Pakistan in Media

ISLAMABAD: Security forces have apprehended a most wanted terrorist Abdullah Shah Mehsud with Rs 10 million head money from Tank (the head money has been paid to the informer) during the operation Rah-e-Nijat in South Waziristan.

Our Miramshah correspondent adds: Meanwhile, the security forces sought tribesmen help in arresting 19 most wanted militants in NWA and also announced reward for the informers. Tribal sources said pamphlets were dropped from a plane at about 4 pm in different areas of the North Waziristan announcing the reward.

The militants on whom head money announced included Hakimullah Mehsud, (Rs50 million), Qari Hassain, (Rs50 million), Wali Rehman, (Rs50 million), Commander Gurguray, (Rs20 million), Mazloom Yaar, (Rs20 million), Azam Tariq spokesman (Rs20 million), Noor Samad, (Rs20 million), Maulvi Shamim, (Rs20 million), Commander Muhammad Ismail, (Rs20 million), Jalil Mahsud commander, (Rs20 million), Sher Azam commander, (Rs20 million), Shah Faisal Mehsud, (Rs20 million), Nisaruddin, (Rs20 million), Azmatullah Barmand, (Rs20 million), Commander Anwar Kulachi, (Rs10 million), Khan Saeed commander, (Rs10 million), Commander Asmatullah (Rs10 million), Abdul Wahab commander (Rs10 million) and Abdullah Shah (Rs10 million).

The News International,Pakistan, Saturday, July 18, 2009
NEW DELHI: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged India on Friday to join Washington in supporting Pakistan’s fight against terrorism, but Delhi demanded results before it begins formal peace talks with its rival.

Clinton arrived in Mumbai late on Friday at the start of a five-day visit designed to cement ties and dispel any doubts about US President Barack Obama’s commitment to India’s role as a rising global power.
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The News International, Pakistan, Thursday, July 02, 2009
PESHAWAR/MIRAMSHAH: The Pakistan Army on Wednesday ruled out launching military operation against the Taliban militants in North Waziristan and pledged to honour the February 17, 2008 peace accord signed with the tribes despite the unprovoked attacks against its troops.

However, violence continued in the area as three persons, including two women and a child, were killed and six others sustained injuries when military helicopters pounded Madakhel village on Wednesday morning.
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Editorial, The News International, Pakistan

Wednesday, May 27, 2009
The strategically important mountain resort of Malam Jabba has been seized from the militants. The ISPR says Mingora could be cleared of the Taliban within a week or so. Collaboration of this has come in the comments made by Maulana Fazalullah that his men have been asked to stop fighting in the principal city of Swat to avoid inflicting suffering on civilians. This indeed is ironic; in different circumstances the comments would even have been amusing given that the militants have throughout their campaign used non-combatants as human shields and deliberately taken up posts within heavily populated areas, so that maximum casualties are inflicted when these locations are bombed. They have then blamed the security apparatus for killing innocent men, women and children.

The news of the liberation of Malam Jabba is psychologically significant. The resort, with its once pristine alpine forests and ski slopes, is one of the best known in the area. The destruction of the militant training camp located here also means there have been important gains made in taking it. Unfortunately, there have also been civilian injuries, possible deaths and the destruction of homes. We all hope that not long in the future, we can celebrate a final triumph over the militants and mark what would be a historic day, somewhat on the pattern of the events seen recently in Sri Lanka. But even as we inch a little closer by the day to this goal, preparing now to take on the Taliban in Waziristan, there is a need to consider other matters. As yet there has been no announcement of plans to rebuild houses destroyed in bombing or to compensate families for damage to lands, livestock and crops. This is a huge source of tension for people in the IDP camps. Many wonder how they are to manage in the months following the fighting, given their dependence on what they grow. News of shattered houses is also drifting back to many who have fled from relatives still based in Swat.

To keep up morale and ensure we can build a united front against militants, preventing any attempt at a future resurgence, a long-term recovery plan for Swat and other areas needs to be announced now. The militant move to pull back from Mingora suggests they may be thinking of further action at some point later, after troop numbers have been reduced in the area. This after all is a game they are experienced in. Our best hope against such tactics is to ensure local people are ready to fight them off. This they will be able to accomplish most readily if the sense of security and peace of mind that they currently lack is restored to them by easing fears about food security and survival. As one part of the strategy of war, the bid to offer them some reassurance and indeed some role in the future should begun now so that the victory achieved by our soldiers can be safeguarded and a return to combat in the months ahead avoided.

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The country's voters have never endorsed religious extremism.

By FOUAD AJAMI
The drama of the Swat Valley -- its cynical abandonment to the mercy of the Taliban, the terror unleashed on it by the militants, then the recognition that the concession to the forces of darkness had not worked -- is of a piece with the larger history of religious extremism in the world of Islam. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari was the latest in a long line of secularists who cut deals with the zealots, only to discover that for the believers in political Islam these deals are at best a breathing spell before the fight for their utopia is taken up again.

The decision by Pakistan to retrieve the ground it had ceded to the Taliban was long overdue. We should not underestimate the strength of the Pakistani state, and of the consensus that underpins it. The army is a huge institution, and its mandate is like that of the Turkish army, which sees itself as a defender of secular politics.

The place of Islam in Pakistani political culture has never been a simple matter. It was not religious piety that gave birth to Pakistan. The leaders who opted for separation from India were a worldly, modern breed who could not reconcile themselves to political subservience in a Hindu-ruled India. The Muslims had fallen behind in the race to modernity, and Pakistan was their consolation and their shelter.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, was secular through and through. The pillars of his political life had been British law and Indian nationalism. Both had given way, and he set out for his new state, in 1947, an ailing old man, only to die a year later. He was sincere in his belief that Pakistan could keep religion at bay.

Jinnah's vision held sway for three decades. It was only in the late 1970s that political Islam began its assault against the secular edifice. A military dictator, Zia ul-Haq, had seized power in 1977; he was to send his predecessor, the flamboyant populist Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, to the gallows. Zia was to recast Pakistan's political culture. It was during his decade in power that the madrassas, the religious schools, proliferated. (There had been no more than 250 madrassas in 1947. There would be a dozen times as many by 1988, and at least 12,000 by latest count.)

Zia had been brutally effective in manipulating the jihad in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union. His country was awash with guns and Saudi and American money. He draped his despotism in Islamic garb. He made room for the mullahs and the mullahs brought the gunmen with them.

Say what you will about the ways of Pakistan, its people have never voted for the darkness that descended on Swat and its surroundings. In the national elections of 2008 the secular and regional parties had carried the day; the fundamentalists were trounced at the polls. The concessions in Swat were a gift the militants had not earned.

The preachers and the gunmen who brought their reign of terror to Swat made no secret of what they wanted. Sufi Mohamed, the radical cleric who cut the deal on behalf of the militants, was clear about his project. He, and his gunmen, would define the true nature of the faith. They would separate the true Muslims from the "apostates" in their midst. They would replace the system of justice with Shariah law. They would restrict the access of women to the public space. They would war openly against democracy, declaring it a godless innovation at odds with Islam. The conquest of Swat was to be a message to the populace: The writ of the Pakistani state, its monopoly on order, had been broken. The battle was joined, for the very legitimacy of the Pakistani army had been at stake.

In the 1980s, Pakistan led to Afghanistan, and to the final battle of the Cold War. Nowadays, the struggle in Afghanistan leads back to Pakistan, and for a battle on behalf of Muslim modernity. The stakes in Pakistan for the U.S. are vital. Its population is at least six times as large as that of Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, the question of the Taliban is a tribal one. The strident religion is a vehicle for Pashtun resentment and ambitions. Afghanistan is a relative stranger to the doctrines of political Islam that have been blowing through the Middle East and the subcontinent for decades.

America travels light into this region. South Asia has not been a place of American imperial reach. We barely took notice of Pakistan when political Islam began its march there, for we once thought that the religious reactionaries could be managed and contained.

We have a new American president, but we have yet to figure out the new American mission in Pakistan. The Democrats had had a simple approach to Pakistan: It had been wrong, they insisted, to embrace the dictatorial Gen. Pervez Musharraf, for he had taken our treasure but had not severed the ties of his intelligence services to the religious extremists within his country and in Afghanistan. Gen. Musharraf is gone, but no redemption has come.

In his days on the stump, candidate Barack Obama had maintained that he would begin with active diplomacy over the long-standing Pakistani-Indian dispute over Kashmir. But by any reckoning, India's weight and power preclude taking up that question. No government in New Delhi would countenance any change in the status in Kashmir.

In truth, the U.S. can't alter the balance of power between India and Pakistan. For six decades now, Pakistan has lived in the shadow of India's success. This has tormented Pakistanis and helped radicalize their politics. The obsession with the unfinished business of partition (Kashmir) has been no small factor in the descent of Pakistan into religious and political extremism. The choice for Pakistan can be starkly put: the primacy of Kashmir in political life or the repair of the country, the renewal of its institutions, and the urgent task of putting in place an educational system that would undercut the power of the religious reactionaries.

In his desire to be the un-Bush, President Obama seems bent on waging this war in the "AfPak theater" without ennobling it, without giving it a name or a stirring call. We are not to see this struggle through the lens of the "long war" against jihadism and Islamism, for this would give vindication to the way George W. Bush saw the world in the aftermath of 9/11. Besides, we had declared that war done and over with, a great overreach.

By the Obama administration's practice and admonition, we are not to see the ideological trail from the Middle East to South Asia that has put the world of Islam and its fragile modernism in great peril. Ours is a stealth campaign. We want to "degrade, dismantle, and defeat" al Qaeda, deny it the ability to do us harm. In Afghanistan, and in the Pashtun belt in Pakistan, we wish to separate the "reconcilables" of the Taliban from al Qaeda and the forces of the global jihad. But the people themselves, we hold at arm's length. We are not to invest ourselves in their affairs in the way George W. Bush invested himself in the reform and freedom of the Greater Middle East.

For a man of words, a bestselling author at that, the reticence of Mr. Obama about the stakes in this struggle is odd and bewildering. Ideology is "so yesterday," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently said, telling us volumes about our current diplomatic practice. So for Mr. Obama, it was two days in Turkey -- which has hectored us now for the full length of a decade and given voice to the most malignant fantasies of anti-Americanism -- and four hours in Camp Victory. Under Mr. Obama we are not to embrace the Iraqis, and claim the victory we won there and the decent democratic example we implanted on so unpromising a soil. In the same vein, we are to "do Pakistan," but clinically, without giving a name to the dangers that attend it or to the better heritage we should be calling it to.

For so pragmatic a people, Americans have done best when called to great undertakings. It is not enough to carry to this contested landscape in South Asia the cold-bloodedness of the so-called foreign policy realists.

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Beijing, which is hesitant to get more deeply involved, is asked to provide training and even equipment to help Pakistan counter a growing militant threat.

By Paul Richter
May 24, 2009

Reporting from Washington -- The Obama administration has appealed to China to provide training and even military equipment to help Pakistan counter a growing militant threat, U.S. officials said.

The proposal is part of a broad push by Washington to enlist key allies of Pakistan in the effort to stabilize the country. The U.S. is seeking to persuade Islamabad to step up its efforts against militants, while supporting the fragile civilian government and the nation's tottering economy.

Richard C. Holbrooke, the administration's special representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan, has visited China and Saudi Arabia, another key ally, in recent weeks as part of the effort.

The American appeal to China underscores the importance of Beijing in security issues. Washington considers China to be the most influential country for dealing with isolated, militaristic North Korea. Beijing also plays a crucial role in the international effort to pressure Iran over its nuclear program.

China traditionally has been reluctant to intervene in the affairs of other countries. However, Chinese officials are concerned about the militant threat near its western border, fearing it could destabilize the region and threaten China's growing economic presence in Pakistan.


A senior U.S. official acknowledged that China was hesitant to get more involved, but said, "You can see that they're thinking about it." He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the diplomatic sensitivity of the subject.

U.S. officials believe China is skilled at counterinsurgency, a holdover of the knowledge gained during the country's lengthy civil war that ended with a communist victory in 1949. And with its strong military ties to Pakistan, U.S. officials hope China could help craft a more sophisticated strategy than Islamabad's heavy-handed approach.

The Pakistani military has used artillery and aircraft against Taliban extremists in the Swat Valley and surrounding areas in its ongoing offensive. "They're very focused on hardware," the senior U.S. official said of the Pakistanis. But the fighting has forced more than 2 million civilians to flee, United Nations officials estimate, and a humanitarian crisis looms.

The tide of displaced people could set off a backlash against the campaign among ordinary Pakistanis, many of whom already see the fight as driven by American, rather than Pakistani, interests.

China's strategic alliance with Islamabad dates to the 1960s. Beijing has sold Pakistan billions of dollars' worth of military equipment, including missiles, warships, and tanks.

China also has a huge economic presence in Pakistan. China's ambassador, Luo Zhaohui, said in a speech this month that there are an estimated 10,000 Chinese engineers and technicians working in the country.

But Beijing is increasingly concerned about the Pakistani insurgency, in part because Muslim separatists from the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang inhabited by Uighurs have trained in Pakistani camps and then returned to China.

Officials in Beijing also are concerned because of recurrent kidnappings and killings of Chinese workers in Pakistan. China has repeatedly pressed the Pakistani government to better protect its citizens.

Analysts say the Pakistani government launched an attack on radicals in the Red Mosque in Islamabad in 2007 in part because of pressure from China after several of its citizens were briefly kidnapped by militants. More than 100 people died in the assault, and Islamic militants say it represented a turning point in their struggle against the government.

Pakistani officials in Washington acknowledged a lengthy alliance with China.

"Pakistan and China have a time-tested bilateral relationship and Chinese support and cooperation have been crucial for Pakistan at many difficult times in our history," said Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S. "At this moment too, we continue to look to China as a trusted friend and partner while laying the foundations of a more enduring strategic relationship with the U.S."

Chinese officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Stephen Cohen, a South Asia specialist at the Brookings Institution, said China and Saudi Arabia wield more influence with Pakistan than does the United States. As a consultant to the U.S. government, Cohen has urged American officials to try to enlist Beijing's help.

"China can be a positive influence," he said. But he added that there may be divisions within the Chinese government, and that the Chinese military, despite close ties to the Pakistani army, may be reluctant to intervene.

Holbrooke, the U.S. envoy, visited China on April 16, and officials of both countries said then that they had agreed to work together on Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"We came here to share views on the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan because we share a common danger, a common challenge and a common goal," Holbrooke said at the time.

Lisa Curtis, a former congressional analyst now at the Heritage Foundation, a think tank, said it would be difficult to persuade China to assume any military role.

But she said the Chinese are concerned about the spillover effects of the Pakistani insurgency.

"The Chinese may try to deal with this privately," she said. "They won't want to make any public statements that might embarrass the Pakistanis."

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Amid Army Offensive, Extremists Are Filling Needs That the Government Can't

By Griff Witte
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, May 25, 2009

MARDAN, Pakistan -- Bacha Zab, a 32-year-old fruit salesman, dodged army shelling and Taliban sniper fire to escape his native Swat Valley. But when he reached the safety of a government-run refugee camp in this northwestern Pakistani city, he was told there was no more room.

Instead, for the past 16 days, Zab, his wife and their four children have been in the care of a private Islamic charity with close ties to a banned militant organization. "We are asking for help from the government, but they won't give it," Zab said. "In the government camps, there are only problems."

The government has been overwhelmed by the human tide that has washed over the northwest as about 2 million people have fled fierce clashes in Swat. With Pakistan experiencing its largest exodus since the nation's partition from India in 1947, only a fraction of the displaced civilians are receiving assistance in government-run camps. The rest are fending for themselves or getting help from private charities, including some that are allied with the very forces the Pakistani army is fighting in Swat.

Refugee camps in Pakistan have been prime recruiting grounds for militant groups ever since the Soviet invasion forced millions of Afghans to cross into Pakistan in the 1980s. Now, concern is growing that this latest wave of displacement will create a fresh crop of Pakistanis with grievances against the government and loyalty to groups that seek to undermine the state through violent insurgency.

The government says it is aware of the peril, but it appears incapable of mustering the resources it needs to provide shelter, food, water and medicine to so many people.

"If people are not looked after well, they tend to become extremists. It hasn't happened yet, but we're very conscious of it," said Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for President Asif Ali Zardari. "It's a big task."

Critics say the government has badly mismanaged the crisis, having failed to prepare for a scenario that officials must have known would result from the military offensive. "They should have foreseen this, but they didn't plan for it," said Aftab Khan Sherpao, an opposition lawmaker and former interior minister who comes from the northwest. "The people are not happy with the militants, but they're not happy with the army and the government, either. Now that anger will build up."

The true dimensions of the refugee problem are apparent in Mardan, one of the primary destinations for civilians fleeing the battles in Swat and in neighboring Buner and Dir. The city is studded with refugee camps consisting of endless rows of tan canvas tents that bake under 110-degree skies. Schools are packed to capacity with families sleeping on concrete classroom floors, with each classroom housing 40 or more people. Local residents say that virtually every spare bedroom in the city is being used to host displaced civilians, who may have to wait months or longer to return home.

Save the Children, an international aid organization that is providing assistance to the displaced families, estimated late last week that more than 80 percent of the people who had fled were living outside the camps, which number about 25. More than half the refugees are children, the group says.

The Pakistani government, already battling economic troubles before it launched its offensive in Swat, is heavily dependent on international aid for its support programs. The United Nations said Friday that it was seeking $543 million in additional donations to help those displaced by the fighting. The United States has announced $110 million in aid, which includes tents, radios and generators.

In the camps, there is seething resentment toward a government that residents say has let them down many times before.

"When we were being forced out of our homes, our president was enjoying himself in the U.S.," said camp resident Syed Karim Shah, referring to a visit by Zardari to Washington just as the battle in Swat got underway. "He's cashing in on this situation, bringing in money from the West."

Shah said the money has yet to filter down to the camps, where residents complain of a lack of bathroom facilities, electricity and fans. The temperatures in Mardan far exceed those in Swat, which is cooled by its relatively high elevation and a glacier-fShah said the money has yet to filter down to the camps, where residents complain of a lack of bathroom facilities, electricity and fans. The temperatures in Mardan far exceed those in Swat, which is cooled by its relatively high elevation and a glacier-fed river that runs through the middle of the valley.

Swat, which was once a major tourist hub and is considered among the most beautiful regions of Pakistan, has long been known for its moderate-minded population. But the Taliban in recent years has capitalized on weak and corrupt governance in the valley, offering locals an alternative form of justice that is swift and severe. The militants have controlled Swat off and on since late 2007. The government's offensive, which was launched nearly a month ago after the collapse of a peace deal and amid intense pressure from the United States, is aimed at retaking the valley once and for all.

But there were fresh signs this weekend that that may not happen soon and that the problem of displacement will worsen. The army launched an operation Saturday aimed at reclaiming the largest city in Swat, Mingora, and warned that the fight will be long and bloody. On Sunday, the army said it had captured key parts of the city -- including an intersection known locally as Slaughterhouse Square because it was used by the Taliban to hang the mutilated bodies of its enemies. Despite the army's gains, much of Mingora remains in Taliban hands, and up to 20,000 civilians are trapped in the city, caught between the military and the militants.

The army has warned that some Taliban fighters joined the fleeing residents and may have infiltrated the refugee camps. Residents of the government camps say that there is little security and that they do not feel safe there.

Outside the camps, groups with radical Islamist agendas are rushing to fill the void left by the paucity of government services. The Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation, the successor to a group known as Jamaat-ud-Dawa, has established a major presence in areas near Swat, feeding tens of thousands of displaced people and providing them with quality medical care.

Jamaat-ud-Dawa was banned late last year on suspicion of involvement in the November attacks in Mumbai that killed more than 170 people. After the ban, however, the group simply passed along its facilities and personnel to Falah-e-Insaniat, which continues to use the same insignia and slogan as the old group: "Free service in the name of Allah."

At the group's centers, which dot the landscape of Mardan, aid is dispensed by burly men with long hair, lengthy beards and firm handshakes.

Mian Adil, the group's deputy chairman in the region, said the organization focuses on serving those who have been unable to get help from the government. He said that if the refugee crisis continues, the group plans to also provide schooling for the children.

Such groups are not the only ones dispensing aid. Moderate Islamic and secular groups have also stepped up to provide a range of services to the displaced.

Just off the main road leading into Mardan, the Initiative for Development and Empowerment Axis, a secular Pakistani aid group, set up a camp late last week. Almost overnight, it was filled with 40 families. Mohammad Amad, the group's executive director, said his workers were serving an additional 1,400 people who had found shelter in homes or schools.

The group has received help from private donors and organizations, which have offered meals, clothes and money. Amad said he had asked the government for help but had received nothing.

Amad said that Pakistan, the United States and other Western countries could use the refugee crisis as an opportunity to change attitudes for the better, but that they will need to move quickly.

"We can win these people over if we give them the proper support," Amad said. "Loyalties are already eroded. They're already unhappy with the government, and they are unhappy with the West. If we're going to change that, this is the time to do it."

Source

Dawn, Pakistan
By Gul Bukhari
Monday, 25 May, 2009

PRIOR to the All-Parties Conference of May 18, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is said to have been apprehensive regarding the stance that right-of-centre and religious parties could take.

The leaders of some of these parties had indicated at the outset that they would endorse continued military action against extremist militants in the Malakand division only if the Pakistani government took a firm stance on the issue of drone attacks in the Fata area.

From the draft document of the APC resolutions, as well as subsequent dissenting statements in the media by the Jamaat-i-Islami, Tehrik-i-Insaaf, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI) and a few other parties, it’s apparent that Mr Gilani’s concerns were on the money. Clearly, unequivocal support of the military operation, the cause célèbre of the conference, is nowhere to be seen in the resolution!

Instead, expressions of grief, reaffirmation of commitment to sovereignty of state and constitution, safety and wellbeing of the internally displaced persons, appreciation of sacrifices of people etc form the bulk of the draft. Very noble, no doubt, but lacking concrete endorsement of military action against violent extremists.

Interestingly, one article of the draft resolutions condemns ‘the violation of Pakistan’s political, economic and territorial sovereignty including drone attacks’. Thus in conformity with their reported promised position on drones vis-à-vis backing the military operation, the same political parties have publicly condemned and called for a halt to the military action in Malakand post the APC. By extension, they see the entire war as America’s war and still recommend ‘negotiations’ with the Taliban.

Given that there are extensive arguments on record in support of the operation in Malakand, and it enjoys wide public support, it would be more pertinent to touch on the more complicated and emotive issue of the drones instead.

Drone attacks inside Pakistan by the US are an issue. However, the idea that these attacks are, or should be, linked to an endorsement of, or detraction from, an indigenous counter-terrorism policy is incomprehensible. Our leaders need to be very clear in their minds that the issue of sovereignty of the country is a completely different one from that of fighting a known, recognised, tried and tested enemy within. Those mixing up the two issues need help understanding why the two are, and must be kept, separate.

First, how will halting the military operations, or not backing any indigenous anti-terror policy, stop the drone attacks? Logically, not conducting an operation should spur the US to intensify the attacks rather than the opposite.

Secondly, not continuing to back the ongoing operations and allowing the militants to consolidate and continue their struggle to seize countrywide control, is akin to cutting your own nose to spite another’s face i.e. letting Pakistan burn to spite the US. Not a shred of sense is visible here.

The only mad glimmer of reasoning could be that it would be Pakistan thumbing its nose at America, ‘hey, see my suicide jacket? I will blow myself up if you don’t stop punching me, and you’ll be left behind cleaning up the mess I make with my bloody remains all over the region.…’

Having said this, the issue of the drones makes for a curious case in terms of evolution of the governmental stance. Over the past year and a quarter, the position has evolved from denial of the existence of attacks, to not having any bases within the country or lack of ability to put a stop to them to a final lack of will.

Ironically, having condemned violation of the country’s sovereignty continuously, including at the APC, the prime minister and his government are now reported to be in a dilemma vis-à-vis the US reaction if Pakistan were to actually take strong action, for example cutting Nato supply lines to stop the drone attacks. The fear being that the international community, led of course by the US, might in retaliation withdraw promised aid for the IDPs. This too is a bizarre connection to make.Firstly, the US is very unlikely to try and lead such an embargo out of public image concerns if nothing else. The current US administration has been seen to be at pains to improve its image worldwide, especially amongst Muslim nations. To refuse or actively impede aid, in the face of an enormous and burgeoning humanitarian crisis being beamed around the world, would rob the US of any moral high ground in terms of world opinion.

Secondly, the IDPs issue has gained recognition domestically and internationally as being one of the key factors that will determine continued public support for the war in Malakand. As a result it is being increasingly named as one of the biggest factors that will play a hand in whether this war can be extended to its logical conclusion. So, from a strategic perspective as well, can the US reasonably be expected to shoot itself in the foot by actively and vindictively precipitating further the IDPs humanitarian crisis, almost ensuring Pakistan’s defeat in the war against violent extremism?

Washington’s immediate goal is to crush the militancy in Fata. The drones are only a tool towards that end. It would not make any logical sense for the US not to see the wood for the trees.

It is critical to understand that drone attacks are a sovereignty issue. The war in Malakand is an issue of fighting an internal existential threat. Whether the government decides to take a firm stance on the drone attacks or not the support for this war will continue, since public support is based on considerations of self-preservation. It would be beyond foolishness to try and link the two.

Similarly, the aid issue is also a red herring. If the government isn’t able or willing to force a halt to drone attacks for whatever reason, the IDPs and their welfare should not be made the excuse. Either the state needs to take visible steps clearly in its power to stop the drone attacks, or take honest political ownership of them.

Instead of creating and pandering to misconceptions and false linkages the government and other national leaders need to help clarify issues and lead from the front.

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Editorial, Dawn, Pakistan
Monday, 25 May, 2009

EVEN the worm turns. For long left at the mercy of the Taliban, the people of the Swat valley now seem to be mustering the courage to stand up to the rebels and fight back. As reported in this newspaper on Saturday, the effectiveness of the army’s operations against the Taliban has encouraged the non-combatants to organise their own defence to foil the Taliban’s attempt to re-enter the villages from where they had been dislodged by the army. Last Thursday non-combatants in Kalam beat back attempts by the rebels to get a foothold in the area to resume their activities. Even though a minority, the Taliban have shown ruthlessness in their attempt to impose their version of religion on the people of Swat, who traditionally have been cosmopolitan in outlook because of the valley’s tourism economy. The most barbaric aspect of the Taliban philosophy revealed itself in their attitude towards women: they beat up even those who had the ‘audacity’ to go to bazaars for essential shopping wearing a burka. They also brazenly advertised their anti-modernity ideology by blowing up schools and colleges. Devoid of the rudimentary concepts of compassion and mercy, the Taliban have slaughtered people and shown off their acts of barbarism on video.

Having destroyed the once-flourishing tourist trade, the Taliban further hurt the people’s livelihood by threatening tailors and barbers and blowing up CD shops. No wonder the people of Swat have realised that it is their own survival that is at stake and that they have no choice but to help the army crush the rebels. What the government should note is that this change in attitude has occurred because the army has finally decided to do its job to destroy the enemy. If they have confidence that the government will not once again make a ‘deal’ with the Taliban, and the army will not abandon them, the people may be more encouraged to fight the Taliban and be an asset in a conflict that has countrywide ramifications.

Source

May 24, 2009
TEHRAN (APP) -- Leaders of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan will meet today to discuss and hammer out a joint strategy to tackle the issue of terrorism and militancy, confronting the region.


Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari, who reached Tehran on Saturday evening, had proposed this trilateral summit when he met President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and President Hamid Karzai on the sidelines of 10th ECO Summit in Tehran in March.

“The main issues to be discussed in the summit include terrorism -- which has taken grip over the whole region and also the world -- drug trafficking and human trafficking,” Pakistan’s Ambassador to Iran M.B. Abbasi told APP.

He said these issues are confined not only to this region but also have a far-reaching impact on the whole world.

“We are making history, as it is for the first time that Iran is being equally integrated with the issues that Pakistan and Afghanistan are facing”, he said.

“We will come out with solutions for problems that we might perceive in future,” he said.

Ambassador Abbasi termed the holding of Pakistan-Afghan-Iran summit an achievement of Pakistan. He said President Zardari during his visit to Tehran in March proposed that Iran, being an important player of the region, must be included and should be on board to tackle the issues confronting this region.

Besides attending the trilateral summit, President Zardari will also hold bilateral meetings with his Iranian and Afghan counterparts for increased cooperation in trade, economic and other spheres on bilateral front.

President Zardari and the Iranian President during their bilateral meeting are likely to review the whole range of bilateral relations and cooperation in various fields, with particular focus on trade, energy, communication and infrastructure.

With Pakistani Advisor on Petroleum and Natural Resources Dr. Asim Hussain already in Tehran to hold meeting on the multi-billion dollars gas pipeline project, which is currently in the finalization stages, a major headway is expected during President Zardari’s visit.

As Pakistan is facing severe electricity crises, President Zardari is expected to seek Iranian cooperation with particular reference to the proposed 1000 MW power supply from Iran to Pakistan via Balochistan.

President Zardari will also hold bilateral meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai during which the two sides are expected to discuss increased cooperation in various areas.

They are likely to discuss trade and economy and increased cooperation in tackling the challenges of terrorism and militancy.

Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Advisor to PM on Finance Shaukat Tarin and senior officials will assist President Zardari at the summit as well as during his bilateral meetings.

Source

Editorial, Dawn, Pakistan
By Asha’ar Rehman
Sunday, 24 May, 2009

THE people in government must embarrass themselves as they strive to perpetuate their stay in power. The ones billed as their replacement may only be slightly less acrobatic and less amusing in their antics. The gymnastics show is so repetitive that we would have gone crazy by now had we not learnt to laugh it off.

As usual, the latest democratic run coincided with vows of reconciliation and greater tolerance among the politicians. The quality of politics has suffered seriously in the melee that has followed in the subsequent 16 months or so. Just think it over: it’s been days since anyone talked about the sacred Charter of Democracy here.

In a statement that appeared in Friday’s papers, Nawaz Sharif has categorically reported that all political forces are behind the military operation in Swat. His is a heartening statement but the reasons cited behind it are varied. It is obvious that good old Mian Sahib is going to come under pressure from many of his old allies for having dragged them into this front that he is currently in the process of building. At any rate, the politician, the pivot of civilian rule and civilian supremacy the famous CoD celebrated and pledged to nurture, appears to be the least plausible cause behind the PML-N leadership’s sudden change of mind.

The record substantiates the suspicion. The politician — the leader, the worker — has died a hundred deaths in the war against the extremists. ANP rallies have been bombed and party members besieged, PPP gatherings have been blown up, while others have not only watched from a distance but have actually, to borrow a recent original expression from Ahsan Iqbal, tried to get political mileage out of the situation. The same politicians are now aghast when they are at the receiving end of uncharitable remarks of JI chief Munawwar Hasan.

‘PML-N reacts strongly to JI allegations’ read the headline to a news item carried by Lahore papers last week. How long have we waited for this bit to come for we knew all along that given the demands generated by an earnest push for power this was inevitable.

“The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz … dismissed as ridiculous Jamaat-i-Islami chief Munawwar Hasan’s statement that it had changed its stance on national issues to appease the United States….” was the introduction to the story. “ In a written statement, PML-N information secretary Ahsan Iqbal said his party needed no ‘certificate of patriotism’ from Hasan.”

Mr Iqbal was quoted as saying that “the PML-N had always taken a clear and categorical stance on all national issues, which is evident in the growing popularity of the party’s top leadership...” and that “… some religious political parties were unfortunately trying to gain political mileage through hypocrisy” (reference to JUI-F) and that “this … was not the time for political point-scoring; political forces should rather help the government steer the country out of the prevailing crises….”

In case someone was looking for consistency, the statement was rounded off with the PML-N refrain on just how unreliable the federal government is in carrying out the wishes of the all-parties’ conference (APC) on Swat.

The APC widened the fissures within the right. It ‘formally’ pitted the ones who are sensing a return to government against those who are not in the run for power and can thus afford to take principled stands.

The gulf will increase with time. Others will come forward to fill the void created by the PML-N’s departure from the anti-imperialist camp. Life will continue. We know what best some of us can do in times like these: wish for a third force to emerge.

Those fed up with the system are once again making noises that the incumbents and pretenders must lend an ear to. There has been a series of small incidents that tell the populace that even the gods in the PML-N may have feet of clay. Even though he has escaped the public condemnation of Justice Dogar’s daughter, an N-League lawmaker from Rawalpindi has been pulled up for examination fraud; there is an inquiry pending against the Punjab prison minister on the allegations of breaking customs rules; and while the fiery rights activists are yet to tear him apart in front of the camera, an N-League member of the Punjab Assembly has been named in a torture case.

Right now the PML-N may — one more time — dump unwanted allies like the JI, it may sacrifice a few errant members of its own to maintain the high moral ground that it has been holding. The party will find it harder to make similar sacrifices the closer it finds itself to the seat of power in Islamabad. And it has treaded the path frequently enough to not be talking about the Charter of Democracy and principles any more.

Source

Daily Times, Pakistan
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Analysis, Dr Hasan-Askari Rizvi

Militancy and terrorism are so deeply entrenched in Pakistan that the government and the military will need to deal with it on different fronts over a long period of time

The May 18 All-Parties Conference on Swat approved a ‘compromise’ resolution to accommodate the sensitivities of some political parties. The unanimous resolution condemned violent challenges to the state of Pakistan and its constitution. It emphasised the need for preservation and protection of the constitution and state structures, and also called upon everybody to work for the safety and well being of the refugees from the conflict zones.

However, the resolution did not mention the Swat operation. Nor did it directly endorse or require its closure. Similarly, the Taliban were neither condemned nor were they asked to give up arms. No reference was made to the role of the United States in Afghanistan and its fallout on Pakistan, although some leaders criticised the US in their speeches.

The APC manifested a split in the political class on the issues of the Swat operation and the Taliban. The major divide is between the Islamist parties and most of the others; the former opposing the Malakand operation at the APC. Post- APC, they have been either defending the Taliban or engaging in a virulent campaign against the military operation, blaming it for the suffering of the ordinary people. These parties are appealing to religious emotions by arguing that Pakistan’s Muslim army is killing its own Muslim citizens.

Islamist parties never made such statements when various militant groups executed civilian and military personnel in public, hanged the dead bodies of clerics from trees, bombed barber and music shops, burnt down girls’ schools, flogged people in public and launched suicide attacks.

Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e Insaf is the only party that is not labelled as Islamist but it opposes military action and sympathises with the Taliban.

The PPP, the ANP, the MQM and the PMLQ are very categorical in their support for the military operation. Other political parties also support these efforts. It can be safely argued that most of the political class is supportive of the efforts to check religious extremism and militancy, especially the efforts to dislodge the Taliban from Malakand. Such support also exists at the popular level, although people are deeply concerned about the problems of the refugees and want them to return to their homes in safety at the earliest.

The Taliban’s fatal mistake was their interpretation of the agreement between the TNSM and the NWFP provincial government as their victory and a sign of the government’s weakness. Therefore, Sufi Muhammad declared Pakistan’s constitution, parliament, democracy and the judicial system as un-Islamic, began to drag his feet on the selection of qazis and asked the regular courts to wind up their work in Swat.

On the other hand, the Taliban led by Fazlullah, moved their fighters to take control of the adjoining areas. Some government officials were kidnapped and the Taliban adopted aggressive posture even within the Swat valley.

These developments forced the NWFP and federal governments to change their disposition towards the TNSM and the Taliban. A large section of the public realised that the Taliban do not believe in a negotiated and peaceful resolution of the problem, and instead want to establish their authority at the expense of the Pakistani state.

Further, taking a cue from the defiance of Sufi Muhammad and the Swat-based Taliban, their denominational allies began to assert themselves selectively in cities like Lahore and Karachi.

This perturbed large sections of civil society, which was not associated with any political party, causing a major shift in public opinion in favour of stern action against the militants.

PMLN chief Nawaz Sharif argued at the APC that tough action must be taken to control terrorism and that the military operation should be taken to its logical end without giving any concessions to extremists and terrorists. His support was very reassuring for the government.

However, Sharif’s statement could not remove ambiguity about the PMLN’s stance on the Taliban. Prior to the APC, some of Sharif’s leading lieutenants took the government to task in the National Assembly for launching the military operation. Even after Sharif’s statement of support, PMLN parliamentarians Saad Rafiq and Ahsan Iqbal were not willing to support the Swat operation. Chaudhry Nisar Ali khan and Khwaja Asif were also not in favour of military action to control the Taliban menace.

The divergent perspectives of PMLN leaders reflect their desire to simultaneously pacify different foreign and domestic interests. Nevertheless, the PMLN position recognises the threat, and distinguishes itself from Islamist parties that defend the Taliban in an unabashed manner.

Jama’at-e Islami leaders are orchestrating a campaign against the Swat operation, describing it as a threat to Pakistan’s solidarity. The PPP-led coalition government is the main target of the Jama’at’s criticism and, at times, the army is also taken to task for “killing Muslims and country-men”. Pro-JI elements in the media are also quite active in advancing the Jama’at’s perspective.

The JUIF is part of the ruling coalition but its chief, Maulana Fazlur Rahman, is also critical of the Swat operation, though he does not want to quit the coalition on this issue. Other Islamist parties are also critical of the Swat operation. However, their appeal has no relevance beyond their members and supporters.

Islamist elements are facing an internal divide based on denominational differences. Religious leaders and groups subscribing to the Deobandi/Ahle Hadees/Wahabi Islamic traditions are generally supportive of the Taliban. They want the Swat operation to be stopped and the government to negotiate with the Taliban. They also view the Taliban as friends of Pakistan, and argue that if the government stops pursuing American agenda in the region, the trouble between the Taliban and the government would come to an end.

This perspective is rejected by most religious leaders from the Barelvi Islamic tradition, who want tough action against the Taliban. This group argues that the Taliban have adversely affected the reputation of Islam and thus cannot be allowed to enforce their version of Islam by coercion. Followers of the Shia tradition also share the Barelvi perspective on the Taliban. This division has weakened the clout of pro-Taliban Islamist parties and religious leaders.

The government and military authorities are determined to subdue the Taliban in Malakand because both are convinced that these elements cannot be allowed a free rein to expand their domain and threaten people.

The Swat operation is a turning point in Pakistan’s official disposition towards religious extremism and militancy. Pakistan will no longer tolerate such activity. However, militancy and terrorism are so deeply entrenched in Pakistan that the government and the military will need to deal with it on different fronts over a long period of time. If they stand firm in their resolve and succeed in subduing the Taliban, Islamist opposition will wither away.

Source

Editorial, Daily Times
Sunday, May 24, 2009

The Mutahidda Qaumi Movement (MQM) says it supports the “Sindh-based” parties against the accommodation of “outsiders” in the province. The reference is to the internally displaced persons (IDPs) fanning out from the Malakand region to all parts of the country. It is expected that the lion’s share of this migration will be taken by Karachi where there are already 4 million Pashtuns, making it the largest Pashtun city in the world. The MQM says the Taliban had entered the settled areas along with the IDPs and had set up their operational points in Karachi and others cities of Sindh “for suicide attacks and other terrorist activities”.

The MQM has found resonance with Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM), which in principle protests injections of alien population in the province till the Sindhi is threatened with becoming a minority in his own province. The Pakistan People’s Party-Shaheed Bhutto (PPP-SB) and JSQM have both urged the government to resettle the IDPs near the affected areas rather than in far-flung localities. The Sindh National Party (SNP) has also taken out a protest march asking Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah to convene an emergency session of the Sindh Assembly and stop the influx of refugees into Sindh. Ominously, the police go on reporting new arrival of criminals from the tribal areas at the same time, catching some of them as if in proof.

All migrations are accompanied by violence, the only exception in history being that of the Holy Prophet PBUH which actually led to the sanctification of the act of hijra because of its peaceful aftermath. Our Constitution gives the right to all Pakistani citizens to settle wherever they want, but the migration-violence sequence cannot be ignored. The MQM is opposed by the Sindhi nationalist parties, but such is the politics of migration, that it now joins them in opposing it. The Pashtun diaspora swells, made bitter by its terrorist fringe. But the innocent Swatis have to be sheltered till they can return to their paradise. For that, Sindh must prepare itself with the help of the world.

Source

Editorial, The News Iternational,Pakistan
Sunday, May 24, 2009
President Zardari has said that he did not say 'Waziristan is next' in an interview published by the London Sunday Times on May 17. The interview was subsequently widely referred to by our electronic and print media. Speaking on Friday last he said…"I had said the government would eliminate militancy wherever it felt the need to do so" - which is not the same as saying 'Waziristan is next.' There is no shortage of politicians who are quoted and 'on the record' one day and deny that they said anything of the sort the next – and not just politicians; everybody from soap-opera stars to scientists pontificating on swine-fever deny their words despite having been filmed and recorded as having said them. Much of the time the dispute about who said what and when is nothing more than a storm in a teacup and dies down as quickly as it flared up. But the president's alleged words which were published in a reputable newspaper carry weight - and in these troubled times, consequence. At least some of those leaving Waziristan now are moving as a direct result of the 'Waziristan is next' quote.

The puzzle with the president's most recent quote about his interview with the Sunday Times (conducted by Christina Lamb, who knows more than many western journalists about the ins and outs of Pakistani politics) is that nowhere in the interview is he quoted as saying 'the government would eliminate militancy wherever it felt the need to do so'. Nor does the word 'Waziristan' appear anywhere either – at least in the online version of the interview. The problem of the 'missing' quotes may lie in the difference between the printed and the electronic versions of the same interview. There are often significant differences in terms of content between the newspaper as sold to the customer on the street and the newspaper accessed online. Online content is sometimes edited differently to the print version of the paper, usually by a different team of people and not infrequently in a different building. As things stand we are unable to make a comparison between the two versions and thus cannot know definitively.

No matter, the president has said in an interview with a private TV channel that 'the government will hunt down the Taliban everywhere in the country' – and 'the country' clearly includes Swat but – arguably - not Waziristan. The status of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas is hedged with ambiguity, and whilst they are considered a part of Pakistan by the federal government the inhabitants frequently feel very differently. Reports of an 'operation' – which is not an 'operation' according to the army spokesman – in South Waziristan Agency may be the first indicators that the army is going to take the fight into the Tribal Agencies, boots on the ground. Not since 2002 has the army ventured across the line and into the Agencies, but needs must when the devil drives. The president may or may not have said something like 'Waziristan is next' – and it is in a sense immaterial either way. Waziristan is next; and we support the army and the government in their fight against those who would drag us back to the Dark Ages; and if in the process a little enlightenment is brought to the obscurantists of FATA, then so be it.

Source

21 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Pakistan on Friday appealed to the US public to make small donations through their cellphones to help care for some 1.7 million people displaced in a major campaign against Islamic extremists.

Ambassador Hussain Haqqani called on Americans to donate five dollars each by sending text messages and voiced hope that television networks would encourage the effort.

The funds are to provide food, clothing, medicine and other relief goods channeled through the United Nations, which earlier Friday called on the world to contribute a total of 543 million dollars.

"Every American can contribute this small amount and help the displaced people," said Nadeem Kiani, press attache at the embassy.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged the international community to take part.

"The Secretary-General urges the international community to show their solidarity with the people of Pakistan by supporting the Humanitarian Response Plan launched today in Islamabad, and the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Plan presented yesterday by the Government of Pakistan," his spokesperson said in New York.

Ban "is concerned that Pakistan is currently witnessing rapid displacement on a massive scale ... (and) stresses the urgency of raising the 544 million dollars requested in the appeal to address the critical needs of the affected population and assist in the normalization of their lives," she added.

Pakistan says more than 1,050 militants and 58 soldiers have been killed in the offensive, which followed US criticism accusing Islamabad of a weak response to Islamic extremists.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday announced 110 million dollars in emergency aid to Pakistan and said that she and State Department employees had already made the text-message donations.

US cellular users can make five-dollar donations by texting "Swat" to the number 20222

Source

Editorial, Dawn, Pakistan
Saturday, 23 May, 2009

AS thousands of people continue to flee the battle zones of Malakand division, apprehensions have been expressed by some about the resettlement of IDPs in other parts of the country. This underscores the intensifying tragedy of the IDPs, who are caught between a rock and a hard place with little hope of rescue by either the state or society. The over two million evacuees are not cross-border refugees but people displaced internally as a result of the Taliban-led insurgency and the military response. Indeed, the exodus began in earnest only after residents were told to evacuate in anticipation of the military offensive. Given that this call went out from the government, it was incumbent upon the state to plan for an eventuality of the sort and divert resources towards the protection and rehabilitation of IDPs. Lessons could have been extrapolated from the relief effort in the wake of the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, and bodies such as the National Crisis Management Cell put on standby.

It must also be noted that the insurgency and the need for a military response did not materialise unexpectedly. The interlinked issues of the Taliban and militancy had been festering even before the current government took charge. The matter was repeatedly mishandled by both the state and the army: where the former resorted to ill-advised concessions such as the Nizam-i-Adl Regulation, the latter failed to take decisive action in its earlier attempts to secure the area and, indeed, allowed the operations of persons such as Maulana Fazlullah to continue unchecked until matters reached a crisis point.

Meanwhile, other than in areas close to the conflict zone such as Mardan which received the first flood of evacuees, the response of the citizenry has been sluggish. In Karachi and Hyderabad, the issue has been clouded by ethnicity-based politics, while a glaring lack of empathy is evident in much of the country. This is a factor that could further alienate the IDPs, and prove disastrous in the long term. It is imperative that the IDP crisis not only be understood in its full perspective but that the affectees’ rehabilitation and return to their hometowns become the country’s foremost priority.

Source

Editorial, Dawn, Pakistan
By Faizullah Jan and Syed Irfan Ashraf
Saturday, 23 May, 2009

POLITICIANS and analysts are often heard discussing the measures being taken to minimise the collateral damage resulting from the Swat and Buner operations.

But their words come across as mere rhetoric to those who are actually experiencing a living hell. While the IDPs in camps have their own set of difficulties where the provision of necessities is involved, those who are still in the Swat valley are facing dire food shortages, a prolonged curfew and Taliban militancy. A phone call from the trapped people in the scenic town of Bahrain on the main Kalam-Mingora road indicates the measure of desperation. “We have been under curfew for the last three weeks. There is no wheat flour, no rice, no sugar, no medicine,” says Iqbal Khan. “Today we eat only peas and potatoes. Soon we will be foraging for leaves in the woods.”

Starvation also stalks the vales of Matta, Odegram, Hazara, Shill Hund, Shah Dheri and Kalam where, as in Bahrain, stocks of food and medicine are fast depleting. Thanks to the curfew, these areas have been cut off from the rest of the country ever since the military operation began. Worried about the looming starvation, a Kalam local, Noor Zada, says over the phone, “We are fighting on two fronts. The Taliban are about to take us to task for defying them while the absence of food and medicine can only kill us.”

While correct figures are not available, it is estimated that over 400,000 people are trapped in the northern belt of Swat stretching from Mingora, Miandam, Madyan and Bahrain to Kalam tehsil. At least 800,000 are believed to be stranded in Kabal, Aligrama, Hazara, Shah Dheri, Shill Hund etc. The plight of thousands living in the main town of Mingora and its outskirts is scarcely any different. While many are unwilling to leave because they are unsure of conditions in camps and the security of their families en route, some have chosen to stay back for other reasons.

In an essentially agrarian society like Swat, families cannot afford to abandon their hearths and homes. Their chattel, standing crops and orchards are their lifeline and looked upon as extensions of their body and soul. The poor farmers of upper Swat invest a whole season of their lives to plough fields and prune orchard trees.

When they lost tourism to the medieval mentality of the jihadists, potatoes and turnips were their only source of sustenance and revenue. They sold their yields down-country to make ends meet, also storing some of the produce for their own use in the harsh winters. But protracted hostilities in the valley have left them with no cash, and supplies in storage are virtually exhausted. Thus starvation awaits the population of Swat if the military operation does not rectify matters. The situation in lower Swat, including the outskirts of Mingora and Bari Kot, is equally alarming.

Operation Rah-i-Rast caught Swat residents unawares. They had little time to pack up and leave for a safer place. Only half the population of Swat managed to leave the valley of death. Even then, a majority left behind one or two family members to guard homes and keep an eye on standing crops and chattel. Others, including scores of families in upper Swat, could not flee due to non-availability of transport or simply because they could not afford the travel expenses. Children are missing in hundreds while families in Peshawar wait for male members to turn up, expecting them to have taken refuge with their relatives in upper Swat — although nothing is certain.

The stranded people face a bizarre situation: death is staring them in the face from three directions. If the military operation is a protracted one, they face starvation because of curfew and the consequent closure of supply routes; if the operation intensifies there is bound to be great collateral damage; and if the Taliban face defeat they may turn on the residents for not being on their side. Their fears are justified.

In November 2007, 60 militants with heavy weapons marched on Kalam tehsil in Swat. However, they left when a local jirga told them to implement Sharia in lower Swat first and then extend it to Kalam. Many Taliban took this as defiance. After two years, over 50 Taliban armed with sophisticated weapons reached Kalam to settle past scores. This led to a clash in which six Taliban were taken hostage. The issue was resolved on Thursday, when the elders of Kalam, fearing a Buner-like situation in which suicide bombings and brutal punishments were imposed on the people for defying the Taliban, offered to free the captured militants in return for the release of 150 of their own people in Taliban custody.

Meanwhile, hospitals in these areas are not functioning. There is no electricity, no medicine, no doctors. Collateral damage does not simply mean death by a stray mortar shell and carpet bombing — it can also include fatalities caused by starvation and disease. This is what analysts and strategists are not factoring into their discussion about civilian casualties in Swat.

With many Swat residents wanting to move out of the area, they need to be supported by the government. The first thing that the government can do is to provide them safe passage — in Kurram Agency people were airlifted although there could be technical difficulties in doing so where Swat’s larger population is concerned — before they end up as the Taliban’s human shields. But before that food and medicine must be airdropped, especially in areas where the militants have not reached.

Today the people of Swat loathe the Taliban and look towards the government to rescue them. They are ready to fight alongside the army against the extremists. But if the government’s apathy and the people’s agony persist — as exemplified at the time of writing by a procession from Bahrain marching towards Madyan chanting ‘atta do ya raasta do’ (‘give us bread or safe passage’) we can end up counting Swat residents among the Taliban.

Source

Daily Times, Pakistan
May 23, 2009
COMMENT: Saleem H Ali

Although some of the radical madrassas will still need to be weeded out, embracing Islamic education with an integrated reform strategy is more likely to reduce militancy, rather than lamenting madrassas as arcane institutions

As policy-makers and the media abroad agonise over the situation in Pakistan’s Swat valley, madrassas are back on the front page in papers such as The New York Times. The linkage between extremism and education should be fairly obvious but it seems to still elude most analysts. Indeed the word “Taliban” means “students” in Pashto, suggesting an inherent connection of these militants with some form of “learning”.

Incendiary information at these Islamic seminaries is once again being considered both a symptom and a cause of Pakistan’s problems. The latest mantra appears to be that because government schools have failed, madrassas are filling a social void that offers free education and sustenance for the rural poor but causes massive radicalisation at the same time.

Madrassas in Pakistan are certainly a matter of concern but rather than finding ways to diminish their recruitment, they need to be engaged and internally reformed. These seminaries already have a major physical and financial infrastructure in the country that can be harnessed positively alongside investments in government schools.

Only four years ago, famed terrorism analysts Peter Bergen (among the few western journalists to have interviewed Osama bin Laden) and Swaty Pandey had argued in The New York Times that concern over Islamic education was all a ‘madrassa myth’. Basing their analysis on a controversial World Bank study (co-authored by two Pakistani-American academics) about the actual number of madrassas in Pakistan, Bergen and Pandey had argued that “while madrassas are an important issue in education and development in the Muslim world, they are not and should not be considered a threat to the United States” because of their relatively small number and since terrorists who attacked the West had largely not been educated in madrassas.

However, as many of the suicide bombers in recent months have been traced back to madrassas, the pendulum has swung again, as now analysts discover that civil strife in Afghanistan and Pakistan can be just as dangerous for Western interests. Focusing on the core problem of curricular reform can provide us a path out of this ambivalence about madrassas.

While growing up in Pakistan, I attended a private English-medium school but every afternoon, I would also receive Islamic learning from a religious scholar who hailed from a prominent madrassa in Lahore. As I reflect back on that time, the core problem of contemporary Islamic education remains a general antipathy towards critical thinking.

Similar concerns have existed in other religions as well, but Islamic schools in Pakistan have contended with a host of circumstances that compounded these challenges. The sectarian divide between Shias and Sunnis in Pakistan was accentuated by funding from Iran and Saudi Arabia to specific strains of madrassas, particularly in southern Punjab. Exclusionary doctrines rather than pluralistic interpretations of Islamic texts were preached by both sides to gain more adherents. Religious political parties as well as the Pakistani government and security organisations capitalised on the fruits of radicalisation since unquestioning allegiance was easy to achieve with curricula that portrayed the world in stark terms of good and evil.

But the radicalisation of madrassas should not lead us to give up in despair. In other parts of the world, madrassas have served an appropriate educational purpose. For example in West Bengal, India, a survey of Islamic schools in January 2009 found that because of the higher quality education at madrassas, even non-Muslims were actively enrolling in them. This was remarkably akin to how in Pakistan many Muslim families send their children to Christian schools because of the high quality of teaching and discipline.

Hindu enrolment in several Bengali madrassas, for example, was as high as 64 percent because many of these institutions offered vocational training programmes. Such examples can certainly be emulated in Pakistani madrassas as well. We should not give up on madrassas but rather help bring them back to their heyday of pluralistic learning.

The strategy of ‘draining the swamp’ by establishing sparkling government schools alongside madrassas, which appears to be the current approach from development donors, is likely to have limited success. Madrassas will immediately resort to a defensive strategy of labelling the government schools in conspiratorial terms and still be able to recruit students quite zealously from religious families. Investment to improve education is needed across Pakistan in all kinds of schools, including madrassas.

The only way to solve the madrassa problem is to engage in a process of reform that focuses on pluralism and conflict resolution skills that should be facilitated by the Pakistani government with the assistance of other Muslim countries and ulema.

There are already some positive moves from the ulema in Pakistan. Religious clerics from both the Deobandi Tablighi Jama’at and the Barelvi Sunni Tehreek have publicly rejected the Taliban approach to Islam. Madrassas such as the venerable Jamia Ashrafia in Lahore are now willing to initiate specific teaching modules that stress the importance of non-violence and respect for other faith traditions.

Momentum elsewhere towards such efforts is exemplified by reforms in places such as Indonesia’s Guluk-Guluk pesantren, where Islamic environmental education is being used to develop peace-building skills. During my visit to central Java last year, I visited several Islamic schools that are producing very balanced and employable young professionals. Indonesia, which is the world’s largest Muslim country, should share some of its success in improving madrassa curricula with Pakistan.

Where Western donors can help is to provide vocational training and apprenticeship programs for madrassa graduates that will be consistent with their religious values. Careers as healthcare apprentices and disaster relief professionals are particularly appropriate in this regard.

Although some of the radical madrassas will still need to be weeded out, embracing Islamic education with an integrated reform strategy is more likely to reduce militancy, rather than lamenting madrassas as arcane institutions to be eroded by naively creating an alternate market for schools.

Source

Editorial, The News International, Pakistan
Friday, May 22, 2009

The Pakistan military appears to be closer than ever to a decisive success in Buner and Dir. Key areas still under Taliban control in both districts have been taken back. The militant casualty toll continues to climb, with the ISPR putting the number of those killed in Swat since the operation began at over 1,000. Some 80 militants are reported to have died in the latest operation in Buner, 200 in Dir.

There have been successes in the Swat valley too, though fighting remains more intense than in other areas with some of it spilling on to the streets of towns and cities. The follies of permitting the Taliban to establish such a firm hold in these locations is now obvious. But there are positive signs: In the Kalam area local people are reported to have risen up against the Taliban, tiring of their harassment. Perhaps this trend will increase. There is also another reality. It is clear people remain terrorized by the Taliban and anxious about a situation in which they may, some months down the road, return to a position of power. Locals in part of Swat, warned by the military not to shelter the Taliban or face action as their accomplices, complain of being caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. There is still a lack of solid conviction about the intent of authorities. This is apparent at refugee camps, where IDPs remain fearful of Taliban 'spies' in their midst. The apprehensions are visible too in the email sent to the BBC by a young woman in Mingora, who made allegations of collusion between intelligence agencies and the militants.

So often have people seen a half-hearted action against the Taliban, so many 'stops and starts' have they witnessed, that they still lack faith that this time, the operation is in earnest. There is a need to persuade them of this. In war, a great part of the battle is psychological. All successful military strategists are aware of this. Building in people a mindset of belief that the Taliban will be gone for good can play a part in ensuring this happens. So far, in some parts of Swat at least, the militants continue to act as masters. There have been stories of attempts to force families to wed daughters to their men, of the taking away of money and food from homes. Lifting the sense of fear these men cause will act to weaken them, to loosen their grip and to demoralize their forces. It must therefore be incorporated as one part of the full effort. For the present, the nation stands fully behind its armed forces. Tears have been shed for those killed while defending their country against the Taliban. This spirit must be built on and taken further. Eventually it will play a big part in the defeat of the Taliban and in the reclaiming mental space from them. This in many ways is as important as seizing back the physical territory that they still hold.

Source

By VOA News
20 May 2009

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the U.S. is losing the media war in Afghanistan and Pakistan - something she said must be reversed.

She told the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee Wednesday that militants broadcasting from radio equipment on the backs of pickup trucks are threatening and intimidating people.

She says while they are spreading what she called the "worst kind of disinformation" they have been more effective than the U.S. when it comes to strategic communications.

Secretary Clinton says as a result, the Obama administration is revamping its communications strategy - looking at new ways to directly reach people in areas where militants are active - including on their cell phones.

Clinton says the U.S. must not lose the "information war" in the region, and much do a better job at communicating its values and ideals to Afghans and Pakistanis.

She is seeking $48.6 billion in State Department funding for 2010, a seven percent increase over 2009 funding levels. Clinton also says the State Department will work side-by-side with the Defense Department to promote U.S. interests and security in the region.

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