Printline Pakistan

After the Wall Street Journal created an uproar quoting President Asif Ali Zardari calling Kashmiri insurgents 8220;terrorists8221;, it is now The Washington Post8217;s turn to make news in Pakistan.

News and views

After the Wall Street Journal created an uproar quoting President Asif Ali Zardari calling Kashmiri insurgents 8220;terrorists8221;, it is now The Washington Post8217;s turn to make news in Pakistan. On November 17, The News carried excerpts of Zardari8217;s interview in the Post: 8220;The US and Pakistani governments have reached a tacit agreement on Predator strikes into Pakistani territory, under which Islamabad allows them while continuing to complain about them and Washington never acknowledges them.8221; The report drew strong reactions in a Parliament discussion. Dawn reported on November 18 that foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said 8220;there is no understanding or tacit understanding8221; after Opposition members sought the government8217;s response to the report. There was even talk of suing The Washington Post for publishing a report that he said had 8220;destroyed Pakistan8217;s image8221;. The Predator drones, however, continue to haunt Pakistan, so much so that it has led Zardari to demand them for the Pakistani army. 8220;Give them to us8230; we are your allies,8221; he said.

Pakistan has lodged a complaint against the US, reported The Nation on November 21. In an earlier report, Dawn stressed the US8217;s intention to heighten military action in Pakistani territory, despite the complaints: 8220;US military has launched a coordinated operation with Pakistani forces to put pressure on insurgents on both sides of Afghanistan8217;s wild eastern frontier, a US military commander said on Tuesday. Dubbed 8220;Operation Lionheart,8221; the operation takes cooperation between US, Afghan and Pakistani forces to 8220;the next level8221; in terms of intelligence sharing and coordination, said Colonel John Spiszer.8221;

A Shylockian bargain?

Turning in desperation to the IMF8212; after the so-called 8216;Friends of Pakistan8217; let Pakistan down 8212; has been received with apprehension in the country. A Dawn editorial on November 17 notes: The inevitable has happened. Pakistan is to have its begging-bowl filled by the IMF if reliable reports are to be believed 8212; which is where the good news ends. It is the poor, however, who are going to be feeling the pinch soonest as the 8216;conditionalities8217; reveal themselves. 8216;No pain, no gain8217; seems to be the universal mantra of the IMF; and there was in reality no other angel other than the IMF to whom we could appeal for rescue.8221; Zardari was quoted by the same paper as telling 8216;Friends of Pakistan8217; in New York that 8220;We are not asking for fish. We are asking for the equipment and want to do our own fishing.8221; On November 18, Daily Times quoted Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani saying that 8220;Pakistan8217;s resort to the IMF to resolve its financial crisis will help improve 8220;governance8221; in Pakistan.8221; Then he made a purely political observation: 8220;Governments in the past also went to the IMF and that included the PPP government.8221;

The talking cure

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai is mulling giving the Taliban a breather. The News on November 17 reported him as saying: 8220;If I hear from him Mullah Omar that he is willing to come to Afghanistan or to negotiate for peace 8230; I, as the President of Afghanistan, will go to any length to provide protection.8221; The Taliban have said they would only agree to negotiations if international troops helping the government pull out. Earlier this month, when the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan hijacked trucks carrying supplies for Nato forces and World Food Programme, the local administration had suspended supplies for the allied forces and closed the 52-kilometre Peshawar-Torkham highway. Things seem to have eased now as Dawn, on November 17 reported that the 8220;government is likely to allow resumption of supplies to International Security Assistance Force and reopen the Peshawar-Torkham highway. Security forces would escort the convoys.8221;

Messing with the press

Bad press continues to dog Punjab governor, Salman Taseer for his acerbic remarks about TV journalists, who he thinks achieved iconic status because of the lack of movie stars in Pakistan. On November 18, The News reported Taseer saying 8220;the media in Pakistan has crossed all limits. There are no Madhuri Dixits, Amitabh Bachchans and Aishwarya Rais, and that was the reason why these channels are popular among the people. The media does not let any government work smoothly.8221; In 8216;compliance8217; with Taseer8217;s observation, some TV channels abruptly went off the air in Sindh, with reasons unknown. Najam Sethi observes in his editorial in The Friday Times, November 21: 8220;The Pakistani media should not be afraid of debating its role in a developing democracy without getting personal or acrimonious or vindictive or self-righteous. There is nothing that debases journalism and journalists more.8221;