US, Pakistan talks come at key time for Afghan war

ISLAMABAD: The US and Pakistan will try in high-level talks this week to smooth tensions over American military incursions across the border from Afghanistan and allegations that Islamabad is not doing enough to target Taliban militants.
Washington has signaled its patience is running thin with Pakistan's reluctance to fight insurgents, a stance that has not changed despite billions in American aid.
''We have been pressing Pakistan to take more aggressive action inside its borders to deal with a threat that is of concern to us, a concern to the region and a threat to Pakistan itself,'' US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Monday. ''But clearly, this is an ongoing threat and more needs to be done.''
The Obama administration has tried to enlist greater Pakistani cooperation by stressing it is not just interested in counterterrorism but is willing to provide long-term aid to strengthen the country's economy and improve the living standards of its largely poor population.
Washington also moved swiftly to help Pakistan in the aftermath of massive flooding this summer, donating nearly $400 million and providing 30 military helicopters for rescue and relief missions.
But analysts said much of that goodwill may have been undone when U.S. helicopters accidentally attacked a small Pakistani outpost near the Afghan border late last month, killing two soldiers. The incident led Pakistan to close a key Afghan border crossing to NATO supplies for about 10 days. The US eventually apologized, saying the pilots mistook the soldiers for insurgents.
''When the NATO choppers took out Pakistani soldiers, even pro-American Pakistanis felt a sense of outrage because we are supposed to be on the same team,'' said Mosharraf Zaidi, an independent political analyst and columnist in Islamabad.
The talks that start Wednesday in Washington will be led by US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.
They also will involve Pakistan's powerful army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who has developed a strong rapport with senior U.S. officials despite allegations that spies under his command have long aided the Taliban and other Islamist militant groups.
Underscoring those concerns, the Indian government claimed that Pakistan's intelligence agency was deeply involved in planning the 2008 attack that killed 166 people in Mumbai. David Headley, an American who pleaded guilty in US federal court to laying the groundwork for the assault, told Indian interrogators in June that Pakistani intelligence officers were deeply intertwined with Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group blamed in the attack, according to a government report obtained Monday by The Associated Press.
''These are allegations we've heard before,'' State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters in Washington. ''We believe the government of Pakistan has pledged its cooperation in bringing the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks to justice. And we fully expect that these pledges of cooperation are going to be carried out.''
Despite concerns about Pakistan's ties with militants, the U.S. approved a five-year $7.5 billion civilian aid package for the country in 2009 and launched a high-level ''strategic dialogue'' this year to focus on areas like education, energy and health. The talks this week will be the third in the series.
During the last round in Islamabad in July, Clinton announced more than $500 million in aid for a variety of projects, including renovating hospitals, improving water distribution and upgrading hydroelectric dams.
The US had to re-examine its plans after the meeting, however, after Pakistan was hit by the worst floods in the country's history, with one-fifth of its territory swamped and some 20 million people affected.
In Washington, Frank Ruggiero, the deputy special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said the two countries would discuss long-term military and security assistance to Pakistan to regularize the flow of such aid. A previous multi-year program expired at the end of the 2010 budget year on Sept. 30.
He also said the administration was pleased with Pakistan's counterterrorism efforts to date but wanted to see more, particularly in the lawless, mountainous area of North Waziristan.
''On the entities that are a clear common security threat to the United States and Pakistan, they have taken significant steps,'' Ruggiero said. ''We would call for them to do the same thing in North Waziristan on organizations like the Haqqani network, and we'll continue that discussion with them.''
He also said Pakistan's flood recovery would be ''a primary area for discussion.'' He declined to say whether the U.S. would announce a new package of security assistance during the talks.
Pakistani officials plan to raise concerns about what they consider the slow pace of American aid, as well as the lack of access to American markets for Pakistani goods and the recent increase in US drone.

US takes up Pakistan military wish-list

WASHINGTON: The United States said Tuesday it was in talks with Pakistan about new military assistance as part of a partnership against extremism, in a step sure to trigger unease in India.
The United States and Pakistan on Wednesday open their latest “strategic dialogue,” an initiative by President Barack Obama's administration to show Pakistan's skeptical public it is ready to take up its concerns.
Frank Ruggiero, the US deputy special representative on Pakistan and Afghanistan, said the Pentagon and the Pakistani military have been talking about a framework for security assistance.
“We specifically worked with the Pakistanis over the summer to identify what would be the types of military equipment and so on,” Ruggiero told reporters.
“That will be a topic of discussion at the strategic dialogue.” The US Congress last year approved a five-year, 7.5 billion-dollar package for Pakistan aimed at building schools, infrastructure and democratic institutions in hopes of denting the appeal of extremists.
Pakistan's powerful military initially voiced misgivings, saying the aid came with too many conditions.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in March promised to work on a “multi-year security assistance package.”
Ruggiero said the United States considered its ties with India and Pakistan to be “distinct bilateral relationships.”
“The United States committed to a strategic dialogue with the government of Pakistan, a strategic partnership, and we also have a strategic relationship with the government of India,” he said.

Three soldiers killed in South Waziristan: official

PESHAWAR: Militants attacked a Pakistani military convoy on Tuesday, killing three soldiers in the tribal badlands of Waziristan on the Afghan border, a security official said.
The attack took place in the Kalundar Keley area of South Waziristan, about 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of the district's main town Wana.
“Militants attacked a security force patrol on Tuesday in Kalundar Keley area, killing three troops and wounding two others,” a senior security official in the area told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The official said an earlier roadside bomb attack in the same area wounded two more soldiers. A second security official confirmed the deaths.—AFP

IG Punjab told to appear in SC in lawyers torture case

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed Inspector-General Police Punjab Tariq Saleem Dogar to appear before the court.
The apex court was hearing the suo motu case of police torture on lawyers at the Aiwan-i-Adl in Lahore.
During the hearing, Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry observed that “we are part of both the bar and the bench and would not support anyone”.
IGP Dogar did not appear in the court today due to his engagements at the Sihala Police College. Moreover, copies of FIR pertaining to the said case were also not submitted in court.
Meanwhile, Kazim Khan, a member of the inquiry committee constituted to probe the clashes between lawyers and police, told the court that the matter would not resolve without the issuance of a judicial order. Chief Justice Iftikhar then asked Khan to prepare a comprehensive report after meeting with both parties.

Gunmen torch Nato trucks in Balochistan

QUETTA: Gunmen in Pakistan on Tuesday torched vehicles carrying supplies for Nato troops fighting the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan, in the second such attack in 24 hours, police said.
The two tankers were attacked in Balochistan, the southwestern province that borders Iran and Afghanistan and is suffering a regional insurgency as well as violence by the Taliban.
The attacks came a week after Pakistan reopened the main land border crossing used by Nato supply convoys, following an 11-day closure imposed after a cross-border Nato helicopter strike killed two Pakistani soldiers.
Two men riding on a motorbike held up the trucks at gun point, forcing the drivers and their helpers to leave, police official Khuda Bakhsh said.
The gunmen doused the trucks in petrol before shooting at them at Dasht Bado town, 175 kilometres (about 110 miles) south of the provincial capital Quetta, Bakhsh said.
The attackers fled on their motorbike, he said.
A senior police officer in Quetta confirmed the attack, which came less than 24 hours after three tankers were attacked in Baluchistan on Monday.
There was no claim of responsibility, but the Taliban mounted a series of similar attacks this month, exploiting the build-up of convoys caused by the border closure and saying they were avenging US drone strikes. – AFP

Chechnya’s leader says parliament attackers killed

GROZNY: Militants stormed parliament in Russia's conflict-torn Chechnya Tuesday, seizing deputies and gunning down guards, before being killed in a bloody standoff with security forces.
The group of up to four militants broke into the parliament building in the Chechen capital Grozny early in the morning, sparking fears of a major hostage crisis before security forces moved in to take the deputies to safety.
Officials said that all the militants were killed by the security forces, with reports adding that some had been shot dead while others had killed themselves by detonating suicide charges.
“We heard shots in the courtyard and we knew they were trying to take us hostage. We managed to take refuge on the third floor where we stayed until the end of the operation,” a spokesman for the Chechen parliament Zelim Yakhikhanov told AFP.
Chechnya's leader Ramzan Kadyrov told the Interfax news agency that Chechen security forces staged an intense 20-minute operation to kill the militants and free the parliament deputies and employees from the building.
“All deputies are alive and were taken from the territory of the parliament building to safety,” Kadyrov said.
Three interior ministry security guards and one civilian employee of the parliament were killed after militants stormed the parliament building, a spokesman for the interior ministry told AFP.
Russian news agency reports said that two militants blew themselves up in suicide blasts and the others were killed in an exchange of fire with security forces.
According to the investigative committee of prosecutors, 17 people were wounded in the incident.
Interfax said parliamentary speaker Dukuvakha Abdurakhmanov had been evacuated from the parliament building in an armoured vehicle and had not been hurt.
Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev, by coincidence on a trip to Grozny, described the operation by the security forces to free the deputies as a success.
“The Chechen interior ministry acted professionally and competently. This meant that the operation was carried out successfully,” he added.
The special operation was personally led by Kadyrov, Interfax quoted a security source as saying.
The Kremlin has been fighting separatist insurgents in the Northern Caucasus since after the collapse of the Soviet Union and waged a war in 1994-1996 against separatist militants in Chechnya.
However, after a second war broke out in Chechnya in 1999, the rebellion's inspiration moved towards Islam with the aim of imposing an Islamic state in the region.
Russia in April 2009 ended a decade long “counter-terror” operation that had been in place for a decade in Chechnya, a move seen by some analysts as premature.
Chechnya has in the past years seen a relative improvement in security under its strongman leader, Kadyrov, although attacks remain a common occurrence.
But Kadyrov, himself an ex-militant, has been heavily criticised for his tough tactics by rights groups, who accuse him of torture and using his own personal forces to crack down on critics.
Russia remains on high alert for militant attacks after the double bombings carried out by two female suicide bombers on the Moscow metro on March 29 killed 40 and wounded more than 100.
Over 330 people were killed in Russia's most shocking hostage tragedy in 2004 when Chechen militants stormed a school in the town of Beslan in the Northern Caucasus region of North Ossetia.

Qazi Anwar returns Babar Awan’s Rs1 million cheque

ISLAMABAD: President Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Qazi Anwar on Tuesday returned a cheque, worth Rs1 million, earlier given to the association by Law Minister Babar Awan.
Speaking to media representatives outside the court, Anwar said accepting such an amount was creating doubts about his integrity.
He said Awan had offered him a cheque bearing Rs1 million for the welfare of the Supreme Court employees.
Qazi Anwar said a faction of the media had started a defamation campaign against him, and he had decided to return the cheque for this reason.
He then disposed off the cheque in front of media representatives.

Australian PM warns of 10-year Afghan engagement

SYDNEY: Australia will be involved in Afghanistan for the next decade, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Tuesday as she warned of “hard days ahead” for forces battling the Taliban insurgency.
Gillard said Afghanistan should never again become a safe haven for extremists and her government was committed to standing by the nation’s most important ally, the United States, in the long-running conflict.
“This means more fighting, more violence, it risks more casualties. There will be many hard days ahead,” Gillard said in her first address to the national parliament on the war.
The prime minister said that while Australia’s key mission in Afghanistan, to train an Afghan National Army brigade in restive Uruzgan, was expected to take two to four years, Canberra’s involvement would extend beyond this.
While the Afghan government was expected to take over responsibility for security by 2014, the international community, including Australia, would remain engaged in the Central Asian nation beyond that date, she said.
“There will still be a need for Australians in a supporting role. There will still be a role for training and other defence co-operation. The civilian-led aid and development effort will continue,” Gillard said.
“We expect this support, training and development task to continue in some form through this decade at least.”
The war in Afghanistan has bipartisan political support in Australia, which has some 1,550 troops in the country, but the government is facing increasing public pressure as the war stretches on amid mounting casualties.
Gillard said that Australia’s commitment to Afghanistan was not open-ended, and Canberra wanted to bring its troops home as soon as possible, but that success was critical.
“Australia will not abandon Afghanistan. We must be very realistic about the future,” she said. “Transition will take some years — we will be engaged through this decade at least.”
Australia joined the US-led war effort in Afghanistan in the months following the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, but withdrew its soldiers in December 2002 as the situation stabilised.
Canberra sent special forces troops in September 2005 to target key insurgents and ramped up its efforts from October 2008 as it took on a growing role in training and mentoring Afghan soldiers in the country’s south. —AFP

Sarkozy vows pensions reform will pass despite strikes

DEAUVILLE, France: French President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed Monday that his plan to raise the retirement age will pass, despite protests that have sparked street clashes and strikes causing fuel shortages.
“This reform is essential. France is committed to it. France will carry it out, just as our German friends carried out a pensions reform a few years ago,” Sarkozy told a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Unions have called a day of mass demonstrations on Tuesday, the sixth day of coordinated nationwide actions in less than two months, against the plan that would raise the standard retirement age from 60 to 62.
On Monday French youths battled riot police, truckers blocked roads and filling stations ran dry as the protests escalated, but the government has so far shown no sign of backing down.
“It is perfectly normal and natural that this (reform) causes worries and opposition,” Sarkozy added, in comments to reporters in Deauville, western France, where he was due to hold a summit with Russia and Germany.
“It is also normal and natural that a democratic government...should ensure motorists can find fuel and that there are no clashes.”

EC suspends membership of 141 lawmakers

ISLAMABAD: After giving concession to lawmakers by allowing them to submit statements of their assets and liabilities 18 days after the expiry of the last date, the Election Commission on Monday suspended memberships of 141 lawmakers who failed to make it despite the leniency.
However, membership of a few Senators who did not submit their statements has not yet been suspended.
Sources in the Election Commission said although six Senators had not submitted statements of assets, their membership cannot be suspended till the appointment of four members of the Election Commission who ceased to exist after adoption of the 18th Amendment.
Prominent among those whose membership was suspended include the Minister for Labour Syed Khurshid Ahmad Shah, Education Minister Sardar Aseff Ahmed Ali, Tourism Minister Attaur-Rahman, Minister of State for Information Sumsam Ali Bukhari, Maulana Fazlur Rahman and Kashmala Tariq.
Those whose membership has been suspended through belated issuance of a formal notification include 34 members of the National Assembly, 69 members of the Punjab Assembly, 16 of the Sindh Assembly, 12 of Balochistan Assembly and 10 of the Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa Assembly.
Those who failed to submit their statements of assets include some lawmakers accused of possessing fake or invalid degrees. They include Syed Akhunzade Chitan, MNA, and Punjab Assembly member Sardar Meer Badshah Khan Qaisrani.
The last date for members of parliament and provincial assemblies to submit statements of their assets and liabilities was Sept 30.
The Election Commission was bound to notify by Oct 15 the names of those who failed to do so. But it has become a norm that the notification is withheld till the last date, giving a grace period of two weeks to lawmakers by accepting their documents till the issuance of the notification.
But this time no notification could be issued even on Oct 15 when statements of assets were accepted till late in the night.
The Election Commission sources told Dawn that over 500 members submitted their statements after the last date prescribed by law expired. Many managed to submit their statements till Monday.
The Joint Secretary (Elections) of the Election Commission tried to play it down and said that the spirit of the law had to be ensured.
“The membership of all suspended lawmakers is restored soon after they submit their statements. There will be no use of suspending the membership of those who come to us before the notification’s issuance.”
Experts, however, believe that what is very clear is that the Commission must stop receiving statements of assets on Sept 30. They say that Oct 15 is the deadline for issuance of the notification, which can be issued even on Oct 1.
Another official said that the Commission would need to issue dozens of notifications to restore membership of the suspended lawmakers, if their statements were not accepted by the due date.
He conceded that political pressure was another factor which stopped the Commission from putting its foot down and stop receiving statements after Sept 30.

Pentagon cautions media on WikiLeaks documents

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon urged news organizations on Monday not to publish classified US documents due to be released by WikiLeaks as US officials brace for a mass disclosure of leaked Iraq war files by the whistle-blower website.
WikiLeaks, which in July released some 70,000 US documents on the Afghanistan war, is expected soon to post on its website as many as 500,000 classified leaked US documents from the Iraq war. The US government in July condemned the release of the initial leaked documents, which painted a grim picture of the war in Afghanistan that began in 2001.
Pentagon spokesman Colonel David Lapan said the US military is “absolutely” urging WikiLeaks to “return the stolen documents to the United States government and ... not publish them.” Lapan also appealed to the news media.
“News organizations should be cautioned not to facilitate the leaking of classified documents with this disreputable organization known as WikiLeaks,” Lapan said.
“The concern is that WikiLeaks as an organization should not be made more credible by having credible news organizations facilitate what they’re doing,” he said.
The Pentagon’s comments came on the same day that Sweden said it denied a work and residency permit to Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks.
WikiLeaks Tweeted a response late Monday, saying: “Rather than apologizing for misleading the press, the Pentagon tries bully it into not reporting.”
It also Tweeted a link to an earlier version of this story.
Assange has been establishing a base in Sweden in order to benefit from the Nordic country’s strict journalist protection laws. He is also being investigated over rape allegations in Sweden, which he has denied, calling them baseless.
Assange, an Australian citizen, can appeal the decision within three weeks.
‘Veneer Of Legitmacy’
At the Pentagon, Lapan said he was not suggesting that news organizations ignore leaked documents, but questioned providing “a veneer of legitimacy to WikiLeaks” by publishing the originals.
“WikiLeaks as an organization is irresponsible in taking hundreds of thousands, potentially in this case, at least tens of thousands in past instances, of classified stolen documents and publishing them on the Web,” Lapan said.
A Pentagon team already has reviewed the set of documents that it believes WikiLeaks is preparing to publish, Lapan said.
The 120-member team is prepared to move quickly once the documents are published to verify whether they are the same and to assess the damage they might cause, he said.
With the early review, the Pentagon hopes to be able to move rapidly to mitigate any damage the leaks might cause to their intelligence sources and methods of operations, Lapan said. A main concern is for the safety of Iraqis named in the files who may have assisted US forces, he said.
The documents posted by WikiLeaks in July detailed allegations that US forces sought to cover up civilian deaths as well as US concern that Pakistan secretly aided Taliban militants even as it took billions of dollars in US aid.
At the time of the July leak of Afghanistan war documents, the top US military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, said that WikiLeaks might have the blood of US troops and Afghan civilians on its hands because it had leaked files naming people who had collaborated with US forces.
But US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in an Aug. 16 letter to the head of the Senate Armed Services Committee that the leak had not revealed any “sensitive intelligence sources or methods.” —Reuters

Iran joins high-level Afghan talks

ROME: Iran has taken part in a high-level meeting on Afghanistan after the United States said it has no problem with its participation.
The international ‘‘contact group’’ met in Rome on Monday amid a renewed push to end the nine-year-old war in Afghanistan, including bringing Taliban into peace talks. The group gathers the Afghan government, Nato, the EU, UN and other key players — including Iran this time — to assess progress in Afghanistan.
Representatives attending the talks said Iran was invited as part of efforts to have a comprehensive approach and include regional players in the discussions over the future of Afghanistan.
Richard Holbrooke, US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said Washington was asked about possible Iranian involvement and responded it had no problem with it. He and other representatives stressed the talks are limited to Afghanistan and do not touch on the contentious issue of Tehran’s nuclear dossier.
‘‘This is a meeting on Afghanistan and it is restricted to Afghanistan,’’ Holbrooke told reporters. ‘‘What we are discussing here is not affected by, nor will it affect, the bilateral issues that are discussed elsewhere regarding Iran.’’
Citing Iran’s long border with Afghanistan and its problem of drugs and immigrants coming in from Afghanistan, Holbrooke said that Tehran ‘‘has a role to play in the peaceful settlement of the situation’’ and that ‘‘for the United States today there’s no problem with their presence.’’
Iran sent its special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Mohammed Ali Qanezadeh. The ‘‘contact group’’ also invited about a dozen representatives from countries in the Organization of Islamic Conference, as well as a representative of the group itself.
Qanezadeh described the meeting as ‘‘fruitful,’’ and said Iran believes in a ‘‘regional’’ solution for Afghanistan, one supported by the international community. The biggest problems in Afghanistan for Iran, he said, are ‘‘insecurity, drug trafficking and the presence of foreign forces.’’
Getting regional players involved was stressed by delegates at the one-day talks.
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said that ‘‘having at the border a cooperative Pakistan is essential to succeeding.’’ His Afghan counterpart, Zalmal Rassoul, said in closing remarks that ‘‘without support from our neighbors, we’ll have difficulty achieving success on peace and security matters.’’
Other main topics of discussion were the transition process — or how to increase the assumption of responsibility for security by Afghan forces; and the process of reconciliation — or talks aimed at involving insurgents into the fold, including the Taliban.
Commanding Gen. David Petraeus, who was attending the talks in Rome, said last week that coalition forces have allowed Taliban representatives to travel to Kabul for peace discussions with the Afghan government, although a Taliban spokesman has dismissed the talk as propaganda. In Kabul, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said he has high hopes for a new peace council to negotiate with Taliban leaders he’s been meeting, according to a statement released Saturday by his office.
Holbrooke said Monday that ‘‘there’s room in Afghanistan for anyone who wishes to be reconciled.’’ He stressed conditions — or ‘‘red lines’’ — set forth by the coalition forces and the Afghan government that insurgents lay down arms, renounce al Qaeda, enter the political process and respect the constitution, including minority rights.
‘‘That’s not admitting defeat,’’ said Holbrooke. ‘‘We are not going to win this war by purely military means.’’
‘‘The war will not end on a battleship in Tokyo Bay, or at Dayton, Ohio. It will end through a different kind of process,’’ Holbrooke added, quoting from a briefing Petraeus gave the group earlier Monday.
The talks Monday are also a preparatory meeting ahead of a Nato summit next month in Lisbon to devise a plan for handing off control to the Afghans. However, Holbrooke said that there will be no ‘‘specific announcements of a number of provinces’’ that will regain responsibility of security.
‘‘We’re not going to lay out specific process,’’ he said. ‘‘We’re gonna talk about the transition process’’ in general.
Training personnel remains crucial, Holbrooke said, adding that even countries that are part of the group but not of the international force ISAF could train personnel.
Karzai’s stated deadline is for Afghan forces to take the lead from Nato in security operations by 2014. Delegates stressed Monday that the international community will remain involved in Afghanistan after that.
‘‘We are in this for the long haul,’’ vowed Michael Steiner, German representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. ‘‘Afghanistan will continue to need and to receive our aid and this will continue for long after our military efforts have ended.” —AP

Storm in the judicial teacup

ISLAMABAD: Expecting a severe judicial reaction to the prime minister’s speech of Sunday night, and a resulting crisis, many lawyers and journalists had not even made it to the Courtroom One by the time a 17-judge bench quietly retreated to their chambers on Monday, without referring even once to the disregard of their directives for a written assurance from the government and after adjourning the proceedings.

The proceedings ended even before they had begun, but the short session made one thing amply clear: the judiciary was in no mood for a confrontation; now that the government had taken a firm stand and said no, it too stepped away, ordering an indefinite adjournment till a media committee submitted its report.

Those expecting a deadly confrontation or a serious clash of institutions were left disappointed as Monday morning at the Supreme Court did not even offer the sputtering noise of a damp squib.

Not that this came as a surprise to everyone. Those who had witnessed the earlier non-confrontation between the judiciary and the government in the last week of September when the former quietly acquiesced to the latter’s request for more time in the NRO implementation case were not taken aback. They had predicted that despite the dire prognosis of many, Monday would prove that the events triggered by a news item on Thursday night would not amount to much.

So when Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq, instead of the written assurance from Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, simply presented before the court an interim report of the inquiry committee appointed by the government to probe how the media got hold of the news about a government plan to withdraw the March 16, 2009, executive order, the judges carried on with the proceedings without as much as a raised eyebrow.

The judges did not just express their intent to avoid a crisis through the short proceedings; their complete silence on the absence of the written assurance they had asked for; and their relative gentle handling of the attorney general.

The detailed judgment of Saturday’s short order that they dictated on Monday also reflected this. In this they stated that “… it is up to the concerned authorities/functionaries to submit the statement or not”. The statement referred to the fact that “The learned Attorney General for Pakistan has categorically stated that no one has desired to submit a statement.”

However, this is not to say that the apex court did not secure itself against any arbitrary government action. It did so by making it clear to all and sundry in the detailed judgment restraining the government from withdrawing the judges’ reinstatement notification was a binding order in terms of Article 190 of the Constitution.

The article empowers the Supreme Court to call all the executive (including the armed forces) and judicial authorities throughout Pakistan to act in its aid.

Before retiring, the bench also observed that the court was not subservient to any notification. This included the March 16, 2009, executive order which reinstated the superior court judges sacked by former President Pervez Musharraf while proclaiming the Nov 3, 2007, emergency.

For the rest of the time that the judges spent in the Courtroom One, they remained focused on the interim report of the six-member inquiry committee set up to look into the news item which had provoked this storm in a teacup. And if there can be storm in a teacup over a phrase then there was one in the courtroom on Monday.

The report submitted to the bench had used the following phrase “ongoing standoff between the executive versus the judiciary”.

Taking exception to this, Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday asked how the committee had reached this conclusion and demanded that it show where the “world war” was. “I am surprised at this finding from such a responsible committee; is it some kind of a match,” he observed.

He added that it was one thing when irresponsible speakers at a public meeting said such things but completely another when responsible individuals of the committee uttered them.

Justice Ramday then proceeded to run through all the judgments this court had rendered since the judiciary’s restoration and asked the AG if he could pinpoint one verdict which could establish that the judiciary was at war with the executive. Shortly after, the judges withdrew.

INTERIM REPORT: In its interim report, the committee conceded that journalistic norms were not being universally observed by media people while reporting on major national issues.

“There exists a tendency of reporting on sensitive subjects based on a single source contrary to international norms that advocate the confirmation of such news from multiple sources. The breaking news about the withdrawal of executive order was telecast without apparently establishing any contact and or verification procedure with the alleged offender i.e. the government,” it said, adding: “In the ‘ongoing standoff between the executive and the judiciary’, media is playing both a positive and negative role.”

The report said it realised that journalists were very sensitive about their sources of information. The committee has not identified the existence of visible source(s) in the government or the judiciary which may have provided the relevant media persons such information.

It said that the initial breaking news that caused panic, sensation and anguish was telecast on Aaj News by its reporter Fakhar Rehman on Oct 14 at 2145 hours that a decision had been taken by the government to withdraw the executive order while mentioning that government sources had provided the information. However, the committee could not find any evidence in support of this proposition.

It went on to say that several other channels also repeated this breaking news of Aaj TV without quoting any source and also discussed the issue in their programmes.
In order to find the facts, the committee called Aaj TV Director Wamiq Zuberi and the reporter, but both were not available. However, they had committed to appearing before the committee on Monday at 1100 hours in Karachi.

The committee has also requested Editor News Mohammad Malick, President of ARY TV Dr Shahid Masood, Hamid Mir of Geo TV or any other media person to appear before it

US must respect Pakistan’s sovereignty: FM Qureshi

WASHINGTON: The United States and Pakistan will try this week to get their crisis-prone relationship back on track after the latest US drive to win over hearts and minds faced quick setbacks.
Senior officials from the two nations will on Wednesday open a “strategic dialogue”, an initiative launched by the United States earlier this year to show that it cares about more than just Pakistan’s help in Afghanistan.
But that core cooperation was thrown into doubt last month when Pakistan closed the main land route for Afghan war supplies through the Khyber Pass, incensed after a Nato helicopter killed at least two Pakistani soldiers.
Pakistan reopened the crossing after 11 days once the United States formally apologised for the killings, which officials of the Nato alliance said was an accident caused by the border’s ambiguity.
The chopper incident came just after the United States, conscious of widespread anti-Americanism in Pakistan, mobilised a major humanitarian drive to help victims of the country’s worst-ever floods.
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who will represent Pakistan in the talks, praised the aid but said the relationship also suffered “two steps back” with the helicopter attack and relentless US drone strikes aimed at militants.
“We are an ally, not a satellite,” Qureshi said Monday at Harvard University. “We have to protect our borders — you have to respect our sovereignty.”
“You have to realise the political price you pay in Pakistan and that my government pays as your friend from the almost daily drone assaults on our territory,” he said.
“If unmanned drone attacks were not difficult enough for our people to absorb, the recent acts of Nato helicopters in Pakistan, killing Pakistani soldiers, are nothing short of infuriating,” he said.
The three-day talks will culminate Friday in talks between Qureshi and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Qureshi said the United States can improve relations by taking up issues on which it has long been hesitant — such as pursuing a free trade deal, discussing civil nuclear cooperation along the lines of a US pact with Pakistan’s rival India, or pressuring India over the disputed Kashmir region.
Most analysts consider such items on Pakistan’s wish-list to be long shots at a time when the public mood in the United States has also soured on Islamabad.
US lawmakers have repeatedly criticised Pakistan, accusing it of playing a double-game by maintaining ties with Afghanistan’s Taliban and of showing ingratitude over US assistance in a time of austerity.
The US Congress last year approved a five-year, 7.5 billion-dollar package to build schools, infrastructure and democratic institutions in Pakistan, deciding that development was the best bulwark against religious extremism.
A survey by the Pew Research Center conducted in July found that a mere 17 per cent of Pakistanis held a favorable view of the United States.
But despite the headlines, Dan Feldman, the deputy special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said he has seen a “very significant change” in Pakistani media portrayals of the United States since the floods.
Feldman voiced hope that the United States can sustain the momentum.
“I think that we can showcase that we are not only there during this crisis, but there for the long-haul, and hopefully that that will change perceptions in Pakistan,” Feldman said.
However, the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, a US-based group which works on behalf of war victims, warned not to underestimate the impact of drone strikes.
Christopher Rogers, who spent a year interviewing survivors in Pakistan, said the number of civilian victims was almost certainly more than officials admitted — and that survivors received little to no help.
“The perceived legitimacy of the Pakistani state in conflict areas is key to lasting stability and security,” Rogers said. “Civilian casualties, especially when left unaddressed, do serious harm to these efforts.” —AFP

IMF to start review Macroeconomic indicators

ISLAMABAD: With the first quarter fiscal deficit exceeding the budget target, Pakistan officials and International Monetary Fund (IMF) will start a week-long review of macroeconomic indicators here on Oct 27 which will determine if Islamabad can draw the next tranche of $1.7 billion.
Informed sources said the first quarter (July 1 – September 30, 2010) results of the provisional fiscal operation were presented to a meeting presided over by Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh on Sunday. “The IMF is unlikely to agree to the release of $1.7 billion before December, at least on the basis of expenditure and revenue position,” a senior government official told Dawn. He said the meeting decided not to release the figures to the public before the arrival of the IMF review mission. Under the agreed public disclosure policy, the government is required to make public its financial results 15 days after the completion of every quarter. It was for the fourth quarter in a row, said the official, that Pakistan had not been able to meet the fiscal deficit target. The IMF stopped payments to Pakistan under $11.3 billion standby arrangement (SBA) in June this year following slippages on the fiscal deficit front for three consecutive quarters beginning September 2009. The 25-month SBA was to conclude in November this year, but about $4 billion worth of two instalments are yet to be paid to Pakistan. Officials said the government had agreed with the IMF in August this year in Washington to limit the first quarter fiscal deficit at 1.4 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP). The government had announced in the federal budget 2010-11 to have a fiscal deficit of about 4 per cent of GDP or Rs685 billion. However, this target was later increased to 4.7 per cent of GDP or Rs804 billion in consultation with the IMF in August. That meant the first quarter deficit target at 1.4 per cent or Rs201 billion. As the financial results for the first quarter were finalised on Sunday, it emerged that fiscal deficit exceeded to Rs275 billion or 1.6 per cent of GDP. This means that the gap between the government’s expenditure and revenue has exceeded the permissible limit by about Rs75 billion. The size of GDP at market price is estimated at Rs17,107 billion for the current year. The official said the only way to get a favourable response from the IMF for the release of next tranche was to generate significantly higher revenues than earlier estimated, but first quarter revenues at Rs290 billion have remained short by a wide margin with the target being Rs337 billion. “The lack of preparedness to effectively introduce reformed general sales tax has already been pointed out by the tax reforms coordination group,” said the official. Already, the government has been under pressure from international lenders to spare at least Rs180 billion through cuts in expenditure and higher revenue generation to meet the deficit target of 1.4 per cent of GDP. A senior government official when contacted by Dawn to comment on the latest fiscal operations figures and its impact on IMF programme said the government was not concerned whether or not it gets next two tranches from the IMF as per original schedule, but it was more interested in continuing with programme to ensure fiscal discipline. He said the remaining amount from IMF could be realised after the presentation of mid-year budget in December to meet international commitments and higher fiscal requirements to rebuild flood-affected infrastructure.

Pakistan rejects report about Osama’s presence

KABUL: Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is living comfortably in a house in north- west Pakistan close to his deputy Ayman Al Zawahiri, CNN on Monday quoted a Nato official as saying.
Bin Laden is being protected by local people and “some members of the Pakistani intelligence services,” the television network said. It also said that the Al Qaeda number two, the Egyptian-born Zawahiri, was living close to him.“Nobody in Al Qaeda is living in a cave,” the unnamed senior Nato official is quoted as saying. Bin Laden is likely to have moved around an area ranging from the mountains of Chitral near the Chinese border to the Kurram valley near Afghanistan’s Tora Bora in recent years, CNN reported the official as saying. “The official also confirmed the US assessment that Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban, has moved between the cities of Quetta and Karachi in Pakistan over the last several months,” said the report on CNN’s website. Report rejected Pakistani authorities rejected the report. “I categorically deny the report about the presence of Osama bin Laden or Ayman Al Zawahiri or even Mullah Omar in Pakistan,” Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters on Monday. “Bin Laden... and all other terrorists are anti-Islam and anti-Pakistan and hired assassins. If we have any information we will take action against them,” he said. A foreign ministry official, talking to AFP, dismissed the CNN report as “baseless” that has been “put out to malign Pakistan”. A Nato spokesman in Kabul said the alliance had no immediate comment.—AFP