It does not make much sense when the prime minister talks about non-leniency towards terrorists to be uttered in a mild manner in his address to the nation following the terrifying attack in Lahore that claimed over 70 lives, mainly children, at a park. Though his address to the nation has been received with mixed views, and that he has had nothing concrete in his speech to share, he failed to deliver an aggressive message to terrorists, which is what most of the people were expecting and hoping to hear from him. And although there had been many a contradiction in his statements with that of the military, instead of showing that military and government are on the same page, he had instead praised his government for taking action against terrorists by bringing in the National Action Plan (NAP), and ordering Zarb-e-Azb during his tenure, the hard interventions against terrorism that had been ignored by previous governments. This again appeared to be an overstatement, as attacks on the Army Public School attack and Bacha Khan University happened during the tenure of the current government.


Moreover, according to South Asian Terrorism Portal, which carries record of all the reported terro- related incidents across the country, the fatalities today have had an increase by 122.22 percent since 2010. The portal has recorded that there are about 57 extremist and terrorist groups in Punjab, out of which 28 belong to Lahore alone. The groups in Punjab consist of Jamat-ud-Dawa, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Jaish-e-Muhammad, many others of their splinter groups that are working under different names, mainly portraying themselves as charity organisations. Also, it would be wrong to assume that this devastating attack in Lahore on Sunday was the first of its kind where women and children were mainly targeted. Between 2008-2016, there had been about 17 terrorist attacks in Lahore alone, which resulted in over 518 deaths of men, women and children. Moon Market, Youhanabad, Data Darbar, Model Town and Garhi Shahu, worship places of the Ahmadiya community and RA Bazar had been direct civilian targets, but the lessons on security lapses had not been learnt.


There remains a strong disconnect between the warnings of security agencies and the action of the authorities to preempt the attacks. The coordination has always been a less-addressed issue between the government institutions and the military, which is causing the major security lapses in the country. Moreover, the army has also been not very clear in its communication about its actions, leaving the public in the dark about the current status. There had been claims that terrorism is under control, but with each attack, it appears that the terror network is becoming more and more strengthened, and terrorists find their opportunity in the state’s administrative weaknesses. Sharif in his address said that terrorism is a global phenomenon. Well sir, that is true, but our homegrown terrorism is a very real problem as well, which has given room to global terrorists/operatives belonging to the Daesh and al-Qaeda in the country. It is not so simple an issue as has been reflected in the address. Please address the issue of the militant wings of the extremist groups operating freely and undeterred here.


The civilian authority seems to remain in a state of denial. Rana Sanaullah, Law Minister of Punjab has repeatedly denied presence of militant factions of madrassas (religious seminaries) in the province, but the empirical data on that has been communicated by the intelligence agencies earlier. The prime intelligence agency has communicated to Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar about the Ghazi Force of Lal Masjid, but so far, he has denied that any illegal activity is taking place right under his nose. One cannot fully determine if the government is aiding the militants by denying their presence and whether the agencies are compiling false reports to the authorities on which they refuse to act. Whatever the case maybe, it appears there is a major deficit of trust between the departments. The nod for a military operation in Punjab by the COAS and the later PM’s address to the nation has left one baffled about anti-terror policies. The Punjab law minister said that crackdown is a national operation and the army and Rangers would only be called in if and when required, whereas Lt-General Asim Bajwa made it clear that army is already taking action against terrorists in Punjab. Previously, COAS General Raheel Sharif said that there would be no joint action with the police in Punjab, nor will that action cede into any pressure from the government. The confusion remains as to who is doing what, and there seems to be nonchalance about the actual fault-lines of the province. The culture of denials by the top leadership in Punjab is troublesome. In January and in a press statement on March 29, 2016, Sanaullah has repeatedly rejected the notion that there are safe havens for terrorists and no-go areas in Punjab. This, in itself, is contestable.


An operation against militants is urgently needed, and the pressure has been mounting on the Punjab government for quite some time. However, government has always shied away from taking stern actions in Punjab, which has resulted in this ultimate showdown. On January14, 2015, the federal interior minister had stated in a press conference on the implementation of the NAP that there are at least 95 proscribed organisations operating in Punjab.


If government does not get serious now, it will have to face very serious consequences that will end in more chaos. The lessons need to be learnt from the past by now. Making more JITs and fact-finding missions is not always the answer if it means a mere public show of administrative efficiency. And there is no time to waste in political issues parties have with one another, nor should it become an ego issue between the military and the government. A bit of sincerity from both towards the people of Pakistan would certainly be more beneficial.


DAILY TIMES

ISLAMABAD (Web Desk) – Asia, the continent that houses roughly half he world’s population, will face a “high risk of severe water stress” by 2050, if the current environmental, economical and population growth persists, warns a new study.

According to the Khaleej Times, the findings showed that the median amounts of projected growth and climate change in the next 35 years in Asia would lead to about 1 billion more people becoming “water-stressed” compared to the present time.

“It’s not just a climate change issue. We simply cannot ignore that economic and population growth in society can have a very strong influence on our demand for resources and how we manage them,” said one of the researchers Adam Schlosser, a senior research scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in US.

To conduct the study, the scientists built upon an existing model developed previously at MIT, the Integrated Global Systems Model (IGSM), which contains probabilistic projections of population growth, economic expansion, climate, and carbon emissions from human activity.

They then linked the IGSM model to detailed models of water use for a large portion of Asia encompassing China, India, and many smaller nations.

The scientists then ran an extensive series of repeated projections using varying conditions. In what they call the “just growth” scenario, they held climate conditions constant and evaluated the effects of economic and population growth on the water supply.
water-crisis-in-Pakistan-sarfraz ali
In an alternate “just climate” scenario, the scientists held growth constant and evaluated climate-change effects alone. And in a “climate and growth” scenario, they studied the impact of rising economic activity, growing populations, and climate change.

The study gave the researchers a “unique ability to tease out the human (economic) and environmental” factors leading to water shortages and to assess their relative significance, Schlosser said.

The IGSM model also allowed the team to look at how, under the same variables, scenarios change according to countries. This is particularly useful to come up with country-specific strategies, in order to avoid water stress.

Other variables, such as water supply networks into and out of the different areas, and the way population is distributed around said supplies should be examined, the researchers said.

According to statistics published in The News, Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR), Pakistan has an estimated population of 187 million with an annual growth rate of 1.57 percent. By the year 2050, the population is expected to double and would become 63.7% urban as compared to only 36 percent in 2010. This will put tremendous pressure on water supply for households, industry and agriculture.
Aggravating-Water-Crisis-sarfraz ali
Meanwhile, out of the 140 million acre feet (MAF) of water annually available in Pakistan in a normal year, only about 40 MAF reaches the Indus delta.

The other 100 MAF of water is consumed over an area of 40 million acres. According to international standards, storage capacity is ideally recommended to be around 1,000 days given the climate in the country. However, in Pakistan it stands at unbelievably low 30-day supply.

Thus, there is a grave danger Pakistan could become a water scarce country, which would be a disaster for a country that survives mostly on agriculture.Moreover, there is a growing deficit of water downstream as the scarcity grows, making it imperative to build reservoirs.

Experts point out that in India about one-third of water supply is stored in reservoirs as compared to just nine percent in Pakistan. They say that while India has built 4,000 dams, with another 150 in the pipeline, Pakistan built its last dam more than four decades ago.

DAILY PAKISTAN

__________________
I Am The Captain Of My Soul .. !
--- Nelson Mandela ..

HERE IS HOW INDIAN NEWSPAPERS COVERED JADHAV'S ARREST..



In a press conference last week, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) head Lt Gen Asim Bajwa and Federal Information Minister Pervez Rashid aired a video confession of Indian Navy Officer Kulbushan Jadhav, who was arrested by Pakistani forces in Balochistan last month.

While Jadhav claimed to be an officer currently serving in the Indian Navy, the Indian government said he was a businessman who had taken early retirement from the government.

Several major Indian media outlets have downplayed the development, while some asked more questions.


The Hindu: 'Blow to Indo-Pak ties'

The Hindu, in an opinion editorial, took a measured approach with Suhasini Haidar looking at the bigger picture and discussing Jadhav's arrest in relation to Pakistan-India talks.

"What finally matters is not the truth of Kulbhushan Jadhav or the authenticity of his confessional video; it is the timing of its release, which has dealt a body blow to the bonhomie generated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Christmas visit to Lahore."

At the same time, it raised some probing questions.

"While Mr. Yadav’s confessional statement isn’t quite convincing, the circumstances around his appearance in Pakistan certainly need investigation by India. What is clear is that the storm couldn’t have come at a worse time for India-Pakistan relations, hinged as they are on the security relationship alone. The question that arises is, if the NSAs had indeed built a strong relationship, with a commitment not to go public before they had spoken to each other, why did this not apply to the spy case?"


Hindustan Times: 'Hints of duress in confession video'

The newspaper did not feature Jadhav's video confession on its front page, and carried a report titled 'Hints of duress in Pak video of spy' on page 12, which said: "The video features multiple quick edits and the audio appears to go out of sync from to time, which hint that it was shot under duress."


The Hindustan Times also downplayed the arrest, casting doubt on its relevance citing a lack of widespread international coverage.

"Pakistan on Thursday said it had apprised the European Union and the world’s major capitals about an alleged Indian spy’s arrest from Balochistan, but did the whole world really take notice of the saga? Probably not, if one goes by global media reports on the matter. Very few large media outlets reported about Kulbhushan Jhadav – the man at the centre of the storm – and most of the reports were sceptical of Pakistan’s claims."


Ahmedabad Mirror: 'Phone calls in Marathi revealed spy's identity'

While other Indian media outlets questioned the authenticity of Pakistan's claims, the Ahmedabad Mirror, citing "top intelligence officers" said "Jadhav had been working in the region for 14 years and had become a bit complacent."

A report published by the Ahmedabad Mirror claims Jadhav’s habits and mannerisms gave him away and his phone calls in Marathi to his family did not add up with his assumed identity.

It said: "Kul Bhushan Jadhav was arrested by Pakistan's Intelligence Bureau as he had dropped his guard and started talking like a Marathi Manoos during his telephone conversations with his family, disclose senior officers from central intelligence."


The Indian Express: 'Jadhav most high-ranking official arrested on Pakistani soil'

The Indian Express, however, said Jadhav's arrest ─ and its wide publicity ─ has ruffled some feathers.

"Several Indian diplomats privately expressed surprise at the admission but South Block maintained it had 'nothing to hide' — a stance held by India for several decades now — since the individual was no more associated with the Government".

"But an an Indian diplomat told The Indian Express: This is, by far, the most high-ranking official — even if he retired some years ago – who has been arrested on Pakistani soil, that too in Balochistan."

An opinion article in the newspaper suggests that Pakistan and India enter spy swap agreements: "It’s natural for India and Pakistan to spy on each other. But it’s time they instituted spy swaps to bring them home when they get caught.


Times of India: 'Kulbhushan seen in his Mumbai flat days ago'

The Times of India (TOI) did not carry the Jadhav saga very prominently. Until the publishing of this post, there has not been an editorial or opinion article published on the issue in the newspaper.

Despite agreeing with the claim that Jadhav is not a Patel as per his passport and an established report that tells us Jadhav lost contact with his family earlier this year, the TOI contributed to further confusion.

A news report in the Times of India claimed: "Sudhir Jadhav [Kulbushan's father and retired assistant commissioner of police] lives along with his family in a two-bedroom flat in Silver Oak society, Powai. The family remained tight-lipped on Saturday though several mediapersons made attempts to get in touch with them. However, a local milk delivery boy, when shown a picture of Kulbhushan, immediately identified it and claimed he had seen him 'in his flat just days before Holi'."

'Jadhav abducted or lured'


Many renowned newspapers in India speculated that Jadhav was "abducted" or "lured", potentially by Jaishul-Adl, a Sunni militant group based in Iran.


India Today: 'Pakistan is lying'

In an opinion piece titled Pakistan is lying about arrest of Indian 'spy' published on March 27, India Today questioned the chain of events leading to the arrest, and attempted to highlight the "inconsistency in facts as presented by the Pakistani government officials."

"If Patel had indeed entered Pakistan from Iran, this would place him in the southern end of Balochistan near the Makran coast, rather than up north near Quetta and Chaman. Why would he enter from the southern end and then travel through an insurgency-infested province to reach Chaman, when it is more easily accessible from Kandahar in Afghanistan?"



VIA : DAWN .

__________________
I Am The Captain Of My Soul .. !
--- Nelson Mandela ..

AFGHAN President Ashraf Ghani is a man under pressure. While the famously temperamental technocrat-turned-politician has tried to project an air of confidence as president, occasional frustration — and possibly fear — makes itself apparent.

In an interview with the BBC, Mr Ghani railed against fellow Afghans who are choosing to flee to Europe and argued that for Afghanistan to be a country, its countrymen should not abandon it.

As the BBC itself noted, Mr Ghani’s comments are likely to further erode his already plummeting popularity: Afghans are unlikely to be impressed by a leader who is looking for scapegoats instead of addressing growing political problems.

While the Taliban insurgency and attempts to restart peace talks have dominated the news, the problems in Afghanistan are increasingly complex.

Last month, the outgoing UN envoy in Afghanistan, Nicholas Haysom, identified five issues threatening the very survival of the Afghan state: a fragile economy, with low growth and high unemployment; the intensifying Taliban insurgency; fractious elites; pressures on foreign aid; an uncertain reconciliation process.

Perhaps the one factor that is in the immediate control of the Afghan politicians is the political process.

Indeed, had the national unity government demonstrated even a modicum of efficiency and competence, the Afghan state could have pushed through some necessary political and administrative reforms.

Instead, the struggle for dominance between rival camps led by President Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah has all but brought governance to a halt.

The situation has escalated to the point that it is unclear if a September deadline for parliamentary elections and a constitutional assembly to ratify changes in the political structure matters anymore — the government could collapse before that deadline.

Perhaps, though, the growing speculation about state collapse will force the Afghan leadership to make the necessary adjustments before it is too late.

While the national unity government is deeply flawed, the problem was not completely of the Afghans’ making.

The US — having made errors over and over again in Afghanistan over the last decade — somehow thought that the way to salvage a flawed election and demonstrate that Afghanistan is headed in the right direction was to force an alliance that no one inside Afghanistan wanted.

So just when Afghanistan needed a strong, unified political leadership to deal with the economic and security threats and handle external relations adroitly, it was given a weak, fractious leadership to try and fix the country’s problems.

If the background is dismal, the future need not be. Much will depend on how Mr Ghani navigates the months ahead. Progress on reconciliation paired with resolving some intra-administration tensions would send a message of political rejuvenation.

That could create the space for dealing with the more intractable economic and security problems of Afghanistan. First, however, Mr Ghani must resist the temptation to lash out — there is simply too much at stake for raw emotion at this point.

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2016

__________________
I Am The Captain Of My Soul .. !
--- Nelson Mandela ..

IN a recent article on public debt management, the finance minister has made some dangerously wrong assertions. Foremost of these is that the power projects under CPEC are being set up by private investors; hence the approximately $25 billion foreign debt that these projects will entail will not be sovereign in nature, and by implication, repayment of these loans will somehow not burden the country’s balance of payments.

This is patently false. If the finance minister has been led to believe this, it raises even more concern about how prepared Pakistan will be to meet its repayment obligations in the medium term. But first, in order to anchor the discussion, it is important to provide the context of the finance minister’s article and earlier statement on the floor of the Senate.

The outstanding stock of debt of any country is composed of those loans that have to be repaid in foreign currency (external debt) and those that are to be repaid in local currency (domestic debt). (Technically, the distinction between external and domestic debt is not made on the basis of currency of repayment but on the jurisdiction of the lender. However, for purposes of simplicity, I will use currency of repayment as the basis for categorisation).

Another categorisation is between loans and liabilities contracted by the government or wider public sector, and borrowing by the private sector. Only those loans and liabilities are counted under ‘public debt’ whose repayment is either directly from the budget, or is guaranteed by the government. The wider definition of public debt is usually referred to as ‘public and publicly guaranteed debt’.


The distinction between public and private external debt is largely irrelevant.


Pakistan’s total debt — public as well as private, external and domestic, inclusive of liabilities — stood at Rs21 trillion as of end-December 2015. By comparison, on June 30, 2013, this figure stood at Rs16.4tr. During this period, public debt (using the official definition, which excludes certain categories such as foreign exchange liabilities and PSEs’ debt) has increased from Rs14.7tr to Rs18.9tr.

Hence, in two and half years of the PML-N government, total public debt has officially increased by Rs4,200bn, recording an increase of nearly 29pc. In absolute terms, the addition to the net outstanding public debt in this period is by far the highest in Pakistan’s history.

The bulk of the increase has occurred under domestic debt. But the net addition to external public debt has been significant too. Since July 2013, net external debt (after repayment) has increased by $5.7bn to $57bn. Using an expanded definition that includes external debt of the public-sector enterprises, public and publicly guaranteed external debt stands at nearly $60bn.

This is the amount already disbursed by foreign lenders, including IMF, to Pakistan. The amount of external debt contracted by Pakistan during the tenure of the PML-N government, inclusive of debt that has been committed but not disbursed, amounts to a whopping $26bn.

While Pakistan’s external debt dynamic remains benign at this point in time, with foreign exchange reserves of over $20bn comfortably covering import requirements and maturing debt repayment, power projects worth $35bn under CPEC will add significantly to the country’s total external debt.

And here’s the rub. From a balance of payments perspective, the distinction between public and private external debt is meaningless. Irrespective of whether the government is contracted to repay the debt or the private sector, the pool of available foreign exchange is exactly the same. The private sector will also make repayments on its external borrowing from the country’s export earnings and remittances. Unless the new projects for which foreign loans have been taken — whether by the government or the private sector — increase Pakistan’s exports, the ability to repay future debt obligations in foreign currency will be affected.

The biggest vulnerability under CPEC is that whereas approximately $25bn of new foreign loans will be contracted, the earnings of the projects will mostly be in rupees. It is important to remember that the East Asian crisis in 1997-98 was not caused by sovereign defaults on external debt by Indonesia and Thailand, but by the unavailability of foreign exchange to private borrowers and investors to repatriate capital. The bottom line: future repayment of foreign loans depends critically on increasing Pakistan’s export earnings. And it is here that the government’s absence of a clear-cut and viable strategy is most apparent.

The unprecedented amount of external debt accumulation by this government, and its nonchalant and unprepared approach to the debt dynamic under CPEC, has raised concern amongst independent observers — and focused minds within the security establishment. Is Pakistan being subjected by economic hit men within the PML-N government to the template laid out in John Perkin’s book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (whose new, revised version has just been released). In revelations by Mr Perkins, it is alleged that the US government through myriad agencies and multilateral institutions such as the IMF and World Bank, and a network of global consultants, contrives to make countries heavily indebted as part of a strategy to exert control and influence.

It was in the backdrop of these rising concerns that the finance minister was compelled to make a statement on the floor of the Senate that “Pakistan will not compromise its nuclear programme even if external debt reaches $100tr”. Whatever the truth behind the concern and speculation in this regard, it is clear the ministry of finance needs to put greater thought into the dynamic of Pakistan’s external debt in the medium term, especially with regard to the CPEC projects.

IN a recent article on public debt management, the finance minister has made some dangerously wrong assertions. Foremost of these is that the power projects under CPEC are being set up by private investors; hence the approximately $25 billion foreign debt that these projects will entail will not be sovereign in nature, and by implication, repayment of these loans will somehow not burden the country’s balance of payments.

This is patently false. If the finance minister has been led to believe this, it raises even more concern about how prepared Pakistan will be to meet its repayment obligations in the medium term. But first, in order to anchor the discussion, it is important to provide the context of the finance minister’s article and earlier statement on the floor of the Senate.

The outstanding stock of debt of any country is composed of those loans that have to be repaid in foreign currency (external debt) and those that are to be repaid in local currency (domestic debt). (Technically, the distinction between external and domestic debt is not made on the basis of currency of repayment but on the jurisdiction of the lender. However, for purposes of simplicity, I will use currency of repayment as the basis for categorisation).

Another categorisation is between loans and liabilities contracted by the government or wider public sector, and borrowing by the private sector. Only those loans and liabilities are counted under ‘public debt’ whose repayment is either directly from the budget, or is guaranteed by the government. The wider definition of public debt is usually referred to as ‘public and publicly guaranteed debt’.


The distinction between public and private external debt is largely irrelevant.


Pakistan’s total debt — public as well as private, external and domestic, inclusive of liabilities — stood at Rs21 trillion as of end-December 2015. By comparison, on June 30, 2013, this figure stood at Rs16.4tr. During this period, public debt (using the official definition, which excludes certain categories such as foreign exchange liabilities and PSEs’ debt) has increased from Rs14.7tr to Rs18.9tr.

Hence, in two and half years of the PML-N government, total public debt has officially increased by Rs4,200bn, recording an increase of nearly 29pc. In absolute terms, the addition to the net outstanding public debt in this period is by far the highest in Pakistan’s history.

The bulk of the increase has occurred under domestic debt. But the net addition to external public debt has been significant too. Since July 2013, net external debt (after repayment) has increased by $5.7bn to $57bn. Using an expanded definition that includes external debt of the public-sector enterprises, public and publicly guaranteed external debt stands at nearly $60bn.

This is the amount already disbursed by foreign lenders, including IMF, to Pakistan. The amount of external debt contracted by Pakistan during the tenure of the PML-N government, inclusive of debt that has been committed but not disbursed, amounts to a whopping $26bn.

While Pakistan’s external debt dynamic remains benign at this point in time, with foreign exchange reserves of over $20bn comfortably covering import requirements and maturing debt repayment, power projects worth $35bn under CPEC will add significantly to the country’s total external debt.

And here’s the rub. From a balance of payments perspective, the distinction between public and private external debt is meaningless. Irrespective of whether the government is contracted to repay the debt or the private sector, the pool of available foreign exchange is exactly the same. The private sector will also make repayments on its external borrowing from the country’s export earnings and remittances. Unless the new projects for which foreign loans have been taken — whether by the government or the private sector — increase Pakistan’s exports, the ability to repay future debt obligations in foreign currency will be affected.

The biggest vulnerability under CPEC is that whereas approximately $25bn of new foreign loans will be contracted, the earnings of the projects will mostly be in rupees. It is important to remember that the East Asian crisis in 1997-98 was not caused by sovereign defaults on external debt by Indonesia and Thailand, but by the unavailability of foreign exchange to private borrowers and investors to repatriate capital. The bottom line: future repayment of foreign loans depends critically on increasing Pakistan’s export earnings. And it is here that the government’s absence of a clear-cut and viable strategy is most apparent.

The unprecedented amount of external debt accumulation by this government, and its nonchalant and unprepared approach to the debt dynamic under CPEC, has raised concern amongst independent observers — and focused minds within the security establishment. Is Pakistan being subjected by economic hit men within the PML-N government to the template laid out in John Perkin’s book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (whose new, revised version has just been released). In revelations by Mr Perkins, it is alleged that the US government through myriad agencies and multilateral institutions such as the IMF and World Bank, and a network of global consultants, contrives to make countries heavily indebted as part of a strategy to exert control and influence.

It was in the backdrop of these rising concerns that the finance minister was compelled to make a statement on the floor of the Senate that “Pakistan will not compromise its nuclear programme even if external debt reaches $100tr”. Whatever the truth behind the concern and speculation in this regard, it is clear the ministry of finance needs to put greater thought into the dynamic of Pakistan’s external debt in the medium term, especially with regard to the CPEC projects.



Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2016
WRITER : SAQIB SHERANI

__________________
I Am The Captain Of My Soul .. !
--- Nelson Mandela ..

Collect enough people, march on to the capital, hurl vile abuses and horrendous threats, present your demands and threaten peoples’ lives, and essentially reject rule of law – all in the name of Islam. And then be assured that the government will respond with trepidation and fear, become confused and paralysed and finally put you on a pedestal as high as that of an elected law-making body in conceding to at least some of the demands that you make.

According to the seven-point statement, the group will give the government recommendations on how to implement Shariah, the government will not amend the blasphemy law, the government will review actions including a list of those included in the Fourth Schedule, arrests of and cases lodged against allies of the protestors etc. The government now insists that this statement is only an understanding, no more, but the protestors went back claiming victory, indeed one they may try to use again to rally crowds.

Disarmed by the use of religion by these crowds the government took to decision-making using the informal route. Various influentials of the Barelvi group including the owner of Bridgestone company and Mufti Muneeb were used by the government to negotiate with the protestors.

The government has clearly demonstrated that whoever invokes Islam – whenever and however – the government will suspend all considerations of rule of law. Those who may deserve to be tried for violating law will instead be turned into interlocutors.

For example if you are Pir Afzal Qadri and your name reportedly is already in the Fourth Schedule but you are leading a crowd that is abusing, accusing and threatening in the name of Islam – you will still arrive in the heart of the capital of nuclear Pakistan and paralyse all those around you with fear. Pir Afzal Qadri was the person who from the stage subsequently incited violence against the prime minister, Justice Khosa and the army chief and virtually issued death threats against them.

On March 27, in Islamabad it was the state of Pakistan that was helpless as crowds supporting Mumtaz Qadri – the man who assassinated Punjab governor, Salmaan Taseer – were advancing from Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi towards Islamabad. The protestors, led by some old and some new, some known and others less known religio-political outfits, were protesting against the government and the Supreme Court for dispensing justice in the Salmaan Taseer murder case.

They were demanding that the government official declare the murderer a martyr, re-open the Qadri case in the way Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s case was re-opened, guarantee no change in the blasphemy law, hang an alleged blasphemer whose case is still in court and sack all Ahmadis serving in government departments.

The organisers of this protest had taken a vow from the protestors to not desert the protest under any circumstances. The federal and Punjab governments knew what was planned and what the demands of the protestors were. Even prior to the actual protest the government had been provided intelligence information about the intent of the protestors.

Law enforcement becomes a joke this way in out country. We saw that on March 27. As an angry and violent crowd from Liaquat Bagh, led by threat-hurling men sitting atop a truck, was on its way to Islamabad, only the media was talking of what was to follow while decision-makers were almost silent. Subsequently, the interior minister would explain why the crowds found their way into Islamabad: one because contrary to the chief secretary of Punjab who gave an assurance that the crowd won’t leave Rawalpindi , it did and two because the Islamabad administration had presumed that the crowds would take route A but in fact it entered Islamabad from route B.

Whatever the government’s thinking was in handling this protest the fact was that protestors’ were seeking to dictate to the state and to the Supreme Court. They wanted to subvert the process of justice, of law enforcement and essentially the constitution of Pakistan.

The right to protest is a constitutional right but all rights have qualifiers. Citizens must exercise rights in a manner as not to violate other laws laid down by the constitution. Neither should they, while exercising their rights, violate the rights of others or undermine peace or spread hate and intolerance in public space. Videos of thousands of protestors marching towards Islamabad were all over social media.

There appears to be an absence of political will in the federal government to take complete of ownership of the critical task to roll back militancy. Words not spoken in the PM’s March 28 address make this abundantly clear. No specifics on the Punjab operation and not a word about Mumtaz Qadri’s hanging and rule of law. Indeed the sole and courageous spokesman on rule of law in the Qadri case has been Justice Khosa. The rest is all quiet on the political front. Most religio-politicians have spoken up in favour of the man who murdered the person he was under oath to protect.

For words not spoken, nations pay a heavy price. Check out the confusion in the popular Pakistani mind on critical issues. The prime minister and his team must speak on matters like Qadri with reference to the constitution and rule of law. How lethal words can be in a battle for hearts.

BY : NASIM ZAHRA

__________________
I Am The Captain Of My Soul .. !
--- Nelson Mandela ..

China has put a hold on India's request to add the head of the Pakistani militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad to the United Nations' al Qaeda-Islamic State blacklist, U.N. diplomats said on Friday, eliciting an angry reaction from the Indian government.

India accused Jaish-e-Mohammad of masterminding a fatal attack on the Pathankot air base in India in January. India had requested that its leader be added to a U.N. Security Council blacklist of groups linked to al Qaeda or Islamic State, the diplomats said, but China objected.

The Kashmir-based group Jaish-e-Mohammad has already been blacklisted by the 15-nation Security Council, but not its leader, Maulana Masood Azhar, an Islamist hardliner and long-time foe of India.

"We find it incomprehensible that while the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad was listed ... as far back as 2001 for its well-known terror activities and links to al Qaeda, the designation of the group's main leader, financier and motivator, has been put on a technical hold," Indian government spokesman Vikas Swarup said in Washington.

"This does not reflect well on the determination that the international community needs to display to decisively defeat the menace of terrorism," he told reporters on the sidelines of a nuclear summit in the U.S. capital.

It was not immediately clear why China requested that a hold be placed on the Indian request to blacklist Masood Azhar. Technical holds can be lifted and often arise when a Security Council member wants more information. But sometimes they lead to a permanent blocking of a proposed blacklisting.

Asked about China's decision to place a technical hold on the proposed blacklisting of Masood Azhar, Chinese U.N. Ambassador Liu Jieyi offered no details.

"Any listing would have to meet the requirements" for blacklisting, he said.

Pakistani security officials have said that a special investigation team set up in Pakistan to probe the Pathankot attack found no evidence implicating Masood Azhar.

If Masood Azhar was blacklisted by the U.N. Security Council, he would face a global travel ban and asset freeze.

The Jan. 2 attack at Pathankot was followed by a raid on an Indian consulate in Afghanistan that has also been linked to Jaish-e-Mohammad, or the Army of Mohammad.

Jaish-e-Mohammad militants are blamed for a 2001 attack on India's parliament that nearly led to a war between the nuclear-armed rivals


The Nation

__________________
I Am The Captain Of My Soul .. !
--- Nelson Mandela ..

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama has urged Pakistan and India to reduce the subcontinent’s serious nuclear threat, while expressing concern about “nuclear arsenals” expanding in some countries, “especially those with small tactical nuclear weapons that could be at greater risk of theft.”

“One of the challenges that were going to have here is that it is very difficult to see huge reductions in our nuclear arsenal unless the United States and Russia, as the two largest possessors of nuclear weapons, are prepared to lead the way,” Obama told a news conference held after the fourth and final Nuclear Security Summit hosted by him.

“The other area where I think we need to see progress is Pakistan and India, that subcontinent, making sure that as they develop military doctrines, that they are not continually moving in the wrong direction,” Obama added.

“We have to take a look at the Korean Peninsula because North Korea is in a whole different category and poses the most immediate set of concerns for all of us, one that we are working internationally to focus on,” the US President said.

Obama said that was one of the reasons he had a trilateral meeting with Japan and Korea, adding that it was a major topic of discussion with his Chinese counterpart as well.

President Obama also acknowledged that “civilians were killed that shouldn’t have been” in past US drone strikes, but said the administration is now “very cautious” about striking where women or children are present.

Obama was asked at the news conference about an increase in the number of people targeted in drone strikes against extremists in Libya, Syria, Somalia and elsewhere.

“In the past, there was legitimate criticism that the legal architecture around the use of drone strikes wasn’t as precise as it should have been,” Obama said. “There’s no doubt that civilians were killed that shouldn’t have been.”

He added that over the last several years, the administration has worked to prevent civilian deaths.

“In situations of war, you know, we have to take responsibility when we’re not acting appropriately,” Obama said.

Recent drone and other airstrikes against extremist targets have killed large numbers of people.

A strike on a training camp of Islamic State group in western Libya in February killed more than 40 people; a drone strike in Somalia against al-Shabab on March 5 killed 150 people.

A drone strike in Yemen in February killed dozens.

The US came under heavy criticism for a drone strike several years ago against extremists in Yemen, which critics said actually hit a wedding party and killed women and children.

A communiqué issued after the Nuclear Security Summit said more needs to be done to prevent non-state actors from obtaining nuclear materials. The meet, attended by more than 50 world leaders, described the threat of nuclear and radiological terrorism as “one of the greatest challenges to international security”. The threat is “constantly evolving”, the communiqué said.

“We commit to fostering a peaceful and stable international environment by reducing the threat of nuclear terrorism and strengthening nuclear security,” it added.




Published in The Nation newspaper on 03-Apr-2016

__________________
I Am The Captain Of My Soul .. !
--- Nelson Mandela ..

The Pakistan delegation, which was led by Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi, issued a formal statement reaffirming Islamabad’s commitment to the objective of nuclear security, saying the country has been proactively engaged with the international community to promote nuclear safety and security.

“It (Pakistan) has ensured that nuclear and radioactive materials and all related facilities are secured in all places,” the statement said.

The Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) process, it said, had contributed to improved nuclear security and reinforced nuclear security culture

“Nuclear security is a national responsibility,” the statement said. “As a responsible nuclear state, Pakistan takes nuclear security very seriously and accords it the highest priority in its security construct. Our nuclear security paradigm, evolved over the years, is effective and responsive against the entire range of possible threats. Nuclear security regime in Pakistan is dynamic and regularly reviewed and updated.”

In line with the commitment made during the 2014 NSS, the statement said, Pakistan had ratified the 2005 Amendment to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material (CPPNM). “This is a reaffirmation of Pakistan’s confidence in its national nuclear security regime, which is consistent with the contemporary international standards.”

“Pakistan’s nuclear security regime is based on national legislative, regulatory and administrative framework,” it said. “The elements of nuclear security in Pakistan include robust command and control system led by the National Command Authority (NCA), rigorous regulatory regime, comprehensive export controls and international cooperation. We follow the principle of multi-layered defence to prevent and effectively respond to the entire spectrum of threats.

“Pakistan has established a specially trained, highly skilled and well equipped force that is designed for nuclear security. Dedicated intelligence provides depth to our security architecture. Continuous threat appraisal and institutional reviews are conducted to upgrade response mechanism.
“The regulatory regime encompasses all matters related to nuclear safety and security, including physical protection of materials and facilities, material control and accounting, transport security, prevention of illicit trafficking, border controls, and plans to deal with possible radiological emergencies through an elaborate Nuclear Emergency Management System (NEMS).

Pakistan’s export control regime is at par with the standards followed by Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG), Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) and Australia Group.

“International cooperation, consistent with our national policies and international obligations, helps in voluntary sharing of best practices and experiences in the security domain.”

__________________
I Am The Captain Of My Soul .. !
--- Nelson Mandela ..

Paranoid parents have always known that children’s parks are potentially dangerous places. That rickety seesaw might fling your child skywards. That slide is always too steep. That swing will snap one day. That toy plane that vibrates after you insert a metal token and sings Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star is wrongly wired and will turn into a death trap.

We think of all these things, but we never think of a suicide bomber blowing himself up in children’s play area on a Sunday afternoon. Not even on an Easter Sunday afternoon. Not even in Pakistan.

We have seen schoolchildren being massacred before, we have seen churches bombed and Christian localities burnt to ashes. We thought we had seen the worst. We were told that we are winning this war. Nothing could have prepared us for the carnage that took place in Gulshan-e-Iqbal park, Lahore, last Sunday.

After the first shock and desperate hope that this might be a mini-massacre with single-digit casualties, Pakistani reactions were predictable, as if we had known it was coming. Those worried about world affairs wondered why CNN and Fox News were not covering it the way they covered the Brussels attacks. Was the Eiffel Tower going to light up in Pakistani colours, in solidarity? Surely there has to be an Indian hand behind this? It can’t be an attack on Christians because more Muslims were killed. Within hours of the attack, the laptop warriors were telling the nation that the attack was a sign that we were winning this war. Look, they are attacking the soft targets now. This was supposed to reassure us: the soft targets.

The Taliban group that claimed responsibility was clear in its mission statement: “We have brought the war to your doorstep, it’s an attack on Christians – and by the way, we don’t attack women and children, but you guys don’t leave us much choice, do you?”

We have heard this before. We went looking for distractions.

Every bloodbath in Pakistan is accompanied by a sideshow, which helps us take our gaze away from burnt and bandaged children and wailing mothers. As people with fading hopes were rushing from hospital to hospital looking for their loved ones, thousands of lovers of the prophet were on the rampage in Islamabad. Their demands were simple: give us sharia, give us the right to kill anyone who commits blasphemy. If you don’t, we’ll do to you what those Taliban are doing.

A month ago, Pakistan’s government hanged Mumtaz Qadri, the killer of Punjab governor Salman Taseer, after an exhaustive judicial process. I thought our government was being cunning by hanging Qadri on 29 February; his supporters would have to wait for four years to mark his anniversary. We are always an optimistic lot. As it turned out, his supporters didn’t even wait 40 days. Their demands included that the media be ordered to call Qadri a martyr and the cell he died in be declared a national monument.

Don’t get the mob gathered in Islamabad wrong, they may look like Taliban’s cousins, but they assure us that they are with us in the war against Taliban. Sometimes it takes a slaughter in a public park to remind us that we are in the middle of a war.

After the 2014 attack on the Army public school in Peshawar, where more than 140 schoolchildren and their teachers were butchered, we decided to go to war. Not just another army operation, but a proper war with fighter jets in the air, tanks on the ground, bloodcurdling war anthems on television, and summary trials and pre-dawn hangings. A final decisive war in which every last terrorist will be eliminated, we are told every day. We are happy because some of us had been asking for this war for a long time. We are loving this war. “Bomb them,” we tell Pakistan’s army, “crush them, hit them with all you have got.” Taliban were very fond of showing us videos of them killing us. Now we say: save us the gory details, kill them and keep the pictures. Sometimes we find out about hangings through a tweet from the army spokesman: four terrorists hanged this morning. Victory.

So much bloodlust among the otherwise faint-hearted, human-rights loving, free-range egg consuming people is a slightly disturbing sight. Many more people have marched in support of Qadri than we have had express solidarity with the families of thousands who have been killed by Taliban. We want the state to protect our lives, property and way of life. Sometimes we are not quite sure that this way of life is pious enough.

For a long time, there was a lingering doubt in our hearts that Taliban are better Muslims than us. We launched half a dozen military operations against them. The army attacked them shouting Allah is great; they attacked us shouting the same louder. If we bombed their caves and compounds, they blew up our naval bases, slaughtered our soldiers, kidnapped the sons of the former prime minister and governor. In this holy cycle spanning a decade, Taliban and their sectarian cousins bombed us in order to make us better Muslims. And we did become better Muslims, but not good enough for them, so they kept bombing us. We kept telling them that there are no fundamental differences between us. We believe in the Khilafa as much as they do, we just didn’t want them to set it up in our neighbourhood. We love jihad as much as anyone does, we just want them to wage it in India, Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq. Not on our streets.

“If the civilian losses are bearable, we should be able to sustain and win this war,” we are told by the retired army folks and other seasonal guerrilla war experts. And the nice thing about this war is that nobody is asking for names of those being killed. Nobody is asking them if they are finding the bombing of their villages bearable.

The coalition that supports this war and its bearable losses include people who also promise that India will disintegrate into a thousand pieces, folks who want to destroy Iran and the US and parts of China, intellectuals who want socialist democracy, those who want a worldwide Khilafa, those who want rapists to be hanged and those who say that a woman should be hanged for mentioning the word rape. Even some sensible Taliban were urging us to bomb those other bad Taliban.

Tribal experts tell us that these people are born warriors, it’s their culture; they are not like us city folks who need private guards and air conditioning. But now it transpires that getting bombed by fighter jets in your own home is not part of anybody’s culture. The war seems to have a simple slogan: blow them up before they blow us up. And if they leave their homes, let them live under an open sky, give them some flour and cooking oil and some plastic sheets. Don’t forget to praise their traditional bravery and hospitality. And don’t forget to support your army, because it’s bombing your fellow citizens to make your streets safer.

While supporting our army sometimes we wonder – but we make sure we don’t wonder aloud – that wasn’t it the same army that has been accused of shooting journalists? Wasn’t it busy organising I Love Army rallies by the same folks who were rampaging in Islamabad this week? How come the army is running the biggest real estate business in the country? Can it focus on a war when it’s busy allotting prime lands to its officer cadre? After all, we don’t ask our estate agents to drive our tanks.

The clues to what we have become can’t be found in the military strategy against Taliban. For that, we need to look at the logic being used by the lovers of prophet, a logic that is more pervasive than any jihadist ideology. Because it’s not only the honour of our own prophet we care about so deeply, we wouldn’t let anybody insult any prophet. Even if it was their own.

In a town named Mirpur Khas in the interior of Sindh, railway police reported another blasphemy a couple of years ago. In any other place, railway police would be tasked with the security of the railway lines, making sure passengers get on and off trains without harming themselves and others. Having lived and travelled in this country for long enough, I have never come across a non-Muslim preacher who has tried to convert me to their religion. It’s always Muslims trying to make us better Muslims.

What hurt the sentiments of the police was that when they opened these travel guides, they saw the figure of Jesus and, as was his habit, he wore nothing but a loincloth. An almost naked prophet? What could be more outrageous than that?

That logic makes perfect sense in a place where an overwhelming majority has never seen any religious icon except their own. If today, they walked into a church they would be appalled to see that Jesus usually isn’t wearing much. And why can’t Christians be left alone to do whatever they want with their own prophet? Because Christ is our prophet, too. Does anyone really believe that when he is resurrected, Jesus will return as a Christian? No, he’ll come back as a Muslim. And if he has learned from his past mistakes, he’ll return as a Sunni.

Hopefully by then, we would have solved our most pressing problem.

Those who want to blow us up in parks, and those demanding the right to kill us if we are disrespectful, agree on one thing: there is too much vulgarity and obscenity in the society. Not because we routinely get our children slaughtered and then call them heroes, but because there is too much song and dance on television, too many women on advertising billboards.

We all know that in a war that goes on for such a long time, things start to blow up in towns and cities. A couple of years ago a dilapidated little cinema called Shama was blown up in Peshawar. Eleven people died and we worried about what kind of movie they were showing in this cinema. It turned out to be the kind of movie that you can’t watch with your kids. We are apparently top of the list for the countries where people watch these kind of films.

The world loves its lists and loves putting us at the top or bottom of these lists. Pakistan rules the polio charts. Is there another country in the world where women and men who administer polio drops are hunted down like serial killers? There is a perfectly illogical explanation for it; polio drops are meant to make us impotent and these programmes are run by the same people who managed to locate Osama bin Laden by running another scam vaccination campaign. And while we say this, you must also believe us that Osama was never here to begin with.

We are often in the top 10 of those “most corrupt country” lists. In a rather poetic-sounding list called the “fragility index” we are again somewhere at the bottom, or is it on top? We are too fragile to tell. According to one such mythical list popular in Pakistan, we are the fourth most intelligent nation in the world. According to another similarly unreliable list, we are the world’s top porn consumers. A few years ago we were searching for the word “sex” more than any other nation on Earth. That’s quite an achievement (and probably supports the fourth most intelligent nation theory), considering the fact that most websites with any variation of the words “sex”, “girl”, “animal” or “Rushdie” are blocked in Pakistan.

As the rescue workers went through the rubble of Shama cinema, young, slick, newly elected politicians sat in front of TV cameras and shook their heads: “Who can condone such a barbaric attack? Of course, we condemn it, but …”

And then they went on to remind us that the bombed cinema was known for showing blue films. What kind of Muslim can condone that? There was nothing comforting in that explanation except for the quaint, old-fashioned term “blue films”.

It didn’t even occur to us to ask these defenders of our morals whether they have considered the possibility that there can be slightly less harsh ways of dealing with this epidemic, such as issuing a notice to the cinema owner or sending round a few policemen to make sure that the day’s entertainment doesn’t turn blue. No, it seems that there is such a raging desire to cleanse ourselves from the filth shown on our screens that some of us must be blown up. When the TV reporters went looking for the survivors of the cinema attack, they hid their faces and refused to speak. Their shame is understandable because what kind of martyr would you be if you are blown up in the middle of a working day in a sleazy cinema watching a blue film.

Maybe there is a reason that we prefer mullahs to police our morals, rather than the police itself.

Hundreds of poorly trained and equipped policemen have laid down their lives for us. We can’t even pay them living wages. We were parked in front of a shop in a Karachi market. A policeman came up to us. He was portly, looked very tired and had a rusty Kalashnikov slung on his shoulder. He came and stood next to the car, staring blankly at us. We rolled down the window and asked what was the matter. We thought maybe we had parked wrongly; maybe he wanted to search the car for explosives. Maybe he wanted to check our identity to see if we were not planning to blow something up. He stood silently and then saluted us clutching his gun to his side. It was a limp salute. It was clear that he didn’t want to protect the city from us or us from the city. He wanted what thousands of children and women and men without limbs want at traffic lights everywhere – some loose change.

Long before we went to war, we insured our own personal safety and started to raise armies of private guards. From retired, dozing men with rusty revolvers to fit young men with flashy guns and walkie-talkies; you can buy the security you can afford. They usually live in small tents outside large mansions. Their kind employers have given them small TVs so they spend their days watching television, chatting to families and friends on mobile phones. Sometimes they play loud music from the same phones. The guns they carry cost as much as their yearly salary; sometimes we can see them cleaning their guns. If a speeding car approaches, they become alert. Sometimes they ask for ice as it’s very hot outside on the streets and their employers, or owners as the guards call them, can’t spare any ice. You don’t want the people who are supposed to protect you to get too comfortable with iced water and shade over their heads. Sometimes they accompany children to school or to a football game, sometimes you can see them at drive-thru windows of fast-food joints, collecting chilled shakes and fries for their owners’ kids.

In a country where airports and army bases are breached, people have the right to buy their own security. Right? Specially if they can afford it? Sometimes we need them to save ourselves from other people’s guards.

We saw a young man barely out of his teens on the roadside, a Kalashnikov strung on his shoulder, a khaki bullet pouch tied around his waist. He knocked at the car window frantically. A mugger, we thought, a mugger in uniform as he wore the standard attire for private security guards. But he didn’t have the aggressiveness of a robber or the poise of a private guard. He was visibly distressed. When we lowered the window, he gave us a piece of paper with a phone number on it. He was from a village, far away from this city, hired as a guard through a cousin. He had arrived early in Karachi after a 26-hour journey. His owners had welcomed him, given him this uniform, this gun, this bullet pouch. They had also given him lunch and in the evening asked him to accompany their kids to a fast-food joint. They had bought some burgers and driven off. They had forgotten that there was a new guard travelling in the back of their SUV. He didn’t have an address; he wasn’t even sure about the name of his new owners. He was in a new city, the biggest he had ever seen. He had an automatic weapon, a pouch of ammunition and a phone number scrawled on a piece of paper.

Sometimes people who can afford private guards can be careless. They can buy security for themselves. They can demand and get wars for people who live a thousand miles away. They can ask for hangings and get them. As the country lurches from a season of bloodbaths to a season of hangings, the temperature in their air-conditioned room never changes. They never have to take their children to a local park because their front lawns are larger than most public parks. They can afford to be careless because they have private guards. They can demand another war. They can bring in more private guards.

the guardian

__________________
I Am The Captain Of My Soul .. !
--- Nelson Mandela ..