Monday, October 31, 2011

Political Shift in Pakistan: Prospects of Imran Khan's Justice Party

Political Shift Seen in Rally in Pakistan
By SALMAN MASOOD, New York Times, October 31, 2011

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — An antigovernment rally in Lahore, led by the former cricket star Imran Khan, attracted a huge crowd estimated at more than 100,000 people on Sunday evening. The rally represented what supporters and some political analysts said was Mr. Khan’s emergence as a serious challenger to the governing Pakistan Peoples Party and its longtime rival, the Pakistan Muslim League-N.

Mr. Khan assailed the leaders of both parties — President Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif — as creatures of the status quo, and he has been a loud and frequent critic of Pakistan’s alliance with the United States, saying it was motivated by money.

The size of the crowd that Mr. Khan drew in Lahore, the provincial capital of Punjab and a traditional stronghold of the Muslim League-N, surprised his opponents and made an impression on political analysts.

Mr. Khan, 58, has languished on the political sidelines for years, and his political party, Tehreek-e-Insaf, or Justice Party, has no seats in the current Parliament. But his popularity has soared recently as voters, especially younger ones, have grown disillusioned with the establishment parties. A survey conducted by an American polling organization, the Pew Research Center, found in June that Mr. Khan had become the most popular political figure in the country.

After the crowd gave him a rousing welcome at the rally on Sunday evening, Mr. Khan threw out challenges to both Mr. Zardari and Mr. Sharif on the question of personal integrity, urging them both to disclose their assets or face civil disobedience.

“This is not a flood, this is a tsunami,” Mr. Khan said of the crowd thronging the Minaar-e-Pakistan ground in Lahore to hear him. “Anyone up against it will be swept away.”

For complete article, click here

Related:
A scent of change in the air - Dawn
Exploring the Imran Khan buzz, again —Dr Haider Shah - Daily Times
PTI aiming for PML-N heartland in Central Punjab - Express Tribune
'Declare assets or face disobedience' - The Nation
Pakistan's Khan offers to help US in Afghan pullout - AFP

Kids, Kashmir and 'Controlled Chaos'


Mohsin Din on Kids, Kashmir and 'Controlled Chaos'
Asia Society, October 18, 2011- Annie Ali Khan

Mohsin Din at the Asia Society New York on Oct. 17, 2011. (Noah McLaurine)Teaching ten-year-olds in Kashmir film, photography and music via a series of workshops called the "Lollipops Crown Project" is an initiative led by American-Kashmiri artist and Fulbright scholar Mohsin Din to empower disadvantaged youth in the Muslim world through the arts.

"There is a lot of fear among Muslim communities that you cannot make mistakes," said Din, speaking at the Asia Society New York program "Social Media, Arts and Change in the Muslim World" last night. "They [children] got over that through these music workshops," he added.

Din was one of several panelists — MTV Iggy's Nusrat Durrani, journalist Robin Wright (Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World), performing arts producer Zeyba Rahman — who convened at Asia Society to discuss the power of the arts to ignite change and create community in the Muslim world.

The "Lollipops Crown" workshops are part of an international series of projects Mohsin undertook on his own (through his Fulbright scholarship) and in collaboration with his brother Mubashir, with whom he also plays in the band Zero Bridge. Young boys and girls at an orphanage in Kashmir were taught to make music and short films about the future and how the world could be a better place. The topics the children chose ranged from pollution to the importance of religious tolerance in politics and ways to restore Kashmir to its former glory. The brothers also organized rock and roll concerts in the Kashmir valley in collaboration with the local folk musicians.

According to Din, the response from the youth was overwhelming, and some of them showed up in Iron Maiden and Nirvana t-shirts to represent their favorite bands. But he acknowledged that there were also immense challenges. "Whatever concerts were taking place in the valley," he said, "were being exploited by the state and government as signs of normalcy. Then there were the Islamic fundamentalists who were saying that this was all Haraam [forbidden]."

Watch the video below to learn more about Din's experience [9 min., 3 sec]. Watch the complete program here.

Rediscover Swat - By Madiha Ahmed

The Hidden Jewel
By Madiha Ahmed, madstickynotes

When I was applying, the internship’s job description said something about helping out with an on-going promotional campaign in Swat.

Um, what? Does anyone even go to Swat, anymore, except the people who live there?

I dismissed it as a theoretical effort. One of the many. I mean, everyone says that tourism needs to be promoted and militancy in that region needs to end and Talibanisation has wreaked havoc et cetera et cetera et cetera. But nothing is really done, is it?

*shrug shrug*

Boy, was I wrong!

Turns out that Firms is doing wonderful work for Swat and in Swat in order to rehabilitate an economy ravaged by floods and terrorism.

Am I saying that because I am now part of the project? Maybe.

But you should consider all the facts about the project before passing judgement on my motives…
Swat truly is a hidden jewel of Pakistan. It receives a lot of attention these days but it is only of the negative kind. The only other thing that people know is that it is the Paki Switzerland *pish*
What I know for a fact is that active steps have been taken to revive the hotels of the area, especially in post-flood times. And yes, I do mean revive. Proper attempt is being made to breathe new life into them. The troublesome area is the perception and it is only awareness that is lacking.

Enter Zindagi Hai Yahan – a small attempt to let everyone know that Swat is waiting to be rediscovered. Every time I see this video, I want to just get up and visit and see it all for myself right away. Not kidding.

How good is it? You’ll only know when you watch it. 2:38 is my favourite point.

Truly, the melody of life is (t)here. We should all go ‘un-hide’ it now.

For video, click here

Monday, October 24, 2011

Secretary Clinton's Message to Pakistan: Help us Negotiate with Taliban and Haqqani Group

Clinton Pressing Pakistan for Joint Covert Action on Islamic Insurgents

By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan, Bloomberg, Oct 24, 2011

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Pakistan will suffer “dire consequences” if it fails to“contain” terrorists operating from its soil, and it needs the U.S. and Afghanistan to help get the job done.

The Obama administration isn’t asking Pakistan’s military to occupy its rugged border regions, the base for extremist groups that attack U.S., allied and Afghan forces on the other side, Clinton said in an interview with Bloomberg News following two days of meetings in Islamabad.

There are “different ways of fighting besides overt military action,” she said.

Clinton said she pressed Pakistan to fully share intelligence with U.S. forces in Afghanistan to prevent attacks and choke off money and supply routes. Better coordination might prevent incidents like the Sept. 20 assault on the American Embassy in Kabul, which the U.S. blames on the Haqqani network, she said.

"We can go after funding. We can go after couriers,’’ she said she told Pakistani leaders.

Already strained ties with Pakistan were exacerbated by the U.S. commando assault in May that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden near Islamabad. Clinton, along with CIA Director David Petraeus and General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met with Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the Army Chief of Staff, and Ahmad Shuja Pasha, head of the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate.

Recent Cooperation

Clinton praised recent cooperation against al-Qaeda as a model for how to crack down on the Haqqanis as well as the Taliban, based in Pakistan’s southwestern city of Quetta.
“Because of intelligence sharing and mutual cooperation, we have targeted three of the top al-Qaeda operatives since bin Laden’s death. That could not have happened without Pakistani cooperation,” she said.

Pakistan’s political parties came together last month behind a resolution to seek talks and a cease-fire with insurgents rather than an all-out military assault. Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani urged the Americans “to give peace a chance” before pressing his military for more, he said in a statement.
Clinton said the U.S. message to Pakistan was that the same insurgents who have launched lethal attacks against U.S. and Afghan targets may unleash their violence inside Pakistan.
Clinton said she urged Pakistan’s leaders to take advantage of the roughly 130,000-troop, U.S.-led NATO force next door inAfghanistan while it’s still there. The U.S. and NATO have begun pulling out troops and plan to hand full security control to Afghanistan’s government by the end of 2014.

For complete article, click here

Related: From Pakistan Press
Pakistan tells U.S. ready to arrange Taliban talks: report - The News
U-turn?: Convince Taliban to talk, US asks Pakistan - Express Tribune
EDITORIAL: Beginning of a charm offensive - Daily Times
US, Pakistan ‘agree on work plan’ - Dawn

Friday, October 21, 2011

Pakistan: An Anti-Insurgency Report Card

Anti-insurgency report card
By Khalid Aziz, Dawn, October 21, 2011

THOSE who work in development have an accepted practice for evaluating the performance of a project: after polling stakeholder perceptions, a `report card` is issued classifying success or failure against measurable indicators.

It is a pity Pakistan has no such document to show how it has fared in countering insurgents since October 2001.

The task of evaluation becomes more difficult when grading the impact of the internal counter-insurgency on external relations. In this case, that would mean taking the perceptions of our neighbours into consideration. How do they think we have fared? The opinions of the Afghans, Indians and our putative ally the US would be relevant.

Arguably, Pakistan may have achieved greater, albeit temporary, success against the insurgents internally; yet from the point of view of our allies, our efforts rate poorly since they accuse Pakistan of supporting insurgent groups. In this sense, we have placed ourselves under bigger problems externally.

Who is responsible for this situation? It is a fact, for instance, that insurgency reared its head in Pakistan after the US attack on Afghanistan in October 2001. After that incursion, militants took refuge in Fata and Pakistan`s various cities. Controlling the insurgency became difficult when the actions of militaries on both sides of the border resulted in militants shifting from one jurisdiction to another.

It could be argued that military offensives do not actually reduce the number of insurgents, except marginally, but shifts them around and that is misinterpreted as success.

This dilemma in anti-insurgency operations is vividly portrayed by the case of Swat`s militants when, led by Fazlullah, the hard-core fighters took refuge in Afghanistan`s Kunar province. Since the US had earlier withdrawn from that region, it became a strategic safe haven for the Afghan and Swat militants.

For complete article, click here

Related:
Taliban must give up arms before talks: Pakistan - Reuters
Pakistani Taliban raise funds through street crime - Associated Press
Fazlullah Vows New War on Pakistan - Dawn
Clinton sends clear message to Pakistan on militants - Reuters
Fight against militancy: Top Army commander praises ‘private’ militias - Express Tribune

Thursday, October 20, 2011

India - Pakistan: Wars and Peace

Asghar Khan claims Pakistan attacked India four times since 1947
Mumtaz Alvi, The News
Friday, October 21, 2011

Air Marshal (r) Asghar Khan here on Thursday revealed it was Pakistan that attacked India four times since 1947, whereas the neighbouring country did not do so even a single time.

“In the last over 60 years, India has never attacked Pakistan, as it can’t afford it. Indians know well, if Pakistan is destroyed, they will be the next target,” the veteran who was called a night flyer said at Imran Khan’s book launching ceremony here.

Imran Khan’s book is titled ‘Pakistan: A Personal History by Imran Khan.’

The nonagenarian said, “It was made our problem that one day India would invade us. But we did so four times and the first attack was on Kashmir, where Maharaja was not prepared to accede to India for he wanted to join Pakistan and waited for this for 21 days,” he recalled.

A galaxy of veteran military men, including generals (r) Talat Masood, Hameed Gul, diplomats such as Ashraf Jehangir Qazi and foreign diplomats was also a part of the select gathering.

“I shall decide on this after getting free,” remarked Qazi smilingly, when this correspondent asked him was he going to join PTI.

“That all is rubbish,” was Asghar Khan’s terse reply to a question by ‘The News’ after the function was over and he was having tea in a corner. He was asked that in school and college syllabi, students are always taught that it was India that mounted attacks on Pakistan and Pakistan only defended itself. In a reminiscent mood, Asghar Khan said in 1965, again, Pakistan quietly sent tanks to Jammu and when at function, he asked General Ayub Khan about it and warned that by doing so, Pakistan was asking for trouble, he expressed his complete ignorance about this development. But three days after he had met the general, India made incursions into Punjab. He also claimed East Pakistan tragedy happened because of inflexible attitude of some top influential politicians and the armed forces.

For complete article, click here

Related:
Background to India and Pakistan Conflict -
September 6 1965 - BBC
India - Pakistan Relations - New York Times Archive
India and Pakistan in War and Peace - Qadar Baloch
India Pakistan Peace and Regional Economic Cooperation - Akmal Hussain

Who Will Define the Future of Pakistan?

Hassan Abbas presents "Who Will Define the Future of Pakistan - Extremists, Liberals or the Military?"

Mason Hall, Edwin Meese III Conference Room
George Mason University, Washington DC
October 20, 2011, 1:00 PM to 2:45 PM

Join us for a lecture about the different dynamics and forces shaping Pakistan's future.
Hassan Abbas is Professor of International Security Studies at National Defense University's College of International Security Affairs. He is also a Senior Advisor at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, after having been a Research Fellow at the Center from 2005-2009. He was the Distinguished Quaid-i-Azam Chair Professor at Columbia University before joining CISA and has previously held fellowships at Harvard Law School and Asia Society in New York. He regularly appears as an analyst on media including CNN, ABC, BBC, C-Span and GEO TV (Pakistan). His opinion pieces and research articles have been published in various leading international newspapers and academic publications. Abbas’ well acclaimed book Pakistan's Drift into Extremism: Allah, the Army and America's War on Terror (M E Sharpe, 2004) remains on bestseller lists in Pakistan and India and his forthcoming book is titled Taliban Revival (Yale University Press, 2012). He also runs WATANDOST, a blog on Pakistan and its neighbors' related affairs.

Sponsored by the Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies, the Center of Global Studies, the Department of History and Art History, the Pakistani Student Association, and the Program for Global Affairs.

Monday, October 17, 2011

The Widening Pakistan-Afghan Rift

US troop withdrawal leaves Pakistan vulnerable to attack by insurgents
Taliban exploiting a security vacuum in the wake of American forces departing from eastern Afghanistan
in Chitral and in Jalalabad, guardian.co.uk,

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Kashmir Today

Keeping Kashmir Alive
Farhana Qazi, Dawn blog, October 10, 2011

Farhana Qazi is a senior lecturer on Pakistan and Islam for the US government. She publishes widely on conflicts in the Islamic world, including Kashmir. She can be reached at farhana331@gmail.com and www.farhanaqazi.com

The arrest of US-radio journalist David Barsamian at the New Delhi airport in late September 2011 had a chilling effect on me. Like Barsamian, I reported — though for a brief period — on Kashmir. My stories included war widows, mourning mothers, and political party members (read former militants). The only way I could understand the truth or varied aspects of it was to write. And that’s what I did.

In the city of Srinagar in Indian-administered Kashmir, what I did not know then is that I was followed. Indian authorities likely kept a tab on my place of residence, forcing me to shift from one hotel to another guest house. I received strange phone calls by the head of police on a mobile given to me by political activists. I hung up. I met with local contacts in private, including female group leaders and innocent victims of violence. I did not always watch-my-back, though I did avoid multiple visits to Central Jail. I could not convincingly say I was a cousin or sister of a detained activist. I did not realise that my Nikita-style black boots and designer-like eye make-up would give me away.

While my simple adventures into Kashmir cannot compare to Barsamian, I know the agony of being judged. I understand the feeling of being incongruously isolated for wishing to narrate the stories of women wishing to release their grievances to an American Muslim woman. I know that women risked their lives to meet with me. In November 2008, a month of political campaign and protests, I met women in private and became painfully aware of the lives they must lead. As an American, I could not imagine the life of women on-the-run, kept away from their families, constantly shielded and screened from the public view.

Each visit to Kashmir was enigmatic. I was never satisfied. I needed to learn more. Write more. Examine the conflict as it is experienced by its people, rather than the trappings of Western or Indian reporting. As I prepared for a visit in June 2009, my visa was mysteriously recalled two days before the planned trip.  The Indian Embassy in Washington, DC revoked my visa on violation of “visa norms.” The Consular officer, a lean dark gentleman with beady eyes, stated matter-of-factly, “You visited India on a tourist visa but you did not act as a tourist.” Baffled, I thought, as Arundhati Roy boldly stated in her op-ed ‘Dead Men Talking’ in Dawn, “Is it illegal for tourists to talk to people in the countries they visit?” Surely, as an American citizen, I had a right to engage the local population without the threat of harassment or harm.

In my defense, I handed the official a copy of my not-yet-published book draft on the women of Kashmir. I explained my previous position in the US government and then as a researcher for an international think tank. I tried to reason with the officer and assert my academic and research credentials. But his answer was firm, “You met the wrong people.” At that moment, it became clear to me that the Indian government divided people into categories of right and wrong. Were political activists with a non-violent agenda mistakenly immoral and illegal? Or perhaps, it was the woman cloaked in an all-black abaya who invited me to her home that raised red flags? Or was my presence at an all-female protest in the old city startling and seriously damaging to New Delhi? Three years later, Roy’s piece made me understand that revoking my visa, not once but thrice, intended to quiet my aspirations of writing anything further of India’s undeclared and unambiguous occupation of Kashmir.

Determined to travel again, I met with Washington’s incoming Indian Ambassador Singh and his wife at a Congressional greet-and-meet party. The Ambassador reassured me that I had committed no crime. But even he had limits of power. I finally stopped demanding a response to the visa question when an insider informed me that the Indian Home Ministry sealed my file. “You will not be able to travel to India for the next ten years. So you can forget about Kashmir,” the insider told me.

For complete article, click here

Related:
Report on Kashmir - The Hindu
PDD revenue from Kashmir division jumps over two-fold - MSN News
How slush money is killing the valley - The Asian Age

Sunday, October 02, 2011

What’s behind the U.S.-Pakistan rift - An Unverified Intelligence Assessment?

What’s behind the U.S.-Pakistan rift
By David Ignatius, Washington Post, September 29

Beyond the recent verbal confrontation between U.S. and Pakistani officials about the Haqqani network lies a delicate political-military effort to draw the Haqqanis into an end-game strategy for the war in Afghanistan.

Adm. Mike Mullen, the departing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, rebuked the Pakistani spy service, the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, for using the Haqqani network as its “veritable arm” in Afghanistan. But U.S. officials know the ISI also facilitated a secret meeting during the last several months between the United States and a representative of the Haqqani clan. This is the double game that’s always operating in U.S.-Pakistani relations.

Some U.S. officials believe that the recent wave of attacks by the Haqqanis on U.S. targets in Afghanistan may, in fact, reflect the determination of hard-line members of the clan to derail any move toward negotiation. The United States wants the Pakistani military’s help in isolating and destroying these “unreconcilable” elements of the network.

The sparring with Pakistan illustrates the wider dilemma of the Afghan war. How does the United States bring pressure on the Haqqanis and other Taliban factions, even as it withdraws troops with a 2014 deadline for completing its mission? As Husain Haqqani, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, has said: “The more the U.S. says it wants to leave Afghanistan, the harder it will be to leave.”

What angered Mullen and other U.S. officials was Pakistan’s failure to act on intelligence reports about planned Haqqani attacks. A timeline helps untangle the threads of the dispute:

For complete article,click here

Related:
Why the U.S. needs to make nice with Pakistan By Vali Nasr - Washington Post
Pakistan: U.S. Assures Ally, ‘No Boots on the Ground’ - NYT
US 'threat' of military action unites Pakistan - MSNBC
Intelligence about ISI link not clear: Obama - Dawn