Asma says she is not afraid of judges, generals, rulers

LAHORE: Newly-elected president of the Supreme Court Bar Association Asma Jehangir has said that she is neither afraid of judges, generals or rulers nor will she take dictation from anyone.

“I have been an independent woman throughout my life. I am not scared of the army, establishment, judges, prime minister or president. The relations with all these institutions or persons will be established on the basis of equality. They will be respected if they will respect us,” she said while talking to the media on the Lahore High Court premises here on Thursday.

Dispelling the impression that she was against the judiciary, Ms Asma said she had decades old relations with the judiciary and the propaganda in this regard should be shunned. She said she believed in independence of the judiciary and she had paid a price for the cause in the past when she along with thousands of people was thrown in jail. She said she had been knocking the door of the judiciary even when it was not independent. She said what she and other people had done for cause of independent judiciary should not be reckoned as “sacrifice” rather they were indebted to their country which they had tried to pay back to its people. She pointed out that they were gone to jail by choice and were ready to go again for judiciary or other people-related issues.

Asma Jehangir said a vilification campaign was launched against her and in such circumstance her victory was a great success. She said lawyers could differentiate between right and wrong. She said she strongly believed in the freedom of the press because it ensured protection of people’s rights.

A large number of Asma’s supporters who had gathered there were chanting slogans in her favour. Sweets were also distributed among the lawyers. Agencies add: Asma Jehangir said that an independent bar was vital to the independent judiciary, adding that lawyers had elected an independent and enlightened bar in the election.

“We are neither with the government nor with the judiciary rather, we will play our role in an independent capacity,” she said and vowed to play her role for the provision of justice to thousands of people who were imprisoned and waiting for justice. She said she was thankful that every political leader had congratulated her victory, and said that she was quite.

Canadian Muslims erect first minaret in Arctic

OTTAWA: Canadian Muslims have erected the Arctic’s first minaret, atop a little yellow mosque which serves as spiritual home to the area’s fledgling Islamic community.

Canadian Muslims have erected the Arctic’s first minaret.

The mosque arrived in Inuvik last month to serve a growing Muslim population in Canada’s far north, after traveling 4,000 kilometers (2,485 miles) over land and water.

The minaret, built locally and installed this week, has four levels and stands 30 feet (10 meters) off the ground.

“It’s really beautiful when we turn on the lights in the dark,” Amier Suliman, a mosque committee member, told AFP on Wednesday.

Only finishing touches, such as applying a second coat of paint inside and hooking up bathroom plumbing, remain before the mosque’s grand opening next week.

“This is the first minaret to be erected in the Arctic,” Suliman said gleefully by telephone.

“Some will say it’s a new frontier for Islam,” he commented. “But for me what is significant is that Muslims here who once prayed on Fridays at a local Catholic church or in a trailer now have a proper place to worship, with a proper minaret.”

“Now we have a home to worship in our own hometown. That’s the most important for me.”

The number of Muslims in Inuvik, a town of 4,000 inhabitants in Canada’s Northwest Territories, has grown steadily in recent years to about 80 and they no longer fit in an old three-by-seven-meter (10-by-23-foot) caravan used until now for prayers.

The congregation could not afford to build a new mosque in the town, where prices for labor and materials are substantially higher than in southern parts of Canada, project coordinator Ahmad Alkhalaf said previously.

But they found a supplier of prefabricated buildings in Manitoba that said it could ship a structure to Inuvik for half the price of building a mosque from scratch on site.

A local Muslim charity, the Zubaidah Tallab Foundation of Thompson, Manitoba, also offered to pick up the costs for the 140-square meter (1,500-square foot) facility, Alkhalaf said.

And so, at the end of August the tiny yellow mosque’s voyage began on the back of truck, winding through the vast prairies and woods of Western Canada toward Hay River on the shores of Great Slave Lake, Northwest Territories.

From there it was transferred onto a barge and floated down the McKenzie River to Inuvik, about 200 kilometers (124 miles) north of the Arctic Circle.

The worshippers, who are largely Sunni Muslim immigrants from Sudan, Lebanon and Egypt who moved to Canada’s far north in search of jobs and economic opportunities, are to hold an open house on November 5.

The facility will also double as a Muslim community center.

The Truth about Shahbaz Airbase and the Pakistan Floods

By: Ghalib Sultan

A video on Youtube, containing an interview of Faryaal Gauhar in which she describes the breach of an Indus River levee meant to divert floodwaters from a nearby military base, raises a lot of questions regarding the US-Pakistan alliance in the War on Terror, and how it affects the people of Pakistan in particular. The subtext of the video on Youtube claims that “the contractor who built the base says this is where drones are housed before being automated”.

After listening to what Faryaal Gauhar had to say, I read some comments and insight provided by Mr. Usman Tarar, who is a civil engineer and had been associated with the rehabilitation and upgradation of Shahbaz Airbase for two years. I am taking liberties with his comments and opinions – available on a social networking website – to investigate the truth about the claims and allegations made by Faryaal Gauhar.

This is what he has to say:

Flights and Housing of Drones at Shahbaz Airbase has been repeatedly claimed by the media over the last few years but there hasn’t been a single evidence provided by the media that could prove it… I am trying to paint a true picture and my assertion stems from my 2 years’ involvement (as a civil engineer) on the rehabilitation and upgradation project of Shahbaz Airbase being carried out by 8 different renowned contracting firms of Pakistan and I have been associated with 2 of these firms on this project…

This propaganda is a heap of rubbish… and for those who would question as to why is upgradation being done, it being done to house and operate the latest F-16 fleet (Block-C and Block-D) and their allied technology that has recently been given to PAF by the US and was well-covered in the media few months ago. I hope my above elaboration by virtue of my “DIRECT” involvement on the Shahbaz Airbase project during last 2 years is sufficient to clarify the real situation which is not known to the masses.

Shahbaz Airbase is not a no-go area! It is situated just next to the most populated slums of the city and every aircraft leaving or entering the base can easily be spotted even with a naked eye. I have been to that place myself repeatedly to negate this rubbish about Drones at Shahbaz Airbase. It is merely a political and media stunt… and the base is being run by PAF, not the American. Seeing is believing.

A counter-argument runs as follows:

Drones fly from Shamsi airbase in Baluchistan while Shahbaz airbase used to be in US control but now Americans have left… Yes, there are a few American technicians as US demanded that the new F-16 C/D Block 52s be kept away from Chinese technicians. It was an American demand that these F-16s be kept at Shahbaz airbase Jacobabad as in 1980s once when Chinese air chief visited some airbase…as a matter of courtesy he was shown F-16 A/B which were new at the time…and he sat in the cockpit and started measuring the width of the control screen etc with his hands…thus the American technicians present there protested at this…that was one of the main reason that US demanded that F-16 C/Ds be kept at one airbase where no other Chinese aircraft could be stationed…

To which Mr. Tarar replied:

I missed out the US Technicians part deliberately to avoid unnecessary details. Thanks for completing the picture. This clearly shows that our media and parliamentarians in opposition (not to praise the government either, of course) create a fuss about nothing to keep the nation distracted !!! I am unaware of the Shamsi Airbase story because I have not been associated with it.

So: what is the truth about Shahbaz Airbase, or Shamsi Airbase, or Pakistan’s agreements with US or NATO about using Pakistan’s military installations, or of the impact that any such agreement had during the floods, or how relief and rehabilitation activities were affected due to the US or its military personnel “occupying” a Pakistan airbase in Baluchistan? The truth is that nobody knows, and we may never know.

What can be said with certainty is this:

It seems that, sadly and pathetically, even natural disasters and Pakistanis afflicted by catastrophes are just tools and pawns for the politicians and their political statements. Why would Faryaal Gauhar – a so-called politician without any constituency and without the backing of any real political party – blatantly lie to the world? Why would she want to impact US-Pakistan relations in such a way? Even after both countries are trying very hard to understand each other and see eye to eye, even after US troops – who are otherwise unwelcome in Pakistani territory – have contributed massively in terms of efforts as well as tangible support of aid goods to the Pakistani people who suffered because of the floods, even after the US has listened to almost all of Pakistan’s concerns and grievances regarding Afghanistan (including Indian involvement and including the fact that the war can be ended through negotiations and not through military means)?

Even if we don’t know the truth about our country’s military secrets, we should ask Faryaal Gauhar why she is lying, and why she is misusing the suffering of the Pakistani people – whether for her benefit, or for someone else’s, or even for the heck of it.

There is no problem with having vested interests; but one should not lie in order to pursue one’s vested interests, and one should not make mileage out of the plight and suffering of innocent people – who have nothing to do with international geopolitics, or the war on terror – so as to realize these vested interests.

I hope Faryaal Gauhar realizes that the people of Pakistan are not stupid, not anymore at least.

Six students get degrees without passing

ISLAMABAD: The faculty of Quaid-i-Azam University is entangled in a messy investigation involving a faculty member accused of a severe breach of ethics. The faculty member has been suspected of hacking into a professor’s computer and tampering the results of six MPA students to enable them to qualify their fourth semester.

A member of the faculty allegedly hacked the computer and changed results

Faculty member of the MBA department Dr Ajmal Waheed had failed the students for not submitting their internship report-a prerequisite for passing the semester. Waheed said pressure tactics were being applied by the Department of Administrative Sciences (DAS) in-charge Ghulam SK Niazi, who later allegedly hacked into Waheed’s computer and changed the students’ results.

Official documents reveal that Waheed had been assigned to evaluate the internship reports of 40 students, out of which 17 failed to qualify. However, the DAS in-charge allegedly pressurised Waheed into passing the students. Waheed said he refused to comply and reported the incident to the examination controller in March 2010. Later, the 17 students who had failed to qualify registered themselves for the 5th semester and submitted their internship report to Waheed in the first week of June 2010.

To avoid any confrontation, the teacher requested the DAS in-charge to form a committee to conduct viva voce of the 17 students to give them another chance. In the evaluation, six students out of 17 failed to qualify. In a letter to the Vice Chancellor, Waheed said he submitted the computerised results to the department on July 13.

But later, the DAS in-charge allegedly asked a member of the IT department, Hina, to provide him Waheed’s computer password. After refusing initially, she eventually allowed him access to Dr Waheed’s account. He changed the students’ results on July 15.

“This is a clear case of fraud, forgery, cheating and deception,” Waheed said in a letter to the Vice Chancellor. “If I am an unfair, biased or corrupt teacher, the examination controller can re-evaluate all of my results and if found guilty, I may be kicked out of the university.”

Recently, these six students were also issued MBA degrees despite the inquiry against them. Out of the six failed students, the internship reports of Tayyab Sultan, Kazi Ali Mustafa and Kashif Ali Junejo were rejected by the teacher on charges of plagiarism.

After Waheed requested the VC to investigate the matter, four committees submitted their findings to the department, but were ignored. The Vice Chancellor Dr Masoon Yasinzai constituted yet another committee on October 15 that was directed to submit a report within seven days.

The committee met again on Wednesday, but chairperson of the committee Naveed-i- Rahat refused to divulge details on the matter when contacted by The Express Tribune.

The Vice Chancellor Dr Masoom Yasinzai said that the entire fiasco was a “procedural lapse” as it was “only an internship result and not a regular exam.” He said the concerned teacher should have handed over the result to the dean instead of the examination controller. However, he said that students were awarded their degrees as per the rules.

When in-charge DAS Ghulam SK Niazi was contacted, he refused to comment on the issue, stating that his name would be cleared after the inquiry committee concludes its finding.

Meanwhile, a visually impaired former MSc student of the History Department, Shireen, pleaded that the examination controller refused to grant her four grace marks.

Her request was turned down by the university syndicate in its meeting held on August 31 even though it had been previously agreed upon to grant her leeway.

It pays to be a bureaucrat in Pakistan

Rauf Klasra

ISLAMABAD: The parliamentary watch-dog of the government, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), is in possession of a list of 450 members of the bureaucracy who have benefitted from the riches on offer via the plot allotment policy promoted by successive prime ministers.
These plots, given to top bureaucrats, were mostly allotted in the most expensive I-8 sector, where one plot is worth over Rs40million in the open market. The list also contains the names of non-bureaucrats, who were probably friends or relatives of past prime ministers.

Successive prime ministers have distributed plots worth millions among officials.

However, this list, submitted by the housing ministry, does not directly name the prime ministers who made the allotments in up-market residential localities to their preferred civil servants. Sources privy to the intrigues of the capital said that it is only after incumbent prime ministers use their discretionary powers to dish out a round of plots among senior civil servants do they start getting the bureaucrats’ cooperation in governance.

The official documents tabled before the PAC and exclusively available with The Express Tribune reveal that former prime ministers allotted plots in I-8, E-12 and D-12 sectors.

The exclusive and so far secret list of these beneficiaries of past prime ministers’ discretionary powers, were sought by the chairman PAC Ch. Nisar Ali Khan in one of the recent meetings at Islamabad.

However, the ministry of housing and works has not shared full details with the PAC.

Sources said that, without identifying the chief executives of the country that had misused their discretionary powers, this whole exercise, undertaken on the orders of the PAC, would amount to nothing.

One official source said that the list has been made ambiguous by withholding a number of important facts in order to hide the real motives behind the allotments to civil servants by past prime ministers.

In the list, the ministry of housing and works has only given the subject “list of applicants to whom plots were allotted – special allocation.” No further details have been given about these ‘special allocations’ and how they were made.

Some of the big names of the past who benefitted from such allotments were: A Rehman Malik, Javed Masood, Shaukat Hussain, Zaheeurdin Babar, Mumtaz Ahmad, Masood Sahrif (former IB chief), Rabia Noor, Shaukat Ali Sheikh, Zafar Ali Hilali (former ambassador), Javed Hassan Aly (civil servant), Abdul Rauf Ch, Ahmed Masood Chaudhri, Abdul Waheed Qazi, Riaz Hussain Qureshi (former PPP MNA from Multan), Aslam Shami, S K Mehmood, Aslam Shami, Manzoor Memon, Aslam Hayat Qureshi (former Chief Secretary Punjab), Mirza Qaswar Saeed (former DG Public Relations Farooq Leghari), Zaheer Khan, Syed Mohib Asad (former DG FIA), Javed Akthar Sheikh, Sardar Anwar Ahmed Khan, Ashfaq Mahmood, Ghazanfar Ali Khan, Mutawakil Qazi, Shauja Shah, Zafar Hussain Mirza ( judge), Shamsher Ali Khan (former principal secretary to President Farooq Leghari), Mohammad Shoaib Suddle (former IG Karachi), Khawaja Mohammad Hamid, Syed Anwar Mahmood, Javed Masood, Ashiq Hussain Qureshi, Nek Mohammad, Zulfikar Ali Khan (major general) and others.

Thelist of higher judiciary judges who were given plots in the past and even during the present government on the orders of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani as a part of an ‘Assistance Package’ was carried by The Express Tribune on Wednesday.

‘Drone strikes can fatally compromise Pak-US ties’

ISLAMABAD: Drone strikes in Pakistan will complicate and fatally compromise its relations with the United States, for the cooperation the latter requires to win in Afghanistan, the Wall Street Journal said on Tuesday.

An article, titled ‘The Pakistan Paradox’ by Bret Stephens, said, “Drone strikes and deploying ground forces in places like North Waziristan would negatively impact the two countries’ relations”.

“That’s a relationship to build on, quietly and incrementally, not to tear down,” the article said. “Instead of publicly lecturing Pakistanis on how they need to get tough with the Taliban, the US administration would do better to make good on its existing commitments.” It said it would be helpful for the United States “to stop mindlessly demanding that military assistance to Pakistan go toward fighting the Taliban instead of arming against India.

“The missing ingredient in Pakistan’s counter-insurgency effort isn’t the right military tool kit, such as night-vision goggles or Apache helicopters. It’s the will of the Pakistani general staff to cooperate more fully in the fight.” It added: “If that cooperation can be secured by selling conventional weapons such as F-15s and M-1 tanks to Pakistan, so much the better,” it said.
The article also pointed that the US administration ought to understand that Pakistan’s reluctance to defeat the Taliban at any price is a mirror image of it’s own reluctance as “the July 2011 ‘deadline’ to begin withdrawing troops was bound to affect Islamabad’s calculations.” “The sooner we junk it, the better the cooperation we’ll get,” it said. “But unless we are prepared to deal with Pakistan as an adversary, we must make do with it as a friend.”

US would invade Pakistan: Aussie MP

MP Dr. Ruby Dhalla

The ‘highly volatile’ situation in Pakistan is increasing the likelihood of a US invasion there, Australian parliamentarian Bob Katter has said.

Independent MP Bob Katter told parliament that the United States would invade Pakistan to deal with instability, and Australia must also send troops there, The Australian reported.

Speaking during the debate on Afghanistan, he said that the security situation in Pakistan was “highly volatile, ” and with the Pakistan government under increasing threat from armed fundamentalist rebels, a US military invasion was inevitable.

“Having said all those things, there has never been any doubt in my mind that if the Americans go in and they request us to go in, we absolutely must go in,” he added.

However, Greens leader Bob Brown gave a very different view, calling the Afghanistan war a “strategic stuff-up”, with former Australia Premier John Howard to blame, along with George W. Bush and Tony Blair.

The Bush administration bungled its war aims by invading Iraq straight after gaining control of Afghanistan in 2002, he said.

“John Howard’s role as deputy sheriff, or as George Bush put it in this parliament in 2003, a man of steel, cannot be forgotten or disregarded,” said Brown, adding, “Our troops are fighting in 2010 because Bush, Howard and others, like Tony Blair, bungled their international ascendancy in 2001-03.”

It is noteworthy the total number of Australian soldiers wounded in action in Afghanistan since 2001 has risen to 156.

A total of 21 Diggers have been killed over the same period, 10 this year alone.

Rs 300 billion corruption but NAB fails to respond

By Ansar Abbasi

ISLAMABAD: On the eve of a new global report on corruption, the Transparency International Pakistan has claimed that the TIP alone has identified corruption cases worth Rs 300 billion in different federal government departments during one year.

Talking to The News Chairman TIP Adil Gilani lamented that the government did not show any interest in probing these cases of corruption. He, however, said that it was only the Supreme Court of Pakistan, the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly and the PPRA, which took notice of some of these corruption cases.

He explained that generally the identified corruption cases involved violation of the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) Rules of 2004. The Transparency International is releasing its report on Tuesday at 2 pm amid indications that Pakistan is all set to hit further lows amongst the world’s most corrupt nations. The 2009 report showed Pakistan climbing five numbers from the previous 47 to become the 42nd most corrupt country in the world.

Gilani expressed his disappointment that there was no effective accountability apparatus presently operational in Pakistan due to which corruption was on the rise. He explained that the TIP referred a number of corruption cases to the NAB but it did not proceed even in one single case.

Amongst the mega corruption cases, he said the Rental Power Projects of the government, presently under the scrutiny of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, was on the top. He claimed that under the Rental Power Projects, the government awarded 14 contracts in violation of the PPRA rules as also stated in the ADB report, causing a loss of over US$ 2 billion. He said that the TIP had also written to the apex court on this case of massive corruption and irregularity.

He said that the TIP also wrote to different authorities about corruption in Pakistan Steel, whose sale policy and procurement had caused reported loss of Rs 22 billion. This corruption case, though ignored by the government, had taken been up by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

Gilani also talked of the alleged violation of Pubic Procurement Rules 2004 by Pakistan Railways in the tender for procurement of 150 locomotives, only US made, which might have caused a loss of at least Rs 40 billion to the national exchequer. The project, he said, is presently on hold.

Regarding the OGDCL, which made headlines in the recent past when Prime Minister Gilani appointed his jail mate and a convict who was not even a graduate as its managing director, Gilani said that the TI had also reported to the government authorities about the purchase of compressors for $30 million for Qadirpur Gas Field without inviting public tenders from M/s Valerus, which is a violation of the Public Procurement Rules 2004. He said the TIP also reported another violation of the Public Procurement Rules 2004 in tender for supply of rental drilling rigs costing the Government of Pakistan Rs 3 billion per year. He added that the Trading Corporation of Pakistan awarded contracts at exorbitant rates to cartels of Stevedores and Transporters in 2009, wheat and fertiliser, causing loss of over Rs2 billion.

Regarding the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP), he said, it saved a claim of US $2.2 million for extra/additional work to the contractor of Expo 2010-Shagnahi, China, which was also supported by the Ambassador of Pakistan in China. On TIP objections, he said, the TDAP rejected the claim.

About the National Insurance Corporation Limited (NICL), he said, the TIP identified a case of purchase of 803 kanal-19 marla plot in Dubai’s Liberty Tower at the rate of UAE Darham 2,750 per square feet against the market price of AED 1,200 per square feet. Alleged loss to exchequer in this case, he said, was Rs 900 million. In another case, 10-acre plot was purchased in Korangi Deh Phihai, in August 2009 at the rate of Rs 90m per acre, against maximum market price of Rs 20m per acre. It caused a total loss of Rs 7 billion.
In yet another case pertaining to the NICL, land was purchased in Lahore in 2009 for Rs1.5 billion against market value of Rs 30 million. It caused a loss of Rs 1.2 billion to public kitty.

In case of EOBI, he said that the TIP challenged the EOBI to invest in one of the four Centaurus Towers in Islamabad and the Intercontinental Hotel, Islamabad. The EOBI was also purchasing Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway and investing Rs 27 billion against the provisions of EOBI Act but the PAC later stopped this move.

Regarding the NHA, he said that according to the AGP Report 2008 NHA has irregularities of Rs 29 billion out of Rs 42 billion annual fund. He said that after eating away its annual development budget of 2010, now the NHA intends to reconstruct the M-9 Karachi-Hyderabad through some other investment. It needs Rs 27 billion for the project. He said that the NHA management planned to use EOBI funds for M-9.

Gilani said that Zafar Iqbal Gondal (brother of a PPP minister), who was Member Finance NHA, has been transferred and posted in January 2010 as Chairman EOBI. Asad Ullah Shaikh, another PPP appointee, who refused to allow Rs 27 billion to be used for a losing project, was sacked to make way for Gondal. He said that after these changes, the EOBI made a proposal to become a partner of the NHA on the M-9 under the Public Private Partnership Scheme of the GoP as BOT (built, operate & transfer) Project, based on the recovery of toll tax.

Gilani said that nowhere in world, road projects on BOT basis are financially viable but still the EOBI decided to own M-9 and build it. In 2005, he said, the board of trustees of the EOBI had decided to invest in the real estate. He added that for this purpose, PRIMACO (Pakistan Real Estate Investment and Management Company Ltd) was established, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of EOBI. PRIMACO has been registered with Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and this company has launched many real estate projects.

The PRIMACO, he said, has overstepped its mandate and prepared a proposal for the EOBI to build the M-9 at Rs 27 billion. They have also proposed to make the NHA as executing agency for award of consultants and contractors’ contract, total 10 numbers, and appoint PRIMACO as project managers of this project. The NHA, he said, has already awarded 10 contracts to blue-eyed contractors and consultants, without public tendering, biggest being Rs 4 billion contract to one contractor against PPRA Rules, and are awaiting approval of the EOBI to send an official letter of government approval to proceed. According to the EOBI Act and rules, he said the EOBI cannot invest public pension funds in an infrastructure project. The EOBI under Rule 2 (i) can invest two-and-a-half per cent of the portfolio. The EOBI’s current portfolio is around Rs 120 billion, minus billion of rupees losses in share market. This means only Rs 1.8 billion can be invested in M-9. But M-9 is a Rs 27 billion project.

Gilani added that in July 2010, the TIP wrote a letter to the NHA for its failure to obtain CAR, (Contractor All Risk Policy) from the NLC Northern Bypass Shershah bridge contracts causing the exchequer to pay Rs 170 million for the reconstruction of the bridge.

Additionally, contracts in 2008 & 2009 worth Rs 467 million, Rs 203 million and Rs 124 million were awarded to NESPAK in violation of Public Procurement Rules 2004. Gilani added that none of the contracts awarded by the NHA in the last two years are in compliance with the Public Procurement Rules 2004. In case of PEPCO, the TIP chief said that it reported Rs 2-2.5 billion corruption in purchase of 30 million energy saver bulbs scheme costing Rs 6 billion.

A Tale of Three Cities

By General Mirza Aslam Beg

Charles Dickens in his novel – A Tale of Two Cities depicts a paradoxical depiction of the Post-French Revolution. He says: “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times,” but the situation of the two capitals, Kabul and Islamabad, however is outrightly reminiscent of only the “worst of times,” being the most tormented regions of the world, due to insane invasion of Afghanistan, which has wrecked the country and has caused the wanton killing of millions of innocent men, women and children. It is being repeated in Pakistan also by various means, including the men-killing machine called drones, blind and oblivious of all humane considerations. Kabul is fighting for its national freedom for the last thirty years, while Islamabad is fighting against terrorism and for the consolidation of the democratic order, against despoticism. In both cases, the struggle has reached the point of decision. In both cases Washington is the common factor, hence the Tale of Three Cities.

Faisal Masjid Islamabad

Islamabad is engaged in a grim struggle on several fronts: The most serious is the confrontation with the judiciary, where the government is trying to shield the NRO beneficiaries and the 18th amendment through manipulations of utterly indescent nature. The nation holds it breath, while the decisive moment is drawing closer for the final judgment to provide change and the opportunity for democracy to flourish under the supremacy of the Constitution. The failure to ameliorate the sufferings of the under-privileged is causing deep resentment. The scale of corruption has not only tarnished the image of the country but has also made the life of the common man miserable. The escalating prices of daily consumer goods, energy crisis, appalling law and order situation and the fear of the administrative system collapsing, has created a deep sense of despondency. People, therefore, demand a change, which is being resisted by means unbecoming of a democratic government. The print and the electronic media of Pakistan, during the last decade, has gained much of respectability, freedom of expression and expertise in investigative journalism and is keeping the public informed of the good and evil, causing deep friction between the government and the media. The confrontational situation on our borders with Afghanistan has had a deep impact on Pak-US relations, at this critical moment, when the occupation forces are facing the problem of safe exit from Afghanistan. Pakistan is not ready to commit its forces in North Waziristan, which is the bone of contention between Pakistan and USA, and is viciously not only linked to the issue of aid and assistance, but also the reimbursement of heavy expenditure Pakistan has incurred for engaging in War on Terror!

Notwithstanding this critical situation, there is no fear of the system collapsing, because the prime institutions of Pakistan, such as the judiciary, the armed forces, the political opposition, the media and the civil society are not asking for any drastic change, but a clean-up of the system, to ensure a sustainable democratic order.

Presidential Palace Kabul

Kabul stands at the turning point of history, as it was in Vienna in 1683, when the advancing Ottoman armies had laid siege to it, the heartland of Europe, and suffered a major defeat, resulting into the dismantling of the Ottoman Umpire and the resultant decline, defeat and degradation of the Muslim World as a whole. However, after World War II, as the colonial forces weakened, many Muslim countries gained independence, which was seen as threat to the interests of the western world, particularly after defeat of the Soviet Union at the hands of the Taliban and its retreat from Kabul. The vacuum thus created was promptly filled by the United States and its allies, by occupying Afghanistan – the heartland of the Muslim World. The purpose was to degrade and defeat the Taliban power, and extend American primacy and pre-eminence into Eurasia and beyond. But that was not to be, because the people of Afghanistan, after defeating the Soviets, have convincingly defeated the sole super-power of the world and its allies. The Afghans, therefore stands at the cross-roads, ready to lay down the parameters of peace in Afghanistan and the region. Kabul establishes the historical linkage with Vienna, which inflicted defeat on the rising Muslim Power, its fall, and now its rises again from the soil of Afghanistan, after a long period of over three centuries. Civilizations, thus cyclically rise, fall and then rise again, with a new momentum, thus repudiating the notion of clash of Civilizations. On the contrary, civilizations get matured through intermingling with each other.

The Americans and their allies – European Union and India, therefore are faced with a sense of humiliating defeat on several fronts, with no clear modality for a safe exit from Afghanistan. Taliban now control over eighty percent of Afghanistan and the occupation forces, control main air bases, communication centres and the garrisons of Kandahar and Kabul only. The Afpak Strategy, i.e. the troops surge and intensified drone attacks also have failed to provide the “position of strength needed for meaningful negotiation with the Taliban”, who are demanding withdrawal of the occupation forces, prior to the negotiations. The effort to divide the Taliban has also failed, thus limiting the option to direct negotiations with the Taliban, on their terms. The immediate neighbours of Afghanistan, i.e., Pakistan, Iran and Russia, constitute the external front to Afghanistan. Admiral Petreaus’ policy of pressurizing and confronting Pakistan has back-fired and Pakistan has succeeded in giving a clear message that no such venture will be entertained in future. Iran being unduly pressurized by USA for the last several years, is paying back, by keeping a blind eye, to the smuggling of arms and ammunition into Afghanistan from the neighbouring countries. The Russians, since 2004-5 have let loose the regional smugglers of arms and ammunition, in retaliation to the revolutions whipped-up by the Americans in the Russian ‘near abroad’ in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. Thus the hostility of the neighbours has come heavy on the occupation forces, with defeat staring into their faces.

Capitol Hill

The Americans are facing a serious political dilemma at home, as the French faced in Vietnam, and lost the war in Paris. Due to the split between Pentagon and the State Department, on Afghan military and political strategy, the Security Advisor to the President, James Jones, the economic advisor and the strategic planner Axelrod, have resigned, while the public opinion is gradually turning against the war, with 65% demanding troops withdrawal from Afghanistan. The economic situation is further deteriorating, adversely impacting the life of the common man. While the strategic talks are being held at Washington, seeking a peaceful solution of the Afghan issue, the US policy appears working on cross-purposes as explained by the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton: “The US is working on an outreach process with Taliban promising that if they remove Al-Qaeda, (numbering not more than seventy, according to CIA), the US will help them re-integrate into the Afghan society,” whereas a society destroyed by invasion, with institutions demolished and the country ravaged by lawlessness, it is beyond the capacity of the defeated armed forces of USA and the allies to integrate the society. Only Taliban under Mullah Omer could do that, as they did during the nineties – 1996-2001. With such a mindset the strategic dialogue in all probability would be working at cross-purposes. However the saving grace for the talk could be, if there was an agreement on the issue of drone attacks; immediate allocation of two billion dollars flood relief and not military aid package as proposed, would win the hearts of the Pakistani people; firm commitment on exit from Afghanistan, and the willingness to negotiate with the Taliban. The current strategic talks are not transactional any more, in which America could seek only to buy Pakistan’s loyalty through threat, coercion or aid. These talks would have no meaning, if “America looses substance in its relationship with Pakistan.”

It is time for USA and its allies to accept gracefully their mistake and consequent failures. Alexander Pope rightly counseled: “A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that, he is wiser today than he was yesterday.” Will USA display the moral courage to accept the mistake, is the question.

India Thinking Small, Again

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan-India is a big country with the brain of a mouse. Take this headline from India’s largest newspaper, Times of India: Obama Mission: Billions To Pakistan, Billions To India.

I love the headline. It’s not wrong but a little exaggerated. US President Obama is offering $2 billion’s worth of military hardware purchases to Pakistan, subsidized by US government.

For Pakistan, it’s a cautious welcome. Nothing will come to us immediately. The purchases are divided over the next five years. It will be a slow process, involving government red tape, politics and the usual arm-twisting that Washington is so good at. It’s also a lollypop that the US government has dangled before the Pakistani military to calm some of the anger over a US helicopter killing three Pakistani soldiers three weeks ago.

The Indian government knows all this. It also knows that recent US sale of F-16s to Pakistan came with a harsh condition: the planes will be accompanied by US ‘minders’ as part of support staff who will live on the base and ensure Pakistan does not ‘misuse’ the planes, as in against India.

Still, two weeks before Obama lands in India on an official visit, Indian media managers leaked this fabulously-titled but well-researched report, grumbling that billions of Indian dollars will be going to US pockets while Pakistan will be getting billions’ worth of weapons for free. Of course, even if Pakistan buys up all the $2 billion’s worth of US weapons immediately and not over five years, it will still not match India’s massive weapons shopping spree worth $30 billion, to be spent by 2012, meaning within the next two years.

This tells you one thing: the Indian government is really not worried about the puny $2 billion offer to Pakistan tipping the scales. We can’t match India’s $30 billion.

If that is clear, then what is it that India is worried about? Why whine about two billions to Pakistan over five years when India is spending fifteen times that figure in less than two years?

It’s just India’s small-minded pursuit of anything that would undermine Pakistan. There is no way Pakistan would ever invade or destroy India, nor are most Pakistanis interested in this proposition. It’s always the bigger countries that destroy smaller ones. Yet India doesn’t really miss a second seizing any opportunity to hurt Pakistan. Remember 1971 when peaceful Pakistanis were busy in post-elections noise? India launched an unprovoked invasion of Pakistan and, as the invasion unfolded, we discovered the Indians had actually planned it for two years and created and recruited a proxy army inside our country to help them once the invasion started.

The mindset behind the Times of India story is the same mindset that invaded us in 1971, the same mindset that refuses to resolve Kashmir and pave the way for peace, the same mindset that exploits Afghan mess to set up training camps to export terrorists to Pakistan, the same mindset that plants terrorism in Balochistan, and the same mindset that bans Pakistani TV channels across India.

And to confirm the height of this Indian small-mindedness, it is the same mindset that bans Pakistani visitors from posting comments on Indian news websites, no matter how respectful that comment is, if the comment questions official Indian positions on any question. [Let me also add that Pakistani guest columnists are banned in mainstream Indian newspapers for the same reason. Compare that to Pakistani generosity as our newspapers permit guest Indian columnists to write freely even if they criticize official Pakistani policies, and no Pakistani news website bans Indians surfers from posting comments.]

Our American friends can’t see this Indian small-mindedness, of course. That’s why we hear US officials insisting India is not a threat to Pakistan, the latest such gratuitous advice came just this week during the Pak-US strategic dialogue currently underway in Washington.

For Pakistan and India to live in peace, even resolving Kashmir won’t help if India doesn’t get itself a new mindset, big and confident, in contrast to the existing insecure, small-minded way of looking at its smaller neighbors.