Uzbeks in Wana

The Daily Times reported on Friday that elders of the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe have formally requested the government for air support and supply of weapons against foreign militants.

The Daily Times reported on Friday that elders of the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe have formally requested the government for air support and supply of weapons against foreign militants. This request comes after more than two weeks of fierce fighting with Uzbek militants around Wana in South Waziristan. On Wednesday, Dawn had in an editorial cautioned the government against overt military participation: 8220;Open and conspicuous support of the anti-Uzbek group could arouse negative feelings among those sections of tribesmen who are neutral and 8212; like most tribesmen 8212; do not welcome the presence of security personnel in their midst.8221; It would be more prudent, it said, to let the tribesmen take to its logical conclusion their current rethink on the advisability of having foreign militants in their midst.

The newspaper reported that war drums were being beaten after nearly five years, to motivate fighters and to get more tribesmen in their ranks. By one account, Wednesday8217;s fighting alone left 44 Uzbek militants dead.

What led to this fallout between tribal leaders and the Uzbeks? An analysis by the Dawn8217;s Ismail Khan 8216;The game is up for Uzbeks8217;, April 5 put forth three reasons. 8220;One, the Taliban and their supporters in Waziristan had begun to realise that Uzbeks were turning into a liability because of their alleged involvement in target-killings.8221; Two, the Uzbeks were retaining loyalty to the deposed 8220;commander of the Ahmadzai Wazirs8221;, and not to current chief Maulavi Nazir. Three, that change in guard reflected a shift in intra-tribal dynamics.

Wheels of a deal

There has been so much speculation about a possible deal between Benazir Bhutto and President General Pervez Musharraf that government and PPP sources were on Thursday drawn into a hectic spree of denials. This week Hasan Wasim Afzal was transferred from his post as deputy chairman of the National Accountability Bureau, and appointed principal secretary to the Punjab governor. Even the office from which he oversaw investigations into cases against Bhutto8217;s family has been shut.

Last month, Moeed Yusuf wrote of Musharraf8217;s compulsion to provide space to popular political parties 8216;Key variable of a government-PPP deal8217;, The Friday Times, March 9-15. 8220;This is so because within the current set-up, there is little room for Musharraf to distance himself from the current problems and let the politicians face the music8230; Within the popular parties, Musharraf8217;s 8216;moderate8217; outlook and the fact that he has never challenged Benazir Bhutto directly unlike Nawaz Sharif against whom he staged a coup makes PPP the most obvious choice for any compromise.8221;

A week later his fellow columnist Khalid Ahmed 8216;Musharraf and the PPP8217; wrote: 8220;As a liberal party the PPP has international support. Whenever it comes to power its domestic outreach and its anti-Islamist image abroad will be of immense help. But opposing Musharraf means jeopardising international, especially US support.8221;

Let them meet

In a column in The Daily Times 8216;What8217;s the hurry on Kashmir?8217;, April 6, Ayesha Siddiqa, defence analyst and author of the forthcoming book, Military Inc, Inside Pakistan8217;s Military Economy, speculates on the circumstances in which a peace deal between India and Pakistan would work, so that individual disputes can be resolved without getting into another cycle of conflict. She writes: 8220;The question, which must be asked, is what do the two sides really want? Is it merely to solve a long-standing dispute or to create a new framework for long-lasting peace and stable bilateral relations? It is vital to solve the territorial dispute but it is even more important to re-format hostile relations which remain subnormal due to ideological reasons.8221;

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It is important, argues Siddiqa, for interaction between the two countries to move beyond the elites: 8220;Currently, the process is highly secretive and elitist. The perceptions regarding Pakistanis being terrorists or Indians wishing ill for Pakistan will only go away once the peace process is brought down to the level of the common people.8221; So, for instance, in fostering trade ties, the common trader of Lahore, Amritsar or Delhi must be made to personally experience the benefits. And people-to-people contact must move beyond the elites.

Low-tech wizards

The title of F.S. Aijazuddin8217;s article 8216;The Murder of Cricket8217;, Dawn, April 5 gives away the gist of his lament, but his point on the suspect utility of new technology in the investigations into the death of Bob Woolmer is interesting. 8220;CCTV cameras in hotels today are the equivalent of the stocky Russian war-widows who used to be employed by the Soviets to sit at the end of each corridor in Russian hotels, glum faced and sharp eyed, waiting and reporting on every movement to their KGB superiors.8221; Maybe Kingston8217;s Pegasus Hotel, where Woolmer was lodged, missed a trick.