Saturday, October 20, 2012

Unprecedented: Pakistan's Supreme Court Strongly Admonishes Military and Intelligence Leaders

SC orders action against former army chief, DG ISI
Sohail Khan, The News, October 20, 2012

ISLAMABAD: Ruling that the 1990 polls were rigged, the Supreme Court on Friday directed the government to take action against former army chief Gen (retd) Mirza Aslam Beg and former chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt Gen (retd) Asad Durrani for violating the Constitution by manipulating the 1990 general elections.

A three-member bench of the apex court, comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Jawwad S Khawaja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, announced a short order on Air Marshal (retd) Asghar Khan’s petition filed in 1996 accusing the ISI of distributing Rs60 million among the politicians to manipulate the general elections of 1990.

In another historic judgment, the court ruled that both Durrani and Beg brought a bad name to Pakistan and its armed forces as well as secret agencies in the eyes of the nation. “Notwithstanding that they may have retired from service, the federal government shall take necessary steps under the Constitution and law against them,” says the short order.

The court also ordered the initiation of legal proceedings against the politicians who allegedly received donations to spend on election campaigns in 1990 and directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to conduct a transparent investigation on the criminal side against all of them and if sufficient evidence was collected, they should be sent for a trial according to the law.

The court ordered that any election cell/political cell in the Presidency or ISI or MI or within their formations be abolished immediately and any letter/notification to the extent of creating any such cell/department (by any name whatsoever, would stand cancelled forthwith).

For complete article, click here

Related:
Analysis: The establishment exposed - Express Tribune
Khakis, muftis ‘stripped naked’ - The Nation Implications of apex court’s verdict for Presidency - Dawn

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

What Obama should do in Afghanistan - An Indian Diplomat's Perspective

Obama should take the road not taken…
By M K Bhadrakumar, Pakistan Today, 17 Oct 2012 
Preoccupation with geopolitics

The forthcoming visit of the United States Deputy Secretary of State William Burns to New Delhi should provide the Indian side an opportunity to have an in-depth discussion on Afghanistan. The point is, President Barack Obama is expected to revisit the Afghan strategy soon after the November 8 election in the US.

Delhi needs to structure its talking points regarding Afghanistan with foresight and wisdom. There is an avalanche of despondency today visible in the recent US discourses regarding Afghanistan.

Most assessments are gloomy but of course the stunning weekend editorial by The New York Times outstrips them all — demanding the complete, unconditional, total withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan by end-2013 i.e., an year ahead of the anticipated drawdown through end-2014.

The NYT even recommends that the US should destroy its high-tech weapons rather than leave them behind in the Hindu Kush for Taliban and the Al-Qaeda to appropriate them. Are things so hopelessly bad?

The noted Pakistani author Ahmed Rashid has a fine piece on this big question. His answer? “Not really, provided…” I go along with Rashid’s prognosis. Indeed, there is a striking parallel with the February 1989 situation when the Red Army withdrew. The Soviets, Americans and Pakistan’s Zia-ul-Haq were all agreed that the PDPA regime would collapse without the support of the Red Army.

They were proven wrong. Najibullah’s fall, when it came, was precipitated by three factors: Soviets threw him to the wolves; Soviets began dealings behind his back with Ahmed Shah Massoud; and, Pakistan’s relentless attempts to overthrow the regime despite Najib’s numerous overtures to Islamabad seeking a modus vivendi.

Rashid is right: Washington should not pre-judge the Kabul government’s resilience. The heart of the matter is that Afghanistan has its own yardsticks and the resilience of the Afghan people should not be underestimated. It is a nation with acute survival instincts. The minimum that is expected of the US and its allies under the circumstances is to fulfill the aid pledges made for the post-2014 period.

It is a modest commitment, affordable and morally obligatory — $16 billion in economic aid through 2015 and $3.8 billion in military aid to 2017.

In sum, give the Afghans the breathing space to get their act together without the NATO and the “international community” cutting them adrift.

Second, it is inevitable that at some point substantive talks with the Taliban become necessary. But don’t make it a clandestine intelligence operation, as the Soviets did, without the Kabul regime being in the loop. Here, the imperative need is to have good intentions, which always provides scope for transparency. The fact is there is today a wide recognition among the world community that the Taliban need to be part of the solution.
For complete article, click here

Monday, October 15, 2012

The Malala Moment in Pakistan

A Pakistani youth places an oil lamp next to a photograph of teen activist Malala Yousufzai on Friday, October 12, in Karachi. Malala, 14, was shot in the head by the Pakistan Taliban in an assassination attempt on Tuesday.
CNN Picture

My ‘Small Video Star’ Fights for Her Life
By ADAM B. ELLICK, The New York Times, October 9, 2012

For Video click here

I had the privilege of following Malala Yousafzai, onand off, for six months in 2009, documenting some of the most critical days of her life for a two-part documentary. We filmed her final school day before the Taliban closed down her school in Pakistan’s Swat Valley; the summer when war displaced and separated her family; the day she pleaded with President Obama’s special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, to intervene; and the uncertain afternoon she returned to discover the fate of her home, school and her two pet chickens.

A year after my two-part documentary on her family was finished, Malala and her father, Ziauddin, had become my friends. They stayed with me in Islamabad. Malala inherited my old Apple laptop. Once, we went shopping together for English-language books and DVDs. When Malala opted for some trashy American sitcoms, I was forced to remind myself that this girl – who had never shuddered at beheaded corpses, public floggings, and death threats directed at her father — was still just a kid.

Today, she is a teenager, fighting for her life after being gunned down by the Taliban for doing what girls do all over the world: going to school.

The Malala I know transformed with age from an obedient, rather shy 11-year-old into a publicly fearless teenager consumed with taking her activism to new heights. Her father’s personal crusade to restore female education seemed contagious. He is a poet, a school owner and an unflinching educational activist. Ziauddin is truly one of most inspiring and loving people I’ve ever met, and my heart aches for him today. He adores his two sons, but he often referred to Malala as something entirely special. When he sent the boys to bed, Malala was permitted to sit with us as we talked about life and politics deep into the night.

For complete article, click here

Related:
As teen recovers from Taliban hit, Pakistanis demand answers - CNN
The Malala moment: Tens of thousands rally in Pakistan for girl shot by Taliban - Christian Science Monitor, October 14, 2012
Malala Yousafzai is an 'icon of courage and hope', says Pakistan army chief - Guardian
UK doctors say Malala has every chance of making “good recovery” - Dawn
A Girl's Courage Challenges us to act - Washington Post
Talking to Insanity - Zafar Hilally, The News
Forked tongues of the holy armies - Ayaz Amir, The News

Is Reforming Pakistan Police a mission impossible?

Mission Impossible
Irfan Hussain, Dawn, September 29, 2012

ASK any Pakistani which government department he fears and distrusts most, and almost invariably, the answer you’ll get is the police.

These custodians of law and order are charged with everything from corruption to cruelty to gross incompetence. As we all know, these accusations are well-founded.

And yet, reviled as it is, our police force is being asked to do the impossible. Denied adequate resources, with virtually no political or public support, and an outdated legal and administrative structure, the police are tasked with tackling vicious terrorist and criminal gangs.

These criminals are not only far better armed and more highly motivated than the police, they are also secure in the knowledge that even if they are arrested, the chances of getting released on bail — or winning an outright acquittal — are very high.

Currently, around 1.4 million cases are pending in courts across the country, including the Supreme Court’s backlog of 20,000. And as we know all too well, the apex court is too busy with urgent political matters to pay much attention to its primary responsibility. After all, hearing routine cases does not attract much media attention.

According to a recent report on police reforms released by the Asia Society, 282 out of 447 terrorism cases, or 63 per cent, tried by anti-terrorism courts in Punjab in 2011 resulted in acquittals.

One reason for this shockingly high rate of acquittals is that in many cases, the initial arrests were made by the ISI or Military Intelligence whose officers carried out the preliminary interrogations.

Almost invariably, confessions thus extracted were later repudiated when the accused were handed over to the police for prosecution. The courts usually deemed the testimony obtained by intelligence agencies to be inadmissible.

Another factor behind this high release rate is the fear witnesses feel in testifying against hardened killers; in many cases, this apprehension is shared by the judges.

The Asia Society report has recommended that the Anti-Terrorism Courts Act of 1997 be amended to allow testimony obtained by intelligence operatives or the army.

Currently, this law is often abused to try cases that have nothing to do with terrorism. After 15 years of escalating acts of terrorism since the 1997 law was enacted, it is time to bring it into line with reality.
Several of the report’s recommendations relate to the inadequate resources at the disposal of our police. If you have the misfortune to visit your local police station, you will see a dilapidated building with battered furniture and yellowing documents.

Often, the officer in charge has to arrange his own supply of stationery. The accommodation provided to the lower ranks is closer to a slum than to government housing.

Working under these conditions, is it a surprise that the police are demoralised? And given their salaries and poor promotion prospects, should we really be shocked over corruption in the service?

For complete article, click here

Related:
The Missing Link By Asif Akhtar, The News
http://asiasociety.org/policy/task-forces/stabilizing-pakistan-through-police-reform