بینظیر بھٹو کی سالگرہ پر۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔
میرے پچھلے سال لکھی نظم۔۔۔۔۔۔
Waves Of Hope
Operation Rah e Rast is said to be the most crucial step against militancy in Pakistan.On various forrums, as Pakteahouse etc I have supported the peace agreement with TNSM leaders though I have a point that nothing can satisfy Taliban except an authoritarian rule like Afghanistan in Taliban Era….
But the peace deal has exposed them and implementation of Nizam e Adal by the secular ANP will be a blow to the religious politics in Pashtoon areas…..
And the result is achieved as the religious parties have come openly in support of Taliban….Thus Taliban and JUI and JI have been exposed.
The most crucial and important aspect of the operation is the mass support to the Army Action and it is obviously due to the harsh comments of TTP and TNSM leaderships after the agreement.
Peoples of Swat were of the opinion that Army and Taliban were the same, But the current operation has very possitive feedback from the people of Swat and this is the clear sign of winning this Battle against the monsters….
We the peoples of Swat appreciate all the Officers and Soldiers of the Security forces, i.e Police FC and The Army
Dailytimes : We may be defeated by refugee camps
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani says the Swat operation is a fight for the “survival of Pakistan”. True. But we could be defeated in this fight by the developing crisis of the refugee camps in Mardan and elsewhere in the NWFP unless we do some emergency reorganisation. When the provincial government asked the people of the Malakand region to leave their homes to give the Pakistan Army a chance to take on the Taliban without too much collateral damage, the local population readily agreed. But their reception at the camps is turning out to be a trauma they did not anticipate.
The camps have been hurriedly put together in Mardan, Swabi and other places in the NWFP, and first reports are not very heartening. Around 200,000 have moved out of the target areas; an additional 300,000 are on the move and are expected to reach the camps by the beginning of the week. They will have joined the earlier 500,000 that fled the conflict zone and have been absorbed in various parts of the province, including the old deserted refugee camps used by the Afghan refugees in the past. That makes a total of one million refugees. The NWFP government projects a figure of 1.5 million as the war in Swat goes into attrition.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) disagrees with the numbers on the basis of registration because registration is the only way you can officially compute the size of displacement. It is true that many Swatis and people from other areas have moved in with their relatives outside the region but the coming flood of refugees is mostly going to be looked after by the state of Pakistan. The prime minister has already given Rs 1 billion to the NWFP government but it is organisation and expert handling that is missing. The first images appearing on the TV channels tell us that both are in short supply.
If this is the case, we may be defeated by the Taliban because of the refugee camps. We had a much better record of handling the displaced persons after the 2005 earthquake in Azad Kashmir and parts of the NWFP. Have we forgotten the lessons?
The 2005 earthquake was a sudden natural calamity and we could not have organised rescue and settlement beforehand. Adverse publicity of government performance went on for weeks before organisation caught up with the homeless. Beyond 2005, we had decades of experience of handling the Afghan refugees most of whom were lodged in the NWFP. Where has that expertise gone?
The plight of the first arrivals in the camps in Swabi and Mardan is quite pathetic. Coming from a cold area they are specially affected by the hot weather. The camps are pitched in open fields with only tent canvas to fend against the summer sun. Despite claims by officers, there is no clean drinking water, which is what the refugees need in the scorching heat to which they are not used. Children are specially affected by the new conditions but medical facilities are absent at the camps. Registration itself is problematic. Because each family has to be issued a special permit before facilities can be made available, hundreds are lining up in front of a single man registering them and issuing permits. This in itself is suffering.
All this could have been avoided. The plan to take military action should have included detailed plans of looking after the displaced population. And that could have been prepared in light of the experiences of the Afghan refuge camps and the 2005 earthquake. More significantly, the NWFP government could have studied the flaws in the policy of looking after the displaced people of Bajaur after the recent operations there. There were positive and negative lessons to be learned there. Unfortunately, Pakistan has once again been found standing dazed with its pants down before a population of refugees.
The so-called “national consensus” against the Taliban is not total, but it is quite broad and inclusive. The plight of the refugee camps will not only strengthen the Taliban, it will erode the national consensus too. No major politician has visited the refugee camps as they painfully come into existence.
IDP’s : Unwelcome in Karachi
Ali Arqam Durrani
Swat Peace treaty is condemned by the PTH visitors and many of them are amazed with the behaviour of the people living there.But someone should ask the migrants of their pain and agony.When fanatics were beheading policemen and FC sepoys, the Army personnel did not fight. Fanatics were targeting political workers from ANP. Was there any other option left. Now in Karachi ethnic bloodbath is on the cards. Amid the rhetoric, the victims i.e The IDP’s have no way home and are unwelcome everywhere…
By Qurat ul ain Siddiqui
KARACHI: ‘I am not at ease here,’ admits Mohammad Salaar, surveying the bustle and traffic at Safora Chowk in Karachi’s Gulistan-i-Jauhar area. ‘The political culture of the city is unfavourable for displaced families like mine which didn’t opt to stay at a refugee camp.’
Salaar is one of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) who fled military operations in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas last August. According to City District Government Karachi officials, between 100,000 and 300,000 IDPs have settled in Karachi in the past few months. Many have yet to adjust to their newly adopted home. As Salaar puts it: ‘Life in Karachi is not very favourable for us Pashtuns. I am only here because I have relatives on whom I can rely. We haven’t been helped by the government in any manner.’
Born and raised in Bajaur’s Damadola district, Salaar left his home village seven months ago. He now works as a day labourer in Karachi while living with his family in a cramped room in Sohrab Goth for which he pays Rs 3,000 per month. For Salaar, adjusting to the difference between life in his hometown and this sprawling metropolis has been challenging. But the likelihood of returning to Bajaur any time soon is rather small. Like thousands of other IDPs, Salaar finds himself in limbo, unwelcome in Karachi and unable to return home.
Urban Nightmare
Salaar’s anxieties about Karachi are shared by many IDPs. Sher Khan, a cobbler who hails from Bajaur’s Mamond area and settled in Karachi’s Machar Colony five months ago, feels particularly vulnerable. ‘Apart from having to adjust to a different routine and lifestyle,’ he says, ‘the political climate is also problematic as our ethnicity is not viewed favourably.’
Khan claims that one of his relatives who used to live near Karachi’s Steel Mill was killed some months ago. He also narrates the story of two other Pashtun men who bore no affiliation to any political party but were recently killed. Following their death, Awami National Party workers identified them as party workers. ‘I know they were apolitical,’ insists Khan. ‘The political parties are using helpless, poor people like us for their own purposes.’
Salaar and Khan are made further insecure by a government campaign to register IDPs in an attempt to identify needs and provide humanitarian assistance. More than 552,000 IDPs have already been registered in the North West Frontier Province. In coming weeks, registration will be completed in the Punjab and Karachi under the auspices of the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions. The registration exercise is aimed at profiling and documenting IDPs, but in the politically and ethnically charged environment of Karachi, Pashto-speakers fear this is a means to target the community.
Troubled Passage
Sadly, Salaar and Khan’s problems began long before they arrived in Karachi. Salaar left Bajaur after his house was destroyed in mortar shelling. ‘My father barely survived the tortuous journey and my mother died during the shelling that destroyed our house,’ he recalls, adding, ‘when my family was escaping, we spent seven days charting through the mountains with the children. We were starving and thirsty and my eldest child became the victim of a helicopter gunship. I cannot tell you how helpless and desperate I felt at that time.’ Even now, Salaar thinks about his late son constantly. ‘I think about how I had to leave his body there and how I could have saved him, but could not.’
Bajaur under the Taliban
In the past few months, IDPs have proved a valuable source of information about the Taliban in FATA. Salaar and Khan are no exception. They explain that most of the militants in Bajaur are Pakistanis, but they are commanded by an Afghan national, Jan Wali, who is popularly known as Sheena Mujahid. ‘Apart from Pashtuns, there are also Chechens and Uzbeks, but they are not in any large numbers,’ adds Salaar.
‘Everybody welcomed sheena when he first came to Bajaur,’ says Salaar. The militant commander banned music and television but people were grateful for the campaign ‘because it suited the Bajauris and our society.’ But Sheena didn’t stop there. Salaar claims that the commander issued a form and told the men of Bajaur that they would be paid if they filled it out. ‘A lot of people signed that form,’ Salaar says.
Khan confirms Salaar’s account of Sheena’s activities. ‘Every time we questioned the security personnel in the area as to why they did not attack Sheena Mujahid, they would say, ‘if we kill the hero of the movie, the movie will end,’’ he says.
Khan also explains that the Taliban is Bajaur and Swat must be kept distinct. ‘Bajauri Taliban do not destroy girls’ schools and they have never treated innocent civilians with brutality like the Taliban of Swat have done.’
No way home
Even though Khan and Salaar do not explicitly object to Taliban presence in Bajaur, they do not plan to return in the foreseeable future. ‘Even though the operation seems to have stopped, there is no place to live,’ says Salaar. ‘I have three children, a wife, and my father is very old. It will not be possible to live there if there is a chance that the military operation might start again.’
Similarly, Khan, who complains that IDPs have yet to be compensated for losses sustained, is reluctant to return. ‘We still have land in Bajaur, but with the destruction and mass migration, what are we going to do even if we do go back? How will my children go to school?’ Shaking his head and recalling how his house was bulldozed, Khan softly adds, ‘this war has consumed us
“Rein in The Militants.” Urges China
ISLAMABAD // China has called upon Asif Ali Zardari, the president of Pakistan, to take action against its growing militant problem, citing the links between extremist activities in both countries.
Officials are now confirming that the meeting between Meng Jianzhu, China’s minister for public security, and Mr. Zardari in Shanghai in February addressed concerns of the Chinese government that the militant problem in Pakistan’s tribal region presents a significant security challenge to the entire region.
Chinese officials are reported to have revealed that the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (Etim), a separatist Uighur group from China’s Xinjiang province, is plotting an attack to coincide with 60th anniversary celebrations of the communist revolution, scheduled for Oct 1. The plan for the attack, according to Chinese officials, originated in Pakistani tribal areas.
“They told me that the Etim has its military headquarters in [the Federally Administered Tribal Areas] and is planning to attack China on the 60th anniversary celebration of the communist revolution,” Mushahid Hussain Syed, the former chairman of the Senate foreign affairs committee, told The Nation, a Pakistani daily newspaper. Beijing dispatched a special envoy to Islamabad in March to discuss the alleged threat posed by the Etim, Mr. Syed said.
This week, China claimed to have killed 18 Etim militants in Xinjiang. Last week, two Uighur separatists were executed in Xinjiang for a deadly attack on police in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics.
Labeled as a terrorist group both by Beijing and Washington, the Etim has long maintained a low profile in Pakistan’s tribal areas, although it is suspected to have links to al Qaeda. The Pakistani army was reported to have killed in 2003 Hasan Mahsoum, the group’s leader.
“China has been concerned for many years about extremists who are increasingly active in the [North West Frontier Province] of Pakistan,” said G Eugene Martin, former US deputy chief of mission in Beijing and the Washington-based director of the Hopkins-Nanjing Centre.
Once considered an “all-weather friend”, China has been talking tough with its neighbor in recent years, particularly as Pakistan’s security situation has grown volatile and economic conditions have turned ominous.
Pakistan was among a handful of nations to recognize the communist People’s Republic of China in the early 1950s. When the war broke out in 1962 between China and India over the disputed Himalayan border region, China and Pakistan forged a bond based on their shared antagonism towards India.
Mr. Zardari’s visit to China in February, the second in four months, came just days after Washington signed a landmark nuclear energy deal with India, an agreement that ruffled feathers in both Beijing and Islamabad. While China has always been a fervent supporter of Pakistan’s nuclear ambitions, there has never been a formal agreement between the two countries. China has invested heavily in the construction of several nuclear power plants in Pakistan, as well as the country’s infrastructure, including a new port in Gwadar, linking it to the Strait of Hormuz.
However, today’s dynamics between China, Pakistan and India are a far cry from what they were in the 1960s, with many experts pointing to the greater strategic benefits of a stronger China-India alliance.
“Pakistan has very few options to protect its security interests,” said Shabbir Cheema, the director of the Asia-Pacific Governance and Democracy Initiative. “China-India economic relations are expanding rapidly, so Pakistan now must keep good relations with both China and India to ensure that its security interests are protected.”
China, reputed for turning a blind eye where its allies are concerned, has used unusual force with Pakistan in recent months, following a series of abductions of Chinese nationals. Chinese are calling on Pakistan to do more to rein in militants and ensure the security of Chinese nationals in Pakistan.
War On Terror : Naawaz Clear Stance
PML(N) Leader Mian Nawaz Sharif has recently been highlighted by the American Press for his popularity in the Country.Aitezaz Ahsan has urged that America should join hands with him. He said. “If you befriend him, you can get him to move mountains.”
Nawaz Sharif denied in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday that he has had links with religious hardliners. Although members of the PML-N sometimes characterize the war on terror as America’s war and not Pakistan’s, Nawaz distanced himself from this view. We hope at least now when major political issues were resolved with the new Reconciliation strategy, two largest parties of the country will be focused against the most important threat we are facing as a nation.Nawaz Sharif clear stance at this time has the realization of the current situations as extremist elements have intensified their attacks towards Punjab. Along with it various reports are drawing attentions
Towards the alarming influence of the sectarian elements in Southern Punjab. These elements are close allies of the Jihadi elements. The political leadership will come to a consensus towards that issue; the recent Interview has clear indication towards that.
(Ali Arqam)
INTERVIEW-Pakistan’s Sharif gives Obama plan cautious Welcome
LAHORE, Pakistan, March 31 (Reuters) – Pakistan’s influential opposition leader Nawaz Sharif said on Tuesday the new U.S. administration was much better than the previous one, but needed to understand his country’s concerns as it battles extremism.
As the most popular politician in Pakistan, and someone ultimately likely to get a third chance to run the country after two stormy spells as prime minister in the 1990s, Sharif is being actively courted by the United States.
He said reaction to President Barack Obama’s new plan for Pakistan and Afghanistan, announced last week, had been “mixed” in his country.
“As we are very willing to address the concerns of all our allies and friends, I think they should also understand our problems and handicaps,” he told Reuters in his sprawling, opulent and heavily guarded estate on the outskirts of Lahore.
“It has to be reciprocal.”
Obama last week announced a tripling of U.S. development aid to Pakistan to $1.5 billion a year, but said there would be no “blank cheque” — Pakistan had to prove it was sincere in its efforts to counter an alarming rise in Islamist militancy. [ID: nN26525038]
At the same time, U.S. generals have publicly accused Pakistan’s military Inter-Services Intelligence agency, the ISI, of maintaining links to al Qaeda and Taliban militants battling U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
Sharif rejected those charges, saying there was not “any room for any suspicion of the ISI”.
“ANTI-AMERICAN FEELING”
He also called for an end to American drone attacks on Pakistan’s rugged and conservative tribal regions, which have led to civilian casualties and inflamed anti-American sentiment.
Those attacks have continued this year as U.S. forces target senior al Qaeda leaders believed to be sheltering there.
Obama said the United States would continue to go after al Qaeda in Pakistan, but would not send troops across the Afghan border into Pakistani territory, as happened in the past.
“Some of the policies followed by President Bush have given rise to a lot of anti-American feeling in Pakistan,” Sharif said.
“For example the drone attacks are affecting our relationship. The people of Pakistan have criticized them very severely. It damages the sovereignty of our country. On this issue the United States of America must move carefully.”
Sharif considered imposing sharia law, and has often been accused of having links to religious conservative hardliners.
He dismissed the accusation as propaganda unleashed by the man who deposed him in a coup, General Pervez Musharraf.
Nevertheless, members of his Pakistan Muslim League sometimes characterize the war on militants as being America’s war, not Pakistan’s. Sharif distanced himself from this view.
“The concerns of the West are genuine and they need to be addressed in all seriousness. The problems Pakistan faces are very tough and very serious, and in fact are endangering our state in a very serious way.
“I personally think that no party single-handedly, whether in the government, or outside the government, would be able to deal with these problems. We all will have to fight these problems together.”
Sadly, the chances for political unity in Pakistan appear slim, with Sharif locked in a bitter battle with President Asif Ali Zardari for months.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court suspended a ruling barring Sharif and his brother from holding elected office.
Speaking shortly before that decision, Sharif said Zardari still needed to surrender sweeping presidential powers and restore them to the prime minister, as he had promised to do, warning the country would be “very unlucky” if he did not.
