ITCN ASIA 2009

22.06.2009, 10:13: Int’l Conference on ERP – Enterprise Resource Planning to be held in conjunction with 9th ITCN Asia 2009 at Karachi Expo Centre on August 13, 2009
17.06.2009, 10:46: International Conference on Construction Industry-ICCI 2009 to be held on August 01, 2009 at Karachi Expo Centre
15.06.2009, 10:10: Trade/Corporate Visitors registration for 9th ITCN Asia Int’l Exhibition started. Ecommerce Gateway
01.06.2009, 10:03: Trade/Corporate Visitors registration for 5th Build Asia Int’l Exhibition started Ecommerce Gateway
08.04.2009, 17:10: 6th Textile Asia 2009 – Int’l Textile & Garment Machinery Show ended successfully today at Karachi Expo Centre
07.04.2009, 21:43: Federal Minister for Environment, Hameed Ullah Jan Afridi and other dignitaries visited the 6th Textile Asia 2009 Int’l Exhibition today
05.04.2009, 16:56: Textile Asia – Int’l Textile & Garment Machinery Show is being organized for the 6th consecutive year from 5th to 8th April 2009 at Karachi Expo Centre – Ecommerce Gateway
30.03.2009, 19:16: Power & Alternative Energy Asia & Engineering Asia Int’l Exhibitions incorporating Int’l Conference on Alternative Energy & Power ended up with grand success– Dr. Khursheed Nizam, President, Ecommerce Gateway
28.03.2009, 22:50: Askari Taqvi, Provincial Minister Sindh for Environment Alternative Energy alongwith Arif Allauddin, CEO, AEDB and Dr. Khursheed Nizam, President, Ecommerce Gateway inaugurated the 3rd Power & Alternative Energy Asia Exhibition, 6th Engineering Asia Exhibition and ICAEP 2009 Conference on Alternative Energy & Power today
13.03.2009, 18:28: 3rd Food, Agri & Livestock Asia 2009, 5th Health Asia & 4th Plastic, Packaging & Print Asia 2009 ended up with the grand success on March 13, 2009– Ecommerce Gateway
13.03.2009, 10:36: Pakistan is prepared to capitalize on the fast growing global Halal Food Market– Ecommerce Gateway
12.03.2009, 16:33: 5th Health Asia 2009 Int’l “Conference on Quality in Health Care” was held on the 2nd Day of the Event at Karachi Expo Centre – Ecommerce Gateway
12.03.2009, 11:00: 5th Health Asia 2009 Conference on Burns & Cosmetic Surgery at Karachi Expo Centre helped out professionals to evaluate the circumstances of improvement in Burns preventions – Ecommerce Gateway
12.03.2009, 11:00: Productive discussion at 2-days Pak-ASEAN Workshop pointed out opportunities in theGlobal Halal Market for Pakistan – Ecommerce Gateway
11.03.2009, 17:46: 5th Health Asia 2009 Int’l “Conference on Updates in Vaccination” held today at Karachi Expo Centre – Ecommerce Gateway
11.03.2009, 17:46: 5th Health Asia 2009 Int’l “Conference on Pharmaceutical Marketing” held today at Karachi Expo Centre – Ecommerce Gateway
11.03.2009, 17:46: Dr. Sagheer Ahmed, Provincial Minister for Health, Sindh inaugurated the 5th Health Asia 2009 International Exhibition & Conferences today – Ecommerce Gateway
11.03.2009, 12:46: 3rd Food, Agri & Livestock Asia 2009 Int’l Exhibition & Conference commenced today at Karachi Expo Centre – Ecommerce Gateway
11.03.2009, 11:23: Pak-ASEAN Workshop on Halal Food Production Technology and Certification System commenced today at Karachi Expo Centre – Ecommerce Gateway
01.01.2009, 9:26: 5th Health Asia, Int’l Exhibition & Conferences incorporating Pharma Asia Exhibition to be held from 11-13 March 2009 at Karachi Expo Centre

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.

	Dilruba wins main event at KRC KARACHI: Champion jockey Mohd Essa asserted himself to win two races at the Karachi track on Sunday. He piloted home Reyan The Great in the second race, and went on to complete the only double … more
	Pakistan’s IPL players set to meet with Modi KARACHI: Sohail Tanvir, the left-arm fast bowler, has said he and other Pakistan players will go to South Africa to discuss their IPL suspension with tournament chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi. <… more
	Younis regains top spot in Test rankings LONDON: Pakistan captain Younis Khan regained the number one spot as West Indies’ Shivnarine Chanderpaul lost his place at the top of the International Cricket Council (ICC) world batting rankings in … more
	Mumbai keep IPL hopes alive PORT ELIZABETH: Mumbai Indians rode on a record stand by Jean-Paul Duminy and Ajinkya Rahane to beat Bangalore Royal Challengers by 16 runs in the Indian Premier League on Sunday. The duo put o… more
	Former greats back PCB stance over World Cup KARACHI: Former cricketers supported Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) move to serve a legal notice against International Cricket Council (ICC) for the discriminatory shift of World Cup matches from Paki… more
	ICC to discuss referral system, day-night Tests LONDON: The future of international cricket’s controversial umpiring referral system will be up for discussion when a group of leading administrators gathers here at Lord’s. The two-day meeting… more
	England add Sidebottom and Bell to Test squad LONDON: England added batsman Ian Bell and left-arm quick Ryan Sidebottom to their squad on Sunday as they named a 13-man party for the second Test against the West Indies at Chester-le-Street startin… more
	Badrinath guides Chennai to top of IPL KIMBERLEY: An unbeaten half-century from Subramanium Badrinath propelled the Chennai Super Kings to a seven-wicket win over the Rajasthan Royals and put them top of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on … more
	Barcelona ready for title as sorry Real Madrid crash MADRID: Barcelona can win the Spanish league for the 19th time on Sunday after double champions Real Madrid waved the white flag in the title race with a 3-0 loss at Valencia on Saturday. Real … more
	Steven Gerrard keeps Liverpool title hopes alive LONDON: Steven Gerrard fired Liverpool title hopes of the Premier League and then voiced optimism that rivals Manchester United could yet slip up in the final stages of the season. Two first-ha… more
	United back on top after derby win MANCHESTER: Carlos Tevez helped Manchester United take a giant stride towards the Premier League title as Sir Alex Ferguson’s side coasted to victory over Manchester City at Old Trafford on Sunday.more
	Button reigns in Spain as Brawn finish 1-2 BARCELONA: Jenson Button won his fourth Formula One race of the season on Sunday by taking the Spanish Grand Prix ahead of Brawn GP teammate Rubens Barrichello. Button’s two-stop strategy prov… more
	Shabbir Iqbal wins Pakistan Open KARACHI: As expected, Shabbir Iqbal whisked to a comfortable victory in the Pakistan Open, winning the country’s most prestigious golf crown by nine strokes in Islamabad on Sunday. Shabbir, the… more
	Pakistan down India 3-2 to enter Asia Cup last-four Youngster Haseem Khan shines as Sohail Abbas scores a timely winner in Kuantan KUANTAN, Malaysia: Sohail Abbas found his scoring touch just in time to lead Pakistan into the Asia Cup semifinals… more
	Coach Shahid says victory will boost title hopes KARACHI: Pakistan are hoping that Sunday’s 3-2 triumph over India will serve them as a much-needed tonic during the rest of their Asia Cup campaign in Kuantan, Malaysia. Facing possible elimina… more
	Dementieva advances to second round MADRID: Third-seeded Elena Dementieva beat Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the United States 6-4, 6-1 on Saturday to reach the second round of the new-look Madrid Masters. The tournament is being play… more
	Davydenko, Blake held up by Estoril showers ESTORIL, Portugal: James Blake will have to engineer a Sunday comeback after his rain-interrupted Estoril Open semifinal against Nikolay Davydenko was finally suspended by darkness on Saturday. more
	Asian martial arts gala postponed, again KARACHI: After taking into consideration the deteriorating political situation in Bangkok the First Asian Martial Arts Games have been once again postponed, a top official of the Pakistan Olympic Asso… more
	Irie breaks record as Aussies win Duel CANBERRA: Ryosuke Irie set a new world record in the men’s 200-metre backstroke as Australia hung on to narrowly beat Japan in the two-day Duel in the Pool swim meet here on Sunday. Irie sliced… more
	F1 teams expect Mosley meeting before Monaco GP BARCELONA: Formula One teams expect to meet Max Mosley in the next 10 days after seeking urgent talks with the head of the governing body over what they see as unacceptable 2010 rules. “Between… more
	Number one Safina learning to live with swing ROME: World number one Dinara Safina knows she’s a marked woman, but the Russian 23-year-old is enjoying her new, lofty position in women’s tennis. Safina, the younger sister of former men’s nu… more
	Federer checks anti-Nadal strategy MADRID: Avoiding a pre-Paris showdown against Rafael Nadal would wreck Roger Federer’s title dreams at the new Madrid Masters this week but might also pay strategic dividends at Roland Garros. … more
	Djokovic battles into Belgrade final BELGRADE: Top seed and world number three Novak Djokovic came from a set down to beat Italian fourth seed Andreas Seppi 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 and reach the final of the inaugural Serbia Open here on Saturday…. more
	Briefs… Cash may keep rebels in ICL DHAKA: Bangladesh’s rebel cricketers want to accept an amnesty offered by the sport’s authorities but lucrative deals with the Indian Cricket League (ICL) may force … more

Pakistan qualifies for Asia Cup semi-final after beating India

Sohail Abbas (C) celebrates with Waseem Ahmed after scoring Pakistan’s winning goal against India during the Men’s Asia Cup hockey tournament in Kuantan, 250 km northeast of Kuala Lumpur, May 10, 2009. –Reuters Photo/Zainal Abd Halim

KUANTAN: Sohail Abbas found his scoring touch just in time to lead Pakistan into the Asia Cup semi-final field hockey with a 3-2 win over India in a Group B match in Malaysia Sunday.

The Pakistanis had five penalty corners but Sohail was on target with only one attempt and that turned out to be the winner.

Pakistan had earlier on Saturday drawn 1-1 with China and needed a win to book their semi-final place.

Pakistan coach Shahid Ali Khan said that the recall of the four players from Europe made the difference in the match.

‘Sohail, Salman Akhbar, Waseem Ahmad and Rehan Butt gave us experience and were influential in the win. We needed the full points and credit to the players in achieving it,’ he said.

The match was an absorbing encounter with a lot of goal-scoring chances at both ends.

Pakistan took the initiative from the start. They had the ball in the back of the net in the fourth minute but Tariq Aziz’s effort was ruled out by South African umpire Jon Wright.

Prabhjot Singh gave India the lead in the 16th minute after a botched penalty corner attempt.

The Pakistanis drew level in the 33rd minute when Sandeep Singh fumbled with his clearance and allowed the 20-year-old Haseem Khan to score.

In the second half Pakistan went on the offensive early and took the lead just one minute into the game. Haseem Khan was the scorer when he deflected a long ball into the D.

Rain started to fall in the 43rd minute and India managed to score their equaliser in the 46th minute through Rajpal Singh before play was stopped.

Play resumed after 45 minutes. Pakistan attacked and in the 54th minute won a penalty corner. Sohail finally got it correct with a low flick to put his team in the semis.

India coach Herender Singh was disappointed with the result but remained confident that his team will make the semi-finals.

‘It was a good match and could have gone either way. Now we are under pressure and will have to get a win against China on Tuesday,’ he said.

‘My players did well and I have no complaints about their performances,’ he added.

Source: Dawn News

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

Protests against fees hike, student killing in Swat and Lahore

SWAT: The students of Jahanzeb College of Swat hold protest demonstration against increment in fees and blocked Syedo Sharif Road.

They were carrying placards and chanted slogans against fees increment. Meanwhile, students of a private university protest killing of fellow student who was hit by a car in Defence area. Two out of three persons traveling in the car that hit the student were arrested whereas third one was managed to flee from the scene.

The students of LUMS said they would continue protest till the arrest of third accused.

The negotiations between police and students in this connection ended at failure till the last reports came in.

IRSA says enough water available for Rabi season

ISLAMABAD: Enough water is available for the Rabi season especially for the crops of sugarcane, cotton and rice beside others as the water level is improving at Tarbela and Mangla ay by day, a senior official of the Indus River System Authority (IRSA) said on Monday.

Water level at Mangla, the second largest water reservoir of the country, will cross 100 feet above the dead level in a couple of days as it reached 97 feet on Monday according to expected water inflow.

Water level is improving specially in both the major reservoirs of the country Tarbela and Mangla besides in Kabul river day by day due to impact of snow melting.

According to data released by Indus River System Authority (IRSA), water level at Mangla, the second largest water reservoir of the country was recorded 1136.90 feet which was about 97 feet higher than the dead level which is 1040 feet.

Mangla Dam received total inflow 56, 627 cusecs water on Monday morning and only 35,000 cusecs water was released according to the official data.

However, 1408.80 feet water level was recorded at Tarbela, the largest water reservoir of the country which was more than 40 feet higher than the dead level 1369 at the dam.

Tarbela Dam received a total inflow 42,200 cusecs and only 15,000 cusecs water was released from the Dam.

Water inflow 45,000 cusecs was recorded in the River Kabul and18, 086 cusecs inflow was recorded at Marala of Chenab River.

British boy dies in Venezuela plane crash

CARACAS: A 6-year-old British boy was killed when a small plane carrying British tourists crashed shortly after takeoff from an airstrip near Venezuela’s Angel Falls.

The boy was traveling with eight other British tourists, including his parents, civil protection director Luis Diaz told on Saturday.

He said all 10 survivors on board, including a Venezuelan pilot and co-pilot, were flown to nearby Ciudad Bolivar and were being treated for injures at a hospital. The boy’s aunt, June Holman, said the dead child was 6-year-old Thomas Horne.

The single-engine plane, a Cessna 208 Caravan, crashed Friday afternoon near the runway in the popular tourist destination of Canaima, a national park where they went to visit Venezuela’s famed Angel Falls, Diaz said.

Situation in Swat returning to normal: PM

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Monday that the situation in Swat was returning to normal and no one including the US should be worried about that.

Talking in Geo news program ‘Capital Talk’, Prime Minister Gilani said that he was not concerned at all with TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Mohammad’s statements. To a question, the prime minister said Pakistan knows well how to safeguard its national interests and the US special envoy Richard Holbrooke should not be worried about situation in Swat.

On lawyers’ long march, Gilani said that the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani phoned Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan with his prior approval.

US plans to stop use of radio stations by Taliban: WSJ

NEW YORK: The Obama administration has begun a broad-based effort to prevent the Taliban from using radio stations and Web sites in Pakistan and Afghanistan to intimidate and threaten civilians.

A report in the Wall Street Journal Saturday says: ‘As part of the classified effort, American military and intelligence personnel are working to jam the unlicensed radio stations in Pakistan’s lawless regions on the Afghanistan border that Taliban fighters use to broadcast threats and decrees.’

The Taliban and other armed groups have carried out a wave of attacks in the two countries. US officials believe the
Taliban enjoy an advantage by being able to freely communicate threats and decrees.

In Pakistan, Taliban leaders use unlicensed FM stations to recite the names of local Pakistani government officials, police officers and other figures who have been marked for death by the group. Hundreds of people named in the broadcasts have later been killed, WSJ said citing US and Pakistani officials.

‘The Taliban aren’t just winning the information war —we’re not even putting up that much of a fight,’ a senior US official in Afghanistan told WSJ. ‘We need to make it harder for them to keep telling the population that they’re in control and can strike at any time.’

A new push to contain the Taliban reflects the influence of Gen. David Petraeus, who runs the military’s Central Command and has long been a major proponent of using psychological operations to reduce popular support for armed Islamist groups.

Besides, the WSJ pointed out Richard Holbrooke, the administration’s special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan, publicly alluded to the new program late last month. He told reporters there were 150 illegal FM radio stations in Pakistan’s Swat Valley, which allowed militants to go ‘around every night broadcasting the names of people they’re going to behead or they’ve beheaded.’

Mr. Holbrooke likened the Taliban radio stations to Rwanda’s Radio Mille Collines, a virulently sectarian broadcaster widely believed to have helped fuel the Rwandan genocide. The US considered jamming the station in the 1990s, but ultimately chose not to.

‘Nothing has been done so far’ about impeding the Taliban communications, Mr. Holbrooke said. ‘We have identified the information issue … as a major, major gap to be filled.’

Psychological operations can be controversial. In Iraq, the US personnel are also trying to block the Pakistani chat rooms and Web sites that are part of the country’s burgeoning extremist underground. The Web sites frequently contain videos of attacks and inflammatory religious material that attempts to justify acts of violence, the newspaper said.

The push takes the administration deeper into ‘psychological operations,’ which attempt to influence how people see the US, its allies and its enemies. Officials involved with the new program argue that psychological operations are a necessary part of reversing the deterioration of stability in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Psychological operations have long been a part of war, famously in World War II when ‘Tokyo Rose’ broadcast English-language propaganda to Allied troops. More recently, some militaries have used high-tech methods. During the December-January war in Gaza, Israeli forces sent cellphone text messages to alert Palestinian civilians to impending strikes and encourage them to turn against the militant group Hamas.

The Obama administration’s recently released strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan calls for sending 4,000 US military trainers to Afghanistan and sharply expanding economic aid to Pakistan. The US may also provide radio-jamming equipment to the Pakistani government, according to officials familiar with the plans.

Henry A. Crumpton, a former State Department counterterrorism chief who led the CIA’s Afghanistan campaign in 2001 and 2002, warned against relying too heavily on high-tech solutions such as disrupting militant radio broadcasts.

‘Those can be very effective, but they’re —underscore —short-term tactics,’ he told WSJ.

Still, many military officials believe that stabilising Afghanistan and Pakistan requires gradually diminishing the Taliban’s public standing while simultaneously building popular support for more moderate local political and religious institutions allied with the US

‘It’s not an issue of trying to persuade your average Pakistani farmer to love the US,’ a US official told W SJ. ‘The idea, frankly, is to muddy the water a bit.’

As part of this push, the US has started US-funded radio stations in many rural parts of Afghanistan.

In one example, Army Special Forces teams in eastern Paktia, a restive Afghan province that abuts the Pakistani frontier, put on air a radio station late last year called ‘the Voice of Chamkani,’ referring to the village where the US base is located, and distributed hundreds of radio receivers.

Bomber eliminates 23 troops in Hangu attack

KOHAT: The country’s security apparatus suffered a devastating blow on Saturday when a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a military checkpost in Hangu, eliminating 23 soldiers.

Seven policemen, 10 security personnel and nine civilians were injured in the blast.

‘A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into our check-post close to a police station in Doaba,’ a security official said. ‘We suffered the most casualties.’

Some officials said the bomber had rammed his vehicle into a Thall-bound military convoy in Doaba, on Hangu-Parachinar highway.

They said 11 vehicles, which were part of the convoy, had been destroyed in the attack, which happened not far from the army camp. The military, however, denied its convoy had been hit.

Eyewitnesses said security forces cordoned off the area and blocked the Kohat-Parachinar highway at Doaba and nobody was allowed to go near the scene of the explosion.

The army called its own bomb disposal squad from Thall Garrison. The check-post was located on the Hangu-Parachinar road, which remained closed for more than a year when militants blocked the artery to stop food and fuel supplies from reaching Parachinar, the Kurram Agency’s headquarters.

In another incident earlier on Saturday morning, one person was killed and three were injured in a blast in Malikabad area of Hangu bazaar.

The SHO of Doaba police station, Ammal Khan, and constable Asal Murad, who were sitting in a mobile van close to the army camp, were injured.

Police said the bomber had used 100kg of explosives. They blamed the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan for the strike, but the banned militant outfit did not claim responsibility for the bombing.

The dead and the seriously injured were taken to the civil hospital in Hangu and the Combined Military Hospital in Thall, a police spokesman for the Kohat region said.

Preliminary reports suggested that the suicide bomber had come to the area on Friday and took up residence in Hangu. ‘It was in the knowledge of the terrorists that a convoy would pass through the camp on Saturday afternoon,’ a local said.

Hangu has seen bloodletting bred by sectarianism over the past two years. A total of 48 people had died in sectarian clashes during Muharram last year.

The military had carried out a major clean-up operation in Doaba in August last year to flush out militants who had infiltrated from nearby Kurram and Orakzai regions.

Helicopter gunships have been attacking suspected militant hideouts in Orakzai during the last couple of weeks. ‘Most of the casualties are security forces and some policemen have also been killed,’ a security official said.

‘The bomber was driving a pick-up truck which he rammed into a convoy passing by a security checkpost,’ senior police officer Fareed Khan said in Kohat.

President Asif Ali Zardari, who is in China attending an international economic conference, ‘condemned the attack and vowed to root out terrorism and extremism from the country’, the presidency said in a statement.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ‘strongly condemned’ the incident, describing the suicide attack as ‘a cowardly act of terrorism’, his office said in a statement.

Obama urged not to interfere in Pakistan politics

WASHINGTON: The US administration should not interfere in the domestic politics of Afghanistan and Pakistan despite the temptation to do so, the Washington Post said on Saturday.

A senior Post columnist Jim Hoagland noted that one of US President Barack Obama’s senior analysts had been telling think-tanks that ‘President Asif Ali Zardari should step aside and let Nawaz Sharif, his chief rival, take power’.

Mr Hoagland also noted that ‘muttering about ditching Afghanistan’s Hamid Karzai was rampant at the White House’ while the administration was reviewing its policies for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

But the writer advises Mr Obama to resist such temptations and not to ‘play power chess on a global scale, bypassing or replacing national leaders who balk at grand US designs’.

The journalist warns that such intervention would be particularly disastrous for Pakistan as it ‘would open Pandora’s box for the rest of your presidency —especially since Mr Sharif seems no more capable or honest than Mr Zardari.’

He urges President Obama not to emulate John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in South Vietnam, or Jimmy Carter in Iran.

‘Micromanaging leadership changes abroad becomes all-consuming,’ he adds. ‘So be economical with your personal investment in volatile situations. You have a capable secretary of state in Hillary Clinton. Give her more of the spotlight and the authority.’

The comments followed newspaper reports that Admiral Mike Mullen and Richard Holbrooke met Mr Sharif last week and assured him that he would be acceptable to the US as a future president or prime minister.

Swat deal to remain intact if peace lasts: Gilani

KARACHI: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Saturday that Pakistan would coordinate with the United States on its policy to combat terrorism during talks in Washington next month.

The prime minister told a press conference here, after chairing a meeting of the Sindh cabinet, that it was wrong to think that Pakistan did not have a policy on the war on terror. ‘Our policy is ready and President Asif Ali Zardari, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and the ISI chief will share it with the US administration.’

In reply to a question about the acrimony between the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the Awami National Party following the Swat accord, the prime minister said the two parties had different agenda, but it was his government’s endeavour to defuse the tension.

He said the Swat deal was linked to restoration of peace in the valley. ‘The agreement will remain intact if peace endures,’ he said, adding that the president had signed the Nizam-i-Adl regulation only after 80 per cent peace was restored to Swat.

He said the new accord was an improved version of the agreements signed in 1994 and 1999. He said the government’s reconciliation efforts would strengthen the country’s economy and its institutions and urged political forces to show maturity because the people had voted for a change.

Mr Gilani said Pakistan wanted good relations with neighbouring countries, including Iran, Afghanistan and India.

However, he admitted that the composite dialogue with India had been affected after the Mumbai attacks, but added that efforts were being made to revive the dialogue.

In reply to a question about Sindh government’s demand for announcing the NFC Award before the budget and resolving the issue of GST, Prime Minister Gilani said he would discuss the matter with his Finance Adviser Shaukat Tarin.

The Sindh government has said that GST is provincial matter and it should be distributed on the basis of collection or else the provincial governments should be allowed to collect the tax at their own level. It also sough reimbursement of Rs11.374 billion accumulated since 2000 and resolution of the GST issue on services (Central Excise Mode).

The Sindh Sales Tax Ordinance 2000 empowers the federal government to collect the GST on services on behalf of the province. However, proceeds of the tax are being transferred on the basis of population, resulting in transfer of proceeds collected from one province to another.

According to sources, the ordinance did not empower the federal government to transfer proceeds collected from Sindh to other provinces.

Earlier speaking at the Sindh cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Gilani said the federal government would support infrastructure and social sector development projects in Sindh.

Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan, Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, federal Food Minister Nazar Mohammad Gondal, provincial ministers, advisers and special assistance to the chief minister attended the meeting.

According to sources, the prime minister said his government was working to restore the 1973 Constitution and implement the Charter of Democracy singed by the PPP and the PML-N.

He said the country’s economy was showing a positive trend because of measures taken by the government.

About the unannounced loadshedding by the KESC, he said the issue would be resolved soon and the people of Karachi would get rid of the
loadshedding with the help of better management and improved efficiency.

The prime minister expressed satisfaction over the law and order situation in Sindh. The chief minister briefed the prime minister about law and order, development schemes and other matters.

Three dead in suspected US strike in Pakistan: officials

PESHAWAR: Three people were killed Sunday in a suspected US missile attack targeting a militant hideout in Pakistan’s tribal area bordering Afghanistan, officials said.

‘It was a drone attack,’ local administration official Shahab Ali Shah told AFP. He said two missiles hit a house in Gangi Khel town in the tribal South Waziristan district.

Another official speaking on condition of anonymity said the attack targeted a militant hideout where three people were killed. He gave no details.

A security official confirmed that death toll, saying that five other people were wounded. The targeted house, belonging to a local tribesman, was ‘destroyed in the strike,’ he said.

Three people were killed in a similar attack in the area earlier this month

Pakistan must do more to erase Taliban: US

KABUL: Pakistan must do more to ‘erase’ Taliban bases inside its territory which are destabilising the
entire region, the US commander of Western troops in neighbouring Afghanistan said on Sunday.

US President Barack Obama’s administration has pledged 21,000 more troops to join 39,000 American soldiers fighting Taliban guerrillas in Afghanistan.

It has also stepped up attacks by drones on suspected militant bases across the border in Pakistan.

US Army General David McKiernan, who commands more than 70,000 US and Nato-led troops in Afghanistan, said he was confident the new troops would bring improvements in security to southern Afghanistan this year after years of rising violence.

But he described insecurity as a regional problem that could only be resolved by a stronger effort from Pakistan’s embattled government to tackle safe havens for militants.

‘There must be an improved effort on the other side of the border against these safe havens that many of these insurgent groups operate from in Pakistan,’ he told a news conference.

‘There are sanctuary areas that have existed for many years across the border. They feed terrorism and insecurity on both sides of the border,’ McKiernan said.

‘I think it is safe to say there is an expectation that the government of Pakistan must erase these safe havens so that they are not a threat to their own country and the region. They will have the full support of the international community to do that.’

CHALLENGES

Pakistani authorities bristle at any suggestion that they have been lax in battling Taliban guerrillas on their side of the border. They say thousands of Pakistani troops have died fighting militants, and criticism of their effort only serves to increase anti-Americanism and boost support for the militants.

But international concern over Pakistan’s ability to fight the militants has grown in recent months as attacks by militants have increased both in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the latest strike in Pakistan, a suicide car bomber killed 25 soldiers and police and two passers-by in on Saturday.

Afghanistan expressed worry last week about the impact on its own security of a decision by Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari to accept Taliban demands and impose Islamic law on the Swat valley, where militants have gained ground.

On the Afghan side of the border, Taliban attacks have increased to the highest levels seen since the militants were driven from Kabul in 2001.

‘Challenges, generally, have increased in past years,’

Afghan Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak told the news conference in Kabul alongside the US commander.

‘The level of enemy attacks have gone up, there are foreign combatants (in their ranks), the way they operate has become complex, they have access to better training and equipment.’

McKiernan said he would send most of the new US troops to southern provinces near Pakistan that have seen the greatest rise in instability, and he expected the influx to help.

But he said he had no power to intervene on the Pakistani side of the border. ‘Insecurity and instability is a regional problem and will require regional approaches,’ he said.

No room for democracy in Islam: TNSM Chief

MINGORA: While addressing a large rally here on Sunday, Chief of the Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariat, Maulana Sufi Mohammed said that the movement for the implementation of Sharia began in 1994.

‘The fifteen year struggle of the TNSM for the implementation of Sharia in Malakand is now bearing results,’ the Chief of the Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariat said.

He said the democratic system is an un-Islamic one and the judicial system of Pakistan should be according to the Sharia.

‘Now any appeal against the Qazi courts’ decisions can be made only through the Darul Qaza,’ he added. ‘There is no room for democracy in Islam.’

In line with these statements, Sufi has demanded the abolition of all judges in Malakand, giving April 23 as a deadline for the establishment of Darul Qaza.

Sufi wants Qazis appointed in all the districts within one month and also said that the government should start giving decisions in criminal and other cases according to the Sharia.

Sharia regulation in Swat

NO one can deny the enormously serious political impact that the Sharia regulation will have. Our major political parties bury their heads in the sand when a meteorite hits our political landscape and jolts our whole constitutional infrastructure. Alongside the adverse effects it will have on the overall governance of the state, the Nizam-i-Adl regulation will have widespread legal repercussions.

A reading of the text of the Regulation 2009 indicates that members of our parliament hurriedly passed the resolution without exerting their right of reading and carefully studying several provisions of the regulation. The regulation lacks all the essential qualities of good legislation: clarity, accuracy and constitutionality. Ambiguity and vagueness ruin the very purpose of the legislation and are the two qualities that one may find floating on the surface of this law.

Had Mr M.D. Tahir been alive he certainly would have challenged this law under the constitution as it makes not only various constitutional provisions redundant but also marginalises the role of constitutional bodies, for instance, the Islamic Ideology Council, and even parliament.

According to the 1973 Constitution, as it was originally drafted, to legislate law in consonance with the Quran and Sunnah is the task assigned to parliament. Even when Zia amended the constitution and established the federal sharia court (FSC) and granted it the power to examine laws on the touchstone of the Quran and Sunnah (Article 203D), the FSC was bound to refer the matter to the president to make amendments in case the court found any law or its provision repugnant to the injunctions of Islam.

The FSC is not empowered to make law and proclaim that this law will now be applicable. In the absence of such a provision, when qazis will declare any law un-Islamic, they will also assert what the Islamic law is. Then, their version of Islamic law will begin to apply.

To pass on this burden of legislation to qazis is delegating their responsibility to individuals who will enforce their personal interpretation of Sharia on others. It is beyond comprehension as to how and on what basis the parliament can pass on its role of legislation to another body of the state, more so when the authority is passed to individuals, who have neither technical education nor the experience of dispensation of justice, keeping in view the fundamental human rights enshrined in our constitution.

Anyone who has not been educated about the Pakistani constitution and various other fundamental procedural statutes and their principles cannot dispense justice that is in consonance with our basic law and the treaties that Pakistan has signed in the UN. Sharia under Section 2 (j) of this Regulation means: ‘the injunctions in Islam as laid down in Quran, Sunnah, ijma and qiyas’. Now what are these injunctions? Where is codification of these injunctions? Most lay Muslims believe that whatever law, ritual and custom they practise in their everyday life, including wife-beating, killing in the name of honour, depriving women of higher education, are based on these four sources of law.

Sub-clause 3 of paragraph 6 of the Regulation enables qazis to deal with the cases on the basis of the ‘established principles of Shari’h’. Is there any definitive and exhaustive list of these principles that one may study and refer to? If there is no provision or clear legislation to interpret then qazis are, in effect, empowered to legislate what is Sharia and what are its established principles. This is not the application or interpretation of law, a specific role that is constitutionally assigned to the judiciary. In effect, this is lawmaking.

The sources of law cited in this regulation were employed by the great imams of various Muslim schools of law when they interpreted various commands of the Quran and Sunnah. Generally speaking, this was an exercise in ijtihad carried out by the imams of the majority sects of Pakistan. All of their fatwas, though based on the use of these four sources of Islamic law, are markedly different from each other. In modern times, and especially when we have elected national and provincial assemblies, the responsibility to legislate lies with these bodies, an exercise of the right of ijma. They are duty bound to lay down the law and provide clear legislation to the administration for its application. The judiciary then will make sure that the law is applied in letter and spirit.

According to this regulation the duty to make law has been bestowed upon qazis who would declare what is and what is not in accordance with the Quran, Sunnah, ijma and qiyas. Until a qazi, in a particular case, lays down a ruling the administrative machinery would not be certain if an individual or an agency is acting in accordance or in violation of the injunctions laid down in the four sources of Islamic law.

Even if the administrative authority does exercise its discretion and takes a view, there is no surety that the qazi or qazis above him will agree with that particular interpretation of the sources. This regulation will play havoc with people’s lives as there is no final interpretation of any Islamic injunction and since no one can claim any particular authority over others in a better understanding of the injunctions of Islam.

It was the function of parliament to legislate laws which do not violate the injunctions of Islam and treaties Pakistan is a signatory to. To delegate such an authority to qazis who enjoy ample discretionary powers will espouse sectarian interpretations of Islamic law and dispense injustice. It is a dangerous trend that will influence the members of the judiciary all over Pakistan and they will begin to legislate what they think is based on the ‘true’ interpretation of Islamic injunctions.

Another important character of this piece of legislation that shows its departure from the constitutional norms is the emphasis of the four sources of the injunctions. The constitution does not warrant that laws should be in accordance with the four sources cited in the Regulation. It clearly lays down that the laws must be in accordance with the Quran and Sunnah. The constitution does not permit that a law should be in conformity with one source only. It stipulates that a law be in conformity with both. That is why various legislations for instance, the punishment of stoning to death and consuming alcohol or intoxicants were challenged in the FSC, since both are based only on Sunnah.

The other two sources — qiyas and ijma — were available to the assembly of 1973 and their non-inclusion in the language of the 1973 Constitution means that the assembly was cognisant of the fact that the inclusion of these two sources would breed sectarianism and a polemical interpretation of Islamic laws.

Qiyas and ijma are defined differently not only by various scholars and sects but even the imams of five established schools of thought describe qiyas and ijma in dissimilar forms. Therefore, if an injunction is based on the Quran and Sunnah it may be acceptable to most Muslims but if it is based on qiyas and ijma it will not be acceptable to those who do not accept these two sources of Islamic law.

US policies alienating Pakistan, warn scholars

WASHINGTON: The United States has alienated Pakistan by demanding that they divert troops from the Indian border to fight the Taliban, says former US ambassador to Islamabad Robert Oakley.

‘We’ve alienated them tremendously. Whether we agree or not, the Pakistanis consider India to be the biggest threat to their security,’ Oakley told a US think-tank, the Atlantic Council.

Oakley, who served in Islamabad from 1988 to 92, also criticised the restrictions proposed in a congressional bill on US aid to Pakistan.

‘What we’re calling ‘benchmarks’ remind them very much of the ‘sanctions’ they had hanging over their heads for so many years,’ he said.

Ahmed Rashid, a leading Pakistani journalist and Taliban expert, said that the United States would do well to set more general parameters for aid.

Rashid told another US think-tank, the Jamestown Foundation, that he was ‘absolutely shocked’ by the conditions in drafts of the US congressional aid bill to his country.

‘No political government can accept a bill like this in Pakistan, even if it is on its knees — which it is, economically speaking,’ he said.

The proposed restrictions require Pakistan to improve its relations with India, whether New Delhi reciprocates those efforts or not. Pakistan also needs to undertake not to support any person or group involved in activities meant to hurt India.

Another proposed requirement will allow US investigators access to individuals suspected of engaging in nuclear proliferation, such as Dr AQ Khan.

Oakley, in his interview to the Atlantic Council, also criticised the US drone attacks inside Pakistan.

The US, he said, needed to ask itself: ‘Are we creating more terrorists than we’re killing?’ And the drone attacks, he said, were probably creating more terrorists.

‘The drones may be killing a lot of Taliban and al Qaeda but they’re alienating the tribesmen we need to win the war,’ he said.

‘We’ve pushed the Pakistani army to fight our war and created a huge backlash. They’re not trained or equipped for counterterrorism and they’re getting killed and killing the wrong people, essentially fighting their own.’

Oakley said that right now, the Pakistani military had control over their nukes. ‘But, if the Islamists gain ground, who knows what’s going to happen?’ he asked.

Oakley was also unhappy with the current Pakistani leadership, particularly the president. They were ‘both incompetent and corrupt and had no clue on the economic side of things.’

Oakley said that unless the US contained the problem in Pakistan, ‘we don’t have any chance in Afghanistan.’

At the Jamestown Foundation, analyst Shuja Nawaz said the Obama team did not make a positive impression during their last two visits to Islamabad.

‘This was probably the worst ever visit by an American team to South Asia in history,’ said Nawaz, director of the South Asia Center at the Washington-based Atlantic Council. ‘It was a complete disaster.’

If this is how the Obama planned to ‘win friends, I just wonder how you are going to create enemies,’ he said.

Nawaz faulted US special envoy Richard Holbrooke and Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen for publicly demanding that Pakistan’s civilian President Asif Ali Zardari rein in elements of the intelligence service believed to support extremists.

Stephen P. Cohen, an expert on South Asia at the Brookings Institution, said that the United States has made excessive demands of a weak Pakistani leadership — from fighting extremists to safeguarding its nuclear program to treating women better and reforming its economy.

‘If we think that they can do everything, they will wind up doing nothing well.’

At a separate seminar at the Woodrow Wilson Centre for Scholars, Khalid Aziz, a former chief secretary of NWFP who heads the Regional Institute of Policy Research, screened ‘Cries of Anguish,’ a short documentary about Fata.

The film recounted the many unsuccessful foreign attempts to conquer the region. It also focused on the tribal society of Fata’s 3.5 million ethnic Pashtuns.

A major theme of the documentary was Fata’s lack of development, which the film’s commentators attributed to the region’s inaccessibility but also to a lack of funds from Islamabad.

While development aid has increased in recent years, this assistance was now threatened by the rapid spread of extremism.

The documentary depicted Fata’s Pashtuns as demoralized, their hopes shattered ‘for reasons beyond their control’ and their lives threatened ‘by a war not of their own asking.’

After the film, Aziz addressed what he described as the ‘burning issue:’ How to pacify the region.

He noted that, historically, ‘scorched earth’ campaigns and other strictly military approaches had failed. More ‘indirect political approaches,’ however, had succeeded.

Aziz said that current pacification policies, such as the use of unmanned US drones, had increased radicalization not just in FATA but across all of Pakistan.

Aziz offered a range of solutions: Strong US rhetoric should be tempered, while better trust should be promoted between the American and Pakistani militaries. Tight border controls should be introduced. Counterinsurgency methods should be better implemented. Pakistani institutions should be strengthened.

And as for the drones, Aziz acknowledged their effectiveness and value. He championed their continued use — though under a Pakistani flag.

Situation dangerous in Pakistan: Holbrooke

WASHINGTON: US special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke warned on Sunday that no other place in the world today faced a more dangerous situation than Pakistan.

In an interview to CNN, Holbrooke said that Pakistan also faced a ‘very difficult economic situation’ and needed immediate help.

‘This is a really dangerous situation in Pakistan today and we are focused on this very heavily,’ said Holbrooke.

Asked if the terrorist threat could cause Pakistan to collapse, the US envoy said that President Asif Ali Zardari and other Pakistani leaders too conceded that it was a very dangerous situation.

‘Swat is not in the tribal areas. It is only 100 miles from Islamabad … it is like East Hampton and Manhattan … people from Islamabad went to Swat for holidays … it is really an extraordinary situation.’

‘Pakistan mattered to the national security of the United States; ‘These are the people who can attack Mumbai, who attack Islamabad, Holbrooke said.

David Axelrod, a senior adviser to President Obama, told ‘CBS Face the Nation’ that Pakistan needed to ‘really focus in on what is a threat to their own stability and what is a threat to the security of the world.’

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, however, told ABC News that the Obama administration had put ‘in place a policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan area that will change that area’ and bring stability to the region.

Axelrod said the biggest threat confronting Pakistan was the ‘growing hegemony of the Taliban and allies of Al Qaeda’ and urged Pakistanis to realise how serious this threat was.

Ambassador Holbrooke termed the current situation in Pakistan as ‘very perilous’ and claimed that the militants operating from Swat and Fata had already increased their reach to Punjab. ‘There can be more terrorist attacks in cities like Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi,’ he warned.

He said the Swat truce always seemed like a confused deal to him.

The Pakistani military, he said, felt that it was ‘stretched thin’ and that’s why it concluded this deal.

Holbrooke pointed out that if the Pakistani military wanted to persuade the militants to lay down their arms by concluding this deal, it did not succeed in doing so.

The chief spokesman for the Swat Taliban ‘publicly renounced the part of the deal that requires the militants to lay down arms,’ he said.

‘You cannot deal with these people by giving away territory. They are now getting closer and closer to Islamabad and Punjab.’

Ambassador Holbrooke said he was witnessing a ‘very dangerous phenomenon’ in Swat which had equally dangerous consequences for both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The US envoy, however, acknowledged that ‘hitting the militants hard” will not help.

‘First of all, we need to do deal with economic and social roots,’ he said, adding that more economic aid was needed to do away with the breeding grounds for the kind of rebellions witnessed in Swat more than once.

Holbrooke said Pakistan also needed to strengthen its military, particularly the Frontier Corps, to deal with the terrorists and also needed to win the propaganda battle.

Asked who ran Pakistan, President Zardari or Gen Ashfaq Kayani, Holbrooke said: ‘The clear answer is that Mr Zardari is the president, and Gen Kayani is the army chief.’

The Pakistani constitution, he said, gave more powers to the president but the army had played a very powerful role.

Gen Kayani, he said, was a ‘sincere, intelligent and decent person,’ who has said ‘does not wish to get involved in political issues and we believe him.’

Twenty militants killed in Orakzai air raid: official

PARACHINAR: Pakistani jets and helicopter gunships killed 20 militants, residents and a military official said on Monday, in an attack on a Taliban commander who claimed responsibility for a bombing last week.

Escalating militant violence has raised fears that nuclear-armed Pakistan, a US ally whose cooperation is vital for efforts to bring stability to Afghanistan, will fail to stop the spread of the Taliban and al Qaeda.

Pakistani aircraft attacked three camps of Pakistani Taliban commander Hakimullah Mehsud in the Orakzai ethnic Pashtun tribal region, 170 km (100 miles) west of Islamabad, on Sunday, residents and a military official said.

‘Our jets and helicopters attacked suspected hideouts of militants in the Ghiliju area and killed 20 militants,’ said a military official who declined to be identified.

Mehsud, an ally of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, claimed responsibility for a suicide car-bomb attack on a security convoy, near the town of Kohat, near Orakzai, on Saturday. The bomber killed 25 soldiers and two passers-by.

Hakimullah Mehsud said the suicide attack was in response to attacks by missile-firing US drone aircraft on militant targets in northwest Pakistan. There was no information about Mehsud’s fate in Sunday’s air attacks.

Drones have killed about 350 people, including some mid-level al Qaeda leaders and many of their followers, in about 35 attacks since last year.

A resident of Ghiliju, Abdul Wakeel, said jets bombed a government school being used by Mehsud’s militants as a training camp. He put the death toll at 22.

Orakzai had been one of Pakistan’s most peaceful northwestern border regions, but Taliban are known to have infiltrated the area, as they they have done elsewhere in the northwest.

Residents said helicopter gunships also attacked the Tabori and Dabori areas of Orakzai on Monday.

Eight killed in fresh Kashmir violence

oubled Indian-administered Kashmir, police said on Monday, as the region prepared for another round of voting in general elections.

Two security force personnel and a militant were killed during a fierce gunbattle in southern Doda district late Sunday, a police statement said.

A Muslim woman injured in the cross-fire later died in hospital.

In the districts of Kupwara and Baramulla, two militants and a member of the security forces were killed during two separate gunbattles.

‘Four policemen were hurt during the fighting,’ the statement said.

Meanwhile suspected militants late Sunday shot dead a former rebel who had reportedly renounced violence after his release last year from an Indian jail.

Violence linked to the long-running Muslim insurgency against Indian rule in Kashmir has increased in the past month, with the disputed region participating in a general election boycotted by most separatist leaders.

At least eight Indian soldiers and 17 militants have been killed in a series of battles along the Line of Control separating Indian- and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.

Voting in Indian Kashmir has been staggered over five phases in order to provide adequate security.

Israel primed for strikes on Iran nuclear sites: daily

LONDON, April 18: Israel’s military is preparing so it could launch major aerial attacks on Iranian nuclear sites if ordered to by the new government, a British newspaper said Saturday, quoting Israeli defence and intelligence sources.

An unnamed senior defence official told The Times: “They are making preparations on every level for this eventuality. The message to Iran is that the threat is not just words.”

Israel, widely considered to be the Middle East’s sole nuclear armed power, suspects the Islamic Republic of using the programme to develop atomic weapons, a charge that Tehran has repeatedly denied.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who took power on April 1 at the helm of a right-wing government, has repeatedly made clear that his priority is confronting Iran.

In his inaugural address, Netanyahu said the biggest threat Israel faced was the possibility of “a radical regime armed with nuclear weapons” — an apparent reference to Iran.

Israeli officials quoted by The Times said more than a dozen targets could be envisaged, including Tehran’s main nuclear sites at Natanz, Isfahan and Arak.

“We would not make the threat without the force to back it,” an official from Israel’s intelligence community said. “There has been a recent move, a number of on-the-ground preparations, that indicate Israel’s willingness to act,” the official said. He added it was unlikely Israel would strike without at least tacit approval from the US.

The New York Times reported Tuesday that the Obama administration could drop a long-held US insistence that Tehran suspend uranium enrichment in the early stages of any negotiations on the issue.

One analyst, Ephraim Kam of the Institute for National Security Studies in Israel, told The Times he thought it unlikely the US would approve an attack.—AFP

FBI agents to testify at Kasab’s trial

MUMBAI, April 18: More than 100 witnesses, including FBI agents, would testify at the trial of Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, Indian prosecutors said on Saturday.

Five foreign experts would present evidence against Kasab, special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told the court on the second day of the trial.

Kasab is accused of being one of 10 gunmen who killed 166 people, including several Americans, in a three-day rampage through the city that targeted a train station, two luxury hotels and a Jewish centre.

Nikam said the FBI had analysed four global positioning devices found on the dead gunmen after the attacks and these would be instrumental in proving the men had come from Pakistan.

On Friday Nikam had said that Kasab had a direct hand in the deaths of 72 people and was part of “a criminal conspiracy hatched in Pakistan” which could not have been undertaken without training from “intelligence professionals”.

Kasab and his co-defendants — two Indians accused of helping plot the attack — have been charged with 12 criminal counts, including murder and waging war against India. If convicted, all could face death by hanging.

“FBI investigators have played a vital role in disclosing the truth in this case… and exposing the nexus between (Kasab) and the deceased accused,” said Nikam.

He said in his opening remarks that the FBI and other specialists had discovered a number of clues that strengthened the prosecution case.

They include:

— A fingerprint from Kasab’s left hand on a glass door of the MV Kuber, an Indian fishing vessel the gunmen allegedly hijacked to take them to Mumbai from Karachi.

— DNA on a number of items found on board that exactly matched that of Kasab and his fellow attackers.

— A diary written in Urdu detailing all the gunmen’s names and what arms and ammunition they had been given.

The FBI examined the inflatable speedboat that took the gunmen from the fishing vessel to the Mumbai shoreline and found that the Japanese-manufactured engine had been shipped to Pakistan, Nikam said.

Five Nokia mobile phone handsets recovered from three locations after the attacks were found to have been made in China and shipped to Pakistan for sale, he said.

“This evidence can be relied upon. This is strong evidence,” even if Kasab now claims he was forced to sign a “confession” and had been tortured in police custody, he said.

Eyewitness testimony, CCTV footage and even press photographs would place Kasab at the scenes of the crimes, Nikam added.

The trial was adjourned until Monday.—Agencies

Obama urged not to interfere in Pakistan politics

WASHINGTON, April 18: The US administration should not interfere in the domestic politics of Afghanistan and Pakistan despite the temptation to do so, the Washington Post said on Saturday.

A senior Post columnist Jim Hoagland noted that one of US President Barack Obama’s senior analysts had been telling think-tanks that “President Asif Ali Zardari should step aside and let Nawaz Sharif, his chief rival, take power”.

Mr Hoagland also noted that “muttering about ditching Afghanistan’s Hamid Karzai was rampant at the White House” while the administration was reviewing its policies for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

But the writer advises Mr Obama to resist such temptations and not to “play power chess on a global scale, bypassing or replacing national leaders who balk at grand US designs”. The journalist warns that such intervention would be particularly disastrous for Pakistan as it “would open Pandora’s box for the rest of your presidency — especially since Mr Sharif seems no more capable or honest than Mr Zardari.”

He urges President Obama not to emulate John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in South Vietnam, or Jimmy Carter in Iran. “Micromanaging leadership changes abroad becomes all-consuming,” he adds. “So be economical with your personal investment in volatile situations. You have a capable secretary of state in Hillary Clinton. Give her more of the spotlight and the authority.”

The comments followed newspaper reports that Admiral Mike Mullen and Richard Holbrooke met Mr Sharif last week and assured him that he would be acceptable to the US as a future president or prime minister.

Swat deal to remain intact if peace lasts, says Gilani

KARACHI, April 18: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Saturday that Pakistan would coordinate with the United States its policy to combat terrorism during talks in Washington next month.

The prime minister told a press conference here, after chairing a meeting of the Sindh cabinet, that it was wrong to think that Pakistan did not have a policy on the war on terror. “Our policy is ready and President Asif Ali Zardari, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and the ISI chief will share it with the US administration.”

In reply to a question about the acrimony between the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the Awami National Party following the Swat accord, the prime minister said the two parties had different agenda, but it was his government’s endeavour to defuse the tension.

He said the Swat deal was linked to restoration of peace in the valley. “The agreement will remain intact if peace endures,” he said, adding that the president had signed the Nizam-i-Adl regulation only after 80 per cent peace was restored to Swat.

He said the new accord was an improved version of the agreements signed in 1994 and 1999.

He said the government’s reconciliation efforts would strengthen the country’s economy and its institutions and urged political forces to show maturity because the people had voted for a change.

Mr Gilani said Pakistan wanted good relations with neighbouring countries, including Iran, Afghanistan and India.

However, he admitted that the composite dialogue with India had been affected after the Mumbai attacks, but added that efforts were being made to revive the dialogue.

In reply to a question about Sindh government’s demand for announcing the NFC Award before the budget and resolving the issue of GST, Prime Minister Gilani said he would discuss the matter with his Finance Adviser Shaukat Tarin.

The Sindh government has said that GST is provincial matter and it should be distributed on the basis of collection or else the provincial governments should be allowed to collect the tax at their own level. It also sough reimbursement of Rs11.374 billion accumulated since 2000 and resolution of the GST issue on services (Central Excise Mode).

The Sindh Sales Tax Ordinance 2000 empowers the federal government to collect the GST on services on behalf of the province. However, proceeds of the tax are being transferred on the basis of population, resulting in transfer of proceeds collected from one province to another.

According to sources, the ordinance did not empower the federal government to transfer proceeds collected from Sindh to other provinces.

Earlier speaking at the Sindh cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Gilani said the federal government would support infrastructure and social sector development projects in Sindh.

Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan, Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, federal Food Minister Nazar Mohammad Gondal, provincial ministers, advisers and special assistance to the chief minister attended the meeting.

According to sources, the prime minister said his government was working to restore the 1973 Constitution and implement the Charter of Democracy singed by the PPP and the PML-N.

He said the country’s economy was showing a positive trend because of measures taken by the government.

About the unannounced loadshedding by the KESC, he said the issue would be resolved soon and the people of Karachi would get rid of the loadshedding with the help of better management and improved efficiency.

The prime minister expressed satisfaction over the law and order situation in Sindh.

The chief minister briefed the prime minister about law and order, development schemes and other matters.

Criticism of Nizam-i-Adl unjustified: Asfandyar

KARACHI, April 18: The criticism of the recently-concluded agreement in Swat and the enforcement of the Nizam-i-Adl regulation is unjustified, Awami National Party chief Asfandyar Wali Khan said on Saturday.

Addressing a joint press conference with NWFP Chief Minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti at the residence of Sindh ANP chief Shahi Syed, Mr Khan said the law was in force in Malakand since 1994, when it was signed by then prime minister Benazir Bhutto and chief minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao.

According to him, all stakeholders were taken into confidence on the Swat accord, which had also been approved by the National Assembly.

“My prime interest is Pakistan. We are protecting national interests. In 1998, the ’94 agreement was re-endorsed by then prime minister Nawaz Sharif. At that time, Sardar Mehtab Khan Abbasi was NWFP’s chief minister.

“Iqbal Haider, who was federal law minister in 1994, supported the agreement at that time. Surprisingly, he is now opposing it,” said the ANP president.

He said under the Nizam-i-Adl agreement, the Mingora bench of the Peshawar High Court and its appellate bench are required to decide cases in a certain time limit.

The Peshawar High Court also has benches in Abbotabad and Dera Ismail Khan.

Mr Asfandyar said that the NWFP government would appoint the head of Qazi courts in consultation with the high court.

Mr Asfandyar said that Karachi belonged to all nationalities — “Urdu-speaking, Sindhis, Pukhtuns, Baloch, Punjabis. Ninety per cent of population of Karachi is from outside. We believe in peace in Karachi. In Karachi, Pukhtuns are driving rickshaws and working as night watchmen, jobs others don’t do”.

“We oppose a clash of interest and strongly believe in peaceful co-existence by tolerating each other in Karachi. We will never allow peace to be disturbed in Karachi.”—PPI

Zardari links financial crisis to terrorism

“China’s stimulus package has already shown results, the economy has seen positive changes and the situation is better than expected,” Mr Wen said at the opening of the Boao Forum.

He said that progress had been made in several key economic indicators despite the onset of the financial crisis.

“Investment growth has accelerated, consumption has increased quite rapidly and domestic demand continues to rise,” Mr Wen said in the keynote speech.

His comments came two days after China posted growth of 6.1 per cent in the first quarter of the year, the slowest in at least a decade.

Despite his upbeat assessment, Mr Wen said there were still challenges ahead and that “China’s economic and social development faced big difficulties”.

“The main ones are: external demand continues to shrink, there has been a large drop in exports… there is overcapacity in some industries, the pick-up in industrial growth is sluggish, economic efficiency continues to drop.”

He added that fiscal revenue was slowing and that the employment situation was still serious.

The Chinese premier pointed to a 28.6 per cent rise in urban fixed asset investments in the first quarter as an example of this, while calling for closer cooperation between Asian nations and warning against protectionism.

“To counter the financial crisis effectively, Asian countries should each run their own affairs well but also step up cooperation… and make Asia a key engine in reigniting world economic growth,” he said.

The Boao Forum has been an annual event since 2001, bringing together leaders in government, business and academia in Asia and other continents to discuss pressing issues in the region and the rest of the world. Reportedly modeled on the World Economic Forum in Davos, former US president George W. Bush will also be attending this year’s three-day meeting.–Agencies

Former President Musharraf leaves for Saudi Arabia

ISLAMABAD: Former President, General (retired) Pervez Musharraf left for Saudi Arabia in a special plane provided by the King of Saudi Arabia, Shah Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz for his performing ‘Umra’.

Before boarding the plane, talking to newsmen at the airport, Pervez Musharraf said that the country was in great danger and advised all to shun looking into the past instead urged upon the nation, especially the media to focus on the current myriad challenges haunting Pakistan.

Bomber eliminates 21 troops in attack on Hangu post

KOHAT, April 18: The country’s security apparatus suffered a devastating blow on Saturday when a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a military checkpost in Hangu, eliminating 21 soldiers.

Seven policemen, 10 security personnel and nine civilians were injured in the blast.

“A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into our check-post close to a police station in Doaba,” a security official said. “We suffered the most casualties.”

Some officials said the bomber had rammed his vehicle into a Thall-bound military convoy in Doaba, on Hangu-Parachinar highway. They said 11 vehicles, which were part of the convoy, had been destroyed in the attack, which happened not far from the army camp. The military, however, denied its convoy had been hit.

Eyewitnesses said security forces cordoned off the area and blocked the Kohat-Parachinar highway at Doaba and nobody was allowed to go near the scene of the explosion.

The army called its own bomb disposal squad from Thall Garrison.

The check-post was located on the Hangu-Parachinar road, which remained closed for more than a year when militants blocked the artery to stop food and fuel supplies from reaching Parachinar, the Kurram Agency’s headquarters.

In another incident earlier on Saturday morning, one person was killed and three were injured in a blast in Malikabad area of Hangu bazaar.

The SHO of Doaba police station, Ammal Khan, and constable Asal Murad, who were sitting in a mobile van close to the army camp, were injured.

Police said the bomber had used 100kg of explosives. They blamed the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan for the strike, but the banned militant outfit did not claim responsibility for the bombing.

The dead and the seriously injured were taken to the civil hospital in Hangu and the Combined Military Hospital in Thall, a police spokesman for the Kohat region said.

Preliminary reports suggested that the suicide bomber had come to the area on Friday and took up residence in Hangu. “It was in the knowledge of the terrorists that a convoy would pass through the camp on Saturday afternoon,” a local said.

Hangu has seen bloodletting bred by sectarianism over the past two years. A total of 48 people had died in sectarian clashes during Muharram last year.

The military had carried out a major clean-up operation in Doaba in August last year to flush out militants who had infiltrated from nearby Kurram and Orakzai regions.

Helicopter gunships have been attacking suspected militant hideouts in Orakzai during the last couple of weeks.

Agencies add: “Most of the casualties are security forces and some policemen have also been killed,” a security official said.

“The bomber was driving a pick-up truck which he rammed into a convoy passing by a security checkpost,” senior police officer Fareed Khan said in Kohat.

President Asif Ali Zardari, who is in China attending an international economic conference, “condemned the attack and vowed to root out terrorism and extremism from the country”, the presidency said in a statement.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani “strongly condemned” the incident, describing the suicide attack as “a cowardly act of terrorism”, his office said in a statement.

Army, Govt. will have to finalize a joint strategy against terrorism: Musharraf

ISLAMABAD: Former President Pervez Musharraf has said that Pakistan army and the government would have to finalize a joint strategy for combating terrorism.

Prior to his departure for Saudi Arabia for ‘Umra’, he told newsmen that the people should get inexpensive and instant justice. He advised evolving indigenous strategy for combating terrorism. He said if the Swat peace agreement was only for peace, then it was welcoming, but if this agreement was against the writ of the government, then it not right.

When quizzed on Lal Masjid incident, Pervez Musharraf said that no child or woman was killed and insisted that not more than 94 persons were killed, while all of them were terrorists and re0-iterated no child or woman was included.

He earnestly urged ending the evils of lies and hypocrisy in the country and said, “We should focus on the dangers facing Pakistan.”

Three dead in suspected US missile strike in SWAT

WANA: At least three persons were killed in a suspected US missile strike in South Waziristan agency.

Sources said that US drone fired two missiles on a house at Gangikhel are aof South Waziristan, which killed at least three persons.

According to a foreign news agency three persons were killed in the incident, while the drones still hovering over the skies of South Waziristan, unleashing fears in the area.

What the Taliban ideology means

The footage recently made public showing the flogging of a girl in Swat and the execution of a man and woman in their 40s reportedly in the Hangu district must have sickened anyone with respect for human rights and dignity. As such, these videos constitute a graphic reminder of the fact that behind the rhetoric of religion, the real face of the Taliban is one of unmixed brutality and murderousness.

This should come as no surprise. Since the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan during the 1990s and in Pakistan more recently, there has been ample evidence that the otherwise harmless moniker — which means ‘students’ — is a mask worn by an ideologically united group that uses tactics of violence, fear and gross coercion to get its way.

Given this, it is alarming that Pakistan’s state and society continue to bury their heads in the sand and resort to denial of either specific acts of brutality or the threat in general posed by the Taliban. The most recent example of this approach is an investigation team’s conclusion that the video depicting the whipping of the young woman in Swat was ‘fake and false’, as indicated by Interior Secretary Kamal Shah.

He quoted the final report as saying that that no such incident took place since the girl in question denied it and the area’s residents also expressed their ignorance. Yet anyone who has suffered such an act of barbarity, and who continues to live under the shadow of his or her persecutors, is unlikely to risk inducing their ire further. More dangerous, however, is the reduction of the issue to a debate over whether or not the video was ‘real’ and when exactly the incident took place.

This constitutes yet another example of the manner in which the Pakistani state and its citizenry live in denial of the clear and present danger to their personal freedoms. It is precisely this attitude that has allowed the Taliban and others of their ilk to make such deep inroads. Even if this particular video was faked, there is ample evidence otherwise of the Taliban’s brutality. Reports of beheadings, shootings and the coercion of people — who are citizens of Pakistan and residents of Swat — are made public practically everyday.

For the survival of values pertaining to freedom, democracy and citizens’ rights, the threat posed by the Taliban must be combated not only militarily but also by taking up positions on the ideological battleground from where they fire the salvos. For this to happen, the grotesqueness of the Taliban worldview must first be recognised and then rejected wholesale.

The Swati girl’s ordeal sparked outrage across the country; but such graphic footage ought not to be necessary to convince the citizenry of the Taliban’s real face. Living in denial is a luxury that is no longer available to us.

Sectarianism greatest threat to Pakistan: Manmohan Singh

GAUHATI: Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh has said that sectarianism was the greatest threat to Pakistan.

Addressing a public meeting in Assam province’s capital city here, he said that Congress was not responsible for the martyrdom of Babri Masjid. He further said, “There was no room for violence in our politics.” Manmohan Singh said that he would not like to talk much about Lal Krishna Advani.

As regards, Pakistan’s nuclear assets, he said that this has been assured that it was in safe hands.

Anti-Taliban demos held across Sindh

HYDERABAD: The Sunni Tehrik activists vented their ire over the desecration of shrines of saints and holy men in Swat and other parts of the NWFP through protests and demonstrations all over Sindh on Friday.

Rejecting the enforcement of Nizam-i-Adl Regulation by Taliban in the NWFP through force and gun, they reminded the so-called patriots of religion that Islam was enforced through love and forgiveness, and not terror. Islam is a religion of tolerance and piety and renounces oppression of all kinds.

Garbed in shrouds, Sindh convener Maulana Noor Ahmed and scores of activists condemned the sacrilege of shrines and killing of Pir Sharifullah Mujjadidi in Swat and Ajmal Darbari in Mirpurkhas. They demanded immediate arrest of the culprits.

Maulana Ahmed was aghast as to how blood-thirsty law-breakers could guarantee peace and justice and why without proper understanding of the Nizam-i-Adl regulation the Parliament endorsed it and the government okayed this anti-people system.

He said that the government had given a license to lawlessness and one feels ashamed to call it a justice system.

How come people unaware of the essence of Shari at can enforce it through gun and powder and which religion allows killing followers of sects, other than theirs. It’s disgusting to see the Taliban indulging into bombing and rocket attacking places, sacred to followers of other sects – Islam is against bigotry, he said.

Acts of the Taliban are apt to defame Islam and may stamp its followers as ‘terrorists’, he said.

In Nawabshah, the Sunni Tehrik (ST) activists demonstrated outside the press club on Friday in protest against the demolition and occupation of shrines in Swat and other parts of the NWFP.

Protesters carrying placards raised slogans against the wave of Talibanisation.

ST leaders Sikandar Ali Qadri, Abdul Raheem Qadri and others said that the Taliban were demolishing and occupying the shrines of Sufi saints and also killing Ulema in Swat and other areas of Malakand.

They said that they do not recognize and accept the so-called Shariat of Taliban and would not allow its implementation in the country. They said that the Taliban were spreading their tentacles to the rest of the country, moreover after the promulgation of Nizam-i-Adl Regulation in Malakand division of the NWFP by the government.

They criticised the government for exposing its weakness by agreeing to Taliban’s terms and conditions but vowed that people would resist any illegal action.

Meanwhile, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Interior Sindh chapter also condemned the promulgation of Nizam-i-Adal Regulation by the government.

Siraj Rajput, member MQM’s Interior Sindh Organising Committee, speaking to party workers at different places emphatically refused to let Talibanisation take its roots in Sindh.

The Taliban cannot impose their version of Islamic laws or so-called Shari at on gun-point or through force, he said.

Taliban attacks kill five policemen: official

He said the attackers, believed to be in their dozens, fled after reinforcements were sent to the area. An operation to hunt down the militants was underway, the official said.

The Taliban also suffered some casualties, Rasouli said, but could not give a figure.

‘According to intelligence reports we received from the area, foreign terrorists like Pakistanis and Arabs were also among the attackers,’ he said.

It was the latest in an increasingly bloody insurgency being waged by the remnants of the Taliban, an ultra-conservative militant group which is trying to topple the US-backed government in Kabul.

The Taliban were in power between 1996 and 2001 before being toppled in a US-led offensive launched to kill and capture Al-Qaeda leaders then sheltered by Taliban.

The insurgency has gained pace in recent years, prompting the United States and its Western allies to boost their military efforts by sending thousands of extra troops.

Back with the maulana

We are back — probably a few steps even further back — to the point where we were some 22 months ago. Many days into the siege of Lal Masjid in the heart of Islamabad in July 2007, analysts had pinned their hopes on the good sense of the two religious leaders who commanded a group of rebels inside the mosque.

After many tense hours, television channels beamed images of Maulana Abdul Aziz emerging from the mosque compound. Hope was kindled for a negotiated and quick end to the drama that threatened so many lives. Unfortunately, the standoff had a bloody ending.

Maulana Aziz was taken into custody while his younger brother Abdul Rashid Ghazi was killed. So many other lives were lost in the episode and many of the violent incidents that have followed since have been linked to the tackling of the Lal Masjid affair by the Pakistani state under the then president, Gen Pervez Musharraf.

As Maulana Aziz, out of prison on bail, returned to lead a large Friday prayers congregation in the capital, we found ourselves hoping that he, an extremist yesterday, would now help the state to rein in the fundamentalists of today — perhaps the same kind of expectation that one has of Sufi Mohammad in Swat but in the maulana’s case, right in the heart of the federal capital.

The state’s dealings with the fundamentalists have generated all kinds of public responses. In the wake of the Swat affair and the promulgation of the Nizam-i-Adl, too, Islamabad has been praised and, at the same time, accused of capitulating to the ‘blackmailers’.

Lal Masjid and its legacy are reflective of just how very inconsistent and clueless the administration has been in its tackling of the ‘jihadi’ situation. The July 2007 raid on the mosque came moments after a deal was said to have been brokered, signifying our confused approach to the problem and underlining the presence of too many commanders, with separate agendas, in the control room. Opting for a tactic that is questionable invites trouble, but implementing it in a half-hearted fashion can unleash further complications.

Province-district tussle

It was just a month or two after the military coup of October 1999 that a retired lieutenant general, Tanvir Naqvi, propounded the coup maker’s ‘vision’ of governance before a group of journalists in Karachi.

As Naqvi launched himself on a discourse on ‘power to the people at the grass roots’ by radically altering the country’s political, administrative and judicial structures, an impish hack rose from among the gaggle to interrupt him:‘General, who has given you the authority to bring about a revolution?’

The retired general’s quick response ‘we have assumed this authority ourselves’ was drowned in a roar of laughter as he gloated over the impact of his repartee. It was a display of hubris uncommon even for a dictator. He dismissed the dissenters seated on the stage with him (this writer among them) as relics of a slavish past.

Naqvi might as well have added that his self-assumed authority was reinforced by the Supreme Court (all of its then 12 judges) which while validating the extra-constitutional intervention ‘on the basis of the doctrine of state necessity and the principle of salus populi suprema lex’ also permitted Gen Musharraf to amend the constitution ‘for the attainment of his declared objectives’. The doctrine and the principle, the court went on to observe, were recognised in Islam. What more could a coupster have asked for?

Naqvi’s harangue at Karachi marked the beginning of a ‘road show’ that ended in the mutilation of the constitution and the destruction of the country’s age-old administrative and judicial system. But the Supreme Court didn’t feel persuaded enough to exercise its power of judicial review which it had promised in the coup-validating order.

Having thus assumed total power under the deceptively modest and commercial-sounding title of chief executive, Gen Pervez Musharraf embarked on a course to change the political, legal and administrative structures as no other chief martial law administrator had done before him — not even Z.A. Bhutto who was the most dominant political figure of his time in addition to being CMLA. Musharraf strode into a territory which the military commanders and elected leaders with greater credentials before him had feared to tread.

He imagined himself to be the messiah that a misgoverned country had been waiting for. In his retirement he must be puzzled to see how what he had done in years was being undone in months. But his inept, confused successors are unable to decide how to rebuild whatever he had destroyed nor do they seem inclined to retain whatever little good he had done — just because he had done it. No one is willing to separate the little grain that was in his reforms, from the abundance of chaff. Such is the degree of vengeance. That grain is the local government.

The departing British had bequeathed to the subcontinent a system of local government comprising chiefly the district boards, municipal councils and panchayats. The children of the generation spanning the partition were educated in schools and treated in dispensaries that were run by the councils. The schools and hospitals run by the government or denominational missions were all in large towns. Minor disputes were mostly settled in the village panchayats. India and Sri Lanka preserved and strengthened the local councils. Here we ran them down. For long years they were either extinct or controlled by government officials.

When revived, as by Ayub Khan in the 1960s, and by Pervez Musharraf in 2002, the dominant consideration was to create a base of electoral support for the rulers. Ayub Khan’s elected councils were led by bureaucrats — district councils were chaired by the deputy commissioner and city corporations by officials of equal rank. Yet they gave a new impetus to development in backward areas. The first school for girls was built and a public well dug for the Mohmand tribes (now up in arms) in the 1960s when this writer was the political agent and chairman of the agency council there. It was the political part of the field marshal’s plan that failed. The combined support of basic democrats and bureaucrats could not sustain him in power for ever.

Pervez Musharraf tried the opposite approach. He placed all officials in a district under elected nazims, transferred almost every provincial function to the governments in the districts, took them under his own wing and gave them a lot of money. Karachi city district, for instance, received from the centre three times as much as its own income from taxation and services. The district nazims became his personal, pampered representatives.

By now it is obvious that overweening nazims are not going to outlast Musharraf just as the subservient basic democrats didn’t Ayub Khan. The lesson to be drawn is that only such local government institutions will endure that are not controlled by the bureaucrats or do not trample on the regulatory jurisdiction of the provincial government.

Legislators, ministers and chief ministers are all justifiably outraged by the power and patronage that Musharraf conferred on the nazims at their cost. The looming danger is that in their vengeance they might altogether abolish the district government or reduce it to a mere appendage of the provincial government.
The civic and regulatory roles are quite distinct. A political nazim cannot be a deputy commissioner just as a deputy commissioner should not be a mayor. A local government (as in Karachi) should not be seen building ‘state-of-the-art’ cardiac centres while its dispensaries are crumbling, or constructing free corridors for motorists when there is no bus for the people to ride nor a footpath to walk on, or build skyscrapers while raw sewers pollute the sea.

And a provincial government should not be running primary schools or health centres in far-flung villages which do not exist on the ground. In any case the nazims who were all staunch party men could not ever measure up to the responsibility of maintaining law and order in a highly partisan environment. The obvious result has been lawlessness and disorder.

The future role of the local government should be restricted to local affairs but, at the same time, its jurisdiction should be defined and protected in the constitution and the provincial governments must not be empowered to supersede the councils as they had been routinely doing in pre-Musharraf times. The parliamentary committees which are soon expected to consider the transfer of subjects from the centre to the provinces should also decide which of their functions are better left to the districts and tiers below. n kunwaridris@hotmail.com