Hina Khar to represent Pakistan at world’s biggest business forum

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar will be among the handful of those distinguished women participants, who will speak at one of the world's biggest meeting of the private sector and heads of the government scheduled in Perth, Australia later this month, officials said on Thursday. 

The Commonwealth Business Forum (CBF) and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), scheduled to start on October 25th and October 28th respectively, will be attended by top Pakistani officials, including Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, and leading individuals from the business and the corporate world. 

Khar will chair a prime slot with Pakistan’s business titans, Mian Mohammed Mansha, Razak Dawood, Asad Umar and Tariq Puri — who are active players in the Commonwealth and emerging markets. 

The session is seen as one of the high-points of the forum in which Khar will help frame and present a case for Pakistan as a big market and investment destination, officials said. 

“There is a heightened anticipation about this session in Perth ñ both in the government circles and the international press,” said an official, requesting anonymity. “Because of prolonged military rules, Pakistan was frequently forced on the sidelines on this important forum. This is after a long time that trade, investment and business are taking a centre stage for Pakistan rather than issues relating to military rule and democracy.”

Undoubtedly, the private sector businessmen from Pakistan will draw strength from the presence of Khar in Perth. 

In recent months, Khar had successfully represented Pakistan on the challenging tours of India and the United States. She not only presented Pakistanís case forcefully on these difficult assignments, but also managed to make a mark because of her natural charisma and personality. 

She is being regarded as a major draw at the CBF, taking place along with the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting CHOGM, which Prime Minister Gilani will attend.

However, there are rumours that Khar could stay away from this important forum in the last minute.

The official, who failed to confirm or deny these rumours, said that Kharís absence may in fact put the panel itself at risk as a Ministerial presence is believed to be part of the deal given to countries for such an opportunity.

Indeed some 20 prime ministers are already speaking and chairing other sessions.

Pakistan, the second largest Commonwealth member country and now firmly back in the 54-country club that accounts for 20 percent of world trade and a third of the world’s population, has never been given such a high and prestigious profile. 

This is the first visit by a Pakistani prime minister to Australia; a key session on South Asia will herald Aman ki Asha’s first major international visibility outside India and Pakistan. 

The Jang Group and Times of India have been specially invited to address a breakfast session about how the media-led civil society peace campaign is gathering momentum and helping change perceptions in both countries. 

A major initiative on Commonwealth businesswomen, driven and developed by several women CEOs in Pakistan, will also help convey a more balanced, less one-dimensional and more dynamic perspective on opportunities here. 

There is another reason why the foreign minister needs to go and it is about the bottom line — $10 billion worth investment deals will be made in Perth during 72 hours and there is already a growing interest on Pakistan with strong panel and delegate participation. 

With the foreign minister championing Pakistanís case, Pakistan team stand a greater chance of getting their due share. Her absence, if rumours be true, would be other countries gain and Pakistan’s loss.

Source: http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=72384&Cat=3

Pakistanis alone did not create Haqqanis: US

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that the Pakistanis have a point when they say that Pakistan alone did not create the Haqqani network, which is now killing American soldiers in Afghanistan.

Also on Sunday, the former US military chief, Admiral Mike Mullen, said that attacks on US soldiers in Afghanistan had caused him to blame Pakistan for backing the militants who were behind those attacks.

The transcript of a Q & A session, released by the State Department, quoted Secretary Clinton as saying that the US relationship with Pakistan was critical to the ongoing stability and peace of the region, as well as the fight against terrorism.

“And I think it is important to remind ourselves that Pakistanis have paid a much greater price in the war against terrorism and in the violence perpetrated on them over the last 10 years than, thankfully, we have,” she noted.

“Nearly 30,000 people have been killed — civilians and military, scores of bombing attacks all over the country in places from mosques to markets to universities to police stations.”

Referring to Admiral Mullen’s Senate testimony last week in which he blamed the ISI for encouraging the Haqqani network for attacking US targets in Afghanistan, Secretary Clinton emphasised the need to look at the issue from a historical perspective.

“If you go on YouTube, you can see Sirajuddin Haqqani with President Reagan at the White House,” said the top US diplomat, noting that in the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, the US government, through the CIA, funded Jihadis like the Haqqanis “to cross the border or to, within Afghanistan, be part of the fight to drive the Soviets out and bring down the Soviet Union”.

“So when I meet for many hours, as I do, with Pakistani officials, they rightly say, ‘You’re the ones who told us to cooperate with these people. You’re the one who funded them. You’re the ones who equipped them. You’re the ones who used them to bring down the Soviet Union by driving them out of Afghanistan. And we are now both in a situation that is highly complex and difficult to extricate ourselves from’. That is how they see it.” The Pakistanis, however, also have used groups in the past to support their ongoing conflict with India over Kashmir, she added.

Secretary Clinton said that when she took charge of her office, the Pakistanis were also trying to basically appease the Pakistani Taliban who were attacking them — trying to draw a distinction between the good terrorists and the bad terrorists.

Since then, the US had been trying to convince the Pakistanis that it was not in their interest to permit terrorists to take over territory and succeeded in encouraging them to deploy troops in Fata.

“So I think it’s important that we appreciate their perspective about where we both are right now,” the secretary said.

“That in no way excuses the fact that they are making a serious, grievous, strategic error supporting these groups,” she added.

That’s why, she said, the US was “pressing and pushing on every lever that we have in the relationship” to achieve its strategic goals.

The aim was to prevent any attacks against the US emanating from Pakistan, as well as to try to help stabilise Pakistan against this internal threat, and to create the best possible circumstances for Afghanistan to be able to have control over its own future.

“Those are all extremely difficult, and we are learning it, each piece of that, every single day,” she said.

In an interview to CNN, Admiral Mullen said what made him go public with his grievances against Pakistan was an increase in attacks on US soldiers and other targets inside Afghanistan. “It’s not just about one country, it’s about both Afghanistan and Pakistan, and part of the biggest challenge is the safe havens that the insurgents enjoy in Pakistan,” he said. The admiral defined the Haqqani network as the most virulent terrorist group in Pakistan and a great supporter of Al Qaeda.

“The link between the Pakistan military and specifically the ISI is very well-known. And I have argued for the need to sever this link,” he added. “That also has to do with getting control of that safe haven.”

Admiral Mullen said that the intensity of the recent events and the strategic support that the ISI and the Pakistan military “both give to the Haqqani network directly and indirectly, is what I was focused on” in the Senate testimony.

When the interviewer insisted on knowing the real reason for the admiral to go public with his complaints against Pakistan, Mr Mullen said: “As a military leader and as somebody who feels responsible for the 2.2 million men and women in uniform, the effort or actions on the part of the Haqqani network to literally kill my people is something I just can’t tolerate anymore.”

He said he did not expect it to stop overnight but “a concerted effort on the part of responsible people could have a big impact”.

Source: http://www.dawn.com/2011/10/03/pakistanis-alone-did-not-create-haqqanis-us.html