Sharifs’ ties with Malik Riaz alienating Chaudhry Nisar

Nadeem Syed

The striking absence of the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly and PML-N stalwart Nisar Ali Khan from the party elections held in Islamabad recently raised several eyebrows in the political circles, especially in the Sharifs’ inner-most circle known otherwise for running the show.

An inquiry revealed that Nisar was unhappy with his party leadership and was staying in London for the past several days. He not only deliberately missed the elections, but was also not in a mood to talk to anybody in the party, including the Sharifs who were trying to placate him, but with little success so far. It is learnt that the main purpose of Shahbaz Sharif’s recent visit to London, other than seeking medical treatment, was to pacify Nisar, the main face of the party in the National Assembly. Khawaja Asif, who is accompanying Shahbaz has been relentlessly trying to mediate between Nisar and the Sharifs though without any luck.

The sources revealed that one of the major reasons behind Nisar’s annoyance with the Sharifs was Malik Riaz, the property tycoon and developer, who is very close to President Asif Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and the Sharifs.Riaz mediated between the Sharifs and PPP slain leader Benazir Bhutto and then President Zardari before the last general elections, bringing the two estranged political parties closer as allies. When the PPP and the PML-N fell apart, Riaz struck again, this time mediating an alliance between the Chaudhrys and the PPP leadership. Nisar claims that Riaz was orchestrating a smear campaign against him in Rawalpindi, political bastion of the opposition leader that has remained unchallenged ever since his rise to prominence. The reverberation of this campaign was even heard in the National Assembly.

Former deputy speaker Haji Nawaz Khokhar is active in NA-52 and recently announced his decision to contest the election from there. As the stage is set for the elections, Khokhar is becoming more and more visible in Nisar’s constituency, (NA-52), trying to damage the political interest of the opposition leader. Nisar believes Riaz has pitted Khokhar against him. According to the sources, Nisar is asking his party leaders to distance themselves from Riaz and stop patronising him, which seems difficult for the Sharifs.

Recently, it was learnt that Nawaz Sharif also met Riaz in Islamabad, though denied by the PML-N, and urged him to sort out issues with Nisar at least to the extent of Rawalpindi. Nawaz also complained to Riaz that he had harmed the PML-N by bringing the PML-Q and the PPP closer. But sources say that Riaz is not ready to budge from his position. The internal strife in the party, as evident from Nisar’s issues with the party’s top leadership, came at a time when the Sharifs are gearing up to challenge the PPP government in the coming days in hope of an early election.

PML-N’s newly-elected Information Secretary Mushahidullah Khan denied that there were any differences between the Sharifs and Nisar.

He said Nisar was staying in the UK for medical treatment, adding that recently, Riaz with the support of the government, tried to register voters illegally in Bahria Town (Rawalpindi), which falls in the constituency of Nisar, to make a dent in his vote bank but Nisar had failed his effort. Meanwhile, sources said that Nawaz Sharif had earlier stopped Nisar from using strong language against the ISI chief and the army.

“Altaf calls for the army as coalition turns to Zardari”

Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain called for the army to be deployed in violence-ravaged Karachi on Wednesday, as coalition partners in the provincial government mandated President Asif Ali Zardari to negotiate with all political forces to bring peace and normalcy to the provincial capital. Another four people were killed in gang wars in Karachi as Rangers personnel set up makeshift pickets in troubled areas and began spot-checking traffic.

Another four people killed in violence on Wednesday; Altaf says action should be taken against miscreants even if they belong to MQM

Violence subsided somewhat in the city on Wednesday as a semblance of normalcy returned following orders for Rangers to begin targeted operations, and as the paramilitary Frontier Constabulary was given police powers and put on standby.

ALTAF DEMANDS ACTION: Speaking to party leaders via telephone from London, the MQM chief said action should be taken against those involved in terrorist activities, even if they belonged to the MQM, a private TV channel reported.

He said those who claimed ownership of Pakistan today had actually been “slaves of Hindu banias” before partition and the freedom they were enjoying today was because of the Muhajirs’ struggle. “Pakistan came into being because of Muhajirs,” he said.The MQM chief said the army must come to Karachi and see for itself who was involved in the killings. He said if a single MQM worker was found involved, action should be taken against him. He called on President Zardari, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah to stop “patronizing” terrorists and gangsters.

Meanwhile, the Presidency remained engaged in a series of meetings to develop an amicable strategy to bring peace and normalcy to Karachi “at all costs”, with three back-to-back meetings being held in relation to the situation in the violence-hit port city.

ZARDARI AUTHORISED: The coalition partners in the provincial government decided to authorise President Zardari to hold political negotiations with all political forces in order to bring peace and normalcy to the city besides taking appropriate administrative and law and order measures for the purpose.

Presidential Spokesman Farhatullah Babar said the decision was taken in the first of a series of meetings of the Sindh cabinet, comprising provincial ministers from the Pakistan People’s Party, the Awami National Party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid and the PML-Functional. The meeting reiterated the government’s resolve to restore peace in Karachi “at all costs and to bring the culprits to justice regardless of their affiliations, if any”.

The president called upon all the political forces to complement the government’s efforts to bring peace to the city and to bring the criminal elements to justice. He said the government believed in taking along all the political forces on the issues of national importance and would continue to do so in future. On a question by the president about the implementation of his previous directives to release funds to strengthen the provincial police, the Sindh finance minister said the first installment of Rs 450 million of the Rs 5 billion package had been released.

The president ordered the remaining amount to be progressively released to meet the police’s demand for vehicles, APCs, bullet-proof vests, helmets, weapons and other accessories. Interior Minister Rehman Malik said meanwhile that a full-scale operation would not be conducted in Karachi, but Rangers would take targeted action based on specific intelligence To a question, Malik said he agreed with the reservations expressed by Altaf Hussain and action was being taken against outlaws and terrorists in Karachi because of that.

Former US Intelligence Chief Trashes the Rationale of War on Terror

Former US Intelligence Chief Dennis Blair makes the same points that the critics of the so-called war on terror have made for nearly a decade:

1. “We’re alienating the countries concerned because we are treating the countries just as places where we go attack groups that threaten us. We are threatening the prospects of long-term reform.”
2. “In the past decade terrorists have killed fewer than 20 Americans inside U.S. borders, most of them in a single attack at Fort Hood Texas in late 2009.”
3. ” Unmanned CIA drone program, in which terrorists are targeted by missiles in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, was counterproductive.”
4. “I don’t think that we can kill al Qaeda members and end this threat from Jihadist terrorism.”
Former intelligence chief Dennis Blair said in an interview last Thursday that the terror threat from al Qaeda is a “narrow problem” and questioned the amount of money spent to capture or kill a small number of people.

Blair’s critical comments on Obama administration policy were the harshest yet from the former Director of National Intelligence, who was pushed out of his post by President Obama in May 2010 after just 16 months on the job.

Blair, speaking at the Aspen Security Forum, estimated there were 4,000 al Qaeda members around the globe, with much of a yearly intelligence budget of $80 billion devoted to catching them. That’s $20 million for every one of these 4,000 people,” said Blair. “The objective is to disrupt and destroy al Qaeda. … You think, wow, $20 million is a lot, is that proportionate?”

Blair noted that in the past decade terrorists have killed fewer than 20 Americans inside U.S. borders, most of them in a single attack at Fort Hood Texas in late 2009. He contrasted the terror body count with deaths from car accidents and street crime, which killed more than one million Americans in the same time frame.

“What is it that justifies this amount of money on this narrow problem versus the other ways we have to protect American lives?” asked Blair. “I think that’s sort of the question we have to think ourselves through here at the 10th year anniversary.”

Said Blair, “I think we need to reexamine what our fundamental goals are. I think by concentrating only on al Qaeda itself we get ourselves in this numbers game … and I don’t think that we can kill al Qaeda members and end this threat from Jihadist terrorism.”

Blair also said he felt the unmanned CIA drone program, in which terrorists are targeted by missiles in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, was counterproductive. The former Navy admiral said that the drone strikes are more of a nuisance to al Qaeda than a threat, and that they harm the relationship between Pakistan and the United States.

“We’re alienating the countries concerned because we are treating the countries just as places where we go attack groups that threaten us,” said Blair. “We are threatening the prospects of long-term reform.”

He suggested giving Pakistan more say in picking targets. “We should offer the Pakistanis to put two hands on the trigger,” said Blair. “That would make our job in Afghanistan more difficult for a while but it would make it a lot easier over the long term.”

Pakistan has come under serious criticism since the successful Navy SEAL raid on Osama bin Laden for allegedly sheltering terrorists and tipping off militants to upcoming U.S. attacks. Bin Laden was able to live in Abbottabad, Pakistan for years without interference by Pakistani officials, and when the U.S. forces raided his compound and killed him, the raid was conducted without Pakistani cooperation.

After the raid, CIA director Leon Panetta confronted Pakistani officials with photographic evidence that they had allegedly tipped off Islamic militants in advance of other U.S. raids.

The Director of National Intelligence is designated as the principal intelligence to the White House and the chief of 16 different federal intelligence agencies, including the CIA and the National Security Agency.

Blair, who was forced to resign from his post and was replaced by James Clapper, said in Aspen that the White House had chosen to side with the CIA over him in an internal power struggle.

“They sided with the CIA in ways that were public enough that it undercut my position,” said Blair.

On Friday, when asked about Blair’s contention that drone attacks may do more harm than good, White House press secretary Jay Carney told Jake Tapper of ABC News, “Without addressing specific methods, I would say simply that we believe our relationship with Pakistan is essential to fighting terrorism and terrorists, fighting al Qaeda, and that’s why we work hard on that relationship, even though it is complicated and difficult at times.”

“We also make no apologies for the need to go after terrorists, members of al Qaeda, wherever they are,” added Carney, “and that is certainly true about the mission to eliminate Osama bin Laden.”