India’s secret torture chambers
By Anupam Dasgupta,
Little Terrorist, as the intelligence sleuths came to call him, turned out to be a hard nut to crack. No amount of torture would work on 20-year-old Mohammed Issa, who was picked up from Delhi on February 5, 2006. The Delhi Police believed that he had a hotline to Lashkar-e-Toiba deputy chief Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhwi, who later masterminded the 26/11 attack on Mumbai. At a secret detention centre in Delhi, the police and intelligence officers tried every single torture method in their arsenal-from electric shock to sleep deprivation-to make Issa sing. He stuck to his original line: that he had come from Nepal to visit a relative in Delhi. Only, they refused believe him.
According to the police, the youth from Uttar Pradesh, who had moved to Nepal in 2000 along with his family after his father, Irfan Ahmed, was accused in a terrorism case, returned to India to set up Lashkar modules in the national capital. More than six months after he was picked up, the police announced his arrest on August 14. He has since been shifted to the Tihar jail. His lawyer N.D. Pancholi said Issa was kept in illegal custody for months. If not, let the police say where he was between February 5 and August 15, he challenged.
Issa could have been detained in any of Delhi’s joint interrogation centres, used by the police and intelligence agencies to extract precious information from the detainees using methods frowned upon by the law. As one top police officer told THE WEEK in the course of our investigation, these torture chambers spread across the country are our “precious assets”. They are our own little Guantanamo Bays or Gitmos (where the US tortures terror suspects from Afghanistan and elsewhere for information).
Not many admit their existence, because doing so could result in human rights activists knocking at their doors and bad press for the smartly dressed intelligence men. It is a murky and dangerous world, according to K.S. Subramanian, Tripura’s former director-general of police, who has also served in the Intelligence Bureau. “Such sites exist and are being used to detain and interrogate suspected terrorists and it has been going on for a long time,” he told THE WEEK. “Even senior police officers are reluctant to talk about the system.” So are people who have been to these virtual hells that officially do not exist.
THE WEEK has identified 15 such secret interrogation centres-three each in Mumbai, Delhi, Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir, two in Kolkata and one in Assam. (One detention centre that is shared by all security and law enforcement agencies is in Palanpur, Gujarat.) Their locations have been arrived at after speaking to serving and retired top officers who had helped set up some of these facilities. Those who have spent time in these places had no idea where they are. They were taken blindfolded and were allowed no visitors. The only faces they got to see were those of the interrogators, day in and day out.
The biggest of the three detention centres in Mumbai, the Aarey Colony facility in Goregaon, has four rooms. The Anti-Terrorism Squad questioned Saeed Khan (name changed), one of the accused in the Malegaon blasts of September 2006, here. He was served food at irregular intervals (led to temporary disorientation) and was denied sleep. Another secret detention centre maintained in the city by the ATS at Kalachowky has a sound-proof room. Sohail Shaikh, accused in the July 2006 train bombings, was held here for close to two months. “He was kept in isolation for days together,” said an officer. “He crumbled after being subjected to hostile sessions. Intentional infliction of suffering does not always yield immediate results. Sometimes you have to wait for many days for the detainee to break. It is a tedious process.” The smallest of the three facilities at Chembur has just two rooms.
Parvez Ahmed Radoo, 30, of Baramulla district in Kashmir, was illegally detained in Delhi for over a month for allegedly trying to plot mass murder in the national capital on behalf of the Jaish-e-Mohammed. The Delhi Police’s chargesheet says he was arrested from the Azadpur fruit market in Delhi on October 14, 2006. But according to Parvez’s flight itinerary, he travelled from Srinagar to Delhi on September 12 on SpiceJet flight 850. The flight landed at Delhi airport at 12.10 p.m. He had to catch another flight at 1.30 p.m. (SpiceJet flight 217) to Pune, where, according to his parents, he was going to pursue his Ph.D. But he never boarded the Pune flight as he disappeared from the Delhi airport.
Parvez wrote an open letter from the Tihar jail, where he is currently held, in which he said he was arrested from the airport on September 12 and kept in custody for a month. Apparently, he was first taken to the Lodhi Colony police station and then to an apartment in Dwarka, where electrodes were attached to his genitals and power was switched on. (Delhi’s secret detention centres are located at Dwarka in south-west Delhi, the Inter-state Cell of the Crime Branch in Chanakyapuri in central Delhi, and the Lodhi Colony police station in south Delhi.)
“After my arrest on September 12, I was taken to Pune, where I was shown pictures of many Kashmiri boys,” Parvez said in the letter. “They wanted me to identify them. As I didn’t know any one of them, they brought me to Delhi again and threw me into the torture chamber of Lodhi Road [sic] police station. They took off my clothes and started beating me like an animal, so ruthlessly that my feet and fingers started bleeding. I was later forced to clean the blood-stained floor with my underwear. They gave me electric shocks and stretched my legs to extreme limits, resulting in internal haemorrhage. I started passing blood with my urine and stool. Later I was shifted to one flat near Delhi airport [he later identified the place as Dwarka]. From the adjacent flats, voices of crying and screaming had been coming, indicating presence of other persons being tortured.”
Throughout his detention, wrote Parvez, he was asked to lie to his parents that everything was fine. In the letter he also gave the mobile number from which the calls were made-9960565152. His family is trying to collect the call site details of the number to prove his illegal detention.
Delhi-based journalist Iftikhar Geelani, who spent nine days in the Lodhi Colony police station after his arrest in 2002 on spying charges, is yet to get over the traumatic experience. “There are lock-ups with such low ceilings that a person will not be able to stand,” he said. “There is an interrogation centre within the police station where people are brutally tortured with cables, and some are completely undressed and abused. They also have a facility to raise the temperature of the cell to a point where it is unbearable and then suddenly bring it down to freezing cold.”
Assistant Commissioner Rajan Bhagat, spokesman for the Delhi Police, denied the existence of such facilities. “Nobody ever asked me the question [about secret detention centres],” he said. “We don’t operate any such facility in our police stations.”
But Maloy Krishna Dhar, former joint director of the IB, confirmed the existence of secret detention centres in Delhi and other parts of the country. He was convinced that detention outside the police station and torture are an inevitable part of the war on terrorism. “Now I would never dream of doing the things I did when I was in charge,” said Dhar. “But security agencies need such facilities.” Interrogating suspected terrorists at secret detention centres, he said, is the most effective way to gather intelligence. “If you produce a suspect before court, he will never give you anything after that,” he said. In other words, once you record the arrest you are within the realm of the law and you have to acknowledge the rights of the accused-arrested and contend with his lawyer.
An officer who worked in one of the detention centres admitted that extreme physical and psychological torture, based loosely on the regime in Guantanamo Bay, is used to extract information from the detainees. It includes assault on the senses (pounding the ear with loud and disturbing music) and sleep deprivation, keeping prisoners naked to degrade and humiliate them, and forcibly administering drugs through the rectum to further break down their dignity. “The interrogators isolate key operatives so that the interrogator is the only person they see each day,” he said. “In extreme cases we use pethidine injections. It will make a person crazy.”
Molvi Iqbal from Uttar Pradesh, a suspected member of the Harkat-ul-Jihadi-Islami who is currently lodged in Tihar, was held at a secret detention centre for two months according to his relatives. They alleged that during interrogation a chip was implanted under his skin so that his movements could be tracked if he tried to escape. “He fears that the chip is still inside his skin,” said one of his relatives. “That has shattered him.”
Kolkata has its own Gitmos in Bhabani Bhawan, now the headquarters of the Criminal Investigation Department, and the Alipore Retreat in Tollygunj, a bungalow that is said to have 20 rooms. They were bursting at the seams at the height of the Naxalite movement, but are more or less quiet now. “A large number of innocent people, as well as suspected terrorists, have disappeared after being taken to such secret detention centres,” said Kirity Roy, a Kolkata-based human rights lawyer. “Their bodies would later be found, if at all, in the fields.”
That was how militancy was tackled, first in Punjab and then in Kashmir. Today no secret prison exists in Kashmir officially after the notorious Papa-2 interrogation centre was closed down. But secret torture cells thrive across the state. The most notorious ones are the Cargo Special Operation Group (SOG) camp in Haftchinar area in Srinagar and Humhama in Budgam district. Then there are the joint interrogation centres in Khanabal area of Anantnag district and Talab Tillo and Poonch areas in Jammu region. Detentions at JICs could last months. Lawyers in Kashmir have filed 15,000 petitions since 1990 seeking the whereabouts of the detainees and the charges against them without avail.
The most recent victim of the torture regime was Manzoor Ahmed Beigh, 40, who was picked by the SOG from Alucha Bagh area in Srinagar on May 18. His family alleged that he was chained up, hung upside down from the ceiling and ruthlessly beaten up. He died the same night. Following public outrage, the officer in charge of the camp was dismissed from the service in June.
Maqbool Sahil, a Srinagar-based photojournalist who was held at Hariniwas interrogation centre for 15 days, says it is a miracle that he is alive today. “If you tell them [interrogators] you are innocent, they will torture you so ruthlessly that you will break down and confess to anything,” he says.
Human rights organisations are understandably concerned. Navaz Kotwal, coordinator of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, said that there should be an open debate on the illegal detention centres. “The US had a debate on the Gitmos. Our government should come forward and respond to these allegations,” she said.
No one wants to compromise the nation’s safety, but the torture becomes unbearable, and questionable, when innocent people like the 14-year-old boy Irfan suffer (see box on page 30). The security of the country and its people is important and terrorism should be crushed at all cost. But the largest democracy in the world should also ensure that human rights are not violated.
Dhar defended the secret prison system, arguing that the successful defence of the country required that the security establishment be empowered to hold and interrogate suspected terrorists for as long as necessary and without restrictions imposed by the legal system. “The primary mission of the agencies is to save the nation both by overt and covert means from any terrorist threat,” he said. “But to keep the programme secret is a horrible burden.”
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Indian Democracy and Caste System
Indian Democracy and Caste System
(Dr.M Anwar)
Indians usually boast around as the bearers of democratic norms and holders of civilian rule through regular holding of elections and observing rituals essentially required by an egalitarian state. The arrangements appear to be going well with the hegemonic designs of elite class or upper caste Hindus yearning to remain in power by clever use of majority vote in India. The “Shining India” slogan jingled through media campaigns and other costly Public Service Announcements (PSAs) also raise speculations about the ground realities in India where discrimination of low caste Hindus and non-Hindu communities is the common practice.
Democracy in India has not changed the status and destiny of untouchables and the MALLEECH. Although at the time of election upper class Hindus make promises with tall claims using voters as a tool to tread the power path. The low caste majority is virtually forced to participate in the electoral process. There are dire consequences for those who opt to vote for a losing candidate. Thus coercion through state authority is openly applied to punish the political opponents and their supporters. The process of electioneering is repeated every time the government completes its term but nothing changes the fate of low caste communities in India. The question arises as to why cannot democracy bring a change in Indian culture where people are treated as equals with similar rights to be citizens of India, having freedom of expression, rights to elect their own representatives, freedom of religious practices and other rights as envisaged in a democratic state? Does India employ coercive methods to hide her real face as a democratic state and cheats her own people by using them as the instruments of power by discriminating against them as untouchable and impervious? Indian social system has the answer.
Unfortunately Indian social system is based on the notion of purity and pollution in which upper class does not interact on equal terms with the low castes. Exchange of eatables is as prohibited among the upper and low caste communities as the marriages. One gets polluted by touching the untouchables, hence drinking or eating with low castes is completely prohibited. Resultantly social exchange activities carry subjective and double meanings as one is never sure to expect that common exchange of pleasantries and promises made by the stake holders will carry the same weight. Social order in India is hate driven and low caste communities irrespective of their claims to be Indians by birth, are despised as much as the outsiders are loathed and rejected. Such a democracy practically leads people to incapacitation and wheezing debilitation while India shines only for the elite class.
Reportedly United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is taking into consideration to recognize caste-based discrimination as a human rights violation. This will certainly annoy India where low caste untouchable Hindus, Dalits, Muslims and Christians are habitually mal-treated on the basis of their castes. Nepal, where untouchability is traditionally practiced, has openly supported UNHRC draft principles and guidelines for effective elimination of caste based discrimination. This is radically different from India’s aversion to the internationalization of the caste problem. Adding to India’s discomfiture, Sweden in its capacity as the president of European Union (EU) has stated that caste-based discrimination is an important priority for EU. If the issue continues to gather momentum, UNHRC may in a future session adopt the draft principles and guidelines and send these for adoption to UN General Assembly. Though India succeeded in her efforts to keep caste out of the resolution adopted by the 2001 Durban conference on racism, yet the issue has emerged in a different guise. It will encourage other states to raise their voice against discrimination based on caste inequalities, exposing the real face of Indian democracy.
(Dr.M Anwar)
Indians usually boast around as the bearers of democratic norms and holders of civilian rule through regular holding of elections and observing rituals essentially required by an egalitarian state. The arrangements appear to be going well with the hegemonic designs of elite class or upper caste Hindus yearning to remain in power by clever use of majority vote in India. The “Shining India” slogan jingled through media campaigns and other costly Public Service Announcements (PSAs) also raise speculations about the ground realities in India where discrimination of low caste Hindus and non-Hindu communities is the common practice.
Democracy in India has not changed the status and destiny of untouchables and the MALLEECH. Although at the time of election upper class Hindus make promises with tall claims using voters as a tool to tread the power path. The low caste majority is virtually forced to participate in the electoral process. There are dire consequences for those who opt to vote for a losing candidate. Thus coercion through state authority is openly applied to punish the political opponents and their supporters. The process of electioneering is repeated every time the government completes its term but nothing changes the fate of low caste communities in India. The question arises as to why cannot democracy bring a change in Indian culture where people are treated as equals with similar rights to be citizens of India, having freedom of expression, rights to elect their own representatives, freedom of religious practices and other rights as envisaged in a democratic state? Does India employ coercive methods to hide her real face as a democratic state and cheats her own people by using them as the instruments of power by discriminating against them as untouchable and impervious? Indian social system has the answer.
Unfortunately Indian social system is based on the notion of purity and pollution in which upper class does not interact on equal terms with the low castes. Exchange of eatables is as prohibited among the upper and low caste communities as the marriages. One gets polluted by touching the untouchables, hence drinking or eating with low castes is completely prohibited. Resultantly social exchange activities carry subjective and double meanings as one is never sure to expect that common exchange of pleasantries and promises made by the stake holders will carry the same weight. Social order in India is hate driven and low caste communities irrespective of their claims to be Indians by birth, are despised as much as the outsiders are loathed and rejected. Such a democracy practically leads people to incapacitation and wheezing debilitation while India shines only for the elite class.
Reportedly United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is taking into consideration to recognize caste-based discrimination as a human rights violation. This will certainly annoy India where low caste untouchable Hindus, Dalits, Muslims and Christians are habitually mal-treated on the basis of their castes. Nepal, where untouchability is traditionally practiced, has openly supported UNHRC draft principles and guidelines for effective elimination of caste based discrimination. This is radically different from India’s aversion to the internationalization of the caste problem. Adding to India’s discomfiture, Sweden in its capacity as the president of European Union (EU) has stated that caste-based discrimination is an important priority for EU. If the issue continues to gather momentum, UNHRC may in a future session adopt the draft principles and guidelines and send these for adoption to UN General Assembly. Though India succeeded in her efforts to keep caste out of the resolution adopted by the 2001 Durban conference on racism, yet the issue has emerged in a different guise. It will encourage other states to raise their voice against discrimination based on caste inequalities, exposing the real face of Indian democracy.
IAF deploys fighters near Pak border, a clear cut aggression
IAF deploys fighters near Pak border, a clear cut aggression
Sultan M Hali
The Indian Air Force has stationed its MiG 29 fighter aircraft at Adampur near the Pakistani border to strengthen its air defense capabilities and minimize reaction time, according to news reports. There are two squadrons of the frontline fighters already present at the Adampur Airbase and the third squadron is on its way from Gujarat. ‘We consider ourselves to be a strategic air power establishment of the IAF in the western sector, ever ready for operations. We are fully geared up to operate in any given time frame like any other Air Force stations of the country,’ said Air Commodore HS Arora, Air Officer Commanding (AOC) of the Adampur air base.
To extend the service life of MiG 29 by 25 to 40 years, the RAC MiG aircraft corporation signed a contract with the Indian Ministry of Defense to upgrade over 60 fighters in service with the IAF since the 1980s. Six MiG-29 fighters are being upgraded and flight-tested in Russia and the remaining aircraft will be overhauled in India with the aid of Russian experts, IAF pilots and technicians are already undergoing training in Russia. The AOC claimed that the upgraded MiG 29 fighters will have better radar systems and avionics to help fighters, a new weapon control system, modernized RD-33 engines, which would increase the aircraft hitting capability from long ranges, will also be extremely helpful on any future attack on Pakistan. The first batch of upgraded fighters will arrive in the second half of 2010 and Russia will complete the upgradation of 60 MiG-29 fighters by 2013.
The IAF this year inducted one Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft, and two more will come on line in 2010 to strengthen IAF’s capability to see into Pakistan. In addition, the IAF is acquiring three midair refuelers, six C-130 transport aircraft, 80 medium-lift helicopters, Spyder air defense systems, medium power radars and low-level transportable radar. Earlier Western Air Command chief Air Marshal N.A.K. Browne had announced that the Indian Air Force is planning to deploy by 2011 two squadrons of Sukhoi Su-30 MKI multi-role strike fighters in the state of Punjab which borders Pakistan. Reportedly, the IAF is also upgrading six airstrips in Arunachal Pradesh to rapidly deploy troops and jointly developing with Russia fifth generation fighter aircrafts.
Pakistan should take this development in its stride and actually welcome it. India is so obsessed with it “Cold Start Strategy” and its fixation with launching its forces at minimum notice to gain the element of surprise that it is actually making Pakistan’s task easier. With the Su-30 and MiG-29s within striking range of its second line fighters like F-7Ps, PAF would be conserving its hi-tech F-16s and JF-17 Thunders and yet manage to wipe out the IAF’s hi-tech force with minimum effort generation. India’s AWACS will be matched with the SAAB ERIEYE AWACS, which will commence delivery from this year, while the Chinese AWCAS are expected in the near future. Other force multipliers like air to air refuelers are also in the pipeline. Possible modification of existing C-130s and A-310, induction of KC-135 are distinct possibilities and hopefully Pakistani defense planners are contemplating these options. Meanwhile Indian efforts to browbeat Pakistan have taken sinister turns. It is not ready to face Pakistan on the dialogue table and is making various excuses despite its solemn commitment at Sharm-ul-Shaikh. Parrot like, it is repeating its demands to do more to nab those behind the Mumbai attacks.
So much so that reportedly the Indian PM is trying to miss the Commonwealth heads of governments meeting in Trinidad coming November so that he does not have to meet his Pakistani counterpart Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani after reneging on his promise to restart the dialogue process. Meanwhile, President Obama is moving a universal test ban proposal but India is sabotaging its attempt by asking for more nuclear tests. It is a clear call for browbeating Pakistan because readers may recall that only last month, Indian Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor had declared that “Pakistan is stockpiling nukes over and above its genuine needs”. Right after the Mumbai attacks, which now appear to have been stage-managed by India itself, Indian Air Chief prepared to launch surgical strikes against alleged terrorist training camps in Pakistan. It was deterred only by the instant retaliation and state of preparedness by PAF. Indian fighter aircraft violated Pakistani airspace in a probe mission but got the rude shock of nearly being intercepted.
On September 11, India launched rocket attacks on its own side of the border and claimed that Pakistan had fired the projectiles. On October 6, 2009, BSF (Indian Border security Force) Director General Raman Srivastava during his first visit to Punjab Frontier said that BSF would give befitted reply to each Pakistan’s anti Indian acts. Addressing the media persons at Indo-Pak JCP (Joint Check Post) in Attari border Srivastava talked about recent rocket attacks on Indian border villages and cautioned Pakistan saying that in future such attacks from Pakistan would be replied in a befitted manner adding that 29 more BSF battalions would be positioned at the Pak-India border. It is not understood that after fencing the border as well as the Line of Control, India alleges that Pakistan is continuing cross-border terrorism. After spending millions of dollars on the state-of-the-art electronic fence, border patrols and ferocious watchdogs, India is now planning to enhance its Border Security Force by 29 battalions.
It is clear that India is trying to indulge in saber rattling and brow beat Pakistan so that attention can be diverted from the core issue of Kashmir as well as Indian supremacy and hegemony can be established in the region. To fulfill this desire, India continues to maintain the second largest standing army in the world, the fourth largest air force and the fifth largest Navy. With her potent conventional forces coupled with nuclear capability and a huge indigenous industrial base India aspires to attain the regional global power status.
Sultan M Hali
The Indian Air Force has stationed its MiG 29 fighter aircraft at Adampur near the Pakistani border to strengthen its air defense capabilities and minimize reaction time, according to news reports. There are two squadrons of the frontline fighters already present at the Adampur Airbase and the third squadron is on its way from Gujarat. ‘We consider ourselves to be a strategic air power establishment of the IAF in the western sector, ever ready for operations. We are fully geared up to operate in any given time frame like any other Air Force stations of the country,’ said Air Commodore HS Arora, Air Officer Commanding (AOC) of the Adampur air base.
To extend the service life of MiG 29 by 25 to 40 years, the RAC MiG aircraft corporation signed a contract with the Indian Ministry of Defense to upgrade over 60 fighters in service with the IAF since the 1980s. Six MiG-29 fighters are being upgraded and flight-tested in Russia and the remaining aircraft will be overhauled in India with the aid of Russian experts, IAF pilots and technicians are already undergoing training in Russia. The AOC claimed that the upgraded MiG 29 fighters will have better radar systems and avionics to help fighters, a new weapon control system, modernized RD-33 engines, which would increase the aircraft hitting capability from long ranges, will also be extremely helpful on any future attack on Pakistan. The first batch of upgraded fighters will arrive in the second half of 2010 and Russia will complete the upgradation of 60 MiG-29 fighters by 2013.
The IAF this year inducted one Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft, and two more will come on line in 2010 to strengthen IAF’s capability to see into Pakistan. In addition, the IAF is acquiring three midair refuelers, six C-130 transport aircraft, 80 medium-lift helicopters, Spyder air defense systems, medium power radars and low-level transportable radar. Earlier Western Air Command chief Air Marshal N.A.K. Browne had announced that the Indian Air Force is planning to deploy by 2011 two squadrons of Sukhoi Su-30 MKI multi-role strike fighters in the state of Punjab which borders Pakistan. Reportedly, the IAF is also upgrading six airstrips in Arunachal Pradesh to rapidly deploy troops and jointly developing with Russia fifth generation fighter aircrafts.
Pakistan should take this development in its stride and actually welcome it. India is so obsessed with it “Cold Start Strategy” and its fixation with launching its forces at minimum notice to gain the element of surprise that it is actually making Pakistan’s task easier. With the Su-30 and MiG-29s within striking range of its second line fighters like F-7Ps, PAF would be conserving its hi-tech F-16s and JF-17 Thunders and yet manage to wipe out the IAF’s hi-tech force with minimum effort generation. India’s AWACS will be matched with the SAAB ERIEYE AWACS, which will commence delivery from this year, while the Chinese AWCAS are expected in the near future. Other force multipliers like air to air refuelers are also in the pipeline. Possible modification of existing C-130s and A-310, induction of KC-135 are distinct possibilities and hopefully Pakistani defense planners are contemplating these options. Meanwhile Indian efforts to browbeat Pakistan have taken sinister turns. It is not ready to face Pakistan on the dialogue table and is making various excuses despite its solemn commitment at Sharm-ul-Shaikh. Parrot like, it is repeating its demands to do more to nab those behind the Mumbai attacks.
So much so that reportedly the Indian PM is trying to miss the Commonwealth heads of governments meeting in Trinidad coming November so that he does not have to meet his Pakistani counterpart Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani after reneging on his promise to restart the dialogue process. Meanwhile, President Obama is moving a universal test ban proposal but India is sabotaging its attempt by asking for more nuclear tests. It is a clear call for browbeating Pakistan because readers may recall that only last month, Indian Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor had declared that “Pakistan is stockpiling nukes over and above its genuine needs”. Right after the Mumbai attacks, which now appear to have been stage-managed by India itself, Indian Air Chief prepared to launch surgical strikes against alleged terrorist training camps in Pakistan. It was deterred only by the instant retaliation and state of preparedness by PAF. Indian fighter aircraft violated Pakistani airspace in a probe mission but got the rude shock of nearly being intercepted.
On September 11, India launched rocket attacks on its own side of the border and claimed that Pakistan had fired the projectiles. On October 6, 2009, BSF (Indian Border security Force) Director General Raman Srivastava during his first visit to Punjab Frontier said that BSF would give befitted reply to each Pakistan’s anti Indian acts. Addressing the media persons at Indo-Pak JCP (Joint Check Post) in Attari border Srivastava talked about recent rocket attacks on Indian border villages and cautioned Pakistan saying that in future such attacks from Pakistan would be replied in a befitted manner adding that 29 more BSF battalions would be positioned at the Pak-India border. It is not understood that after fencing the border as well as the Line of Control, India alleges that Pakistan is continuing cross-border terrorism. After spending millions of dollars on the state-of-the-art electronic fence, border patrols and ferocious watchdogs, India is now planning to enhance its Border Security Force by 29 battalions.
It is clear that India is trying to indulge in saber rattling and brow beat Pakistan so that attention can be diverted from the core issue of Kashmir as well as Indian supremacy and hegemony can be established in the region. To fulfill this desire, India continues to maintain the second largest standing army in the world, the fourth largest air force and the fifth largest Navy. With her potent conventional forces coupled with nuclear capability and a huge indigenous industrial base India aspires to attain the regional global power status.
The most dangerous place on earth, India
The most dangerous place on earth, India
Mohammad Jamil
During early 1950s, eminent philosopher Bertrand Russel in an essay titled “The future of mankind” had written that before the end of the century, unless something quite unforeseeable occurred, one of three possibilities would have realized. The first one was the end of human life or all life on the planet as a result of war, and then as a consequence hunger, starvation and disease. The second was reversion to barbarism in view of the first one, and third one was unification of the world under a single government, possessing a monopoly of all the major weapons of war”. But since then India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea have tested nuclear devices, and are nuclear powers with credible delivery systems; hence monopoly of major weapons of war for any country is impossible. The philosopher had however hoped that when America will emerge ‘victorious’, it would play its role to resolve the conflicts between belligerent nations.
There is no denying that today Kashmir, Palestine and Taiwan are three flashpoints. China has steadily gained the position that like Hong Kong one day Taiwan would also fall in the lap of China. Nevertheless, India and Pakistan - nuclear states – could collide one day if Kashmir issue is not resolved. And this makes South Asia as the most dangerous place on earth. Already in 1993 five years before India and Pakistan came out of nuclear closet in May 1999, Central Intelligence Agency Director had said: “The arms race between India and Pakistan poses perhaps the more probable prospect for future use of weapons of mass destruction including nuclear weapons”. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Taylor Branch author of ‘The Clinton tapes: Wrestling with the president’ claimed in his book that during Kargil conflict in 1999 Indian leaders had portrayed a doomsday scenario to the then president Bill Clinton that in the event of an Indo-Pak nuclear war India will emerge as the ultimate winner after wiping off Pakistan but could lose up to 500 million of its people.
The author claims that Clinton told him that “New Delhi would nuke Pakistan annihilating the entire country, if anyone in Islamabad triggered the nuclear bombs against it”. He quoted Bill Clinton having disclosed in private that Indian officials spoke of knowing roughly how many nuclear bombs the Pakistanis possessed, from which they calculated that a doomsday nuclear volley would kill 300 to 500 million Indians while wiping out all 120 million Pakistanis. But on the other side, the Pakistanis insisted that their rugged mountain terrain would shield more survivors than the exposed plains of India. Indian leadership had tried to convey message of threat through the then US president Bill Clinton, but Pakistan being a nuclear state was not cowed down by India’s jingoism and threats. Though Pakistan has kept the option of ‘first use’ of nukes open, yet it has never hurled threats that it would use them. However, efforts are made to create doubts about the safety of Pakistan’s nukes, but Pakistan has a foolproof command and control system.
Pakistan has also proved many a time that it is a responsible state. Signing of treaty to reduce the risk of a nuclear arms accident with India is a case in point. In fact, the nuclear tests in May 1998 by India and Pakistan had forced both the countries to think hard about nuclear deployment, and to talk to each other about ways to reduce the risk of war as well as accidents. However, there is a trust deficit because India’s stance on every issue is reflective of its patent intransigence. It appears that Indian leadership is not coming out of the big-power syndrome and feels that India does not need any help from Pakistan in any field, though it is craving to have transit facility to trade with Afghanistan and Central Asian Republics. Indian leadership seems to suffer from megalomania to do big things and become a dominant power in the region, which is next to impossible in the presence of China.
Anyhow, India’s arrogance and attitude have stymied the progress in enhancing trade between the SAARC countries, as almost all member-countries are wary of India’s ambition of extending hegemony over its neighbours. The fact remains that having a sound industrial base India stands to gain more from the cordial relations with the SAARC countries. Therefore it is in India’s interest to showcase decency and give practical demonstration of dealing neighbouring countries on equal basis. However, the US and the west are to blame because they continue eulogizing India being the largest democracy while turning a blind eye to India’s maltreatment with its minorities and machinations against its neighbouring countries. The US and western countries have an egregious record of displaying double standards on many an occasion - one for their strategic partners and the other one for those who refuse to fall in line with them to promote their interests.
India and Pakistan are outside the global Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and have tested nuclear arms but after the US-India deal for so-called civil nuclear technology the 45-nation nuclear export cartel approved a waiver to its rules allowing trade with India. It was obvious from the Indo-US agreement that India can increase from its current production capacity of six to 10 additional nuclear bombs a year to several dozen per year. It goes without saying that India already has enough material for some 60 to 100 nuclear bombs. In this backdrop, Pakistan is likely to match India’s capability in the name of minimum deterrence, while China may also reconsider its fissile production halt for weapons. There is a perception that by concluding a nuclear deal with India, the previous US administration allowed business and political interests to trump up the national security interests of the United States.
Besides, creating asymmetry in South Asia, the US-India nuclear trade legislation had granted India the benefits of being a member of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty without requiring it to meet all of the responsibilities expected of responsible states. India had remained outside the international nuclear mainstream since it misused Canadian and US nuclear assistance to conduct its 1974 nuclear bomb test; refused to sign the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, and conducted additional nuclear tests in 1998. India had been cut off from most US civilian nuclear assistance since 1978 and international assistance since 1992 because of these violations. It was felt that India’s willingness to open some nuclear reactors for international inspection in return for the deal was not enough, as the agreement allowed it to keep its extensive and secret nuclear weapons and materials production complex off-limits. By adopting the nuclear bill, Congress had disregarded the provisions that would have required commitments from India to restrain its production of nuclear weapons and nuclear bomb material.
On the other hand, the US had refused to ink similar deal with Pakistan - an old strategic ally that was intertwined with the US and the West in various pacts. Anyhow, the way the US has treated a friend that stood by its allies for about half-a-century, is deplorable. In this backdrop, it is imperative that Pakistan should undertake a major review of its foreign policy, and reassess our national interest in the changed post-cold war scenario, as the US continues with its policy that has led to asymmetry in the subcontinent by providing India with latest technology and equipment. And this policy is bound to make the Kashmir issue more complicated. In fact, die of strategic partnership with India was cast during Bill Clinton era, when paradigm shift in American policy started. During his visit to India at the fag end of his presidency, Bill Clinton had given hope to Indian leadership that the US would help India in making it a global power.
Mohammad Jamil
During early 1950s, eminent philosopher Bertrand Russel in an essay titled “The future of mankind” had written that before the end of the century, unless something quite unforeseeable occurred, one of three possibilities would have realized. The first one was the end of human life or all life on the planet as a result of war, and then as a consequence hunger, starvation and disease. The second was reversion to barbarism in view of the first one, and third one was unification of the world under a single government, possessing a monopoly of all the major weapons of war”. But since then India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea have tested nuclear devices, and are nuclear powers with credible delivery systems; hence monopoly of major weapons of war for any country is impossible. The philosopher had however hoped that when America will emerge ‘victorious’, it would play its role to resolve the conflicts between belligerent nations.
There is no denying that today Kashmir, Palestine and Taiwan are three flashpoints. China has steadily gained the position that like Hong Kong one day Taiwan would also fall in the lap of China. Nevertheless, India and Pakistan - nuclear states – could collide one day if Kashmir issue is not resolved. And this makes South Asia as the most dangerous place on earth. Already in 1993 five years before India and Pakistan came out of nuclear closet in May 1999, Central Intelligence Agency Director had said: “The arms race between India and Pakistan poses perhaps the more probable prospect for future use of weapons of mass destruction including nuclear weapons”. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Taylor Branch author of ‘The Clinton tapes: Wrestling with the president’ claimed in his book that during Kargil conflict in 1999 Indian leaders had portrayed a doomsday scenario to the then president Bill Clinton that in the event of an Indo-Pak nuclear war India will emerge as the ultimate winner after wiping off Pakistan but could lose up to 500 million of its people.
The author claims that Clinton told him that “New Delhi would nuke Pakistan annihilating the entire country, if anyone in Islamabad triggered the nuclear bombs against it”. He quoted Bill Clinton having disclosed in private that Indian officials spoke of knowing roughly how many nuclear bombs the Pakistanis possessed, from which they calculated that a doomsday nuclear volley would kill 300 to 500 million Indians while wiping out all 120 million Pakistanis. But on the other side, the Pakistanis insisted that their rugged mountain terrain would shield more survivors than the exposed plains of India. Indian leadership had tried to convey message of threat through the then US president Bill Clinton, but Pakistan being a nuclear state was not cowed down by India’s jingoism and threats. Though Pakistan has kept the option of ‘first use’ of nukes open, yet it has never hurled threats that it would use them. However, efforts are made to create doubts about the safety of Pakistan’s nukes, but Pakistan has a foolproof command and control system.
Pakistan has also proved many a time that it is a responsible state. Signing of treaty to reduce the risk of a nuclear arms accident with India is a case in point. In fact, the nuclear tests in May 1998 by India and Pakistan had forced both the countries to think hard about nuclear deployment, and to talk to each other about ways to reduce the risk of war as well as accidents. However, there is a trust deficit because India’s stance on every issue is reflective of its patent intransigence. It appears that Indian leadership is not coming out of the big-power syndrome and feels that India does not need any help from Pakistan in any field, though it is craving to have transit facility to trade with Afghanistan and Central Asian Republics. Indian leadership seems to suffer from megalomania to do big things and become a dominant power in the region, which is next to impossible in the presence of China.
Anyhow, India’s arrogance and attitude have stymied the progress in enhancing trade between the SAARC countries, as almost all member-countries are wary of India’s ambition of extending hegemony over its neighbours. The fact remains that having a sound industrial base India stands to gain more from the cordial relations with the SAARC countries. Therefore it is in India’s interest to showcase decency and give practical demonstration of dealing neighbouring countries on equal basis. However, the US and the west are to blame because they continue eulogizing India being the largest democracy while turning a blind eye to India’s maltreatment with its minorities and machinations against its neighbouring countries. The US and western countries have an egregious record of displaying double standards on many an occasion - one for their strategic partners and the other one for those who refuse to fall in line with them to promote their interests.
India and Pakistan are outside the global Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and have tested nuclear arms but after the US-India deal for so-called civil nuclear technology the 45-nation nuclear export cartel approved a waiver to its rules allowing trade with India. It was obvious from the Indo-US agreement that India can increase from its current production capacity of six to 10 additional nuclear bombs a year to several dozen per year. It goes without saying that India already has enough material for some 60 to 100 nuclear bombs. In this backdrop, Pakistan is likely to match India’s capability in the name of minimum deterrence, while China may also reconsider its fissile production halt for weapons. There is a perception that by concluding a nuclear deal with India, the previous US administration allowed business and political interests to trump up the national security interests of the United States.
Besides, creating asymmetry in South Asia, the US-India nuclear trade legislation had granted India the benefits of being a member of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty without requiring it to meet all of the responsibilities expected of responsible states. India had remained outside the international nuclear mainstream since it misused Canadian and US nuclear assistance to conduct its 1974 nuclear bomb test; refused to sign the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, and conducted additional nuclear tests in 1998. India had been cut off from most US civilian nuclear assistance since 1978 and international assistance since 1992 because of these violations. It was felt that India’s willingness to open some nuclear reactors for international inspection in return for the deal was not enough, as the agreement allowed it to keep its extensive and secret nuclear weapons and materials production complex off-limits. By adopting the nuclear bill, Congress had disregarded the provisions that would have required commitments from India to restrain its production of nuclear weapons and nuclear bomb material.
On the other hand, the US had refused to ink similar deal with Pakistan - an old strategic ally that was intertwined with the US and the West in various pacts. Anyhow, the way the US has treated a friend that stood by its allies for about half-a-century, is deplorable. In this backdrop, it is imperative that Pakistan should undertake a major review of its foreign policy, and reassess our national interest in the changed post-cold war scenario, as the US continues with its policy that has led to asymmetry in the subcontinent by providing India with latest technology and equipment. And this policy is bound to make the Kashmir issue more complicated. In fact, die of strategic partnership with India was cast during Bill Clinton era, when paradigm shift in American policy started. During his visit to India at the fag end of his presidency, Bill Clinton had given hope to Indian leadership that the US would help India in making it a global power.
Friday, May 28, 2010
A conspiracy to barren Pakistan's farmlands
A conspiracy to barren Pakistan's farmlands
Ishrat Ali Khan
While Pakistan has handed over credible evidence of Indian involvement in the subversive activities on its soil, India has pierced yet another soft target by building Wullar barrage on Jhelum River forcing the agro-based economy in tatters. Pakistan Indus Commissioner Syed Jamaat Ali Shah and Indian Indus water Commissioner G Aranganathan held important parleys early June and discussed 14 agenda items; including the contentious Wullar barrage project. The talks were essentially a failure with both sides being unable to reach an agreement on the Chenab's water flow, the Wullar barrage project and Nimo Bazgo hydel power projects. The two nations refer to the dam project by different names - Pakistan calls it the Wullar barrage and India calls it the Tulbul Navigation Project. It is a barrage because India is storing the flow of water through a 22-KM long tunnel into the Wullar Lake. According to Indian water strategists, the dam will help maintain better water levels in a nearby lake and regulate the flow of flood waters. That is why, it is a navigational effort. Nevertheless, Islamabad fears the proposed dam on the Jhelum river, a tributary of the Indus, will affect water levels further downstream in the plains of its Punjab province threatening irrigation and power projects. In the wake of inconclusive talks on water flow of Jhelum, Indian attempt to use water as a geo-strategic tool, is unfair and in contravention to the IWT-1960.
According to Indus Water Treaty of 1960, India has been allotted exclusive control/right over the waters of the eastern rivers, namely; the Ravi, the Beas and the Sutlej. Pakistan controls the waters of three western rivers; the Indus, the Jhelum and the Chenab. It is interesting to note that the base-source of water of all the rivers flows from Indian Held Kashmir (IHK). As the demand for water increased manifold, India's growing lust for maximum control over the sources of the supply of water of three western rivers, became more pronounced for its burgeoning population. The treaty barred India from storing any water or constructing any storage works on the western rivers that would result in a reduced flow of water to Pakistan. The Indian design to construct dams on Pakistani rivers will diminished the flow of Jhelum during the vital Rabi crop-sowing season (January and February) threatening Pakistan's agro-based economy and throwing the fate of dismal farmers in the abyss of absurdity.
The problem between the two countries arose when India decided to build a dam on the Kishan-Ganga River that originates in Indian Occupied Kashmir. The Kishan-Ganga river assumes the name of Neelum river upon entering in the Azad Kashmir region and becomes river Jhelum when it enters Pakistan. Pakistan has been vehemently opposing the construction of the Kishan-Ganga hydropower project. Pakistan believes that the diversion of waters of Neelum is not allowed under the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, and it will face a 27 per cent water deficit, when the project gets completed. The reduced water flow in the Neelum would not yield the required results of the proposed 1.6 billion dollars Neelum-Jehlum hydropower project that has been designed to generate 969 MW of electricity. India proposed to build the barrage in 1984 on the River Jhelum, at the mouth of Wullar Lake, India's largest fresh water lake, near Sopore town in Kashmir Valley. The proposed site for dam is near Kanzalwan - a town from where the river enters Azad Kashmir. The Indian plans include storing water and then tunneling it to the Wuller lake, where it is constructing a 800MW power house. India has almost completed a 22-kilometre long tunnel to divert Kishanganga waters to Wullar Lake in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan maintains that India, under the treaty, can store water but it cannot divert it to any other side. Thus, any diversion would violate the provisions of the treaty. Pakistan believes Wullar barrage can be used as: (1) a geo-strategic weapon, (2) potential to disrupt the triple canal project of Pakistan, (3) badly affecting the Neelum-Jehlum hydro-power project, (4) agriculture in Azad Kashmir (5) drying the lands of Punjab province.
Ishrat Ali Khan
While Pakistan has handed over credible evidence of Indian involvement in the subversive activities on its soil, India has pierced yet another soft target by building Wullar barrage on Jhelum River forcing the agro-based economy in tatters. Pakistan Indus Commissioner Syed Jamaat Ali Shah and Indian Indus water Commissioner G Aranganathan held important parleys early June and discussed 14 agenda items; including the contentious Wullar barrage project. The talks were essentially a failure with both sides being unable to reach an agreement on the Chenab's water flow, the Wullar barrage project and Nimo Bazgo hydel power projects. The two nations refer to the dam project by different names - Pakistan calls it the Wullar barrage and India calls it the Tulbul Navigation Project. It is a barrage because India is storing the flow of water through a 22-KM long tunnel into the Wullar Lake. According to Indian water strategists, the dam will help maintain better water levels in a nearby lake and regulate the flow of flood waters. That is why, it is a navigational effort. Nevertheless, Islamabad fears the proposed dam on the Jhelum river, a tributary of the Indus, will affect water levels further downstream in the plains of its Punjab province threatening irrigation and power projects. In the wake of inconclusive talks on water flow of Jhelum, Indian attempt to use water as a geo-strategic tool, is unfair and in contravention to the IWT-1960.
According to Indus Water Treaty of 1960, India has been allotted exclusive control/right over the waters of the eastern rivers, namely; the Ravi, the Beas and the Sutlej. Pakistan controls the waters of three western rivers; the Indus, the Jhelum and the Chenab. It is interesting to note that the base-source of water of all the rivers flows from Indian Held Kashmir (IHK). As the demand for water increased manifold, India's growing lust for maximum control over the sources of the supply of water of three western rivers, became more pronounced for its burgeoning population. The treaty barred India from storing any water or constructing any storage works on the western rivers that would result in a reduced flow of water to Pakistan. The Indian design to construct dams on Pakistani rivers will diminished the flow of Jhelum during the vital Rabi crop-sowing season (January and February) threatening Pakistan's agro-based economy and throwing the fate of dismal farmers in the abyss of absurdity.
The problem between the two countries arose when India decided to build a dam on the Kishan-Ganga River that originates in Indian Occupied Kashmir. The Kishan-Ganga river assumes the name of Neelum river upon entering in the Azad Kashmir region and becomes river Jhelum when it enters Pakistan. Pakistan has been vehemently opposing the construction of the Kishan-Ganga hydropower project. Pakistan believes that the diversion of waters of Neelum is not allowed under the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, and it will face a 27 per cent water deficit, when the project gets completed. The reduced water flow in the Neelum would not yield the required results of the proposed 1.6 billion dollars Neelum-Jehlum hydropower project that has been designed to generate 969 MW of electricity. India proposed to build the barrage in 1984 on the River Jhelum, at the mouth of Wullar Lake, India's largest fresh water lake, near Sopore town in Kashmir Valley. The proposed site for dam is near Kanzalwan - a town from where the river enters Azad Kashmir. The Indian plans include storing water and then tunneling it to the Wuller lake, where it is constructing a 800MW power house. India has almost completed a 22-kilometre long tunnel to divert Kishanganga waters to Wullar Lake in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan maintains that India, under the treaty, can store water but it cannot divert it to any other side. Thus, any diversion would violate the provisions of the treaty. Pakistan believes Wullar barrage can be used as: (1) a geo-strategic weapon, (2) potential to disrupt the triple canal project of Pakistan, (3) badly affecting the Neelum-Jehlum hydro-power project, (4) agriculture in Azad Kashmir (5) drying the lands of Punjab province.
India's Wish List
India's Wish List
Ahsan-Waheed
India does not want to talk to Pakistan. What does it want? From the writings that come out of India especially from the RAW sponsored South Asia Analysis Group an Indian wish list is clearly discernible.
India wants Pakistan to be kept permanently in the dog house for a past proliferation episode and does not want anyone to believe that Pakistan has taken measures to achieve almost unassailable security and state of the art command and control measures. India wants the world to note and keep noting the extremist threat from Pakistan and Pakistan alone. It does not want anyone to ponder on the world wide extremism phenomenon. Nor does it want anyone to even think about the response by Islam to the threat it faces from extremism. And it certainly does not want a focus on the Hindoo extremism within India and the large segments of India's population and officialdom involved in this menace.
India wants Pakistan to be labeled the epicenter of terror. It does not want anyone to believe that Pakistan is the victim of terror and that it is fighting a successful counterinsurgency that has its roots in Afghanistan. It also does not want anyone to believe that Pakistan has cut the link between international terror and the extremists with domestic agendas and is now shoring up its internal security. India does not want the spotlight on its own activities to destabilize Pakistan by covert support to subversive elements in Baluchistan and insurgents in FATA. It is this policy by India that backfired and led to the bombing of its embassy in Kabul and the terrorist attacks in Bombay. India makes much of the dossier presented to Pakistan but it does not want anyone to investigate the domestic links to the attack. India is irked by the US-Pakistan relationship and wants the US, its media and its people to be fed anti Pakistan propaganda and it uses all its assets for that.
There is more. India on its way to becoming a world power is worried about the nuclear and conventional threat from Pakistan. Its Army Chief thinks that Pakistan is going beyond legitimate deterrence requirements. No one should however question India's massive conventional build up and unrestrained nuclear weapons development that has received a massive boost through the US-India Nuclear Technology Agreement. India is appalled that a Chinese scholar has dared to publish a treatise on the possible break up of India—under the weight of its ambitions and death wishes for others.
India, of course, is a sovereign state and has a right to its wishes and plans to get those wishes fulfilled. It just needs to note whether the reactions and counter strategies triggered by its policies are in its own or regional or world interest? Already there is talk of India's linkage to the Tamil Tigers for the mess in Sri Lanka and for the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Pakistan. More such revelations could follow. This is the time when India can reassure others and move towards bilateral talks and regional harmony—but that is not what India wishes for.
Ahsan-Waheed
India does not want to talk to Pakistan. What does it want? From the writings that come out of India especially from the RAW sponsored South Asia Analysis Group an Indian wish list is clearly discernible.
India wants Pakistan to be kept permanently in the dog house for a past proliferation episode and does not want anyone to believe that Pakistan has taken measures to achieve almost unassailable security and state of the art command and control measures. India wants the world to note and keep noting the extremist threat from Pakistan and Pakistan alone. It does not want anyone to ponder on the world wide extremism phenomenon. Nor does it want anyone to even think about the response by Islam to the threat it faces from extremism. And it certainly does not want a focus on the Hindoo extremism within India and the large segments of India's population and officialdom involved in this menace.
India wants Pakistan to be labeled the epicenter of terror. It does not want anyone to believe that Pakistan is the victim of terror and that it is fighting a successful counterinsurgency that has its roots in Afghanistan. It also does not want anyone to believe that Pakistan has cut the link between international terror and the extremists with domestic agendas and is now shoring up its internal security. India does not want the spotlight on its own activities to destabilize Pakistan by covert support to subversive elements in Baluchistan and insurgents in FATA. It is this policy by India that backfired and led to the bombing of its embassy in Kabul and the terrorist attacks in Bombay. India makes much of the dossier presented to Pakistan but it does not want anyone to investigate the domestic links to the attack. India is irked by the US-Pakistan relationship and wants the US, its media and its people to be fed anti Pakistan propaganda and it uses all its assets for that.
There is more. India on its way to becoming a world power is worried about the nuclear and conventional threat from Pakistan. Its Army Chief thinks that Pakistan is going beyond legitimate deterrence requirements. No one should however question India's massive conventional build up and unrestrained nuclear weapons development that has received a massive boost through the US-India Nuclear Technology Agreement. India is appalled that a Chinese scholar has dared to publish a treatise on the possible break up of India—under the weight of its ambitions and death wishes for others.
India, of course, is a sovereign state and has a right to its wishes and plans to get those wishes fulfilled. It just needs to note whether the reactions and counter strategies triggered by its policies are in its own or regional or world interest? Already there is talk of India's linkage to the Tamil Tigers for the mess in Sri Lanka and for the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Pakistan. More such revelations could follow. This is the time when India can reassure others and move towards bilateral talks and regional harmony—but that is not what India wishes for.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Pokharan-II - a dud?
Pokharan-II - a dud?
Sajjad Shaukat
After decades of denials and cover-ups, a flurry of confessions has pervaded the news waves in Pakistan with all kinds of skeletons in the cupboard being aired and exposed. The epidemic appears to be infectious and has crossed the boundaries into India as well. First it was Jaswant Singh, paying tributes to the Quaid, much to the chagrin of his hardliner political party, the BJP, which unceremoniously expelled him; now the admission by a senior Indian nuclear scientist that the Indian nuclear tests at Pokharan II in May 1998 were a dud, have shaken India. This revelation has confirmed the suspicion voiced by international as well Pakistani scientists immediately after the tests, since the seismic measurements indicated that the only thermonuclear device tested was a "fizzle". In nuclear parlance, a test is described as a fizzle when it fails to meet the desired yield. K Santhanam, senior scientist and DRDO representative at Pokharan II, director for 1998 test site preparations, told Times of India that the yield for the thermonuclear test, or hydrogen bomb in popular usage, was much lower than what was claimed. The test was said to have yielded 45 kilotons (KT) but was challenged by western experts who said it was not more than 20 KT. The exact yield of the thermonuclear explosion is important as during the heated debate on the India-US nuclear deal, it was strenuously argued by the government's top scientists that no more tests were required for the weapons programme and computer simulations would be enough in future design.
The question here arises regarding the timing of the disclosure of the failure of thermonuclear tests. Why would Santhanam go public, with such deliberation, on something that was commonly discussed and widely acknowledged in scientific circles, a decade after the questions first surfaced? The answer, according to some nuclear experts is to ward off growing American pressure on India to sign various nuclear containment treaties and perhaps enable India to conduct one last series of tests to validate and improve its nuclear arsenal.
US nuclear experts, taking cognisance of Santhanam's admission have also concluded that Indian scientists are yearning to conduct more nuclear tests to validate and improve the country's arsenal before the Obama Administration shuts the door on nuclear explosions. Henry Sokolski, Executive Director of the Washington DC-based Nonproliferation Policy Education Centre, confirmed the same and opined that Washington has long believed that geo-political objectives rather than scientific or technical metrics drives New Delhi's nuclear weapons quest. In scores of research papers and studies in the immediate weeks and months of the 1998 nuclear tests in Pokharan, US and British scientists repeatedly questioned the reported yield of the thermonuclear device, saying it was well below India's claim of 43-45 kilotons. In fact, some scientists, notably Terry Wallace, then with the University of Arizona and now attached to the Los Alamos National Laboratory, put the combined yield of the three May 11 tests at as low as 10 to 15 kilotons. Two other tests on May 13 involved sub-kiloton devices for tactical weapons, which US scientists doubted even, took place.
India thus appears to be divided in two groups, those who want to test and those who do not. P K Iyengar, former head of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and former chairman of Atomic Energy Commission of India, told BBC that he had made it clear in 2002 that India's nuclear tests were 'inconclusive and ambiguous'. Indian PM Dr Singh and former National Security Advisor, Brajesh Mishra, quoting former Indian president and scientific adviser to the Defence Minister Dr A P J Abdul Kalam for claiming success of the Pokharan II tests, have discredited Santhanam's exposé. Vicky Nanjappa's interview of K Santhanam for Rediff.com in 'Why K Santhanam said Pokharan II was not a success' quotes Santhanam, when asked to comment on Dr Kalam's rebuttal, as saying: "I would like to react to that. First of all, Dr Kalam is not a nuclear scientist. He is a missile scientist and he was not present there at that time. He is blissfully ignorant of the facts. Do I need to say more?" Even Santhanam, regarding the belated timing of his disclosure admits: "There is a change in the administration in the United States of America. They are bound to further pressurise India to sign the CTBT. In such an event it was necessary to make such a statement or speak the truth on the issue so that India does not rush into signing the CTBT."
Gary Milholin, Director of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, confirms the same: "An Indian test would be very toxic to cooperation it has just gained under the nuclear deal."
N M Sampathkumar Iyengar, a subcontractor of the Indian nuclear and space establishments before their focus turned to weapon development, in his Op-Ed, India's 1998 nuke 'fizzle', confirms Santhanam's exposé and adds more spice to it. He claims that the 1998 thermonuclear devices were the only "technology advancement" over the detonation of a crude device in 1974 at Pokharan. The absence of scrutiny turned India's Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) into a den of nepotism and corruption. Pokharan II, while boosting Vajpayee's image and fuelling a ruinous arms race in the subcontinent also bailed out DAE mandarins who had siphoned off funds with the promise of generating "20,000 MW by the year 2000" through nuclear power. Nine years later the DAE has failed to establish even 10 percent of that capacity. Santhanam's disclosure that the test of the thermonuclear device that he coordinated was a "fizzle" has let a cat among the pigeons.
Outgoing Indian Naval Chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta has also tried to discredit Santhanam, reportedly with vested interests, as he is hoping to land a lucrative post-retirement placement as "advisor" Russian Missile programme in India. Bharat Karnad, Indian security expert opines that Santhanam's confession is important and puts the onus on the government, which has to prove that India does have a thermonuclear deterrent and not a dud.
Sajjad Shaukat
After decades of denials and cover-ups, a flurry of confessions has pervaded the news waves in Pakistan with all kinds of skeletons in the cupboard being aired and exposed. The epidemic appears to be infectious and has crossed the boundaries into India as well. First it was Jaswant Singh, paying tributes to the Quaid, much to the chagrin of his hardliner political party, the BJP, which unceremoniously expelled him; now the admission by a senior Indian nuclear scientist that the Indian nuclear tests at Pokharan II in May 1998 were a dud, have shaken India. This revelation has confirmed the suspicion voiced by international as well Pakistani scientists immediately after the tests, since the seismic measurements indicated that the only thermonuclear device tested was a "fizzle". In nuclear parlance, a test is described as a fizzle when it fails to meet the desired yield. K Santhanam, senior scientist and DRDO representative at Pokharan II, director for 1998 test site preparations, told Times of India that the yield for the thermonuclear test, or hydrogen bomb in popular usage, was much lower than what was claimed. The test was said to have yielded 45 kilotons (KT) but was challenged by western experts who said it was not more than 20 KT. The exact yield of the thermonuclear explosion is important as during the heated debate on the India-US nuclear deal, it was strenuously argued by the government's top scientists that no more tests were required for the weapons programme and computer simulations would be enough in future design.
The question here arises regarding the timing of the disclosure of the failure of thermonuclear tests. Why would Santhanam go public, with such deliberation, on something that was commonly discussed and widely acknowledged in scientific circles, a decade after the questions first surfaced? The answer, according to some nuclear experts is to ward off growing American pressure on India to sign various nuclear containment treaties and perhaps enable India to conduct one last series of tests to validate and improve its nuclear arsenal.
US nuclear experts, taking cognisance of Santhanam's admission have also concluded that Indian scientists are yearning to conduct more nuclear tests to validate and improve the country's arsenal before the Obama Administration shuts the door on nuclear explosions. Henry Sokolski, Executive Director of the Washington DC-based Nonproliferation Policy Education Centre, confirmed the same and opined that Washington has long believed that geo-political objectives rather than scientific or technical metrics drives New Delhi's nuclear weapons quest. In scores of research papers and studies in the immediate weeks and months of the 1998 nuclear tests in Pokharan, US and British scientists repeatedly questioned the reported yield of the thermonuclear device, saying it was well below India's claim of 43-45 kilotons. In fact, some scientists, notably Terry Wallace, then with the University of Arizona and now attached to the Los Alamos National Laboratory, put the combined yield of the three May 11 tests at as low as 10 to 15 kilotons. Two other tests on May 13 involved sub-kiloton devices for tactical weapons, which US scientists doubted even, took place.
India thus appears to be divided in two groups, those who want to test and those who do not. P K Iyengar, former head of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and former chairman of Atomic Energy Commission of India, told BBC that he had made it clear in 2002 that India's nuclear tests were 'inconclusive and ambiguous'. Indian PM Dr Singh and former National Security Advisor, Brajesh Mishra, quoting former Indian president and scientific adviser to the Defence Minister Dr A P J Abdul Kalam for claiming success of the Pokharan II tests, have discredited Santhanam's exposé. Vicky Nanjappa's interview of K Santhanam for Rediff.com in 'Why K Santhanam said Pokharan II was not a success' quotes Santhanam, when asked to comment on Dr Kalam's rebuttal, as saying: "I would like to react to that. First of all, Dr Kalam is not a nuclear scientist. He is a missile scientist and he was not present there at that time. He is blissfully ignorant of the facts. Do I need to say more?" Even Santhanam, regarding the belated timing of his disclosure admits: "There is a change in the administration in the United States of America. They are bound to further pressurise India to sign the CTBT. In such an event it was necessary to make such a statement or speak the truth on the issue so that India does not rush into signing the CTBT."
Gary Milholin, Director of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, confirms the same: "An Indian test would be very toxic to cooperation it has just gained under the nuclear deal."
N M Sampathkumar Iyengar, a subcontractor of the Indian nuclear and space establishments before their focus turned to weapon development, in his Op-Ed, India's 1998 nuke 'fizzle', confirms Santhanam's exposé and adds more spice to it. He claims that the 1998 thermonuclear devices were the only "technology advancement" over the detonation of a crude device in 1974 at Pokharan. The absence of scrutiny turned India's Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) into a den of nepotism and corruption. Pokharan II, while boosting Vajpayee's image and fuelling a ruinous arms race in the subcontinent also bailed out DAE mandarins who had siphoned off funds with the promise of generating "20,000 MW by the year 2000" through nuclear power. Nine years later the DAE has failed to establish even 10 percent of that capacity. Santhanam's disclosure that the test of the thermonuclear device that he coordinated was a "fizzle" has let a cat among the pigeons.
Outgoing Indian Naval Chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta has also tried to discredit Santhanam, reportedly with vested interests, as he is hoping to land a lucrative post-retirement placement as "advisor" Russian Missile programme in India. Bharat Karnad, Indian security expert opines that Santhanam's confession is important and puts the onus on the government, which has to prove that India does have a thermonuclear deterrent and not a dud.
Victimization of women officers in Indian Army
Victimization of women officers in Indian Army
By: Afshain Afzal
Indian Army started recruiting women officers in 1993. Today there are around 1,000 female officers in Indian Army, all in non-combat roles. Since their induction a number of women officers were punished for various offences. In majority of cases sexual harassment by the senior male officers was resented but it resulted in victimization of various natures. Usually a legal process was involved to authenticate the victimization. Hence as an undeclared remedial measure, punishment is awarded to vocal women officers who dare challenge senior officers. There are a number of examples where even Court Martial proceedings have been initiated against women officers who resented sexual harassment from senior Indian Army officers. The cases of Army Service Corps (ASC) officer Captain Poonam Kaur and officer of Judge Advocate General branch Major Dimple Singla is in front of us where instead of taking action against Indian senior officers, a retaliatory action was taken and both were dismissed from service. Major Dimple Singla, was tried on corruption charges in 2006 at Chandigarh and dismissed but she was bold enough to challenge her unlawful dismissal. There are also cases, including the one in Indian held Jammu and Kashmir, where women officer due to sexual harassment committed suicide. There is a long list of women in Indian Army who quietly bear all sort of sexual harassment by their seniors due to fear of further victimization and dismissal.
As regard to Captain Poonam Kaur, she lodged complaint on July 15, 2008 against three officers of her unit, 5682 Battalion of the Army Supply Corps based in Kalka, Haryana for mentally and sexually harassing her and confining her illegally when she resisted their advances. The officers included Colonel R K Sharma, Commanding Officer, the Lieutenant Colonel Chawla, Second-in-Command and Major Suraj Bhan, Adjutant of the unit. A Court of Inquiry (COI) was ordered to investigate the allegations leveled by Captain Kaur against her superior officers. The President COI was pressurized by Crops Commander, a serving Lieutenant General and other senior officers to save the involved officers. Resultantly President COI recommended a Court Martial against Captain Kaur for false charges. The Army court's decision will now be put up to the Western Army Commander Lieutenant GeneralT K Sapru for confirmation. Captain Kaur has been blamed for addressing the media pertaining to service matters but what other choice she had before her. Nobody was ready to listen to her grievances rather she was harassed and literally placed under house arrest in her quarters in Kalka. Later, an officer of Major General-rank visited her quarters to pressurize her to take back her allegations against three senior officers but she refused to meet him. It is true that India Army has issued orders for her dismissal of Captain Kaur while Western Army Commander, Lieutenant General T K Sapru is also going to confirm the punishment but is it a justice in India Army.
India should not forget that a good number of its officers really need vigilance to keep them within their shoes. Indian Army’s behaviour not only at home but also internationally is full of spots. In 2007 a Lieutenant Colonel and two Majors of the Indian Army, seconded to the North Kivu brigade in MONUC were detained by South African Police after a woman resident of Plettenberg Bay in Pretoria charged them with rape. There are also other reports of rape committed by the Indian soldiers in Sudan, Ethiopia and Lebanon, where they are the part of peacekeeping mission. Indian Army at New Delhi also initiated a court of inquiry against some of its personnel in July 2008 in the same context but failed to take any strict disciplinary action against them. The report prepared by the United Nations office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) said that Indian peace keepers in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in order to recover $480 they paid as part of a gold deal in DRC, illegally detained, physically assaulted and “sexually propositioned” a local gold trader who had sold them counterfeit gold dust.
It is now over 16 years that females are being recruited in Indian Army. They were expected to work shoulder to shoulder with Indian male officers in the security and defence of India. From the day one, Indian Ministry of Defence had to face a numerous problems as regard to the term and condition of service of female Army personnel and matters relating to disciple. However, the main problem is non-recognization of women in Indian Army. They are being treated as lesser creation. The uncalled for statements of Indian Army officers like Lieutenant General S Pattabhiraman that the view from the Indian Army ranks and files was that they could do without women proves that Indian Army is gender bias. There is no doubt, women in Indian Army are not safe from victimization and sexual harassment. Embarrassing situation was faced when on the very first year after passing out from Indian Military Academy (IMA) Deradun, sexual harassment was faced by certain women officers. The matter, however, was tactfully handled by the Crops Commander by posting out of aggrieved officers to her station of choice. Captain Kaur has been blamed for bringing service matter to media but had the allegations of sexual harassment not come out in the media, then people would have never known what is actually happening in Indian Army and that the women are not safe in Indian Army. It is media due to which Major Dimple Singla's court martial was later stayed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2007. Women officers in Indian Army are hopeful that if there is a slightest strength in Indian judicial system Captain Kaur is also going to be reinstated.
By: Afshain Afzal
Indian Army started recruiting women officers in 1993. Today there are around 1,000 female officers in Indian Army, all in non-combat roles. Since their induction a number of women officers were punished for various offences. In majority of cases sexual harassment by the senior male officers was resented but it resulted in victimization of various natures. Usually a legal process was involved to authenticate the victimization. Hence as an undeclared remedial measure, punishment is awarded to vocal women officers who dare challenge senior officers. There are a number of examples where even Court Martial proceedings have been initiated against women officers who resented sexual harassment from senior Indian Army officers. The cases of Army Service Corps (ASC) officer Captain Poonam Kaur and officer of Judge Advocate General branch Major Dimple Singla is in front of us where instead of taking action against Indian senior officers, a retaliatory action was taken and both were dismissed from service. Major Dimple Singla, was tried on corruption charges in 2006 at Chandigarh and dismissed but she was bold enough to challenge her unlawful dismissal. There are also cases, including the one in Indian held Jammu and Kashmir, where women officer due to sexual harassment committed suicide. There is a long list of women in Indian Army who quietly bear all sort of sexual harassment by their seniors due to fear of further victimization and dismissal.
As regard to Captain Poonam Kaur, she lodged complaint on July 15, 2008 against three officers of her unit, 5682 Battalion of the Army Supply Corps based in Kalka, Haryana for mentally and sexually harassing her and confining her illegally when she resisted their advances. The officers included Colonel R K Sharma, Commanding Officer, the Lieutenant Colonel Chawla, Second-in-Command and Major Suraj Bhan, Adjutant of the unit. A Court of Inquiry (COI) was ordered to investigate the allegations leveled by Captain Kaur against her superior officers. The President COI was pressurized by Crops Commander, a serving Lieutenant General and other senior officers to save the involved officers. Resultantly President COI recommended a Court Martial against Captain Kaur for false charges. The Army court's decision will now be put up to the Western Army Commander Lieutenant GeneralT K Sapru for confirmation. Captain Kaur has been blamed for addressing the media pertaining to service matters but what other choice she had before her. Nobody was ready to listen to her grievances rather she was harassed and literally placed under house arrest in her quarters in Kalka. Later, an officer of Major General-rank visited her quarters to pressurize her to take back her allegations against three senior officers but she refused to meet him. It is true that India Army has issued orders for her dismissal of Captain Kaur while Western Army Commander, Lieutenant General T K Sapru is also going to confirm the punishment but is it a justice in India Army.
India should not forget that a good number of its officers really need vigilance to keep them within their shoes. Indian Army’s behaviour not only at home but also internationally is full of spots. In 2007 a Lieutenant Colonel and two Majors of the Indian Army, seconded to the North Kivu brigade in MONUC were detained by South African Police after a woman resident of Plettenberg Bay in Pretoria charged them with rape. There are also other reports of rape committed by the Indian soldiers in Sudan, Ethiopia and Lebanon, where they are the part of peacekeeping mission. Indian Army at New Delhi also initiated a court of inquiry against some of its personnel in July 2008 in the same context but failed to take any strict disciplinary action against them. The report prepared by the United Nations office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) said that Indian peace keepers in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in order to recover $480 they paid as part of a gold deal in DRC, illegally detained, physically assaulted and “sexually propositioned” a local gold trader who had sold them counterfeit gold dust.
It is now over 16 years that females are being recruited in Indian Army. They were expected to work shoulder to shoulder with Indian male officers in the security and defence of India. From the day one, Indian Ministry of Defence had to face a numerous problems as regard to the term and condition of service of female Army personnel and matters relating to disciple. However, the main problem is non-recognization of women in Indian Army. They are being treated as lesser creation. The uncalled for statements of Indian Army officers like Lieutenant General S Pattabhiraman that the view from the Indian Army ranks and files was that they could do without women proves that Indian Army is gender bias. There is no doubt, women in Indian Army are not safe from victimization and sexual harassment. Embarrassing situation was faced when on the very first year after passing out from Indian Military Academy (IMA) Deradun, sexual harassment was faced by certain women officers. The matter, however, was tactfully handled by the Crops Commander by posting out of aggrieved officers to her station of choice. Captain Kaur has been blamed for bringing service matter to media but had the allegations of sexual harassment not come out in the media, then people would have never known what is actually happening in Indian Army and that the women are not safe in Indian Army. It is media due to which Major Dimple Singla's court martial was later stayed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2007. Women officers in Indian Army are hopeful that if there is a slightest strength in Indian judicial system Captain Kaur is also going to be reinstated.
India s’ Anti Muslim Phobia
India s’ Anti Muslim Phobia
by I.A. Chaudhri
Publication of the news in Times of India, about the detention of Mohammad Umar Madni, having dubious connections with the Lashkar-e-Tayyba (LeT), recovery of fake and foreign currency from his custody and confiscation of a cache of weapon in June 2009 has sent a wave of shock to Muslim community in India. If we look back, Indian media had been crying foul about the activities of Muslims in Assam and Bangladesh, despite the fact that either there were very few Muslims, who had no other business except to crawl for earning their daily bread or save their skin. History of last 62 years have taught them that any attempt to be under political glare will ultimately force them to land in trouble, on one charge or the other. Muslim community in India has been mentally crippled after the tragic episode of Gujarat carnage and they now lack the courage and support to organize themselves or raise their voice, at any national or international forum. In the absence of any, de facto group, Indian media invented few names under fictitious Muslim identity and then started mud-slugging on various fabricated stories. The same practice was once again repeated by alleging the involvement of one Deccan Muslim group in the Mumbai firing, having accepted the responsibility for this inhuman and most barbaric act. Whereas, neither there ever existed any such group nor people ever heard Muslims involved in any such scandalous activity. At the same time, Pakistan Bangladesh and Bhutan continue to face Indian charges about their nexus with ISI. But what is true, the captor or accused Madni is sure to face, usual list of charges viz; his links with the ISI, acting as conduit for sending people for training in Pakistan and running a spy net in India or any other neighboring state like Nepal to justify their position in the eyes of law.
Without any ambiguity, the people also know the out-come of the investigation and sensational disclosures to fill the pages of various newspapers or the venom of propaganda to pollute the minds of half-literate citizens against their so harmless, fragile, docile and hard-pressed Muslim minority – left to lament on their glorious past after the Gujarat genocide. The Police know the art to extract or squeeze the desired forced confession after applying its third degree torture techniques, recovering currency and confiscating weapons. To add more salt, they even will add important telephone numbers of various dubious `Underground Mafia’ to prove his links with the ISI, sending recruited agents for training to Pakistan and conniving in carrying out bomb blasts in various cities of India. This is practice was followed in the past and the same will continue till all times to come, no matter how pious or guilty a person like Madni or anybody else is.
Indian leadership is in the grip of different internal and external looming troubles, such as minorities call to do away with the centuries old stigma of `Touchable and Untouchables’ caste discrimination/racial profiling of the entire society. At the same time the government also seems desperate over the growing influence of Other Backward Castes (OBC) due to growing awareness graph with every passing day. The poor masses have no other pacifying umbrella than the Communists’ platform to concentrate and exert their pressure on the government to distribute the national wealth equitably, as socialist way of government emphasizes. For them Mao, Lenin or Marxists philosophy is the only solution of the problem. Indian government is fully cognizant that such problems could not be solved through the security forces, to exercise effective control over one billion plus population. To divert the domestic attention from the Naxalite and insurgency problems, it has now invented the new recipe to deal with the problem by shifting the blame on ISI’ and implicating the most docile and submissive Muslim population into their vicious cobweb.
According to reports, Mr. Madni had been acting as a conduit for the LeT between Maoists and the ISI of Pakistan, as head of Jharkhand off-shoot. He has also been accused for recruiting and dispatching his men to Pakistan for the purpose of training to carry on their terrorist activities. The report further alleged that these elements established their network in Nepal. The suspects arrested by the government, were reportedly convicted by the Delhi court in 2005. How far charges against the accused are true or false, only joint investigation teams comprising Indian and Pakistan experts can find any reliable answer, as LeT stands banned and there is no such proof of its involvement in any such intelligence related activities. As far as ISI is being blamed, the fact that agency remained in thick soup due to political hotchpotch and suicide bombing in the country, leaving with no other option to set the house in order than to carry out any such sabotage activity across the border.
The story of Naxalite revolves around the landless peasants, laborers and other down trodden oppressed classes against the upper class landlords and industrialists to over-throw the existing capitalistic way of government in India. The ongoing battle owes its origin to the centuries old contempt against the bourgeois who had been maltreating its deprived classes such as Dalits, Adivasis, Santhals and hundreds of other scheduled castes, who roughly constitute 80 percent of the total population. The victims of high caste landlords, money-lenders, industrialists, bureaucrats and politicians have now united themselves under the Naxalite banner. The friction between Naxalites and the ruling elites, despite all containment strategies and gigantic security infrastructure has now gained a foothold in 155 districts of more than 17 states commonly known as `Central Compact Red Zone’.
India first invented a new readymade solution of the problem, which they had earlier applied in the Northeast by pitting one tribe against the other. In the mainland, these privileged upper class raised their independent armies under different names such as Kisan Sangh, Kisan Morcha, Ganga Sena, Sunlight Sena, Bramharshi Sena, Bhumi Sena in almost all the districts to act as shield and fight against the militant Naxalites. When this strategy also failed, these landlords, politicians and industrialists connived to fight against these revolutionaries by raising a new force `Salva Judum (SJ) meaning ‘Peace Hunt’. Again the Salwa Judum also failed and the government was left with no other option except to shift the people to the refugee camps – in other words government’s utter failure to curb the Naxalite’s growing strength, with every passing day.
To save their skin, the Indian leaders are busy making all out efforts to link the Naxalite issue with the Muslim support and build the nexus with ISI to divert the public attention, but such a myth would be difficult to prove. By all standards, peace in India will remain an illusive chase and will continue to haunt New Delhi like a nightmare. It is also significant to mention that India is a home of more than 1028 million people living in 28 states, where more than 16 major languages and 1652 dialects are spoken by hundreds of ethnic groups and religious minorities with no economic, social and political prospects. Since poverty is the most ferocious teacher, these poor peasants, labors, low paid employees and other segments of society are left with no other option except to target the high caste affluent Brahmans who are sitting on the Indian treasury as pythons. This war of survival between the `Haves and Have-not’ is not going to settle with the empty flying words.
To play their part, as representatives, there are hundreds of political parties, both central and regional, representing different mosaic of socio-religious fabric. Indian Brahman leadership is trying to crush the cultural and spiritual renaissance to keep her over-whelming hold on the poor hapless people (mostly Untouchables) with the help of draconian laws. The purpose behind all such illegal detentions is nothing but to keep a constant flow of disinformation against the Muslim community to stigmatize and demonize their image at domestic and international level and inject fear into the minds of the young generation to make their life more miserable.
by I.A. Chaudhri
Publication of the news in Times of India, about the detention of Mohammad Umar Madni, having dubious connections with the Lashkar-e-Tayyba (LeT), recovery of fake and foreign currency from his custody and confiscation of a cache of weapon in June 2009 has sent a wave of shock to Muslim community in India. If we look back, Indian media had been crying foul about the activities of Muslims in Assam and Bangladesh, despite the fact that either there were very few Muslims, who had no other business except to crawl for earning their daily bread or save their skin. History of last 62 years have taught them that any attempt to be under political glare will ultimately force them to land in trouble, on one charge or the other. Muslim community in India has been mentally crippled after the tragic episode of Gujarat carnage and they now lack the courage and support to organize themselves or raise their voice, at any national or international forum. In the absence of any, de facto group, Indian media invented few names under fictitious Muslim identity and then started mud-slugging on various fabricated stories. The same practice was once again repeated by alleging the involvement of one Deccan Muslim group in the Mumbai firing, having accepted the responsibility for this inhuman and most barbaric act. Whereas, neither there ever existed any such group nor people ever heard Muslims involved in any such scandalous activity. At the same time, Pakistan Bangladesh and Bhutan continue to face Indian charges about their nexus with ISI. But what is true, the captor or accused Madni is sure to face, usual list of charges viz; his links with the ISI, acting as conduit for sending people for training in Pakistan and running a spy net in India or any other neighboring state like Nepal to justify their position in the eyes of law.
Without any ambiguity, the people also know the out-come of the investigation and sensational disclosures to fill the pages of various newspapers or the venom of propaganda to pollute the minds of half-literate citizens against their so harmless, fragile, docile and hard-pressed Muslim minority – left to lament on their glorious past after the Gujarat genocide. The Police know the art to extract or squeeze the desired forced confession after applying its third degree torture techniques, recovering currency and confiscating weapons. To add more salt, they even will add important telephone numbers of various dubious `Underground Mafia’ to prove his links with the ISI, sending recruited agents for training to Pakistan and conniving in carrying out bomb blasts in various cities of India. This is practice was followed in the past and the same will continue till all times to come, no matter how pious or guilty a person like Madni or anybody else is.
Indian leadership is in the grip of different internal and external looming troubles, such as minorities call to do away with the centuries old stigma of `Touchable and Untouchables’ caste discrimination/racial profiling of the entire society. At the same time the government also seems desperate over the growing influence of Other Backward Castes (OBC) due to growing awareness graph with every passing day. The poor masses have no other pacifying umbrella than the Communists’ platform to concentrate and exert their pressure on the government to distribute the national wealth equitably, as socialist way of government emphasizes. For them Mao, Lenin or Marxists philosophy is the only solution of the problem. Indian government is fully cognizant that such problems could not be solved through the security forces, to exercise effective control over one billion plus population. To divert the domestic attention from the Naxalite and insurgency problems, it has now invented the new recipe to deal with the problem by shifting the blame on ISI’ and implicating the most docile and submissive Muslim population into their vicious cobweb.
According to reports, Mr. Madni had been acting as a conduit for the LeT between Maoists and the ISI of Pakistan, as head of Jharkhand off-shoot. He has also been accused for recruiting and dispatching his men to Pakistan for the purpose of training to carry on their terrorist activities. The report further alleged that these elements established their network in Nepal. The suspects arrested by the government, were reportedly convicted by the Delhi court in 2005. How far charges against the accused are true or false, only joint investigation teams comprising Indian and Pakistan experts can find any reliable answer, as LeT stands banned and there is no such proof of its involvement in any such intelligence related activities. As far as ISI is being blamed, the fact that agency remained in thick soup due to political hotchpotch and suicide bombing in the country, leaving with no other option to set the house in order than to carry out any such sabotage activity across the border.
The story of Naxalite revolves around the landless peasants, laborers and other down trodden oppressed classes against the upper class landlords and industrialists to over-throw the existing capitalistic way of government in India. The ongoing battle owes its origin to the centuries old contempt against the bourgeois who had been maltreating its deprived classes such as Dalits, Adivasis, Santhals and hundreds of other scheduled castes, who roughly constitute 80 percent of the total population. The victims of high caste landlords, money-lenders, industrialists, bureaucrats and politicians have now united themselves under the Naxalite banner. The friction between Naxalites and the ruling elites, despite all containment strategies and gigantic security infrastructure has now gained a foothold in 155 districts of more than 17 states commonly known as `Central Compact Red Zone’.
India first invented a new readymade solution of the problem, which they had earlier applied in the Northeast by pitting one tribe against the other. In the mainland, these privileged upper class raised their independent armies under different names such as Kisan Sangh, Kisan Morcha, Ganga Sena, Sunlight Sena, Bramharshi Sena, Bhumi Sena in almost all the districts to act as shield and fight against the militant Naxalites. When this strategy also failed, these landlords, politicians and industrialists connived to fight against these revolutionaries by raising a new force `Salva Judum (SJ) meaning ‘Peace Hunt’. Again the Salwa Judum also failed and the government was left with no other option except to shift the people to the refugee camps – in other words government’s utter failure to curb the Naxalite’s growing strength, with every passing day.
To save their skin, the Indian leaders are busy making all out efforts to link the Naxalite issue with the Muslim support and build the nexus with ISI to divert the public attention, but such a myth would be difficult to prove. By all standards, peace in India will remain an illusive chase and will continue to haunt New Delhi like a nightmare. It is also significant to mention that India is a home of more than 1028 million people living in 28 states, where more than 16 major languages and 1652 dialects are spoken by hundreds of ethnic groups and religious minorities with no economic, social and political prospects. Since poverty is the most ferocious teacher, these poor peasants, labors, low paid employees and other segments of society are left with no other option except to target the high caste affluent Brahmans who are sitting on the Indian treasury as pythons. This war of survival between the `Haves and Have-not’ is not going to settle with the empty flying words.
To play their part, as representatives, there are hundreds of political parties, both central and regional, representing different mosaic of socio-religious fabric. Indian Brahman leadership is trying to crush the cultural and spiritual renaissance to keep her over-whelming hold on the poor hapless people (mostly Untouchables) with the help of draconian laws. The purpose behind all such illegal detentions is nothing but to keep a constant flow of disinformation against the Muslim community to stigmatize and demonize their image at domestic and international level and inject fear into the minds of the young generation to make their life more miserable.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Eulogizing a Known Baloch Insurgent
Eulogizing a Known Baloch Insurgent
Imdad Ali Zehri
In an interview with Najam Sethi on Dunya TV telecast on July 4, 2009, the Baloch rebel leader Hyrbiyar Marri has revealed that "American enslavement is better than Punjabi enslavement because the Punjabis will come and occupy our lands for good. The Americans will only steal our oil and gas, whilst the Punjabis will obliterate our national identity". Earlier in mid 2008, during an interview with BBC, Brahamdagh Bugti (grandson of late Akbar Bugti) emphatically declared that he would accept any “moral help and material support” from India to defend Balochistan from Islamabad’s designs of capturing the riches of Balochistan. The emotional explosion of these sardars can not be overlooked under any circumstances, as it smacks of outright rebellion seeking a breakaway from Pakistan. It is beyond doubt that Brahamdagh’s sentiments were naturally hurt because of the death of Nawab Bugti, but then, the aggression should have been channelized through socially approved norms. The cultural ethnocentricities have a legitimate right to voice its regional frustrations and grievances to the Federation. Who would support a person volunteering for the enslavement of US or seeking material assistance from India to overthrow own dispensation? Therefore, the emotional outburst would naturally create ripples in the patriotic and broadminded intelligentsia of civil society. Another disappointing feature of the interview which irked the audience was the attitude and body language of the anchor-person Mr. Najam Sethi. Although, he asked some nagging questions but some how, it could not satisfy the viewers as it was very evident that he was enjoying vicarious pleasure out of Marri’s answers rather than getting upset or hurt, which in normal circumstances every patriotic Pakistani should be. In fact, he was smiling throughout, and it is beyond comprehension how a genuine patriotic Pakistani journalist can smile on those replies. Being seasoned journalist, Najam Sethi should not have eulogized a known insurgent causing irreparable damage to the federation. The insurgent voices must not only be condemned by general masses, it should form part of a larger awareness campaign vehemently supported by TV channels, radios and other effective communication means.
What forced Hyrbiyar Marri, Brahamdagh Bugti and allied rebel leaders to utter such treasonable outbursts? The things started to go wrong when the Centre launched fast track developmental projects aimed to bring the area into socio-economic mainstream. The militants are supported by a handful of tribal chiefs bent on resisting socio-economic development and progress of Balochistan. They challenged the writ of the Government by targeting national installations. Balochistan, like Afghanistan and Tribal Areas of Pakistan, is a tribal society. Almost 76 tribal chiefs rule their respective tribes in Balochistan, often with serious disregard for human rights. Since the independence of Pakistan, most of the tribes have accepted Pakistan as their homeland and have tried to come into the mainstream Pakistani society. But Bugti and Marri tribal leaders have always been a source of trouble for Pakistan. Sardars hold sway over their life and death. These selfish Sardars are living luxurious lives in cities, leaving behind their compatriots in lurch. They are misleading the people in order to safeguard their personal interest. However, these sardars can not be allowed to continue with these negative and harmful activities at any cost. The acts of violence and terrorism are reprehensible and must be denounced by every peace-loving citizen for they cause human misery. There is no doubt that Balochistan has been kept under-developed and backward by the successive Governments, but Sardars of Balochistan cannot remain oblivious from this guilt. Some of the grievances projected by Baloch nationalists are: — provincial autonomy, detention of political workers, bigger share in NFC, special quota in federal jobs, enhanced royalty for natural gas, increasing military intrusion, gradual attrition of Baloch identity with influx of outsiders, undertaking of “anti Baloch” mega projects like Gwadar port without reference to their consensus.
A new “Great Game” of geo-politics has already started in Balochistan. In order to understand the recent wave of violence in Balochistan, it is imperative to be cognizant of the vested interests in Balochistan. The root cause of violence in Balochistan is not internal poverty or lack of development but foreign interference in internal affairs of Balochistan through BLA. The question is, what is the role of US, Afghanistan, India, and Iran in Balochistan quandary? Afghanistan’s soil has been used again and again to cause trouble inside Pakistan. There is strong evidence of Indian support in planning, commissioning and preparing acts of terrorism in Balochistan through Indian consulates based in Kandahar and Heart (report of Foreign Affairs, by Christine Fair of RAND Corporation). Iran’s quest for regional supremacy has led to undermine Pakistan’s strategic interests in the region. Iran has developed its Chabahar port to counter Gwadar port, which is just 100 miles from Gwadar port of Pakistan. Iran has huge reserves of gas and India wants to gain access to these reserves. India believes that Pakistan is at the brink of break up and India must focus on building its relationship with Central Asia, Iran, and Afghanistan, and capture oil and gas reserves from Central Asia and Iran, through Afghanistan and Pakistan. Washington's interests in Balochistan have become very pronounced over the period of time. To begin US wants to encircle China by not allowing pipeline from Iran through Western China via Pakistan. The US objective is to control the port of Gwadar, and eventually start their dream oil pipeline from Central Asia, through Afghanistan into Balochistan and Gwadar. Moreover, US want to use Balochistan as a base to carry out covert operations against Iran using Jandullah.
Today, the Baloch national resistance is more widespread acquiring many dimensions. The nationalists are demanding more autonomy within the federation of Pakistan. Political and economic disputes need to be addressed through a policy of reconciliation and mutual accommodation. The attitude of the Government from the very beginning has been conciliatory and compromising. The Government, on behalf of the people of Pakistan has already apologized to the people of Balochistan for the atrocities and injustices committed against them and pledged to turn over a new chapter of mutual respect in the province. The meaningful dialogue process with all the stakeholders will bring perpetual peace in the province. The negotiation with the Baloch leadership should be conducted by calling All Party Conference (APC) at the earliest. On the Baloch side, inclusion of representative like Nawab Marri, Sardar Mengal, Brahamdag Bugti and Khan of Kalat, Mir Suleiman Daud may influence the outcome the negotiation. The other players in the Baloch nationalist camp include Balochistan’s four political parties. Lastly, the most important phase of the reconciliation process would be bringing the armed resistance groups on the negotiating table. There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that BLA is a terrorist outfit and it must be dealt with accordingly. The Government needs to remain alive to the situation and make independent policy decision in the best interest of Pakistan. To counter the growing influence of the outside players operating in Balochistan, time-tested friendship with China needs further cementing. The people of Pakistan are ready to challenge this great game through determination and moral courage. Although, it is a time consuming process but a country of hundred and sixty million people whose potential is second to none in the world and after becoming a nuclear power against all the oddities, will achieve the God willing.
Imdad Ali Zehri
In an interview with Najam Sethi on Dunya TV telecast on July 4, 2009, the Baloch rebel leader Hyrbiyar Marri has revealed that "American enslavement is better than Punjabi enslavement because the Punjabis will come and occupy our lands for good. The Americans will only steal our oil and gas, whilst the Punjabis will obliterate our national identity". Earlier in mid 2008, during an interview with BBC, Brahamdagh Bugti (grandson of late Akbar Bugti) emphatically declared that he would accept any “moral help and material support” from India to defend Balochistan from Islamabad’s designs of capturing the riches of Balochistan. The emotional explosion of these sardars can not be overlooked under any circumstances, as it smacks of outright rebellion seeking a breakaway from Pakistan. It is beyond doubt that Brahamdagh’s sentiments were naturally hurt because of the death of Nawab Bugti, but then, the aggression should have been channelized through socially approved norms. The cultural ethnocentricities have a legitimate right to voice its regional frustrations and grievances to the Federation. Who would support a person volunteering for the enslavement of US or seeking material assistance from India to overthrow own dispensation? Therefore, the emotional outburst would naturally create ripples in the patriotic and broadminded intelligentsia of civil society. Another disappointing feature of the interview which irked the audience was the attitude and body language of the anchor-person Mr. Najam Sethi. Although, he asked some nagging questions but some how, it could not satisfy the viewers as it was very evident that he was enjoying vicarious pleasure out of Marri’s answers rather than getting upset or hurt, which in normal circumstances every patriotic Pakistani should be. In fact, he was smiling throughout, and it is beyond comprehension how a genuine patriotic Pakistani journalist can smile on those replies. Being seasoned journalist, Najam Sethi should not have eulogized a known insurgent causing irreparable damage to the federation. The insurgent voices must not only be condemned by general masses, it should form part of a larger awareness campaign vehemently supported by TV channels, radios and other effective communication means.
What forced Hyrbiyar Marri, Brahamdagh Bugti and allied rebel leaders to utter such treasonable outbursts? The things started to go wrong when the Centre launched fast track developmental projects aimed to bring the area into socio-economic mainstream. The militants are supported by a handful of tribal chiefs bent on resisting socio-economic development and progress of Balochistan. They challenged the writ of the Government by targeting national installations. Balochistan, like Afghanistan and Tribal Areas of Pakistan, is a tribal society. Almost 76 tribal chiefs rule their respective tribes in Balochistan, often with serious disregard for human rights. Since the independence of Pakistan, most of the tribes have accepted Pakistan as their homeland and have tried to come into the mainstream Pakistani society. But Bugti and Marri tribal leaders have always been a source of trouble for Pakistan. Sardars hold sway over their life and death. These selfish Sardars are living luxurious lives in cities, leaving behind their compatriots in lurch. They are misleading the people in order to safeguard their personal interest. However, these sardars can not be allowed to continue with these negative and harmful activities at any cost. The acts of violence and terrorism are reprehensible and must be denounced by every peace-loving citizen for they cause human misery. There is no doubt that Balochistan has been kept under-developed and backward by the successive Governments, but Sardars of Balochistan cannot remain oblivious from this guilt. Some of the grievances projected by Baloch nationalists are: — provincial autonomy, detention of political workers, bigger share in NFC, special quota in federal jobs, enhanced royalty for natural gas, increasing military intrusion, gradual attrition of Baloch identity with influx of outsiders, undertaking of “anti Baloch” mega projects like Gwadar port without reference to their consensus.
A new “Great Game” of geo-politics has already started in Balochistan. In order to understand the recent wave of violence in Balochistan, it is imperative to be cognizant of the vested interests in Balochistan. The root cause of violence in Balochistan is not internal poverty or lack of development but foreign interference in internal affairs of Balochistan through BLA. The question is, what is the role of US, Afghanistan, India, and Iran in Balochistan quandary? Afghanistan’s soil has been used again and again to cause trouble inside Pakistan. There is strong evidence of Indian support in planning, commissioning and preparing acts of terrorism in Balochistan through Indian consulates based in Kandahar and Heart (report of Foreign Affairs, by Christine Fair of RAND Corporation). Iran’s quest for regional supremacy has led to undermine Pakistan’s strategic interests in the region. Iran has developed its Chabahar port to counter Gwadar port, which is just 100 miles from Gwadar port of Pakistan. Iran has huge reserves of gas and India wants to gain access to these reserves. India believes that Pakistan is at the brink of break up and India must focus on building its relationship with Central Asia, Iran, and Afghanistan, and capture oil and gas reserves from Central Asia and Iran, through Afghanistan and Pakistan. Washington's interests in Balochistan have become very pronounced over the period of time. To begin US wants to encircle China by not allowing pipeline from Iran through Western China via Pakistan. The US objective is to control the port of Gwadar, and eventually start their dream oil pipeline from Central Asia, through Afghanistan into Balochistan and Gwadar. Moreover, US want to use Balochistan as a base to carry out covert operations against Iran using Jandullah.
Today, the Baloch national resistance is more widespread acquiring many dimensions. The nationalists are demanding more autonomy within the federation of Pakistan. Political and economic disputes need to be addressed through a policy of reconciliation and mutual accommodation. The attitude of the Government from the very beginning has been conciliatory and compromising. The Government, on behalf of the people of Pakistan has already apologized to the people of Balochistan for the atrocities and injustices committed against them and pledged to turn over a new chapter of mutual respect in the province. The meaningful dialogue process with all the stakeholders will bring perpetual peace in the province. The negotiation with the Baloch leadership should be conducted by calling All Party Conference (APC) at the earliest. On the Baloch side, inclusion of representative like Nawab Marri, Sardar Mengal, Brahamdag Bugti and Khan of Kalat, Mir Suleiman Daud may influence the outcome the negotiation. The other players in the Baloch nationalist camp include Balochistan’s four political parties. Lastly, the most important phase of the reconciliation process would be bringing the armed resistance groups on the negotiating table. There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that BLA is a terrorist outfit and it must be dealt with accordingly. The Government needs to remain alive to the situation and make independent policy decision in the best interest of Pakistan. To counter the growing influence of the outside players operating in Balochistan, time-tested friendship with China needs further cementing. The people of Pakistan are ready to challenge this great game through determination and moral courage. Although, it is a time consuming process but a country of hundred and sixty million people whose potential is second to none in the world and after becoming a nuclear power against all the oddities, will achieve the God willing.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Rah-e-Nijat and PAF’s new F-16 (A reply of Indian Propaganda)
Rah-e-Nijat and PAF’s new F-16 (A reply of Indian Propaganda)
S M Hali
Operation Rah-e-Nijat (path to deliverance), commonly described as the “Mother of all Battles”, commenced over the weekend, with PAF jet fighters attacking caves, tunnels, training camps, ammunition dumps and hideouts used by the militants; thus softening the targets in South Waziristan, enabling the army to advance and secure the area. The army started the campaign with 28,000 troops entering South Waziristan against the miscreants on October 17, from three directions - Razmak in the north, Jandola in the east and Shakai in the west, converging towards the Taliban strongholds of Makeen, Spinkai, Raghzai and Tiarza. A day before the launch of the operation, the military high command briefed the government and leaders of various political parties, who unanimously gave the go-ahead to launch Operation Rah-e-Nijat. The action has been timed before the winter since the cold weather causes snow to block roads, but with the advent of winter, the cold weather would force Taliban forces from their hideouts. Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), led by their new leader Hakimullah Mehsud, are estimated to be between 10,000-20,000 along with 500-5,000 Uzbek supporters. The commencement of the massive operation was imminent in view of the fresh wave of terror in the country, which had taken a toll of more than a 100 lives from Kohat to Peshawar and Rawalpindi to Lahore.
On the eve of the operation, a positive development occurred on October 14, when the US unveiled the first batch of the latest 18 F-16 C/D Block-52 combat fighter aircraft being produced for Pakistan, to commence delivery by December this year and complete the process by late 2010. Chief of Air Staff of Pakistan Air Force, Air Chief Marshal Rao Qamar Suleman, accepted the first advanced F-16 Block 52 aircraft on behalf of Pakistan at a solemn ceremony, which brings some cheer in Pakistan as the new F-16s are expected to play a major role in the raging war against terror. Speaking on the occasion, John Larson, vice president of F-16 programmes for Lockheed Martin, describing the fresh delivery said that it is the latest configuration of the best 4th generation multirole fighter available in the world today. The 18 aircrafts order, which includes 12 F-16Cs and six F-16Ds, was scaled down from the original 32, due to paucity of funds.
Pakistan Air Force has had a chequered history as far as the F-16s are concerned. At the height of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, when Pakistan was a “frontline state”, it was offered by the US President Jimmy Carter, $325 million and an inferior fighter aircraft from F-20, F-5E/F or A-10 aircraft. Then President Zia rejected this as “peanuts,” while the PAF stuck to its guns in demanding the F-16s. Eventually the new Republican administration of Ronald Reagan approved the sale of F-16s to Pakistan, and in 1981 an agreement was made to supply Forty (28 F-16A and 12 F-16B) to PAF, which were launched into action directly on receipt to deter the Soviet and Afghan Air Force from intruding into Pakistani airspace. Resultantly, PAF scored 10 confirmed kills in the period, four Su-22 bombers, three air transport aircraft (two An-26s and one An-24), and one Soviet Su-25 bomber. Most of these kills were achieved using the AIM-9L Sidewinder. PAF lost one F-16 during the period. In December 1988, Pakistan ordered 11 additional F-16A/B Block 15 OCU (Operational Capability Upgrade) aircraft (6 Alpha and 5 Bravo models) as attrition replacements, which were fully paid for. In September 1989, Pakistan decided to acquire 60 more F-16A/B’s.
The Pressler Amendment was passed in 1985 with the intention of ensuring that the US aid would not be used to further Pakistan’s nuclear ambitions. Since the US needed Pakistan in its war against the Soviet, subsequent US administrations provided waiver to Pakistan. However, in 1990, after the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, the US decided to invoke the Pressler Amendment. Although 28 of Pakistan’s fresh order of 71 F-16s were ready and paid for, an embargo was placed on their supply and the provision of spare parts for the existing fleet. PAF was in a bind and remained so till the invasion of Afghanistan by the US-led allied forces in 2001. Pakistan again became a frontline state and close ally in the War on Terror. On March 25, 2005 the US government agreed to Pakistan’s request to sell new F-16s. As a measure of goodwill, the US decided to release the 28 embargoed F-16s and on September 30, 2006 the contract was signed between the Pakistani and US government for the acquisition of 18 new F-16C/D block 52 aircraft and an option for another 18 more. It was also agreed to upgrade the embargoed aircraft - and the remaining F-16A/B fleet - to MLU (mid-life upgrade) standards.
The F-16C (single seat) and D (dual seat)-Block 50/52 F-16 aircraft are equipped with improved GPS/INS, and the aircraft can carry a further batch of advanced missiles: the AGM-88 HARM, JDAM, JSOW and WCMD. Block 52 aircraft are powered by the F100-PW-229 ‘Power Plant’. Currently, Pakistani F-16s typically carry two all-aspect AIM-9L Sidewinders on the wing tip rails along with a pair of AIM-9P-4’s on the outermost underwing racks, while the Matra Magic 2 can be carried as well. In the strike role, they can deliver Paveway laser-guided bombs. Pakistani F-16s are also capable of firing the French AS-30 laser guided missiles, while PAF F-16s are equipped with French-built Thompson-CSF ATLIS laser designation pods. The ALQ-131 pod is carried as ECM protection. Lockheed Martin had confirmed the supply of Sniper Advanced Targeting Pods (ATP) for PAF F-16s.
Block 52 has the additional support of conformal fuel tanks (CFTs), dorsal spine compartment, APG-68 (V9) radar, and JHMCS helmet. The easily removable CFTs are mounted above the wing, on both sides of the fuselage. They provide an additional 2,045 litres of fuel for increased range or time on station and free up underwing hardpoints for weapons. Let us hope and pray the additional weapons enable the armed forces to defeat terrorism.
S M Hali
Operation Rah-e-Nijat (path to deliverance), commonly described as the “Mother of all Battles”, commenced over the weekend, with PAF jet fighters attacking caves, tunnels, training camps, ammunition dumps and hideouts used by the militants; thus softening the targets in South Waziristan, enabling the army to advance and secure the area. The army started the campaign with 28,000 troops entering South Waziristan against the miscreants on October 17, from three directions - Razmak in the north, Jandola in the east and Shakai in the west, converging towards the Taliban strongholds of Makeen, Spinkai, Raghzai and Tiarza. A day before the launch of the operation, the military high command briefed the government and leaders of various political parties, who unanimously gave the go-ahead to launch Operation Rah-e-Nijat. The action has been timed before the winter since the cold weather causes snow to block roads, but with the advent of winter, the cold weather would force Taliban forces from their hideouts. Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), led by their new leader Hakimullah Mehsud, are estimated to be between 10,000-20,000 along with 500-5,000 Uzbek supporters. The commencement of the massive operation was imminent in view of the fresh wave of terror in the country, which had taken a toll of more than a 100 lives from Kohat to Peshawar and Rawalpindi to Lahore.
On the eve of the operation, a positive development occurred on October 14, when the US unveiled the first batch of the latest 18 F-16 C/D Block-52 combat fighter aircraft being produced for Pakistan, to commence delivery by December this year and complete the process by late 2010. Chief of Air Staff of Pakistan Air Force, Air Chief Marshal Rao Qamar Suleman, accepted the first advanced F-16 Block 52 aircraft on behalf of Pakistan at a solemn ceremony, which brings some cheer in Pakistan as the new F-16s are expected to play a major role in the raging war against terror. Speaking on the occasion, John Larson, vice president of F-16 programmes for Lockheed Martin, describing the fresh delivery said that it is the latest configuration of the best 4th generation multirole fighter available in the world today. The 18 aircrafts order, which includes 12 F-16Cs and six F-16Ds, was scaled down from the original 32, due to paucity of funds.
Pakistan Air Force has had a chequered history as far as the F-16s are concerned. At the height of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, when Pakistan was a “frontline state”, it was offered by the US President Jimmy Carter, $325 million and an inferior fighter aircraft from F-20, F-5E/F or A-10 aircraft. Then President Zia rejected this as “peanuts,” while the PAF stuck to its guns in demanding the F-16s. Eventually the new Republican administration of Ronald Reagan approved the sale of F-16s to Pakistan, and in 1981 an agreement was made to supply Forty (28 F-16A and 12 F-16B) to PAF, which were launched into action directly on receipt to deter the Soviet and Afghan Air Force from intruding into Pakistani airspace. Resultantly, PAF scored 10 confirmed kills in the period, four Su-22 bombers, three air transport aircraft (two An-26s and one An-24), and one Soviet Su-25 bomber. Most of these kills were achieved using the AIM-9L Sidewinder. PAF lost one F-16 during the period. In December 1988, Pakistan ordered 11 additional F-16A/B Block 15 OCU (Operational Capability Upgrade) aircraft (6 Alpha and 5 Bravo models) as attrition replacements, which were fully paid for. In September 1989, Pakistan decided to acquire 60 more F-16A/B’s.
The Pressler Amendment was passed in 1985 with the intention of ensuring that the US aid would not be used to further Pakistan’s nuclear ambitions. Since the US needed Pakistan in its war against the Soviet, subsequent US administrations provided waiver to Pakistan. However, in 1990, after the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, the US decided to invoke the Pressler Amendment. Although 28 of Pakistan’s fresh order of 71 F-16s were ready and paid for, an embargo was placed on their supply and the provision of spare parts for the existing fleet. PAF was in a bind and remained so till the invasion of Afghanistan by the US-led allied forces in 2001. Pakistan again became a frontline state and close ally in the War on Terror. On March 25, 2005 the US government agreed to Pakistan’s request to sell new F-16s. As a measure of goodwill, the US decided to release the 28 embargoed F-16s and on September 30, 2006 the contract was signed between the Pakistani and US government for the acquisition of 18 new F-16C/D block 52 aircraft and an option for another 18 more. It was also agreed to upgrade the embargoed aircraft - and the remaining F-16A/B fleet - to MLU (mid-life upgrade) standards.
The F-16C (single seat) and D (dual seat)-Block 50/52 F-16 aircraft are equipped with improved GPS/INS, and the aircraft can carry a further batch of advanced missiles: the AGM-88 HARM, JDAM, JSOW and WCMD. Block 52 aircraft are powered by the F100-PW-229 ‘Power Plant’. Currently, Pakistani F-16s typically carry two all-aspect AIM-9L Sidewinders on the wing tip rails along with a pair of AIM-9P-4’s on the outermost underwing racks, while the Matra Magic 2 can be carried as well. In the strike role, they can deliver Paveway laser-guided bombs. Pakistani F-16s are also capable of firing the French AS-30 laser guided missiles, while PAF F-16s are equipped with French-built Thompson-CSF ATLIS laser designation pods. The ALQ-131 pod is carried as ECM protection. Lockheed Martin had confirmed the supply of Sniper Advanced Targeting Pods (ATP) for PAF F-16s.
Block 52 has the additional support of conformal fuel tanks (CFTs), dorsal spine compartment, APG-68 (V9) radar, and JHMCS helmet. The easily removable CFTs are mounted above the wing, on both sides of the fuselage. They provide an additional 2,045 litres of fuel for increased range or time on station and free up underwing hardpoints for weapons. Let us hope and pray the additional weapons enable the armed forces to defeat terrorism.
Muslim women are oppressed in India: says minority social activist
Muslim women are oppressed in India: says minority social activist
Alka Pande
It is in India and neighbouring countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh, alone, where Muslim women are oppressed, rest of the Muslim dominated nations give equal status and rights to women. This is how the Muslim minorities feel in this Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. These Muslim minorities also feel that the government schemes do not reach them. "There are welfare schemes relating to education, health, employment and so on but even the Muslim Concentrated Districts (MCDs) remain ignorant about them where it the implementation of these schemes is mandatory, what to say of districts which have sporadic population of minorities," said Aftab Alam, a social activist who is working in one such MCD –Bahraich – in Uttar Pradesh.
The issue cropped up during a consultation meet on Mid Term Appraisal of XI Five year Plan, which was held in the state capital Lucknow, last week. The meeting focused on "listening to the voices from the field" and was organised by the Planning Commission, Government of India with support of UNIFEM, UNICEF, UNFPA, Voluntary Health Association of India and National Alliance of Women. The issues which were covered in the day-long brain storming sessions included minorities, health, women and children.
The presentations emphasised on lack of quality education as far as Muslim population of India is concerned. "The government policy has the provision for 25 percent enrolment of Muslim girls but hardly 5 percent girls are enrolled in government schools," the representatives of minority group pointed out. The group included social activists working for the uplift of Muslims, from different parts of the state. The state of madarsas is more or less the same. "The condition of the madarsas, which get the government aids, has improved a bit as now they teach subjects like computer and English. But such madarsas are very few in numbers. Majority of madarsas are still in pathetic shape and imparting not so relevant education in terms of employment," said Aftab Alam.
Talking of employment, the minority representatives pointed out that a large section of Muslim community comprises craftsmen but the government does not provide them any opportunity to excel and promote their crafts. "On the contrary, capitalists and industrialists are taking over various traditional crafts and arts and the artisans and craftsmen are becoming labourers who are working for these industrialists," said Shaista Amber, a woman social activist and the president of All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board.
The group representing the minorities sounded united when they claimed that a major portion of Muslim population was unaware of the government welfare schemes. Besides, the schemes, which the minorities knew of, were hardly reaching the beneficiaries.
"The overall objective of the whole exercise was to obtain communities' perspective towards various programmes and schemes and their effectiveness," said Manju Agarwal, the founder director of Path – the Lucknow based organisation, who was facilitating this consultation. Such consultations are being conducted at state and regional level (clusters of five to six states) to assess the communities' participation in the central government programmes. "The exercise would also assess the level of knowledge of the community on various components of the national level schemes designed for them," said Manju Agarwal.
The group of minorities gave a few recommendations as well:
Include minority representatives in the policy making.
- Propagate the government schemes through madarsas.
- Scholarships should go directly to the account of the students so that there is no mediator to exploit the students.
- Sachchar Committee report should be given the status of a legal document so that it has a binding on governments for the implement of its recommendations.
- Special protection/shelter homes for single women who become homeless after their talaq (divorce), or who after their husbands' death or due to jahez (dowry) are thrown out of their in-laws houses.
Alka Pande
It is in India and neighbouring countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh, alone, where Muslim women are oppressed, rest of the Muslim dominated nations give equal status and rights to women. This is how the Muslim minorities feel in this Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. These Muslim minorities also feel that the government schemes do not reach them. "There are welfare schemes relating to education, health, employment and so on but even the Muslim Concentrated Districts (MCDs) remain ignorant about them where it the implementation of these schemes is mandatory, what to say of districts which have sporadic population of minorities," said Aftab Alam, a social activist who is working in one such MCD –Bahraich – in Uttar Pradesh.
The issue cropped up during a consultation meet on Mid Term Appraisal of XI Five year Plan, which was held in the state capital Lucknow, last week. The meeting focused on "listening to the voices from the field" and was organised by the Planning Commission, Government of India with support of UNIFEM, UNICEF, UNFPA, Voluntary Health Association of India and National Alliance of Women. The issues which were covered in the day-long brain storming sessions included minorities, health, women and children.
The presentations emphasised on lack of quality education as far as Muslim population of India is concerned. "The government policy has the provision for 25 percent enrolment of Muslim girls but hardly 5 percent girls are enrolled in government schools," the representatives of minority group pointed out. The group included social activists working for the uplift of Muslims, from different parts of the state. The state of madarsas is more or less the same. "The condition of the madarsas, which get the government aids, has improved a bit as now they teach subjects like computer and English. But such madarsas are very few in numbers. Majority of madarsas are still in pathetic shape and imparting not so relevant education in terms of employment," said Aftab Alam.
Talking of employment, the minority representatives pointed out that a large section of Muslim community comprises craftsmen but the government does not provide them any opportunity to excel and promote their crafts. "On the contrary, capitalists and industrialists are taking over various traditional crafts and arts and the artisans and craftsmen are becoming labourers who are working for these industrialists," said Shaista Amber, a woman social activist and the president of All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board.
The group representing the minorities sounded united when they claimed that a major portion of Muslim population was unaware of the government welfare schemes. Besides, the schemes, which the minorities knew of, were hardly reaching the beneficiaries.
"The overall objective of the whole exercise was to obtain communities' perspective towards various programmes and schemes and their effectiveness," said Manju Agarwal, the founder director of Path – the Lucknow based organisation, who was facilitating this consultation. Such consultations are being conducted at state and regional level (clusters of five to six states) to assess the communities' participation in the central government programmes. "The exercise would also assess the level of knowledge of the community on various components of the national level schemes designed for them," said Manju Agarwal.
The group of minorities gave a few recommendations as well:
Include minority representatives in the policy making.
- Propagate the government schemes through madarsas.
- Scholarships should go directly to the account of the students so that there is no mediator to exploit the students.
- Sachchar Committee report should be given the status of a legal document so that it has a binding on governments for the implement of its recommendations.
- Special protection/shelter homes for single women who become homeless after their talaq (divorce), or who after their husbands' death or due to jahez (dowry) are thrown out of their in-laws houses.
AF-PAK-IND: US and Them
AF-PAK-IND: US and Them
Fatima Rizvi :
Taliban show signs of frustration while failing to stop Pakistan Army from advancing further into the strongholds of South Waziristan.
Over the weekend, militants took their most desperate shot at putting up a fight against Pakistan Army, quite obviously, on tenterhooks to alter the course of their imminent failures. Storming of the GHQ security barrier was widely considered an act of incredible absurdity.
On the other hand, bravery and courage on part of the officers and soldiers of Pakistan Army is beyond commendable. To free forty plus people held hostage by frenzied men in suicide vests, daring enough to plot a hijack on the General Headquarters Quarters of the Armed Forces is no child's play. Without a doubt Pakistan army is under immense psychological pressure. The militants are undergoing a strategy-relay between the use of vehicles laden with ammunition and/or using small arms and suicide devices for attacking precision targets, under the new leadership of Hakeemullah. The army has however reacted to all of their attacks swiftly. Some critics are of view that the GHQ security system was ill prepared. That is all rubbish. Even Pentagon cannot be protected against a hell-bent, camouflaged suicide squad with enough AMO to fight a protracted gun battle. Moreover "the group" was led by Aqeel, an Army's Medical Corps deserter who is thought to have known enough to harm enough. And yet the Army prevailed.
Panic in the militants' ranks can be sensed by how a key mastermind took part in a seemingly ridiculous plan that could not have achieved much save symbolism. Aqeel aka Dr. Usman the main architect of assault on Sri Lankan Cricket team in Lahore liberty chowk, as well as the key conspirer in the missile attack on General Musharraf's plane is not a simpleton. He is a planner, an expert, a trainer and handler of the youth that comprise such suicide squads. He must have known the attack on GHQ was risky at best; that this would not go very far and would most likely be his final act. Yet Aqeel, despite a fat dossier speaking of his evil genius, decided to perform some Hollywoodish adaption and, for the first time, became part of an outrageously ambitious suicide assault against the impossiblr. A "mastermind" of several past terrorist attacks (that also include killing of the Surgeon General of Pakistan, Lt-General Mushtag Baig), Aqeel's evil genius is obviously mottled by a do-or-die frustration; a consequential sentiment of a hopeless, tired belligerent. Which leads us to a safe supposition: the frenzied, "them", planners are certainly ready to bleed just to feel alive. They are ready to pay heavy costs for almost nothing – a nuisance value all for the drama to seek marginal psychological advantage.
In waning hopes of getting a breather from the ongoing military operation, the militants appear to resurface in form of an erratic spate of violence, seemingly, to avenge the blood of Baitullah Mehsud; to register a recovery from internal differences that arose after Baitullah's death and to prove that Hakeemulla Mehsud, like his predecessor, is no joke. If anything he is Baitullah reloaded. In order to alleviate themselves from moral and psychological backlog after the defeat in Malakand they are ready to give new depths to absurdity. Dashing back and forth the Durand line in vain effort to inflate the morale of coalition forces in east of Afghanistan, the Pak army in the west of Pakistan and the people inhabitting either sides of Durand. Other attacks in the preceding weeks: the World Food Programme bombing, the attack on Indian Consulate in Kandahar, the Peshawar blast, the GHQ misadventure, the Shangla episode and the recent attacks on FIA building, Elite Force building and Manawa training center in Lahore as well as the bomb blast in Kohat near Sadar Police Station, add to the psychological nuisance value and amount to no real gain. All of these assaults have been successfully neutralized by Pakistan Army who displayed utmost preparedness and efficiency. From this point in time it is easy to see that the militants are going into pieces under Pakistan's resolve wielding out from the unity of it's the People, their Government and their Army over the issue of terrorism. The real strength of Pakistan is the unity of all citizens in entirity, over completely exterminating terrorism from the country.
Increased militant strikes in the east of Afghanistan can be a consequence of an extended brainstorming in Washington over a way forward in Afghanistan that has bought militants time and space to make their presence felt.
Amidst all this Pakistan's budding democracy will have to pass a crucial acid-test by imparting a holistically acceptable stance on behalf of the country over the K-L Bill US Congressmen. The country needs to concentrate on civil-military conduciveness and speak from the position of strength at this point in time. Only national solidarity and harmonious civil-military relations will help Pakistan in casting a strong, responsible, dignified and positive aura of itself before the world.
As of now, two of the recent developments would let in some daylight on this region. Firstly, the political leadership of Pakistan has given a go ahead to Pakistan Army for launching the military campaign inside South Waziristan. This would expedite the process of reaching out the 'jugular vein' of the militancy in the region. Secondly, US finally has decided to send 13,000 troops into Afghanistan. This would pressure Taliban from the other side. It can be hoped that a coordinated assault on the militants, similar to Operation Rah-e-Rast + Operation Khanjar would effectively settle the problem and will hopefully tone down the spiraling urban violence reminiscent of the pre-Operation Rah-e-Rast scenario. It is however felt that militants of South Punjab need to be given perpetual resistance simultaneously in order to keep the same from spiraling out of control in the urban centers.
Beijing has offered Counter-Terrorism System to Pakistan as its contribution in curbing terrorism effectively. It has been recently reported that the two countries have decided to boost cooperation in the defence, security and anti-terrorism. This would further reinforce Pakistan's defence capability against the militants. This week Former US President Bill Clinton has strongly advised India to make sincere efforts at clearing out differences with Pakistan. Saudi Arabia has also reportedly urged US to convince India over solving the Kashmir Issue in order to ease tensions in the reigon. If India heeds the advice specially over the Kashmir issue, it would be taking a major step towards de-tangling South Asia from a strenuous and continuously unproductive nitpicking and allow it the much needed nerve and space to concentrate on serious issues of common concern such as poverty, food insecurity, water shortage, environment, energy and economy. Some healthy signs coming from the Lok Sabha can already be noticed from the immediate and sustained reaction from India upon Pakistan's raising Kashmir issue at the UN.
In India Assembly elections are in process. Last week in Arunachal Pradesh reports revealed a high percentage of contestants being highly corrupt millionaires having criminal background of which a considerable ratio were school drop outs. According to figures compiled by the National Election Watch (NEW) and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) from affidavits filed by the contesting candidates, 63 candidates are millionaires. Money plays an important role in any election in Arunachal Pradesh with political parties known to host community feasting during the polls to woo voters.
Last week Director General Police Prateep Singh accused ISI of reviving terrorism in Punjab. In the recent attack on Indian embassy in Kandahar, Indian foreign office and Afghanistan instantly blamed Pakistan's intelligence agencies although responsibility of the attack was soon claimed by the Taliban. The allegations groundless as they were, vexed ISI needlessly under the current circumstances. As a region undergoing a crucial phase the least we can do is act responsibly and refrain from the futile exercise of cheap verbal joustling. A good example can be sought from Pakistan's conduct during the GHQ operation. The role of Pakistani media and authorities needs mention in this context as Pakistan clearly refrained from indulging in lowly blame games and was quick to discount the hand of any of its neighbor's intelligence agency, a practice that is, by far, becoming the most favorite footless sport in the region.
On the other hand International Media has also expressed serious concerns over India's inclination to conduct nuclear tests. In a New York Time editorial this week, Indian scientists were sternly warned against carrying out the tests as they would adversely affect the spirit of nuclear non-proliferation – an agenda Obama administration is pursuing with all sincerity. The editorial urged United States to make clear to India that it has more to gain by focusing on economic growth and expanding global and regional cooperation than on developing more nuclear weapons. And it should leave no doubt about how much India and the rest of the world have to lose if New Delhi makes the wrong choice.
Fatima Rizvi :
Taliban show signs of frustration while failing to stop Pakistan Army from advancing further into the strongholds of South Waziristan.
Over the weekend, militants took their most desperate shot at putting up a fight against Pakistan Army, quite obviously, on tenterhooks to alter the course of their imminent failures. Storming of the GHQ security barrier was widely considered an act of incredible absurdity.
On the other hand, bravery and courage on part of the officers and soldiers of Pakistan Army is beyond commendable. To free forty plus people held hostage by frenzied men in suicide vests, daring enough to plot a hijack on the General Headquarters Quarters of the Armed Forces is no child's play. Without a doubt Pakistan army is under immense psychological pressure. The militants are undergoing a strategy-relay between the use of vehicles laden with ammunition and/or using small arms and suicide devices for attacking precision targets, under the new leadership of Hakeemullah. The army has however reacted to all of their attacks swiftly. Some critics are of view that the GHQ security system was ill prepared. That is all rubbish. Even Pentagon cannot be protected against a hell-bent, camouflaged suicide squad with enough AMO to fight a protracted gun battle. Moreover "the group" was led by Aqeel, an Army's Medical Corps deserter who is thought to have known enough to harm enough. And yet the Army prevailed.
Panic in the militants' ranks can be sensed by how a key mastermind took part in a seemingly ridiculous plan that could not have achieved much save symbolism. Aqeel aka Dr. Usman the main architect of assault on Sri Lankan Cricket team in Lahore liberty chowk, as well as the key conspirer in the missile attack on General Musharraf's plane is not a simpleton. He is a planner, an expert, a trainer and handler of the youth that comprise such suicide squads. He must have known the attack on GHQ was risky at best; that this would not go very far and would most likely be his final act. Yet Aqeel, despite a fat dossier speaking of his evil genius, decided to perform some Hollywoodish adaption and, for the first time, became part of an outrageously ambitious suicide assault against the impossiblr. A "mastermind" of several past terrorist attacks (that also include killing of the Surgeon General of Pakistan, Lt-General Mushtag Baig), Aqeel's evil genius is obviously mottled by a do-or-die frustration; a consequential sentiment of a hopeless, tired belligerent. Which leads us to a safe supposition: the frenzied, "them", planners are certainly ready to bleed just to feel alive. They are ready to pay heavy costs for almost nothing – a nuisance value all for the drama to seek marginal psychological advantage.
In waning hopes of getting a breather from the ongoing military operation, the militants appear to resurface in form of an erratic spate of violence, seemingly, to avenge the blood of Baitullah Mehsud; to register a recovery from internal differences that arose after Baitullah's death and to prove that Hakeemulla Mehsud, like his predecessor, is no joke. If anything he is Baitullah reloaded. In order to alleviate themselves from moral and psychological backlog after the defeat in Malakand they are ready to give new depths to absurdity. Dashing back and forth the Durand line in vain effort to inflate the morale of coalition forces in east of Afghanistan, the Pak army in the west of Pakistan and the people inhabitting either sides of Durand. Other attacks in the preceding weeks: the World Food Programme bombing, the attack on Indian Consulate in Kandahar, the Peshawar blast, the GHQ misadventure, the Shangla episode and the recent attacks on FIA building, Elite Force building and Manawa training center in Lahore as well as the bomb blast in Kohat near Sadar Police Station, add to the psychological nuisance value and amount to no real gain. All of these assaults have been successfully neutralized by Pakistan Army who displayed utmost preparedness and efficiency. From this point in time it is easy to see that the militants are going into pieces under Pakistan's resolve wielding out from the unity of it's the People, their Government and their Army over the issue of terrorism. The real strength of Pakistan is the unity of all citizens in entirity, over completely exterminating terrorism from the country.
Increased militant strikes in the east of Afghanistan can be a consequence of an extended brainstorming in Washington over a way forward in Afghanistan that has bought militants time and space to make their presence felt.
Amidst all this Pakistan's budding democracy will have to pass a crucial acid-test by imparting a holistically acceptable stance on behalf of the country over the K-L Bill US Congressmen. The country needs to concentrate on civil-military conduciveness and speak from the position of strength at this point in time. Only national solidarity and harmonious civil-military relations will help Pakistan in casting a strong, responsible, dignified and positive aura of itself before the world.
As of now, two of the recent developments would let in some daylight on this region. Firstly, the political leadership of Pakistan has given a go ahead to Pakistan Army for launching the military campaign inside South Waziristan. This would expedite the process of reaching out the 'jugular vein' of the militancy in the region. Secondly, US finally has decided to send 13,000 troops into Afghanistan. This would pressure Taliban from the other side. It can be hoped that a coordinated assault on the militants, similar to Operation Rah-e-Rast + Operation Khanjar would effectively settle the problem and will hopefully tone down the spiraling urban violence reminiscent of the pre-Operation Rah-e-Rast scenario. It is however felt that militants of South Punjab need to be given perpetual resistance simultaneously in order to keep the same from spiraling out of control in the urban centers.
Beijing has offered Counter-Terrorism System to Pakistan as its contribution in curbing terrorism effectively. It has been recently reported that the two countries have decided to boost cooperation in the defence, security and anti-terrorism. This would further reinforce Pakistan's defence capability against the militants. This week Former US President Bill Clinton has strongly advised India to make sincere efforts at clearing out differences with Pakistan. Saudi Arabia has also reportedly urged US to convince India over solving the Kashmir Issue in order to ease tensions in the reigon. If India heeds the advice specially over the Kashmir issue, it would be taking a major step towards de-tangling South Asia from a strenuous and continuously unproductive nitpicking and allow it the much needed nerve and space to concentrate on serious issues of common concern such as poverty, food insecurity, water shortage, environment, energy and economy. Some healthy signs coming from the Lok Sabha can already be noticed from the immediate and sustained reaction from India upon Pakistan's raising Kashmir issue at the UN.
In India Assembly elections are in process. Last week in Arunachal Pradesh reports revealed a high percentage of contestants being highly corrupt millionaires having criminal background of which a considerable ratio were school drop outs. According to figures compiled by the National Election Watch (NEW) and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) from affidavits filed by the contesting candidates, 63 candidates are millionaires. Money plays an important role in any election in Arunachal Pradesh with political parties known to host community feasting during the polls to woo voters.
Last week Director General Police Prateep Singh accused ISI of reviving terrorism in Punjab. In the recent attack on Indian embassy in Kandahar, Indian foreign office and Afghanistan instantly blamed Pakistan's intelligence agencies although responsibility of the attack was soon claimed by the Taliban. The allegations groundless as they were, vexed ISI needlessly under the current circumstances. As a region undergoing a crucial phase the least we can do is act responsibly and refrain from the futile exercise of cheap verbal joustling. A good example can be sought from Pakistan's conduct during the GHQ operation. The role of Pakistani media and authorities needs mention in this context as Pakistan clearly refrained from indulging in lowly blame games and was quick to discount the hand of any of its neighbor's intelligence agency, a practice that is, by far, becoming the most favorite footless sport in the region.
On the other hand International Media has also expressed serious concerns over India's inclination to conduct nuclear tests. In a New York Time editorial this week, Indian scientists were sternly warned against carrying out the tests as they would adversely affect the spirit of nuclear non-proliferation – an agenda Obama administration is pursuing with all sincerity. The editorial urged United States to make clear to India that it has more to gain by focusing on economic growth and expanding global and regional cooperation than on developing more nuclear weapons. And it should leave no doubt about how much India and the rest of the world have to lose if New Delhi makes the wrong choice.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
PAKISTAN – A PERSPECTIVE
PAKISTAN – A PERSPECTIVE
By: Anwar Ahmad Hanafi
Western, especially American analysts and think-tanks continue to draw and project somber, indeed doomsday scenarios about Pakistan’s future. There are some who even predict the eventual meltdown of Pakistan. Their prognosis about Pakistan is dismal and sickening. Pakistan could be Yugoslavia in the making; it has been claimed, albeit with a nuclear capability. Yugoslavia disintegrated in the wake of dismemberment of the Soviet Union and the East European bloc twenty years back. The emerging South Asian order, visualized by some Western analysts, perceives Pakistan as a nation gripped with economic crises, ethnic or sectarian strife with the people of smaller provinces protesting and agitating against the domination by comparatively bigger provinces in terms of resources and demography, breakdown of law and order, growing Islamic militancy and extremism and to add to all these perceptions we have Professor Shaun Gregory of Bradford University, having claimed to have the expertise on Pakistan acquired during a visiting fellowship programme with Pakistan’s ISS in the year 2000, engages himself in a rhetoric that a direct attack on Pakistan’s nuclear weapons infrastructure by the Taliban could not be ruled out. He obviously is ignorant of Pakistan’s command and control system of its nuclear infrastructure.
Rather than being unduly depressed or frightened by doomsday scenarios painted by doomsayers, the requirement is that we sit up and take notice of their efforts to degrade Pakistan at all forums and concurrently devise bold and innovative strategies to turn around our sagging economic fortunes, increase our tax revenues, step up exports to reduce the trade gap, revive the industry, increase agricultural production, reduce the fiscal deficit and progressively retire the external debt rather than add to it exponentially. Economic self reliance is the key to resurgence. Non-productive spending by all the institutions must be substantially reduced.
By far the most serious challenge that we are facing is handling of extremism and terrorism. We have to meet this formidable threat with courage and conviction, for it is seriously hurting our economy by driving both foreign and local investors away. Poverty alleviation and spread of education are also serious imperatives for meeting the growing menace of militancy and extremism. These require an economic upturn, which must be forthcoming before long. Good democratic governance and inexpensive and speedy justice are the other imperatives for improving the political and economic climate generally.
There is absolutely no reason, however, to be despondent, or even skeptical, about Pakistan’s future as it has been borne to stay. For one thing, the progress of doom coming from doomsayers in the West is wildly speculative. For another, it is well within our power, given the will to survive and develop, not only to avert any possible disaster but to decisively and irreversibly turn around our sagging fortunes. Ours is a land very rich in natural resources. Our people do not lack talent, innovativeness or capacity for sustained hard work. Our engineers, doctors and other professionals who have over the years emigrated to the West have won accolades there. The brain drain has obviously resulted from lack of opportunities and could be reversed by accelerated economic and industrial development. We are the only nuclear capable country in the Islamic world. Given a sincere committed and dedicated leadership, we can definitely build a stronger Pakistan. There is no ground for skeptism or cynicism. Our intelligentsia in particular, must rid itself of self doubts for it is vibrant self belief that animates and motivate nations.
When Pakistan became a reality in August 1947, many a doubting Thomas questioned the new nation’s viability. It was predicted by detractors that the fledgling state would melt down in a matter of months. But the resolute and defiant Quaid-i-Azam, who had achieved Pakistan in the teeth of relentless opposition from the British as well as the Indians, declared that Pakistan had come to stay and that no power on earth could undo it.
The dominion of India had grudgingly allocated only 200 million rupees to Pakistan, which was a mere five percent of the cash balance of four billion rupees held by the Government of British India on the eve of sub-continent’s partition. A cash strapped and virtually resource less Pakistan had to contend with the arrivals of millions of destitute refugees from across the political divide and their rehabilitation. As far as accession of Kashmir was concerned at the time of partition, India illegally occupied it by force in October 1947. Pakistan had hardly any troops to go into the state and resist the illegal occupation based on a fraudulent accession by India.
The nascent state resolutely overcame the turmoil and near-chaos that attended its birth. If Pakistan could manage to survive at birth with honour and dignity, there is certainly no reason why we cannot overcome the present challenges of terrorism and economic crunch. There is no option for us but to consolidate and build now that we are stronger as we come out from the terrorism menace. We need not be alarmed or scared by the adverse and misleading propaganda of the Western media. We should rather steel our determination to frustrate all doomsday scenarios and forge ahead with a firm and unwavering resolve and an indomitable will. We have to rediscover the undying spirit demonstrated by the nation during various major events that we were confronted with like the epic struggle for our freedom from the clutches of the British India in 1947, the war with India in September 1965, and, more recently in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in October 2005.
By: Anwar Ahmad Hanafi
Western, especially American analysts and think-tanks continue to draw and project somber, indeed doomsday scenarios about Pakistan’s future. There are some who even predict the eventual meltdown of Pakistan. Their prognosis about Pakistan is dismal and sickening. Pakistan could be Yugoslavia in the making; it has been claimed, albeit with a nuclear capability. Yugoslavia disintegrated in the wake of dismemberment of the Soviet Union and the East European bloc twenty years back. The emerging South Asian order, visualized by some Western analysts, perceives Pakistan as a nation gripped with economic crises, ethnic or sectarian strife with the people of smaller provinces protesting and agitating against the domination by comparatively bigger provinces in terms of resources and demography, breakdown of law and order, growing Islamic militancy and extremism and to add to all these perceptions we have Professor Shaun Gregory of Bradford University, having claimed to have the expertise on Pakistan acquired during a visiting fellowship programme with Pakistan’s ISS in the year 2000, engages himself in a rhetoric that a direct attack on Pakistan’s nuclear weapons infrastructure by the Taliban could not be ruled out. He obviously is ignorant of Pakistan’s command and control system of its nuclear infrastructure.
Rather than being unduly depressed or frightened by doomsday scenarios painted by doomsayers, the requirement is that we sit up and take notice of their efforts to degrade Pakistan at all forums and concurrently devise bold and innovative strategies to turn around our sagging economic fortunes, increase our tax revenues, step up exports to reduce the trade gap, revive the industry, increase agricultural production, reduce the fiscal deficit and progressively retire the external debt rather than add to it exponentially. Economic self reliance is the key to resurgence. Non-productive spending by all the institutions must be substantially reduced.
By far the most serious challenge that we are facing is handling of extremism and terrorism. We have to meet this formidable threat with courage and conviction, for it is seriously hurting our economy by driving both foreign and local investors away. Poverty alleviation and spread of education are also serious imperatives for meeting the growing menace of militancy and extremism. These require an economic upturn, which must be forthcoming before long. Good democratic governance and inexpensive and speedy justice are the other imperatives for improving the political and economic climate generally.
There is absolutely no reason, however, to be despondent, or even skeptical, about Pakistan’s future as it has been borne to stay. For one thing, the progress of doom coming from doomsayers in the West is wildly speculative. For another, it is well within our power, given the will to survive and develop, not only to avert any possible disaster but to decisively and irreversibly turn around our sagging fortunes. Ours is a land very rich in natural resources. Our people do not lack talent, innovativeness or capacity for sustained hard work. Our engineers, doctors and other professionals who have over the years emigrated to the West have won accolades there. The brain drain has obviously resulted from lack of opportunities and could be reversed by accelerated economic and industrial development. We are the only nuclear capable country in the Islamic world. Given a sincere committed and dedicated leadership, we can definitely build a stronger Pakistan. There is no ground for skeptism or cynicism. Our intelligentsia in particular, must rid itself of self doubts for it is vibrant self belief that animates and motivate nations.
When Pakistan became a reality in August 1947, many a doubting Thomas questioned the new nation’s viability. It was predicted by detractors that the fledgling state would melt down in a matter of months. But the resolute and defiant Quaid-i-Azam, who had achieved Pakistan in the teeth of relentless opposition from the British as well as the Indians, declared that Pakistan had come to stay and that no power on earth could undo it.
The dominion of India had grudgingly allocated only 200 million rupees to Pakistan, which was a mere five percent of the cash balance of four billion rupees held by the Government of British India on the eve of sub-continent’s partition. A cash strapped and virtually resource less Pakistan had to contend with the arrivals of millions of destitute refugees from across the political divide and their rehabilitation. As far as accession of Kashmir was concerned at the time of partition, India illegally occupied it by force in October 1947. Pakistan had hardly any troops to go into the state and resist the illegal occupation based on a fraudulent accession by India.
The nascent state resolutely overcame the turmoil and near-chaos that attended its birth. If Pakistan could manage to survive at birth with honour and dignity, there is certainly no reason why we cannot overcome the present challenges of terrorism and economic crunch. There is no option for us but to consolidate and build now that we are stronger as we come out from the terrorism menace. We need not be alarmed or scared by the adverse and misleading propaganda of the Western media. We should rather steel our determination to frustrate all doomsday scenarios and forge ahead with a firm and unwavering resolve and an indomitable will. We have to rediscover the undying spirit demonstrated by the nation during various major events that we were confronted with like the epic struggle for our freedom from the clutches of the British India in 1947, the war with India in September 1965, and, more recently in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in October 2005.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Minorities’ in Pakistan
Minorities’ in Pakistan
By: Afshain Afzal
Minorities are generally neglected section of the society due their difficulty to adjust and live with harmony with other fellow nationals as well as their rejection by small reactionary groups. When these small reactionary groups grow more than their size, either violence erupts or minorities’ rights are violated. Minorities suffer a lot where either justice system is weak or common man is ignorant of his rights. Unfortunately, in the case of Pakistan, despite the passage of 62 years as an independent state, we are unable to agree to our identity. Ironically, some so called educated people in Pakistan talk about secularism, capitalism, socialism or communism, knowing very well that Pakistan was created on the basis of Islamic ideology. The strong western and anti-Pakistan propaganda has in fact disappointed and mislead many of Pakistani nationals. Resultantly, some of the disgruntle elements talk about independent states, some about minority province and some even talk about handing over Pakistan to some international organization or western country so that justice prevails at grass root levels. It is not only the minorities that are sufferers in Pakistan but the plight of majority community i.e. Muslims is even worse. One feels ashamed to quote number of mosques destroyed during the last five year in this Islamic state. On the other hand, during the same period, there were only two or three incidents where churches were dishonored. As regard to Hindu Temples and religious place of other communities like Parsis, Qadianis, Bhais, Kafirs etc there is nil report of any damage or disrespect but still there is much to be done for the minorities’ rights.
According to Minority Rights Group International, a UK-based NGO, Pakistan had the world’s highest increase of threats against minorities last year and was ranked the seventh most dangerous country for minorities overall. Although, this highly exaggerated report is without foundations and include activities associated with attack on foreign forces in connection on going war in Afghanistan but it is our responsibility to ensure that rights and lives of all citizens in Pakistan are protected. The recent incident in Gojra, where seven Christians were killed and a number of Muslims seriously injured, happed despite the facts that Pakistani government tried to take all necessary steps to ensure protection of minorities and run the government on secular lines. We need to investigate why this incident happened so as to ensure that same does not happen in the future. It is a general observation that root cause of violation of rights of ordinary Pakistani citizens revolves around the fact that the system in Pakistan should have been Islamic which emphasizes as an all-embracing code of life standing for non-discriminatory social justice, fair play, democracy, equality of manhood and welfare of masses. It is pertinent to mention here that as regard to the system which Muslims of Indo-Pak subcontinent including Quaid-e-Azam wanted in Pakistan was Islamic. In the same context, during the Allahabad session of the All-India Muslim League in 1942 he was asked as to what type of state Pakistan would be? He replied: “It will be an Islamic state on the pattern of the Medina state with human rights, liberalism, democracy and complete tolerance and freedom of conscience to all citizens without any distinction of colour, creed, language, and race as granted by the Prophet of Islam Muhammad (peace be upon him) to Christians, Jews, idol worshippers and all others. Justice, brotherhood, liberty, equality and fraternity will reign supreme.” It is evident from said saying of Pakistan’s founder of nation that in Islamic system of governance in Pakistan can only ensure complete protection of minority rights.
The question arises that what was the pattern of the Medina state referred to by the Quaid-e-Azam? The Medina state was run on the basis of a document known as the Constitution of Medina (Messaq-e-Medina). This document, prepared under the instruction of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), dealt with the rights and obligations of the citizens of Medina including Muslims, Jews and all others. Through this document the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) made a friendly agreement especially with the Jews and established them in their religion, property and occupations and declared them as one community. The tolerance and goodwill shown by the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) in Medina and elsewhere became established as a basic principle of state policy in Muslim countries. Arnold in his book The Preaching of Islam gave the following Charter of Freedom given at the time of conquest of Jerusalem to Christians and others by the Hazrat Umar Bin Al-Khattab: “In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. This is the security which ‘Umar’, the servant of Allah, the commander of the faithful, grants to the people of Elia. Grants to all, whether sick or sound, security for their lives, their possessions, their churches and their crosses, and for all that concerns their religion, their churches shall not be changed into dwelling places, nor destroyed, neither shall they nor their appurtenances be in any way diminished, nor the crosses of the inhabitants nor aught of their possessions, nor shall any constraint be put upon them in the matter of their faith, nor shall any one of them be harmed.”
The non-discriminatory and humane tradition of the Constitution of Medina and Hazrat Umar’s Jerusalem Agreement was literally followed by the Quaid-e-Azam when he addressed Pakistan’s Constituent Assembly on August 11, 1947 thus: “You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other places of worship in this state of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed – that has nothing to do with the business of the state”. It is interesting to note that three days after this speech, the Quaid-e-Azam spoke again on the inauguration of Pakistan’s Constituent Assembly on 14 August 1947, re-emphasizing the central theme of his speech of 11 August 1947, said “The tolerance and goodwill that the great Emperors showed to all the non-Muslims is not of recent origin. It dates back 13 centuries ago when our Prophet (peace be upon him) not only by word but by deeds treated the Jews and Christians, after he had conquered them, with the utmost tolerance and regard and respect for their faith and beliefs. The whole history of Muslims, wherever they ruled, is replete with those humane and great principles which should be followed and practiced”. It is on the record that on 1 November 1941, there was an Akhand Bharatyia Conference in Jalandhar. Mr. Munshi, a well-known Hindu leader was in the chair. In his presidential address he said, "Do you know what Pakistan is? If you don't, listen! Pakistan means that Muslims can make in one or more parts of India, their homeland, where the system of government would be based on the Al Qura’an with Urdu as their national language. In simple terms, Pakistan will be a Muslim land where the government will be Islamic." Similarly in a meeting of the Pakistan Association of Germany on occasion of the centenary of the Quaid-e-Azam, a German scholar Professor Dr. Kanhan said, "The model before the Quaid was the Al Qura’an." In his speech at the Frontier Muslim League Conference on 21-11-1945 Quaid-e-Azam said, “We have to fight a double-edged battle, one against the Hindu Congress and the other against British Imperialists, both of them being capitalists. The Muslims demand Pakistan where they could rule according to their own code of life and according to their own cultural growth, traditions, and Islamic Laws.” Similarly in a message to N.W.F.P Muslim Students Federation, in April 1943, he said, “You have asked me to give you a message. What message can I give you? We have got the great message in the Al Qura’an for our guidance and enlightenment.”
It is apparent that the Quaid-e-Azam’s speeches of 11 and 14 August 1947 bear close similarity, in both letter and spirit, to the Constitution of Medina. This constitution was neither secular in the prevailing sense of the term as the Islamic State of Medina was not a secular state, nor was it based on the concept of papacy, an institution which does not exist in Islam. Further, it recognized the existence of Muslims and Jews as separate entities, though bound together as citizens with mutually agreed obligations and duties. It is also pertinent to note that the Quaid-e-Azam’s speeches of 11 and 14 August, read along with his pronouncement at the Allahabad Session of All-India Muslim League in 1942, clearly point to the fact that there was remarkable consistency in his pre-independence and post-independence thoughts about the pattern of state in Pakistan. It is high time for the people of Pakistan to forget about notorious concept of secularism and strive to make Quaid-e-Azam’s vision of Pakistan a reality. The preamble of Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan 1973 clearly spells out that Pakistan would be governed by the Law of Allah given in Al Qura’an and Sunnat of Holy Prophet Muhammad (May Peace be Upon Him). It is only the Islamic law which ensures the protection of minorities’ rights and once this is enforced in Pakistan, the whole society would be benefited; especially the minorities rights would be recognized and protected.
By: Afshain Afzal
Minorities are generally neglected section of the society due their difficulty to adjust and live with harmony with other fellow nationals as well as their rejection by small reactionary groups. When these small reactionary groups grow more than their size, either violence erupts or minorities’ rights are violated. Minorities suffer a lot where either justice system is weak or common man is ignorant of his rights. Unfortunately, in the case of Pakistan, despite the passage of 62 years as an independent state, we are unable to agree to our identity. Ironically, some so called educated people in Pakistan talk about secularism, capitalism, socialism or communism, knowing very well that Pakistan was created on the basis of Islamic ideology. The strong western and anti-Pakistan propaganda has in fact disappointed and mislead many of Pakistani nationals. Resultantly, some of the disgruntle elements talk about independent states, some about minority province and some even talk about handing over Pakistan to some international organization or western country so that justice prevails at grass root levels. It is not only the minorities that are sufferers in Pakistan but the plight of majority community i.e. Muslims is even worse. One feels ashamed to quote number of mosques destroyed during the last five year in this Islamic state. On the other hand, during the same period, there were only two or three incidents where churches were dishonored. As regard to Hindu Temples and religious place of other communities like Parsis, Qadianis, Bhais, Kafirs etc there is nil report of any damage or disrespect but still there is much to be done for the minorities’ rights.
According to Minority Rights Group International, a UK-based NGO, Pakistan had the world’s highest increase of threats against minorities last year and was ranked the seventh most dangerous country for minorities overall. Although, this highly exaggerated report is without foundations and include activities associated with attack on foreign forces in connection on going war in Afghanistan but it is our responsibility to ensure that rights and lives of all citizens in Pakistan are protected. The recent incident in Gojra, where seven Christians were killed and a number of Muslims seriously injured, happed despite the facts that Pakistani government tried to take all necessary steps to ensure protection of minorities and run the government on secular lines. We need to investigate why this incident happened so as to ensure that same does not happen in the future. It is a general observation that root cause of violation of rights of ordinary Pakistani citizens revolves around the fact that the system in Pakistan should have been Islamic which emphasizes as an all-embracing code of life standing for non-discriminatory social justice, fair play, democracy, equality of manhood and welfare of masses. It is pertinent to mention here that as regard to the system which Muslims of Indo-Pak subcontinent including Quaid-e-Azam wanted in Pakistan was Islamic. In the same context, during the Allahabad session of the All-India Muslim League in 1942 he was asked as to what type of state Pakistan would be? He replied: “It will be an Islamic state on the pattern of the Medina state with human rights, liberalism, democracy and complete tolerance and freedom of conscience to all citizens without any distinction of colour, creed, language, and race as granted by the Prophet of Islam Muhammad (peace be upon him) to Christians, Jews, idol worshippers and all others. Justice, brotherhood, liberty, equality and fraternity will reign supreme.” It is evident from said saying of Pakistan’s founder of nation that in Islamic system of governance in Pakistan can only ensure complete protection of minority rights.
The question arises that what was the pattern of the Medina state referred to by the Quaid-e-Azam? The Medina state was run on the basis of a document known as the Constitution of Medina (Messaq-e-Medina). This document, prepared under the instruction of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), dealt with the rights and obligations of the citizens of Medina including Muslims, Jews and all others. Through this document the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) made a friendly agreement especially with the Jews and established them in their religion, property and occupations and declared them as one community. The tolerance and goodwill shown by the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) in Medina and elsewhere became established as a basic principle of state policy in Muslim countries. Arnold in his book The Preaching of Islam gave the following Charter of Freedom given at the time of conquest of Jerusalem to Christians and others by the Hazrat Umar Bin Al-Khattab: “In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. This is the security which ‘Umar’, the servant of Allah, the commander of the faithful, grants to the people of Elia. Grants to all, whether sick or sound, security for their lives, their possessions, their churches and their crosses, and for all that concerns their religion, their churches shall not be changed into dwelling places, nor destroyed, neither shall they nor their appurtenances be in any way diminished, nor the crosses of the inhabitants nor aught of their possessions, nor shall any constraint be put upon them in the matter of their faith, nor shall any one of them be harmed.”
The non-discriminatory and humane tradition of the Constitution of Medina and Hazrat Umar’s Jerusalem Agreement was literally followed by the Quaid-e-Azam when he addressed Pakistan’s Constituent Assembly on August 11, 1947 thus: “You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other places of worship in this state of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed – that has nothing to do with the business of the state”. It is interesting to note that three days after this speech, the Quaid-e-Azam spoke again on the inauguration of Pakistan’s Constituent Assembly on 14 August 1947, re-emphasizing the central theme of his speech of 11 August 1947, said “The tolerance and goodwill that the great Emperors showed to all the non-Muslims is not of recent origin. It dates back 13 centuries ago when our Prophet (peace be upon him) not only by word but by deeds treated the Jews and Christians, after he had conquered them, with the utmost tolerance and regard and respect for their faith and beliefs. The whole history of Muslims, wherever they ruled, is replete with those humane and great principles which should be followed and practiced”. It is on the record that on 1 November 1941, there was an Akhand Bharatyia Conference in Jalandhar. Mr. Munshi, a well-known Hindu leader was in the chair. In his presidential address he said, "Do you know what Pakistan is? If you don't, listen! Pakistan means that Muslims can make in one or more parts of India, their homeland, where the system of government would be based on the Al Qura’an with Urdu as their national language. In simple terms, Pakistan will be a Muslim land where the government will be Islamic." Similarly in a meeting of the Pakistan Association of Germany on occasion of the centenary of the Quaid-e-Azam, a German scholar Professor Dr. Kanhan said, "The model before the Quaid was the Al Qura’an." In his speech at the Frontier Muslim League Conference on 21-11-1945 Quaid-e-Azam said, “We have to fight a double-edged battle, one against the Hindu Congress and the other against British Imperialists, both of them being capitalists. The Muslims demand Pakistan where they could rule according to their own code of life and according to their own cultural growth, traditions, and Islamic Laws.” Similarly in a message to N.W.F.P Muslim Students Federation, in April 1943, he said, “You have asked me to give you a message. What message can I give you? We have got the great message in the Al Qura’an for our guidance and enlightenment.”
It is apparent that the Quaid-e-Azam’s speeches of 11 and 14 August 1947 bear close similarity, in both letter and spirit, to the Constitution of Medina. This constitution was neither secular in the prevailing sense of the term as the Islamic State of Medina was not a secular state, nor was it based on the concept of papacy, an institution which does not exist in Islam. Further, it recognized the existence of Muslims and Jews as separate entities, though bound together as citizens with mutually agreed obligations and duties. It is also pertinent to note that the Quaid-e-Azam’s speeches of 11 and 14 August, read along with his pronouncement at the Allahabad Session of All-India Muslim League in 1942, clearly point to the fact that there was remarkable consistency in his pre-independence and post-independence thoughts about the pattern of state in Pakistan. It is high time for the people of Pakistan to forget about notorious concept of secularism and strive to make Quaid-e-Azam’s vision of Pakistan a reality. The preamble of Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan 1973 clearly spells out that Pakistan would be governed by the Law of Allah given in Al Qura’an and Sunnat of Holy Prophet Muhammad (May Peace be Upon Him). It is only the Islamic law which ensures the protection of minorities’ rights and once this is enforced in Pakistan, the whole society would be benefited; especially the minorities rights would be recognized and protected.
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