PAKISTAN WAITING PEACE WITH TALIBAN

PAKISTAN WAITING FOR PEACE.

The government of Pakistan for the first time, nominated a negotiating team. Pakistani Taliban are not the same as the Afghanistan Taliban. The latter consider themselves to be freedom fighters working to rid their country of foreign occupies.

The Pakistani Taliban on the other hand are purely local movement. Based largely in the northern western KPK province, they want to see an Islamic system of government installed in Pakistan. The reject the Pakistani constitution and the democratic system of Pakistani government in general. They have waged a campaign of terror over the years. Their suicide bombers have killed maimed tens of thousands of innocent Pakistan civilians. They have attacked military bases destroying aircraft and equipments. Army convoys have been ambushed and bombed.

The current love fest seems to have made more progress. the general public is watching all this with somewhat bemused disbelief. They know as would any objective observer with common sense that there is no common ground. And they also know that in the end of the Taliban will have to be defeated on the battleground, no in the conference room.

What does Pakistan’s powerful army make of all this? They have not sensibly expressed their preferences in public. But it is not hard to imagine that they are raring to have a go at their noir and would like nothing better than a clean, unrestricted mandate from the civilian administration to use whatever means necessary to achieve this objective.

The Pak army has proved that it has the ability will and firepower to extirpate the Taliban. The last time they received a clear mandate to do so was in 2009 when the Taliban and affiliated groups had occupied the Swat district. Within a few weeks they defeated and evicted the occupiers, enforced the government‘s writ and allowed hundreds of thousands of refugees to return to their homes. But for the time being at least it seems that Pakistanis are going to have to wait and see the outcome of the government’s negotiations with the Taliban and what will be discussed?

Drone Strikes Decline

Drone Strikes on the decline?

It is becoming increasingly clear that president Hamid Karzai will not sign the US Afghan Bilateral Security agreement before presidential elections in April. This poses a major dilemma for the White House, which must decide whether to make contingency plans for a small residual force should afghan approval be forthcoming at a later date or plan a full withdrawal. But the implications run much deeper as to both the US ‘s legal rationale for its war on alQaeda and the US ‘s ability to carry out drone operation in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

If the White House is forced to commit to a total with drawl by the end of 2014, the US will  lose its last remaining zone of active hostilities in the war with alQaeda. In this way the legal rationale for drone strikes in Pakistan. Yemen and Somalia will be completely untethered from any traditional war theater. This bodes ill for the continued ability of the Obama administration to wage drone warfare without incurring massive reputational damage to the United States. Without good options elsewhere, US drone operations in the tribal areas will be seriously circumscribed, if not altogether curtailed.

The United States will use lethal force only against a target that poses a continuing imminent threat to US persons. In the absence of such a threat, the US will forgo the use of lethal force. However a leading human rights. Intended or not the switch in the operative language is cause for concern as US interests could be stretched indefinitely to render a much wider swath of individuals targetable for drone strikes. What is important, however is whether the administration adopts an expansive or narrow interpretation of its own policy guidelines. With such elastic concepts as imminence and US interests determining who is targetable, White House can opt to keep the US on permanent war footing long past the Iraq and Afghan Wars if it so chooses.

The legal advice included the striking conclusion that should a UK person share intelligence with the US with the knowledge that such intelligence could be used for a drone strike, that person might be criminally liable as an access story to murder under UK law. What effect it will have on intelligence cooperation is nuclear but the implications of business as usual have been rendered transparent. The White House can put forth dubious legal justifications for its drone operations, but that will  not prevent close allies from risking criminal liability should they continue to cooperate with United State.  

However US allies especially in Europe have long castigated the US for its global war on terror and parted ways with successive White Houses over the applicable legal framework. 

UNESCO established Malala Fund

UNESCO issued Malala fund for girl’s education.

The director of UNESCO signed the Malala funds in Trust agreement to support better access improved quality and safe learning environment for girls in the hard to reach areas of Pakistan.

The funds in trust will focus on building up capacities in both formal and informal education, from gender sensitive training for teachers to awareness rising in communities to support girls education.

UNESCO and government of Pakistan  in December when the Malala fund for girls right to education was announced.

Girls education is one of the most powerful forces for human dignity. It is a human rights issue and a breakthrough strategy for human development and peace. There is  no better long term investment a country can make to foster social inclusion, justice, equity and economic growth.

The right accorded to girls in Islam are absolutely equal to those of boys. Education in today’s world is not a choice but a fundamental right of every child. Families want to send girls to school but they want safe, quality education for their girls. Schools need to be located closer to families and sharper policies in place to reach the unreached.

With the Malala fund programme implemented in Pakistan we intend to narrow that gap to 5 percent in 3 years. UNESCO and commitment to increase education spending from 2 percent to 4 percent of GDP along with the development of a national plan of action to define targeted initiative. 

Cancer will be common till 2030

CANCER CASES SET TO RISE BY HALF BY 2030.

New cases of cancer will rise by half of 2030, reaching million per year compared to 14 million in 2012, according to a UN report.

Cancer deaths meanwhile, will likely rise from 9 million to 15 million per year as the world’s population grows and ages and more people adopt risky lifestyle habits.

It took aim at Big Tobacco saying its sales drive was inextricably linked to a likely surge in lung cancer.

It is the first such overviews in six years, WHO, director said the overall impact from cancer would unquestionably hit developing countries the hardest. These nations are already grappling with poverty associated cancers caused by infection or disease. The particularly heavy burden projected to fall on low and  middle income countries makes it implausible to treat our way out of cancer, even the highest income countries will struggle to cope with the spiraling costys of treatment and care. Cancer overtook heart disease as the number one cause of death in the world in 2011. New cases will likely rise to 19.5 million in 2025, with 12 million deaths.

In men cancer most often attacked the lungs followed by the prostate, colorectum, stomach and liver.

For women, cancer was most common in the breast, colorectum, lung, cervix, and stomach.

Measured as a proportion of the population however high income countries in north America and western Europe as a Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand had higher fugures. Cancers of the breast, colorectum and prostate are more typical of the industrialized world and those of the liver, stomach and esophagus are also more common in the low income countries. 

US Warns Russia about Suicide Bombs

The US warns Russia for Bomb during Olympic

The Unites States has warned to airports and some airlines flying to Russia for the Olympics to watch for toothpaste tubes that could hold  ingredients to make a bomb on a plan.

It is said that Russian forces are on high alert to head off possible attacks at the Winter Olympic Games, which begin on Friday in Sochi. But at meanwhile, some of US politicians have expressed concern about security at the Black Sea resort, but US president has told that Sochi is safe. But suicide bombers killed 34 people in the Russian city of Volgograd 700km northeast of Sochi, during last December 2013. The attacks raised fears of violence at the Olympics.

In 2009 a Nigerian man tried to set off an explosive hidden in his underwear aboard a US bound airline. In 2001 a man tried to blow up a jumbo jet with explosives in his shoes, according the media reports. 

Talks with Taliban is Tough

Talks and hard conditions of Pakistani Taliban

Delay in the peace talks between Islamabad and the Pakistan Taliban armed to achieve peace without resorting to force has set off a heated debate about the viability of even holding a dialogue with the militant group whose diametrically opposite viewpoint regarding governance and constitution goes against what the Pakistan state stands for. The Tehreek-e-Taliban of Pakistan has always been advocating a Sharia based government on the lines of the Afghan Taliban under a Mullah. So the set of conditions of the Taliban has set before PM of Pakistan which is to task to negotiate a settlement with it should not surprise. Among the Taliban 10 demands are the release of all Taliban prisoners, compensation for drone strike victims and specific conditions imposed on women to dress according to Sharia. Heading a democratic government, Pakistani PM is unlikely to impose any conditions on women or men irrespective of how desirous that may be to achieve peace through dialogue. Even the release of prisoners is likely to raise the stakes for the government. Many of these prisoners have been caught in hard fought security operations. The successes achieved so far in many reclaimed restive areas in the tribal belt and northern areas face the risk of being overturned if appeasement measures backfire, which they will most likely.

The success of any peace talks will only come about if the government shows resolve from a position of strength. Giving in to even one unreasonable demand can jeopardize the whole effort and fail to achieve anything tangible. While it may be true that PM of Pakistan may be making a last ditch effort at peace talks before giving the formal go ahead of launching a large scale military offensive to flush out the militant strongholds in Northern areas.

But what the Pakistan government must not do is allow the Taliban to use any agreement if it comes about as a means to buy time to shore up its resources for starting a new phase of insurgency. Pakistan cannot afford to indulge in experiments of this sort at this juncture when any wrong move in dealing with the Taliban groups could impact the security handover in Afghanistan. 

POLIO HAS WON IN PAKISTAN

POLIO HAS WON

According to WHO, statics, 90 cases of polio were found in Peshawar Pakistan in last year 2013. Pakistan is  one of the three countries around the world that have failed to eradicate polio. Polio drops imply everything ranging from infertility drops to a western the viewpoint of a common Pashtun or Punjabi, for away from the city lights and illusion of awareness created by an influx of private deletions reports.

in the past view months, the immunization, including polio vaccination and catching some real life stories from KPK, Pakistan known in the world for terrorism rather than its beautiful landscapes, culture of hospitality and rare gemstones.

Parents were skeptical about polio vaccinations as they think they cause infertility. The want to know why the government focuses only on polio when people are dying of hepatitis. Parents believe that their children when not given any drops are still fin physically. As if the above reasons were not enough, the way the case was presented in the media made every polio drops provider a suspect spy. However there is another side to the story in some cases even the vaccination does not help and there are reports of children affected by polio despite being given drops. What could be the possible explanation if not justification malnourished children, inadequacy of dosage or problems with the vaccine including flawed storage mechanisms and the culture of greed?

According to the rights holders the billion dollar initiative by the world’s leading organization to eradicate polio appears crippled in Pakistan and the most critical question of reasons behind the failure to reach those most in need and the questionable efficacy of the vaccine, remain camouflaged, if not buried by one simple phrase by those who are responsible for materializing the effective immunization drive the bearers in the simple and short phrase, complex terrorism and the security situation in Pakistan.