Posts Tagged ‘Pakistan’
ISI and Afghan Insurgency: Implications for India-Pakistan Relations
Matt Waldman in a recently released Paper, “The Sun is in the Sky: The relationship between Pakistan’s ISI and Afghan Insurgents”, explores the extent of the ISI’s links and support to the problem of Afghan insurgency. Though Matt accepts that hosts of endogenous factors responsible for the emergence and sustenance of the Taliban, his interviews with insurgent field commanders in and around Kabul and Kandhar provide him with evidence to claim that the ISI orchestrates, sustains and strongly influences the movement. The research concentrates on two principal groups: the core Taliban movement lead by Mullah Omar and the Haqqani network, led by Jalaluddin Haqqani. The Paper provides elaborate details of how the strategy, funding and operations of the two groups are dominated by ISI’s priorities and interests.In Matt’s analysis Pakistan’s support for the afghan insurgency can be checked by ensuring better relations between India and Pakistan.
Faisal Shahzad’s Impact on Policies and Perceptions
Much has been written about the impact of Faisal Shahzad’s failed attack in New York City’s Times Square. Most Indians thought that Faisal’s links to Pakistan would increase U.S. pressure on the ‘epicenter of terrorism’, thereby validating India’s perspective. It was hoped that Faisal would help India to get where Kasab and David Headley could not: terrorist groups within Pakistan which act as auxiliary units for the Al-Qeada against the U.S. and India. Indian media is replete with quotations like “U.S. warns Pakistan of severe consequences.” However there is little evidence to show that the nature of U.S.-Pakistan Partnership will change much in the coming days. Views of Bruce Riedel and General Petraeus also validate this contention. Click to continue…
Discussion on New Social Media at Kaboo Community Radio
A tourist visa to Pakistan costs Rs.15 (33 cents) and the distance between Amritsar and Lahore is 48 km (29.8 miles) but few Indians have ever visited Pakistan. The movement of Indian journalists in Pakistan is restricted to Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi. Interactions between India and Pakistan are largely confined to the realm of diplomacy, politics and military strategy. The celebrated civil society dialogue between Indians and Pakistanis is limited to social elites from the two sides.
Interactions between the common people of India and Pakistan are challenged by several obstacles. Lack of air connections, absence of road and rail links, endless harassing over visa issues, heightening of political tensions, censorship of movies and blackout of news channels are the commonly encountered hurdles. For young educated Indians and Pakistanis, communication across the Line of Control (LOC) has been more difficult than contact with counterparts in other continents. Media reports, memoirs and ancestral stories have been the only way for gathering information about life across the LOC.
The medium of electronic communication is allowing Indians and Pakistanis a rare opportunity to conduct genuine and open dialogue. Blessed to be born at a time when the web rules the world, a large segment of middle class Indians and Pakistanis can talk to each other. Exchange of e-mails, expression of views through blogs, participation in on-line discussion forums, and sharing of information through social networking sites provides myriad avenues for Indians and Pakistanis to communicate. They can instantaneously discuss about the Marriott attacks in Islamabad or the Mumbai terror siege; comment on U.S. strategy in Af-Pak or implications of the Kerry-Lugar Bill, send live updates of lawyer’s protest march in Karachi or voice concern over the ban on Jaswant Singh’s book praising Jinnah in India. Flow of information across the border is now direct, instant and constant. This new form of popular interaction, referred to as social media, between Indians and Pakistanis is re-defining the contours of inter-state civil society dialogue.
APA Compass on Kaboo Community Radio invited me to speak on how electronic communication, especially New Social Media, was impacting interactions between Indians and Pakistanis. The podcast to the program can be accessed here.
Tale of Two Terrorists in Two Democracies
Ajmal Kasab and Faisal Shahzad are familiar names for most Indians and Americans. Kasab was the only terrorist in the gang of ten who was arrested alive during the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008. Shahzad was arrested early this week for planting a car bomb in the Times Square in New York City. Kasab was arrested while operationalizing a terror strike; Shahzad was nabbed following the cues from the car which he had planted. Kasab’s connection to Pakistan was established, Shahzad Pakistani connection is evident and under scrutiny.
16th SAARC Summit at Thimphu
The 16th SAARC Summit concluded in Thimphu, Bhutan last week. Two characteristics of South Asians strike me when leaders of SAARC nations meet. First, South Asians feel more comfortable in big crowds. Second, South Asians are highly entrepreneurial. The Thimphu Summit reaffirmed the impressions. Even though the SAARC Charter prohibits discussions on contentious bilateral issues, leaders of India and Pakistan feel most comfortable in conversing at sidelines of SAARC Summits. Despite slow progress of previously agreed cooperative projects, SAARC members do not shy away from undertaking new ventures at each summit meeting.
Pakistan and U.S. Move from ‘Relationship’ to ‘Partnership’
“Today, I am a happy man and a satisfied man,” Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said in a news conference with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Secretary Clinton’s remarks at the same conference “We have listened, and we will continue to listen.”
This is what Pakistan is celebrating as a movement from relationship to partnership. Semantics in diplomacy can be a great face safer and Minister Qureshi seems to realize this fact.
[Picture Courtesy: Jim Young/Reuters]
Attempts at moral policing in Pakistan
I am compelled to share an excerpt from a post by Murtaza Ali Jafri on the Dawn Blog today. I was unable to discern my reaction after reading it: is it funny or pathetic?
Last month, the Punjab Assembly resolved to ban all late-night call packages offered by mobile telecommunications companies in the province. During vigorous assembly debates, it was concluded that the ability to make cheap, late-night phone calls was having a negative impact on this country’s bright young things. Forget terrorism, the energy crisis, a weakened government, and water shortages – apparently boys and girls texting and calling each other past their bed time has become a matter of national concern.
Hence the assembly resolution demanding that mobile companies stop promoting “cheap rate, late night packages that alter societal tendencies.” Luckily for us nocturnal phone addicts, the powers that be haven’t yet discovered the prevalence of instant messenger or the internet.
I hate to be the harbinger of bad news, but cheap mobile packages don’t corrupt the youth, society corrupts the youth. After all, the previous generation grew up without mobile phones, the internet, cable television, and Gossip Girl, and they’ve hardly turned out to be bastions of virtue.
Does the Government of Pakistan ever fail to surprise us? Only if they could ban all guns given the fact that so many young Pakistanis were being lured by terrorist groups.
Human Rights Advocacy: Concerns and Challenges
Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet and interact with Meenakshi Ganguly and Ali Dayan Hasan from Human Rights Watch. In my informal interaction with Meenakshi, I found her to be a keen observer and her previous career as a journalist convinced me of her astute sense of reasoned social investigation; a quality imperative for anyone working in the field with Human Rights issues. The interaction brought to light some interesting dimensions with regard to human rights in general and HR Watch in particular.
Some Different Claims from Pakistan
Criticism for Pakistani politicians, state of military-civilian relations and covert support to terrorism comes easy for anyone. There is so much to complain about Pakistan that very rarely does anything positive gets to the attention of the outside world. In one such rare instance, the Foreign Affairs, January-February 2010, carried a section on Pakistan Regained. Though some of the political claims carried in this sponsored section can be contested, the eight page attempt at PR throws light on some unnoticed facts about the crisis-ridden country.
[Karachi Port Trust Towers]
Who Got Those Drones for Pakistan?
What was reported as a snub by the Pakistan military for the U.S. strategy in the region was in fact a simple act of bargaining.
Pakistan Army spokesman Athar Abbas told the BBC the “overstretched” military had no plans for any fresh anti-militant operations over the next 12 months. He added that “The Pakistan army is overstretched and it is not in a position to open any new fronts. Obviously, we will continue our present operations in Waziristan and Swat.” The announcement was made during the visit of U.S. Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates to the region. And many interpreted this as an embarrassment for the Obama Administration. Click to continue…