IPL: Deccan Chargers meet Rajasthan Royals

KARACHI: Deccan Chargers will face Rajasthan Royals in Indian Premier League (IPL) today. Geo Super will telecast the match live at 8:30 pm PST. Deccan Chargers won five and lost four matches so far in the tournament. It stands at number four on points table with 10 points. Rajasthan Royals stands at third place with 11 points after grabbing victory in five matches and losing four.

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Hindu community opposes dam in Balochistan

Chairman Wapda Shakeel Durrani can be seen here with President Zardari in the background.-APP file photo

QUETTA: The Hindu community in Lasbela disrict has expressed its reservations over construction of a dam near their historic temple Hinglaj Mata.

Chairman Wapda Shakeel Durrani assured the community members that Hingol dam would be constructed only after removing all their reservations.

A high powered delegation comprising Chairman Wapda, Speaker Balochistan Assembly Aslam Bhootani, Chief Secretary Nasir Mehmood Khosa and representatives of Hindu community in Sindh and Balochistan visited the site of the proposed Hingol dam on Sunday.

The representatives of the Hindu community had expressed their reservations that with the Hingol dam planned to be built along the costal highwa would submerge their historic temple ‘Hinglaj Mata’ and worshippers would have no way of accessing it.

The Balochistan Assembly had also adopted a resolution unanimously in this regard demanding that the plan of construction of hingal dam should be abandoned.

However, Chairman Wapda decided to visit the site of the dam along with representatives of the Hindu community to brief them about the ways and means to save the historic temple in the area.

Wapda engineers and experts informed the members of the delegation through maps that Wapda was making all possible efforts to built Hingol dam adopting measures to save the temple. ‘Hingol dam would be not being constructed until apprehension and reservations of Hindu community about Hingal Mata are removed,’ Chairman Wapda said. He said that he was also aware about the importance of the Hinglaj Mata temple.

He informed that with the construction of Hingol dam around 90,000 acres of land would be irrigated in Lasbela district and the dam would also generate electricity that would be enough to meet the power requirements of the area. The dam would be have the
capacity of storing around 210,0000 acres feet water.

Speaker Balochistan Assembly Mohammad Aslam Bhootani said: ‘We respect the worship places of minorities but on the other hand we cannot ignore the importance and benefits of the Hingol dam’.

He said that government would take steps to remove the reservations of the Hindu community. He claimed that the construction of the dam would bring a green revolution in the Lasbela district.

Source : Dawn News

Next few weeks pivotal for Pakistan’s future: Petraeus

US General David Petraeus (C), commander of the US Central Command, listen as Admiral Eric Olson (R), commander of the US Special Operations Command, speaks before a House Armed Services hearing on the new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan in Washington. –Reuters Photo

WASHINGTON: The next few weeks would be pivotal for Pakistan’s future, a top US general warned on Sunday, noting that the Pakistanis also realised this and had galvanised to protect their country from the militants.

In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Gen David Petraeus, head of the US Central Command, pointed to Pakistan’s intensifying offensive against the Taliban in Swat as a sign its political leaders, people and military were united against the militants.

‘The actions of the Pakistani Taliban seem to have galvanised all of Pakistan,’ he said. ‘There is a degree of unanimity that there must be swift and effective action taken against the Taliban.’

The Obama administration has strongly backed the offensive launched last week when President Asif Ali Zardari was in Washington seeking support for fighting the militancy, which he said was a threat to the entire international community.

‘The next few weeks would be very important and, to a degree, pivotal in the future for Pakistan,’ said Gen Petraeus.

‘Certainly the next few weeks will be very important in this effort to roll back, if you will, this existential threat — a true threat to Pakistan’s very existence that has been posed by the Pakistani Taliban,’ he added.

The general dismissed the suggestion that if the fight against the Taliban intensified, it could also endanger Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.

‘With respect to the nuclear weapons and sites that are controlled by Pakistan, as President Obama mentioned the other day, we have confidence in their security procedures and elements and believe that the security of those sites is adequate,’ he said.

The US general said the trilateral talks in Washington last week enabled him to have ‘some good conversations’ with Pakistani leaders and officials.

‘It was very clear in discussions with everyone, from President Zardari through the other members of the delegation that there’s an understanding that this does have to be a whole-of-government approach,’ he said.

‘In other words, not just the military but all the rest of the elements of government (are) supporting the military,’ the general said.

Gen Petraeus noted that besides the military offensive, Pakistani authorities were also trying to re-establish basic services, repair the damage done by the bombardment of these areas in which the Taliban were located, and to take care of the internally displaced persons.

The US, he said, was also backing an ‘enormous effort’ to rehabilitate the internally displaced persons.

Various US agencies, he said, were working with the government of Pakistan to help them deal with this problem while UN agencies also were playing a frontline role in helping the refugees.

‘This is not a US assurance that matters,’ said the general when asked if the US government could assure the success of Pakistan’s offensive against the militants. ‘This is a Pakistani assurance. This is not a US fight … this is a Pakistani fight, a Pakistani battle, with elements that, as we’ve mentioned, threaten the very existence of the Pakistani state.’

Al Qaeda leaders: ‘There’s no question that Al Qaeda’s senior leadership has been there and has been in operation for years,’ said the general when asked if he knew where they were hiding. ‘We had to contend with its reach as it sought to facilitate the flow of foreign fighters, resources, explosives, leaders and expertise into Iraq, as you’ll recall, through Syria.

‘We see tentacles of Al Qaeda that connect to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen, the elements Al-Shabab in Somalia, elements in north central Africa, and that strive to reach all the way, of course, into Europe and into the United States.’

The general said it was not possible to determine the accurate location for Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri other than a general description of where that might be.

‘Certainly, they surface periodically. We see communications that they send out. And of course, they periodically send out videos in which they try to exhort people and to inspire individuals to carry out extremist activities.’

Source: Dawn News

Talibanisation and identity crisis

Anti-Taliban vigils have been held, but what do protestors really yearn for? – AFP photo.

SINCE the Nizam-i-Adl Regulation, the status of which has now been rendered uncertain, Pakistani citizens have been trying to organise against the Talibanisation of the tribal and northern areas.

There has been a flurry of meetings, lectures, candlelit vigils, protest marches and letter-writing campaigns in all major cities. And yet, read through the discussions on local blogs or peruse letters to the editor in various newspapers, and the sense that Pakistanis are doing nothing about the crisis prevails.

When comparisons are drawn between civil society’s emphatic response to the deposition of Pakistan’s chief justice in 2007, its reaction to the virtual colonisation of part of the country by militants seems apathetic. In many quarters, the silence of Pakistanis is being perceived as complicity. As an open conflict between the military and militants rages in the Frontier province, it is worth deconstructing why civil society has not been able to articulate a united stance towards the Taliban.

What becomes apparent is that the Pakistani public is faced with a hydra-headed monster, and it is unable to agree on which is the greatest of all evils. Do we, the people, react to the lack of governance at the centre and the occupation of our territories by an ideological group? Do we, as a Muslim majority, protest the perversion of Islam at the hands of violent, suicide-bombing militants? Do we, as feminists, decry the violation of women’s rights? Or do we, as humanists, focus on the plight of hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people who for too long have been written off as collateral damage? Indeed, understanding the paralysis of civil society in the face of the Taliban onslaught lies at the heart of the identity crisis that Pakistan has faced since its inception.

Many Pakistanis direct their outrage at the government. Brought to power in a memorable election, the government was tasked by the electorate with strengthening Pakistan’s democratic credentials. Instead, we have seen shabby power plays as the PPP and PML-N have wrestled like incorrigible schoolboys over the past year. These political intrigues have distracted the government from what should be its major concerns at the present: reviving the Pakistan economy and dealing a decisive blow to what was a militant threat in February 2008, but is now a full-scale invasion. For this reason, some citizens are arguing that the first step in addressing Pakistan’s problems is calling for mid-term elections and asking President Asif Zardari to step down.

But this is not the rallying cry of the people at large. For many, the government and the army’s lack of vision in dealing with the Taliban has been the top complaint. They criticise erratic policies that have the government and militants negotiating one day, and warring the next. This crowd is calling for a consistent strategy against the militants, with no clear consensus on whether that should be martial or diplomatic. As such, it remains unclear if public protest is directed against the government or the army (or do Pakistanis still treat those entities as if they are the same thing?). Meanwhile, there is a subset that is opposed to the Nizam-i-Adl for it threatens the integrity of the state. ‘One constitution for one country’ is their rallying cry.

On the other hand, in some civic circles, the major concern is that the government and army have failed to protect basic human rights. There is outrage at the blowing up of girls’ schools and CD shops in Swat, the flogging of women, and the displacement of thousands of people from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Malakand. Skipping over the essential existential crisis posed by Taliban dominance in the northern and tribal areas, many citizens are simply demanding that the government and/or army provide adequate protection and compensation to IDPs, ensure development in the form of schools, roads and hospitals, and bring peace (at whatever cost) to conflict-ridden areas.

In some quarters, the human rights argument has been spun as a women’s issue. Many public protests were launched in response to the infamous flogging video. Posters and graffiti in urban centres decry the victimisation of women and their abuse in the name of Islam. In this construction, women parliamentarians who did not oppose the controversial Nizam-i-Adl are the ultimate nemesis and the call is for safeguarding women’s rights, not suppressing the Taliban.

That said, there are many Pakistanis who openly describe themselves as anti-Taliban. But what exactly does that mean? Opposition to Talibanisation has been interpreted in myriad ways: anti-violence, pro-education, pro-nationalism, anti-sectarianism, pro-democracy and more.

Reframe the question in a religious context and the debate is endless. Some Pakistanis are outraged at extremist interpretations of Islam. Others are advocating that democracy be upheld and a separation of church, rather, mosque and state be enshrined in the constitution once and for all.

Still others are protesting the revival of sectarianism, arguing that Pakistan should define itself as a country where Sunni and Shia, Sufi and Salafi, Deobandi and Barelvi can all live together in peace.

Then there’s the camp that is championing that most nebulous notion, ‘moderate’ Islam. Worryingly, there are also those civil groups who are reluctant to have religious overtones cloud their anti-Taliban protests. But can you speak out against the Taliban without, at some level, speaking about religion?

If complaints against the government, military and Taliban weren’t enough, many Pakistanis are also organising around the America factor. Cooperation with the US in the war against terror has long been framed as a test of Pakistani sovereignty. As a result, Pakistanis are torn about what level of intervention they’re willing to live with. Some want to protest the drone attacks, others want to ensure greater transparency in the distribution of American aid. At a recent meeting of concerned citizens, I heard one hapless woman ask her friend, ‘is it alright if I’m both anti-Taliban and against the drone attacks?’

To this mix, add the voices that are less heard: Swatis who demand efficient justice systems, but do not want to live at the edge of the Taliban sword; Bajauris who want to keep their women in purdah, but send their sons to secular schools; religious minorities, including Sikhs and Christians, who want the government to protect their right to worship.

It is this lack of consensus as to what’s at stake that makes a unified civic response impossible. Pakistanis are able to mobilise when they knew what they are asking for, e.g. the restoration of the chief justice. But they’re in disarray when it comes to pinpointing why they object to Talibanisation.

In any other circumstance, I would celebrate Pakistan’s political and ideological diversity, pointing out that it is what distinguishes Pakistan from Iran or Saudi Arabia. But in the face of the Taliban, our plurality is proving to be our Achilles’ heel. The fact is, in organising against the Taliban, Pakistan is going to be forced to tackle its longstanding identity crisis. The first step to overcoming militancy is knowing ourselves. So before we can take to the streets with a single, articulate demand, we’re going to have to answer the question that we’ve been avoiding for over 60 years: who are we?

huma.yusuf@gmail.com

Source: Dawn News

JI amir predicts ‘big jihad’ against US

Munawar Hasan addresses party loyalists at the mall – AFP photo.

LAHORE: Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) Amir, Syed Munawwar Hasan has predicted armed struggle against United States in the days to come.

Speaking at a ‘Go-America-Go’ rally on The Mall here on Sunday, he asked JI activists: ‘Announcement for the big jihad may be made during the coming days, so make preparations about it.’

Fearing that the United States would soon announce invasion of Pakistan on the excuse that Pak army had failed to eliminate terrorists’ bases in the country, Munawwar urged the people to step up their efforts to safeguarding solidarity and nuclear programme of the country and pushing the Americans back into Afghanistan.

Opposing the ongoing army operation in Swat and Buner, the JI amir warned the political leadership that such operations in the past had proved to be first step towards martial law.

Referring to the failure of armed forces in operation against their own people in former East Pakistan, he urged the authorities to desist from taking up arms against their own people.

Chiding the government claim that it was establishing its writ, he asked where was the so-called writ when scores of citizens were shot dead in Karachi on May 12, 2007 or when hundreds of citizens were kidnapped by the American agencies?Alleging that India was involved in the Lahore attacks and in Balochistan uprising, the JI amir demanded the government activate its foreign missions to expose New Delhi.He said either the United States itself was massacring Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan or was patronising other powers — Israel and India — engaged in anti-Muslim actions.

He said the United States had always tried to destabilise Pakistan and make India a mini-superpower of the region. He said it was for this reason that Washington was pressing Islamabad to withdraw its forces from the Indian border.

Despite being the first public event of the new JI amir, attendance at the rally was not impressive though it was not restricted to Lahore-based workers only and activists from nearby districts had also been transported to the show.

The party leadership had claimed that the strength of the rally would run into hundreds of thousands to give a strong message to the United States and Pakistani government that the masses were against the army operation alleged to be launched at the behest of Washington.

The rally also lacked spirit, enthusiasm and zeal, which has usually been the hallmark of the events organised by religious parties.

Source: Dawn News

Operation in Swat intensified: ISPR

Troops roll into the restive Swat valley – AFP photo.

ISLAMABAD: The operation in Swat and adjoining areas was intensified and nearly 200 militants and two security personnel were killed in clashes on Saturday and Sunday, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations.

Indiscriminate mortar firing and improvised explosive devices planted on streets and roads by terrorists in populated areas of Thana, Malakand and Mingora caused civilian casualties, said the ISPR.

In Swat, suspected locations of militants were attacked in Kanju, Mingora, Venaibaba, Namal, Qambar, Peochar, Fizagath, Tiligram and Chamtalai areas and 50 to 60 militants were killed.

Security forces urged citizens to remain vigilant and said that the terrorists had planted explosive devices in various areas of Mingora and Swat to put the blame of civilian deaths on security forces.

There are reports that militants destroyed two schools one in Barikot and the other in Maniar.

Terrorist activities continued in Swat where Zahid Khan, Imam of a mosque at Nishtar Chowk was killed.

Military authorities said that they had secured a large area in Shangla up to Biladram and advancing troops detected IEDs on the Chamtalai bridge where an intense exchange of fire took place.

In Shangla, security forces resumed operation from the important heights of 2,245 and 2,266 which had been captured on Saturday and secured the area up to Shalwal Kandao. One soldier died during the operation.

Troops found a number of bodies of militants and weapons left by them near Ramotai Loe Sar.

One soldier who was injured on May 8, died during evacuation.

The ISPR said a training camp of militants in Banai Baba was destroyed and 140 to 150 militants were killed. Troops secured the Shangla Top.

The Shangla DCO confirmed that 140 to 150 terrorists had been killed.

In Dir, troops secured the area from Kala Dag to Haya Sarai and during a clash with militants at Musa Jan and Sarai Kot, five militants were killed and one soldier was injured.

In a separate incident, militants kidnapped a reporter of a private TV channel from Chakdara.

Military authorities said that ground forces continued to consolidate positions on Gulabad heights and the area between Chakdara Bridge at Landakai had been secured by ground forces. Troops detected and defused three IEDs.

The militants suffered heavy casualties when helicopters attacked their hideouts in Barwada Char, destroying six bunkers and two ammunition dumps.

Troops secured the ridges around Sultanwas and the militants there were surrounded, the ISPR claimed.

The militants resumed their activities in South Waziristan and on Saturday night attacked a security forces convoy in Spin area South of Tanai.

During the ensuing clash 18 militants and an officer, Capt Muneeb, were killed and two soldiers were injured.

Later, the militants fled the area leaving behind bodies of their men. One injured militant was arrested.

Source: Dawn News

Ajmal Kasab’s trial begins in India

MUMBAI: The trial of the only surviving gunman in the bloody Mumbai siege began Friday with the prosecutor calling the attacks ‘a criminal conspiracy hatched in Pakistan to attack India,’ AP reported.

Special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said at least one Pakistani military officer was involved in the attack and its sophistication suggested the involvement of Pakistan’s powerful intelligence agency.

Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, a Pakistani, is charged with 12 criminal counts, including murder and waging war against India. Prosecutors say Kasab and nine other gunmen who were killed during the siege are responsible for the deaths of 166 people and injuring 304 more.

‘There was a criminal conspiracy hatched in Pakistan to attack India,’ Nikam said, with the ‘ultimate target of capturing Jammu and Kashmir, which is part and parcel of India.’

The Himalayan region of Kashmir, which is divided between India and Pakistani but claimed by both, has long been at the center of the bitterness between the two South Asian rivals.

The prosecutor vowed to get to ‘the root of terror’ and said the identity of all those involved would be revealed through the ongoing investigation.

Nikam alleged the November attacks were masterminded by the Muslim militant group Lashkar-i-Taiba with the help of at least one Pakistani military officer. He said the plot was made possible by a ‘terrorist culture’ that had taken root in Pakistan.

Lashkar-i-Taiba is widely believed to have been created by Pakistani intelligence agencies in the 1980s to fight Indian rule in Kashmir.

Pakistani officials have acknowledged that the November attacks were partly plotted on their soil and announced criminal proceedings against eight suspects. They have also acknowledged that Kasab is Pakistani but have repeatedly denied their intelligence agencies were involved in the attack.

The prosecution began after the judge dismissed a motion from Kasab’s defense lawyer, Abbas Kazmi, to move the trial to a juvenile court. Kazmi, who had been appointed Kasab’s attorney just the day before, said his client was 16 years old — and legally a minor — at the time of the attack.

Kasab told Indian investigators he was born in September 1987, which would have made him 21 when the siege took place.

Kasab’s two co-defendants, Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed, are Indian nationals charged with helping plot the attacks. Their lawyer maintains that they are innocent.

Meanwhile, Kasab’s defence counsel said his client wished to retract his confession, claiming it was obtained under duress.

‘On his instruction, a retraction application has been filed, retracting the so-called alleged confession,’ said Abbas Kazmi.

‘He’s going to plead not guilty,’ he added.

The lawyer told reporters that Kasab claimed the confession, made to a local magistrate while he was in police custody, was ‘extracted out of coercion and force and it was not a voluntary confession.’ He quoted Kasab as claiming he had been ‘physically tortured.’

Court officials say they hope the case will be finished in six months to a year — which would be extremely fast by the standards of major Indian trials.

The trial for India’s deadliest terror attack, the 1993 Mumbai bombings that killed 257 people, took 14 years to complete.

Student arrested in UK seeks consular service

LONDON, April 17: One of the Pakistani students arrested in last week’s anti-terrorism raids, Janas Khan, has sought Pakistan High Commission’s consular service.

Meanwhile, the high commission has also obtained the names of four solicitors who are representing seven of the arrested students who have refused the offer of consular services. The commission is trying to contact the students through their solicitors.

Sources in the high commission said that the remaining two Pakistani students had refused consular services and have also requested authorities not to involve their families in the matter.All 12 persons were arrested on April 8 on suspicion of being involved in hatching plots to stage terrorist acts in the UK.

One, whose identity is yet to be established but believed to be a Bangladeshi, was released on the very second day, and of the remaining 11 still in custody, one is said to be Afghan national.

The UK authorities have so far not shared with Pakistani authorities even preliminary information about the students like their names, home addresses and the names of the institutions where these students were studying and the subjects they were studying; when they arrived in the UK and when do their visas expire.

Ignoring Pakistan’s request to either put those arrested on trial, or to allow them to remain in the country to continue their studies, the UK authorities are said to have decided to let the police continue their investigation.

There has also been talk of deporting some of the arrested students against whom actionable evidence is not likely to be found.

Under the law, police could keep the suspects in custody for 28 days. So, police has 18 days more to marshal the required evidence to charge them.

Sighatullah Kadri, QC, a British lawyer of Pakistani origin, answered in the affirmative when asked if the UK authorities could deport the students even if the charges under which they were arrested were not found valid.

He said perhaps the police had arrested these students only on the basis of taped ‘incriminating’ conversation, but since taped conversation is not admissible in the court of law and also the MI5 itself would not like to use this evidence in the court fearing exposing its methods of investigations, the police is finding itself in a fix. “They do not want to let the suspects go scot-free because of what evidence they have but they cannot also keep them under detention beyond 28 days without coming up with actionable evidence.”

LHC adjourns sine die hearing of Justice Bilal related contempt case

LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) full bench has adjourned here indefinitely the hearing of the contempt case related to Justice Bilal, giving time for the respondents Ansar Abbasi, Editor Investigation, The News and others to file their reply.

Barrister, Aitzaz Ahsan, Asadullah Siddiqui and other lawyers appeared in the court on behalf of Ansar Abbasi and other respondents.

Gojranawala RPO, Zulfiquar Cheema in his statement in the court said, “can’t even think of contempt of court.” He said that infamous Nannho Goraya was interrogated by a police team headed by the officer of a rank of SP and he couldn’t even think that he (Nanno Goraya) would give a statement relating to a judge of the superior court. He said, “Either I would have concealed this statement or bring it to the notice of the concerned officials and being a responsible police officer I had sent this report to the chief of the superior court.”

Cover blown on CIA’s harsh interrogation techniques

WASHINGTON, April 17: President Barack Obama on Thursday blew the lid on harsh CIA terror interrogations approved by ex-president George W. Bush, including the use of insects, simulated drowning, and sleep deprivation.

But despite releasing four partially blacked-out memos detailing the tactics, Mr Obama said operatives who carried out the interrogations would not be prosecuted, saying they acted on orders and were defending their country.

The memos offered a stunning glimpse inside the covert interrogation programme introduced after the September 11 attacks in 2001, which critics say equated to torture, and Mr Obama said undermined America’s moral authority.

The memos were written by the then Bush administration’s legal officials and made the case that a long list of coercive techniques did not equal torture as they did not amount to the infliction of severe mental or physical pain.

Detailing methods used to question Al Qaeda terror suspects, the memos reveal the use of dietary manipulation, forced nudity, facial and abdominal slaps, and the use of confined or “stress positions” for suspects.

In one technique known as “walling,” interrogators could push a suspect against a false wall, so his shoulder blades hit the wall with a loud noise, to make him think the impact is greater than in reality.

The memos also show interrogators asked for a ruling on whether the placing of a harmless insect in a cramped box with Al Qaeda terror suspect Abu Zubaida equated to torture.

The technique “certainly does not cause physical pain” and therefore could not be termed as torture and should be permissible, one of the memos said.

Similarly, techniques included waterboarding or simulated drowning, walling and sleep deprivation also fell short of torture, the memos said.

Another memo details a ‘prototypical interrogation,’ which begins with a detainee stripped of his clothes, shackled, and hooded, “with the walling collar over his head and around his neck.”

“The interrogators remove the hood and explain that the detainee can improve his situation by cooperating and may say that the interrogators will do what it takes to get important information,” the document said.

“As soon as the detainee does anything inconsistent with the interrogators’

instructions, the interrogators use an insult slap or abdominal slap.

“They employ walling if it becomes clear that the detainee is not cooperating in the interrogation.”

In a statement, Mr Obama said the tactics adopted by the administration of his predecessor George W. Bush after the September 11 attacks in 2001 “undermine our moral authority and do not make us safer.”

He said he was releasing the documents to avoid “an inaccurate accounting of the past,” which would “fuel erroneous and inflammatory assumptions about actions taken by the United States.”

Mr Obama stressed that the interrogators would not be prosecuted for their work.“In releasing these memos, it is our intention to assure those who carried out their duties relying in good faith upon legal advice from the Department of Justice that they will not be subject to prosecution,” he said.

“The men and women of our intelligence community serve courageously on the front lines of a dangerous world,” he said. “We must protect their identities as vigilantly as they protect our security, and we must provide them with the confidence that they can do their jobs.”

Attorney-General Eric Holder, meanwhile, said that the government would provide legal representation to any CIA employee involved in the interrogations in any state or federal court case brought against them.

The memos were authored by Jay Bybee and Steven Bradbury, who at the time were lawyers for Mr Bush’s Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that intense debate was under way within the new administration over whether to release the memos.

The report said Attorney-General Holder and others in the Justice Department had argued aggressively in favour of release, but the CIA countered that disclosure of such secrets would undermine its credibility and effectiveness.

The day after taking office, Mr Obama ordered the closing of the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay within a year and the immediate cessation of the special interrogation regime used by the CIA.—AFP

Pakistan, China vow to fight terrorism

SANYA (China), April 17: President Asif Ali Zardari and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao agreed on Friday to jointly fight terrorism and resolved to strengthen bilateral ties in economic, defence and energy sectors.

President Zardari met the Chinese leader after he arrived here from Tokyo to attend the annual Boao Forum.

Premier Wen Jiabao said China would help Pakistan safeguard its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.

President Zardari and Premier Wen Jiabao discussed a range of strategic and economic matters.

President Zardari said Pakistan and China enjoyed a high degree of mutual trust, understanding and convergence of views on bilateral, regional and international issues and called for translating the deep strategic partnership into a robust trade and investment relationship.

During his three-day stay, President Zardari will deliver a keynote speech at the plenary session of the BFA on ‘Asia: managing beyond crisis’ and hold meetings with several leaders.

Premier Wen said it was high time to address the global economic crisis and find a way to counter its impact on developing economies.—APP

Trust deficit remains: US

WASHINGTON, April 17: The United States said on Friday that although it had made a generous aid pledge to Pakistan in Tokyo, relations between the two countries did suffer from a trust deficit.

“There’s no question that there are issues of trust”, between the US and Pakistan, State Department spokesman Robert Wood told a briefing in Washington. “We’re working hard to try to resolve them. And there’s a commitment on both sides to try to deal with that question.”

Earlier on Friday, the State Department issued a statement saying that the $1 billion pledged in Tokyo were “a down payment” on a $1.5 billion annual aid package already introduced in the US Congress.

The pledge made in Tokyo is also “subject to Congressional approval”, the State Department said.

Asked if the Tokyo conference provided an opportunity to repair the trust deficit between the two countries, Mr Wood said the US would continue to work with Pakistan to resolve the issues of trust.

“I’m not going to say that the issue of trust is going to be resolved overnight. It’s not. But it takes action on the part of both governments to try to deal fairly and squarely with a lot of these issues that confront us,” he said.

“And so it’s something we’ll continue to work on. But indeed, there is that issue of trust,” he added.

Mr Wood said that the stakes were “very high” and the US needed to work with Pakistan on trying to prevent the Taliban from wreaking more havoc, on not only Pakistan but Afghanistan in particular.

“Our goals, obviously, are to do what we can to support the government of Pakistan and its efforts to try to bring about, you know, economic development and further democracy in the country,” the spokesman said.

The United States, he said, also wanted to ensure that most of the money given to Pakistan went to its people.

“It’s something that the president and the secretary want to make sure happens. And we’re going to continue to work that,” he said.

PPP veteran Zafar Ali Shah calls for figurehead president

ISLAMABAD, April 17: As the country awaits a parliamentary constitutional reforms committee, a veteran lawmaker of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party pleaded in the National Assembly on Friday for having only a titular president who should also not head a political party.

Presidential powers are a key issue that must be resolved through constitutional amendments to be proposed by an all-parties committee of parliament, and the call by Syed Zafar Ali Shah came as the first public expression of the kind that appeared a taboo in recent months after President Asif Ali Zardari was elected to the office with all the powers assumed by his military predecessor General Pervez Musharraf while also leading the ruling party as its co-chairman.

“The prime minister should be prime minister (with powers) and the president be a titular head of state as is in India,” the PPP member from Sindh said while speaking in a debate on President Zardari’s March 28 address to a joint sitting of the National Assembly and Senate.

He said although there was no express ban in the Constitution, the spirit of the Constitution’s article 41, which says the president “shall be the head of state and shall represent the unity of the republic”, was that a president should not head a party.

National Assembly Speaker Fehmida Mirza is yet to name the all-parties committee she was authorised by the house on April 10 to form to propose amendments to the Constitution and other laws to implement the famous Charter of Democracy signed in 2006 by assassinated PPP leader Benazir Bhutto and Pakistan Muslim League-N leader Nawaz Sharif and later supported by most political parties in parliament.

The charter calls for a return to a titular presidency by clipping its arbitrarily assumed powers to dissolve the National Assembly and appoint armed forces’ chiefs, provincial governors and the chief election commissioner and give them back to the prime minister as was the position in the Constitution before General Musharraf seized power in an Oct 12, 1999, coup.

Friday’s poorly attended National Assembly sitting saw some members expressing their reservations about the early outcome of the enforcement of a controversial Sharia regulation in Malakand division, although all parties, except the boycotting Muttahida Quami Movement had, voted for an April 13 resolution that asked the president to approve the order to implement a peace deal with the militants of Swat.

Former interior minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, speaking on a point of order, said that even after the peace deal, Swat militants seemed to be involved in a suicide bomb attack in his constituency in Charsadda on Wednesday that killed 16 people because an injured alleged bomber had been traced to Swat district’s Charbagh area.

He asked the government to seek an explanation from Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat Muhammadi chief Sufi Mohammad who made the deal with the government on behalf of the militants.“On the one hand there is peace agreement and on the other there this process (of violence) begun again,” he said about the deal, which has been supported by most political parties but is seen by many in the civil society as an acquiescence to the power of the gun that would embolden the militants.

Before that, PPP’s Zafar Ali Shah opposed the peace deal’s provision for a gradual withdrawal of troops from Swat and said that even if peace was restored there, “we expect the army to play its role”.

ANP member Syed Haider Ali Shah, whose party leads the NWFP coalition government that made the peace deal with the militants, regretted MQM’s opposition to the move which, he said, was necessary to restore peace in the province that had been “in a state of war” for 30 years after it became the base for a Western-backed guerrilla war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

Independent member from Balochistan Mohammad Usman was most critical of the government’s handling of the situation in his troubled province, particularly vis-à-vis the issue of “missing persons” allegedly picked up by intelligence agencies and the recent murder of three Baloch nationalist politicians after they were abducted from the office of a lawyer in Turbat.

“Don’t push the Baloch like Bengalis,” he warned the government and called for halting what he called continuing military operation in Balochistan, registering a first information report for the murder of three Baloch leaders, starting dialogue with “the real political forces” of the province and recognising the Baloch people’s right over their natural resources.

PPP chief-whip and Labour and Manpower Minister Khurshid Ahmed Shah assured the house that the federal government would seek a report from the PPP-led Balochistan provincial government about people who went missing during years of the previous military-led Musharraf government.

The house was later adjourned until 4pm on Monday.

Video shows killing of man and woman

KOHAT, April 17: A video footage sent by some unidentified people to Dawn on Friday shows Taliban firing squad killing a man and a woman after accusing them of having committed adultery.

The two, who appeared to be in their 40s, were gunned down in the presence of their relatives.

According to sources the incident took place in Hangu district a few days ago. In the video, the woman is heard appealing to the Taliban for mercy. “Have mercy on me, please have mercy, the charges against me are false and no man has ever touched me.”

Taliban first pump bullets into woman’s chest and then fire a burst from Kalashnikovs at her and the man. As the woman appeared to be breathing, some Taliban are heard shouting, “she is alive, kill her”. —Abdul Sami Paracha

PM wants Balochistan issue to be resolved politically

ISLAMABAD, April 17: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani supported on Friday a demand for urgent steps to resolve the Balochistan issue politically.

“A situation has been created in the province to destabilise Pakistan in what appears to be a conspiracy to seize and destroy the nation’s assets,” he said while participating in a debate triggered by a number of motions moved by all parliamentary groups on the issue, including an adjournment motion seeking on the recent killing of three Baloch nationalist leaders.

The chair clubbed together all the motions containing various demands and suggestions for resolving the issue.

Acting Chairman Jan Mohammad Jamali said the matter was very important and needed extensive deliberations.

Some lawmakers said they saw an international conspiracy behind the present law and order situation in Balochistan and called for “complete autonomy” for the province.

They rejected a committee headed by the Balochistan IG to investigate the murder of the Baloch politicians and demanded a commission under a Supreme Court judge to look into the circumstances leading to the crime and fix responsibility.

The prime minister said that discussion in parliament would help guide the government. He said he would soon call a meeting of the defence committee to discuss ways of improving the situation in the province. Guidance would also be sought from the committee on national security, he added.

Dr Abdul Malik of the Balochistan National Party said the situation had turned so serious that Baloch youths were openly talking of “secession from Pakistan

He criticised Prime Minister’s Adviser on Interior Rehman Malik for blaming India for the security situation and asked what the 700,000 army troops were doing to protect Pakistans territory.

Shahid Bugti of the Jamhuri Watan Party condemned the killing of the three Baloch politicians when the people of Balochistan had not yet recovered from the grief of the assassination of Nawab Akbar Bugti and Balaach Marri. He said that Gen (retd) Musharraf who was responsible for the catastrophe in the province was being protected and provided protocol.

He said the Baloch youths were raising “slogans of separation” and warned that the country would ‘disintegrate’ if the issue was not resolved at the earliest. He added parliament was the only forum to debate all important national issues and suggest solutions.

US nuclear experts expelled from N.Korea

BEIJING: Four US experts monitoring the shutdown of a North Korean nuclear plant were expelled Friday from the isolated nation, Chinese media reported, days after they were told to leave.

The four departed Pyongyang’s Sunan airport for Beijing “under the DPRK’s (North Korea’s) expulsion order,” Xinhua news agency said.

North Korea on Tuesday pulled out of nuclear disarmament talks and ordered US and UN nuclear inspectors out of the country after the United Nations Security Council condemned Pyongyang for an April 5 rocket launch.

The UN nuclear inspectors left North Korea on Thursday.

The US Embassy in Beijing said it was unaware of the departure of the American nuclear experts and declined immediate comment.

The hardline communist state also announced plans to restart production of weapons-grade plutonium at its Yongbyon plant that had been shut down under an agreement reached at the disarmament talks.

The Yongbyon complex produced enough plutonium for a 2006 nuclear test and for several other bombs until it was closed in 2007 under a six-nation deal brokered with China, the United States, South Korea, Japan and Russia.

North Korea has previously threatened to quit the six-party talks, which began in 2003 and several times came close to collapse.

But its Tuesday statement announced it would “never” take part in such discussions again and was no longer bound by any six-party agreements.

Pyongyang appears to be pushing instead for bilateral talks with the United States, analysts say.

“We hope that the United States and North Korea will improve their relationship and develop it,” Japan’s Nikkei economic daily quoted Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi as saying in an interview in Beijing on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the United States said that a committee under the UN Security Council was meeting on expanding sanctions against North Korea that were put in place after Pyongyang’s first-ever atomic bomb test in 2006.

Pakistan secures $5bn in fresh aid: FoDP to set up secretariat in Islamabad

TOKYO, April 17: The Friends of Democratic Pakistan (FoDP), led by the United States and Japan, pledged more than $5 billion on Friday to stabilise Pakistan’s troubled economy and fight the spread of terrorism in the country and neighbouring Afghanistan.

The US and Japan started off the one-day conference by pledging $1 billion each. Saudi Arabia added $700 million and the EU $640 million.

The total pledged was $5.28 billion, according to Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

“There is a desire to help Pakistan,” President Asif Ali Zardari said, but added that the international community was still trying to grasp the implications of the problems his country faced.

“Despite the fact that I lost the mother of my children, I have taken up this challenge … to lead Pakistan out of these difficult times,” Mr Zardari said.

“It is a terrain where no forces in the world or no armies of the world have never won before,” he said. “War as it is is not a ‘win proposition’.”

“I still fear that the understanding of the danger that Pakistan faces still does not register fully in the minds of the world,” he said. “If we lose, you lose. If we lose, the world loses.”

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso said he was impressed by the president’s resolve.

“I am convinced that the strong commitment by Pakistan itself will strengthen the resolve of the international community to support the civilian government,” Mr Aso told the gathering.

“We cannot stabilise Afghanistan without stabilising Pakistan and the opposite is also true,” he added.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said: “We feel and we believe that Pakistan is serious in combating terrorism.”

Speculation has simmered that Mr Mottaki and US special envoy Richard Holbrooke would have a chance to chat at Friday’s gathering, but Mr Holbrooke was coy when asked if they had spoken. “We ran into each other,” he told reporters.

The donors said their contributions would be focussed on improving the economic climate in Pakistan through infrastructure and other projects, and stressed that stability in Pakistan was key to averting the growth of terrorism throughout the region.

The total fell short of Mr Zardari’s hope of as much as $6 billion in pledges. The conference’s Japanese hosts had said they expected a figure closer to $4 billion.

“We have demonstrated our clear determination to face the issues,” said Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone.

Both Japan and the US will make their contributions over the next two years, and neither represented a dramatic change in their current pattern of donations. Saudi Arabia’s pledge would also be disbursed over the next two years, and the EU’s over the next four years.

The US said in a statement it would contribute $1 billion as a “down payment” on aid it has already announced.

Mr Qureshi called the conference a success.

“I am more than satisfied with the successful conclusion of today’s conference,” he said. “In fact, I am delighted.”

Though focussed on Pakistan, the conference also discussed related issues in neighbouring Afghanistan.

“Without stability in Pakistan, there is no stability in Afghanistan,” Mr Aso said in a speech opening the conference.

“Stability in border areas is a key and I want to stress that the international community supports comprehensive strategies by the two nations.”

The conference, supported by the World Bank, was attended by 31 countries and 18 international organisations.

The US contribution will go towards Washington’s previously announced plans to give Pakistan $1.5 billion in aid each year for the next five years.

Separately, a $7.6 billion bailout has been granted by the International Monetary Fund to avert the country’s most recent balance-of-payments crisis.

As part of the IMF deal, Pakistan has been asked to reduce its fiscal deficit and to tighten its monetary policy.

ANCHOR OF STABILITY

A statement issued after the Friends’ meeting acknowledged the important role and sacrifices of Pakistan in confronting the menace of terrorism and extremism, as well as its strong commitment to become an anchor of stability and peace in the region as a whole.

President Zardari expressed his gratitude on behalf of the people of Pakistan to the FoDP for lending their support to Pakistan enabling it to realise the vision of a democratic, progressive, welfare state, committed to the consolidation of democratic institutions, the rule of law, good governance, achieving socioeconomic advancement, economic reform, and overcoming the challenges posed by terrorism and extremism.

President Zardari reiterated the commitment of the government and people of Pakistan to defeat terrorism and militancy.

He outlined the steps Pakistan would take to stem the spread of extremism and to address the political, economic and security challenges confronting the country.

He stressed that his government and the international community would remain firm partners in confronting and eliminating terrorism, militancy and extremism.The president also expressed the commitment to achieve economic reforms for further stability of the country.

The meeting recognised with appreciation the resolve of the government and the people of Pakistan to promote peace, security, stability and prosperity within the region and to work with the international community constructively to promote these goals at the global plane.

In this context, the meeting recognised the need for Pakistan’s strategy for public diplomacy to attract further support for and solidarity with the people and the government.

The meeting expressed its full support to the efforts of the government of Pakistan in ensuring its security and upholding the sovereignty, political independence and territorial integrity of Pakistan.

The members of the FoDP decided to deepen and broaden their engagement with and provide tangible support to Pakistan with a view to establishing a robust partnership for peace and development.

The meeting expressed support for Pakistan’s efforts to further advance economic reforms by undertaking policy reform, privatisation as well as increasing private sector’s growth, accountability and transparency.

The meeting decided to establish effective follow-up mechanisms for international cooperation and coordination including working groups, with interested countries and institutions, in the identified areas of development, security, energy and institution capacity building besides trade and finance.

The working groups will carry forward the process of analysis, formulation, evaluation and implementation of proposals in the above areas. The existing donor coordination mechanisms will be strengthened.

It was decided that the FoDP process would be carried forward with a view to exploring all avenues to support Pakistan in realising shared development priorities and addressing security challenges with focus on less developed areas.

In particular, the Friends will support the efforts of the government of Pakistan to tap the potential of public-private partnerships and that of civil society actors. To facilitate the process of the FoDP and its follow up, the meeting welcomed the decision of the government of Pakistan to set up the FoDP secretariat in Islamabad.

The meeting welcomed Turkey’s proposal to host the next ministerial meeting in Istanbul.The meeting also affirmed the solidarity of the international community to the Pakistani nation for realising the vision of a democratic welfare state committed to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.—Agencies

Rajnath Singh, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Lalu Prasad file nominations

BIHAR: BJP president Rajnath Singh, SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad filed their nominations on Friday.

Rajnath Singh filed nomination from Ghaziabad Lok Sabha constituency, while Mulayam filed his papers from Mainpuri; both in Uttar Pradesh.

Lalu Prasad filed his nomination from Patliputra parliamentary seat in Bihar.

The RJD chief is also contesting from Saran constituency in the state.

Four robbers killed in Karachi encounter: police

KARACHI: Four robbers have been killed in a pre-Dawn encounter at Shara-e-Faisal in Karachi, police said on Saturday.

The DIG Police confirmed that the encounter took place at Shara-e-Faisal in the wee hours of Saturday.

In the exchange of fire that ensued, four dacoits were killed, and anther arrested.

Indian schoolgirl left in the sun to die

NEW DELHI, April 17: An 11-year-old Indian schoolgirl died after a teacher allegedly made her stand in the baking sun as punishment for not doing her homework, reports said on Friday.

Shanno Khan started bleeding from the nose and fainted after hours in the searing New Delhi heat on Wednesday, and slipped into a coma after being taken to hospital. She died on Friday, the NDTV news channel reported.

Reports say the teacher and the school principal have been suspended, with police waiting for the autopsy on the girl’ body before filing a possible criminal case.

India’ Minister for Women and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury said the incident was a “terrible tragedy”.

Corporal punishment is banned in India, but children are often physically abused by school authorities and teachers.—AFP

Mayhem in Hyderabad prison continues, 15 cops held hostage

HYDERABAD: Fifteen policemen have been held hostage by the inmates at the Hyderabad Central Jail in protest against registration of fake cases and police operation against them.

According to DIG Prisons Alauddin Abbasi said 15 policemen still held hostage by prisoners. Cases would be register against them and their demands will not be accepted.

Meanwhile, jail management said facilities provided to inmates have been discontinued due to chaos whereas Edhi sources said jail management has requested them to provide food for prisoner women and children.

More ‘accountability’?

LIKE the law and constitution and all noble concepts reduced by our politicians and generals to a farce, accountability, too, has been nothing more than a convenient shibboleth.

While rulers Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto relied on ‘screening’ and wholesale dismissals to get rid of officers presumed corrupt or on the wrong side of the regime, it was Ziaul Haq who used accountability unabashedly as an instrument of political persecution. In the post-Zia period, both the PPP and PML-N harassed, arrested and tried their rivals for reasons which were more often than not political and parochial.

A large number of these politicians and public servants were justifiably perceived as guilty of malfeasance, but they were incarcerated — sometimes without trial — not for meeting the ends of justice but because they were on the wrong side politically. When political vendetta was the motive, the accountability process had to be selective. During the Musharraf era, some politicians known to be corrupt were spared accountability and given key posts in the federal cabinet because they agreed to collaborate with the military regime. Then a new concept found its way into our accountability jargon — plea bargaining, which, in effect, meant a corrupt politician or public servant could keep part of the loot if he accepted guilt and surrendered the rest.

On Wednesday, the government tabled in the National Assembly a bill designed to scrap the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 and establish an Accountability Commission to mete out justice to corrupt public office-holders in a ‘just, transparent and non-oppressive manner.’ The bill will apply to former presidents, prime ministers and parliamentarians accused of corruption and excludes public servants. It doesn’t matter what the new name of the accountability institution will be; what does is that the process of justice should conform to the aims mentioned. The laws already on the statute books are comprehensive enough for this purpose provided the government of the day follows due process, and the laws are applied to all citizens in a manner that does not smack of dishonesty and excludes pardon or reprieve under foreign pressure — or for reasons of political expediency manifested in the National Reconciliation Ordinance. One is surprised, however, that the proposed law disqualifies a convict from becoming an MP only for five years. This is astonishing. Someone whose guilt has been truly established has no business to sit again among those who make laws for the nation’s good.

Taliban influence in bureaucracy

THE growing threat of violent extremism in different parts of Pakistan including Fata and Malakand Division is a matter of serious concern.

The harrowing factor is that the writ of the Taliban is solidifying both in the north and the south not only in the Pashtun belt but also in the heartland of Pakistan.

That a high-level provincial official posted in Swat should write a letter to the NWFP home department implying the complicity of the commissioner of Malakand Division in the ever-expanding influence of the Taliban in the region is an illustration of what is happening and how.

An alliance of extremist forces in Kashmir, Punjab, Fata and the NWFP and their strategy for Pakistan’s disintegration in the near future have virtually paralysed the administrations in the different settled districts of the NWFP — not to mention the threats made by extremists to invade Islamabad very soon. After the February peace deal between the NWFP government and the banned Tehrik Nifaz-i-Shariat Mohammadi (TNSM), the Tehrik-i-Taliban (TTP) chapter of Swat started a three-pronged assault on the state.

Firstly, the Swat chapter of the TTP started recruitment and the construction of bunkers on a large scale in different parts of Swat while the military and security establishment and the government maintained control in different ways. The security establishment and the Pakistani government seem to be oblivious of the fact that the Taliban movement is far more agile than the security establishment’s response to their onslaught from different directions.

Secondly, the Swat chapter of the TTP, in line with the Taliban alliances in Fata and the rest of Pakistan, were readjusting and relocating therein and have started expanding their assaults from the north to the south of the NWFP. The present onslaught by the Taliban on Buner and Dir is part of this strategy.

Thirdly, the Taliban have started consolidating their positions vis-à-vis the security establishment by controlling strategic passes and side valleys of Swat, Buner, Shangla and Dir. In this scenario, reports that a part of the civil bureaucracy in the NWFP, Fata and elsewhere in Pakistan facilitates the process of Talibanisation is likely to be a worrisome factor for elements within and outside the country.

The present commissioner of Malakand Division is said to have been posted in lower Dir in the early 1990s when the TNSM was in the process of becoming a formidable extremist organisation with a jihadi ideology. The commissioner was said to have been a frequent visitor of Maulana Sufi Mohammad’s madressah and allegedly worked behind the scenes with the initial support of the local khans for the TNSM in 1994 when it brought the whole administration of Malakand Division to a standstill.

Many who saw the 1994 uprising of Malakand Division bear testimony to the fact that the present commissioner of the latter provided all-out help to the insurgents coming from Dir to Swat.

In the early era of Fazlullah’s rise in Swat, again the present commissioner of Malakand Division was posted as the district coordination officer. He was the one, according to local residents, who facilitated the establishment of Fazlullah’s FM radio. He was the one who convinced the local jirga of Mamdherai and Mingora to allow the FM radio to function. It was reported in 2006-07 in the local press that when the Taliban in Swat started destroying CD shops and barber shops and the owners would go to the DCO office for complaints, the DCO would tell them to close the shops because, according to him, running the business was un-Islamic. The present commissioner was also seen by the locals visiting Mamdherai markaz (centre) for Friday prayers frequently.

On April 5, 2009 a battalion of the Taliban militia with heavy weaponry crossed over the hills from Swat to Buner to avowedly supervise the implementation of the Nizam-i-Adl. The local residents of Buner had been resisting the inflow of the Taliban for a long time. The local elders intervened and tried to convince the Taliban to return but the latter opened fire at them, leaving several injured. Later the Taliban captured three policemen and two civilians, and killed them.

The local residents, the people of lower Buner and Sultanwas, gathered to move upward to face the Taliban while the people of upper Buner provided reinforcements. Fighting began and in the ensuing gun-battle some 17 members of the Taliban are said to have been killed. The questions on the minds of the local people were: why would the Taliban come with heavy weapons if they did not want to control Buner? And why were the Taliban allowed by the commissioner to move from Swat to Buner with heavy weapons?

On April 6, a delegation of the TNSM along with the commissioner Malakand Division went to Buner to negotiate with the local elders. They tried to convince the local elders to allow the Taliban to enter the valley. While the delegation engaged the local administration and the elders of Buner, the Taliban started getting reinforcements. In the context of the Taliban expansion to Buner, it is interesting to note the ideological role played by the relatively less known Jamaati Ashaatutoheed WaSunna, the creation of Maulana Tahir Panjpiri, the father of the infamous Major Amir, a well-known IB and ISI operative in the past and allegedly behind the notorious Operation Midnight Jackal. Major Amir, Syed Mohammad Javed (the present commissioner Malakand Division) and Maulana Sufi Mohammad are said to have been quite close since a long time.

According to eyewitnesses, during the recent stand-off between the Taliban and the people of Buner, the commissioner of Malakand Division made efforts to convince the people to allow the Taliban to enter Buner. The commissioner is said to have become annoyed with the superintendent of police in Buner for informing the people about the impending onslaught by the Taliban on the former.

The present commissioner of Malakand Division belongs to a religious family in Shergarh, Malakand Agency. The provincial government of the NWFP deemed it a better solution to the problem to ask for his services during the peace deal with the militants of Swat recently. This seems to be a matter of concern for all those who want to resist the Taliban and preserve a modern civilisation as opposed to adopting a mediaeval way of life.

The fact is that parts of the civilian administration in Fata, the NWFP and the rest of Pakistan is infested with the jihadi ideology and connected to the sympathisers of the Taliban in one way or the other.

Wawrinka rains Monte Carlo misery down on Federer

MONTE CARLO: Roger Federer was free to enjoy the rest of his honeymoon Thursday after being knocked out of the rain-lashed Monte Carlo Masters by compatriot, and Olympic gold medal-winning partner, Stanislas Wawrinka.

World number two Federer, without a title in 2009 and desperately short of form and confidence, went down 6-4, 7-5 to the 13th seed in the third round.

It was Wawrinka’s first victory in three attempts over the 13-time Grand Slam title winner who had lost the last three finals here to Rafael Nadal.

“My forehand was hurting me in the beginning. I was making a few too many errors,” said a subdued Federer after a day when start of play had been delayed by five hours because of heavy rain.

The defeat in just under two hours was Federer’s earliest on clay since the French Open third round in 2004 against Gustavo Kuerten. He now has a week to prepare for the Rome Masters and said he will concentrate on whipping his serve into decent shape.

Federer had originally decided to skip this event, but accepted a late wildcard in the hope of finding his claycourt game in the run-up to the French Open.

Top seed Nadal was taking on Ecuador qualifier Nicolas Lapentti later Thursday, but his third round tie was delayed as the skies opened with a thunder and hailstorm only minutes after Federer and Wawrinka had left the show court.

Wawrinka will line up against Beck after earning what he called the best win of his career.

Kasab unaware of serious charges, says new lawyer

NEW DELHI, April 16: Ajmal Kasab, the surviving gunman arrested for the Mumbai terror attacks, laughs and giggles in the court trying him for mass murder, his new defence lawyer Abbas Kazmi said on Thursday, adding that his client had not realised the enormity of the case against him.

Press Trust of India said Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told the heavily guarded special court in Mumbai’s Arthur Jail that Kasab, the prime accused in the case, would be charged with murder of 166 persons in the attack unleashed by the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e- Taiba group.

Even as the court said it would forward the request of Kasab to Pakistan through diplomatic channels, it has appointed Mr Kazimi to defend him as per Indian law. Mr Kazmi is a private lawyer, not belonging to the legal aid panel. He is a well-known name in the legal circle and has already been introduced to the accused. He is a member of the Sessions Bar Council and is the amicus curie in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case.

Mr Kazmi said Kasab did not understand the gravity of the Mumbai terror attacks case or the charges against him. He was permitted to meet his new client at the jail premises after the days’ proceedings were completed in the Special Court set up there.

“It is clear from the way he was laughing and giggling in the Special Court on Wednesday and Thursday that Kasab has no inkling of the seriousness of the case against him. I tried explaining it to him, including the extent of the punishment he faces, but he failed to see the gravity of the situation,” Mr Kazmi was quoted by CNN-IBN news channel as saying.

He said he tried to impress upon Kasab that he could face a life term or a death sentence, but “he does not seem to realise it”.

Mr Kazmi was provided police security after he came out of the Special Court. He had also appeared on behalf of over two dozen accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb explosions case, and some of the accused in the murder case of music baron Gulshan Kumar.

Reports said special judge M. L. Tahiliyani informed Kasab that the appointment of legal aid panel lawyer Anjali Waghmare had been revoked. Kasab reportedly said he had written to the Pakistani authorities seeking a lawyer. Kasab had sought a special court’s permission to approach Pakistani authorities to appoint a lawyer from there to defend him. “Ek aur try kar sakte hain (We can give it one more try),” Kasab was said to have asked, when informed by the court that it was unlikely that a Pakistani lawyer would be appointed for him by the Pakistan government.

Parishan Khattak passes away

PESHAWAR, April 16: Renowned educationist Professor Parishan Khattak passed away on Thursday. He was 78.

His nimaz-e-janaza will be held in Hayatabad at 11am on Friday.

Prof Khattak was a former adviser to the Azad Kashmir prime minister.

He worked as chairman of Pushto Academy, chairman of the University Grants Commission and vice-chancellor of the Gomal University, Dera Ismail Khan, and Azad Kashmir University, Muzzafarabad, chairman of National Language Authority and chairman of Pakistan Academy of Letters.

He is survived by four sons, Major (retd) Khushal Khattak, former secretary-general of the Peshawar High Court Bar Association, Behlol Khattak, Professor Shahbaz Khattak and Dr Jawed Khattak, and two daughters.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and NWFP Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani expressed deep grief over Prof Khattak’s death.

In their condolence messages, they paid tribute to his services to the country and contribution in the field of literature and education.

The governor said that Prof Khattak’s death had deprived the nation of a great scholar whose services would be remembered for a long time.

IMF calls for tax reform in Pakistan

TOKYO, April 16: Pakistan must focus on reforming its tax system and lowering inflation to restore its economy, but political instability is a key risk to growth, the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday ahead of a donors’ conference.

While Pakistan’s economic policies are on the right track, the global economy has worsened and the domestic political environment is a risk, said Adnan Mazarei, IMF assistant director for the Middle East and Central Asia department.

“I would be remiss if I did not mention that a key risk to Pakistan is political,” Mr Mazarei, mission chief for Pakistan, said in an interview.

“The private investors and the financial market players that we often ask, they point to political uncertainty as a key factor.”

He said Pakistan needed to focus on controlling its budget in the near term, by starting tax reforms and making sure revenues were secured so authorities could then focus on longer-term issues such as reducing poverty.“It is critical that this revenue problem is addressed, with two lines under the word ‘critical’,” he said.

“Otherwise, the social services that are needed will not be provided, the public investment that is needed will not be provided.”

He said that Pakistan’s inflation, which has eased from a record high of 25.3 per cent in August to 19.07 per cent in March, was still stubbornly high, but added that its external reserve position had improved and its exchange rate had stabilised.

A UN official hoped the donors’ conference on Friday would lead to a longer-term dialogue to support socio-economic development.

“The Friends of Pakistan will show, through their pledges, that they are ready to stand by Pakistan in its development process, that Pakistan is not alone in its struggle,” Fikret Akcura, the Resident Representative for the United Nations Development Programme in Pakistan, said.

China, US to promote dialogue

BEIJING, April 16: The United States and China have agreed to work together on bringing peace to Afghanistan and Pakistan, officials said on Thursday following a visit to Beijing by a top US envoy.

Richard Holbrooke, US envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, left China after holding talks with Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and leading cabinet official Dai Bingguo during a two-day trip.

“We came here to share views on the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan because we share a common danger, a common challenge and a common goal,” Mr Holbrooke said in a statement before leaving Beijing.

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said the two sides had agreed to work together on the problem.

“The two sides said they would make efforts to enhance dialogue and cooperation and promote peace, stability and development in South Asia,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said.

Mr Holbrooke will next attend a donors’ conference in Tokyo, where the United States is expected to pledge increased aid to Pakistan.

Cooperation with China, which has close ties with Pakistan and borders Afghanistan, has also been seen as important to the new US plan to root out extremism in the region.—AFP

Mukherjee says diplomacy, not bullet power, worked

NEW DELHI, April 16: Sensing the opposition’s rhetoric against Pakistan had become a low-yield electoral platform, Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee praised his government’s peaceful but firm handling of the post-Mumbai attack ties with Islamabad, claiming that diplomacy, not bullet power, had worked.

United News of India quoted Mr Mukherjee as saying in Agartala that allegations by the Bharatiya Janata Party that the Congress was “soft” towards Pakistan or that it failed to contain terrorism in the country were false. He claimed that apart from Pakistan, Bangladesh too had been used in the Mumbai attack, the news agency said.

He said that after 62 years of India’s Independence, for the first time, Pakistan had admitted that a section of its nationals was involved in the 26/11 Mumbai terror strikes.

“During the (BJP-led) regime, Parliament, Red Fort and Jammu and Kashmir Assembly were attacked and the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee advocated ‘hot persuasion’ against Pakistan, avoiding diplomatic strategies, and India deployed huge forces along the border. Moreover, landmines were planted on thousands acres of land but it yielded nothing except bitter relations,” Mr Mukherjee said.

“The result of Vajpayee’s ‘hot persuasion’ was that more than a thousand poor farmers lost their lives in explosions because the high velocity winds and rats displaced the mines and deposited them on farmland which exploded when the farmers went to till the land for cultivation,” he claimed.

“However, when I assumed charge as External Affairs Minister I spoke to the Pakistan president on three points — to comply with the assurance given by his government to Vajpayeeji in 2004 and Manmohanji in 2008 that they should not entertain anti-Indian activities, dismantling terrorist hideouts on Pak soil, and handing over the Pak terrorists who were exchanged after the Kandahar plane hijack,” he said.

“Pakistan has been isolated like never before and they are facing all this after 26/11,” Mr Mukherjee said, adding the international community had been successfully convinced by India that the Mumbai attacks had originated from Pakistan and Bangladesh, which was solely aimed at destabilising Indian sovereignty.

Downturn likely to create 100m ‘new hungry’

GENEVA, April 16: The United Nations warned on Thursday that the global economic crisis could create up to 100 million “new hungry” as it wipes out jobs in poorer countries.

“The evidence that we have, still anecdotal, is that the problem is starting up,” said David Nabarro, a UN Assistant Secretary-General and coordinator of a task force on global food security.

“The figure and estimate that has been put on the number of new hungry that are likely to result from the crisis, by the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation) is between 50 and 100 million,” he told journalists.

Speaking ahead of an Agriculture Summit organised by the Group of Eight industrialised nations this weekend in Italy, Mr Nabarro said the crisis would swell the ranks of the estimated one billion who are at risk of malnutrition.

The International Labour Organisation estimated in January that two years of global financial and economic meltdown could add 50 million more people to the ranks of the world’s unemployed by the end of 2009, threatening social unrest.

Mr Nabarro said: “We’re anticipating that, with the reduction of their purchasing power as a result of this unemployment, they are going to be facing extreme problems with ensuring that they could feed themselves and their families.”

“As well as the many other difficulties that people of the world are facing… they’re also going to be heading into another period of hunger,” he added.

The task force is urging the three-day meeting of G8 agriculture ministers in Treviso from Saturday to ensure that food and farm reform were included in attempts to revive the global economy, especially through support for smallholders in developing nations, and trade.

Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Mexico, South Africa and the European Commission have also been invited to the G8 meeting.—AFP

Iraqi troops bombed at cafeteria: 16 killed

HABBANIYAH (Iraq), April 16: A suicide bomber disguised in army uniform blew himself up at an Iraqi military base as soldiers queued for lunch on Thursday, killing at least 16 troops and wounding 50, officials said.

The attack at the base in Habbaniyah, about 60km west of Baghdad, was the latest in a series of deadly bombings in recent weeks in Iraq which have killed nearly 100 people and injured three times as many.

“Sixteen soldiers were killed and 50 others were wounded, including officers, when a suicide bomber blew himself up among the soldiers, who were in a queue waiting to enter the cafeteria,” a defence ministry official said.

“The attacker was wearing an Iraqi army uniform,” he said, adding that no civilians were allowed into the base.

Police confirmed the attack, saying the suicide bomber had concealed his explosives under his uniform.

Another defence ministry official, however, denied there were any deaths in the attack.

Iraq’s Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said on Wednesday he expected such attacks as US troops prepare to withdraw from Iraqi cities by the end of June, making the Iraqi army to get ready to stand alone to tackle the situation.

On Wednesday, an attack targeting a bus carrying police assigned to guard northern Iraq’s oil industry killed 10 people in the city of Kirkuk.

The explosion could have been caused by a parked car bomb or a car driven by suicide bomber, police said.—AFP