India has decided to buy 126 fighter jets from France, taken delivery
of a nuclear-powered submarine from Russia and prepared for its first
aircraft carrier in recent weeks as it modernizes its military to match
China's.

India and China have had tensions since a 1962 border war, and New Delhi
has watched with dismay in recent years as Beijing has increased its
influence in the Indian Ocean.

China has financed the development of ports in Pakistan, Sri Lanka,
Bangladesh and Myanmar, and its recent effort to get access in the
Seychelles prodded New Delhi to renew its own outreach to the Indian
Ocean island state off western India.

With its recent purchases, running into tens of billions of dollars,
India is finally working to counter what it sees as aggressive
incursions into a region India has long dominated.

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Here are the most recent updates from four of the eight SAARC nations. For news from the rest of the countries, please visit their respective national pages.
…

MALDIVES – A top US diplomat arrived in the Maldives on February 11 to help resolve a deepening political crisis sparked by the ousting of the Indian Ocean nation’s first democratically elected president.

Mohamed Nasheed, who came to power in 2008, says he was forced to quit on February 7 in a coup led by mutinous army and police officers who threatened him with violence unless he stepped down as leader of the famous holiday islands.

He was replaced by his vice president Mohamed Waheed, whom Nasheed accuses of being party to the conspiracy to topple him.

…

SRI LANKA – Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa reached Pakistan on February 10 to Pakistan to further strengthen political, economic and defence ties between the two countries.

Pakistan and Sri Lanka are also expected to sign an agreement during President Rajapaksa’s visit under which the latter would get $200 million export credit facility through the State Bank of Pakistan.

The two countries are aiming to increase bilateral trade to $2 billon mark over the next three years and pledged to support each other at regional and international forums.

The commitment is significant in the light of the forthcoming UNHRC session, which is expected to put pressure on Sri Lanka to address the ethnic conflict between Sinhala majority and the Tamil minority of the island nation.

…

NEPAL – A top Maoist leader on February 10 said the government will finish the key task of concluding the peace process and framing a new constitution, amid a deadlock between the political parties over form of governance and federal structure to be adopted in the country.

“The peace process and the constitution drafting will be completed within the stipulated time frame of May 27,” Education Minister and senior Maoist party leader Dinanath Sharma said on the sideline of the inaugural function of the UK Education Fair in the capital.

The landmark peace process has been stalled amid the failure of the political parties to agree on the form of governance and federal structure.

…

BHUTAN – By the end of 2012 at least 40 locations in western and central Bhutan will have access to 3G or third generation high speed Internet connectivity, which is today available only in the core areas of Thimphu city.
Starting March Bhutan Telecom will start work to expand its 3G network in Thimphu, Phuentsholing, Paro and Gelephu.
3G is the ‘3rd Generation’ technology for mobiles which enhances internet speed and enables features like video calling, faster audio and video streaming and quicker downloads.

In urban Thimphu, six more locations will be added to the 14 existing 3G sites. The other 20 locations will be added in Phuentsholing, Paro and Gelephu and at tertiary institutes like Sherubtse College, College of Science and Technology and the college of business studies in Gedu.

“Many young people at these institutions are in need of these services and they are the people who use these services more often,” the CEO of Bhutan telecom, Nidup Dorji, said.

The present 3G sites in Thimphu are located within a five km radius of Bhutan Telecom head office. For 3G data service the speed range is 7.2 mbps.

- Agencies

By Jamie Alter for Cricket Next

Pakistan’s 3-0 sweep of England, the No. 1 Test team, in the UAE was the most glittering result for a team that has managed to hold its own on the field despite facing a mountain of problems off it. Here’s a look at the key players in Pakistan’s resurgence as a Test team.

Misbah-ul-Haq

Ten months ago, Misbah-ul-Haq was a condemned man whose time as an international cricketer seemed over after he was made the scapegoat for Pakistan’s defeat to India in the World Cup semi-final in Mohali. Today, he is being heralded as an astute leader of a team bristling with pride and rightful claims to being a top-level Test side. Handed the captaincy ahead of Pakistan’s series against South Africa in the UAE in 2010, the soft-spoken, almost laidback Misbah has been hugely influential in steering Pakistan from a host of troubles and to series wins over New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and England – not to forget a draw with South Africa – and just the anomaly of a 1-1 scoreline against West Indies.

He hasn’t always been a proactive captain – his reluctance to push for a win against Sri Lanka in Sharjah last November attracted criticism – but his numbers as leader have been highly impressive: 15 matches, 1165 runs, average 64.72, with one century and 12 fifties. That one century – an unbeaten 102 in the second innings at Basseterre – played a big role in Pakistan leveling the two-Test series in the West Indies in May 2011. Innings of 99 and 70 not out earned him the Man-of-the-Match award in Wellington in January 2011, and those were clutch innings in a draw that gave Pakistan their first series victory outside the subcontinent since a triumph in New Zealand in 2003-04, and their first anywhere since 2006-07. In the first innings of the second Test against England in Abu Dhabi, Misbah top-scored with 84 on day in which the opposition dominated, and what a key innings it proved.

Saeed Ajmal

If there is one player who personifies Pakistan’s new-found aggression and fluency, it is the leader of their immensely proficient spin attack. Ajmal, 34, has been a constant threat to opposing teams with his accurate, nagging and attacking offspin, with his doosra causing batsmen much strife. His role as a strike bowler – he has bowled 696 overs in those 12 Tests, the most for any Pakistan bowler – has taken pressure off Umar Gul and meant he has been relied on to consistently take wickets. His success is staggering.

In 12 Tests under Misbah, Ajmal has reaped 77 wickets an average of 22.63 and strike-rate of 54.20 – significantly lower than career figures of 26.70 and 61.20. Along the way he picked up Man-of-the-Match awards for eight wickets in a nine-wicket win over Sri Lanka and in Dubai and 10 – including a career-best 7 for 55 – in a 10-wicket win over England at the same venue. He was the leading Test wicket-taker in 2011, and so far this year he has grabbed 24 wickets in three Tests against England.

In this recent series, the England batsmen were largely baffled by Ajmal’s variety. In the second Test, he became the fastest Pakistan bowler to 100 Tests, and to make his achievement more remarkable, he has not played a single of his 20 Tests at home.

Abdur Rehman

If Ajmal has been an expected success during Pakistan’s run under Misbah, then the 31-year-old Abdur Rehman has been a surprise package. In 13 Tests, this canny left-arm spinner – enjoying unexpected success in his late-blooming career – has been a constant threat with 64 wickets at an average of 26.57. With an almost immaculate line and length he has attained turn and dip while convincing batsmen to play back when they should have been forward. Nothing summed this up better than the series against England, when he made several reputed batsmen appear hapless against spin, none more so than Eoin Morgan.

However, it was Rehman’s Man-of-the-Match performance against New Zealand at Hamilton in January 2011 that really made him a certainty in the playing XI. His three wickets in each innings and a crucial innings of 28 helped propel Pakistan to victory in the first Test. This year, a career-best 6 for 25 routed England for 72 as Pakistan grabbed the series in Abu Dhabi, and in the final Test his 5 for 40 was decisive in Pakistan reducing England’s lead to 42. His 19 wickets in the series played a huge role in a 3-0 scoreline, and highlighted what a key ingredient Rehman has been for Pakistan.

Like Ajmal, he has bowled a lot of overs – 683.4 – while rarely allowing the batsmen to dominate. Rehman’s batting has been handy too, with an average of 13.s8 and a half-century offering some stability to the lower order.

Umar Gul

The only fast bowler to play consistently under Misbah, Umar Gul has carried himself with discipline all throughout. Ajmal and Rehman have hogged the wickets, but Gul’s 49 victims at 29.79 have been every bit as crucial in the team’s success.
The reliance on spin has eased Gul’s workload – he has bowled 452.5 overs in 13 matches – and this has undoubtedly led to the tall fast bowler not breaking down from injury, as he was prone to do so earlier in his career. His eight-wicket haul at Wellington was a stand-out effort in overseas conditions, and even on tracks in the UAE he has plugged away relentlessly, as 29 wickets from eight matches show.

In the first Test in Abu Dhabi, Gul responded to a flat surface with a hostile spell on the third day – during which he surpassed 150 Test wickets – as his new-ball incursions bagged him four wickets before Ajmal and Rehman wrapped up the rest. In the third Test in Abu Dhabi, Gul’s four wickets on the final day set the course of the match categorically towards Pakistan. The spinners have been the talking point of Pakistan’s success, but Gul’s role cannot he underestimated.

Mohammad Hafeez

At last looking like he belongs at Test-match level, Mohammad Hafeez has flourished in his latest avatar as opener and key ingredient in Pakistan’s spin-heavy bowling attack.

With the bat, he has offered solidity to a top order that has for too long been shaky, scoring 967 runs in 15 Tests at an average of 38.68, including two centuries and four fifties. With Taufeeq Umar – another cricketer enjoying a new lease on his international career – Hafeez has stitched together three century stands and four of 50 or more. For a side that used to regularly chop and change openers during the last decade, Hafeez’s pairing with Taufeeq over 15 Tests has been nothing short of solid.

Relied on heavily with the ball – he has bowled 250 overs – Hafeez has repaid the faith with 51 wickets at 26.36. His brisk offspin has helped Ajmal and Rehman take much-needed breaks in the field, and when tossed the new ball in Guyana he responded with wickets. The highlight of Hafeez’s run over these 15 Tests was a fine all-round performance against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo, where Hafeez followed a quick-fire 119 with four wickets and a brisk 38 in a successful chase.

Taufeeq Umar

Given an extended run as opener after a four-year hiatus, the 30-year-old Taufeeq has scored 1055 runs in 15 Tests under Misbah while averaging 39.07. His batting hasn’t always been attractive, as a strike-rate of 43.18 indicates, but the fact that he has been able to deliver platforms has been immense. Two fifties in New Zealand helped blunt the threat of the home team’s pace bowlers in seam-friendly conditions, and his 135 in the second innings against West Indies at Basseterre helped Pakistan level the series.

A career-best 236 followed against Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi, as Pakistan drew the first Test. It was a marathon effort that helped grind Sri Lanka patiently through the second day, and Taufeeq was just pipped by Kumar Sangakkara for the Man-of-the-Match award. A seventh Test hundred would come against Bangladesh soon after.

Taufeeq’s form trailed off after a fifty in the first innings of the series against England, but his success in Pakistan’s resurgence merits further persistence.

Younis Khan

The former Pakistan captain has come back excellently from a ban imposed by the PCB after allegations that he had been partially responsible for infighting within the team. His 1138 runs at 66.94, including four centuries and four fifties, have been invaluable to Pakistan.
His presence in the middle order has steadied the team numerous times, not least when he scored centuries against South Africa and Sri Lanka to go with twin fifties against New Zealand at Wellington. But his most responsible innings came in the second innings of the third Test against England, as an out of form Younis took the game away from the opposition with a superbly crafted century. Yet again, he had summoned the resolve to produce a century when his detractors were gunning for him.

Azhar Ali

Of the younger players that have flourished under Misbah, 26-year-old Azhar Ali has been the most successful. His 1220 runs from 15 matches at 50.83 include two centuries and 11 fifties, and he has been a consistent performer at No. 3. Three consecutive half-centuries against South Africa got him going after an indifferent start to his career, and from there he ploughed on with fifties against each of the teams he played. His two centuries – 100 against Sri Lanka and 157 against England – were proof that Azhar has a long career ahead of him.

Filed under: cricket, England, Pakistan, Pakistan Cricket Tagged: Abdul Rehman, Alastair Cook, Azhar Ali, cricket, Dubai Stadium, England, England Cricket, India, Kevin Pietersen, Misbah-ul-Haq, Mohammad Hafeez, Pakistan, Pakistan Cricket, Saeed Ajmal, South Africa, South African Cricket, Sri Lanka, Taufeeq Umar, Test Cricket, Umar Gul, Whitewash, Younis Khan

There is a conventional wisdom out there — parroted often by the likes of Imran Khan — that the Taliban and their local affiliates act the way they do because they are solely and exclusively motivated by the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan, as well as Pakistan’s alliance with the U.S.

By this logic, the Taliban are a nationalist force, standing up for their nation, which is alternatively considered the Pashtun nation or the Afghan state, depending on one’s own beliefs and opinions on the boundaries of their political identity.

With that as background, here’s an excerpt from a piece by Ijaz Khan in the Friday Times:

Nationalist movements promote and protect national language, culture and identity through political expression. They aim to control their affairs without outside interference. They are about managing their economic resources by themselves. They may want autonomy within a multinational state in order to structure it to protect their identity, or in certain cases for an independent state of their own.

Taliban meet none of these criteria in Afghanistan or Pakistan, and therefore cannot be considered a Pashtun nationalist movement. They take ideological and political inspiration from Arabs and other non-Pashtuns. They have consciously, as a matter of policy, targeted different cultural traits of Pashtuns, like tribal councils and folk music; they are not concerned about the language and promote mostly Arabic and/or interestingly, Urdu; Economic resources or their control is not their concern; neither is any political or administrative manifestation of Pashtun identity their goal.

They have killed a large number of traditional Pashtun elders in FATA and banned the Jirga as means of dispute settlement in areas under their influence. They have been eliminating the Pashtun way of life.

Isn’t it instructive that scholars who actually know the area, such as Ijaz Khan (University of Peshawar) or the oft-cited Farhat Taj, completely and unequivocally reject the Imran Khan thesis? This idea that the Taliban are somehow representative of the Pashtun nation, and are fighting and dying for them, is just silly.

Within the study of civil war in political science, non-state movements are generally divided between ethnically focused and ideologically focused. Obviously this is often a too-rigid categorization, but it’s useful because the two types of mobilizations often have different goals.

Those movements that are ethnically motivated are generally what we call nationalist movements. These tend to be focused heavily on a particular piece of territory, since group identity and territory have a very strong relationship. So if all xs are concentrated in region X, then it’s unlikely that the xs will launch a movement, violent or otherwise, in regions other than X. This is because (a) they don’t care about regions other than X; in fact, their mobilizations are often motivated by demanding increasing separation from X and non-X areas, and (b) there’s not enough xs in the non-X region for them to congeal in a movement worth worrying about. Examples include the Tamils in northern Sri Lanka or the Bengalis in former East Pakistan.

Those that are ideologically motivated tend to be focused on control of the state or political unit at large. They are not interested in controlling a sliver of territory, they are interested in re-orienting the state. The important thing to note is that granting a piece of territory to the agents of the movement is unlikely to satisfy them, since their movement is not based on the control of territory in the first place. Examples include the Communist Party of China or the various right-wing militias operating in Latin America during the Cold War.

This distinction matters because it gets at the heart of the debate on the war in Pakistan and whether it is worth fighting. If you believe that the Taliban and their local affiliates are nationalists, then it makes sense to give them control of various districts or maybe even a whole province, in the hope that that’s what they want, and will therefore cause them to stop mounting violent challenges to the state.

If you believe that the Taliban and their local affiliates are ideologues, then it doesn’t make sense to give them control of various districts because they will only use that control to consolidate their material capabilities to launch yet further assaults on the state and its citizens.

I wish we lived in a world where the Taliban were indeed nationalists because it would mean that there is fairly self-evident solution to the violence. Unfortunately we do not and there is not. Imran Khan, however, continues to believe that they are and that there is. Reasonable people can disagree on the extent to which force should be used, what type of force (air power vs shock troops vs full-blown incisions) is to be used, how negotiations should be constructed, which actors should be invited to the negotiations, and so on. But no reasonable person can believe that the “war can be ended in 90 days” or that the Taliban are likely to go quietly into the sunset if you hand over a bunch of territory to them.

By The Sydney Morning Hearld

Left-arm spinner Abdul Rehman took a career best 6-25 to help Pakistan humble England by 72 runs in the second Test in Abu Dhabi, to giving Pakistan unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
The 31-year-old twice took two wickets in successive overs to dent England’s chase after Andrew Strauss’s side was set a 145-run target on a weary fourth-day Abu Dhabi Stadium pitch.

England was all out for 72 – its lowest total against Pakistan in all Tests.
Rehman’s effort overshadowed Monty Panesar’s 6-62, in his first Test for England in 30 months, which finished Pakistan’s second innings at 214 in the morning.

This is England’s first series defeat after being unbeaten in its previous nine since a loss to the West Indies in early 2009 – a sequence which saw it rise to world No.1 in the Test rankings in August.
Pakistan won the first Test in Dubai by 10 wickets. The third Test will also be played in Dubai, from Friday.

Skipper Misbah-ul Haq said Pakistan wanted to make a match out of it after setting a tricky target.
“We knew that it would be difficult so we wanted to make a match out of it,” said Misbah, who has now won eight Tests with one defeat since taking over the captaincy in October 2010.

“Our bowlers, led by Rehman, responded well and this is a great win.” Strauss showed his disappointment at England’s woeful effort.
“It’s pretty disappointing,” said Strauss, whose side last lost two Tests in a row against South Africa in July 2008. “We must acknowledge how well Pakistan bowled and they thoroughly deserved the series win.”

Rehman was ably assisted by off-spinners Saeed Ajmal (3-22) and Mohammad Hafeez (1-11) in a match in which spinners dominated from the first day.
England lost its top four batsmen in the space of just 37 balls after an extra cautious start on a difficult pitch. Strauss top scored with 32 before he became one of Rehman’s victims during his maiden five-wicket haul.

In the penultimate over before tea, Rehman trapped Kevin Pietersen (one) and two balls later bowled Eoin Morgan (duck) to raise hopes of an unlikely win for Pakistan.

Sensing it could only upset its rival through early wickets, Pakistan opened the bowling with Hafeez, who responded well by catching Alastair Cook (seven) off his own bowling after England had edged cautiously to 21 by the 15th over.
Ian Bell, promoted to No.3 after Jonathan Trott was unwell, was all at sea against master spinner Ajmal and his tentative push went through his legs to hit the stumps. He made only three.

Pietersen, who has been woefully out of form with just 16 runs in the series, managed one before Rehman trapped him and in the same over had the equally out-of-form Morgan bowled to dent England’s hopes of a victory. Rehman then accounted for Trott (one) and Stuart Broad (duck) in the same over to leave England 7-68.

Ajmal dismissed Graeme Swann (duck) and Matt Prior (18) to reach 100 Test wickets in his 19th match, before James Anderson was caught off Rehman to give Pakistan a sensational win.

Earlier, Pakistan lost its last six wickets for 89 runs after resuming at 4-125, with all hopes pinned on Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq. Panesar took three of those wickets to finish with his eighth five-wicket haul in Tests. Azhar Ali (68) and Asad Shafiq (43) added 88 for the fifth wicket before Panesar struck.

Filed under: cricket, England, Pakistan, Pakistan Cricket Tagged: Abu Dhabi, Bangladesh, cricket, Dubai, England, England Cricket, Misbah-ul-Haq, Pakistan Cricket, Saeed Ajmal, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe

Before beginning this let’s first watch a few clips from The Shawshank Redemption :

Yes it is hope that keeps you going when the chips are down, when the going gets tough and when things can’t get any worse. Hope that things would turn out the way you want them to. Hope that nothing will go wrong this time. Hope that sanity would return to the proceedings one day.

Sixteen months ago when Pakistan Cricket team left England, they were a tumultuous pack of poorly advised individuals. Still recovering from the cricketing exile and a dud tour of Australia amalgamated with vexatious media talks of deliberate under-performance and team disintegration, they lost their test captain, their bowling leader and their most outstanding pace prodigy to allegations of corruption and match-fixing. A couple of Ijaz Butt media rants (and apologies) and some ‘Zulqarnanin Haider moments’ later Pakistan Cricket found itself pushed further into the self-created hole of cricketing isolation and abasement. And such was the asperity of this hooligan-like show of Pakistan Cricket that by the time ICC met in October 2010, there were loud shouts from left right and centre that giving this once great cricket team ‘a break’ from International sport is the only way out of this ever-growing rowdiness.

And then again when all seemed lost, HOPE intervened. The same hope that won us the world cup in 1992. The same hope that helped us win test matches from disastrous scorelines of 26/6 at Kolkatta in 1999 and 39/6 at Karachi in 2006. The same hope that made match winners out of Javed Miandad at Sharjah in 1986 and Sarfraz Nawaz at Melbourne in 1979. The same hope that made us the t20 world champions in 2009. Hope that keeps you believing that everything would be like it used to be. Hope that one day Pakistan cricket team would rise from the cricketing ashes and once again show the world what they’re capable of. Hope that they would be a force again in cricket.

And guess what! this time hope didn’t let us down. The believers won and the pessimists lost. Pakistan cricket has come a long long way since then. In a space of one year we have unearthed world’s best off spinner, world’s best limited overs leg spinner, world’s best off-spinning all rounder, the most productive test opening pair, world’s best death bowler who keeps getting better, arguably the most effective left-arm spinner in cricket right now and last but not the least – the team spirit and unity that the Pakistani dressing room of the 90s could only dream of. That’s what makes the Pakistan Cricket team of today as successful as it is.

Misbah – watchful as always!!

And away from the lime light there’s one man who’s calmly sitting back and watching the proceedings unfold. One man who’s responsible for this refreshing unpredictable predictability of Pakistan Cricket. Misbah often gets criticized by the conventional Pakistan cricket fans (including me) for taking the ‘Pakistani flair and fearlessness’ out of Pakistani cricket. His methodical approach may be too defensive at times and too frustrating for the fans but he doesn’t get enough credit for what he brings to the team: the calmness and tranquillity that was unheard of since the times of a certain Inzamam-ul-Haq. And yes while his decision of not going for achievable fourth innings targets in Wellington and Abu Dhabi or his test strike-rate of 40 runs per 100 deliveries are questionable, you can take nothing away from him for leading Pakistan cricket out of the traumatic state and enabling them to rise above the shambles as a mentally stronger and spiritually united team. Not loosing a series since taking over and the best win/loss ration in the history of Pakistan cricket (even better than Imran Khan) don’t do Misbah any harm either. Pakistan Cricket needed a sane couple of years after the ignominious course of events of the last English summer and in Misbah’s regime we have got just that.

And in the end let’s again live through this mercurial fairy tale of Pakistan Cricket.

December 2009 - February 2010 :

Pakistan hit the rock bottom after getting thrashed 9-0 Down Under.

It all started in Australia. After winning the t20 world cup in early 2009, Pakistan had two moderately successful tours of Sri Lanka and New Zealand. With leadership crisis fast emerging and deteriorating team spirit under the media radar, an Australian tour was the last thing Pakistan needed. The outcome was even worse than feared. Pakistan suffered white washes in test, ODI and t20 series and were thrashed 9-0. In the aftermath of this cricket disaster, several key members of the squad were accused of causing infighting and were handed over healthy bans.

August 29 2010 :

In the middle of a potential series deciding Lord’s test, three Pakistani cricketers were accused of spot fixing and were later banned from all sorts of cricket.

The tainted trio !

Marred by spot-fixing allegations off-the-field and an array of defeats on the field, Pakistan sneaked out two consecutive wins at The Oval and Lord’s to square the series 2-2.

Umar Gul’s devastating spell of 6-42 still lives in the memory !

October 31 2010 :
For me that’s where it all started!! An under-confident Pakistan team takes on the second ranked South Africans and after conceding a t20 whitewash and tasting defeat in the first ODI, they’re struggling at 217/6 chasing 286 with only Abdur Razzaq and a couple of tailenders left. Watch this to know what happened afterwards.

Such a confidence booster was this annihilation of arguably the world’s best ODI side that a broken and inexperienced Pakistan team went on to draw the following test series 0-0 after narrowly conceding the ODI series 3-2. This series was the beginning of the redemption!

December 2010 – January 2011 :

New Zealand has always been a happy destination for Pakistan Cricket. Having not lost a test series there for the last decade and a half, a tour to New Zealand seemed to be the perfect recipe for Pakistan to get back to winning ways and they grabbed the opportunity with both hands by convincingly winning the test and ODI series.

after the series victory!

The demons of the disastrous Australian tour put to rest !

April – August 2011 :
The winning mentality was further strengthened after successful tours of West Indies, Ireland and Zimbabwe. Pakistan by now had not lost a test series for almost a year.

November 2011 :
Then came the biggest test for Misbah since he had taken over : a strong Sri Lankan side in familiar conditions. Pakistan however were upto the task as they registered series victories in tests, ODIs and t20. The Sri Lankan team could manage victory in only one out of 10 tour fixtures. This performance was a stunning reply to all those labelling Pakistan as minnow bullys.

A jubilant Pakistan team with the trophy

December 2011 :
A brittle Bangladeshi side was thrashed by Pakistan 2-0 in tests, 3-0 in ODIs and 1-0 in t20.

Another trophy for the Men in Green !

January 2012 :
And as I write Pakistan have already taken a 1-0 lead in the 3-match test series against world number one ranked England thanks to Saeed Ajmal’s devastating 10 wicket haul. England were bundled out for under 200 in both innings and were beaten within 3 days by a hefty margin of 10 wickets. Irrespective of the series result, this performance has elevated Pakistan’s status as one of the best test teams in the world right now. A series win would still be fantastic though!!

Umar Gul broke the back of English batting by dismissing top 4 English batsmen in their second innings. This, after Ajmal’s breath-taking 7-55 destroyed England in the first innings.

Pakistan cricket team haven’t lost a single test series since the English tour 2010. They’ve played 13 test matches since August 2010, winning 7, drawing 5 and losing only 1 with a win percentage of 53.8%. Also in 42 ODIs played, Pakistan have won 33 and lost only 9 with a win percentage of 78.57%. 

by Sunil Sharan

CELEBRATED Prussian military analyst Carl von Clausewitz described how the `fog of war` causes facts to be fudged. Indian army chief Gen V.K. Singh has surely studied von Clausewitz.

How then has he allowed himself and his force to become embroiled in fuzzy mathematics over the churlish matter of his age, that too in peacetime? V.K.`s predicament stems from three sources: (a) the contentious circumstances of his appointment as chief in 2010, (b) the resentment that many army personnel feel towards the neta-babu nexus, and perhaps most significantly, (c) V.K.`s tendency to shoot from the lip.

V.K. became chief against the wish of his immediate predecessor, Gen Deepak Kapoor. As Kapoor`s subordinate, he had recommended probing the alleged corruption of one of Kapoor`s pet staff officers, effrontery that would have stymied most military careers. Fortunately for him, Defence Minister A.K. Antony took his side, and what is more, got him the top job.

At this time, the discrepancy in his age records was noticed, but the matter was seemingly laid to rest. Kapoor`s tenure had been controversial enough, and the government wanted to move on. The handing-taking over ceremony between Kapoor and V.K. Singh, normally a bear-hugging affair between an outgoing chief and an incoming one, was so frigid, it might as well have occurred on the Siachen glacier. `War of the generals` shrieked the headlines.

Shortly afterwards, Kapoor was accused of misappropriating prime property in Mumbai when he was still chief. V.K. proclaimed on national television that Kapoor`s behaviour had shamed the army. Quick to implicate, V.K. forgot about the principle of presumption of innocence. Another cardinal rule, of a serving chief refraining from publicly condemning his predecessors, too was violated. Kapoor met Antony to clear his name, and while V.K. threatened to court-martial Kapoor, the government let the matter die.

If 2010 was bad for Manmohan Singh, 2011 was annus horribilis. Anna Hazare galvanised the nation`s anti-corruption rage into a gale, leaving Manmohan Singh teetering. Anna became afour-letter word for the government. V.K., unable to contain himself, came out in public support of Anna. Little did he realise then that he had just cooked his own goose.

If Indira Gandhi had been prime minister, loose lips as his would have been sealed quickly. Manmohan Singh is more deliberate. Behind wispy facial hair though, there are some fangs for sure, to be bared only every few years, as he did while pushing for India`s nuclear deal, or when he thwarted a nation baying for Pakistani blood after 26/11.

After becoming chief, V.K. sought a correction, from 1950 to 1951, to his date of birth. If granted, he would have secured an additional 10 months of service. But even his benefactor, A.K. Antony, was becoming wary. V.K.`s request was turned down.

He filed a formal complaint, which too was rejected. By now, the soap opera of age, starring birth certificates, enrolment forms, claims, counter-claims, had become all the rage.

Two camps pitted heads. On the one side were the retired army officers, who, almost to a man, supported V.K. A question of izzat, they fumed through their handlebar moustaches.

Ranged against them were the pot-bellied politicians and Indian Administrative Service bureaucrats, who cited chapter and verse ofrules andlines of succession.

Many in India`s military chafe at what they consider as shackles imposed upon them by the `bloody civilians`. It galls them that the army chief, head of the world`s second-largest army, is ranked 12 in the order of precedence of Indian officialdom, all the way down from two in pre-Independence India.

It rankles them when they see the coveted privileges enjoyed by armies to their west (Pakistan), north (China), east (Bangladesh, Myanmar), or south (Sri Lanka). Pakistan`s `womb to tomb` army culture is markedly absent in India, with officers often put to pasture in the prime of their lives, ill-equipped to cope with civilian life`s wheeling and dealing. So unattractive has the career become that India`s army faces a lacuna of over 10,000 officers, almost a quarter of the desired strength.

Since Nehru`s time, the government, fearful of a coup, has kept the army on a tight leash. Once in a while a charismatic army chief comes along, as was the case with K. Sundarji. His over-exuberance though almost precipitated a war with Pakistan, as well as nudged Rajiv Gandhi into a catastrophic misadventure in Sri Lanka, for which the latter paid for with his life subsequently. Even as India`s military seeks to break free, many abroad hail how assiduously the civilian government has tethered it.

`Don`t treat me as if I am Pakistan`s army chief,` V.K. has reportedly wailed to his government. Rumours abound that Manmohan Singh talks directly to Gen Kayani. Surely he accords him due courtesy! Jokes apart, Manmohan Singh promises a makeover this year. He has issued an unprecedented New Year`s resolution, and has visited the Golden Temple to steel himself.

Neither he, nor his patron, Sonia Gandhi, will allow an uppity general to waylay their plan for 2012, which is to ensure an orderly ascension to premiership for Rahul Gandhi. Successors to V.K. have already been short-listed, five months before his tenure is to end, rendering him a virtual lame duck.

Instead of making veiled threats of going to court, which step would in all likelihood invite the sack, or resigning in a huff, it would be best if he were to declare the matter as closed, and treat it as so. And if, to sweeten the pill, the government offers him an ambassadorship or state governorship, he should decline. He took charge promising to restore the army’s morale.

Climbing down and bowing to his political masters is the only way out now.

sunil_sharan@yahoo.com

Part 3 – The Innate Stalemate

Also Read -

Part 1: Many Barrels of a Gun
Part 2: Mood on the Ground

Another SAARC Summit, Another Round of Nothingness

Amid a general socio-political churning brought about by rising expectations of people in many South Asian nations, the 17th SAARC Summit in Maldives in November culminated with the ‘Addu Declaration’ (named after Addu city, the second most populated region of the country) that proposed to build further and better maritime and rail linkages among member-nations, with tangible goals set for the present.

The declaration is seen as a step in the direction of the long-discussed idea of integrating the South Asian economies on the lines of the European Union.

Aiming at that, the ‘Addu Declaration’ dwelt primarily on speedy implementation of the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) and reduction of ‘sensitive lists’, of items that are kept away from bi or multilateral trading because of the dependence of local traders on those items for their livelihoods. The more the items of the sensitive lists between two trading nations, the lesser is the free movement of goods and services between the two markets.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in his address on November 10, suggested India’s intent on the subject by declaring that “the government of India has issued a notification to reduce the sensitive list for the least developed countries under the South Asian Free Trade Area Agreement from 480 tariff lines to 25 tariff lines. Zero basic customs duty access will be given for all items removed with immediate effect.”

Echoing Singh, the ‘Addu Declaration’ outlines the provision of directing the SAFTA Ministerial Council to intensify efforts to fully and effectively implement SAFTA, while seeking an early resolution of non-tariff barriers and hasten the process of harmonising standards and customs procedures.

Currently, the intra-trade between SAARC nations is clipped at 5 per cent of their gross domestic product.

Unfortunately, neither the ‘Addu Declaration’ nor the verbal intent of India stood for anything more than oft-repeated desires that SAARC, the organisation, has been airing since its inception 26 years ago.

Moreover, as ever, the 17th Summit too chose to ignore any radically new suggestion – irrespective of passing a judgement on the merits of the same here – that may have been proposed by the leadership of any SAARC nation.

For instance, the ‘Addu Declaration’ chose not even to mention a forward-looking suggestion by the Sri Lankan President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, for a ‘South Asian currency’ – inspite the fact that Maldives, for one, has discussed with India and Sri Lanka about direct exchange of its rufiyaa against currencies of the two nations.

Apart from the trade issues, the summit talked of resolving operational issues related to the SAARC Food Bank, which was mooted in the August 2008 Summit in Sri Lanka towards building a stock of food grains to help nations facing food shortage in emergency situations, working on climate change and rooting out terrorism from the region.

In other words, the summit said everything that all summits have been saying over the years!

The collective stagnancy of the region also reflected in the practices of individual administrations in 2011.

Nepal, which has been struggling to draft a new constitution for more than two years continued to move around in circles, even as the people in the Himalayan nation, one of the poorest country in the world, watched in disbelief the bickering politicians of all hues.

Just as the year was about to bid goodbye to the sameness, the Nepali government and the judiciary looked set to lock horns over another extension to the Constituent Assembly (the Nepalese legislature) term.

The Supreme Court of Nepal mooted three options if the Constituent Assembly failed to draft a new Constitution before May 28, 2012: Holding a referendum, conduct fresh polls to elect a new body to draft the constitution, or seek some other alternative.

The court rejected petitions for another extension should a draft of the new constitution fails to emerge in May 2012.
In 2008, the legislative body was given two years to draft Nepal’s new constitution, but despite four extensions, the task is no closer to completion than it was when the CA was given its mandate.

The bright spot in an otherwise despondent year was provided by the beginning of the process of rehabilitation of Maoist cadres into the Nepali mainstream. Called ‘regrouping’, the process marked the beginning of the armed cadre of Maoists choosing between voluntary retirement and integration with the national army. The armed fighters have been lodged in 19 camps across the nation since the signing of peace treaty between the Maoists and the mainstream political parties.

But if international analysts were looking for a better promise from Sri Lanka, they found none in 2011. President Rajapaksa Mahinda’s ruling coalition, which has been offering fire for fire on charges of war crimes committed by it in the final days of the civil war in May 2009, finally got ‘its own document’ when the government-backed Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Council (LLRC) submitted its report on the subject and exonerated the government of any wrong-doing.

The LLRC had long been rejected by almost all international observers and hence is seen as a body that would merely speak the stated.

The government’s firm stand on the issue has been met by an equally resolute – and typical – stand by its opponents. The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), an umbrella group of parties that are said to represent the Tamil community in the island nation, called for an ‘international inquiry’ on the conduct of government forces in the civil war.

Further, the TNA also asked for police powers to provincial governments, amid decentralisation talks in a bid to find a political settlement to the grievances of the minority ethnic community. It was, predictably, soundly rejected by the government.

The present discourse can be seen as the non-armed conflict between the nation’s two largest ethnic communities, the Sinhalas and the Tamils, of the kind that the nation had experienced during the 26 year insurgency. And quite like that period, the two sides seem to be feeding of each other even now.

Again, one may talk of individual nations or go for the entire region, the year 2011 illustrated all over again that there seems to be a certain innate stalemate about the SAARC region.

And we aren’t even talking about the India-Pakistan relations.

Part 2 – Mood on the Ground

Also Read: Part 1: Many Barrels of a Gun

“There’s this contagion of protest,” Richard Stengel, managing editor of TIME, told NBC television as he discussed the naming of “The protester” as Time magazine’s person of the year, 2011. “These are folks who are changing history already and they will change history in the future.”

People across the SAARC region took to streets to protest against administrations failing to deliver governance

While he was referring largely to the people on streets in the Arab world, from Tunisia to Syria, who are shaking the plates of autocratic regimes in the region, the one story from the SAARC region that captured the imagination of the world in much the same way was the anti-corruption movement in India led by veteran social activist Anna Hazare and his team, known together as Team Anna.

In a protest that replicated the span and fervour of the Tahrir Square protest in Egypt, Team Anna’s agitation at Ramlila Maidan in India’s capital city of New Delhi towards a strong anti-corruption law drew not just tens of thousands of supporters (largely from the middle class) to the venue, but also inspired hundreds of simultaneous mirror agitations across the nation of 1.2 billion.

With more than 100 Indian news channels in over 20 languages and thousands of newspapers and magazines from across the globe providing saturation coverage to the movement, the Indian political class was forced to call an unscheduled debate on the subject in the parliament. It was an unprecedented instance of people power prevailing over the mighty political class in the nation’s 60-year-old parliamentary history.

There has yet not been any conclusion of the debate, both inside and outside the parliament, but what has now been established beyond doubt that people’s pressure in a nation that is home to the world’s fastest growing middle class may set the tone for future government-civilian dynamics.

Already, the Indian government is facing unrelenting resistance on ground over issues ranging from environmental and health impact of nuclear power plants to prices of essential items like food and fuel.

Clearly, the tone for the future is now set in India. People’s pressure would increasingly ensure that governance delivery becomes one of the prerequisites for electoral victories.

The thread carries through neighbouring Pakistan too. Hundreds of thousands of people have been flocking the political rallies of one of the nation’s favourite sons, Imran Khan. The only reason that can describe the massive surge in support for a person whose party has never, in the 15 years of its existence, won a single election is the unprecedented levels of public frustration in the nation about the current state of affairs.

Social media savvy middle and upper class youth are flocking Khan’s rallies across Pakistan in the hope that the charismatic personality would turn around things in the poverty and terrorism-stricken nation.

Sweeping one city after another by his present crowd pulling charisma, Khan has sent both the current ruling coalition and the principal opposition in a tizzy at the same time. Out of nowhere, Khan is now seen as a serious prime ministerial choice by an increasing number of people in the country.

Most of the support group of Khan see him not just as an alternative, but also as an extension of their own belief. In other words, Khan is just a representative of the present mood, which may just as easily turn against him should he compromise on any of the urgent expectations of the man on the street on the subject of transparent and corruption free government.

It is a thread that seems to be running across the SAARC region.

Bhutan, which famously talks of Gross National Happiness in place of Gross Domestic Product, saw an unprecedented Facebook campaign in February that challenged the government’s decision to ban smoking at public places. Though most of the supporters of the Facebook group had attacked the government from behind hidden identities, the rise of people’s voice in an otherwise serene kingdom did not go unnoticed. What also brought into sharp focus was the opportunity for administrative corruption in the process of the implementation of the law.

Three months later, thousands of people protested in Male, Asia’s smallest city and the capital of Maldives, against what they dubbed as corruption of unacceptable proportions in the government.

All of the above instances are significant as they belong to a region that is traditionally identified with corruption. A recent report by Transparency International on corruption in daily lives and public opinion in South Asia, based upon a survey of 7500 persons in six countries—India, Nepal, Pakistan, Maldives, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, revealed that more than one in three people in the SAARC region who dealt in public services said they paid bribes to get things done.

The report further said that people in the SAARC region see political parties and police as the most corrupt institutions. The two Ps are closely followed by further two Ps—parliament and public officials.

In such an environment of near pathological acceptance of corruption as a part of the society, rise of masses against corruption is not only a welcome sign, but might also signify the fight back of an extremely aggressive beast that feels itself to be cornered from all sides.

And therein lay SAARC region’s sunshine story of the year 2011.

End of Part 2

Continuing from the Telecom Highlights of Q1 2011, in this post we shall look at the Quarter 2 (Apr-Jun 2011).

1. Ministry of interior raised concerns over use of multiple SIMs and false IMEI devices. The ten point recommendations are yet to be finalized.
2. Pakistan scores 3.5 and gets a global rank of 88 on Network Readiness Index. The ranking marked Pakistan in LM category, meaning lower-middle income class. Among LM economies, Pakistan ranks at number 16. We still lag a lot behind other economies like India (3) and Sri Lanka(8) in the same category.
3. The Universal Service Fund (USF) published a documentary on its success story. It is unfortunate that the CEO under which the USF became the pride of Pakistan has now been sent home.
4. On the global front, Microsoft in an strategic move acquired Skype.
5. An impressive initiative came from regulator authority, PTA. Telecom services coverage maps are published on the PTA website.
6. The biggest upset for prepaid cellular market comes in with putting up more charges on recharge/reloads. The cellular companies justified these under the head of maintenance/operation/admin charges.
7. Telenor Pakistan came up with a  response to allegations put on by a certain blog on the fundings being received by Pakistan’s first mobile banking service easypaisa.

This was all about the second quarter, we shall get back with more highlights of the year in our coming post.

Part 1 – Many Barrels of a Gun

South Asia is often described as the most dangerous place on earth and the most promising emerging market – both in the same breath. The year 2011 illustrated in ample measure the implausible irony.

The killing of Osama Bin Laden was described as the biggest international news of the year 2011

The biggest international story of the year, according to The Associated Press’ annual poll of U.S. editors and news directors, was the killing of Osama Bin Laden in his hideout in Pakistan on May 2.

Coming close on the heels of a serious diplomatic row between the US and Pakistan over the issue of Raymond Davis, an alleged CIA operative, killing three men in the busy streets of Pakistan’s second biggest city Lahore in late January, Pakistan brought frequent – and hugely unwelcome – spotlight to the South Asian region during the year.

The year of turmoil, which was preceded by the country losing hosting rights of many sporting events including South Asia’s biggest sporting event, the ICC Cricket World Cup, ended with one of the most public spats in recent history between the democratically elected government and the omnipotent Pakistan military.

In a spat that could spell serious trouble for the fragile democracy of the nation, President Asif Ali Zardari is alleged to have sought US assistance to quell a possible military coup in the aftermath of Osama’s killing. Called the ‘Memogate Scandal’, for the unsigned memo – allegedly crafted by former ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani – that was used to convey the Pakistani request to the US administration, the matter has taken the scalp of Haqqani and dragged both Zardari and chiefs of military and Pakistan’s secret service agency Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) to nation’s supreme court.

Conflicts like these have in the past acted as the precursor to military rule in the country, which the nuclear-armed nation has been under for more than half the period of its independence from British rule in 1947. Though the chief justice of the Supreme Court, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, decisively denied on December 22 the possibility of any extra-constitutional measure against the democratic system, a cursory glance at the nation’s volatile history informs that the military usually manages to have its way.

Unfortunately, Pakistan was not the only South Asian nation where dead bodies talked the most during the year. Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal grappled with the aftermath of armed conflicts of recent history, even as India played host to a fleeting visit by terror in 2011.

A tribunal, headed by Nizamul Haque Nasim and known as ‘International Crimes Tribunal’, was formed in March 2010 in Bangladesh to hold trial of those accused of their involvement in ‘crimes against humanity’, including genocide, murder and rape during the nine-month ‘Liberation War’ – the period between declaration of Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan in March 1971 and attaining freedom with India’s military help against Pakistan in December 1971. Many unofficial accounts put the figure of dead people at three million and those of women raped at 200,000. Hundreds of thousands of other, the then, East Pakistanis ended up as refugees in India.

Following up on the formation of the tribunal, the nation took its first step towards addressing that dark chapter of its young history when the police arrested three top Jamaat-e-Islami leaders in June 2010, two of which were cabinet ministers in the 2001-06 Bangladesh National Party (BNP) administration of the present opposition leader and then prime minister of Bangladesh, Begum Khalida Zia.

Khaleda Zia, in a statement to press, said that the tribunal is “nothing but a servile, rubber-stamp organisation” out to victimise the government’s political opponents.

The tribunal began its first trial in October this year when it charged Delwar Hossain Sayedee, a top authority of Jamaat-e-Islami and allegedly one of the leaders of a pro-Pakistan mercenary group, with involvement in the killing of more than 50 people, torching villages and forcibly converting Hindus to Islam.

Sayedee, who denies the charges, could be given the death penalty if found guilty.

International observers have cautiously welcomed the trials. With neutral researchers noting that about 1800 people collaborated with the Pakistani army in committing the ‘war crimes’, many more arrests in the case are expected.

In another case involving war in the SAARC region, to the south-west of Bangladesh, the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) of Sri Lanka submitted its final report to the government on November 20. Established by President Mahinda Rajapaksa in May 2010 to look into alleged war crimes committed during the final days of the 26-year-old civil war in Sri Lanka that ended with the defeat of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at the hands of the Sri Lankan army in May 2009, the LLRC – expectedly – exonerated the Sri Lankan government of any wrong doings between 21 February 2002 to 19 May 2009.

The commission is not recognised by most of the international rights groups because of its failure to satisfy the fairness and transparency criteria. But the Sri Lankan government, which has steadfastly resisted vociferous global support for external accountability mechanisms such as the UN Secretary General’s Panel of Expert, said that the LLRC report is impartial and objective, and would be presented verbatim at the next session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in March 2012.

Up north in the Himalayas, the erstwhile monarchy and the presently constitution-less fledgling democracy of Nepal struggled, for another year, to draft a new constitution and pave the way for a stable democracy.

On November 28, members of parliament extended the Nepalese parliament’s term for a fourth and final time to allow the drafting of a new constitution that adheres to a peace accord brokered between political parties and the Maoist rebels, after the civil war ended in 2006.

Formed in 2008 after Nepal relinquished its monarchy, the current 601-member parliament, or Constituent Assembly (CA), was given an initial two-year mandate to write a new constitution for the young republic.

But three years since, the CA has not been able to produce even a first, consolidated draft. The previous three extensions of the assembly – first for a year and then two of three months each – failed to resolve differences between the various political parties on issues like federalism, presidential or prime ministerial formats and election procedures.

But the nation made some progress in what it called the ‘regrouping process’, entailing the re-integration of the cadre of Nepal’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in the mainstream Nepalese society. PLA was the military wing of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M) when the party was at civil conflict with the Nepalese monarchy.

19,500 PLA combatants who were living in a total of seven cantonments in different parts of the country after the commencement of the peace process in 2006 began appearing before a committee on November 18 to register their choice of either joining the Nepal army or taking a voluntary retirement.

The process is seen is one of the only successes of Nepalese democracy since the abolition of constitutional monarchy in 2006.

India, the SAARC nation that has the biggest stake in the Nepalese peace process, meanwhile continued to answer its own geo-political needs – supporting the Maoists in Nepal, while going after the group in India and gunning down one of its biggest leaders, Kishenji.

Indian analysts, however, point out that there is no contradiction in the approach, as while the Nepali Maoist are now firmly in the Himalayan nation’s mainstream polity, the Indian rebels are still caught in the time warp of trying to overthrow the government to establish their own ideological republic – through the barrel of a gun.

The South Asian giant, however, faced none of the security-related anxiety of the other SAARC nations mentioned in this year-end wrap; barring a jolting bomb blast outside a court premises in New Delhi. But it was kept on the tenterhooks by another kind of challenge – that of popular anger.

End of Part 1

KARACHI: Pakistan’s cricket board on Sunday said it has invited former World Cup winning Sri Lanka coach Dav Whatmore to finalise his appointment as head coach of the national team, an official said.

Pakistan cricket team is without a full time coach since former paceman Waqar Younis left the post in September citing health problems.

“We are in the process of finalising the appointment and in this regard are in discussions with Whatmore,” Pakistan Cricket Board chief operating officer Subhan Ahmed told local media on Sunday.

Whatmore is expected to reach Pakistan in second week of January, he added.

Former opening batsman Mohsin Khan has been serving as interim coach and was retained for Pakistan’s series next month against England in the United Arab Emirates.

The 57-year-old Whatmore, who played for Australia in the late 1970s and early 1980s, is regarded as one of the most successful coaches in international cricket, having guided Sri Lanka to the World Cup title in 1996.

He subsequently enjoyed a successful coaching spell with Bangladesh and is currently in charge of the Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League.