Architect of US drone war faces public spotlight

The hard-nosed architect of the US drone war against Al-Qaeda, John Brennan, will face tough questions about secret assassinations Thursday from senators weighing his nomination to lead the CIA.

The confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee promises to focus a rare public spotlight on President Barack Obama’s covert campaign to hunt down Al-Qaeda suspects worldwide in drone bombing raids.

The administration has sought to shroud the raids in secrecy but the threat of lawsuits and frustration from lawmakers has piled pressure on officials to publicly defend the conduct of the drone war.

Although Brennan is expected to be approved as the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency, some senators see the hearing as a chance to question the legality of the drone campaign and to extract details that the White House has long refused to divulge.

Two days before the hearing, a Justice Department document leaked to news media that outlines the legal justification for killing a US citizen abroad. The document, which says an American can be targeted if he is a senior, “operational” figure in the Al-Qaeda terror network, reportedly had been passed to lawmakers last year.

Scouts vehicles being used to smuggle arms and explosives

Pakistan’s porous western borders, which continue to play host to militancy and terrorism, are now facing a new threat that has developed innovative ways to smuggle arms.

As the country struggles to eliminate terrorism, recent reports suggest that women and children and vehicles used by scouts are now being used to smuggle weapons and explosives in different parts of the country.
Intelligence and law enforcement agencies recently released a report identifying sources of this smuggling mafia. The report states that official scouts vehicles, used as protective cover against authorities, lead the way while a convoy transporting arms and explosives follow them in the northern areas of the country.

 the smuggling mafia operates. Smugglers usually use their privately owned vehicles while transporting arms and explosives but a scouts car now leads the way to ensure clearance from the police force at different check posts.

The report revealed that in some cases women along with infants were also being used to facilitate smuggling. Women clad in the burqas usually accompany the smugglers while they are transporting their consignment from one place to the other.

People versus the pulpit

Both political scientists and historians make a common mistake by concluding that there was a conflict in history over the separation of ‘church’ and ‘state’. In fact, there was never a conflict between these two. Rather, both of them were partners. The real conflict was over the separation of the ‘church’ and ‘politics’. The emperors or kings themselves represented the state as King Louis XIV of France said, “I’m the state.” The kings were the owners of their realm/state as feudal lords owned their fiefs. In addition, three conservative forces — the clergy, the military and feudal lords — supported the kings because they had common interests.

In history, the actual conflict started between church and politics, and not church and state, when new stakeholders or commoners entered the arena, claiming that the rulers had to have the support of the people and not of the pulpit, in order to rule. The basis of this claim was a new idea of ‘majority rule’ or ‘government by consent of the people, i.e., liberal democracy’ promoted by Western political philosophers. From the seventeenth century onwards, religion had problems with democracy and not with the state. Religion did not have space for democracy nor did democracy have any room for religion because both were incompatible. A state could be based on the will of God, as religion suggests, but democracy is based on the will of the people only. Going by this, the whole Christian world, in so far as the government and its institutions are concerned, denies and defies the authority of God by applying democracy in their societies. For example, the Americans, though they trust in God, believe in democracy and follow the Constitution, not the Bible.

On Kashmir day, PM pledges full support

Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said on Monday that Pakistan will stand by the people of Kashmir till a peaceful resolution to the dispute is achieved.

In a message issued on the occasion of Kashmir day, Prime Minister Ashraf said: “On behalf of the government, I reaffirm Pakistan’s commitment to a just and peaceful resolution to the Kashmir dispute,”

He said the government will continue to extend its unwavering political, moral and diplomatic support to the cause, which has been on the agenda of the United Nations for the past six decades, however, remains unresolved.

The premier said that the right to self determination of the people of the region will be achieved through a free and impartial plebiscite in line with the UN Charter and the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council.

Ashraf said Pakistan supports dialogue with the Indian government and has introduced confidence building measures (CMB) is this regard.

Eye on transition: New govt in Balochistan ‘within days’, say officials

A new coalition government is likely to take shape in Balochistan within a “few days”, political leaders and government officials said on Monday.

The new set-up will be cobbled together by all coalition partners in the erstwhile Nawab Aslam Raisani administration. Politicians and senior government officials told The Express Tribune that four political parties – Pakistan Peoples Party, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl, Awami National Party and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid – and Balochistan National Party-Awami will form the new government with the help of independent lawmakers.

“A new government will be put in place a few days before the dissolution of the assembles,” a senior government official said, requesting anonymity. “Under the Constitution, restoration of the provincial government is essential for the formation of an interim set-up in the province,” the official added.

To be a journalist in Pakistan

It is sometimes a surprise to outsiders — expecting censorship and oppression — that Pakistan has such a free and vibrant media. Speaking in 2010, the political theorist Noam Chomsky remarked that Pakistan’s media was less censored than in neighbouring India, generally described as the world’s largest democracy. “In Pakistan, I listened to and read the media which go to an increasingly large part of the population,” he said. “Apparently, the government is willing to say to the media that you have your fun, we are not going to bother you. So they don’t interfere with it.”

The faults of the current government may be many and various, but it has certainly done a lot to further freedom of expression, a right which is laid down in the Constitution of Pakistan. At times television channels and newspapers have been criticised for behaving unethically, but particularly in the last decade, they have played a significant role in uncovering corruption and acting as a check on power. Embezzlement in the Pakistan Railways, bribery leading to $500m losses at the Pakistan International Airlines, and the rental power projects corruption case were all unveiled by journalists.

Zardari, Karzai commit to peace deal in six months: Statement

Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari vowed Monday to achieve a peace settlement for Afghanistan within six months, after talks hosted by Britain.

Following the talks at British Prime Minister David Cameron’s Chequers country retreat near London, the three leaders also said they supported the opening of an office in Qatar for the Taliban to hold talks.

“All sides agreed on the urgency of this work and committed themselves to take all necessary measures to achieve the goal of a peace settlement over the next six months,” they said in a joint statement issued by Cameron’s office.

Tourism, Terrorism and Empire

In the life of many white westerners is a chapter devoted to the finding of oneself. This chapter may not occur at any given point in life, although most attach it to a life crisis; a divorce, a bankruptcy perhaps, the lazy end of youth and the horror of a boring, comfortable adulthood. At this point, the subject is expected to challenge one’s own thoughts and beliefs and gain some deep, inner knowledge of oneself that renders the memory of youth/rejection/illness far enough to be forgotten. All of this must be done through the encounter of something inexorably challenging and physically different: and located as far as possible from the new cars and perfect houses of white middle class life, ideally in a land foreign enough and far enough to merit the respect of others either awaiting or nostalgic about their own journeys of discovery

Enter India; the land of the friendly brown people, exotic enough to be sensual, and yet dirty and smelly enough to be real; two essential ingredients in discovery destinations of the wealthy, white seeker. In the world of cheaply bought jet-travel, no other country has been able to harness through clever marketing and strategic imaging; the market made available by the Western search for fulfillment. Be it the old people in the movie Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, or the wry truth speaking slum observing author Katherine Boo of

Balochistan peace hurdles

IF Baloch nationalist leader Akhtar Mengal does return to take part in the next general election as announced, it’ll be a significant development and may help stabilise Balochistan.

The last election was boycotted by all nationalist forces following the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti in a military operation just over a year earlier and the disastrous consequences of an alienated Baloch nationalist leadership and electorate are there for all to see.

Not only did the last elections see many credible leaders sitting on the sidelines, it also witnessed the coming to power of a coalition government headed by a largely dysfunctional chief minister whose lifestyle and health issues kept him away from his seat of power for long periods.

All this while the province was being ruled by armed bands striving for separation and not shying away from drawing innocent blood; murderous anti-Shia gangs; pro-government thugs run allegedly by the intelligence agencies and a belligerent paramilitary Frontier Corps.

Why so late, General?

Generals in Pakistan excel at showing their dovish side and subjecting their peers to a measure of scrutiny only once they have retired. The latest example of a military man trying to rehabilitate his image now that he is out of uniform is Lt Gen (retd) Shahid Aziz, who is finally ready to spill the beans about the Kargil operation that took place in 1999. Much of what he says was already suspected. Pervez Musharraf, as chief of army staff, kept just about everyone in the dark about Kargil, including everyone save three other people. Aziz himself, as director general of the analysis wing, did not know about the operation till it had already commenced. Then prime minister Nawaz Sharif, the man who should have had the ultimate authority to order the Kargil operation, was also not consulted on the matter.

What’s truly tragic about the Kargil operation is how we never seem to learn from our follies. Our 1965 war with India was also sparked by a similar incursion into Indian Kashmir, the details of which resided

Pakistan accuses India of 12 beheadings since 1998: Report

Pakistan has accused India of decapitating 12 soldiers in cross-border attacks since 1998 and registered a protest with a UN watchdog, a newspaper reported Wednesday, after deadly army clashes earlier this month.

The accusations are contained in a series of classified documents presented to the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) which monitors the disputed Kashmir border, according to The Hindu newspaper.

The report reads, “In classified protests to a United Nations watchdog that have never been disclosed till now, Pakistan has accused Indian soldiers of involvement in the torture and decapitation of at least 12 Pakistani soldiers in cross-Line of Control raids since 1998, as well as the massacre of 29 civilians.”

Polio transmission: India may restrict travel from Pakistan

 India may be the first country to impose travel restrictions on Pakistan because of its polio problem which threatens to become an international headache.

India Today reported on January 28 that the Delhi government has written to its transport and railway authorities to allow screening of children coming from Pakistan or going there. It wants the health department to set up a permanent system at the Ambedkar Stadium and Old Delhi railway station where the Samjhauta Express arrives. Such screening is also carried out in Jammu and Kashmir as well as Munabao, in Rajasthan from where a train goes to Karachi.