Comment by Riaz Haq on October 30, 2012 at 8:39am

Here's a Telegraph newspaper report on Pak politicians visiting Malala:

Critics at home fear her high profile has turned her into a political photo opportunity for politicians with an eye on elections next year, at a time when she needs rest and a chance to recover.

Malala arrived at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham just over a fortnight ago after being shot in the head at close range and doctors are pleased with the progress she is making.

Last week, Islamabad's Minister for Overseas Pakistanis, Farooq Sattar, visited the hospital. Since then visitors have included Aseefa Bhutto Zardari, the daughter of Benazir Bhutto, Mian Iftikhar Hussein, information minister for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Haider Ali, a politician from Swat, Malala's home area.

On Monday it was the turn of Rehman Malik, Pakistan's Interior Minister, who visited the hospital along with William Hague and a minister from the United Arab Emirates.

None was able to meet Malala but were briefed by medical staff and spent time with her family instead.

Sana Saleem, a well-known blogger and campaigner for women's rights, said the government of Pakistan had played its part in helping Malala but should now let her recover in peace.

"There's no need for ministers going to see her now," she said. "The government has supported her and taken her to Britain, but this is not going to help now."

Cyril Almeida, a columnist with the Dawn newspaper, said Pakistan had a culture of politicians sharing in public grief and they would be expected to be seen at the hospital.

But he added that it was poor substitute for helping protect Malala, tackling the Taliban or safeguarding girls' education.

"It's a great photo op which most of them can't resist - especially the second-tier politicians - but when it actually comes to doing something meaningful... let's see what happens," he said.

The 15-year-old has made an impressive recovery after being shot at close range three weeks ago by a Taliban gunman.

However, she still faces surgery to repair the damage done to her skull and a long road to recovery.

Her strong stance in standing up to the Pakistan Taliban - writing a blog about their brutality and later campaigning for girls education - has meant a flood of wellwishers, gifts and messages arriving at Queen Elizabeth Hospita.

A spokeswoman said only immediately family members were allowed to visit Malala for limited amounts of time and other requests were being refused.

"It's an easy thing to tell them because it's based on a medical facts and it's in the best interests of the patient," she said.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/9642745/Pak...

Comment by Riaz Haq on October 30, 2012 at 10:21pm

500 ANP workers and leaders have so far been killed by the TTP, according to Central Asia Online:

Amid Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) threats, Karachi Pashtun supporters of the Awami National Party (ANP) remain committed to supporting their party, fighting militants and pursuing a more democratic society.

“The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (is) destabilising the democracy and targeting the pro-democracy parties in the country,” ANP Sindh Provincial Secretary Bashir Jan told Central Asia Online July 25.

The Taliban have killed more than 500 ANP leaders and workers in recent years because the party has been part of the democratic government. By threatening party members, the TTP hopes to weaken the democratic process, officials said.

“In Karachi, the TTP has conveyed a threat to our supporters (telling) them to quit the party; otherwise, they (the militants) would teach the workers a bitter lesson for supporting the ANP,” he said.

This latest militant ultimatum largely targets Karachi Pashtuns, ANP leaders and the TTP confirmed to Central Asia Online July 18.

http://centralasiaonline.com/en_GB/articles/caii/features/pakistan/...

Comment by Riaz Haq on November 2, 2012 at 9:27pm

Here's a ET report on TTP threat issued today against MQM leaders:

PESHAWAR / KARACHI: The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has announced its decision “to liberate Karachi” from the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), adding that “every step would be taken against them.”

In a statement issued on Friday, TTP spokesperson Ehsanullah Ehsan said that the decision has been taken to set the people of Karachi free from the clutches of “these persecutors”.

Furthermore, Ehsan called on the leaders of all nationalist parties, including the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and Sindh Liberation Army, to struggle for their rights in “an Islamic way”.

“Islam protects everyone’s right and you (nationalist parties) are passing through dark ages of oppression and this shackle of suppression has to be broken down,” the statement read.

Earlier, MQM had announced that it would hold a referendum throughout Pakistan, urging people to vote on whether they want to live in a Pakistan run by the Taliban, or the one envisioned by Quaid-e-Azam.

“We want a Pakistan that does not discriminate based on religion but one envisioned by the Quaid-e-Azam. The referendum will go ahead next week,” said MQM leader Faisal Subzwari. However, he declined to comment specifically on the TTP threat aimed at the party.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/460103/warning-taliban-threaten-action-...

Comment by Riaz Haq on November 21, 2012 at 7:50pm

Here's a Globe and Mail story on support for drone attacks in Pakistan:

..do they make Pakistan safer?

The markets of Lahore were thronged with people in the days before Eid al-Adha last month, with families buying clothes for the children and knickknacks for their homes. In Islamabad, there are new cafés and boutiques in every neighbourhood; red-velvet cupcakes are trendy.

Two years ago, when the Taliban were sending suicide bombers into crowded public places in these cities every week or two, the markets and the coffee shops were deserted and people were afraid even to go to mosques.

That terror campaign has been checked – either because the Taliban have changed tactics or, as many analysts here suggest, because the intensified drone campaign has weakened them.

---

Lieutenant-General Talat Masood, who is retired from a top position in the army, has a kinder interpretation. In an interview in his cozy Islamabad living room, he says it is simply unrealistic to think that the Pakistani military, equipped as it is, can fight a fleet-footed insurgency in some of the world’s harshest terrain.
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Given that, the drones do not look so bad: That is the politically incorrect sentiment one hears in private conversations across the political and socio-economic spectrum, in marked contrast to the anti-drone arguments that fill the editorial pages.

Drones are also, some argue, preferable to having the United States deploy soldiers in Pakistan – which the U.S. government would be unlikely to do in any case.

Drones are also better than risking the lives of even more Pakistani soldiers to the near-constant Taliban attacks in the tribal areas, this argument runs.

“A lot of high-profile targets are eliminated, and who would do this job if Americans boots are not on the ground and the Pakistan army won’t?” says Arif Nizami, editor-in-chief of the daily Pakistan Today.

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“Drones are a very hard choice for a pacifist to make,” says Pervez Hoodbhoy, a nuclear scientist turned peace activist who is the best-known advocate for non-violence in Pakistan.

Is it better to kill Islamists than to have them killing people? That’s the debate, he says, burying his face in his hands at the thought of the moral quandary his country faces.

---
Many Pakistanis believe the military actively feeds the drone program intelligence about insurgent activity even today, because it, too, perceives the campaign as more effective than other options, Mr. Nizami says.

The army spokesman’s office declined repeated requests for an interview.

The last person who would ever give up the fight against drones is an erudite lawyer named Shahzad Akbar, who runs an organization called the Foundation for Fundamental Rights in a leafy neighbourhood in the capital, where he works to make heard the voices of victims from the tribal areas.

While he understands that the killings may make someone sitting in Islamabad feel safer, he says, he finds it ethically abhorrent to conclude that drones are a boon to the country.

“The whole burden of proof has been reversed by the U.S. in the public narrative: You are killed in a drone strike in North Waziristan, so you are a militant until you come out of your coffin and say otherwise,” Mr. Akbar says. “We have to have rule of law to have a civilized society. We have to agree that illegal killing is illegal killing – whether the Taliban or the Pakistan army or the U.S. army is doing it.”

He also noted that the drone campaign has been under way since 2004, with no overall decline in attacks.
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Yet Mr. Nizami says he believes that there is considerable support for the drones in many parts of the Taliban-plagued northern region of Khyber Pakthunkwha.

http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/a-taboo-thought-in-pakistan...

Comment by Riaz Haq on January 6, 2013 at 8:58pm

Here's Financial Times on Tahir-ul Qadri's return:

A respected Islamic scholar has burst on to Pakistan’s political scene, threatening to storm the capital with a mass public protest unless his demands for sweeping electoral reforms are met this week.

“I will lead an ocean of people to change Islamabad,” vowed Tahirul Qadri, who last month returned to Pakistan after four years abroad.

To the consternation of many established politicians, including the coalition government of President Asif Ali Zardari and its main opponents, he is calling for comprehensive political reforms before a general election set to be held between March and May.

Mr Qadri, until now considered a minor force in politics as leader of the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) or Pakistan People’s Movement, attracted tens of thousands of people to a political rally in the central city of Lahore on December 23, one of the largest such gatherings in recent memory.

“People who came were not just my supporters,” he told the Financial Times in an interview at his home in Lahore. “Pakistanis are anxious to see major changes in the way their country is being run.”

Mr Qadri draws his support from Pakistanis who are frustrated at the domination of politics by a handful of elite leaders from well-known families and who are embittered by the parlous state of the economy.

Some commentators have compared him to Anna Hazare, the anti-corruption campaigner in neighbouring India, who emerged last year as a voice for middle-class resentment over entrenched corruption and patronage.

Since Mr Qadri’s December gathering, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement – the main political party from the southern city of Karachi, allied to Mr Zardari’s Pakistan People’s party – has decided to join Mr Qadri’s Nizam Badlo, or change the system movement. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf led by Imran Khan, the former cricket star turned politician, is widely expected to join future protests too.

By contrast, leaders from Mr Zardari’s PPP and the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, the two biggest political parties, have united in accusing Mr Qadri of disrupting the build-up to parliamentary elections this year. The polls are being hailed as the first chance for Pakistan to see a smooth transfer of power from one elected government to another since the country was created.
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The US and other western nations are ambivalent about Mr Qadri’s sudden reappearance in Pakistani politics as they seek to restore stability in the region amid a withdrawal of Nato forces from neighbouring Afghanistan. “He brings in an element of unpredictability to future politics, said one western diplomat in Islamabad. “ With others [from mainstream parties] you can predict intentions, but not with Qadri.”

www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/5831b9d6-57eb-11e2-90c6-00144feab49a.html

Comment by Riaz Haq on January 24, 2013 at 9:21am

Here's Fox News on Imran Khan being "confident of sweep in upcoming elections":

Imran Khan, a former Pakistan cricket star turned populist politician, says he's more confident than ever that his party will sweep upcoming national elections and that he will become the country's next leader.

On the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, Khan says he is optimistic the country wants change.

He claims 40 million young Pakistanis will vote for the first time, out of an electorate of 90 million, and that they represent a "big vote for change." The general election is expected in coming months.

Khan accused those wanting to maintaining the status quo of closing ranks, giving huge amounts of money to the media to criticize his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, and conducting a propaganda campaign accusing him of being pro-Taliban.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/01/24/former-pakistan-cricket-sta...

Comment by Riaz Haq on February 4, 2013 at 10:49am

Here's an excerpt from Time magazine on anti-corruption initiative in Pakistan:

(LAHORE, Pakistan) — Corruption is so pervasive in Pakistan that even Osama bin Laden had to pay a bribe to build his hideout in the northwest where he was killed by U.S. commandos.

Ordinary Pakistanis complain they have to grease officials’ palms to get even the most basic things done: File a police report when they have a traffic accident. Obtain copies of court documents. Get permission to see their relatives in the hospital.

Now, an enterprising group of Pakistani officials is cracking down on this culture of graft with an innovative program that harnesses technology to identify corruption hot spots in the country’s most populous province, Punjab.

The initiative, which leverages the ubiquitous presence of cell phones, relies on the simple concept of asking citizens about their experience.

---
The program — run by the Punjab Information Technology Board — uses telephone calls and text messages to get feedback from citizens conducting transactions with a dozen different government departments, including those dealing with property, health and emergency response.

Many of the reported cases of corruption involved low-level property officials known as patwaris, who are notorious for demanding bribes. One man in the city of Multan sent a text message saying he had to pay a patwari about $170 to get his new property registered. Another man in Sheikhpura district reported paying about $15 to a patwari and his assistant and said “they should be removed from their jobs.”

Bin Laden’s courier, who built the al-Qaida chief’s compound in the town of Abbottabad, had to pay roughly a $500 bribe to a patwari to purchase the required land, according to Pakistani intelligence officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
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The low level of corruption reported could be partly driven by citizens’ reluctance to tell government officials the truth, said Michael Callen, an assistant professor of political science at the University of California, Los Angeles, who is conducting research on the program. That could improve as the program becomes more widely known, the anonymity of individuals is protected and more punitive action is taken against corrupt officials, he said.

The initiative’s scale and proactive solicitation of feedback differentiate it from other anti-corruption efforts around the globe, such as the “I Paid a Bribe” website run by an Indian non-profit group. The website and other similar schemes rely on citizens to take the initiative to complain. That can produce fictional accusations made to blackmail honest officials, said Umar Saif, head of the Punjab technology board.

The Punjab government already has used data from the program to pressure officials to clean up their operations.
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While the initiative does not attempt to tackle the millions of dollars thought to be involved in high-level government corruption, it faces significant challenges since much of Pakistan’s political system is based on patronage. Politicians hand out jobs to their supporters in exchange for votes. It’s not the salary or benefits, but the chance to solicit bribes that makes the jobs highly coveted.

http://world.time.com/2013/02/04/pakistan-tries-new-way-of-tackling...

Comment by Riaz Haq on February 9, 2013 at 10:27pm

Here's a Dawn newspaper poll story:

Pakistani voters appear divided on many questions of the day – including who to vote for in the upcoming elections and what issues are most critical for the country at present – according to the Political Barometer, an opinion survey conducted by the Herald in partnership with the Sustainable Development Policy Institue (SDPI), an Islamabad-based think-tank.

Of those respondents who say they have registered for the upcoming elections, 29 per cent expressed an intention to vote for the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). 24.7 per cent pledged support for the Pakistan Muslim League–Nawaz (PMLN) while 20.3 per cent indicated a preference for the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

The survey’s findings indicate that the PTI’s support is derived from all age groups – 22.9 per cent of those between 18 to 35 years, 18.6 per cent of those between 36 to 50 years, 18.4 per cent of those between 51 to 70 years and 7.7 of those above 70 years support the PTI, dispelling the notion that its vote bank is rooted in the younger generation.

The highest proportion of those aged between 36 to 50 years (32.5 per cent) indicate a preference for the PPP. Similarly, 46.2 per cent of those aged over 70 expressed a preference for the PMLN.

Compared with respondents’ voting histories, the PMLN’s vote bank appears to have remained stagnant while the PPP’s seems to have declined significantly.

It appears that the PTI has a stronger urban base, while a higher proportion of rural respondents indicated that they would vote for either the PPP or the PMLN in the upcoming elections

Predictably, the highest level of support for the ruling party was pledged by Sindhis, 55 per cent of whom said that they would vote for the PPP in the impending elections.

This was followed by Seraiki-speakers at 46 per cent.

Forty-four per cent of Hindko-speakers said that they intended to vote for the PMLN, closely followed by Punjabis at 43 per cent.

The same proportion of Hindko-speakers – 44 per cent – also expressed an intention to vote for the PTI, indicating a close contest between the two parties (PMLN and PTI) within that particular demographic.

It is worth noting that while 34 per cent of Pakhtuns stated that they would vote for PTI, only 11 per cent expressed the same vis a vis the Awami National Party (ANP).

47 per cent of Baloch said that they would vote for the Balochistan National Party–Mengal.

On average, approximately a third of those earning up to 30,000 rupees each month indicated a preference for the PPP whereas, among those earning more than 30,000 rupees, support for the party dropped to 10.8 percent.

This is in keeping with the party’s traditional pro-poor image.

No such trend could be determined for the PMLN, whose level of support remained similar across all income levels.

Those earning in excess of 250,000 rupees each month (the highest identified income bracket in the survey) expressed the maximum intention to vote for either the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) or the PTI, at 33 per cent each.

While this figure may appear anomalistic in the MQM’s case – support for the party within the second highest income bracket (those earning between 100,000 and 250,000 rupees each month) was only four per cent – it was possible to identify a rough direct trend between level of income and support for the PTI.

In general, it appeared that support for smaller parties declined with increasing levels of income.....

http://dawn.com/2013/02/09/elections-2013-survey-indicates-close-co...

Comment by Riaz Haq on March 7, 2013 at 10:06pm

Here's an ET story on a German poll results in Pakistan:

ISLAMABAD: A survey done by a German company has said that the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) will continue to lead at the ballot box at the next elections.

The survey by Heinrich Boll Stiftung showed that 29 per cent of the people surveyed would support the PPP, the highest number for any political party surveyed by the company.

Nearly 25 per cent said they would support the main opposition party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), led by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Another 20 per cent supported the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led by former cricketer Imran Khan.

Citing strong polling figures for the PTI, the survey also noted that the post election government would have to stand up to a strong political opposition.

In the 2008 elections that were boycotted by the Pakistan-Tehreek-I-Insaf (PTI) under the leadership of Imran Khan, the PPP won 30.8 per cent of votes, while the PML-N came second with 23.1 per cent.

This survey is in sharp contrast with the last IRI survey that was done on 4,997 people, 32 per cent of whom preferred the PML-N as preferred majority party in the federal parliament.

This figure was up from 28 per cent from the last survey that the agency conducted over two months in July and August last year.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/517283/next-government-to-face-strong-o...

Comment by Riaz Haq on March 19, 2013 at 8:17pm

Here's a Guardian story on upcoming Pak elections:

For some, the 17 miles of road and flyovers built for the exclusive use of a fleet of red buses that zoom above the gridlocked streets of Lahore is a shocking extravagance.

---

But for Nawaz Sharif, the frontrunner in the battle to become Pakistan's next prime minister, the country's first mass transit project is worth every penny – if it staves off competition from the country's wily president and a famous ex-cricket star.

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Apart from being the first government in Pakistan's history to fulfil a full term, the PPP has little to brag about. Continuously buffeted by terrorist violence, corruption allegations and crippling energy shortages, the PPP has been unable to deliver real economic growth, let alone the motorways and infrastructure that Sharif touts.

But while the PPP's vote is likely to be wiped out in much of urban Pakistan, Zardari still has some cards to play as his party's prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf goes to the polls.

Zardari – whose term as president expires in September – is a ruthlessly pragmatic politician with a track record of doing whatever is necessary to keep his party in power.

The PPP is thought to have deep reserves of electoral strength in parts of rural Punjab and Sindh where its "feudal" landlord allies maintain a tight control on votes.

Through the president's political heir apparent, Oxford graduate Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, 24, the PPP maintains a connection to the Bhutto name, harking back both to Benazir and Bilawal's grandfather Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

The party has also lavished more than $1bn in welfare handouts on 5.2 million people through its scheme branded the "Benazir income support programme".

"People at the grassroots know what we have done for them, they don't believe what the media is saying," said Taj Haider, general secretary of the PPP in Sindh. "Living standards in the poorest areas have gone up and people are getting better prices for their crops."

Cynics say the Metro Bus is less about tackling urban congestion and more the dramatic political rise of Imran Khan, the country's beloved former cricket captain, who emerged as a major threat to the PML-N in late 2011 by holding an enormous rally for his political party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), on Sharif's home turf.

About 100,000 people took part in the Lahore "jalsa", creating speculation that what Khan calls a political tsunami would sweep Pakistani politics and break the corrupt, dynastic rule of the two established parties.

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At the party's manifesto launch in Lahore last Friday, Sharif promised to turn Pakistan into an "Asian tiger", with new infrastructure and a government with "zero tolerance for corruption".

"Our political philosophy revolves around economic progress," the two-time former prime minister said. "If a country is economically strong, it is able to solve all the problems, whether law and order or political extremism."

The period of hyperactivity appears to have paid off, with the PML-N now the favourite to win the largest number of seats after Pakistanis go to the polls in the first half of May, even if an outright majority is probably beyond it. The party enjoys a substantial lead in the latest opinion polls.

Most analysts believe Khan will be lucky to get 20 of the 342 seats in parliament. "He peaked too early and gave the PML-N time to rejuvenate its base," said Cyril Almeida, a newspaper columnist. "People go to his rallies because he is a rock star in Pakistan. He doesn't have the party machine to actually turn out the voters and bring them to the polling booth on election day."...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/19/nawaz-sharif-pakistan-e...

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