Kala Dhaka – the new home for Swat Taliban?

* NWFP police chief says neither jirga effective nor Levies deputed in Kala Dhaka

By Iqbal Khattak

PESHAWAR: Kala Dhaka is the new base for the Taliban, who fled last year’s military operation in Swat and other districts in Malakand, NWFP police chief Malik Naveed told Daily Times.

“It (Kala Dhaka) is creating problems for us,” he expressed concern over the new base of the Swat Taliban who could make a comeback if not contained now.

Problems for the police chief are surfacing in Hazara division where the Taliban carried out three attacks in the last two months, targeting a foreign non-governmental organisation’s office, and two police stations in Mansehra and Balakot.

Kala Dhaka is part of PATA where the government’s writ has not been established yet as neither a jirga is effective nor do the Levies Force operate there. The new base makes the Taliban’s job easier to launch selective attacks against key Hazara districts such as Mansehra, Abbottabad and Balakot. The inaccessible tribal area qualifies for a military operation only if Swat and other districts in Hazara division are saved from militancy, experts argued.

Out of control: “A lot of Swat (Taliban) people have gone to Kala Dhaka where a jirga is not effective and neither the Levies Force has been deputed to check these people,” Naveed said.

Asked if he felt there was a need to conduct an operation in Kala Dhaka, he said, “The military is contemplating...”

Despite expressing concern over the new Taliban base, Naveed, however, appeared confident in crushing militancy in the province after “disrupting” the Taliban’s supply lines and command and control structures.

“They believed they are invincible... we proved it wrong. The militants have a leadership crisis. They are killing their own wounded comrades to leave no trail behind,” he added.

Around 591 policemen have sacrificed their lives in the war on terror since 2001 and a wide-scale desertion in Swat posed a significant danger for a complete collapse of the police system in the province. However, critics credit Naveed for mobilising the public and keeping the force united against the Taliban.

Naveed referred to some Taliban attacks as a “survival game”. He said there had been no differences among the Taliban earlier “but they are in disarray” now. Besides help from the US to equip the NWFP police, Naveed still has a “shopping list” for his force. “I need more armoured personnel carriers, mobile phone trackers and special lights.”

Enraged people protest against power outages

LAHORE (updated on: April 10, 2010, 23:08 PST): Lahore witnessed severe protests on second consecutive day as hundreds of traders and citizens burnt tyres and shouted slogans against unannounced prolonged power outages, Aaj News reported on Saturday.

The protesters staged a sit-in at Ravi Road for more than four hours and suspended the traffic. They raised slogans against the government and democracy. They also raised slogans against the prolonged load shedding.

They said that they have no concern to any constitutional amendment, adding that the democratic government has manifold their problem of load shedding, inflation and others. They criticized the government for prolonged power outages.

Protestors were holding placards inscribed with condemnation notes.

Meanwhile, trader organizations of Lahore have given 48 hours ultimatum to LESCO for overcoming the prolonged load shedding. They warned that they would block Lahore city if the load shedding was not overcome.

Couldn’t she just find a nice Indian boy?

Now the Shiv Sena has a problem with Indian tennilebrity Sania Mirza marrying Pakistan’s cricket captain Shoaib Malik. To quote the right-wing Hindu party’s octogenarian chief Bal Thackeray: “Had [Sania’s] heart been Indian, it wouldn’t have beaten for a Pakistani. If she wished to play for India, she should have chosen an Indian life partner.” No surprises there.

It kind of reminds me of a comedy sketch in BBC’s Brit-Asian show Goodness Gracious Me. An Indian boy decides to come out of the sandooqcha with his British boyfriend to his middle-class Indian parents. They drop hint after hint to the clueless parents, who keep missing the lobs like Maria Sharapova on clay, until the gay couple declare the full nature of their relationship. The parents forbid him from being gay. Desperate for his parents to accept him, the boy goes up to them and says: “Look, I’m still the same person.” The mother hisses to her son: “You couldn’t have found a nice Indian boy?”

Fine, the Shiv Sena hardly represents benign, traditional, passive-aggressive parents. The punchline, on the other hand is an ace. (No more sports metaphors I promise, not even the very tempting one about Sania playing for ‘love’.)

But the question really isn’t about Hindu nationalism, or it isn’t just. Certainly, the far-right party’s brickbats hurled the way of Shah Rukh Khan would suggest that the Shiv Sainaks have it in for Pakistan-lovin’ Indian Muslims. Here’s the catch: would the reaction have been the same if Mahendra Singh Dhoni decided to marry Naseem Hameed?

Let’s take Bollywood films as a rough social gauge. They would have us believe love conquers the most recalcitrant of parents and transcends societal norms. Poor and rich. South and North. Police officer and the mafia don’s baby girl. But when it comes to cross-border love, the wilting Pakistani girl melts into the arms of her Indian saviour. Take the 1991 film Henna starring Rishi Kapoor and Zeba Bakhtiar (the Kapoors even bagged a bland Pakistani actress for the role!): Kapoor lands across the border and charms a dewy-complexioned Kashmiri in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Cut to 2004, when Shah Rukh Khan stutters his way into the affections of the Pakistani Priety Zinta and carries off his bride 20 years late into the Indian sunset. Male chauvinism meets nationalistic chauvinism? I doubt if any if these films would’ve resonated with the Indian masses had the genders been reversed.

This also explains why the response on the Pakistani side has been so laudatory. “Parliamentarians hail Sania-Shoaib engagement” says one headline; the “FM felicitates Shoaib, Sania” says another. The latter goes on to quote Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureishi: “I would like to say mubarik to the couple…. This and other steps taken by civil society actually strengthens the hands of the Foreign Office.”

My favourite by far is the Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) President Dilawar Abbas, breathlessly hoping Sania will play for Pakistan because “Asian women traditionally follow their husbands, which is why I’m hopeful that someday she would be inspired by Shoaib to play for Pakistan.” There you have it: traditional Asian brides following meekly in the footsteps of their consorts. I doubt if the mini-skirt wearing Mirza would be able to play for Pakistan, let alone want to.

In Dubai – where the couple plans to settle – Sania Mirza gets to keep her wardrobe and her passport; her identity doesn’t have to be consumed by her marriage. But when she’s checking in her wedding trousseau at the Dubai airport, she’ll find it hard to leave behind the baggage of history, nationalism, and gender.

Energy, poverty alleviation govt’s top priority: Gilani

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani on Saturday said that following the passage of the 18th amendment the top priority of the PPP government is energy and poverty alleviation.

While speaking to the media before landing at London enroute Washington he said that article 58-2 (B) has become irrelevant after the dissolution of assemblies has to be ratified by the Supreme Court within 15 days.

Zardari on cusp of losing major powers

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari was Friday on the threshold of losing much of his power as constitutional reforms move through parliament.

In a unanimous vote of lawmakers present, the lower house of parliament late Thursday approved a 102-clause bill that reverses moves by successive military rulers to weaken Pakistan's 1973 parliamentary constitution.

The bill will move Monday to the upper house of parliament, or Senate, where it is easily expected to achieve the necessary two-thirds majority, then pass to Zardari to sign and pass into law.

The amendments will effectively make Zardari a titular head of state who can only formally appoint heads of the armed forces, dissolve the national assembly and appoint provincial governors on the advice of the prime minister.

The bill's formulation and passage has been hailed as a rare feat of cross-party consensus in the fractious and bitter world of Pakistani politics, but analysts warn that it has little practical benefit in a country crippled by problems.