The Muslim country, which has banned content on at least 17 websites to block offensive and blasphemous material, is the world’s leader in online searches for pornographic material.

Google ranks Pakistan No.1 in the world in searches for pornographic terms, outranking every other country in searches per person for certain sex-related content, FOXNews.com said.

Pakistan has ranked No.1 in searches per-person for "horse sex" since 2004, "donkey sex" since 2007, "rape pictures" between 2004 and 2009, "rape sex" since 2004, "child sex" between 2004 and 2007 and since 2009, "animal sex" since 2004 and "dog sex" since 2005, according to Google Trends and Google Insights, features of Google that generate data based on popular search terms.
The country has also been No.1 in searches for "sex", "camel sex", "rape video" and "child sex video".

Google Trends generates data of popular search terms in geographic locations during specific time frames. Google Insights is a more advanced version that allows users to filter a search to geographic locations, time frames and the nature of a search, including web, images, products and news.

"We do our best to provide accurate data and to provide insights into broad search patterns, but the results for a given query may contain inaccuracies due to data sampling issues, approximations, or incomplete data for the terms entered," Google said in a statement, when asked about the accuracy of its reports.

The Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan did not reply to a request for an interview.

According to Gabriel Said Reynolds, professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Notre Dame, Pakistan’s monitoring and banning of websites is not part of a government effort to censor the Pakistani people, but one to shut out the rest of the world.

"(It) could lead to conversion, which would undermine the very order of the state," he said. "Part of protecting the society is making sure that there is no way it could be undermined in terms of foreign influences."

And while Pakistan is taking measures to prevent blasphemous material from being viewed by its citizens, pornographic material is "certainly" contradictory to Islam, too, Professor Reynolds said.

The country’s punishment for those charged with blasphemy is execution, but the question remains what – if anything – can be done about people who search for porn on the web.

"It’s a new phenomenon," Professor Reynolds said.  http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/breaking-news/pakistan-no1-in-the-world-in-pornographic-internet-searches/story-e6freuyi-1225891458276

3.UN rejects govt stance on Benazir report: By Masood Haider in Dawn, July 14
UNITED NATIONS: The UN Secretary-General, Mr Ban Ki-moon, rejected on Monday the Pakistan government’s position on the Benazir Bhutto Inquiry Commission report, saying that “the work of the commission is complete.

In a letter delivered to Pakistan’s permanent mission to the United Nations, the UN chief “reiterated his strong support for the commission and stated that the commission carried out its work professionally in fulfillment of the Terms of Reference agreed between the government of Pakistan and the secretariat and noted by the Security Council”.

The UN Chief said “the report speaks for itself and can be helpful to any subsequent investigations”.

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had questioned the “credibility and reliability” of the report and said that “the lack of source attribution leads to vagueness and ambiguity in some parts of the report which has undermined its credibility as a fact-finding report”.

Mr Ban asserted in the letter that “the terms of reference of the commission called for the commission to conduct an inquiry into the facts and circumstances of the assassination of Ms Bhutto”.

“The report painstakingly sets out the facts regarding the assassination and provides an extensive description of the circumstances around the crime,” he said.

The UN spokesman said in a statement: “The secretary-general has full confidence in the committee’s judgment. He believes that the report produced by the commission speaks for itself and can be helpful to any subsequent investigation.”

In his letter Mr Qureshi mentioned, among other things, lack of attention paid to any international dimension of the Dec 27, 2007, killing of the former prime minister. http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/16-un-rejects-govt-stance-on-benazir-report-470-hs-08

Nisar had hinted at this while talking to the media last month. He said that mid term polls would remain the only option if a large number of lawmakers were disqualified. Speaking from a high moral ground he had ruled out support for any legislation that would save the fake degree holders, accusing the PPP of meditating the move.

Nisar had ranted last month, "We have conveyed to them (ie PPP) in the strongest terms that we would not be part of any such move, rather we would resist it inside and outside the Parliament." Early this month, Nisar ratcheted up the rhetoric further. "The President should not protect the cheaters," he said. He didn’t perceive then that the largest number of cheats would be from his own party.

PML-N MNA Abid Sher Ali raised the hype further. "This is a process, which will make us a great nation. Nations have to sacrifice some individuals in the process of becoming great, so we should not be scared of the situation we’re facing now." As the chickens come home to roost, Nawaz, Nisar and Abid are on a long holiday in Europe and the brunt has to be borne by Shahbaz.

When the Punjab Assembly took up the issue of the disqualification of fake degrees holders last week, the sentiment against the media and judiciary was so strong that it was not easy for Shahbaz to snub his parliamentary party, which was in open revolt. For those in possession of fake degrees, it was shocking to be disqualified.

For the rest, it was equally shocking to be forced to sit on the opposition benches. What Shahbaz did was to follow the dictum: If you can’t beat them, join them. This suited him as he himself was getting cold feet over the prospect of the disqualification of so many party legislators. He made preparations prior to the raising of the issue in Punjab Assembly. The opposition parties were sounded.

Convincing the PPP MPAs was easy as their leadership was against the legislator’s disqualification. The CM ensured the presence of the maximum members of MPs through special instructions given to the DCOs. The draft of the resolution was sent to the CM House where its language was changed to make the wording stronger. The Speaker extended the session for about 50 minutes to allow the members to revile the media.

The CM, who is mostly absent from the house, was present there all the time on Wednesday when the members delivered fiery speeches. He again spent all the time at the Assembly Hall, partly inside the house and partly in his chamber on Friday, when the resolution was passed. The moves were carefully choreographed. The debate that started on Wednesday was called off on Thursday when the CM was to speak on the water issue. The next day, the resolution was moved.

If Nawaz had thought he would be able to push the issue under the rug by making a scapegoat out of Mastikhel, he was mightily mistaken. It is the height of hypocrisy to suddenly accuse the man of being an outsider who had managed to jump over the PML-N bandwagon. Was Nawaz unaware of Mastikhel’s past when the latter was inducted into the party and issued party ticket under the vigilant eyes of the Sharif Brothers more than two years back?

Nawaz’s order from London to kick Mastikhel out from the party has remained unimplemented. What has complicated the issue further is that the man was given a hero’s welcome in Punjab Assembly by the PML-N legislators amid slogans of "Qadam Barhao Mastikhel, Hum Tumhare Sath Hain," reserved so far for Nawaz. Nawaz’s credibility would suffer for targeting Mastikhel alone and ignoring Shahbaz Sharif’s role in the episode.

The mini-revolt will be over in days to come. Rebellions are more common in opposition parties. A ruling party has enough levers to contain the rebels with threats and rewards. What is fewer in a ruling party are keen to upset the applecart. The PML-N will, however, come out of the crisis badly battered and bruised. ttp://www.brecorder.com/index.php?id=1080316&currPageNo=1&query=&search=&term=&supDate=

4.Sen. Levin urges State Department to put Afghan Taliban on list of terror groups
By Karen DeYoung in Washington Post, July 14
Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) questioned Tuesday why the State Department had not placed the two most potent Taliban groups fighting U.S. forces in Afghanistan on its list of terrorist organizations and called on Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to do so.

Neither of the two Pakistan-based groups — the Quetta Shura Taliban or the affiliated Haqqani network — appears on the department’s list of organizations, which requires only that a foreign group be engaged in terrorist activity that threatens U.S. security.

Listing can trigger a freeze on assets tied to the group and other sanctions. Levin, who spoke at a news conference after a trip to Afghanistan and Pakistan, indicated that such a listing would allow the United States to increase pressure on the Pakistani military to crack down on the groups.

Similar questions arose after the attempted Times Square bombing in May, which U.S. intelligence said was facilitated by the Pakistani Taliban, a separate organization. A group of senators wrote to Clinton in May to ask why the Pakistani Taliban, held responsible for numerous attacks in Pakistan, was not on the terror list. The State Department said in late June that it intended to add the organization.

"This is long overdue," Levin said. "Frankly, we were surprised to find out" that the Taliban is not on the list that includes al-Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah as well as more obscure Latin American and Asian groups.

Levin and Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) returned Monday from Afghanistan, where they said they saw "some signs of progress" in the U.S. war effort, including stepped-up recruitment for and mentoring of the Afghan national army. Both lawmakers are members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which Levin chairs.

They said they were encouraged by a change in plans for an upcoming military offensive in Kandahar that will put Afghan forces "in the lead" for one segment of the operation. Levin, who has pressed for more responsibility to be given to the Afghans, said the local forces had prepared a campaign plan for the Arghandab district northwest of Kandahar that has been approved by the coalition command.

"It’s a very important, dramatic event," he said of the Afghan-led operation, which he said would begin late this month or in early August and would include heavy fighting. "The Taliban’s worst nightmare in Afghanistan is for the Afghan army to be in the lead in operations against them," Levin said, noting that it would "give the lie" to Taliban "propaganda" that it is fighting invading foreign forces.

U.S. forces have been conducting clearing operations in Arghandab — where they estimate the Taliban controls up to 40 percent of the territory — since last summer. They have said the Taliban controls 80 percent of Zhari, the district immediately west of Kandahar city, where thousands of newly deployed U.S. forces are preparing an offensive scheduled to begin in September.

"The next few months will see difficult fighting," Reed said.

The lawmakers said that the result of U.S. operations in Marja, part of a Marine offensive launched in Helmand province in February, was a "mixed picture" and that they anticipated a different kind of effort in Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-largest city and a Taliban stronghold. Kandahar, Reed said, would include "tactical operations similar to those in Iraq," where a security belt was positioned around a city to interdict enemy communications and movement, allowing the indigenous government to establish itself.

The lead local official in Marja, Haji Zahir, was replaced Monday without explanation by the Afghanistan government. Zahir, who spent four years in a German prison for attempted murder, was initially praised by U.S. officials but ultimately appeared unwilling to engage in the nitty-gritty of governance.

"He was Mr. Right Now, not Mr. Right," a senior U.S. military official said Tuesday of Zahir. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/13/AR2010071306530_pf.html

5.NATO sees Taliban in power in case of early departure
LONDON: The Taliban will escalate their attacks on international forces in Afghanistan if Western political support weakens in the face of the increasingly fierce insurgency, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, secretary general of the NATO warned on Tuesday.

Rasmussen told the Daily Telegraph newspaper that he could not give a date when forces would leave the war-torn nation and urged troop-contributing countries to keep soldiers there as long as necessary. His comments came after a meeting in London with British Prime Minister David Cameron, who last week told lawmakers he hoped to see the country’s troops return home within five years.

“We can have our hopes, we can have our expectations, but I cannot give any guarantee as far as an exact date or year is concerned,” he said. “The Taliban follow the political debate in troop-contributing countries closely, and if they discover that through their attacks, they can weaken the support for our presence in Afghanistan, they will just be encouraged to step up their attacks on foreign troops,” he said.

NATO and the US have more than 140,000 troops in Afghanistan with another 10,000 due in coming weeks as part of the counter-insurgency strategy. Rasmussen said that an early departure from Afghanistan could see the Taliban return to power. If the world forces left too soon, the Taliban would return to Afghanistan which would once again become a safe haven for terrorist groups who would use it as a launch pad for attacks on North America and Europe, he said.

Rasmussen said that there would also be a risk of destabilising Pakistan, a nuclear power and a neighbour. He also said cuts to defence budgets could limit the ability of European countries to work with US troops in the future because of a shortage of up-to-date technology. “Militarily, in the case that we would like to cooperate with the Americans, we might end up in an absurd situation where we can’t … because of an extreme technology gap,” he said.

The Netherlands, Canada and Poland have announced plans to withdraw troops, while British Prime Minister David Cameron has said he would like to see British troops pull out of Afghanistan within five years. Following a meeting between the NATO chief and the British prime minister, a statement said they had agreed on the importance of the NATO mission. http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010714story_14-7-2010_pg7_12

6.U.S. May Label Pakistan Militants as Terrorists: The NY Times, July 14
By MARK LANDLER and THOM SHANKER
WASHINGTON — The new American military commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David H. Petraeus, is pushing to have top leaders of a feared insurgent group designated as terrorists, a move that could complicate an eventual Afghan political settlement with the Taliban and aggravate political tensions in the region.

General Petraeus introduced the idea of blacklisting the group, known as the Haqqani network, late last week in discussions with President Obama’s senior advisers on Pakistan and Afghanistan, according to several administration officials, who said it was being seriously considered.

Such a move could risk antagonizing Pakistan, a critical partner in the war effort, but one that is closely tied to the Haqqani network. It could also frustrate the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, who is pressing to reconcile with all the insurgent groups as a way to end the nine-year-old war and consolidate his own grip on power.

The case of the Haqqani network, run by an old warlord family, underscores the thorny decisions that will have to be made over which Taliban-linked insurgents should win some sort of amnesty and play a role in the future of Afghanistan. Mr. Karzai has already petitioned the United Nations to lift sanctions against dozens of members of the Taliban, and has won conditional support from the Obama administration, so long as these people sever ties to Al Qaeda, forswear violence and accept the Afghan Constitution.

“If they are willing to accept the red lines and come in from the cold, there has to be a place for them,” Richard C. Holbrooke, the administration’s special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, said to reporters at a briefing on Tuesday.

From its base in the frontier area near the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan, the network of Sirajuddin Haqqani is suspected of running much of the insurgency around Kabul, the Afghan capital, and across eastern Afghanistan, carrying out car bombings and kidnappings, including spectacular attacks on American military installations. It is allied with Al Qaeda and with leaders of the Afghan Taliban branch under Mullah Muhammad Omar, now based near Quetta, Pakistan.

But the group’s real power may lie in its deep connections to Pakistan’s spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, which analysts say sees the Haqqani network as a way to exercise its own leverage in Afghanistan. Pakistani leaders have recently offered to broker talks between Mr. Karzai and the network, officials said, arguing that it could be a viable future partner.

American officials remain extremely skeptical that the Haqqani network’s senior leaders could ever be reconciled with the Afghan government, although they say perhaps some midlevel commanders and foot soldiers could. Some officials in Washington and in the region expressed concerns that imposing sanctions on the entire network might drive away some fighters who might be persuaded to lay down their arms.

The idea of putting the Haqqani network on a blacklist was first made public on Tuesday by Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, who has just returned from Pakistan and Afghanistan. Mr. Levin did not disclose any conversations he might have had with General Petraeus on the subject.

The Haqqani network is perhaps the most significant threat to stability in Afghanistan, said Mr. Levin, a powerful voice in Congress on military affairs as chairman of the Armed Services Committee. Mr. Levin also advocated increasing attacks against the organization by Pakistan and by the United States, using unmanned drone strikes.

“At the moment, the Haqqani network — and their fighters coming over the border from Pakistan into Afghanistan — is the greatest threat, at least external threat, to Afghanistan,” Mr. Levin said at a morning breakfast with correspondents.

“More needs to be done by Pakistan,” he added. “The Pakistanis have said they now realize, more than ever, that terrorism is a threat to them — not just the terrorists who attack them directly, but the terrorists who attack others from their territory.”

Placement on the State Department’s list would mainly impose legal limits on American citizens and companies, prohibiting trade with the Haqqani network or its leaders and requiring that banks freeze their assets in the United States.

But Mr. Levin noted that the law would also require the United States government to apply pressure on any nation harboring such a group, in this case Pakistan.

In Kabul, a spokesman for General Petraeus said he would not comment on any internal discussions. But in public General Petraeus has expressed alarm about the network and has talked about his desire to see the Pakistani military act more aggressively against the group’s stronghold in the North Waziristan region of Pakistan.

In testimony before Mr. Levin’s committee last month, General Petraeus said he viewed the network as a particular danger to the mission in Afghanistan.

He said he and other senior military officers had shared information with their counterparts in Pakistan that showed the Haqqani network “clearly commanded and controlled” recent attacks in Kabul and against the Bagram Air Base outside Kabul, which is controlled by the United States.

The focus on a political settlement is likely to intensify next week at a conference in Kabul, to be headed by Mr. Karzai and attended by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other officials. Mr. Karzai recently signed a decree authorizing the reintegration of lower-level Taliban fighters, and Mr. Holbrooke said the meeting would kick off that program, which will be financed by $180 million from Japan, Britain and other countries, as well as $100 million in Pentagon funds.

But Mr. Karzai is eager to extend an olive branch to higher-level figures as well. His government wants to remove up to 50 of the 137 Taliban names on the United Nations Security Council’s blacklist. Mr. Holbrooke, the special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, said the administration supported efforts to cull the list, but would approve names only on a case-by-case basis. Certain figures, like Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader, remain out of bounds, he said.

For its part, the United States is trying to keep the emphasis on the low-level fighters, rather than the leadership. The planned American military campaign in Kandahar, officials said, could weaken the position of Taliban leaders, making them more amenable to a settlement.

Still, the United States backs “Afghan-led reconciliation,” Mr. Holbrooke said. And he said the administration was encouraged by recent meetings between Mr. Karzai and Pakistani leaders, which he said were slowly building trust between these often-suspicious neighbors.

“Nothing could be more important to the resolution of the war in Afghanistan,” he said, “than a common understanding between Afghanistan and Pakistan on what their strategic purpose is.”   www.nytimes.com/2010/07/14/world/asia/14diplo.html?_r=1&ei=5040&partner=MOREOVERNEWS&pagewanted=print

7.NATO tankers, other vehicles destroyed in attack
NOWSHERA, July 13: Unidentified attackers destroyed two oil tankers, supplying fuel to Nato forces in Afghanistan, in Pabbi area here on Tuesday evening.

Eyewitnesses said that six other vehicles in the area were also destroyed in the incident. The tankers were parked on the Grand Trunk Road for overnight stay when unidentified persons opened firing at those from unspecified location. The tankers caught fire which also engulfed other parked vehicles.

The fire brigade was called in to extinguish the fire. Local people said that they heard huge explosion in the area. No casualty was reported.

Meanwhile, police continued search operation in different areas of the district on Tuesday and arrested 140 people including nine proclaimed offenders, officials said. Search operation was conducted in Akbarpura and Risalpur. Weapons and narcotics were also seized during the operation.http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/local/peshawar/nato-tankers%2C-other-vehicles-destroyed-in-attack-470

8.Deoband elders’ warning to Punjab govt
LAHORE, July 13: Alleging that the Sunni Ittehad Council is attempting to ignite sectarian riots in the country, elders of Deoband school of thought have warned the Punjab government to stop ‘patronising’ their rival sect or be ready to contest the next election on divisions along Deobandi and Barelvi sects.

“Fazle Karim (council chairman) & Co is conspiring to cause Deobandi-Barelvi riots while the khadm-e-ala (Punjab chief minister) seems to be khadm-i-Barelvi and if the Punjab government does not stop patronising (the Barelvis), a campaign will be launched to make the next elections a contest between Deobandi and Barelvi schools of thought,” declared a meeting of the Deoband leaders held here at Jamia Manzoorul Islam in Cantonment on Tuesday.

It demanded a judicial commission headed by the chief justice of Pakistan to probe Data Darbar tragedy and public hanging of those found involved in the terror act at the Minar-i-Pakistan.

Prominent among those in attendance was Maulana Muhammad Ahmad Ludhianvi, a former member of banned outfit Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and accused of having links with Al-Qaeda. His new outfit, Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, had supported the PML-N in a recent Jhang by-poll.

Ludhianvi said he would accept any punishment if any arrested member of his outfit was found involved in terror activities otherwise he himself would suggest penalty for those calling him and his colleagues militants.

Alleging that some people were conspiring to pitch Deobani and Barelvi schools of thought against each other in the garb of Data Darbar suicide attack, he warned that such a scenario would be destructive for Pakistan.

Urging the government to take the situation seriously and act against the conspirators, he alleged that Fazle Karim and his colleagues were planning sectarian unrest.

Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi, Pakistan Ulema Council chief, challenged Interior Minister Rehman Malik to prove link of any militant with Deoband school of thought.

Through a resolution, the meeting urged moderate Barelvi parties to join hands with the Deobandis for maintaining peace in the country. Another resolution demanded that representatives from different schools of thought be included in the committee probing the Darbar tragedy, and yet another sought removal of Fazle Karim as chairman of the Punjab Ulema Board and banning the Karachi-based Sunni Tehrik. http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/local/lahore/deoband-elders-warning-to-punjab-govt-470

9.West must tackle Pak to fight Taliban: by Amin Saikal, Sydney Morning Herald, July 14
The author is professor of political science and director of the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies (the Middle East and Central Asia) at the Australian National University.
Australia’s military involvement in Afghanistan has become the most costly foreign policy action since the Vietnam War.
With 17 soldiers killed already and about 150 wounded – many of them crippled for life – as well as billions of dollars spent, the government’s rationale, supported by the opposition, that we must stay on course there to defeat terrorism is flimsy at best.
It fails to take into account the complexity of the Afghan situation – and is reminiscent of the Soviet justification for prosecuting an unsuccessful war in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
The Soviets rationalised invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, saying that they were fighting ”counter-revolutionaries” and ”terrorists”. However, on February 25, 1986, Mikhail Gorbachev finally described the Soviet adventure, begun in late December 1979, as a ”bleeding wound”, signalling that the then USSR was involved in an unwinnable war. Even so, it took another three years for him to withdraw the forces and accept a humiliating defeat.
Two decades later, the US and its NATO and non-NATO allies, with some 150,000 troops on the ground – 50 per cent more than the Soviets ever deployed – face a similar predicament in Afghanistan.
They have not lost the war, but they are nowhere near achieving their original goal of transforming Afghanistan into a stable, secure and democratic state. Afghanistan continues to suffer from poor governance, corruption, ethnic, tribal and sectarian divisions and a narco-economy.
Interference by its neighbours, especially Pakistan, elements of whose powerful military intelligence agency (ISI) continue to support the Taliban, has also enabled the Taliban insurgency to strengthen and expand.
The security situation has never been worse since the inception of the US-led intervention nearly nine years ago. Even the capital, Kabul, is subject to periodic horrific suicide and car/truck bombings and frequent kidnappings and killings.
Meanwhile, the strategy pursued by the US and its allies has proved deeply inadequate. President Barack Obama’s population-centric strategy is to protect the Afghan people in main urban centres.
But it has so far failed to make the majority of Afghan people warm to the government in Kabul – or to its international backers.
Many Afghans view the presence of foreign forces as supporting President Hamid Karzai’s corrupt and dysfunctional government rather than making a difference to the life of ordinary Afghans, most of whom are still poverty-stricken.
Together with the fact that the NATO allies are actively looking for an exit strategy sooner rather than later, this has generated a political-strategic vacuum that the Taliban and their supporters have exploited.
They have been able to widen their circle of recruitment, especially among fellow ethnic Pashtuns.The militia and its associates feel so confident now that they have no good reason to respond positively to Karzai’s policy of reconciliation and selective power sharing – a policy that is strongly endorsed by the US and its allies, despite the repeated condemnation of the Taliban as a terrorist group.
As far as the Taliban leadership is concerned, time is on their side and power will be theirs sooner or later.
Despite all this, Afghanistan is not terrorism central as the Australian government and many of its Western counterparts claim when justifying continuing the mission in Afghanistan.
Whatever the heinous nature and methods of their opposition, the Taliban, or for that matter their closely associated groups – the Hezbi Islami of the former maverick Mujahideen leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Jalalludin Haqani network – have not evidently engaged in any act of terrorism outside the Afghan theatre of conflict.
The movement’s links with al-Qaeda do not appear to be strong any longer either.
The CIA director announced recently that no more than 50-100 al-Qaeda operatives exist in Afghanistan. Surely, this is not a number that could warrant the level of military activity in which the US and its allies have engaged in Afghanistan.
The fact is that it is neighbouring Pakistan that has been the main actual and inspirational source of Muslim extremism and terrorism in south Asia.
The country not only has its own growing Taliban movement and other extremist groups, but has also nurtured the Afghan Taliban.
The ISI was originally instrumental in forging an alliance between al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban. This was all part of a strategy to use radical Islamism as an instrument of foreign policy in promoting Pakistan’s regional influence over India and Iran.
If Australia and its Western allies want to fight terrorism emanating from Afghanistan, it is imperative for them to focus more on Pakistan militarily than on Afghanistan. What Afghans need most is structural political reforms, institution building, a relevant ideology of national unity and reconstruction to provide them employment and improved living conditions, and therefore human security.
It would be the best way to contain the Taliban’s resistance. http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/the-west-must-tackle-pakistan-to-fight-taliban-20100713-109ib.html

10.Wave of resentment in south Punjab after CJ canal closure
By Shakeel Ahmed in Dawn, 14 Jul, 2010
MULTAN: The closure of the Chashma-Jhelum Link Canal has elicited condemnation from people in south Punjab, with farmers and irrigation experts fearing the decision will deal a blow to the country’s agriculture economy.

Several experts Dawn contacted spelled out the adverse impact of the decision.

Punjab Water Council spokesperson Rabia Sultan said there was no justification for closing the canal as the hue and cry the Sindh government and politicians had raised was baseless. She said the Sindh chief minister had no right to demand closure of the canal as the water that was being released into it was Punjab’s allocated share.

“Article 14-D of the 1991 Water Accord allows the provinces to plan use of their share of water according to their need,” she cited. She claimed all the canals in the country, except Taunsa-Panjnad and Chashma-Jhelum link canals, were flowing on full indent on July 6 when the decision to release water into Chashma-Jhelum Link Canal was taken.

She said an increase of 10,000 cusecs of water was also made to the Sindh’s water share when the same quantity of water was released into Chashma-Jhelum Link Canal, though Sindh was already getting its share of 200,000 cusec water it had demanded.

When the Indus Water Treaty was signed in 1960 and India retained right to three eastern rivers (Ravi, Beas and Sutlej), it was decided that Pakistan would build dams and canals to supply water to those areas that had been deprived of their water due to giving control of water of three rivers to India, she said.“The water of Mangla Dam with a total storage capacity of 5.4 million acre feet (MAF) was entirely allocated for those areas that were deprived of water while 4.6 MAF water of Tarbela, having a total capacity of 9 MAF, was allocated for Tarimoon and Panjnad. Chashma Barrage was constructed only to release water into Chashma-Jhelum Link Canal,” she said.

She further said the Chashma-Jhelum Link Canal’s capacity was 27,000 cusecs and the canal irrigate eight districts of southern Punjab, including Bhakkar, Jhang, Toba Tek Singh, Khanewal, Muzaffargarh and Bahawalpur.

The cotton cultivated area of south Punjab was three million acres while the cotton cultivated area of the entire Sindh was only 1.7 million acres, she said. She added the canal remained opened even during the drought year of 2001-02 and 5 MAF water was released into it that year.

The canal closure, she said, was violation of Article 4 of the accord. According to the agreement, she said, the federation of Pakistan was responsible for ensuring the availability of water to those areas that would be deprived of their water due to giving the control of the three rivers to India.

“Thus, the Pakistan government is committing violation of an international agreement by closing the Chashma-Jhelum Link Canal,” she said.

The PWC spokesman said the total area under cultivation in Punjab was 25 million acres compared to 12 million acres of Sindh. But Punjab’s water share was 54 MAF against Sindh’s 44 MAF, she said.

Kissan Board of Pakistan former secretary-general Jam Hazoor Bakhsh said canals were closed in Cholistan for the last one year and there was no potable water. Equally disturbing was unavailability of fodder for animals in the area, he said.

He criticised the Punjab government for failing to safeguard the rights of the people in southern part, demanding reconstitution of the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) with representation by south Punjab.

Khwaja Muhammad Shoaib of Farmers’ Vision Forum said Sindh had enough water and much of it got waste after falling into the Arabian Sea. “The issue is being exploited for political point-scoring,” he said.

PML-Q legislator Mohsin Leghari alleged the rulers of Punjab were not interested in understanding the issues of southern Punjab as they had once again proved by agreeing to the canal closure at the cost of poor farmers’ rightful share. He said he would raise this issue on the assembly floor and make the authorities concerned realise the gravity of the situation. http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/national/chashmajhelum-link-canal-closure-wave-of-resentment-in-south-punjab-470

11.Punjab-Sindh water row: edit in The Daily Times, July 14
In a meeting presided over by the prime minister, it has been decided to reverse the July 6 directive to open the Chashma-Jhelum (CJ) Link Canal arbitrarily issued by the acting chairman of Indus River System Authority (IRSA), Shafqat Masood. This act had ignited fireworks between Sindh and Punjab, where both parties took extreme positions and none was ready to compromise. Sindh wanted a reversal of this decision and removal of Shafqat Masood as chairman, while Punjab stated it would not compromise on its due share of water. Thankfully, the prime minister’s intervention has brought both on the negotiating table, and according to latest reports, Raqeeb Khan from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been appointed as the new chairman. The entire episode has brought into sharp relief not only the relative impact of water shortage on Sindh in comparison to Punjab, but also the inefficacy of IRSA in implementing the 1991 Water Apportionment Accord.

Currently, draught-like condition exists in Sindh, where the only source of fresh water is the River Indus. Ground water is too brackish to be used for drinking, sanitation and irrigation purposes. While Punjab is water-stressed, scarcity of water in Sindh is a question of survival for humans and livestock. Nowhere in Punjab does such condition exist, as ground water is available for drinking, sanitation as well as agriculture, although here too increase in population and overuse has depleted the aquifers. No wonder, then, that tempers are flared in Sindh when Indus’s water is diverted somewhere else. This seething anger against Punjab was visible in Sassui Palejo’s insistence on Shafqat Masood’s removal despite Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah’s conciliatory demeanour towards Punjab after meeting the prime minister on Monday. While Sindh chief minister’s temperate response in appreciated, if Sindh’s legitimate water needs are not addressed, this anger may flare up to take worse forms.

The other issue relates to the arbitrariness with which the acting chairman of IRSA acted, completely disregarding IRSA rule and the earlier consensus decision of the authority not to open CJ Link Canal. This canal had been constructed to divert floodwater to Punjab to save the lower areas from devastation and make use of the available water. Later, it was used to pilfer water for irrigation purposes in Punjab in areas as far as Thal at the cost of decimating and alienating Sindh. Mr Shafqat Masood acted in a highly irresponsible manner and damaged the cause of the federation. He does not even qualify to represent Punjab, let alone act as IRSA chairman. It is imperative that Punjab should appoint a competent person in his place.

IRSA is meeting today to discuss the water apportionment formula among provinces. In doing so, it should weigh the economic necessity in Punjab against human water needs in Sindh. If Punjab is not given the required amount of water for irrigation, its agricultural production will be affected, impacting the overall food security of the country. The government can think of alternative means to tackle this issue, such as introduction of more efficient means of irrigation, import of food, etc. There is no alternative for Sindh. It needs its share of Indus water for the very survival of its population. Punjab should take into account all these considerations before taking up a stance at IRSA, as these are going to weigh time and again in future. http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010714story_14-7-2010_pg3_1

12.Pro-media resolution depicts party divisions: By Mubashir Hassan in The Nation, July 14
LAHORE – Despite directives from President Asif Ali Zardari and PML-N Quaid Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif to their respective Parliamentary parties to pass a pro-media resolution, it was strongly protested by a large majority of the Punjab Assembly’s legislators on Tuesday, who made it a matter of prestige for them to backtrack from earlier stance on the same issue.
As per Assembly sources, it was with great difficulty that Punjab Law Minister, Rana Sanaullah managed to convince Assembly members from PPP side and those belonging to his own party to support the resolution; as majority of them thought it would be tantamount to backtracking from the first one passed against the media.
Long discussion on the subject took place among the legislators in the lobbies, but they failed to evolve consensus over the issue.
Later, a joint meeting of Parliamentary parties of PPP and PML-N was held in the committee room to sort out the differences.
The legislators from the two parties expressed their reservations about supporting a pro-media resolution, just a few days after passing a totally different resolution on the same subject.
Besides some PML-N members, PPP’s Nazim Hussain Shah, Ashraf Sohna and Major (Retd) Abdur Rehman vehemently opposed the pro-media resolution, saying it was a matter of prestige for them.
They believed it would be a clear backtracking from their earlier stance and tantamount to a complete surrender before the media, which was not acceptable to them.
PPP’s Maj (R) Abdur Rehman even went to the extent of saying that he was ready to resign in support of Sanaullah Mastikhel, who had moved the first resolution.
Some of them opined that Punjab Assembly should not take a U-turn unless media was obliged to tender apology for what they called unfair comments about Parliamentarians in newspaper editorials and various talk shows on news channels.
Rana Sanaullah, who was spearheading the move, managed to silence the dissenting voices from his own party, but could not prevail upon PPP members, the most vocal among them being Nazim Hussain Shah from Multan. After long deliberations and persuasion by the Law Minister, the Parliamentarians finally agreed to support the resolution provided there was no mention of the earlier resolution in the new one. As agreed, it was confined only to lauding media’s role in restoration of democracy and judiciary without any reference to the Friday’s resolution.
However, majority of the members left the House at the time of voting, as hardly a 100 members out of total 371 were present in the House at the time of voting. The Opposition also supported the motion though amid protest for not being allowed on Monday to present a similar resolution in the House.
It may be recalled here that at the time of passage of the first resolution, a good number of Assembly members irrespective of their party affiliation had supported it besides delivering anti-media speeches before its passage. But when they were asked to approve a pro-media resolution, most of them expressed their unwillingness.
Commenting on Tuesday’s resolution, many Parliamentarians thought it would have been difficult for the Treasury to get it approved had it not been passed by voice vote.
www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online//Politics/14-Jul-2010/Promedia-resolution-depicts-party-divisions

13). 29 down, 511 safe, says HEC: By Khawar Ghumman in Dawn, 14 Jul, 2010
ISLAMABAD, July 13: After weeks-long scrutiny, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) announced on Tuesday that at least 29 of the 511 lawmakers whose record had been checked so far had lied about their academic qualifications.

However, the HEC did not name the legislators whose educational documents were found to be fake or forged. The commission said it wanted to be doubly sure before releasing the names of any wrongdoers.

The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Education, headed by Chaudhry Abid Sher Ali of Pakistan Muslim League-N, had tasked the commission with verifying the educational qualifications of 1,170 members of the Senate and National and provincial assemblies, copies of whose educational testimonials were subsequently sent to it for verification.

Some 936 of these copies were found to be legible, whose scrutiny was undertaken by the commission. (The lawmakers whose degree copies were not legible have since been asked to submit legible copies.)

“So far the commission has received verification reports on the degrees of 511 lawmakers, belonging to 29 universities. Of this number, academic certificates of 29 lawmakers have turned out to be false,” the commission’s adviser on quality assurance and learning innovation, Dr Syed Mahmood Raza, said on Tuesday, the day by which the verification process was supposed to be completed.

Dr Raza, who heads the three-member committee supervising the scrutiny work, said in all 36 degree-awarding institutions were involved in the process. “We hope the seven institutions that are yet to send us reports will do so soon,” he added.

“By the 16th of July the HEC will have the outcome of the entire exercise. After that a formal announcement will be made.”

Dr Raza said that among the major institutions that were yet to submit their reports were University of Punjab, University of Balochistan, Allama Iqbal Open University, Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai University and University of Engineering and Technology, Peshawar.

When repeatedly asked about the names of the 29 legislators who had lied about their educational qualifications, Dr Raza said the issue was a sensitive one and extra care was being taken before releasing the names of legislators who had indulged in wrongdoing.

He said the scrutiny work was being carried out for a second time for all lawmakers.

Dr Raza denied that the HEC was under pressure from the government over the matter. http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/29-down%2C-511-safe%2C-says-hec-470

14.‘Declare assets by Sept 30’: report in Dawn, 14 Jul, 2010
ISLAMABAD, July 13: Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retired) Hamid Ali Mirza has directed members of parliament and provincial assemblies to submit their total yearly statements of assets and liabilities to the Election Commission by September 30.

“The statements should include the assets of the parliamentarians, their spouses and dependents, which is a mandatory requirement under Section 42A of the Representation of the People Act 1976 and Section 25A of the Senate (Elections) Act 1975.”

The directives issued by the chief election commissioner said every member shall on prescribed form submit the statements of assets.

The statements of assets and liabilities submitted shall be published in the official gazette and its copies may be obtained on payment of a prescribed fee.

The CEC will notify the names of the members who failed to file statements of assets and liabilities by the October 15.

Those submitting false statements will be proceeded against.http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/local/islamabad/declare-assets-by-sept-30-470