US says no plan to seize Pakistan’s N-weapons

 

 Dawn, Pakistan

The US believes that Pakistan is capable of defending the weapons against any move to seize them: Boucher.

WASHINGTON: The United States has no plans to seize Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, says Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher.

In an interview to Dawn, Mr Boucher rejected the suggestion that once the Taliban were defeated, the US would turn its attention to Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.

‘I think it is silly. Nobody has any basis to make a claim like that,’ Mr Boucher said. The US, he said, believed that Pakistan was capable of defending the weapons against any move to seize them.

Mr Boucher said the US was seeking a constructive, long-term engagement with Pakistan that went beyond the US need to defeat the terrorists responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The US, he said, would soon launch a major effort to help those displaced during the current military offensive in Swat and the adjacent valleys.

Senior US officials met at the State Department on Wednesday to review various options for helping Pakistan while a similar meeting was held at the White House on Tuesday.

The US has already made a disaster declaration to coordinate relief efforts by various government agencies. So far the US has donated $62 million to a fund set up to help the displaced people.

Mr Boucher said the US believed that ‘Pakistan has a very capable’ army which could defeat the Taliban in Swat and other areas.

‘But it needs counter-insurgency training, particularly to learn how to keep an area once the militants are cleared,’ he said. The US has earmarked $400 million of military aid for Pakistan for this year and $700 million for next year.
‘Most of it is meant for training and equipping the FC but a lot would also go to the army and other law-enforcement agencies,’ Mr Boucher said.

He said the US never believed that the militants could capture Islamabad but ‘the worry is that these people will expand their ability to attack any place and at any time they want. And this is something no body wants’.

Mr Boucher said the US did not see the Taliban campaign changing into a Pasktoon nationalist movement. ‘The Pakhtoons, including those living in the tribal areas, want a better life, like everybody else. And they want it within a moderate and modern Pakistan.’

The US official said the situation in Pakistan was already improving. ‘The economy is showing signs of improvement. The food and energy shortages have reduced. Political forces are getting together against the militants. And the people in general are getting together to deal with the dangers threatening their country,’ he said.

Mr Boucher welcomed Prime Minister Gilani’s decision to call an all-parties conference to deal with the political consequences of the military action in Swat, describing it as a step in the right direction.

Mr Boucher, who served as assistant secretary for more than three years and will soon be replaced, said his most worrying moment in dealing with Pakistan was the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

‘It was hard to predict how Pakistan would go forward’ after the assassination, he said. ‘It is a sign of the strength of the Pakistani system that Pakistan been able to face’ this and other challenges.

‘Is army the strongest stabilising factor in Pakistan?’ he was asked. ‘I would not say that. People throughout the society, the army, the federal government, the local and provincial governments and the civil society; they all share the desire to build a strong, moderate and modern Pakistan.’

Mr Boucher recalled that in his dealing with former president Pervez Musharraf, he had ‘a lot of multiple and intense conversations’ with him about the need for restoring democracy to Pakistan.

‘President Musharraf understood the strategic need for the transition,’ he added. ‘Ultimately, it was a combination of both … the realisation that it was time for change’ and the people’s pressure that forced the general to accept democracy, Mr Boucher said.

‘I will never answer that question,’ said the US official when asked which Pakistani leader he was the most comfortable with.

‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’

 

Posted by Guest in Featured Articles on 05 7th, 2009

Anandi Mukharjee, a student activist based in New Delhi writes about Sabra Ahmadzai, an Afghan girl who travelled from Kabul to Pithoragarh to Delhi in search for an Indian Army Major who had married her in Kabul but had disappeared 15 days later. Mukharjee narrates Sabra’s quest for justice as the army investigates her claims of marriage and being deceived.

While the inquiry is in progress, the Indian army Chief, Deepak Kapoor, says action will only be taken if the Major is found guilty.

‘If an inquiry reveals that an army man is at fault, he is automatically liable to appropriate disciplinary action and it will be immediately taken. The army does not believe in shielding a perpetrator of any kind of corruption or crime,’ says Kapoor.

But he also adds that the army has done its own investigation and has a certain ‘dichotomy’ between army records and what Ms. Ahmadzai claims in her records to the police.

‘The dichotomy stems from the fact that her so-called marriage took place in December. As per our records and according to the details of the officer on the Mission to Afghanistan, he was there from January to November. So there is a basic dichotomy between what the FIR has said and what the officer has done when he was detailed there.’ says General Kapoor.

I have actually lived with Sabra for a while, during her stint in New Delhi. From talking to her and knowing her personally, it’s obvious that this case is everything for her. While the Home Ministry turns her away everyday, she refuses to lose hope. She wants to fight the case in the civil courts, but since Major Pant is an army person, she needs the permission of the Home ministry to do so, and well, the Home Ministry seems to be too busy with other things –  they never give her the appointments she wants. And yet, Sabra comes back with a smile on her face everyday. She is grateful for the love and support she gets from us, the student activists and many others. One can’t see an iota of bitterness in her.

I personally let Sabra live with me because I was moved by her spirit. Her journey – from Kabul to Pithoragarh to Delhi has not been an easy one. And yet, this sheltered Afghan girl has taken everything in her stride. When one asks her, she just says, ‘for a woman, this is life. But I’m also fighting for other women like me. What happened to me should not happen to anyone else – that is what my fight is for.’

She has her bad days, she looks at his photographs and breaks down, but she is a remarkably strong person. And that, I believe is the spirit of women. She knows her case might take years, but she is not willing to give up. As the saying goes – ‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.’

It’s time Pakistan grew up!

by C. Khaleeli

It is time Pakistani’s grew up. They have been a nation for over 60 years – retirement age.

Pakistan can not blame the whole world for its woes.  It worked to blame the British for the first 25 years but it does not carry weight today. 

We have left ourselves wide open to exploitation and allowed these "Zionist, western, kaffirs, self interest pushing murderers" to be our boss.  Look at Iran it is no man’s slave.  Pakistan was a viable country with a strong manufacturing and agricultural base in the 60’s. 

Our corrupt leaders have eaten that all up and are still robbing the poor to line their own pockets.  BUT we elect them, even now people are talking about giving the reins of govt to Sharif – himself a proven corrupt politician. 

Do we not have any honest, God fearing, Muslim (in the true sense) Politian in the whole of Pakistan?