Baithak Desi Jun 13: Saleem Shazad on NATO firing, Lawyers Peace Accord, Mir Talpur, Salman Rashid, Stopping the Rot, News & Views, Cartoons
KARACHI - The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has for a long time been split over strategic questions in Afghanistan. These divisions will be further sharpened following Tuesday evening's attack by United States warplanes on a Pakistani military post in Mohmand Agency in which 11 Pakistani paramilitary soldiers were killed. Indications that Pakistani soldiers were fighting alongside Taliban forces against Afghan army and US units in the border area will also bolster critics of US policy who argue that the Pakistani military is playing a "double game" and can no longer be trusted. All the same, should NATO "lose" Pakistan, it would be a devastating setback.
While the precise circumstances of the incident remain unclear, an eye witness, Taliban spokesman Zubair Mujahid, who represents the Taliban's commanders for Kunar and Nooristan provinces in Afghanistan, told Asia Times Online by telephone: "The multiple Taliban groups operating on both sides of the border - in the Afghan Kunar Valley and in Mohmand Agency - spotted NATO forces launching into Mohmand Agency's mountain-top Sarhasoko military post (below).
"We realized the Pakistani troops were struggling against the NATO forces so we activated our networks all over the area," Zubair said. "The Pakistani security forces were under siege and were at the point of being evacuated from the post when we opened fire on them [NATO] from several positions. Our attack was so unexpected for NATO that they had to retreat. The Pakistan army lost 11 soldiers, the Taliban lost eight and NATO lost 20 soldiers during the operation." An official Pakistani armed forces release called the air strikes "unprovoked and cowardly" and added that "the incident had hit at the very basis of cooperation and sacrifice with which Pakistani soldiers are supporting the coalition in [the] war against terror". Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell, meanwhile, said, "Although it is early, every indication we have is that it was a legitimate strike in self-defense against forces that had attacked coalition forces." US strike hits Pakistan's raw nerve By Syed Saleem Shahzad
The government and representatives of the legal community signed a 20-point agreement on Thursday to maintain law and order in the federal capital where lawyers’ long march and protest programme will culminate on Friday. The organisers of the protest march have been told that they will be responsible for any disturbance in the city on the occasion. “The agreement has been signed with the consent of coalition partners and representatives of lawyers’ community,” Information Minister Sherry Rehman said at a press briefing on Thursday. Lawyers sign accord to keep march peaceful
This accord is not worth the one rupee ball point! The violence can be easily initiated by the terrorist Al Qaeda's Pakistani proxy, the Pakistani Talebans infiltrating the crowd at any juncture. I hope this does not happen, but the possibility is there and if it happens just guess who will be blaming the other? And who stands to gain in the ensuing violence? t
While the precise circumstances of the incident remain unclear, an eye witness, Taliban spokesman Zubair Mujahid, who represents the Taliban's commanders for Kunar and Nooristan provinces in Afghanistan, told Asia Times Online by telephone: "The multiple Taliban groups operating on both sides of the border - in the Afghan Kunar Valley and in Mohmand Agency - spotted NATO forces launching into Mohmand Agency's mountain-top Sarhasoko military post (below).
"We realized the Pakistani troops were struggling against the NATO forces so we activated our networks all over the area," Zubair said. "The Pakistani security forces were under siege and were at the point of being evacuated from the post when we opened fire on them [NATO] from several positions. Our attack was so unexpected for NATO that they had to retreat. The Pakistan army lost 11 soldiers, the Taliban lost eight and NATO lost 20 soldiers during the operation." An official Pakistani armed forces release called the air strikes "unprovoked and cowardly" and added that "the incident had hit at the very basis of cooperation and sacrifice with which Pakistani soldiers are supporting the coalition in [the] war against terror". Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell, meanwhile, said, "Although it is early, every indication we have is that it was a legitimate strike in self-defense against forces that had attacked coalition forces." US strike hits Pakistan's raw nerve By Syed Saleem Shahzad
The government and representatives of the legal community signed a 20-point agreement on Thursday to maintain law and order in the federal capital where lawyers’ long march and protest programme will culminate on Friday. The organisers of the protest march have been told that they will be responsible for any disturbance in the city on the occasion. “The agreement has been signed with the consent of coalition partners and representatives of lawyers’ community,” Information Minister Sherry Rehman said at a press briefing on Thursday. Lawyers sign accord to keep march peaceful
This accord is not worth the one rupee ball point! The violence can be easily initiated by the terrorist Al Qaeda's Pakistani proxy, the Pakistani Talebans infiltrating the crowd at any juncture. I hope this does not happen, but the possibility is there and if it happens just guess who will be blaming the other? And who stands to gain in the ensuing violence? t
Haich saikal nako na danad kard
Aahanay ra kay bad gauhar bashad
Choon bood asal johari qabil
Tarbiat ra dar-u-asar bashad
Sag ba darya-e-haftgana bashoi
Kay cho tar shud paleed tar bashad
Khar-e-Essa garish ba Mecca barand
Choon bi aayad hanoz khar bashad
translation:
The best whetstones will useless be
If the swords of pig iron sharpened be
Training and tempering serves only those
Honourable of soul and mind if they be
A dog bathed in seven seas isn’t a whit pure
For the wetter it gets the uncleaner it turns out to be
If Essa’s ass for a Meccan trip taken be
An ass it was and an ass it will always be
Poetry from: Will history absolve them?By Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur
Basing his theory on the works of Arab (Ibn Haukal) and Persian (Istakhri) geographers, the noted Sindhi journalist and historian Badar Abro postulates that Rannikot is not absent from historical works, but that it was known in the past as Nerunkot, which most other historians believe is Hyderabad. Indeed if one were to examine the works of the two geographers, one would be hard put to decide whether the description of the passage from Debal (Bhambor) or from Mansura (whose ruins lie near Shahdadpur, Sanghar district) to Nerunkot points to a journey from either of those places to Hyderabad or to Rannikot. This being so because the distances from Debal or Mansura to either Hyderabad or Rannikot are almost exactly equal. Rannikot II —Salman Rashid
BRIGHTLY painted Tata lorries, laden with sacks of onions, wait in the noon heat at the Wagah border post between India and Pakistan. Once past customs, the onions will go on to Lahore and beyond. But the lorries must turn back. Their produce is laboriously loaded onto smaller vans, driven by locals.
Pakistan's costly imports of food ($3.5 billion in the first ten months of this fiscal year, which ends on June 30th), fertiliser ($823m) and fuel (over $8.6 billion) may pull the economic rug from under its newly installed government, which presented its first budget, belatedly, on June 11th. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the central bank, reckons the country's current-account deficit might reach 7.8% of GDP this fiscal year, its highest ever (see chart). Growth has slowed to 5.8%, inflation has quickened to over 19% and the government's budget deficit, at about 7% of GDP, is the highest in ten years. Stopping the rot
News & Views
PML-N hijacks lawyers’ movement
Geo TV told to stop two popular programmes
Bhutto anyone? Capital idea for a present
Kishwar Naheed in Urdu
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posted by temporal at 6/14/2008
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