Showing posts with label NATO Supply. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NATO Supply. Show all posts

Few questions for Imran Khan

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PTI THUSS | BBC tells the story

FIR filed against PTI and JI Terrorism


PTI’s sit-ins have absolutely nothing to do with the blocking of Nato supply


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To be certain, the PTI’s sit-ins have absolutely nothing to do with the blocking of Nato supply because sit-ins are not required to block NATO supply routes (all that is required is a police constable to do the job). To be sure, the PTI’s sit-ins have absolutely nothing to do with drone attacks. History is witness that in 2011 we had shut down the supply routes for seven months but there were a total of 73 drone attacks that year – th 2nd highest on record.

What then is the circus about? In the simplest of terms it is downright dirty politics. It is an attempt to maintain or build a vote bank by exploiting voter sentiments. In more complex political terminology it is called ‘constituency control’. In political history this is referred to as the ‘practice of creating and maintaining vote-banks through divisive policies encouraging voters to vote on the basis’ of negative sentiments rather than community or national interests. Or the Pakistani coinage, ‘ghairat politics’.

Generally, there are two types of politics: politics of delivery and politics of deception. Generally, politicians who fail to deliver then adopt politics of deception (in order to maintain their vote bank).

The PTI’s election manifesto had 10,160 words. The word ‘corruption’ appears 7 times, ‘law’ 31 times, ‘reform’ 19 times and ‘accountability’ 9 times. There was also a specific pledge to de-weaponise. On February 24, the PTI organised a seminar titled ‘Energy: From crisis to solutions’. Speaking on the occasion, the PTI chairman committed to “end corruption in 19 days and terrorism in 90 days.”

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s real issues are a deteriorating law and order situation, a battered infrastructure, worsening unemployment and a failing social services delivery mechanism. Is there any link between the supply route and any of these real issues?

Has there been a cost-benefit analysis of the sit-ins? For the record, the GLOC Agreement (Ground Lines of Communication) earns Pakistan $1,500 per container for around a million dollars a day; Coalition Support Funds are about $3 million a day and Kerry-Lugar funds are $4 million a day. That’s a total of Rs1 billion a day every day of the year. 

Plus, our exports to the EU stand at $6 billion a year. Plus, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Rs118 billion developmental budget has a Rs35 billion grant component from Nato countries. Plus, $500 million from USAID makes Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the largest of the four provincial recipients. Then there’s Security Council’s Resolution 1386 under which Pakistan is under international obligations to provide logistic support.

The PTI’s circus is going to divert Pak-Afghan transit trade to Iran’s Port of Chahbhar. The PTI’s circus has strategic losses, credibility losses and financial losses. The PTI’s sit-ins are all about maintaining a vote bank – maintenance at the cost of national interests. The PTI’s sit-ins are all about cheap politics. The PTI’s sit-ins are all about petty politics – party interests at the risk of international isolation.

The PTI may complain that the media turns its sit-ins into a circus. As a matter of fact, the circus was already there; the media is merely demonstrating that the performers are bent upon making Pakistan a laughing stock around the world.

The writer is a columnist based in Islamabad. Email: farrukh15@hotmail.com 

Twitter: @saleemfarrukh
http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-9-217476-The-sit-in

PTI ki do numbriaan

Terrorism of PTI workers in KPK.

 

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FIR against Imran Khan the TTP Political head.


#PTI ki chussain

Dual standards of #PTI are a curse to the poor people

 
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KP’s real issues succumb to #PTI 's populist approach




PESHAWAR, Nov 24: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf has not yet come out of its pre-election populist approach and as a result Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s pressing socio-economic issues have suffered oversight by the provincial ruling coalition, according to political analysts.
Political scientists and activists, when contacted separately, said that PTI’s extreme position over a foreign policy issue had pushed to oblivion Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s actual issues, including rising unemployment, deteriorating law and order situation, growing price hike, dilapidated infrastructure, and failing social services delivery system.
“Pakistan’s politics has always been issue based and political parties always try to make gains, and as a result real issues mostly go unnoticed,” said Dr AZ Hilali, chairman of the Department of Political Science, University of Peshawar. He said no one ever talked about unemployment, crimes, and socio-economic problems. PTI was not any different than others, he added.
“I have sympathies with Imran Khan, but his approach is benefiting a particular social class at the cost of people belonging to low income groups,” said the academician.
Aren’t American drone strikes and Nato supplies real issues of the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa? Addressing his party’s protest demonstration at Peshawar on Saturday, PTI chief Imran Khan said peace could not be restored in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa without stopping American drone strikes. He said 70 per cent industrial units in the province were non-functional because of the security crisis resulted by drone strikes.
Many think Mr Khan’s attempt to link the closure of industrial units with drone strikes is factually incorrect. The province has been struggling with a large number of sick industrial units since early 1990s after the federal government withdrew industrial incentive packages, rendering closure of units in Gadoon Amazai industrial estate.
Dr Ijaz Khan Khattak, a faculty member of the International Relations Department, UoP, does not agree with the PTI’s position on drone attacks.
“There does not seem to have gone some real thinking behind PTI’s slogans and its populist approach,” said Dr Khattak, adding “slogans do carry strong imprints, but compromises cannot be concealed.”
PTI, he said, had realised that it was not easy for its provincial coalition government to deliver, as the province had peculiar issues and little resource base.
The party, he said, knew well that Nato supplies and drone strikes were international issues that did not come under the domain of the provincial government. “PTI knows disrupting Nato supplies involves implications; Pakistan is legally bound to ensure the supplies to Afghanistan,” said the academician.
He said the party had come into power on slogans of ending corruption, improving social services, and restoring peace. “Perhaps, they have realised that they have not been able to deliver on any of the front so they have taken extreme positions on issues that do not come under the purview of a provincial government,” said Dr Khattak.
The Awami National Party, too, holds the opinion that PTI has lost the sense of direction, failing to overcome governance issues in the province.
“This is petty politics,” said Bushra Gohar, ANP’s ex-MPA. She said: “Governance has not been their strong point, the promises they made in the elections remain unfulfilled, and instead of getting serious about actual things they are holding music shows in the name of protest demos.”
She said PTI should tell the nation why did not provincial police cordon off the American drone strike scene in Hangu, who removed the bodies from the scene, and why had not the local police registered a case against the US ambassador to Islamabad after the Hangu drone strike?
Instead of blocking trade route that would create problems for people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, she said, the PTI should strive to change the country’s Afghan policy. “If they are sincere to what they are saying then they should hold a KP’s real issues succumb to PTI’s populist approach sit-in in front of the General Headquarters to press for changing the country’s policy,” said Ms Gohar.
She has reasons to believe that the PTI-led government was lacking in ensuring good governance.
She said the provincial government had not produced a fact-finding report about the Dera Ismail Khan jailbreak incident. Its two members of the provincial assembly, she added, were killed in terrorist attacks and the government had not produced any report about their killing as well. The provincial police, she said, could not go near to the Hangu drone strike site either. “They are trying to divert people’s attention,” said Ms Gohar.
Dr Hilali said PTI’s position had grave implications and political repercussions for the province in particular and the country in general. He said PTI’s stand against drone strikes was an old demand by Taliban. PTI, he added, had reconciled with the militants’ position.
“It is legitimising Taliban’s stand,” he said. “TTP chief and a killer of thousands of Pakistanis, Hakimullah, is being regarded as a martyr and those who lost lives to protect this country their sacrifices are being brought under question, this is hooliganism,” said Dr Hilali.
He said PTI and its allies were silent about the Kashmir issue and they had also ignored Pakistan’s demand for transferring the drone technology.
According to Dr Khattak, PTI is risking to slip to the right extreme position. “In view of the increasing political polarisation in Pakistan, PTI is pushing itself to the extreme right where it is likely to replace Jamaat-i-Islami,” said Dr Khattak.

http://dawn.com/news/1058450

The Political rogues of TTP - Its the #PTI

PTI activists search trucks for Nato supplies

PESHAWAR: Club-wielding activists from Imran Khan's political party forcibly searched trucks for Nato supplies in northwest Pakistan on Sunday in protest at deadly US drone strikes.
Around 100 workers from the former cricket star's Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf (PTI) party set up checkpoints in the northwestern city of Peshawar on a main road leading to Afghanistan.
They stopped trucks and hauled drivers from their cabs to check their paperwork, following a call by Khan at a rally on Saturday to block supplies to Nato forces in Afghanistan in protest at the drone attacks.
The activists, carrying the PTI's green and red flag, broke open truck containers to check their contents, an AFP reporter at the scene said.
The PTI heads the government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, of which Peshawar is the capital. But authority for the highways lies with the federal government, which has so far made no move to block Nato supplies.
Muhammad Faisal, a senior police official, said the PTI activists' actions were illegal but he was powerless to act.
“The protesters are doing unlawful acts by checking documents and screening goods, they don't have authority,” he told AFP.
“But we can't take action against them because we have no instructions from the government. If the government orders us, we will stop this illegal activity.”
PTI activist Asghar Khalil told AFP they were heeding their leader's call to action and would not stop until Washington promised to end drone strikes.
Khan has long opposed the US campaign of drone attacks targeting Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants in Pakistan's tribal areas.
He has intensified his rhetoric since a US drone strike killed Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud on November 1.
Khan says that attack was a deliberate attempt by Washington to sabotage efforts towards peace talks with the militants, who have killed thousands in a six-year campaign of violence.
“They are doing unlawful acts. They broke the sealing of my container and forcibly examined the goods,” Faiz Muhammad Khan, a truck driver transporting sanitary items to Afghanistan, told AFP.
“If they want to block supplies for Nato forces, they should stop it in Karachi or at the border.”
Later in the day, one of Khan's allies, the right wing Jamaat-i-Islami party, led thousands in a protest against drone attacks and the Nato supply line in the southern port city of Karachi, where the shipments originate.
Pakistan is a key transit route for the US-led mission in landlocked Afghanistan, particularly as Nato forces prepare to withdraw by the end of next year.
Nato supplies were suspended on Saturday because of a major PTI rally, which was held on the route used by the trucks.
The drone strikes are deeply unpopular in Pakistan. Islamabad publicly condemns them as counter-productive and a violation of sovereignty, although previous governments have given their tacit support to them.
The US regards the strikes as a highly effective tool in the fight against militancy.

 http://dawn.com/news/1058267

PTI - The NON STATE actors

Blocking NATO routes: K-P police register cases against 40 PTI workers



PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) police registered cases against 40 workers of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for manhandling trucks going through Nato supply routes, Express News reported on Monday.
On November 24, PTI supporters – as a protest against US drone campaign – had blocked Nato supply routes leading to Afghanistan.
PTI workers had staged a sit-in on the Ring Road near Chamkani where they checked hundreds of container.
In their quest to distinguish Nato trucks from regular cargo carriers, workers had broken the seals of dozens of containers for the inspection of goods and had brawls with the drivers in the process.
Protests
The call for a sit-in was earlier made by PTI chief Imran Khan, after his governing party in K-P passed a unanimous resolution against drones and set November 20 as the date of a rally.
In Nowshera, around 150 PTI activists led by K-P Assembly member Idrees Khan set up a protest camp near Khairabad Bridge where participants chanted anti-US and anti-Nato slogans.
A number of PTI activists in Kohat also staged a sit in at the Jarma Chowk on the Indus Highway to halt Nato supply trucks passing through the area.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/636730/blocking-nato-routes-kp-police-register-cases-against-40-pti-members/

Blocking NATO supplies: TTP tips hat to Imran Khan

Blocking NATO supplies: TTP tips hat to Imran Khan

DERA ISMAIL KHAN:  The announcement by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan to block Nato supplies in protest against drone attacks is an appreciable step, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesperson said on Friday.
“Imran Khan has taken a welcome step,” TTP central spokesperson Shahidullah Shahid said while talking to reporters from an undisclosed location.
“No there is no question of ceasefire,” he said responding to a query regarding any chance of respite for peace.
“We are being attacked in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa where we are fighting a defensive war, so we will continue to hit the area from where we are targeted,” Shahid said.
But one thing is clear, Shahid said, “We are exacting revenge from security forces and not the public.”
Here he specified that the public did not include the ANP, PPP and MQM, the three leading secular parties of Pakistan that the Taliban will never pardon.
He said there was no question of dialogue with the government after the killing of Hakimullah Mehsud. “However, peace dialogue is possible if the TTP Shura and Mullah Fazullah decide.”
The way Nawaz Sharif is begging the US to stop drone strikes shows the lack of power of the government, Shahid said adding even a simple tribesman can ask the US to stop drone attacks.
Referring to Jamaat-e-Islami chief Munawwar Hassan’s statement that Hakimullah Mesud is a martyr, Shahid said, “Hassan has rightly conveyed the feelings of the Muslims.”
Regarding the slain TTP chief, Shahid was adamant on revenge. “We know the killers of Mehsud. We will track them down,” Shahid said concluding, “Hakimullah would be avenged like Sheikh Osama and this is not just a threat.”
Published in The Express Tribune, November 23rd, 2013.

Despite threats, KP still main beneficiary of US dollars

Despite threats, KP still main beneficiary of US dollars


ISLAMABAD: Political rhetoric and threats to block Nato supplies through the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) apart, the USAID (US Agency for International Development) is completing a number of development projects worth over $500 million in the KP. This number is more than USAID has sponsored anywhere in Pakistan, credible figures show.

On Monday, the KP Assembly passed a unanimous resolution calling for blockade of Nato supplies in the province to protest the November 1 killing of outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) chief Hakimullah Mehsud when a delegation of mutually acceptable religious leaders was to hold preliminary peace talks with the militants’ representatives. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has threatened to stop the Nato supplies on November 20 if the Nawaz Sharif government did not succeed in getting drone attacks halted by then.

However, neither the provincial assembly nor the PTI chief has talked about scrapping of the USAID funded projects in the KP, which are being executed with the cooperation and involvement of the provincial government.

While the KP and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) are the focus of such spending for obvious reasons, the Punjab government has been tactfully but politely averting the launch of USAID funded schemes in its province, an informed official told The News.

Some of the projects in the KP were started in 2007 while others in 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2013. They have varying periods of three to four, five and eight years for completion. The funding is part of the allocations under the Kerry-Lugar Bill, which was once seen as a sell-out by the previous federal government.

Some of the following projects are national programmes while others are confined to the KP alone. These include Pakistan Transition Initiative $102m; KP Reconstruction Programme $82m; Conflict Victims Support Programme $2.5m; Entrepreneur $1.8m; Firms 5.25m; Gomal Zam Irrigation Project $80m; Agriculture Policy Project $10m; Agribusiness Project $45m; Agricultural Innovation Project $30m; Power Distribution Programme $170m; Merits and Needs Based Scholarships $7m; Teacher Education Project $37m; The Deliver Project $100m; Fata-KP Health Programme $26m; Civil Society Support Programme $25m; Assessment & Strengthening Programme $19.5m; Water & Sanitation Programme $15m; and Municipal Services Programme $87.46m.

All these projects amount to $868m. Of this funding, more than $500m are being spent in the KP.The Pakistan Transition Initiative (2007-2015) is aimed at strengthening relations between government bodies and Fata communities through short-term, quick-impact projects. It engages villagers with the local authorities to identify and realise small-scale projects, such as paving streets and improving drinking water supply systems. It also enhances income generation opportunities through activities such as agricultural training for farmers and home-based skills training for women.

Under the Conflict Victims Support Programme, in-kind assistance is provided in the form of short-term relief, small business support and vocational training to civilian victims of the ongoing conflict in the Fata. The project improves the capacity of health facilities to respond to trauma victims.

The Agribusiness Project is intended to increase incomes and create additional employment opportunities in agriculture by introducing innovative technologies and building the capacity of farmers and processors in the Fata to improve production of various crops particularly higher value fruit and vegetable crops.

It is stated that the Fata is inhabited by 3.17 million people belonging to various Pashtun tribes. It is the most underprivileged and underdeveloped part of Pakistan with the lowest literacy rate, (17.4% overall/3% of women), the highest rate of child morality under 5 years old (135 deaths per 1,000 live births) and the lowest per capita income ($250 per year). Exacerbating these development challenges is the conflict and violent opposition to the state authority that the area has endured for more than a decade in the post 9/11 episode.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-2-212708-Despite-threats-KP-still-main-beneficiary-of-US-dollars

Saleem SAFI bashing the ANTYI DRONE STAGE DRAMA of IMRAN KHAN

Nato kay paison ki dallali per moon kala kernay walay KPK k hukmaraan

Politics as usual: PTI vs. MQM

Politics as usual: PTI vs. MQM


Imran Khan has turned out to be the biggest disappointment in Pakistani politics. He is playing the same old politics that we expect from PPP and PMLN. “If you can’t perform then create diversion”; style politics has been practising in Pakistan which Khan has also adopted after election. It is apparent that KPK government has completely failed in controlling the law and order situation in the province. Shooting down the drones, stopping NATO supply, corruption less system in 90 days and change in police culture were some promises by Khan, are proving to be not more than election rhetoric.  Another hype Khan created in the media two year ago was distribution of party ticket to new faces. Now when election is over, PTI has been surrounded by scandals like fake degree of Ayla Malik which was exposed by another PTI member InamUllah Niazi and conflict between CM of KP and Khan on many issues.


If we go back to the previous government and analyse how PPP diverted the media and people from their bad governance then we don’t see the much difference between PPP and PTI strategy. It was not too long ago when Zulfiqar Mirza of PPP was selected to create the diversion of Public through press conferences against MQM. Zulfiqar Mirza alleged Altaf Hussain with killings in Karachi and 12th May incident and also went to London with suitcase full of so called evidences. Now Khan is practising the same style of politics by accusing MQM chief of killing a PTI senior member Zehra Shahid and violence in Karachi.


Khan was considered a different politician among all but unfortunately he showed lack of interest towards national issues like terrorism by leaving to the country and going to London and ignoring the importance of APC announced by government for countering the terrorism.


Khan has always talked about seeing a better Pakistan with corruption free society, now got first ever chance to perform in the political structure of Pakistan. Luckily, he turned out to be a bigger  force in the parliament in terms of seats, but in his very first speech he made his own vote bank questionable by calling these election “the most rigged in the history of Pakistan”.


Since PTI has formed government in KP, the party has lost two MPAs and many citizens in terrorist attacks and province has been hit by many bomb attacks, which mostly claimed by TTP. The fragile condition of KP was asking Khan to take APC seriously and come up with the strong solutions for the people of that only province who voted for him the first time. Not only in KP but in Karachi, TTP has owned many attacks on political workers, citizens, sectarian killings and bombings, but Khan never condemned them instead asked them to hold on their activities tillMay11th in one of his pre-election speech.


According to reports, Khan never paid visit to Zahra’s family for condolence.  In fact Zahra was among very few members of PTI who were working for the party for 17 year but recently was sidelined by some new members. She wasn’t happy with the local and Sind leadership of the party and not too long ago Fauzia kasuri accepted the internal rift between Zehra shahid and PTI’s Sind leadership on media. All the above mentioned should be investigated by competent investigation team to bring perpetrators to justice.


The question is that then why Khan is clamoring Zehra Shahid’s murder and not the two PTI MPAs killed by terrorists in KP? The reality is that Khan’s party is no different than those parties who have been failed in implementing their tall claims and promises in the province.  People’s expectations from Khan were higher than other parties who are ruling other provinces like PPP and PMLN as both of them have been tested many times unlike Khan. Now Supreme Court has ordered to hold local body election by September, if these provincial governments won’t perform then why would people come out to vote them again.

Therefore, keeping the media and people distracted from the real issues by selling baseless allegation on MQM is the easiest way of hiding own failure. We have seen zulfiqar Mirza played the shameful game in 2011 and now Khan is doing the same. Whose agenda is he playing by distracting media from real issues or is he playing friendly opposition like PMLN did in last tenure?

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