Twirp : Terrorist Wahabi Islamic Republic Pakistan 3

03-17-2009, 10:14 AM

QUOTEIndia appoints new HC to Pakistan
Dailytimes.com
By Iftikhar Gilani
NEW DELHI: The Indian government on Monday appointed Sharat Sabharwal as its new high commissioner to Pakistan.

Sabharwal would succeed Satyabrata Pal, whose tenure ended on February 28.

According to sources, the decision to appoint Sabharwal was taken over three weeks ago, but the announcement was delayed until the Pakistan government forwarded its concurrence. Sabharwal, currently special secretary in charge of administration, consular passport and visa affairs in the External Affairs Ministry, is a 1975-batch Indian Foreign Service officer. He served as deputy high commissioner in Pakistan from 1995 to 1999.

Naresh · 03-18-2009, 02:37 AM

Pak-BD ODI series cancelled on security grounds <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' />

DHAKA: Bangladesh have cancelled this month's home series with Pakistan due to security concerns, the state minister for sports said.

"As of now the security people are busy we don't think it feasible to host any foreign team in the country," Ahad Ali Sarkar told a news conference.

The series was postponed on March 5 after a mutiny last month at the headquarters of a paramilitary unit in Dhaka which killed at least 80 people, mostly army officers.

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03-18-2009, 07:42 AM

Gilani Says Government Will End Its Rule in Pakistanâs Punjab QUOTEControl by the central government âwill end as soon as possible,â the official Associated Press of Pakistan cited Gilani as saying yesterday in the capital, Islamabad. âI am against the governor ruleâ in Punjab.

Zardari appointed a governor to take over Punjab after the Supreme Court ruled in February that Sharif and his brother, Shahbaz, the provinceâs chief minister, were ineligible to hold office

Nawaz won this inning

Naresh · 03-18-2009, 02:12 PM

Back to the business of terrorism

QUOTEThe âvictoryâ celebration after the calling off of the Long March was still going on when a suicide-bomber struck at the Pirwadhai bus station in Rawalpindi, killing 14 people. The immediate speculation was that the suicide bomber was despatched to hit the Long March itself since it was to pass near where the terrorist finally killed himself. Those who think that the attack had some other purpose will have to explain it more cogently than they are doing it now. âCreating panic among the general publicâ wonât do. All terrorism is supposed to do that in routine.

However there are certain expressions which we must avoid as victims of terrorism. The Interior Adviser Mr Rehman Malik has said âhe could not say anything about the involvement of foreign quartersâ and then added: âOnly anti-Pakistan elements could be involved in such heinous actsâ. This is not original. As if to put the record straight, the Taliban Tehreek of Mohmand has messaged to own the Pirwadhai suicide attack.

Let us be frank. The victory of the Long March which came at the end of an almost year-long political bickering has been gained at the cost of ignoring the two-ton gorilla in the drawing-room : terrorism from the Taliban, Al Qaeda and the erstwhile jihadi organisations now on the payroll of Al Qaeda. For the last several months Pakistan has seen an alarming increase in the incidence of terrorism while the campaign went on against the governmentâs broken promises on the restoration of the judges deposed by President Pervez Musharraf. 

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**acharya** · 03-18-2009, 09:24 PM

Make harder choice in dealing with Pakistan: US think tank

Washington (PTI): Observing that the 'war on terror' has now shifted to Pakistan, an American think tank has said the United States now needs to make harder choices in dealing with Islamabad.

It has become all the more necessary as the US-led international forces are not winning the war in Afghanistan; it is in fact just the opposite, it said.

At this point of time, they are losing, the Center for Strategic and International Studies said in its latest report, which is yet to be made public. A copy of the report was released Monday for limited circulation.

The Taliban and the Al-Qaeda are winning the war in this region of the world not only because of the wrong US policies and poor Afghan governance, but also primarily because Pakistan still does not see this struggle as its war.

"Make hard choices in dealing with Pakistan, and accept the fact that the most critical struggle is not in Afghanistan, but against Al-Qaeda and other sources of international terrorism in Pakistan and threats to Pakistanâs internal stability," the report has recommended.

The 41-page report has been authored by Anthony H. Cordesman, Arleigh A Burke Chair in Strategy at CSIS. The report comes at a time, when the Obama Administration is in the final stages of completing its new Afghan policy.

The report said the US may be fighting in Afghanistan but the key struggle is in another country; Pakistan.

"A Taliban victory in Afghanistan would almost certainly create a major new sanctuary for Al-Qaida as well as empower every violent and extremist jihadist movement in the world," warned the report, saying that the US-led international community can't afford to lose the war against terrorism in this part of the world.

"It is far from clear, however, that any combination of US, Afghan, and NATO ISAF efforts can win a long war of political attrition in Afghanistan if the Taliban, Al-Qaida, Haqqani network, Hekmatyar movement, and other threats have a de facto sanctuary in Pakistan," it said.

Further it is also clear that a nuclear-armed Pakistan is far more of a strategic prize than Afghanistan and that the conversion of Pakistan into a failed or Jihadist state would pose a more serious strategic threat to the US than the loss of Afghanistan, the report observed.

Mr. Burke noted that the US may never be able to deploy more than limited cadres of advisors, Special Forces, and systems like UCAVs to Pakistan. "It may have to depend on the carrot of aid and the stick of political pressure," he said.

"The fact remains, however, that what started as an Afghan War has spread in to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), and Baluchi areas of Pakistan and that this is now the most critical center of gravity in a complex, multidimensional war," the report said.

Naresh · 03-19-2009, 02:02 PM

China builds dam on Indus in Tibet,keeps Pakistan uninformed <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' />

QUOTEKARACHI : Keeping the users of Indus River water uninformed, China has built a dam at catchment area of the river in Tibet at Senge-Ali.

Pakistani authorities remain unaware of the dam with the exception of some individuals who read about this in a book published recently.

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Naresh · 03-19-2009, 03:12 PM

80pc milk supplied to City poisonous, LHC told

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Naresh · 03-19-2009, 05:22 PM

Mudy Ji :

The Terroristani Armyâs Soft Coup is in place!

Pakistan military helped broker end to long march

Now the Terroristani Army is in the Driving Seat and will be able to âDictateâ its Agenda â without having to shoulder the âResponsibilityâ!!

Welcome to the Real World!!!

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Naresh · 03-20-2009, 02:04 AM

8 killed as security forces, militants clash in Landi Kotal

PESHAWAR: At least eight people were killed and 30 others wounded when security forces and militants clashed here on Thursday.

According to reports, suspected militants fired mortar shells at a FC post in Tehsil Landi Kotal after which fierce clash erupted between security forces and militants.

During clash, several mortar shells fell in Landi Kotal bazaar, Khogakhel and Gagrah areas, killing eight people and injuring many more. The injured were shifted to the Landi Kotal Hospital

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Naresh · (This post was last modified: 03-20-2009, 03:08 PM by Naresh.)

Doctrine of the hundred onions

Islamabad diary

Ayaz Amir

QUOTEPakistanis are familiar with this tale. A man condemned to punishment was given a choice between eating a hundred onions or receiving a hundred strokes on his back. He settled for the onions, taking this to be the easier option. But when he could no longer stand the onions he shouted for the slippers. When he could stand the slippers no more, he once again wanted the onions. He ended by eating all the onions and receiving all the strokes.

Something of this higher wisdom has been evident in Pakistan these last few weeks. President Asif Zardari has done what he had vowed never to do: restore Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry to his rightful place. He could have done this himself and saved himself a great deal of trouble and wounded dignity. But he did it only after his hand was forced, by a combination of street power and subtle prodding from the direction of General Headquarters in Rawalpindi.

QUOTEGeneral Ashfaq Kayani (the army chief), the Americans -- from their ambassador in Islamabad to Hillary Clinton in Washington -- Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, had all being trying to get Zardari to back down a bit.. But locked in his ivory tower and cut off from reality, he was deaf to these counsels, insisting that he would not step back under pressure. And perhaps hoping that if he stood his ground he could ride out the storm.

QUOTEEven so, as we celebrate this velvet revolution -- whose full results we yet await -- certain questions arise. In which other country is the American embassy such an active player? In which other country is the British ambassador taken so seriously? And in which other country is the army chief a regular political interlocutor? We lean heavily on foreign powers, or they lean heavily on us, in the realm of external relations. But as this crisis has shown, even in our domestic affairs it will be some time before we arrive at a measure of true autonomy. 

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Naresh · 03-20-2009, 03:23 PM

Children will abandon us if measures not taken : Younis

QUOTEKARACH I : Children will turn away from cricket in Pakistan unless something drastic is done to save the sport, national team captain Younis Khan has said.

"You will see people losing interest in cricket and youngsters no longer having cricket idols to look up to," Khan told Reuters on Thursday.

Who needs "Cricket Idols" when they have "Suicide Bombers" galore?

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Naresh · 03-20-2009, 09:27 PM

Rocket attack on army base kills 10, injures 45

QUOTELANDI KOTAL : Suspected Taliban militants fired a rocket that killed ten people in a northwest Pakistan town on Thursday, in an attack targeting security forces near a key supply route for international forces in Afghanistan, an official said.

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Naresh · 03-20-2009, 09:34 PM

IT exports likely to miss target

Muhammad Yasir

KARACHI : The IT exports are likely to miss the 50 percent growth target set for the financial year 2008-09, as the global economic recession has affected the sector.

The countryâs IT and computer services exports have registered 35 percent growth in the last eight months of the current financial year with $124 million as reported by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). The IT industry has set its exports target at $255 million whereas last year the exports reached $169 million. On the contrary, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Software Development has increased by 97 percent to 16.5 million during the Jul-Feb.

This is the lowest exports growth rate since 2004 because the exports have been witnessing 50 percent growth for the last five years.

Industry people were of the view the world would be experiencing its worst-than-expected economic crisis this year and the business conditions would not be supportive for businesses.

They added IT industry has started feeling the pinch of global economic slowdown as offshore demand of our exports is evaporating. They said the countries exports can be rebound once the resilience appears in global economies when the billion-dollar bailout packages start to stimulate demand.

Managing Director Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB), Talib Baluch said the global downturn has exerted its impacts on the countryâs exports which is temporary in nature as the growth is going to rebound soon on the back of high demand of global IT industry.

He explains that IT exporters have been incurring losses for last three months as their buyers are mostly in banking and automobile sector. âThese companies will be provided financial leverage by their respective countries to rebuild their business, therefore, Pakistani exporters will also regain their demand,â the PSEB chief said. The global IT market has capability to attract business worth $475 billion.

United State of America is the largest buyer of Pakistan IT-enable service with the share of 58 percent in countryâs exports. It is followed by UK, having ten percent share in total exports. The pie of total exports shows 16 percent share to the other countries including Australia, Canada, Thailand, UAE and others.

Industry experts said that expatriate Pakistanis have shifted their business from their residential countries as they got better opportunities and potential in Pakistan in this sector. They added that IT infrastructure is being built up rapidly in the country owing to tax holidays and availability of cheap labour.

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Naresh · 03-21-2009, 03:48 AM

Pakistan wants to resolve water issue with India

ISLAMABAD (APP) - Indus Water Commissioner Jamaat Ali Shah said on Friday that Pakistan wants to resolve water issue with India bilaterally and in accordance with the Indus Water Treaty.

Talking to a private TV channel, he said âPakistan wants to resolve water issue with India bilaterally and in accordance with the Indus Water Treaty agreed between the two countries.â

He recalled that Pakistan had requested the World Bank for appointing neutral experts on Baglihar Dam adding Pakistan had accepted the verdict of the experts on the issue.

He said decision is still pending on Wuller Barrage while Pakistan has also reservations on Kishanganga Hydro Power Project.

He urged India to resolve the water issue with Pakistan without wasting any time.

To a question he underlined the need for evolving a policy for water management. He said, âall stakeholders should be taken on board for evolving policy for water management to get water needed for irrigation and other purposes.â

To a question, he said some canals have been privatised in Sindh and Punjab on experimental basis.
He said more canals should also be privatised keeping in view the performance of already privatised canals

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Naresh · 03-21-2009, 07:40 PM

Kayani Plan: Carve out soft PPP - Neena Gopal

Bengaluru, March 17 : Pakistanâs âprelude to a revolution â has passed, but the weakening of President Asif Ali Zardari in his tussle with his far more politically-savvy opponent Nawaz Sharif is a pointer that March 16 is only the opening salvo in a long and complicated campaign that the countryâs real power centre, the Army, has only just put into play.

A soft coup, this is the Armyâs fist in the civilian glove, a bid to bring in politicians whom it can manipulate as a first step towards bringing in a government that does its bidding.

Sources close to the establishment say Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani will be persuaded to cut Mr Zardari down to size, and bring in Mr Nawaz Sharif â or more probably the Armyâs favourite, his younger brother Shahbaz â into an alliance to create a new political formation, the establishmentâs version of former President Pervez Musharrafâs âkingâs partyâ, the PML-Q. âThis will be the ISIâs PPP,â said the source, âand it will be the end of the PPP as Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir knew it.â

The Zardari-Sharif initial coming together worked against the militaryâs interests and resulted in the removal of Mr Musharraf. Once that was done, Nawaz Sharif, who had placed his trust in Mr Zardari, based on a woolly-headed and sentimental notion that the deal he struck with his former arch-rival Benazir Bhutto, with whom he built a surprising rapport, would stay the course with her successor â was in for a shock.

Mr Zardari had intention of ever honouring the charter of democracy. It gave the Sharifsâ Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) a pre-eminent position in Punjab, a province that Mr Zardari had long coveted. It ceded the Punjab-based party political space in the rest of the country that he had no intention of sharing.

That is what drove Mr Zardari to win over the PML(N)âs political ally in the North-West Frontier Province, the Awami National Party, whose leaders have traditionally been close to the Sharifs.

Mr Zardari recognised that in the long run, there would be only two political forces in the country, and that minus Benazir his brand of the PPP, the one run by his cronies, would not win the kind of landslide victory that was theirs in the February 2008 election.

In addition, as a PPP insider pointed out, âitâs universally known that bringing the judges back would end Zardariâs indemnity from prosecution for past crimes, it was his only card.â

The inevitable tussle for power, the shadow-boxing between Mr Zardari, the outsider who rules in the name of the PPP, and its notional leader, Prime Minister Gilani, opened the door for the Army Chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, to exploit the growing rift between the two to cut Mr Zardari down to size and get back into the game.

The militaryâs soft coup was the first counter-strike since former military dictator Gen. Pervez Musharraf was forced from office. Mr Zardari is the first civilian President armed with the powerful 17th amendment, which gave him the power to dismiss elected governments. This is a situation the military is not ready to tolerate.

Mr Gilani will use some of the strength he draws from the anti-Zardari feeling that runs through the rank-and-file of the PPP to push for either his further emasculation or his ouster.

The 17th amendment is in fact a double-edged sword. While any repeal of that amendment would end the Presidentâs powers to sack elected governments, it has two more key components. One, an indemnity to President Musharraf that would clear him of blame for all his past actions, including the illegal imposition of martial law. Two, it allows Prime Ministers who have already served two terms to become eligible to stand for a third term.

Waiting in the wings is Mr Musharraf, readying for a rebirth as the man who has all the answers. In India for a conclave recently, Mr Musharraf spoke consistently on Kashmir being the reason that India faced the anger of the jihadis â not to the audience in New Delhi but to his constituency back home and in Washington. The reason : Pakistanâs constitution states that government officials must have demitted office for two years before they become eligible to hold any office again.

In tandem with Gen. Kayani, the United States â alarmed at the rise of anti-American sentiment and worried that its new Af-Pak policy is unravelling even before it has begun â has sent out feelers to the pro-Islamist Sharif camp in a bid to tackle the Al Qaeda-Taliban surge. The Sharifs are their plan âBâ.

Plan âAâ , the insiders say, is already in place : an unstable PPP government under Mr Gilani, further unrest, the possible fall of the government in a bid to pave the way for fresh elections in December 2009.

By then, there will be a credible Opposition leader in Mr Gilani and two eminently suitable presidential and prime ministerial candidates waiting in the wings â Pervez Musharraf and at least one of the Sharif brothers. Unless the people come out on to the streets again, something the Army is clearly uncomfortable with.

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Naresh · 03-23-2009, 05:45 PM

No call for Indian troop reduction : US

WASHINGTON, March 21 : The United States never asked India to reduce its troop presence on the border with Pakistan, says the State Department.

âIâm not aware that there have been any conversations recently about that,â said the departmentâs spokesman Robert Wood when asked if the United States had advised India to pull back troops from the Pakistan border.

âI was in the meeting. I donât recall that issue being raised,â said Mr Wood when asked if the issue had been raised during Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menonâs meeting with senior US officials in Washington earlier this month.

âHas there been any such request from the Pakistani side?â Mr Wood was asked.

âNot that Iâm aware of,â said the spokesman.

The Indian media reported on Friday that last week US special envoy Richard Holbrooke had asked India to pull back some of its troops deployed on the Pakistan border.

According to this report, Mr Holbrooke argued that the pullout would enable Pakistan to beef up its presence on the Afghan front.

The report said the request was also conveyed to the Indian foreign secretary when he visited Washington two weeks ago.

In response, India told the US that any escalation which had taken place on the border in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks was entirely on the Pakistani side, the report said.

Mr Holbrooke was also told that India had not deployed additional forces that could now be withdrawn to other locations, the report added.

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**acharya** · 03-24-2009, 12:37 PM

Ausaf, Pakistan

Pakistanâs Growing Anger
Towards Their Government
and America

By Sarfaraz Sayyed

Translated By Mohammed Abuhuraira Akrami

14 March 2009

Edited by Louis Standish

Pakistan - Ausaf - Original Article (Urdu)

The next twelve hours are crucial!

â The proposal put forth by foreign representatives suggest that an impartial president be replaced with Asif Zardari, that Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Geelani receives reinforcement, that all the dismissed judges, along with Justice Ifthikhar Chaudhari and the government of Muslim League in Punjab be reinstated and that the tenure of the post of chief justice should be fixed !! Said proposal came from Great Britain and America, where the proposalâs receipt had been confirmed by high-level officials. However, the presidentâs spokesperson, Farhatullah Barbar, has declined to comment anything in this regard.

â The distinguished leader of the Pakistan Peopleâs Party and the lifetime close friend of Ms. Benazir Bhutto, Ms. Nahid Khan, burst in on a meeting of the Ravalpindi Bar Association on the government officials. She said: âThe wild way in which the Peopleâs Party of the upper house is oppressing the lawyers and the political activists through caning and teargas has bent my face with shame. The lawyersâ mission is the same as that of Ms. Benazir Bhutto towards achieving the mission of the âreal peopleâs party.â If Benazirr Bhutto had been alive today, then she would not have allowed such acts. She is still with the activists and with you and will be with them. The war is not merely about the lawyers, but is the battle of each and every Pakistani citizen. We the activists of PPP donât accept the PCO judges. We condemn the forces which are caning the lawyers and general public.â

â The senior minister of the state of Sarhad, Basheer Bilor, has said the bureaucracy imposed Section 144 without the permission of the government and has started arresting people.

â With of the arrival of Faruque Naik as the chairman of the Senate, all the three major key posts, including president, the chairman of senate and the speaker of national assembly, have gone only to the state of Sindh.

â Another 21 people have been killed in the latest American strike.

â Miya Nawaz Shareef has said that a high-level official from Sindh has sent people to kill him. âWith the statement by Nawaz Shareef, four bullet-proof vehicles have been sent for the Shareef Brothers on the order of Prime Minister.â

â The important news is that the Pakistani military has expressed its concerns to the office of the president regarding the recent anarchy in the country.

â Anarchy has spread over the country, and according to sources, the Chaudhari brothers have sped up the open talks with Muslim League while also initiating clandestine talks with the Peopleâs Party. Commenting on the developments, the general secretary of Pakistan Muslim League-Q, Mushahid Hussain, has released a strong divergent statement on this matter, in which he had said that the Chaudhari brothers are making important decisions without having any conversation with the party office bearers.

â Mr. Rahman Malik has regretted that the lawyers and the opposition groups are acting against his will and the conditions. The first condition being that the long march should not be organized and the acts of the government should be supported at all levels. The second condition is that the permission should be taken from him, before talking any against the tyrant ruler, and if the long march is considered to be very important, then it should done with the permission and according to the directions of the governments.

Dear readers, there are many things to talk about, but I have presented only clues, some of which donât require any comment or clarification. However, the proposal from America and Great Britain should be discussed. The help of reliable sources allowed this news to be published and to present very important and conceivable facts, such as the contacts and conversations with ambassadors and important representatives from the foreign ministries of countries like the UK, America, Australia and other countries. In the last few days, telephone conversations from the foreign affair ministries of America and the UK have suggested that the presidentâs terms are very short. No one can even imagine theme completing the five-year tenure in the office as there couldnât even be ten months of peace and harmony. The anarchy which occurred during the first year of their tenure has damaged the reputation and the respect of the politics, economy and the judicial system has been very disappointing. The chaos which occurred within the first few months of taking office with their private and official visits to foreign countries have exhausted more than 150 million R. from the treasury. The presidentâs office has been converted into the partyâs private headquarters. Party activists were appointed as the judges of the high courts. According to a governor appointed by the former national general, the elected governments has been dismissed with a punch, and now look at how the lawyers and the political activists are being wildly treated! Can all these things be tolerated by the countries which have provided the loans? The entire police force has been deployed to fill the prisons with the lawyers and the political activists, or those targeted individuals are being caned. They have been dragged onto the roads. After witnessing all these things, the close friend of the martyred Benazir Bhutto herself compelled to cry, âStop all these wild games!â In such conditions, can the foreign forces remain silent with merely being a spectators and keeping themselves away from the developments?

I have been receiving a lot of information, speculation and analysis, and the next 12 hours are crucial and much more will happen. This has been already hinted. When the floods comes, all the things will moved away with the water. Neither it will leave presidents nor did governors will flood away with the floods. Does the office of our president know that America have again struck our lands with bombs in which 21 people have died? Does our president have any news about what is happening on the border of our country? What type of mayhem is the citizen of the border areas are going through? Havenât anybody told them the times of the attack after the siren has arrived and, that the siren of the war has been blown and the frontier of the ants have identified their target?

Naresh · 03-26-2009, 05:50 PM

Britain, Al Qaeda and Pakistan

The United Kingdom has unveiled a 174-page report on how to tackle the Al Qaeda threat facing it. The threat is no longer confined to Underground blasts but may be âa chemical or even nuclear terrorist attackâ. And those who do it will possibly be linked to two unstable and extremism-haunted âIslamicâ states, Pakistan and Somalia, âas well as Yemen and countries in sub-Saharan Africaâ. Al Qaeda doesnât only train in the tribal regions of Pakistan, it inspires âself-startingâ followers long-distance too.

An interior ministry official in London pointed to Pakistan in particular: âPakistan weaves its way through virtually everything in this strategy [report]. We attach importance to the huge amount of work weâre doing in Pakistan. Weâve got very big collaborative programmes with the Pakistani authorities, the new government... weâre very interested in working with themâ. In short, âmilitants in Pakistan pose the greatest concernâ.

Britain has also been voicing concern about the bad state of preparedness of the Pakistani security establishment. One British national Rashid Rauf, involved in the Heathrow terrorism plot and linked to Al Qaeda, was arrested in Pakistan but âlet offâ by the Pakistani police while he was been taken to the court. Another British national, Umar Sheikh, was actually involved in the 9/11 attack and was responsible for the killing of the American journalist Daniel Pearl. Thousands of dual-nationality Pakistanis who travel from the UK to Pakistan during vacations are vulnerable to the terrorist trap of Al Qaeda in Pakistan.

Pakistanâs past policies are responsible for the rise of extremism in the country, some of them conceived in close collaboration with the US and the UK during the Afghan war against the Soviets. One must also look closely at what the UK did to itself. Terrorism may be an inspiration coming from Al Qaeda in Pakistan but Muslim radicalism in the UK is home-grown. Even elected Muslims in the UK tend to be more aggressive in their identity than the usually careful Pakistanis.

The mosques in the UK were not radicalised by Pakistan; that was done by British policy, based on ignoring the usurpation of Barelvi mosques by Saudi-funded radical organisations. London refused to read the message when Pakistanâs biggest Barelvi leader, Maulana Shah Ahmad Noorani, began to have trouble talking to his flock in the UK. British Pakistanis, 700,000 strong, were all Barelvis to begin with. Now London is to have the worldâs largest Deobandi mosque.

The UK literally borrowed the hardline Islamists from France and the rest of Europe thinking it was acquiring âassetsâ for its Middle East policy. It doomed its majority Muslim population composed of Pakistanis in the process as most of these Arab extremists linked up with Al Qaeda and its funded madrassas in Pakistan and sent the expat Pakistanis in a beeline to their handlers in Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar. The UK remained passive to accusations of having converted London to Londonistan till July 7, 2005 when a group of Pakistani Brits attacked as suicide-bombers. But till then, Lashkar-e-Tayba had received millions of pounds as âcharityâ from the UK.

Pakistan is in trouble today. Al Qaeda is embedded here and Pakistanis are more busy hating America and its side-kick, the UK, than paying attention to the consequences of allowing the terrorists to win territory and then enforce their own laws on it. Pakistan may have the will to fight them but lacks the material capacity to do so. The British report is right in its diagnosis that Pakistan has to be helped. Whether this will happen in these cash-strapped days is another matter.

What is significant is that Pakistan is doing much better than in the past in keeping tabs on the UK Pakistanis after they enter Pakistan. It has tipped off the British government about âmore than 20 Britons believed to have spent time with radical militant groups and then returned to the UKâ. Pakistanis elected to the British parliament need to play a bigger role when they come to Pakistan, talking less about how wrong Britain was about Iraq and more about how Pakistan can help by preventing the expats from the UK to link up with Al Qaeda.

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ramana · 03-27-2009, 02:59 AM

From Bloomberg

QUOTEYale Grad Mueenuddin Farms Mangoes in Brutal Pakistan (Update1)
Share | Email | Print | A A A

Interview by Zinta Lundborg

March 25 (Bloomberg) -- Brought up in Pakistan and Wisconsin, educated at Groton, Dartmouth and Yale Law School, Daniyal Mueenuddin is now back in the Punjab farming hothouse vegetables and mangoes.

He lives there with his Norwegian wife, who knows for how long.

Mueenuddinâs first book, âIn Other Rooms, Other Wonders,â contains eight luminous stories about class and power in a country undergoing radical change. Bloomberg critic Craig Seligmanâs review said the author âmakes it clear that as Pakistan shifts from a feudal economy to an industrial one, its brutality is only increasing.â

The writer talked about his much-praised volume and adventurous occupation on a visit to Bloombergâs New York headquarters.

Lundborg: What do you make of the depiction of Pakistan as an unstable, nuclear-bomb wielding hotbed of terrorists?

Mueenuddin: Itâs actually true. Pakistan is probably the most dangerous place on earth. I think there is a very great danger that the nuclear genie will be let out of the bottle fairly soon, and that the bottle will be in Pakistan.

Lundborg: As half American, do you find yourself defending the U.S. against Pakistani stereotypes?

Mueenuddin: I donât defend America because itâs indefensible. In my lifetime, the most short-sighted policy has been the Bush administrationâs. The âUgly Americanâ basically is a pretty fair portrait. A lack of sensitivity and a ham- handedness has characterized American policy in Pakistan for a long time and those chickens are coming home to roost. 

Rushdieâs Stories

Lundborg: One of your tales was chosen by Salman Rushdie for his anthology, âBest American Short Stories.â While the Taliban is not much present in your work, do you ever think about fatwa and censorship?

Mueenuddin: Absolutely. As it happens, up to now I havenât been particularly interested in writing about mullahs or Sharia simply because theyâre not very significant in the community I write about.

I am fearful and any Pakistani writer who says heâs not is being not clear-headed or not truthful. The environment is such that there are things you cannot talk about, certain things you cannot say, and I find that oppressive. Once you darken a small part of the landscape, it infects the rest.

Lundborg: You write about the relation between rich and poor. What do you see happening to the different classes in Pakistan?

Cataclysmic Change

Mueenuddin: Weâre in for a period of real upheaval and itâs going to be violent, maybe cataclysmic. If by some chance, the Islamic fundamentalist revolution that I see coming does not come, then the old feudal order will be undermined by a criminal and politically more savvy group and the poor will get more and more desperate. 

Lundborg: One of your American characters says about Pakistan, âI hate it, everyoneâs a crook and nothing works here.â Does this reflect your own ambivalence?

Mueenuddin: Every foreigner for the last 100 years has felt that about both Pakistan and India. Whatâs marvelous is that the country gets under your skin and while you might hate it, you canât leave it.

Lundborg: Why do women have such a hard time in your stories?

Mueenuddin: The position of women in Pakistan is absolutely appalling, and across the board, from the poor to the rich, in order to exercise any power they have to manipulate men.

Lundborg: You depict one âkerosene wife,â who goes up in flames as people stand around and watch.

Dangerous Stoves

Mueenuddin: Thatâs a surprisingly common âaccidentâ that happens. These poor women just keep blowing up with their stoves. They should really do something about the design of those stoves -- or the design of the husbands. In the Pakistani countryside, beating your wife is considered a sport.

Lundborg: If thereâs a violent political cataclysm, as you expect, are you staying there?

Mueenuddin: My wife and I have obviously discussed this at great length. When we come to the conclusion that our lives are in immediate danger, weâll leave. Weâll certainly try to err on the side of caution.

Lundborg: The cataclysm will come from a military overthrow?

Mueenuddin: A military overthrow would be great! The problem stems from what happens if the military gets overthrown. The threat is from the Taliban-type fundamentalists who have very much infiltrated the army, so I think the army itself is divided.

Targeting Tel Aviv

Lundborg: The bomb is going to get thrown on India?

Mueenuddin: If the radical fundamentalists get hold of the bomb, theyâd proliferate it in some way. Their first and ideal target would be Tel Aviv and their second ideal target would be New York or somewhere in America.

The West cannot afford to let the fundamentalists take over Pakistan because the one thing theyâve made absolutely, perfectly clear is that if they ever get hold of the bomb, they intend to use it as quickly as they can. 

âIn Other Rooms, Others Wondersâ is published by W.W. Norton (256 pages, $23.95).

(Zinta Lundborg is a writer for Bloomberg News. All opinions expressed are her own.)

To contact the reporter on this story: Zinta Lundborg in New York zlundborg@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: March 25, 2009 09:01 EDT

Naresh · 03-27-2009, 03:54 AM

Asked to leave a question for the next guest, David Jason, the 69-year-old actor replied: "What do you call a Pakistani cloakroom attendant?" After a pause, he said: "Me hat, me coat."

Cheers <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' />

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