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Rabbani, who was leading the Afghan High Peach Council, was killed by a turban bomber who was supposedly a peace emissary sent by the Taliban leadership. His murder has seemingly destroyed all efforts made by the Afghanistan-Pakistan joint commission for peace and reconciliation.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai appointed a team on Sunday to investigate Rabbani’s murder which has had a major impact on the war-torn country’s reconciliation process.

Afghan Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak is heading the inquiry panel – however, the Afghan diplomatic sources did not reveal who will be leading the delegation which is expected to arrive in Islamabad within a couple of days.

Sources say Rabbani’s killing may also disrupt next month’s meeting of the joint peace commission in Kabul.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani was scheduled to travel to Kabul for the meeting to join President Karzai, but the “hostile” environment may delay the meeting, a source said. There is no official word on the fate of the meeting, either from Islamabad or Kabul.

Afghan opposition leader Dr Abdullah Abdullah had called for suspending all contacts and negotiations with the Taliban, and Afghan governor of Balkh province Atta Muhammad has warned that if the government continues its dialogue policy with the Taliban, they will arm the former Mujahideen.

Karzai urged to seek UN’s help in murder investigation

Karzai’s government is under mounting pressure from Rabbani’s Jamiat-e-Islami party to involve the UN in the investigation into the high profile-murder, saying they are dissatisfied with the capability of Afghan intelligence agencies and law enforcement agencies to probe the incident.

The decision to send a delegation to Pakistan was taken during a recent meeting of former senior Jihadi leaders and senior aides of President Karzai in Kabul. Karzai had called the meeting to discuss the future peace process and matters relating to Rabbani’s murder. The meeting also discussed the appointment of a new leader for the Afghan High Peace Council.

(Read: Afghanistan after Rabbani)

Afghan officials say they have attached high hopes to the delegation’s visit to Islamabad to share information with Pakistan and seek help from Pakistani security officials. They said the investigation and information of Afghanistan’s national security body, so far, shows that the trail leads to Quetta and several individuals.

There were heated debates on Afghan TV channels after Rabbani’s murder, with analysts pointing fingers at the Afghan government, the US, ethnic rivalry and also Pakistan.

Several analysts claimed it to be the work of the Quetta Shura of the Afghan Taliban, the name used by Western media for the top leadership of the Afghan Taliban who are said to be hiding in Quetta. Pakistani officials, however, insist that the Quetta Shura does not exist.

Afghan investigators will mainly be depending on help from Pakistani authorities, and “if they are not satisfied, the Afghan government may have to approach the UN for conducting an investigation”, sources said.

‘Afghanistan should talk to Pakistan, not the Taliban’

The Afghan National Security Adviser and former foreign minister Dr Rangin Dadfar Spanta said that the Afghan government should hold talks with Pakistan instead of the Taliban for a solution to the Afghan problem.

Pakistan has already insisted that it will back the Afghan peace process but will not directly sit at the table during the Afghan talks.

Spanta told reporters in Kabul on Thursday that the Taliban have no power to make decisions and are simply depending on others.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 1^st,  2011.

A senior US official said that Washington has communicated to Islamabad that its troops will not be sent into the North Waziristan tribal region to hunt down Taliban militants.

Over the last few weeks, the US has repeated the allegation that the Haqqani network — the deadliest of all three Taliban groups – was using safe havens in North Wazirstan, to mount attacks on US-led Nato troops in neighbouring Afghanistan.

(Read: Making the right decision)

The two uneasy allies have engaged in a diplomatic fusillade over the last week after outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen said the Haqqani network was a “veritable arm” of Pakistan’s top military spy agency – Inter-Services Intelligence.

Despite stout denials by Islamabad, Washington continued to take the point further, warning that it intended to keep its options open in retaliation for the recent attacks on its well-fortified mission in Kabul.

The threats sounded menacing to many Pakistanis, who feared action from American ground troops.

However, a US official ruled out the possibility of “any boots on the ground. “That has been communicated to them (the Pakistanis),” the official told Reuters. In Washington, President Barack Obama said Pakistan must “take care” of the Haqqani network.

While he did not endorse the accusations made by Mullen, Obama said US intelligence was not entirely clear on links between Haqqani operatives and Pakistani spy agencies.

“I think Mike’s testimony expressed frustration over the fact that safe havens exist,” Obama said, but added that “the intelligence is not as clear as we might like in terms of what exactly that relationship is.”

“But my attitude is whether there is active engagement with Haqqani on the part of the Pakistanis or just passively allowing them to operate with impunity … they have got to take care of this problem,” he said in a radio interview.

US officials have been trying to soothe tempers frayed by Admiral Mullen’s statement, with the State Department on Thursday refusing to endorse his allegations.

Despite his serious allegations, Admiral Mullen believes that there could be no solution to the Afghan imbroglio without Pakistan. “I continue to believe that there is no solution in the region without Pakistan, and no stable future in the region without a partnership,” Mullen said on Friday at a ceremony to hand over to the incoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey.

(Read: Change of guard – No solution in Afghanistan minus Pakistan, says Mullen)

Over in Brussels, the Nato chief said that Pakistan must fight against “terrorists” enjoying safe havens in the tribal regions. “We encourage the Pakistani military and the Pakistani government to do their utmost to fight extremism and terrorism in the border region,” Anders Fogh Rasmussen said at a defence forum hosted by the European Policy Centre think-tank.

“It is a security problem for our troops in Afghanistan that terrorists have safe havens in Pakistan … and that’s a fact,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 1^st,  2011.

LAHORE: Five more people lost their lives owing to dengue in Lahore on Saturday, Express 24/7 reported.

(Read: Collateral damage: Dengue eating up beds in govt hospitals)

The death toll in Punjab has risen to 130, out of which 120 deaths have been reported from Lahore.

UN joins Pakistan in controlling dengue

The United Nations has joined Pakistan’s efforts to control the dengue fever epidemic that has affected more than 12,000 people, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Friday.

(Read: Dengue fever infects over 12,000 in Pakistan)

WHO is supporting sub-groups that have been formed by Pakistani authorities to respond to the epidemic through case management, community mobilization, vector control and public awareness campaigns, the agency’s spokesperson, Tarek Jasarevic, told reporters in Geneva, according to a news release issued at UN Headquarters in New York.

(Read: Expert Advice: Don’t use too much mosquito repellent)

He said WHO has also been facilitating and supporting dengue case management training at district level in several provinces.

A WHO expert on the disease arrived in the country last week to provide technical guidance on dengue fever control. A dengue fever booklet for teachers has been printed and is being circulated.

WHO has also circulated new clinical case management guidelines drafted by Pakistani doctors on the basis of a retrospective study of Pakistani hospital data and global and regional experiences.

Last year, 11,024 confirmed cases of dengue fever and 40 deaths were reported in Pakistan, but this year the number of cases has climbed to 12,466, with mostly cases reported in Punjab.

However, a plan to increase the price of compressed natural gas (CNG) by Rs4 per kg by imposing petroleum levy has been put on hold by the time approval for this comes from the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC).

“We want to devise a formula with ECC’s approval to charge petroleum levy on CNG if the gap between prices of petrol and CNG widens by more than 45 per cent,” Petroleum Minister Dr Asim Hussain said while talking to The Express Tribune.

At present, the difference between petrol and CNG prices is 45 per cent, which will widen after the fresh increase in petrol price by Rs4.15 per litre. Earlier, the petroleum ministry wanted to slap a petroleum levy of Rs5 per kg on CNG, but the proposal was withdrawn in the face of fierce resistance from CNG station owners.

On Friday, the maximum increase was made in the price of petrol, which came to five per cent compared to the price of September. The price of high octane blending component (HOBC) was increased by Rs2.72 per litre in line with the rise in global oil prices.

Though the price of high-speed diesel (HSD) had declined by Rs0.62 in the international market, the government raised the price by Rs1.51 per litre by increasing the petroleum levy.

After the price revision, diesel price rose from Rs92.65 to Rs94.16 per litre, HOBC from Rs109.93 to Rs112.65 per litre and petrol from Rs84.80 to Rs88.95 per litre. The government kept prices of light diesel oil and kerosene oil unchanged at Rs83.52 and Rs86.82 per litre respectively.

The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) had already notified ex-refinery price of high speed diesel at Rs72.03 per litre, inland freight equalisation margin at Rs1.20, marketing companies’ margin at Rs1.62, dealers’ margin at Rs1.96, petroleum levy at Rs2.52 and general sales tax (GST) at Rs12.7. Though a decline of Rs0.62 was expected in the diesel price, the government increased it by enhancing the petroleum levy.

Average price of crude oil in the global market increased by $2 to $108 per barrel in September compared to $106 per barrel in the previous month. In the same period, the rupee weakened against the dollar to Rs87.52 against Rs86.7 in the preceding month.

From June this year, the government has deregulated prices of petroleum products including petrol, high octane blending component, light diesel oil, jet fuel JP-1, JP-4 and JP-8 and refineries and oil marketing companies are allowed to announce ex-refinery and ex-depot prices every month keeping in view the import parity price.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 1^st,  2011.

WASHINGTON: A senior US official told Reuters on Friday that Washington would not send ground troops into Pakistan to attack militant positions in North Waziristan.

“There will be no boots on the ground,” the official said. “That has been communicated to them (the Pakistanis).”

Pakistan and the United States have engaged in a diplomatic fusillade over the last week after outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen said a violent Taliban faction was a “veritable arm” of the Pakistani spy service, the Inter Services Intelligence agency.

US and Pakistan have traded barbs over the last fortnight with US Defence Secretary saying that the US would take unilateral action against the Haqqani network if it had to.

Ever since the US conducted a ‘boots on the ground’ unilateral operation in Pakistan’s garrison town of Abbottabad, where they killed the then al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, ties between the two War on Terror allies have been tense. Pakistan has warned Washington against conducting a raid similar to the one on May 2.

WASHINGTON: There can be no solution to the conflict in Afghanistan without Pakistan, the outgoing Joint Chief’s of Staff Committee (JCSC) chairman, Admiral Mike Mullen said on Friday.

“I continue to believe that there is no solution in the region without Pakistan, and no stable future in the region without a partnership,” Mullen said at a ceremony where he stood down from the post, handing it over to the incoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey.

“I urge Marty to remember the importance of Pakistan to all of this, to try and do a better job than I did with that vexing and yet vital relationship,” Mullen added in remarks.

“Our strategy is the right one. We must keep executing it.”

Last week Mullen accused Pakistan of exporting violence to Afghanistan through proxies and charged that the Haqqani network, an al Qaeda-linked group, was a “veritable arm” of Pakistani intelligence.

His comments triggered new tensions with Washington’s uneasy ally, Islamabad, with Pakistani leaders closing ranks against US pressure for action against the Haqqanis and refusing to be pressured into doing more in the war on terror.

Mullen also told Dempsey at the ceremony at Fort Myers in Virginia that “his biggest challenge is going to be Afghanistan” where more than 100,000 American troops are due to hand over responsibility for security to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.

The challenge would be “in seeing this critical transition through to its completion, in making sure that the security gains we have made are not squandered by the scourge of corruption or the lack of good governance that still plagues the country,” Mullen said.

Mullen retires from the US military after 43 years of service.

US-Pak relation not in the right place: Obama

President Barack Obama in a radio interview said that the United States will continue to push Pakistan to do more to curb militants based in its border regions while maintaining intelligence cooperation with Islamabad.

“We’ve been very firm with them about needing to go after safe havens inside of Pakistan, but we’ve tried to also preserve the intelligence cooperation that we’ve obtained that’s allowed us to go after al Qaeda in a very effective way,” he said.

“There’s no doubt that the relationship is not where it needs to be and we are going to keep on pressing them to recognize that it is in their interest — not just ours – to make sure that extremists are not operating within their borders,” added Obama.

Speaking at the ceremony, US president Barack Obama reminded US military and the world the lengths that it would go to against its enemies. “We will be determined, we will be deliberate, we will be relentless, we will be resolute in our commitment to destroy terrorist networks that aim to kill Americans,” a steely Obama said after an air raid in Yemen killed Awlaqi Friday.

(Read: Radical US-born cleric Awlaqi killed: Yemen defence ministry)

General Martin Dempsey takes over from Mullen

General Martin Dempsey on Friday took over as the US military’s top officer from Admiral Mike Mullen.

Dempsey has led soldiers in combat in Iraq and is keenly aware of the growing strain on the force after years of war.

An Irish-American who taught English literature to cadets at West Point, the 59-year-old graduated from the same class at the military academy as another four-star general, David Petraeus.

Until now, Petraeus – who rose to fame as commander in Iraq and had stepped down as chief in Afghanistan to take over the CIA – had largely overshadowed his former classmate.

As commander of the 1st Armored Division in Iraq in 2003-2004, Dempsey oversaw tanks and troops that fought insurgents led by Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, pushing the militia out of southern cities.

In his new job as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dempsey’s two combat tours will help shape how he advises the president as the United States wraps up its mission in Iraq and begins to withdraw some of the 100,000 American troops in Afghanistan.

“One of things he’ll bring to the job is current experience in the wars that we’re in,” said David Barno, a retired lieutenant general and senior adviser at the Center for a New American Security.

Dempsey takes over as chairman at a time of turmoil in the Arab world and growing pressure on the defense budget, with the Pentagon bracing for cuts and a possible scaled-back force.

Unlike the outgoing chairman Admiral Mike Mullen – a reserved figure with a soft-spoken manner – Dempsey is an extrovert with an irreverent sense of humour and a penchant for singing in public.

Proud of his working-class roots in New York and New Jersey, Dempsey’s favourite tune is Frank Sinatra’s rendition of “New York, New York,” which he belts out with gusto in unabashed performances captured on YouTube.

Dempsey finds an old acquaintance in his most ‘vexing’ challenge

Apart from Petraeus, Dempsey had another prominent classmate as a younger officer.

At the US Army’s staff college in the 1980s, Dempsey got to know a Pakistani officer, Ashfaq Kayani – now Pakistan’s powerful army chief who has clashed with the United States in the aftermath of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

Dempsey is known as a thoughtful, independent-minded leader who shuns formalities and goes out of his way to hear from junior officers, said Barno, a friend and former colleague.

At Central Command, Dempsey was “known for going to the back rows of the auditorium when he was giving his morning updates, asking junior officers what they thought,” Barno said.

He has “an ability to feel the soul of the organisation, to really feel what young soldiers and young leaders are going through and to connect with them in ways better than almost anyone I know,” Barno told AFP.

Steeped in US strategy on the Middle East having served as a deputy and acting chief of Central Command, Dempsey likely will focus much of his time on potential threats arising from the political earthquake shaking the region.

Formerly in charge of training and doctrine, Dempsey worked to ensure the Army absorbed the lessons of a decade of counter-insurgency warfare, and warned his superiors that the long-running wars have undercut training efforts and jeopardized the health of the force.

In describing his time in Iraq, Dempsey has stressed the importance of restraint, with troops moving in carefully instead of blasting away indiscriminately.

“In terms of precision, at no time did we work our way through a city building by building or room by room,” Dempsey once said in an interview.

“If we did go in on the ground, we penetrated, attacked the militia and then moved back out to minimize the risk of being seen as creating excessive collateral damage or prolonging suffering needlessly.”

WASHINGTON: There can be no solution to the conflict in Afghanistan without Pakistan, the outgoing Joint Chief’s of Staff Committee (JCSC) chairman, Admiral Mike Mullen said on Friday.

“I continue to believe that there is no solution in the region without Pakistan, and no stable future in the region without a partnership,” Mullen said at a ceremony where he stood down from the post, handing it over to the incoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey.

“I urge Marty to remember the importance of Pakistan to all of this, to try and do a better job than I did with that vexing and yet vital relationship,” Mullen added in remarks.

“Our strategy is the right one. We must keep executing it.”

Last week Mullen accused Pakistan of exporting violence to Afghanistan through proxies and charged that the Haqqani network, an al Qaeda-linked group, was a “veritable arm” of Pakistani intelligence.

His comments triggered new tensions with Washington’s uneasy ally, Islamabad, with Pakistani leaders closing ranks against US pressure for action against the Haqqanis and refusing to be pressured into doing more in the war on terror.

Mullen also told Dempsey at the ceremony at Fort Myers in Virginia that “his biggest challenge is going to be Afghanistan” where more than 100,000 American troops are due to hand over responsibility for security to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.

The challenge would be “in seeing this critical transition through to its completion, in making sure that the security gains we have made are not squandered by the scourge of corruption or the lack of good governance that still plagues the country,” Mullen said.

Mullen retires from the US military after 43 years of service.

Obama talks about Al Awlaki

Speaking at the ceremony, US president Barack Obama reminded US military and the world the lengths that it would go to against its enemies. “We will be determined, we will be deliberate, we will be relentless, we will be resolute in our commitment to destroy terrorist networks that aim to kill Americans,” a steely Obama said after an air raid in Yemen killed Awlaqi Friday.

(Read: Radical US-born cleric Awlaqi killed: Yemen defence ministry)

General Martin Dempsey takes over from Mullen

General Martin Dempsey on Friday took over as the US military’s top officer from Admiral Mike Mullen.

Dempsey has led soldiers in combat in Iraq and is keenly aware of the growing strain on the force after years of war.

An Irish-American who taught English literature to cadets at West Point, the 59-year-old graduated from the same class at the military academy as another four-star general, David Petraeus.

Until now, Petraeus – who rose to fame as commander in Iraq and had stepped down as chief in Afghanistan to take over the CIA – had largely overshadowed his former classmate.

As commander of the 1st Armored Division in Iraq in 2003-2004, Dempsey oversaw tanks and troops that fought insurgents led by Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, pushing the militia out of southern cities.

In his new job as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dempsey’s two combat tours will help shape how he advises the president as the United States wraps up its mission in Iraq and begins to withdraw some of the 100,000 American troops in Afghanistan.

“One of things he’ll bring to the job is current experience in the wars that we’re in,” said David Barno, a retired lieutenant general and senior adviser at the Center for a New American Security.

Dempsey takes over as chairman at a time of turmoil in the Arab world and growing pressure on the defense budget, with the Pentagon bracing for cuts and a possible scaled-back force.

Unlike the outgoing chairman Admiral Mike Mullen – a reserved figure with a soft-spoken manner – Dempsey is an extrovert with an irreverent sense of humour and a penchant for singing in public.

Proud of his working-class roots in New York and New Jersey, Dempsey’s favourite tune is Frank Sinatra’s rendition of “New York, New York,” which he belts out with gusto in unabashed performances captured on YouTube.

Dempsey finds an old acquaintance in his most ‘vexing’ challenge

Apart from Petraeus, Dempsey had another prominent classmate as a younger officer.

At the US Army’s staff college in the 1980s, Dempsey got to know a Pakistani officer, Ashfaq Kayani – now Pakistan’s powerful army chief who has clashed with the United States in the aftermath of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

Dempsey is known as a thoughtful, independent-minded leader who shuns formalities and goes out of his way to hear from junior officers, said Barno, a friend and former colleague.

At Central Command, Dempsey was “known for going to the back rows of the auditorium when he was giving his morning updates, asking junior officers what they thought,” Barno said.

He has “an ability to feel the soul of the organisation, to really feel what young soldiers and young leaders are going through and to connect with them in ways better than almost anyone I know,” Barno told AFP.

Steeped in US strategy on the Middle East having served as a deputy and acting chief of Central Command, Dempsey likely will focus much of his time on potential threats arising from the political earthquake shaking the region.

Formerly in charge of training and doctrine, Dempsey worked to ensure the Army absorbed the lessons of a decade of counter-insurgency warfare, and warned his superiors that the long-running wars have undercut training efforts and jeopardized the health of the force.

In describing his time in Iraq, Dempsey has stressed the importance of restraint, with troops moving in carefully instead of blasting away indiscriminately.

“In terms of precision, at no time did we work our way through a city building by building or room by room,” Dempsey once said in an interview.

“If we did go in on the ground, we penetrated, attacked the militia and then moved back out to minimize the risk of being seen as creating excessive collateral damage or prolonging suffering needlessly.”

ISLAMABAD: Anti-American protests by religious parties broke out in several Pakistani cities on Friday, a day after political leaders joined in rejecting US accusations that Islamabad was supporting militants.

Charges by a top US general that Pakistan’s spy agency had supported this month’s attack on the US mission in Kabul has added to anti-American sentiment in a country where a poll in June showed that almost two-thirds of the population considered the United States an enemy.

“The prevailing view in Pakistan is that because of our alignment with the United States, our problems have increased,” said Talat Masood, a retired general and military analyst.

“America’s view is the opposite: ‘Because you are not aligning yourself with us, your problems are increasing.’”

“This,” he said, “is the whole dilemma at the moment.”

In Hyderabad, about 900 people from an anti-Shia group whose militant arm has been accused of killing thousands of Pakistani Shias since the 1990s, burned an effigy of US President Barack Obama and chanted “America is a murderer”.

In Lahore, at least 800 people protested at the headquarters of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Pakistan’s biggest religious party. “Go, America, Go!” rose from the angry crowd.

Another protest by JI in Peshawar, northwest of Islamabad, drew around 200 people. They walked a donkey over an American flag laid on the road, and chanted “America’s Graveyard – Waziristan, Waziristan”, referring to the tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan that is a hotbed of militant groups.

“Give peace a chance”

The previous evening, dozens of political parties emerged from a conference, condemning US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen’s accusations of state links to violent militants as “baseless allegations”.

(Read: APC consensus: ‘Give peace a chance’)

They also pledged to seek a political settlement with militants on both sides of the border.

“There has to be a new direction and policy with a focus on peace and reconciliation,” their declaration read.

“Pakistan must initiate a dialogue with a view to negotiate peace with our own people in the tribal areas.”

A military official said the army, which has lost 6,500 troops in the 10 years since Pakistani allied with the United States in the war on militancy following the September 2001 attacks, supported this policy.

“Our approach to this is that since we are operating against our own people, success isn’t defined by how many people you kill or what area you clear but if the ultimate goal of peace and stability is being achieved or not,” he said.

The United States has long pressed its ally Pakistan to pursue the Haqqani network, one of the most lethal Taliban-allied Afghan groups fighting Western forces in Afghanistan.

Pakistan denies it supports the Haqqanis and says its army is too stretched battling its own Taliban insurgency to go after the network, which has between 10,000-15,000 fighters.

The group says it no longer has havens in Pakistan, feeling secure enough to operate in Afghanistan. Pakistani military officials say “no more than 10 percent” of the thousands of fighters operate in Pakistan and the rest are in Afghanistan.

One senior US official said that despite the harsh words of the past week and bust-ups of the last year, including after the May 2 raid by US forces that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, there had been no further deterioration in military-to-military relations and intelligence sharing.

“I see no signs that things have fallen off the cliff,” the official said. “No sign that they have taken a step backward.”

Watch a slideshow of pictures from today’s protest here.

KARACHI: Pakistan Maritime Security Agency apprehended 48 Indian fishermen along with eight boats for illegally fishing in Pakistani waters on Friday.

The arrested Indian fishermen were handed over to Docks police in Karachi for further legal action.

Commander Naeem of MSA told PPI that the Indian fishermen were arrested last night and brought to Karachi today.

The fishermen from neighboring country are often apprehended as they violate intrude into Pakistani waters near Indus Delta for fishing.

PESHAWAR: A US drone killed three suspected militants near the Pak-Afghan border in South Waziristan on Friday.

A vehicle was targeted in the Baghar Cheena border area which resulted in the death of three suspected militants.

An official who spoke on condition of anonymity said that the militants were not locals.

The CIA operates a covert drone programme which targets suspected militants in Pakistan.

It’s possibly the United States’ worst-kept secret even though it has opened up a debate about the legality of international state-sponsored killing of adversaries.

The United States is essentially deploying aerial robots to wage war along the inaccessible border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The drones conduct intelligence and reconnaissance missions and fire missiles at the enemy.

Drone “pilots” at CIA headquarters in Virginia move joy sticks around as they watch live video feeds of militants entering compounds, moving along winding mountain roads or planting bombs in northwest Pakistan, which President Barack Obama has called “the most dangerous place in the world”.

BRUSSELS: NATO’s chief piled pressure on Pakistan on Friday to step up the fight against “terrorists” enjoying safe havens in the border region with Afghanistan.

Amid growing US pressure for Pakistan to take action against al Qaeda-linked extremists, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen called for a “positive engagement” from Islamabad to ensure stability in Afghanistan.

“We encourage the Pakistani military and the Pakistani government to do its utmost to fight extremism and terrorism in the border region,” Rasmussen said at a defence forum hosted by the European Policy Centre think tank.

(Read: The Taliban & the Haqqanis)

“It is really a security problem for our troops in Afghanistan that terrorists have safe havens, and that’s a fact, in Pakistan,” he said. “We have to deal with that and it’s in our mutual interest to deal with that.”

“That’s a reason why we have conveyed that clear message to Pakistan authorities.”

The government and political leaders on Thursday closed ranks against increasing US pressure for action against the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network, refusing to be pressured into doing more in the war on terror.

In an unprecedented condemnation of Pakistan, the outgoing head of the US military, Admiral Mike Mullen, last week accused the country of “exporting” violent extremism to Afghanistan through proxies.

Mullen also charged that the Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) was actively supporting the Haqqani network blamed for an assault on the US embassy in Kabul this month.

There are 140,000 NATO-led foreign forces in Afghanistan, some 100,000 of them from the United States, fighting a Taliban-led insurgency.

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WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama and Uzbekistan’s President Islam Karimov, amid growing concern about the viability of Pakistan as a transit route, discussed expanding US use of the central Asian country as a route to supply troops in Afghanistan, a US official said on Thursday.

Obama’s outreach to Karimov, whose has faced US criticism over his human rights record, came as the United States and Pakistan are locked in a diplomatic crisis over US accusations linking Pakistan’s chief intelligence agency to militant attacks on Americans in Afghanistan.

Rising tension between Washington and Islamabad, at times awkward partners in the fight against Islamic militancy, have raised questions about Pakistan’s role as a major US supply route for American forces fighting in Afghanistan. That has prompted US officials to look harder at expanding alternatives to lessen reliance on Pakistan.

On a day when overtures to Uzbekistan seemed to stretch right across Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met her Uzbek counterpart and said both sides want to deepen ties. And in Congress, changes in US law were pending that would allow more military aid to Uzbekistan, despite its poor human rights record.

Capitol Hill aides said the change was done partly at the urging of the Obama administration, which is shifting more military supply lines to the Central Asian country.

The White House said Obama called Karimov on Wednesday to congratulate the former Soviet republic on its 20th anniversary of independence and that the leaders talked about shared interests in a “secure and prosperous” Afghanistan.

Clinton talks to uzbek; lawmakers make changes

“We value our relationship with Uzbekistan. They have been very helpful to us with respect to the Northern Distribution Network,” Clinton said, referring to the supply route that goes through the Central Asian country to Afghanistan.

An aide to Senator Patrick Leahy said the Obama administration had pushed for easing the restrictions on military aid to Uzbekistan due to concerns about potential limits to continuing cooperation from Pakistan with the US war effort in Afghanistan.

She spoke after meeting Uzbek Foreign Minister Elyor Ganiyev. Their dialogue raised “our concerns about human rights and political freedoms,” Clinton said, but added that there were “some signs” of progress on that front.

The Senate Appropriations Committee last week approved a bill that would allow the United States to waive restrictions on aid to Uzbekistan if Clinton certifies this is needed to obtain access to and from Afghanistan.

US military aid to Uzbekistan has been restricted since 2004 because of its human rights record. House appropriators have dropped the restrictions from their bill funding foreign aid next year, an aide said, making it likely some version of the change will pass.

But rather than drop the longstanding restrictions, Leahy, who chairs the panel that funds foreign aid, added the waiver that requires the administration to assess Uzbekistan’s progress on human rights, and a report on any diversion of US aid for “corrupt” purposes, the aide said.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told Reuters he had visited Uzbekistan and seen Karimov recently. “I expect a major breakthrough between us and the Uzbeks in terms of ground and air access,” Graham said.

“We’re going to probably replace 50 percent of what we ship into Afghanistan from Pakistan, will go through the northern route, Uzbekistan,” Graham, a member of the appropriations committee, said.

One reason US officials want to expand the Northern Distribution Network is to enable more movement on the network in both directions, a US military spokeswoman said.

She said the network had been seen primarily as a way of getting supplies into Afghanistan, but with the planned drawdown over the coming years, the United States wants agreements letting it haul materiel from Afghanistan as well.

The United States also has been looking to expand overflight options throughout the region, she said. Human rights groups have urged the United States not to lift restrictions on military aid to Uzbekistan. “The human rights situation in Uzbekistan continues to be among the worst in the world,” said Jeff Goldstein, a senior policy analyst at Open Society Foundations in Washington.

The plots were awarded through the Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation (FGEHF) and beneficiaries included federal secretaries, special secretaries, secretary generals and other top officials in Islamabad. Thirteen ambassadors were also among those provided with land.

The documents, examined by The Express Tribune, also disclosed that the Ministry of Housing and Works allotted 138 plots to civil servants from November 2, 2006 to November 29, 2009.

The allocation of plots has been met with controversy. Last month Member of the National Assembly Nisar Tanveer asked about discriminatory procedures. According to her, several civil servants from BS-22 posts were not given plots until they reached the age of retirement. “Solid justification of discrimination will be presented in the parliament,” she said.

Almost a dozen BS-22 civil servants told The Express Tribune on condition of anonymity that their names were dropped from the list of beneficiaries. However, they hesitated to give more details about the matter.

Federal Minister for Housing and Works Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat, in his written reply to the National Assembly, forwarded a list of 138 civil servants who had received plots under the FGEHF. Secretary Ministry of National Harmony Syed Anees Moosvi ruled out the possibility of discrimination. “All civil servants of BS-22 get plots, but the only issue is the limited availability of plots in the federal capital,” he said. “Officers want plots in posh sectors of Islamabad, which is nearly impossible according to city managers.”

Top officials who were given plots include the following: Secretary General to the President Salman Farooqui, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Khushnood Akhtar Lashari, Secretary Ministry of Foreign Affairs Salman Bashir, Chairman Federal Board of Investment Salman Siddique, Secretary (retd) Ministry of Information Ashfaq Ahmad Gondal, Director General (retd) Intelligent Bureau Dr Shoab Suddle, Secretary (retd) Livestock Muhammad Ali Afridi, Special Secretary to Prime Minister’s Secretariat (Public) Shahzad Qaiser and Waqar Masood Khan, Registrar Supreme Court Dr Faqir Hussain, Special Secretary Senate Secretariat Iftikharullah Babar, among others.(The designations of some of those named above have been updated to their current posts based on information available.)

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30^th, 2011.

The ECP has undertaken a door-to-door campaign to verify eligible voters based on data provided by the National Database and Registration Authority, which was due to be completed by September 30. The verification process was launched to eliminate bogus voters of which there are some 37 million on the basis of computerised national identity cards. The commission met under the chairmanship of Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Hamid Ali Mirza and decided to extend the deadline in view of the floods in Sindh and the law and order situation in parts of Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P). The requests for extension were made by Sindh and K-P legislatures. All four provincial election commissioners informed the ECP that nearly 70 per cent of the verification process has been completed across the country. It is in the disaster-struck and violence-prone areas that verification of voters is being carried out.

Secretary ECP Ishtiak Ahmed Khan stated 200,000 officials are going door-to-door to ensure voters are registered for the next election. He has asked political parties and voters to cooperate with the teams to ensure accuracy in electoral rolls for free, fair and credible elections in Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30^th, 2011. 

LAHORE: Five more people, including a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MPA, died of dengue in Lahore on Thursday, as the number of confirmed cases hit an unprecedented 11,915.

Chaudhary Mumtaz Ahmed Jajja, aged 63, was admitted to Jinnah Hospital seven days ago and despite doctors’ best efforts, his health continued to deteriorate, a doctor at the hospital told The Express Tribune. He had been on ventilator for last few days.

Jajja served as Member National Assembly (MNA) during 1985-88 and was elected MPA in the 2008 elections. He was also the parliamentary secretary for education in the Punjab Assembly.

“Everyone has to die one day, but we tried our level best to save his life. We did everything possible for his comfort,” Mumtaz Jajja’s son Chaudhary Khalid Jajja told The Express Tribune. He said that funeral prayers for his father would be held in Bahawalpur today (Friday).

New cases

In the past 24 hours, 331 new confirmed cases of dengue were reported in Punjab, out of which 279 were from Lahore. The total number of patients in Punjab has reached 11,915, whereas in Lahore the total number of patients is 10,525. The death toll from dengue stands at 120 in Punjab, of which 111 deaths were reported in Lahore.

In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, at least 130 people have been diagnosed with dengue and six have died. Sindh has seen 400 suspected cases and six deaths.

Locals blame government’s inefficiency

Authorities in Lahore have blamed the crisis on prolonged monsoon rains and unusually high seasonal temperatures.

But furious locals say the outbreak is yet another example of government inefficiency, citing a failure to take preventive measures to kill off the mosquitos and lengthy power cuts.

Banners emblazoned with giant sketches of mosquitos and public warning messages such as “Eliminate dengue, Have peace” are hung across avenues and crossings in Lahore.

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has urged doctors to do more to restore calm. “You are doing a wonderful job, but we have to bring down the mortality rate so that the people will be calmed,” he said at a workshop this week.

In much of Lahore, life carries on as normal with some establishments as crowded as ever in the cooler evenings. Others cannot afford to be ruffled.

Mohammad Naeem, a 50-year-old roadside telephone vendor, said he had no alternative but to brave the risk.

“No sir, we do not apply any lotion. It’s very expensive. We can hardly buy a loaf of bread. They come to our doorsteps to beg for votes, but they do not come to spray,” he complained.

Influx of patients

Hospitals are overwhelmed, treating around 1,113 people and having already sent home another 10,000 to recuperate, said Asif Nadeem, a member of a hastily set up anti-dengue task force.

At Lahore General Hospital, where most cases have been reported, the corridors were packed with patients and relatives making it difficult to breathe.

Outside, medics set up large tents to accommodate family members and patients waiting for treatment, offering some shelter in the sweltering heat.

“We have no complaints about the arrangements, but they are not going beyond giving out paracetamol,” Rashid Hameed, 27, an accountant, told AFP.

ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM AFP

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30^th, 2011.

The accused MNA and others, however, pleaded not guilty and said they would contest the charges and face trial in court. The trial court judge Shahid Nazir adjourned hearing of the case till October 11 when the prosecution would produce its witnesses against the accused persons.

The PML-N legislator and around 40 men were accused of forcibly escaping from the custody of Shalimar police station on July 15, amid firing in the air and scuffles.  The PML-N MNA was initially arrested for his alleged involvement in the multi-billion rupee land scam in the National Police Foundation (NPC).

The police in its investigation have already discharged all accused in the case; however 17 of them are still facing trial as proof of innocence could not be obtained against the men.

The accused MNA on Thursday denied all charges of being forcibly taken from police custody with the help of his supporters. Aqeel had already maintained in the bail application that he did not know the identity of the men who nabbed him from custody.

The others accused in the case have asserted before the court that they are being dragged in the case under political pressure only for supporting the PML-N legislator. After the hearing, the MNA avoided answering any questions from the media, leaving the court premises in a private car.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30^th, 2011.

When campaigning for the 2008 general elections, political parties pledged to increase spending on and improve the standard and quality of education while the 18th Amendment to the constitution made education a fundamental right.

The extent to which those promises have materialized, however, is evident from the Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement (PSLM) survey for 2010 – 2011, conducted by the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS).

For one, the adult literacy rate has only increased by 1%, to 55%.  Satisfaction with educational services was at 60%, down from 62% in 2008-2009.

According to prominent educationist Prof Anita Ghulam Ali, the dissatisfaction is because of confusion over government policies. “Look at the state of primary schools and colleges, absenteeism of teachers and the lack of discipline. The government keeps chopping and changing its policy, and what is the outcome? Ultimately parents will want to opt for an O’ or A’ levels system and try to send their children to private schools that are unaffordable.”

Data compiled by the FBS for household income and consumption expenditure proves Ali’s assessment right. Spending on education in urban areas has decreased to 4.82% of average monthly expenditure, compared to 5.26% in 2007-2008. In rural areas, the percentage decreased to 2.51% from 2.94%.

Education for women remains dismal. Only 47% of the women surveyed in four provinces had ever been to school, as compared to 71% of the men. Balochistan fares the worst on this indicator, with only 39% of the urban female population and 13% of the rural female population having ever attended school.

Ali, who heads the Sindh Education Foundation, said that while there was always a wide difference in urban and rural educational facilities, the inequality is growing.

“The kind of people who are appointed as administrators, and I’m sorry to say, even the teachers in rural areas … there’s no control. No one seems to evaluate what the teachers are doing or what the students have absorbed.”

Astonishingly, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s districts of Shangla, Kohistan, Battagram and Buner and Harnai, Awaran, Washuk, Musa Khel and Sherani in Balochistan, 0% of the urban male and female population surveyed had attended school.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30^th, 2011. 

The incumbent DG IB Javed Noor is due to retire on October 1, 2011 while IG National Highways and Motorway Police Zafarullah Khan, IG K-P Fiaz Ahmad Khan Toru are due to retire in the first and third week of October respectively.

The names of three officers of Police Service of Pakistan (PSP), including IG Blochistan Rao Amin Hasim, IG Punjab Javed Iqbal, Additional IG Punjab Aftab Sultan have been nominated for the post of director-general Intelligence Bureau (IB), the top position of the federal government civilian spy agency.

The federal government however wanted to retain the services of Javed Noor as DG IB and had also agreed to extend his tenure owing to his competency and unblemished reputation during his service. However, he refused the offer, sources familiar with the matter revealed.

The panel for the appointment of the new DG IB has been submitted to the office of the prime minister for final recommendation. However, sources familiar with the matter told The Express Tribune that IG Sindh Wajid Durrani has been shortlisted at the eleventh hour as a candidate to fill the DG IB post. Earlier, Rao Amin Hashim was considered the front-runner for the post.

It was also learnt that if IG Punjab Javed Iqbal is appointed as DG IB then the candidates for his replacement would be Aftab Sultan, Additional IG Special Branch Nasir Khan Durrani and Additional IG Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) Punjab Mushtaq Sukhera.

Furthermore, if Wajid Durrani is appointed as DG IB then the former IG Sindh Fayyaz Leghari is likely to be posted as IG Sindh, The Express Tribune learnt.

The Managing Director of National Police Foundation (NPF) as well as Additional Director General of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Zafar Qureshi (chief Investigator of the multi-billion National Insurance Company Limited scam) are also due to retire on September 30, 2011 but the government has not yet made any decision on their replacements yet.

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister of K-P has suggested three officers for appointment of IG K-P to the prime minister.

The officers included were Additional IG Elite Force K-P Abdul Majeed Marwat, IG Balochistan Rao Amin Hashim, Commandant Mohammad Akbar Khan Hoti.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30^th, 2011.

WASHINGTON: The US Treasury Department has added five men, including a Haqqani network commander, to the list of specially designated global terrorists. The move comes barely a day after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the US government was in the final formal review stage of designating the Haqqani network a foreign terrorist organization.

The move is seen by some analysts as a compromise with one eye on a future settlement in Afghanistan. The Haqqanis are likely to be part of a political settlement in Afghanistan when the US withdraws its military presence. If the entire group is branded a terrorist organisation, this could be a stumbling block in future negotiations, as the US will have already tied its own hands. Alternatively, the move could be viewed as a stepping stone to designating the Haqqani network a terrorist organisation outright. Either way, for now the US has not closed the door to future talks with the group.

Under Executive Order 13224, the five individuals have been accused of providing financial, material or technological support, or acting for or on behalf of terrorist organisations in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Under the law, US citizens are now barred from engaging or transacting with them, and any assets under US jurisdiction will be frozen.

The five individuals include Abdul Aziz Abbasin, described as a key Haqqani Network commander, and the Taliban shadow governor of Orgun District in Paktika, Afghanistan. Abbasin has been accused of training fighters in Paktika, ambushes of supply vehicles, and transporting weapons to Afghanistan.

Also in the list of designees is Hajji Faizullah Khan Noorzai, a Taliban financier and facilitator of Taliban training and operations. The Treasury Department said Faizullah had helped move Taliban suicide bombers from Pakistan into Afghanistan in 2009, and also operated a madrassah near the Af-Pak border, which not only raised funds for the Taliban but also provided their fighters with training.

His brother, Hajji Malik Noorzai (Malik), a Pakistan-based businessman, has been accused of investing the Taliban’s finances, and handling a “hawala account in Pakistan that received tens of thousands of dollars transferred from the Gulf every few months to support Taliban activities.”

Abdur Rehman, a Taliban facilitator and financier, has also been placed on the list. “Rehman is also a former provincial-level JEM leader, once serving as the primary point of contact for JEM in Karachi,” said the Department of Treasury. Fazal Rahim, the fifth individual on the list, was arrested in May 2010 by Pakistan, and has been accused of being a financier and facilitator of Al-Qaida and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.

The Department of Treasury added Lashkar-e-Taiba leaders Zafar Iqbal and Hafiz Abdul Salam Bhuttavi to its list of designees.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30^th, 2011.

The diplomat, speaking to The Express Tribune on condition of anonymity, said the two countries had gone the extra mile this week to defuse tension. He would not share further details but did say the two countries agreed unequivocally on one central point: that a breakdown in their relationship “is not an option.”

The progress was apparently made during US Ambassador Cameron Munter’s talks with Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir and President Asif Zardari. However, it is unclear if the two countries have been able to overcome their differences on the Haqqani network, which has become the core irritant in the relationship.

Another US official said a lot will depend on the outcome of the All Parties Conference, convened by the prime minister to discuss the ongoing row between the two countries.

A Pakistani official also confirmed that the US and Pakistan were eager to put recent tensions behind them. “The two sides have realised that they have to maintain this relationship and at the same time agreed that the war of words must be ceased,” the official added.

In a positive sign, two US officials are expected to travel to Islamabad in October. US special representative for the region Marc Grossman, who in an interview on Wednesday with Express News struck a reconciliatory note, is due to visit the capital next week.

(Read: Exclusive interview – US will not end relationship with Pakistan)

The incoming US Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen Martin Dempsey, who assumes charge today (Friday), will also visit Pakistan in an attempt to repair ties with the Pakistani military leadership.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30^th, 2011.