Pakistan News & Discussions

[Welcome]

i just want to say: " Sonia Gandhi is in love with Osama bin Laden and wanted to marry him. Her daughter Priyanka gandhi is in love with Zardari.......

 

[ajtr]

Skiing sisters from Punial make history​

GILGIT: They say blood is thicker than water, but as soon as sisters Amina and Ifrah Wali strap on their skis on the slopes of snowy mountains, they prove themselves to be fierce opponents indeed.
The Wali sisters, who belong to Gilgit-Baltistan's Punial Valley, brought home a gold and silver medal they won for Pakistan in the recently concluded first South Asian Winter Games. They won after defeating contestants from Sri Lanka, Nepal and India in the giant slalom event in Auli, India.
This is the first time that any Pakistani female athlete has won a medal in the South Asian Games for ski events.
"It is really great to see Pakistan's flag fluttering high," said Amina, the eldest daughter of Amjad Wali, a colonel in the army.
The Wali sisters, who are still in their teens, have a rich history of wins in various national level competitions in Pakistan. Both sisters have claimed top spots in more than half a dozen competitions held in Gilgit-Baltistan's Naltar area and Malam Jabba in Swat since 2005.
Amina and Ifrah, the progeny of the Gushpur family, the former royal family of the Punial Valley district Ghizer, excelled in the art of skiing mainly because they spent most of their childhood growing up in Ratto – a snow-capped area of Astore Valley where their father was posted in the army for nearly 11 years.
Col Amjad told this correspondent that his daughters had entered the competition without enough practice because of insufficient snowfall this winter.
Amina, 17, is a student of 2nd year FSc while Ifrah is doing her matriculation from the Army Public School in Gilgit. "I was 4 when I started skiing," said Ifrah, who plans to join the army as a software engineer. Amina plans to become a doctor.
After being stuck in Islamabad for 18 days, owing to the suspension of flights because of bad weather, the skiers finally managed to return to Gilgit on Friday.

 

[Daredevil]

Leopard spots

Learn from the Raymond Davis affair that it is perilous to engage Pakistan, says N.V.Subramanian.

23 February 2011: The prime minister and others who believe in the possibility of peace with Pakistan should come to terms with the Raymond Davis affair for what it represents and abandon their naivete.

That Raymond Davis was an undercover operative/ security expert became known to this writer soon after his arrest. But in the interest of his safety, the information was never published.

It is normal for foreign missions to be staffed with spies. These spies operate in friendly and unfriendly countries on the premise that there are no permanent friends in international relations but only enduring interests.

They are less spies than what's called in the trade as agent-runners or handlers. The nature of spying has profoundly changed since the end of the Cold War.

After China, Pakistan perhaps is one of the world's most unfriendly nations. It is a terrorist state and a nuclear blackmailer. Pakistan's military-intelligence-nuclear establishment specializes both in terrorism and atomic adventurism.

Except perhaps a section of the people, the academia and the judiciary, whose numbers can never be determined, nearly everyone is complicit in Pakistan's state policy of terrorism and nuclear blackmail.

Against India, Pakistan preserves, promotes, provisions and employs the Lashkar-e-Toiba, the Jaish-e-Mohammed and assorted Kashmiri separatist groups. Against Hamid Karzai's nascent and promisingly democratic Afghanistan, there range the various Talibans. And the Al-Qaeda survives and regroups in North Waziristan/ Quetta to fight the United States today and hereafter.

Because Pakistan has nuclear weapons, the world and especially leading powers like the US reflexively are horrified at the prospect of breaking it up. Pakistan's natural progression is towards this break-up. But this scares the world.

Pakistan knows this and its military-intelligence establishment particularly is knowledgeable about this. Pakistan's deterrent is India-specific. But its ceaseless weapons' build-up to over a hundred/ hundred-and-ten bombs has a mad objective.

It is to increase the possibility of a nuclear leak to terrorists should the world (read the US) have the temerity to countenance breaking up Pakistan.

Pakistan's advantage thus far is that there is no unanimity among the five NPT powers and India on how to contain its nuclear threats and the terrorism it foments and exports.

India itself is divided on ways to contain Pakistan. The conventional view is that a united Pakistan is better than a Balkanised one and this thinking informs -- or misinforms -- the Manmohan Singh government's peace moves.

This writer's position is different. If Pakistan's nuclear menace can be managed with its timely denuclearization, then it is immaterial if Pakistan remains one or becomes several states.

Although India should have no hand in the breakup of Pakistan, nor should it attempt to stop the process in misguided neighbourliness.

The problem is that without focussing on the inevitability of Pakistan's break up, all the world powers, including the US, are fighting its evil on a daily, short-term basis. Here is where Raymond Davis figures.

Davis had a covert role. From media reports, it appears it had either to do with the CIA's FATA drone operations or with the US's increasing apprehensions about the LeT's terroristic capabilities.

It is unimaginable that the Pakistan government had no inkling of Davis's missions. There are certainly several others who are doing his kind of job even now.

No government likes foreign spies. But in the spy world, a known spy is better than an unknown spy. Although, of course, to paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld, there are known unknowns as there are unknown unknowns.

In other words, the Pakistan government knew who Raymond Davis was and had a reasonable good idea of his activities. It is inconceivable that the Pakistan military and intelligence establishment was not aware of Davis's assignment. It is suspected that the two men he killed in self-defence were ISI gorillas.

But even government accreditation and a virtual carte blanche for his undercover role do not help Davis now. It would appear that the US was operating out of a very small window in Pakistan.

That window may not be shut because of Davis's arrest and detention. But it cannot be expanded. A possibility is growing that the US may be close to exhausting its abilities diplomatically to extricate Davis.

The consequences of this for the US and the West are enormous, especially after the Middle East meltdown. It is no less so for India.

India is reaching out through the tiniest window of peace to Pakistan. Apart from a small section of people, academics and public intellectuals, there is nearly no constituency in Pakistan for peace with India.

And those exact same anti-Davis elements want no peace settlement with India unless on their terms.

Every interest group in Pakistan is hostage to every other.

No one is in control.

So why is the Manmohan Singh government persisting with its naivete with Pakistan? India cannot change its neighbours. But there is no compulsion to engage them.

India cannot moderate Pakistan. Where the US has failed, India cannot succeed.

It is best, therefore, for India to concentrate on containing the nuclear fall-outs from Pakistan's looming breakup. Perhaps, India quietly is moving in that direction.

But the peace engagement with Pakistan sends mixed signals and confuses friends and foes alike.

The Raymond Davis affair simultaneously reveals radically different Pakistani and American narratives. The US has reached a dead-end with its war-against-terror in Pakistan. And Pakistan has revealed leopard spots all over in the reaction to the Davis affair.

If India won't learn from this, it never will.

 

[Daredevil]

Pakistan Tried to Trade CIA Contractor for 'Lady al Qaeda'

U.S. Nixed Deal To Swap Raymond Davis for Aafia Siddiqui

The government of Pakistan offered to trade a CIA contractor currently jailed in that country for a Pakistani neuroscientist suspected by U.S. intelligence to be an al Qaeda operative.
According to a senior American administration official and a Pakistani official involved in the negotiations to free CIA contractor Raymond Davis, the Pakistani government proposed trading Davis for Aafia Siddiqui, an MIT-educated Pakistani neuroscientist currently serving 86 years in federal prison for attempted murder.

The offer was immediately dismissed by the U.S. government. "The Pakistanis have raised it," the U.S. official said. "We are not going to pursue it."

The proposal is the latest in a series of efforts to break an impasse between Washington and Islamabad over Davis. The CIA contractor has been held by Pakistani authorities since late January for shooting and killing two men he says were following his car and tried to rob him.

Siddiqui was convicted of trying to shoot F.B.I. agents and military officers in an Afghanistan police station in 2008. Siddiqui had been arrested the day before after being found with a list of New York city landmarks and instructions on how to construct explosives.

In 2004, F.B.I. director Robert Mueller described Siddiqui as an "al Qaeda operative and facilitator." The F.B.I. had issued a global alert for Siddiqui and her first husband in 2003, for their suspected ties to al Qaeda. Siddiqui later remarried to an al Qaeda operative, who was the nephew of the 9/11 mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Muhammed. The husband, Ammar al-Baluchi is currently being detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Siddiqui was never charged with any terrorism-related crimes, however. Shortly after the FBI alert, she and her children disappeared, only to surface in Afghanistan five years later. Siddiqui has claimed she was held in secret American prisons, including Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, during that time. American officials have consistently denied that she was ever in American custody.

 

[Rage]

Skiing sisters from Punial make history​

GILGIT: They say blood is thicker than water, but as soon as sisters Amina and Ifrah Wali strap on their skis on the slopes of snowy mountains, they prove themselves to be fierce opponents indeed.
The Wali sisters, who belong to Gilgit-Baltistan's Punial Valley, brought home a gold and silver medal they won for Pakistan in the recently concluded first South Asian Winter Games. They won after defeating contestants from Sri Lanka, Nepal and India in the giant slalom event in Auli, India.
This is the first time that any Pakistani female athlete has won a medal in the South Asian Games for ski events.
"It is really great to see Pakistan's flag fluttering high," said Amina, the eldest daughter of Amjad Wali, a colonel in the army.
The Wali sisters, who are still in their teens, have a rich history of wins in various national level competitions in Pakistan. Both sisters have claimed top spots in more than half a dozen competitions held in Gilgit-Baltistan's Naltar area and Malam Jabba in Swat since 2005.
Amina and Ifrah, the progeny of the Gushpur family, the former royal family of the Punial Valley district Ghizer, excelled in the art of skiing mainly because they spent most of their childhood growing up in Ratto – a snow-capped area of Astore Valley where their father was posted in the army for nearly 11 years.
Col Amjad told this correspondent that his daughters had entered the competition without enough practice because of insufficient snowfall this winter.
Amina, 17, is a student of 2nd year FSc while Ifrah is doing her matriculation from the Army Public School in Gilgit. "I was 4 when I started skiing," said Ifrah, who plans to join the army as a software engineer. Amina plans to become a doctor.
After being stuck in Islamabad for 18 days, owing to the suspension of flights because of bad weather, the skiers finally managed to return to Gilgit on Friday.

Awesome. !!


.,.,.,.

 

[Daredevil]

Pakistan playing cynical game with CIA contractor, says official



The media frenzy in Pakistan surrounding CIA contractor Raymond Davis, who shot and killed two men he said were attempting to rob him, is being orchestrated by the government, a U.S. official said.

The Pakistan government is, "playing a dangerous game with a innocent man's life - throwing diplomatic immunity out the window - and holding the US hostage," the official told The Washington Examiner.

News reports in Pakistan stated that Pakistan offered to trade Davis for jailed Pakistani neuroscientist and al Qaeda operative Aafia Siddiqui. She was considered a hero by many Pakistanis for standing up to the west, despite being a woman and graduate from MIT.

According to an ABC news report Monday, a top senior US official confirmed "that the Pakistanis have raised it" but that the administration would not "pursue it."

US and Pakistani officials have been in ongoing daily talks regarding Davis' situation and "there are a number of options that are being discussed," said another US Official.

As for Pakistan "there is no doubt that Davis is in the worst of situations and his continuous presence in the Pakistani media only makes it worse, as he is held out to the mobs who want to devour him," a Pakistani reporter told The Examiner.

 

[Daredevil]

Our Man in Pakistan

The dreadful treatment of Raymond Davis is a reminder of how dysfunctional our relationship with Pakistan has become.

By Christopher HitchensPosted Monday, Feb. 28, 2011, at 12:10 PM ET

In April 2001, a Pakistani diplomat—the first secretary of the Pakistani Embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal, as a matter of fact—was found by the Nepalese police to be stashing a large cache of sophisticated high explosives in his home. Muhammad Arshad Cheema invoked diplomatic immunity to avoid prosecution and, after a short interval, was sent home.

In October 1985, after the hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro in the Mediterranean, an act of open piracy that culminated in the rolling of a disabled man, Leon Klinghoffer, from the vessel's deck into the sea, the organizer of the "operation" was apprehended and taken into custody by the Italian police. But Abu Abbas was not inconvenienced for long. He was released when he was found to be carrying a diplomatic passport—an Iraqi diplomatic passport as it happened, though he was by nationality a Palestinian and had never been accredited to any overseas mission.

In April 1984, during a demonstration by anti-Qaddafi protesters outside the Libyan Embassy in London, a fusillade of shots fired from inside the embassy struck 12 people. One of them, a police officer named Yvonne Fletcher, was killed. So grave was the incident that it led to the breaking of diplomatic relations between London and Tripoli and to a series of negotiations that only ended when Libya agreed to accept "general responsibility." But the entire staff of the Libyan Embassy was allowed to return home without let or hindrance.

These cases were far more murky and gruesome, and involved much more serious breaches of local and international law, than the decision of Raymond A. Davis to use deadly force against men he believed to be his assailants in Lahore, Pakistan. Additional murk has resulted from inter-agency incompetence on the part of the United States, which has given discrepant accounts of his no-doubt discrepant job descriptions "in-country." But this does not in the least alter the main element of the case, which is that Davis is "our diplomat," in the president's own words and that the Pakistani authorities have no right either to detain him or to put him on trial.

Even if he were accredited to a country like Portugal or Poland, it would make no difference whether or not Davis was a member of the "special forces," a CIA agent, or a man working under contract. Nor would it matter whether or not he was using his own name. Even in the case of a deliberate breach of local law, he would be repatriated before it was decided whether or not, or how, to proceed against him. But Pakistan is not a "normal" country. It is a failed and rogue state, where Davis would have had to know that his assailants might very well be working for the forces of law and order. There would be no need for him to be carrying arms if it were not notorious that the Pakistani army and police are the patrons of the Taliban and in league with various criminal and fundamentalist gangs.

A similar observation holds true when the grotesque idea of trying him in a Punjabi court is mooted. This is a country where senior lawyers offered their services for free to the boastful jihadist murderer who had just slain Punjab's governor Salman Taseer in broad daylight, and where grinning police officers oversee hysterical demonstrations calling for Davis to be hanged (never mind the trial). Prison conditions in Pakistan are of a kind to make Abu Ghraib look trivial: sarcastic letters in the Pakistani newspapers mockingly stress the fact that a shortish stay in such a jail would be near enough to a death sentence anyway.

Not to mince words, then, Davis is a hostage. In addition to the usual sense of the word, he is a hostage to the Pakistani authorities who dare not—even if they wish—make an enemy either of the Islamist mobs or the uniformed para-state run by the intelligence services. He is also a hostage to the inability or unwillingness of the U.S. government to call things by their right names. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have made the correct noises about the relevant international statutes governing immunity, and their envoy Sen. John Kerry (who should never have been sent unless notified in advance that he would return with the prisoner) has even spoken of putting Davis on trial in the United States, which in ordinary circumstances might seem a little premature. But they all talk as if Pakistan were a country of law, and they all talk as if Pakistan were not a client state. Its client status, indeed, is what leads so many Pakistanis to detest America, without whose largesse and indulgence it would long ago have faced collapse. Thus to the final irony: We are denied leverage by the fact of the very influence for which we are hated.

This sick relationship with Pakistan, which plays a continuous and undisguised double-cross on us in Afghanistan, will probably have to be terminated at some point. But in the meantime, it will have to be made very clear to the rulers of that country that if they want to keep Raymond Davis in prison, they will have to manage without our subsidies. He may be a bad test of an important principle, but it is still the important principle that is being tested, and we have no more right to compromise on the principle of diplomatic immunity than the Pakistanis have to violate it.

 

[Daredevil]

Pakistan as a country going down the drain is the question that will popup when you read this article.

79,000 Railways employees could lose jobs in coming weeks Bilour demands funds for supply of 400 locomotives

By Mumtaz Alvi
Monday, February 28, 2011



ISLAMABAD: Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour desperately pleads for funds to save the dying Pakistan Railways. However, the government appears unmoved to help the organisation, which directly feeds about 79,000 employees and well over 90 percent people travel by trains, as they can't afford the road or air fares.

Instead of finding out ways and means to resuscitate it, the government has ostensibly made up its mind to let it die a slow but sure death. "What else can we do except requesting the government again to release the promised bailout package," said a senior official of the railways, who preferred not to be named.

Known for his integrity and impeccable career in the railways, the official claimed that it was lamentable that the so-called democratic government was not willing to take some drastic measures to avert the collapse of a national asset, which had a value of at least dollar 9,500 million.

He conceded that corruption was a challenge but insisted it could be checked only if the department got attention of the government. "There is a widespread feeling that the railways will die within the next few weeks and you can understand in this scenario, the corrupt elements want to play havoc with it," he said.

He contended that Rs11.1 billion package, approved by the federal cabinet, could be like providing oxygen to a dying patient. However, the rulers lacked the commitment to sparing funds. "They have money for luxurious suites, called parliament lodges, but for the tax-payers welfare, they have no funds," he regretted.

When approached, Bilour reiterated his resolve that supply of 400 locomotives could lead to a swift turnaround of the Pakistan Railways and said it was the non-availability of engines, which impeded their efforts to arrest the massive losses.

"Provide us 400 engines and then if we fail to deliver, I may be subjected to accountability and I shall be ready for the consequences. You expect us to follow the Indians. How can we make railways a profitable entity in the given grim situation? India has invested massively from 1997 to 2005 in the railways and this has enabled it to not only stand on its own feet, but to generate billions of rupees revenue," he contended.

He pointed out that on the one hand, India had envisaged in the new budget dollar 12.7 billion investment in its railways, while on the other hand, the Government of Pakistan was not prepared to spare a few billions to keep the trains on tracks. He added the Indian Railways would be adding another 68 passenger trains to its massive fleet, which already had 8,300 locomotives at its disposal.

The minister claimed that investment could help the railways to make full use of its assets and resources and said they had the capacity to manufacture locomotives, coaches and bogies, but this could only be done with the availability of funds.

"We don't have funds even to pay to the employees working in our factories and other installations," he said. He noted that the morale of railways employees could be gauged from the fact that they had to resort to agitation for the payment of their monthly salaries. "It is the poor's mean of travel, but we face discrimination: we have to pay pensions from our own resources, whereas, the rest including the military gets separate allocations for this purpose," he maintained.

Referring to the recent meeting of the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Railways, he said that the Ministry of Finance clearly expressed its inability to provide the promised bailout package despite having full knowledge of the strategic importance of the railways.

 

[Daredevil]

A pound of flesh from the US


—Babar Ayaz

I think one should give Raymond the benefit of the doubt. Why? Because we have to face the fact that Pakistan is a dangerous country to live in — even for its citizens — leave alone for foreigners and that too an American

Will the multi-dimensional case of trigger-happy Raymond Davis be the game changer in Pakistan? Will the case of Salmaan Taseer's killing by Mumtaz Qadri test the government's will to implement the rule of law amidst religious frenzy? These questions are being debated in the media and by almost everybody. Much of the discussion is emotional. The media and the opposition politicians are whipping up the sentiments of the people in the name of violation of Pakistan's sovereignty and religion.

In the case of Davis, immunity is being claimed by the US administration. In Mumtaz Qadri's case, impunity is claimed on religious grounds by his supporters. In both cases, the sanity and sagacity required to manage this crisis is missing in the government and the opposition. When Raymond Davis shot dead two young men in Lahore, the public outrage was natural, as it would have been in any other country. But all governments are expected to manage their crises in a much more organised way.

Conflicting messages came from government officials, which show that there is no mechanism to manage crisis communication in the government. A well-established crisis management practice is that in such a situation all the important people who deal with different stakeholders get together in the crisis control room. The first step then is to decide the policy and key messages. Then the number of spokespersons is decided, who are kept informed from the crisis control room about the messages they should relay. In such a case, only the foreign minister, interior minister and information minister should have been authorised to speak, but with one voice.

Worst probable questions are prepared by the media advisors and their replies are decided. Now there is a catch here for which the government cannot be blamed. Foreign policy is decided by the military leaders and not the civilian government, so the difference of opinion between the two on this fiasco came out in the public. As the power is being shared with the military establishment, the government should debate these issues with them privately and then come out with an agreed response. In such cases where national interest is at stake, an emotional or aggressive response is not what the country needs.

Much of the differences within the government (read political and military establishment) are on the issue whether Raymond Davis has diplomatic immunity or not. Minor technicalities of the Vienna Convention apart, the fact remain that he carried a diplomatic passport and the visa was issued on the same. This shows that Pakistan accepted that he is a diplomat. The US State Department in its latest briefing has said that the US Embassy in Islamabad had included the name of Raymond Davis (most probably a fake name) in the list of diplomats furnished to the Pakistan Foreign Office on January 20 — days before the Lahore killings.

For a moment, let us accept that he has diplomatic immunity, but does that mean that a diplomat can kill in the host country with impunity? Will the US government and public opinion allow a diplomat to kill their citizens with impunity? No. The record shows they pressurise the country whose diplomat had erred to lift immunity.

The stance taken by Raymond is that he killed them in self defence. Now this is being challenged by the media in the light of available evidence that the boys were shot in the back. Here I think one should give Raymond the benefit of the doubt. Why? Because we have to face the fact that Pakistan is a dangerous country to live in — even for its citizens — leave alone for foreigners and that too an American. Every day people are robbed by young men riding motorbikes and sometimes muggers also kill. So if some people are chasing a foreigner and are carrying guns, he is expected to become nervous. Most people here in Karachi get nervous when the same motorbike with two people stops near their car a couple of times. The fear is natural because in every family one or two persons have been robbed at gunpoint.

So far two versions have come out about Raymond's victims: one, that they were petty muggers and had snatched the phone and wallet from a doctor on the same day; and two, that they were our intelligence operatives who were chasing Raymond. And perhaps the intention was to scare him so that his activities are curtailed. Chasing diplomats is the normal intelligence practice, particularly where counter-intelligence agencies have doubts about the activities of a diplomat. In this case, according to the International Herald Tribune, Raymond was keeping tabs on the jihadi organisations that work for our intelligence on contract and are a sacred cow.

Thus the fear factor cannot be ruled out. It should also not be mixed up with the fact that Raymond is a CIA contractor and was carrying guns and equipment, which a normal diplomat does not use. For the purpose of dispassionate analysis, these two factors should not be mixed up. Even the hysteria why a CIA spy or their contractor is claiming immunity is irrational. Every country's intelligence agents, who are posted in other countries, usually carry diplomatic passports. I am quite sure our sleuths posted in other countries of importance have diplomatic passports and visas. This does not mean that they should act like James Bond.

Agitated anchors and columnists question why CIA and its agents are operating in the country. My friends, we invited them by interfering in Afghanistan after the 1978 revolution. Pakistan started intervening in that country and made itself a frontline for covert activities. All major countries' intelligence services are operating in Pakistan now for over 30 years and it is our own doing because we follow one of the most dangerous national security policies. So why blame others?

Now the question is, what is the solution to this problem? Can we hang Raymond Davis and still sleep in the same bed with the Americans as we have done for the last 63 years? The military establishment has to find the answer to this billion-dollar question. In 1979, after the siege of Makkah by an extremist Muslim group, the propaganda was that the Americans were involved in it, although they moved their fleet in support of the Saudi royal family. Pakistani dictator General Zia, who had killed Bhutto and but continued with his nuclear programme, was not in the good books of the US. So, taking advantage of the God-sent opportunity, he decided to take a cycle ride in Rawalpindi while some students and his men in civilian clothes burnt the US Embassy in Islamabad. This managed to impress upon the Americans how unpopular they were in Pakistan in spite of billions of dollars in civilian and military assistance. Afghanistan then offered him another opportunity to lure the Americans to beat the Soviets and get even for Vietnam.

Our Afghanistan oil well has still not dried up and Raymond Davis has given another opportunity to our establishment to get a bigger pound of flesh from the US. As a side effect, the victims' families might also get blood money and maybe a bloody passport, which most anti-American Pakistanis yearn for.

 

[Daredevil]

The U.S.-Pakistan relationship in disarray

By Michael Kugelman, March 1, 201 http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=20

Pakistan's prolonged detention of Raymond Davis, the CIA contractor who shot and killed two Pakistani motorcyclists in Lahore on January 27, has undoubtedly dealt a body blow to U.S.-Pakistan relations.

Yet it would be a mistake to assume the U.S.-Pakistan relationship was plunged into crisis only after Davis pulled the trigger, and that it will remain so only as long as he languishes in his jail cell. In reality, the Davis affair represents just the latest chapter in a lengthening narrative -- one of an unraveling partnership that some fear could rupture completely.
The ongoing U.S.-Pakistan struggles are often attributed to a mere trust gap, easily surmountable if each side convinces the other of its good intentions. Unfortunately, mutual suspicions are too historically ingrained simply to be wished away with soothing words.

Islamabad stews over what it perceives as America's repeated betrayals, if not outright abandonment, of Pakistan -- from Washington's failure to help prevent the partition of Pakistan during a bloody civil war in 1971, to its reduced engagement with Islamabad following the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in the late 1980s. Washington, meanwhile, steams about the billions of dollars of its aid that have been diverted or simply disappeared, along with the persistent evidence that elements of the Pakistani government and security forces still support key insurgent groups operating in Afghanistan, such as the Haqqani network. With relations held hostage to mutual suspicion, equivocations and prevarications are part and parcel of the partnership. For example, while the United States is coy about the status and activities of its security personnel inside Pakistan, the latter is ambiguous about the extent of its military's ties to extremists.

Washington badly wants Pakistan to take definitive steps to root out militants in North Waziristan, who use this tribal area as a staging ground for attacks on U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Islamabad has thus far refused. Publicly, it argues that its army is overstretched, referring explicitly to ongoing flood relief activities and counter militancy operations in Pakistan's other tribal areas, and implicitly to troops massed along its eastern border with India. Yet behind such explanations lurk the powerful strategic calculations that harden Islamabad's position and that Washington can do little about: These anti-Afghan government extremists do not target the Pakistani government, some maintain links with the Pakistani military, and they offer a hedge against Indian influence in Afghanistan after U.S. forces have departed.

Pakistan's wish list is also unlikely to be fulfilled. A deal to provide civilian nuclear energy? Virtually unfathomable, given Pakistan's poor proliferation record. Better access to U.S. markets for Pakistani textile exports? This proposal has considerable support around Washington, but not from the powerful U.S. textile lobby. Also, proponents conveniently forget how Pakistan's textile products are of decidedly lower value than those of Bangladesh and China. Efforts to get India talking about Kashmir? Given its keen interest in furthering its rapidly developing strategic rapport with New Delhi, Washington will likely continue to treat this issue very delicately.

A deteriorating relationship, even one marked by mutual mistrust and divergent interests, can be salvaged in an environment of civility. Unfortunately, U.S.-Pakistan relations unfold in a climate of acrimony. Washington berates Islamabad -- publicly and incessantly -- for not taking sufficient action against militancy within its borders. Such hectoring rankles Pakistanis to no end, and hardens a perception at the heart of their mistrust of the United States - the perception that for Washington, security interests reign supreme and Pakistani lives are cheap. Constantly needling Pakistan to "do more" about domestic militancy, Pakistanis believe, demonstrates callous disregard for the Pakistani soldiers killed in operations against extremists in recent years. To be sure, however, Washington's language, while harsh, is rooted in a very real fact: Islamabad has thus far to take action against key militant groups directly impacting America's fight in Afghansitan.
Meanwhile, Pakistan's feisty media-particularly the Urdu-language outlets consumed by the vast majority of the population-make a habit of insulting the U.S. government, contaminating much of its reportage with untruths that reflect the conspiracy theories embraced by a wide segment of Pakistani society. And while some of these theories-such as that Washington deploys security forces in Pakistan-have been proven accurate, others-such as that Washington somehow triggered last year's horrific flooding-are patently absurd.

The United States routinely issues threats as well, some of which bring into question the very viability of the relationship. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared last year that an attack against the United States "traced to be Pakistani" would have "a very devastating impact on our relationship." Given the increasingly global reach of Pakistani militant organizations such as Lashkar e-Taiba and the Pakistani Taliban, and their demonstrated ability to cultivate ties with U.S.-based Pakistanis (consider the case of Mumbai attack plotter David Coleman Headley, or the links the FBI has alleged between several westerners and Pakistani militants), the possibility of such an attack is far from remote.

Yet even if no such attack occurs, the building pressure for Washington to demonstrate results in Afghanistan, with this summer's looming deadline for the first troop withdrawals, could ratchet U.S.-Pakistan tensions up to the breaking point. With America's top targets -- the political leadership of the Afghan Taliban, the Taliban-allied Haqqani Network, and al-Qaeda's top officials - all holed up across Pakistan, Washington's hectoring, unsuccessful so far, will surely intensify.

So long as this tough talk remains futile, expect an exasperated Washington to be increasingly inclined to take matters into its own hands. Already, the United States has intensified its deeply unpopular drone attacks in Pakistan's tribal belt. It has considered (though for now discarded) the idea of extending drone operations into Pakistan's settled areas, and of expanding Afghanistan-based Special Operations raids into Pakistan. One likely possibility is that with an intensification of U.S. military activities in Afghanistan, fighting will more regularly spill over the border. This is risky for Washington; last year, when a U.S. helicopter pursuing militants across the frontier accidentally killed Pakistani soldiers, Islamabad responded by temporarily cutting off critical NATO supply routes into Afghanistan -- supply routes so important that they constitute one of Washington's chief motivations for enhancing and maintaining its ties with Islamabad.

Good news is hard to glean from this glum narrative, though Washington cannot afford to be resigned to this stasis. Engaging more comprehensively with Pakistanis, both elites and average Pakistanis with radically different perceptions of American policy, is essential, though the impact of such steps on high-level relations will be admittedly modest. Additionally, the outcome regarded by many as the elixir for what ails the U.S.-Pakistan relationship-reconciliation between India and Pakistan-remains at best a long-term prospect (though the recent announcement to restart talks this summer is a welcome one).
Officials on both sides continue to pull out the requisite stops to maintain a happy face. Even as Pakistanis seethed with anger about the Davis episode, both capitals began signaling their desire to absorb the latest blow to the relationship and move on. Several weeks ago Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) was dispatched to Pakistan to "reaffirm" the U.S. partnership, while high-level military officials recently met in Oman to mend fences. Such diplomacy, however, obscures the deep divide that drives the two reluctant allies apart. Yet around the time of the Oman meeting, the Associated Press revealed that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence had contemplated severing its relationship with the CIA. Such a split, between arguably the two most critical entities in Pakistan-U.S. relations, would sound the death knell for any prospect of a meaningful relationship.

For the immediate future, the best-case scenario is that U.S.-Pakistan relations will simply continue to muddle along. With too many fundamental differences to consummate a healthy, sustainable relationship, yet with too much at stake for both sides to sever ties, a very shaky status quo may well persevere.
Michael Kugelman is the South Asia program associate at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

 

[Daredevil]

US lawmakers questions US aid to Pakistan

Lalit K Jha
Washington, Mar 01 (PTI) US lawmakers today questioned the Obama Administration''s move to give billions in dollars in aid to Pakistan and said Islamabad continues to build on its nuclear stockpile and support the Taliban.

"We borrow from China; give to Pakistan; Pakistan creates nuclear weapons�," bluntly asked Congressman Dan Rohrabacher as he posed questions to the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on US aid to Pakistan.

Instead one of its diplomat is under arrest in violation of the Vienna Convention, the lawmakers bluntly told Clinton at a Congressional hearing.

"Pakistan must do more to meet the pressing United States concerns, including the release of Raymond Davis, our detained American diplomat, and shifting its approach to Afghanistan away from armed proxies and toward constructive and legitimate political partners," Congresswoman, Ilena Ros-Lehtinen, the Chairwoman of the powerful House Foreign Relations Committee, said.

"Pakistan has received billions of dollars worth of aid; yet they have a US citizen, Raymond Davis, who is now being held and is under very questionable circumstances. Are we going to demand -- are we going to still give our money away to people who support the Taliban and put our intelligence assets at risk?" he asked.

Clinton, on her part, strongly defended the Administration''s decision to provide aid to Pakistan and argued that Pakistan is one of the most important investment for the United States.

Clinton said the Obama Administration is working very hard in order to achieve the release of Davis.

"It''s one of our highest priorities across our government. We do believe that the combination of military and civilian aid that we have pursued with Pakistan is in America''s interests," she said.

Earlier in her prepared testimony, Clinton said in Afghanistan and Pakistan, al-Qaeda is under pressure as never before.

"Alongside our military offensive, we are engaged in a major civilian effort that is helping to build up the governments, economies and civil societies of both countries and undercut the insurgency," she said.

"Now these two surges, the military and civilian surge, set the stage for a third, a diplomatic push in support of an Afghan process to split the Taliban from al-Qaida, bring the conflict to an end and help stabilize the region," Clinton said.

"Our military commanders are emphatic. They cannot succeed without a strong civilian partner. Retreating from our civilian surge in Afghanistan with our troops still in the field would be a grave mistake," she said.

"Equally important is our assistance to Pakistan, a nuclear-armed nation with strong ties and interests in Afghanistan. We are working to deepen our partnership and keep it focused on addressing Pakistan''s political and economic challenges, as well as our shared threats," Clinton said. PTI LKJ

 

[Daredevil]

Pakistan building colony for Chinese in PoK

DNA / Suman Sharma / Wednesday, March 2, 2011 0:31 IST

​

In an indication of Beijing's strengthening ties with Islamabad, Pakistan is constructing a colony of about 20 buildings for Chinese workers in Chattar area of occupied Kashmir's Muzaffarabad district.

The construction, confirmation of which comes ahead of prime minister Manmohan Singh's Beijing visit in April for a meeting to welcome South Africa into the Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) group, will ensure a permanent footprint for China very close to India.

Highly-placed intelligence sources told DNA the settlement was being built on approximately four acres for Chinese workers involved in construction activities in the region.

Last year, New Delhi had objected to reported presence of 11,000 People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China personnel in the strategic Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). The ministry of external affairs had said it would seek independent verification of PLA soldiers working on a project in the region which would give China rail and road access to the Gulf to transport cargo and oil.

Other reported construction activities in the region include extension of the Karakoram highway to link China's Xinjiang autonomous province with Pakistan, dams and expressways.

Experts in New Delhi said by increasing presence in the Gilgit-Baltistan area, China was adding to the strategic threats in Leh-Kargil. They said this would necessitate greater attention to development of infrastructure in the sector and a review of New Delhi's interactions with the nationalist elements in Xinjiang and Gilgit-Baltistan.

Indian Army's Srinagar-based commanding officer lieutenant general SA Hasnain had last month ruled out any immediate troop cut in the Kashmir valley, saying terror launch pads and camps were still active in PoK.

URL of the article: http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_pakistan-building-colony-for-chinese-in-pok_1514307-all

 

[Daredevil]

Pak govt told to block anti-Islamic websites

PTI, Mar 1, 2011, 04.52pm IST


LAHORE: With Facebook and several other websites allegedly featuring blasphemous material against Prophet Mohammed and the Quran, the Pakistan government has informed a court here that all required steps are being taken to block objectionable and anti-Islamic portals.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and Information Technology Ministry are blocking all internet websites that feature blasphemous material, Deputy Attorney General Naveed Inayat Malik told the Lahore High Court yesterday.

After Malik gave this assurance on behalf of the federal government, Chief Justice Ijaz Chaudhry disposed of petitions seeking a ban on Facebook and several other websites.

An inter-ministerial committee is screening websites to block access to blasphemous and anti-Islamic material, Malik said.

The Chief Justice told Malik that the inter-ministerial committee should keep the High Court's Additional Registrar informed of its operations and the steps taken against objectionable websites.

He observed that if the PTA and the Information Technology Ministry fail to fulfil their responsibilities, the petitioners would be free to approach the court again.

Responding to an application seeking the registration of a First Information Report against the owners of Facebook for allegedly committing blasphemy, the Chief Justice said police should investigate the matter and dispose of the matter under the law.

The petitions were filed by lawyer Muhammad Azhar Siddique and the Islamic Lawyers Forum.

The Lahore High Court had briefly banned Facebook last year for allegedly featuring blasphemous material.

 

[ace009]

Killing of Minority minister in Pakistan ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/03/world/asia/03pakistan.html?_r=1&hp

 

[ace009]

THE TALE OF TWO NATIONS






Both were one nation at one time.

Yet, one has to see the vast difference in mindset.

One is a rationale country wanting to keep pace with the times, whilst the other is heading at neck break speed toward antediluvian and mediaeval times.

Maybe the racial difference plays a part in the tolerance of one, and the abject intolerance of the other!

Feels like there is hope for Bangladesh - the sacrifices of bangladeshi freedom fighters and Indian Soldiers in 1971 were not all in vain. For Pakistan there is no hope. They see the light (of reason and tolerance) and fly into medieval darkness of religious zealotry.

 

[ajtr]

Lahore learns to love the guitar​

Guitar lessons are becoming a popular hobby among children and sustaining the pop music industry
LAHORE:
With only minutes to go before class, five little boys rush in to The Guitar School, impatient for the lesson to start. For the first 30 minutes, they surround their instructor, Abid Khan, and rehearse the songs they learnt in the last class, like 'Beat it' by Michael Jackson, 'My heart will go on' from Titanic, and the theme songs from Iron Man, Mission Impossible and The Simpsons.
If they lose track of the notes, the students are taught to raise their arm and say, "I messed up. Let's start over." Khan tells them to focus on the "4 Ps" – patience, practice, passion and persistence – to master the instrument. For the next 30 minutes, they interact with one another. More advanced students train new admits, while Khan teaches the other students new songs.
Seven-year-old Riyaan already acts like a rock star. He carries himself with confidence and dismisses criticism from his fellow students. Wali Shah, who is accompanied to the class by his mother, is admired by the other kids for his ability to pick up new tunes by ear. Hassan, also aged 7, is the only kid wanting to learn Pakistani songs on his guitar. Maaz, 11, joined recently after taking Khan's guitar class at the Lahore Grammar School.
When Khan was growing up in Lahore, there was nothing like The Guitar School. There wasn't even a place to buy guitar strings.
He learnt by listening to records and jamming with friends, and has been part of several bands like EP and Rubber Band. Now he and other teachers at TGS are training the next generation of this city's pop and rock musicians, and they are finding that interest in the industry is getting stronger and stronger. In turn, the lessons give musicians like Khan the chance to make a living outside the unpredictable business of playing concerts.
The school was opened in June 2009 and has enrolled over 400 students, around half of them aged between 9 and 12, says the school's founder Hamza Jafri, who is also guitarist and vocalist for co-Ven. TGS doesn't just offer guitar lessons. There are song writing and music theory courses, and classes on keyboards, percussion and audio production. There are also plans for dance and boxing classes.
Beginner guitar sessions for teenagers and adults are held separately for Rs6,000 per month. Ten students aged between 10 and 13 are enrolled in intermediate classes. Thirty-seven study music theory. "We allow children and parents to visit and interact with students and teachers before signing up," says Jafri.
One TGS instructor teaches at the Lahore College of Arts and Sciences, while Abid recently started holding guitar lessons at two LGS branches. A guitar club has been formed at a girl's LGS branch with the youngest student aged four. The oldest are a few O level students, aged 13 or 14, Khan says. Steve, another faculty member, gives lessons at the Lahore University of Management Sciences.
The school also set up a small jam room where children can rehearse. The space is also used for regular concerts where students can hear young bands from Lahore and other parts of the country, as well as play themselves to get used to performing on stage as their parents and teachers look on.
The impact is evident in The Others, who claim to be Pakistan's youngest rock band. They've already scored gigs opening for popular artists like Jal and Strings as well as independent concerts like the last LGS Halloween event.
Zoya Sultan, 15, lead singer and guitarist for The Others, and her brother Ali, 8, percussionist, took song writing and music theory lessons at TGS. Their father and band manager, Uzair Sultan, says the experience helped his children a great deal. "They really encourage creativity and producing new and fresh music," Sultan says. "Zoya is now determined to go to the Berklee College of Music in Boston after her A Levels."
Non-Western music
The Guitar School is not the only place in town where you can learn to play the instrument. The Lahore Arts Council holds two-hour weekly sessions for just Rs300 per lesson focussing on folk, Sufi and classical music, says Shahid Tafoo, who teaches the class.
He says there has been an upturn in interest in the guitar. Previously, he says, his students taking guitar lessons during the summers would quit as soon as their schools restarted. This year, most of his students continued with their lessons.
Lahore Chitrkaar used to offer guitar lessons too, but the centre had to be closed because of financial constraints. Its instructors included Tafoo and Foaad Nizam, who has also taught at The Guitar School.
They both give private tuition as well. Nizam has students as young as five, though he says interest in the guitar is not just restricted to kids. His oldest student is aged 82.

 

[ajtr]

Hamara Karachi Festival: Shopping, Mehfil-e Ghazal and lots of food​

Fireworks opened the Hamara Karachi Festival 2011 at the Bahadurabad roundabout on Saturday night. PHOTO: ATHAR KHAN/EXPRESS
KARACHI:
Diners eating at food street restaurants included in the Hamara Karachi Festival (HKF) celebrations on Sunday were able to save up to 10 per cent. The privilege was offered at restaurants in areas including New Karachi, North Nazimabad near Landi Kotal, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Bahadurabad and Hassan Square.
Bagh-e Rizwan, an open-air restaurant where a mini zoo is already present, set up 15 barbeque stalls that sold biryani, roasted chicken and fast food while other stall owners took the opportunity to sell cosmetics, artificial jewellery and bangles to lure visitors.
A similar sight was prevalent at the food streets in Bahadurabad and Hassan Square, where a variety of cuisines were available, including Mughal, Chinese and Pakistani, for diners to choose from. The Town Municipal Administrations (TMA) ensured that sufficient entertainment was available for children and cartoon characters skipped across the roads and children got their faces painted. The Gulshan-e Iqbal TMA arranged for a 'Mehfil-e-Ghazal', where Qawwal Iqbal Shad entertained visitors with live performances.
Located in New Karachi, the Mehfil-e Ghazal and music hanagama included competitions and contests for amateur singers. New Karachi TMA Administrator Kamal Ahmed said he was glad to see that the recent target killings did not ruin the festival.

 

[ajtr]

Modern conservatives: Proud Muslims wear their faith​

The Muslim head-covering for women is not a restrictive device.
The Islamic dress code, the head-scarf for women and the facial hair for men no longer signify rigidity or old school thinking.

They never did.

Take a walk in the park and you will sense an independence of spirit. Many of those whom I observed were free of worrying about what others would think. They are attuned to a Higher Being that helps them be independent in their choices, creative and constructive in their professions and full of joy and nurturance in their relationships.

In the park

In the children's play area in the F-9 Park, one often sees women working out on the gym fixtures on one side of the play area, inside the safety of their Islamic garb. The large inflatable slides at Lake View Park, too, are frequented by women dressed similarly, giggling and having a good ol' time while women like me stand around and gaze enviously!

In the swing next to where my little nephew was in a public park one day, was a little girl. Her father, donned in a big white turban, Sunnati beard and above-ankle shalwar, was pushing her on the swing while also minding her little brother roaming around. As the girl joyously screamed, asking him to make the swing go faster and higher, he tenderly coaxed her to make do with the present speed. Gentle, nurturing, yet not giving in to the whims of the child – the perfect modern man!

Stand up and be counted

Pseudo-modern myth:

The Muslim head-covering for women is a restrictive device.

Modern reality:

Meet Nameerah Hameed. At 21 she has already traveled to Portugal, Hungary, Singapore and the US with various youth groups, she thinks progressive thoughts under her proudly covered head. Growing up, her parents always urged her to participate in speech contests, art and sports activities.

Pseudo-modern myth:

Hijab is an arbitrarily imposed tool of oppression.

Modern reality:

Myra Mustafa chose it herself. Like Myra, many other educated men and women are choosing to adhere closely to the fundamentals of Islam in their dress and physical appearance, even though their parents have made different lifestyle choices. This is the outcome of a personal quest. It is more an assertion of the individual's spirituality rather than a faceless annihilation of the self, as it is commonly understood to be. That is why many women turn to the hijab later in life too, as it is then that they find the courage to assert their will.

Islam for solace

Sacred texts of Holy Quran and Sunnah are being applied to change mindsets to build a stronger community, both physically and emotionally.

Muhammad Bilal, doing his M Phil in physiotherapy, cites sayings of the Holy Prophet (SAW) to win over reluctant patients.

"Illness is a test and getting treatment is an act of worship", is the Hadith he usually starts with. Sporting a beard and a topi, shalwar hitched up above the ankle, this soft-spoken man offers more than physiotherapy – he also counsels his patients, motivating them to get better.

Naila Mir, student counselor and mental health expert at NUST, has been conducting self-growth workshops for youth, women and men. She enriches her work on stress, anger management and other behavior modifications with references from the Quran and Sunnah. This way she encourages a more personal and internalized understanding of Islam. On the other hand, she deepens the understanding of the principles of psychology and emotional intelligence by exploring how these overlap with the teachings of Islam. Bridging modern mental health practice with the traditional wisdom of the Quran, Naila reinforces the recommendations of each through the other.

In short, over the last decade, there has been a steady growth in people's commitment to tending to their spiritual selves, across all socio-economic classes and genders in Pakistan. As this spiritual alignment is the result of their own personal will, it is absorbing deeply into the daily practices of these men and women, in their work, relationships and attitudes towards self.

These people are for real as is their power to shape kin, community and the larger cosmos.

 

[Bangalorean]

AFP: Death threats for actress who 'shamed' Pakistan

LAHORE, Pakistan — A well-known Pakistani actress Saturday said she had received death threats from militants after appearing on the Indian equivalent of hit reality television show "Big Brother".

Veena Malik, 27, incurred the wrath of hardline Islamic clerics for her performance on "Big Boss", during which she indulged in several intimate scenes with Indian actor Ashmit Patel that included massaging his head and neck.

Clerics accused her of shaming Pakistan in rival India and she also received a letter threatening to "punish" her.

"I am quite shocked after receiving this letter. First I got only verbal threats but now it is in writing," Malik told AFP by telephone from India, where she is hosting cricket World Cup show "Big Toss".

"Security is a concern and the Pakistani government is responsible for my and my family's security. I hope that the government will provide me that security," Malik said.

The actress said people with tight security details had been killed in Pakistan, referring to the January assassination of Punjab governor Salman Taseer over his opposition to a draconian blasphemy law.

"What can I say except that I have firm belief in God and life and death is in his hand," she said.

Malik said she would return to Pakistan despite the threats.

"To live in my country is my right. I am a daughter of this soil. I guarantee that I will come back to Pakistan and will live in my own country," she said.

"My hands are clean. And I have done nothing wrong. I am not the person to back out after such threats."

Sohail Rashid, Malik's media manager, said she had received a letter from the little-known Maulana Ahmed Masood, who claims to be a leader of Tehreek-e-Taliban, or the Taliban movement.

The authenticity of the threat letter or the credentials of its writer could not be verified and the spokesman for Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan was not immediately available.

"The letter says that Tehreek-e-Taliban has taken a decision as a Muslim to punish Veena Malik soon," Rashid told AFP.

"We want our daughters and sisters in our homes only and Veena Malik, who is humiliating Pakistan's name in India, will be punished soon," Rashid quoted from the letter.

"We are soon going to punish Veena Malik so that our future generations may be afraid of going to India. It is the responsibility of all Pakistanis and Muslims, but now we are going to accomplish it," Rashid quoted the letter as saying.

Ties between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, which have fought two of their three wars since 1947 over Kashmir, have been dogged by border and resource disputes, and accusations of Pakistani militant activity in India.

 

[ajtr]

Pak council protests use of padded bras by Muslim women: Report​

The Council of Islamic Ideology in Pakistan has protested the use of padded and colourful bras by Muslim women, and recommended that Pakistani Muslim researchers should try to invent an innerwear that makes female assets unnoticeable.

The council held a meeting late February in light of the protests held last month by the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) and other religious parties against the increasing import and eventual use of padded and colourful bras, Roznama Jawani reports.

The council also invited shop owners who were in the business of importing and selling female underwear, advising them to bring lingerie samples, so that the council could see about what the protesters were angry.

After the meeting was over, the council released a recommendation to the media that said: "Padded bras are Devil's cushions and he likes to rest of them. The Council of Islamic Ideology is recommending that Pakistani Muslim researchers should try to invent a bra that makes the female chest area unnoticeable."

Zakir Naik, one of the leading Islamic scholars commented that if the Pakistan government approves of the funding grant for this research and if the country is successful at making such a bra that makes the chest of women unnoticeable, Pakistan might become the biggest exporter for Shariah compliant underwear.

Naik said he would personally sign and send the first of these Shariah-bra to starlet Veena Malik and television host Ali Saleem, best known by his alter ego Begum Nawazish Ali. (ANI)




"Padded Bras are Devil's Cushions" says Council of Islamic Ideology

"Those lacy bras? They are an abomination! Do you even know how they're made? They're made in China by underfed and underpaid children. That's how they're made." said a placard that was held by a protester.