Ripple Effect

Editorial -- The Express Tribune -- May 15 Many laws, in other countries as well as our own, are unfair. They discriminate against individuals or set in place measures that are aimed to suit only particular purposes – in some cases undoubtedly ulterior ones. But no matter what the case, laws need to be obeyed. Indeed it is all the more important that people in responsible places or aspiring to such positions try and set the right precedent. There are many reasons to disagree with the rule set in place under the regime of Pervez Musharraf that required those contesting elections to parliament to hold a degree. But the fact is that at the time when the members of the present assemblies contested elections it was in place. In April 2008, prior to the presidential election it was brought before the Supreme Court by two JUI-F legislators and consequently struck down by a seven-member bench headed by then chief justice Abdul Hameed Dogar. As far as Jamshed Dasti’s case is concerned, he resi...

Editorial --- The Express Tribune -- May 6 Why is it that when it comes to terrorism, all roads – or most of them anyway – lead to Pakistan? As long as the link to the bombing attempt at New York’s Times Square had come through vitriolic messages conveyed by the Taliban over YouTube it had been possible to convince ourselves that these were fabricated. The dramatic arrest on May 3 of Faisal Shahzad from an Emirates flight bound for Dubai from New York, however, makes such denial impossible. Of course, we still will have the naysayers who will say that Shahzad is an American (he only recently became one) and not a Pakistani (he certainly lived much of his life in Pakistan) and that how could someone from such an educated and ‘good’ family be involved in something like this (Osama bin Laden’s family in Saudi Arabia is among the wealthiest in the world while Ayman Al Zawahiri’s father was a professor and he is a trilingual qualified surgeon). The investigation that will follow the arrest ...

Editorial -- The Express Tribune May 05, 2010 Some things in our country never seem to change. Certain sections of the establishment have, for decades, been accustomed to getting away with all kinds of misdeeds. The tradition continues without check. According to reports in two national newspapers, the three-member committee formed by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani to probe the death of Benazir Bhutto has held the police responsible for hosing down the murder site — the one action that most effectively thwarted further investigation in the case. The finding by the committee means that former chief of Military Intelligence Maj-Gen Nadeem Ijaz has been let off the hook. It is not insignificant that the role of the city police officer (CPO) of Rawalpindi at the time, Saud Aziz, in the hosing down of the crime scene had been mentioned in great detail in the UN Commission’s report on Bhutto’s assassination. As a result of the probe’s findings, it came to light that the police officer ha...

Editorial -- The Express Tribune -- May 4 Ajmal Kasab’s conviction on all 86 charges related to the Mumbai attacks brought against him by the Government of India before a special court was a foregone conclusion. We say this given the reams of evidence against him, not least the photographs of him walking through the main concourse of Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus with an automatic weapon in hand. All the other attackers were killed by Indian security forces and two Indian Muslims who were tried as co-accused have been acquitted by the court. While we unequivocally welcome the guilty verdict for someone who can be best described as a mass murderer, it serves little purpose for India to gloat over it and again point a finger at Pakistan. This is precisely what we make of Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram’s statement right after the verdict when he said that it was “a message to Pakistan that they should not export terror to India”. This clearly suggests that New Delhi (or at lea...

I wrote this article some time back about the post-operation situation in Bajaur Agency and sent it to two English dailies but they did not publish it for unknown reasons. When I came to know about the launch of your new daily "The Express Tribune", I decided to resend the article with latest updates. If you dont print this article, it is okay. I can understand your limitations and also have not pinned any hopes on you. I have only written this article in an attempt to reach to the concerned Pakistanis who may realize that "We are also Pakistanis". (I had a mobile phone before the operation but since the mobile services have been cut-off for the last 20 months, my only contact is through email from net cafe whenever I come to Munda or Timergara bazar). Thanks. Sher Zaman Khan Alizai, Bajour Agency A so-called military operation is going on in Bajour Agency for the last one and a half year... We call it "so-called" because it has only served to target the c...

Editorial -- The Express Tribune - May 2 Who, or rather, what was Khalid Khawaja? If we get the answer to that we may get some idea of who his killers are. On the face of it, the Asian Tigers, as a terrorist organisation, has never been heard of till now. Khawaja went missing in March as he, Col (retd) Amir Sultan Tarar (also known as Colonel Imam) and a reputed British documentary filmmaker were on their way to meet senior members of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan in North Waziristan. Several reports suggest that he was on his way to meet Waliur Rahman Mehsud – the TTP’s purported number two – and Sirajuddin Haqqani, who because of his father’s reported ill health, is the de facto head of the Haqqani network. When the three went missing it was said that they were on their way to meet people in connection with a documentary. However, now it turns out that the purpose of their trip was something far more substantial. And before we explore that further, perhaps we need to take a closer l...

Editorial -- The Express Tribune -- May 1 The joint investigation team looking into the assassination of Benazir Bhutto has heard quite a different version of events than that told to the UN commission. The city police officer at the time of the murder has now denied he ever received a phone call from the then head of Military Intelligence General Nadeem Ijaz, that he was ever issued instructions to hose down the site of the crime or that he did so for any reason other than his own ‘negligence’. This version of events from Saud Aziz means that the much-touted investigation against a serving general is effectively over even before it really began. A day earlier, Gen. Ijaz had denied all charges against him, calling them “fabricated”. The question of what is fact and what is fiction becomes even more convoluted than before. Those close to CPO Aziz imply he has little choice but to be Gen. Ijaz’s fall guy. The pressure that would make a senior civilian officer take the blame so that a sen...