Journalist`s book examines rise in extremism | DAWN.COM |

ISLAMABAD, Nov 13: In his second book launched on Saturday, journalist Zahid Hussain argues the war against al Qaeda and the Taliban, particularly the US drone strikes killing civilians, has spurred number of new recruits to the extremist cause.

“The war has come to Pakistani heartland with terrorists targeting cities with impunity. I think for Pakistan the turning point came with the Red Mosque siege when the military operation crushed radical movement right in the heart of the country`s capital,” he said at the launch of The Scorpion`s Tail – The Relentless Rise of Islamic Militants in Pakistan And How It Threatens America at Kuch Khaas . “The incident led to declaration of war by the militants from Swat and South Waziristan.”

For him, the militants were not stronger. “It was the weaker state unable to provide protection and justice to the people.” But he added it was a great turnaround when the government showed some resolution to fight back. “I saw how people got back to their lives immediately after the militants were flushed out. That showed a remarkable resilience in Pakistani people,” he said. The author explained that Pakistan could not be separated from war in Afghanistan and the US policy in the region. “It is a blowback of the war in Afghanistan. It is the longest war Pakistan has ever fought and it cannot be won.”

Admiring the author`s field experience, Khaled Ahmed, a journalist and writer, said the book attempted at understanding why Pakistan was moving towards extremist Islam. “It reminds of self correction and how otherwise the state would continue to gradually erode.”

Director Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) I. A. Rehman said the book asked the right kind of questions. “How are we in this mess? How it escalated and created facilities for rise of militants.” But he said the author was `generous` to Ayub Khan for demonising politicians that paved the way for extremists and how Cold War `knights` reconverted Pakistan into an extremist state.

The book has come at a pivotal moment, said Maliha Lodhi, former envoy to the US and the UK. “It comes just before the much anticipated US review of the Afghan war in December.” She said it has also come at a delicate moment for Pakistan`s counter militancy efforts when the crucial transition has to be made from `hold` to `transfer` to consolidate recent gains.

The book`s central thesis that killing senior leaders has little effect on their operations raised questions whether militarised approach dispersed the threat rather than neutralize it?

“Secondly, this is the first book that catalogues the blowback effects of what has become a weapon of choice for the Obama Administration, an approach that ignores lessons of history, inspires more attacks and unifies militant groups,” she said, describing the drone campaign a tactic and not a strategy.

Riaz Mohammad Khan, former foreign secretary, found the book meticulous. “It takes us through high marks since 9/11 – early uprisings, pursuit of al Qaeda leadership, break down of deals, and how they shaped our present shape,” said the former bureaucrat who thought the book allowed to grasp challenges with clarity.

This article was published in Dawn and was written by Jamal Shahid.

Scorpion’s Tail is available at all leading bookstores in Pakistan and can be ordered here.

A Girl, a School and Hope – NYTimes.com

Given today’s economic difficulties, I thought I’d come to Pakistan to find Osama bin Laden, lug him back home in my duffel bag and declare him at American customs to pick up the $27 million reward.

More on that mission in a moment. First, another conundrum here in Pakistan:

The United States has provided $18 billion to Pakistan in aid since 9/11, yet Pakistan’s government shelters the Afghan Taliban as it kills American soldiers and drains the American Treasury. Meanwhile, only 8 percent of Pakistanis have confidence in President Obama, according to the Pew Research Center. That’s not even half as many as express confidence in bin Laden.

Meanwhile, Pakistan seeks postflood aid from Western taxpayers, yet barely taxes its own affluent citizens at home. And its feudal landholders have historically opposed good schools, for fear that poor Pakistanis — if educated — would object to oppression.

One reason Pakistan is sometimes called the most dangerous country in the world is this: a kindergarten child in this country has only a 1 percent chance of reaching the 12th grade, according to the Pakistan Education Task Force, an official panel. The average Pakistani child is significantly less likely to be schooled than the average child in sub-Saharan Africa.

American myopia historically has played a role. We’ve propped up generals but not the lawyers’ movement for democracy. We’ve allocated billions of dollars for Pakistan’s army but not for schools. And the U.S. has never been willing to take the single most important step: open our markets wide to Pakistani garment exports, so as to provide jobs and strengthen the business sector.

Now let’s break for a ray of hope.

This is my first trip to Pakistan in years in which the country’s downhill slide seems to have been arrested — and that’s notwithstanding the floods that ravaged the country recently.

It helps that the United States has approved the Kerry-Lugar-Berman package to provide civilian aid, earning the U.S. a dose of goodwill in Pakistan. But most important, members of Pakistan’s emerging middle class are stepping up to the plate.

They are enraged at the terrorists who have been tearing apart their country, they’re appalled by corruption and illiteracy, and they want peace so that their children can become educated and live a better life. Their obsession is college, not Kashmir.

Partly because of middle-class influence, ordinary Pakistanis are increasingly focused on education. About one-fourth of Pakistani children, even from poor families, now attend private schools, simply because the public schools are so wretched.

These days the middle class is not only eclipsing the feudal landowners but also rejects the old feudal contempt for the masses. One reflection of the middle-class engagement is the rise of the Citizens Foundation, a terrific aid group started by a group of businessmen frustrated by their country’s appalling schools.

Today, T.C.F. runs 660 excellent schools for the poorest citizens. I visited several of these schools on this trip — and, wow!

T.C.F. spends 40 percent less per pupil than state schools do, but manages to provide incomparably better education. Here in the most-populous province of Punjab, for example, nearly 100 percent of Citizens Foundation pupils pass government exams, while over the last four years state schools have averaged a 44 percent pass rate.

The most inspiring Pakistani I met on this trip wasn’t a prominent official but a 17-year-old girl.

Zahida Sardar, an ebullient teenager with braids and a radiant smile, used to languish in an execrable state school in Minhala outside Lahore. “A teacher might come only twice a month,” Zahida recalled.

In such a school, Zahida despaired that she would have no chance to become a doctor or teacher. She began to pester her parents to send her to a T.C.F. school so she could actually get an education, but her parents are illiterate and worried about school fees.

“My father said, ‘I’m not going to pay. Why should we spend money on education?’ ” Zahida recalled. So Zahida tormented her mother, begging her just to find out if a transfer might be possible.

“For three months, I pestered and insisted,” Zahida recalled. She tried everything she could think of, including a daily torrent of tears.

I met Zahida’s mother, Sardara, who told me that the girl was impossible and just wouldn’t take a “no.” “She just wore me down,” Sardara said. Timidly, Sardara visited the T.C.F. school, and the principal agreed to test Zahida and, when she performed brilliantly, accept her at much reduced fees of 50 cents a month.

So Zahida is now is a star in the 11th grade — speaking to me comfortably in English.

Oh, and bin Laden? Well, maybe I’ll get lucky on my next trip. But in Zahida and other educated young Pakistanis, I’ve found those who will vanquish him.

This article is written by Nicholas Kristof who is the bestselling author of Half The Sky. The article was published in The New York Times.

DAWN.COM | World | Bush faults Pakistan on extremism

WASHINGTON: Former US president George W. Bush has written in a new memoir that he became convinced Pakistan would not act against extremist militants and all but admitted he ordered drone strikes on its soil.

 

 

In his book “Decision Points” published Tuesday, Bush said he had “complex” relations with Pakistan and its former military leader Pervez Musharraf, who pledged to support the United States after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Bush acknowledged that Pakistan “paid a high price for taking on extremists” and said its forces were successful for several years in targeting al Qaeda militants crossing the porous border with Afghanistan.

But Bush said: “Over time, it became clear that Musharraf either would not or could not fulfill all of his promises.”

“Some in the Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI, retained close ties to Taliban officials. Others wanted an insurance policy in case America abandoned Afghanistan and India tried to gain influence there,” Bush wrote.

Bush said he grew frustrated by late in his presidency. He recalled a meeting with US special forces returning from Afghanistan in which one troop pleaded with him, “We need permission to go kick some ass inside Pakistan.”

Bush said he could not reveal details of his decision but noted that the Predator, an unmanned predator drone, “was capable of conducting video surveillance and firing laser-guided bombs.”

“I authorized the intelligence community to turn up the pressure on the extremists. Many of the details of our actions remain classified. But soon after I gave the order, the press started reporting more Predator strikes,” he wrote.

President Barack Obama has intensified the drone attacks, which most US policymakers consider an effective way to kill senior al Qaeda leaders without risking US troops.

But Pakistan has publicly protested the drone attacks, calling them violations of its sovereignty that kill civilians and risk worsening anti-US sentiment. Some US scholars have questioned the legality of the strikes, saying they amount to extrajudicial killings.

Musharraf raised controversy in 2006 when the United States threatened to bomb Pakistan “back to the Stone Age” if it did not lend support after the September 11 attacks.

In the memoir, Bush said Colin Powell, then secretary of state, called Musharraf on September 13, 2001 and told him he “had to decide whose side he was on” and gave him “non-negotiable demands” including breaking relations with the Taliban and denying al Qaeda havens inside Pakistan.

Bush said that Pakistan’s cooperation was impeded by its “obsession” with historic rival India. Both Bush and Obama have sought warmer relations with the world’s largest democracy.

“In almost every conversation we had, Musharraf accused India of wrongdoing,” Bush wrote.

Musharraf, who is touring the United States as he tries to stage a political comeback, insisted Tuesday that he had evidence that Indian intelligence agents met with Pakistani separatists who came via Afghanistan.

“If I’m allowed to be very, very frank, India’s role in Afghanistan is to create an anti-Pakistan Afghanistan,” Musharraf, who stepped down in 2008, said at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

Musharraf said that India’s consulates in the southern cities of Kandahar and Jalalabad “have no other role” except “creating trouble in Pakistan.”

“Why wouldn’t the consulates be somewhere in the north facing Uzbekistan and Tajikistan?” Musharraf asked.

India also has consulates in Mazar-i-Sharif in the north and Herat in the west. The Indian embassy in Kabul was targeted in an attack last year claimed by Taliban militants.

India, not a traditional donor, has committed 1.3 billion dollars to Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban regime and is building roads, power lines and a new parliament building.

Musharraf also said that Pakistan “is trying its best” to fight Taliban and al Qaeda leaders.

“Why is the responsibility of their coming into Pakistan not the fault of Afghan forces and US forces and coalition forces?” Musharraf said.

“It should be shared at least 50-50 — we are at fault, you are also at fault,” he said. —AFP

This article was publised in Dawn.

Decision Points is now available at all Liberty Books stores & at our website.

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Scorpion’s Tail by Zahid Hussain – Available from Nov 13th 2010!