SHANGHAI: It is easy to keep Pakistan out of the IPL. But when it comes to attracting eyeballs of Chinese visitors and international businesses, Pakistan has beaten Indian hands down at the World Expo in Shanghai.
The Pakistani pavilion is attracting thousands of people by the hour for the past week while the Indian pavilion is far from complete.
Dana Milbank
World leaders arriving in Washington for President Obama’s Nuclear Security Summit must have felt for a moment that they had instead been transported to Soviet-era Moscow.
They entered a capital that had become a military encampment, with camo-wearing military police in Humvees and enough Army vehicles to make it look like a May Day parade on New York Avenue, where a bicyclist was killed Monday by a National Guard truck.
In the middle of it all was Obama — occupant of an office once informally known as “leader of the free world” — putting on a clinic for some of the world’s greatest dictators in how to circumvent a free press.
The only part of the summit, other than a post-meeting news conference, that was visible to the public was Obama’s eight-minute opening statement, which ended with the words: “I’m going to ask that we take a few moments to allow the press to exit before our first session.”
Anwar Iqbal
WASHINGTON: Pakistan has said that it has acquired advanced nuclear fuel cycle capability and can offer it to the rest of the world under IAEA safeguards.
The offer, contained in a national statement presented at a two-day summit which concluded in Washington on Tuesday, reflected Islamabad’s desire to gain recognition as a nuclear state.
“As a country with advanced fuel cycle capability, Pakistan is in a position to provide nuclear fuel cycle services under IAEA safeguards, and to participate in any non-discriminatory nuclear fuel cycle assurance mechanism,” the document said.
At the summit, Pakistan also reiterated its proposals for establishing a strategic restraint regime in South Asia.
The policy paper released during the conference stressed that such a regime would “promote nuclear and missile restraint, a balance in conventional forces, and conflict resolution”.
Ahmed Quraishi
Here is a chance that India blew to send a strong message for peace with both Pakistan and China. An Egyptian diplomat based in New Delhi apparently offered recently to help Indian Air Force overcome its shabby pilot training program.
According to a report by the Indian magazine Business Standard, the Egyptian official offered a novel solution: An Egyptian Air Force training crew flown from Egypt to India to train Indian pilots using Karakoram-8, the multirole trainer jointly developed by both Pakistan and China and now used by a growing list of countries, including Egypt, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, Zimbabwe, Myanmar, Namibia, not to mention the air forces of both Pakistan and China.
Says the Indian magazine: “Since the offer was not followed up in writing, the Indian Air Force (IAF) was spared the embarrassment of having to reply.”
ISLAMABAD – Pakistan Muslim League (Q) Secretary General, Mushahid Hussain Sayed on Tuesday said that Pakistan should not repeat its mistakes and must not have any favourite in Afghanistan.
The US needs Pakistan more than Pakistan needs the US; therefore, Pakistan should play its cards intelligently, Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed stated this while speaking at a seminar on ‘Pakistan’s Geo-strategic Challenges and Response’, which was organised by the NUST Business School of the National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST). It was held in connection with a series of the talks to celebrate Pakistan Day.
Speaking on the subject, Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed stated that Pakistan had been facing crisis for the last three decades. He identified five major developments that took place in the region over the last three decades, which influenced the geo-strategic environment of Pakistan. Soviet’s invasion of Afghanistan made Pakistan a central point for the international diplomacy.
Reiterating their demand for the defence of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, thousands of Pakistani farmers alongside the Farmer Wing of Jamat ud Dawah lead by patriot Professor Hafiz Muhammed Saeed lashed out at the recent Indian blockage of water that rightfully belonged to the Pakistani fields.
In a protest one of a kind – hundreds of tractors marched along Mall Road and gathered at Nasir Bagh area of Lahore. Demanding an end to the water terrorism being committed by India, the farmers showed their courage and determination to defending their rights .Their emotions were described by the banners they held. From ‘Water or War’, ‘Diversion of Pakistani Rivers = Indian Water Bomb’, and ‘Liberate Kashmir to Secure Water’. Realising the realities on the ground and unstinted by the fake promises and photo-sessions by the government ministers in contact with their Indian couterparts they held up a banner which read “No Peace with Indian Water Aggression”. Hafiz Muhammad Saeed once again reiterated his pledge for peace in the region and said that its India which is imposing war on Pakistan.
“My crime is that I speak for the oppressed people of occupied Kashmir and India, my Deen demands that I should speak for Indian Muslims and other minorities subjugated by ruling elite of India,” he said.
Dr. Shireen M. Mazari
No sooner did Pakistan arrest leading Afghan Taliban figures, conspiracy theories surfaced in the US media in an attempt to malign Pakistan. Indians and their apologists in US were at the forefront of this campaign. Far from appreciating Pakistani stand, strong signs exist that CIA continues its double game against Pakistan. Despite statements to the contrary, Washington continues to bet on the puppet regime of President Asif Ali Zardari.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—The US duplicity in its dealings with Pakistan continues unabated and I have always maintained that the scale of their enterprise in destabilizing Pakistan can only be understood by finding linkages in seemingly unconnected events and publications.
Just when the Pakistan military has taken a strong position on its military operations in FATA and the pull towards dialogue with the tribals is becoming evident, the US subversive activities against Pakistan are becoming more overt, and old CIA connections are taking centre stage again including so-called “experts” on Pakistan! Let us look at some recent developments and see the linkages.
Gen. (R) Hamid Gul in an exclusive interview on Al Jazeera:
Gen. (R) Hamid Gul says that Washington’s policies in Afghanistan and Pakistan have not borne fruit and that the US military will be ultimately defeated by the Taliban
Lieutenant-General Hamid Gul was a military commander in the Pakistani Army in the 1980s, and served as the head of the country’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency from 1987 to 1989.
But Gul’s rise to fame came during the Pakistan-Saudi-US effort to keep funds and logistical support flowing to the Afghanistan mujahidin, who were eventually credited with defeating Soviet military and political forces.
During the Bush administration, the US sought to put Gul on a UN list of international terrorists but their efforts were blocked by the Chinese delegation.
Domestically, Gul has been an outspoken opponent of Asif Ali Zardari, the Pakistani president, and has called for the Supreme Court to be reinstated as the rule of law in Pakistan.
Al Jazeera interviewed Gul during a short visit to Doha.
It is now for one week that the invading enemy have launched military operations named “Moshtarik” (together) against Mujahideen in Marjah, a part of Nad Ali district, Helmand province. They have put more than 15,000 American, NATO and the hireling Afghan troops against a minuscule number of Mujahideen in the area. More than 60 helicopters, armed with hellfire missiles, and hundreds of tanks are taking part in the operation.
Marjah has remained in the hands of Mujahideen for the last few years. Other parts of Helmand province like Baghiran, Dishu, and Washer districts are already under the administration of the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan”. So question rises why the enemy chose Marjah, a small area, to launch operations. Ostensibly, the enemy say that they want to put pressure on Taliban to accept the government terms of re-integration and reconciliation announced at the end of London Conference on 28th of last month. In fact, Marjah is a geopolitically important area because it borders on Baluchistan, Pakistan where China has a vast developmental project in the shape of Gwadar seaport.
Ahmed Quraishi
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—If it comes to a military-led intervention, both military officers and politicians will have to stay out of actual power. The army chief may not become a chief executive. The military might have to look into a new concept called the ‘Smart Coup’, where the military can bring capable Pakistanis to power with a firm executable plan of reform over five years, or more, fully backed by the military. There may not be time to put the plan to vote. It will have to be implemented. This would be the absolute last option. But we are nowhere near that right now. Gen. Kayani certainly has no such thing in mind according to people who have met him.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—”This was my first interaction with the soldier who commands the seventh largest military force on the face of the planet.”
With this catchy line, Dr. Farrukh Saleem began his brief and fascinating account of a meeting with General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.
BEIJING: Despite India’s advances in missile technology, the country is still a decade behind China, a top Chinese defence analyst has claimed and asserted that Beijing does not view New Delhi as its “strategic rival.”
Shrugging off concerns that newer versions of India’s Agni missiles could strike the northernmost tips of China, the state-run Global Times, quoting a top analyst said India may take five more years to achieve this capability.
The analyst also dismissed the claims that India is far ahead of China in developing interceptor technology, the paper said this week, days after India tested the Agni- III, which has a 3,500 km range.
Chinese Rear Admiral Zhang Zhaozhong, a professor at the prestigious Chinese National Defence University, said India is still 10 to 15 years behind China in terms of missile technology.
Eric Margolis
U.S. President Barack Obama calls the $3.8-trillion US budget he just sent to Congress a major step in restoring America’s economic health. In fact, it’s another potent fix given to a sick patient deeply addicted to the dangerous drug — debt. More empires have fallen because of reckless finances than invasion. The latest example was the Soviet Union, which spent itself into ruin by buying tanks. Washington’s deficit (the difference between spending and income from taxes) will reach a vertiginous $1.6 trillion US this year.
The huge sum will be borrowed, mostly from China and Japan, to which the U.S. already owes $1.5 trillion. Debt service will cost $250 billion. To spend $1 trillion, one would have had to start spending $1 million daily soon after Rome was founded and continue for 2,738 years until today. Obama’s total military budget is nearly $1 trillion. This includes Pentagon spending of $880 billion. Add secret black programs (about $70 billion); military aid to foreign nations like Egypt, Israel and Pakistan; 225,000 military “contractors” (mercenaries and workers); and veterans’ costs. Add $75 billion (nearly four times Canada’s total defence budget) for 16 intelligence agencies with 200,000 employees. The Afghanistan and Iraq wars ($1 trillion so far), will cost $200-250 billion more this year, including hidden and indirect expenses. Obama’s Afghan “surge” of 30,000 new troops will cost an additional $33 billion — more than Germany’s total defence budget.
Seema Mustafa
India that was expecting a polite and immediate ‘yes’ from Pakistan to its offer for foreign secretary-level talks once again finds itself on the wrong side of the fence. Not only did Pakistan take its time in reluctantly accepting the offer with several ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ for public consumption, it also gave clearance to the [organizations] to organise a string of anti-India meetings in Muzaffarabad, Islamabad and Lahore that were addressed by Jamaat ud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed.
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.
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
On the occasion of India’s Republic Day, a powerful joint appeal Tuesday to the international community by key Kashmiri, Naga and Sikh leaders has highlighted the fundamental conflicts and contradictions at the heart of the Indian state, as well as the unwavering intent of their nations to secure freedom in accordance with their right to self-determination as enshrined in international law.
They issued a call to the international community to play a constructive role in dismantling India’s unlawful hold on their territories, which has been maintained purely by military means at the cost of hundreds of thousands of innocent lives since 1947, and to restore fundamental freedoms, democracy and the rule of law in the most volatile region of the world. The leaders included Syed Ali Shah Gilani, Chair of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference in Kashmir, Naga leader Th. Muivah, General Secretary of the NSCN-IM and Kanwarpal Singh of Dal Khalsa in Punjab.
The US can upturn its image in Pakistan if it stops drone attacks in FATA and provide civilian nuclear deal to Pakistan similar to the one provided to India. It can boost its image if it forcefully forbids India to carryout covert operations against Pakistan using Afghan soil and restrains it from stealing Pakistan water. Other steps that can help build trust and confidence are construction of hydel power projects and provision of greater access to US and EU markets for Pakistani products. Pakistanis will become pro-America and be a willing partner to safeguard US interests from a position of respect and honour if the US helps Pakistan in easing the debt burden and plays a pro-active role to solve longstanding Kashmir dispute in accordance with the wishes of Kashmiris and UN Resolutions. These two acts would go a long way in dispelling misgivings and mistrust harboured by people of Pakistan and in building mutually sustaining and durable strategic partnership premised on mutual interests, mutual respect and mutual trust.
By Ibne Qasim
There was yet another daring assault in the heart of Srinagar Lal chowk by two fidayeen armed with Ak-47’s and grenades. They were able to take stronghold in a Punjab hotel building and took on the security forces for more than 30 hours. According to the local sources, two Mujahideen and dozens of soldier including a major and a subeydar were killed and the gun battle ended with the Indian forces burning down the hotel building. This was perhaps because they were unable to apprehend the Mujahideen. The responsibility for the attack was claimed by Jamiat ul Mujahideen, but the Indian forces believe that this attack has the hallmarks of Lashkar e Taiba, an outfit that they also blame for the Mumbai attacks. This attack was highly symbolic in nature and was demonstrative of the fear that the Indian Army has of LET fighters who they believe are well equipped, daring , and even better trained than the most prestigious BLACK CAT and MARCOS of Indian army. An Indian army officer told this writer on condition of anonymity that “the LET has a habit of attacking Indian military installations and camps and they often do not take responsibility for it. Instead they use a different name to confuse the Intelligence agencies and continue with their work.” It has also been reported that there is growing sympathy for them among the people of Kashmir mainly because they never target or attack civilians, their enemy is the Indian military which is involved in heinous acts of state-terrorism in the Indian Occupied Kashmir.
Aquib Moin | PKKH
After invading and waging a severely damaging war against Afghanistan, which was justified by a self-orchestrated attack on their own soil, storming and devastating Iraq on the basis of absolute falsehood and utter lies about the non-existent Weapons of Mass Destruction, the so-called sole supreme power on Earth, the United States of America and its strategic allies are now in the third and most crucial phase of their master plan for the 21st century.
Before launching their global sinister plan, their desperate target is to de-stabilize, de-nuclearize, de-islamize and destroy Pakistan. The evil nexus of US, Israel, India and the Zionist movement realizes and understands that Pakistan is the biggest hurdle in the fulfillment of their pernicious intentions to make Israel the next super-state in the world and achieve their grand strategic goals. They know that Pakistan is a serious threat to their ideology and objectives, without subduing or destroying Pakistan, which is the final frontier of Islam and Muslims, they cannot accomplish their mission and their efforts will not come to fruition. That is the reason why, their main target is not Iraq, not Afghanistan, not Syria, not Yemen or not Iran; their crucial target is Pakistan and they are deploying all of the resources, employing all kinds of schemes to get it rid of this hurdle from their way.
Pakistan can fire missiles at only 10 minutes’ notice on all Indian cities: General. Kayani
The Chief of Army Staff, Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, said on Friday that peace and stability in South Asia (and beyond) was the logical and fundamental principle underlining the security paradigm of Pakistan. Addressing senior officers at the General Headquarters here, Gen Kayani said that the army was alive to the full spectrum of threat that continued to exist both in conventional and unconventional domains.
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