Unfolding the adversary designs

It is understood that the armed forces and ISI were the only solid rock against nefarious designs of the conspirators and that is why they are now trying to attack and demoralise them. We welcome declaration of Ullema and Mashaikh because Pakistan is under multidirectional attack ----- undermining of its economy, creating sense of insecurity, launching of psychological war, harbouring sparatist movements and pitting of one section of the society against the other. It seems Pakistan is virtually under siege and therefore, there is dire need to forge unity among our ranks and express complete solidarity with those who are defending the homeland against hosts of challenges.
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By Ahmed Saeed Minhas

Pakistan is at war. A war which is unseen but bitterly felt throughout the length and breadth of our country. It’s messy all around. The most common phrase which we all have been hearing since our childhood, ‘Pakistan is passing through its most crucial phase’ is still the most talked and whispered one. I wonder, if Pakistan was not created in the name of Islam, what would have been the fate by now. Let’s not be emotional and think calmly, which I am sure will bring forward the most rationale options for our policy makers. An uncontrollable and refereeless blame game is being played against Pakistan, since the surprise raid of US forces against Osama bin Laden. The dust of the incident was not even thinned, when yet another most terrific incident of PNS Mehran took place which in actual shook the fiber of Armed Forces. Both of the incidents were un-precedented. We should accept that unfortunately we were not contemplating such kind of happenings. What to do about it? The things started turning around the table back in 2009 when the US started using the phrase of PAK-AF instead of AF-PAK. It clearly predicted the change in the mind sets of ISAF forces led by US. A faction of our think tanks did raise the concern about the evident transformation of US thinking; however it was not taken seriously.Let’s first, list the scheme of events, unfold the enemy designs and draw conclusions to make the picture clear and understandable. Ideally, if one has to draw the enemy’s logical prudently argued designs and unfold its scheme of conventional or unconventional manoeuver, it’s better to put one-self in enemy shoes. Let’s do that. If as an enemy, it was required to bleed Pakistan, I would have first of all determined it’s Centre of Gravity (CoG). Which in case of Pakistan is its reputed Armed Forces and off course Nuclear Weapons. In the presence of nukes, I would have been naïve if I use conventional scheme of manoeuver, including surgical strikes or ambitious Cold Start Strategy. So it is the only unconventional or asymmetric warfare which seems logical. Are the Pakistan’s undeclared enemies not doing the same. Pakistan is subjected to unconventional form of warfare, duly supported materially as well as financially. The dynamics of un-conventional warfare are such that a superpower like USSR could not sustain the continuous bleeding and finally dis-integrated.Having identified the form of warfare, as an enemy, my second logical action would have been to covertly discredit Pakistan’s CoG by taking multi-pronged approach. I would have created fake corruption scandals and personal interests of its hierarchy, raised the issue of inefficiency in decision making by its leadership and sponsored attacks against its sensitive installations thereby eliminating people’s confidence in Armed Forces. The best way would have been the thriving transforming media of Pakistan which does not leave any stone unturned in telecasting the stories in order to increase their rating, without realizing that their leaked information can be extremely helpful to the terrorists. Is the same thing not happening to Pakistani Armed Forces? Yes indeed. My next target would have been the Pakistani public. My strategy would have been to make them so much worried about their future that they become least bothered about the strategic political situation around them and at the same time make them hate their political leadership so that to put them on defensive so that they do not raise their voice against will of western masters. Is it not the same situation looming around us? After having discredited the Armed Forces and curtailed the credibility of its Political Leadership, my ultimate objective would have been the ‘Pakistani nukes’. Nowadays, every second terrorist attack in Pakistan is related to the Pakistan’s inability to guard its nuclear weapons against falling them into the hands of terrorists. Whether, it is assassinations of Governor of Punjab or minority minister or bomb blasts in Army Cantonments or the PNS Mehran incident, Pakistani nukes are put to the question. Recently, NATO Secretary General has also joined the course being sung by the US and UK and said that the NATO is worried about safety and security of Pakistani nukes.Let’s draw conclusions from the above. Our enemies aim to, first, cripple the Pakistani economy so that we remain under control and do not make independent foreign policies; secondly, Pakistani nukes are either taken out or at least they exercise joint command and control over them; thirdly, Pakistan does not look towards East (Russia and China) and keep meeting the western interests in South Asia; fourthly, nuclear Pakistan does not become lead in the OIC; fifthly, Pakistan is unable to challenge India which is being prepared by the west as counter weight to China and last but not the least, pressurize Pakistan to submit to the Indian will and accept their dominance in the region.Having unfolded the hidden enemy’s designs, let’s list the future strategic contours around us. First, security threat from India will remain pronounced and effecting our defence policy; secondly, Pakistan will have to defend itself without foreign support even without China and Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia; thirdly, nuclear deterrence will play a pivotal role in our foreign and defence policy formulation, fourthly, the US is expected to continue appeasing India due to economic and political reasons well known to all; fifthly, War on terror will continue to have its negative fall out on Pakistan’s economy making the security dilemma more acute; sixthly, China would continue to provide limited moral support to Pakistan being engaged in becoming South Asian economic giant.Let’s find out what could be the possible viable options for us to come out of the mess successfully and still retain a respectable position in comity of nations. Few to suggest are, first, we should try our best that we are not internationally isolated. Do not forget that none of the Muslim country out of all the 67 Muslim countries gave supporting statement in favour of Pakistan when the US violated the sovereignty of Pakistan in capturing OBL. We need to be pragmatic. Pragmatism doesn’t mean that we should accept the US demands but bring the US to our terms and deal with them diplomatically on equal terms. The staunch stance of Pakistani leadership has already brought a shift in US and UK tone when the top leadership of the two states stated that Pakistan’s enemy is their enemy, yet Pakistan need to take account of its toll and need not to go for the face value sugar statements like mentioned above. Secondly, as Dr. Zafar Nawaz Jaspal of Quaid-e-Azam University said in one of the talk shows that ‘the asymmetric war is not won by the numerical strength but innovative unconventional strategies’ should be understood. Our Armed Forces need to cultivate the culture of unconventional warfare among its ranks. Thirdly, our media should identify that doubtlessly nationalistic reporting can seriously shake the very fiber of our state and institutions like Armed Forces. They have to be given a code of conduct, formulated with their due consultations so that the enemy is not benefited. Perhaps we need to ignore their acts from coverage even. They should be made to understand that terrorists or the so-called non-state actors (NSAs) are privy to the media and they feel themselves the winners when TV channels show the destruction caused by their inhumane coward acts of terrorism. Fourthly, our leadership needs to be free from political point scoring, they need to be most cautious and show the light of hope to their people. Lastly, the personalities at nuclear safety and security helm of affairs may appear on the media and take their fellow countrymen into confidence about the fool-proof security around the nuclear assets, to which every Pakistani is emotionally attached. A well informed media and people are the only choice to curb the menace of hopelessness and rumours among the masses.In the end, I urge the nation to be pragmatic, responsible, forthcoming, responsive and self-confident at this hour of need. Pakistan is a celebrated nation which has proven itself whenever the question of nationalism comes. Its unity is tested in wars against India, earthquakes, floods and even cricket matches against India. Our leaders need to trust its masses, behave realistically and act sensibly.  

ahmedsaeedminhas81@yahoo.com

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Pakistan-China trade and investment

The founding of the Pakistan-China Trans-Border Economic Zone, upgrading avenues for trade, overland and across the Karakoram mountains, and steps being taken for integrated border management will enable both Pakistan and China to optimally utilise the "natural complementarities of the two countries".
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"No matter how the global situation may change, the resolve and determination of the government and the people of China in developing its relation with Pakistan will never be swayed".
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By Muhammad Aftab

Despite the tense situation in which terrorism has landed Pakistan, China, once again, has decided to help Pakistan. Besides boosting trade, it will invest in energy, mineral exploration, motorways construction, special industrial zones, and customs and tariffs harmonisation.

These plans were unveiled during Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s just-concluded visit to China on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Chinese steadfastness is unmatched. “No matter how the global situation may change, the resolve and determination of the government and the people of China in developing its relations with Pakistan will never be swayed,” Jia Qinglin, chair of the powerful Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) said at a reception for Gilani.

Gilani invited a joint business forum, and said “There is a great potential for the participation of Chinese corporations in the development of the energy sector in Pakistan. This includes hydro, thermal and renewable energy.”

“Joint ventures with equity participation of Chinese corporations and financial institutions, can transform Pakistan’s economic landscape and will certainly prove to be a win-win scenario,” Gilani assured the Chinese businessmen, investors, and experts. Islamabad would like Chinese corporates to focus on Pakistan in their strategic plans, as the two countries have a proven record of good relations in all fields and sectors. As a result of these close ties, Chinese investors, businessmen and traders get a very high priority at the government and private level, and all facilities are quickly provided to investors. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Gilani, and top Chinese leaders lauded mutual ties and urged their “further strengthening”.

Trade is the top gainer since the two countries signed a Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA). The two-way trade rose 27.7 percent in 2010 to $ 8.7 billion. “Our two countries have set a target of attaining $ 15 billion in trade in coming years,” Gilani said at the business forum that was co-hosted by the China Council for Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) and the Embassy of Pakistan in Beijing.

Beijing, in an official statement this week, also said, “Chinese government will encourage the Chinese enterprises to expand investment in Pakistan and strengthen their cooperation in trade, finance and science and technology.” The two countries have also enhanced cooperation in defence production, ranging from tanks to fighter jets, and civilian technology.

The latest example of cooperation is the May 19 opening of a Chinese-built nuclear power station at Chashma in central Pakistan. China will build two more nuclear power plants, under a just-signed contract.

The head of China’s Hudian Group informed Gilani the group would immediately invest $ 400 million and establish a 350 megawatt (MW) thermal power plant at Lahore. The group has expertise in hydro and coal-fired power projects. It is currently working on several projects in East and South Asia.

A report prepared by the US administration projects that in view of Pakistan’s huge energy shortage and leaping future demand, at least $ 21.8 billion can immediately be invested in this country. Its priority target is to immediately start generating 6,950 MW of power that will cost $ 21.8 billion. “It needs at least $ 7.7 billion to complete its six thermal power projects on a top priority basis,” chiefly on a government-to-government level. An additional $ 14.1 billion investment is required from the foreign private sector.

Many projects are likely to materialise following the Beijing talks. Li Ruogu, chairman of the Chinese Export-Import Bank (EXIM Bank) announced the bank would finance the multi-billion dollar Gwadar-Karachi-Faisalabad motorway. The motorway will connect the newly built Chinese deep-sea port at Gwadar, located at the mouth of the Straits of Hormuz, with Pakistan’s biggest industrial hub and financial centre of Karachi, and the third biggest industrial region of Faisalabad. The three cities have fast developing business links with Dubai and the Gulf Cooperation Council.

This bank already has financed huge Chinese projects in Pakistan. These include Chashma Nuclear Power Plants, Karakoram Highway that connects Pakistan with Eastern China through the Karakoram Range, and Saindak Gold and Copper Mining Project in Balochistan.

Pakistan-China Joint Commission on Economy, Trade, Scientific and Technical Cooperation, in addition, announced last December that China will invest $ 13.2 billion in Pakistani projects, spread over energy, water, industry, agriculture and fisheries. The founding of the Pakistan-China Trans-Border Economic Zone, upgrading avenues for trade, overland and across the Karakoram mountains, and steps being taken for integrated border management and customs and tariffs harmonisation will enable both Pakistan and China to optimally utilise the “natural complementarities of the two countries”, as China and Pakistan describe it.

Mark the significance of these projects. Their strategy is that, besides selling to the Pakistani market, China and Pakistan plan to export the production to Dubai, GCC, Middle East, Africa and other markets.

The writer is an Islamabad-based journalist and former Director General of APP

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Mian Nawaz Sharif monkeyshines

Has Mian Nawaz Sharif forgotten that the military he now dosparages is actully his creator? He took his political birth in its hatcheries. And it is the ISI whose man he originally was. He played its pawn in the IJI contrivance, whose principal character he was. Doesn`t he remember Mehrangate, the abominable scam of taking money from the agency, long pending in the apex court? And has he forgotten that his opponents still claim his heavy mandate in second stint power was the handiwork of "ghosts"?.
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Will Mian Nawaz Sharif ever know or any of his obeisant toadies would ever venture telling him that his current discourse is obsolete, his idiom is obsolete and his prattle is just out of tune with the times? The conditions have changed; the people’s raging concerns have changed; their mood has changed; and what was so relevant to them until yesterday has become irrelevant to them today. Yet he stays stuck in the past, indeed so ignorantly that he is not even aware he now stands absolutely isolated from the mainstream and has no listener to his bunkum on the street. He may be cheering some hearts in that exclusive elite club of well-heeled, well-fed and well-served chattering classes. But the street is resoundingly listless to him. Over there, he veritably is now just a nonentity, a mere insignificance, a sheer skeleton of the past nobody taking even a nodding notice of. It is the media channels keeping him alive politically. But the masses he has lost for his disconnect with them and for his bloated haughtiness that has kept him from speaking out any feelingly the crowding woes mobbing the have-nots day in and day out. The cold shoulder he receives from the masses so pronouncedly on his forays around and away his Raiwind redoubt should tell him tellingly where he presently stands in the public estimation. Not even a respectable gathering can his acolytes muster up for his audience. What they herd up for his rallies is not even a patch on the crowds his political adversaries in the opposition camp draw for their sit-ins. Their crowds number in thousands; his rallies count for a measly few hundreds. Puffed up initially by some fondling media people who painted him larger than life, he mistook himself for a giant that he actually was not and took to behaving like an icon which in reality he is not. And now he is in a tumble, compounding his fall with one inanity after the other.He may be thinking with his brave talk of pulverizing the establishment and giving a push out to the status quo he is accumulating public kudos by heaps and mounds. Instead, he is getting countless marks from the public for rank opportunism. For, his track record is not famous for nation-building but so infamous for institutions’ ransacking. Verily, no builder has he been; a destroyer and a subverter he culpably has been. In his second stint, he could have employed his huge “heavy mandate”, even if engineered by “ghosts”, for all those “pious” tasks he now is so frantically calling for. He did not. He got embroiled in an unseemly brawl with the nation’s chief justice over an issue of suo moto judicial activism, of which he now poses to be such an enthusiast, invaded the reverential Supreme Court, engineered an abominable insurgency on the august judicial floors against the chief justice, and even toyed with the horrible idea of throwing him behind the bars if only for a night. He could have “purged” the ISI of all its political trappings. He didn’t. Rather he brought in as agency’s chief first a favourite mullah general of his and latterly another favourite general of his who he had in his mind to succeed Pervez Musharraf as army chief.Throughout, he remained overridingly obsessed with self-perpetuation and self-promotion, for which he threw legitimate individual right to promotion and posting out of the window to implant his own men on key positions in services and bureaucratic leviathan. Musharraf he brought in over the head of his senior general he deemed a potential threat to his throne. He even manipulated his heavy mandate to have as the country’s president someone who he thought a safe bet for his autocratic his rule. And all through, he stood swayed powerfully by a vaulting ambition to have himself anointed Ameerul Momneen, the country’s lifetime ruler, a law unto himself, with even his snort becoming a law of the land.     But, then, a democrat he was not then; and no democrat is he now. All his democratic professions are just pretences. Never has he felt obstructed in any manner by his much-touted Charter of Democracy that he shunts aside disdainfully when found inconvenient to his politics of power, just as he felt no qualms whatsoever in ditching his own APDM creature to jump into the electoral ring contrary to the grouping’s pledge not to participate in elections under the dictator. And he, too, runs his party as personal fiefdom, not as a democratic political institution. But the street has now no stomach at all for his politics of vendetta, revenge and confrontation. It wants the masses’ urgent needs to be addressed and the holes that the Abbottabad and Mehran sagas have exposed in the nation’s defence armour to be plugged off. Their land becoming a battlefield or hunting park of any political adventurist they want not at all.

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We really are in a state of war

According to diplomatic cable sent by the then principal officer at the US consulate in Lahore in November 2008, revealed through WikiLeaks, $ 100 million sent by the Saudi monarchy and other reactionary gulf sheikhdoms was routed to some clerics in southern Punjab. Part of the booty was used recruit and indoctrinate youngsters, turining them into jihadists and potential suicide bombers.
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Just forget about what the others say about us. Much of that is patently motivated discourse, self-serving hectoring or sheer jiggery-pokery. But there is no question about it that we really are in a state of war, under the siege as we visibly are of extremists and terrorists. They may be homegrown, they may be foreign proxies. Whatever they are, they have declared war on us, unmistakably now threatening viciously our very existence. And to contend with their vile challenge to the state, we stand in need of a war leadership. But the nation’s greatest tragic catastrophe is that what we have is a leadership not fit even for peacetimes. We need tall leaders with high minds, tremendous vision and enormous wisdom. Instead, what we have are small men with small minds, unable to see even beyond their own noses.
Unarguably, this war is no unidirectional fight. It is a multidimensional battle, to be fought out on multiple fronts and in the minds. The counter-offensive has to be multi-pronged, for which you need leaders who show themselves apart, not for custom-made robes, but for richness of intellectual faculties, creative thoughts and innovative ideas. But the leaders in the saddle across the spectrum have established beyond a shred of doubt that none of this is their forte. Clearly, this war has to be battled not just on the security front. It has to be fought as much on political and development planes. But this leadership is yet to show anything worthwhile on its slate by way of political initiative to cope with the existential threat of wicked terrorism monsters to the polity and to the state. So much so, it has spectacularly failed even to drive home to the mass of our people that the war we are now pitched is none else’s but our own.
Such an utter disappointment has indeed this leadership been that for almost two years it ran the crucial finance ministry on ad hoc basis. It had had no regular finance minister and the key portfolio of finance was handled by a variety of cabinet ministers as an additional charge. And shockingly enough, till now this leadership has unfolded no economic policy. At best, its act on the economic front is marked with firefighting; at worst, its economic policy boils down to begging and borrowing money from international donors. And no move whatsoever has it made to modernise the curricula of madrassas. It indeed gives the vibe that this task has never been on its agenda. At least, Pervez Musharraf made an attempt to this end, though he too in the end caved in to the awe of the clerical orders. This leadership has not even ventured on this task, feeling it safer to steer clear of this ticklish enterprise.
Even on the security front, this administration has not anything grand to boast of. The field is cluttered with its inactions, inertia and sloth. Even after three years, it is still hovering around the inanities of “has decided”, whereas by now it should be talking in the lingo of its decisions “being carried out decisively” and “curbing the terrorists crushingly”. Nothing of the sort is happening. No counter-terrorism strategy is visibly or perceptibly in play. And where order should have necessarily prevailed by now still reigning supreme are anarchy and chaos. No coordinations or collaborations between the various parts of the state security apparatus are in evidence. Each seemingly is working in its own light and in its own direction. And the lashkars and jaishes of all brands and hues are running their trades unimpeded and unobstructed, even the known outlawed ones openly under not-so-veiled new banners. And hate literature is circulating without any fears or inhibitions.
Not that the grandees occupying the opposition tents are showing any better. Superficiality and hollowness fills their camps as deafeningly as the official corridors, while the clerical orders for their own religiosity see spotless white what is visibly only opaque black. But none should harbour any hallucinations. The country is caught up dangerously in the stormy whirlpool of an existential threat which if not tackled unitedly would throw this nation in such an irreversible crisis that each and all will rue inconsolably. So each in own interest must see what is in the making and work to avert the otherwise inevitable grim eventuality at every cost. Terrorist are certainly no friends of this country and its people. They in reality are this nation’s foes.

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A turning point

Al Qaeda and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan are meticulously implementing their formal declaration of war against Pakistan through a highly organised and well-planned series of attacks. Pakistan`s security forces have to match their effort and overtake them. Any laxness, lapse, lack of responsibility, mistakes and weaknesses should not be tolerated. This is life and death struggle for the soul of Pakistan. The security establishment should come out of their stupor and consider themselves in a state of war and act accordingly.

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After landing in Islamabad, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton met Pakistan’s political and military leaderships jointly, and went out to tell the media that the two countries’ relationship had reached a turning point. Yes, it has; but it can still take a turn to the positive if it is moved forward on the basis of mutual respect and mutual interest, not in the mould of master-slave relationship which has been the US style in its conduct vis-à-vis Pakistan so far. If Washington has certain expectations from Islamabad, so is it with Pakistan. It too wants its interests to be taken care of and its concerns to be addressed by America. It can’t be that Washington has only to dictate and Islamabad has only to obey. There has to be a functional mutuality in the relationship, with each side respectful of the other’s interests and alive to its concerns. A one-way traffic it can’t be. Indeed, the time has come that Washington lifts the mask of self-assumed piety from its face and look at its own conduct surgically with objectivity, honesty and truthfulness. Clinton was rightly miffed at mounting anti-Americanism in Pakistan. But she was wrong if she thought it to be some Pakistani officialdom’s handiwork. She must know this public sentiment is not against the American people or against America. Rather, Pakistan’s people hold both in great esteem and America is since long and even now a covetous destination for many a Pakistani. This hostile sentiment is against official America. And no new phenomenon it is, but a deeply-ingrained feeling in the people’s minds for their persistent betrayals by the official America, at times in their crucial moments. A well-read and well-informed leader as she is, she may not be unaware of that long list of betrayals, even though she may understandably not confess to that publicly. But she certainly must be knowing full well how this country was ditched conveniently and remorselessly by the official America when it found no use of it, despite celebrating it as “America’s most allied ally in Asia”, “valued strategic partner”, “non-NATO ally” and what not when it needed it. There is no point in recounting that well known painful history of official America’s self-serving relationship with this country. It is too searing even to recall. But even now when the din of Pakistan playing double game is resounding in American and its allied western halls, it in reality is this country that has become the victim of official America’s double game. While pretending to be Pakistan’s friend, its CIA, together with Afghan CDS spy service and India’s RAW, has admittedly infested Pakistan’s tribal areas and Balochistan to this country great woe.More to the point, the official America is livid that Islamabad is loath of taking on the Afghan Taliban’s Haqqani group that it asserts is based in Pakistan’s tribal North Waziristan agency, in itself a damning commentary on the US-led invaders of Afghanistan. If the group is really there, this speaks of the invaders’ incompetence, if not outright cowardice, to take on the vanquished Taliban’s fleeing rumpus and conveniently letting them sneak into Pakistani territory. After all, there were no Taliban or al-Qaeda anywhere in Pakistan before that invasion. And, if independent reports are any guide, the entire Afghanistan’s east is still under the Haqqani group’s overwhelming sway in spite of the US troop surge, then why should the group be nestling up and operating from outside sanctuaries? But let that pass and come to the official America’s pressing demand on Pakistan to take on the “Haqqani group and their allied al-Qaeda” in North Waziristan. But this is no child’s play. It requires a pacification campaign that would necessarily entail for Pakistan army to draw forces from its eastern border with India. But can Pakistan afford this when just after the American Abbottabad adventurism the Indian army and air force chiefs went public that they too can undertake such strikes on Pakistan and need only their political leadership’s consent? Can indeed Pakistan take this risk when Indian military commanders have been parading military doctrines of two simultaneous wars against Pakistan and China under nuclear overhang, have raised a rapid deployment strike command to take on Pakistan along their Punjab-Rajasthan sector, keep the bulk of their war machine poised against Pakistan and have only recently conducted major military exercises in their Rajasthan sector in this country’s close proximity? The official America has not dissuaded India away from such provocative activities. And yet it expects Pakistan to launch a major offensive in North Waziristan, despite uncertain consequences. The official America must first clean up its own act. The official Pakistan may fall into line with its command. But the people of Pakistan would not. They would react angrily to the government’s great trouble.

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Pakistan, An all-out war

We have been arguing consistently for Pakistan`s leaders, civilian and military, to wake up to the internal threat that looms over the country`s future. Even if it has taken the series of events after the Abbottabad raid, including the two spectacular incidents, to focus the national leadership`s mind on the task, it can only be welcomed with the adage, better late than never. Now that the DCC has asked for citizens` cooperation and underlined the need for a national consensus in the struggle against terrorism, the main points of the approach/strategy for the anti-terrorist campagin must be clearly understood. The national consensus that exists against the heinous acts of the terrorists can and will be strengthened if the badly shaken public confidence because of recent events is restored through effective action against the terrorists.

Vaguely-worded and couched in generalized terms as it was, what one could make out of the press statement on the meeting of the cabinet committee on defence was that the government had decided to put punch in its counterterrorism campaign. That it would better do it at once. For, not even the ink on the statement had dried that the terrorist struck Hangu fatally the very next day with a suicide car bombing in the heart of the city’s high security zone, killing at least 25 people and injuring another 45. Not that Hangu is a stranger to terrorist violence and bloodletting. Over the time, it has sorrowfully suffered blood-soaked terrorist strikes, not infrequently sectarian-motivated. But this Thursday’s deadly attack must be read for what it really is. It is a brutal message of the demonic terrorist forces that they are now in an all-out war on the Pakistani state. And the Pakistani state has to respond in a manner to demonstrate that it too is an all-out war on the terrorist forces. So far, to put it bluntly, the state has merely flirted with the anti-terrorism war, showing neither the required zest nor the steely grit to go on an inevitable all-out war against the dark forces of death and destruction, playing so blithely with lives, limbs and blood of our people. There has been a lot of rhetorical avowal of fighting out terrorism and extremism from the high places of the state. But those were just lofty vows arguably merely for public consumption, left hanging in the air as those were, with ground seeing none of them in execution. At best, the military has been fighting this tough battle; but, at worse, without any much backup from the civil power, for which it has lately been singled out by terrorists for deadly attacks on its establishments, bases and personnel. The political leadership has largely sat pretty, remaining overwhelmingly preoccupied with its own pet power games and political plays, sparing not any much time or interest for peace, security and stability in the country. Leave alone the counterterrorism strategy that it had hammered out in the earlier stages of its rule and which it has let go down the drain with its apathy and disinterest in dressing it up with a robust and powerful follow-up. It has, perceptibly, failed even in forging an effective networking among the plethora of federal and provincial intelligence agencies, so essential for combating dark terrorist forces triumphantly. Nor has it taken any political initiatives to face up to these evil monstrosities.But the situation has become so critical now that this insouciant leadership should get out of its hibernation at once lest the things spin out wholly out of control. Already, it is too late. And now there is no room whatsoever for any dawdling or shilly-shallying. The thugs are visibly on the offensive, boldly, savagely and fatally. The state is, dreadfully, on the retreat. They hit wherever and whenever they want. The state is merely scrambling to cope with the wreckage of their strikes. They are seemingly very organised and focused. The state shows only chaos and disorder in its ranks. They are very calculated in the choice of their targets and in planning their assaults. The state shows no method at all in its counteraction which quite apparently is just anarchic and reactive. If the state stays so adrift, it horrifically might hit the rock with unpredictable but certainly disastrous consequences. One knows not what specifics were deliberated upon and decided in the meeting of the cabinet committee on defence. But, unarguably, the terrorist thuggery has touched such a brittle pitch that the nationwide administrative top hierarchy needs imperatively to get together immediately to think out and plan a countrywide counterterrorism action to grapple with the increasingly aggressive and deadlier terrorism monstrosities. None should remain any more oblivion of the palpable reality that these monstrosities have deep roots, not just inside but, more worryingly, outside the country wherefrom come to them money, arms and instructions. They are working on a sinister plan at their paymasters’ behest. And if they are not held back now, they are sure to hurt this country incurably.So will the president or the prime minister care convening a top-level inter-provincial conference at the earliest to decide a powerful counteraction to this vicious spiraling monstrosity of terrorism?

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Whose sinister game?

Pakistan is under attack, wants to play ostrich or desirous to give a monolithic response. Countries when formulate foreign policies apply three principles, one, policy should have high aims, the idealistic approach; second the policy should cater the ground realities, the realist approach, thirdly the policy should be humane,without hubries,thealtruistic aproach. Pakistan is left with Hobson`s choice, formulate a counterinsurgency and counter terror policy in the light of three principles of foreign policy. What Pakistan needs the most today is slogan given by father of the nation i e Unity, Faith and Discipline. These words never resonated with such an appeal before all the state institutions both formulated under statute and outside it have to unite in response, what can be a better response than the display of loyally, which the poor country is demanding from every denizen. Rise or fall for ever. Mend the rag or wear the tag. Whatever, it has to be done immediately time is not running out it is also running away.

At least eight people were killed and more than 40 were injured in a pre-dawn suicide attack on a CID police station at University Road on Wednesday.
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The deadly terrorist attack on Peshawar’s CID police station, which killed at least eight people, including four policemen, and wounded another some 39 civilians and cops, has largely elicited a public reaction that has almost become a fashionable prattle now. It is a revenge assault for Osama bin Laden’s killing is the spontaneous talk. But this inherently is a flawed argument for logic and hence unconvincing. Osama was murdered by the Americans; the Pakistan security forces had had no hand in his killing. The Americans themselves have said this in so many words over and over again. And the military leaderships have confessed this much too. Indeed, for this American adventurism, the Pakistani military is left with egg all over its face, with its image severely battered in the public eye for its competence, capability and preparedness to defend the country from hostile outside incursions and intrusions.Given this, Pakistani targets could be the last for any revenge assaults. Terrorist outfits may have declared not to spare Pakistan as well from vengeance. But logically their primary targets have to be the killers who have confessed to the murder, not the one innocent of it. Yet since Osama’s murder, it is the Pakistani targets that have mostly come under terrorists’ assaults. And, significantly, it is the security targets that they have picked on to attack specifically. They may have targeted a convoy of US Peshawar consulate with a bombing assault. But the terrible terrorist horror they have wreaked primarily on Pakistani security targets. First they murderously attacked the Shabqadar Frontier Constabulary training academy fatally, slaughtering some 65 recruits, apart from 13 civilians, and exacting a huge toll in injuries on both recruits and civilians. Then, they struck horrifically the naval Mehran airbase, and now the Peshawar CID station.  Clearly, this smacks of a deep sinister plan to weaken Pakistan’s security apparatus and degrade its military in the popular eye. Then, whose sinister game are they playing? Just consider this. When they attacked the Mehran base, by every account they went straight to the parked P3C Orion aircraft, making up the backbone of Pakistan Navy’s surveillance capability to keep an eye on any hostile movements of the navies in our neighbourhood, and instantly blasted off two of the planes. Some Americans may have been working on the base. And so were the Chinese. Yet the attackers didn’t go after the Americans; or for the Chinese, for that matter. Their target was primarily the prized naval surveillance and fighting asset. Now who had so briefed and tasked the terrorist attackers? Even if the speculation about some inside contact is granted for argument’s sake, the crucial question begging answer is who actually had conceived, plotted and executed the assault.  More bluntly, whose men the terrorists prowling our land actually are. They couldn’t be their own men. It is not even imaginable if they could afford the enormous cash and dumps of sophisticated weapons and war equipment that they demonstratively show themselves to be in possession of. They may indoctrinate unsuspecting gullible youth and recruit them for their thuggish vile pursuits. But mere motivation cannot be enough to perpetuate their murderous acts. Arms and money are required and in bundles, neither of which they can arguably muster up on their own. Then, who really are their financiers, arms suppliers and masterminds? Of course, the Americans and their allies, both western and non-western, would have it that it is al-Qaeda. But veritably it is now just a diminished and enfeebled entity, no matter how much build-up the Americans may self-interestedly give to a hermetic Osama holed up in a hideout as a-still formidable mastermind, fund raiser and manager of terrorism trade. Outfits owing allegiance to his ideology are independent regional or local entities, with their own chain of control and commands, paymasters and masterminds. And you cannot say that they actually are what they profess to be. And that goes for the thugs who are increasingly now targeting the security establishments and personnel in our own land. Now it is for our intelligence spooks to show them up for what these thugs really are and whose sinister game are they playing on us so viciously. But are these spooks up to the job? And are their political bosses alive enough to put them to this task? That surely is a billion-dollar question. But both must know the country is in the throes of a sinister great game and if they fail in their duty this nation is bound to land in hugely uncertain times with terrible consequences.

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If you do not have State Policy you cannot have any hope

WikiLeaks expose about the involvment of Saudi Arabia and UAE in financially supporting Deobandi and Ahl-e-Hadith mardrassas in south Punjab should serve as a wake-up call. Nearly $100 million is given to such madrassas annually, "ostensibly with the direct support of those governmenrs". We should not tolerate this even if we consider the two Arab states our friends. With friends like these, who needs enemies? These petro-dollars are feeding the production factories of terrorists and extermists. This must come to an end once and for all:

The daredevil attack on PNS Mehran airbase in Karachi has not only shattered people of Pakistan but also raised many questions which would continue to haunt the nation for long. That ultimately they turned out to be only three or four men, who kept the entire might of the Government engaged for 17 long hours, speaks volumes about sophistication of the plan that was meticulously planned and carried out. Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has already convened a meeting of the Defence Committee of the Cabinet (DCC) and hopefully, being the most relevant forum, it will thoroughly discuss the incident and firm up strategy for the future.

As the political leaders and military commanders huddle together with the prime minister today under the umbrella of the cabinet committee on defence, one hopes they would penetrate deep critically into the sagas of Abbottabad and Mehran naval airbase. The two episodes occurring in quick succession have exposed a startling vulnerability of the defence armour of all the three services, leaving a stunned nation aghast, perplexed and worried about the level of defence preparedness and operational capability of the army, the air force and the navy alike. While these fateful events have triggered foreboding uncertainties in our people’s minds, these have raised alarms playing out differently at home and abroad. At the bottom of this alarm is the safety and security of our nuclear assets. Domestically, the biggest concern, and a very genuine one at that, is if at all these strategic assets are secure from outside interloping and snatching, given the undetected successful American Abbottabad adventurism. Internationally, the concern, and patently very tendentious and devious one at that, is if these assets are any secure, given the easy intrusion terrorists had had into a high-security active airbase. Though there has never been the absence of a hostile alarmist campaign against our nuclear assets by sections of the international community, the western media networks have flung into a binge of frantic outcry after the Mehran episode, raising harrowing specters of the assets falling in terrorists’ hands. And suggestions are being feverishly bandied about for their snatching by the western powers before terrorists grab them. No matter how fanciful these scenarios may look, those have to be taken very seriously by both our political leaders as well as military commanders. Given the fact that what looked just unimaginable only until yesterday has had happened to us now, nothing should be ruled out, particularly when we stand exposed so vulnerably for our Abbottabad and Mehran collapses. Nobody must live in illusions any more. And nobody must dismiss it that events may even be given such vicious twist that our assets’ security issue ultimately lands in the UN corridors to our colossal grief. In the given dire predicament we are now in, take it for granted that everything is possible and nothing is in the realm impossibility now as far as we are concerned. And one hopes that the participants of the cabinet defence committee will be acutely mindful of the changed objective conditions around us. Indeed, their conclave should become the springboard for launching a surgical review and fundamental revision of the armed forces’ doctrines, strategies, armaments as well as their defence preparedness, operational capability and readiness. It must be understood that their security environment has altered in substance now. Apart from facing up to a standing enemy militaries, they are confronted with an invisible enemy who lives in caves or urban hideouts, and who hits and disappears or strikes fatally in suicide attacks and bomb blasts. And for the present, this enemy is proving far more lethal, deadly and destructive. This non-state enemy has to be plugged in significantly and substantially in the revised doctrines of the three services in every manner.A serious thought needs to be given to the overhauling of the entire intelligence apparatus of the state, which perceptibly is the state’s Achilles’ heel in its counter-terrorism drive. For the kind of terrorism goring the nation so brutally, a very strong, tightly-knit and all-functional intelligence network is the crying need of the hour to hound out dark elements of terrorism and extremism and preempt their thuggery. At the moment, what seems in place is a disjointed system, with various agencies working not in sync but in mutual rivalry and competition, making for a chaos, not an orderly chain needed crucially to go after terrorist forces in a coordinated, cooperative and orchestrated manner to make for a success. The participants may consider, as have the Americans done so gainfully after the 9/11 terrorist strike, creating an autonomous national director of intelligence to oversee and coordinate anti-terrorism functions and activities of the multiple federal and provincial intelligence agencies. The upshot is that today’s meeting of the cabinet committee on defence shouldn’t be a mere routine affair. It must be the harbinger of things bigger and worthwhile. The state is under attack of terrorists, very many arguably playing the proxies of foreign powers that are out to hurt this country cripplingly. The committee will be culpable if it doesn’t come out with ideas, thoughts and plans to curb these enemies of the state.

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Pakistan under assault

 Many question remain unanswered but one thing is for sure. Our military might have the best and most sophisticated weapons to counter its` "enemies" , but the terrorists have the will and patience to fight them out. The only way to deal with them is to eliminate them once and for all. But for that we must give up our double game. It is time to save Pakistan.

The worst terrorist attack of the year was carried out in the heart of Karachi, the largest metropolis of Pakistan.
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This terrorist strike on the Mehran naval airbase is chillingly shattering, to say the least. And a huge security lapse it was, whatever construct you put on it. What else could it be when just a handful of thugs armed with deadly weapons and loaded with bagfuls of explosives and munitions sneaked into such a high-security area without being intercepted to play havoc with the base, inflicting serious human fatalities and deadly blows to the costly planes like high-tech P3C Orion and other assets? That they had not crossed through the security posts doesn’t mean it was no security collapse. They may have crawled through a drain; they may have climbed over the boundary wall at some low point; whatever it was, a security collapse it was, out-and-out.More frighteningly, the terrorists, just four, kept the base under siege for about 16 hours, as had their thuggish peers-in-trade likewise sometimes back the army GHQ in Rawalpindi. But it was an active base, supposed to be secured extraordinarily; more so, after three naval buses were targeted murderously by the thugs in the port city just a few days ago, giving the sense that the navy was specifically in their vile sights. Indeed, one thought those attacks would have impelled the naval command to mount impenetrable security net on this key naval establishment to make it just impregnable. But the unchallenged penetration of thugs eloquently states it was not. More unsettlingly, this thuggish strike goes to further corroborate the scary feeling that now it is the state, not the people, that is under terrorist assault. The thugs had, though, been attacking security targets even in the past. They had been striking military training centres, staff colleges, intelligence offices, interrogation centres, and police stations, posts and academies. Nonetheless, soft civilian targets like bustling markets and shopping plazas, school buses and public transport, and bus stands bore the main brunt of their thuggery. But, lately, security targets are palpably their main focus. Just a few days ago, they struck devastatingly the Frontier Constabulary Shabqadar training facility, mowing down some 80 people with a combination of donkey-cart blast and suicide bombing. Among the dead were at least 65 FC recruits. As this Mehran base security collapse has come in close heel of the defence vulnerability exposed so disconcertingly by the American Abbottabad adventurism, troubling questions are dismayingly agitating the minds of the people about the capability and preparedness of the armed forces to protect the state. Perpetually, they had looked at them as the guardians of the state. But the increasing terrorist assaults on the military and security establishments has shaken that confidence of theirs. And while the armed forces have to work strenuously hard to regain that erstwhile public trust in its capabilities, the political leadership too has to come out of its inertia and set out on the gigantic task of securing the state from the thuggish onslaught of terrorists. A powerful counterterrorism effort is urgently called for, in which the state’s military power and civil power join hands to prostrate the dark forces of terrorism and extremism. Those customary condemnations, condolences, inquiry orders wouldn’t do any more. By every consideration, the state is up against no riffraff criminals. It is faced with an enemy that is well organised, thoughtfully chooses and reconnoiters its targets, meticulously plans its attacks and methodically carries out its strikes. To take on this vicious enemy, what is required is a comprehensive strategy that covers the whole gamut of the state counter-act starting from intelligence gathering to operations to track down and finish of the thugs’ sources of funding and arms supplies, dismantling their networks and lairs, capturing them and ensuring bringing them to justice. A strategy to this effect was in fact hammered out at a top-level inter-provincial conference chaired by the prime minister quite long ago. That was a fairly robust, pragmatic and promising action plan. Yet for reasons best known to the prime minister he has left it to gather dust on some archive shelf. At least now, he must dust it off and start working it. The state, he must understand, is perilously perched on the precipice because of the mounting unbridled thuggery of terrorists of all brands. If even now he doesn’t act, one shudders to think of the eventuality this country will be ultimately end up for his insouciance and sluggishness, though his own preferred pastimes too would then go down the drain, leaving him and his pals high and dry.

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Operation against terrorists ends in PNS Mehran base

The Sunday night attack on a naval base in the port city of Karachi is one of the worst attacks in the insurgency-hit country as the heavily-armed militants attacked the forces`assets. Officials said that the militants fired rocket propelled grenades to damage and destroy several warplanes. These included the Pakistan navy`s premier anti-submarine attack jet, the US made P-3C Orion.

At least 11 navy and two rangers’ personnel are martyred in the attack. Four terrorists also killed.

Army commandos cornered a team of terrorists in a naval base on Monday after the insurgents raided the complex the night before, destroying two US-supplied surveillance aircraft and killing at least 13 security officers, a navy spokesman said.

Between 10 and 15 insurgents armed with grenades, rockets and automatic weapons stormed PNS Mehran late on Sunday before splitting into smaller groups, setting off explosions and hiding in the sprawling facility. The operation has ended but security officials are searching terrorists in the building.

The raid was one of the most audacious in years of militant violence in Pakistan. The insurgent s ability to penetrate the high-security facility raised the possibility that they had inside help.

At least 11 navy and two rangers personnel were killed, while 14 security officials were wounded, he said, adding that it was unclear how many militant casualties there were.

This is the fourth major attack the group has claimed since the Bin Laden killing, including a car bombing that slightly injured American consulate workers in Peshawar and a twin-suicide attack that killed around 90 Pakistani paramilitary police recruits.

The raid began with at least three loud explosions, which were heard by people who live around the naval air station. It was unclear what caused the explosions, but they set off raging fires that could be seen from far in the distance. The media teams outside the base heard at least six other explosions and sporadic gunfire.

Authorities sent in several dozen navy and police commandos to battle the attackers, who responded with gunfire and grenades. At least two P-3C Orions, maritime surveillance aircraft given to Pakistan by the US, were destroyed, he said.

The United States handed over two Orions to the Pakistan Navy at a ceremony at the base in June 2010 attended by 250 Pakistani and American officials. By late 2012, Pakistan would have eight of the planes.

At least one media report said a team of American technicians were working on the aircraft at the time of the strike, but a US Embassy spokesman said no American was on the base. He also stated there were no foreigners inside the base.

Meanwhile, the naval chief, Noman Bashir, has called a high level meeting to discuss the situation.

 

The Taliban have been quick to claim the assault on Pakistani Naval Station Mehran in Karachi. Taliban spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan has contacted several news organizations, and claimed 22 well-equipped fighters have executed the assault.
       

          "It was the revenge of martyrdom of Osama bin Laden. It was the proof that we are still united and powerful," Ihsanullah Ihsan told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.
Ihsan said that the team of militants they sent into Karachi`s PNS Mehran naval base night had enough supplies to survive a three-day siege.

Ihsan`statement, that "we are still united," is particularly interesting. Is he saying that the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, the umbrella Taliban group in the norhwest, is still United? Or is he referring to the wider terrorists movement in Pakistan-- al Qadeda, the Taliban, Lashkar e Jhangvi, Lashkar e Taiba, Jaish e Mohammad, Harkat ul Jihad i Islami and other groups?


Some analysts described the navy base attack similar to the 2008 Mumbai style attack, which had killed nearly 170 people. Pakistani militant group "Lashkar-e-Tayeba" was blamed for the Mumbai attacks.

Few more attacks were also carried out by Pakistani Taliban for Osama's death, raising fear for more such attacks in the future. The Taliban, whose suicide network is still functioning in North Waziristan tribal region, are posing challenge to the Pakistani security agencies.

Pakistani media Monday pointed out to weaknesses in the country 's intelligence system and their failure to get information about the Taliban network. It is time for more vigilance and improvement in the security system to check the militants before they strike. 

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Pak, China to launch satellite on Aug 14 Independence Day of Pakistan

Pakistan and China would jointly launch a communication satellite on August 14 to replace the SAT-1 which is on the verge of expiry, officials said.
The satellite would be sent into the orbit on the Independence Day of Pakistan as a mark of the Sino-Pak friendship, an official said after Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Reza Gilani`s visit to China`s Academy of Space Technology (CAST) on Friday, Dawn-News reported.
Gilani was briefed about the space workshop and vacuum chamber of the academy where Pakistan`s satellite PAKSAT-1R is being manufactured.
An agreement for manufacturing of the satellite by CAST was signed in 2008 during President Asif Ali Zardari`s visit to China.
EXIM Bank of China has provided a soft-term credit of 86.5 million RMB (Chinese currency) for the manufacturing of PAKSAT-1R, carrying a maturity period of 20 years.
Pakistan had launched its first satellite Badar with the Chinese cooperation in 1990. The communication satellite will have 30 years` transponders – 12 in C-Band and 18 in Ku-Band – each of 36 MHz bandwidth. The programme is in line with Pakistan`s Medium Term Development Framework objectives and may provide better satellite communications for Pakistan.
The Pakistan Space and Upper Atmospheric Research Commission and China Great Wall Industry Corporation are jointly developing the new satellite.

Established in 1980, CGWIC is the sole commercial organization authorized by the Chinese government to provide satellites, commercial launch services and to carry out international space cooperation. The CGWIC is actively involved in the international marketing of products and services utilizing space technology and provides high quality products and specialized services in diversified fields.

Pakistan-China relations are deeper than oceans and higher than mountains. On the day a Pakistani astronaut boards Shenzhou we would say our friendship is as vast as the space itself,”

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China to build strategic naval base in Gwadar

Pakistan asked China to complete the construction of a strategic naval base in Gwadar. It was announced by the Pakistan defence Ministry a day after the country`s prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, returned from a visit to Beijing.

China has accepted Pakistan's request to take over operations at the strategic Gwadar port after an existing agreement with the Singapore Port Authority expires.This was stated by Federal Minister for Defence, Ch Ahmad Mukhtar after completing his visit to China with the Prime Minister of Pakistan. China is an all-weather friend and the closest ally of Pakistan, and it could be judged from the fact that in which ever sectors Pakistan requested assistance during P.M’s recent visit to China, they immediately agreed with Pakistan, he stated further.

Ch Ahmad Mukhtar stated that during their meeting with the Prime Minister of China, Wen Jia Bao, he, being the Defence Minister of Pakistan, raised and discussed some important strategic and economic issues.

Pakistan considers that peaceful and stable Afghanistan is in the interest of Pakistan and the whole region. Pakistan supports a stable government in Kabul which shall be Afghan owned.

Pakistan requested for frigates of 4400 tons on credit basis. We also expressed the desire that the Chinese government could train our personnel on submarines.

 The Minister further stated that they are grateful to Chinese government for constructing Gwader Port. However, we would be more grateful to the Chinese government if a naval base is being constructed at the site of Gwader for Pakistan.

The Prime Minister of Pakistan told his Chinese counterpart that their program of JF-17 Thunder Aircrafts is going on successfully, but it would be a pleasure for us if the PLA (Peoples Liberation Army) would induct the aircrafts in their Air fleet. This would give us a lot of publicity to our aircrafts and we would be able to sell a larger quantity of the Aircrafts to bring down the cost. The Chinese government subscribed to our request to equip our Air Force with FC-20 Aircrafts.

The Chinese Premier was pleased to discuss that his government would help us in repairing Attaabad Lake and KKH road, once the clarification regarding these projects are being received to the Chinese government. We agreed on the point that stability had to be achieved in the region by the joint efforts of both Pakistan and China and by defeating the terrorists in the region.

At this point Pakistan asked China that a message may be conveyed to the US government that Pakistan’s sovereignty should be respected. The Chinese government assured that they would help us to remove all the bottlenecks coming in the way of our prosperity.

China and Pakistan plan on building a rail link, which would pass through Gilgit-Baltistan near the Karakoram Highway. Ideal geo-strategic location of our country with the Gwader port, linking Central and South Asia entailing Islamabad’s close ties with China pinches the eyes of US, India and Israel which are in collusion to destabilise Pakistan for their common interests.It is owing to these reasons that Pakistan, its army and intelligence agency, ISI have become special target of the external plot, even under the Obama Administration. Availing the opportunity of the western propaganda, CIA, RAW and Mossad have also increased their secret activities against Pakistan by supporting the insurgents of Balochistan.It is mentionable that the US intends to control Balochistan as an independent state in counterbalancing China and containing Iran. Therefore, America and India are creating instability in Pakistan by backing Baloch separatists to complete their hidden agenda.

Plot by foreign elements against Balochistan and China could also be judged from the “Indian Defence Review,” of Jan-Mar 2009. The Review, while suggesting the disintegration of Pakistan, wrote that for New Delhi, “this opens a window of opportunity to ensure that the Gwadar port does not fall into the hand of China. Afghanistan will gain stability…India’s access to Central Asian energy routes will open up.”
It is worthmentioning that the revelations of Israel’s ambassador to India, Mark Sofer during his interview to the Indian weekly Outlook as published on February 18, 2008 had surprised Pakistan, China and the Middle. On a question regarding India’s defence arrangements with Israel, Sofer while indicating two identical situations, disclosed “We do have a defence relationship with India, which is no secret. On the other hand, what is secret is the defence relationship”. And “with all due respect, the secret part will remain a secret.”

 Nonetheless, it needs to be reminded that China is one of the few countries that has always remained Pakistan’s strong ally, one that has never failed in coming to our aid. In the new world order where the US is evidently siding with India as a counterweight to China’s rapid economic expansion and growing power, Pakistan is China’s most dependable friend. Prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s trip is a reinforcement of the deep and long lasting ties both countries have always enjoyed. In the face of international doubt and pressure, it has been these two allies which have always stood by each other. There is no doubt that China is ever-supportive ally. Both the countries are making efforts to further strengthen their relationship and enhance strategic ties.

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India’s ‘most wanted list’ of 'embarrassment'

India on Friday withdrew a public list of most wanted fugitives it wants Pakistan to extradite after discovering at least one of them was in a prison, the latest embarrassment for a government hit by corruption scandals and political slip-ups.

The embarrassment is a personal blow to Chidambaram, seen as one of the more efficient ministers in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh`s team, and it sparked calls for his resignation from the Hindu nationalist main oppostion Bharatiya Janta Party.
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By Mohammad Jamil

Within one week after India released the list of most wanted persons allegedly living in Pakistan, at least four persons on the list are either in India or have died. Times of India carried a report about two dreaded terrorists, who the list claimed were hiding in Pakistan. “One of them, investigations revealed is dead and the other lodged in the city’s Cherlapalli prison.

Dawood Ibrahim’s elder brother, Noora, who died of kidney failure in Karachi last year, continued to show up as a wanted accused in the red-corner notice against his name. Chhota Rajan aide Ejaz Pathan, involved in the 1993 serial blasts, died in 2008 at Arthur Road jail after a heart attack. The red-corner notice against him showed him as wanted. Yet another embarrassing case was that of Feroze Abdul Khan, an accused in the 1993 Mumbai blast. He was nabbed from Navi Mumbai last year and is in a Mumbai jail”. With a view to turning up more heat on Pakistan after American Special Forces’ operation in Abbottabad killing Osama bin Laden, India released a list of 50 ‘Most Wanted Persons’ from Pakistan on 11th May 2011.

The list includes among others names such as Dawood Ibrahim, what they call 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Maulana Masood Azhar, the principal accused in the 2001 Parliament attack after his release in exchange of hostages in the Kandahar hijack episode in 1999. On Friday, Indian press has criticized the Indian government, as a man whose name features prominently among 50 alleged terrorists India wants from Pakistan, is living in Mumbai and regularly reports to a court that gave him bail. Indian government has ordered an inquiry into, what Home Secretary G.K. Pillai said, the ‘goof-up’ in the preparation of the list of ‘50 most wanted’ fugitives, submitted to Pakistan two months ago, as it included the name of a terror-accused Wazhul Kamar Khan living in Thane - a Mumbai suburb. There is a possibility that many more such cases would be unearthed and ultimately the list will shrink to contain a dozen or so, and majority of them would be found in India. India uses every ruse and every opportunity to denigrate Pakistan. It continues its propaganda blitz to prove Pakistan as a state that sponsors terrorism, but is likely to fail as in the past.

Wazhuk Kamar Khan is an accused in the 2003 Mulund train blast, which killed 11 persons. He was arrested but granted bail. He is living at Thane with his family, whereas his name figured at serial number 41 of the list of most wanted men’ given to Pakistan in March 2011. The embarrassment prompted the government to quickly order a probe, official sources said. The list was prepared in consultation with the Maharashtra police, the National Investigation Agency and the Central Bureau of Investigation. Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram said in Agartala on Tuesday that a big issue should not be made out of one wrong name in the list. “The list was prepared months ago. Just one name... whether it is the same person or two persons of the same name, we have to see. Be that as it may, if you prepare a list of 50 people, one name, assuming that we are wrong in one name, 49 are right. I don’t think we should make a big issue of it”, he was quoted as saying by news agencies. But India stands exposed, as the news has raised doubts about other names given in the list, and the entire list seems to be bogus.

It is a matter of routine for Indian leadership to accuse Pakistan for every act of terrorism in India whereas it has been proved many a time that most acts of terrorism were committed by India’s homegrown terrorists. All along, India had also been officially denying any link of Hindu extremists with the mayhem, death and carnage resulting from the blasts. In January 2011, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Chief, Swami Aseemanand had confessed before a magistrate that he along with other Hindu activists was involved in the Malegon, Samjhota Express, Ajmer and Mecca Masjid bombings. Indian weekly Tehelka magazine stated that his confession has unraveled the inner workings of the Hindutva terror network. Pakistan had asked India to bring to justice the perpetrators of the bombing of Samjhota Express train in light of a RSS leader’s confession about the involvement of Sangh activists in the attack. “It took almost four years for the Samjhota Express investigations to come to this pass. We can only hope that no further time will be squandered in bringing the criminals to justice,” Foreign Office spokesman had told Indian news agency PTI in a text message.

India, using its clout with the occupiers and Afghan government, has been desperately trying to bring Afghanistan under her economic and political control with the main objective of damaging Pakistan’s interests. During his visit to Afghanistan, Manmohan Singh during his last week visit to Afghanistan has given $500 million to Afghan government to draw more benefits. Indian Consulates, under the cover of reconstruction activities in bordering provinces of Pakistan had purposely selected bordering provinces of Afghanistan to influence the divided tribes along Pak-Afghan border. Credible reports had revealed that some Maliks of Pakistani tribes were persuaded through middlemen and taken to Kabul for meetings with high ranking RAW officials. Millions of dollars were paid to the tribal Maliks to purchase their loyalties. Besides valuable gifts, all-paid visits to India were some of the ways the Indians bribed the tribal. These tribal elders, unaware of Indians designs, remain available to them and serve their interest. FATA and other settled areas like Swat and Malakand had remained violent in the past due to heavy investment by RAW with the collaboration of Afghan intelligence.

Indian’s act is so foul that her pretences to piety have not even a leg to stand on. Indian state’s adventurism of training, arming and bankrolling the Tamil Tiger insurgents had kept Sri Lanka destabilized for over two decades grievously. In 1970, Indian state agencies and army had established sanctuaries and training camps of Mukti Bahini insurgents on the Indian soil and infiltrated in then East Pakistan to soften it up for in eventual separation from a united Pakistan with their military intervention. The vile acts of Indian state have been documented in detail in published works of many Indian writers, including the characters deeply involved in these Indian interventionist episodes, who have spoken of their forays unabashedly and banefully. As for instance, the master-traininer of Mukti Bahini guerillas, one Shubeg Singh, an Indian army brigadier later promoted to major general and then cashiered, became the military commander of Jurnail Singh Bhindranwala who threw an armed challenge to the India state in late 1970s and triggered a blood-soaked separatist movement that kept India’s Punjab state convulsed for more than a decade.

That said. There is too much of perfidy to the Indian establishment’s act, which is now coming apart gradually. The realities on the ground are becoming too harsh to cover up by it. Right thinking and responsible Indians are finding it hard not to concede that much of the terrorism in India is homegrown. In December last, Home Minister Chidambaram had stated on Parliament’s floor that Hindu terrorism had grown more vicious than Muslim militancy. And young Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had reportedly told an American diplomat that Hindu terrorism was far severer than any lashkars or jashes. Indian investigators have indeed found almost all terrorism attacks on mosques, shrines and other targets earlier blamed on the ISI were actually Hindu terrorists’ vile work. At this juncture, when the US is exerting pressure on Pakistan to do more, India should not take advantage of the situation, as the US forces would have to leave one day, and India and Pakistan have to live in this region. It is hoped that better sense will prevail, and India would do a bit of introspection to realize the importance of good neighbourly relations.

The writer is Lahore-based senior journalist. 

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Pak-Russia geopolitical convergence

The visit of the President to the Russian Republic could prove to be a turining point in our approach towards our national economic and foreign policy. The begining of looking elswhere for dignified frindship and mutual help seems to have dawned. From day one, our president has been vocal about replacing aid with trade. It was due to his tireless efforts that last year the European Economic Summit waived the trade tariff for goods produced in Pakistan.

By Nadeem Hyder

There is no doubt that the dynamics of our region’s geopolitics is undergoing a profound change in the wake of growing unease and misunderstanding among the partners in the global war on terror in Afghanistan. The emerging regional security paradigm has necessitated the need for political forces within the country to rethink their strategy for preservation of the country’s territorial sovereignty. One must not ignore the location of the two other giants- Russia and China in this region, who have a great interest in the geopolitical and strategic developments in the region. Pakistan has always had very friendly, trustworthy and cordial relations with neighboring China. Since independence, the two countries have moved ahead on building this relationship into an all weather friendship.

However, relations between Pakistan and the former USSR have historically been cool, even antagonistic, especially during the decade of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and earlier due to Indo-Soviet friendship. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the emergence of the Russian Federation, relations have steadily improved, particularly in the economic field. Economic interaction has lacked behind the strong political desire to forge close relations. Despite huge potential, the annual bilateral trade turnover is a pitiful of less then a billion US dollars which is mostly in favour of Russia. Historically, Russia is a country which one can describe as a blend of cultures and religions. It is one of the world’s most diverse societies – with a population of 142 million and as many as 160 ethnic groups living there. After a decade of crisis in the 90s, Russia has bounced back. We must recognize that Russia is on its path to redefine its strategies in the region and one should not be surprised to see it playing a significant role in the happenings of the region. Russia has regained its strength under its new leadership of Vladimir Putin and Dmitri Medvedev.

 Rising oil prices, increased foreign investment, higher domestic consumption and political stability have bolstered the economic boom. Russia is the fastest growing economy in the G8, averaging 7% annually since 2003. After years of underachievement, Russia has now emerged as the world’s leading natural gas exporter and the second largest oil producer after Saudi Arabia. Fuelled by oil revenues, it repaid its Soviet-era debt to Paris Club creditors and the International Monetary Fund. Pakistan has an important place in Russia’s foreign policy, being one of the major influential Muslim country. Pakistan’s foreign policy is now rightly gravitating towards Central Asia and close relations with Russia would pay us a rich dividend. Instituting a high-level dialogue on strategic and political issues and building up a mechanism to focus on economic cooperation through increased market access to Pakistani products in Russia and building connectivity in trade and energy sectors will benefit both the countries. Friendly and cooperative relations with Moscow will also assist us in securing full membership of the SCO and to open the door for significant economic activity with all Central Asian States, rich in oil and energy resources. In this drop back, President Zardari visited Moscow and met with the Russian leadership in order to enhance its political and economic relations with Russia. Although, it was a scheduled visit but, in the light of recent developments in the region, it has gained enormous importance. It was the first official visit of any head of state of Pakistan in the past 37 years that had been undertaken in the belief that time had come for the two countries to forget the legacy of the Cold War era and forge new relations for the benefit of their peoples and indeed for the benefit of the people of the region. During the visit President Zardari has very rightly said that there is no reason to remain mired in the distrust of the past. He pleaded for forgetting the past and arranging for the present to face the future. The future prosperity of the region lay in energy pipelines, railways and other connectivity project.

In this regard, the two sides expressed their keen interest in the implementation of projects related to the creation of a system to transmit electric power from Tajikistan to Afghanistan and Pakistan (KASA-1000) and to the building of gas pipeline between Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan and India (TAPI). The $ 7.5 billion TAPI gas project will be a backbone for Pakistani industry and economy. In the 70s Russia’s cooperation for building the country’s only steel mill proved a milestone for economic relations between the two countries. Unfortunately, the spirit of cooperation could not be taken forward in the 80s and the later part of the last century.

The two countries also signed four MoUs in energy, investment, air services and agriculture cooperation, during the visit. MoU on cooperation in the key area of energy will provide for the roadmap to develop and operate oil, gas and coal industry. Hydro power generation is yet another area in which Pakistan can seek expertise from Russia. MoU on investment will facilitate the private sector of the two countries to benefit from the potential in trade among the regional countries. The President’s visit will promote greater understanding between the two countries and will help broaden and strengthen bilateral political, economic, security and cultural ties. Pakistan and Russia are in an extended region and their relationship is geo- political and geo- economical.

It is heartening to note that both President Zardari and President Medvedev emphasized the importance they attach to promoting stability and peace in the broader region and, in this regard, to continue to enhance contacts, consultations, cooperation and coordination between the two countries. Enhanced political interaction is the key to success in building a regional coalition which can address issues of peace and security. The visit of our COAS General Kayani to Moscow in 2009 and subsequently the meeting of Prime Minister Gilani with Russian leadership, on the side lines of SCO Summit in Dushanbe 2010, had set the pitch for the Presidential visit to this important country in the region. Bilateral relations between Russia and Pakistan can grow and strengthen further in all fields. There is a bright future for the relations of the two countries. More so, since in the current global and regional situation, the position and interests of Pakistan and Russia converge, Russia-Pakistan partnership and closer ties will not only be to the benefit of the two countries, but the entire region.

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Pakistan national security paradigm

Diplomacy is the first and outer most defensive line of a country. It furthers and preserves the national interests amongst the comity of nations and remains alert to any development with a focus on any threat in the making to the detriment of national interest. Though, diplomacy is the art of impossible, but the irony is that even the very possible have not been exploited to the good of this country. This art craft either remains in slumber or gets compromised at the diktat of a dictator or his strong arm the security establishment. Our diplomatic manoeuvres are defensive or at the most reactive in nature. So one can conclude that the external threat is either given a free passage by ducking down or meet a meek and mute response. The chronology of threat and response capacity is tabulated as under.” The 1948 Indo-Pak military confrontation on the State of Jammu and Kashmir was mainly left to the volunteers of FATA to liberate Kashmir. ” The 1965 war fought with national resolve and cohesion was lost on the diplomatic table at Tashkent. It left us with misconception that the defence of East Pakistan lay in the defensive/offensive posturing of West Pakistan. ” The CETO and CENTO pacts were inked with a faulty concept that allying with a super power means security at best in safeguarding the national interest rater than that of the stronger ally. ” We misinterpreted the 1971 crisis to be controlled and subdued through the use of military instrument, negating the very fact that we had already lost on the diplomatic front. We miscalculated that the external threat in active support of insurgency could be a win-win situation for us. ” The proxy war in Afghanistan against the Soviet occupation blinded us by avenging the cold war US rival with the Muslims blood and US $ and to provide sponsorship to the then dictator. ” The Kargil misadventure was not only a fiasco on diplomatic front but an example of rudimentary military strategy with limited goals and obscurity to the massive response/retaliation capacity of India. We were not prepared for the worst case scenario. One could contribute it to the bravado mindset of a commando with little experience of statecraft. ” Diplomacy was reduced to a nonentity in the aftermath of 9/11 when the then dictator collapsed on a phone call and agreed to all the seven diktats of US and volunteered to act as front line ally in the war on terror. The security of Pakistan was put at stake. ” The Abbottabad episode is a prelude to the unfolding existential threats. It has exposed many chinks in our armour and shredded our security parameters, leaving a question mark on our sovereignty. ” The crisis in and around Pakistan have serious security concerns at home, regional and international level. The internal dynamics of the mainland Pakistan could be summarized as:” We had been the victim of the injustices done to us during the partition by the British Raj, which left us agitated and frustrated. We lost lot of our energies and resources in redefining and addressing our security parameters rather than institution building. ” The diplomatic, security and intelligence agencies of both the countries never missed an opportunity to destabilize the other overtly or covertly ” The proxy war with jihadi elements in Afghanistan against Soviet Union introduced Kalashnikov culture, imposing our will on others through coercive diplomacy and growth of non state actors at the cost of peace and progress. ” The Afghan war in eighties mainly fought by Sulfi Sunni Jihadis and the export potentials of Iranian revolution during the same period polarized Pak society into Shia, Sunni extremists sponsored by their wealthy dogmatic giants. ” The Kargil episode attributed to the Kashmiri Mujahideen backfired at the diplomatic front and mismanaged at the strategic level thereby creating fissures in the civil-military relations. The security threat loomed large and the elected govt was sent packing. ” In the aftermath of 9/11 the series of U turns on the long well established policy parameters further widened the scope of our security concerns. ” The present state of flux is the manifestation of the war on terror. The fallouts are in the form of immense men and material losses, besides being treated as a fall guy, and a whipping boy of our so-called allies. It has brought Rambo culture, drones attacks, sting operations and special missions with US boots on Pak soil. The present design of threats on the canvas of national security spectrum is complex, multi faceted and all directional to face and neutralize. It is accentuated by fluid security situation, sponsored and abetted by both internal and external factors and actors. It is a complex situation to be addressed and revisited in a wholesome manner with sincerity of purpose in a fear free environment. The way forward in minimizing/neutralizing the threat could be objectively addressed, provided we put into motion the succeeding broad strategic undertakings. ” Our diplomatic, security and intelligence organs be in unison and geared up to be more proactive rather than reactive to the threats. To do so, our diplomatic standing and exterior manoeuvres in the pursuit of national interest and security be conducted at the level, status and plinth of a nuclear power state. ” We should make our relevance felt through the development and demonstration of our strategic resolve as a force to reckon with and narrow down our nuclear thresholds to save on the conventional front. It will provide nuclear umbrella to our vitals and core sensitivities and relieve us from the cost prohibitive mobilization against any misadventure. This narrow downing of the thresholds will flatten the theory of limited war and the jealously pursued Cold Start Strategy. Extended reach in delivery platforms and development/refinement of tactical unconventional warheads will add to our relevance at strategic level. ”The woes and grievances of the small federating units be addressed by judicious distribution of resources and extension of maximum provincial autonomy. Re-carving the federating units to create additional viable units, including FATA, to be more efficiently and locally administered. Let us be realistic and cognitive of the fact that there is a growing demand, getting mass on popularity graph to the creation of more provinces. Holding of a referendum on the question of creating more federating units is after all one of the constitutional option in a democratic dispensation. ” Policy focus on social justice and elimination of VIP culture with stringent measures to ensure austerity, merit, social justice, welfare and a big no to the class based education system. All signs, lingo, literature, sermons and demonstration encroaching on the feelings and sentiments of other sects and ethnic entities be banned and removed from all places of public and private concern. Adulteration in drugs, food items, extra judicial killings, forced labour and dacoity/robbery, hoarding and above all corruption be equated with terrorism and tried in special speedy summary courts. ” Maximum restraint be exercised in the use of military instrument. The employment should be for a limited period with surgical mission to soften the target enough to subdue a grave threat. It is possible once capacity building of Paramilitary forces is done to meet the internal threats effectively with the cooperation of all intelligence agencies. Meanwhile the mode of conventional battle deployment be changed into unconventional technique to reduce the collateral damage and eliminate the hardcore elements ” De-escalation in the war on terror by facilitating the occupation forces a safe exit and earning goodwill of all parties involved in the Afghan conflict be given priority. A graduated and calibrated response to the regional geo-strategic development in the pursuit of peace and stability shall provide us with a stable platform to project our relevance. It must be coupled with the unfolding of an exit strategy with defined time lines for troops deployed in FATA. While doing so a well thought out dialogue and development strategy be put into motion in order to win the hearts and minds of the people of FATA. The rehabilitation of all IDPs through a massive aid programme and provision of greater employment opportunities to the youth of FATA and Balochistan, both within the country and abroad. Credibility and visibility should be the hallmarks of this wholesome rehabilitation strategy. ” A soft and deliberate screening of all foreign NGOs, contractors and foreign sponsored companies to reduce their ingress into our security interests and social values be carried out on emergency bases. Return of Afghan refugees and cancellation of all the licences of auto weapons except pistol/revolver, shot gun and sports guns. ” Evolve a media policy to reinforce confidence in national institutions and a code of conduct to respect the individual rights and remove the misperception regarding Islam and Pakistan and be in essence representative of all the peoples of the federation. Media may carry out a self-appraisal through a counsel of objective journalism to reduce confusion, and oft repeated triads of big mouths with little essence and value to general public. Patience and tolerance shall be the central theme to be practised, demonstrated, preserved, valued and infused in all and sundry through a mass media campaign. Aids cutting and restriction be placed on products and govt propaganda oriented programmes to reduce cost and wastage of public money and reduce the leverage on media manipulation.Drone attacks are a blatant and very visible manifestation of our lackey foreign policy and security incompetence in the context of national sovereignty. This blatant violation of our sovereignty must be put on check through an aggressive diplomacy and if need be effective active counter measures be mobilized. The drone attacks are counter productive and is a stark reminder of Armitage necked brawl, “back to the stone age’. Let us follow the policy of mutual co-existence at home and abroad. Ostentatious living, import of grand luxury items, beg and borrow and extravaganzas should be discouraged to the hate level. Transparency and serving the vital national interest should be the rider clauses of our policy parameters.

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