Kidnapped journalist returns

MIRAMSHAH, Oct 12: A journalist kidnapped by suspected militants about two months ago reached home here on Wednesday, after a deal was struck between the kidnappers and a jirga, sources said.

Rehmatullah Khan Derpakhel was kidnapped on Aug 11 from the main bazaar of Miramshah, they said.

Additional Political Agent M. Amin Khan confirmed that Mr Derpakhel had returned to his home, at around 9pm.

Mr Khan said a jirga formed by Khyber Pakhtunhwa Governor Masood Kausar had negotiated the deal with the kidnappers.

Source: http://www.dawn.com/2011/10/13/kidnapped-journalist-returns.html

ex � e o �H~ � ~ ll end in civil war. It`s not my job to reassure them this time, because like most foreign journalists I can`t even get into the country, but in any case I would have no reassurance to offer. This time, it may well end in civil war. Like Iraq.

The Assad dynasty in Syria is neither better nor worse than Saddam Hussein`s regime was in Iraq. They had identical origins, as local branches of the same pan-Arab political movement, the Baath Party. They both depended on minorities for their core support: the Syrian Baathists on the 10 per cent Alawite (Shia) minority in that country, and the Iraqi Baathists on the 20 per cent of that country`s people who were Sunni Arabs.

They were both ruthless in crushing threats to their power. Hafez al-Assad`s troops killed up to 40,000 people in Hama when Sunni Islamists rebelled in Syria in 1982, Saddam Hussein`s army killed at least as many Shias in southern Iraq when they rebelled after the 1991 Gulf War, and both regimes were systematically beastly to their local Kurds.

When the American invaders destroyed Saddam Hussein`s regime in Iraq in 2003, however, what ensued was not peace, prosperity and democracy. It was a brutal civil war that ended with Baghdad almost entirely cleansed of its Sunni Muslim population and the whole country cleansed of its Christian minority. Only the Kurds, insulated by their own battle-hardened army and their mountains, avoided the carnage.

So if the Baathist regime in Syria is driven from power, why should we believe that what follows will be any better than it was in Iraq? The country`s ethnic and sectarian divisions are just as deep and complex as Iraq`s.

Source: http://www.dawn.com/2011/10/13/civil-war-in-syria.html

Who is this mysterious lady? By Javed Nusrat

For more than ten days a lady with elitist connections is reportedly being harassed by the Lahore Police. Alleged to have kidnapped a foreigner for ransom, her case is now before an anti-terrorism court. Instead of focusing on her defence through legal means, the said lady continues to insist, almost hysterically, that she was being ‘punished’ by the Sharifs for attempting to enter their family via ‘duly executed marriage’.

She failed to find any takers of her story from amongst the Punjab-based media. But the MQM Quaid has owned her ‘cause’. And at the outset of Monday sitting, legislators belonging to his party also ganged up to stir up the scandal on floor of the House.

An otherwise quiet and lie low type Sardar Mehtab Abbassi could not resist the provocation. He stood up to aggressively forewarn that if MQM were allowed to vent the scandalous stuff, his comrades would pay them in their own coin by throwing dirt at the Muttahida leadership.

National Assembly Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza announced a break for Maghrib prayer and took a long time in resuming her seat. Obviously backdoor channels were activated to ensure peace in the house. The PPP legislators went an extra mile in the said context. At a meeting of this party’s core committee at the presidency, Asif Ali Zardari had firmly declared that no one from his party should dare drag Sharifs in a scandal. It was at the same meeting that he conveyed to the Speaker of Sindh Assembly that the much deferred decision on Dr Zulfiqar Mirza should immediately be announced. “I am losing a very old friend (Mirza) in order to save our understanding with the MQM,” he announced.

Many in Islamabad’s conspiracy-churning drawing rooms have been claiming that the fine print of the Supreme Court’s decision on the chaos of Karachi was in effect another ‘doctrine of necessity’ invoked to strengthen the hand of extra-parliamentary forces. However, President Zardari seems to believe that the said decision empowered the federal and provincial governments to take firm decisions for restoring order in Karachi. He also hinted at preparing for ‘Seraiki province,’ while asking his people to form two and not one committee for reorganizing the PPP in Punjab. The second committee should absolutely focus on “South Punjab.” Raza Rabbani felt un­happy with the decision, but the President snubbed him politely.

Another kind of embarrassing snub, however, was suffered by Asfandyar Wali as not more than four members attended a meeting of the National Assembly committee on foreign affairs called by him. Even Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar’s presence at the meeting failed to reduce the effect of the rebuff. .

Meanwhile, for the past three days, intense lobbying is on in Islamabad to grab the about-to- be- vacated post of Chairman Pakistan Cricket Board. The names being mentioned in this regard include Ali Raza of NBP fame, former Test cricketers Zaheer Abbas and Majid Khan and Zaraee Tarqiati Bank man Zaka Ashraf. Each one has his own promoter. Ali Raza is being promoted by president’s bossom friend, Anwar Majid and ZAB’s socialite friend Tufail Shaikh. Zaheer Abbas by fellow Sialkotia Rehman Malik, Majid by Dr Soomro. The President earlier had shown his preference for Zaka. The one man who is said to have refused the offer, Aitzaz Ahsan refused to confirm or deny the report. Perhaps the president wants him out of the way before he starts dishing out tickets for the next Senate elections.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2011.

Source: http://tribune.com.pk/story/271519/who-is-this-mysterious-lady/