Pakistan's Afghan Policy

So the taliban, after whacking more than 700 paki soldiers and forcing the paki army to retreat, are collecting taxes in Pakiland? Strategic depth..in reverse.

Another hellfire might be landing on a bunch of pakis in the not-too-distant future..

Pakistani Truce Already Falling Apart

October 24, 2006 2:27 PM

Gretchen Peters Reports:

U.S. military officials tell ABC News cross-border attacks by the Taliban are up ``300 percent`` since President Musharraf declared a ``truce`` with tribal leaders in the troubled Northern Waziristan region that borders Afghanistan.

``Politically, it is very sensitive for us to raise this issue with Pakistan,`` said a senior NATO officer in Kabul. ``But the facts are the facts.``

Reports from the district capital Miram Shah say Taliban vigilantes now patrol the streets, while Pakistani government officials and the military are all but absent.

U.S. military officials say militants are openly ignoring the truce`s requirement that they lay down down their weapons.

NATO took over the Afghan coalition in early October, amid the fiercest fighting since the Taliban government was toppled five years ago.

Senior NATO officials say there is growing fury among the 26-nation alliance that Islamabad is doing little to stem the violence coming from its border areas.

``If the Pakistan army is not willing to clean this up in a sustained manner,`` worries a top U.S. military official, ``I just do not know what we are going to do.``

Although the peace deal with Islamabad specifically forbade the Pakistani tribesmen from forming a parallel government, Taliban rulers in the region have issued a strict legal code, even announcing plans to begin taxing vehicles that pass through their district.

ally #2
When an Indian PM took a big political risk and went to Lahore to pursue peace with Pakistan, Pakistan replied with conflict in Kargil. Today that adventure of Pakistan is being celebrated by Pakistanis as teaching Indians a lesson, meaning Pakistanis prefer war with India over peace.

When India tried to revive intra-regional trade through SAARC and SAFTA, Pakistanis including ruling party member Mushahid Hussain said India is only trying to extend its hegemony over the region and trying to sidestep solving Kashmir and Pakistan was determined to delay trade growth to teach India a lesson.

It was pointed out that India`s trade with China and other South Asian countries is growing anyway without requiring Pakistan`s acquiesance, but Pakistanis refused to accept that and so now Pakistan is determinedly staying out of regional trade agreements.

When India eased the visa regime and granted 1000s of visas to Pakistanis to attend cricket matches and allowing tourist travel besides, 11 Pakistanis entered India and never went back. A terrorist incident in Bangalore was tied to some of those missing Pakis. So now India is handing out only limited visas to Pakistanis for the cricket matches, and only for the purpose of the match and Pakistani visitors are escorted/under survelliance at all times.

When PM Manmohan Singh took a big political risk and offended most of the bureacracy and his political opponents and supporters by offering a `joint terror mechanism` to Musharraf so that terrorist incidents in India could be prosecuted with Pakistan`s help, what do Pakistanis do? The Pakistanis including ruling party leader Mushahid Hussain described it as a ``diplomatic loss`` for India.

Today the US and the West are pouring billions into Pakistan, loans, aid, military aid, development money, education money, determined defence on the international front, trying to make it worth Pakistan`s while to tackle the extremists. All they get in return from Pakis is abuse and accusations of malafide intentions. What the heck do you want them to do, kidnap Musharraf?

It is like this, ally, no one, absolutely noone can help Pakistanis who refuse to help themselves.

Re: # 19

General is not loosing control but consolidating. He is check mating USA and afghans at same time killing two birds at same time. He is like having insurance policy. Pakistani Talibans survive and supports Afghani Talibs USA is checked. Then usa can not go out from there so then becomes dependant on Pakistan and pakistan`s army. The idea is cut afghan Talibans but same time not destroy so USA can not get out and struck up and we can see American largeness. Worst thing if talibs completeted defeated then usa will leave and they will not put pressure on India to give back Kashmir. But they should not become too striong to challenge army. So balance is fine and general is master at that. Similarly Afghan regime must survive but not strong so they do not become strong and demand liquidation of Durand line. Just like LOC on Kashmir. Pakistan will like move it east while indians want staus quo. LOC is Indian`s durand line and same as our Durand line.
It is sad to see no sacrafice of preperation for linneration of Kashmir is sad but true.
General is following `` subse Pahila Pakistan line.`
This time to support President and give him chance.

Is this true? -- if it is Musharraaf is in real trouble.


``EMBOLDENED, it seems, by the September 5 accord with the government, militants in North Waziristan are now institutionalising their authority over the tribal agency.

There is now at least one Taliban ‘office’ in Miramshah, the regional headquarters, and there is no doubt as to who is calling the shots in terms of administration. The militants’ jurisdiction has lately been formalised by the Taliban council of advisers, with a clearly defined territory in and around Miramshah demarcated as an “area of operations” where criminal activities are banned.

Here it is the Taliban, not the political administration, who will lay down the law for crimes ranging from theft to murder. Punishment is to be meted out in accordance with the

Taliban’s peculiar interpretation of the Shariat, not the state law applicable to the tribal areas. Penalties include execution, imprisonment and fines. Taxes in the form of involuntary ‘donations’ have been imposed on petrol pumps as well as trucks entering the agency.

The ragtag Khasadar force, meanwhile, is a mere bystander, unable to intervene in the affairs of the Taliban. With a parallel administration, judiciary, prison system and taxation regime taking shape, the writ of the state is conspicuous only by its absence.

The Taliban’s clampdown on ‘crime’ notwithstanding, these disturbing developments do not bode well for peace and stability in the region.

They also appear to substantiate allegations that the September 5 agreement was, first and foremost, meant to guarantee that the militants would not attack the armed forces, and vice versa. Indeed, it is only this aspect of the deal that seems to hold the ground.

As for the accord’s other clauses, no system has been put in place to monitor the conduct of foreign militants, nor — if Nato officials are to be believed — has there been any let-up in cross-border movement into Afghanistan.

On this side of the Durand Line, ‘spies’ continue to be assassinated by the militants, in clear violation of the clause prohibiting targeted killings.

This emergence of a state within a state needs to be looked into and checked forthwith. Since independence, the politics of expediency has prevented the integration of the tribal areas into the national mainstream. Historical mistakes must be rectified, not repeated.`` (DAWN editorial)

#15 by GT

“How did he use Afghanistan?”
Well it would take a long long post to answer that but if you do a little research and figure out how the straw man or the bogeyman theory works you would find out.

“Do you mean tribalistic? How did these tribes interact with the central authority of the king? “
No, I meant religious. Not all Tribes have to be religious politically. The Baloch tribes in Balochistan don’t care abt religion but the afghan tribes do. So it was mostly religion that changed the politics in Afghanistan. The kings dealt with the tribal elders but had a non interference policy in religious matters.


#14 by harimau

HAHAHA!
Ishtay the courshe khasi….

Various other Khasis…

Khasi quoting blogs from abcnews thinks the blogger in the US know what goes on in waziristan. But they know squat and this particular Khasi as usual is so stupid that he can‘t figure that out . History is Khasis major enemy. After 1000 years of khasipan that is what they come up with an idiot blogger on abcnews. HAHAHA!

There are agreements in place with the tribes since the British days that allow tribes to impose taxes and they are pretty much free in their day to day governance. The political agent mostly liaison between the tribal leaders and the federal government in Pakistan. So there is no big deal if the tribes are imposing new taxes they can certainly do so. Let idiots draw some fancy conclusions. Though of late, the tribes are really aggressive in this regard as they lost money during the conflict with the Pak army.

#19 by nasah on October 24, 2006 9:13pm PT
“Is this true? -- if it is Musharraaf is in real trouble. “

Mushy is not in trouble because of what you quoted. You will have to come up with different reasons to find out where he actually is in trouble. The situation in the tribal areas is not trouble free because of the situation in Afghanistan. Taliban certainly have influence in the tribal areas and that would be a cause of concern if they bothered Pakistan and interfered in Pakistan’s internal politics. As long as they are busy in Afghanistan who cares.

#18 by sadna

Hahahah! B1tching and moaning that is what macacas do best…hahahahah!

#21 by HP on October 24, 2006 10:38pm PT


As long as they are busy in Afghanistan who cares.


I know reading comprehension isn`t part of the average cab driver`s training, but the article clearly indicates the taliban are collecting taxes INSIDE PAKISTAN....

Khasi brain works in a peculiar ways. Cant read, cant understand. Chtiya those are tribal areas and they can make their own laws. That is the agreement since the British days.
The dot holes on the foreheads don`t leave much in Khasi heads, so read the dime a dozen bloggers and be happy.
Every fking ahole including bj bihari has a blog nowadays.

OMG ... Is Ahmed Rashid the `sole` authority in the world on Taliban who bhartis love to quote? I`m sure there must be others.

#23
``Every fking ahole including bj bihari has a blog nowadays``
From this statement we understand that you are also a fking ahole.

HP #1

``The long-term solution in Afghanistan is to divide that country along the ethnic lines and Pakistan should take over Eastern Afghanistan directly or through proxies.``

Interesting to read this viewpoint which in fact had some currency during the final days of Jihad and there had even been mutterings of annexation, put to rest only by visions of Pakhtunistan. However, this solution is highly problematic now because division of Afghanistan on ethnic lines would present the same dilemma as division of Iraq now does i.e. an Iranian Caliphate stretching from Baghdad to Mazar Sharif and influencing many neighbouring CARs and some not yet CARs like Daghestan and Chechnya.

What do you think?

Those who secretly admire the Taliban and hanker after their Shariat driven tribal order should go and join them. They must go there and fight the US, the moderate muslims and every other who desires to see a secular, democratic and western liberal civilization on those harsh barren lands.
Please leave quickly!!!

Re #24

Dagestan and Chechnya not yet (but would be) CARs- every fanatic wahabbi`s wishful thinking. These republics will be bombed out of the map by the Russians if they even think of seceding.

Did any one suggest the division of afghanistan, Well division of pakistan is a more natural option. Sindh and kashmir to india, punjab alone and baluchistan and others to afghanistan. That would be natural culturalyy homogenious division. The TNT and isalm as a uniting force is long dead.

Pakistan is essentially a non viable state, held together by the army. The rising jihadis, the crime wave and the failure of state will lead to the division of pakistan. Already large parts of karachi are ruled by the thugs of the non-uniform kind, the rest of the country by the uniformed kind.

I blame it all on colin powel, he should not have made the offer, pakistan should have been part of the afghan invasion, and it would have been another iraq by now.

The only help that the non-resident pakistanis can provide is to accelerate that decline, to a nadir and from then on it can only be progress,

Pakistan`s afghan policy, well that is an albino oxymoron.

Pakistan has no economic policy, its major export, cotton is on the decline, the value added components of the cotton export has vanished. The weaving machines imported with subsidy are being sold to china at a profit by the importers. Then there is latest subsidy to exporters known as research grant, well it needs a lot of research to bale cotton and ship it.

The fundamental problem of pakistan is that there are no capability in any facet of science. There is no understanding of the world perception of pakistan, nor the reality of pakistan.

The pretty face of a pakistani woman in sari as the foreign affairs spokes person is all that the pakistani inteligentia could come up to project a moderate image of pakistan. Well well that is a shade better than pak tourism promotion in Japan as the home of Budhist culture. Pathetic from the land of the taliban, that destroyed bhumian budhas. It took a TNT inspired islamic country to destry the statues that survived the ghoris and the gaznavis. What a great contribution to man kind from that man whose photos are in every pak offices.

#30 jay still living in the hindu dreamworld of spite and hate. pathetic.

.....sighhhh! ......... i am getting sick and tired of the horrible hindoos regurgitating the same nonsense over and over again ......... what the heck was mahmud ghazni thinking when he spared grandpa gopinath`s cousin nathu ram ?!.......... if he had known that nathu`s progeny would turn out to be like the heeng-eating hyenas on this forum, he would surely have added his head to the tower ......... now i think we should recall our cricket team and nuke india this friday at 10 am ............ khas(i) kum jehan paak !