Allied forces action in Pak territory could be taken as attack: Musharraf

ISLAMABAD: President Musharraf has warned US coalition forces that any unilateral action taken against militants along the Pak-Afghan border will be regarded as an invasion.

Speaking to foreign media, President Musharraf said Islamabad would resist any attempt of the coalition forces to hunt down militants in Pak-controlled regions.

Musharraf called U-S Democratic candidate Hilary Clinton's proposal to deploy U-S teams in Pakistan to safeguard its nuclear assets an intrusion of privacy.

The president's remarks were in response to reports that the U-S government was considering increasing the authority of the C-I-A and the military to conduct covert operations in Pakistan.

President Musharraf also added that he would resign if the next elected government sought his impeachment.

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US incursion will be regarded as invasion’

* President says foreign forces will not enter Pakistan unless invited * Says govt could not guarantee Bilawal’s security
* Benazir was brave
* Calls Hillary’s proposal an ‘intrusion’

SINGAPORE: President Pervez Musharraf has said any unilateral action by US-led coalition forces against militants in the border region with Afghanistan will be regarded as an invasion, a newspaper reported on Friday.

Musharraf told Singapore’s The Straits Times that Islamabad will resist any entry by coalition forces in the tribal areas, regarding that as a breach of Pakistan’s sovereignty.

“I challenge anybody coming into our mountains. They would regret the day. It’s not easy there,” he told the newspaper.

Nobody will come unless invited: “Nobody will come here until we ask them to come. And we haven’t asked them,” President Musharraf said.

He said if Osama Bin Laden’s whereabouts were known, the methodology of action against him would be discussed. “We’ll attack the target together,” he said. “The United States seems to think that what our army cannot do, they can do, this is a very wrong perception,” Musharraf said.

Benazir was brave: Asked if he thought Benazir Bhutto was brave or foolhardy, he said, “Certainly she was brave.”

“When thousands of people are there to cheer you, you do get carried away,” he said. “But certainly I would say that getting out of the vehicle was an unwise thing to do.”

He said he couldn’t comment on whether she was hit by a bullet, but said it was a possibility. A large number of people were sending in mobile-phone photographs of the attack on Benazir Bhutto, he said, and that might help in investigation.

He said there were no rogue elements in the ISI. “If at all, with a stretch of the imagination, there is one odd person... who is following his own agenda, we’d trace him and remove him.”

Musharraf underscored the need for a political solution to the Afghanistan crisis, calling for talks with “senior elements within the Taleban who are for a negotiated political settlement”.

“I told President (Bill) Clinton, who was visiting Islamabad, that we should accept the reality (of the Taleban in power in Kabul), have diplomatic relations with them and then change them from within,” he said. “Had that happened, some things might have been different today.”

Bilawal’s security: The president said the government could not guarantee new Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s or his father and co-chairman Asif Zardari’s security. “There is no guarantee of security against a suicide bomber,” he said.

Hillary Clinton’s proposal: Musharraf also criticised US Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton’s proposal to deploy a US, and possibly a British, team to safeguard Pakistan’s nuclear assets as an “intrusion into our privacy, into our sensitivity...” agencies

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Aarwaa

Pakistan is ruled by three As - Army, America and Allah.

Govt likely to introduce load shedding plan for industries

* Textile and steel sectors to be exempted
* Commercial and domestic users to also face only night-time load shedding

By Zafar Bhutta

ISLAMABAD: The government is likely to introduce a load shedding plan for all industries, except textile and steel, to cope with the power deficit, a senior official told Daily Times on Friday.

Various options are being considered, including the plan to introduce one-day distributed load shedding for almost all industries.

The government has, however, decided to exempt the textile and steel sectors. They will be provided uninterrupted electricity during the day, though they will still face load shedding at night, he said.

All industries, including textile and steel, have been asked to select a day for load shedding. The plan will be implemented after they respond, the official said.

Night lights out: Tertiary service operations will receive power during the day, but will experience load shedding in the evening. Domestic consumers will likewise be subjected load shedding at night, as the power deficit peaks at 3,500 MW then.

The government has also asked all electric supply companies to liase with steel melting units to chalk out a plan to restore power supply and get them up and running again. On January 5, all such units were shut down for 15 days to save 450 MW.

The official said independent power producers share the blame for the deficit as they are generating only 3,800 MW, whereas they had committed to generating 5,800 MW in the purchase agreement.

IRSA recently approved the release of 18,000 cusecs to enable WAPDA to generate 1,200 MW, but Punjab’s refusal on Thursday to accept its indent of water has forced the government to explore other measures.

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Aarwaa

Pakistan is ruled by three As - Army, America and Allah.

Pentagon ‘extremely concerned’ over Qaeda in Pakistan

* Casey says Washington will continue to work with Islamabad

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon is “extremely concerned” about Al Qaeda operations in Pakistan, US military chief Admiral Michael Mullen said on Friday. “We know it is having a significant impact, not just in Afghanistan, but certainly there are concerns about how much they have turned inward inside Pakistan. I am extremely concerned about this,” he told a press conference. But he added that the US was mindful of Pakistan being a sovereign country, saying, “It is really up to President (Pervez) Musharraf and his advisers in the military to address that problem directly.” Meanwhile, AFP quoted State Department official Tom Casey as saying, “I’m unaware of any proposal from any US official arguing for unilateral military action in Pakistan.”

US for Pakistan: Separately, the Bush administration has come out strongly in favour of Pakistan after Senate majority leader Harry Reid, in a letter to President George Bush, demanded that US military aid to Pakistan should be cut unless President Musharraf does more to grapple with terrorism, restores basic freedoms and permits the UN to investigate Benazir Bhutto’s killing. Responding to the senator, National Security Council spokeswoman Kate Starr said President Bush believes that Pakistan “continues to be an important ally in the war on terror”. Casey, who had not seen the Reid letter, also defended Pakistan, saying, “We’re going to continue to work with them.” afp/khalid hasan

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Pakistan is ruled by three As - Army, America and Allah.

WASHINGTON (AP) — About 3,200 Marines are being told to prepare to go to Afghanistan, military officials said Monday, in an effort to boost combat troop levels and get ready for an expected Taliban offensive this spring.
Once complete, the deployment would increase U.S. forces in Afghanistan to as much as 30,000, the highest level since the 2001 invasion after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.


The military began notifying the Marines and their families over the weekend, as Defense Secretary Robert Gates was expected to sign the formal deployment orders. It was not clear Monday whether the orders had been signed yet. The proposal went to Gates on Friday, and while he told reporters that afternoon that he had some questions about the move, there has been every indication he was poised to approve it.

According to officials, 2,200 members of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C., will go to Afghanistan, as well as about 1,000 members of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, which is based at Twentynine Palms, Calif.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the deployment announcement has not yet been made. If approved, the deployment to southern Afghanistan would be a "one-time, seven-month" assignment, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said Friday.

The 2nd Battalion, which is from the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, is an infantry unit, and it will be used largely for training Afghan forces.

The decision to increase U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan represents a shift in Pentagon thinking that has been slowly developing in recent months. Commanders faced with increasing violence have said they need as many as 7,500 more troops, but Gates initially pressed for other NATO nations to fill the void.

NATO countries, however, faced public opposition to deeper involvement there and were slow to respond, leaving Gates to acknowledge recently that the U.S. may have to consider providing the extra combat troops.

Right now, there are about 27,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, including 14,000 with the NATO-led coalition. The other 13,000 U.S. troops are training Afghan forces and hunting al-Qaeda terrorists.

Afghanistan Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammed Zahir Azimi said last week that the deployment would help combat Taliban insurgents. But Azimi added the long-term solution was to boost the fighting strength of Afghanistan's own army.

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Nuclear assets of Pakistan secure, says US expert

WASHINGTON: A leading expert has said that Pakistan’s nuclear assets and its weapons are “fundamentally safe today”.

In a written testimony submitted for a congressional hearing this week, Ashkey Tellis of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said that as compared to the 1980s and 1990s when Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal was still relatively vulnerable to a variety of external and internal threats, “the security of these assets has improved dramatically as a result of the protective measures put in place since the late 1990s”.

He said, “The director general of Pakistan’s Strategic Plans Division, Lt Gen Khalid Kidwai deserves singular credit for remedying the security vulnerabilities that traditionally plagued Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.” khalid hasan

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Aarwaa

Pakistan is ruled by three As - Army, America and Allah.

Qaeda calls for fresh attacks on Pakistani forces

Daily Times Monitor

Islamabad/Rome: Two major Al Qaeda operatives in the Tribal Areas have called upon their followers to intensify the ‘holy war’ against security forces and to seize control of Islamabad, media reports said on Thursday, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported.

“Jihad is compulsory in Pakistan as it is compulsory in Afghanistan,” said the chief of the Islamic movement of Uzbekistan and Uzbek militants in North Waziristan, Qadri Tahir Yaldeshiv, in a video message, according to Adnkronos International.

He also urged Muslims to avenge the Lal Masjid operation in July 2007 that left more than 100 militants and hardcore madrassa students dead, the German news agency said.

Yaldshiv also talked about the need for strict Sharia law in Pakistan. “Pakistan came into being in the name of Islam, therefore Islam should be enforced in the country.”

The Uzbek commander is not popular among pro-Taliban militants in North Waziristan. Hundreds of his men were killed early last year in an offensive by local tribal fighters led by Mullah Nazir.

The rivalry was renewed last week when suspected Uzbek militants attacked two pro-Taliban offices in North Waziristan, killing eight. There are reports that local tribesmen have assembled an army of hundreds to avenge the killings.

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Aarwaa

Pakistan is ruled by three As - Army, America and Allah.

Tough questions await Musharraf in Europe

* Former foreign secy says West doubts Musharraf govt’s stability, but has no alternative

ISLAMABAD: President Pervez Musharraf heads off on a four-country trip to Europe this weekend where he is expected to face tough questions over his rule while shoring up international support.

Former foreign secretary Tanvir Ahmed Khan expected Musharraf to seek to impress on Europeans that Pakistan’s best hope of stability rested with him retaining power.

“He’s trying to establish his credentials with key Western powers with the same old message: that he’s indispensable, they don’t have a better friend than him, without him the war on terror would unravel and Pakistan’s economic progress would collapse,” Khan said.

Musharraf is due to hold talks with European Union and Belgian leaders in Brussels, meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris and then attend the World Economic Forum in Switzerland before heading to London for talks with Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Khan said European leaders would be mindful of criticism of Musharraf in the media and among think tanks.

The influential Brussels-based International Crisis Group think tank, which has long opposed Musharraf’s rule, said this month he should step down for the sake of Pakistan’s stability.

“No West European government can really ignore the groundswell of public and media opinion,” Khan said, anticipating that Musharraf will get the backing he seeks, while also being given a message to do more to promote democracy and human rights.

Najmuddin Sheikh, another former foreign secretary and ambassador to several countries including the United States and Germany, also said Musharraf would face questions about the elections which opposition parties fear will be rigged.

“He’ll probably hold out assurances that they will be fair,” Sheikh said.

No alternative: Musharraf can also expect tough questions over restrictions on the media, the detention of judges and lawyers and the situation along the Afghan border. However, the Europeans would remain supportive, while harbouring doubts about the prospects for stability, he said.

“I would think that right now they don’t really see an alternative,” Sheikh said.

There has been speculation in Pakistan’s press that while in London, Musharraf might meet former Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif. reuters

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Aarwaa

Pakistan is ruled by three As - Army, America and Allah.

CIA chief says Qaeda killed Benazir Bhutto

* Same network is fostering instability in Pakistan

By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: CIA Director Michael V Hayden said in an interview published on Friday that former premier Benazir Bhutto was killed by Al Qaeda and allies of renegade tribal leader Baitullah Mehsud, echoing the Pakistan government’s claims.

He told Washington Post in a rare interview that this combination was also behind a new wave of violence threatening Pakistan’s stability. Offering the most definitive public assessment by a US intelligence official, Hayden said Benazir was killed by fighters allied with Baitullah, with support from Al Qaeda’s terrorist network. The CIA view mirrors the Pakistan government’s assertions, which the Pakistan People’s Party and many others have questioned, holding the official establishment responsible for the murder.

Hayden said, “What you see is, I think, a change in the character of what’s going on there. You’ve got this nexus now that probably was always there in latency but is now active: a nexus between Al Qaeda and various extremist and separatist groups...”

He added, “This was done by that network around Baitullah Mehsud. We have no reason to question that.” He described the killing as “part of an organised campaign” that has included suicide bombings and other attacks on Pakistani leaders. “We’ve always viewed that to be an ultimate danger to the United States,” Hayden said, “but now it appears that it is a serious base of danger to the current well-being of Pakistan.” Others were not so sure. Some administration officials, who deal with Pakistani issues, were less conclusive, with one calling the assertion “a very good assumption”.

One of the officials said there was no “incontrovertible” evidence to prove or rebut the assessment, according to the Post front-page report. The newspaper said, “For more than a year, US officials have been nervously watching as Al Qaeda rebuilt its infrastructure in Pakistan’s tribal areas... In recent months, US intelligence officials have said the relationship between Al Qaeda and local insurgents has been strengthened by a common antipathy toward the pro-Western Musharraf government, it said.

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Aarwaa

Pakistan is ruled by three As - Army, America and Allah.

No national govt, says Musharraf

* President says fair polls will be held on time
* Terror main problem
* West’s perception misplaced
* N-programme in safe hands g No meeting with Shahbaz
* Post-poll stability vital

By Our Special Correspondent

ISLAMABAD: General elections will be held on February 18 as planned and there is no possibility of rigging, said President Pervez Musharraf to a select group of six editors of the national media with whom he had a 90-minute chat at his camp office in Rawalpindi on Friday. Among the editors were Najam Sethi of Daily Times, Arif Nizami of The Nation, Zia Shahid of Khabrain, Sultan Lakhani of Express, Wamiq Zuberi of Business Recorder/Aaj and Qazi Aslam of KTN/Kawish group.

The president said that he was determined to use the army and paramilitary forces before, during and after the elections to ensure law and order.

The president dilated at length on the three crises facing Pakistan at this “turbulent time”: the crisis of the transition to democracy, the crisis of the war against terrorism and extremism and the crisis of the economy if the first two crises could not be contained and resolved.

Nukes are safe: He referred to the erroneous perception and image of Pakistan in the world and exhorted the domestic media to help in restoring balance to the debate. He explained how, given the successful establishment of a National Command Authority and failsafe procedures that had been independently developed by the Pakistani nuclear establishment, there was no technical possibility at all of Pakistan’s nukes or any fissile material falling into the wrong hands or of any accidental detonation of such weapons. In theory, he said, if Al Qaeda ever managed to defeat the Pakistan Army militarily, or if Talibanised elements succeeded in contesting and winning the elections in Pakistan, then the nuclear programme could be hijacked. But in practice, he insisted, neither of these things was conceivable because Pakistanis would never vote for extremists and the army could not be defeated by terrorists.

No meeting: President Musharraf ruled out any possibility of a national government before the elections and said he did not intend to meet any opposition politician, and certainly not Shahbaz Sharif, even though he was going to the UK and Europe soon and intended to visit the home of his friend Brigadier Niaz in London. However, he said he was open to the idea of a national government after the elections.

Stability after polls: President Musharraf was worried about the post-election scenario because it would entail coalition governments which were known to be unstable. He thought no single party would be able to win a large enough majority to form a government in Islamabad. He thought political instability would distract from the war against extremism and terrorism and hurt the economy and scare away foreign investment and donors.

He said there could be no bigger tragedy for Pakistan than one resulting from a rejection of the poll results by the mainstream parties after contesting them on February 18 just because they didn’t reflect their hopes and desires rather than ground realities. He insisted the Election Commission was independent but added that the EC could not be removed constitutionally even if he wanted to replace it. He said every Pakistani should put Pakistan first.

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Aarwaa

Pakistan is ruled by three As - Army, America and Allah.