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This Ambassador Is A Sore For US-Pakistani Relationship

By AHMED QURAISHI | WWW.PAKNATIONALISTS.COM

“I have a challenge for Ms Patterson today. I challenge her to repeat every single word she said back then and swear it is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth … America’s reputation is lying in the lowest gutters in Pakistan at the moment and it can’t sink any lower.”

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—US Ambassador to Pakistan Ms. Anne W. Patterson is becoming quite controversial. She has overseen the worst spell in the relationship between Washington and Islamabad in sixty years and many say she is responsible for at least some of it. Ties weren’t this bad even when the United States unfairly sanctioned Pakistan in 1990 over its nuclear program.

Mr. Thomas Houlahan, a Washington DC-based expert on Pakistani military issues, accused her in 2008 of conducting ‘bunker diplomacy’—that is, conducting United States diplomacy with Pakistan from the barricaded and isolated confines of her office inside a heavily fortified embassy building which in turn is located inside the isolated Diplomatic Enclave in an outer tip of Pakistan’s federal capital.

Her reports back to Washington are misleading, explained Mr. Houlahan, because she doesn’t really know what Pakistanis are thinking.

Can the idea of India pass the Thackeray test?

Siddharth Varadarajan

AP DIVISIVE POLITICS: Shiv Sena activists tear a poster of Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan’s latest movie ‘My Name is Khan’, outside Khan’s residence in Mumbai.

The Centre and the Maharashtra government must make it clear to the Shiv Sena that they will not be allowed to threaten Shah Rukh Khan with violence.

Now that he has come up with a radical plan for overhauling the country’s capacity to deal with terrorism and other threats to its national security, P. Chidambaram must turn his attention to a problem that none of his predecessors in the Union Home Ministry ever had the courage to deal with: putting goondas in their place.

 

 

The task is urgent and brooks no delay. After sparring with Shah Rukh Khan for several days over the Bollywood actor’s statement regretting the absence of Pakistani players in the forthcoming IPL cricket tournament and declaring that Mumbai belongs to all Indians and not just Maharashtrians, the Shiv Sena has now come up with an ultimatum: Mr. Khan must apologise or else the party will not allow his films to be shown in the city, India’s commercial capital.

For me, this contest is as nerve-wracking and stomach churning as any the IPL could throw up. Will this political tournament end with the jailing and prosecution of the Shiv Sena’s leaders and goons who are conspiring to vandalise cinema halls and beat up those who defy this ban? Or will it end with the desolate spectacle of an isolated Shah Rukh being forced to surrender before the ridiculous diktat of the Shiv Sainiks — the way dozens of artists, actors, musicians and politicians have done over the past two decades in the face of the cowardice of policemen, ministers and judges who refused to defend the rule of law?

Kayani Talks Of His Vision Of Afghanistan

DURING his candid talks with foreign journalists on Monday, COAS General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani crystallized Pakistan’s traditional stand on Afghanistan and warmth towards people of that country.

Speaking in the backdrop of his trip to Brussels, where he put across Pakistan’s point of view on Afghan conflict, the COAS reflected sentiments of the nation by summarizing the country’s interest in the well-being of the people of Afghanistan by saying “We cannot wish for Afghanistan anything that we don’t wish for Pakistan”.

The Expanding US War In Pakistan

Jeremy Scahill

Three US special forces soldiers were killed in northwest Pakistan this week, confirming that the US military is more deeply engaged on the ground in Pakistan than previously acknowledged by the White House and Pentagon (see ” The Secret US War in Pakistan,” November 23, 2009). The soldiers died Wednesday in Lower Dir when their convoy was hit by a car bomber in what appeared to be a targeted strike against the Americans. According to CENTCOM, the US soldiers were in the country on a mission to train the Pakistani Frontier Corps, a federal paramilitary force run by Pakistan’s Interior Ministry that patrols the country’s volatile border with Afghanistan. A Pakistani journalist who witnessed the attack said that some of the US soldiers were dressed in civilian clothes and had been identified by their Pakistani handlers as journalists. The New York Times estimates that there are sixty to a hundred such US special forces “trainers” in Pakistan. Capt. Jack Hanzlik, a spokesman for the United States Central Command said there are about 200 US military personnel in Pakistan.

Zaid Hamid Lecture at PC Lahore

Lecture at the FAMILYCON-2010, Hosted by the Pakistan Academy of Family Physicians - February 6th, 2010, at Pearl Continental LAHORE.

Part 1

Why India came back to the negotiating table

BAQIR SAJJAD SYED

ISLAMABAD: Renewed international pressure and growing realisation in New Delhi that the rapidly changing situation in Afghanistan could deprive it of its strategic leverage in the region has forced the sudden change of heart in India regarding ties with Pakistan, according to diplomats and analysts.

“It was being increasingly felt by strategists in New Delhi that after recent conferences on Afghanistan that endorsed President Hamid Karzai’s plan for reintegrating Taliban, India was being left out and Pakistan might take the centre stage,” a diplomat told Dawn when asked about the Indian proposal for resumption of bilateral talks.

It all started with Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao’s call to her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir, almost a week ago, inviting him to Delhi in February for talks on wide-ranging issues that have been constraining the bilateral ties, particularly in the aftermath of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.

She expressed Indian government’s willingness to discuss issues besides terrorism which would remain the focus of the parleys.

Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation

When the government was absent, Karachi’s patriots and PakNationalists moved and raised Pakistan’s flag across the area, in a message that Pakistan stands firm and proud despite what our enemies, internal and external, are doing to us.

This video was sent by Ibne Qassem, from FIF, one of the groups active in the rehabilitation work. We at PakNationalists and PKKH are proud to support the great work of the young men and women at FIF

Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation’s Labor Relief Program at Karachi’s Bolton Market, Ration Packets issued to Hundreds of Labors who lost their jobs after the ahura arson attacks in Karachi.

Read: Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation At Work In Karachi

Srinagar Under Siege, Senior Leaders Detained Police, Protesters Clashes Continue

Srinagar—Indian authorities deployed thousands of police and detained top leaders in Indian-administered Kashmir’s capital Srinagar on Thursday to halt protests over the death of a Muslim boy.

The 14-year-old child was struck by a teargas shell fired by police on Sunday during a demonstration and his death sparked angry protests against New Delhi’s rule over the region.

About 100 protesters and policemen have been injured in clashes. Security forces on Thursday enforced restrictions in most parts of Srinagar, to prevent further rallies.

Kashmir – Past, Present & Future with Mr Zaid Hamid.

Mr Zaid Hamid tells a brief history of the Kashmir conflict between India and Pakistan and how it effected the relations between the two countries.

Hafiz Saeed To Chidambaram: ‘Meet Me First Before Heading To Islamabad’

‘India Has Always Betrayed Pakistan’ – JuD Chief

LAHORE: Banned Jamat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed says that India has always betrayed Pakistan in the name of talks.

Addressing a Kashmir Solidarity Rally here on Friday, he has asked Indian Home Minister Chidambaram to meet him first in Lahore before heading to Islamabad. Earlier, he led a rally from Chobrgi to Punjab Assembly to mark the Kashmir Solidarity Day. The participants of the rally were holding placards inscribed with Kashmir slogans.

“There is only one solution to all the problems – liberate Indian-held Kashmir. Otherwise the option of JIHAD is open for us,” Saeed said.

He also warned India that the liberation of the erstwhile state of Hyderabad was also on the JuD’s agenda.

Saeed, also the founder of the banned Lashker-e-Taiba, warned the Pakistan government not to fool the people in the name of the composite dialogue with India.

“Our rulers get happy whenever India expresses its wish for talks with Pakistan. I want to tell them that India will never talk about liberating Srinagar and Jammu and Pakistan must understand this,” he said.

“When the United States is failing to stay in Afghanistan, then how could India remain in Kashmir,” he said. The JuD chief stated India has always deceived Pakistan in the name of dialogue.

Thousands rally for Kashmir in Pakistan

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan — Thousands of people rallied across Pakistan on Friday to denounce Indian rule in Kashmir, the disputed mainly Muslim state divided between the nuclear-armed rivals.

A Pakistani public holiday, Kashmir Solidarity Day, supports the region’s right to self-determination in line with UN resolutions that call for a plebiscite in Kashmir on whether it should be ruled by India or Pakistan.

Afghan Taliban To Execute US Soldier If Aafia Not Released

The News, Pakistan

PESHAWAR: The Afghan Taliban on Thursday demanded the release of Dr Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani scientist who has been convicted by the US court on charges of her alleged attempt to murder US soldiers in Afghanistan, and threatened to execute an American soldier they were holding currently. They claimed Aafia Siddiqui’s family had approached the Taliban network through a Jirga of notables, seeking their assistance to put pressure on the US to provide her justice.

“Being Muslims, it becomes our religious and moral obligation to help the distressed Pakistani woman convicted by the US court on false charges,” said a senior Afghan Taliban commander. The commander, whose militant network is holding the US soldier, Bowe Bergdahl, called The News from an undisclosed location in Afghanistan and threatened to execute the American trooper if their demand was not met. He claimed Aafia Siddiqui’s family had approached the Taliban network through a Jirga of notables, seeking their assistance to put pressure on the US to provide her justice.

Kashmir – Your Day Will Come InshaAllah.

MUST READ articles that have appeared on PKKH on Kashmir:

State Terror in Occupied Kashmir
Pakistan’s Present and Future War
India: Let Kashmir go
Focus on Kashmir
India’s problems lie within | Guardian, UK
Behind Mumbai Lies Kashmir | Eric Margolis
Mr Zardari, Do these look like Terrorists?
Pakistani Hindus rally to support Islamic Charity
Lashkar Bashing | Dan Qayyum
Ghettoisation of Muslims in India | Imran Ali and Yoginder Sikand
Why India should look within. | Dan Qayyum
Pak Flag: Symbol Of Freedom In India! | Ahmed Quraishi
Israel to train Indian Forces
Kashmir – the Forgotten Occupation
Land and Freedom – Arundhati Roy, The Guardian, UK
Hai Haq Hamara, Azadi
Peaceful Protests In Kashmir Alter Equation for India – Washington Post
A Jihad Grows in Kashmir
We are Pakistanis – Says Geelani
India, minus the K word – Jug Suraiya | Times of India
Kashmiris in India Savour Sense of Freedom – LA Times
Mission Kashmir – Times of India Editorial

Zaid Hamid at NUST (SEECS) Q&A Session

Zaid Hamid at NUST School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (SEECS) – Q&A Session

Part 1

Indian Home-Grown Militants Eye Common Wealth Games For Attacks

Farzana Shah | Asian Tribune

ISLAMABAD – The athletes face a risk of terrorist attacks during the October 3 to 14 Common Wealth Games in India.

According to sources the Hindu fundamentalist organizations are planning to disrupt the games to show the Congress government in a bad light as well as take revenge for attacks on Indians in Australia coupled with creating communal riots for political point scoring.

There are reports of possible attacks at the venues of different events at the game. The hotels where the players would be accommodated are said to at a greater risk.

The reports reaching here from India and Nepal suggest that hardline Hindu organisations are joining hands with former LTTE members to sabotage the games. There is already resentment in South India about defeat of LTTE in Sri Lanka and weak stance of Congress government in condemning the military action by Sri Lankans.

CCTV Footage: Karachi Jinnah Hospital Bombing

Karachi Attack on Jinnah Hospital CCTV Footage on 05-02-10

Pakistan stages Kashmir rallies

Political parties and religious groups across Pakistan are holding rallies in support of the separatist movement in Kashmir. And in his first public speech since release from house arrest, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the head of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, is set to address one ‘Kashmir Solidarity’ rally in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Friday.

Jamaat-ud-Dawa has been accused of being a political front for the Lashkar-e-Taiba network – the group blamed by India for the 2008 attacks on Mumbai in which gunmen killed more than 160 people. Saeed denies involvement and was released in June by a Lahore court which found insufficient evidence for his continued detention.

Yvonne Ridley on Dr. Aafia Siddiqui

YVONNE RIDLEY

Dr AAFIA Siddiqui is a bright, intelligent woman who has been through hell having being kidnapped, tortured in secret prisons, gunned down by US soldiers and renditioned to America where she is now facing attempted murder charges against those who shot her. Only in the cock-eyed crosshairs of George W Bush’s War on Terror could this happen and I hope to God that the jurors who will go through the evidence during the next few hours, if not days, see through this rotten legacy and recognize the case for what it is … a tissue of lies enveloped in a web of deceit. The last seven years of Dr Aafia’s life could have been penned by a Hollywood scriptwriter, but instead all the folk from Tinsel Town could come up with was the rather tame blockbuster movie Rendition starring Reese Witherspoon. But several days ago those of us following the case closely were given a glimpse into the dark, mysterious world in which Dr Aafia has been forced to live since 2003.

And more importantly the details were relayed in a hushed court not by any lawyer, but by the only person qualified to talk with any authority about dark prisons, interrogations and abuse – the account relayed to the courtroom in Manhattan, New York came from the mouth of Dr Aafia herself. Running for more than two weeks there’s been little or no record in the Western media of this shocking case other than some of the most ill-informed, embarrassingly skewed reports which indicate the noble profession of journalism is still in a narcotic malaise in the Big Apple. That the New York Times had to apologise to its readers on the front page for selling them short on the build up to and the unfolding war in Iraq, one would have thought would have had an impact on the quality of future output. That the US press corps, with the exception of The Baltimore Sun, had to play catch up after ‘missing’ the Abu Ghraib scandal speaks volumes.

India Begs US Not To Leave Afghanistan

Bharat Verma

Islamabad aims to create a caliphate with the help of the Islamic regimes running from Central Asia to West Asia and Southeast Asia. India stands in the way. Beijing desires to unravel India into multiple parts based on the pre-British model as it cannot digest the challenge to its supremacy offered in Asia by a liberal union of multi-religious and multi-ethnic States.

While China and Pakistan have joined hands against India and bide their time for the American forces to leave, New Delhi has appealed to Washington not to exit from Afghanistan

Kayani Spells Out Threat Posed By India

Cyril Almeida

RAWALPINDI: While the Pakistan Army is alert to and fighting the threat posed by militancy, it remains an “India-centric” institution and that reality will not change in any significant way until the Kashmir issue and water disputes are resolved, according to army chief Gen Kayani.

In a presentation to Pakistani media, Gen Kayani reiterated his widely reported comments on the Pakistan Army’s view of the situation in Afghanistan and the way forward there.

But the army chief also made it clear that his institution’s “frame of reference” for addressing the problems in that country included certain concerns that are India specific.

History, unresolved issues, India’s military capability and its ‘Cold Start’ doctrine meant that Pakistan could not afford to let its guard down. Repeating a well-known formulation, Gen Kayani said: “We plan on adversaries’ capabilities, not intentions.”

Afghan Mujahideen: NOT FOR SALE

Kabul’s Western allies want to pay Taliban fighters to quit the insurgency. Lots of luck.

Ron Moreau

Representatives from nearly 70 countries showed up in London on Jan. 28 for a one-day conference on how to save Afghanistan. President Hamid Karzai was there, gamely offering “peace and reconciliation” to all Afghans, “especially” those “who are not a part of Al Qaeda or other terrorist networks.” He didn’t mention why the Taliban would accept such an offer while they believe they’re winning the war. Others at the conference had what they evidently considered more realistic solutions—such as paying Taliban fighters to quit the insurgency. Participants reportedly pledged some $500 million to support that aim. “You don’t make peace with your friends,” said U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. True enough. But what if your enemies don’t want peace?

My NEWSWEEK colleague Sami Yousafzai laughs at the notion that the Taliban can be bought or bribed. Few journalists, officials, or analysts know the Taliban the way he does. If the leadership, commanders, and subcommanders wanted comfortable lives, he says, they would have made their deals long ago. Instead they stayed committed to their cause even when they were on the run, with barely a hope of survival. Now they’re back in action across much of the south, east, and west, the provinces surrounding Kabul, and chunks of the north. They used to hope they might reach this point in 15 or 20 years. They’ve done it in eight. Many of them see this as proof that God is indeed on their side. The mujahedin warlords who regained power in the 2001 U.S. invasion have grown fabulously wealthy since then. The senior Taliban leader Jalaluddin Haqqani could have done the same. Now he and his fellow Taliban are gunning for those opportunists.

Military Officials Say Afghan Fight Is Coming

By Rod Nordland

KABUL, Afghanistan — NATO and the Afghan military are about to launch their biggest joint offensive of the war, and they appear to be making sure the Taliban know they are coming.

On Wednesday, spokesmen for the Afghan Defense Ministry and for the NATO forces announced at a news conference that an offensive involving thousands of troops would begin “in the near future,” and while they did not confirm the place, they also did not dispute widespread speculation that the target was the Taliban-held town of Marja.

India Accepts Its Nationals Involved In Mumbai Attacks

ISLAMABAD: Indian Home Minister, P. Chidambaram on Thursday revealed for the first time that an Indian national by the name of Abu Jindal could have been involved in 2008 Mumbai attacks.

Chidambaram said that voice samples of the suspect were absolutely necessary to establish his identity. He claimed that Pakistani authorities had recorded Abu Jindal’s voice through phone conversations. The Indian home minister claims that he had asked the Pakistani government to provide these phone records but Pakistan had refused to handover the voice samples to Indian authorities.

Absence of dialogue is hurting India

SIDDHARTH VARADARAJAN

The IPL fiasco shows it is impossible to maintain cordiality or rationality at the level of civil society when the government lacks the will to engage with Pakistan.

When the Angels who rule India say they favour dialogue and peace with Pakistan but then fear to tread, is it any surprise that fools would rush in to destroy that virtuous path? We will never know whether somebody from our shadowy security establishment whispered something dark and fanciful in the ears of the owners and managers of the Indian Premier League as they went in for the player auction last week and if so, for whom he was batting.

Certainly, the manner in which every Pakistani cricketer was boycotted despite the initial expression of interest by the teams smacks of considerations other than sports, business or common sense. Most of all, the decision betrays such a poor understanding of the geographies of market development, brand building and soft power that its net effect will be to undermine India’s interests in the widest possible sense.

Lecturing Pak to accept Indian domination

Following the US invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001, the people of Pakistan remained apprehensive about its role and future designs in South and Southwest Asia. Majority of analysts believe that the US has a long-term broad based agenda of regional domination with the intent to contain the rising Chinese influence and a resurgent Russia. Besides, it intends to dominate the natural resources of Central Asia and Caspian region to either deny the region to China and Russia or establish its own subsequent control there.Apart from these bigger agendas, the bulk of the Pakistani masses have been concerned about three legitimate consternations, which seriously threaten the safety and security of Pakistan. The first is the threat to Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal from none other than the United States. The second concern is about the growing US interest in procuring land in Pakistan and use of Pakistani air bases for the drone attacks in FATA. The third issue, which even gravely bothers Pakistan’s security, is the unprecedented Indian involvement in Afghanistan, which also is likely to have a direct linkage with United States.

Strategic Depth: Strength of Pakistan lies in a secure Afghanistan

A decade of war in Afghanistan has tried to reconfigure the politics of West Asia. Some powers have tried to rearrange the geography and the boundaries. Some in Delhi had hoped that Pakistan would give up its dreams and allow existential threats to cloud its strategic objectives.

Obviously that has not happened.

General Kiyani has once again reiterated the Pakistan’s strategic depth lies in Afghanistan. However that did not mean that Pakistan wanted to control Kabul.

• “We want a strategic depth in Afghanistan but do not want to control it,”
• “A peaceful and friendly Afghanistan can provide Pakistan a strategic depth.”

This means that the Bharati (aka Indian) policy of death by a thousand cuts has not deterred the Pakistani resolve to ensure that the Western flank of Pakistan is free of enemies, and that the Hindu Kush mountains continue to provide depth to Pakistan’s strategic objective.

The Strategic Depth has been dicussed threadbare in Islamabad and in foreign capitals. However this is the first time that a Pakistani Army General has overtly and publicly announced the policy. It is pedagogical to note that the announcement was made in the earshot of NATO, ISAF and US Generals.