پاکستاان لیجر | PAKISTAN LEDGER | پاکستاني کھاتا |Sept. 23rd, 08 | Moin Ansari | معین آنصآرّی |
Pakistan faces many wars. She faces wars from India and her proxies in Afghanistan. She also faces a war of words from the US press under the influence of the Indian lobby
As Pakistan gets hammered by Taliban and Al Qaeda bombs in Islamabad (the Marriott to be precise), and by Hellfire missiles in FATA, the feeding frenzy in the US press builds to a crescendo. This week Newsweek published an article titled, "Pakistan's Double-Cross" by long-time Pakistan-sufferer, Sumit Ganguly. When Pakistanis read Ganguly's vicious hatchet job on Pakistan (and on history), they should take a deep breath and pause before they react. Despite his boring residual partition rage, Ganguly is not the one that has made Pakistan foreign policy target No 1 for US presidential candidates. It wasn't Ganguly who loathes ordinary Pakistanis so deeply that he thought it okay to reject their overwhelming will, and insist he knew what was good for Pakistan better. It wasn't Ganguly who signed the NRO, or fired the judges. Pakistanis need to learn very quickly that Pakistan's battles will be won and lost by its people, not by Cold War analysts trying to be relevant in Washington DC.
While English-speaking Pakistanis will either seethe with rage at Ganguly, or at the Pakistani "establishment", ordinary Pakistanis will have no reaction at all. It's not just that they can't read English, it's that they can't read period. That's why they don't know what the Magna Carta is. That's why they can't check the roznamcha for a record of their presence at the police station. That's why the FIR system favours the rural and industrial elite. That's why they have to depend on the feudal and industrial elite. That's why they vote for the PPP and the PML-Q. And that is why the rage of these English-speaking Pakistanis is heart-warming but without efficacy. The rage will not free ordinary Pakistanis from the clutches of their political and economic realities. The News: Tuesday, September 23, 2008 by Mosharraf Zaidi
However there was a silver lining from an unusual source-The New York Times
Help Pakistan government fight terrorism, NYT urges US
* Editorial says increasing civilian casualties driving more people into Taliban’s hands
NEW YORK: An influential United Stated newspaper on Monday cautioned the Bush administration against attacks inside Pakistani territory and called for devising a policy to bolster Pakistan’s civilian government while enlisting its full support in the fight against extremists.
“If an American raid captured or killed a top Al Qaeda or Taliban operative, the backlash might be worth it. But if there were any chance of permanently rooting out extremists from the Tribal Areas, that will have to be done by Pakistan’s military, backed up with sustained programmes for economic and political development,” the New York Times (NYT) said in an editorial that expressed dissatisfaction with Pakistan’s efforts to counter terrorism.
The editorial also noted that US President George W Bush’s decision to send troops across the border was made in desperation.
Civilian casualties: “We fear that a rising number of civilian casualties, on both sides of the border, is driving more people into the hands of the repressive Taliban and other extremist groups. These attacks are also making Pakistan’s new President Asif Ali Zardari look weak and irrelevant,” said the editorial, titled ‘Running Out of Time’.
“He (Zardari) deserves a chance, and American support, to fulfil his promises to bolster democracy, clean up Pakistan’s intelligence services and work with the US to defeat terrorism.
“Zardari made a start, inviting President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan to his inauguration,” the NYT said, noting that in his speech to parliament on Saturday he had said his government would not allow terrorists to launch attacks on any neighbour from Pakistani soil, nor would it tolerate further American military incursions.
The NYT editorial said that US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Michael Mullen had made a ‘fence-mending trip’ to Pakistan last week, and that Pentagon officials say they are reviewing the overall strategy.
“Any revised plan must do a lot more to avoid civilian casualties and support, rather than undermine, Pakistan’s civilian leaders. Congress can do its part by approving a $7.5 billion aid package, intended to strengthen Pakistan’s democratic institutions and its counterinsurgency capabilities,” the editorial said. app
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
India discriminates against Muslims-genocide
پاکستاان لیجر | PAKISTAN LEDGER | پاکستاني کھاتا |Sept. 23rd, 08 | Moin Ansari | معین آنصآرّی |
The Indian Muslims are between a rock and a hard place. They face constant threats of "Pakistan ya Qabristan", discrimination in jobs and in society, incarceration in Kashmir, deportation in Bihar and Genocidal rape and burning in Gujarat.
Muslims being targeted in name of fight against terrorism’
NEW DELHI: Muslim organisations in India said on Monday that their community in general and Muslim youth in particular were being targeted in the name of the fight against terrorism. Eight Muslim groups representing the Jamaat-e-Islami, the Milli Council, the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (AIMMM) and others on Monday formed a ‘Co-ordination Committee of Indian Muslims’ to form a united front against the highhandedness of police and intelligence agencies.
Addressing a press conference, AIMMM President Dr Zafrul Islam Khan demanded a high-level judicial inquiry into last Friday's encounter in Delhi's Jamia Nagar Muslim locality, in which two alleged terrorists were killed. He wondered why the so-called terrorists had not been caught alive. "People believe the two were killed in a fake encounter," he said. The leaders said, "We want to contribute to establishing a terror-free India. Muslims are fundamentally opposed to terrorism, as Islam forbids killing anyone unjustly and by unjust means."
They said the committee had been set up as it was felt necessary to deal with "the current terrorism scare among the Muslim community in India". iftikhar gilani
The Indian Muslims are between a rock and a hard place. They face constant threats of "Pakistan ya Qabristan", discrimination in jobs and in society, incarceration in Kashmir, deportation in Bihar and Genocidal rape and burning in Gujarat.
Muslims being targeted in name of fight against terrorism’
NEW DELHI: Muslim organisations in India said on Monday that their community in general and Muslim youth in particular were being targeted in the name of the fight against terrorism. Eight Muslim groups representing the Jamaat-e-Islami, the Milli Council, the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (AIMMM) and others on Monday formed a ‘Co-ordination Committee of Indian Muslims’ to form a united front against the highhandedness of police and intelligence agencies.
Addressing a press conference, AIMMM President Dr Zafrul Islam Khan demanded a high-level judicial inquiry into last Friday's encounter in Delhi's Jamia Nagar Muslim locality, in which two alleged terrorists were killed. He wondered why the so-called terrorists had not been caught alive. "People believe the two were killed in a fake encounter," he said. The leaders said, "We want to contribute to establishing a terror-free India. Muslims are fundamentally opposed to terrorism, as Islam forbids killing anyone unjustly and by unjust means."
They said the committee had been set up as it was felt necessary to deal with "the current terrorism scare among the Muslim community in India". iftikhar gilani
Will US drones defy flying pigs and stop bombing Pakistan?
پاکستاان لیجر | PAKISTAN LEDGER | پاکستاني کھاتا |Sept. 21, 08 | Moin Ansari | معین آنصآرّی |
Is the sway of the US drones over? Will US troops stop landing in Pakistan and shooting people, many of which turned out to be women and children. The US may stop the attacks. yes pigs can fly with our without lipstick.
Of course, Mullen is very aware of Pakistan’s counter leverage. Most U.S. supplies for Afghanistan must flow through Pakistani ports and roads. Any interference with this access would jeopardize our operations. Additionally, the U.S. military needs a cooperative Pakistani armed forces and intelligence services to work along the Afghan border if the insurgency is to be stopped.
That’s why -- for mutually beneficial reasons -- both nations must put aside their differences before the situation gets out of hand. But America also must be realistic about Pakistan.
Recently -- and naively -- Donald Camp, the U.S.’s deputy assistant secretary of state, said there is no situation in which the U.S. and Pakistan will shoot at each other. That view ignores the role Islamic thinking plays in Pakistan’s military and among a sizable portion of the population. There are no guarantees that Pakistan will see things America’s way, and it is possible Islamabad could change course for our worse.
That’s why America’s new strategy regarding Pakistan must go beyond talk. It must deal with substantive issues that threaten to push the region into war, like the long-term tensions between Pakistan and India which have festered to near blows in the recent past. Human Events dot com
Zardari deplores U.S. intrusions in Pak soil Updated at: 0825 PST, Tuesday, September 23, 2008
NEW YORK: Calling the fight against terrorists as Pakistan’s war, President Asif Ali Zardari has asked American troops to stay away and leave the Pakistani forces to do the job. “Our orders are clear: not to allow any incursion of anybody in Pakistan.
American troops are coming, without letting us know, without Pakistan’s permission, they are violating the United Nations Charter,” he said in a television interview Monday.
The president said Pakistan will ask any American troops crossing into its territory to leave and was confident that they would go.
Pakistan, he said, has a strong commitment to fight terrorism but only its troops have the responsibility to take anti-terror actions on its soil and any foreign troops crossing into its territory violate the U.N. Charter.
The president voiced the confidence that the country would be able to defeat the menace of terrorism with the cooperation of its anti-terrorism partners.
“Pakistan is capable (of fighting terrorism) with the help of the world, yes we are capable,” he told news channel in an interview.
Is the sway of the US drones over? Will US troops stop landing in Pakistan and shooting people, many of which turned out to be women and children. The US may stop the attacks. yes pigs can fly with our without lipstick.
Of course, Mullen is very aware of Pakistan’s counter leverage. Most U.S. supplies for Afghanistan must flow through Pakistani ports and roads. Any interference with this access would jeopardize our operations. Additionally, the U.S. military needs a cooperative Pakistani armed forces and intelligence services to work along the Afghan border if the insurgency is to be stopped.
That’s why -- for mutually beneficial reasons -- both nations must put aside their differences before the situation gets out of hand. But America also must be realistic about Pakistan.
Recently -- and naively -- Donald Camp, the U.S.’s deputy assistant secretary of state, said there is no situation in which the U.S. and Pakistan will shoot at each other. That view ignores the role Islamic thinking plays in Pakistan’s military and among a sizable portion of the population. There are no guarantees that Pakistan will see things America’s way, and it is possible Islamabad could change course for our worse.
That’s why America’s new strategy regarding Pakistan must go beyond talk. It must deal with substantive issues that threaten to push the region into war, like the long-term tensions between Pakistan and India which have festered to near blows in the recent past. Human Events dot com
Zardari deplores U.S. intrusions in Pak soil Updated at: 0825 PST, Tuesday, September 23, 2008
NEW YORK: Calling the fight against terrorists as Pakistan’s war, President Asif Ali Zardari has asked American troops to stay away and leave the Pakistani forces to do the job. “Our orders are clear: not to allow any incursion of anybody in Pakistan.
American troops are coming, without letting us know, without Pakistan’s permission, they are violating the United Nations Charter,” he said in a television interview Monday.
The president said Pakistan will ask any American troops crossing into its territory to leave and was confident that they would go.
Pakistan, he said, has a strong commitment to fight terrorism but only its troops have the responsibility to take anti-terror actions on its soil and any foreign troops crossing into its territory violate the U.N. Charter.
The president voiced the confidence that the country would be able to defeat the menace of terrorism with the cooperation of its anti-terrorism partners.
“Pakistan is capable (of fighting terrorism) with the help of the world, yes we are capable,” he told news channel in an interview.
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