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Berlin terror attack: Islamic State claim responsibility as police launch new manhunt for armed gunman

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Berlin terror attack which killed 12 people and injured nearly 50.
The group’s Amaq news agency said in a statement that “the person who carried out the truck run over attack in Berlin is a soldier of the Islamic State and carried out the attack in response to calls for targeting citizens of the Crusader coalition.” 

Its claim came as German police released the man they had arrested because of lack of evidence, meaning the real culprit is still at large and armed and dangerous.

Authorities urged people to remain “particularly vigilant” and to report “suspicious movement” to a special hotline.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has visited the scene and paid her respects for the victims by laying a single white rose. Tonight, she joined the city’s residents for a church service just yards from the horror.

Earlier it emerged that police under increasing pressure to find those responsible had spent 24 hours questioning the wrong man.

“We have the wrong man,” an unnamed police source told Welt newspaper earlier. “This means the situation is different. The real culprit is still armed and can commit further atrocities.”

The man arrested on Monday night under suspicion of ploughing a 7-tonne truck through a Christmas market in the heart of Berlin, killing 12, was named in German media reports as a 23-year-old asylum seeker of Pakistani origin. 

He denied involvement in the attack, according to police, and this evening he was freed.

The Welt daily reported that police raided a large shelter for asylum-seekers at Berlin’s defunct Tempelhof airport overnight. Four men are understood to have been questioned, but not arrested.

At least 48 were injured, some seriously, in the attack, after the vehicle mounted the pavement at about 40mph and crashed into them.

A passenger in the lorry – believed to be the original driver – was later found dead inside. German authorities confirmed that the passenger was a Polish national and that he was not the person in control of the vehicle, which belonged to a Polish delivery company, at the time of the crash.

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No journalist murdered in Pakistan in 2016, says CPJ report

No journalist was murdered in Pakistan “in retaliation for their work” in 2016, a first since 2001, a recent study reported.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an independent organisation working to promote press freedom worldwide, in its special report launched on Monday said that it “did not identify anyone singled out for murder in Pakistan because of journalist work” — for the first time in 15 years.

The organisation classifies murder as “the targeted killing of a journalist, whether premeditated or spontaneous, in direct relation to the journalist’s work”.

At least 33 journalists have been targeted and killed “in retaliation for their work” since 1992, CPJ further said in its press statement.

However, many Pakistani journalists have resorted to self-censorship or have abandoned the profession altogether to avoid “grave risks”, CPJ added.

A report released by Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) in November said, “Media houses and media persons are not only being targeted but threatened, pressurised, intimidated and harassed by the state and non-state elements.”
“Threats and violence have forced many journalists to move from these danger zones and to leave the profession or to resort to self-censorship, particularly in conflict areas,” it added.

Aside from murder and crossfire/combat, CPJ also records deaths of journalists who were killed while on a “dangerous assignment such as covering political unrest”.

According to CPJ, at least three journalists died while covering such assignments in 2016, two of whom were Pakistani. In August, DawnNews cameraman Mehmood Khan and Aaj TV cameraman Shehzad Ahmed were killed in a bomb blast at the Quetta Civil Hospital.

The slain crew members were in the hospital, covering a large group of lawyers mourning the murder of the president of the Balochistan Bar Association.

Read more: Remembering my fallen colleague Mehmood Khan, on his birthday

Terrorist groups have repeatedly launched secondary attacks targeting mourners or people rushing to the scene of a first attack, CPJ maintained.

“Such secondary attacks put journalists, who often cover the funerals and the aftermath of bombings, at special risk.”

CPJ said in the press release that its staff members independently investigate and verify the circumstances surrounding the death of a journalist.

“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 combat-related crossfire; or while carrying out a dangerous assignment,” the statement added.

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Changing minds for climate change

Changing minds for climate change was the title of four day international conference organised by the Pakistan-US Alumni Network (PUAN) in Islamabad recently. PUAN is the alumni network of the students and professionals, who have participated in US government sponsored exchange programmes. With more than 19,000 alumni across Pakistan, PUAN is one of the largest alumni networks in the world. PUAN regularly organises events across Pakistan, including service projects, leadership training, roundtable discussions, and community engagement activities.
The conference brought together climate change professionals, activists, students, teachers, and policymakers, to share knowledge and experiences.

More than 250 alumni of US government-sponsored exchange programs from across Pakistan and South, Central and East Asia gathered in Islamabad for the event, which was jointly sponsored by the US Embassy in Islamabad, US Educational Foundation in Pakistan and PUAN. Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, Secretary Senate Standing Committee on Climate Change, Samina Baig, Pakistan’s first female to summit Mount Everest and the Seven Summits attended the conference’s opening ceremony to kick off a program of interactive workshops, panel sessions, keynote speeches, and community outreach events. Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed in his remarks said that, he is the voice of climate change in parliament. He suggested that “siachen should be converted into Peace Park, as both neighbouring countries are heavily spending their resources over there.”

American ambassador to Pakistan David Hale addressing the conference participants said, that “No country can tackle climate change alone, we must all work together. Governments and scientists, businesspeople and civil society must harness every aspect of a nation’s resources to address this global crisis.” The US, along with partner nations around the world including Pakistan, is working to reach common ground on the climate agenda. Notably, Pakistan has recently made great progress on the path to adopting the Paris Agreement, he said. Pakistan has also agreed to an amendment to curb greenhouse gases (hydro fluorocarbons/HFCs). Moreover, the US and Pakistan are working together to encourage private sector investment in new clean energy generation (such as wind, solar, and hydro) through technical assistance, grants for transmission infrastructure, and financing.

Pakistan’s vulnerability to adverse impacts of climate change is well established and widely recognized. Despite Pakistan’s diminutive contribution to global GHG emissions, it is among the top ten most climate affected countries of the world, as indicated by the Global Climate Risk Index developed by Germanwatch. Moreover, these adverse impacts of climate change are not in the distant future but are imminent. Indeed, these are already occurring as Pakistan has started suffering with ever-increasing frequency and ferocity of climate-induced catastrophes. Studies and assessments undertaken by the National Disaster Management Authority show that extreme climate events between 1994 and 2013 have resulted in an average annual economic loss of almost US dollars 4 billion. The last five floods (2010-2014) have resulted in monetary losses of over US$ 18 billion with 38.12 million people affected, 3.45 million houses damaged and 10.63 million acres of crops destroyed. Likewise, over 1200 people lost their lives due to the unprecedented heat wave in Karachi in 2015.

The conference coincided with ratification of the Paris Agreement by Pakistan. Adoption of the Paris Agreement has further reinforced the ultimate objective of the United Nations Framework on Climate Change and has provided a framework for its realisation in a more intense manner with a long term perspective. The global consensus on limiting temperature increase to below 2 degrees Centigrade is an endorsement of the scientific conclusions reached by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and provides safeguards for vulnerable regions and countries of the world from irreversible adverse consequences. In doing so, the urgent need for undertaking adaptation measures by all groups of countries has also been underscored. Moreover, it needs to be recognised that without provision of adequate finance, technology development and transfer and capacity building, the consequences for developing countries are likely to remain catastrophic.

According to the World Wildlife Fund, by 2040 up to ten per cent of Pakistan’s agricultural output would be affected by climate change. Global warming could not only make it more difficult to produce crops, the reduction in crop yields could also push food prices up, adding to the miseries of the bottom 40 per cent of the population. Besides disasters, unprecedented floods could play havoc with agriculture. Being one of the most climate change vulnerable countries in the world, Pakistan’s economy is already under severe strain from prevailing and likely future threats of climate change. Adverse climate related impacts are draining public funds from essential social requirements towards disaster management.

Climate change knows no boundaries. Changing minds of policy makers from Islamabad to Washington is imperative and no one can afford further delay to address imminent threat from climate change. Hence, the response has to be transnational. Learning from global and regional experience is crucial in this regard. For instance, Bangladesh is considered as adaptation capital of the world, which offers huge opportunities to region for climate change adaptation.

The writer is Executive Director at Centre for Environment and Development

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In Pakistan, five girls were killed for having fun. Then the story took an even darker twist.

ISLAMABAD, Dec 17 — It was just a few seconds, a video clip of several young women laughing and clapping to music, dressed for a party or a wedding in orange headscarves and robes with floral patterns. Then a few more seconds of a young man dancing alone, apparently in the same room.

The cellphone video was made six years ago, in a village deep in Kohistan, a rugged area of northwest Pakistan. It was the last time the young women, known only as Bazeegha, Sareen Jan, Begum Jan, Amina and Shaheen, have ever been definitively seen alive.

What happened to them remains a mystery. Their fates have been shrouded by cultural taboos, official inertia, implacable resistance from elders and religious leaders suspected of ordering their deaths, and elaborate subterfuges by the families who reportedly carried out those orders.

Even in Pakistan, where hundreds of “honor killings” are reported every year, this case was extreme. According to court filings and interviews with people who investigated it, the families confined the girls for weeks, threw boiling water and hot coals on them, then killed them and buried them somewhere in the Kohistan hills.

Later, when investigators appeared, relatives and community leaders insisted that the girls were still alive and produced a second set of similar-looking girls to prove it. They even disfigured one girl’s thumbprints so she couldn’t be checked against the identity of the victim she was supposed to impersonate.

The story illustrates many of the reasons Pakistani officials have failed to curb the problem of honor killings. These include the cruel sway of traditional tribal councils, known as jirgas, over uneducated villagers; the lengths to which such leaders may go to defy state authority; and the casual worthlessness they assign to the rights, lives and even identities of young women.

Today, the truth is finally beginning to emerge, mostly through the efforts of a few individuals including Afzal Kohistani, a young man whose brothers were killed as a result of the incident. He spent years seeking help from local and provincial officials, then petitioned the Supreme Court. In 2012, his case was dismissed, but last month the high court reopened it and ordered a new investigation that has produced a chilling report.

“This has destroyed my family. The girls are dead, my brothers have been killed and nothing has been done to bring justice or protect us,” said Kohistani, 26, who has received death threats. “I know I will probably be killed, too, but it doesn’t matter,” he said in an interview last week. “What happened is wrong, and it has to change.”

Renewed judicial interest in these long-ago events coincided with another encouraging development: the passage of a new law in parliament that strengthened judicial powers in honor-killing cases. Often, even when such crimes manage to reach the courts, there is no punishment because the law allows victims’ families to “forgive” the perpetrators — who are often their own relatives.

The new law, passed in October, gives judges more ammunition to impose life prison sentences for honor killings in extreme circumstances, allowing them to overrule personal deals by making the murder a crime against the state. But supporters fear that cultural and political resistance will continue to prevent justice being done.

“We don’t know yet whether the law will make much difference. Punishment is still not mandatory, and forgiveness can still negate justice,” said Benazir Jatoi, a lawyer who works on women’s rights. “Until there is more political will, I don’t think the lives of ordinary women threatened with honor violence will change.”

The Kohistan case unfolded in a conservative rural region where social mingling between genders was taboo. The the girls’ participation in a coed singing party was risky enough, but someone posted the video on the Internet, where it spread rapidly, bringing shame on their community before the vast virtual world.

The head of the local jirga, a Muslim cleric, allegedly issued a religious decree ordering the five girls to be killed for dishonoring their tribe, along with the boy seen dancing and every member of his family. There was no resistance from the community. After the girls were disposed of, several brothers of the boy were also caught and killed. The rest of the family, including Kohistani, fled the area.

stood for more than a year. No crimes were reported and no one came to investigate. Kohistani, a college graduate from one of the area’s wealthier families, said he repeatedly approached local and provincial officials, reporting the killings and seeking protection, but was chided for opposing the jirga’s verdict.

“No one in my district or my province has ever spoken against honor killing. They tell me I have defamed my culture, my religion, my tribe,” Kohistani said last week. “Everybody knows what happened, but no one is ready to come forward. This an illegal, unconstitutional and un-Islamic tradition, but people don’t even consider it a crime.”

Finally, with assistance from a lawyer in Islamabad, Kohistani appealed directly to the Supreme Court. Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, a liberal activist, personally took up the case in 2012 and ordered two fact-finding missions sent to the remote area by helicopter.

When the visitors demanded to see the girls, their families at first refused, but eventually presented three girls and said they were the ones in the video. The three delegates had no chance to speak to the girls in private, but they compared their faces to images from the video. Two were convinced of the likenesses; the third, Farzana Bari, said she had doubts.

“I was upset and confused. We had no translators who knew their dialect, and everyone there insisted these were the same girls,” recounted Bari, an academic in Islamabad. “When we got back the second time, I filed a dissenting report, but the judge closed the case. I still feel terrible.”

After that, life apparently returned to normal in the village for several years. One journalist sent photos of both groups of girls to analysts in England, who found only a 14 percent chance they were the same individuals. That evidence was taken to a provincial court, but it declined to take action. Kohistani, in the interview, named each of the original girls and their replacements, who he said were similar-looking sisters, cousins and sisters-in-law.

Finally, last month, Kohistani’s crusade got an unexpected break when the Supreme Court, under a new chief justice, agreed to accept his petition. Once more, a fact-finding mission was sent to the village. This time, it included a district judge and two police officers, armed with government ID records with the heights and thumbprints of the missing girls.

What they encountered was hair-raising.
In his report afterwards, Kohistan Judge Shoaib Khan said the village elders were “unanimous” in insisting that the girls were alive. But two of the girls they produced were much younger than the victims, according to their official birth dates. A third could not be identified because both thumbs had been burned; her parents insisted that it was from a cooking accident. He concluded that at least two girls did not match the ones in the video and that the others were probably also imposters.

“All this leads to the suspicious conclusion that something is wrong at bottom,” Khan wrote. The case, he advised, “needs exhaustive inquiry.”

One day last week, Kohistani, wearing a conservative suit and carrying a copy of the judge’s report, walked up to the Supreme Court. He smiled slightly as he shook hands with his attorney, and they went inside to wait for the next hearing.

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The night I’ll never forget

I remember sitting in the snow all night. We were being bombed. Usually after a few hours it would stop. But not this time. I remember the faces of my kidnappers; how they kept saying, “Ya Rabi, Allah hu Akbar,” as the bombs fell. I remember wondering how someone who celebrated the massacre of innocent children could have the spine to take God’s name. But I would remember being tortured and how they would say Allah hu Akbar every time they hit me. They said it gave them strength, so I would say it right back, and louder because it gave me the strength to take any and everything they threw at me.

When the bombs started falling closer to us, I told my kidnappers, “Inshallah, today there are is no escaping. Inshallah, today you will be put to trial.” The same evening, I was sitting in my corner when my guard Sohail ran in, ecstatic. My Uzbek was weak but I could pick up that there had been an attack. Then, Muhammad Ali, the leader of the group, turned around and told me in Urdu, “Alhumdulillah we have avenged our women and children.”

As they took the radio out and started listening to the news, the horrors of what they were celebrating started to dawn upon me. Almost 150 children murdered in cold blood in broad day light. I couldn’t understand what was going on. “Army Public School,” they kept yelling, while hugging each other. “We have hit the enemy at the core,” they said. I had had enough. It was three-and-a-half years into my kidnapping so my fear of fear itself was really just a joke. “You are sick! These are children”, I shouted,” The Holy Quran says never touch women and children literally till they are about to kill you! Have you no respect for the word of God?” Trust me, asking them if they had any morals was stupid. I had screamed that in darkness upon deaf ears millions of times. I told them believe in karma. Believe that when you take something that you have no right over will be destroyed, if not in this life then the next. I told them that neither the Prophet (pbuh) nor his companions ever touched a child — unless it was to give knowledge and love. What they had done was heinous. “We will all die,” I told them. That’s when they said that they had not done it. An Ayat from the Quran and suddenly morality kicked in! They said it was Jundullah (which happened to be the name of their media cell). “Get lost!” I said as I sat back in my corner. I had no tears left but I knew tonight would be a tough night.

After every attack in Pakistan, I felt as if the bombs and bud duas (curses) all fell on me. I survived that night. And many nights after that till one day, a few months later, I saw this picture of my wife, Maheen, with some APS children. I think by this time, just her and my cousin Sharmeen had me as their profile pictures on social media. It had been months since I had had any contact or information. Seeing this picture, I finally found the strength to cry. Finally, I cried not out of pain and loneliness but the fact that there was still someone I could connect to. My wife had written about how being with the children and their families was the closest she had felt to me. I smiled because it was the furthest I had ever felt from her. I thought about those kids and their families and how there really was no justice. How can you give justice to a child who has lost his parent? And how do you console parents who have had their children stolen from them? You can’t. We could not defend our children that day.

The planner of this attack many many months later was in jail with me. I asked him how he justified it and he said that they were going to grow up and become army officers. “Mashallah, brothers”, I said. “We have a man who can see the future!” I told him that perhaps out of the 150, one would have been an imam. Maybe one would have been a doctor who worked pro bono in war-torn areas and treated your grandchildren? Were those two lives not important? Was the life of any Muslim child not important? What were you fighting for? I thought it was for women and children and the cruelty of the great western powers! What exactly is the difference between them and you?

I swear to you, he had boasted (about the attacked) in jail and I know he wasn’t lying because he had two other people with him to back his story about how he had planned the attack. He looked at me and said that the army had done it themselves and that they (militant groups) always took credit for these things but that it was an internal plot. All the other people started to laugh at him (all militants from various Pakistani and Afghan groups taken prisoners by the Taliban for joining the IS). I didn’t laugh. I saw how weak the devil really was. Spineless. I have seen the maddest men of our time. Men who say they are mujahideen, selfless in sacrifice. They were liars, traitors, cowards, thieves and murderers. That night I asked God to forgive me for fighting to stay alive in the company of men like these; for depending on such men to spare or even save my life. I also asked God to make me humble as a man and to embed the memory of that night in my soul so that I would never forget. That is what I ask, never forget. #16December, 2014.

The writer is the director of First Capital Securities Corporation and Chairman of Pace Barqa. He is the son of slain Punjab governor, Salmaan Taseer.

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Peshawar school attack game withdrawn after uproar

A video game based on the 2014 Taliban school massacre in which at least 132 children were killed in Pakistan’s northwest city of Peshawar has been withdrawn after triggering social media uproar and backlash.

The game, “Pakistan Army Retribution”, was released by the Punjab IT board on Google Play, and invited the player to step into the shoes of a soldier shooting Taliban attackers in a school’s hallways.

It is inspired by Pakistan’s deadliest terror attack that saw seven Taliban gunmen storm the Army Public School (APS) in December 2014.

They shot students and teachers in cold blood and occupied the school for hours until they were killed by the army.
The assault shocked Pakistan and emotional ceremonies marking the anniversary were held across the country last month.
The game was released on Google Play several weeks ago but only came into the limelight after an article lampooning the game in Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper appeared on Monday, making social media users lambast its makers for exploiting the tragedy.

By Monday afternoon, the game was no longer available on Google Play.

Umar Saif, the chairman of the Punjab Information Technology Board, a government body, confirmed that the game was no longer available.

“It wasn’t very well done and it was in poor taste,” said Saif. “In hindsight it was not a good thing to do.

“APS was a watershed for Pakistan, so we had the idea of using it as a theme to promote peace, tolerance and harmony. The plan was to show children that the best weapons are the pen and the book.”

Saif added that the game was produced by an independent company that had “misunderstood the brief” and the IT board “messed up with this particular game”.

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Inaugural planners’ biggest concern: Protesters

WASHINGTON, Dec 15 — Presidential candidate Donald Trump was anything but conventional — now military planners for the 58th presidential inauguration are preparing for a day that might not include traditional pomp and circumstance.

“Generally speaking, the inauguration is taking shape as it has in the past, although subject to change, as you know,” said Brig. Gen. George Degnon, the deputy commanding general for the inauguration.

In a news conference Wednesday, Degnon was asked whether military planners anticipated Trump putting his nontraditional signature on an event full of tradition.

“We’re still negotiating with the Presidential Inaugural Committee, as far as the specifics for the parade,” said Degnon. “But, with the city laid out the way it is, the number of people we’re bringing in to the city, there’s only so many ways you can make this thing happen.”

Maj. Gen. Bradley Becker, commander of the joint task force providing military ceremonial support for the inaugural events, was asked about the biggest threat to a smoothly run operation.

“At this point the biggest concern is the number of potential protesters, and how that impacts the inauguration, especially the parade itself,” Becker said.

Roped areas will be set up along the parade route for protesters, according to Baker, and Col. William Walker, of the D.C. National Guard.

It is unclear whether the new president will walk a portion of the parade route,” Becker said.

“Clearly the Secret Service has talked about it — previous presidents have done it — but at this point we just don’t know what the president-elect plans to do during the parade,” Becker said

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Justice for Houbara Bustards

By the time this article appears in the press, some 1,000 Houbara Bustards will have been officially annihilated by our friends from the Arab world. These massacres, most obsequiously facilitated by the Pakistan government factually end up killing many more innocent birds than the permitted limit. Only two years ago, a prince went on a rampage killing 2,000 Houbara Bustards against his bag limit of 200. There are few who have the courage to stand up and take action, for the violators also happen to be the imaginary ‘pillars’ of our foreign policy.

Taxonomically classified as Chlamydotis Macqueenii, some 30,000 of these beautiful and peaceful birds arrive in Pakistan every year, enriching our harsh and arid ecosystem with their breathtaking beauty and joyful presence. Little do they know that for many of them this would be the last winter of their lives.The global population of this species has been estimated between 78,960 and 97,000, as reported by the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. For Pakistan to knock out a few thousand of these birds every year is an unforgivable crime against the global ecosystem.

Loaded with contradictions and inaccuracies, the laws in Pakistan do more harm than good in protecting the visiting birds. Being a member of the IUCN and a signatory to the Convention on Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), Pakistan is bound to take necessary steps to conserve such dwindling species and their habitats. Notwithstanding the scientific evidence showing the vulnerability of the species, the governments of Balochistan, Sindh, Punjab and Pakistan, contrary to their obligations, have taken measures that would hasten the extinction of the Houbara Bustard.

Taking full advantage of these self-designed legal loopholes, the government of Pakistan every year drops all fig leaves of self-respect, ethics and environmental concerns to manufacture scores of ‘killer permits’ for its Middle Eastern friends. A clever and convoluted system has been designed to dilute this crime. The prime minister gives his consent. The foreign ministry issues a letter to the concerned embassy, allocating areas and defining a code of killing. The wildlife departments use the foreign ministry’s letter as an excuse to look the other way.

It is against this background of continued killings that the August 2015 judgement of the three-member bench of the Supreme Court (SC) arrived like a breath of fresh air. It declared in no uncertain words that “neither the federation nor a province could grant licence/permit to hunt the Houbara Bustard”. The judgement also asked the provinces to “amend their respective wildlife laws to make them compliant with the CMS as well as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and not to permit the hunting of any ‘threatened with extinction’ and vulnerable species”.

The SC judgement provided a brilliant opportunity to explain and take a position on why Houbaras could no longer be hunted. Sadly, the government looked for a bypass arrangement to please the predators. The government now started issuing ‘partridge-hunting’ licences. But, according to a BBC report of Feb 11, 2016, several eyewitnesses said that bustard-hunting sessions had taken place even after the ban, in the remote desert town of Nurpur Thal and the village of Mahni, in the Bhakkar district.

Simultaneously, the government asked the SC to review its judgement that placed a ban on hunting of Houbaras. This was done by enlarging the SC bench, enhancing the scope of the review and replacing some of the original judges. The review court set aside the earlier judgement and asked for ‘hearing afresh’ of the civil and the constitutional petitions. This order was passed by a majority of four to one, with Justice Qazi Faez Isa dissenting.

The people of Pakistan have been deeply distressed by the unending killing of Houbaras, destruction of their eco-system, arrogance of the predators and submissiveness of the government. When asked under the Freedom of Information Act to give the number of hunting permits it had issued in the last five years, the Foreign Office blatantly denied having ever issued a permit.

Years of engaging in an unlawful activity had clearly taken a heavy toll on our institutional morals and attitudes. Our only hope is for the SC to redeem its promise and ‘hear afresh’ the Houbara case. At stake are the lives of diminishing Houbaras and our questionable commitment to international law and conventions.

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CPEC and Russia’s quest for warm water ports

Pakistan’s point-man for China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Ahsan Iqbal, just concluded an exhaustive visit to Moscow. What would have been the point of a sojourn if there was no talk about the corridor and access to the warm waters of the Arabian Sea? A fortnight ago, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attended the Global Conference on Sustainable Transport in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. Islamabad not only offered its land route to landlocked Central Asian states but also extended the olive branch to Russia. Moscow tried a different strategy to reach the warm waters of the Arabian Sea for three decades, but spectacularly failed courtesy the Afghans and Pakistan.

Russian foreign ministry denied any negotiations with Pakistan on joining the China-sponsored corridor to the Arabian Sea via the Gwadar port. The federal minister’s visit 10 days later offered a blunt rejoinder. On its part, the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation member state showed its willingness to work with Russia, thus the meeting with Maksim Sokolov, the Russian transport minister.

Turbulent ties
Islamabad and Moscow first interacted on the fringes of the UN General Assembly meeting on May 1, 1948, when Foreign Minister Sir Zafarullah Khan met his counterpart. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto aspired to create a better bargain for Pakistan by wooing Russia, when he first visited the country in 1960 as Minister of Fuel Power and Natural Resources. Later, he remained actively engaged with Moscow as a foreign minister as well. The engagement eventually led to post-1965 war Tashkent Declaration. Kremlin backed Delhi outrightly as it sponsored Bengali secessionist militancy in 1971. Despite this, the controversial populist leader visited Moscow in 1972 as premier. Later, Russia launched a proxy war against Pakistan after it sided with the Afghan resistance against its military intervention as well as the capitalist bloc.

Moscow not mulling to join CPEC: Russian foreign ministry
Following his father’s footstep, Premier Benazir Bhutto tried to warm relations with Russia in 1994-1995. However, political infighting at home and Moscow’s annoyance over the rise of Taliban factored in adversely. Just months prior to the coup, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif visited Russia in 1999. But General Musharraf pressed reset on almost everything the Nawaz government was pursuing, and ties with Russia were no exception.

Since Musharraf’s Russia visit in 2003, relations have steadily improved without considerable turbulence. While almost every Pakistan president or premier has visited Moscow since, none were reciprocated at the same level.
In 2015, commandoes from both sides held war-games, while their navies conducted a joint exercise in the northern Arabian Sea. These increasing comfort levels are leading the two nations to previously unchartered waters, the most notable being the sale of MiG-29’s engines, RD-33, for en masse production and likely export of JF-17 Thunder.

The move was preceded by a deal to buy Russian Mil Mi-35 gunships and electronic warfare equipment. Besides inducting initial deliveries of four rotary-wing aircrafts, Islamabad may order another 16 subject to the platform’s performance and budgetary conditions.

Partnership for mutual benefit
Russia’s prime interest in Pakistan has been investment in the energy sector, symbolised by financing of the 850km North-South (Lahore-Karachi) pipeline to securing investment in the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline. And it remains to be seen if Moscow agrees to invest in the Thar coal field.

If the overview of complicated bilateral relations can be any guide, both the countries are steadily developing ties but are still far from becoming strategic and economic partners. Russia’s defense cooperation with India is at a far advanced level, which for now remains un-deterred by Delhi’s advances to Washington.

CPEC’s western route: Protests may erupt over unkept promises
Of late, Moscow has not shared India’s hardened position against Pakistan, may it be the BRICS summit in Goa or Heart of Asia conference in Amritsar. Islamabad’s recent abstention on the UN resolution regarding Syria was also an effort to stay out of the Pandora’s box.

The offer to join CPEC is too enticing for Russia to out-rightly reject. Its energy projects, such as the pipeline network, may eventually culminate in Russian oil being shipped to the east and the west from Gwadar port. Even if Kremlin may not benefit from the CPEC in the short term, it won’t back India’s rhetoric against the logistical corridor.

Naveed Ahmad is a Pakistani investigative journalist and academic with extensive reporting experience in the Middle East and North Africa. He is based in Doha and Istanbul.

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Prime accused in Baldia factory case brought to Karachi

KARACHI, Dec 13: Main accused of the Baldia factory fire was brought to Karachi from Bangkok here on Tuesday.
two-member Federal Investigation Agency�s team had gone to Bangkok after Bangkok police and Interpol arrested former Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Sector In-charge and main accused in the Baldia factory fire case.

According to the charge sheet of Baldia factory case, Abdul Rehman alias Bhola, alongwith other accused set a fire to garment factory after its owner refused to pay extortion to the chief of the MQM Tanzeemi Committee, Hammad Siddiqui. The incident, occurred on 11 September 2012, had taken lives of 258 innocent factory workers.

Abdul Rehman had been absconding with multiple non-bailable arrest warrants being issued by the court but he remained at large till the Bangkok police and Interpol arrested him from hotel in the Thailand capital. Abdul Rehman, 46, was detained at a hotel in the red light district Nana area of the capital on Friday evening, said Thailand’s Interpol chief. Addressing a news conference on Saturday the Bangkok Police Chief said Thailand had Zero tolerance for criminals. He said that Bhola will be handed over to Pakistan authorities upon their arrival into the Thai Capital.

According to reports, quoting Major General Apichart Suriboonya, the Thai Interpol tracked Bhola following an arrest warrant sought by the Pakistani authorities.

FIA deputed to officers, deputy director Badaruddin Baloch and Inspector Rehmatullah Dhomki, to bring back Bhola from Thailand. Sources said that Bhola, a close aide of former Tanzeemi Committee head Hammad Siddiqui, had joined the Mustafa Kamal led Pak Sarzameen Party. According to membership form, Abdul Rehman s/o of Abdul Sattar, age 45, is resident of Baldia Town and is government official in Karachi Metropolitan Corporation.

Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) chief Mustafa Kamal A, while talking to media in Lahore denied that his party had any association with Abdul Rehman alias Bhola. Bhola was never a member of PSP, we categorically deny this claim. Anyone can download and fill the party form off the internet, Kamal told. The whatasapp group and social media website, especially Twitter, were flooded with Bhola family members being snapped with PSP leaders in Pakistan House.