ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani fired his defense secretary, a retired general and confidant of Pakistan’s army chief, on Wednesday as the civilian government appeared headed for a collision with the country’s powerful military leadership.
Mr. Gilani accused the dismissed secretary of defense, Naeem Khalid Lodhi, a former general and corps commander, of “gross misconduct and illegal action” and of “creating misunderstanding between the state institutions.” He replaced Mr. Lodhi with a civilian aide, Nargis Sethi.
Military officials warned on Wednesday evening that the army would be likely to refuse to work with Ms. Sethi, signaling the possibility of a serious rupture between the army and the civilian government. “The army will not react violently, but it will not cooperate with the new secretary of defense,” said a military officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the situation.
Tensions between the government of President Asif Ali Zardari and the army leadership have grown worse since the publication of a controversial memo purportedly drafted by the government shortly after an American raid last year killed Osama bin Laden. The memo appeared to solicit help in stopping a possible coup by the humiliated Pakistani military.
Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the army chief, called an emergency meeting of his top commanders for Thursday.
Ordinarily, the defense secretary here is appointed with the consent of the army chief and acts as a bridge between the government and the military. The role is more powerful than that of the defense minister, a position filled by a politician from the governing party.
The military has warned the prime minister that his recent statements against General Kayani would have “serious ramifications with potentially grievous consequences for the country.” Mr. Gilani had accused General Kayani and Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha, the director general of Pakistan’s intelligence service, of acting as a “state within a state” and reminded them that they were accountable to the Parliament. Those statements were seen as suggesting that they could be removed from power.
The defense secretary’s signature is required for any appointment, or termination, of a member of the military leadership. By installing a defense secretary of his own choice, Mr. Gilani appeared to be seeking greater leverage for his government in dealing with the military.
Speculation about the government’s intentions to dismiss the two commanders was fueled by news reports in the stridently anti-American press in Pakistan, where many people view the United States as an arrogant adversary instead of an ally. That view has spread in the months since the Bin Laden raid last May and the deaths of 26 Pakistani soldiers in an American airstrike near the border with Afghanistan in November.
Pakistani analysts said the firing of Mr. Lodhi might signal that the festering conflict between the army and the government was reaching a critical stage.
“It is a desperate measure,” said Ikram Sehgal, a defense analyst and a former army officer. “They want the army to react and to make a coup.”
Hasan-Askari Rizvi, a military and political analyst, said the firing would only exacerbate the situation for the civilian government. “If the prime minister now tries to fire the army chief, it will have very dangerous consequences,” Mr. Rizvi said.
Mr. Lodhi, who retired from the army last March and became defense secretary in November, became embroiled in a controversy last month after he submitted a statement in the Supreme Court on behalf of the Defense Ministry, saying that the civilian government had no operational control over the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, Pakistan’s powerful spy agency. Saying that Mr. Lodhi had overstepping his authority, Mr. Gilani objected to the blunt statement, a public acknowledgment that while the intelligence services are technically answerable to the prime minister, they are widely perceived to act independently of civilian control.
A military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly said that the relationship between Mr. Lodhi and Mr. Gilani broke down after the prime minister’s staff pressed Mr. Lodhi to contradict statements about the controversial memo by the army and intelligence chiefs, Generals Kayani and Pasha. The two told the Supreme Court last month that the memo — said to have been orchestrated by a former ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani — was authentic, and pointed to a conspiracy against the military. The government and Mr. Haqqani have said that they had nothing to do with the memo, which came to light in October.
“The government had prepared a draft that stated that the Ministry of Defense does not agree with General Kayani and Genera Pasha’s opinions about the veracity of the memo,” said the military official, who was present during the discussions. “General Lodhi refused to sign the document, saying those were not his words.”
J. David Goodman contributed reporting from New York.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: January 11, 2012
An earlier version of this article referred imprecisely the writing of a memo, which solicited help in stopping a possible coup in Pakistan. The facts of its creation are in dispute, with some accusing the former Pakistani ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, of orchestrating the controversial memo, a charge he has denied. Also, a summary for this story on the global edition home page incorrectly stated that Mr. Gilani had fired General Kayani. In fact, as the article correctly stated, Mr. Gilani fired his secretary of defense, Naeem Khalid Lodhi.
Jan 6, Islamabad: Pakistan is fulfilling more than 80% of its resources through imports although there are a variety of minerals, metals, coal mines.
Thar coal desert is the world’s third largest coal reserve. Energy crisis in Pakistan is increasing and with the passage of time it will worsen, as its requirements increase. With the decrease in energy production and its unavailability, the industries will have to face difficulty in future; therefore, it is important that the energy demands should be met to decrease power shortages and to save industries from facing any crisis.
The current power supply in Pakistan is around 1400 MW whereas the demand will increase by 100,000 MW by 2030. Considering this increase of power demand in 15-25 years, it is important that such policies should be made which not only take care of the current power demand, but also consider future power demand.
Pakistan is a self-sufficient country in minerals and coal reserves. The distribution of coal reserves in different provinces is as following.
Sindh has about 186.560 billion tonnes of coal reserves, Punjab 235 million tonnes, Balochistan 217 million tonnes, KP 90 million tonnes and Azad Kashmir 9 million tonnes of coal reserves. The total coal reserve in Thar is equal to 50 billion tonnes of oil reserve which is more than Iran and Saudi Arabia combined oil reserves or over 200 TCF of gas which is 42 times greater than total gas reserves discovered in Pakistan so far.
Considering the future energy demands, it is important that Pakistan should move towards coal reserves for electricity production as already many countries are doing so. Iran and china are producing electricity from coal. China is producing 75% electricity with coal. Poland and Germany produce around 80% of electricity from coal. South Africa 93%, India 78.3%, Australia 77%, America 49%, Denmark 47.3% and UK 32.9% produce energy from coal. Whereas Pakistan only produces 7% of total energy production while the energy production should be up to 25%.
The energy crisis in Pakistan is increasing day by day due to political hindrances and short reserves. Industries, agriculture sector, hospitals, schools several institutions demand power supply in order to operate and dwindling sources of energy are causing problems everywhere. This is also due to global energy crisis as fossil fuel reserves around the world are decreasing. Many scientists have predicted that energy reserves will end by the late twentieth century. That is several countries around the world have moved on towards alternative sources of energy.
It is time Pakistan moved on towards alternative energy sources as well. Wind and solar energy are alternative sources of energy. Germany is producing 18000 MW from wind. USA is producing 7000 MW and Spain is producing around 8000 MW from wind. Pakistan has points in the coastal areas of Karachi, Thatta, Jiwani, Balochistan and other areas situated in Northern Area and Kashmir from where wind energy can be generated. Solar energy is another source through which 90% of rural areas can be provided with electricity easily.
Energy has a direct link to economy of any country, as economic development relies heavily on industrial development which in turn relies on energy supply and demand. Economy is the backbone of any country. Pakistan should meet its current energy demands in order to reduce price hike and dwindling supply of gas which is currently creating problems for the people as well as for the current government which has not been able to meet the people’s demands.
There is an urgent need for starting up these alternative sources of energy for without resolving the energy crisis Pakistan cannot move towards economical development.
Swat operation rfi.fr.comBy the time Zardari took over as president, the Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Shariati- Mohammedi (TNSM) had established a parallel Taliban state in parts of Malakand division where it ostensibly practiced Nizam-i-Adl (Order of Justice: essentially Sharia law). Awami National Party’s Senator Afrasiab Khattak told me that his new government was taken aback to find it had inherited an ill-trained, ill-equipped police force that was no match for an increasingly ferocious Taliban militancy, which, in Swat, was headed by Maulana Fazlullah.
In Khattak’s words, the situation had deteriorated so rapidly because “Musharraf’s duplicity had suited the Bush administration.”
Toward the end of 2008, a massive suicide bomb attack at the Marriot Hotel in Islamabad had destroyed the myth that parliamentarians, diplomats or even armed personnel were safe. Islamabad grew even more strongly fortified. A wide cordon was thrown around the parliament buildings and cars were investigated at checkpoints set up at every few yards. The besieged political leadership traveled in groups and only to fortified locations.
In Swat, residents were too terrified to speak up against the Taliban militants after the group had burnt down hundreds of girls’ schools and beheaded the law enforcement personnel they had kidnapped. While TSNM chief Sufi Mohammed was imprisoned for fighting against the US forces that invaded Afghanistan in 2001, his son-in-law Fazlullah had joined hands with TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud to eliminate hundreds of tribesmen and political opponents in FATA.
Fazlullah’s spokesman Muslim Khan told me with aplomb that it had become necessary to behead political opponents and that the practise fell well within the dictates of Islam.
Under these circumstances, the Zardari government was relieved when TNSM chief, Sufi Mohammed pledged to follow the pacifist road and confine the enforcement of Shariah law to Malakand division in return for a ceasefire and release of Taliban prisoners. It was ostensibly a throwback to 1994 when Sufi Mohammed and his tribesmen had blocked the Swat Mingora road for one week to demand the enforcement of Sharia. Then, Benazir’s government had buckled into supporting the TSNM chief’s demands for a superficial enforcement of Islamic law.
In February 2009, the ANP government signed the controversial Swat peace deal with Sufi Mohammed, pledging to release 300 Taliban prisoners in return for Fazlullah’s promise to disengage from the Tehrik-i-Taliban militancy.
But the TTP promise turned out to be an exercise in duplicity. Fazlullah’s militants, already engaged in shady trade activities in Malakand took advantage of the ceasefire to deploy Taliban militants to take over government owned emerald mines in Mingora and spread out in FATA to demand jaziya (tax for non-Muslims).
As Washington watched with alarm, Pakistan’s civil society was the first to speak out against the Swat peace deal. Talk show hosts in television and radio, print journalists and bloggers expressed alarm as a video surfaced of a girl who was flogged on suspicion of marital infidelity. Fazlullah’s spokesman Muslim Khan defended the flogging as he told incredulous television anchors, “It is the girl’s good fortune that Qazi courts had not been set up, otherwise she would have been stoned to death.”
In April 2009 the Taliban advanced to nearby Bunair, where they sealed the civil courts and announced they would be converted to Islamic courts. Sufi Mohammed issued a fatwa against Pakistan’s courts, embarrassing even for the Jamaat-i-Islami, who admitted the Taliban had gone too far. As the Taliban forces rampaged through the Margalla hills, the ousted leader of the opposition and JUI (F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman told the National Assembly with the confidence of an insider that the Taliban would soon be knocking on Islamabad’s doors.
For the incoming Obama administration the situation in Pakistan was a rude awakening to Bush’s failed foreign policy. As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Capitol Hill that Pakistan posed a “mortal threat” to the rest of the world, Congress authorized a flurry of diplomatic activities to Pakistan to convince the new army chief Gen. Asfaque Pervaiz Kiyani, that the Taliban could take over the government in Pakistan.
In May 2009, the Pakistan army sent thousands of forces to battle Taliban fighters in Swat. It triggered the largest and swiftest exodus in recent history. As the army imposed curfew and flushed out the Swat militants, the UN set up tented communities in Mardan and Swabi to support over 1.5 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). Still, as the numbers of the displaced grew dramatically over half the IDPs stayed with their relatives – with the generous hospitality provided by locals to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa proving to be the saving grace for the government.
Balochistan after Jan. 11 killing of FC officers (Credit: tribune.com.pk)The 11 percent downturn in overall incidents of violence and terrorism in 2010 does not suggest that the security situation in Pakistan has improved. This declining trend in violence would be short-lived in absence of a comprehensive, all-inclusive and long-term counter-terrorism strategy. It is imperative that the government also takes into account the political, socio-cultural and developmental initiatives in addition to use of force against the militants.
These views were expressed by the participants in the launching ceremony of Pakistan Security Report 2010 held on January 17, 2011 in Islamabad. Pak Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS) prepared and published the report.
PIPS Director Muhammad Amir Rana noted in his opening remarks that the said decrease in violence could be attributed mainly to three factors: military campaigns in Pakistan’s tribal agencies, increased surveillance by the law enforcement agencies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, and killing of some important militant commanders in US drone strikes.
Despite this decrease in number of incidents of violence in 2010 compared to the previous year, the level of violence in Pakistan during the year was still higher than in Afghanistan and Iraq. Research Analyst at PIPS Abdul Basit presented a summary of Pakistan Security Report 2010, which revealed that the militant landscape of Pakistan had become more complex over the past year. He underlined that the overall downturn in violence in 2010 was visible due to significant decrease in incidents of violence and terrorism in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – 60 percent to be precise – compared to 2009.
Such incidents nonetheless had increased considerably in Sindh, Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan during the year. Karachi remained the most critical area, where combination of ethno-political, sectarian and criminal violence had caused more than 288 percent increase in the incidents of violence and terrorism in 2010.
Farhat Asif, editor of the Diplomatic Insight, questioned the credibility of the data which was used to prepare the report particularly number of incidents and the casualties. Responding to her, Abdul Basit explained the constraints in collecting and counter-checking the data on incidents of violence and terrorism in Pakistan in particular and in the world in general.
In absence of some officially maintained database of such incidents and lack of access to conflict zones, PIPS has been relying on a wide range of regional and national newspapers along with field resources, available official records, regional correspondents, and strict cross-checking processes with reports of other local and foreign institutes. Amir Rana added that there was relatively more margin of error in the data on military operations and drone strikes while this margin of error for other areas was somewhat between 2 to 3 percent.
John Mottam of CCBLE raised a question about Al-Qaeda’s role in funding the militant organizations in Pakistan. Khuram Iqbal, a researcher at PIPS, argued that Al-Qaeda had more ideological influence among the Pakistani militant groups to resort to its agenda of global ‘Jihad’. Pakistani militant groups have nonetheless developed their indigenous and diverse funding sources such as extortion of money, charities, kidnapping for ransom and nexuses with criminal groups etc.
Navid Shinwari, executive director of Community Appraisal and Motivation Program (CAMP) validated that revival of tribal Lashkars without systematic and sustained support by the government could lead towards civil war in the country. Manzar Abbas Zaidi, a counter-terrorism expert, opined that low number of terrorist attacks in southern Punjab is not suggestive of absence of militant infrastructure in that region. Rather, militant outfits are using those areas as a recruiting ground.
AS an Internet user you would have experienced the Nigerian lottery scam. But you may not have heard of the academic scam of the African Journal of Business Management (AJBM) — unless you are in one of the countless management schools that have sprung up in Pakistan since the 1980s.
There it tops the popularity chart. The Higher Education Commission (HEC)-approved supervisors for PhD students in management sciences have published nearly 50 articles in it.
Should one be proud of the four Pakistanis who are on its long editorial board? No! This is so even though the AJBM appears in the (previously reliable) Thomson Reuters listing of journals.
Why? To understand this let’s see how this and similarly dubious business journals work. Its reviewers are recommended by authors. It does not check the relationship between the reviewers and the authors, nor verify the reputation of the reviewers.
If submitting a paper, you can create a fake email, nominate Prof X who does not exist and use the email address you created, where the paper is sent for reviewing, if at all. The journal gets $500 for an ‘accepted’ paper.
The mechanism ought to be clear by now. AJBM, a member of a large family of similarly dubious publications headquartered in Nairobi with over 100 such journals, sends out spam mail to academics globally enticing contributions from writers.
Friends of friends join their editorial board. Members of these boards probably can publish their own articles for free or at a discount, while recommending the journals to others.
Africa is not the only continent maligned by such operations. Down under is the Australian Journal of Business and Management Research on whose board is a Pakistani assistant professor — let’s call him Prof A. (For all we know this journal may have its offices in Faisalabad, which is the hub of many such dubious publications, and of which the HEC was told eight years ago by the writer. But it decided to pay no attention.)
Our Prof A does not operate in isolation. I learned this after informing Prof Susan Taylor, chair of Human Resource Management and Organisational Change, University of Maryland, whose name was displayed as editor of the International Journal of Business and Social Research without her knowledge. Her university’s attorney got its website squashed.
This journal had another Pakistani on its board — let’s call him Prof B — a prolific paper-producer who churned out 20 international publications in 18 months in such dubious journals. What’s even more interesting is that these two professors, A and B, did their PhD under the same supervisor, Prof C.
Prof C clearly practises what he preaches; he is a prolific contributor to such unsavoury journals. In recognition of his work, the HEC gave him, with 56 others, the 2010 Best University Teacher Award.
Such gross violation of academic etiquette prompted me to download the résumés of all 71 HEC-recognised PhD supervisors in management sciences to carry out a rough analysis of their publishing work in HEC-recognised journals. The result is mind-boggling.
These academics fall into two categories: 21 did their PhD in Pakistan; 50 went abroad (to largely second- or third-rate universities).
Of these 71 academics 39 (18 with PhDs from Pakistan and 21 from foreign universities) published 180 articles in dubious journals. Eighty per cent of those with Pakistani PhDs contributed to such journals. Having relatively better training and having learnt higher research ethics the overseas-trained academics contributed less to such publications: 40 per cent.
Overall, the 39 academics involved in such padding of their résumés bagged 4.6 publications each on average.
Undergraduates and postgraduates students trained by such academics are unlikely to learn the high ethics of research, and honest business practices. Surely this ought to agitate the business community and universities. Information about such fake dubious has been provided to the HEC and the documents are available to the reader by writing to the author of this piece.
‘THE 2011 SINDH FLOODS: IMPACT, CAUSES AND REPERCUSSIONS’
Devastating floods of 2010 and Monsoon Rains of 2011 have completely changed the landscape of Sindh. There was a need to document the issues, reasons, impact and repercussions of these disasters. What monsoon rains 2011 and subsequently the calamity of floods have done to the socio- cultural and economic landscape of Sindh is very well explained in the essays, articles, news analysis, blogs, interviews and comments compiled in this book.
Foreword of the book is written by renowned development practitioner and scholar Arif Hasan. Publication of book is supported by HANDS. 350 pages book is published by Sindhica Academy Karachi. Book will be launched on January 14th, 2012 in Karachi.
Contributors of the book are Najma Sadeque, Dr Abid Qaiyum Suleri, Javed Jabbar, Sherry Rehman, Dr. Manzur Ejaz, Zofeen T. Ebrahim Dr. Sono Khangharani, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Ayaz Amir, Huma Yusuf, Ayesha Hasan, Rina Saeed Khan, Erum Haider, Azhar Lashari, Mohiuddin Aazim, Neva Khan, Noreen Haider, Ardeshir Cowasjee, Mishael Ali Khan, Afshan Subohi, Afia Salam, Sana Syed, Allison Zelkowitz, Dr. Shaikh Tanveer Ahmed, BZU, Shaista Aziz, Farooq Tirmizi, Jamil Junejo, Farooq Abbasi, Nasir Ali Panhwar, Syed R. Ali, Nasir Ali, Shaista Aziz, Mohammad Hussain Khan, Anam Tanveer, Murtaza Razvi, B.Khan, Salman Shah Jilani, Arshed Rafiq, Naseer Memon, Usman Qazi, Jawed Ali, Khan, Shahzad Raza, Ali K Chishti, Nuzhat Saadia Siddiqui, Salman latif, Naureen Aqueel, Amar Guriro, Faris Islam, Tahir Hasnain and Zulfiqar Halepoto
In this compilation, I have tried to collect a wide range of literature written on the different aspects of recent monsoon rains 2011 in Sindh, so that there should be a quality document available for the future use of researchers, development practitioners, organisations and scholars working on disaster related issues. This will also be helpful for a common reader to understand the causes of the disaster. I am of the view that documentation is a must to the past for the best planning for future. So this book is a humble effort to document the stories of worst disaster of contemporary history of Sindh and Pakistan.
Each contributor to this work has something outstanding to share. This compilation based on selected writings volunteers and offers a vision and strategies to the policy and decision makers and development sector working in Pakistan, to seriously review the lessons learnt from floods 2011 and do something to secure Sindh and rest of the disaster prone areas of Pakistan from any future threat.
Melting Glaciers in Himalayas (Credit: top-10-list.org)
THIS month’s prospective meeting of the Abu Dhabi Dialogue Group comprising seven states sharing the rivers rising in the Greater Himalayas would be a watershed event as the group is expected to adopt a joint initiative to minimise the impact of glacial melt.
The group comprises Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India and Nepal. All these countries share river basins originating from the water roof of the region — the Himalayas. Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka account for more than 21 per cent of the world’s population but own barely 8.3 per cent of the global water resources.
This makes Chinese-controlled Tibet very important for South Asian countries. The water-rich southern Tibetan belt is the source of two major river systems, the Indus and the Brahmaputra, as well as of several other South Asian rivers. The 1,550km-long Sutlej which flows through India to ultimately drain into the Indus also originates in this belt, from the southern slopes of Mount Kailash. The flood plains of major rivers including the Brahmaputra, Ganges, Indus and Meghna owe their sustenance to the Himalayan ecosystem and support life for over 1.5 billion people. The Ganges river basin alone is home to about 600 million people.
As the glaciers recede, significant declines in flows will become inevitable. According to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports, by 2050 the annual run-off in the Brahmaputra is projected to decline by 14 per cent and the Indus by 27 per cent. The melting Himalayas pose a serious risk to the sustainability of water resources in the region.
South Asia with a large population base is susceptible to greater disasters in the wake of climate change. More than 750 million people in the region have been affected by at least one natural disaster in the last two decades. In May 2011, the secretary general of Saarc presented a draft agreement on the Rapid Response to Natural Disasters to an intergovernmental meeting of the organisation. He said that over the past 40 years, South Asia has faced as many as 1,333 disasters that have killed 980,000 people, affected 2.4 billion lives and damaged assets worth $105bn.
Very large populations in these countries owe their sustenance to water resources. Himalayan-fed rivers shape the economy
and society. Hence glacial melt could have catastrophic socio-political implications for the region. Regional cooperation becomes even more desirable in the wake of hydro-meteorological disasters.
By 2050, South Asia’s population is likely to exceed 1.5bn to 2.2bn. With more than 600 million South Asians subsisting on less than $1.25 a day, a single catastrophic incident could push millions into further poverty and misery. A major threat comes from the fast-melting Himalayas that dominate the monsoon dynamics in the region. The system is the lynchpin of the river network in the region.
Relentless glacial melt would also cause an ominous rise in sea levels. South Asia has a long and densely populated coastline with low-lying islands that are dangerously exposed to sea-level rise. The region has a coastline of 12,000km and a large number of islands. Hence snowmelt in the Himalayas makes the region highly vulnerable to an array of natural disasters.
Low-lying islands in the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are particularly in danger from rising sea levels. Major coastal cities like Chennai, Karachi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Cochin are exposed to increased risks of climatic disasters e.g. sea intrusion.
The fertile and fragile river deltas of the Indus, Krishna, Cauvery and Narmada are also vulnerable to sea intrusion. In fact, the Indus delta has lost almost two million acres of land to the sea. This would complicate matters for countries like Bangladesh, India and Pakistan that are already prone to devastating natural disasters like cyclones.
These facts make it quite clear that without regional cooperation for the management of our shared river systems and a common strategy on combating disaster, the region will continue to see all forms of hydro-meteorological catastrophes.
Saarc, the regional forum for cooperation, has yet to play an effective role in this.
Conventional security and regional trade issues normally dominate the regional cooperation discourse and tend to obscure other matters of relevance such as those of shared waters and a common front against disaster. The implications of climate change and related disasters for countries already exposed to natural calamities are reason enough to cooperate as a region to benefit and secure the lives of millions of people.
Information sharing, capacity building and prudent policies on shared water bodies are key to regional cooperation and can contribute to long-term plans to tackle the ominous effects of climate change. While almost every country in the region has developed a policy framework and strategies to mitigate and manage disasters on its own territory, in the years ahead intensive trans-boundary cooperation will become inevitable.
An important dimension in regional cooperation has been to bring China on board, as is seen in the composition of the Abu Dhabi Dialogue Group. The challenges faced by South Asian countries pertaining to shared waters, climate change and disasters are inextricably linked with China, as major rivers of South Asian countries originate from the Tibetan plateau. It is therefore of utmost importance that, along with boosting joint efforts among its own members, Saarc should also engage meaningfully with China on regional cooperation on water resources, climate change and disasters.
The writer is chief executive of Strengthening Participatory Organisation.nmemon@spopk.org
Pakistan is endowed with enormous natural resources and minerals. If explored and utilized properly, Pakistan can become a self-reliant country and get rid of dependency syndrome. Weak economy, technical resource constraints coupled with flawed decisions of the inept governments have brought the country to the present impasse. Instead of relying on our own talent, they provided opportunities to the foreign investors to drain out our resources.
According to independent experts, in Balochistan two Mega Projects i.e. Saindak and Reko Diq have more potential than the combined energy resources of Saudi Arabia and Iran. Reko Diq Copper/Gold Project has an estimated 12.3 million tons of world class copper and 20.9 million ounces of gold worth around $ 125 billion US dollars.
Reko Diq (Credit: newslinemagazine.com)
The other day, National Assembly Standing Committee on Science and Technology asked the federal and provincial governments to provide the allocated funds to Thar Coal gasification project to speed up work on the power generation project. The chairman of the committee Dr Abdul Kadir Khanzada said that any delay in Thar Coal and gasification trial and pilot projects will further delay the addition of much needed electricity to country’s economy and industrial sector. The Sindh Coal Authority, project coordinator Engro, Oracle Coalfield UK, PCSIR and coal gasification project also presented the progress of their projects.
Now about Reko Diq project, which has been making headlines for the last one year. This project is being developed by Tethyan Copper Company Limited (joint venture between two mining giants ie Antofagasta of Chili and Barrick Gold of Canada), to produce 0.45 million tons of copper/gold concentrates every year. Terms agreed upon indicated that Pakistan Government has been deceived by these companies.
Saindak copper and gold mine (Credit: forum.urduworld.com)
It appears that Balochistan government and federal government are maintaining confidentiality with regard to these projects, which means that there is something fishy about the whole matter. The project has probably been contracted for an estimated value of US $ 25 billion, while actual value of the material, which will be extracted, is about US $ 125 billion. The above mentioned companies plan to take all the ore abroad without processing it locally, as it contains rich contents of copper and gold. For this purpose, these companies intend to develop an exclusive small seaport for shipping the extracted ore (commercial jetty near Gwadar Port about 30 miles towards Karachi).
Dr Samar Mubarakmand has been appearing on TV channels frequently to remind those at the helm that everything should be transparent, and Pakistan should not be robbed of its national wealth by the foreigners with the collusion of the corrupt government functionaries.
Karoonjhar hills (Credit: dastratarani.com)
Last December ‘The Pakistani Spectator’ wrote on its website: “Quietly, and below the media radar, some 20 top corporate bosses and lobbyists of two of the world’s largest gold mining groups have been meeting President Asif Zardari, Prime Minister Gilani, Governor State Bank and others in Islamabad, pressing them to quickly hand over one of the world’s biggest gold and copper treasures found in Balochistan at Reko Diq, worth over $260 billion, to their companies, and for peanuts.
The Supreme Court and the chief justice of Pakistan can pick up the issue and put a hold on whatever is going on before any binding contracts and deals are signed, which may cause losses of billions of dollars, yes billions of dollars to Pakistan. It has to be mentioned that it was the apex court that stalled the shady deal of selling Pakistan Steel Mills at throwaway prices by Shaukat Aziz government.
On the basis of his interviews in TV channels and print media, a petition was filed in the Supreme Court and Dr. Samar Mubarakmand was called by the court on the next hearing in January 2010 to assist the court regarding natural resources in Balochistan area of Reko Diq.
Thar coal (Credit: defencepk.com)
The company’s counsel had told the court that an amount of $435 million was spent in exploration of natural resources with nothing earned in this regard. The CJ remarked that the Processing License could not be further sold; first the license-holder should give due share to the province.
Dr Samar Mubarakmand however is of the opinion that Pakistan has the talent to exploit these mineral resources. Even in case of Thar Coal, he is hopeful that with the local expertise, Pakistan can convert coal into gas, and that diesel can also be produced from this source. He said a pilot project has already done experimentation in this regard. Pakistan has Mineral Research organizations; therefore Pakistan should not spend foreign exchange on hiring services of foreign consultants and contracting companies.
Dr Mubarakmand had said that coal reserves are also available in powder form under water, and Pakistan could produce 50,000 megawatt electricity and 100 million barrel diesel just through the gasification of these reserves.
Saindak copper (Credit: bulliongold.com)
In the last hearing, Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry heading a three-member bench hearing the case of copper and gold in Reko Diq, said: “We are Pakistanis and should keep the national interests in view.” Balochistan’s Attorney General Salah-ud-Din Mengal had said the processing license has been given to BHP (now known as BHP Billiton after a 2001 merger), the company earned millions of dollars by floating shares in market; however, Balochistan was not given even a penny.
During proceedings in the apex court, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said that the matter being of commercial and technical nature should be sorted out by the Balochistan provincial government and experts and the licensees.
According to media there was some mystery about Reko Diq mines. Three licenses are said to have been issued ie EL-5, EL-6, EL-7 and EL-8. Local English daily in its report had said: “What has been found in RL-7 is also a mystery and the foreign company has not revealed anything to anyone about its findings in these areas”.
Reko Diq (Credit: defence.pk)
The apex court in its last hearing had remarked that the technical and commercial matter should be sorted by the Balochistan government. Having that said, the resources in Balochistan can change the destiny of the nation, and people of Balochistan would be the first beneficiaries. Of course, Pakistan will be able to pay back IMF loans, relieve the burden from the common man and safeguard its sovereignty.
NEW YORK: Pakistan remained the deadliest country for the press for a second year, while across the world coverage of political unrest proved unusually dangerous in 2011, the Committee to Protect Journalists found in its year-end survey of journalist fatalities. CPJ’s analysis found notable shifts from historical data: Targeted murders declined while deaths during dangerous assignments such as the coverage of street protests reached their highest level on record. Photographers and camera operators, often the most vulnerable during violent unrest, died at rates more than twice the historical average.
At least 43 journalists were killed around the world in direct relation to their work in 2011, with the seven deaths in Pakistan marking the heaviest losses in a single nation. Libya and Iraq, each with five fatalities, and Mexico, with three deaths, also ranked high worldwide for journalism-related fatalities. The global tally is consistent with the toll recorded in 2010, when 44 journalists died in connection with their work. CPJ is investigating another 35 deaths in 2011 to determine whether they were work-related.
CPJ’s survey identified significant changes in the nature of journalist fatalities. Sixteen journalists died while on dangerous assignments, many of them while covering the chaotic and violent confrontations between authorities and protesters during the uprisings that swept the Arab world. The victims included Hassan al-Wadhaf, a Yemeni cameraman shot by a sniper while covering antigovernment protests in Sana’a, and Ahmad Mohamed Mahmoud, an Egyptian reporter gunned down while filming a protest in Cairo.“Journalists working in this environment are in no less danger than war correspondents covering an armed conflict,” said Ahmed Tarek, a reporter for the Middle East News Agency who was assaulted by police while covering protests in Alexandria, Egypt. “The greatest danger journalists are facing today in post-revolution Arab countries is the targeting of journalists by political forces hostile to anyone who exposes them.”
The 19 murders recorded in 2011 were the lowest total since 2002. Targeted murders—which historically account for nearly three-quarters of journalist deaths—constituted less than half of the 2011 toll. But murders were reported in both Russia and the Philippines, two countries long plagued by deadly, anti-press violence. In the southern Russian republic of Dagestan, an assassin waited outside the offices of the critical independent newspaper Chernovikand gunned down its founder, Gadzhimurad Kamalov. In the Philippines, CPJ documented the work-related murders of two radio commentators. One of them, Romeo Olea, was shot in the back while riding his motorcycle to work. CPJ is waging a Global Campaign Against Impunity that focuses particularly on these two countries.
Eight journalists died in combat situations in 2011, most of them during the Libyan revolution. The victims included the internationally acclaimed photojournalists Chris Hondros and Tim Hetherington, who were killed by a mortar round in the western city of Misurata, and Ali Hassan al-Jaber, a cameraman for Al-Jazeera who was shot outside Benghazi by forces loyal to Muammar Qaddafi. The Libyan conflict was “one of the truly televised revolutions,” said James Foley, an American video journalist for Global Post who was detained there in April. “Everyone was using a camera—and a camera is much more recognizable.”
Photojournalists suffered particularly heavy losses in 2011. Photographers and camera operators constituted about 40 percent of the overall death toll, about double the proportion CPJ has documented since it began keeping detailed fatality records in 1992. Among those killed was Lucas Mebrouk Dolega, a photographer for European Pressphoto Agency who was struck by a tear gas canister fired by security forces trying to quell a massive January protest that led to the ouster of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Eight online journalists were killed for their work during the year. Among the victims was Mexican reporter Maria Elizabeth Macías Castro, whose decapitated body was found near the city of Nuevo Laredo, along with a note saying she had been killed for reporting news on social media websites. Her murder was the first documented by CPJ worldwide that came in direct relation to journalism published on social media. The online death toll also includes Mohammed al-Nabbous, founder of the website Libya Al-Hurra TV, who was killed while covering a battle in Benghazi. Al-Nabbous had been streaming live audio from the scene of the battle when his feed was suddenly interrupted by gunfire.
Internet journalists rarely appeared on CPJ’s death toll before 2008. But since that time, as online journalists constitute an ever-greater proportion of the front-line reporting corps, the number of victims who worked online has increased steadily.
CPJ’s analysis also found a high proportion of freelancers among the 2011 victims. Nearly one-third of the toll was composed of freelance journalists, more than twice the proportion that freelancers have constituted over time. Azerbaijani freelance reporter Rafiq Tagi died in November after being stabbed on a Baku street. He had been threatened over his critical coverage of both Islamist politics and government policies.
Journalists protest the murder of Pakistani journalist Saleem Shahzad. (AP)
Anti-press violence continued at high levels in Pakistan, where 29 journalists have died in direct relation to their work in the past five years. The 2011 victims included Saleem Shahzad, a reporter for Asia Times Online, who was murdered after exposing links between Al-Qaeda and Pakistan’s navy. Five of the seven fatalities in Pakistan were targeted murders, and all are unsolved. Long-term CPJ research shows Pakistan to be among the worst countries in the world in bringing the killers of journalists to justice. “The solution is simple and very difficult at the same time,” said Pakistani reporter Umar Cheema, who was himself abducted and brutally assaulted in 2010. “The government should be taking it seriously and realize it is their duty to protect journalists. If a journalist is threatened, the culprit should be brought to justice. Even if in one case the culprits were brought to justice, that would be a clear message that the crime will not go unpunished.”
The death toll in Libya, while high, was unsurprising given the armed revolt and overall level of violence. That Iraq, with five deaths, matched Libya’s fatality rate illustrates the entrenched level of violence in that country. After record death tolls in the middle part of the last decade, fatalities in Iraq began dropping in 2008. But deaths have levelled out in recent years as journalists continue to die in both targeted murders and insurgent attacks such as the March assault on a provincial government building in Tikrit that took the lives of reporters Sabah al-Bazi and Muammar Khadir Abdelwahad.
In Mexico, CPJ documented three deaths in direct relation to journalism and is investigating the killings of four other journalists. Mexican authorities appear paralyzed in their efforts to combat pervasive anti-press violence; Congress continued to debate legislation in late year that would federalize crimes against free expression, taking the cases out of the hands of local officials who have been corrupted and cowed by criminal gangs. Mexican journalists continue to face a dark choice: Censor their own work or be at risk. Noel López Olguín, whose newspaper column “With a Lead Pen” took on drug trafficking and official corruption, was found in a clandestine grave in Veracruz state in May, two months after gunmen had abducted him.
Afghanistan and Somalia, two conflict-ridden countries with persistent levels of anti-press violence, each recorded fatalities in 2011. CPJ documented the deaths of one journalist and one media worker in Somalia, along with the killings of two journalists in Afghanistan.
The deaths, though a continent apart, bore similarities that illustrate the extreme danger of covering conflict. In Somalia, African Union troops fired on a humanitarian aid convoy, killing Malaysian cameraman Noramfaizul Mohd. The AU called the shooting accidental but released no details. In Afghanistan, a U.S. soldier shot Ahmad Omaid Khpalwak, a correspondent for Pajhwok Afghan News and the BBC, during an insurgent attack in Tarin Kot. The International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan concluded that the soldier mistook Khpalwak’s press card for a bomb trigger.
Two journalists died in Bahraini government custody. Karim Fakhrawi, a founder of the independent newspaper Al-Wasat, and Zakariya Rashid Hassan al-Ashiri, editor of a local news website in the village of Al-Dair, died within a week of each other in April. Although the government claimed the two died of natural causes, there are widespread allegations that abusive treatment led to their deaths. Al-Wasat co-founder Mansoor al-Jamri said the death of Fakhrawi was a message from the government to its critics: “This could happen to you, and no one will protect you, and no one can do anything for you.”
Here are other trends and details that emerged in CPJ’s analysis:
The heaviest losses occurred in nations across the Middle East and North Africa, where CPJ documented 18 work-related fatalities in all. Thirteen work-related deaths were documented in Asia, seven in the Americas, three in Africa, and two in Europe and Central Asia.
In two countries, Tunisiaand Syria, CPJ recorded the first work-related deaths since it began compiling detailed data two decades ago. In Syria, freelance cameraman Ferzat Jarban was tortured and slain in Homs province after he had covered antigovernment demonstrations. “The work of a reporter in Syria before and after the protests is much like working in a minefield,” said Karim al-Afnan, a freelance journalist who was forced into exile in 2011. “The state views a journalist as a rival and their battle with journalists is one for survival.”
Five media support workers were killed worldwide. They include the Ivorian Marcel Legré, a printing press employee who was killed by supporters of Alassane Ouattara who at the time was locked in a presidential election dispute with incumbent Laurent Gbagbo. Legré’s newspaper was seen as pro-Gbagbo.
At least two journalists were reported missingduring the year, both in Mexico. At least 11 journalists have been reported missing in Mexico over the past decade, by far the highest number worldwide. All are feared dead.
Among murder victims, more than 70 percent had reported receiving threats in the weeks before they died. Long-term CPJ research shows that physical attacks are often preceded by phone or electronic threats.
Of the 35 deaths in which CPJ has yet to confirm a work-related motive, a large number, 20, are in the Americas. In much of the Americas, the web of crime and official corruption, combined with a lack of effective law enforcement, makes the determination of a motive exceedingly difficult.
CPJ began compiling detailed records on all journalist deaths in 1992. CPJ staff members independently investigate and verify the circumstances behind each death. CPJ considers a case work-related only when its staff is reasonably certain that a journalist was killed in direct reprisal for his or her work; in crossfire; or while carrying out a dangerous assignment.
If the motives in a killing are unclear, but it is possible that a journalist died in relation to his or her work, CPJ classifies the case as “unconfirmed” and continues to investigate. CPJ’s list does not include journalists who died from illness or were killed in accidents—such as car or plane crashes—unless the crash was caused by hostile action. Other press organizations using different criteria cite higher numbers of deaths than CPJ.
CPJ’s database of journalists killed for their work in 2011includes capsule reports on each victim and a statistical analysis. CPJ also maintains a database of all journalists killed since 1992. A final list of journalists killed in 2011 will be released in early January.
This report was compiled by CPJ staff with additional reporting by Kristin Jones and Dahlia El-Zein.
ISLAMABAD: Exactly four years after the brutal assassination of Benazir Bhutto, a letter of Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), country’s top intelligence outfit, has revealed that the extremists groups related to al Qaeda have had their plan to assassinate Benazir Bhutto six days earlier then 27th of December 2007 the day when Miss Bhutto was assassinated, copy of the letter available to Dawn.com disclosed this here on Monday.
The five lines short letter with the subject of , “ al Qaeda Threat,” is addressed to Kamal Shah, the then Secretary of Interior Ministry by Brigadier Abdul Basit Rana.
The letter reads as, “It has reliably been reported that a few extremist groups related to al Qaeda have made some plan to assassinate Mrs. Benzir Bhutto and her adviser Mr Rehman Malik on 21 December 2007. The exact plan of execution not known.”
The letter is delivered to the Secretary Interior on December 10th, 2007, almost seventeen days before the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
The copy of the letter shows that Kamal Shah immediately wrote a short note on the letter saying, “this is a threat with specific date, we should sensitize them,” Kamal Shah had further directed Brigadier (retired) Javed Iqbal Cheema, the then Director General of Ministry’s National Crisis Management Cell (NCMC) directing him to speak.
The third note which is not readable properly mentions as, “I have informed Mr Malik by fax,’ by some Joint Secretary or Brigadier (retired) Javed Iqbal Cheema.
In this letter the specific Intelligence was provided by Brigadier Abdul Basit Rana of ISI, who according to this correspondent is yet not appeared before any investigation committee including the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) Joint Investigation Team (JIT) headed by a grade 20 police officer Khalid Qureshi and the UN Commission on Benazir Bhutto.
“Since this was a top secret information provided by the agency and agencies do not give the access to the origin of the information so neither Brigadier Abdul Basit Rana was interviewed by UN Commission nor by anyone else,” confirmed Ch Azhar advocate, the prosecutor of the Benazir Bhutto murder case in Rawalpindi’s Anti Terrorist Court.
It has already come on the public record that the then Security Adviser of Benazir Bhutto, Mr Rehman Malik soon after receiving the “threat information” from Brigadier (retired) Javed Iqbal Cheema, had written a three page detailed letter to Secretary Interior Syed Kamal Shah on 12th December 2007. In the said letter he had requested for enhancement of Benazir Bhutto’s security.
An expert, while speaking on the condition of anonymity said that the examination of Brigadier Abdul Basit Rana and further analysis of the information provided by him can further unfold the missing links of on going investigation of Benazir Bhutto murder case.
