Zulmat Ko Zia (Darkness as Light), Performed by: Laal – The Band, Lyrics: Habib Jalib, Produced by: Umair Ayaz. Pakistan is bleeding and its been bleeding for long time.
– You Tube
Tag Archives: Musharraf
Let us call a spade a spade by Special Correspondent
– Though there was nothing against him in the Hamoodur Rehman Commission Report, Mr Bhutto preferred to keep it firmly under lock and key. Reason: He did not want the report, a comprehensive and devastating indictment of the Pakistan’s armed forces, to come in the way of his grandiose plans to rehabilitate and revive on a grander scale the demoralised and defeated institution. But then, in a matter of five years, he was made to pay with his life for setting up the commission of enquiry.
Next, when Mohammad Khan Junejo set up a commission to enquire into the Ojhri camp scandal, it did not take long for General Ziaul Haq, the then army chief and country’s all-powerful president, to send him home most unceremoniously.
And when, after the Kargil debacle, the talk of subjecting General Musharraf to a court martial started making the rounds in the corridors of power, Musharraf hit back by ousting Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a manner most unbecoming of a soldier.
So, perhaps the present coalition government has advisedly agreed to let the Army conduct its own investigation into the failure of the ISI to track down Osama bin Laden and the violation, for more than an hour, of our air space by US helicopters on May 1-2. One does not know if this seemingly astute approach of the elected government would in the final analysis save it from meeting the fate of its predecessors who acted otherwise. And what was Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Kayani trying to achieve by going on a lecture tour of three garrisons on the same day the prime minister was making a supposed policy speech in the NA? Was he trying to upstage the PM? Was he trying to tell the nation that his institution is a separate entity from the govt? Why did he do it when the need of the hour is to speak with one voice? He should have been there in the parliament galleries listening to the PM’s speech (most probably the handiwork of an ISPR copy writer rather than that of a political speech writer) to convey the impression that everyone in the country is on the same page.
But then, strangely enough, while the chief seemingly tried to distance himself from the government, he sought the help of parliament – help to save the institution from the wrath of the people at large who, no matter what spin one gave to the May 1-2 incidents, have been persuaded by the media that Osama was living untraced right under the nose of our security agencies and that US helicopters violated our airspace undetected and unchallenged. …
Read more : Wichaar
Mullah Omer in Karachi?
Osama bin Laden death: Afghanistan ‘had Abbottabad lead four years ago’
Afghanistan’s former intelligence chief says Pakistan’s then president Pervez Musharraf angrily rejected Osama hideout tip
by Jon Boone in Kabul
Excerpt:
…. Afghanistan’s former top spy – who has long been a hate figure in Islamabad among officials who believed he was implacably anti-Pakistani – also said he had no doubts that Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban movement, was hiding in a safe house owned by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the Pakistani spy agency, in the city of Karachi.
“He is protected by ISI, General Pasha [Lieutenant-General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, director-general of the ISI] knows as I am talking to you where is Mullah Omar and he keeps daily briefs from his officers about the location of senior Taliban leaders, simple,” he said.
Saleh was speaking to the Guardian soon after addressing a rally of several thousand Afghans in Kabul organised as a show of strength of what he called Afghanistan’s “anti-Taliban constituency” who are alarmed at the prospect of peace talks with insurgents. …
Read more : guardian.co.uk
Should U.S. Cut All Aid to Pakistan?
Special Guests | Charles Krauthammer
BILL O’REILLY, HOST: In the “Back of the Book” segment tonight: The United States gives Pakistan about $3 billion a year in aid. That country has not been a very good friend to us lately. Now, Pakistan is reportedly demanding the CIA cut back its presence there and that President Obama stop the drone attacks designed to kill Al Qaeda and the Taliban in the north of Pakistan. Also, in March, a major Indonesian terrorist was captured in Pakistan, but the Obama administration has not sent anyone yet to interview the guy.
So what’s going on? Joining us from Washington, Fox News political analyst Charles Krauthammer. Pakistan, should we cut all aid to that country, Charles? This is what Trump says. Let’s get out of there. I mean, they’re not helping us out. Why are we giving them $3 billion? What do you say?
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, FOX NEWS POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think we’re getting very near to that point,
Read & Watch more : FOX NEWS
Whither Pakistan
by Syed Ehtisham
Excerpt:
The leadership of the Muslim League came mostly from provinces which were not parts of Pakistan. Jinnah, like all autocrats did not tolerate difference of opinion and had excluded the bright and the intelligent like Suharwardy and Fazal Haque while promoting Liaquat and Nazimuddin …
…. Jinnah, in a singularly misconceived move towards national integration, declared that Urdu and only Urdu will be the official language of Pakistan. That, I believe, was the first nail.
Jinnah, while he lived, kept all the levers of power in his hands. Liaquat, PM in name, did not even enjoy the powers White House chief of the staff does.
Jinnah died. Liaquat did not have the authority to embrace his legacy. The power brokers in West Pakistan would not allow the drafting of a constitution which would give representation proportional to the population of East Pakistan. I recall mullahs gave the argument that if you took out 20% of the population of the East who were Hindus, the numbers between the two wings would be equal. Some even suggested that Hindus be made to pay Jazya. Finance minister Ghulam Muhammad pointed out that they would in that case be exempt from taxes. That shut the mouth of the religious lobby.
Liaquat was reduced to offering a basic principles resolution (Qarardad e Maqasid), which declared Pakistan to be an Islamic State. That put paid to Jinnah’s legacy of separation of faith and state. ….
…. Yahya arranged an election on the basis of adult franchise. Mujib got overall majority and could garner two third majority with the help of smaller provinces. There was no problem with making Mujib the PM, except personally to Bhutto, but he wanted autonomy of the kind Jinnah had insisted on in pre-independence India. ….
….. Pakistan was further burdened by immense military expenditure, which necessitated an unholy mass of debt. All nation building measures remained in the limbo. Infra-structure, education, health, research and industry remained stunted. ….
To read complete article : ViewPoint
They should apologize for Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s judicial murder
The military should apologize for Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s judicial murder
By Shiraz Paracha
Excerpt:
Parrot writers and journalists in Pakistan always praise the position of a serving Army Chief. Those who have sold their souls tell us how great the military’s top brass is. It does not matter if it includes generals, who surrendered in Dhaka, and those who ran away from Kargil, or those who killed an elected Prime Minister and tore apart the constitution. Even military leaders accused of corruption, incompetence and misconduct are portrayed as heroes.
It is not surprising that we are told that the current Army Chief, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, is the only capable saviour of Pakistan. Analysts, anchorpersons and columnists, who pretend to be mouthpieces of the military, inform us that General Kayani is different than his predecessors.
Not very long ago, General Kayani was the right-hand man of General Parvez Musharraff. After Kayani became the Commander-in-Chief, General Musharraff received a guard of honour at the end of his illegal stay in the President House. The military is a state within the state in Pakistan. The sword of a military intervention still hangs over the civilian government as the power equilibrium continues to be in the military’s favour even under General Kayani.
Nonetheless, so far, General Kayani has acted wisely and he appears softer than the previous heads of the Pakistani military. The Armed Forces are supposed to defend a country but the Pakistan military has embarrassed Pakistan many times. The Armed Forces are a symbol of pride for the people of a country; in Pakistan the military has caused national discomfiture. Some Pakistani generals wanted to make history—they left with dark history. ….
…. At the same time, the Supreme Court of Pakistan and the Lahore High Court must reverse the decision of Bhutto’s judicial murder and seek an apology from the people of Pakistan. The Supreme Court is guilty of gross injustice. The Bhutto case is a stain on the institution of judiciary. Bhutto’s blood will stay fresh in the courtrooms until justice is done and Bhutto’s dignity is returned to him by the Court. The integrity and respect of the Supreme Court of Pakistan will never be restored without declaring Bhutto innocent and calling him Pakistan’s national hero.
Also the Supreme Court should formally admit that judges who were instrumental in providing legal cover to martial laws and dictators were actually traitors. The Court should give a similar verdict about generals who imposed military coups and derailed Pakistan. …
To read full article : LET US BUILD PAKISTAN
Pakistan’s Political Chess Board: PPP Plans Counter Moves
By Aijaz Ahmed
Excerpt:
The more unusual and astonishing was the participation of the “principled’ opposition leader, Ch Nisar Ali khan and his friendly discussion with ex-military dictator Musharraf’s ‘political adopted babies’ like Ch. Shujaat Hussain and Mushahid Hussain whom PML-N considers its enemies! The sole reason given by the PML-N was the discussion on political developments in of course the ‘national interest’! …
Read more : Indus Herald
PML (N) to Move for Midterm Polls in Center
By Ibn-e-Mehboob
IH Special Correspondent
Following the expulsion of PPP ministers from Punjab provincial cabinet, stage is all set for PML-N to move forward to achieve its prime objective of mid term polls to reclaim for the party’s supreme leader Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif the seat he was ousted from in October 1999 by dictator Musharraf. …
Read more : Indus Herald
Bin Laden funded Nawaz Sharif for taking part in elections
Pakistan court reissues arrest warrant for former president Musharraf
Pakistan’s populist judges : Courting trouble
– An overactive judiciary might undermine a fragile democracy
PAKISTAN’S chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, is riding high. At a time when most of the country’s political leaders are despised as venal, lazy or inept, its senior jurist is held in esteem. People tell pollsters they trust him more than anyone. They cheer his efforts to take on the corrupt and hapless president, Asif Ali Zardari. Yet Mr Chaudhry may be crossing a line from activist judge to political usurper.
His judges pass up no chance to swipe at the government. Mr Chaudhry spent months trying to get Swiss officials to reopen a corruption case that could have toppled Mr Zardari (in Pakistan, criminal proceedings against a sitting president are prohibited). After that failed, the courts took up a thin-looking case in which the president is accused of unconstitutionally holding an office for profit. That looks vindictive: the office in question is his post as head of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party.
The courts quickly adopt populist causes, especially those that squeeze Mr Zardari. After an American diplomat shot dead two men in the street in Lahore last month, the mother of one victim appealed for justice on television, saying that she would trust only Mr Chaudhry to help. The High Court in Lahore promptly ordered that the diplomat, who had been arrested, must not be allowed out of the country—even if the government were to rule that he had immunity. In this case, as in many others, the judges have shown themselves to be able self-publicists. Their stance has won approving coverage.
And on the country’s illiberal but widely popular blasphemy law, the Lahore High Court intervened to forbid the president from issuing an early pardon to anyone convicted by lower courts. Before the murder last month of Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab and critic of the blasphemy law, Mr Zardari had told him he was planning such a pardon. The courts seem set on boxing him in. …
Read more : The Economist
Benazir Murder Case: Rehman Malik Comes to Musharraf’ Rescue?
by Aziz Narejo
Federal interior minister and president Zardari’s close associate, Rehman Malik is reported to have sprung into action to get the name of former military dictator, Pervez Musharraf deleted from the list of the accused in the assassination of former prime minister & PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto.
According to some news reports, Rehman Malik has expressed his anger over the inclusion of former dictator’s name in the list of the accused and has inquired from the head of the Joint Investigation Team of FIA, as to who had given permission to the investigators to include Pervez Musharraf’s name in the list of the accused in the case. He is reported to be putting pressure on the head of the Joint Investigation Team of FIA to delete the ex-dictator’s name.
It may be recalled that the Federal Investigation Agency on Monday had submitted a fresh 57-page report in the Anti-Terrorism Court-III in Rawalpindi, declaring former president Pervez Musharraf as an accused in the Benazir Bhutto assassination case. …
Read more : Indus Herald
Must watch : Interesting and factful story of Pakistan
Achievements & Disappointments of Pakistan. The language of discussion is urdu/ Hindi.
Courtesy: Dunya TV (Tonight with Najam Sethi-23-03-2010-1) – You Tube Link
Current wave of extremism in Pakistan
Statistical ambiguity society
Just how some recent events of our surface politics offer an interesting study of the deep politics
By Dr Ahsan Wagha
It started with the worst ideological polarisation promoted by the military generals in the 1970s when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was forced to invite Saudi ambassador Riaz Al-Khatib to mediate between him and the opposition, a practice that was reverberated during the Musharraf-Nawaz conflict and has almost culminated into becoming one of the basic features of our foreign policy. The phenomenon can be investigated in the background of the history of Arab colonisation of this region.
Musharraf was hostile when he telephoned Benazir: Siegel
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Musharraf was hostile when he telephoned Benazir: Siegel
* BB’s confidante says Musharraf offered to drop charges if she quit politics for 10 years
* Former premier emailed him asking whom to hold accountable after October 18 incident
LAHORE: Former president Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf was hostile and had a confrontational discussion with former premier Benazir Bhutto before her return to Pakistan, a private TV channel quoted Benazir’s close friend and adviser Mark Siegel on Friday.
Continue reading Musharraf was hostile when he telephoned Benazir: Siegel
Benazir Bhutto Assassination
Courtesy: Express TV (Point Blank With M. Lucman, 22 Dec. 2010)
via- ZemTV – You Tube Link
An excellent article by the fearless Ayesha Siddiqa
Land allocation & the principle of eminent domain – by Ayesha Siddiqa
It is almost every second day that we come across a news item about distribution of free land or on concessional rates to significant members of the state and society. It was just a year ago that there was an uproar about land allocation to journalists. Just a couple of days ago there was the story about the chief justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, having received a plot of land under the Musharraf government. Not to forget the more popular and controversial story of military officers and civilian bureaucrats being allocated land. …
Read more : The Express Tribune
Ex-MI chief, commanders Quetta, Pindi involved
By Ansar Abbasi
ISLAMABAD: While Musharraf continues to embarrass Pakistan and its authorities, including the Pakistan Army, an important source has revealed that the General Headquarters (GHQ) and its most vital arm, the Military Operations Directorate, was bypassed by the former dictator, both in the Lal Masjid operation and Bugti killing.
The source said that none of these extremely controversial operations, which sowed the seeds of terrorism in Balochistan and the rest of the country, were the brainchild of the MO Directorate.
The source said that in both these military operations, the GHQ and concerned field command were not directly involved. “In both the cases, General Musharraf bypassed the GHQ and its MO Directorate, and gave direct orders to the relevant field commanders,” said the well-placed and well- informed source.
Ideally and as per the military’s established rules, no such operation could take place without being conceptualised and cleared by the MO Directorate. However, Musharraf, the all powerful dictator that he was, did not engage the MO Directorate.
In the case of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti’s killing, the source said, General Musharraf involved the then Military Intelligence chief Major General Nadeem Ejaz and the top command of 12 Corps.
In a briefing on Balochistan issue by the then DGMO and much before the killing of the Baloch Nawab, General Musharraf once talked about the idea of killing Bugti but the idea was not agreed to by the DGMO, who warned that it would lead to unrest. Later, Musharraf never engaged the GHQ and executed his plot to kill Bugti through the MI and the Commander of the 12 Corps.
After the Bugti killing, some key generals in the GHQ in their in-house interactions expressed their dismay over the Kohlu military operation. The Lal Masjid operation, which killed over a hundred persons and led to the escalation of terrorism cases manifold, was no different from that of the military operation aimed at killing Bugti.
The source said that the planning of the Lal Masjid operation was done by Commander 10 Corps Tariq Majid on the direct instructions of the ousted dictator.
“The GHQ and its MO Directorate were not involved in any such planning,” the source said, adding that a day after Lieutenant Colonel Haroon became the first casualty of the pre-Lal Masjid operation, Musharraf convened a meeting of top political and military authorities and given his mind that a full-fledged operation had to be carried out. …
Read more : The News
PML-N leader, Saad Rafiqe is talking against an army general of Pakistan & Fouzia Wahab on the role of media
The language of the Talk show is Urdu (Hindi).
Courtesy: Geo Tv News, Capital Talk » YouTube
Musharraf’s mumbo-jumbo
Former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf only opens his mouth to change feet. On a speaking tour of the US, Musharraf pronounced that “civilian governments [in Pakistan] have never performed”. He said that an elected government has to deliver to the people and to the state but “if that is not happening, that is the problem in Pakistan”. By dislodging Nawaz Sharif’s government in a military coup in 1999, Mr Musharraf remained in power for nine years. He then formed a quislings party, the PML-Q, to legitimise his military rule while continuing an elaborate pretence that a civilian government was in place. Musharraf should ask himself why his handpicked government was not able to ‘deliver’ or ‘perform’ when it was in power. The numerous crises that our country is facing today are mostly due to Musharraf’s policies. That said, Musharraf needs to familiarise himself with the historical perspective of why democratically elected governments in Pakistan have had a hard time performing their duties. …
Read more : Daily Times
No contradiction when it comes to Gen. Kiyani
by Adnan Farooq
One expression of hegemony that in Antonio Gramsci’s view sustains rulers in power, is self-censorship practiced by mainstream media professionals. Here is a case in point:
Noted Geo-anchorperson and Jang-columnist, Hamid Mir, in his column last week (November 04) titled “Yeh Nawaz Sharif Bhi Kehtay Thay” claims that on September 14, 1999, he informed Nazir Naji to convey to the then Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, that his government would be shown the doors if he did not mend his ways and stopped interfering with the state institutions.
One wonders if Mr. Hamid Mir had access to such sensitive information, why he kept it to himself or only shared it with Nazir Naji. Was Nazir Naji the only person in Pakistan who could save the democratic system by merely sharing it with Mian Nawaz Sharif.
Mr. Mir asserts in his column that he mentioned two advisors to Mian Nawaz Sharif and criticized his government policies during a live PTV talk show hosted by the late Khalil Malik. The show was ‘fortunately was being watched’ by Mian Shahbaz Sharif. He received a call from Mian Shahbaz Sharif soon after the PTV talk show was hooked off.
If one goes by journalistic ethics, Mr. Mir should have shared this information with the peoples of Pakistan in the same columns of his newspaper so that people and civil society could be mobilized to pre-empt unscrupulous General Pervez Musharraf from overthrowing an elected government and pushing the country in the throes of dictatorship for almost a decade. It certainly involved risks. But to champion democracy when Musharraf’s boat was about to sink, is nothing to boast about. …
Read more : View Point
Must watch : Kal bhi Bhutto zinda tha aaj bhi Bhutto zida hai
Courtesy: GEO TV ( Jawab deyh – 7th november 2010, Guest speaker Syed Mehdi)
Making sense of it all
By Kamran Shafi
When Musharraf made his U-turn on the Taliban upon American ‘urging’ after 9/11, some of us thought he meant it.
And, being the boss of bosses of the establishment of the Land of the Pure, would influence the Pakistani Deep State to change its stance too, and help the rest of the world fight the scourge wholeheartedly. And that the Taliban could do little against the rest of the world if no foreign power helped them.
Consider: the Russians, the Central Asian Republics, China, Iran, all the countries surrounding Afghanistan except for some extremist elements in Central Asia and Pakistan were against the Taliban. They were isolated and could easily have been eliminated.
Little did we know, however, that Musharraf and his junta did not mean what they said; that they were being two-faced; that the Deep State, with his approval, wanted to keep the Afghan Taliban as their proxies in the ongoing Great Game in Afghanistan, and their cousins, the Pakistani version of the bloodthirsty lot, as its ‘strategic assets’ against India.
Whilst we well remember Musharraf’s spin-doctors (aka ‘spin-quacks’) patting themselves on the back and exulting over the honorific bestowed on the dictatorship when it was anointed a ‘non-Nato ally’ of the US, they never really meant it.
While his junta milked the Americans of billions of dollars it allowed the Afghan Taliban to maintain their safe houses and bases inside Pakistani territory where they repaired after effectively targeting our ‘allies’ in Afghanistan and inflicting damage on coalition troops. This was two-facedness of a particularly vicious kind, but one that the Americans naively ignored, as it now turns out, to their cost.
Never mind too, that the Pakistani Taliban would be allowed, indeed helped, towards taking over large swathes of Pakistani territory, particularly Swat, through a mixture of acts of omission and commission of the Deep State to send a signal to the Americans that it was hard put to defend its own country, so what could it do to help in matters Afghan? And to inveigle more monies out of them, a reported $11bn in nine years, much of it unaccounted for to date. …
Read more : DAWN
Shaikh Rasheed in DoTok
Courtesy: ARY News (DoTok, Host anchor Mazhar Abbass, guest Shaikh Rasheed
Via- ZemTV/Justin, YouTube Link
How the judges, generals and a section of media ruined Pakistan for their vested interests!
Courtesy: Express TV » (Front Line with Kamran Shahid, Oct. 30, 2010)
via – ZemTV/JustinTV – YouTube Link
Khwaja Asif on Pakistan Army
Yaa pass ker ya bardasht ker (either overtake or tolerate)
Jatoi and Jackboots – by Ayesha Siddiqa
The former minister of state for defence production Abdul Qayyum Jatoi is our version of Indian actor Salman Khan — punished and harassed for saying things which are on everyone’s mind. Although one can have an issue with his style that may not be extremely palatable to the educated urbanite, there was nothing exceptionally sacrilegious in what he said. Isn’t it true that we pay the military for defending our borders? Isn’t this a historical fact that the armed forces have used excessive power against their own people despite the fact that they are trained to fight an external threat? There shouldn’t be any issue with the fact that the army killed Nawab Akbar Bugti. Go ask Pervez Musharraf and he will give the details as he is fond of doing these days. As for Benazir Bhutto’s killing the UN Commission report says a lot about that which the foreign minister has chosen to ignore for understandable reasons.
I don’t see the reason for people taking offence to the minister’s statement regarding corruption being everyone’s right because if we were to decipher this well, what he meant was that distribution of resources should be more equal. Some region’s people get more opportunities, both legal and illegal, to exploit resources. Surely, he said it most crudely as he did with the issue of the chief justice’s domicile. All he was probably trying to say was that the chief justice did not become an indigenous Baloch, just like hundreds of others who have used a Baloch domicile to get a job in the government. Let’s face it, having the right kind of domicile makes a world of difference in getting into the bureaucracy.
Qayyum Jatoi is certainly not madder than Musharraf. In fact, both men are quite sane. While the former president seems to be selectively spilling the beans to market his capacity for governing the state, Jatoi’s ramblings were meant to deliver a message to the judges and jackboots about the present PPP leadership’s capacity to fight back. The option for the military establishment is best indicated in an Urdu sentence written on the backs of many a truck that plies on G T Road — it says ‘Ya pass ker ya bardasht ker’ (either overtake or tolerate). The GHQ can either overthrow the present political setup through some older methods (as applied in the case of the two Bhuttos) or continue with some signaling to the political leadership. …
Read more : The Express Tribune
Musharraf spills the beans
BIRMINGHAM: Former military ruler Pervez Musharraf has said that graft cases against slain PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto and her spouse Asif Zardari in Switzerland’s courts were not proven.
In an exclusive interview with Daily Express, Musharraf revealed that a letter was also written to Swiss authorities during his regime showing displeasure at the lengthy trial.
He said the rounds of negotiations he held with Benazir Bhutto were always one-on-one.
He said people on TV talk shows make noises about NRO and talk incessantly about the deal even though they know nothing about the facts.
Replying to a question, he said his meetings with Benazir Bhutto in Abu Dhabi used to span three to four hours, and they were always one-on-one. Rehman Malik accompanied the PPP leader but did not participate in the negotiations.
He recalled that when in the first round of talks Benazir asked for abolition of 58-2 (b) “I refused point blank”. He said when talking about the cases instituted against her during Nawaz Sharif government, Benazir used to become misty-eyed.
The ex-president said that the cases against Benazir Bhutto and Asif Zardari were neither proved in Swiss courts nor in Pakistan’s, while both were acquitted in many cases.
He said he had written to the Swiss courts that their performance was even worse than Pakistani courts as they failed to decide the cases, “but the fact of the matter is that there was nothing in those cases”.
Read more >> The Express Tribune
Musharraf tried to save Taliban, Osama from US wrath
Following the 9/11 terror strikes, when the US had made up its mind to bombard Afghanistan, Pakistan”s Inter-Services Intelligence and then President Pervez Musharraf made full efforts to save the Taliban and tried to persuade a red-faced Bush administration to hold a dialogue with the Taliban, as the Inter-Services-Intelligence always regarded it as one of its strategic assets.
According to recently released documents “On September 13, 2001, US Ambassador Wendy Chamberlin “bluntly” told Pakistani President Musharraf that there was “absolutely no inclination in Washington to enter into a dialogue with the Taliban. The time for dialogue was finished as of September 11.”
“Pakistan, as the Taliban’s primary sponsor, disagreed. Documents show “Pakistani Intelligence (ISI) Chief Mahmoud told the ambassador “not to act in anger. Real victory will come in negotiations If the Taliban are eliminated… Afghanistan will revert to warlordism.”
Pakistan not only made attempts to save its Taliban brethren from US wrath, but also tried to protect dreaded Al Qaeda supremo Osama Bin Laden.
The document states ” Regarding the apprehension of Osama bin Laden, the ISI chief said it was “better for the Afghans to do it. We could avoid the fallout.”
Mahmoud traveled to Afghanistan twice, on September 17, aboard an American plane, and again on September 24, 2001 to discuss the seriousness of the situation with Taliban leader Mullah Omar.
Ambassador Chamberlin said negotiations were pointless since Mullah Omar “had so far refused to meet even one US demand.”
Chamberlin told Mahmoud his meetings with Omar were fine, but they “could not delay military planning.” …
Read more >> RediffNews
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