Indo-Pak deadlock?

US secretary of state Ms Condoleza Rice came to Islamabad on a five-hour short trip to Islamabad and told Pakistan ‘to act’. Her deputy John D. Negroponte came a few days later to make sure Pakistan acts responsibly to UN Security Council decision to ban Jamat Dawa and Lashkar Taiba.

Pakistan is no doubt in a fix, a difficult position. On the one hand the government is crying under tremendous international pressure to act against suspected militants and on the other domestic political pressures prevent it from going too hard on these elements until and unless it is armed with solid evidence.

The PPP government is therefore trying to achieve a tricky balance. While cracking down on these outfits and detaining its leaders as part of its international obligation, it is fallen well short of officially proscribing these organizations. There is no word on it.

At the same time, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmoud Qureshi has again in a policy statement called for evidence from India. However, the foreign minister pointed that despite requests, no evidence or information has been shared with the government by India so far. His message also contained a veiled warning; ‘our own investigations cannot proceed beyond a certain point without provision of credible information and evidence…’So these seizures and detentions are more of ‘precautionary’ measures then anything else. Until and unless India shares evidence, Pakistan has made it clear it can’t proceed much further.

In Delhi, however, India has shown little willingness to accept Pakistan’s demand. Instead, India has sought custody of 40 suspects. The deadlock is quite visible.

Saving Some Money

Every year we cry foul over rising prices of sacrifical animals. This year is no exception. But what has to be done has to be. People have to think of clever ways of saving some money. The picture is of a man in Peshawar who managed to somehow buy an animal but tried to save the transport charges by tieing the poor animal behind his vehicle. How did you all saved money this Eid?

You done it again! Pakistan

Pakistan has once again been made to come hard against suspected militants. This is not the first time. Big, dramatic and disasterous events outside the country have in the past too forced the governments to arrest some suspects, only to quietly release them later, bolstering critics who claim Islamabad is not serious about fighting extremists.

Now Pakistani Prime Minister has confirmed arrest of Zarar Shah and Zaki Lakhvi. They are accused by India of masterminding the Mumbai attacks that killed over 180 people. But my question is why such arrests have to materialise only when something bad, in fact in this case very bad has happened. Why can't we keep our own house in order? Why we have to act only when international pressure becomes unbearable or the threat of a war is dangerously close to reality?

While claiming to have launched its own investigations into the Mumbai attacks, Pakistan has asked India to provide hard eveidence against these suspects. Well if you don't have hard evidence then on which basis are you going after them and arresting them? Have you found an eveidence against them on your own. If that's true then you need to proceed against them without waiting for the Indian reply.

The Pakistani leadership has swung into action after initially denying the attacks had anything to do with Pakistan. Both the president and the prime minister have made it clear they would not hand them over these suspects to India and bring them to justice inside the country. Well, if we have examples of Khalid Shiekh Mohammad and Aimal Kansi, on what ground can we deny the same facility to India. Many believe this can change too if the Indians are clever enough to play their cards well.