CIA will continue drone operations in Pakistan for now: Sources

A file photo of a drone.

WASHINGTON: US drone strikes in Pakistan would continue to be conducted by the CIA for the time-being to keep the program covert and maintain deniability for both the United States and Pakistan, several US government sources said on Monday.

The sources added that US President Barack Obama’s administration has decided to give the Pentagon control of some drone operations against terrorism suspects overseas that are currently run by the CIA.

Four US government sources told Reuters that the decision had been made to shift the CIA’s drone operations to the Pentagon, and some of them said it would occur in stages.

Drone strikes in Yemen, where the US military already conducts operations with Yemeni forces, would be run by the armed forces, officials said.

However, the administration’s goal would be to transfer the Pakistan drone operations to the military, one US official said on condition of anonymity.

The internal debate within the administration about whether to switch control of drone strikes to the military has been going on for months. Obama is under heightened pressure to show that his administration is transparent, after a series of scandals about civil liberties and allegations of government overreach broke last week.

Obama will make a speech on Thursday at the National Defense University in Washington that will include discussion of the government’s use of drones as a counterterrorism tool. It is unclear whether he will announce the drone program shift in that speech or separately.

A White House National Security Council spokesperson and a CIA spokesperson each declined comment.

Decision after months of debate

One of the reasons to make the shift is that it would help the CIA to return to more traditional spying operations and intelligence analysis, rather than paramilitary operations involving killing terrorism targets, officials have said.

The US military is not engaged in ground combat in Pakistan, where the population in tribal areas has been angered by drone strikes and governments do not want to acknowledge that they allow US unmanned aircraft to operate.

But in Yemen, the same sensitivities do not exist because the US military is working with Yemeni forces in counterterrorism operations and so drone strikes in Yemen will shift to the Pentagon, two sources said.

There have been 355 drone strikes in Pakistan and 66 in Yemen, according to a widely cited drone attack database run by the New America Foundation think tank.

The United States has also carried out drone strikes in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and East Africa, some of them operated by the military.

The use of armed drones jumped in 2008 when President George W Bush authorised the use of “signature” strikes, allowing the targeting of terrorism suspects based on behaviour and other characteristics without knowing the targets’ identities.

Rosa Brooks, a New America Foundation fellow and Georgetown University law professor, said the problem with the targeted killing program was “an assertion by the executive branch that it has this essentially unconstrained and unreviewable power to kill people.”

Brooks, who previously served at the Pentagon, said she hoped that Obama would publicly release the legal justifications and analysis for the targeted killings overseas, including of US citizens.

“I would also like to see the president say that we will acknowledge all strikes, that we will publicly report on identities of who was targeted, at least after the fact,” she said.

(Source / 21.05.2013)

Sharif in talks to form Pakistan government

 

LAHORE: Pakistani election winner Nawaz Sharif was in talks Sunday to form a new government, with fixing the shattered economy and tackling  militancy likely to be his two biggest challenges.

Pakistan’s largest domestic observer mission, The Free and Fair Election Network, said Sunday that the polls were “relatively fair” despite some irregularities and violence at the polling stations.

Talks

Sartaj Aziz, a senior PML-N official and former cabinet minister, said Sharif was in talks Sunday with some independent MPs to get them on board and in discussions to work out “a few key portfolios” in the cabinet.

The election was defined by the tanking economy, an energy crisis that causes power cuts of up to 20 hours a day, the unpopular alliance in the US-led “war on terror” and chronic corruption.

Sharif has vowed a pro-business agenda to revive the feeble economy for what will be his third term as prime minister, a record in Pakistan, following two tenures in the 1990s.

Asked how his time in prison and exile had changed him, Aziz said it had “matured him and “made him more thoughtful.”

Militancy

It remains unclear whether Sharif will preside over any substantive policy change in the war on militants. While he has voiced support for peace talks with the Taliban, he has been less vocal against US drone strikes than his main rival Imran Khan, and is considered a pragmatist with whom Washington can work.

Relationship with neighbours

India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh congratulated Sharif on his “emphatic victory” and wrote on his official Twitter page that he hoped to chart “a new course for the relationship” between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai Sunday called on Sharif’s incoming government to help negotiate an end to the Taliban insurgency that has ravaged his country since 2001. Pakistan suffers from its own home-grown Taliban insurgency.

Democracy – an unfelt phenomenon

Pakistan, which has had three coups and four military rulers, is marking the first time that one elected civilian administration will hand power to another after a full term in office.

TV projections suggested no single party would win an absolute majority in the 342-seat national assembly.

But Sharif’s centre-right Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) was well ahead with more than 115 of the chamber’s 272 directly elected seats, according to various projections by private channels and as many as 128 according to Geo TV.

Khan’s reaction

Khan welcomed the high turnout as a step forward for democracy but alleged vote-rigging in a televised statement from the hospital bed where he is laid up with a fractured spine following a fall at an election rally last week.

“They placed election staff and administration officials for rigging at various places. Rigging was done in Punjab, in Karachi it was visible to everyone and in Sindh also,” he said.

Khan declared he would go into opposition and said that if his party forms a government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, they would turn it into a “model province”.

“I want to assure that the change has come in Pakistan, whatever others say. The foundation of a new Pakistan has been laid,” he said.

Election Result

Partial, unofficial results from Saturday’s election represented a stunning comeback for the wealthy 63-year-old tycoon who was deposed as prime minister in a 1999 military coup and spent years in jail and exile.

Sharif appears to have done well enough to rule out the prospect of a weak coalition, as the party of former cricket star Imran Khan achieved its own breakthrough on an anti-corruption platform that resonated with younger voters.

Khan’s party also looked set to take over the provincial government in the restive northwest, where he has vowed to end US drone strikes.

Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was neck and neck with the outgoing Pakistan People’s Party on around 30 to 25 seats, a remarkable achievement given that it only won one seat previously, in 2002.

Besides the national assembly, voters also elected four provincial assemblies and Khan’s party emerged on top in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, putting PTI on track to form a government on the frontline of the war against the Taliban.

The Bhutto clan’s PPP, which led the outgoing coalition, was heavily defeated over its record of ineffectual administration over the past five years.

Flanked by his brother and daughter, Sharif gave a victory speech late Saturday to hundreds of jubilant supporters at PML-N headquarters in Lahore.

“We should thank Allah that he has given PML-N another chance to serve you and Pakistan,” he said, after nearly 60 percent of the 86 million electorate.

“I appeal for all parties to come to the table and sit with me and solve the country’s problems,” Sharif said.

Taliban violence marred the election campaign with attacks killing more than 150 people, including 24 on polling day itself.

(Source / 12.05.2013)

Pakistanis go to polls, 22 killed in attacks

Army soldiers patrol ahead of upcoming elections in Bara Sheikhan, Peshawar May 10, 2013.

Defying threats of violence, Pakistanis streamed to the polls Saturday for a historic vote pitting a former cricket star against a two-time prime minister and an unpopular incumbent. But militant attacks that killed 22 people underlined the risks many people took just casting their ballots.

The violence was a continuation of what has been a bloody election season, with more than 130 people killed in bombings and shootings. Some are calling this one of the deadliest votes in the country’s history.

Despite the violence, many see the election – the country’s first transition between an elected government fulfilling its term to another – as a key step to solidify civilian rule in a country that has experienced three military coups.

With the Pakistani Taliban threatening to target political parties in the vote, the government deployed an estimated 600,000 security personnel across the country to protect polling sites and voters.

Many Pakistanis seemed determined to cast their ballots despite the violence.

“Yes, there are fears. But what should we do?” said Ali Khan, who was waiting to vote in the northwestern city of Peshawar, where one of the blasts took place Saturday. “Either we sit in our house and let the terrorism go on, or we come out of our homes, cast our vote, and bring in a government that can solve this problem of terrorism.”

That exuberance seemed to be widespread. The secretary of the election commission, Ahmed Khan, told reporters in Islamabad that he expected the turnout to be “massive.”

The election is being watched closely by the United States, which relies on the nuclear-armed country for help fighting Islamic militants and negotiating an end to the war in neighboring Afghanistan.

This vote is notable for more than just the historic handoff of power from one civilian government to another.

The rise of former cricket star Imran Khan has reshaped the Pakistani political scene, challenging the stranglehold of the country’s two main parties and making the outcome of the vote very hard to call.

The 60-year-old Khan is facing off against the Pakistan Muslim League-N, headed by two-time former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the Pakistan People’s Party, led by President Asif Ali Zardari.

While Sharif has billed himself as the candidate of experience, Khan is trying to tap into the frustrations of millions of Pakistanis who want a change from the politicians who have dominated the nation’s politics for years.

“I never voted for anyone in the past, but today my sons asked me to go to the polling station, and I am here to vote,” said Mohammed Akbar in the northwestern city of Khar. “Imran Khan is promising to bring a good change, and we will support him.”

Khan survived a horrific fall off a forklift during a campaign event Tuesday in the eastern city of Lahore that sent him to the hospital with three broken vertebrae and a broken rib. He is not believed to have voted Saturday because he couldn’t travel to his polling place.

Nobody is sure how effective he will be in translating his widespread popularity into votes, especially considering he boycotted the 2008 election and only got one seat in 2002.

Turnout will be critical, especially among the youth. Almost half of Pakistan’s more than 80 million registered voters are under the age of 35, but young people have often stayed away from the polls in the past.

The election’s outcome is likely riding on the tally in the province of Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous, where Sharif and Khan have been dueling for the people’s support with a series of large rallies and campaign events.

Even on Election Day the excitement was evident. In Lahore, which has not been touched by the pre-election violence seen in other parts of Pakistan, Sharif supporters carried stuffed tigers – the party’s election symbol – and Khan followers carried cricket bats as they chanted slogans in favor of their candidates.

As Sharif cast his ballot at a Lahore voting station, supporters serenaded him with chants of “Lion! Lion!”

“We brought change before. We will bring change again,” he said.

On the campaign trail, Sharif played up his extensive political experience compared to Khan’s, and touted key projects he completed while in office, including a highway between the capital Islamabad and Lahore.

“It’s better to try a lesser evil instead of trying a novice,” said one Lahore voter, Haji Mohammad Younus. “The lesser evils at least have the experience of governing. They might be corrupt but they have lately realized that they have to deliver if they want to survive.”

The mood remained jubilant despite a series of attacks that marred the vote in some districts.

The deadliest violence struck Karachi, where twin blasts blew up outside an office of the Awami National Party, one of three secular liberal parties that have been targeted by Taliban militants during the campaign, said police officer Shabir Hussain. Ten people died in the attack and 30 were wounded.

A roadside bomb in Karachi also killed one person riding in a bus of ANP supporters. In the northwestern city of Peshawar a bomb outside a polling station killed one person while two more died when a bomb went off near a police van.

In the southwestern province of Baluchistan, gunmen killed two people outside a polling station in the town of Sorab and a shootout between supporters of two candidates in the town of Chaman killed 6 people, officials said.

There is concern that the violence could benefit Islamist parties and those who take a softer line toward the militants, including Khan and Sharif, because they were able to campaign more freely.

The outgoing Pakistan People’s Party is likely to fare poorly in this election. Voters are fed up with five years of power outages, rising inflation and militant attacks. The party, which rose to power in 2008 in part by widespread sympathy after the death of party leader Benazir Bhutto, has carried out what many called a lackluster campaign.

Their effort has been hampered by threats of Taliban violence and a lack of high-profile figures to rally the party. Benazir Bhutto’s son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, is officially the party chairman and had been expected to play a high-profile role in the election.

But he’s appeared at few election events, and was out of the country Saturday.

The election was also marred by reports that some women in the North Waziristan tribal area were not allowed to vote. Clerics using loudspeakers at local mosques in the cities of Mir Ali and Miran Shah urged women to stay home, and none could be seen at the polls.

Women in Pakistan have had to fight extensive discrimination to assert their electoral rights. They represent only about 43 percent of the roughly 86 million registered voters. In many areas, particularly in the conservative northwest, the men decide ahead of the election that women cannot vote.

Polls were scheduled to close at 5 p.m. local time (1200 GMT and 8 a.m. EST) but the commission extended voting for an extra hour across the country and three hours in parts of Karachi.

The election commission said they were investigating reports of a lack of polling staff and materials, and threats to election commission staff in some areas of Karachi.

The election winner will inherit a country struggling on a number of fronts. Pakistanis suffer from rolling blackouts that can be as long as 18 hours a day as well as rising inflation. The country is also battling Islamic militants who want to overthrow the government, while on the western border there are fears that a U.S. military departure from Afghanistan will send violence spilling over into Pakistan.

Both Khan and Sharif have favored negotiations with militants in the country’s tribal areas, and Khan has even said he would pull out troops from the borderlands if elected.

That would likely put him at odds with the country’s powerful military. While Pakistan has been under civilian rule for the last five years, the military still is considered the country’s most powerful institution and usually makes the major decisions when it comes to militancy or foreign policy issues such as Afghanistan or India.

In what appeared to be a show of support for democracy in Pakistan, the country’s most powerful military officer, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani went himself to the voting booth – shown live on Pakistani television – instead of mailing in his ballot.

On the eve of the historic vote Pakistan expelled the New York Times correspondent, Declan Walsh.

The newspaper said in an article published on its website Friday that their longtime foreign correspondent was handed a two-sentence letter accusing him of unspecified “undesirable activities” and ordering him to leave.

(Source / 11.05.2013)

‘Pakistani government can’t guarantee election safety’

 

Pakistani election presiding officers (R) receive election materials at the distribution point in Rawalpindi on May 10, 2013

The Taliban’s terror campaign is forcing politicians to discuss breaking ties with the US on its war and terror Eugene Puryear, activist from the ANSWER coalition has told RT. The activist believes election day will see more violence.

RT: Almost daily we’ve seen deadly bomb blasts targeting political party offices and candidates. Can the security forces guarantee voter safety tomorrow at the polling stations?

Eugene Puryear: I think they most certainly can’t guarantee that. I mean, they’ve been deploying a massive amount of people up to 600,000 security personnel. But we’ve seen over the past period of the campaign and even before that, that the Pakistani government has not been able to offer security solutions that are definite in any way in any part of the country.

RT: Why couldn’t the government postpone the polls?

EP: Obviously, postponing the polls for the Pakistani government would be a major setback. This is the first democratic transition, which the country will actually have. And I think ultimately going forward with the polls is an important part of showing, in fact democracy in Pakistan is a real thing and certainly there is only a caretaking government in place now. And so to not extend what would essentially be an undemocratic technocratic force.

RT: The Taliban’s been making a huge effort to undermine the vote. Do you think they’ve been effective?

EP: I think the Taliban has certainly done quite a bit to destabilize the election. I think that the most successful thing in terms of their campaign has been the fact, that both candidates have discussed the issue of severing the security relationship with the US, which at least in part is very central to the struggle of the Taliban inside Pakistan and what they are looking to do. So, how much they will impact the average voter in their ability to come out – we’ll just have to see on Saturday. But certainly their policies and their military campaign has, at least so it seems, affected the way the issues have been debated by the major parties.

Pakistani army soldiers carry electoral materials for election presiding officers at the distribution point in Rawalpindi on May 10, 2013

RT: The leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N party which is expected to clinch victory, promises to pullout of the US war on terror, should it take power. How realistic is this?

EP: I think potentially it could be done. And certainly Sharif, when he was a Prime Minister before, presided over the two nuclear tests that resulted in a significant downgrading of relations with the US and economic sanctions. So, Sharif can claim that he has the fortitude to stand up to the US, but given the significant amount of support inaugurated for Pakistan, I mean I believe there’s a hundred million dollars provided by the US just to help Pakistan secure their nuclear arsenal. Obviously the ability from Pakistan to gain lending from the IMF, it will require a tremendous amount of effort, because Pakistan will have to refocus and rebalance both its economic and its security policies almost 180 degrees from what they have been since 2001, when Pakistan was more or less brought in from the code by the US. So, certainly it’s possible, but either party and certainly whether Sheriff will really have the 42 and the desire to carry this through – I think is yet to be seen.

RT: Meanwhile a Pakistani court has declared US drone strikes in the country illegal. Will that message be considered across the Atlantic?

EP: I think it is a message that will certainly be considered across the Atlantic. It’s a sign of a growing opposition in Pakistan and to a lesser degree in Yemen, in fact even inside the US against the US drone policy. And certainly to have such a high court say that the US drone strikes should end immediately just continues to add fuel to a fire that is raging around the world about its secretive illegal criminal campaign being waged by the United States government. Obviously, they have no intention of stopping their drone campaign, but certainly I think it has to be an item of interest for them.

 

Pakistani election presiding officers and their staff sit with election materials at the distribution point in Rawalpindi on May 10, 2013

(Source / 11.05.2013)

 

Taliban bomb kills 18 at Pakistan election rally

Pakistani soldiers keep watch at the state-run Printing Corporation of Pakistan in Lahore on May 6, 2013.

A bomb tore through a political rally in Pakistan Monday, killing 18 people and wounding 55 in the most deadly attack so far during the campaign for historic elections at the weekend.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility, saying the target had been a lawmaker elected as an independent but allied to the outgoing government. Officials said the lawmaker escaped unhurt.

Monday’s bombing brings to 87 the number of people killed in attacks on politicians and political parties since April 11, according to an AFP tally.

The device hit a rally by the right-wing Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI), a religious party in the outgoing government coalition in Kurram, part of Pakistan’s Taliban-infested tribal belt on the Afghan border.

“The death toll has now risen to 18,” Tashfeen Khan, a senior official in Peshawar, the main town of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province told AFP.

Earlier, Riaz Khan, the top administrative official in Kurram, told AFP that at least 14 people had been killed.

“I fear the death toll could rise further because several of the injured are in a critical condition,” Khan said.

Doctor Najeeb Khan from the main hospital in Kurram tribal district told AFP that 55 injured had been taken to the hospital.

The bomb was planted inside a building that was the venue for the rally of two national assembly candidates representing the JUI party led by cleric Fazul-ur-Rehman.

The apparent target, Munir Orakzai, escaped unhurt while Khan said the other candidate, Ain u Din Shakir, was slightly injured.

It was the first attack on a political party in the tribal belt since campaigning began for what will be Pakistan’s first democratic transition of power after a civilian government has completed a full term in office.

Interim Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso strongly condemned the attack and said one of the national assembly candidates had been injured.

Repeated calls for candidates to be granted more security have failed to stop a wave of attacks, most of them claimed by the Pakistani Taliban.

“Basically it was an attack on Munir Orakzai, who was a part of the past government for five years,” Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.

The Pakistani Taliban have condemned Saturday’s elections as un-Islamic and directly threatened the main parties in the outgoing coalition, the Pakistan People’s Party, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the Awami National Party (ANP).

“He supported the People’s Party and ANP government, which launched several operations against us,” Ehsan told AFP.

Rehman and his JUI party — known as JUI-F — have been mediators between the authorities and the Taliban, blamed for killing thousands of Pakistanis in a domestic insurgency over the past six years.

Orakzai is a senior tribal politician who is standing for JUI-F for the first time. The Taliban denied that JUI-F itself was the target.

Elections have been postponed in three constituencies where candidates have been killed. Those constituencies are in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, in Pakistan’s biggest city of Karachi and in southern Hyderabad.

(Source / 06.05.2013)

UN: US drone strikes violate Pakistan’s sovereignty

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) — The United States has violated Pakistan’s sovereignty and shattered tribal structures with unmanned drone strikes in its counter-terrorism operations near the Afghan border, a UN human rights investigator said in a statement on Friday.

UN special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, Ben Emmerson, visited Pakistan for three days this week as part of his investigation into the civilian impact of the use of drones and other forms of targeted killings.

“As a matter of international law, the US drone campaign in Pakistan is … being conducted without the consent of the elected representatives of the people, or the legitimate Government of the State,” Emmerson said in a statement issued by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva.

“It involves the use of force on the territory of another state without its consent and is therefore a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty,” he said.

Emmerson said in January he would investigate 25 drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories. He is expected to present his final report to the UN General Assembly in October.

Washington had little to say about Emmerson’s statement.

“We’ve seen his press release. I’m obviously not going to speak about classified information here,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. “We have a strong ongoing counter-terrorism dialogue with Pakistan and that will continue.”

Spokesman Josh Earnest said the White House would withhold judgment until it sees Emmerson’s full report.

“We have a solid working relationship with them (Pakistan) on a range of issues, including a close cooperative security relationship, and we’re in touch with them on a regular basis on those issues.”

‘End military interference’

Emmerson said the Pashtun tribes of northwestern Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas, or FATA, Pakistan’s largely lawless region bordering Afghanistan, have been decimated by the counter-terrorism operations.

“These proud and independent people have been self-governing for generations, and have a rich tribal history that has been too little understood in the West,” he said. “Their tribal structures have been broken down by the military campaign in FATA and by the use of drones in particular.”

The tribal areas have never been fully integrated into Pakistan’s administrative, economic or judicial system. They are dominated by ethnic Pashtun tribes, some of which have sheltered and supported militants over decades of conflict in neighboring Afghanistan.

Clearing out militant border sanctuaries is seen by Washington as crucial to bringing stability to Afghanistan, particularly as the US-led combat mission ends in 2014.

Most, but not all, attacks with unmanned aerial vehicles have been by the United States. Britain and Israel have also used them, and dozens of other countries are believed to possess the technology.

“It is time for the international community to heed the concerns of Pakistan, and give the next democratically elected government of Pakistan the space, support and assistance it needs to deliver a lasting peace on its own territory without forcible military interference by other states,” Emmerson said.

The UN Human Rights Council asked Emmerson to start an investigation of the drone attacks following requests by countries including Pakistan, Russia and China.

Criticism of drone strikes centers on the number of civilians killed and the fact that they are launched across sovereign states’ borders so frequently, far more than conventional attacks by piloted aircraft.

Retired US General Stanley McChrystal, who devised the US counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan, warned in January against overusing drones, which have provoked angry demonstrations in Pakistan.

Civilian casualties from drone strikes have angered local populations and created tension between the United States and Pakistan and Afghanistan. Washington has sought to portray civilian casualties as minimal, but groups collecting data on these attacks say they have killed hundreds of civilians.

(Source / 15.03.2013)

Relations with Palestine

President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s three-day visit to Pakistan is not, on the surface, any different to the dozens of other routine visits made by foreign heads of state. But, while the meetings between Abbas and his Pakistani counterpart President Asif Ali Zardari may not have produced anything more than the usual exchange of pleasantries and promises of cooperation; any interaction between Pakistan and Palestine is fraught with symbolism. First, there is the fact that Pakistan’s relations with the Palestinian Authority (PA) are not as warm as would be expected between two Muslim-majority countries. Former leader, Yasser Arafat, always blamed Pakistan for assisting Jordan in the expulsion of Palestinian refugees from the country in the 1970s. Then, we have had a complicated relationship with Israel. During the fight against the Soviets in Afghanistan, there were always suspicions that US arms were being routed through the Jewish state. And while we don’t officially recognise Israel, former president Pervez Musharraf did make overtures in that direction.

An added wrinkle is the emergence of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. With the PA’s influence now limited to the West Bank, Abbas’ trip shows that we have decided to cast our lot against Hamas. This is in line with the rest of the international community, which considers Hamas a terrorist organisation and does not accept its electoral victories.

While expressions of support for Palestinians are appropriate, we should avoid getting entangled in the intractable Israel-Palestine issue. The problems we face at home, specifically that of terrorists who share many ideological beliefs with Hamas, are far more pressing and there is very little we can contribute to revive the moribund peace process. This matter is best left to Palestine’s neighbours, who have far more at stake in the matter. All we can do is continue voting in favour of pro-Palestine resolutions at the UN General Assembly and keep relations with the PA as warm as possible.

(Source / 18.02.2013)

Bomb leaves 20 dead in Pakistan’s Quetta

A bomb attack has killed a least 20 people in Quetta, Pakistan.

A bomb killed at least 20 people in a Shi’ite Muslim area of the Pakistani city of Quetta on Saturday (February 16) in what a police official said was part of an escalation of sectarian attacks by hardline Sunni extremists.

Officials said most of the dead were from Pakistan’s Shi’ite minority, which has been demanding protection from the government after attacks by militant groups led by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ).

The deputy inspector general of police in Quetta said 50 people were wounded in the explosion that was caused by an improvised explosive device fitted to a motorcycle.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

More than 400 Shi’ite were killed in Pakistan last year, many by hitmen or bombs, and the perpetrators are almost never caught.

Last month, LeJ claimed responsibility for a bombing in Quetta that killed nearly 100 people, one of Pakistan’s worst sectarian attacks

(Source / 16.02.2013)

Gas pipeline: Pakistan, Iran to sign construction contract today

 

According to Hussain, the Iranian company will complete the process of constructing the pipeline in 15 months.

The critical Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project is entering the implementation phase as Pakistan’s state-owned firm Inter-State Gas Systems and Tadbir Energy Costar Iranian Co will sign a construction contract for laying the pipeline in Pakistan today (Friday).

Adviser to Prime Minister on Petroleum and Natural Resources Dr Asim Hussain told this to the National Assembly Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Resources in a meeting here on Thursday. Engineer Tariq Khattak chaired the meeting.

Pakistan and Iran are forging ahead with the project despite opposition from the US, which has imposed sanctions on Tehran for its alleged nuclear programme.

According to Hussain, the Iranian company will complete the process of constructing the pipeline in 15 months.

Frontier Works Organisation (FWO), Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) will also take part in the construction work.

Sources said Pakistan and Iran had finalised per kilometre cost of laying the pipeline, which will be of 42 inches and spread over 781 km, as well as markup on loan being provided by Tehran.

The per kilometre cost will be Rs190 million and markup on $500 million loan will be 3% per annum. “Iran had demanded 4% interest on loan,” a source said.

The financing will be for 20 years with a five-year grace period.

SNGPL on verge of default

Briefing the parliamentary panel, Hussain said the prime minister had directed the implementation of parliamentarians’ gas development schemes, but the gas companies were not capable of completing the work.

He disclosed that Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) was on the verge of financial default and had no money to pay salaries to its employees. “We have asked the prime minister to pay subsidy to the company, which will help it to continue operation,” he said.

Hussain held the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) – the oil and gas sector’s regulator – for the sorry state of affairs at SNGPL, which he feared would not be able to function after June. “Gas theft is going on, but Ogra is not playing any role in restricting the practice,” he added.

The regulator was working according to rules and was performing its functions, retorted Ogra Chairman Saeed Khan. Rather, he blamed the gas companies for doing nothing to stop the gas theft.

He pointed out that Ogra had set a benchmark, allowing gas companies to recover some of the losses on account of gas theft from registered consumers. But at the same time, he said, gas companies could not reduce the distribution losses and gas theft.

“If the petroleum adviser wants to shut down Ogra, do it,” he remarked, but reminded the panel that foreign countries were taking steps to strengthen the regulators, but no such case at home.

During the meeting, the parliamentarians asked the Ogra chairman to allow 69 compressed natural gas (CNG) stations, which had applied for relocation, to operate as they had invested a huge amount in their business.

In response, the Ogra chief told them the CNG stations had been barred after the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) took action over their relocation.

Panel member Rana Afzal presented report of a subcommittee about loss of billions of rupees because of procurement of defective portable drills. The panel recommended strict action against the culprits involved.

(Source / 14.02.2013)

India losing credibility among Kashmiris: Analyst

Interview with Muzzammil Ayyub Thakur, convener from the World Kashmir Freedom Movement

“So at the end of the day we are still waiting for some kind of positive development but coming from the Indian state I sincerely doubt that they have any credibility left on the ground especially with the current scenario…”

A political analyst tells Press TV that the Indian forces are consistently using their draconian laws and are using every form of injustice, every form of corrupt laws to subject to the people of Kashmir.

Kashmir lies at the heart of more than 60 years of hostility between India and Pakistan. Both countries claim the region in full but each only has control over a section of the territory. Over the past two decades, conflict in Kashmir has left over 47,000 people dead according to official count, although, other sources say the death toll could be as high as 90,000.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Muzzammil Ayyub Thakur, convener from the World Kashmir Freedom Movement, to further discuss the issue. What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.

Press TV: We are looking at one of the longest running conflicts since 1947 and Manmohan Singh back in 2010, he came out and said after one of these conflicts that he is going to grant autonomy if there is a consensus but it seems like the situation is far from that.

Thakur: So as usual, it is a typical scenario where we promise one thing giving something completely different. 2008 again the mass uprising, 2009 exactly the same thing, 2010 exactly the same thing.

We have consistently been having pro-freedom rallies under the guise of being very peaceful with no militant relations and in respect to the response that we get for being on the streets and basically being active and voicing our opinions quite loudly in fact all the way up to the UN, all the way into the British Parliaments and the American Senate and yet the Indian forces consistently murder, consistently lock up people, consistently use their draconian laws which are in fact illegal in most parts of the world and they are using torture as means of interrogation, they are using every form of injustice, every form of corrupt laws to subject to the people of Kashmir since 1947.

Press TV: And can you cite any type of positive development that has come out that perhaps is pushing this in a way forward where there might be any type of resolve?

Thakur: Well you see, to be an optimist is a wonderful thing. The only problem with being an optimist is you have to also be a realist at the same time. Now speaking as a Kashmiri and trying to understand the situation on the ground, one has to realize that the images that you see especially the ones on TV currently and even when you Google them on YouTube or read the news, this is a typical scenario in Kashmir.

When we talk about any positive developments, you see recently maybe yesterday or the day before yesterday there was a report that came out where it was basically targeting the Indian establishment and the stooges in terms of the paramilitary forces, the army and the J & K police and whatnot and they have been accused of over five hundred types of violations.

Five hundred members of the army, of the paramilitary forces and so on, the CRPF, the Central Reserve Police Force they have been indicted not yet but they have basically been accused of committing gross human rights violations.

We are talking about corporals, we are talking about captains, we are talking about generals, we are talking about people from all spheres of life within the army and yet even when these things are produced out in public there is no response, there is no positive response.

We hope that there will be some kind of change but at the end of the day since 1947 the government of India have had a situation where they have been able to subjugate the people not successfully, not successfully.

However we continue to struggle and strive for something better but at the end of the day the problem is that there has to be some kind of given take and so far India has consistently been giving a lot of abuse and taking a lot of lives.

So at the end of the day we are still waiting for some kind of positive development but coming from the Indian state I sincerely doubt that they have any credibility left on the ground especially with the current scenario where you have Syed Ali Shah Geelani who has not been able to pray for the last year. You have Yasin Malik, Shabir Shah, you have Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, you have so many other different leaders that are under house arrest completely against human rights and targeting youngsters killing them consistently.

(www.presstv.ir / 24.01.2013)