Pakistan : Terrorist Wahabi Islamic Rep Pakistan 7

[Naresh]

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[url="http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=130768&Cat=2&dt=9/8/2012"][center][color="#006400"][size="6"][center]China terminates contract of 425MW Nandipur project[/center][/size][/color][/center][/url]



ISLAMABAD : China has decided to terminate the contract for the construction of much-delayed 425MW Nandipur power plant, said sources on Friday.



The reason for the termination of the contract is said to be the fact that delays in the commencement of the project have led to significant cost overruns - [color="#FF0000"]from the initially anticipated $329 million to a current estimate of $730 million.[/color]



According to a letter from Pakistan’s ambassador in Beijing Masud Khan, sources said, the president of Dongfang Electric Corporation Limited (DECL) Zhang Guorong has terminated the contract, saying his company has suffered colossal losses because machinery worth $85 million has been awaiting clearance at the Karachi Port.



The company, according to the letter, is suffering huge losses on account of demurrages and is also concerned about the rusting of their machinery intended for power plants.The letter, said sources, states that Zhang has clearly intimated that if Pakistan wants the company to continue work on the project, new terms and conditions will have to be negotiated. Further, said sources, China has also stopped shipment of equipment worth $36 million because of the attitude of the authorities concerned in Pakistan.



In July 2011, said an official familiar with the project, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) had approved the request made by the minister for water and power to waive demurrages and detention charges for the machinery, which weighs 17,000 tons, subject to the approval of the Law Division. It was decided at the ECC meeting that objections raised by the Law Division would be referred to the cabinet for further discussion.



But matters never came to that. “The machinery is not being cleared from the Karachi Port because of the Law Division,” said the official, adding that the Supreme Court has already taken notice of the inordinate delay in completing the Nandipur project, potentially the country’s cheapest power production plant.



“Now, a big chunk of $80 million is needed to get this vital machinery released from the Karachi Port [color="#FF0000"]but the federal government does not have enough money to do so and is trying to raise the money from various banks of the country,”[/color] said the official.



According to some estimates, the two-year delay has already caused significant losses to the economy in terms of lost opportunity and the termination of the Nandipur project will aggravate the power woes of Pakistan.



Cheers

[Naresh]

.

[url="http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-67204-Heavy-rains-paralyse-Railways-service"][center][size="6"][color="#006400"]Heavy rains paralyse Railways service[/color][/size][/center][/url]



[center][/center]



KARACHI : Pakistan Railways’ service has been severely affected by the recent monsoon rains causing flooding and submerging tracks at various points, Geo News reported.



According to PR sources, Sargodha bound Super Express has been suspended for one week while Tezgam will also not leave for Rawalpindi from Lahore.



As rainwater has submerged the railway tracks at Sibbi and DG Khan section, all sorts of train services have been suspended while delay of other trains have irked the passengers, sources told.



General Manager PR Junaid Qureshi told Geo News that Khyber mail is late by 14 hours and will arrive at Lahore, at 10 am today while Allam Iqbal Express will reach Lahore at 10:30 pm. Karachi Express is also 11 hours late and will reach at 10 pm tonight.



Cheers

[Guest]

[url="http://www.thefrontierpost.com/news/8537/"]US suspends diplomatic missions in Pakistan[/url]

Amid anti-film protests US Tuesday halted public dealing in all its diplomatic missions in Pakistan.

According to statement issued by US embassy in Islamabad, all diplomatic missions in the country would be closed for public as security concerns.



Meanwhile, US diplomatic personnel were shifted to unclosed location from Karachi consulate as angry protesters advancing to the diplomatic building in red zone of the largest and port city of Pakistan

[Guest]

[url="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2012/09/20129219618263113.html"]Death toll rises in Pakistan video protests[/url]

At least 17 reported killed as demonstrators clash with police, while nation holds "Love the Prophet Day" marches.

Tens of thousands of Pakistanis took to the streets across the country after the government called an impromptu public holiday to let people protest under the banner of "Love the Prophet Day".



In Karachi, armed protesters among a group of 15,000 fired on police, killing two officers, as at least 10 protesters died in the violence. The crowd also burned six cinemas, two banks, a KFC and five police vehicles.

Crowds armed with clubs and bamboo poles converged on the Firdaus picture house, "smashing it up and setting furniture ablaze", according to Gohar Ali, a police officer.



Witnesses said a separate rampaging crowd stormed the Shama cinema, notorious locally for showing films considered to be pornographic.



In the Pakistani city of Peshawar, police fired on rioters who were torching a cinema. Mohammad Amir, a driver for a Pakistani television station, was killed when police bullets hit his vehicle at the scene, said Kashif Mahmood, a reporter for ARY TV.



At least four protesters and one police officer were killed in the northwestern city, along with 40 injured and two cinemas and two shops torched.



In the capital Islamabad, some 19 protesters and eight police were injured. And in Lahore, at least five protesters were wounded.

[Naresh]

.

[url="http://tribune.com.pk/story/442692/shireen-mazari-resigns-from-pti/#comments"][center][size="7"][color="#006400"]Shireen Mazari quits PTI[/color][/size][/center][/url]



ISLAMABAD: [color="#FF0000"]Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Central Vice President Shireen Mazari announced her decision of resigning from the party on Wednesday.

[/color]



Mazari was served a show-cause notice by the party administration after she reportedly gave a statement which went against PTI’s policies.



Refusing to give an explanation over her statement, Mazari decided to quit the party – a decision which she announced at a press conference at National Press Club.



In her messages posted on Twitter, Mazari said that the PTI has “changed its principles and brought in intermediaries and that she was not planning on joining another party.”



“The membership drive was hijacked by ‘big money’ this has compromised the party elections,” read one of her Tweets.



Mazari also expressed discontentment in her tweets saying “the way they [PTI] treated my daughter on twitter, abusing her over my remarks, is unacceptable.”



She said that she was “not raising allegations” against party chief Imran Khan’s “character”, but that the party principles “had been forgone.”



Jalil Ahmad Sharkpuri has replaced Mazari.



Cheers

[Naresh]

.

[url="http://tribune.com.pk/story/444417/is-the-pakistan-army-martial/"][center][color="#006400"][size="6"]Is the Pakistan army martial?[/size][/color][/center][/url]



Are Punjabi Muslims martial? Do they have a history of war and conquest or at least of resistance to conquest? I ask because there’s no evidence of their martial character in our history. No general, no subedar, no thanedar, no wazir, no bakhshi of the Mughal empire was a Punjabi Muslim so far as I know.



I might be wrong about this but there are only two Punjabi Muslims named in Mughal texts. The first is Kamaal Khan Gakkhar, who submitted (without fighting) to Akbar in 1576, according to Akbarnama. The second is Jalal Khan Gakkhar, an old man named among the victims by Jahangir in a skirmish with Afghans in 1620. A third reference is indirect, the name of the author of Shah Jahan’s Padishahnama is Shaikh Abdul Hamid “Lahori”. The Ain-e-Akbari has one joint reference to Janjuas and Awans, calling them tribes conquered by Afghans. There are of course Punjabi Hindus (mainly Khatris) who fought for the Mughals with distinction. Like Todar Mal, who led the sapping at the siege of Chittorgarh against the Sisodiya Rajputs, and also settled the revenue system for Akbar. Maathir ul Umara says Todar Mal was born in Lahore, though British scholars thought this was Laharpur in Awadh.



Where are the Punjabi Muslims? The fact is that the Punjabi Muslim is a convert mainly from the peasantry (Jat) which is not martial. General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani is Gakkhar, a caste that claims Rajput ancestry. The second Rohtas fort was built by Sher Khan Suri to pacify the Gakkhars. In his Tuzuk, Jahangir makes the remark in passing that the Gakkhars are warlike, but adds that they only fight among themselves. Meanwhile Rajput, Afghan, Maratha, Sikh, Jat (Hindu) and tribal Hindu generals all fought for and against Mughal armies. Rajputs had to be continually submitted by force, except for the loyal Kachwahas of Ambar (Jaipur). Right down to Aurangzeb, according to Maasir-e-Alamgiri, Mewar’s Sisodiyas and Marwar’s Rathors resisted the emperor. I clarify here that Muslims other than Punjabis fought the Mughals, and some very well.



Uttar Pradesh’s Rohilla Afghans were enemies of the Mughals and one of them (Najibud Daulah) ruled from Mughal Delhi for 10 years. Turkish-speaking Turani Sunnis and Farsi-speaking Irani Shias were the most important parties in the Mughal court. The former ranked as better fighters than the latter, who were better administrators. The fiercest Indian-origin Muslims were Shias, the Syeds of Barha (in Uttar Pradesh). The Maratha light cavalry was devastating and ended Muslim rule over India. The Sikhs captured Punjab and raided west up to Kabul and east up to the Doab. The Jats south of Delhi made life miserable for the later Mughals. Even the Baniya general Hemu showed martial character, almost ending Mughal rule before falling at the second battle of Panipat.



What exactly did the Punjabi Muslim do? Invaders who got past Peshawar could then only be stopped at Karnal or Panipat because they went through Punjab undisturbed. It is true that the armies of both Nadir Shah and Ahmed Shah Abdali were harassed in Punjab on their return with Mughal booty, [color="#FF0000"]but their attackers were Sikhs, not Muslims. Punjab was a quiet state. Punjabi Muslims neither rebelled against Mughal Delhi nor fought any invader whether Afghan or Persian. Was this because the Punjabi did not want to fight other Muslims? Not really, because he did not even resist being conquered easily by Sikhs.[/color]



[color="#FF0000"]It is the Englishman who 150 years ago gave the Punjabi Muslim a rifle and taught him how to use it. But this did not require any martial background.[/color] The British Bengal army was full of UP Brahmins (like Mangal Pandey). It is only after this formation of the modern regiments, that Punjabi Muslims are called martial by writers like GF MacMunn. [color="#FF0000"]After the English left, the record of Punjabi Muslims at war under their own generals is not sterling.[/color] I count one draw and one loss and I’m being charitable. Against the Pashtun Talib the record is not encouraging, despite the thousands of martyrs. [color="#FF0000"]Nadir Shah said of Indian Muslims after the battle of Karnal that they “know how to die, but not how to fight”.[/color]



This is fine and many states of India are not martial. Few soldiers were produced by Bengal’s Hindus for instance, and not many by Gujarat even today. [color="#FF0000"]But they don’t have the militant bombast of the Punjabi Muslim (who apparently equals 10 Hindus). I’m just wondering what this bombast is based on because I cannot figure it out.[/color]



Cheers

[ravish]

Nareshji,



Once a top ranking Bangladeshi official, who held a senior position in undivided Pakistan explained to me the following about the composition of Pakistan.

He stated that both these parts of India , which now form BD and Pak respectively consisted of poor Hindu sudras who used to yoil under the high born Hindu Zamindars. This section of the people had a measurable life under that system. So many of them embraced Islam and this led to the concentration of so many Muslims in certain areas of Bengal and Punjab. The rest is known history .

Once Pakistan came into existence, to add proper prestige to the newly created nation, it became necessary to create a martial race. This gave rise to the use of the terminology Martial Race for describing the Punjabi muslims of Pakistan.

He further mentioned that the newly converted Muslims who are now the population of Pakistan and BD, to prove that they are really muslims, keep on highlighting some of the Muslim customs and usage , which is not that important in other parts of the Muslim Umma.

Shall appreciate your expert views.

[Naresh]

.



[size="5"][color="#FF0000"]Ladies of Pakistan afflicted with Similar Magnetic Poles on the Inside of Both their Knees![/color][/size]





[url="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/Cheating-spouses-keep-Pakistani-private-detective-busy/articleshow/16637134.cms"][center][size="6"][color="#006400"]Cheating spouses keep Pakistani private detective busy[/color][/size][/center][/url]



LAHORE : Twenty-three years of military service come in handy when Masood Haider gets a call from a suspicious spouse.



He quickly dispatches a surveillance team to keep tabs on the partner believed to be heading off for an illicit rendezvous.



In deeply conservative Muslim Pakistan where arranged marriages are common and adultery can be punished by death, it is an illustration of how much the society is changing that Haider's private detective agency exists at all.



"What was taken as taboo 20 to 25 years ago is no more taken that way," said Haider, 53, a former army pilot who founded FactFinders, Pakistan's first licensed private detective agency.



The business of exposing cheating spouses, he says, is growing.



"People simply understand that if two people cannot live under one roof and they cannot co-exist peacefully it is better to disengage and carry on with their lives instead of dragging it on."



Pakistan portrays itself as a progressive Islamic nation. But since the 1980s, it has been drifting towards a more conservative interpretation of Islam that has reshaped the political landscape, fuelled militancy and cowed champions of tolerance into silence.



Adultery is a capital crime under Islamic Sharia law. Death sentences are rarely carried out by the state but people sometimes do take matters into their own hands, especially in rural areas.



Yet women are becoming increasingly assertive about confronting unfaithful spouses. So are men.



"When I opened this company I was not sure whether Pakistani men would confide in me regarding their wives," said Haider, in his spacious office in the city of Lahore where he began his venture on Valentine's Day two years ago.



"But to my surprise the first case I received was of a cheating wife."



His services do not come cheap. The downpayment for FactFinders to check on an unfaithful partner is $5,500, out of reach of most people who on average bring home just $60 a month.



Clients are mostly wealthy Pakistanis who live here, or in Britain, the United States or United Arab Emirates and want to keep a close eye on spouses or fiancees from afar.



His investigations are not restricted to cases of infidelity.



One man, for example, desperately wanted him to retrieve a stolen computer with compromising pictures of his naked wife.



But it is mostly husbands or wives tormented by suspicion of cheating who turn to Haider.



His website promises to "Off load your burden with full confidentiality" with the suggestive image of a turned-over high heeled-shoe beside a wine glass. To reinforce the point, another photograph shows a luxury car splashed with graffiti from an angry wife or girlfriend.



Emergency hotline



For the really desperate, there is an emergency hotline.



"I think if women could afford it, 80 percent of Pakistani women would be here," said one woman client.



"In our culture women are discouraged. They are expected to suck it up and be quiet about it. I am done with the being scared part."



His staff of 30, scattered across Pakistan with a few in Britain for clients there, are recruited from retired military and police officers and the financial industry.



Fatima, 32, worked for Britain's Scotland Yard before joining Haidar's outfit, where she does research and manages surveillance teams and other operations.



"In a country like Pakistan, we should promote such things (businesses). There is nothing bad about it."



Some philanderers go to creative extremes to avoid being caught.



A wealthy Karachi man posed as a rent-a-car driver when meeting his lover. To keep a closer watch, Haider deployed a female detective agent disguised as a maid in the woman's house .



"So, under one roof, the driver was not the driver and the maid was not the maid. It was 'The Bold and the Beautiful' going on in real life," said Haider, referring to the US television soap opera.



Most infidelity takes place in the first five years of marriage or 20 years into married life, he pointed out.



The indiscretions may be one reason why divorce rates are rising. The Islamabad Arbitration Council, where divorces are officially registered, [color="#FF0000"]says the number of broken marriages, have doubled in the last ten years.[/color]



In 2011, there were 557 divorces filed in the capital Islamabad alone, compared to 208 in 2002.



Even after 150 cases, some still shock Haider.



"A client caught his wife red-handed in the bedroom with her lover," said Haider, who has grey hair and a light mustache and retired from the army in 2000. "Instead of being ashamed, she blamed the lover for being caught."



[color="#FF0000"]"'It is because of this idiot that I was caught. Otherwise I was doing it for three years',"[/color] Haider laughingly quoted her as telling her husband. "I thought 'look at the guts of this lady'."



Cheers

[Naresh]

[quote name='ravish' date='30 September 2012 - 11:20 PM' timestamp='1349026941' post='116155']

Nareshji,



Once a top ranking Bangladeshi official, who held a senior position in undivided Pakistan explained to me the following about the composition of Pakistan.

He stated that both these parts of India , which now form BD and Pak respectively consisted of poor Hindu sudras who used to yoil under the high born Hindu Zamindars. This section of the people had a measurable life under that system. So many of them embraced Islam and this led to the concentration of so many Muslims in certain areas of Bengal and Punjab. The rest is known history.

Once Pakistan came into existence, to add proper prestige to the newly created nation, it became necessary to create a martial race. This gave rise to the use of the terminology Martial Race for describing the Punjabi muslims of Pakistan.

He further mentioned that the newly converted Muslims who are now the population of Pakistan and BD, to prove that they are really muslims, keep on highlighting some of the Muslim customs and usage , which is not that important in other parts of the Muslim Umma.

Shall appreciate your expert views.

[/quote]



ravish Ji :



Tarek Fateh and Hassan Nisar have both commented on YouTube in this regard. I shall try and locate their “Wise Words”



Meantime blaming Hindu Zamindars for the conversion of Hindu Lower as well as Out-Castes is fallacy created by Muslims to label Islam as more Egalitarian than Hinduism. It is utter balderdash and I shall not waste my and your time on commenting about it.



Cheers

[Naresh]

.

ravish Ji :



Some Enlightenment about the Pakistani "Establishment"



[center][media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIjydcEHnFA[/media][/center]





[center][media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3EHDDbtKdA[/media][/center]



Cheers

[Naresh]

.

ravish Ji :



Here is one more :



[center][media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZV1B4Cfq_g&feature=relmfu[/media][/center]



Cheers

[Naresh]

.

ravish Ji :



Here is one more :



[center][media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZV1B4Cfq_g&feature=relmfu[/media][/center]



Cheers

[Naresh]

.



ravish Ji :



From Hassan Nisar :



[center][media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88twc5pogxM[/media][/center]



[center][media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnkpa8pdLVs[/media][/center]



Cheers

[Naresh]

.

ravish Ji :



Some more from Hassan Nisar :



[center][media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAfSp-I48cQ[/media][/center]



[center][media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ2DIEt7N3k[/media][/center]



Cheers

[Naresh]

.

[url="http://tribune.com.pk/story/447222/imf-warns-of-deteriorating-pakistan-economy/"][center][size="6"][color="#006400"]IMF warns of deteriorating Pakistan economy[/color][/size][/center][/url]



WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund said Thursday that Pakistan’s economic situation was worsening and faces a return to double-digit inflation as the government prints money to finance its deficit.



In a mission report, the IMF said Islamabad urgently needs to address deep problems in its energy sector, including costly subsidies and poor distribution, while boosting growth to meet a rapidly growing population.



[color="#FF0000"]“Pakistan faces a challenging economic outlook. GDP growth in 2012/13 is projected to be in the 3-3.5 per cent range, which needs to accelerate in order to absorb the growing labor force,” the IMF said.[/color]



“Inflation has fallen recently but is expected to be back in double digits by the middle of next year if corrective measures are not taken to reverse monetary financing of the fiscal deficit.”



It said the country’s external accounts are deteriorating, with incoming investment slowing and the central bank’s reserves dropping.



“Decisive and far-sighted action is needed to address this challenging outlook,” including raising taxes and cutting expenditures, especially subsidies, the IMF said.



It warned that allowing inflation to rise is hurting the population at large.



“Underlying inflation remains high and represents a regressive tax that disproportionately hurts the poor,” the IMF said.



Cheers

[Guest]

[url="http://pundita.blogspot.com/2012/10/lara-logan-to-gen-john-allen-american.html"]Lara Logan to Gen. John Allen: "American soldiers continue to die because of the support Pakistan gives to America's enemies." Allen to Logan: "You've just stated the truth."[/url]

[Naresh]

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[url="http://tribune.com.pk/story/454002/visit-to-kishanganga-dam-site-india-has-stopped-work-following-courts-orders/"][center][size="5"][color="#006400"]Visit to Kishanganga Dam site : India has stopped work following court’s orders[/color][/size][/center][/url]



ISLAMABAD : Much to the satisfaction of Pakistan, Delhi has told Islamabad during a recent visit to the site of Kishanganga Dam, which was being built on Neelum Jhelum River, it has stopped work on the project and will not violate the stay order granted by the International Court of Arbitration, say officials.



However, Pakistan faces a threat back home as a Chinese joint venture has warned that it will abandon the strategic 969-megawatt Neelum Jhelum hydropower project, located in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, because of delay in clearance of its dues.



During a visit of the Pakistan-India joint inspection commission to the site of Kishanganga Dam, Pakistani officials noted that no construction work was under way following the stay order from the international court, approached by Pakistan.



“India is not even working on those parts of the dam, where work has not been restricted by the court,” a senior government official said.



The government claims that India will win water rights over Neelum Jhelum River if it builds Kishanganga Dam before completion of the Neelum Jhelum power project. This will lead to Pakistan losing 13% of the river’s water, it says.



However, officials in knowledge of the developments insist that Pakistan enjoys water rights over the river under the Indus Waters Treaty and India cannot lay claim to it by building the dam.



Today’s deadline



The joint venture of China Gezhouba Group of Companies and China Machinery Engineering Company, which is working on the Neelum Jhelum power project, [color="#FF0000"]has set a deadline of October 20 for the government to clear its dues amounting to Rs8.5 billion,[/color] says an official. In case of failure, the companies will back out of the project, leaving the government in a critical situation.



According to sources, [color="#FF0000"]the government is finding it difficult to arrange funds for the project as the Chinese government has linked the release of a loan of $448 million with the award of Islamabad Safe City project to a Chinese company.



“We will talk about the loan if Pakistan awards the contract of Islamabad Safe City to a Chinese firm,” an official said, quoting Chinese authorities.[/color]



However, in August this year, the Supreme Court of Pakistan cancelled the Rs14 billion Safe City project in the capital due to allegations of corruption.



The Abu Dhabi government’s leading national entity, the Abu Dhabi Fund, has also withheld a promised loan of $100 million for the Neelum Jhelum project until the settlement of a payment dispute between Pakistan and Etisalat pertaining to privatisation of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL).



Rs2b a month



“The Ministry of Water and Power has requested the finance ministry to provide Rs2 billion every month for the Neelum Jhelum project, but no response has been received,” an official of the Ministry of Water and Power said.



The contract for the project, which has already been delayed, was awarded to the Chinese joint venture during the Musharraf regime without firm financing commitments, the Planning Commission observes.



Owing to the delay, the cost of the project has gone up from Rs84.5 billion to Rs274.8 billion, which will push up power generation cost to over Rs10 per unit compared to existing cost of 16 paisa per unit for hydropower.



The burden of delay and inefficiency is falling on the consumers as the government has decided to arrange 40% of funds for the project through a levy on energy. At present, the consumers are paying a surcharge of 10 paisa per unit, which amounts to Rs6 billion per year.



Cheers

[Naresh]

.

[url="http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2012/10/24/story_24-10-2012_pg1_5"][center][color="#006400"][size="6"]Arabia uses India to balance Pakistan[/size][/color][/center][/url]



LAHORE : More evidence is emerging that Saudi Arabia is deepening its cooperation with India in cracking down on terrorism suspects, an important trend that has implications for Pakistan’s bilateral relationship with the kingdom, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.



Pakistan is Saudi Arabia’s traditional ally in South Asia. Saudi money has fuelled the construction of hard-line religious schools in Pakistan that have helped foster militancy, the report stated.



But Saudi Arabia also has been moving closer to India, Pakistan’s nemesis in the region. The latest sign came this week as Indian authorities confirmed Saudi Arabia had extradited Fasih Mehmood, an alleged member of Indian Mujahideen, a local militant outfit.



The WSJ reported India earlier this year had sought an international arrest warrant for Mehmood, who is from Bihar and is wanted in connection with an attack in 2010 on a tourist bus in New Delhi and a stadium in Bangalore. Earlier in October, Saudi Arabia extradited A Rayees, another alleged Indian militant, while it also extradited Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari, an alleged Indian member of LeT, in June.



India and Saudi Arabia signed an extradition treaty in 2010, one of a series of recent steps aimed at strengthening ties. Some observers view Saudi policy as driven by worries about the inability of Pakistan to control its militant proxies. Those anxieties have heightened in recent years as militants have increasingly attacked Pakistani government and military targets, according to WSJ.



“There’s a genuine concern in the Saudi establishment that things may get out of hand,” said Naresh Chandra, chairman of India’s National Security Advisory Board. Talat Masood, a retired Pakistan Army general, says Saudi Arabia now views its closer relationship with India as a way of forcing Pakistan to moderate its support for these groups. ”The Saudi relationship is no longer a monopoly of Pakistan", Masood said.



For Riyadh, its ties with India offer another way to help balance the influence of Iran, a Shia power that has historically rivalled Saudi for influence in the Middle East and South Asia.



The US likely put pressure on Saudi Arabia to follow through with the recent extraditions, believes Ashok Mehta, a retired Indian Army general. “These extraditions wouldn’t have taken place without some pressure from the Americans,” he said. Attempts to reach the US Embassy in New Delhi were not immediately successful.



The WSJ reports that others say, while important, the arrests don’t mean Saudi has ended its support for Pakistan.



Cheers

[Naresh]

.

[url="http://tribune.com.pk/story/458413/try-a-smarter-strategy/"][center][size="7"][color="#006400"]Try a smarter strategy[/color][/size][/center][/url]



Fearing a bloody blowback, the authorities seem to have given up the idea of launching a military campaign in the tribal region. Negotiating another peace deal also seems to be out of the question because experience has shown that these deals were only used as breathers by terrorists to resume their murderous mission with extra vigour and redoubled vengeance after having recouped their losses in men and material. So, what do we do now? Let militancy thrive and take over the state in due course of time? Or try a different strategy? I am more than convinced that if the security agencies took care of the jihadi outfits operating from inside Pakistan, those running the rogues from inside the tribal region would simply wither away in no time because it is the mainland thugs that provide the logistics support to their tribal counterparts in choosing targets and mounting attacks. A smarter strategy, therefore, would entail infiltrating these outfits to annihilate them from inside, and in tandem, tearing down the network that keeps them regularly supplied with generous loads of guns and gold.



There are about 10 to 15 major jihadi outfits in the country, mostly located in Punjab, with a couple of them having emerged in Sindh, in recent years. These outfits get a regular supply of jihadis from the 30,000 or so madrassas spread all over the country. Both these institutions — jihadi outfits and the madrassas — are the residual but have decidedly criminal legacies of the first Afghan war and the now-defunct Kashmir jihad. Perhaps, angry at the khakis for abandoning the Kashmir jihad, these institutions have now started biting the very hand that had been feeding them, funding them, arming them and training them on how to kill. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) seems to be a more dangerously callous off-shoot of these jihadi outfits. The TTP’s stated objective is to introduce sharia in Pakistan. But the methods it has so far employed in achieving this objective — large-scale massacres, blowing up of mosques and shrines, kidnappings for ransom, etc., all being criminal acts — appear to be in direct conflict with sharia as it is understood by the majority of Muslims the world over.



To destroy the jihadi outfits from inside, it would require employing a well thought-out counterinsurgency strategy based as well on experiences drawn from countries that had successfully overcome such insurgencies. So far, I have not seen a single move or sign indicating that our security agencies are even thinking along these lines. All that one could gather from media reports is that the security agencies and the civil administration have been discussing only two options for all these years: whether or not to send the army into North Waziristan/whether or not to negotiate another peace deal with the criminals. The third option, which is being misused to the point of being downright sickening is Mr Know-it-all’s mugshot-spouting, day in and day out from TV screens and newspaper pages, and all kinds of bizarre reasons for the latest criminal act and how he would not rest until the perpetrators are brought to book, only to repeat the same nauseating performance after the next terror attack. Mr Rehman Malik does not squander the slightest opportunity to hog the media glare, no matter what the subject. At times, he seems to be doubling for the entire cabinet including the prime minister. My late friend Khalid Hasan had nicknamed him after the bumbling movie character, Inspector Clouseau.



But coming back to the terror topic, most of the mainland jihadi organisations seem to have a good number of former services’ personnel in leadership positions. With their insider knowledge, which they have mounted in the name of the TTP’s partially successful attacks on the GHQ, Mehran naval base, Kamra Air Force base and other sensitive installations of the ISI and the police. But the khakis have continued to shy away from destroying the demon, hoping perhaps, to continue to use them for waging proxy wars, for promoting their foreign policy agenda and for keeping the civilians from posing a serious threat to their domestic political dominance. But if they wait any longer, these murderous hordes are likely to leave nothing for the khakis or the civilians to rule!



Cheers

[Naresh]

.

[url="http://tribune.com.pk/story/458413/try-a-smarter-strategy/"][center][size="7"][color="#006400"]Try a smarter strategy[/color][/size][/center][/url]



Fearing a bloody blowback, the authorities seem to have given up the idea of launching a military campaign in the tribal region. Negotiating another peace deal also seems to be out of the question because experience has shown that these deals were only used as breathers by terrorists to resume their murderous mission with extra vigour and redoubled vengeance after having recouped their losses in men and material. So, what do we do now? Let militancy thrive and take over the state in due course of time? Or try a different strategy? I am more than convinced that if the security agencies took care of the jihadi outfits operating from inside Pakistan, those running the rogues from inside the tribal region would simply wither away in no time because it is the mainland thugs that provide the logistics support to their tribal counterparts in choosing targets and mounting attacks. A smarter strategy, therefore, would entail infiltrating these outfits to annihilate them from inside, and in tandem, tearing down the network that keeps them regularly supplied with generous loads of guns and gold.



There are about 10 to 15 major jihadi outfits in the country, mostly located in Punjab, with a couple of them having emerged in Sindh, in recent years. These outfits get a regular supply of jihadis from the 30,000 or so madrassas spread all over the country. Both these institutions — jihadi outfits and the madrassas — are the residual but have decidedly criminal legacies of the first Afghan war and the now-defunct Kashmir jihad. Perhaps, angry at the khakis for abandoning the Kashmir jihad, these institutions have now started biting the very hand that had been feeding them, funding them, arming them and training them on how to kill. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) seems to be a more dangerously callous off-shoot of these jihadi outfits. The TTP’s stated objective is to introduce sharia in Pakistan. But the methods it has so far employed in achieving this objective — large-scale massacres, blowing up of mosques and shrines, kidnappings for ransom, etc., all being criminal acts — appear to be in direct conflict with sharia as it is understood by the majority of Muslims the world over.



To destroy the jihadi outfits from inside, it would require employing a well thought-out counterinsurgency strategy based as well on experiences drawn from countries that had successfully overcome such insurgencies. So far, I have not seen a single move or sign indicating that our security agencies are even thinking along these lines. All that one could gather from media reports is that the security agencies and the civil administration have been discussing only two options for all these years: whether or not to send the army into North Waziristan/whether or not to negotiate another peace deal with the criminals. The third option, which is being misused to the point of being downright sickening is Mr Know-it-all’s mugshot-spouting, day in and day out from TV screens and newspaper pages, and all kinds of bizarre reasons for the latest criminal act and how he would not rest until the perpetrators are brought to book, only to repeat the same nauseating performance after the next terror attack. Mr Rehman Malik does not squander the slightest opportunity to hog the media glare, no matter what the subject. At times, he seems to be doubling for the entire cabinet including the prime minister. My late friend Khalid Hasan had nicknamed him after the bumbling movie character, Inspector Clouseau.



But coming back to the terror topic, most of the mainland jihadi organisations seem to have a good number of former services’ personnel in leadership positions. With their insider knowledge, which they have mounted in the name of the TTP’s partially successful attacks on the GHQ, Mehran naval base, Kamra Air Force base and other sensitive installations of the ISI and the police. But the khakis have continued to shy away from destroying the demon, hoping perhaps, to continue to use them for waging proxy wars, for promoting their foreign policy agenda and for keeping the civilians from posing a serious threat to their domestic political dominance. But if they wait any longer, these murderous hordes are likely to leave nothing for the khakis or the civilians to rule!



Cheers