The Indian Panorama

Tag: Balochistan

  • Pakistan hangs 8 including three plane hijackers

    KARACHI (TIP): Three Baloch insurgents, who hijacked a PIA plane in 1998 and tried to take it to India, were among eight prisoners who were executed on May 28 in different jails in Pakistan.

    The convicts, Shahsawar Baloch, Sabir Rind were executed in Hyderabad jail while Shabbir Rind was hanged in Karachi Central Jail.

    A court in Hyderabad sentenced them to death on August 20, 1998 and their appeals were later turned by the higher courts.

    The three men were members of the left-wing Baloch Students’ Organisation (BSO) and were demanding more resources, such as gas and electricity, for their region.

    Pakistan International Airline (PIA) Fokker plane was hijacked by the three men shortly after it took off from Turbat in Balochistan for Karachi.

    There were 30 passengers on board and the hijackers wanted to take it to India, but pilot Captain Uzair Khan duped them by landing at the Hyderabad airport, as the hijackers were told that they had landed in India.

    The three men had claimed that they hijacked the plane as they were opposed to any nuclear tests in Baluchistan, following India’s testing of nuclear weapons a few weeks prior to the incident.

    Later, the security forces stormed the plane and overpowered the hijackers.

    Meanwhile, another death row prisoner was hanged in Karachi Central Jail. He was guilty of killing a minor boy in 2003.

    A death row convict was hanged in Attock Central Jail. He had killed one person over a business dispute in 1998.

    A death row convict was hanged in Sahiwal Central Jail in double murder case.

    One death row convict was hanged in District Jail Sargodha.

    Another death row prisoner was executed in Haripur Central Jail. He was sentenced to death in 1999.

    Pakistan lifted moratorium on the death penalty after Taliban attacked a school in Peshawar and killed 136 students.

    Rights bodies have criticised Pakistan for resuming deaths penalty but it has persisted and so far have hanged at least 130 convicts.

    There are about 8,000 death row prisoners in Pakistan.

  • SHARIF FOR ACTION AGAINST SEMINARIES SUPPORTING MILITANCY

    SHARIF FOR ACTION AGAINST SEMINARIES SUPPORTING MILITANCY

    ISLAMABAD (TIP): Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has ordered authorities to take stern action against madrasas involved in extremism and militancy in the country, in the wake of a series of deadly attacks on mosques.

    No terrorist or militant organisation should be spared, Sharif said February 19 while presiding over a meeting of the Balochistan Apex Committee, set up recently to deal with the menace of militancy in the southwestern province.

    These committees were formed in Pakistan’s other provinces as well after the horrific Peshawar School massacre that killed 150 people, mostly students.

    “No one will be allowed to wage insurgency and commit violence under the patronage of sectarian and other organisations,” Sharif was quoted as saying by the Dawn.

    Religious seminaries (madrasas) and organisations involved in terror activities should be identified and proceeded against, he said, adding that his government was committed to eradicate terrorism and extremism.

    Sharif asked the provincial governments to implement the National Action Plan (NAP) and take stern action against terrorist organisations, it said.

    “We will have to take tough decisions to achieve the objectives of the National Action Plan,” he said,

    He stressed that terrorism must be dealt with sternly and militant and terrorist groups which were not ready to hold peace talks with the government would have to face action.

    Pakistan faces the dilemma of how to deal with thousands of madrasas run by powerful mullahs in the country. It has been reported that several of them are linked to extremism and some of them were providing shelter to militants or sending jihadists.

    Sharif while supporting religious schools has indicated to take action against those involved in militancy but so far no action has been taken.

    At least three people were killed when a Taliban militant attacked a Shiite mosque in Rawalpindi yesterday, the latest incident of sectarian violence after over 60 people, including children, were killed in a similar suicide bombing during Friday prayers at a mosque in Pakistan’s Sindh province on January 30.

    Two weeks after the attack, Taliban suicide bombers stormed a crowded Shia mosque in Pakistan’s Peshawar province during Friday prayers, killing more than 20 people.

  • 6 Pak cops die protecting Spaniard from jihadis

    6 Pak cops die protecting Spaniard from jihadis

    PESHAWAR (TIP): At least six Pakistani tribal policemen, escorting a Spanish cyclist, were on January 24 killed and the tourist critically injured as militants tried to abduct him in the highly volatile southwest Balochistan province.

    Militants tried to abduct a Spanish tourist, travelling on a bicycle from Dalbandin area of Balochistan, triggering an exchange of gunfire between the militants and Levies personnel, the local tribal police. At least six Levies men were killed during the clash while 10 others, including the Spanish national, were injured.

    The kidnapping bid that occurred in Koshak was foiled while the injured were shifted to a hospital in Mastung district. The Levies personnel were accompanying the Spaniard — said to be a cycling tourist who was coming through Iran into Pakistan — for security.

  • A great game that all sides can win

    A great game that all sides can win

    Pakistan is averse to discussing Afghanistan with India, fearing that would legitimize India’s interests in that country. But it would be in the interests of all three to do so, says the author.

    Two questions have increasingly taken centre-stage in discussions about what might happen in Afghanistan after United States withdrawal in 2014. One, if it will become a proxy battlefield for India and Pakistan, the two big South Asian rivals, and two, if anything can be done to prevent this.

    William Dalrymple, for instance, wrote in an essay for Brookings Institution this year that beyond Afghanistan’s indigenous conflicts between the Pashtuns and Tajiks, and among Pashtuns themselves, “looms the much more dangerous hostility between the two regional powers – India and Pakistan, both armed with nuclear weapons. Their rivalry is particularly flammable as they vie for influence over Afghanistan.

    Compared to that prolonged and deadly contest, the U.S. and the ISAF [International Security Assistance Force] are playing little more than a bit part – and they, unlike the Indians and Pakistanis, are heading for the exit.” The assertion is not new.Western commentators have long put out that the new great game in Afghanistan is going to be between India and Pakistan.

    The theory goes that India’s search for influence in Afghanistan makes Pakistan insecure, forcing Islamabad to support and seek to install proxy actors in Kabul to safeguard its interests, and that this one-upmanship is one of the biggest stumbling blocks to stability in that country. As 2014 nears, the idea has naturally gained better traction. India would have several problems with this formulation.

    The foremost is that such a theory panders to the Pakistan security establishment’s doctrine of strategic depth, in the pursuit of which it sees a third, sovereign country as an extension of itself. India, for its part, views its links to Afghanistan as civilization, and its own interests there as legitimate. Its developmental assistance to Kabul now tops $2 billion and it has undertaken infrastructure projects in Afghanistan.

    And, if the situation allowed, Afghanistan could become India’s economic gateway to Central Asia. New Delhi also believes the “proxy war” theory buys into Islamabad’s allegations against India that it refutes as baseless. Since about 2005, Islamabad has alleged that Indian consulates in Afghanistan, especially in Jalalabad and Kandahar, which are close to the Pakistan-Afghan border, are a cover for anti-Pakistan activities.

    It alleges that Afghanistan is where India arms and funds Baloch secessionists. And after the Taliban unleashed a relentless campaign of terror inside Pakistan, allegations are rife that sections of them are on India’s payroll. The Indian position would be that if there is a war, it will actually be a one-sided one, in which Pakistan targets Indian interests and Indians in Afghanistan through its proxies.

    The latest was the attempted bombing of the Jalalabad consulate in August. The deadliest, the bombing of the Kabul embassy in July 2008, was linked by the Americans too to the Haqqani network, a faction of the Taliban that is widely viewed as a proxy of the Pakistan security establishment. Despite repeated prodding by the Americans, the Pakistan Army has made it clear it will not go after safe havens of the Haqqanis in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

    NEW DELHI’S CONCERN

    Concerned that any instability in Afghanistan is certain to spill over across Indian borders, over the last two years New Delhi has suggested repeatedly to Islamabad that the two sides should talk about Afghanistan. But as Pakistan has emerged as a key player in facilitating talks with the Taliban, and while it has no problems talking to every other country with an interest in Afghanistan, including Russia and China, it has cold-shouldered India.

    The ideal course would of course be for trilateral talks involving Kabul, Islamabad and New Delhi. For, Afghanistan is not just a piece of strategic real estate but a sovereign country made up of real people. Right now, though, Pakistan is averse to any idea of talks on Afghanistan, believe as it does that India has no role in there, and that talking would give legitimacy to New Delhi’s claim that it does. It already resents the India- Afghanistan Strategic Partnership Treaty.

    DIVERGENCE ON VIEW

    The divergence surfaced starkly at a recent Track-2 dialogue convened by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung – a German think tank associated with the Social Democratic Party, which brought together retired bureaucrats, former generals, journalists, civil society representatives as well as one politician each from the two countries.

    One of the issues that came up for discussion was if there was at all a need for India and Pakistan to talk about Afghanistan. Most, but not all, Pakistani participants and some Indians too were of the view that talking about Afghanistan was impossible so long as tension between India and Pakistan remained, and that right now Islamabad was in any case too preoccupied with the ‘reconciliation’ process in Afghanistan.

    A suggestion was made by an Indian participant that in view of the approaching U.S.-set deadline for the withdrawal of its troops, and the possibility that a dialogue on other subjects between India and Pakistan was unlikely to resume until after the 2014 Indian elections, the two sides should consider discussing Afghanistan as a standalone subject in the interim. But this was dismissed by many Pakistani participants.

    Why should Pakistan jump to talk on something simply because India considered it important, asked one, when on every other issue, New Delhi behaves as if talks are a huge concession to Islamabad – including the recent Manmohan Singh-Nawaz Sharif summit in New York. But a far-sighted approach perhaps would be to consider that none of the likely scenarios in Afghanistan after the U.S.

    drawdown looks pretty, and to weigh the consequences for Pakistan itself especially if, as one Pakistani participant rightly suggested, the Taliban refuse to play Islamabad’s puppet; after all, they did not when they ruled Afghanistan from the late 1990s to 2001. As well, the Afghan presidential election, to be held in April 2014, is sure to have its own impact, though it is still anyone’s guess if it will be held and whether the country will make a peaceful democratic transition. In Pakistan, many commentators believe the backwash from Afghanistan post-2014 is dangerously going to end up on its western/north-western borders.

    Strategic depth no longer holds Pakistanis in thrall the way it used to in the last century. A Pakistani participant pointed out, only half-jokingly, that his country had ended up providing strategic depth to Afghanistan through its two wars, rather than the other way around.

    As for the view that Pakistan and India cannot talk about Afghanistan without repairing their own relations first, it might be worth considering if such a discussion could actually contribute to reducing bilateral tensions, given that the concerns over Afghanistan do not exist in a vacuum but arise from other problems in the relationship between the two.

    It could even provide the opportunity the Pakistan side has long wanted to bring up with New Delhi its concerns about Balochistan. By rejecting Kabul’s entreaties to New Delhi to play a bigger role in securing Afghanistan post-2014 than just training Afghan security forces, India has signaled it is sensitive to Pakistan’s concerns. As Afghanistan’s immediate neighbor, Pakistan is right to claim a pre-eminent stake in what happens in there, and India should have no quarrel with this. As was pointed out at the Track-2 meeting, Pakistan has suffered the most from the two Afghan wars; it provided refuge to Afghans during the first war in the 1980s. More than 100,000 Pakistanis live in that country.

    The two countries are linked by ethnicity, culture and religion; over 55,000 Afghans cross daily into Pakistan through the two crossing points Torkham and Chaman, not to mention the hundreds who cross over the Durand Line elsewhere. What Pakistan could do in return is to acknowledge that as an important regional actor, India too has legitimate interests in Afghanistan, and also as a route to Central Asia.

    After all, if Pakistan considers itself to be the guard at the geo-strategic gateway to Afghanistan, it must also recognize that squatting at the entrance can only serve to neutralize rather than increase the gate’s geostrategic importance. On the other hand, India-Pakistan cooperation in Afghanistan could open up a world of opportunities for both, and who knows,maybe even lead to the resolution of some old mutual problems. As both countries grapple with new tensions on the Line of Control, Afghanistan may seem secondary on the bilateral agenda. In reality, it may be too late already.

  • Suicide car bombing kills 15 people in Pakistan

    Suicide car bombing kills 15 people in Pakistan

    PARACHINAR (TIP): A suicide bomber rammed a car packed with explosives into the compound of a rival militant commander in northwest Pakistan on October 3, killing 15 people, a government official said. The commander, Nabi Hanfi, was not present at the time of the attack, said Wajid Khan, a local government administrator. Hanfi has been battling the Pakistani Taliban in the Orakzai tribal area where the bombing occurred. Gunmen first fired shots at Hanfi’s compound in Balandkhel village, and then the suicide bomber detonated his vehicle, said Khan. The blast killed 15 people and wounded six others, he said. No one has claimed responsibility, but suspicion will likely fall on the Pakistani Taliban. A local tribal leader, Malik Nek Marjaan, said the Pakistani government has been supporting Hanfi’s group in its battle against the Pakistani Taliban. On Wednesday, suspected separatists killed two Pakistani soldiers, in a wave of attacks targeting troops doing relief work in a remote region of the country’s southwest where a major earthquake killed at least 376 people last week, military officials said. Also in southwestern Balochistan province on Wednesday but far from the earthquake zone, a bomb went off at the Pakistan-Afghan border, killing six people and wounding 11 others, said Pakistani security officials.

    The attacks on soldiers providing earthquake assistance highlight the difficulty and danger involved in doing such work in an area where separatists have been battling the army for years. In the first attack, a bomb blast hit a military vehicle, killing the two soldiers, the officials said. The explosion near Mashkay, a village in the province’s southwest, also wounded three soldiers. Their unit had been dispatched to the disaster zone after the magnitude 7.7 earthquake rocked the province on September 24. Later in the day, gunmen carried out four separate attacks against troops delivering relief supplies in the same area and a checkpoint established as part of the effort, said Pakistani military officials. No one was hurt in those attacks, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. There was no claim of responsibility for the attacks but suspicion fell on Baloch separatists who have been battling the Pakistani military for years and have claimed responsibility for similar attacks in recent days.

    The military has been ferrying aid into the region by helicopter and evacuating the injured, but their increased presence in a particularly contested area at the earthquake’s epicentre has led to renewed clashes. Awaran district where the quake was centred has been a stronghold of the separatists. Even among Balochistan residents who aren’t part of the armed conflict, there is strong resentment against the central government, which many residents contend exploits the southwestern province’s oil, natural gas and mineral deposits. On Saturday, gunmen killed four Pakistani troops carrying rations for earthquake victims. Last week, militants fired on two helicopters, including one carrying top government officials surveying the damage. No one was wounded in the incidents. Wednesday’s bombing at the Pakistan-Afghan border took place at a land crossing located in the Pakistani town of Chaman, some 480 kilometres (300 miles) south of the earthquake zone, security officials said. The six people who were killed were civilians. The wounded included six Pakistani border guards and five civilians, said the officials, also speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

  • After YouTube, Pak targets more sites

    After YouTube, Pak targets more sites

    NEW DELHI (TIP): It’s been a year since YouTube was banned in Pakistan last September. But that’s not a stray case of online censorship in the strife-torn country. Activists say that several other websites such as those highlighting human rights violation in Balochistan have also been blocked in Pakistan. “We have what you can best describe as ‘covert censorship’. A significant number of websites covering Balochistan human rights violations have reportedly been blocked. Similarly, a website on the genocide of Shias in Pakistan was blocked and later unblocked,” says Sana Saleem of activist group, Bolo Bhi. The YouTube block was prompted by an Islamophobic film, Innocence of Muslims, which had found its way to the video-sharing website. Authorities justified the online jamming saying that the film could cause widespread violence. But activists point out that authorities have resorted to online censorship to stop people from watching politically inconvenient videos as well. One of them is a three-year-old video of former Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari pausing mid-speech at a public rally to say “Shut up!” to someone off-camera that prompted a YouTube block back then. Similarly, Dhinak dhinak, a song of the irreverent satirical band Beyghairat Brigade, has also been blocked on Vimeo, another video-sharing website.

  • PAKISTAN GETS THREE NEW ISLANDS FOLLOWING EARTHQUAKE

    PAKISTAN GETS THREE NEW ISLANDS FOLLOWING EARTHQUAKE

    GWADAR, PAK (TIP): Pakistan has just got three brand new islands — thanks to a major earthquake. When the shock of the temblor subsided on September 24, people living in the coastal town of Gwadar were stunned to see a new island in the sea. That’s not all. Two other islands have come up along the Balochistan coast. “The island near Gwadar is about 600 feet in diameter and has a height of about 30 feet,” Muhammad Moazzam Khan, technical advisor at WWF — Pakistan, told IANS over telephone. He said “gas was coming out” of the island, which primarily consists of “stones and soft mud”. The two islands near Ormara town are small. Khan said the islands had a diameter of about “30-40 feet and a height of about 2-3 feet”. “Gas is also coming out,” he said. He said that while some islands which form suddenly “stay on”, others gradually fade away. He explained that the islands were formed following the massive earthquake that rocked Balochistan province Tuesday. The death toll in the 7.7-magnitude earthquake has reached 348, and a total of 20,000 houses were destroyed. This is not the first time islands have formed off the Pakistan coast. “In 1945, two big islands had formed near the coast. One was two kilometers long while the other was half kilometre long,” said Khan.

  • Prove I Am A Terrorist: Hafiz Saeed Tells India

    Prove I Am A Terrorist: Hafiz Saeed Tells India

    ISLAMABAD (TIP): Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, who is wanted in India for the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, has said he was not a terrorist, and asked for an independent probe by judges from India and Pakistan to find out whether he was guilty.

    “You (India) are continuously calling me a terrorist. But I am not a terrorist, and if you are not satisfied, an independent judicial commission comprising senior lawyers and judges from India and Pakistan should investigate whether I am guilty,” the Dawn quoted Saeed as saying. “Whatever verdict the commission announces I will accept that,” he said. Saeed addressed a meeting in Lahore on Pakistan’s Independence Day on Aug 14, where he rejected India’s demand to Pakistan to hand him over The daily said participants at the rally raised slogans against India. “You (India) look to be very eager to get me.

    Don’t worry, I myself will visit India,” Saeed said. He said everyone in India called him a terrorist, but they should see his party’s relief work for flood-hit people. “Hafiz Saeed doesn’t threaten you but he is only exposing you before the world. You (India) are the country that ruined us through releasing floodwater into Pakistan every year,” he said. “You are generating electricity by using our water unlawfully. You are the people who are behind bomb blasts in Pakistan, mainly in Balochistan.

    You are killing innocent Kashmiris in occupied Kashmir,” he alleged. Saeed said the firing along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir was a “trick” to force Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to hand him over to India. He urged Sharif not to make India a friend. “We are ready to make you friend, but prior to that you must avoid firing, shelling at the LoC, killing innocent freedom fighters in Kashmir, interfering in the affairs of Balochistan and releasing floodwater into Pakistan,” Saeed said.

  • Sharif for warmer ties with India

    Sharif for warmer ties with India

    Says tackling terror and economic revival top priorities for the PML-N govt
    ISLAMABAD (TIP): Nawaz Sharif, poised for a record third term as Pakistan Prime Minister after his party’s emphatic victory in the landmark General Election, has sought “warmer ties” with India and said his government would devise a national policy to tackle the problem of terrorism. “We will contact every party for the purpose of forming our policy on terrorism,” Sharif said during an interaction with a group of foreign journalists at his farmhouse on the outskirts of Lahore on Monday. Referring to the attack on PML-N leader Sanaullah Zehri in Balochistan, Sharif said it would be wrong to say that terrorism had not affected PML-N. He said the PML-N government would respect the mandate given to parties by the people from the areas where they have won. Claiming that Pakistan will become the Asian tiger under his leadership, Sharif said economic revival was a top priority for the PML-N government.

    Sharif was greeted by world leaders, including the Saudi royal family and the British premier. Sharif expressed resolve to have cordial ties with all neighbors, including Iran, Afghanistan, China and India. Sharif called upon Pakistan Tehreek-e- Insaf to respect the mandate of the people and accept the results of the elections. Sharif said he would be “very happy” to invite Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Pakistan for his oath-taking ceremony as the new Premier. “We will be very happy to invite him. I got a call from him (Singh) yesterday. We had a long chat on the phone and then he extended an invitation to me and I extended an invitation to him,” said Sharif. He said it would be an honour if Manmohan Singh was present at the swearing-in. He further said he hoped to meet the Indian Prime Minister as soon as possible as he was keen on forging good relations between the two countries.

    The PML-N chief had earlier said he is keen on resuming the India-Pakistan peace process that was interrupted in 1999 by then Army chief Pervez Musharraf, who ousted Sharif’s government in a military coup. Prime Minister Singh had yesterday lost no time in congratulating Sharif on his election victory. Responding to questions on the drone strikes, Sharif said he would discuss the issue with the US leadership. Meanwhile, President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday telephoned Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Nawaz Sharif and congratulated him on winning the historic polls, according to dawn.com. Zardari expressed hope that Sharif would be able to strengthen the democratic process during his political tenure.

  • Democracy wins, federation loses

    Democracy wins, federation loses

    While Nawaz Sharif has won the election decisively, he faces the challenge of reaching out beyond his main base in Punjab to the rest of Pakistan
    Pakistan achieved a historic landmark with the completion of its five-year term by the civilian coalition government led by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the successful completion of elections resulting in the clear victory for Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N). The election results, surprising for many, point to the challenges ahead for the country. Although the PML won enough seats to be able to form the government without having to bargain too much with too many factions, its success comes entirely through the support of one ethnic group – the Punjabis. Every Pakistani province appears to have chosen a different party to represent it. The overall high turnout nationwide masks the harsh reality that very few people voted in Balochistan, where alienation from the centre has been growing.

    Ethnicity
    There is no doubt that people voted out the incumbents amid questions about their performance. But the virtual wiping out of the PPP in Punjab means that each Pakistani political party now reflects the dominant sentiment of a particular ethnic group. The PPP was the only party that had representation from all four provinces of Pakistan in the outgoing Parliament. The election result may be a step forward for Pakistani democracy. It is a step backward for the Pakistani federation. Given the history of complaints about Punjabi domination, Nawaz Sharif will have to reach out to the leaders of other provinces. Authoritarian rule has undermined national unity in the past because of Punjab’s overwhelming supremacy in the armed forces, judiciary and civil services.

    Democracy should not breed similar resentment among smaller ethnic groups through virtual exclusion from power at the centre. In addition to bringing the provinces other than Punjab on board, Sharif’s other major headache would be to evolve a functioning relationship with Pakistan’s military establishment. Although he rose to prominence as General Zia-ul Haq’s protégé, Sharif clashed with General Pervez Musharraf over civilian control of the military. He might be tempted to settle that issue once and for all, partly because of the sentiment generated by his overthrow and imprisonment by Musharraf. Changing the civil-military balance in favor of the civilians would be a good thing. But if it is done without forethought and caution, it could end up risking the democratic gains of the last several years. The PML-N’s view of Pakistani national identity being rooted in Islam and the two-nation theory does not differ much from that of the Pakistani establishment. His real difference with the establishment is over his belief that he, as the elected leader, and not the military must run the country.

    Foreign policy
    Sharif has publicly stated his intention to pick up the threads of the peace process he initiated with Atal Behari Vajpayee in 1999. That process was undermined by the Kargil war, which Sharif now says was initiated by Musharraf without his authority. There can be no assurance that the establishment will let Sharif move forward over changing Pakistan’s posture towards Afghanistan and India, something it did not allow the PPP-led coalition to pursue. Moreover, having been elected with the support of hardline conservative Punjabis, how far can Sharif go against the wishes of his base? During the election campaign, Sharif said little about Afghanistan. In his previous two terms he maintained close ties with the United States but did nothing against the jihadi groups.

    It was under Sharif’s rule that Pakistan officially recognized the Taliban regime and established diplomatic relations. This time, he has spoken of good relations with the West but his voters are overwhelmingly anti-American. The best he might be able to do on foreign policy would be to say the right things publicly without making tough policy decisions. The Punjab electorate, in particular, and some parts of Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa were clearly swayed by a hypernationalist tide, with tinges of Islamist grandiloquence.

    Sharif’s PML-N and Imran Khan’s PTI used similar hypernationalist, anti-American language about Pakistan no longer asking the West for aid. Both parties courted Islamist extremists to bolster their respective vote banks. It might be difficult for them to get off that tiger any time soon. The National Assembly seat break-up is skewed in favor of one province, the largest province of Punjab. Punjab sends 148 general and 35 women’s seats or a total of 183 out of 342 seats which is more than half the seats in the lower house of Parliament.With deep ethnic, linguistic and economic diversity among the provinces, with trust between the provinces being at an all-time low and with the challenge of terrorism facing the country, there is a need for Mr. Sharif to show statesmanship and to appeal beyond his urban Punjabi base.

    Other players
    Sharif is not the only one facing challenges. The PPP has suffered a national setback but has held onto its base in Sindh. It is now time for the party to look inwards and understand that the country has changed. It is growing more urban and Sindh is also doing so. The party is down but not out. It will have to reinvigorate itself by asserting its liberal, social democratic roots. Like the Congress in India, it can continue to seek unity in leadership from the family of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto. But it has to be a party that is not dismissed as a family enterprise. As for Imran Khan, he achieved a breakthrough by mobilizing disenchanted, apolitical youth. But if he seeks to remain relevant he must realize that there is more to politics than slogans and catch-all phrases. Railing against corrupt and patronage-based politicians is one thing, offering a viable democratic alternative is quite another.

  • Musharraf Arrested Over Killing Of Baloch Leader

    Musharraf Arrested Over Killing Of Baloch Leader

    ISLAMABAD (TIP): Pakistani police on May 2 arrested and interrogated beleaguered former president Pervez Musharraf over the killing of Baloch leader Akbar Bugti in a 2006 military operation, one of three high-profile cases that have dogged him since he returned to the country from self-exile. A team of Balochistan police arrested the former military ruler and grilled him for nearly four hours at his farmhouse on the outskirts of Islamabad, which was declared a “sub-jail” by authorities. The five-member police team confirmed to reporters outside the sprawling farmhouse that Musharraf had been arrested over the killing of Bugti. Musharraf, 69, was the army chief when the operation against Bugti was ordered. Earlier in the day, Judge Chaudhry Habib-ur- Rehman of an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi accepted a request from Balochistan Police to include Musharraf in the probe into Bugti’s death.

    Shortly after the judge issued the order, the police team went to Musharraf’s farmhouse to question him. Musharraf is facing charges over the death of Bugti. A court in Balochistan had issued a warrant for his arrest in 2011. Since his return to Pakistan in March, Musharraf has also been arrested for detaining more than 60 judges during the 2007 emergency and over the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto. In a related development, Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, who was Interior Minister in Musharraf’s regime, appeared in an anti-terrorism court in Quetta for the hearing of a case over Bugti’s killing.

  • Terrorist attacks kill 2,050 people in Pak last year: Report

    Terrorist attacks kill 2,050 people in Pak last year: Report

    ISLAMABAD (TIP): A total of 2,050 people were killed and another 3,822 injured in over 1,500 terrorist attacks across Pakistan last year, according to a report issued by a leading rights body on Thursday. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan’s annual State of Human Rights report said over 100 Shia Hazaras were killed in Balochistan province alone during 2012. At least 2,284 people died in ethnic, sectarian and political violence in Pakistan’s largest city of Karachi during the period. A total of 87 people were listed as “missing” or detained without charge by security agencies. Of them, 72 people were subsequently traced or released by authorities, the report said. “At least 72 bodies were found in Balochistan of individuals who had gone missing in previous months,” HRCP co-chairperson Kamran Arif told a meeting at which the report was released. The report also noted that there had been a decrease in US drone attacks on Pakistan’s restive tribal areas, with the number of missile strikes falling from 74 in 2011 to 48 in 2012.

    “Estimates of casualties varied between 240 and 400,” the report said. Referring to major terrorist attacks, the report said hundreds of militants blew up the gates of a central prison in Bannu in March last year and succeeded in releasing 384 prisoners.

    The report said a total of 583 people were killed and 853 injured in 213 incidents of sectarian attacks by terrorists or sectarian clashes. In Karachi, at least six churches were attacked, two of them within a period of 10 days in October, it said. The report also highlighted the condition of jails across the country.

  • The Taliban threat to elections

    The Taliban threat to elections

    Having divided the political class and once again confused society with talk of talks, the TTP has now “suspended” its offer of negotiations with the government. Ehsanullah Ehsan, the TTP spokesperson, has claimed that the government’s lack of seriousness about negotiations with the Taliban is behind the TTP’s move. More realistically, the TTP has achieved much of what it set out to do by mooting the idea of talks. In the two craven multi-party conferences that took place in quick succession, the religious right and large segments of the political mainstream all but suggested that the state give up on the idea of Pakistan as a modern nation-state with a monopoly over legitimate violence and in which the citizenry enjoy freedoms and rights. Given that the TTP’s offer of talks coincided with a wave of militant violence, it never really appeared to be a meaningful offer.

    What the focus should switch to now is how best to secure the upcoming elections from militant violence. Ehsanullah Ehsan’s warning to the public to stay away from electoral activities is particularly ominous because the TTP has already made it clear that it regards elections as un-Islamic and that it will target “secular” politicians during the campaign. The mere threat of violence by the TTP is enough to potentially skew elections in parts of the country because both the voter and a certain kind of candidate in areas such as Fata and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Punjab and Karachi may opt to stay at home, opening the door further to pro- Taliban political forces that will be able to campaign and vote more freely.

    If the TTP is to be stopped from indirectly shaping the composition of the elected assemblies, a comprehensive security plan must be drawn up – one that will require close cooperation between the Election Commission of Pakistan, the caretaker governments and security apparatus.

    Securing the election from militant threats is neither beyond the realm of possibility nor something we can afford to overlook. True, elections by their very nature present a plethora of potential targets to those bent on violence and there is a trade-off between security and openness. But the stakes are too high to let a business-as-usual attitude prevail. The ECP, already burdened with a number of duties and crises, needs to put security near the top of the list of its priorities – and win the cooperation of the necessary institutions as quickly as possible.

  • Pakistan bars mobile phone service in 58 cities

    Pakistan bars mobile phone service in 58 cities

    ISLAMABAD (TIP): Pakistan suspended mobile phone services for a day Friday in 58 cities, including Lahore and Karachi, as a security measure for Eid Miladun Nabi gatherings and processions, a media report said. Mobile phone services will stay suspended in major cities of Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan’s capital Friday, reported Dawn. Interior minister Rehman Malik said Thursday that request for suspension of mobile phone services had been received from three provinces. Officials said that mobile phone services would remain suspended in 51 cities of Punjab and seven major cities of Sindh from 8am to 10pm while in Quetta the services would be suspended from 10am to 2pm.The 51 cities in Punjab where mobile phone services will be suspended include Lahore, Multan Sialkot, Rawalpindi, Attock, Jhelum, Chakwal, Faisalabad, and Sargodha while the seven cities in Sindh where there will be no mobile service include Karachi,Hyderabad, Sukkur and Khairpur.

  • As I See It : Everything Is Live

    As I See It : Everything Is Live

    Everything is live these days whether a dog barks in the street or a donkey brays in the neighborhood. A cockerel makes an untimely call, while the crows create a public outcry. The monkey plays the dugduggi and the monkey dancer dances, disguised as a bear. Everything must go live in our country. So our spectator public can only see the live telecasts. The spectator masses enjoy cricket one day and the long march the next. The public dances on Culture Day and while it kills someone like them for allegedly burning a holy book the next day.

    We believe everything in the media that comes within the limits of our faith, which is so weak that the possibility of it shattering hangs like a sword above our heads. We unashamedly refuse to remove the blindfold of belief, despite watching and hearing everything live.We watch and believe the program that has ‘Lies’ written on its packaging label. Anyone can come from anywhere and say anything. People follow them blindly. Then it is discovered that this person had been leading us all astray. So s/he is replaced by another similar person, a new ‘shepherd’ who we all follow as always, like the innocent sheep that we are.

    These ‘shepherds’ say one thing in the evening and contradict it the next morning with the same unabashed confidence.We sit in front of them with our heads bowed, believing every word they say, confident that whatever they say is the truth. Why doesn’t our critical thinking ability function anymore? The liar has no dearth of evidence to give. S/he gives evidence for one thing first and the following moment, s/he is giving evidence to prove a completely opposite thing to be true. Meanwhile, we keep saying to ourselves, “Yeah, s/he is right.” Forget the public. It has always been naive and always will be.

    The ‘educated’ ones have glasses decorated on their foreheads as they don’t need to actually wear them. One moment they are crying over one thing on social media and the next moment they will be crying over something else. Reading their status updates once again might help them to think actually. Those who say ‘Democracy my foot!’ today were actually protesting the disappearance of the Baloch nationalists and later over their corpses and called for the army’s withdrawal from Balochistan yesterday. The center of attention changed when the innocent Hazaras began to be killed.

    So now those same people are demanding that Balochistan be handed over to the army, which it already is. Who has brought these Taliban, jihadi, Jhangvi, lashkar and sipah on our heads? Why do they roam our streets so fearlessly? People die in the name of sects, ethnicity and religion. But the one who commits all these murders is never caught. Although, democracy ends up being abused every time. This is democracy where the head of state joins the public’s sit-in protest, sits down on the ground with them, listens to what they say and even agrees to their demands. If there was no democracy, you wouldn’t even be allowed to come out of your homes.

    On one hand, a dual national cannot be a member of the parliament, while another dual national, who sits in another country, can get the entire city shut down in minutes. He can even threaten to break the country and create violence and chaos. The other dual national tries to change the law according to his wishes and forces his way through the capital with his army of supporters. But he is in no danger as all he does is possible with the intent of the asli te vadde walay waris of the country. On one hand, we are told that the Taliban is an enemy of the country.

    Yet, on the other hand, when their ‘friends’ want to hold rallies and long marches, the terrorists let go of great opportunities to harm the country. In fact, on those days the Taliban and all other terrorists are sent on a holiday. But if an awami party, a true representative of the people wants to hold a similar rally, then initially, there is no permission to hold a large-scale rally. Failing that, then bomb blasts and other violence occurs. Clearly, the current rulers of the country are just scared of the power of votes as they always have been. A new play is shown to the public every day that has glued them to their TV screens.

    One drama has barely ended when a new one begins. The cameras are running towards the courts or to a sit-in protest for coverage. Occasionally, a live telecast of a bomb blast is aired as if the reporters were informed in advance. Even the perpetrators are readily available on the phone to assume responsibility for the attacks. Yet they – whose arms are so long that no criminal can afford sanctuary – remain unable to find these terrorists as their hands are rendered just short enough to keep the criminals out of their reach. You are being kept aware every moment. Our plays industry, after protesting against the Turkish TV plays, might now have to protest against all the national drama as the viewers are watching that instead of their plays.

    If they look away momentarily from their TV screens, they talk amongst themselves about the same topic. The same drama has seeped into the social media. The revolution is coming. You can hear it knocking. You might find it standing on your doorstep, wearing a topi and sporting a new style of beard. They have already made you wear a topi and you barely realized.Well, this is what happens with the spectators. You are busy watching a street show and someone has picked your pocket or blatantly swindled you. It is only later you realize that the carnival had only been held to rob you blind.

  • Two Separate Bombs Kill 32, Hurt 100 In Pakistan Cities

    Two Separate Bombs Kill 32, Hurt 100 In Pakistan Cities

    PESHAWAR (TIP): Bomb blasts in two Pakistani cities killed 32 people and injured more than 100, police and hospital officials said. A bomb in Quetta, the capital of the eastern province of Balochistan, killed 11 people and injured more than 40, police officer Zubair Mehmood said. A local militant group claimed responsibility. Another 21 were killed and more than 60 injured in a bombing where people had gathered to hear a religious leader speak in Mingora, the largest city in the northwestern province of Swat, police and officials at the Saidu Sharif hospital said. “The death toll may rise as some of the injured are in critical condition and we are receiving more and more injured people,” said Dr. Niaz Mohammad.

    Police initially said the Swat blast was caused by an exploding gas cylinder but later police chief Akhtar Hayat said it was a bomb. It has been more than two years since a militant attack has claimed that many lives in Swat. The mountainous region, formerly a tourist destination, has been administered by the Pakistani army since their 2009 offensive drove out Taliban militants who had taken control. But the Taliban retain their ability to mount attacks in Swat and shot schoolgirl campaigner Malala Yousufzai in Mingora last October. The bomb in a market in Quetta targeted a police patrol and mostly killed sellers of vegetable and second-hand clothes, officer Mehmood said. Three police officers nearby were injured and a child was among the dead, he said. The United Baloch Army claimed responsibility for the blast.

    The group is one of several who are fighting for independence for Balochistan, an arid and impoverished region with substantial gas, copper and gold reserves. It constitutes just under half of Pakistan’s territory and is home to about 8 million of the country’s population of 180 million. Human rights groups say hundreds of bodies have been recovered in the region since 2011. Many have broken limbs, cigarette burns or other signs of torture. Local activists blame the security services. The state denies the accusations and says that insurgents sometimes put on military uniforms before kidnapping people. Sectarian attacks are also on the rise, and militant groups frequently bomb or shoot Shia passengers on buses traveling to neighboring Iran.

  • Motorcycle Ban in Karachi: Hearing Begins in SHC

    Motorcycle Ban in Karachi: Hearing Begins in SHC

    KARACHI (TIP): The case pertaining to Sindh High Court’s (SHC) suo moto action against interior ministry’s notification against the day-long ban on use of motorcycles in Karachi was being heard in the SHC on Friday, DawnNews reported. Advocate General Sindh told the court that “99 per cent of the motorcycles on the roads of Karachi were unregistered.” He said that the interior ministry placed a ban on motorcycle riding in the port city because there was a threat of terrorism. Moreover, he said that last year on the same day city’s peace was dismantled.

    Chief Justice of the SHC Mushir Alam said that interior ministry’s decision would have affected lives of millions of people in the city as most of the people in the city commute by motorcycles. The chief justice of the SHC late Thursday had issued the order on a petition filed by SHC Bar Association President Anwar Mansoor Khan against the ban on riding motorcycles in the provincial capital. The court had also summoned provincial Home Secretary, IG police and the Advocate General to appear on Friday. The interior ministry had also banned use of motorcycles in Quetta on Friday and authorities in Balochistan announced that the ministry’s order would be implemented.

    Decision challenged in BHC
    The decision of interior ministry to ban motorcycle use and pillion riding in Quetta was challenged in the Balochistan High Court (BHC) on Friday. BHC would hear the case on Monday. The decision was challenged by a member of executive committee of Federal Chamber of commerce and industries Naseeb ullah Tareen. The petitioner was of the view that interior ministry’s decision was cruel and people have been badly affected by it. He pleaded the court that the it should put restrictions on such decisions in future so that people of Balochistan can get relief.