistan's Planning Commission deputy chairman estimated last year that in order to employ Pakistan's nearly 100-million-strong under-20 population, GDP growth will need to soar to 9 percent (it is currently mired at 2.4 percent).
The most likely and devastating consequence of Pakistan's demographic dilemma is natural resource scarcity. Pakistan is already desperately short on water and land. Water availability has plummeted from about 5,000 cubic meters per capita in the 1950s to less than 1,500 today -- perilously close to the 1,000 cubic meters per capita level designated as water-scarce. Meanwhile, according to one striking estimate, Pakistan loses nearly three acres of good agricultural land every 20 minutes. Given Pakistan's population density of roughly 230 people per square kilometer, such shortfalls put immense pressure on remaining supply. Finally, as illustrated by Pakistan's constant blackouts, the country's energy grid is already under major pressure, a problem that will only grow worse with demographic pressure if no action is taken.
Compounding these constraints is Pakistan's poor resource governance. At least 90 percent of Pakistan's water resources are used for agriculture, yet the country's farming sector is ravaged by water wastage. Flood irrigation is used much more than water-saving drip irrigation, while sugar and wheat -- some of the world's most water-intensive crops -- dominate Pakistan's agricultural mix.
Then there is leakage. Water expert Simi Kamal calculates that simply plugging the country's leaky canal system would free up 10 times more water than would be generated by a large dam. Islamabad, however, not only builds large dams, but also constructs gigantic water fountains and leases large swaths of farmland to foreign investors for large-scale agricultural production. This all adds to the strain on precious water and land supplies.
Unless Pakistan's natural resource governance takes a dramatic turn for the more judicious, resource scarcity could soon be more reality than threat. Here, it is instructive to juxtapose Pakistan's future population projections with those of natural resource supply. According to the U.N. Population Division's newest mid-range estimates, Pakistan's population will rise to 275 million by 2050. However, this estimate optimistically assumes an eventual drop in Pakistan's total fertility rate (TFR), which now registers at about 3.6 children per woman. Assuming TFR remains constant -- by no means an unlikely prospect, given that the country's contraceptive prevalence rate hovers at only 30 percent -- the projections soar to nearly 380 million people.
Meanwhile, as early as 2025, Pakistan's total water demand is expected to exceed availability by 100 billion cubic meters. This deficit represents five times the amount of water that can presently be stored in the reservoirs of the vast Indus River system. Put differently, in less than 15 years, Pakistan's chief water storage source could fall far short of satisfying demand for humanity's lifeblood.
To overcome its demographic (and concurrent resource) challenges, Pakistan will need to revamp its educational system, enlarge its economy, and expand access to family planning services. These represent herculean tasks in the best of times, and Pakistan is experiencing one of the more traumatic periods in its history.
Yet this all amounts to putting the cart before the horse. Pakistan cannot expect to make progress on population policy until the nation is willing to accord priority to population issues, which starts with having accurate data about the country's population. "At no point," according to Zeba Sathar, one of Pakistan's most respected demographers, "has serious attention been devoted to studying Pakistan's large population numbers, their distribution, and the implications they hold for the country's development, politics, and ultimate stability."
This must change. To its credit, Islamabad has signaled its intention to bring demographics to the policy front burner. It has christened 2011 as "Population Year" and has declared -- in the words of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani -- that "all hopes of development and economic prosperity would flounder if we as a nation lose the focus and do not keep [the] population issue in the spotlight."
The first step is to complete that census. The Population Census Organization estimates that assuming all goes well, data collection will be completed by the end of the year. Here's hoping that natural disasters take the rest of 2011 off, political point-scoring abates, financing proliferates, and security improves just a bit -- so that Pakistan can take an initial step toward tackling what may well be its greatest development challenge.
Michael Kugelman is the South Asia associate at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and lead editor of "Reaping the Dividend: Overcoming Pakistan's Demographic Challenges."
These Census Monitoring Committee members are not the only Pakistani politicians to be concerned about the census. Pakistan is experiencing rapid urbanization; while a third of the country's people have long been rurally based, at least 50 percent of the population is expected to live in cities by the 2020s. Pakistan's political leadership draws much of its power from rural landholdings, power that could be greatly reduced if a census confirms this migration toward cities.
This politicization underscores the perils of census-taking in Pakistan. In many other nations, it is a routine process completed regularly. Yet in Pakistan, myriad factors -- from catastrophic flooding and insufficient funding to the turbulent security situation and intense political opposition -- have conspired to delay it for three consecutive years, making the country census-less since 1998.
Accurate census data enables governments to make decisions about how to best allocate resources and services. In Pakistan, such decisions are critical. Consider that its current population, estimated at about 175 million, is the world's sixth-largest. It has the highest population growth, birth, and fertility rates in South Asia -- one of the last regions, along with sub-Saharan Africa, still experiencing young and rapidly rising populations. Additionally, with a median age of 21, Pakistan's population is profoundly youthful. Two-thirds are less than 30 years old, and as a percentage of total population, only Yemen has more people under 24.
According to some demographers, these conditions present opportunities. If a large, youthful population enters the workforce in droves, it can spark economic growth and free up state resources to be used for social welfare. In an era of endlessly bad news about Pakistan, it is tantalizing to envision the effects of attaining this "demographic dividend" in the country. Imagine a million new employees flocking to Pakistan's burgeoning IT industry, a scenario economist Shahid Javed Burki predicts could generate $20 billion in export earnings. Or visualize a new generation of engineers and scientists unlocking the potential of Pakistan's massive underground mineral reserves, estimated to be valued in the trillions of dollars.
Such cheery thoughts, however, overlook the dreadful state of Pakistan's school system and economy. If Pakistanis are to enter the workforce, they will need to be properly educated -- yet a staggering 40 million out of Pakistan's 70 million 5-to-19-year-olds are not in school. Additionally, if Pakistanis are to be gainfully employed, the economy must be large enough to absorb them, no simple feat in a labor economy that at present creates only a million new jobs a year, yet could face 175 million potential workers by 2030 (current unemployment runs at about 15 percent, and underemployment is substantial as well). Unsurprisingly, Pakistan's Planning Commission deputy chairman estimated last year that in order to employ Pakistan's nearly 100-million-strong under-20 population, GDP growth will need to soar to 9 percent (it is currently mired at 2.4 percent).
The most likely and devastating consequence of Pakistan's demographic dilemma is natural resource scarcity. Pakistan is already desperately short on water and land. Water availability has plummeted from about 5,000 cubic meters per capita in the 1950s to less than 1,500 today -- perilously close to the 1,000 cubic meters per capita level designated as water-scarce. Meanwhile, according to one striking estimate, Pakistan loses nearly three acres of good agricultural land every 20 minutes. Given Pakistan's population density of roughly 230 people per square kilometer, such shortfalls put immense pressure on remaining supply. Finally, as illustrated by Pakistan's constant blackouts, the country's energy grid is already under major pressure, a problem that will only grow worse with demographic pressure if no action is taken.
Compounding these constraints is Pakistan's poor resource governance. At least 90 percent of Pakistan's water resources are used for agriculture, yet the country's farming sector is ravaged by water wastage. Flood irrigation is used much more than water-saving drip irrigation, while sugar and wheat -- some of the world's most water-intensive crops -- dominate Pakistan's agricultural mix.
Then there is leakage. Water expert Simi Kamal calculates that simply plugging the country's leaky canal system would free up 10 times more water than would be generated by a large dam. Islamabad, however, not only builds large dams, but also constructs gigantic water fountains and leases large swaths of farmland to foreign investors for large-scale agricultural production. This all adds to the strain on precious water and land supplies.
Unless Pakistan's natural resource governance takes a dramatic turn for the more judicious, resource scarcity could soon be more reality than threat. Here, it is instructive to juxtapose Pakistan's future population projections with those of natural resource supply. According to the U.N. Population Division's newest mid-range estimates, Pakistan's population will rise to 275 million by 2050. However, this estimate optimistically assumes an eventual drop in Pakistan's total fertility rate (TFR), which now registers at about 3.6 children per woman. Assuming TFR remains constant -- by no means an unlikely prospect, given that the country's contraceptive prevalence rate hovers at only 30 percent -- the projections soar to nearly 380 million people.
Meanwhile, as early as 2025, Pakistan's total water demand is expected to exceed availability by 100 billion cubic meters. This deficit represents five times the amount of water that can presently be stored in the reservoirs of the vast Indus River system. Put differently, in less than 15 years, Pakistan's chief water storage source could fall far short of satisfying demand for humanity's lifeblood.
To overcome its demographic (and concurrent resource) challenges, Pakistan will need to revamp its educational system, enlarge its economy, and expand access to family planning services. These represent herculean tasks in the best of times, and Pakistan is experiencing one of the more traumatic periods in its history.
Yet this all amounts to putting the cart before the horse. Pakistan cannot expect to make progress on population policy until the nation is willing to accord priority to population issues, which starts with having accurate data about the country's population. "At no point," according to Zeba Sathar, one of Pakistan's most respected demographers, "has serious attention been devoted to studying Pakistan's large population numbers, their distribution, and the implications they hold for the country's development, politics, and ultimate stability."
This must change. To its credit, Islamabad has signaled its intention to bring demographics to the policy front burner. It has christened 2011 as "Population Year" and has declared -- in the words of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani -- that "all hopes of development and economic prosperity would flounder if we as a nation lose the focus and do not keep [the] population issue in the spotlight."
The first step is to complete that census. The Population Census Organization estimates that assuming all goes well, data collection will be completed by the end of the year. Here's hoping that natural disasters take the rest of 2011 off, political point-scoring abates, financing proliferates, and security improves just a bit -- so that Pakistan can take an initial step toward tackling what may well be its greatest development challenge.
Michael Kugelman is the South Asia associate at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and lead editor of "Reaping the Dividend: Overcoming Pakistan's Demographic Challenges."
#pakistan Army's "counter-insurgency" operations to avoid targetting its militant assets attacking US troops in #Afghanistan
By James Rupert - Jul 12, 2011 1:08 PM GMT+0530
Pakistan’s military encirclement of the country’s biggest concentration of Taliban guerrillas, which intensified this month, may fail to yield a decisive blow against the faction that is a primary target of the U.S.
Pakistan is seeking to preserve ties with the Taliban and other militants that it has used for decades to gain political influence in Afghanistan, according to Imtiaz Gul, director of Islamabad’s Center for Research and Security Studies.
The reliance on guerrillas to project power across Pakistan’s borders is part of an effort to compensate for its smaller size compared with arch-foe India, against which it has fought three wars since the countries separated at independence from the U.K.
Any army offensive “is not going to give satisfaction to the Americans, because Pakistan wants to keep a relationship with some of the groups there,” including the one led by Afghan tribal leader Jalaluddin Haqqani, said Gul.
The U.S., which is withdrawing some troops and planning to end its combat role in Afghanistan by 2014, is pushing Pakistan to crush the Taliban in its territory while helping bring its leaders to peace talks. The U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan describe Haqqani as a major enemy.
At army headquarters in Rawalpindi, spokesman Major General Athar Abbas described the armed forces’ constraints as he sat in his office near a wall of TV screens showing footage of the conflict on Pakistani channels.
Our Compulsions
“We have our own compulsions, and so we have our own time lines” for acting, he said. “Whatever we do, we will have to carry the people with us, and that slows the pace of any operation.”
The reluctance to assault North Waziristan is one of many U.S. complaints about the relationship. White House Chief of Staff William Daley on July 10 said the U.S. is suspending $800 million in military aid to Pakistan.
“They’ve taken some steps that have given us reason to pause,” Daley said on ABC’s “This Week” program.
Pakistan won’t be able to afford to keep troops at some security posts along the Afghan border after the U.S. decision to withhold assistance and may pull them back, the Express Tribune newspaper reported today, citing Defense Minister Ahmad Mukhtar. The minister was not immediately available for comment.
A U.S. aid cut would worsen Pakistan’s economic plight, in which growth has slowed to about 2.4 percent this fiscal year while annual inflation, at more than 13.1 percent in June, is Asia’s worst after Vietnam. Pakistan will need U.S. support within the International Monetary Fund if it is to end the organization’s year-long freeze on lending to the country, imposed last year over the government’s budget deficits.
Bin Laden
Since U.S. commandos killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on May 2, Pakistan’s 6.875 percent, 10-year dollar bond has fallen 7 percent, according to Bloomberg prices. The rupee, which traded at 85.95 to the dollar yesterday, has lost 1.6 percent, while the Karachi Stock Exchange 100 Index rose 2 percent during the same period, closing at 12,291.90 yesterday.
Since last week, thousands of Pakistani troops supported by artillery and helicopter gunships have taken Taliban-controlled areas in the Safed Koh mountains on the border with Afghanistan, Abbas said by phone July 7. In the past two years, the army has mounted offensives in six of the seven semi-autonomous tribal districts, where the Taliban established most of its armed strongholds.
The latest advance cuts a potential escape route from the remaining district, North Waziristan, where various Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked groups mount attacks on U.S. forces in Afghanistan as well as on Pakistan’s army and government.
Proxy Forces
While Pakistan denies secretly backing militant groups, many of them classified by the U.S., India and European governments as terrorist organizations, Pakistani analysts including Ahmed Rashid say they are used in disputes with neighbors.
For decades, the army and its Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate “have controlled the extremist groups, arming and training them in exchange for their continuing to serve as proxy forces in Afghanistan and Kashmir” in India, Rashid wrote in a March essay in the New York Review of Books.
Should the army strike in the district, “its main targets will be the groups that attack the Pakistani state,” said Gul, author of “The Most Dangerous Place: Pakistan’s Lawless Frontier,” published in 2010. He added that he was referring to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and some al-Qaeda affiliates, and not Haqqani.
Fizzle Out?
Pakistan’s army, which has supported the Haqqani faction since the 1980s, still has a relationship with it, Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said April 20.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last month that while dealing with Pakistan was a “frustrating, frankly sometimes very outraging kind of experience,” American interests mean there’s no alternative.
Pakistan also needs to keep its ties to the U.S., said Ishtiaq Ahmed, a Pakistani political scientist and fellow at the U.K.’s University of Oxford.
“If America and the free world were to leave Pakistan as it is now, the growth of extremism would continue unchecked and the liberal sections of our society would fizzle out,” he said.
In the 1980s, Pakistan armed Afghan guerrilla groups, including Haqqani’s, with CIA funds to combat the occupying Soviet army in Afghanistan.
Peace Talks
Pakistan’s army co-exists uneasily with militants in North Waziristan. Unidentified guerrillas July 6 killed four soldiers in a fight with one of the convoys that supply several thousand troops at border posts, said Rehman Shah, an official of Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas, which include Waziristan.
American pressure for Pakistan to turn on the Haqqanis is less likely to succeed after the U.S. government confirmed last month it is holding preliminary talks with Taliban representatives for a peace deal in Afghanistan, Gul said.
“The Americans are trying to open avenues for negotiation with the Taliban, and at the same time, they want Pakistan to start a war with a Taliban group that would jeopardize Pakistan’s relations with a dangerous tribe along the border,” Gul said.
Pakistan’s military encirclement of the country’s biggest concentration of Taliban guerrillas, which intensified this month, may fail to yield a decisive blow against the faction that is a primary target of the U.S.
Pakistan is seeking to preserve ties with the Taliban and other militants that it has used for decades to gain political influence in Afghanistan, according to Imtiaz Gul, director of Islamabad’s Center for Research and Security Studies.
The reliance on guerrillas to project power across Pakistan’s borders is part of an effort to compensate for its smaller size compared with arch-foe India, against which it has fought three wars since the countries separated at independence from the U.K.
Any army offensive “is not going to give satisfaction to the Americans, because Pakistan wants to keep a relationship with some of the groups there,” including the one led by Afghan tribal leader Jalaluddin Haqqani, said Gul.
The U.S., which is withdrawing some troops and planning to end its combat role in Afghanistan by 2014, is pushing Pakistan to crush the Taliban in its territory while helping bring its leaders to peace talks. The U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan describe Haqqani as a major enemy.
At army headquarters in Rawalpindi, spokesman Major General Athar Abbas described the armed forces’ constraints as he sat in his office near a wall of TV screens showing footage of the conflict on Pakistani channels.
Our Compulsions
“We have our own compulsions, and so we have our own time lines” for acting, he said. “Whatever we do, we will have to carry the people with us, and that slows the pace of any operation.”
The reluctance to assault North Waziristan is one of many U.S. complaints about the relationship. White House Chief of Staff William Daley on July 10 said the U.S. is suspending $800 million in military aid to Pakistan.
“They’ve taken some steps that have given us reason to pause,” Daley said on ABC’s “This Week” program.
Pakistan won’t be able to afford to keep troops at some security posts along the Afghan border after the U.S. decision to withhold assistance and may pull them back, the Express Tribune newspaper reported today, citing Defense Minister Ahmad Mukhtar. The minister was not immediately available for comment.
A U.S. aid cut would worsen Pakistan’s economic plight, in which growth has slowed to about 2.4 percent this fiscal year while annual inflation, at more than 13.1 percent in June, is Asia’s worst after Vietnam. Pakistan will need U.S. support within the International Monetary Fund if it is to end the organization’s year-long freeze on lending to the country, imposed last year over the government’s budget deficits.
Bin Laden
Since U.S. commandos killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on May 2, Pakistan’s 6.875 percent, 10-year dollar bond has fallen 7 percent, according to Bloomberg prices. The rupee, which traded at 85.95 to the dollar yesterday, has lost 1.6 percent, while the Karachi Stock Exchange 100 Index rose 2 percent during the same period, closing at 12,291.90 yesterday.
Since last week, thousands of Pakistani troops supported by artillery and helicopter gunships have taken Taliban-controlled areas in the Safed Koh mountains on the border with Afghanistan, Abbas said by phone July 7. In the past two years, the army has mounted offensives in six of the seven semi-autonomous tribal districts, where the Taliban established most of its armed strongholds.
The latest advance cuts a potential escape route from the remaining district, North Waziristan, where various Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked groups mount attacks on U.S. forces in Afghanistan as well as on Pakistan’s army and government.
Proxy Forces
While Pakistan denies secretly backing militant groups, many of them classified by the U.S., India and European governments as terrorist organizations, Pakistani analysts including Ahmed Rashid say they are used in disputes with neighbors.
For decades, the army and its Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate “have controlled the extremist groups, arming and training them in exchange for their continuing to serve as proxy forces in Afghanistan and Kashmir” in India, Rashid wrote in a March essay in the New York Review of Books.
Should the army strike in the district, “its main targets will be the groups that attack the Pakistani state,” said Gul, author of “The Most Dangerous Place: Pakistan’s Lawless Frontier,” published in 2010. He added that he was referring to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and some al-Qaeda affiliates, and not Haqqani.
Fizzle Out?
Pakistan’s army, which has supported the Haqqani faction since the 1980s, still has a relationship with it, Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said April 20.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last month that while dealing with Pakistan was a “frustrating, frankly sometimes very outraging kind of experience,” American interests mean there’s no alternative.
Pakistan also needs to keep its ties to the U.S., said Ishtiaq Ahmed, a Pakistani political scientist and fellow at the U.K.’s University of Oxford.
“If America and the free world were to leave Pakistan as it is now, the growth of extremism would continue unchecked and the liberal sections of our society would fizzle out,” he said.
In the 1980s, Pakistan armed Afghan guerrilla groups, including Haqqani’s, with CIA funds to combat the occupying Soviet army in Afghanistan.
Peace Talks
Pakistan’s army co-exists uneasily with militants in North Waziristan. Unidentified guerrillas July 6 killed four soldiers in a fight with one of the convoys that supply several thousand troops at border posts, said Rehman Shah, an official of Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas, which include Waziristan.
American pressure for Pakistan to turn on the Haqqanis is less likely to succeed after the U.S. government confirmed last month it is holding preliminary talks with Taliban representatives for a peace deal in Afghanistan, Gul said.
“The Americans are trying to open avenues for negotiation with the Taliban, and at the same time, they want Pakistan to start a war with a Taliban group that would jeopardize Pakistan’s relations with a dangerous tribe along the border,” Gul said.
#pakistan jails pakistani doctor who helped CIA collect bin Laden's DNA
Pakistani authorities have jailed a doctor who worked for the CIA before the raid that killed Osama bin Laden to create an elaborate plot to get DNA samples from those living at the al Qaida leader's compound, as part of U.S. efforts to verify that bin Laden was there.
The doctor, who holds a senior government health post in Pakistan, used nurses, who were able to gain entry to the residence on the pretext of giving vaccinations to children living there, according to Pakistani and U.S. officials and local residents.
The U.S. special forces operation that found and killed bin Laden on May 2 severely damaged relations between the United States and Pakistan, which was kept in the dark about the CIA's discovery that the al Qaida leader was living in a town filled with active-duty and retired Pakistani military.
The doctor's detention has added to the tension, and American authorities are thought to have intervened on his behalf.
Previous news reports have quoted U.S. officials as alleging that the Pakistanis had detained some people for questioning about their role in assisting the United States in tracking down bin Laden. But until now, there's been no detailed information on anyone detained or what he or she might have done for the Americans.
The doctor apparently is the only person still under arrest. His story provides previously unknown details about the lengths the CIA went to as it tried to confirm suspicions that bin Laden was hiding in the compound.
American officials are concerned that Pakistan is more focused on finding out how the CIA tracked down bin Laden than on determining how he managed to remain undetected for as long as five years in Abbottabad, a military garrison town where the nation's premier military academy is less than a mile from the bin Laden compound. So far, no one is known to have been arrested for helping to hide bin Laden.
In Abbottabad, a normally sleepy town, Pakistani authorities have gone to unusual lengths to make it difficult to gather information independently about bin Laden's time here. Residents who are in a position to know something about his stay say that Pakistani intelligence officials have warned them not to talk to reporters, and portions of the town near the bin Laden compound have been declared off limits to visitors.
The doctor's role was to help American officials know with certainty that bin Laden was in the compound, according to security officials and residents here, all of whom spoke only on the condition of anonymity because they feared government retribution. U.S. officials in Washington confirmed the general outlines of the effort. They asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the topic.
After years of fruitless searching, the CIA had tracked an al Qaida courier, known as Abu Ahmed al Kuwaiti, to the Abbottabad compound last summer, but it still wasn't sure that bin Laden lived there. The al Qaida chief and his family never left the house, which had no phone or Internet connection.
Satellite monitoring and surveillance from a CIA safe house in Abbottabad was used, but the monitoring was able to capture only fuzzy photos of a tall man who occasionally took walks in the compound's garden, images that didn't provide the confirmation officials wanted before they mounted a risky operation in another country.
So the CIA recruited the Pakistani doctor, Shakil Afridi, who works as the health official in charge of Khyber, part of the tribal area that runs along the Afghan border, more than 120 miles west of Abbottabad.
Bin Laden had always lived with his wives and children, even in war-torn Afghanistan before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States. The doctor was tasked with collecting DNA samples from those living in the house. A sample from any of the bin Laden children or grandchildren could be compared with DNA extracted from bin Laden's sister, who died last year in a hospital in Boston. A match would have indicated that at least bin Laden relatives were in the compound.
According to local residents, the doctor visited Abbottabad in March and April, saying he'd procured funds to give free vaccinations for hepatitis B.
Bypassing the management of the Abbottabad health services, he generously paid low-ranking local government nurses who provide door-to-door health services for women and children to visit the bin Laden compound. The nurses, who previously had entered the compound to administer polio drops to some of the children there, apparently were unaware of the true reason they were being sent there again.
The doctor went to great lengths to disguise the purpose of the vaccination program. He had posters advertising the program put up around Abbottabad, featuring a vaccine made by Amson, a medicine manufacturer based on the outskirts of Islamabad. On his first visit to Abbottabad in March, he had the vaccine distributed in Nawa Sher, a poor neighborhood on the edge of town that's some distance from the bin Laden compound.
In April, he returned, and instead of giving those same recipients the required second dose, he moved the nurses to Bilal Town, the upscale suburb where bin Laden lived.
"Bilal Town is a well-to-do area. Why would you choose that place to give free vaccines?" one Pakistani official said. "And what is the official surgeon of Khyber doing working in Abbottabad?"
According to some, the nurses would first take a blood sample before administering the vaccine. Alternatively, it probably would be possible to extract enough DNA for testing from the needle used to give a vaccination, even without extracting blood.
One of the nurses, Mukhtar Bibi, who goes by the nickname Bakhto, managed to gain entry to the bin Laden compound for the vaccinations. According to several locals, the doctor, who waited outside, also instructed her to take in a handbag that had been fitted with an electronic device. The purpose of the device, if such equipment was indeed given to her, is unclear. Mukhtar Bibi refused to discuss the issue.
Two U.S. officials confirmed the CIA's attempt to extract the DNA but one said that it didn't succeed. The second U.S. official said that no electronic device was part of the plan.
The doctor's activities emerged to the Pakistani authorities only during their ongoing investigation after the U.S. raid. The Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate spy agency secretly detained the doctor in the provincial capital, Peshawar, in late May, according to Pakistani security officials.
The Pakistani military and the ISI are alarmed and angry that the U.S. has been able to develop an independent intelligence network in the country, which was starkly illustrated with the bin Laden operation.
The Pakistani authorities declined to comment, but a senior Pakistani official recently told McClatchy that "wouldn't any country detain people for working for a foreign spy service?"
The doctor, who holds a senior government health post in Pakistan, used nurses, who were able to gain entry to the residence on the pretext of giving vaccinations to children living there, according to Pakistani and U.S. officials and local residents.
The U.S. special forces operation that found and killed bin Laden on May 2 severely damaged relations between the United States and Pakistan, which was kept in the dark about the CIA's discovery that the al Qaida leader was living in a town filled with active-duty and retired Pakistani military.
The doctor's detention has added to the tension, and American authorities are thought to have intervened on his behalf.
Previous news reports have quoted U.S. officials as alleging that the Pakistanis had detained some people for questioning about their role in assisting the United States in tracking down bin Laden. But until now, there's been no detailed information on anyone detained or what he or she might have done for the Americans.
The doctor apparently is the only person still under arrest. His story provides previously unknown details about the lengths the CIA went to as it tried to confirm suspicions that bin Laden was hiding in the compound.
American officials are concerned that Pakistan is more focused on finding out how the CIA tracked down bin Laden than on determining how he managed to remain undetected for as long as five years in Abbottabad, a military garrison town where the nation's premier military academy is less than a mile from the bin Laden compound. So far, no one is known to have been arrested for helping to hide bin Laden.
In Abbottabad, a normally sleepy town, Pakistani authorities have gone to unusual lengths to make it difficult to gather information independently about bin Laden's time here. Residents who are in a position to know something about his stay say that Pakistani intelligence officials have warned them not to talk to reporters, and portions of the town near the bin Laden compound have been declared off limits to visitors.
The doctor's role was to help American officials know with certainty that bin Laden was in the compound, according to security officials and residents here, all of whom spoke only on the condition of anonymity because they feared government retribution. U.S. officials in Washington confirmed the general outlines of the effort. They asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the topic.
After years of fruitless searching, the CIA had tracked an al Qaida courier, known as Abu Ahmed al Kuwaiti, to the Abbottabad compound last summer, but it still wasn't sure that bin Laden lived there. The al Qaida chief and his family never left the house, which had no phone or Internet connection.
Satellite monitoring and surveillance from a CIA safe house in Abbottabad was used, but the monitoring was able to capture only fuzzy photos of a tall man who occasionally took walks in the compound's garden, images that didn't provide the confirmation officials wanted before they mounted a risky operation in another country.
So the CIA recruited the Pakistani doctor, Shakil Afridi, who works as the health official in charge of Khyber, part of the tribal area that runs along the Afghan border, more than 120 miles west of Abbottabad.
Bin Laden had always lived with his wives and children, even in war-torn Afghanistan before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States. The doctor was tasked with collecting DNA samples from those living in the house. A sample from any of the bin Laden children or grandchildren could be compared with DNA extracted from bin Laden's sister, who died last year in a hospital in Boston. A match would have indicated that at least bin Laden relatives were in the compound.
According to local residents, the doctor visited Abbottabad in March and April, saying he'd procured funds to give free vaccinations for hepatitis B.
Bypassing the management of the Abbottabad health services, he generously paid low-ranking local government nurses who provide door-to-door health services for women and children to visit the bin Laden compound. The nurses, who previously had entered the compound to administer polio drops to some of the children there, apparently were unaware of the true reason they were being sent there again.
The doctor went to great lengths to disguise the purpose of the vaccination program. He had posters advertising the program put up around Abbottabad, featuring a vaccine made by Amson, a medicine manufacturer based on the outskirts of Islamabad. On his first visit to Abbottabad in March, he had the vaccine distributed in Nawa Sher, a poor neighborhood on the edge of town that's some distance from the bin Laden compound.
In April, he returned, and instead of giving those same recipients the required second dose, he moved the nurses to Bilal Town, the upscale suburb where bin Laden lived.
"Bilal Town is a well-to-do area. Why would you choose that place to give free vaccines?" one Pakistani official said. "And what is the official surgeon of Khyber doing working in Abbottabad?"
According to some, the nurses would first take a blood sample before administering the vaccine. Alternatively, it probably would be possible to extract enough DNA for testing from the needle used to give a vaccination, even without extracting blood.
One of the nurses, Mukhtar Bibi, who goes by the nickname Bakhto, managed to gain entry to the bin Laden compound for the vaccinations. According to several locals, the doctor, who waited outside, also instructed her to take in a handbag that had been fitted with an electronic device. The purpose of the device, if such equipment was indeed given to her, is unclear. Mukhtar Bibi refused to discuss the issue.
Two U.S. officials confirmed the CIA's attempt to extract the DNA but one said that it didn't succeed. The second U.S. official said that no electronic device was part of the plan.
The doctor's activities emerged to the Pakistani authorities only during their ongoing investigation after the U.S. raid. The Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate spy agency secretly detained the doctor in the provincial capital, Peshawar, in late May, according to Pakistani security officials.
The Pakistani military and the ISI are alarmed and angry that the U.S. has been able to develop an independent intelligence network in the country, which was starkly illustrated with the bin Laden operation.
The Pakistani authorities declined to comment, but a senior Pakistani official recently told McClatchy that "wouldn't any country detain people for working for a foreign spy service?"
U.S. Turns Down Cash Spigot to #pakistan
The White House said Sunday that it has put on hold $800 million in military aid to Pakistan given Islamabad's continuing shaky response to the terrorism in its midst. "Until we get through these difficulties," White House chief of staff William Daley told ABC, "we will hold back some of the money that the American taxpayers have committed to giving."
The $800 million represents about a third of the $2 billion in military aid the U.S. is providing Pakistan this year. It includes about $300 million to help fund Pakistan's efforts to deploy its troops along the Afghan border, as well as hundreds of millions of dollars in assorted training and supply accounts, the New York Times reported. The suspension, at least in part, comes in response to Pakistan's recent decisions to expel U.S. military trainers and limit visas issued to American personnel.
It also comes in the wake of a pair of notorious killings on Pakistani soil.
The U.S. military carried out the first May 2 against the world's most wanted terrorist, Osama bin Laden, and the second involved the slaying of Pakistani reporter Saleem Shahzad, whose death was linked to Pakistan's spy agency last week by Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In both cases, U.S. officials say, the Pakistani government was on the wrong side: just how did bin Laden manage to live in the middle of Abbottabad, a Pakistani military town, without being detected by the government, U.S. officials wonder. And Shahzad's death shows just how far some elements of the government are willing to go to stifle inquiries into their actions.
Ever since 9/11, the U.S. and Pakistan have had what some call a "transactional" relationship -- if Pakistan can been seen as working to reduce terrorism, the U.S. will keep the financial aid flowing. Washington has given Islamabad about $20 billion since 9/11, but much of it appears to have been wasted or stolen. While much of the aid is supposed to be for only "incremental" costs incurred in fighting terrorists in western Pakistan, that hasn't stopped Pakistan from submitting dubious bills -- nor Washington from paying them.
The Pentagon paid Pakistan $200 million for radar expenses, for example, despite the fact that "terrorists in the FATA did not have air attack capability," a 2008 report from the Government Accountability Office found.The U.S. also was paying Pakistan $800 a month to feed its sailors, while only $200 a month to feed its soldiers. It paid the Pakistani navy $5,700 per vehicle per month for damage to its "passenger cars and SUVs that were not involved in combat." In contrast, U.S. taxpayers also paid $100 per month for damage done to Pakistani army vehicles that "were used to conduct military operations in the FATA and border region."
"Never before has security depended so much on mutual cooperation and support yet been so plagued by mutual mistrust and misgivings," Pakistani army Brigadier Malik Zafar Iqbal noted in a study he did while a student at the U.S. Army War College and published in December. "If Pakistan is to emerge from this conflict as a stable, prosperous, culturally diverse, peaceful, and stabilizing influence within the region, the US and Pakistan must dispel their suspicions and reconcile their differences.
The $800 million represents about a third of the $2 billion in military aid the U.S. is providing Pakistan this year. It includes about $300 million to help fund Pakistan's efforts to deploy its troops along the Afghan border, as well as hundreds of millions of dollars in assorted training and supply accounts, the New York Times reported. The suspension, at least in part, comes in response to Pakistan's recent decisions to expel U.S. military trainers and limit visas issued to American personnel.
It also comes in the wake of a pair of notorious killings on Pakistani soil.
The U.S. military carried out the first May 2 against the world's most wanted terrorist, Osama bin Laden, and the second involved the slaying of Pakistani reporter Saleem Shahzad, whose death was linked to Pakistan's spy agency last week by Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In both cases, U.S. officials say, the Pakistani government was on the wrong side: just how did bin Laden manage to live in the middle of Abbottabad, a Pakistani military town, without being detected by the government, U.S. officials wonder. And Shahzad's death shows just how far some elements of the government are willing to go to stifle inquiries into their actions.
Ever since 9/11, the U.S. and Pakistan have had what some call a "transactional" relationship -- if Pakistan can been seen as working to reduce terrorism, the U.S. will keep the financial aid flowing. Washington has given Islamabad about $20 billion since 9/11, but much of it appears to have been wasted or stolen. While much of the aid is supposed to be for only "incremental" costs incurred in fighting terrorists in western Pakistan, that hasn't stopped Pakistan from submitting dubious bills -- nor Washington from paying them.
The Pentagon paid Pakistan $200 million for radar expenses, for example, despite the fact that "terrorists in the FATA did not have air attack capability," a 2008 report from the Government Accountability Office found.The U.S. also was paying Pakistan $800 a month to feed its sailors, while only $200 a month to feed its soldiers. It paid the Pakistani navy $5,700 per vehicle per month for damage to its "passenger cars and SUVs that were not involved in combat." In contrast, U.S. taxpayers also paid $100 per month for damage done to Pakistani army vehicles that "were used to conduct military operations in the FATA and border region."
"Never before has security depended so much on mutual cooperation and support yet been so plagued by mutual mistrust and misgivings," Pakistani army Brigadier Malik Zafar Iqbal noted in a study he did while a student at the U.S. Army War College and published in December. "If Pakistan is to emerge from this conflict as a stable, prosperous, culturally diverse, peaceful, and stabilizing influence within the region, the US and Pakistan must dispel their suspicions and reconcile their differences.
#pakistan is Not to be Trusted
To even the most uninformed of outside observers, it is apparent that anti-American sentiment is woven deeply into the various facets of Middle Eastern society; whether as a result of historical happenings, current political interactions, religious beliefs, or other reasons, many Middle Eastern leaders and citizens have emitted distinctly anti-American and anti-Western vibes over the last few years.
The examples are numerous. Take Muhammar Gadhafi threatening the West by promising to take the fight in his nation to Europe and America. Or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who spouts anti-Israeli and anti-American ideas in every speech he gives. Lest we not forget Bashar al-Assad, who has blamed foreign interference for the current strife in his native Syria.
However, one Middle Eastern state that the American government considers to be an ally may actually become the largest threat to US and international security. It is not Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, or Iran. That state is Pakistan. Several months ago following the capture of Osama bin Laden by US forces in Pakistan, the Pakistani government came under a great deal of heat for supposedly providing safe sanctuary to bin Laden and other known Islamic terrorists, as well as for attempting to hinder the progress of US drone strikes against the Taliban in Afghanistan; it was then that Pakistan's anti-American ideals became apparent. Now, the threat that was perceived months ago may suddenly be coming to fruition.
On Friday, July 8, Pakistan's capital city of Karachi was plunged into chaos; over 1,100 people have already been reported killed in 2011 and the government appears as of now to have no response to the sudden pandemonium that has been unleashed in Pakistan's largest city. The sudden outbreak in violence can be attributed to ethnic clashes between two Pakistani minority groups in Karachi, the Pashtuns and the Muhajirs. Both groups have been found responsible for mass murders during the time period from July 5 to July 8; the ethnically and politically charged atmosphere has created a situation similar to the ongoing tribal warfare which states such as Yemen have experienced. As a result of this warfare, Karachi has been transformed from a largely cosmopolitan and international city to a battlefield sharing more in common with Grozny than with Beijing.
However, the reason for the sharp violent increase in Karachi over the last few days is not the issue at hand. Rather, while the fact that Pakistan's internal fault lines are large enough to create such violence is surely alarming to the Pakistani government, the ability of this violence to persist for several days and to turn the country's largest city into a battleground is so large an issue that it may force America and its allies to rethink their policies concerning Pakistan.
In addition to the sudden social and political disintegration of Pakistan leading to the recent violence, the Pakistani government's lack of meaningful action to put a stop to the chaos has left Pakistanis and people all over the world wondering if the government will be able to hold the nation together. The chairwoman of Pakistan's Human Rights Commission, Zohra Yusef, stated: “It is extremely disturbing...The absence of law enforcement agencies is very clear. It seems to be a poor response from the government." Indeed, this poor response from the government could allow the violence to spread from Karachi and swallow the entire nation, bringing pandemonium to Pakistan and the government to its knees.
America and its allies have had an interesting diplomatic relationship with Pakistan over the last few months. Through examples such as the instance in which the Pakistani government alerted Islamic extremist bomb-makers that US forces were converging upon them after the US military informed Pakistan of the planned raid, it is apparent that America and Pakistan do not always have the same goals and ideals, especially in the area of eliminating and prosecuting terrorists. From occurrences such as this, Pakistan's government can be deemed untrustworthy, unreliable, or of questionable character. However, to this point, Pakistan has remained an ally of America because it has remained an oasis of stability in a sea of Middle Eastern chaos. However, as illustrated by the recent events in Karachi, that is all about to change.
From Pakistan's actions over the last few months, most notably the government's suspected support and safekeeping provided to terrorists and enemies of America, one can decipher that America cannot afford to trust Pakistan. From the events in Pakistan over the last few days, one can understand that Pakistan is no longer stable and that the government cannot be trusted to ensure that the nation does not descend into chaos and anarchy.
Pakistan's possession of nuclear weapons further complicates the situation. Pakistan is a member of the "new five," states that have or are suspected of having nuclear weapons but have not ratified the Non-Proliferation Treaty. When Libya's crisis began, many people felt extremely lucky and thankful that Muhammar Gadhafi disbanded his nuclear arsenal in order to recieve monetary incentives. With Pakistan, this is not the case. The state has been confirmed to possess WMDs; therefore, should the nation descend into chaos, these weapons could fall into the hands of rebels, ethnic warriors, or terrorists with the intention of harming the US. The nuclear aspect of Pakistan's current crisis exemplifies the great danger that Pakistan's fall from stability may place upon America and the rest of the world.
Therefore, one can conclude that as of now, Pakistan cannot be trusted, by America or by any foreign state wishing diplomatic or other relations with it. For the US in particular, Pakistan has become another Syria or Yemen; while the state's anti-American attitude could have been ignored when the nation was stable and functioning properly, now as it is disintegrating, it has to be treated as a rouge state that is unreliable in all facets. Pakistan may be the newest member of the Arab Spring; however, the recent revolts resemble ethnic strife more than popular revolts in the name of democracy. Yet, the result is the same; a once stable state is now in danger of collapse. While the future of Pakistan is uncertain, one thing is for sure: Pakistan has proven itself to be untrustworthy even when it was stable; now, with its recent internal revolts, Pakistan is unpredictable and is in constant danger of internal combustion.
The examples are numerous. Take Muhammar Gadhafi threatening the West by promising to take the fight in his nation to Europe and America. Or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who spouts anti-Israeli and anti-American ideas in every speech he gives. Lest we not forget Bashar al-Assad, who has blamed foreign interference for the current strife in his native Syria.
However, one Middle Eastern state that the American government considers to be an ally may actually become the largest threat to US and international security. It is not Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, or Iran. That state is Pakistan. Several months ago following the capture of Osama bin Laden by US forces in Pakistan, the Pakistani government came under a great deal of heat for supposedly providing safe sanctuary to bin Laden and other known Islamic terrorists, as well as for attempting to hinder the progress of US drone strikes against the Taliban in Afghanistan; it was then that Pakistan's anti-American ideals became apparent. Now, the threat that was perceived months ago may suddenly be coming to fruition.
On Friday, July 8, Pakistan's capital city of Karachi was plunged into chaos; over 1,100 people have already been reported killed in 2011 and the government appears as of now to have no response to the sudden pandemonium that has been unleashed in Pakistan's largest city. The sudden outbreak in violence can be attributed to ethnic clashes between two Pakistani minority groups in Karachi, the Pashtuns and the Muhajirs. Both groups have been found responsible for mass murders during the time period from July 5 to July 8; the ethnically and politically charged atmosphere has created a situation similar to the ongoing tribal warfare which states such as Yemen have experienced. As a result of this warfare, Karachi has been transformed from a largely cosmopolitan and international city to a battlefield sharing more in common with Grozny than with Beijing.
However, the reason for the sharp violent increase in Karachi over the last few days is not the issue at hand. Rather, while the fact that Pakistan's internal fault lines are large enough to create such violence is surely alarming to the Pakistani government, the ability of this violence to persist for several days and to turn the country's largest city into a battleground is so large an issue that it may force America and its allies to rethink their policies concerning Pakistan.
In addition to the sudden social and political disintegration of Pakistan leading to the recent violence, the Pakistani government's lack of meaningful action to put a stop to the chaos has left Pakistanis and people all over the world wondering if the government will be able to hold the nation together. The chairwoman of Pakistan's Human Rights Commission, Zohra Yusef, stated: “It is extremely disturbing...The absence of law enforcement agencies is very clear. It seems to be a poor response from the government." Indeed, this poor response from the government could allow the violence to spread from Karachi and swallow the entire nation, bringing pandemonium to Pakistan and the government to its knees.
America and its allies have had an interesting diplomatic relationship with Pakistan over the last few months. Through examples such as the instance in which the Pakistani government alerted Islamic extremist bomb-makers that US forces were converging upon them after the US military informed Pakistan of the planned raid, it is apparent that America and Pakistan do not always have the same goals and ideals, especially in the area of eliminating and prosecuting terrorists. From occurrences such as this, Pakistan's government can be deemed untrustworthy, unreliable, or of questionable character. However, to this point, Pakistan has remained an ally of America because it has remained an oasis of stability in a sea of Middle Eastern chaos. However, as illustrated by the recent events in Karachi, that is all about to change.
From Pakistan's actions over the last few months, most notably the government's suspected support and safekeeping provided to terrorists and enemies of America, one can decipher that America cannot afford to trust Pakistan. From the events in Pakistan over the last few days, one can understand that Pakistan is no longer stable and that the government cannot be trusted to ensure that the nation does not descend into chaos and anarchy.
Pakistan's possession of nuclear weapons further complicates the situation. Pakistan is a member of the "new five," states that have or are suspected of having nuclear weapons but have not ratified the Non-Proliferation Treaty. When Libya's crisis began, many people felt extremely lucky and thankful that Muhammar Gadhafi disbanded his nuclear arsenal in order to recieve monetary incentives. With Pakistan, this is not the case. The state has been confirmed to possess WMDs; therefore, should the nation descend into chaos, these weapons could fall into the hands of rebels, ethnic warriors, or terrorists with the intention of harming the US. The nuclear aspect of Pakistan's current crisis exemplifies the great danger that Pakistan's fall from stability may place upon America and the rest of the world.
Therefore, one can conclude that as of now, Pakistan cannot be trusted, by America or by any foreign state wishing diplomatic or other relations with it. For the US in particular, Pakistan has become another Syria or Yemen; while the state's anti-American attitude could have been ignored when the nation was stable and functioning properly, now as it is disintegrating, it has to be treated as a rouge state that is unreliable in all facets. Pakistan may be the newest member of the Arab Spring; however, the recent revolts resemble ethnic strife more than popular revolts in the name of democracy. Yet, the result is the same; a once stable state is now in danger of collapse. While the future of Pakistan is uncertain, one thing is for sure: Pakistan has proven itself to be untrustworthy even when it was stable; now, with its recent internal revolts, Pakistan is unpredictable and is in constant danger of internal combustion.
Red Cross reports rising violence in #pakistan
Aid workers are seeing a marked spike in casualties and injuries in Pakistan, fueled by intensifying violence and anti-Western suspicions in the wake of the U.S. raid in May that killed Osama bin Laden, a senior Red Cross official said Monday.
Pascal Cuttat, the departing head of the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation in Pakistan, said the "violence has increased considerably since bin Laden was killed, and has spread into urban areas" such as Peshawar and Karachi, resulting in noticeably more people dead and injured and arriving at humanitarian and medical clinics.
"More than we have seen for many years," Cuttat told reporters at the Red Cross' Geneva headquarters. "Overall, the curve of violence is increasing, and the time-link is clear."
Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was shot and killed in an early morning raid by U.S. Navy Seals at his secret compound in the Pakistani town of Abbotabad. Since then, Cuttat said, it's gotten tougher for aid groups to operate in Pakistan — the bureaucratic hoops against getting permits and visas have multiplied — due to a marked jump in violence and anti-Western sentiment.
"We are consistently facing suspicion of any foreigner working in the country," he said. "To live and work and get permission to do anything has become more difficult. Everyone is struggling with the bureaucracy."
Cuttat said at the end of a 3-year stint in Pakistan, however, that aid workers are "struggling but not impeded" as they try to help victims of flooding and armed insurgencies.
"We can only move through Pakistan in certain areas," he said.
He said "the effects of last year's floods are not digested entirely yet" — thousands of people still suffer because of the 2010 monsoon floods. But, he said, the Red Cross is focused on providing aid for up to a quarter-million people displaced by fighting last year.
Cuttat said he regretted that his staff of 1,300 Pakistanis and about a tenth as many international workers were unable to get better access to Pakistan's thousands of prisoners and detainees.
He said he could not directly link to the Red Cross or other aid groups any expected fallout of the Obama administration's decision to suspend more than one-third of American military aid to the Pakistan's military.
Pascal Cuttat, the departing head of the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation in Pakistan, said the "violence has increased considerably since bin Laden was killed, and has spread into urban areas" such as Peshawar and Karachi, resulting in noticeably more people dead and injured and arriving at humanitarian and medical clinics.
"More than we have seen for many years," Cuttat told reporters at the Red Cross' Geneva headquarters. "Overall, the curve of violence is increasing, and the time-link is clear."
Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was shot and killed in an early morning raid by U.S. Navy Seals at his secret compound in the Pakistani town of Abbotabad. Since then, Cuttat said, it's gotten tougher for aid groups to operate in Pakistan — the bureaucratic hoops against getting permits and visas have multiplied — due to a marked jump in violence and anti-Western sentiment.
"We are consistently facing suspicion of any foreigner working in the country," he said. "To live and work and get permission to do anything has become more difficult. Everyone is struggling with the bureaucracy."
Cuttat said at the end of a 3-year stint in Pakistan, however, that aid workers are "struggling but not impeded" as they try to help victims of flooding and armed insurgencies.
"We can only move through Pakistan in certain areas," he said.
He said "the effects of last year's floods are not digested entirely yet" — thousands of people still suffer because of the 2010 monsoon floods. But, he said, the Red Cross is focused on providing aid for up to a quarter-million people displaced by fighting last year.
Cuttat said he regretted that his staff of 1,300 Pakistanis and about a tenth as many international workers were unable to get better access to Pakistan's thousands of prisoners and detainees.
He said he could not directly link to the Red Cross or other aid groups any expected fallout of the Obama administration's decision to suspend more than one-third of American military aid to the Pakistan's military.
5-year old kids in #pakistan train to become suicide bombers #terrorism #fact #fact
A new video showing young children training as ‘martyrs’ at a secret al-Qaeda camp in Pakistan’s North Waziristan province has surfaced, raising fears of future attacks.
The shocking video shows toddlers as young as five years old being trained to blow up buildings and mount roadside bomb attacks, the Daily Mail reports.
It shows anxious youngsters, some dressed in camouflage uniform, being made to stand in line before being handed AK-47 rifles.
British commanders in Afghanistan say Taliban fighters are increasingly using children as suicide bombers and as human shields during battles.
Taliban and al-Qaeda militants are training hundreds of children in the camp based in North Waziristan before being sent across the border to face western troops, the report said.
The children in these camps are reported to have been brought from the Turkic ethnic group of Uyghur people who have fled China and settled in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Kazakhstan.
Terrorism experts say that the video has been released as part of a Jihad recruitment drive.
The shocking video shows toddlers as young as five years old being trained to blow up buildings and mount roadside bomb attacks, the Daily Mail reports.
It shows anxious youngsters, some dressed in camouflage uniform, being made to stand in line before being handed AK-47 rifles.
British commanders in Afghanistan say Taliban fighters are increasingly using children as suicide bombers and as human shields during battles.
Taliban and al-Qaeda militants are training hundreds of children in the camp based in North Waziristan before being sent across the border to face western troops, the report said.
The children in these camps are reported to have been brought from the Turkic ethnic group of Uyghur people who have fled China and settled in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Kazakhstan.
Terrorism experts say that the video has been released as part of a Jihad recruitment drive.
History and Disappearance of the Jewish Presence in #pakistan
Pakistan was never traditionally anti-Semitic. In fact, it may come as a surprise that Pakistan hosted small, yet thriving, Jewish communities from the 19th century until the end of the 1960s.
By Shalva Weil for ISN Insights
In November 2008, Lashkar e Taiba (LET), a radical Islamist group from Pakistan, specifically targeted “Nariman House” in Bombay (Mumbai) for a terrorist attack, along with other tourist locations, such as the Taj Mahal hotel. Nariman House was a ‘Chabad house’ of the ultra-Orthodox Chabad-Lubavitch movement in Hasidic Judaism – a Jewish outreach center that included an educational center, synagogue and hostel. It was run by Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka. When the building was attacked, six occupants, including the Rabbi and his pregnant wife, were killed. A total of 164 people were killed in the Mumbai attacks. David Coleman Headley, who testified in the United States at the end of May 2011 in the trial of his friend, Chicago businessman Tahawwur Rana, confessed that he had planned the Mumbai attacks in conjunction with an officer of Pakistan’s ISI intelligence agency, a man whom he called “Major Iqbal”. The officer was reportedly delighted that the Jews were targeted.
The Jews of Pakistan
Pakistan was never traditionally anti-Semitic. In fact, it may come as a surprise that Pakistan hosted small, yet thriving, Jewish communities from the 19th century until the end of the 1960s. Recently, Yoel Reuben, a Pakistani Jew living in the town of Lod in Israel, whose family originated in Lahore, documented some of the history of the Jewish communities with photographs of original documents. When India and Pakistan were one country, before the partition in 1947, the Jews were treated with tolerance and equality. In the first half of the 20th century, there were nearly 1,000 Jewish residents in Pakistan living in different cities: Karachi, Peshwar, Quetta and Lahore. The largest Jewish community lived in Karachi, where there was a large synagogue and a smaller prayer hall. There were two synagogues in Peshawar, one small prayer hall in Lahore belonging to the Afghan Jewish community, and one prayer hall in Quetta. Even today, according to unofficial sources, there are rumors that some Jews remain in Pakistan, including doctors and members of the free professions, who converted or pass themselves off as members of other religions.
The Jews of Pakistan were of various origins, but most were from the Bene Israel community of India, and came to Pakistan in the employ of the British. Yifah, a student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, relates that her great-great-grandfather Samuell Reuben Bhonkar, who was a Bene Israel, came to Karachi in British India to work as a jailer, and died there in 1928. The Bene Israel originated in the Konkan villages, but many moved to Bombay from the end of the 18th century on. In Pakistan, they spoke Marathi, their mother-tongue from Maharashtra; Urdu, the local language; and most spoke English. Prayers were conducted in Hebrew.
In 1893, a Bene Israel from Bombay, Solomon David Umerdekar, inaugurated the Karachi Magen Shalom Synagogue on the corner of Jamila Street and Nishtar Road, which officially opened in 1912. During these years, the Jewish community thrived. In 1903, the community set up the Young Man’s Jewish Association, and the Karachi Bene Israel Relief Fund was established to support poor Jews. In 1918, the Karachi Jewish Syndicate was formed to provide housing at reasonable rents, and the All India Israelite League, which represented 650 Bene Israel living in the province of Sind (including Hyderabad, Larkuna, Mirpur-Khas and Sukkur, as well as Karachi), was first convened – founded by two prominent Bene Israel, Jacob Bapuji Israel and David S Erulkar. Karachi became a fulcrum for the Bene Israel in India, the place where they congregated for High Holiday prayers. There was also a prayer hall, which served the Afghan Jews residing in the city. A 1941 government census recorded 1,199 Pakistani Jews: 513 men and 538 women. So accepted were the Jews of Karachi in these years that Abraham Reuben, a leader in the Jewish community, became the first Jewish councilor on the Karachi Municipal Corporation.
The beginnings of anti-Zionism
On 15 August, India was partitioned and the Dominion of Pakistan was declared. Partition effectively signaled the end of the British Empire. Fearful of their future in the new Islamic state, Jews began to flee. Some from Afghanistan and the Bene Israel community in Lahore fled to Karachi and from there moved to Bombay. Muslim refugees from India called Mohajir streamed into Pakistan, and attacked Jewish sites. The situation was exacerbated by the declaration of independence for the state of Israel in May 1948. Many of the Karachi Jews left the city in 1948, after rioters attacked the Karachi synagogue during a demonstration in May of that year against President Truman’s recognition of Israel. Some members of the community emigrated to Israel via India, while others settled in Canada and the United Kingdom.
Pogroms against the Jews recurred during the Suez War in 1956 and the Six Day War in 1967. Most of the remaining Jews emigrated and, in 1968, the Pakistani Jewish community numbered only 350 in Karachi, with one synagogue, a welfare organization and a recreational organization. After 1968, there is no record of any Pakistani Jews outside Karachi.
Today, anti-Israel discourse manifests itself in the notion that Israel and Pakistan are ultimately in competition and only one can flourish. In April 2008, Lt-Gen Hamid Gul, the former chief of Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence, proclaimed that "two states came into existence in 1947 and 1948: one, Pakistan; two, Israel. The two are threats to each other. Ultimately, only one of them will survive." Pakistan aligns itself with the Palestinian Muslim cause and rejects the US insofar as it is allied with Israel.
The Karachi Jewish community since the 1980s
The Magen Shalom synagogue in Karachi was destroyed on 17 July 1988 by order of Pakistan’s President Zia-Ul-Hak to make way for a shopping mall in the Ranchore Lines neighborhood of Karachi. In 1989, the original Ark and podium were stored in Karachi; a Torah scroll case was taken by an American to the US.
As late as 2006, the sole survivor of the Karachi Jewish community, Rachel Joseph, a former teacher, then 88 years old, was battling for compensation for the broken promise from the property developers that had demolished the old synagogue: in exchange, she would receive an apartment, and a new small synagogue would be constructed on the old site. While the litigation wore on, she languished in a tiny room.
This year, a Muslim Pakistani-American filmmaker, Shoeb Yunus, shot a film about the Jewish cemetery in Karachi. Today, it is part of the larger Cutchi Memon graveyard, which has a Muslim caretaker. It took Yunus eight months to gain admission, and the camera crew was allowed only 10 minutes to shoot. He estimates that there are 200-400 Jewish graves. The neglected cemetery has not been destroyed since its last custodian, Rachel Joseph, died on 17 July 2006.
By Shalva Weil for ISN Insights
In November 2008, Lashkar e Taiba (LET), a radical Islamist group from Pakistan, specifically targeted “Nariman House” in Bombay (Mumbai) for a terrorist attack, along with other tourist locations, such as the Taj Mahal hotel. Nariman House was a ‘Chabad house’ of the ultra-Orthodox Chabad-Lubavitch movement in Hasidic Judaism – a Jewish outreach center that included an educational center, synagogue and hostel. It was run by Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka. When the building was attacked, six occupants, including the Rabbi and his pregnant wife, were killed. A total of 164 people were killed in the Mumbai attacks. David Coleman Headley, who testified in the United States at the end of May 2011 in the trial of his friend, Chicago businessman Tahawwur Rana, confessed that he had planned the Mumbai attacks in conjunction with an officer of Pakistan’s ISI intelligence agency, a man whom he called “Major Iqbal”. The officer was reportedly delighted that the Jews were targeted.
The Jews of Pakistan
Pakistan was never traditionally anti-Semitic. In fact, it may come as a surprise that Pakistan hosted small, yet thriving, Jewish communities from the 19th century until the end of the 1960s. Recently, Yoel Reuben, a Pakistani Jew living in the town of Lod in Israel, whose family originated in Lahore, documented some of the history of the Jewish communities with photographs of original documents. When India and Pakistan were one country, before the partition in 1947, the Jews were treated with tolerance and equality. In the first half of the 20th century, there were nearly 1,000 Jewish residents in Pakistan living in different cities: Karachi, Peshwar, Quetta and Lahore. The largest Jewish community lived in Karachi, where there was a large synagogue and a smaller prayer hall. There were two synagogues in Peshawar, one small prayer hall in Lahore belonging to the Afghan Jewish community, and one prayer hall in Quetta. Even today, according to unofficial sources, there are rumors that some Jews remain in Pakistan, including doctors and members of the free professions, who converted or pass themselves off as members of other religions.
The Jews of Pakistan were of various origins, but most were from the Bene Israel community of India, and came to Pakistan in the employ of the British. Yifah, a student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, relates that her great-great-grandfather Samuell Reuben Bhonkar, who was a Bene Israel, came to Karachi in British India to work as a jailer, and died there in 1928. The Bene Israel originated in the Konkan villages, but many moved to Bombay from the end of the 18th century on. In Pakistan, they spoke Marathi, their mother-tongue from Maharashtra; Urdu, the local language; and most spoke English. Prayers were conducted in Hebrew.
In 1893, a Bene Israel from Bombay, Solomon David Umerdekar, inaugurated the Karachi Magen Shalom Synagogue on the corner of Jamila Street and Nishtar Road, which officially opened in 1912. During these years, the Jewish community thrived. In 1903, the community set up the Young Man’s Jewish Association, and the Karachi Bene Israel Relief Fund was established to support poor Jews. In 1918, the Karachi Jewish Syndicate was formed to provide housing at reasonable rents, and the All India Israelite League, which represented 650 Bene Israel living in the province of Sind (including Hyderabad, Larkuna, Mirpur-Khas and Sukkur, as well as Karachi), was first convened – founded by two prominent Bene Israel, Jacob Bapuji Israel and David S Erulkar. Karachi became a fulcrum for the Bene Israel in India, the place where they congregated for High Holiday prayers. There was also a prayer hall, which served the Afghan Jews residing in the city. A 1941 government census recorded 1,199 Pakistani Jews: 513 men and 538 women. So accepted were the Jews of Karachi in these years that Abraham Reuben, a leader in the Jewish community, became the first Jewish councilor on the Karachi Municipal Corporation.
The beginnings of anti-Zionism
On 15 August, India was partitioned and the Dominion of Pakistan was declared. Partition effectively signaled the end of the British Empire. Fearful of their future in the new Islamic state, Jews began to flee. Some from Afghanistan and the Bene Israel community in Lahore fled to Karachi and from there moved to Bombay. Muslim refugees from India called Mohajir streamed into Pakistan, and attacked Jewish sites. The situation was exacerbated by the declaration of independence for the state of Israel in May 1948. Many of the Karachi Jews left the city in 1948, after rioters attacked the Karachi synagogue during a demonstration in May of that year against President Truman’s recognition of Israel. Some members of the community emigrated to Israel via India, while others settled in Canada and the United Kingdom.
Pogroms against the Jews recurred during the Suez War in 1956 and the Six Day War in 1967. Most of the remaining Jews emigrated and, in 1968, the Pakistani Jewish community numbered only 350 in Karachi, with one synagogue, a welfare organization and a recreational organization. After 1968, there is no record of any Pakistani Jews outside Karachi.
Today, anti-Israel discourse manifests itself in the notion that Israel and Pakistan are ultimately in competition and only one can flourish. In April 2008, Lt-Gen Hamid Gul, the former chief of Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence, proclaimed that "two states came into existence in 1947 and 1948: one, Pakistan; two, Israel. The two are threats to each other. Ultimately, only one of them will survive." Pakistan aligns itself with the Palestinian Muslim cause and rejects the US insofar as it is allied with Israel.
The Karachi Jewish community since the 1980s
The Magen Shalom synagogue in Karachi was destroyed on 17 July 1988 by order of Pakistan’s President Zia-Ul-Hak to make way for a shopping mall in the Ranchore Lines neighborhood of Karachi. In 1989, the original Ark and podium were stored in Karachi; a Torah scroll case was taken by an American to the US.
As late as 2006, the sole survivor of the Karachi Jewish community, Rachel Joseph, a former teacher, then 88 years old, was battling for compensation for the broken promise from the property developers that had demolished the old synagogue: in exchange, she would receive an apartment, and a new small synagogue would be constructed on the old site. While the litigation wore on, she languished in a tiny room.
This year, a Muslim Pakistani-American filmmaker, Shoeb Yunus, shot a film about the Jewish cemetery in Karachi. Today, it is part of the larger Cutchi Memon graveyard, which has a Muslim caretaker. It took Yunus eight months to gain admission, and the camera crew was allowed only 10 minutes to shoot. He estimates that there are 200-400 Jewish graves. The neglected cemetery has not been destroyed since its last custodian, Rachel Joseph, died on 17 July 2006.
U.S. Hits #pakistan’s Wallet - suspends financial aid due to non-compliancy & perfidy
The U.S.-Pakistani relationship is continuing its fast downward spiral. The Pakistani government has expelled over 100 American advisors and is demanding the closure of a base used for drone strikes. The U.S., fed up with Pakistani duplicity, is now withhholding $800 million in military aid. The U.S. needs to prepare for the day when the Pakistanis fully cease their meager cooperation.
The cut equals about one-third of the $2.7 billion in military assistance given to Pakistan annually. About $300 million of it was supposed to reimburse the Pakistanis for deploying forces to the border with Afghanistan, an action any responsible government would have done on its own. The decision came after Pakistan further restricted counter-terrorism cooperation, including ending a program to train paramilitary forces in the tribal areas. The Pakistanis are also asking the U.S. to leave the Shamsi Air Base where drones are dispatched from, and have forced out over 100 U.S. trainers while limiting the visas for other personnel.
At the same time, there is a row over a statement by Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Mullen said that the Pakistani government “sanctioned” the torture and killing of Saleem Shahzad, a Pakistani journalist who reported on terrorist infiltration of the military and ISI intelligence service. Shahzad had received threats from the ISI for three years, and the Obama Administration believes the intelligence agency is behind his death. The Pakistani government is outraged. The ambassador to the U.S. says that a commission to investigate his murder has been established, and the U.S. should pass along any information it has. The Information Minister said Mullen’s statement was “extremely irresponsible and unfortunate.”
The Obama Administration initially tried to use the death of Osama Bin Laden, and the embarrassment of his safe haven in Pakistan, to get the Pakistani government to become more cooperative. In President Obama’s speech announcing that Bin Laden had been killed, he said “It’s important to note that our counterterrorism cooperation with Pakistan helped lead us to Bin Laden and the compound where he was hiding.” He characterized Pakistan as an enemy of the terrorists. The deterioration in relations since the raid has forced a change in policy.
Pakistani support for the War on Terror has always fallen far short of what should be expected from an “ally.” Deputy Director of the CIA Michael J. Morell was asked by the Senate Intelligence Committee to rate Pakistani counter-terrorism participation on a scale of 1 to 10. He gave Pakistan a “3.” Apparently, the U.S. has been too afraid of losing this minimal level of cooperation to forcefully confront Pakistan until now.
The U.S. has given Pakistan until the end of this month to help capture or kill five senior terrorist leaders, including Mullah Omar and Ayman al-Zawahiri, or unilateral raids like the one that killed Bin Laden will take place. Pakistan is again passing the buck to the U.S., complaining that it is not being forthcoming in providing intelligence about al-Zawahiri’s location. Of course, the Pakistanis fail to mention their habit of tipping off terrorists about forthcoming operations. Then-CIA Director Leon Panetta recently presented the Pakistanis with proof that terrorists running a bomb factory were given notice to evacuate before the military arrived.
The stress on the American-Pakistani relationship climbed immediately after the killing of Bin Laden. Rather than vow to destroy the safe havens on its territory, Pakistani officials called the operation “cold-blooded.’ The parliament warned of “disastrous consequences” if another unilateral raid happened. Prime Minister Gilani reacted angrily, stating “Any attack against Pakistan’s strategic assets, whether overt or covert, will find a matching response.” The Pakistani Army threatened to reduce cooperation with the U.S., and Pakistan delayed in giving access to those arrested at Bin Laden’s compound. The Pakistanis even arrested five suspected CIA informants who may have helped bring about Bin Laden’s demise, including an army major who passed along the license plates of visitors to the compound.
The Pakistanis then lashed out at the New York Times for revealing that Osama Bin Laden’s courier had contact with Harakut ul-Mujahidin (HUM), a terrorist group that has close ties to Pakistani intelligence. The Pakistani government said it was “part of a well-orchestrated smear campaign against our security organizations.” Pakistani sponsorship of a wide range of terrorist groups including HUM, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Haqqani network, the Taliban and various others is easily provable and widely known.
The Pakistanis now have the audacity to demand that U.S. drone strikes into their territory end, even though they are only necessary because of Pakistan’s tolerance of terrorist safe harbors. “We will be forced to respond if you do not come up with a strategy that stops the drone strikes,” threatened Ahmad Shuka Pasha, director of the ISI.
If it weren’t for Pakistan’s support for terrorism, the war in Afghanistan may well be over. If it weren’t for the Pakistani safe havens, various terrorist groups would be in an incredibly weaker position. And if it weren’t for Pakistan’s treachery, Bin Laden likely would have met his fate years earlier. This is not an ally worth our taxpayer dollars.
The cut equals about one-third of the $2.7 billion in military assistance given to Pakistan annually. About $300 million of it was supposed to reimburse the Pakistanis for deploying forces to the border with Afghanistan, an action any responsible government would have done on its own. The decision came after Pakistan further restricted counter-terrorism cooperation, including ending a program to train paramilitary forces in the tribal areas. The Pakistanis are also asking the U.S. to leave the Shamsi Air Base where drones are dispatched from, and have forced out over 100 U.S. trainers while limiting the visas for other personnel.
At the same time, there is a row over a statement by Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Mullen said that the Pakistani government “sanctioned” the torture and killing of Saleem Shahzad, a Pakistani journalist who reported on terrorist infiltration of the military and ISI intelligence service. Shahzad had received threats from the ISI for three years, and the Obama Administration believes the intelligence agency is behind his death. The Pakistani government is outraged. The ambassador to the U.S. says that a commission to investigate his murder has been established, and the U.S. should pass along any information it has. The Information Minister said Mullen’s statement was “extremely irresponsible and unfortunate.”
The Obama Administration initially tried to use the death of Osama Bin Laden, and the embarrassment of his safe haven in Pakistan, to get the Pakistani government to become more cooperative. In President Obama’s speech announcing that Bin Laden had been killed, he said “It’s important to note that our counterterrorism cooperation with Pakistan helped lead us to Bin Laden and the compound where he was hiding.” He characterized Pakistan as an enemy of the terrorists. The deterioration in relations since the raid has forced a change in policy.
Pakistani support for the War on Terror has always fallen far short of what should be expected from an “ally.” Deputy Director of the CIA Michael J. Morell was asked by the Senate Intelligence Committee to rate Pakistani counter-terrorism participation on a scale of 1 to 10. He gave Pakistan a “3.” Apparently, the U.S. has been too afraid of losing this minimal level of cooperation to forcefully confront Pakistan until now.
The U.S. has given Pakistan until the end of this month to help capture or kill five senior terrorist leaders, including Mullah Omar and Ayman al-Zawahiri, or unilateral raids like the one that killed Bin Laden will take place. Pakistan is again passing the buck to the U.S., complaining that it is not being forthcoming in providing intelligence about al-Zawahiri’s location. Of course, the Pakistanis fail to mention their habit of tipping off terrorists about forthcoming operations. Then-CIA Director Leon Panetta recently presented the Pakistanis with proof that terrorists running a bomb factory were given notice to evacuate before the military arrived.
The stress on the American-Pakistani relationship climbed immediately after the killing of Bin Laden. Rather than vow to destroy the safe havens on its territory, Pakistani officials called the operation “cold-blooded.’ The parliament warned of “disastrous consequences” if another unilateral raid happened. Prime Minister Gilani reacted angrily, stating “Any attack against Pakistan’s strategic assets, whether overt or covert, will find a matching response.” The Pakistani Army threatened to reduce cooperation with the U.S., and Pakistan delayed in giving access to those arrested at Bin Laden’s compound. The Pakistanis even arrested five suspected CIA informants who may have helped bring about Bin Laden’s demise, including an army major who passed along the license plates of visitors to the compound.
The Pakistanis then lashed out at the New York Times for revealing that Osama Bin Laden’s courier had contact with Harakut ul-Mujahidin (HUM), a terrorist group that has close ties to Pakistani intelligence. The Pakistani government said it was “part of a well-orchestrated smear campaign against our security organizations.” Pakistani sponsorship of a wide range of terrorist groups including HUM, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Haqqani network, the Taliban and various others is easily provable and widely known.
The Pakistanis now have the audacity to demand that U.S. drone strikes into their territory end, even though they are only necessary because of Pakistan’s tolerance of terrorist safe harbors. “We will be forced to respond if you do not come up with a strategy that stops the drone strikes,” threatened Ahmad Shuka Pasha, director of the ISI.
If it weren’t for Pakistan’s support for terrorism, the war in Afghanistan may well be over. If it weren’t for the Pakistani safe havens, various terrorist groups would be in an incredibly weaker position. And if it weren’t for Pakistan’s treachery, Bin Laden likely would have met his fate years earlier. This is not an ally worth our taxpayer dollars.
Monday, July 11, 2011
“They (Americans) may temporarily suspend our aid but in the long-run they cannot,” #pakistan
“They (Americans) may temporarily suspend our aid but in the long-run they cannot,”
#pakistan's military establishment is itself responsible for defaming pakistan
It is said that a wounded animal is most dangerous. Our military is behaving like a wounded animal and trying to shut down all dissenting voices. The military operation in Balochistan is a clear example of how the army deals with dissent
Terrorism at its peak, bomb blasts in every nook and corner of the country targeting both the security agencies and civilians, religious bigots threatening secular voices and religious minorities alike, sectarian violence, missing persons, the security establishment’s kill and dump policy in Balochistan, a weak government and an all too powerful military. These are just ‘some’ of Pakistan’s afflictions. Add a dwindling economy, power shortages, unemployment, poverty, illiteracy, corruption to the ever-growing list of woes Pakistanis have to face every day. As if this was not enough, Pakistan has been termed as one of the most dangerous countries for journalists.
“Be careful.” “Stay safe.” Every Pakistani journalist has heard these words countless times from family members, friends and well-wishers since May 31; some more so than others. On that fateful Tuesday evening, Syed Saleem Shahzad’s body was found from Mandi Bahauddin two days after he had gone missing from Islamabad. He was tortured to death. By now we all know that Shahzad confided in some friends and colleagues about the potential threat to his life from Pakistan’s most dreaded spy agency, the ISI. Human Rights Watch (HRW) made the contents of his e-mail public, which he had sent to HRW’s Ali Dayan Hasan. Later, Hameed Haroon, President All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS), backed HRW’s claims regarding Shahzad.
Now an explosive story in the New York Times (NYT) quotes American officials who have directly laid the blame of Shahzad’s murder on the doorstep of the ISI. “Every indication is that this was a deliberate, targeted killing that was most likely meant to send shock waves through Pakistan’s journalist community and civil society, said the official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicate nature of the information” (‘Pakistan’s Spies Tied to Slaying of a Journalist’, By Jane Perlez and Eric Schmitt, July 5, 2011, NYT). The story further tells us that the reason why the Obama administration does not want to make this information public is because “the disclosure of the information in itself could further aggravate the badly fractured relationship between the United States and Pakistan”. On the surface this reason seems plausible given that diplomatic relations between the two countries are at their lowest ebb. But one wonders why the sole superpower is not making this information available to the Saleem Shahzad Commission. Is it not the right of the Pakistani nation to find out the truth? By submitting this “new classified intelligence”, the Obama administration would be doing itself a favour as well. The Pakistan Army and the ISI’s double dealing in the war on terror is one of the vital reasons why the US-led NATO forces have not achieved much success in the ongoing Afghan war despite 10 years of military presence and billions of dollars of investment. If some ISI heavyweights get indicted in Shahzad’s murder on the basis of this intelligence report, both the Pakistani public and the world at large would be benefitted. It would be a serious blow to the impunity with which our military officials and their intelligence agencies operate in Pakistan and elsewhere in the region, most notably in India and Afghanistan. On the other hand, DG ISPR Major General Athar Abbas has called NYT’s reports “a direct attack on our security organisation and intelligence agencies” to “weaken the state”.
May turned out to be one of the worst months as far as the military was concerned. Post-Abbottabad raid on May 2 by the US to take out the world’s most wanted terrorist, Osama bin Laden (OBL), the pressure on Pakistani military has been building gradually. The attack on PNS Mehran by a handful of terrorists was something that jolted the nation out of its stupor. How could a supposedly well-protected naval base with millions of dollars worth of aircraft and equipment be attacked in such a manner was the question on every Pakistani’s mind. That the terrorists were able to engage our mighty armed forces for more than 16 hours and then some of them even managed to escape was mindboggling. Comparisons were made between this attack and the attack on the GHQ in October 2009. The people of Pakistan wanted to know if our armed forces could not even defend themselves on Pakistani soil from such audacious attacks, how were they going to defend us in a conventional war? Pakistan spends a huge amount of its budget on the military, which is not transparent and open for debate in parliament yet we have not won a single war with India. Our textbooks hide this bitter truth from our general public and continue to glorify the military. But now the public and mainstream media is challenging these myths of superior military power. The brutal assassination of journalist Saleem Shahzad led to the journalist community demanding that the ISI be held accountable if it was involved in his murder. This seems to have irked our military top brass. The intelligence agencies and their civilian proxies are out in full force for ‘damage control’.
An advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Sardar Muhammad Ghazi, who is also a former Additional Secretary Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and former Deputy Attorney General of Pakistan, filed a petition in the Supreme Court against three journalists — Najam Sethi, Ejaz Haider and Hamid Mir — for ‘defaming’ the military. In his petition, Mr Ghazi claims that there are “deep rooted conspiracies externally against [the] existence of this country [Pakistan] on the world map as the only nuclear power in the Muslim world”. Ghazi further states that the “armed forces of Pakistan, as an institution and ISI the premier spy agency, are being widely rebuked and reproached by those who are promoting the agenda of the arch enemies of our country”. He is angry that “the pen pushers and a category of anchorpersons are spitting venom against the ISI and the armed forces”. He also blames the CIA, RAW and Musad [the advocate obviously does not even know the correct spellings of Mossad] for having “deeply penetrated in the rank and file of Pakistan”. The Supreme Court may not even entertain Mr Ghazi’s petition but that such a petition was filed in the first place has raised many an eyebrow.
It is said that a wounded animal is most dangerous. Our military is behaving like a wounded animal and trying to shut down all dissenting voices. The military operation in Balochistan is a clear example of how the army deals with dissent. And the way the journalist community is now under constant threat is another example of the military’s highhandedness. But this must not deter our brave and bold journalists; as it is there are only a few of them who do not succumb to such pressure. Journalists are not the ones defaming the armed forces; the military establishment is itself responsible for defaming Pakistan.
Terrorism at its peak, bomb blasts in every nook and corner of the country targeting both the security agencies and civilians, religious bigots threatening secular voices and religious minorities alike, sectarian violence, missing persons, the security establishment’s kill and dump policy in Balochistan, a weak government and an all too powerful military. These are just ‘some’ of Pakistan’s afflictions. Add a dwindling economy, power shortages, unemployment, poverty, illiteracy, corruption to the ever-growing list of woes Pakistanis have to face every day. As if this was not enough, Pakistan has been termed as one of the most dangerous countries for journalists.
“Be careful.” “Stay safe.” Every Pakistani journalist has heard these words countless times from family members, friends and well-wishers since May 31; some more so than others. On that fateful Tuesday evening, Syed Saleem Shahzad’s body was found from Mandi Bahauddin two days after he had gone missing from Islamabad. He was tortured to death. By now we all know that Shahzad confided in some friends and colleagues about the potential threat to his life from Pakistan’s most dreaded spy agency, the ISI. Human Rights Watch (HRW) made the contents of his e-mail public, which he had sent to HRW’s Ali Dayan Hasan. Later, Hameed Haroon, President All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS), backed HRW’s claims regarding Shahzad.
Now an explosive story in the New York Times (NYT) quotes American officials who have directly laid the blame of Shahzad’s murder on the doorstep of the ISI. “Every indication is that this was a deliberate, targeted killing that was most likely meant to send shock waves through Pakistan’s journalist community and civil society, said the official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicate nature of the information” (‘Pakistan’s Spies Tied to Slaying of a Journalist’, By Jane Perlez and Eric Schmitt, July 5, 2011, NYT). The story further tells us that the reason why the Obama administration does not want to make this information public is because “the disclosure of the information in itself could further aggravate the badly fractured relationship between the United States and Pakistan”. On the surface this reason seems plausible given that diplomatic relations between the two countries are at their lowest ebb. But one wonders why the sole superpower is not making this information available to the Saleem Shahzad Commission. Is it not the right of the Pakistani nation to find out the truth? By submitting this “new classified intelligence”, the Obama administration would be doing itself a favour as well. The Pakistan Army and the ISI’s double dealing in the war on terror is one of the vital reasons why the US-led NATO forces have not achieved much success in the ongoing Afghan war despite 10 years of military presence and billions of dollars of investment. If some ISI heavyweights get indicted in Shahzad’s murder on the basis of this intelligence report, both the Pakistani public and the world at large would be benefitted. It would be a serious blow to the impunity with which our military officials and their intelligence agencies operate in Pakistan and elsewhere in the region, most notably in India and Afghanistan. On the other hand, DG ISPR Major General Athar Abbas has called NYT’s reports “a direct attack on our security organisation and intelligence agencies” to “weaken the state”.
May turned out to be one of the worst months as far as the military was concerned. Post-Abbottabad raid on May 2 by the US to take out the world’s most wanted terrorist, Osama bin Laden (OBL), the pressure on Pakistani military has been building gradually. The attack on PNS Mehran by a handful of terrorists was something that jolted the nation out of its stupor. How could a supposedly well-protected naval base with millions of dollars worth of aircraft and equipment be attacked in such a manner was the question on every Pakistani’s mind. That the terrorists were able to engage our mighty armed forces for more than 16 hours and then some of them even managed to escape was mindboggling. Comparisons were made between this attack and the attack on the GHQ in October 2009. The people of Pakistan wanted to know if our armed forces could not even defend themselves on Pakistani soil from such audacious attacks, how were they going to defend us in a conventional war? Pakistan spends a huge amount of its budget on the military, which is not transparent and open for debate in parliament yet we have not won a single war with India. Our textbooks hide this bitter truth from our general public and continue to glorify the military. But now the public and mainstream media is challenging these myths of superior military power. The brutal assassination of journalist Saleem Shahzad led to the journalist community demanding that the ISI be held accountable if it was involved in his murder. This seems to have irked our military top brass. The intelligence agencies and their civilian proxies are out in full force for ‘damage control’.
An advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Sardar Muhammad Ghazi, who is also a former Additional Secretary Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and former Deputy Attorney General of Pakistan, filed a petition in the Supreme Court against three journalists — Najam Sethi, Ejaz Haider and Hamid Mir — for ‘defaming’ the military. In his petition, Mr Ghazi claims that there are “deep rooted conspiracies externally against [the] existence of this country [Pakistan] on the world map as the only nuclear power in the Muslim world”. Ghazi further states that the “armed forces of Pakistan, as an institution and ISI the premier spy agency, are being widely rebuked and reproached by those who are promoting the agenda of the arch enemies of our country”. He is angry that “the pen pushers and a category of anchorpersons are spitting venom against the ISI and the armed forces”. He also blames the CIA, RAW and Musad [the advocate obviously does not even know the correct spellings of Mossad] for having “deeply penetrated in the rank and file of Pakistan”. The Supreme Court may not even entertain Mr Ghazi’s petition but that such a petition was filed in the first place has raised many an eyebrow.
It is said that a wounded animal is most dangerous. Our military is behaving like a wounded animal and trying to shut down all dissenting voices. The military operation in Balochistan is a clear example of how the army deals with dissent. And the way the journalist community is now under constant threat is another example of the military’s highhandedness. But this must not deter our brave and bold journalists; as it is there are only a few of them who do not succumb to such pressure. Journalists are not the ones defaming the armed forces; the military establishment is itself responsible for defaming Pakistan.
#pakistan thrashed by Belgium
Pakistan’s move to experiment backfired as the Asian Games champions suffered a humiliating 4-1 defeat against lowly-ranked Belgium, who managed to level the two-Test series 1-1 with a thumping victory in Amsterdam.
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