Sunday, February 28, 2010

India and Pakistan (Barely) Talk: NYT Editorial

India and Pakistan (Barely) Talk
Editorial, New York Times, February 26, 2010

Low expectations for the first talks between India and Pakistan since the 2008 bombings in Mumbai were disappointingly on the mark. After the two sides met Thursday, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao of India said that she agreed only to “keep in touch” with her Pakistani counterpart, Salman Bashir. No future discussions were scheduled.
That is not enough. Not for the United States, which needs tensions eased so Pakistan can focus more on fighting the Taliban and other extremists. And especially not for India and Pakistan.

India’s prime minister, Manmohan Singh, showed remarkable restraint when he decided not to lash back at Pakistan after the Mumbai attacks. But the situation is too dangerous to depend on one man’s restraint. For the sake of both countries’ security, they need a sustained dialogue and a sincere common effort to build trust.
The two have much to talk about, including terrorism, their nuclear rivalry, Kashmir and their counterproductive competition for influence in Afghanistan.

As Thursday proved, progress won’t be easy. India is focused solely on Pakistan’s support for extremist groups trying to force India out of Muslim-majority Kashmir. Pakistan, which certainly must do more to rein in extremists, wants a broader dialogue, with the priority being Kashmir’s future. Neither nation is showing interest in adding Afghanistan to the agenda. They should.

While the Afghan Taliban — nurtured by Pakistani intelligence as a hedge against India — is battling American and NATO forces in Afghanistan, the Pakistan Taliban is fighting to bring down the Pakistan state. Lashkar-e-Taiba — founded with help from Pakistani intelligence to fight Indian rule in Kashmir — has been held responsible for the Mumbai bombings and is attacking other Indian targets.

In 2007, after three years of secret negotiations, the two sides were reportedly close to a deal to create an autonomous, demilitarized region in Kashmir. That ended when President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan resigned in 2008. The initiative should be revived. Meanwhile, the two governments should share information on troop movements in Kashmir and encourage trade and people-to-people exchanges. Talks on water and environmental issues are another way to seek common ground.

The administration knows how important it is for India and Pakistan to lower tensions. At India’s insistence, it has decided to take a low profile role, nudging the two sides discreetly back to the table. It should nudge harder.

Related:
India-Pakistan talks end in acrimony - Telegraph
Can India And Pakistan Fight Terror Together? - Pervez Hoodbhoy
Obama and India-Pakistan talks: US can be a better go-between - Christian Science Monitor

The Changing Face of Militancy and Religious Extremism in Pakistan

Frustrated Strivers in Pakistan Turn to Jihad
By Sabrina Tavernise and Waqar Gillani
New York, February 27, 2010
 
LAHORE, Pakistan — Umar Kundi was his parents’ pride, an ambitious young man from a small town who made it to medical school in the big city. It seemed like a story of working-class success, living proof in this unequal society that a telephone operator’s son could become a doctor.

But things went wrong along the way. On campus Mr. Kundi fell in with a hard-line Islamic group. His degree did not get him a job, and he drifted in the urban crush of young people looking for work. His early radicalization helped channel his ambitions in a grander, more sinister way.

Instead of healing the sick, Mr. Kundi went on to become one of Pakistan’s most accomplished militants. Working under a handler from Al Qaeda, he was part of a network that carried out some of the boldest attacks against the Pakistani state and its people last year, the police here say. Months of hunting him ended on Feb. 19, when he was killed in a shootout with the police at the age of 29.

Mr. Kundi and members of his circle — educated strivers who come from the lower middle class — are part of a new generation that has made militant networks in Pakistan more sophisticated and deadly. Al Qaeda has harnessed their aimless ambition and anger at Pakistan’s alliance with the United States, their generation’s most electrifying enemy.

“These are guys who use Google Maps to plan their attacks,” said a senior Punjab Province police official. “Their training is better than our national police academy.”

Like Mr. Kundi, many came of age in the 1990s, when jihad was state policy — aimed at challenging Indian control in Kashmir — and jihadi groups recruited openly in universities. Under the influence of Al Qaeda, their energies have been redirected and turned inward, against Pakistan’s own government and people.

That shift has fractured long-established militant networks, which were once supported by the state, producing a patchwork of new associations that are fluid and defy easy categorization.

“The situation now is quite confusing,” said Tariq Parvez, director of the National Counterterrorism Authority in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital. “We can no longer talk in terms of organizations. Now it’s a question of like-minded militants.”

The result has been deadly. In 2009, militant attacks killed 3,021 Pakistanis, three times as many as in 2006.

The issue is urgent. Pakistan is in the midst of a youth bulge, with more than a million people a year pouring into the job market, and the economy — at its current rate — is not growing fast enough to absorb them. Only a tiny fraction choose militancy, but acute joblessness exacerbates the risk.

A Student’s Education

Mr. Kundi’s journey and the ways he veered off course parallel Pakistan’s own recent history. Born to Pashtun parents, he grew up in a small town in southwestern Punjab, where camels lumber in slow clumps, and sand stings the eyes. His father’s monthly income of $255 put them at the lower edge of Pakistan’s middle class. But life still took patience. Meat was a luxury. His father could afford to visit him in medical school only once.

For complete article, click here

Thursday, February 25, 2010

A Journey for Peace

A journey for peace
Shujuaddin Qureshi
Dawn, February 25, 2010

It was an unusual gathering at Karachi’s Cantt railway station, where over 100 people from civil society organisations, intellectuals, political and trade union workers, and journalists had gathered for a peaceful cause. Sixty of those gathered, including more than a dozen women, were part of a Peace Caravan that left Karachi on February 13 for Peshawar to express solidarity with people of Peshawar and the Frontier Province. The women participants in particular, mostly trade union activists and labour leaders, were enthusiastic to join the caravan as it offered an opportunity to meet the womenfolk of the area worst affected by terrorism.


For complete article, click here

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

EVENT: Afghanistan and the Spectre of Vietnam - Feb 24, 2010 in New York

Afghanistan and the Spectre of Vietnam
Asia Society, New York, February 24, 2010

With a superb exhibition, Arts of Ancient Vietnam, Asia Society unveils an aspect of that country’s culture most Americans have never seen. But the catastrophic 14-year U.S. experience in Vietnam continues to haunt our foreign policy. In particular, how much relevance does the Vietnamese conflict have for our Afghan intervention?

Three distinguished historians and scholars examine the validity of a pervasive analogy and seek historical lessons in trying better to understand the challenges of state-building in an Afghan context. Is the US more likely to succeed today in counter-insurgency warfare than it was 40 years ago? Will the troop surge bring us closer to the establishment of conditions in which a viably democratic and truly national government is able to provide peace, prosperity, and stability for ordinary Afghan citizens?

Speakers include Max Boot, author of War Made New: Technology, Warfare, and The Course of History; Gordon Goldstein, author of Lessons in Disaster: McGeorge Bundy and the Path to War in Vietnam; and Rufus Phillips, author of Why Vietnam Matters: An Eyewitness Account of Lessons Not Learned.

Moderator George Packer is a staff writer for The New Yorker and the author of The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq, which received several prizes and was named one of the 10 best books of 2005 by The New York Times Book Review.
Registration: 6:00 - 6:30 pm; Program: 6:30 - 8:00 pm

Please note: this program will also be a free live video webcast on AsiaSociety.org from 6:30 to 8:00 pm EST. Online viewers are encouraged to submit their questions to moderator@asiasociety.org.

Read an excerpt from Why Vietnam Matters by Rufus Phillips

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Education Sector in Pakistan: PBS Interview with Mosharraf Zaidi

Pakistan: The Lost Generation
Extended Interview: Mosharraf Zaidi
PBS, February 2010

Mosharraf Zaidi is an American-educated Pakistani analyst and policy development adviser. He has worked as both a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) contractor on education and as an adviser to the British government’s development arm. A strong supporter of Pakistan educational reform, Zaidi has become a widely followed columnist and contributing writer for newspapers in Pakistan, the United States, and the Middle East. This is an edited transcript of an interview conducted in Islamabad in November 2009.


David Montero: I’m going to read you some statistics. India has an 83 per cent net enrollment rate for primary school. Sri Lanka has 90 percent. Nepal has 70 percent. Pakistan, 52 percent. Why is that?

Mosharraf Zaidi: Education is not a priority for the Pakistani state. The Pakistani elite benefit from the sustained illiteracy of the Pakistani people.

Benefit in what sense?

There is a peculiar worldview that’s prevalent, particularly among Pakistan’s feudal class, that an illiterate, unlettered electorate is an electorate that will sustain the dividends they seek.

So there has been an intentional policy enacted over years to prevent the education system from being fixed?

Intentional insofar as there is the absence of a functional education system today in a country that has exploded a nuclear weapon, gone toe-to-toe with world powers, and derived tremendous benefits from its military relationships with countries like China and the United States. Based on all of these other things, the Pakistani elite surely could have fixed education if they’d wanted to.

Pakistan spends roughly $4.5 billion a year on its military but less than $400 million on education. What does that tell you?

The biggest expenditure that Pakistan incurs every year is actually not the military; it’s debt servicing. The military is the second-largest component of the budget, and the government administration is the third largest. Education, health care, clean water, social protection, police services -- all the things that make life livable in a country like the United States -- are the things that are seemingly the least of Pakistan’s priorities.

The real question in Pakistan is whether it is going to start spending its money in different ways. Debt servicing, military expenditure, and a huge bureaucracy and government structure are three of the poorest choices that Pakistan makes at the expense of young children, at the expense of young girls and women, at the expense of disabled kids.

What’s the longer-term cost of those choices?

Today, there are roughly 70 million children between the ages of five and 19 in this country. Fewer than 30 million of those kids are in any type of school -- public, private, or other. If Pakistan is going to be a functional country in the future, it needs people that are able to participate in the global economy. You have to be part of the production process of either goods or services that somebody somewhere wants to consume. Increasingly, you will need some level of education to do that.

For complete interview, click here

Iran arrests Jundallah chief Regi

Iran arrests Jundallah chief Regi from flight
The News, February 24, 2010

TEHRAN: Iran arrested a top Sunni militant on a flight from Dubai only 24 hours after it claimed he was at a US military base in Afghanistan, in what it hailed on Tuesday as a “defeat” for its Western arch-foes.

The claim came from Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi, who said Abdolmalek Regi had even been issued an Afghan passport by the “Americans,” travelled to Europe and met with a Nato military chief in Afghanistan.

State television aired footage of a handcuffed Regi, dressed in a white shirt and Khaki trousers, as masked agents led him off an aircraft at an airstrip at an unknown location in Iran.

It was not immediately clear how the Iranian authorities were able to remove the leader of the shadowy rebel group Jundallah from the flight, which was said to be between Dubai and Kyrgyzstan.

Regi, Iran’s most wantedfugitive accused of launching deadly attacks from Pakistan, had been tracked by Iranian agents for five months before his arrest, said Moslehi. The capture was “a great defeat for the US and the UK,” the minister said at a media conference reported by Iranian state media, accusing the United States and Britain of involvement in “continuous plots” in the region.

“He was arrested on a flight from Dubai to Kyrgyzstan,” Moslehi said, adding “It is such a scandal for Dubai in this incident, which shows that the Zionist regime (Israel), by using (the) US and Europe, is seeking to turn the region into a haven for terrorists.

“This scandal cannot be covered up,” said Moslehi, who held up pictures of Rigi he said were taken “inside a US military base in Afghanistan by Iranian agents”, and of his identity card. In Washington, a US official said Moslehi’s claim that Rigi was at an American base in Afghanistan before his arrest was a “totally bogus accusation.”

For complete article, click here
Related:
Iran 'arrests leader of Sunni militants Jundullah' - BBC
Iran captures Sunni insurgent leader Abdolmalek Rigi - Guardian
Pakistan helped Iran nab Jundallah chief - Dawn

Monday, February 22, 2010

EPIIC symposium panelists explore conflict in South Asia

Excerpts
EPIIC symposium panelists explore conflict in South Asia
By by Katherine Sawyer and Saumya Vaishampayan

Tufts Daily, February 22, 2010

The 25th annual Norris and Margery Bendetson Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship (EPIIC) symposium came to an end yesterday after five days of panels discussing pressing issues in South Asia. This year’s symposium, entitled “South Asia: Conflict, Culture, Complexity and Change,” featured an array of speakers from both the academic and political world.

Institute for Global Leadership (IGL) Director Sherman Teichman called the programming a success. “The content of the panels was sterling,” he told the Daily. “It’s been a very eclectic, very, very powerful five days.”

A key lecture on Friday evening, “Buzkashi: Afghanistan’s Recurring Great Game,” featuring Said Jawad, Afghanistan’s ambassador to the United States, focused on the current situation in Afghanistan.
 
“The operation ... will put gradually Afghanistan and the Afghan government into a dominant military position,” Jawad said. He continued to speak about the progress Afghanistan has made and the role of international support in this process. “What we’ve accomplished in Afghanistan is incredible,” Jawad said. “The Afghan people are determined to build their country, but we do need your support and partnership.” Jawad also spoke about the impediment corruption in Afghanistan poses to development and the need to establish institutions to fight corruption.

Noor ul-Haq Olomi, leader of the United National Party of Afghanistan and chair of the Armed Services Committee in the Lower House of the Afghan National Assembly, echoed Jawad’s views on corruption. The prime enemy of the Afghan people is corruption, not the Taliban,” he said.

Olomi added that corruption comes in multiple forms, including Pakistan’s role as a safe haven for religious extremists associated with the Taliban. He questioned the lack of results from the United States’ continuing provision of money for Pakistani efforts to fight the Taliban. “The [United States] pays billions of dollars to Pakistan to fight the Taliban. Unfortunately, Pakistan still remains the most important haven for religious extremists,” Olomi said.....

Another panel on Saturday morning “Violent Discontent: Addressing Regional Insurgencies,” tackled the issue of the use of violence to fulfill political demands. In his presentation on the transition to peace after the decade-long Nepalese Civil War, Ian Martin, former special representative of the United Nations secretary-general in Nepal, discussed how the country “owed its success to the determination the people of Nepal showed in the people’s movement for peace and for change.” ...

Hassan Abbas, senior advisor at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University and a former Pakistani government official, shared his insights on the insurgency in Pakistan. Abbas believes that successful reconciliation will require the involvement of both regional and global agents because the success of the militaristic regimes depends on the global response to their actions. In order for effective de-radicalization to occur, there must be “justice, democracy, and reconciliation,” he said.

The “Emerging India: The Use of Hard and Soft Power” panel on Sunday looked at India’s ability to use attractive versus coercive power to develop as a global player.

Jalal Alamgir, assistant professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, discussed India’s inability to wield soft power successfully as a result of a lack of consistency and legitimacy in the country’s strategy. “Soft power derives from a sense of moral authority,” Alamgir said. He explained that until India’s core political values of democracy, non-violence and non-colonial nationalism are reflected in the nation’s policy, India cannot use soft power in its foreign relations.

For complete article, click here

Friday, February 19, 2010

Mullah Baradar... a journey from Kandahar to Karachi

Mullah Baradar... a journey from Kandahar to Karachi

* Captured Taliban commander masterminded burqa-clad Mullah Omar’s escape on motorbike
* Elusive Taliban leader married burqa owner ‘out of respect, honour’
By Owais Tohid, Daily Times, February 20, 2010

I waited in the courtyard for news from inside, sipping endless cups of qahwa and watching young soldiers – sporting turbans, beards and uniform long hair – parade with submachine guns and rocket launchers. There was nothing else to peer at: Mullah Omar’s enormous house in Kandahar had no windows.

The top Taliban leadership was engaged in a closed-door session with a UN delegation, headed by Lakhdar Ibrahimi, as the group desperately vied for membership of the international body.

Next to me, then information minister Maulvi Mutameen strained at some invisible signal, and suddenly shouts of “Allah-o-Akbar” echoed through the surroundings, marking the arrival of the person all had been waiting for – Mullah Baradar. The armed warriors jubilantly announced the arrival. Mullah Baradar had recently conquered Bamiyan, and Mullah Omar had summoned him to Kandahar for consultations ahead of the talks with the UN delegation.

Surrounded by armed guards, Baradar strode confidently, sporting a black turban and a waistcoat of the same colour. The athletic built, prominent cheekbones and deep-set eyes commanded attention. As we embraced and shook hands in the traditional Pushto way, he was told I was a Pakistani Muslim working for a “farangi” organisation.

“No harm in working for goras as long as Muslims serve the cause of the Ummah,” he said to me in Urdu. I made an attempt drawing him into conversation for the story I had to write for AFP. “The West doesn’t recognise us because they want us to live like them,” he said.

Almost a fortnight ago, Baradar’s cage got smaller. His arrest by Pakistan’s intelligence agents collaborating with the US CIA – apparently from a house in the labyrinthine neighbourhood of Baldia on the outskirts of Karachi – shattered the ranks of the Taliban.

Sources say he had been on the intelligence radar for several weeks. Constant monitoring of his movements, coupled with human intelligence, interception of numerous mobile and satellite phone conversations of jihadis and images, finally trapped him while holding what he believed to be a secret meeting, ending a two-decade journey – from Kandahar to Karachi. Baradar hails from Uruzgan – Mullah Omar’s native province in southern Afghanistan – and belongs to the respected Pashtun Popalzai tribe occupying both sides of the Pak-Afghan border. Afghan President Hamid Karazai is also a son of the same tribe.

Baradar was amongst the first ones to take bait – or oath of allegiance – to Mullah Omar when the Taliban movement was out into motion from Kandahar in 1994. When the Taliban took over Kabul, he was appointed governor of Herat following the defeat of Governor Ismail.

His rank within the Taliban hierarchy rose after he gave Mullah Omar a new lease of life when the elusive Taliban leader was on the run post-9/11. “The Americans were bombing the surroundings of Kandahar after the 9/11 attacks. Mullah Omar and his mujahids were almost trapped ... it was commander Baradar who came up with the idea to make an escape on motorbikes,” a Pakistani jihadi, who has fought in Afghanistan, quoted an Afghan Talib as saying. “Mullah Baradar gave the burqa to Mullah Omar, who – after initially refusing but later putting it on – mounted a motorbike like an Afghan woman. Baradar himself rode the bike and dodged the Americans.” The burqa was borrowed from the family which sheltered the Taliban leaders, and in return, Mullah Omar married the owner of the burqa “out of respect and honour”.

“He is very brave. He has the brains of a tactician and the soul of a mujahid,” says a source familiar with the Taliban working, referring to Baradar. “It was he who introduced the maximum use of explosives in the battlefield against the Americans.”

It is said that shadow governments of the Taliban in various parts of southern Afghanistan were also his brainchild. He also introduced a code of conduct outlining ethics and morals for “holy warriors”.

He apparently took the reigns as the military commander of the Taliban after the killing of Mullah Dadullah, the one-legged Taliban commander, in 2007 and the subsequent arrest of important Taliban shura member Mullah Obaidullah Akhund. But the new assignment, some believe, did not allow him to shadow Mullah Omar like he did earlier. Baradar himself has had narrow escapes. In July 2002, he barely escaped when the US bombed a wedding in Uruzgan province, instead killing Afghan civilians. Sources say it was the wedding of Baradar’s niece. The brother-in-law was apparently paid off by the Americans, and he told them that Baradar had been invited. However, his nephew overheard the conversation over the phone and tipped off Baradar, allowing him to set up a trap for the Americans instead, say the sources, adding that his comrades opened fire at the soldiers who were later rescued by the bombing of a US plane.

But for Baradar, luck seems to have run out. He is now being interrogated by Pakistani and US intelligence officials. His capture has earned high praises for Pakistan’s intelligence agencies. His arrest signals what many believe is an increase in cooperation between Islamabad and Washington.

Baradar’s arrest has also set off several theories. Some say that as of recently, he had distanced himself from his spiritual leader and shown flexibility to the idea of talks with the Americans. The Western media reported that Baradar facilitated a meeting last month in Dubai between mid-level Taliban commanders and Kai Eide, a top UN official in Kabul. For others, these seem to be rumours spread to keep the Taliban ranks intact by suggesting Baradar was “softening”.

Meanwhile, the Taliban are looking for a replacement for Baradar. Taliban sources say Mullah Omar has sent a message to the shura members and commanders to be “united against enemies and their conspiracies”.

But while some are encouraged and believe Baradar’s arrest has dealt a serious blow to the Taliban, others are more wary. The removal of a centralised leadership usually results in parallel, decentralised forms of decision-making by the followers. This would translate into an escalation of violence and attacks against international NGOs, aid workers and “softer” targets as “revenge” in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Charlie Rose Show - On Pakistan and Afghanistan


Charlie Rose Show - On Pakistan and Afghanistan
February 17, 2010
Guests: Dexter Filkins, Hassan Abbas, and Seth Jones
To watch, click here

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Reforming Pakistan's Civil Service: ICG Report - A Must Read

Reforming Pakistan's Civil Service
International Crisis Group, Asia Report 185; 16 February 2010

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Decades of mismanagement, political manipulation and corruption have rendered Pakistan’s civil service incapable of providing effective governance and basic public services. In public perceptions, the country’s 2.4 million civil servants are widely seen as unresponsive and corrupt, and bureaucratic procedures cumbersome and exploitative. Bureaucratic dysfunction and low capacity undermine governance, providing opportunities to the military to subvert the democratic transition and to extremists to destabilise the state. The civilian government should prioritise reforms that transform this key institution into a leaner, more effective and accountable body.

General Pervez Musharraf’s eight-year military rule left behind a demoralised and inefficient bureaucracy that was used to ensure regime survival. There was a dramatic rise in military encroachments as retired generals were appointed to key civil posts, such as the chairmanship of the Federal Public Service Commission, the premier agency for recruitment and promotions. The military regime’s poorly conceived devolution of power led to further administrative confusion and the breakdown of service delivery at the district level, the key administrative unit of governance. The decision to vest revenue and law and order functions in nazims (mayors), elected indirectly and on a non-party basis, led to greater collusion between unscrupulous district officials and corrupt police.

The civil bureaucracy’s ills, however, predate military rule. Archaic rules and procedures and a rigid hierarchical authority structure have undermined its oversight of a public sector that has expanded considerably since the 1970s. Low salaries, insecure tenure, and obsolete accountability mechanisms have spawned widespread corruption and impunity. Recruitments, postings and promotions are increasingly made on the basis of personal contacts and political affiliation, instead of on merit.

The civil service’s falling standards impact mostly Pakistan’s poor, widening social and economic divisions between the privileged and underprivileged. With citizens increasingly affected by conflict and militancy, including millions displaced by fighting in the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), the government’s ability to ensure law and order and provide services such as education and health care will be vital to winning the hearts and minds of the public, and restoring links between the citizen and the state.

Bureaucratic procedures and practices, formal or informal, play a key role in public perceptions of the government’s functioning. Both the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), which heads the coalition government at the centre, and its main opposition, the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) (PML-N), have a stake in investing the patience, resources and political capital needed to enhance the bureaucracy’s ability to execute government policies and respond to public grievances and needs. Both parties should resist the temptation to again use the bureaucracy for short-term political ends, which undermined its functioning. The government’s inability to deliver basic services and good governance could provide an ambitious military leadership the opportunity to intervene.

In the 1990s, the PPP and the PML-N each formed two elected governments but were prevented each time from completing a full term by the military – either through its civilian proxy, the president, or a direct coup in October 1999. The two parties share the blame for that flawed transition, by failing to deliver good governance and as well as a willingness to align with the military against each other. Unsurprisingly, each dismissal, including the October coup, was justified on the grounds of bad governance and corruption. In this, another period of fragile democratic transition, the two parties must realise that repeating past mistakes will again make them vulnerable to military intervention.

If the flaws of an unreformed bureaucracy are not urgently addressed, the government risks losing public support. The recommendations of the National Commission on Government Reforms (NCGR), which was set up by the military regime in 2006 and presented a report to Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani in May 2008, if properly implemented could help reform the civil service.

For complete summary, click here
For complete report (pdf), click here

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

U.S., Pakistan reap benefits of cooperation against Taliban: PBS Worldfocus



Mullah Abdul Baradar is the most senior member of the Afghan Taliban captured in the eight-year war against the movement.

The joint raid conducted by U.S. and Pakistani special forces suggests a change in tactics by Pakistan’s ISI military intelligence service. For years ISI was reluctant to target the Taliban, a movement initially cultivated by Pakistan to counter Indian influence in Afghanistan.

For more, Daljit Dhaliwal interviews Hassan Abbas, a former Pakistani government official who is now with the Asia Society and the Quaid-i-Azam Chair Professor at Columbia University’s South Asian Institute.

Related:
Arrest of Taliban Chief May Be Crucial for Pakistanis - NYT
Profile of Mullah Baradar - Newsweek
Secret Joint Raid Captures Taliban’s Top Commander - NYT

Monday, February 15, 2010

Justice Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim on the Judicial Crisis



Justice Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim on the Judicial Crisis
From Pakistaniat.com; Feb 14, 2010

We are again faced with a judicial crisis – not a bonafide crisis but a crisis created for ulterior reasons.

Ostensibly the crisis is the elevation of chief justice for the Lahore High Court in the Supreme Court of Pakistan, the elevation of the next senior most judge Justice Saquib Nasir, as acting Chief Justice of Lahroe High Court (a la Zia ul Haq style).

Being of the view that more harm is done by ignoring seniority, which opens the door for exercise of discretion in principle, I am against seniority being ignored, particularly in judiciary.

My first reaction, therefore, was that the appointment of Chief Justice Lahore High Court to the Supreme Court and elevation of the next senior-most judge as Lahore High Court Chief Justice was justified.

I had assumed that in accordance with the Article 177 of the constitution, these appointments were made by the president after consultation with the Chief Justice of Pakistan, and that the president was bound by such consultations.

For complete article, click here
Related:
Pakistan flung into fresh turmoil - Dawn
Pakistani lawyers boycott courts over judges row - Washington Post
Lawyers observe boycott, stage protest - Dawn

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Pakistan Govt offers army chief Kayani two-year extension?

Govt offers Kayani two-year extension
The News, February 14, 2010
By Absar Alam

ISLAMABAD: The government has asked General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani to accept an extension in his tenure as Chief of Army Staff for another two years. The verbal offer was made to sound out General Kayani whether he would agree to or turn it down.

The move has been made to ensure continuity in Pakistan’s policy on the war on terror and it also has a nod from Washington as the Army has achieved remarkable successes in the war on terror under General Kayani’s command.

General Kayani has not yet given his consent and is considering this offer, it was learnt.

The offer of extension has come at a time when battle lines for a second round have been drawn between the government and the judiciary. It was learnt that the Army has communicated its decision to all stakeholders that it would prefer not to be seen taking sides.

According to the sources, the extension in service cases of Chief of Army Staff General Kayani, Chief of General Staff Lt-Gen Muhammad Mustafa Khan, and DG ISI Lt-Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha are ready to be sent to the prime minister and the president for approval.

The ministry formed the recommendations on the basis of a consensus that emerged within Pakistan and outside after military’s successes in Swat, South Waziristan and other Fata areas.

Although, the DG ISI has already given his consent to accept the extension, the cases of General Kayani and Lt-Gen Mustafa are still pending. Knowledgeable sources claim that General Mustafa, who retires in October this year, will accept the extension if only General Kayani decided to stay. Washington, which has already given an extension to its Centcom Chief General David Petraeus, has supported this move by Islamabad as it believes that such an extension would ensure continuity in Pakistan’s policy towards the war on terror.

For complete article, click here
Related:
ISI chief, four commanders retiring this year - Dawn
Terror is our enemy, not India: ISI chief - Dawn

Friday, February 12, 2010

The Patronage Networks in Pakistan

The patronage networks By Ayesha Siddiqa
Dawn, 12 Feb, 2010

A COUPLE of months ago while walking through the F-9 park in Islamabad I met a young undergraduate studying information technology. He was critical of corrupt politics and the feudal mindset of the ruling elite. He was bitter about our leaders who he said do nothing but grab and exercise excessive power.

The conversation went fine until I asked him about his future plans. He wanted to take the civil service exams. Why won’t you pursue the profession for which you are training, I inquired. The answer was that he wanted to have power, since you cannot survive in the country without it.

I was reminded of a similar conversation I had with another person aspiring to join the civil service. This person was pursuing postgraduate studies abroad and wanted to become a bureaucrat to avenge the system that killed his parents. Being poor, the only option he had was to take his ailing parents to a government hospital without sifarish. Naturally the doctors on duty couldn’t care less and the man’s parents died. Now the young man who got an opportunity to go abroad for studies thought he would join the system and change it from within.

For complete article, click here

Beyond redemption?

Beyond redemption? - By Babar Sattar
The News, February 13, 2010
The writer is a lawyer based in Islamabad.

Why is it that most people in Pakistan don't sound hopeful about the future, wondered the visiting head of an international research and development organisation, in a recent conversation. Are we really depressed as a nation? A bystander dispassionately observing our public discourse as well as cocktail conversations would probably argue that we seem to be reinforcing our collective sense of despondency. If you belong to the upcoming generation smitten with optimism (which the seniors lovingly call naivetƩ) and refuse to be cowed into defeatism, there are at least four theories that explain this phenomenon.

The first, and a personal favourite, is the incorrigible state of cynicism afflicting our older generation presently in control of the levers of socio-political change. This is the generation that was born around the time of Pakistan's independence, grew up in an independent country, got accustomed to the back and forth between military dictatorships and malfunctioning civilian autocracies, endorsed expediency as the omnipotent political and professional ethic and hypocrisy as the means to deal with questionable social, cultural and religion-inspired norms. There are exceptions, of course, to be credited for keeping the ship afloat and offering hope and solace to the youth.

For complete article, click here

Thursday, February 11, 2010

When the 'Wild' Proved More Educated: A Must Read

(With Thanks to Hameed Bhutta)
WHEN THE ‘WILD’ PROVED MORE EDUCATED
By Majid Sheikh
Dawn, Sunday, 24 January 2010, Lahore Metropolitan Page # 16

When the British conquered Lahore in 1849, Lord Dalhousie, the Governor General, declared that he would educate the “wild illiterate Punjabis” in a new system of Anglo-Vernacular education. When they started the East India Company Board was shocked by what already existed.

The board was amazed to find that the literacy rate in Lahore and its suburbs was over 80 per cent, and this was qualified by the description that this 80 per cent comprised of people who could write a letter. Today, in 2010, less than nine per cent can do this, while 38 per cent can sign their name, and, thus, are officially ‘literate’. If you happen to read Arnold Woolner’s book ‘History of Indigenous Education in the Punjab’ you will come across some amazing facts we today just do not know. To understand the situation it would interest scholars to go through the ‘A.C. Woolner Collection in the Punjab University Library. My review is a scant one. But studying other similar pieces provides a picture of the educational system as it existed in Lahore in 1849 when the British took over.

The publication ‘The Marquis of Dalhousie’s Administration of British India’ provides an amazing quote (page 345): “The board discovered to its surprise that the incidence of literacy in Punjab was higher than any other place in India. In Lahore city alone there were 16 elementary schools for girls alone, and to our amazement we discovered that co-educational schools were aplenty”. Mind you we are fact is also mentioned by the great Sir Aurel Stein, a former principal of the Oriental College, Lahore, in his research on the ‘great game’ where he described the teaching excellence of the Vedas and Dharma Sutras in the Hindu educational institutions of Lahore. The Sikh schools, the Muslim ‘madrassahs’ and the Hindu schools catered to the latest developments in mathematics and astronomy, all of which assisted the Sikh rulers maintain an edge over the British in the rest of India.

We also know from the book ‘Punjabi Grammar’ compiled by Dr. Carry of Fort Williams College, Calcutta, in 1812, that it based its grammar from the farmed ‘Punjabi Qaida’, which was made compulsory for all Punjabi women to read during the reign of Maharajah Ranjit Singh. Every village ‘lambardar’ made sure that every female in every village had a copy of the ‘qaida’, which made sure that literacy was in-built into the Punjabi State at the family level. After taking over, the EIC Board allowed the ‘madrasahs’ at even the village level to continue to operate. However, to enforce the English language as the base for all State functions, which seemed the sensible thing for the English to do in order to rule effectively, central schools for higher education were set up. The model for this came, initially, in the shape of the Rang Mahal School by Ewing, and then by the Central Model School at Lower Mall.

But the most detailed study of the educational system in place in Lahore before the British took over came in the shape of the research undertaken by Dr. Leitner, the first principal and founder of Government College, Lahore and the Punjabi University. The eminent linguist described in some detail how the ‘Punjabi Qaida’ was removed from the scene, at even the village level, after the events of 1857, when it was felt that unless Punjabi was removed as the language of first choice, the ‘wild Punjabis’ would soon overcome the British. Both Leitner and John Lawrence disagreed with this strategy, while Henry Lawrence, Dalhousie and Montogomery wanted a military solution to “end Punjabi educational dominance once English was introduced”.

In the de-militarisation of the Punjab, “over 120,000 cartloads of arms and swords were confiscated”, and in the process, says Edwardes and Merville in their publication of 1867 (page 433-34) it was thought important “to make sure militant Punjabis – Sikhs, Muslim and Hindus – and their language, were crushed by removing not only all arms and swords, but more importantly their books, which were all burnt”. Sir Aurel Stein described how a wealth of books on mathematics and astronomy were lost in this ‘action’. For those still interested, samples of those books can be found in the Punjab Public Library.

But which sort of schools and ‘madrassahs’ and ‘shawalas’ existed in Lahore before the British came in 1849 to ‘civilise’ the people of this ancient city? The Muslim ‘madrassahs’ were located at every ‘guzzar’ and the madrassahs opened by the family of fakir azizuddin were considered among the most modern in the entire subcontinent. They not only taught Punjabi, Arabic, Persian and Urdu languages, they also, at the elementary level, excelled at mathematics. Thus the basics of the logical transfer of knowledge had already been laid at the basic level. It now seems that the British, against the popular belief, actually destroyed this structure, to forever dent the ‘formal learning institutions’ available to the Punjabi people.

Higher mathematics and astronomy, as well as chemistry and physics, not to mention history and geography, were taught in these’ madrassahs’. The Punjab Public Library has a few beautiful leather-bound books of that time period in the reference section. Just for the record, these were bound in the square opposite the mosque of Wazir Khan, now consumed by illegal structures. For those interested in the classics, you will know that the British Museum Library has ample examples of ‘Lahore Classics’, all hand-written and those edges are painted in floral designs.

The research carried out by Lord Osbourne (1804-1888) in his description of the “Court and Camp of Ranjeet Singh’ describes how well-educated his camp-followers were. The same can be seen in the article on the subject by Sir Henry Griffin. The Dogra brothers who ruled the Punjab in important positions were leaders in setting up Hindus schools, just as among the Sikhs the Majhathia Malwai and Dhanna Singh families led in the setting up of schools for Sikhs, which also admitted Muslim and Hindu students. A few of them were co-educational, which was revolutionary for their concept at that time. It seems the French influence was also a reason for this.

In the years 2010 when the teaching of history is no longer allowed, where the exact sciences are deliberately avoided in the official syllabus, and where the system of examinations have created two distinct social and economic classes – Urdu and English medium – a study of our past in terms of its educational achievements needs to be undertaken by every child, so that we can pick up where we left off almost 160 years ago.

A Deal with the Taliban?

A Deal with the Taliban?
By Ahmed Rashid, New York Review of Books, February 25, 2010

My Life with the Taliban - by Abdul Salam Zaeef, translated from the Pashto and edited by Alex Strick van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn; Columbia University Press, 331 pp., $29.95

1. For thirty years Afghanistan has cast a long, dark shadow over world events, but it has also been marked by pivotal moments that could have brought peace and changed world history.

One such moment occurred in February 1989, just as the last Soviet troops were leaving Afghanistan. Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze had flown into Islamabad—the first visit to Pakistan by a senior Soviet official. He came on a last-ditch mission to try to persuade Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the army, and the Interservices Intelligence (ISI) to agree to a temporary sharing of power between the Afghan Communist regime in Kabul and the Afghan Mujahideen. He hoped to prevent a civil war and lay the groundwork for a peaceful, final transfer of power to the Mujahideen.

By then the Soviets were in a state of panic. They ironically shared the CIA's analysis that Afghan President Mohammad Najibullah would last only a few weeks after the Soviet troops had departed. The CIA got it wrong—Najibullah was to last three more years, until the eruption of civil war forced him to take refuge in the UN compound in April 1992. The ISI refused to oblige Shevardnadze. It wanted to get Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, one of the seven disparate Mujahideen leaders and its principal protĆ©gĆ©, into power in Kabul. The CIA had also urged the ISI to stand firm against the Soviets. It wanted to avenge the US humiliation in Vietnam and celebrate a total Communist debacle in Kabul—no matter how many Afghan lives it would cost. A political compromise was not in the plans of the ISI and the CIA.

For complete article, click here
Related:
Pakistan Is Said to Pursue Role in U.S.-Afghan Talks - NYT

Friday, February 05, 2010

Sectarian Terror in Karachi

Karachi Blasts
Dawn Editorial, February 6, 2010

The Shia community has again been targeted in Karachi on a day of religious observance. That one of the targets was a hospital where the dead and injured from an earlier blast had been brought only underlines the distressing reality of terrorism that is breaking new ground in ruthlessness.

If the Muharram blasts last December are any indication, we may not know for many weeks which group is behind the latest attacks. Suspicion, though, is likely to fall on Jundullah, a virulently sectarian militant outfit, four of whose members have been arrested in connection with the December blasts. So last week ended with ethnic violence breaking out in the city and this week ends with sectarian violence — a damning indictment of the city’s security situation that was for months talked up as a relative success.

However, we are not going to lay blame for yesterday’s blasts on a ‘security lapse’. We did not like the fact that the police quickly pointed to the fact that the main procession in the city was not attacked, as though the loss of life elsewhere was any less important. Yet, we understand that it is all but impossible to secure a city the size of Karachi with even the best of resources and capabilities, especially when the focus was on securing a procession similar to the one targeted in December. Karachi suffered again on Friday, but the carnage could have been much worse had the bombs targeted the main procession.

The main problem lies elsewhere: the lack of any political and security resolve to uproot the infrastructure that churns out the ideologically crazed men who want nothing more than to kill the ‘enemy’. Yes, the intelligence agencies and the security forces have been successful in breaking up a number of terrorist cells in recent months, but that is mostly a case of treating the symptoms and not the disease. Where did these men learn their hate? Who taught them to kill and maim? Who are the ideological figureheads? The answers do not all lie in faraway South or North Waziristan or Afghanistan. When Karachi escaped relatively unscathed from the wave of violence engulfing the rest of the country over the last couple of years, knowledgeable observers kept pointing out that the city was still at the mercy of various militant groups that could strike if they wanted to. The infrastructure of hate was never dismantled and now that the terrorists have seemingly decided to open the Karachi front, the city appears as vulnerable as ever.
 
Related:
18 killed in dual bomb attack in Karachi - CNN
Karachi mourners bleed again - DT

Retired army Brigadier thrashes professor in Islamabad

Ex-brigadier thrashes professor over NRO brawl
The News, February 05, 2010
Students protest as investigation ordered
By Umar Cheema

ISLAMABAD: A retired brigadier, the registrar of the Army-run National University of Modern Languages (NUML), on Thursday assaulted his respected professor colleague when the latter questioned the role of General Musharraf in brokering a deal with the PPP through the NRO.

The staff room discussion on President Asif Zardari’s alleged corruption and Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s role in granting a clean chit through the NRO, infuriated Brig (retd) Obaidullah Ranjha to an extent that he started hitting Prof Tahir Malik like a punching bag, leaving the latter virtually unconscious.

The incident triggered protests by the university students, who blocked the road and chanted slogans supporting the victim professor, Tahir Malik, and demanding the removal of the brigade of brigadiers, led by Rector Brig (retd) Aziz Ahmad, and assisted by the brutal Brigadier Ranjha and Brigadier Saulat Raza.

For complete article, click here
Related:
Mistreatment of lecturer sparks unrest in Numl  - Dawn
Presidency orders probe as brigadier blocks FIR - The News

India and Pakistan: Future of Peace

India and Pakistan: Back from the Brink?
Asia Society, New York, February 4, 2010
To watch video of the program, click here

NEW YORK, February 4, 2010 - Progress towards peace is in sight for India and Pakistan, with the resumption of diplomatic talks, according to C. Raja Mohan, Kissinger Chair at the Library of Congress. "All indications are the talks are going to begin pretty soon," he said.

Mohan spoke at a panel discussion at Asia Society New York headquarters, moderated by Robert Templer, Director of the Asia Program at the International Crisis Group.

The five-year old peace process was suspended after the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai. Adil Najam, Director of the Pardee Center at Boston University, was decidedly optimistic. "The peace process is much less stalled than we think it is, than it has been historically... unofficial relations between the countries have been far more positive" than in the past.

Najam prescribed a three step solution to the conflict: One "get real - both countries have to understand the legitimacy of each other's argument," two, "get together - not talking is never a good way to start talking" and three, "get going - smaller investments in creating the conditions for peace have very high dividends."

As for Kashmir, one of the key issues sticking points between India and Pakistan, Najam said it is "ripe for resolution" but cautioned that "it is not without and expiry date." He said, once talks resume both countries must make concrete steps towards acknowledging the complexity of Kashmir and the patchwork of ethnic communities that reside within its borders.

As for US government's involvement in the next round of talks, the panelists agreed, that India and Pakistan must be allowed to continue dialogue without American pressure.
"I think the table is for two," said Mohan. "If you want to put pressure on, be my guest that's what the Clinton administration did, we got nowhere. Bush kept out of it, we got somewhere. And I think the Obama administration has learned its lessons... If you have learned anything from the last 60 years, the maximum progress has been made when the Americans had their hands off."

Reported by Suzanna Finley

The audacity of Afghan peace hopes

The audacity of Afghan peace hopes
M. K. Bhadrakumar, The Hindu, Februaty 4, 2010
The London conference on the Afghan problem certainly gives grounds for optimism.

Last Thursday the region took a ride in the raft of optimism to peace. The London conference on the Afghan problem certainly gives grounds for optimism. From the Indian perspective, however, what matters most is to be able to behold just in time that, as the Old Testament says, “there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man’s hand.” The little cloud is destined to rise higher and higher and become larger and larger with astonishing celerity and will burst in a deluge of rain on the parched earth. And like Elijah hastening Ahab home, India needs to head for the chariot and “get thee down that the rain stop thee not.” For, once the river Kishon gets swollen from the deep layer of dust in the arid plain being turned into thick mud that impedes the wheels, it becomes impassable.

The fact of the matter is that the decisions of the London conference not only constitute a 5-year road map for conflict resolution in Afghanistan but are destined to impact on regional security and stability for a long time to come. The decisions run on four different but inter-connected templates. First and foremost, what seemed to some a heretic idea until recently has come to habitate the centerpiece of the political agenda, namely, that the war needs to be brought to an end by “reintegrating” and “reconciling” the Taliban in the Afghan national mainstream. Second, whatever residual war effort remains will focus on persuading or coercing the Taliban to negotiate. Third, the so-called “Afghanisation” process will be speeded up so that by July next year the drawdown of American forces in Afghanistan can commence. Fourth, enduring peace in the Hindu Kush can be attained only in a regional environment in which Afghanistan’s neighbours cooperate by setting aside their competing rivalries and by resolving their outstanding disputes.

For complete article, click here
Related:
Lurching Toward Defeat in Afghanistan - Wall Street Journal
New stirrings in Afghanistan - Salman Haider, Statesman
Talks with Afghan Taliban to boost their Pakistani counterparts - Amir Mir, The News

Thursday, February 04, 2010

Training Afghan Police: A Failing Project?

With Raw Recruits, Afghan Police Buildup Falters
By ROD NORDLAND, February 2, 2010, New York Times

KABUL, Afghanistan — The NATO general in charge of training the Afghan police has some tongue-in-cheek career advice for the country’s recruits.

“It’s better to join the Taliban; they pay more money,” said Brig. Gen. Carmelo Burgio, from Italy’s paramilitary Carabinieri force.

That sardonic view reflects a sobering reality. The attempts to build a credible Afghan police force are faltering badly even as officials acknowledge that the force will be a crucial piece of the effort to have Afghans manage their own security so American forces can begin leaving next year.

Though they have revamped the program recently and put it under new leadership, Afghan, NATO and American officials involved in the training effort list a daunting array of challenges, as familiar as they are intractable.
One in five recruits tests positive for drugs, while fewer than one in 10 can read and write — a rate even lower than the Afghan norm of 15 percent literacy. Many cannot even read a license plate number. Taliban infiltration is a constant worry; incompetence an even bigger one.

After eight weeks of training, an average of 5 percent of recruits cannot pass firearms tests — but are given a gun and sent out to duty. Unsurprisingly, the Afghan National Police have the highest casualty rates of all the security forces fighting the Taliban; 646 died last year, compared with 282 Afghan Army soldiers and 388 NATO troops, according to NATO figures.

The death rate, poor pay and lack of equipment are among the reasons that a fourth of the officers quit every year, making the Afghan government’s lofty goals of substantially building up the police force even harder to achieve.

For complete article, click here
Related:
Training of Afghan Police by Europe Is Found Lacking - NYT
U.S. plans major Afghan police boost - Holbrooke
Can Afghanistan’s New “Guardian” Militia Restore Security in the Provinces? - Jamestown Foundation
Interagency assessment of Afghanistan Police Training and Readiness - Inspectors General of US DOD and DOS - 2006

Pakistan doesn’t want a ‘Talibanised’ Afghanistan: Army Chief Kayani

Pakistan doesn’t want a ‘Talibanised’ Afghanistan
* COAS says Pakistan does not want to control Afghanistan

* Peace in Afghanistan crucial to Pakistan’s long-term interests
* NATO told to fully realise Pakistan’s strategic paradigm
Staff Report, Daily Times, February 2, 2010

RAWALPINDI: Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Kayani has denied that Pakistan wants a “Talibanised” Afghanistan, and said his country has no interest in controlling Afghanistan.

“We can’t wish for anything for Afghanistan that we don’t wish for ourselves,” Kayani was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency on his return from Brussels in a rare address to foreign journalists – much of which was devoted to Afghanistan.

Kayani said peace and stability in Afghanistan were crucial to Islamabad’s long-term interests.

He said Pakistan’s military operations in 2009 had helped improve the situation in Afghanistan in terms of squeezing of spaces, better control of areas and a continuous flow of logistics.

The army chief said he had told NATO commanders that “our strategic paradigm needs to be fully realised”. He said Pakistan was the second largest Muslim nation in the world and located in a strategic region defined by competing interests with a prolonged history of conflict.

Kayani said Pakistan had contributed to peace and stability in Afghanistan. He said the country had the resolve to overcome the menace inside its own territory and had public support for it. He said human and economic losses in the war on terror had failed to deter Pakistan’s resolve.

“Pakistan has suffered the maximum in terms of human and economic losses because of terrorism and violent extremism, but it has not dented the resolve of the nation and armed forces to fight and eliminate the terrorism in accordance with our national interests.”

Kayani said Pakistan’s operations were currently in a transitory phase. “We must consolidate our gains and fully stabilise the areas secured, lest they fall back to terrorists. Constraints of capability to absorb and operate, limited cutting edge counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism capability and limited budgetary space should be factored in.”

The army chief said he had conveyed the concerns, challenges, contributions and constraints of Pakistan in the fight against the terrorists. He said he had highlighted key issues of the conflict that needed to be fully understood and addressed.

Interacting with military chiefs in Brussels, Kayani said he drew their attention to the sacrifices Pakistan had made. he said public opinion, media support, the army’s capability and resolve, a comprehensive strategy and the concept that it was “our war” had helped turn the tide against terrorism.

Kayani also offered to train the Afghan Army and police. “We have also offered to train Afghanistan’s army and police, as we have the capacity and the wherewithal to do so,” he said, adding that Pakistan should be trusted with it.

Related:
Kayani spells out threat posed by Indian doctrine - Dawn
War on terror Five basics turned the tide: COAS - The News

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Afghan Civil Society Fears Taliban Talks Will Compromise Rights

Afghan Civil Society Fears Taliban Talks Will Compromise Rights
Una Moore, UN Dispatch - February 1, 2010

At an international conference in London last week, seventy countries pledged to back Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s plan to negotiate and reconcile with some Taliban. Despite reassurances from Karzai and western allies that reconciliation will not betray hard-won gains in social and political freedom, much of the rhetoric from power players at the summit gave civil society observers the impression human rights –and especially the rights of Afghanistan’s women– will be on the negotiating table.


Activists also expressed anger at the exclusion of women and civil society from preparations for the conference itself.

“Unfortunately Afghan civil society and women leaders were totally ignored in preparing the agenda of this conference and deciding what should be discussed,” said Orzala Nemat, a leading civil society activist and Taliban era dissident.

The Afghan government sent an all-male delegation to the conference, but Afghan women made their voices heard anyway. Dozens attended related non-governmental events. In these forums, the women outlined their vision for the future.

“We want peace and security with justice and involvement of women,” said Mary Akrami, the founder of an organization that assists poor women and girls, at a panel event on women’s security priorities hosted by the British parliament.

Akrami made her plea just hours after the United Nations announced the removal of five former Taliban officials from its terrorist list, paving the way for the five men to take part in UN-sponsored negotiations on behalf of at least one Taliban faction of Afghanistan’s multi-group insurgency.

For complete article, click here
Related:
In the Wake of Intensifying Peace-Building Efforts, Afghan Women Voice their Concerns - Women's Campaign International

Monday, February 01, 2010

Waziristan: the option not taken

Waziristan: the option not taken

The News, February 01, 2010
Ayaz Wazir

Our media was taking great interest in the operation in South Waziristan before its launch on Oct 17. It was termed the “mother of all operations” by some. But when the facts emerged it dawned on everyone that it was just not that. The media was denied the opportunity of giving full and impartial coverage. Only journalists approved by the authorities could enter the area to cover the operation. The media was thus forced to apply the brakes in covering the territory, which pushed the operation to the public blind spot, where it remains now.

Almost all our armchair experts on FATA presented a rosy picture of the situation, saying that the operation would eliminate the militancy in Waziristan. Their argument may have been convincing for those not having visited the area, and those not being familiar with the terrain and the people of Waziristan. But it just does not cut any ice with those are familiar with the area and with people who were born and bred there.

Firstly, their conclusions were based solely on the fallacious reasoning that the militants, following classic battle tactics, would stand their ground and fight head-on in the open, and be overwhelmed by a superior force. They did not take into account the likelihood of the militants’ following hit-and-run guerrilla tactics, melting into the familiar terrain after a strike, and then trying to win over the relatives of the civilian casualties of this war. We forgot that the operation was not launched against the entire population of Waziristan, after all, but a limited number of militants.

Secondly, the best bulwark against militants and terrorism is the economic and social uplift of the area concerned and the weal of its inhabitants. Sadly, provision of health or education facilities or opportunities for employment has never figured on the list of any government. Sadder still, there is no indication that any lessons have been learned. It is unknown whether in the future too these issues will be accorded any priority.

For complete article, click here