Brigadier  (r) Samson Simon Sharaf

When Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto entrusted Major General Naseer Ullah Babar to create a student dominated resistance in Afghanistan, he ignored a very important lesson of power politics. Hans Joachim Morgenthau in his book, Politics Amongst Nations had observed, ‘The statesman must think in terms of the national interest, conceived as power among other powers’. Was this ignorance or deliberate? Determined to create a new Pakistan, Bhutto was riding a wave of diplomatic successes. It seems he decided to taste the forbidden fruit. Negotiations with India had been successful. OIC Summit at Lahore ended Pakistan’s international isolation. The Arab Oil Embargo upset the Western cash flows. Foundations of Nuclear Program were laid and Pakistan was ready to pay any price (also eat grass) for its independence and development. Next, in his calculus of an overbearing India, it was important to eliminate the spectre of a two front war by resolving the Durand issue. He decided to exploit the fault lines of Parcham and Khalq and force Sardar Daud to a negotiated settlement. The narrative though India specific, insipidly looked beyond; to a Muslim Power Bloc. It challenged the Bi Polar International equilibrium. Afghan youngsters like Ahmad Shah Masood, Hikmatyar, Khalis and Rabbani played their role and Daud did come to the negotiating table. He even initialled the Pakistan-Afghan Joint communiqué for formalisation of Durand Line. Both Bhutto and Daud were waiting for an opportune moment; but then the gods, unhappy with Pakistan’s strategic forays struck. Bhutto paid dearly for challenging the dictum of Morgenthau in more than one way. He was removed in a military coup led by his hand picked and most humble general. In subsequent years, Zia despite overtures by Daud, showed no inclination to settle the boundary issue. Daud was killed in a coup. During the law and order situation created in Afghanistan by the Parchamis, Khaqis and Pakistan sponsored student leaders, Soviet Union finally moved in. For a despot, it was an opportunity for international legitimacy. To satisfy his domestic audience, he could now exploit both the Afghan occupation and Iran’s revolution to create a religious fervour underlined by his Ideology of Islam. He got international support from the West and domestic from the rightist. Having led the Afghan resistance under the shadow of Charlie Wilson, he too indulged in the cardinal sin. Zia expanded the nuclear program and began to look beyond Durand to a Pan Islamic Nationhood. For defying the Morgenthau Dictum he was blown up in mid air. What followed is mayhem in Afghanistan that inevitably spilled to Pakistan. A measure of it was visible in Pakistan around Shia places of worship. If there was a doubt about such home grown militant organisations, they were dispelled after 9/11 with repeated attacks on Christian places of worship and arrest of Al Qaeda linked militants. The genie had morphed into a monster and needed to be controlled. If we blame the USA for abandoning the Afghan Mujahidin what are we to say of these home-grown militants? As events prove, we are wrong on both counts. Michael Springmann an official of US consulate in Jeddah Saudi Arabia in 1987-88, reported that CIA had a program to bring people to the United States for terrorist training in connivance with the host country. The largest branch of al-Khifa was in Brooklyn’s Atlantic Avenue, New York. Other branches were in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and elsewhere. Similarly, Al-Khifa had a training camp in Connecticut. A number of important al Qaeda figures attended the University of Arizona in Tucson or lived in Tucson in the 1980s and early 1990s. One such recruit was Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, the alleged mastermind of 9/11 and uncle of Ramzi Yousaf. The FBI investigation into the later US embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam in 1998 was said to have found that the traces from the explosions came from an American military explosive, of the type of which the CIA had apparently given to the “Arab Afghans” just three years before. Militants of Pakistani descent rather than Arabs, were a new genre created for covert operations in Bosnia and other parts of Europe. A covert operation outside the eyes of Pakistan’s intelligence services was underway. It appears that after the Soviets withdrawal from Afghanistan during 1988-9, a dual policy emerged between the US State Department and the CIA. While the State Department focused to moderate Afghan factions and undermine the Soviet-installed Najibullah regime, CIA continued military support of Hekmatyar and other Islamists. Arabs fighters continued to flow into the region through the recruitment and training program. Pakistani ones were to be preferred for operations elsewhere. USA may have abandoned the mujahidin, but never the region. Non States actors soon became the floating threat of future wars and cross hairs steadily began to shift to Pakistan’s Nuclear Capability. Meanwhile Kashmir and India were the only threat narratives of Pakistan’s security establishment. Such are the vagaries of small nations challenging the equilibrium. Would events have been different if Bhutto was not overthrown? The subject is like an onion that has to be pealed layer by layer.

Pakistan, to remain Pakistan

has no option but to eat grass in alligator infested waters

Brigadier (r) Samson Simon Sharaf

The end of World War I was disastrous for the victors. The Treaty of Versailles hurt German national pride. Hitler came to power followed by World War II. The over heated US economy that had grown during the Great War had nowhere to flow. The crash of 30s was an opportunity for the German juggernaut.

When history repeated itself in World War II, the lesson for victors was clear. War and Economics had to be inter-related. Post World War II world had to be handled in a manner that created and sustained international equilibrium. One such step was the Breton Woods Conference setting the course for a New World Order based on international financial and development institutions with constraints on countries like Germany and Japan over the size and role of defence forces. The new order was to prevent growth of new centres of power.

The Cold War witnessed the efficacy of this order till it was disrupted by the Muslim Oil Embargo of 1973 threatening the Gold Dollar Equation. Billions of dollars poured into the coffers of Muslim oil producing countries. Within the next decade this loss was recovered by the West by creating a vulnerability psyche within the rich Muslim countries forcing them to spend heavily on defence equipment. By mid 80s, the entire wealth amassed through surging oil prices had been converted through military imperialism to a security dependency. The three main actors of this Muslim surge were eventually isolated with two murdered and the third thrown out of his country. Through a new system of multi lateral funding the losses of the West (oil embargo of the 70s) were converted to the debt of third world and military dependency of the rich Muslim countries. Pakistan despite amassing some debt remained the only country that continued to maintain an independent defence and nuclear policy but not for long.

During the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Pakistan willingly became a bridgehead for a Mock Jihad orchestrated to only serve the western interests. Despite influx of huge aid and funding, the economic managers took no cognizance of the effects of the Oil Embargo.

In the New World Order, Pakistan emerged as a security state arising from its vulnerability against an over arching India. There never was another enemy. No thought was ever given to the fact that in all conflicts against India, International opinion was always biased against Pakistan and to live under sanctions was an obvious outcome. The lesson was even ignored when nuclear sanctions were clamped on Pakistan for over a decade.

Pakistan’s economic managers continued to rely heavily in favour of international monetary institutions thereby ceding financial initiative. Strong military dictatorships looking for international legitimacy expediently became hostage to these institutions facilitating political manipulation. While the defence establishment continued to grow stronger, the core policy construct ignored critical issues like home grown militancy, importance of an unregistered entrepreneur, pluralism in society, ethnicity and dynamics emerging out of an abandoned Afghanistan with its backwash in Pakistan.

The net outcome was the emergence of a militant hardcore, weaponisation of society and drug money. In the past decade, the banking sector glutted with liquidity introduced consumerism and curtailed domestic production. Pakistan never ever braced itself for the rainy day.

After the Cold War, Pakistan was ripe and vulnerable to orchestrating an implosion along the main disconnects of a security state and vulnerable political economy. No thought was ever given to the fact that a time could come when Pakistan would be forced to sell its interests for a dime.

In the meanwhile the Western notion of a future war began to theorise around a floating, invisible threat of Islamic militants transcending international borders. Pakistan adapted no hedging policies against home grown militant outfits. At some stage many such organisations fraternised with international intelligence agencies beginning a treacherous game of betrayal. A point has now reached when the genie keeps knocking doors of the security apparatus all over Pakistan.

Pakistan’s contribution to the present situation is only secondary. Critics forget that it is in the crosshair not because it produces terrorism but rather suffering from the Afghan Burnout strategy. However, this explanation in no way absolves the State of not playing its role in national cohesion.

After the withdrawal of Soviet Union from Afghanistan, the rehabilitation of Mujahadeen was rejected by Charlie Wilson saying that dollars do not grow on trees. Afghanistan was left to burnout in a murderous spree of warlords and private armies supported by the regional neighbours and Middle Eastern Countries. Concerted efforts by Pakistan to contain the situation through reconciliation received lukewarm or no support from USA and UN. Herein also begins another trail of international betrayal by friends of Pakistan who acted as masters. The worst role was played by countries Pakistan depended for aid; to a point they began to assume control and still do in Pakistan’s internal politics.

In the interim, Osama Bin Laden was allowed to grow from a little known CIA logistics operative to a monster bred in Africa. He was then moved in Lockheed C-130s from Sudan to Afghanistan, a rallying ground for all strains of nomadic revolutionaries; unwanted by their own countries. If the western threat assessments were indeed realistic, then why was Osama in presence of USAF and OBL Monitoring stations not intercepted and force landed. Events that followed highlight that US Security, Intelligence and Academia were apparently pursuing divergent objectives that ultimately morphed into the definition of AF-PAK. At the heart of the issue are two objectives unacceptable to Pakistan; a preferential role for India in the region followed by control over Pakistan’s Nuclear Systems.

In Afghanistan, USA and its coalition are fighting a generation born to romantic revolutionaries of the Afghan War, joined by politically alienated Pashtuns and nomadic warriors from world over. US cooperation with the non Pashtun Northern Alliance and drone attacks in Pakistan have deliberately coalesced ethno-religious resistance which over a period of time has married up with other diverse militant organisations as also with foreign intelligence agencies.

The interplay of such conflicting dynamics within the politic fabric; is now Pakistan’s own war for survival. The war that began in 1975 through Bhutto’s espousing of Afghan student leaders has now entered its final phase and a ‘do or die’ situation. Its bloodiest chapters will be fought in South Waziristan and Punjab with USA keen to open a face-saving front in Balochistan. This is where the true test of Pakistan’s sovereignty will lie.

Pakistan’s only choice is to militarily defeat these radical groups bred in intolerance, savagery and a stand alone romantic notion of religion. Pakistani nation will have to fight this war on its own terms not only with the militants but also with supposed friends in the hybrid zone of ‘neither friend nor foe’.

Every deal with a weak hand is a bad deal. No more deals please.

Brigadier Samson Simon Sharaf is a retired officer of Pakistan Army and a political economist.
E mail: nicco1988@hotmail.com

AIR MARSHAL (Retd) AYAZ AHMED KHAN

After the rout of Swat Taliban, and the death of Baiullah Mehsud, the Taliban sponsored terrorism in Pakistan has lost its sting. But the terrorists remain entrenched in Waziristan, and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has threatened to continue suicide bombings, killings and arson. On August 27 the bombing of a security post near the Afghan border and death of 20 FC soldiers; on August 30 the death of twenty police cadets in the suicide bombing of the Mingora Police Training Center; provides evidence of terrorists motives and capability. The heartless gunning down of school children in the Khyber Agency, and torching of petrol tankers, proves that terrorism is around, and needs sustained government and public effort and determined military action to weed out the killers. The terrorists will conjtinue to mount attacks from their safe heavens in Waziristan, which need to be identified and neutralized.
With the on going Army, FC and Vigilante (Lashkars) operations, the defeated Swat terrorists are unlikely to surface to challenge the writ of the state, but could launch guerrilla attacks and bombings. They are on the run, and are being hunted down by the security forces, and the pro-government lashkars. This policy in Swat should continue till terrorists are eliminated. But the terrorists in North and South Wazirstan, Orakzai, Khyber and in some areas of Bajaur Agency numbering around twentyfive thousand are regrouping around the new TTP leadership led by Hakimullah Mehsud. Tentacles of Tehrik-e-Taliban have spread. The Bombay terrorism, attack on the Sri Lanka cricket team and spate of Taliban attacks in Lahore, proves that TTP tentacles have spread into south Punjab. TTP and Tamil terrorists could have joined hands in the attacks on the Sri Lankan cricket team. The changed dimension of the threat, is the countrywide dispersal of Taliban, especially in the Pukhtunkwa and Punjab cities, and cooperation with the al-Qaeda and Taliban in Afghanistan. The increasing cooperation with frustrated Punjabi youth in Southern Punjab, should be a matter of concern. TTP’s possible cooperation with Tamil Tigers must be investgated into.
After the August 05 death of Baitullah Mehsud, and with the fire fights between some factions, and assasinations of some key TTP commanders, it appeared that TTP will implode. But with the appointment of Hakimullah Mehsud as Amir by the Tehrik-Taliban Shoora, with the blessing of Taliban Amir-Al-Mominin Mulla Omar on August 26, the TTP power-struggle is over for the moment. With Mullah Omar’s blessing Hakimullah is in the saddle. With plans for greater cooperation with the Afghanistan Taliban, his actions must be carefully watched. Alive he is as dangerous as Baitullah Mehsud. The 29 year-old new TTP Amir heads gangs of wantonly brutal bands of cut throat murderers, totaling over twenty five thousand.They are well armed, and experienced in suicide bombings, guerrilla attacks, ambushes, kidnapping for ransom, extortion, and murders. What is their common bond? It is not Islam, it is crime, making illegal money from warlords and contractors by blackmail and extortion. It is monetary reward from Afghan Taliban, drug mafia’s and enemy agents to create myhem and anarchy. The way they have been bombing mosques during Friday prayers, and launcing suicide bombers to massacre hundreds of fellow Pushtuns, and Pakistani citizens proves that they are paid brainwashed barbarians, who must be eliminated to save the Pakistani nation. They are violent, intolerant and trigger happy.
After the success in Swat and Malakand, the military inaction in North and South Waziristan, has given them time to regroup, re-equip and evolve a new strategy, to hit with greater ferocity. There is wisdom in Pakistani military plan to soften the insurgents by air action, plug their supply lines, create local Lashkar’s to erode Taliban unity and capability, try to to dissuade teenagers from Taliban machinations at brainwashing and useing young Pushtun’s as gun-fodder for suicide bombings. It is hoped that the plan for military operations in rugged Waiziristan has taken into account that the hardy Taliban fighters will have the advantage that the mountanious terrain offers. Besides blockading their supply lines, it is important to identify their funds and gun suppliers, and to eliminate them.

Hakimullah Mehsud will follow his dead mentor’s policies of death, destruction, arson, extortion and kidnapping. It is too early to asses his capability, acumen and desire to expand the TTP movement by bringing other militant groups into its fold? With the Pakistani government determined to wipe out militancy and terrorism, and the armed forces prepared and motivated to annihilate insurgent terrorists, Hakimullah Mehsud and his cohorts must not be given time to recuperate, reorganize and rearm. The brutal bands of criminals hiding in caves in Waziristan,and other FATA Agencies must be brought to justice as soon as possible.

Some media men and “human right pundits”, and television journalists who had traveled to Hakimullah’s -controlled part of the Orakzai tribal agency in November last year, appear to have a soft corner for the new TTP leader. He is being introduced as the ‘young turk’ whose ” views on religion and politics and his ambition to take the terrorist movement beyond FATA to mainland Pakistan, is plausible. One journalist described,” that his cold looks and wry smile left little doubt that he may not think twice before killing anyone.” He has chopped more heads of Pakistani security personnel than any other terrorist including Maulvi Fazalullah.”Yet he was intelligent enough to grasp the significance and power of the media and tried to make the maximum of the presence of Pakistani television teams to express his views on issues ranging from the situation in Afghanistan, to TTP’s links with Mullah Omar and his Taliban movement, to Pakistan’s political scene, particularly his views about the Awami National Party. It was not difficult to see how much he hated the ANP.” He is an enemy of Pakistani people, must be treated as such by the media. Having slit throats of defenseless young soldiers and civilians, Hakimullah wants to present himself as a modern man. He knows a lot about weapons, munitions, explosives, guns and machines. So, while at one point he sought the camera men’s indulgence while showing off by speeding around in a Humvee that his men had captured during a raid on a convoy of American vehicles in the Khyber Agency, an hour later he invited the journalists to participate in a gun-shooting competition. The journalists were impressed. Orakzai Agency like North and South Waziristan are safe heavens for the Taliban, and the more time Hakimullah Mehsud gets to reinforce, harder it will be to dislodge the Taliban from the difficult terrain of North and South Waziristan.
Pakistani and foreign media are ‘image-building ’ Hakimullah Mehsud as a future leader of the Tehrik Taliban Pakistan. Hakimullah Mehsud has started spreading his wings. Baitullah Mehsud had given him charge of three tribal agencies. He had gained a foothold in Orakzai Agency, was involved in supporting the local Taliban in Kurram to kill the Shia citizens, and was making his presence felt in Khyber. The military action against insurgents in Bara-Khyber Agency, must be followed by intelligence assessments of Taliban capabilities, i.e.strength and deployment in the above four agencies and intentions. He is more ambitious than his predecessor who mostly remained confined to South Waziristan, Hakimullah explained to the Pakistani correspondents his expansionist designs. “If the Pakistan government continues with its policy of following American diktat, (some day) we can even try to capture Peshawar, Hangu and even Islamabad, we have the strength to do it”, he said. This threat must be taken seriously. Hakimullah is loyal to Mullah Omar and openly praised the Al-Qaeda, which seemingly funds the TTP. “We are Al Qaeda’s friends as both us the Taliban and the Arab fighters have shown our allegiance to Amir-ul-Momineen Mullah Omar of Afghanistan, but there is no Al Qaeda in South Waziristan.”
Hakimullah’s nomination as the new TTP chief would be worrisome for Pakistani authorities, but more so for the NWFP government. Hakimullah is not a traditional mullah, as he does not have a proper degree from a religious school. However, he knows how to exploit Pakhtuns’ religious as well as nationalist sentiments. “We do not give two hoots to Awami National Party’s tirade against Taliban,” Hakimullah had said in the interview. “We can have an agreement with all the political parties but not with ANP,” he said. While ridiculing the ANP in his typical style, Hakimullah was unable to hide his desire to expand the scope of his activities by claiming that once the ANP used to say that like them the Taliban too were Pakhtuns, but the way the situation was developing the ANP might soon take back its claim to be representatives of the Pakhtuns” says Hakimullah. Hakimullah Mehsud now heads the powerful Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan. He is ambitions, and will try to weld the fourteen groups of the Taliban under the flag of a more united Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. The more time he gets may mean more trouble for the Pakistani authorities, and certainly for the ANP-led government in the NWFP.

Editor’s Note: These hoards may call themselves Taliban but are in fact War Lords, Smugglers and Crimminals. My information is that the Afghan taliban have distanced themselves from these terrorists. As for Hakim Ullah, he is a born militant and will be very difficult to tame.

AIR MARSHAL (Retd) AYAZ AHMED KHAN

Attacks, atrocities and discriminations of Christians have been on the increase since 1980. There have been hundreds of attacks against the Christian community; including attacks on Churches and Mission Schools. Some are reported and some do not get to the press. In most cases the police avoid. On December 19, 2006, a drunken mob high on drugs attacked a Christian congregation at the Church of Nazerene in Lahore. This attack and earlier and later attacks revealed prejudice and intolerance of the majority and the woefully inadequate security of Churches during religious congregations. Since July 2009, three major anti-Christian atrocities occurred. • On July 04, 2009 a mob attacked one hundred Christian houses in Bhamani village near Lahore with petrol bombs. The mob assaulted women, throwing acid on some. A young girl who escaped naked from an inferno became the target of acid attack. She tried to commit suicide. Police visited the village but did not register any FIR (report) against the criminals identified by the villagers. • During the first week of August 2009, in two gruesome assaults on Christian villages, large numbers of Christian men, women and children were killed, and their houses and shops were set on fire and destroyed. A village near Gojra was attacked by a frenzied mob, seven Christians were killed, several injured, one hundred houses and shops were torched. • In a similar mob attack on a Christian village near Kasur, several people were hacked to death, and dozens were beaten mercilessly. Christian properties were torched. Christian leaders in UK requested the authorities to investigate, and repeal the draconian blasphemy laws, which are the pretext for most of the mob carnage against the Christian community. Instituted into law by President Zia-ul-Haq, the Blasphemy Ordnance has been grossly misused to settle scores with the peaceful Christian minority, which constitutes only two percent of the population. There is an urgent need to protect Christian men, women and children form violence and atrocities, and propaganda and prejudice being fuelled by fanatic clerics, and anti-Christian groups. There is an urgent need to control and educate the brain washed bigots, who take the law into their own hands, and make us feel that we are living in a lawless jungle. On Tuesday 04 August 2009 the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, made the following statement regarding the violence against Christians in Pakistan: “The recent atrocities against Christians in Pakistan will sear the imaginations of countless people of all faiths throughout the world. As the minister of law in the Punjab has already said, such actions are not the work of true Muslims: they are an abuse of real faith and an injury to its reputation as well as an outrage against common humanity, and deserve forthright condemnation. Christians in Pakistan are a small and vulnerable minority, generally with little political or economic power. They are disproportionately affected by the draconian laws against blasphemy, which in recent years have frequently been abused in order to settle local and personal grievances. They need to be assured of their dignity and liberty as citizens of a just and peaceful society. Their good, their security, is part of the good of the whole Pakistani nation. Those of us who love Pakistan and its people,, whatever their faith, feel that the whole country is injured and diminished by the violence that has occurred. I appeal to the Government of Pakistan to spare no efforts, not only in seeing that justice is done in the wake of these terrible events, but also in continuing to build a society in which all faiths are honoured and in which the most vulnerable can be assured of the protection of the law and the respect of their fellow-citizens.” This statement is an appeal to the conscience of Pakistani men and women, to do whatever they can to protect our Christian brothers and sisters. The Pakistani media is requested to play its role in assuring he safety and security of the peaceful Christian community, whose loyalty in peace and war has been above board. Millions of Pakistani’s feel deeply grieved at the recurring violence and atrocities against our Christian brothers and sisters, who are a deprived minority, and are living in fear in their own country. They constitute a small peaceful minority, only two percent of the population, and have tried to serve Pakistan as best as they can. Violence and atrocities against the small Christian community on the pretext of blasphemy by mobs led by fanatics has occurred too often, and has to be stopped. Pakistan witnessed a gruesome bloodbath of Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs on its birth, i.e. during the partition of the sub-continent. A major lesson to be learnt from the Hindu-Muslim-Sikh slaughter was religious tolerance, mercy and forgiveness. Unfortunately many amongst us remain prejudiced and intolerant towards other faiths and beliefs and take law into our hands, without due investigation. We refuse to listen to others point of view, and our eyes become blood shot by rumours. The Pakistani Christian’s contributions to the educational and social progress of the Pakistani nation are un-matched. Christian Missionary schools and colleges have imparted quality education, which has immensely benefited the country. Millions of Pakistani boys and girls are proud students of Pakistan’s finest schools and colleges, run by dedicated Fathers and Mothers i.e. missionary teachers across the country, in villages, towns and big cities. Hadow Memorial High School in Srinagar Kashmir, later named Tyndal Biscoe College taught its students to show mercy and goodness to fellowmen, as well as to animals and birds. As a little boy I brought an injured crow, a baby sparrow and an injured pup to the school, and was rewarded with a hug by the teacher, which I have never forgotten. Such examples should be emulated by all schools and Madaris to create compassion, mercy and love for the weak. In hundreds of Christian hospitals across Pakistan, including Eye Hospitals in far flung towns, millions of Pakistani, men, women and children have been treated for free since over sixty years. Instead of being obliged and grateful to the Christians of Pakistan, the criminal minded fanatics among us have been attacking Christian villages, killing and injuring innocent Christian men, women and children, and bombing and burning their houses, schools and places of worship. We should be ashamed of ourselves for not stopping the frequent carnage against the unarmed and peaceful Christians of Pakistan. It is the collective responsibility of the Pakistani people and government not only to protect the Pakistani Christians, who are a national asset, but to provide them with guaranteed safety and security to live and prosper in Pakistan, that they have chosen as their home.

Aisha F Sarwari August 7, 2009

Prof. Ayaz Ahmad Khan recounts the horrors of his son’s death
Capt. Jonaid Khan: Special Services Group in the Pakistan army was born in Quetta in 1983, with his primary education in Ankara, where his father Prof. Ayaz Ahmad Khan was stationed on deputation in the Pakistan Mission, Ankara. He was abducted by Taliban on April 19, 2009 and said to be martyred onMay 10th 2009.

I met Prof. Ayaz Ahmad Khan at Saint Mary’s College in Rawalpindi. He was sitting in a modest office, inquiring about costs he had to approve for the college which is run for those students who fall through the cracks. This was 100km from where his son, Capt. Jonaid Khan, died 2 months ago, in Swat.

His kind green eyes seemed like he was accustomed to the often misplaced bravado and valorous praise that visitors greet him with since his son was killed in combat fighting with Taliban. Misplaced, because, Capt. Jonaid died in extraordinary circumstances that require not the commemorative tone of a shaheed cleared for the pearly gates of heaven, but with simple silence, shock and disgust at the barbarity that he faced in his last hours. It is incredibly impossible to maintain confidence when you are meeting a man who lost his son at the hands of the Taliban, whose son was, according to the Pakistan Army, was beheaded.

I could have said something: “I came to pay my condolences. I am sorry for your terrible loss.” But I couldn’t and instead we began chatting about Turkey, where he was posted for years. He talked about how Pakistanis were considered blood relatives of the Turks, and how the major difference between Turkey and Pakistan was that Turkey was never colonized and how people in Ankara with whom he worked with tried to convince him to stay in Turkey. There was a deep sadness in his anecdotes, like there is a dam of emotions held back with concrete and fierce pride. Prof. Ayaz was a proud Pakistani Pashtoon, a Yousef-Zai Pashtoon and it was not hard to imagine the dignity with which he was fighting this battle between pain and sanity.

Eventually he said, “I should have stayed back, maybe then, I could have saved my son.” He smiled sadly as he said that.

Only in times of great trauma does one realize that life is short, and the meaning comes from the relationships we hold, between parent and child, and most importantly between nations and citizens.

Although we can interpret the brutal beheading of an SSG Commando and a number of others by Taliban, as an act of war, and within the rules of war, it was a vengeful strike back by the enemy on an army that once fed it and nurtured it with American aid. A more introspective analysis may perhaps reveal that the nation has failed to protect its most loyal citizen — a commando.

The failure is not abstract – Any country’s armed forced are designed to send their best and bravest in harm’s way – but failure in the sense that on one hand the country is protecting its dynastic political kings at the top in the name of democracy, and on the other hand barbaric thugs equipped with medieval ruthlessness from Arab and Central Asian war techniques hound Pakistan’s northern borders like they own those lands. Under a new cyber law, it is criminal to send any derogatory messages against President, Asif Ali Zardari electronically, leading up to 16 years in prison. The survailance needed to put this law into action is astounding, proving that it is far more imortant for the current adminstration to protect a public figure’s already tainted reputation than it is to locate an abducted Army officer fighting for his country.

If a nation is only as strong as its army and any constitution’s basis is undoubtedly on a strong and equipped army then the question arises: Is the government effectively focusing on winning this war in Swat with minimal loss of men?

On April 19, 2009, Capt. Jonaid along with 3 others was on a surveillance mission in Swat, when the Taliban, led by Maulana Fazlullah, abducted them in the cagey mountains, to use as bargaining chip against key Taliban Mujahidin that the Pakistan Army had taken as prisoners.

What is strange is that Prof. Ayaz continued to receive phone calls from his son after his abduction.

“I was concerned about Jonaid when I didn’t hear from him, and contacted his officers who assured me he was safe and in a location in the Swat Mountains that didn’t have communication signals, but when I heard from Jonaid a few days later, I had no reason to be alarmed.”

Partly to protect his mission and partly to be positive with his family, Capt. Jonaid spent hours talking to his mother about his upcoming wedding and the arrangements needed. These calls continued for a few more days until they stopped. Soon after the Pakistan Army contacted Prof. Ayaz and told him that they suspect Capt. Jonaid was abducted by the Taliban, and that they are hopeful that they’ll learn his whereabouts soon.

Upset at being left in the dark for so long after the army knew, Prof. Ayaz probed on his own as well as provided helpful details to the Pakistan Army. When he called back from the various numbers Capt. Jonaid used, and few days later after the abduction, a Taliban called and asked to talk with Jonaid’s father about his son who has been with them.

“What he said after that was so insulting that I broke down. It was terrible; he insulted me, and the Pakistan Army. He cursed at me for sending my son to fight Muslims and finally demanded an explanation from me about why my son doesn’t know how to speak good Pushto…I told him, son, I don’t know, I never really saw the need, we knew the languages we required to communicate,” narrated Prof. Ayaz in a calm, descriptive voice.

The Taliban asked: “What kind of father are you? You don’t even know what your son is doing here?”

“I could answer that, but you won’t like my answer, and you have my son at your mercy, how can you expect me to honestly respond?” Prof. Ayaz said.

At the Taliban’s insistence, Prof. Ayaz asked him a question in response to his: “Do your parents know what you’re doing right now, son, do they know you are kidnapping and beheading and killing fellow Muslims?”

Not hardened to the extent that Prof. Ayaz expected, the Taliban Mujahidin was speechless for a few seconds and then engaged in softened conversation, referring to him as “Uncle,” and at the end asked what can he do for him. Prof. Ayaz asked to release the persons they have abducted. The Taliban said he can’t do that. However, he did promise to protect Capt. Jonaid as long as he lived.

Prof. Ayaz may be a victim of the psychology of all parents who lose their sons without identifying them after death. He may be reacting to the grief by denying that Jonaid is dead, because he has not seen the coffin of his son and is still in a state of illusion.

I thought of this as I observed Prof. Ayaz tell me this tragic series of events. He looked out the window and drew a breath of conviction and said, “I am still looking.”

I thanked him for his time, and his story. What else could I say?

If Capt. Jonaid and his team were bait for Maulana Fazlullah, the Taliban faction leader, linked with Al Qaida is still alive and well, according to the national press. Maulana Fazlullah has enjoyed many other privileges too: He is more commonly known as the FM Mullah, for his ability to run and preach anarchy against Pakistan over the country’s own air waves without any restrictions from the government. This went on indefinitely, as long as he recruited enough men to stage this insurgency in Swat. He is also the son-in-law of Sufi Muhammad, the group’s leader. The government officially had a pact with Sufi Muhammad early in the year so he could officially establish an Islamic state in Swat, in return for clumsy peace.

On July 27, 2009, the Urdu Jang reported said that Sufi Muhammad was taken into custody at Sethi Town, Peshawar on Sunday July 26 instant and will be prosecuted for the abduction of 3 (not 4) Pakistan Army officers. NWFP Information Minister Main Iftikhar Hussain confirmed the TNSM chief’s arrest and has said the group, Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) and its past conduct will be “investigated.” Sufi Muhammad’s arrest is not as relevant and the militant’s high command is still said to be intact.

Despite the much lauded operation in Swat where the Pakistan Army achieved with creativity and nerve what even other armies better equipped could not, there should still be an accountability of how far we are from ending this war which was started in the name of a US-Backed Central Asian oil pipeline. Are we headed towards a war strategy that is sustainable, or one that has unmanageable reactionary elements as its side effects, punishing the very people who are its most idealistic fighters and who believe in Pakistan?

The games go on, and yet many fathers won’t stop waiting for their sons to return home this Eid. Prof. Ayaz reminded me of Rudyard Kipling’s, poem, My Boy Jack, after his own son went missing in the Battle of Loos, during World War I.

My Boy Jack (1915)
by Rudyard Kipling

“Have you news of my boy Jack?”
Not this tide.
“When d’you think that he’ll come back?”
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

“Has any one else had word of him?”
Not this tide.
For what is sunk will hardly swim,
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

“Oh, dear, what comfort can I find?”
None this tide,
Nor any tide,
Except he did not shame his kind —
Not even with that wind blowing, and that tide.

Then hold your head up all the more,
This tide,
And every tide;
Because he was the son you bore,
And gave to that wind blowing and that tide!

Ahmed Quraishi.com

Shared via AddThis

The recent incidents in Gojra are a grim reminder of how existing half laws can be manipulated for personal and political ends. Besides loss of life, property or the reputation of the country, it also reflects an opportunist political system in which strange bedfellows can be espoused for political expediency and where rule of law can be applied selectively. Worse, it exposes false claims of the provincial and federal governments over constant surveillance of banned militant outfits in Punjab.

The entire trail from Jhang to Gojra, Mian Channu and Shantinagar is littered with similar incidents of religiously fanned hatred spearheaded by banned militant outfits. Time and again such incidents take place with impunity and remarkable alacrity. It is to question why the local administration is caught sleeping and why no preventive measures manifest themselves in pre emptive actions.

There is no doubt that the working relationship between the Federal Government and PMLN Government is dysfunctional. It took the Government of Punjab three days to move into a belated action despite warnings given by Mr. Shahbaz Bhatti, the Federal Minister of Minorities Affairs. The provincial government dismissed the factual reporting of the federal minister for over two days and moved reluctantly after all the damage had been done and Faisalabad-Karachi Railway traffic blocked for two days. The Chief Minister has repeatedly postponed his visit to the city citing security reasons. Meanwhile the frustrations continue to grow resulting in resignations of one federal and one provincial minister.

Reportedly, around 18th of July, intelligence agencies had issued a warning to the Government of Punjab of likely incidents of terrorism in which some enclaves of minority Pakistanis could be targeted. Rather than take this information seriously, the provincial government deemed it fit to act as it did, allowing free access to militant outfits for arson and murder. Perhaps they were too engrossed in the aftermath of the Supreme Court ruling sparing no moments for the welfare of its citizens.

The entire incident belying the fragility of our system began at a wedding party in Korrian, a Christian village 6 Kms from Gojra on 29 July. A local guest was escorted out of the celebrations for being drunk. He took revenge by leveraging the Blasphemy slogan in cahoots with some local clerics and sleepers of the banned outfits. The Federal Minister Mr. Bhatti moved into action but all his cautions fell on deaf and defiant ears in Lahore.

The Christian enclave in Gojra is located close to Awan Town named after a local property tycoon Mr. Qadeer Awan. Qadeer also runs and controls many local businesses like CNG and Petrol Pumps. He is reputed to be a very influential PMLN member and financier of the party and sleeper militants. He is known to hold the neighbouring Christian enclave in contempt with a long record of confrontation. He saw the incident at Korrian as an opportunity to settle issues and extract advantage. He is the prime suspect in the FIR, registered after 48 hours of delay. Christians allege that he with his team of sons and relatives master minded the entire operation including movement of militants from Jhang and surrounding areas.

These militants moved on public transport with automatic weapons, explosives and incendiaries with complete impunity despite many Police Check Posts en route. Rather than risk confronting heavily armed militants, the baton wielding local police chose to by stand. A nearby sizable Christian Village Chak 424 was put on hold through an expected militant attack. This was done through messages by militants, clerics and local administration. The village was never attacked but the warnings served to block reinforcements to the besieged people of Gojra. The militants were seen taking orders on cell phones as also pass on information. If all calls on cell phones from the area were to be checked during the arson, it would reveal a long trail of connections leading to militant leaders, politicians and handlers residing outside Pakistan.

But there is a positive side too. Neighbouring Muslim communities gave shelter to men, women and children, escorted them out of the area on their own transport and provided food. Some Pakistani NGOs have also established camps and MQM relief has arrived in trucks from as far away as Sindh. Pathetically, the only missing group is the Government of Punjab.

Standing next to seven caskets on the railway crossing at Gojra, I was questioning myself why seven females were burnt alive with incendiaries and why innocent people shot in the head at point blank. As I write this, two more men have succumbed to burn injuries in the local hospital. The Punjab Government made no efforts to evacuate them to a Burn Hospital in Lahore. I ask myself, did they deserve this treatment. Do Pakistani Christians who put the opportunist Unionist of Punjab to shame by aligning with Jinnah deserve this?

Local Christians allege that PMLN Government is reluctant to act because it fears losing its vote bank in the area. The incident has become a political battle ground between PMLN and PPP in which justice, rule of law and criminal accountability would ultimately be eclipsed. I remain in awe of the political system to move beyond its petty politics.

In an environment where the legal community is charged and Supreme Court taking landmark decisions, it is incumbent to take a look at half laws that provide a pretext for mob justice. The Supreme Court needs to re evaluate Section 295 C of the Pakistan Penal Code and direct the Parliament to frame it in a manner, wherein it cannot be exploited or manipulated.

As an observer watching the events of 27 December 2007 very closely and seen the original photographs within hours of her death, I subscribe to the hypothesis that Benazir Bhutto was not a victim of any rag tag militants, but rather an international, well rehearsed plot with active cooperation from within Pakistan. Not only was she eliminated in a fail safe operation, the crime scene was also washed immediately with emergency doctors becoming mum after their first exciting disclosures. Thereafter the story kept taking twists.
No one other than the Secretariat of PPP on Embassy Road Islamabad had the original and most incriminating video which they later handed over to Channel Four and some stills to DAWN TV. The video was taken by a Jiyala sitting in a Pajero Jeep immediately behind Benazir’s Land Cruiser. These pictures were up on the net within hours of her assassination and much before the handle theory and washing of the crime scene took place.
A friend HP (Peter Hoss) made these comments.
TPM today reported that “CIA Assassin Program Could Operate Anywhere — Even inside U.S. This is a follow up on a story TPM ran earlier and WSJ reported too.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124736381913627661.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-yn/content/article/2009/07/15/AR2009071503856.html
“We may have gotten a good piece of the answer here: The Washington Post reports today on how the program had been revived and then put on hold several times since 2001. But it also says, referring to the “presidential finding” with which President Bush authorized the program in 2001:
“The finding imposed no geographical limitations on the agency’s actions, and intelligence officials have said that they were not obliged to notify Congress of each operation envisaged under the directive.”
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/07/report_cia_assassin_program_could_operate_anywhere.php?ref=fpb
Seymour Hirsh couple of month ago already commented that assassination squads were put in place by CIA under Cheney’s orders. Now the issue is the interpretation of “No geographical limitations” presumably means that operations could potentially be carried out in countries, friendly or unfriendly, that are far from any war zone — including even the US itself. And it seems likely that they would be carried out without notifying the foreign country in question.”
There plenty of comments on this report but two of them really stand out I quote of them here:
From TPM comments by readers.
Posted BY: FPN
“On July 22, 2002, Prince Ahmed died unexpectedly of a heart attack at the age of 43, and on July 23, 2002, Prince Sultan bin Faisal bin Turki al-Saud was killed in a car accident at the age of 41. A week later, Prince Fahd bin Turki bin Saud al-Kabir was found dead, having “died of thirst” at the age of 25. Prince Turki was fired from his position as head of Saudi Intelligence on September 1, 2001, and became the Saudi ambassador to Great Britain in 2002.
On February 20, 2003, Pakistani air force chief Mir, his wife, and fifteen others were killed in a plane crash.
None of this appeared in the 9/11 Commission Report, though it might have been planned for that document. This is because the Bush administration censored 28 pages of material about Saudi connections to 9/11 from the report on the grounds of national security.”
http://lippard.blogspot.com/2008/06/real-911-conspiracy.html
http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2003/10/18/saudis/index.html
I would recommend readers to visit the two links especially the article at Salon to get a drift of what was taking place.
One more reader commented:
“I would like to know more about the unexplained disappearances or violent deaths of 40 high level micro-biologists in the 4 years after 9/11.
This has been quashed under the suffocating label of “Conspiracy Ttheory,” even though so many of the microbiologists were found in the trunks of cars, fell off bridges, or died in car wrecks because the brake fluid had been drained.
Apparently they were all either working for the government, government contractors, or involved with projects related to bio-terrorism or anthrax. We know the anthrax came from US government labs. Who would benefit from their silence?
How much of this is verifiable? “
Posted by Edna Gardener
Now some of it may qualify as mere conspiracies theories but the way the US is trying to hide evidence makes things do look really suspicious.
Yet another reader commented:
Bush was strangely eager to have the UN investigate the presumed perpetrators of the Hariri assassination, while he showed his usual lack of interest in the UN investigating Bhutto’s assassination.
It did seem odd.
Posted by diachronic in reply to a comment from Lafontaine
Though I agree with some of the posters at TPM but my suspicion is that there is something more behind this and the news being leaked through the US establishment friendly outlets such as Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and even TPM café(it is a democratic party sponsored site) Sounds somewhat strange.
I also believe that eventually this whole thing would be covered up after a few trial balloons like we see above. But enough is out there to say that there are many things that go on behind the scenes and sometimes they have more impact on the events than what we see and read in Newspapers and analysis by Pundits.
Now Benazir’s murder is being investigated by the UN…What do a couple of diplomats know about investigations? Another cover up or scapegoat expedition perhaps…
PS. all the links above need to be read carefully to grasp what my contention is.
HP

Readers must also link this post by HP with Ijaz Gul’s Gallery at following link. These pictures appeared within hours of her assassination and perhaps the first ones on an open blog. Hospital witnesses who first attended to BB said that she had one entry wound exiting the right side of head (later Blunt Handle theory), one through the back of the neck through the front neck ( Later obliterated due to special cardiac surgical procedures) and one graze on forehead. Nahid Khan and Dr Safdar, a practicing doctor denies that she had as big a hole as is cited by the doctors. Sherry Rehman insisted, though now is silent that she herself saw entry and exit wounds. This is information within the first few minutes. Within an hour, all stories changes while Rehman Malik kept babbling that she was OK.
Readers must read the discussions on the gallery and unplugged on chowk from 27 Dec 2007-31 Dec 2007.
http://www.chowk.com/gallery/681/32558

A storm is brewing up and let us see whether it is just a balloon or more.

General (r) Pervaiz Musharraf had been the GOC in Okara and a role model in all respects. Training, administration, welfare or extra curricular, he was seen everywhere. In the evenings, he with his wife were a common sight, sitting at the bedside of patients and inquiring their welfare as also keep the hospital staff on toes. I remember my course mate Lt. Col Zia getting a cardiac arrest. The couple sat through the night outside the CCU and wept profoundly when his death was announced in the morning. His presence brought a big developmental and social change in the deserted garrison. He played sports with youngsters, took care of their professional development and was always considered a mentor. I remember him as a Corps Commander in Mangla, when he brought me his personal life jacket for surfing and looked after my family as a personal guest.He was a commander and leader who lived in hearts and minds.

I knew him close enough to be candid and tell him his wrongs on his face. He always accepted criticism positively and sometimes graciously conceded. The day he took over, he was obsessed with devolution. As a staff officer, I had to remind him through presentations that devolution and local self government were two different things. He never comprehended and kept vacillating between the two and thats when a rigidity in his mindset became apparent. Some of his immediate staff members like the DGMO did not persevere either. Had they been as apt as I was, things could have been different. Today,we see a renewal of this concept in devolution of Punjab.

I protested that Seven Points Agenda was Utopian and beyond reach. I wanted it to be reduced to Law and Justice at Grassroots, Education and Fast Track Socio Economic Development. I reminded him of Khalil Gibran who said that a day would come when even monkeys would disclaim kinship with us. As they gathered around him and we got isolated, he persisted that he could could power through all difficulties and achieve the impossible. Thats when the real Musharraf I saw as a GOC began to fade away.

I insisted through noting that we were a declared nuclear state and ought to manifest very responsible international behavior as also get Kargil off our backs. I was most vocal of the rising tide of militancy. Perhaps he still does not realize the damage it caused to Pakistan.

In a noting on 13 October 1999, I warned him to beware of Fly by Night Reformers as they would lead him off course. He entertained all of them with Shaukat Aziz in command. As he isolated himself from well wishing critics, a jingoist began to emerge.

I was weary of the CBR plans for Tax Reforms ( Value addition through Sales Tax). I told both the DGMO and CGS that Pakistan was economically doomed. Shaukat Aziz launched a strong protest for my removal. As of today, this reform has led to a berserk Sales Tax regime, more a levy than a value addition. It has closed small scale manufacturing sectors, discouraged growth and ushered consumerism.

I noted that the biggest test of his sincerity would be his honorable retirement on the due date. In the same note I also warned against the hazards of pro military political groupings. He underlined my comments and proceeded to make PMLQ.

There is a lot more but………………….

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?saved&&suggest&note_id=116974839046