WASHINGTON: North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) says it is working with Pakistan to reopen supply routes as soon as possible and that the country had an important role to play in Afghanistan’s stability and security.

In the Chicago Summit declaration, released hours after Nato leaders met at McCormick Place in Chicago:

The countries in the region, particularly Pakistan, have important roles in ensuring enduring peace, stability and security in Afghanistan and in facilitating the completion of the transition process. We stand ready to continue dialogue and practical cooperation with relevant regional actors in this regard. We welcome the progress on transit arrangements with our Central Asian partners and Russia.

The declaration also said that Nato is on track to transition responsibility from Isaf to the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) by 2013.

“Nato is ready to work towards establishing, at the request of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, a new post-2014 mission of a different nature in Afghanistan, to train, advise and assist the ANSF, including the Afghan Special Operations Forces. This will not be a combat mission. We task the council to begin immediately work on the military planning process for the post-ISAF mission,” said the declaration.

Nato said that they were calling on the international community “to commit to the long-term sustainment of the ANSF.”

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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) said Monday it would boycott a banquet being hosted by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani for his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The party has said that the boycott is a protest against Gilani’s conviction for contempt.

“No one (from the party) is going to the dinner, because we do not recognise him as prime minister,” PML-N media coordinator Asim Niazi told AFP.

Erdogan flew into Islamabad on Sunday for a three-day official visit. He is due to address a joint session of parliament before the banquet later Monday.

Senior PML-N leaders said, however, that the party would set domestic politics aside to attend the parliamentary session, because “Erdogan is our honoured guest”.

On April 26, Gilani became Pakistan’s first sitting prime minister to be convicted in court, for refusing to ask the Swiss authorities to reopen corruption cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.

Gilani had refused on the grounds that the head of state enjoys immunity.

The PML-N has demanded that Gilani resign, saying the conviction disqualifies him from office and has called for early elections, not due before February 2013.

The Swiss shelved the cases in 2008 when Zardari became president and a prosecutor in Switzerland has said it will be impossible to re-open them as long as he remains head of state. Gilani has vowed to appeal his conviction.

QUETTA: The advocate general told the Supreme Court’s Quetta registry on Monday that around 16 missing persons were still in the custody of security agencies, Express News reported.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, heading the bench hearing the deteriorating law and order situation of Balochistan, expressed concern over the non-recovery of missing persons and said that nothing had come out from the case despite having contacted all government institutions and agencies.

The chief justice ordered the advocate general to present any information he has in the case and the court will pass any order it has to. He further directed the advocate general to arrange compensation for the journalists killed in Balochistan as a result of target killings.

The chief justice ordered the defence and interior secretaries to appear before the court tomorrow (Tuesday) to clear allegations against them.

Interior Secretary Naseebullah told the bench that incidents of crime cannot be curbed till mobile companies keep on issuing as many as 60 SIMs to a single NIC.

The chief justice said that licences of mobile companies who fail to cooperate will be cancelled.

KARACHI: The session of the privilege committee of the Sindh Assembly, which had summoned Opposition Leader Chaudhry Nisar over his remarks against Sindhi culture, was postponed till May 29, Express News reported on Monday. Nisar had earlier been summoned on May 21 (today).

The session was delayed because the quorum could not be completed today.

Nisar, while addressing a press conference earlier, had said that the celebration of Sindhi topi and ajrak day on March 13 was a “topi drama”.

While speaking to Express News, Sindh Law and Prisons Minister Ayaz Soomro said that Nisar does not have any respect for Sindh’s culture, the people of Sindh or the privilege committee. He said that if he does not come to the next session, an ex parte judgement will be passed against him to “get him jailed”.

He also said that the committee had “other ways as well”.

“If Nisar dares to raise his finger against Sindhi culture, we will raise our arm against him,” said Soomro.

MPAs of Pakistan Peoples Party had also threatened to besiege him during the National Assembly proceeding if he fails to apologise to the people of Sindh.

On May 15, a committee had met under the chairmanship of PPP MPA Mujadid Isran. Imran Zafar Leghari had tabled a privilege motion against Nisar’s remarks as well.

Leghari had said that Nisar had not only breached the privilege of all MPAs celebrating the culture day, but his derogatory remarks have hurt the sentiments of the people living in Sindh.

PESHAWAR: At least five militants were killed and five others were injured when clashes erupted between Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) and Ansarul Islam (AI) in the Sanda Pal area of Tirah Valley, Khyber Agency.

According to locals, the firefight between the two groups began in the early hours of Monday when fighters of AI attacked Sanda Pal, a stronghold of LI militants.

They claimed that four militants of the Mangal Bagh-led LI had been killed and two were injured, while one fighter of AI was killed and three were injured.

Clashes between the two groups occur frequently as AI fights the LI to gain control of the area.

According to sources, heavy weapons were used in the fight and AI fighters took control of a number of small outposts to reach Sanda Pal – the main outpost.

Residents living in the secluded valley have little communication with the world.

The area has been under the influence of militants, including the LI, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Ansarul Islam, who have consistently targeted each other over territorial disputes and sectarian differences.

The move came a month after attempts to have Musharraf extradited to Pakistan hit a roadblock, as the possibility of capital punishment impedes the formulation of an agreement between the two countries. Musharraf is wanted by an anti-terrorism court in former premier Benazir Bhutto’s assassination case.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the foreign ministry revealed on April 22 that an extradition treaty between Pakistan and the UK “remains ambivalent” because the joint judicial team assigned to finalise the accord differed over the likelihood of the ‘death sentence’.

“Efforts to conclude extradition treaties with various countries are going on,” said Foreign Office spokesperson Moazam Ali Khan. The foreign affairs ministry’s various desks, namely, Europe, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Middle East, North America and Central Asia are working on such efforts. “Particularly, our focus is on Europe…to expedite the efforts for concluding extradition treaties,” Khan told The Express Tribune.

At present, Pakistan has extradition treaties with 27 countries. They are the US, Algeria, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Colombia, Cuba, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, France, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Liberia, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Maldives, Netherlands, Portugal, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Turkey, Uzbekistan and Yugoslavia.

Officials of the interior and foreign affairs ministries say that Islamabad wants to sign extradition treaties with European countries under the Pakistan Extradition Act, 1972. The legal teams of both ministries after detailed interaction with officials of various countries, namely the UK, France, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland and Italy will likely make headway in the near future in this regard, they added.

Capital punishment is the main hurdle in concluding the extradition treaties, said the foreign office legal director Sher Bahadur Khan.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik has also been engaged in efforts to sign extradition treaties with various countries, particularly the UK, to bring home various absconding Pakistanis wanted by courts and law enforcement agencies particularly former president Musharraf. Help has been sought from Interpol in this regard as well.

Islamabad’s British High Commission Press Attaché Mike Girling said the British government did not comment on the ongoing discussion on the extradition treaty between the two countries.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21^st, 2012.

CHICAGO: President Asif Ali Zardari held bilateral talks with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the sidelines of the Nato summit in Chicago on Sunday, wherein he asked the US to help Pakistan reach a closure on the Salala episode “by following the path laid down by the country’s parliament.”

According to a press release, Presidential spokesperson Senator Farhatullah Babar said that the president reminded the US secretary of state that Pakistan “wanted to find a permanent solution regarding drone strikes since these not only violated Pakistan’s sovereignty but also inflamed the public’s sentiments due to civilian casualties.”

The president also made it clear that Pakistan ‘still felt aggrieved over the Salala incident’.

The president also raised the issue of Coalition Support Fund (CSF) payments with Secretary Clinton.

On the other hand, Secretary Clinton said that the US considers Pakistan an important ally in the war against terror and a partner in the efforts to promote regional peace.

The press release quoted Clinton as saying that the “US wanted to re-engage Pakistan and it respects the parliamentary review of the country’s engagement with the US”.

“It intends to move forward in its relationship with the people of Pakistan,” it added.

However, it was still not clear on what terms did the US intends to move forward in its relationship with Pakistan.

President Zardari also asked Secretary Clinton to help his country gain access to US markets and help Pakistan in “overcoming the present challenges including the energy crisis”.

Regarding the Afghan endgame, the president asserted said that “a genuine reconciliation process in the country which is Afghan-led and Afghan-owned remained the only viable solution to ending the conflict”.

“A trust deficit still remained between Pakistan and the US, on the other hand, and that implies that the goal of establishing a long-term, sustained and durable bilateral equation remains elusive,” he added.

“Bridging this trust deficit is a must for Pakistan in order to reinvigorate the counter-terrorism cooperation with the international community,” he said.

At the same time, “the public ownership of the efforts against terrorism must not be allowed to get weakened through incidents like Salala or the loss of civilian lives as a result of drone attacks”.

The president also highlighted the need “to evolve a mechanism on evolving cooperation on counter terrorism as outlined by country’s parliament”.

“Both sides must consider designing a framework to find a mutually acceptable alternative,” he asserted.

The meeting was attended by Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani, Ambassadors Cameron Munter, Marc Grossman and Sherry Rehman and Senator Farhatullah Babar, along with other officials.

A senior State Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that the two leaders “discussed the importance of reopening Nato supply lines; taking a joint action against elements which threatened Pakistan, the United States and the region including al Qaeda and the Haqqani network; of supporting Afghanistan’s security, stability and efforts towards reaching a reconciliation in addition to negotiating for a US-Pakistan Bilateral Investment Treaty.”

The administration of Baitul Hamd, the worship place, covered the chhatri (flattened dome) at the entrance by installing a hoarding in front of it on May 4. A day earlier, Misri Shah police had removed some tiles with the Kalma and Quranic verses from the building entrance.

They had done so after Rana Muhammad Tufail, a cleric, and Advocate M Badar Alim Sheikh filed an application with the police complaining that the worship place looked too much like a mosque. They had sought a case against the Ahmedis under Sections 295-B and 298-C, which were made part of the Pakistan Penal Code via the ‘Anti-lslamic Activities of Qadiani Group, Lahori Group and Ahmedis (Prohibition and Punishment) Ordinance’ of 1984.

A local Ahmedi said on the condition of anonymity that Tufail and Sheikh had sent messages via other people to the place of worship warning that they were unsatisfied with the changes and the chhatri of the building must be demolished, failing which they would make it impossible for them to live in the area.

Tufail said that under the law, Ahmedis were non-Muslims. “We will not let them make their worship place like a mosque. They are misleading Muslims. We have told the police to stop them, otherwise we will organise protests and they will be responsible for any untoward incident,” he said.

Sheikh accused the Ahmedi community of taking the law into their hands and “posing as Muslims”. He said the Constitution of Pakistan had declared them non-Muslims. He said that they would pursue legal action against the Ahmedi community “to make them mend their ways”.

Fazal Ahmed, a member of the Baitul Hamd administration committee, said that they had tried their best to make the place look less offensive to the complainants, but they were still not satisfied. He said the place of worship had been around since before Partition. Another Ahmedi said it had been around since 1960.

He said the police had told them that they had done 75 per cent of the job, and needed to finish the rest by demolishing the dome. He said no cleric had asked them to do so directly, but the police were pressing them. He said that they would not demolish the dome themselves. “Let the police or the clerics do it if they want,” he said.

Muhammad Riaz, the investigation officer in the matter, said that the police were trying to resolve the matter amicably.

According to 295-B of the Pakistan Penal Code, “whoever wilfully defiles, damages or desecrates a copy of the Holy Quran or of an extract therefrom or uses it in any derogatory manner or for any unlawful purpose shall be punishable with imprisonment for life.”

According to 298-C, “any person of the Qadiani Group or the Lahori Group (who call themselves ‘Ahmedis’ or by any other name), who directly or indirectly, poses as a Muslim, or calls, or refers to, his faith as Islam, or preaches or propagates his faith, or invites others to accept his faith, by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representations, or in any manner whatsoever outrages the religious feelings of Muslims shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21^st, 2012.

KARACHI: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s strong effort to play a role in the Sindh political scene has set off alarm bells in the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and its allies, and also created an opportunity for groups opposed to PPP to unite.

While Nawaz Sharif has managed to convince several people to join his party, the merger of the Mumtaz Bhutto-led Sindh National Front (SNF) with the PML-N has surprised many. Political analysts believe that Bhutto’s decision will propel him from isolation to inclusion [in mainstream politics].

Bhutto, who Zulfikar Ali Bhutto used to call “my talented cousin”, has also started approaching influential people in Sindh to create an alliance that would oppose the PPP in the next elections.

Mumtaz Bhutto studied at Oxford University and was known as a ‘dahisar’ (a brave man). But in recent years, he was confined to his village Pir Bux Bhutto in Larkana district following the growing popularity of PPP in the area.

Nationalist parties Awami Tehreek and Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party have also started negotiating with Sharif, while the Arbab Ghulam Rahim-led group of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid has signed an election pact with the PML-N. Other clans who had a large vote bank in 2002, such as the Jatois of Dadu district, Sherazis of Thatta, Tando Allahyar’s Magsis and the Unars of Larkana have reportedly assured the PML-N of their support.

The PPP is also playing catch up and has tried to woo the Mahar brothers from Ghotki district. But the Mahars have said no to the PPP and the PML-N. According to sources, former district nazim Ali Gohar Mahar and ex-chief minister Ali Mohammad Mahar demanded that the PPP not field candidates for the one national and three provincial assembly seats in the district. “This is our constituency. Only us or our supporters can win the election in our area,” Sardar Ali Gohar Mahar reportedly told MNA Faryal Talpur, President Asif Ali Zardari’s sister.

The PPP is still undecided on its future course of action. The Mahar family tends to contest elections independently before joining a coalition.

“The Mahar family joins any alliance or government on the directives of ‘bari sarkar’ (establishment). It seems they have not yet been signalled where to go,” said journalist Sohail Sangi.

PML-N has constituted a nine-member committee led by former chief minister Liaquat Jatoi to contact influential Sindh politicians in the province.

Raheela Magsi, the former district nazim Tando Allahyar and her brother Irfan Gul Magsi, a former minister for revenue, have also been approached by Jatoi and are expected to join the PML-N soon.

However journalist Sangi disagrees that the PML-N can win seats in Sindh.

“They want to use Mumtaz Bhutto as a ‘tag’ to show that Bhutto’s cousin and other powerful forces are with them,” he said. “How can you assume change from a man who cannot even win his own seat?”

However, it is uncertain what position he will get in the PML-N. Mumtaz Bhutto has served as Sindh chief minister twice, as well as governor and a federal minister.

“Bhutto has rendered a big sacrifice by merging his party into the PML-N. We are also considering giving him the most important position in the party.  Deliberations are ongoing and he is likely to replace Raja Zafarul Haq as PML-N chairperson,” a senior PML-N leader said.

While the usual suspicion that the ‘establishment’ is behind the new political game in Sindh, Sangi doesn’t think that the establishment is serious. “Nawaz Sharif is once again trying to give the impression that the PML-N is a national party and some influential people including nationalists are with him.” he said. Sangi says it was odd that a Sindh nationalist group had indicated forming an election alliance with the PML-N.

According to senior analyst and writer Inam Shaikh, Nawaz Sharif has emerged as a vocal leader for Sindh while the PPP – which has a huge vote bank in Sindh – has ‘ditched its people’ and its coalition partner (MQM) appears to be backing a movement for a Mohajir province.

“The situation has changed. We are in the era of social media. People are aware of their issues and know how the PPP has failed to deliver. In this situation the PML-N can get considerable votes because old allies of Nawaz Sharif and Pervez Musharraf who have solid votes in their constituencies are limping back to join the PML-N,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21^st, 2012.

ISLAMABAD: A dinner invitation from Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani in honour of his visiting Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has thrown his bitter rivals including former premier Nawaz Sharif into a state of confusion.

Erdogan, thought to be a close personal friend of many Pakistani politicians, arrived in Islamabad on Sunday night on a three-day trip amid simmering political uncertainty after Premier Gilani’s conviction by the Supreme Court last month in a contempt case.

The Turkish leader is scheduled to hold separate meetings with a whole spectrum of political parties in Pakistan during his three-day stay in the country, fuelling speculation that he might be travelling with baggage full of advice and counsel for wrangling leaders.

One highlight of his trip will be an address he plans to deliver to a joint sitting of Pakistan’s parliament—the National Assembly and Senate—on Monday evening, earning him the distinction of being the first international leader to speak to lawmakers here twice.

The Pakistan Muslim  League-Nawaz (PML-N), the main opposition group that officially no longer recognises Prime Minister Gilani as a legitimate premier after his conviction, appeared to be in two minds over a decision to attend the dinner on Monday night.

The choice between losing the moral high ground by attending the dinner hosted by a convicted premier and to honour the Turkish premier known for having ‘brotherly’ relations with the Sharif family continued to haunt the PML-N all day long on Sunday.

By the evening, there were contradictions in the statements of the party’s top leaders.

Senator Ishaq Dar, Leader of the Opposition in Senate, told media in Lahore the former premier was unlikely to attend the dinner though the PML-N would welcome him at parliament and at a meeting scheduled for Tuesday. “Neither he (Nawaz) nor any of his representatives will attend the dinner,” said Dar in definite terms.  But other party leaders, including MNA Ahsan Iqbal, Sharif’s Political Secretary Dr Asif Kirmani and Senator Mushahidullah Khan were all unsure as to whether Nawaz would attend and enjoy delicacies while sharing a table with his host and arch nemesis, Prime Minister Gilani.

“We haven’t decided this yet…Mian Sahib (Sharif) will have the final word himself on Monday,” said Senator Mushahidullah Khan, the spokesperson of the PML-N.

“I don’t know anything…I haven’t had any interaction with Mian Sahib today,” was the brief answer of Dr Kirmani.

Ahsan Iqbal was unable to confirm his party leader’s participation in the meeting, saying he was having difficulties establishing contact with Nawaz who usually enjoys a holiday away from all public activities.

Other invitees

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), another group pushing Gilani to step down after his conviction, was in a relatively less pressing situation to respond to the premier’s dinner invitation – PTI chief Imran Khan, the recipient of the invitation, was out of the country.

Like PML-N leaders, PTI spokesperson Shafqat Mehmood was also unsure whether anybody else from the party would accept the invite.

Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), another party hell-bent on sending the prime minister packing as soon as possible, was also mulling how to respond to the invitation to its leader Syed Munawar Hassan, a top official said.

“We have just received it (the invitation), only hours ago…let us settle down and carry out some consultation on it. We will let you know,” said JI’s Liaqat Baloch.

Others who are invited include Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Fazlur Rehman, Senator Munir Orakzai and Aftab Ahmed Sherpao.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21^st, 2012.

“We are identifying such employees every other day,” said Muhammad Hussain Syed, the administrator. “Around 31 fake employees were found out just yesterday (Saturday).”

Until now, the authorities have found 3,000 people who were not employed with KMC but were drawing double salaries.

Syed said that the financial embezzlement had been going on for years in various departments of the municipal service provider, which has 26,400 employees on its payroll.

“This is a continuing exercise. We are finding new cases as we dig deeper,” he said, hoping to stop the financial haemorrhage in the coming months.

KMC has over 33 different departments. Employee records are still kept on paper ledgers, involving hand written entries when it comes to moving funds.

Under a new scheme, KMC is directly depositing salaries in employee bank accounts, said Amir Khursheed, the financial adviser of KMC.

The saved amount was being embezzled under the cover of the old system, which involved many intermediaries between the finance department and the employees, he said. “There are still officials among us who are trying to disable the entire exercise,” he said. “We have been able to bring at least 90 per cent of the system online.”

In the new online system, KMC has the computerised national identity card numbers of all employees and as their salaries are transferred to individual accounts, the finance department knows where the money is going.

“Before this we were completely in the dark. Each department would send us a request for the amount of money it needed and we would issue the cheque without knowing who was getting how much,” Khursheed said.

Often, the salary drawing and disbursement officer would draw more money from the finance department than he actually required.

But a recent delay in the payment of salaries has become a major issue since the introduction of the new system. School teachers, doctors, paramedics and firefighters have all protested in the past couple of months for payments on time.

Khursheed said there are officials who have thrived on financial manipulation and who can’t stand losing their commissions. “If the departments don’t share records of their employees, how are we going to verify and transfer the money?”

KMC has already lodged FIRs against at least five employees of the education department after finding them involved in the manipulation of salary records. Most of the corruption cases were reported in the education department. But there are instances of fake and excess appointments in the city wardens department, the fire brigade and parks and horticulture departments as well.

KMC spokesman Ali Hasan Sajid said around 120 million rupees have saved in three months since the new system was introduced.

Every employee has been asked to fill a form, which carries all his job-related details, he said. “Those who will not file it won’t get their salaries.” KMC pays Rs580 million in salaries every month.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21^st, 2012.

ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi has claimed that the country’s legislators are paid less than their counterparts in India, Bangladesh and other South Asian states.

Pushing for more perks and privileges for MNAs, he said that their basic salary and expenses were insufficient and were barely enough to maximise their capacity as lawmakers of the country.

“They should be given independent offices with necessary administrative staff to discharge their responsibilities as lawmakers if you want to build their capacity,” he said.

About the competence of lawmakers from Fata, the deputy speaker said that all of them participated in the legislation process in the assembly.

“For building the capacity of MNAs, an increase in monthly salary and allowances will be helpful,” Kundi stressed.

Kundi admitted that packs of budget-related documents presented to MNAs by the finance ministry every year during the budget session are not properly utilised by legislators.

He also said that annual reports by the Auditor General of Pakistan were submitted to the National Assembly every year but there was never any debate on them. “I don’t know” was his reply when asked why audit reports were not debated in the National Assembly. “I think that audit reports should be discussed in the National Assembly to ensure accountability of all those who are ruling the country in one way or another,” he remarked.

The constitution requires the auditor general to lay his reports before parliament which, he said, is being implemented. He added however, that for the first time a report prepared by the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee was debated in the House.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21^st, 2012.

KARACHI / ISLAMABAD: After a surprise 12-hour countrywide blockade of Twitter due to posts promoting competition of blasphemous drawings, authorities late on Sunday restored services of the micro-blogging website.

“Yes, the website has been unblocked,” Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) spokesperson Muhammad Younis confirmed to The Express Tribune.

Asked whether the site had removed the controversial content, the spokesperson just stated: “We have been given instructions by the ministry of information and technology to restore the website.”

Authorities had blocked Twitter across the country earlier on Sunday, accusing the site of refusing to remove posts promoting a Facebook competition involving caricatures of the Holy Prophet (pbuh). Lawyer and lead researcher on Internet Freedom for human rights organisation Bytes for All, Nighat Daad, revealed that a one-line directive had been issued at 12:35am on Sunday which had ordered the imposition of a ban on Twitter.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that the ban had taken him by surprise and he had spoken to Information and Technology Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on why the ban had been imposed.

“He told me that a competition on drawing blasphemous caricatures was taking place and I told him that a complete ban should not have been imposed,” said the interior minister. Malik had earlier said that the IT minister had assured him that the ban would be lifted once the ‘competition’ ends, but sources later told The Express Tribune that the interior minister had spoken to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani personally and had been assured that the site would be accessible again. The ban was lifted shortly afterwards.

“We blocked the website on the directions of IT ministry due to an ongoing competition of blasphemous drawings,” PTA Chairman Dr Muhammad Yaseen had earlier told The Express Tribune.

The ministry had been in talks, during the last four days, with the micro-blogging site – an online social networking service that enables users to send and receive text-based posts – for the removal of the blasphemous content but there had been no breakthroughs, he had said.

Twitter and Facebook were not immediately reachable for comment. According to reports, the ministry tried getting through to authorities on Twitter and about five faxes were sent to the website’s management. Eventually, in reply, Twitter authorities replied saying that they “cannot stop any individual from doing anything of this nature on the website”.

Earlier in 2010, authorities had banned Facebook after protests erupted in the country over a similar competition of blasphemous drawings.

Reactions

Outrage and defiance were the order of the day with members of civil society, online activists and politicians out in force to protest the ban, using proxy servers and software to access the site while it was blocked.

Online activists were also quick with sending out links and guides on how to access the site using proxy servers, while one organisation had set up a ‘crisis response centre’ to help those unable to access Twitter for the time it was blocked. PPP MNA Farahnaz Ispahani tweeted saying that she condemned the blockade. “Freedom of speech is an inviolable right.” Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) Faisal Subzwari also tweeted condemning the ban. He said that all blasphemous material should be removed, but a “ban on youth voice is not an answer.”

Pakistan Muslim League–Nawaz (PML-N) parliamentarian Khurram Dastgir called the ban “outrageous”.

Ali Dayan Hasan, Pakistan’s director at the Human Rights Watch, said the ban was “ill-advised, counter-productive and will ultimately prove to be futile as all such attempts at censorship have proved to be”.

“The right to free speech is non-negotiable and if Pakistan is the rights-respecting democracy it claims to be, this ban must be lifted forthwith,” he said.

(WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM AFP)

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21^st, 2012.

CHICAGO: While a key Nato summit gathering more than 50 world leaders opened in Chicago on Sunday with a minute’s silence for all those who have fallen in combat, a massive demonstration calling for an immediate end to the decade-long war in Afghanistan was successfully vying for media attention outside what in Pakistani parlance would be called the city’s red zone.

As the 28 members of the North-Atlantic Council in heads of state and government format went behind closed doors to focus on their concerns about Afghanistan, President Asif Ali Zardari had a one-on-one meeting with President Hamid Karzai.

Presidential spokesperson Farhatullah Babar told The Express Tribune that the meeting between Karzai and Zardari lasted for 45 minutes, where the two discussed bilateral relations and the regional situation.

“Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed in principle today to extend the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement beyond Afghanistan to countries in Central Asia. The decision, the modalities of which will be worked out, was taken today at the Zardari-Karzai meeting in Chicago on the sidelines of the Nato summit when President Karzai welcomed the Pakistani president’s proposal to this effect,” said the spokesperson.

Babar said that President Zardari also called for long-term regional and economic engagement and stressed that projects such as the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline, CASA-1000, Reconstruction Opportunity Zones (RoZs) and rail and road connectivity could change the destiny of the region.

The president also drew attention to the recent incidents of detention of Pakistani businessmen and professionals visiting Afghanistan and urged him to probe the matter.

Zardari also underscored the need for dealing with the issue of prisoners and called for the establishment of a joint  commission for the purpose.

He said Pakistan would support every effort for peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan, including the Qatar process as long as they were acceptable to our Afghan brothers.

He said that peace and stability in Afghanistan was a central concern of Pakistan and reiterated that Pakistani territory shall not be used for any kind of attacks on any other country.

President Zardari also met with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was accompanied by US envoy Mark Grossman and US Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter. Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani, Ambassador Sherry Rehman, Senator Farhatullah Babar and Secretary General Salman Farooqi accompanied the president.

According to the presidential spokesperson, President  Zardari and Secretary of State Clinton discussed cooperation in the fight against militancy, regional issues and all issues of bilateral concern.

However, there was no mention of whether the on going tussle between the two countries on the resumption of Nato supply routes was discussed.

‘No rush for exits in Afghan war’

Earlier, Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen during his “doorstep” inter-action with the media, said that he hoped that transit routes in Pakistan would open in the very near future.

“We have had dialogue with Pakistan. I am hopeful it will be concluded soon,” he added.

He termed the summit as a powerful demonstration for the people of Afghanistan. “We are in the process of handing over lead responsibility to the Afghans. There is no rush for an exit in Afghanistan; we want to see it through to its success. The number of our troops will gradually reduce,” he remarked. Later at the summit Nato allies pledged $1 billion for Afghan security forces.

In the morning, US President Barack Obama met President Karzai during which the former, seemingly subdued, spoke of his visit to Afghanistan a few weeks ago.

“During that trip to Afghanistan, we were able to finalise the partnership agreement that reflects a future in which two sovereign nations … are operating as partners to the benefit of our countries’ citizens but also for the benefit of peace and security and stability” in the region,” Obama said.

He thanked Karzai and his delegation for their ‘hard work’ on the partnership agreement.

“The Nato summit is going to be largely devoted to ratifying and reflecting the broad consensus that so many of our partners and Isaf members have agreed to,” Obama said, adding that the US was working with its Afghan partners to achieve a complete transition to Afghan rule for Afghan security.

He said Nato will continue to provide support for Afghan security forces during this transition and said Afghan forces have made “excellent progress.”

“We recognise the hardship that the Afghan people have been through,” Obama said.

The Afghan president said the two leaders had a good meeting on Saturday in which Afghanistan reaffirmed its ‘commitment’ to the transition process. The Nato chief in an interview to Chicago Tribune hoped that summit would produce at least two key results: a road map for aiding a post war Afghanistan and the official go-ahead for a missile defence shield for Europe.

He said Nato was in Afghanistan first and foremost to prevent the country from once again becoming a safe haven for terrorists.

“We cannot expect Afghanistan to be what some people might call a perfect society compared to the standard of society we are used to. And less can do,” he added.

He said he was well aware of the planned protests and said a Nato official has met with a protester umbrella group. “In a free society, it’s a constitutional right to express yourself,” he said.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Chicago chapter called and told The Express Tribune that about 40 party members joined the protests calling for an immediate end to drone attacks against Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21^st, 2012.

KARACHI: As international leaders gather in Chicago to discuss the future of their mission in Afghanistan, Taliban insurgents have dropped a clear hint that they are ready for a negotiated settlement of the decade-long war.

But at the same time, they have asked Nato states to pull out from the country or else “they will be erased along with their terror”.

“The Islamic Emirate has left all military and political doors open. It wants to secure the rights of the Afghan nation through all possible ways,” Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement emailed to The Express Tribune on Sunday.

The statement denounced the United States for dilly-dallying on its troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and accused Washington of insincerity in its efforts for peace dialogue.

“The Islamic Emirate views the invaders’ claims of finding a political solution as meaningless until they come out of their fluctuating unstable state,” he added.

In March, the Taliban called off talks with US officials in Qatar after accusing the US of reneging on its promises’. Though the Taliban did not list the ‘promises’, media reports claimed that the Taliban had demanded the release of some of their senior cadres from the Guantanamo Bay detention centre.

The Taliban statement also welcomed as ‘grounded on realities’ the newly elected French President Francois Hollande’s announcment that his country would pull out its troops from Afghanistan by the year-end. It called upon other Nato states to follow suit and stop serving ‘America’s political interests’ in Afghanistan.

The statement cited a survey conducted in April by CBS News and New York Times which shows that 69% of Americans want their troops out of Afghanistan. It pointed out that war fatigue was on the rise in Nato states.

The United States and its allies had invaded Afghanistan following the 9/11 terror attacks after the ultra-orthodox Taliban regime refused to hand over al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in connection with the attacks.

The Taliban statement, citing the Central Intelligence Agency, said that all but at least 50 al Qaeda operatives have fled Afghanistan. Still, the US is reluctant to pull out its troops from the country, which shows that they wanted to colonise it, it added.

Earlier this month, US President barack Obama signed a strategic partnership agreement with his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai – which by Taliban interpretation is permission for permanent US military presence in Afghanistan. The statement also held out an assurance to the international community that they would not allow their soil to be used by anyone as a springboard for terror attacks anywhere in the world.

“The Islamic Emirate once again declares that it holds no agenda of harming anyone nor will it let anyone harm other countries from the soil of Afghanistan,” it added.

The statement also accused Nato forces of blatant rights violations, killing innocent civilians in night raids and indiscriminate bombing raids, torturing Afghan prisoners in secret cells at their military bases, and raising mercenaries to malign the Taliban.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21^st, 2012.