Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Cricket Diplomacy in South Asia - A Constructive Approach


'Cricket Diplomacy': Even Saddened Pakistani Fans See Some Good
NPR, March 30, 2011

Though deeply disappointed that Pakistan's cricket team lost to India today in their semifinal World Cup match, mechanical engineering students Arsalan Ghazi and Danish Ilyas were also struck by the potential meaning of the match between the two archrivals (politically and sportingly).

They watched with thousands of other fans on a large screen set up in an Islamabad park. Afterward, Ghazi said, "It's a game." He mused about how even though one match can't bring peace, "sports does unite nations." More matches in the future can only help that process, the friends said.

This was indeed a competition laden with political significance. As my NPR colleague Corey Flintoff and I reported on All Things Considered, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani watched the game with his Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh.

Pakistan's loss notwithstanding, Gilani said afterward that "today's match brought the people and leadership of the two countries together. This, I believe is the positive outcome of today's semifinal."

And, Gilani added, "let me convey to the people of India that Pakistan desires good neighborly relations with India. The resolution of all issues through dialogue will bring peace and prosperity to our people."

Related:
India beats Pakistan at Mohali; cricket diplomacy truimphs - Economic Times
India keep alive a billion dreams - Reuters
Gilani bats for peace, calls tie a victory for cricket - Times of India
Permanent reconciliation needed with Pak: Manmohan - Hindustan Times

Friday, March 25, 2011

Unrest in Jordan and Syria after Tumoil in Bahrain and Yemen - Arab Reawakening in full swing?

Riot Police Destroy Protesters’ Camp in Amman
By RANYA KADRI and ETHAN BRONNER
New York Times, March 25, 2011

AMMAN, Jordan — Riot police stormed a pro-democracy rally here in the Jordanian capital on Friday, leaving one man dead, injuring scores of other people and dispersing with water cannons a 1,000-person tent camp set up the previous day to resemble Tahrir Square in Cairo.

Witnesses said the violence — the worst since demonstrations began in Jordan in January — came after some 200 pro-government counterdemonstrators using sticks and rocks attacked the protesters, who fought back. The riot police were called in, and they broke up the fighting as well as the tent camp.

The Interior Ministry said the man who died in the fighting, Khairi Jamil Saad, 56, an unemployed father of five, suffered a fatal heart attack, But his son, Nasser Saad, said in an interview that the riot police had attacked and beaten them both. He said he saw his father’s body at the hospital. His teeth were broken and he had signs of being beaten on his hands, legs and ears.

At least 100 injured demonstrators were at the hospital, and protest organizers said four of them were later arrested by police.

Three eyewitnesses said they saw distinct evidence of collusion between the pro-government demonstrators and the riot police. After the tent camp was destroyed, they said, the two groups sang and celebrated together.

The tent camp had been set up by a new organization calling itself the March 24th Movement because of its plan to camp out from Thursday until demands for reform were met, as had occurred in Tahrir Square. The organizers were calling for an end to corruption and autocracy and greater economic equality.

As discontent has rolled across the Arab world in recent months, King Abdullah II of Jordan fired his cabinet and ordered his new prime minister, Marouf el-Bakhit, to begin serious electoral reforms and reach out to all elements of Jordanian society, including the Muslim Brotherhood.

But the reform process has not moved quickly and pro-democracy forces have grown impatient. Jordan is a close American ally and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates visited with King Abdullah on Friday, flying to his palace and back by helicopter, with no direct contact with the political unrest.

For complete article, click here
Related:
Violent protests in Syria, Bahrain, Yemen – and now Jordan - Christian Science Monitor
Syria unleashes force on protesters demanding freedom as unrest spreads - Guardian
Protests, Violence Spread Across The Arab World - NPR
Yemen ruler ready to step down, Syria protests spread - Reuters
For Arab Youth, Dreams May Be Deferred - NPR
Hundreds of Saudi Shi'ites protest in east - Reuters

Thursday, March 24, 2011

How to End the Afghan War? - Century Foundation Task Force Report on Afghanistan

Afghanistan: Negotiating Peace
Settling the Afghan War
By LAKHDAR BRAHIMI and THOMAS R. PICKERING
New York Times, March 22, 2011

DESPITE the American-led counterinsurgency in Afghanistan, the Taliban resistance endures. It is not realistic to think it can be eradicated. Efforts by the Afghan government, the United States and their allies to win over insurgents and co-opt Taliban leaders into joining the Kabul regime are unlikely to end the conflict.

The current strategy of “reintegration” may peel away some fighters and small units, but it does not provide the political resolution that peace will require.

Neither side of the conflict can hope to vanquish the other through force. Meanwhile, public support in Western countries for keeping troops in Afghanistan has fallen. The Afghan people are weary of a long and debilitating war.

For their part, the Taliban have encountered resistance from Afghans who are not part of their dedicated base when they have tried to impose their stern moral code. International aid has improved living standards among Afghans in areas not under Taliban control. That has placed new pressure on the Taliban, as has an increasing ambivalence toward the Taliban in Pakistan.

The stalemate can be resolved only with a negotiated political settlement involving President Hamid Karzai’s government and its allies, the Taliban and its supporters in Pakistan, and other regional and international parties. The United States has been holding back from direct negotiations, hoping the ground war will shift decisively in its favor. But we believe the best moment to start the process toward reconciliation is now, while force levels are near their peak.

For the insurgents, the prospects for negotiating a share of national power are not likely to improve by waiting until the United States withdraws most combat forces by the end of 2014; on the contrary, the possibility that Americans might find a way to maintain an enduring military presence past 2014 suggests that perhaps the only way they can truly get the Americans out is with a negotiated settlement.

For complete op-ed click here
For complete Century Foundation Task Force Report titled "Afghanistan: Negotiating Peace", click here

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Murder of History - Remembering 'East Pakistan' on March 23, 2011



Blind spots of history
By Manan Ahmed
Pakistan Today, March 23, 2011

Today, on March 23rd, the Pakistani national cricket team takes the field in the World Cup Cricket quarterfinals. The attention of the nation is focused on the men in green and their determined gazes at the next round. This national team is a motley crew – young and old, new and experienced, hailing from various parts of the nation-state.

It may have been a bit slow coming but cricket fever is now everywhere. This enthusiasm is a fitting scene and a fitting scenario for the team. After all, the cricket team has epitomised Pakistani nationalism since the heady days of General Zia-ul-Haq’s “cricket diplomacy” and the tours with India under Imran Khan. Some say that nothing really changed between India and Pakistan as a result of that “diplomacy” but it did – Imran Khan and his team became the purest, brightest national symbol the nation ever had. When they lifted the World Cup trophy in 1992, it was the triumph of nationalism itself.

Ask any Pakistani who witnessed that event live. Where the cricket team is the nation embodied, March 23rd is Pakistan Day – a day to celebrate the Lahore Resolution of 1940 which became the very basis of an independent Pakistan. This is the day represented by the Minar-e Pakistan in Lahore. This is the day that the national spirit invokes furious displays of military hardware and patriotic speeches. On this particular March 23rd, the symbolic and metonymic will finally meet and we will all bask in the spirit of Pakistan.

Except we will all be – all of us – in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where the cricket match is being held. Dhaka, that intimate now turned stranger, as Faiz wrote in 1974.

In that soil lies the writer of that Lahore Resolution of 1940 – A K Fazlul Huq (d. 1962). There lies also Khwaja Nizamuddin (d. 1964) who was the second Governor General and the second Prime Minister of Pakistan. There, next to him, lies H S Suhrawardy (d. 1963) who was the fifth Prime Minister of Pakistan. These men were the architects of the Lahore Resolution though their visions differed on significant points with that of Quaid-e Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. They urged for a Pakistan that was inclusive, diverse and which was the sum of all its parts. Their graves in Dhaka signal the deepest silence in Pakistan’s history.

A silence that extends all over Dhaka and the bloody violence it suffered in 1971. It became a city soaked in the blood of its own inhabitants, as the, then, West Pakistani army purged it of its intellectuals, its leaders, its poets, its dreamers, its students. After the separation of East Pakistan, the creation of Bangladesh, the Hamoodur Rahman Commission Report valiantly tried its best to document that bloody Dhaka but it fell short and, in any case, the report itself lays forgotten by patriotic Pakistanis.

In Pakistan, there is no remembrance of 1971. Sakoot-e Dhaka is not part of common vocabulary. An examination of the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9-10th, and 12th grade Pakistan Studies/Social Studies textbooks from Punjab Texbook Board reveals a glaring lack of any reference to 1971 or even to our collective lives prior to 1971; of that mutual struggle for independence that bonded Muslims across the subcontinent. The questions in the M.A. History examinations never address 1971. Entire generations born after 1971 have no political or cultural memory that their nation wasn’t partitioned once, but twice. They have no awareness that the promises of the Lahore Resolution – and not just the one clause of “independent states” – were wasted by the politicians who came after. But the silences run to even greater depths – these generations cannot conceive that the federal state has a history of denying states their due, their rights, their seat at the table. They do no realise that the complaints of Swat, of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, of Balochistan for justice, for recognition are echoes of the cries of Dhaka.

For complete article, click here
Related:
Forty-winking through the past - Dawn
March 23, 2011: Match Mubarak, Pakistan. Thank You, Bangladesh - All Things Pakistan

India Cables: Views 0f Pakistani Punjabis about 'Who conducted Mumbai Attacks?'

181158: Most Punjabis believe Indian groups are behind Mumbai attacks
The Hindu, March 23, 2011

SUBJECT: MOST PUNJABIS BELIEVE INDIAN GROUPS ARE BEHIND MUMBAI ATTACKS
CLASSIFIED BY: Clinton Taylor, Acting Principal Officer, Consulate Lahore, U.S. Department of State. REASON: 1.4 (d)

1. (C) Summary: Although a few Punjabis see the possibility the Mumbai attacks could have been launched in Pakistan, overall politicians and lawyers in Punjab province believe that India should look to internal insurgent groups as the sole actors of the Mumbai attacks. After Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's initial reaction blaming Pakistan, which angered Punjabis, they welcomed the December 1 statement from the White House, saying that the U.S. government had found no evidence implicating the Pakistan government, which they saw as absolving Pakistan of any responsibility. The innocence felt by most Punjabis will make it difficult for the government to crack down on Pakistani perpetrators. End Summary.
- - -
4. (C) Several PML-N opposition politicians also interpreted the U.S. government announcement as a vindication of Pakistan. In a December 2 meeting with Poleconoff, MPA Mehr Ishtaq Ahmed, a senior vice-president in the PM-LN Lahore chapter, doubted that Pakistanis had any role at all in the Mumbai attack. He and fellow PML-N MPA Rai Ejaz Ahmed Khan, an attorney, believed that India's intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), had incited the riots in Karachi as retaliation for the Mumbai attacks, sustaining a policy that aims to destabilize and break up Pakistan. [Note: See Karachi septel. The unrest in Karachi, which has resulted in over 50 dead since November 30, most likely stems from ethnic conflict. End Note.]
- - -
Pakistani Groups Capable, Say Others
- - -
5. (C) Chaudhry Fawwad Khan, a prominent attorney affiliated with Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PMLQ), in a December 1 conversation with Poleconoff, recognized the likelihood that a Pakistani group based in Punjab had sponsored the attack. He theorized that a group such as Lashkar-e-Taiba or Lashkar-e-Jhangvi had cooperated with the Taliban, which wanted to use the attack to spark a conflict between India and Pakistan, which would then prompt the Pakistan Army to shift its troops from the northern areas back to the Indian border. If true, this would be a good sign of the pressure felt by the militants, he offered. Asked whether other Pakistanis might feel similarly, he and his law partner Raja Amir Khan, who had contested a Pakistan People's Party (PPP) MPA seat in the February elections, said that the Urdu press had spread conspiracy theories that led people to blame India. Pervaiz Malik, the PML-N Finance Secretary and advisor to Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, also acknowledged December 2 the possibility of a Pakistani group's involvement in the attacks.

Related:
‘No doubt that attackers were Pakistani’ - Nawaz Sharif - The Hindu
For more details, click here

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Police, Not Military, Is Key to Fighting Terrorism in Pakistan


Hassan Abbas is developing police reforms for Pakistan. (Image credit: Eileen Barroso/Columbia University)
Image credit: Eileen Barroso/Columbia University
 South Asia Scholar Says Police, Not Military, Is Key to Fighting Terrorism in Pakistan
by Melanie A. Farmer and Tanya L. Domi
The Record, Columbia University, March 2011

Fourteen years ago, Hassan Abbas served on the police force in his homeland, Pakistan. Now from his perch at the School of International and Public Affairs, Abbas has come up with a plan to reform his cuntry’s weak police system, which he argues would be far better than the military at fighting terrorism.

“Nuclear bombs and attacks are not going to save Pakistan from militant threat,” says Abbas, the Quaid-i-Azam Professor with the South Asia Institute. “You need better law enforcement mechanisms to tackle the growing violence and crime in the country.”

In February, Abbas’ research was published in a report released by the nonpartisan United States Institute of Peace. His recommendations include improving coordination between various policing agencies, streamlining the decision-making process, modernizing investigative skills and increasing police salaries.

 Abbas’ research is timely as Pakistan becomes increasingly dangerous. Earlier this month, minority affairs minister Shahbaz Bhatti was gunned down in his car. Bhatti, a Roman Catholic, was the second government official to be assassinated in the past two months for seeking to reform Pakistan’s harsh blasphemy laws, which impose the death penalty for insulting the Prophet Muhammad. Salmaan Taseer, the Punjab governor, was murdered in January by one of his own bodyguards after he called for a pardon of a Christian woman sentenced to death under the law.

Pakistan’s law enforcement system has remained weak and corrupt because most of the international support for counterterrorism in the past decade went to the armed forces, says Abbas. Yet Abbas argues that only a civilian police force can do effective counterterrorism. “Police action also supports rule of law and legitimacy of a democratic system—two issues that need immediate attention in Pakistan,” he stresses. “Military should always be a backup force.”

This April, Abbas will begin to implement his ideas for police reform. In a year-long project supported by a grant from the Asia Society, he will interview dozens of police officers and policy makers in Pakistan to find out what they need for more effective policing, then write up specific recommendations for the government. According to Abbas, the U.S. government has expressed its support for police reforms as well.

To comprehend Pakistan’s relationship with the military, one must understand its past, says Abbas. Even though the biggest security threat currently facing Pakistan is terrorism, “historically speaking, Pakistan viewed India as the biggest threat, and it fought three wars with it,” he says. “Pakistan’s conventional military force and nuclear capability was developed keeping that in view. But to fight religious extremism, terrorism and insurgency, only a law enforcement model can work. Nuclear bombs cannot stop suicide bombers from blowing up themselves.”

For complete article, click here
Related:
For the USIP Report on Pakistan, click here
Political will & clear vision - Huma Yusuf, Dawn

Friday, March 18, 2011

A Story of Hope from Multan College of Arts

A Story of Hope by Richard Seck
Dawn Blog, March 18, 2011

After the longest strike in the history of Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU), the students of the Multan College of Arts were forced back into the classrooms on Monday, March 16, 2011. They had stood united for 21 days while facing harassment and threats of expulsion by the administration, and threats of physical violence from politically-backed student groups. They continued to stand and peacefully protest after disappointment followed disappointment in meetings with the highest-level officials in the Punjab Government. The core of what they were fighting for was truth, justice and a proper education. In the end, none of their goals were achieved.

It is not without irony that I write a tale that can be construed as another damning story in the long legacy of the horrendous politics of this nation. I, who arrived in Karachi in December of 2006 with sole purpose of celebrating the people, places, and incredible history of land that I had fallen in love with on my four previous trips to Pakistan at the turn of this century.

How can this story be negative for me though, when these students were in fact attempting, through their pure and peaceful actions, to keep me, their Assistant Professor Richard Seck, in their college where I have given all I had give for the last two-and-a-half years in an attempt to fill the many voids in their education. They have seen my sleepless nights, the three miraculous Design Department Thesis Exhibitions, the successes of those who have graduated and have moved on to higher education in Pakistan and abroad, or into the marketplace in a position exactly suited to their passion and skill sets. And how I bashed my head against the wall for six months; seemingly tirelessly marching, again and again, to the Vice Chancellor’s office to get funding for the most basic requirements of the college. They have witnessed how I pushed to get additional help from the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, by bringing one of its graduates to set up a much-needed, proper, integrated foundation year programme, and typography courses for the design department. When the administration, who were apparently blind to this effort (or worse yet, not), sent me a text message on February 19, 2011, that my contract would not be renewed, the students, upon hearing this, immediately shut the college down in protest of my dismissal. Their determination was further fueled by an illegal dismissal letter that simply stated that “my services are no longer required”. The students knew very well that there was no legitimate reason for my dismissal and cited that this was simply based on the biased agenda of the administration.

The story of these brave and determined students is the story I want the world hear about Pakistan. The fact that they could hold out as long as they did and get their message to a wider audience is nothing short of a miracle under the crushing pressure that they faced. For me, it is a story of hope for the future of this incredible country. These are the stories that I want to convey about the Pakistan that I love and have come to call my home.

PAKISTAN ZINDABAD!

Richard Seck, at the time of writing this blog (March 17), is awaiting the return of BZU Security to deliver the final notice to vacate his University accommodation.

Crisis in Bahrain Worsens - 'Pearl Roundabout' destroyed

Bahrain Pulls a Qaddafi
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF, New York Times, March 16, 2011

It is heartbreaking to see a renegade country like Libya shoot pro-democracy protesters. But it’s even more wrenching to watch America’s ally, Bahrain, pull a Qaddafi and use American tanks, guns and tear gas as well as foreign mercenaries to crush a pro-democracy movement — as we stay mostly silent.

In Bahrain in recent weeks, I’ve seen corpses of protesters who were shot at close range, seen a teenage girl writhing in pain after being clubbed, seen ambulance workers beaten for trying to rescue protesters — and in the last few days it has gotten much worse. Saudi Arabia, in a slap at American efforts to defuse the crisis, dispatched troops to Bahrain to help crush the protesters. The result is five more deaths, by the count of The Associated Press.

One video from Bahrain appears to show security forces shooting an unarmed middle-aged man in the chest with a tear gas canister at a range of a few feet. The man collapses and struggles to get up. And then they shoot him with a canister in the head. Amazingly, he survived.

Today the United States is in a vise — caught between our allies and our values. And the problem with our pal Bahrain is not just that it is shooting protesters but also that it is something like an apartheid state. Sunni Muslims rule the country, and now they are systematically trying to crush an overwhelmingly Shiite protest movement.

My New York Times colleague Michael Slackman was caught by Bahrain security forces a few weeks ago. He said that they pointed shotguns at him and that he was afraid they were about to shoot when he pulled out his passport and shouted that he was an American journalist. Then, he says, the mood changed abruptly and the leader of the group came over and took Mr. Slackman’s hand, saying warmly: “Don’t worry! We love Americans!”

For complete article, click here
Related:
Bahrain destroys Pearl roundabout - Guardian
Saudi role in Bahrain brings regional stakes - Associated Press
Mourners Protest at Bahrain Funeral - WSJ

Pakistan Education Task Force Report - An Outstanding Initiative

[http://educationemergency.com.pk/]
Unleashing Pakistan's Education Potential - Shahid Kardar
March for education in Pakistan, Daily Times, March 9, 2011

Pakistan Education Task Force (PEFT) has issued its report titled ‘the Education Emergency Pakistan Booklet’ as part of its March for Education campaign to improve education in Pakistan. Here are the excerpts:

TODAY, Pakistan is crippled by an education emergency that threatens tens of millions of children. No country can thrive in the modern world without educated citizens.

But the emergency has disastrous human, social and economic consequences, and threatens the security of the country. 2011 is Pakistan’s Year of Education. It’s time to think again about Pakistan’s most pressing long-term challenge.

The 18th Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan received Presidential assent on 19 April 2010. For the first time, education is no longer a privilege, but a fundamental right for all children: The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of five to sixteen years in such manner as may be determined by law.

Along with the rest of the world, Pakistan has also pledged to meet the Millennium Development Goal for education, promising that, by 2015: Children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling and that girls and boys will have equal access to all levels of education.

Today, Pakistan is far from meeting its international education obligations. At least, seven million children are not in primary school. That’s around as many people as live in the city of Lahore. Three million will never see the inside of a classroom at all.

Imagine a city full of children – the size of Faisalabad – where every child is deprived of the opportunity even to start his or her education. This is a challenge of global dimensions. Roughly one in ten of the world’s primary-age children who are not in school live, in Pakistan, placing Pakistan second in the global ranking of out-of-school children.

For complete article, click here
Related:
Pakistan’s year of education - By Sir Michael Barber, Express Tribune, January 14, 2011
The country is producing unemployable graduates, fear experts - Express Tribune
The Miseducation of Pakistan - A Documentary

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Lessons from Raymand Davis Case

Davis Release Highlights Fragility of US-Pakistan Partnership
Hassan Abbas, Asia Society, March 16, 2011

Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor the US claimed had diplomatic immunity, was arrested in Pakistan after a deadly shooting incident in January. He was freed today after victims' families pardoned him in exchange for financial compensation, as per a provision of Islamic law applicable in Pakistan's legal system.

For the sustainability of US-Pakistan relations this is a positive step, especially from the US perspective. On the Pakistani street this is likely to create some tension, and the media also appear to be up in arms against the government as it is clear to all and sundry that the government (both its political and military sides) played an active role in this resolution.

The situation in Pakistan can still turn ugly if handled poorly, as rumors are circling in local media that the victims' family members agreed to this pardon under duress — or they may be saying this in response to public anger.

There are several key points the US and Pakistan must learn from this episode: The bilateral relationship should not be allowed to become hostage to similar incidents in future; There should be complete transparency in the field of counter-terror operations and both sides should abide by agreed 'rules of the game'; Pakistan should be especially careful not to play politics in such cases, as only extremist elements benefit from such controversies; Finally, the US should also develop a better understanding of political realities on ground in Pakistan.

One earnestly hopes that the resolution of this case will usher in a new and constructive chapter in US-Pakistan relations.

The ISI-CIA Deal - Drones, Davis and Bilateral Relationship

Drone Attacks in Pakistan: Truth and Consequences
Hassan Abbas, Asia Society, March 15, 2011
 
In an unprecedented move, a Pakistani general has proclaimed that most of the targets of US drone attacks in Pakistan’s Pushtun tribal belt are "hardcore militants" and the number of "innocent people being killed is relatively low."

This must be music to the ears of CIA officials who run this program. However, everyone else is surprised because this statement has come at a time when the Raymond Davis controversy has sullied the bilateral relationship.

It was a known fact, especially after the WikiLeaks disclosures, that Pakistan's political as well as military leaders were generally supportive of this mode of counterterror operation—even if they were publicly critical of it in view of strong public opposition.

In this context, it appears that after a meeting of senior military officials from both sides, some adjustments have been agreed upon—Pakistan's army will acknowledge the effectiveness of drone attacks and the US will be more transparent about the activities of its officials in Pakistan.

If this is indeed so, then it can be deemed as a good damage-control step. However, for ordinary Pakistanis, drone attacks will not become acceptable overnight. Even if an increasing number of terrorists are being eliminated and collateral damage is low, popular perception about the issue can still have lethal consequences.

Related:
ISI redefining terms of engagement with CIA - DAWN
U.S., Pakistan military chiefs hold secret talks in Oman - Stars and Stripes

Monday, March 14, 2011

Bahrain: Severe Human Rights Violations by Security Forces



News Analysis: Bahrain's Revolution Reaches What Could Become Decisive Phase
by: Husain Abdulla, t r u t h o u t , 09 March 2011

The people's revolution is on its track, calling for the removal of the regime and performing various activities on the road to victory. In the past week, several remarkable activities were undertaken with resounding success. First came the picketing of the financial harbor owned by the regime's Prime Minister Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa. It was conducted at night when hundreds of protesters moved from their base at Pearl Square and took position near the main financial center. Then came the massive demonstration and picketing of the main torture headquarters at Bahrain's Fort, where a human wave flooded to highlight the role that place had been playing in torturing Bahrainis over the years. It stands as a reminder of the most brutal periods of the Al Khalifa reign of terror. The revolutionaries then organized another qualitative demonstration outside the main TV station, which is the mouthpiece of the repressive Al Khalifa regime. In addition to these, there have been massive demonstrations nearer to Pearl Square where hundreds of thousands took part chanting anti-regime slogans and calling for a regime change. Sunday, one of the demonstrations was held outside the government offices in Qudhaibiya where participants called for the downfall of the regime.

For complete article, click here

Related:
U.S. Investigates Bahraini Security Forces in Crackdown - Wall Street Journal
Saudi Arabian forces prepare to enter Bahrain after day of clashes - Guardian
Picture Source

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Sufi University in Sindh - Better Late than Never....


Sindh Saves the Day
Nadeem F. Paracha, Dawn, March 11, 2011

Plans are afoot to build the world’s first ever international Sufi university near Bhit Shah in Sindh. The main purpose of the institution would be to promote interfaith and intercultural education to tackle extremism in the country.

Such a thought and project could only have come about in Sindh. Especially in the context of what Pakistan has beengoing through in the last many years.

Not only have the country’s other provinces – especially the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) – become central targets of horrid terrorist attacks by extremist organisations, the Punjab in particular has also been witnessing a steady growth of faith-based conservatism within its urban middle and lower middle-classes.

When extremists (calling themselves ‘Punjabi Taliban’) attacked the famous Sufi shrine, Data Darbar in Lahore late last year, economist and political analyst, Asad Sayeed, made a rather insightful observation.

He said that had such an attack on the Darbar taken place twenty years ago, thousands of Lahorites would have poured out to protest.

But not anymore. The attack on one of Punjab’s most popular Sufi shrines was simply treated as just another terrorist attack.

For complete article, click here

Related (click the links):
Sindh's Sufis - Lal Shahbaz and other Mystics  - Jethmal Parsram Gulrajani
The Sufi Culture of Sind - Jethmal Parsram Gulrajani
Sufism in Sindh

Thursday, March 10, 2011

A Valuable EU Lesson for South Asia


An EU lesson for India & Pakistan
TNN , The Times of India, Mar 11, 2011

KARACHI: India and Pakistan must establish counter-terrorism centres to institutionalize anti-terrorism cooperation and strengthen the joint terror mechanism agreed to in Havana, said a communique at the end of the second Aman Ki Asha strategic seminar in Karachi on Wednesday.

"CTCs be established in New Delhi and Islamabad (and) involve regular communication, early warning, exchange of actionable intelligence, monitoring of terrorist organizations, joint training in counter-terrorism and potentially joint responses/operations," said the communique from the two-day event. It proposed that the centres be headed by a secretary-level officer and include senior officers from intelligence and criminal investigation agencies besides a hotline and monthly meetings in New Delhi and Islamabad between their heads.

French and German envoys to Pakistan attended the seminar and asked New Delhi and Islamabad to replicate the EU model that has ensured the longest period of peace since the end of the Roman empire. German envoy Michael Koch spoke about the Franco-German enmity that precipitated after two devastating wars and called for promotion of a culture of compromise.

Times Group CEO Ravi Dhariwal told the seminar that India-Pakistan relations have improved in the last few months with the relaxation in visa procedures. "The two media houses can't claim credit for this but surely Aman Ki Asha has started the movement." He said civil society can make it easier for politicians to take tough decisions. "We received a call from the PMO saying it was a good initiative when Aman Ki Asha was launched, even in the heat of the Mumbai attacks," he said. "I saw the first Aman Ki Asha advertisement and said, 'Oh this is too bold.' I thought it over for an hour and asked my team to tone it down. But they refused and I had to agree."

For complete article, click here
Related:
Inching forward - The News

Mosques are a positive force in America

Mosques are a positive force in America
By Karam Dana and Matt A. Barreto, Special to CNN
March 9, 2011
 
(CNN) -- In 2004, Rep. Peter King stated that 80% to 85% of mosques in America were controlled by Islamic fundamentalists and amounted to "an enemy living amongst us." In 2007 he said, "Unfortunately we have too many mosques in this country" and called for FBI surveillance and infiltration of mosques because that's where terrorists were being "homegrown."

Just a month ago he repeated the claim that over 80% of mosques are controlled by radical imams. Now, he is holding a congressional hearing to expose the radical elements of Islam in America.

In direct contrast to his claims, a study we conducted -- the Muslim American Public Opinion Survey (MAPOS) -- found that mosques and religiosity are actually associated with high levels of civic engagement and support for the American political system. Our study interviewed 1,410 American Muslims across the nation and asked questions about the importance of religion, civic and political participation in the United States.

Throughout the history of America a special relationship has existed between religious institutions and social and political integration. While specific religion was kept at arms length from government sponsorship, churches and religion played an important role in the political development of America. As different ethnic groups came to America, churches and religiosity have often served as a source of community, and ultimately integration into American life.

For complete article, click here

Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Pros and Cons of Congressional Hearings on Radicalization among American Muslims



Fair to Muslims?
By AKBAR AHMED, New York Times, March 8, 2011

MANY American Muslims are fearful and angry about the Congressional hearings on Islamic radicalism that will start Thursday, with some arguing that they are a mere provocation meant to incite bigotry. But as a scholar, I view the hearings, to be led by Representative Peter T. King, the chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, as an opportunity to educate Americans about our community’s diversity and faith.

The topic is urgent, and the hearings overdue. It is undeniable that the phenomenon of homegrown terrorists appears to be increasing in frequency. A successful attack would set back relations between Muslims and non-Muslims for many years. The backlash would effectively sweep away the slow but steady progress in interfaith dialogue that has been achieved since 9/11.

Muslim leaders must acknowledge that many Americans are fearful of religiously motivated terrorism. Simply to protest the hearings and call for them to be canceled, as some have done, strikes many non-Muslims as uncooperative, or as intended to conceal dark secrets or un-American behavior.

Instead, Muslims should embrace the chance to explain their beliefs fully and clearly. We have nothing to hide. But members of Congress also need to act responsibly. They should avoid broad accusations, and be aware that the hearings will be closely followed worldwide. The actions of both groups will shape America’s relationship with Islam, and the relationship of American Muslims with their country.

To better understand the Muslim community and its attitudes toward American identity, I spent much of 2008 and 2009 traveling the United States. My research assistants and I visited 75 communities, from Dearborn, Mich., to Arab, Ala., and 100 mosques around the country. We conducted hundreds of interviews, and compiled some 2,000 responses to a long questionnaire.

For complete article, click here

For Background, see:
Peter King's Muslim hearings: A key moment in an angry conversation - Washington Post
Welcome to the Shari‘ah Conspiracy Theory Industry - Religion Dispates
Peter King's Unlikely Ally - Daily Beast
Picture Source: Economist

Tuesday, March 08, 2011

What Pakistan Army Thinks about Drone Attacks?

Most of those killed in drone attacks were terrorists: military
By Zahir Shah Sherazi, Dawn, March 9, 2011

MIRAMSHAH: In a rather rare move, the Pakistan military for the first time gave the official version of US drone attacks in the tribal region and said that most of those killed were hardcore Al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists and a fairly large number of them were of foreign origin.

General Officer Commanding 7-Division Maj-Gen Ghayur Mehmood said in a briefing here: “Myths and rumours about US predator strikes and the casualty figures are many, but it’s a reality that many of those being killed in these strikes are hardcore elements, a sizeable number of them foreigners.

“Yes there are a few civilian casualties in such precision strikes, but a majority of those eliminated are terrorists, including foreign terrorist elements.”

The Military’s 7-Dvision’s official paper on the attacks till Monday said that between 2007 and 2011 about 164 predator strikes had been carried out and over 964 terrorists had been killed.

Of those killed, 793 were locals and 171 foreigners, including Arabs, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Chechens, Filipinos and Moroccans.

In 2007, one missile strike left one militant dead while the year 2010 was the deadliest when the attacks had left more than 423 terrorists dead.

In 2008, 23 drone strikes killed 152 militants, 12 of them were foreigners or affiliated with Al Qaeda.

In 2009, around 20 predator strikes were carried out, killing 179 militants, including 20 foreigners, and in the following year 423 militants, including 133 foreigners, were killed in 103 strikes.

In attacks till March 7 this year, 39 militants, including five foreigners, were killed.

Maj-Gen Ghayur, who is in-charge of troops in North Waziristan, admitted that the drone attacks had negative fallout, scaring the local population and causing their migration to other places.

Gen Ghayur said the drone attacks also had social and political repercussions and law-enforcement agencies often felt the heat.

About the cross-border movement of terrorists along the Pak-Afghan border, he said: “Well we have over 820 checkposts along the border to stop militant movement and there is strict vigilance, but unfrequented routes are an exception for which alternate means, including intelligence-sharing between coalition troops and the army, are in place.”

For Background, see:
The Year of the Drone - New America Foundation database
WikiLeaks: Pakistan quietly approved drone attacks, U.S. special units - CNN, Dec 1, 2010
Drone Strikes: some problematic assumptions - Daily Times, February 26, 2011
Pakistan Drone Attack Secrecy Hides Abuses - Huffington Post
U.N. Report Highly Critical of U.S. Drone Attacks - New York Times, June 2, 2010

Friday, March 04, 2011

Tragic death of Shahbaz Bhatti - What it means for Pakistani Christians?

Uniting Pakistan’s minority and majority
By Mohsin Hamid, Express Tribune, March 3, 2011

There’s a nurse I know in Lahore. She’s tall and stocky, middle-aged. She is on call 24 hours a day and works six days a week. She’s also a freelance headhunter, placing cooks and drivers and maids. She sleeps little. She has five children she hopes to give better lives. Last year, she donated time and money to flood victims.

She is a Pakistani Christian. And on Wednesday, I saw her weep.

She was staring at a TV set. It was reporting the assassination of Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan’s federal minister for minorities, a Roman Catholic. “What’s going to happen to Christians in this country?” she asked me.

I had no answer. But her question is searingly important. A country should be judged by how it treats its minorities. To the extent it protects them, it stands for the ennobling values of empathy and compassion, for justice rooted, not in might, but in human equality, and for civilisation instead of savagery.

Pakistan ought to be exemplary in this regard. After all, ours is a nation of minorities: A patchwork of cultures, ethnicities, languages and sects. Since independence, we’ve tried to use Islam to bind us together, to undo our inherent and pervasive minority-ness. After the country split in 1971, these appeals to religion expanded under ZA Bhutto and reached previously unimaginable extents under Ziaul Haq. They have continued to intensify ever since.

For complete article, click here

Related:
Shahbaz Bhatti funeral tinged with angerGuardian
Profile: Shahbaz Bhatti - Dawn
Shahbaz Bhatti: Pakistani Minister Assassinated - Daily Beast
Who Killed Shabaz Bhatti - Farrukh Saleem, The News

Tuesday, March 01, 2011

Re: Davis Case - Getting US-Pakistan Ties Back on Track

Getting US-Pakistan Ties Back on Track
Asia Society, February 28, 2011

As the Raymond Davis case drags on, “a serious and urgent review of U.S.-Pakistan relations is in order -- on both sides,” says Asia Society Bernard Schwartz Fellow Hassan Abbas. Davis, an American, was arrested in Pakistan after he shot dead two men, and the revelation that he worked for the CIA has roiled ties.

Yet, “Pakistan needs U.S. development and military aid to face impending economic and extremist challenges, while the U.S. without Pakistan's help will be handicapped in planning its eventual pullout from Afghanistan. There is a history of a long relationship between the two states which has helped both sides in their respective geopolitical and security interests. Whenever they drifted away from each other, the consequences proved to detrimental to both states. The Raymond Davis controversy is a disaster in this context. Pakistan wants to renegotiate the privileges given to the U.S .during the Bush-Musharraf era, whereas the U.S. has become used to such access. Pakistan’s government is stuck in a very bad situation -- if it releases Davis, then Pakistanis are likely to come out on the streets and violence may erupt, increasing political instability. But if Pakistan refuses to extend diplomatic immunity to him, then U.S. aid might be effected. It’s a lose-lose situation for the Zardari-Gilani government. The future scenario from the U.S. perspective is not bright either. A middle way -- some sort of a compromise or negotiated settlement involving victims’ families and that takes into account the long-term consequences of a potential breakup of relations -- is the way forward.”

Related:
Davis Spy Crisis: Top U.S., Pakistan Spooks in Talks - TIME
Pakistan Case Highlights US Reliance on Intelligence Contractors - VOA
Keeping Quiet About Davis - Newyorker

Money Matters for Taliban Too...

Money matters: Taliban strapped for cash as funding routes blocked
By Zia Khan, Express Tribune, February 28, 2011

ISLAMABAD: The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is facing a serious financial crisis since its slain founding leader Baitullah Mehsud combined several scattered groups from all over the tribal belt to form the most feared terror network of homegrown militants back in 2007.

“The Taliban have seriously run out of funds…they have hardly any money anymore,” at least three associates of the group said amid a surprising halt in their activities – suicide bombings and terror attacks across Pakistan and in parts of Afghanistan – in recent months.

Also mysteriously silent are long-cannoned guns from the artillery of Pakistani military that is involved in an operation against the TTP in their South Waziristan stronghold since 2009.

The TTP is apparently not able to fund its operations for the want of money, the group’s members told The Express Tribune.

“The group is in a fix even to keep its infrastructure comprising several thousand foot soldiers and a huge fleet of vehicles,” the members added.

“It seems the money has just stopped coming to them. All the avenues which they used to get funds through are not working for some time now,” one of the three said, describing how difficult the survival has been for the group.

For complete article, click here
Related:
The flow of funds - Amir Rana, Dawn
Spring Fighting Season Looms In Afghanistan - NPR