‘Drone attacks pushing tribesmen closer to militants’

ISLAMABAD – Calling drone attacks counter-productive, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Wednesday said the attacks were bringing the tribes closer to militants.

“Pakistan’s military and political leadership distanced local tribes from the militants, but these attacks are creating sympathy for militants among the locals,” he said in the National Assembly, adding that Pakistan was asking US to give it drone technology.

“We asked the US that you share intelligence with us and we will strike militants ourselves,” he said. He said WikiLeaks revelations had no authenticity and the leaks were a personal opinion of junior officers. “When they lack the pep to say something, they leak such things,” he said, adding that the WikiLeaks had also revealed many positive aspects of his personality.

“These leaks revealed that I wanted to negotiate with the Americans at the level of equality,” he said. He said being a responsible country, Pakistan was taking up drone issue at all international forums. “The world has started accepting our point of view,” he added.

Responding to a point of order of Mian Riaz Hussain Pirzada in which he questioned why ministers who had resigned were still working in their offices, Gilani said there was a procedure for the formal acceptance of ministers’ resignations.

“They tender their resignation to me and I send them to the president for approval. Untill today, I have not received the resignations. Once these resignations are accepted, the ministers will stop working,” he added.

Speaking on a point of order earlier, PML-Q Parliamentary Leader Faisal Saleh Hayat asked the prime minister to clarify his position on the drone attacks, as Wikileaks said “Gilani himself allowed the Americans to carry on drone attacks”.

“Why do you say the government is convincing Americans? Pakistan should also have a strategy to counter these attacks,” he said. Hayat said the statements and speeches of government functionaries on drone attacks were not sufficient, and the “government should devise strategy to counter these strikes”. Sheikh Waqas Akram of the PML-Q said the PML-N was raising a hue and cry over Shahzain Bugti’s arrest but had its lips shut on the persecution of common Balochs.

US to supply ‘Shadow’ drones to Pakistan: officials

ISLAMABAD – The United States plans to provide Pakistan with a dozen unarmed drone aircraft that will help bolster its military as it takes on Taliban militants, US defence officials said.

US army soldiers prepare to launch an RQ-7B Shadow drone over the province of Diyala, Iraq

Details of the drones emerged late Thursday during a visit to Pakistan by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who was asked in an interview with Pakistani television if Washington would supply Islamabad with the unmanned aircraft.

“There are some tactical UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) that we are considering, yes,” Gates said.

Defence officials in his delegation afterward confirmed funds had been set aside to secure 12 Shadow aerial drones for Pakistan.

The Shadow drones, smaller than the armed Predator and Reaper aircraft, are about 11 feet (three metres) long and have a wing-span of 14-feet, with sensors and cameras feeding video images back to operators on the ground.

The Pakistani military already had some less sophisticated drones for surveillance but would need to heavily invest in training specialists to be able to take advantage of the new hardware, said US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The US employs armed drones for missile strikes against Al-Qaeda and Taliban figures in Pakistan, fuelling anti-American sentiment and drawing public condemnation from the government in Islamabad.

Pakistani officials have previously called for Washington to provide its military with armed drones.

Who killed Benazir Bhutto?

President Asif Ali Zardari, who is also co-chairman of the PPP, spoke in Naudero on the third anniversary of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination in December 2007 and did not make any major revelation about her killers. He had been saying that he knew who had killed her and people on both sides of the political divide wanted to hear him reveal names. The PPP supporters wanted him to finally nail the killers; the PPP-haters wanted to see him get into trouble by naming anyone without proper conviction.

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari (R) places visits his mother’s grave in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh on the third anniversary of her death.

TV channels actually let their not-so-literate newscasters use sarcastic sentences, as they looked back at President Zardari’s decision to approach the UN to get at the truth, and then, not being satisfied with it, descend into a curious silence before getting a joint investigation team (JIT) to move afresh on the case. During this process, opponents like Mumtaz Bhutto have been hinting broadly that Ms Bhutto was killed by those whom she was close to, making it quite clear that he, Mumtaz, held her husband responsible for her death (without providing any proof whatsoever). Unfortunately, a split within the PPP, headed by Naheed Khan and Safdar Abbasi, swelled the chorus, asking for ‘full investigation’ into the conduct of ‘all present’ at the place of the murder.

The UN inquiry was perhaps the wrong thing to do because the UN could never have fingered the killers. Yet there were things in its report that constituted good pointers. Like the Scotland Yard inquiry, it too reposed credence in the nexus between the Pakistani establishment and the terrorists in Fata. It took seriously the tape that had Tehreek-i-Taliban (TTP) chief Baitullah Mehsud discussing his assassination plot to get rid of Ms Bhutto for al Qaeda, whose spokesman had already warned that she was to be eliminated since she was deemed to be an ‘American asset’. You have to be from outside Pakistan to believe that Baitullah was no saint when he swore that “Taliban do not kill women”. Pakistanis simply refuse to see that a phone call from Islamabad can get anyone killed at the hands of the Taliban, even when it happens again and again in front of them.

The JIT, in November of this year, issued its 48-page inquiry report which said that the TTP had carried out the assassination. It stayed clear of the army personnel and other important members of the establishment but did say that the military “did not allow the team to get statements” from the military hierarchy. But it did something else which would scare off any TV channel know-all anchor: it indicted Baitullah Mehsud, and accused Ibadur Rehman, Abdullah and Faiz Muhammad (former students of Madrassa Haqqania, Akora Khattak in Nowshera), Ikramullah (suicide bomber), Aitzaz Shah, Sher Zaman, Hasnain Gul, Muhammad Rafaqat, Rasheed Ahmed, Nasrullah and Nadir of “carrying out, facilitating and financing the attack”.

Picking up cues from the UN report, the JIT also charged Syed Saud Aziz, a former Rawalpindi police chief, and Khurram Shahzad, a former superintendent of police, with criminal negligence of duty and “hosing down the crime scene”. The electronic media revisited the scene on the third anniversary of the assassination and found eyewitnesses who gave accounts, adding more details to the dossier. The local PPP leader who was in charge of managing the Liaquat Bagh meeting where Ms Bhutto spoke stated that the armoured vehicle which carried her away from the scene had one of its rear tyres flattened and was blocked by a crowd that did not belong to the PPP but could have been organised by persons from within the establishment. This crowd blocked the vehicle and allowed a man to fire at Benazir and a suicide bomber to emerge from Liaquat Bagh to blow himself up near the first assassin. Names have been named and they belong in the list presented to Pervez Musharraf by Ms Bhutto in a letter when he was in power. In this letter, she said that she had been told that the establishment would try to get rid of her. And this establishment contained elements who exercised policy control even after retirement. The JIT report demands action. Will the government be allowed to start action against the well-known “nursery” of jihad named in the report? Or will the trail fade like that of Pakistan’s earlier assassinations?

Kashmir as envisioned by Jinnah

The eminent British historian, H.V Hodson, while describing the personality of Quaid-i-Azam in his book, ‘The Great Divide’ said, “Of all the personalities in the great drama of India’s rebirth to independence, Mohammad Ali Jinnah was at once was the most enigmatic and the most important –it is barely conceivable –that a new nation State of Pakistan would have been created, but for the personality and leadership of one man, Mr. Jinnah.” Indeed, Mr Jinnah, “was as great as a lawyer, once great as a Congressman, great as a leader of Muslims, great as a world politician and diplomat, and greatest of all as a man of action.” His sudden death, soon after Pakistan came into being, indeed, was a great loss to Pakistan, while the world lost a greatest statesman.

It was because of the dedicated commitment of Quaid-i-Azam that Muslim of South Asia could get their homeland in spite of the strapping opposition, posed by the Hindu majority in united India. Since the state of Jammu and Kashmir was to become the part of Pakistan, therefore, the great Quaid had unparallel commitment with people of Kashmir and Kashmiri cause. While tracing the history, one would find that the fact remains that the first ever Muslim Political party of sub-continent the; “All India Muslim League” was formed in 1906, at the residence of a Kashmiri of Bengal, Sir Salimullah Khan. Above all, the greatest Philosopher, poet and Scholar Dr. Allama Muhammad Iqbal, a Kashmiri himself, initially sponsored the idea of a separate homeland for the Muslims of Sub-continent in 1930, emphasizing on the amalgamation of Muslim majority states, into a single state; we had in the form of Pakistan, in 1947. It was through his efforts that Quaid could be brought back to lead the political struggle of the Muslims of Sub-continent for their separate homeland.

Sequel to the proposal of this amalgamation, as a Chairman of the India Muslim Committee, Dr. Iqbal appealed to the Muslims of the whole sub-continent that they should observe 14th August 1934 as Kashmir Day. He also made it clear that, the dream of Muslim India would be incomplete without the freedom of the Islamic State of Kashmir. In a way, it was the formal announcement of Kashmir as an inalienable part of the new ideological Muslim State in Sub-continent. Therefore, Kashmir was not an exception, once the demand of a separate homeland for the Muslims in sub-continent was being made. Kashmir was to become part of Pakistan, and the word ‘K’ in Pakistan is indeed for the state of ‘Kashmir’. As revealed through the available archives, Quaid-i-Azam, visited Kashmir at least four times. Generally, it is referred as three times only. First time, Quaid visited Kashmir 1926. Apparently, it was a private visit to spend few holidays in Kashmir, but, practically, this visionary leader had used the visit to assess the socio-economic condition of the people of Kashmir, under the cruel rule of Maharaja Hari Singh.

Indeed, except Reading Room Party, there was no political awakening in the State, nor Kashmiris could form political parties. Earlier, once some noted Kashmiris dared to submit a memorandum to the Viceroy of India, demanding reforms in the educational and economic sectors, and to redress the grievances of Kashmiri masses, Dogra Government in Kashmir victimized them and some were even expelled from Kashmir. The Quaid uneasily watched this situation and later, got a special resolution passed in the All India Muslim League Working Committee session held in Lahore in 1926. The unanimously passed resolution drew the attention of the Maharajah’s Government towards the educational and economic backwardness of the Muslims of Kashmir and requested him to improve the living standard of the Muslim masses, forming bulk of the population. Quaid again visited Kashmir in 1929, and met with some leading personalities of the state. Both these visits remained low profile, in fact to watch the situation there.

As a leader of All India Muslim League, Quaid visited Kashmir in 1936 for the third time. He was given a landmark reception by the united Kashmiri leadership of Muslim Conference, with Sheikh Abdullah and Chudhary Ghlum Abbas in the forefront. During the visit, the Quaid, told the Kashmiris: “Oh yes Muslim! Our Allah is one, our Prophet is one, our Quran is one, and therefore our Voice must also be one”. Unfortunately, three years after this visit, there came a split among the leadership of Kashmir, and Sheikh Abdullah, raised a new political party with the name of National Conference. This in fact was a tragic development in the history of the Kashmiri Muslims. Had National Conference not acted as an unofficial offshoot of the Indian national Congress, Kashmiris would not have suffered these miseries in their 63 years of post partition life.

On the joint invitation of the Muslim Conference and the National Conference, Quaid, once again visited Kashmir in 1944. This was his fourth and the final visit to Kashmir, and he stayed in various parts of the state for over a month. He met with the leadership of all political parties in Kashmir and attended functions, meeting with workers, students, lawyers, common people and journalists. His stay in Kashmir being the last but the most important had a great impact on the future politics of Kashmir. Indeed, during this visit, the “tables were turned against the banner-bearers of the Hindu Congress.” However, there developed differences between Quaid and the leadership of National Conference, once Quaid advised party leadership to remain united for the future of Kashmir.

This is a historical fact that during this visit, Quaid advised Sheikh Abdullah, not to play in the hands of Hindu leadership of Indian National Congress (INC), who are extremely cunning, and opportunist and aims to look after the interests of majority Hindus only. This was indeed, the personnel experience of Quaid, during his membership of the INC from 1905 to 1913 and then up to 1921. During this tenure, Quaid worked for the Hindu-Muslim Unity, but, disappointed, owing to the selfishness of the Hindu and later, resigned from the basic membership of INC in 1921. Quaid’s love for the people of Kashmir can be imagined from the fact that, during his visit of Kashmir in 1944; he picked up a newly graduate Kashmiri youth, K.H. Khurshid as his personnel secretary. K.H. Khursid remained as the personnel secretary of the Quaid from 1944 to 1947.

Quaid-i-Azam issued clear orders to the Commander-in-Chief of Pakistan Army to dispatch troops to Jammu and Srinagar, once Maharaja of Kashmir allowed invasion of Indian forces, through a fraudulent accession on October 27, 1947. Unfortunately, Quaid’s orders were not implemented. However, later India took the matter to United Nations organization, where it was decided that, future of the state would be determined through a plebiscite under UN. However, this remains a reality that, Kashmir had already acceded to Pakistan, provisionally by offering the Standstill Agreement to Pakistan on 11th August 1947. The Kashmir Government made the offer to India also, but India did not respond to it whereas, Pakistan accepted the offer and the Standstill Agreement was signed between Pakistan and Kashmir.

Quaid-i-Azam tried his best to create circumstances, which could stop the annexation of Kashmir to India. The fraudulent accession of Kashmir with India in fact was the best example of deviation and contradiction of the INC from its basic stance, which says, the wishes of the masses would be taken into consideration in case of Princely states. Following the partition, Mr. Jinnah had to confront the Indo-British conspiracy with the Maharaja of Kashmir as a pawn, and the anti-Pakistan National Conference of Sheikh Abdullah as perpetrators. The odds were many and the enemies of Pakistan had joined hands to make the experiment of a free and independent Muslim state a failure. Quaid-i-Azam’s great achievement and miracle was the formation of Pakistan, which was opposed by the Hindu Congress and by the anti-Muslim elements in the British hierarchy. It was very unfortunate that Quaid-i-Azam passed away before the future of Kashmir could be decided by the people of Kashmir in a free and impartial plebiscite under the auspices of the United Nations. Upon his death, there was great gloom in Jammu and Kashmir, where people wept bitterly and said that Kashmiris had become orphans with the death of this great leader of the subcontinent.

Kashmiri struggle was essentially based on two-nation theory. In this regard, Kashmiris have always taken into consideration the rights of the non-Muslim and minorities of Kashmir. Throughout its history, the pundits and other minorities have lived peacefully in Kashmir and have been holding high posts in the administration. The APHC, which is leading the people of Kashmir, while following the principles of Quaid, opened its doors for the assimilation of the non-Muslims too. From the aspects of geo-strategy and geo-economics, the State of Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan are interlinked. Pakistan is such a state whose principal economy is agrarian based. This agrarian based economy needs a constant availability of water. Traditionally, the water catchment areas (water heads) are located somewhere in the mountainous region of the state of Jammu and Kashmir or passing through it. For centuries, water flows down to irrigate the agricultural lands of Punjab, Sindh and other parts of the Indus Valley and the locals as well as the people of Kashmir consumed its product, the food grains.

Indeed, there existed a historical mutuality between the Kashmir and the areas forming part of Pakistan. This relationship of interdependence is pre-partition of the sub-continent and even pre-canal system, hence everlasting in nature. It was indeed, in the same context that six decades earlier, on the eve of independence of Pakistan, the father of the nation, Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah through his visionary statement declared Kashmir as the “jugular vein of Pakistan,” and no nation can survive for a long with its jugular vein under the swords of another nation.

Gaza’s fallen women: doing time for ‘moral’ crime

World.Down.com

GAZA CITY: Najwa Abu Amra cries inside a Gaza jail as she explains how she got here. Struggling to care for two sons and a drug-addicted husband, she agreed to sleep with a man for about 50 dollars.

A Palestinian Hamas policewoman unlocks a door at a women’s prison run by Hamas in Gaza City on December 9, 2010. The prison consists of two rooms that house 19 women, some doing time for “moral” crime, and a handful of children.

She had resisted prostitution in the past, but she was getting desperate.

“My husband isn’t normal, he was telling me to sleep with men because they would give him money,” She said. “He did what he liked and he didn’t give me anything. I didn’t know what to do”.

Her husband showed no interest in caring for their two boys, one aged nine, the other just three. When she walked out, trying to prod him into better behaviour, he married a second wife.

“I had two sons, one of them is deaf, I didn’t have a choice,” she explains as the other women prisoners look on, some of them clutching their own children.

Out of desperation, she dialed the number of a man she had met months earlier, and agreed to sleep with him for 200 shekels (54 dollars or 41 euros).

Not long afterwards, Abu Amra was arrested on suspicion of immoral behaviour.

She was hauled before a judge and ordered to attend 30 days of pre-trial detention at the Training and Reform Centre for Women, Gaza’s only prison for women.

The facility is run by Hamas, which has been in control of the Gaza Strip since 2007. The group won legislative elections in 2006, and a year later seized control of the coastal enclave after deadly confrontations with rival Fatah.

Since coming to power, the Islamist group has sought to bolster Gaza’s conservative religious mores, although it has rescinded some controversial measures, including one banning women from publicly smoking the water pipe.

The prison, such as it is, consists of two rooms that house 19 women and a handful of children. The rest of the building, which is still under construction, houses a men’s prison and administration offices.

Inside one of the rooms, 11 women sit on foam cushions and thick rugs, their thin blankets piled in a corner. One nurses a child in the dimly-lit room, which has only one tiny window letting in very little light.

In the other, eight women sit chatting with their female prison guard, Umm Ahmed, who treats them with a mixture of sympathy and revulsion.

‘Moral’ crimes are rarely sentenced

Abu Amra’s two boys are still with her husband, but another woman, a tired and scared-looking prisoner who refuses to give her name, is rocking her newborn son in her arms.

He was born just three days earlier and doesn’t yet have a name. His mother was transferred to a hospital for the birth then returned to jail shortly after. His father is a man she slept with for money, Umm Ahmed says. But the new mother claims otherwise, describing the man as her husband.

She says her family arranged the marriage while she was in jail, hoping it would be enough to get her out and minimise some of the public disgrace they face. Umm Ahmed says the family has done no such thing.

It is a common solution, said Nasser Deeb Suliman, director of prison security, especially when the man in the question is someone the family knows.

“If it was with a neighbour or a friend, usually the family will decide to marry them, and then the woman can be released,” he said.

The woman’s sister, who also refused to give her name, is in a similar situation. She is heavily pregnant and due to give birth this month, after spending almost half of her pregnancy in prison.

Suliman said the women are divided between the two rooms according to the severity of their crimes, but 21-year-old Tahrir, who was convicted of murder, is in the same room as women accused of prostitution and pick pocketing.

In the next room sits Rihab, a quiet and pale 34-year-old whose arms are covered in scars from cutting herself. She talks openly but without pride about how she ended up in prison.

She didn’t need money; she had a job at a local hospital. Her crime was to choose to sleep with two men, both of whom ended up in prison as well.

“I did it, I’m not going to lie, I did it twice,” she said. Her family was furious at first, but her father has forgiven her.

“He told the neighbours I’m in Egypt, he’s going to get a lawyer for me,” she said. The two men have already been released, after hiring attorneys to argue their cases.

Those accused of “moral” crimes are rarely sentenced, Suliman says.

Instead, a judge extends their 30-day detention period several times, releasing them between four and eight months later – less if a woman gets married, and more if she is a repeat offender.

Some women are more reluctant than Rihab to admit why they are in jail.

Kholud, 18, and her mother, who declines to give her name, have been in prison for two months, and say they were jailed over a family dispute.

Umm Ahmed openly contradicts them, but they refuse to change their story.

Outside the cell, the guard takes a visitor aside, her face sad but her voice filled with disgust as she describes the women as part of a brothel.

“The whole family was rotten. They were all involved. The father was in charge. The guy who was with the daughter was also with the mother,” she says.

“Don’t believe everything they say.”

US contemplating raids in Pakistan

By: Sultan M Hali

A number of pieces of the puzzle fell into place when the media learnt that the senior military leadership in Afghanistan was propagating that the path to victory in Afghanistan lay through ground attacks in alleged miscreant hideouts in Pakistan. The US media has been continually hinting towards the so called frustrations of the US towards Pakistan, regarding Pakistan’s supposed reluctance to root out militants in its tribal areas. The “New York Times”, which some people consider as the mouthpiece of Capitol Hill discloses a plan to launch attacks in Pakistan’s tribal regions. The daily lets on that the proposed plan has not been approved yet but with the deadline of the commencement of the withdrawal of US forces approaching closer, a sense of urgency is being felt. Gung-ho US analysts are opining that despite the risks involved in military operations inside Pakistan, the use of American Special Operations troops in Pakistan’s tribal regions could bring an intelligence windfall, if militants were captured, brought back across the border into Afghanistan and interrogated. Perhaps these armchair analysts are oblivious of the history of the tribal region. It is fraught with perils for every invader; and history is replete with examples where ambitions of would be conquerors were buried forever in the hostile terrain. It is not that the US troops have not attempted forays across the border into Pakistan. Each has resulted in disaster. The latest on September 30 this year brought such a backlash from Pakistani forces as well as the people that the US had to beat a hasty retreat in any plans to continue with operations ingressing across the Durand Line. The episode infuriated Pakistan’s government, which temporarily shut down American military supply routes into Pakistan. Several fuel trucks sitting at the border were destroyed by insurgents, and American officials publicly apologized. Two years earlier, in September 2008, American commandos carried out a raid in Pakistan’s tribal areas and killed several people suspected of being insurgents. The episode led to outrage among Pakistan’s leaders – and warnings not to try again. It really is not understood how US defence planners have concluded that there is now a shift in policy and Pakistanis would welcome any adventurism in their sovereign territory.

If lessons have not been learnt from the disastrous results of the CIA-operated drone attacks in the region, then the US has only itself to blame. America’s clandestine war in Pakistan has for the most part been carried out by armed drones operated by the C.I.A. Additionally, in recent years; Afghan militias backed by the C.I.A. have carried out a number of secret missions into Pakistan’s tribal areas. These operations in Pakistan by Afghan operatives, known as Counterterrorism Pursuit Teams, have been previously reported as solely intelligence-gathering operations. The decision to expand American military activity in Pakistan, which would almost certainly have to be approved by President Obama himself, would amount to the opening of a new front in the war in Afghanistan, which enters its tenth year and has become highly unpopular with US citizens. It would run the risk of angering a Pakistani government that has been an uneasy ally in the war in Afghanistan, particularly if it leads to civilian casualties or highly public confrontations. The drone attacks have caused a different type of backlash, in which a resident of the tribal region, Karim Khan, also a journalist has filed a lawsuit against the CIA and named the head of the intelligence agency in Pakistan, blowing his cover. Resultantly, Jonathan Banks, the CIA operative, who was named in the lawsuit by the plaintiff, had to beat a hasty retreat to safer climes to escape from the wrath of an angered group of survivors of the drone attacks, who are baying for an end to the death from the skies.

It is not that Washington does not have sane elements who will weigh the option of launching forays into Pakistan very carefully. Ground operations in Pakistan remain controversial in Washington, and there may be a debate over the proposal. One senior administration official said he was not in favor of cross-border operations – which he said have been generally “counterproductive” – unless they were directed against top leaders of Al Qaeda. He expressed concern that political fallout in Pakistan could negate any tactical gains. Still, one senior American officer said, “We’ve never been as close as we are now to getting the go-ahead to go across.”

The best bet for the US is to understand the security imperatives for Pakistan, whose ground forces are already outstretched. They have been deployed in Swat and South Waziristan, areas, that have been cleared of miscreants but are fraught with danger until a civilian infrastructure of law and order is in place. Nearly 150,000 Pakistani troops have been deployed in the region. Additionally, the hostile attitude of Pakistan’s eastern neighbour precludes the necessity of placing sufficient troops along the Line of Control in Kashmir to thwart any adventurism by India. The US should contemplate capacity building of Pakistani troops to tackle the miscreants in the area suspected of harbouring miscreants, which would be more productive in the longer run rather than sending US troops. Even before finalizing any plans to increase raids across the border, the Obama administration has already stepped up its air assaults in the tribal areas with an unprecedented number of C.I.A. drone strikes this year. Since September, the spy agency has carried out more than 50 drone attacks in North Waziristan and elsewhere – compared with 60 strikes in the preceding eight months. Instead of challenging Pakistan’s sovereignty, the US is advised to work with its ally Pakistan to eliminate common enemies.

Shahzain Bugti called US embassy at the time of arrest

QUETTA: The US embassy in Islamabad on Friday confirmed that the provincial chief of Jahmoori Watan Party (JWP) Shahzain Bugti had communicated with them at the time of his arrest two days ago.

Jamhoori Watan Party’s provincial chief Shahzain Bugti arrives at the Anti Terrorism Court in Quetta.

Talking to Express News, US embassy spokesman Alberto Rodrix said that Shahzain had contacted an official in the American embassy.

Rodrix said that Bugti had discussed his arrest with the official. The spokesman said said that the US respects Pakistani law and that Bugti’s arrest is Pakistan’s internal matter.

Shahzain Bugti, the grandson of late Nawab Akbar Bugti, was arrested by paramilitary troops on Wednesday when they found a huge quantity of arms and ammunitions from vehicles in his convoy during a snap check at the Buleli check-post on the outskirts of Quetta.

Shutter-down strike

The JWP called for a shutter-down strike in Balochistan today to protest the the arrest of Shahzain Bugti.

Various parts of Balochistan observed the strike.

In Quetta, business centres remained closed and few vehicles ventured on to the city’s roads. Tight security measures were in place to avoid any untoward incident, with political parties and trade organizations also supporting the strike.

Shahzain Bugti’s arrest: Shutter down strike being observed in Balochistan

JWP activists forcefully closed shops and resorted to aerial firing in a few areas in Quetta, with police confiscating their firearms.

Yousuf Raza Gilani says Pakistan would accept no pressure for Waziristan ops

Pakistan premier Yousuf Raza Gilani today said his country would not succumb to any external pressure to launch a military operation in the North Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan, asserting that no one can ‘dictate us’ on the when and where of things.

Pakistan has been under pressure from the US to launch a military operation in North Waziristan on the lines of the one it carried out in Swat, but it has remained non-committal.

Speaking in the National Assembly or lower house of the Parliament, Gilani said Pakistan will not accept any pressure from the US or any other country to launch a military operation against militants in the restive tribal region.

“We can sacrifice our lives for the defence and security of the country, so no one should have the impression that they can dictate when military operations should be conducted in North Waziristan and South Waziristan,” he said.

The US has stepped up pressure on Pakistan in recent months to launch a military action in North Waziristan, which senior American military officials have described as a safe haven for Taliban and al-Qaeda elements.

Observers have said Pakistan is reluctant to act against militant networks in the region as they have close links to the security establishment and only target US and allied forces across the border in Afghanistan.

“I want to tell the House that the decision will be made by Pakistan on where to conduct a military action. No one can dictate to us,” he said in response to concerns expressed by parliamentarians about pressure from the US to move troops into the lawless North Waziristan tribal region.

Gilani, however, made it clear that his government would act wherever its writ is challenged by militants, as it did in the northwestern Swat valley last year.

Describing the impression that Pakistan launches military actions on the dictates of “American or foreign elements” as wrong, he said there will be “no compromise on the sovereignty and integrity of the country”.

The government has taken all sections of the political leadership, both within and outside the parliament, into confidence before launching operations against militants in areas like Swat, Malakand and South Waziristan, he said.

“No section of the political leadership will say it favours terrorism, all are opposed to it. The whole nation is standing up against terrorism like a wall because it has spoiled our economy,” he added.

Steel Mills: Fear of SC intervention restrains privatisation

By: Shahbaz Rana

ISLAMABAD: The Privatisation Commission has had to temporarily shelve the plan for the privatisation of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) after it failed to circumvent the Supreme Court’s judgment and was found to be intruding in the mandate of other ministries.

The Privatisation Commission’s board, which met under the chairmanship of Federal Minister for Privatisation Senator Waqar Ahmed Khan, failed to convince stakeholders on either selling almost a fifth of PSM or getting a mandate for the revitalisation of the sinking giant, according to sources who attended the meeting.

Sources added that Khan tried his utmost to convince the board members to go forward with PSM privatisation. However, certain members raised the issue of the Supreme Court’s judgment on the privatisation and its latest position on alleged corruption.

Khan told The Express Tribune that the commission “does not want to sell the shares” and added, “what it wants is a turnaround by enhancing the production capacity from one million tons to seven million tons.”

When asked why he tried to intrude upon the mandate of other ministries, he said that the moment “you go for raising money, the Privatisation Commission comes in.”

Sources said the Privatisation Commission cannot carry out the revitalisation, which is a mandate of the Ministry for Industries and Production. The prime minister has also constituted a ministerial committee – the cabinet committee for restructuring – and Khan was trying to infringe upon the mandate of both the Ministry for Industries and the cabinet’s committee, they added.

Pakistan Steel Mills was a profitable entity during the last regime but due to alleged political appointments at the top, it has been incurring losses worth billions of rupees. The Privatisation Commission has proposed selling a 20 per cent stake to foreign investors and giving them management control.

According to an official handout, “the Privatisation Commission Board discussed the capacity building, plant optimisation and turnaround of the Pakistan Steel Mills.”

The release further states that the board, in consultation with the management of respective entities and the concerned ministries, gave a go-ahead for inviting expressions of interest (EOIs) for the appointment of financial advisers for Pakistan Post Offices, National Power Construction Company, Heavy Electrical Complex (HEC) and the listing of Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) on the stock exchange for its initial public offering (IPO).

The financial advisers will evaluate these entities and suggest the best possible option for taking the transaction forward keeping in mind their value addition, including corporatisation, revamping, revitalisation, management outsourcing through public-private partnerships and divestment of shares through domestic and international capital markets.

The board also formed various transaction committees for these entities comprising Privatisation Commission board members to monitor the progress for ensuring utmost transparency and satisfaction of all respective stakeholders, said the release.

Khan said that the government was determined to restrict itself to policymaking and not running businesses.

Crossing LoC: Pakistan, India approve triple entry permits

By: Roshan Mughal

MUZAFFARABAD: Pakistan and India have agreed to further facilitate travel between the two parts of disputed Jammu and Kashmir by providing triple entry permits to divided Kashmiri families to travel across the Line of Control (LoC).

“A decision has been taken by both governments and we have obtained permission for this by taking up the matter with the foreign office,” Director General Cross LoC Trade and Travel Authority (TATA) Brigadier (retd) Muhammad Ismail said on Wednesday.

Travelling on a triple entry permit will be valid for three visits in one year to either part of Kashmir through Srinagar-Muzaffarabad and Poonch-Rawalakot bus services.

The triple entry permit will be also valid on crossing points established in Neelum Valley and Tetapani Kotli.

Ismail said the triple entry permit for intra-Kashmir travel through bus service and crossing pints will ease the reunions of divided Kashmiri families.

“Now the applicants will not need to continuously visit offices nor have to go through a procedure for travel every time,” he said, adding that the luggage of the passengers will now be transported by vehicles instead on trolleys. Since April 2005, 9,206 Kashmiri have traveled from Azad Kashmir to Indian Kashmir, while 6, 205 people have visited Azad Kashmir from Indian Kashmir.

Thousands of divided families are living on either side of the LoC since 1948 after a cease fire line was drawn which divides Kashmir between Azad Kashmir and Indian Kashmir. The cease fire line was turned into the Line of Control (LOC) after the Simla Accord between India and Pakistan in 1972.

Both countries started bus services between the two Kashmirs in April 2005 and truck service in October 2008, for families to reunite.

Meanwhile on Wednesday, Indian Kashmir trade authorities turned away 12 trucks from Indian Kashmir to Azad Kashmir terming them as exceeding the limit of weekly trade.

The AJK TATA has decided to ban the trade of onion to Indian Kashmir given its soaring prices in Pakistan. TATA had also banned the trade of Dal Mong which had become a favorite trading item for AJK traders given high profit margin.