UK Helping America In Attacking Pakistan?

The Government is coming under increasing pressure to reveal if the UK is providing intelligence to help the US carry out drone strikes in Pakistan.

Lawyers for the son of a man killed in such an attack have written to the foreign secretary William Hague wanting to know what the UK's policy is.

Pakistan has called the strikes, which the US does not publicly acknowledge, a violation of its sovereignty.

The Foreign Office says it will study the letter closely before responding.

The law firm Leigh Day & Co is acting on behalf of Noor Khan, whose father was killed earlier this year in a drone strike on a jirga - or council of elders - in north-west Pakistan.

Richard Stein, head of human rights at the firm, said he wanted to know whether any information was being passed by agents of the UK Government to US Government forces to assist in the attacks.

He said: "This legal action simply looks to ask a number of questions of our government regarding UK involvement in the drone strikes in Pakistan."

Read the full story here. 

Pakistan - A Phoenix?

Be it a natural catastrophe, man-made brutality, an economic nose-dive or fatal epidemics; Pakistan has been falling prey to the contamination of time, trauma and transition. 

Just when we thought we had started rehabilitating after the disastrous floods of 2010, another torrent for Sindh (a province in southern Pakistan) was waiting around the corner. In spite of its magnitude, it did not frighten us as much as the one before this did. One may comprehend that we as a nation have come out of the past devastation so strong that no such calamity can hold us back. As a matter of fact, the rationale is slightly different this time around. Without tagging our attitudes with the expressions like 'heartless' or 'inhumane', one needs to underscore other angles to this dilemma.

The fact that hardships do not scare us any longer is itself quite frightening. Now the question arises 'what is keeping us so preoccupied' that we have started refraining from contemplating the difficulties besieging us. Though it may sound more like a rhetorical statement, answers to this question are not hard to stumble on in this day and age. 

First, let us imagine a Pashtun or Muhajir in Karachi, or someone who is not a Balochi or Pashtun in Quetta, living in the areas highly vulnerable to targeted killing; a dengue patient in Lahore constantly having a check on his Blood Platelets' Count; someone who is jobless and bothered only about earning the next meal to feed his family; a small entrepreneur waiting for a few hours of electricity; a troubled textile mill owner thinking of shifting outside Pakistan, or a think-tank wondering about the FDI prospects in the midst of turbulent law and order situation of the country. 


Read the full story here. 

Zardari Returns To Pakistan?

President Asif Ali Zardari, in Dubai for nearly two weeks for medical treatment, may return to Pakistan on Sunday night, two sources familiar with the president's travel plans said.

"He will fly out tonight (Sunday night)... he will leave in about two to three hours," a worker from Zardari's Pakistan People's Party told Reuters.

"He is perfectly fine now and was just waiting for the doctors to give him a go ahead to travel."

Another Pakistani source in Dubai said Zardari was expected to leave later on Sunday but gave no specific time for the departure. They said Zardari was flying back to Pakistan but did not say whether he would land in Islamabad or Karachi.

Read the full story here. 

Military Intervention In Pakistan

About 30,000 Islamists staged a protest on Sunday to condemn the United States and show support for Pakistan's military, which has reasserted itself after a cross-border NATO attack and a controversial memo that has weakened the civilian government.

Speakers included Hafiz Saeed, a fiercely anti-American cleric suspected of links to the group blamed for the 2008 militant rampage in the Indian city of Mumbai that killed 166 people.

Also at the podium was Maulana Sami-ul-Haq, known as the father of the Afghan Taliban, who are fighting U.S.-led NATO forces across the border in Afghanistan.

Pakistan's military was humiliated by the unilateral U.S. special forces raid that killed Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani town in May, facing unprecedented public criticism.

But many Pakistanis rallied behind it after a November 26 cross-border NATO air raid killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, and plunged already troubled ties with Washington to a low point.

Read the full story here.

Pakistan Beats Bangladesh in The First Cricket Test - Younis Khan Scores A Double Hundred

By Sikander Hayat 

Pakistan has continued their winning streak and have beaten Bangladesh comprehensively in the first cricket test being played in Bangladesh. Younis played the main role by scoring a double hundred while Hafeez & Asad Shafiq scored hundreds.
All Pakistani bowlers bowled well especially Rehman and Ajmal were unplayable for Bangladesh.
Bangladesh is a weak opposition but I am liking this new Pakistan which is more consistent and reliable in finishing off the opposition than many other Pakistani sides of recent years. Misbah ul Haq does deserve a lot of credit for this transformation and I would like to thank the English judge in the corruption case regarding spot fixing. 

Birth of Bangladesh / Secession of East Pakistan & The Sins of Our Fathers

By Sikander Hayat



December is the month when Pakistan lost its eastern half of East Pakistan which became Bangladesh in 1971. The cold chilly nights of December send shivers down the spine of Pakistanis forcing them to contemplate about what went wrong. Why our brothers who created Muslim League, who suffered partition of Bengal, who were at the forefront of the movement for the independence of Pakistan felt so angry that they decided to part their ways from the rest of Pakistan.

I do not want to blame our brothers from Bengal (East Pakistan) for wanting to secede as they gave us 24 years to correct our wrongs but leaders of West Pakistan, the intelligentsia, the elite and the general public attitude never considered East Pakistan as their integral part. There was a hint of racial, intellectual and martial prejudice and then there was a feeling in Eastern Pakistan that West Pakistan considered them the insignificant other.


It has been 37 years but the wounds are still not anywhere near healed. There is not much anguish about the succession itself as it was always going to be difficult for two parts of country to function as one when divided by thousand miles of hostile territory, but the way the separation took place make us Pakistanis anxious. If there was a referendum and had resulted in the creation of Bangladesh, it would have been fine but the birth of Bangladesh happened through a caesarean. A lot of bloodletting happened and a lot of innocent people lost everything they had.

West Pakistanis became foreigners in there on land with in a matter of hours. On 16th December 1971, Bangladesh was born, wounded, crying and dripping with blood.

Army operation which started on 25th of March and ended in a defeat on 16th December 1971 was an episode in the history of Pakistan which I as a Pakistani cannot justify.

A lot of West Pakistanis living in East Pakistan were killed by the Mukti Bahni but that still not justified the indiscriminately ruthless action by the Army. So here I am thinking what should be my reaction to all that misery and I have come to the conclusion that I must apologise whole heartedly, without any reservations.

I apologise as a Pakistani to all those mothers who lost their sons

I apologise to all sisters who lost their brothers

I apologise to all those sons and daughters who lost their parents

I apologise to all those daughters of East Pakistan who were humiliated &

I apologise for not keeping the promise we Pakistanis made to East Pakistan in 1947

These are the sins of our fathers, I cannot disown them, I cannot make them go away, I cannot forget them but I ask for forgiveness. I ask people of Bangladesh to forgive Pakistan (not forget the torment that you went through). Pakistan is not the same Pakistan; Bangladesh is not the same Bangladesh. I hope that when history lessons are taught in Bangladeshi schools, they end with a plea from Pakistanis for forgiveness and compassion.

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Thousands Of People Protest Against Vladimir Putin In Many Russian Cities

By Robin Lustig 

Perhaps I should start with a statement of the blindingly obvious: Russia is not Egypt.

Yes, there were thousands of anti-government protesters out on the streets of the capital this week. And yes, the security forces responded with great brutality. And yes again, online social networks played an important role in galvanising the protests and giving a voice to the protesters.

But no, an autocrat is not about to be toppled. And no, Vladimir Putin is not Hosni Mubarak. So I suspect any references to a "Russian spring" (in December, for goodness sake?) should be taken with a very large pinch of salt.

Let's rewind a few days. Last weekend, Russian voters went to the polls to choose a new parliament. This is not an event that normally excites much interest, because there is rarely any doubt about who is likely to win.

But this time was different. It was the first test of public opinion since Vladimir Putin (currently prime minister) and Dmitri Medvedev (currently president) announced that they intend to repeat their little trick of four years ago and swap jobs. (It's not an exact repeat, in fact, because four years ago, Mr Medvedev was a mere deputy prime minister. But the principle remains the same.)

Read the full story here. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/worldtonight/2011/12/what_next_for_mr_putin.html

Are Balochis Becoming A Minority In Balochistan?

BY SIKANDER HAYAT

Balochistan is not getting resolved and there are no signs that it will get anywhere near resolution in near to medium term. Looking from the Baloch militant's point of view,  it is very clear that they are not getting their goals nor there is any hope of achieving them. They are disrupting the march of advancement in Baloch dominated areas of the province and killing both frontier corps and ethnically non Baloch residents of the province. In all this killing, there is an exception and that exception is of Baloch militants not touching the Pashtuns of the province. According to Wikipedia, Balochistan is only 50% Baloch and the rest is mostly Pashtun with other smaller ethnicities making up the rest of the population.  If they start fighting Pashtuns, they know they will be routed and without taking on the Pashtun they cannot achieve there goal, which is primarily to make the province a Baloch dominated land. This is a catch twenty two situation and a conundrum that the militants will have to resolve soon before the Pashtun become a majority in whole of the province. 

 According to various sourses on the web, 

“Balochistan has a population of around 10 million inhabitants. Overall, the Baloch and Brohi tribes comprise 50% of the province's population. The rest are mainly Pashtuns, Hazaras and Sindhis. Baloch are concentrated in the sparsely populated north-west, west, east and south; Brohis in the centre of the province, while the Pashtuns are the majority in the north. Quetta, the capital of the province, has a Pashtun majority with Baloch, Hazaras and Punjabi minorities.
Near the Kalat region and other parts of the province there are significant numbers of Brahui speakers. Along the coast various Makrani Balochis predominate. In addition, 769,000 Afghan refugees can be found in the province including Pashtuns, Tajiks, and Hazaras. Many Sindhi farmers have also moved to the more arable lands in the east. There are also a growing number of other(s) ethnic groups consisting of Kurdish, Panjabi, Mohajir and Iranians who have made Balochistan their home in recent decades.”

“Balochistan's landscape in the 1980s changed markedly as Afghan refugee camps were established throughout the northern parts of the province. In many instances, temporary mud housing eventually became transformed into concrete structures. The refugees also caused the demographic balance to change as ethnic Pashtuns from inside Pakistan came to settle in Balochistan.”

Given the above information I believe that demographics is the issue at the heart of present unrest in Baloch areas of Balochistan. The common people have been told by the tribal chiefs that due to large number of mega projects like Gwadar port, a large body of non Baloch are moving into the area of Balochistan and soon Baloch will be a demographic minority.

It is evident from the census records that Baloch who were once the majority in Balochistan by a long way are now nearly 50% of the total population with a large number of Pashtuns living in the area as well. Other large minority are Sindhis speakers with a small number of Punjabi speakers present as well.

Hence the targeted killing of innocent non Balochis, especially Punjabis. Out of 200,000 Punjabis living in Balochistan, almost half have already left the province and the rest have sent their families to other parts of country to live with their relatives until situation settles down.

These demographic trends have emerged more by accident then design and as mentioned earlier Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, brought more than 3 million Afghan refugees into Pakistan and these people settle all along the Pakistani side of Afghanistan Pakistan border. Many of these Pashun people have settled in Pakistan and in the process changes the demographic landscape of Balochistan.

Quetta, the capital city of Balochistan is 50% Pashtun and Baloch are a minority in Quetta.


It seems to me that all three major outfits of the Baloch cause have decided that instead of taking on hard targets they should pick on soft targets and apart from killing Punjabi speakers, they have also kidnapped an innocent UN worker who has been in their captivity for last many months.



At one level, the trouble makers have found a very good way of correcting the demographic trends by killing people but it may backfire when Pakistan government will have to complete army garrison towns in parts of Balochistan to control these restive regions. 

The history of garrison towns in Pakistan suggest that once they are established and start functioning they have a habit of exponential growth in terms of civilian population and examples of this phenomenon are littered all over Pakistan. Currently there are plans to build at least three such towns in the Balochistan region. Baloch, who already are at 50% of the population see this as an attempt by the Pakistani government to bring there demographic percentage further down and eventually dilute it to the point where they do not have any claim to the cause of Baloch ethnic group.



I believe that building these cantonments will be a great stride towards providing prosperity to the Baloch region as it will bring increased investment and skills to the region. I also do not buy the argument that these garrison towns will compromise Baloch identity because Punjab has the highest number of these towns and is the most prosperous of them all. These towns bring with them prosperity and continuous employment for the local people and Punjab has experienced that phenomenon first hand.



If these cantonments were actually a tool of occupation then there would not have been any of them in Punjab as surely Pakistan army has not occupied Punjab! 

By the way, Pakistan Army has now said that no more garrisons will be built and any which have already been built will be handed over to the Frontier Constabulary .  Army will have no role in running these garrisons. Eventually, all problems get solved with talks and by sitting on the table with your enemies. But before that Baloch nationalists will consume all their fire power and may be this fight will go on for next 50 to 100 years but with growing population in the rest of Pakistan and Balochistan itself, cards are firmly stalked against those who want to secede from the Federation. 

This is not the first time Balochistan is facing a rebellion as there have been two rebellions before which were crushed and the way things are going, this time will be no different. The only losers in this whole exercise are the people of Balochistan who will be left further behind in development.  

It is time that Balochis understood that the real resistance to their goal of becoming a majority in the province are not the few thousand Punjabis but the Pashtun population increasing exponential in last two decades. The sooner they realize this, the sooner they will know that taking on the Pashtuns is an impossible task.




Related Posts:

1. Balochistan - Bugti, Marri & Mengal Sardars Are Keeping People in Their Areas Underdeveloped To Further Their Own Political Cause

2. Why Balochistan is Not East Pakistan?

3. Pakistan & The Provinces – The Question of Provincial Autonomy & Its Impact On Pakistan’s Future Prosperity

4. Pakistani Balochistan - Call for creation of Pashtoon province

Verinder Sehwag Scores A double Hundred In One Day International Against West Indies

By Sikander Hayat

Verinder Sehwag is playing a gem of an innings against West Indies in Indore. He has been a great servant of Indian cricket over the years and have made many fans throughout the world with his masterful batting. He has made triple hundreds before in test cricket but he is the second man to score a double hundred in limited overs cricket after Sachin Tendulkar.
He has played in todays match like someone who is in complete command and has ample time for his shots.Darren Sami, the West Indies captain has no options left to stop Verinder Sehwag as he has used all his bowlers both full time and part time.


This is how wikipedia describes Sehwag "Virender Sehwag (born 20 October 1978), affectionately known as Viru, the Nawab of Najafgarh, or theZen master of modern cricket, is one of the leading batsmen in the Indian cricket team. Sehwag is an aggressive right-handed opening batsman and a part-time right-arm off-spin bowler. He played his first One Day International in 1999 and joined the Indian Test cricket team in 2001. In April 2009, Sehwag became the only Indian to be honoured as the Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World for his performance in 2008, subsequently becoming the first player of any nationality to retain the award for 2009.

Sehwag holds multiple records including the highest score made by an Indian in Test cricket (319), which was also the fastest triple century in the history of international cricket (reached 300 off only 278 balls) as well as the fastest 250 by any batsman (in 207 balls against Sri Lanka on 3 December 2009 at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai). His other innings of 309 and 293 are also the second and third best by any Indian player. Sehwag also holds the distinction of being one of four batsmen in the world to have ever surpassed 300 twice in Test cricket, and the only one to score two triple centuries and take a five-wicket innings haul. In March 2009, Sehwag smashed the fastest century ever scored by an Indian in ODI cricket, from 60 balls.

Pakistan Army Needs To Back Off - Let Zardari Complete His Term

By Sikander Hayat



Why is everyone so hell bent on removing a democratically elected president by any means possible. Is it not the job of the people of Pakistan to give their verdict on the performance of this president. Zardari has made mistakes but has spent eleven years in jail and nothing has been proved against him yet. Please give democracy a chance so that people from Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan can keep their trust in the federation. PML (N) is asking for Zardari's resignation on moral grounds but what about houses in Park Lane London and businesses in Spain.
Now Nawaz Sharif is trying to pretend that he is the cleanest person in Pakistan. They are all corrupt but it is only the job of the people to tell who should be running the country. I am not a fan of Zardari, I know that he is president because all notable Bhutto’s are dead but I cannot second guess the choice of Pakistani people.
Army, if it is putting pressure on Zardari to resign, must back off or there will be dire consequences for the future of Pakistan.
Pakistan is as much a home for Sindhis, Blochis and Pathans as it of Punjabis. Leave it that way and respect the democratic mandate given to Pakistan Peoples Party by the people of Pakistan.

Is morality applicable to just people from smaller provinces. What about the morality of Nawaz Sharif's attack on the Supreme Court of Justice Sajjad Ali Shah? What about the morality of looting of Mehran Bank? What about the morality of creation of IJI to stop Benazir from gaining two third majority? What about the morality of creation of Q league? What about the morality of judicial murder of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto? I can go on for ever but lets not pretend that anything PLM (N) is doing has anything to do with morality.

If the reports that Pakistan army is trying to remove Zardari are true than it is a very sad state of affairs indeed. Pakistan army generals have given Pakistan nothing but instability with their rash decisions and short term policies.  From Isikander Mirza to Ayub Khan, from Yahya Khan to Zia Ul Haq and than Musharaf, all of them have made Pakistan what it is today. Pakistan was never allowed to have prolonged democracy and even when there was democracy, it was never allowed to do things against army's wishes.

I request to anyone who is listening, please stop meddling in the civilian affairs and runnning of the government. You allowed Osama bin Laden to hide in Pakistan and used him as a bargaining chip making Pakistan the laughing stock of the world.
You always play the national security card to keep Pakistanis on your side but America was able to invade Pakistan, came to the heart of Pakistan and picked Osama. How can you secure Pakistan when despite spending billions at the cost of infrastructure & human development, you cannot save Pakistan from its enemies.
Irony of all ironies is that an army which cannot conquor any other country, counquore its own every few years. Why? Why turn Pakistan into your dominion. Let Pakistan be run by its elected people and stay away from removing another elected government.

Only real democracy and continuous democracy can make Pakistan stronger and completion of PPP’s term in Parliament is a must for that to happen.



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