SOUTH ASIA
Musharraf For ISI, RAW Rapprochement
Washington: Accusing India of trying to turn Afghanistan against Pakistan, former president Pervez Musharraf warned of “counter-measures” by Islamabad and at the same time called for a rapprochement between intelligence agencies ISI of Pakistan and the Indian RAW.
Fuming that Afghanistan enjoyed a relationship with New Delhi too close for Islamabad’s liking, Musharraf said it was time the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) exchanged notes over Kabul. “Since our independence (in 1947), Afghanistan always has been anti-Pakistan because the Soviet Union and India have very good relations in Afghanistan,” he told the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington think tank, Wednesday.
Accusing India of working to turn Afghanistan against Pakistan, he said: “We must not allow this to continue. We must not begrudge if Pakistan orders ISI to take counter-measures to protect its own interests. Now, India is trying to create anti-Pakistan Afghanistan. This is most unfortunate, and I am not saying this because I have some (Indo-centric) – and I’m anti-India. I know this through intelligence, I know this to be a fact.”
“Today, and just to give you one proof, today, in Afghanistan, Afghan diplomats, the intelligence people, the security people, the army men, all go to India for training,” he said, echoing an old Pakistani complaint, adding, “Now they go there, they come back, they get indoctrinated against Pakistan and, may I say, over the years … Afghanistan always has been anti-Pakistan because (the) Soviet Union and India have very close relation in Afghanistan. And the intelligence agency, KGB, RAW and KHAD of Afghanistan have always been in cooperation and talking since 1950s. So I think this needs a rapprochement certainly between India and Pakistan and rapprochement also between the two intelligence organizations: the RAW of India and the ISI of Pakistan.”
Former army chief Musharraf, who seized power in 1999, was the president when the US invaded Afghanistan to topple the pro-Pakistan Taliban regime following the 2001 terror attack.
Under US pressure, Musharraf stopped supporting the Taliban. But US and other experts say that the ISI has continued to maintain clandestine links with the Taliban and is upset with India’s clout in Afghanistan.
Pakistani officials say India is using Afghanistan to encircle Pakistan. Islamabad is bitterly opposed to the four Indian consulates in Afghanistan saying these are meant to spy on Pakistan.
Describing the current relations between the US and Pakistan as “terrible,” Musharraf said Afghanistan could plunge into conflict along ethnic lines after 2014 when American combat troops withdraw. “Are you leaving a stable Afghanistan or an unstable Afghanistan? Because based on that, I in Pakistan will have to take my own counter-measures,” Musharraf said, adding, The “adverse impact will be on Pakistan, so any leader in Pakistan must think of securing Pakistan’s interests.”
-IANS
SOUTH ASIA
Pakistani Anti-graft body wants travel ban on Nawaz Sharif, kin
Pakistan’s anti-corruption watchdog has asked authorities to place ousted premier Nawaz Sharif, his daughter and son-in-law on the Exit Control List to prevent them from leaving the country.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) sent a formal request to the ministry of interior. The interior ministry officials confirmed that the NAB wrote that names of Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Capt (retd) Muhammad Safdar should be put on the Exit Control List (ECL), which listed individuals not allowed to leave Pakistan.
The NAB argued that as the trial of the three nears its conclusion, it is feared that they would leave the country.
Earlier, a similar request to place name of finance minister Ishaq Dar on ECL was not accepted, allowing him to go to London and never return.
Sharif, 68, and his family this week filed an application with the accountability court seeking a fortnight’s exemption from personal appearance from February 19 onwards to let them go to London to see Sharif’s ailing wife. Three cases were filed against Sharif and his family last year, including Avenfield properties, Azizia & Hill Metal Establishment, and Flagship Investments.
Maryam and Safdar are accused only in Avenfield properties case. The NAB had filed two supplementary references against Sharif, his sons Hasan and Hussain regarding Al-Azizia Steel Mills & Hill Metal Establishment and Flagship Investment cases.
SOUTH ASIA
Pakistan “breaches obligations’ on nuclear arms reduction, UN court told
The Hague: Pakistan is violating its “obligations” to the international community by failing to reduce its nuclear arsenal, the Marshall Islands told the UN’s highest court on Tuesday.
The small Pacific Island nation is this week launching three unusual cases against India, Pakistan and Britain before the International Court of Justice.
Majuro wants to put a new spotlight on the global nuclear threat, its lawyers said yesterday, by using its own experience with massive US-led nuclear tests in the 1940s and 1950s.
“Pakistan is in breach of its obligations owed to the international community as a whole,” when it comes to reducing its nuclear stockpile, said Nicholas Grief, one of the island nation’s lawyers.
DeBrum warned that even a “limited nuclear war” involving the two countries would “threaten the existence” of his island nation people.
Pakistan and India have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947, two of them over the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir.
In 1998, the rival neighbours both demonstrated nuclear weapons capability.
The ICJ’s judges are holding hearings for the next week and a half to decide whether it is competent to hear the lawsuits brought against India and Pakistan — neither of which have signed the 1968 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
A third hearing against Britain — which has signed the NPT — scheduled to start on Wednesday will be devoted to “preliminary objections” raised by London.
The Marshalls initially sought to bring a case against nine countries it said possessed nuclear arms: Britain, China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia and the United States.
Israel has never admitted to having nuclear weapons.
But the Hague-based ICJ, set up in 1945 to rule in disputes between states, has only admitted three cases against Britain, India and Pakistan, because they have accepted the ICJ’s compulsory jurisdiction.
Pakistan’s lawyers did not attend Tuesday’s hearings.
It did however file a counter-claim against Majuro’s allegations saying “the court has no jurisdiction to deal with the application” and insisting that the case is “not admissible”, said ICJ President Ronny Abraham.
SOUTH ASIA
Bangladesh to drop Islam as official religion following attacks on Hindus
New Delhi: Bangladesh is likely to drop Islam as its official religion following a series of attacks on people from other faiths in the country. The country’s Supreme Court is hearing a plea challenging the status of the official religion of the country to Islam.
Bangladesh, which was declared a secular country after its formation in 1971, was declared an Islamic country following a constitutional amendment in 1988.
According to a report in the Daily Mail, the plea has challenged the declaration of Islam as the national religion of the country.
The move is being supported by leaders from the minority communities like Hindus, Christians and Muslim minority Shiites.
Bangladesh has 90 per cent of Muslims, 8 per cent Hindus and remaining constitutes Christians and Muslim minority Shiites.
In last month, a Hindu priest was hacked to death following an attack on a temple in Panchgarh district. Two others were seriously injured in the attack. There have been several lethal attacks on writers and bloggers.
According to a report in the Independent, Islamist groups Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh and Ansarullah Bangla Team are believed to have carried out at least seven attacks on foreign and minority people in Bangladesh in the past year.
