SPY EYES

Berlin - A German neo-Nazi who converted to Islam and ran off to join the German Taliban Mujahidin (GTM) in Pakistan with his wife, regrets his choice. He deplored the lack of hygiene and the Talibans macho attitude towards women,

The 27-year-old German skinhead, identified only as Thomas U, is on trial in a Berlin court for involvement in a foreign terrorist group. In 2009 the aspiring jihadist joined the GTM in Waziristan, to rid the area of “infidel occupiers,” the Telegraph reported.He even appeared in a Taliban propaganda video. However, he soon became disillusioned with the reality of life as a jihadist, finding his fellow terrorists took drugs and lacked basic hygiene. According to YNet his wife missed shopping in supermarkets and her cell phone. Thomas U also disliked the Talibans attitude towards women. In his statement he said:”In one case a Taliban fighter went to the German widow of a dead comrade and told her that she would marry him. The proposal was made without any consultation with her, as if she was just an object.”After being forced to hand over £4,000 to the cause, witnessing the “badly mangled bodies” of three fellow German fighters, and contracting Hepatitis A, the Islamic convert had a change of heart. When his wife became pregnant they escaped to Turkey where they were arrested. His wife subsequently gave birth in a Turkish prison.In his statement to the court Thomas U said:“I admit that I made a terrible mistake. Waziristan was not what I had been looking for. It was a terrible experience. I was shocked at the lack of hygiene, people were spitting and vomiting. My wife was very unhappy because traditionally women are treated badly.”Back on German soil he has turned his back on radical Islam and his wife is now allowed to flout the severe Islamic dress code. He is relieved that the couple are once again allowed to hold hands in public.

ISLAMABAD: Director General Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Anwar Warak, Wednesday said that FIA did not have the mandate to arrest (retired) generals convicted by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in Asghar Khan case, Geo News reported.

“We can only lay our hands on politicians, apprehending generals was beyond our authority” said he.

He said this while talking to Geo News correspondent Aizaz Saeed in an exclusive interview.

To a question, he said he was not in a position to say anything regarding the lodging of a case right now.

“Giving a comment on the registration of a case with reference to Asghar Khan case would be premature at this point”, said FIA chief.

The Sindh High Court chief justice late on Thursday revoked a ban on riding motorcycles in Karachi just hours after Interior Minister Rehman Malik announced that the government was banning motorcycles in Karachi and Quetta for one day (today) in view of “serious security threats” on the first day of the Shia holy month of Muharram.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik told a press conference on Thursday evening that motorbikes would not be allowed on roads from 6am to 7pm in Karachi and Quetta today, adding that no one would be exempted.

Malik said his ministry had received information that motorcycles would be used in terrorist attacks.

“The decision to keep bikers off the road has come on the heels of intelligence reports that terrorists are hatching plans to carry out attacks using motorcycles,” Malik said.

Malik also said the government was considering shutting down mobile phone services in Karachi and Quetta. “A decision to this effect will be made on Friday morning,” he added.

Moreover, markets in both cities had also been directed to conduct business only between from 10am to 5pm on Friday (today). “No market in both cities will be allowed to open before 10am and after 5pm,” he said.

However, a few hours later the Sindh High Court Bar Association moved an application before the SHC CJ, asking the top judge of the province to annul the order as it is in violation of the basic rights of citizens.

The CJ admitted the application and ordered the interior secretary, advocate general and the provincial police chief to appear in court at 11am today.

Rehman Malik has come under severe criticism for ordering suspension of mobile phone services across the country “for security reasons” on more than one occasion. Cellular services were first suspended on Eidul Fitr and then on Eidul Azha, prompting protests from citizens and cellular companies.

Critics say that the interior minister is coming up with such unprecedented measures to conceal his inefficiency and incompetence, as instead of cracking down on terrorist networks, the Interior Ministry and its subordinate agencies are resorting to infringing the rights of citizens.

With the unveiling of China’s new leadership, observers and journalists the world over are all contemplating the same question: Will the new group at the top of the Communist Party be able to engineer the reforms needed to tackle the plethora of challenges afflicting virtually every realm of policy and governance — domestic and international — in China?

The answer, unfortunately, is no. Those inside and outside of China anticipating a return to an ambitious reformist agenda that will further open and decentralize the economy; liberalize the polity; reduce social inequities and tackle pervasive corruption; and rectify strains in China’s relations with its neighbors in Asia, the European Union and the United States will be disappointed. China is in dire need of visionary and strong leadership — the complex challenges facing the nation have grown more acute during Hu Jintao’s presidency — but don’t expect it from the new team in Beijing.

First, the new leadership is not cohesive, and bureaucracies love leadership vacuums. The new Politburo and Standing Committee show many signs of continuing divisions over policy orientations and factional allegiances. While more potential reformers are discernible in the new group, they are likely to continue to be checked by an entrenched bloc of party conservatives and retired elders. Beijing’s political gridlock is similar to Washington’s, and Xi Jinping’s mandate for change is about as narrow as President Obama’s. In short, a “team of rivals” is not likely to produce forward movement in the Chinese Politburo.

The lack of consensus at the top has been the case for at least five years. All that the Chinese party-state has shown itself capable of is a combination of muddling through, hollow policy slogans (unfunded mandates) and money thrown at problem-plagued sectors (hoping that investment will produce return). But China’s key challenges — social inequity, environmental damage, rigidities of the educational system, lack of innovation, depressed consumer consumption, the demographics of aging and unbalanced sex ratios, labor mobility, lack of transparency and accountability, ineffective rule of law, poor provision of public goods, and weak “soft power” abroad — are all qualitative issues that do not lend themselves to state investment such as building high-speed rail or harbors.

Another obstacle is institutional. While leaders matter in the Chinese system, institutional interests count for far more. China may not be a democracy, but it has strong bureaucratic and interest-group politics. For the past five years real reform has been blunted by the “Iron Quadrangle”: mammoth state-owned enterprises, the internal security apparatus, the military and the conservative wing of the Communist Party. The coalition of these four power interest groups “captured” Hu, who was too weak and disinclined to stand up to them, and they stalled reforms.

This is the political landscape that Xi and the new Chinese leadership inherit. For his part, Xi, like Hu, remains a cipher: We do not know whether he is a closet reformer, a real reformer or another apparatchik-technocrat. His background suggests the last. At least he smiles and has a warmer public persona than the wooden Hu. Nonetheless, Xi & Co. will be trapped by these and other powerful vested interests that strangled the would-be reforms of Hu’s more progressive advisers and the acolytes of his predecessor, Jiang Zemin.

To break the Iron Quadrangle and launch the much-needed new reforms will require enormous vision and willpower on Xi’s part, an investment of huge institutional resources to buy them off, and time. It will be at least two years before Xi can consolidate his power and be in a position to tackle the powerful vested interests that run China today. And it is not clear that he is even so inclined.

Thus, when anticipating China’s future after the 18th Party Congress and the potential for reform under Xi Jinping, expect more of the same: authoritarian stagnation and gridlock at home, with increased abrasiveness abroad.

MANDI BAHAUDDIN: President Asif Ali Zardari has said that he has delegated his powers to parliament and every power is now bowing before the democratic institutions.

Addressing an ‘Eid Milan’ gathering here on Wednesday afternoon, the president said all the institutions are now accepting the supremacy of parliament but it still needs some more time to strengthen its roots.

He said that democracy was the only way to take the country forward towards progress and prosperity. He urged all political parties to work for strengthening of democracy, so it would make the country strong.

The president said the next general election would be held on time in a transparent way, and an independent Election Commission of Pakistan would not let anyone to play any dirty game.

The president said all the necessary measures had been adopted, including preparation of genuine voters’ lists, to hold elections in a free and fair manner. He said it was his pledge to the political parties to make this happen this in letter and spirit.

Zardari said democracy in the country still had some shortcomings and stressed that there was a need to rectify the problems with a collective political vision. He invited the political forces across the country to sit with the government at a discussion platform and give their input on policies for the betterment of people. The would complete its tenure.

He said that politics of PPP was based on reconciliation. He said that he would now sit and stay in Lahore.Referring to violence in Karachi, he said that there was no State failure in the port city. “The elements, which are being crushed in war on terror, are creating law and order problems but we’ll continue their chase”, he said.

The president said law and order situation in Karachi was being deliberately created to divert attention from war against terror. President Asif said the same elements attacked Malala Yousafzai.

The president delivered the first half of his speech in Punjabi. He said “Garhi Khuda Bukhsh will be our last destination”.

Federal ministers Nazar M Gondal, Qamar Zaman Kaira Firdous Ashiq Awan, Ahmad Mukhtar, Manzoor Wattoo, Jehangir Badr, MPA Tanvir Kaira, MNA Tariq Tarrar, Nadeem Afzal Chan were also present on the occasion.

Agency adds: Referring to Pakistan Muslim League leader Mian Nawaz Sharif, the president said though the PML-N had now parted ways with the PPP, it did not mean that the two had become enemies, and that the politics should not be turned into animosity. He said “politics demands to remain steadfast in strengthening democracy”.

President Asif Zardari said that he had delegated his powers to the Parliament which was unprecedented in the country’s history. He said history would prove that the decision was correct. He said that if the country sinks everything else would also go down with it.

He said history has turned in support of the PPP and mentioned that the verdict of Supreme Court in Asghar Khan case also proved that Benazir Bhutto had rightly pointed that the “results of general election were snatched from her”.

He said after Mohtarma’s death, he had pledged to take the party forward.

President Asif Zardari said he had the desire that every child in the country enjoy his rights with equality.“I want that the child of the poor enjoys the same rights as the child of an industrialist,” he said.

The president said his earlier plan to meet the people of Mandi Bahauddin soon after Eid could not be materialised due to unavoidable reasons. He wished the gathering a Happy Eid Mubarak and said they had the every reason to be happy for the development programme he announced for their area.

President Zardari launched development projects worth Rs3.609 billion for the districts, Mandi Bahauddin and Sargodha.The president launched gas projects for Mandi Bahauddin and Sargodha and adjoining areas for Rs1.433 billion and Rs1.469 billion respectively.

He announced a road project worth Rs209 million between Chan Chowk to Roza bridge and another worth Rs174 million in Mandi Bahauddin.The president also announced Rs324 million for the project of Victoria Bridge over the River Jhelum.

DUBAI: Al Qaeda’s leader has rejected the notion of nation states and any United Nations role in arbitrating solutions to conflict – long the pillars of international order – in a document outlining how Muslims should run their affairs.

The statement by Ayman al-Zawahri, entitled “Supporting Islam” and posted by the jihadi militants’ publishing arm on a website, also calls for the re-establishment of the medieval Islamic Caliphate to unite Muslims.

While the document’s proposals resembled the teachings of Osama bin Laden, the late founder of the Islamist militant group, Zawahri appeared intent on providing his own views on how Muslims should shape their public life.

He urged Muslims to use sharia to resolve disputes and “refuse judgment by any other principles, beliefs and laws”, including the United Nations.

The world body, he said, was controlled by the five permanent members of its Security Council – big powers the United States, China, Russia, Britain and France.

Zawahri called on Muslims to work to set up a caliphate that “does not recognise nation state, national links or the borders imposed by the occupiers, but establishes a rightly guided caliphate following in the footsteps of the Prophet Mohammad.

“These are the objectives of the Document of Supporting Islam, and we call on all those who believe in them to call for them, support them and try to spread them in every way possible among the people of the nation,” he said.

The caliphate was a political institution founded after the seventh-century death of the Prophet Mohammad that administered vast empires formed after the Arab conquests of the Middle East, North Africa, Iberia and western Asia.

Al Qaeda has waged war on unpopular Arab dynasties and their Western supporters over the past decade, with militants carrying out suicide and ambush attacks on government installations and leaders and others they brand as “infidels” and “crusaders”.

But Arab Spring popular uprisings have left al Qaeda on the sidelines, looking increasingly irrelevant.

Largely peaceful mass revolts led mainly by secular and mainstream religious protesters have forced out dictators in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Yemen, and an armed insurgency rages on in Syria.

Zawahri also urged Muslims to work together to liberate what he called Muslim lands from occupiers, rejecting any deal that gives what he called infidels the right to control Muslim lands – an apparent reference to Egypt’s 1979 peace deal with Israel.

He said these included what he referred to as British Mandate Palestine – the present day Israel and the Palestinian territories as well as Russia’s Chechnya and other parts of the Caucasus region, Indian-controlled Kashmir, the Spanish-ruled North African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla claimed by Morocco, and East Turkistan in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region.

The authenticity of the statement could not be verified. But it was posted on a website that has often released statements by Zawahri since he took over after bin Laden was killed by US commandos in a raid on his Pakistan hideout last year.

USIP Report by Human Yusuf
Spearhead Research

A very comprehensive report on the situation in Karachi which is the economic heart of Pakistan. The main contributors to violence in Karachi have been identified as the parties within the ruling alliance along with Sunni Tehreek, Sindhi nationalists and influx of Taliban. The Government has not and does not seem to have the will to solve the problem which goes on aggravating and may go beyond even a military action if remedial measures are not initiated. The police remains politicized and the only focus is on next elections while Karachi burns. Modern day Neros? The Sindh Government is paralyzed with an aged Chief Minister while some other personalities within the ruling party keep calling shots. Unfortunately the Government is allowing situation to worsen with each passing day. It has become impossible for any business to work and traders are virtually in revolt. Pakistan is becoming ungovernable and Karachi may become the trigger for a bloody uprising. Please read this report from end to end and give a thought to the future of our homeland.

Summary

││ Violence in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, is multifaceted. Different types of violence-including ethnopolitical, militant, sectarian, and criminal-have claimed more than 7,000 lives since 2008.

││ Violence in Karachi threatens to destabilize Pakistan for both economic and political reasons. The city contributes more than 25 percent of gross domestic product, and disruptions in urban economic activities necessarily affect the national economy. Moreover, the ethnically diverse city is a battleground for major political parties and thus key to domestic political stability.

││ The armed wings of major political parties, including the MQM, PPP, and ANP, are the main perpetrators of urban violence. The parties clash over city resources and funds generated through extortion.

││ Historically, Karachi’s ethnopolitical violence has pitted Urdu-speaking mohajirs (migrants) of the MQM against Pashtuns represented by the ANP. But clashes between the rural, Sindh-based PPP and Karachi-centric MQM are increasing as part of a broader power struggle between the city- and provincial-level governments.

││ Militant groups, including the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and extremist sectarian organizations, have consolidated their presence in the city. In addition to drawing new recruits and generating funds through criminal activities, militants increasingly attack state and security targets in Karachi.

││ State initiatives to stem violence are superficial and ad hoc, and routinely fail to address the underlying causes of Karachi’s violence, including poor urban planning, politicization of the police, proliferating seminary networks, and a flawed criminal justice system.

││ High-level interventions by the Pakistan Army and Supreme Court have helped temporarily disrupt cycles of violence but do not offer sustainable solutions to Karachi’s violent politics.

││ The key to Karachi’s stability is a representative power-sharing agreement among the major political parties that reflects the city’s evolving demographics. However, the delay in conducting a transparent census and the failure to establish an uninterruptible platform for political negotiations continue to fuel violence.