Pakistan parliament backs neutrality in Yemen conflict

Asad Hashim | 10 Apr 2015 11:07 GMT | War & Conflict, Asia, Pakistan, Yemen

Lahore, Pakistan - Pakistan’s parliament has unanimously passed a resolution affirming the country’s "neutrality" in the Yemen conflict, in a move that indicates the South Asian country will not be joining a Saudi-led military coalition that is currently fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen.

A joint session of parliament has been debating the issue in the capital Islamabad all week, and unanimously passed the resolution, presented by Ishaq Dar, the finance minister, on Friday afternoon.

The resolution expresses the "desire that Pakistan should maintain neutrality in the Yemen conflict", while reaffirming Pakistan’s "unequivocal support of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia".

Members of parliament agreed that Pakistan would "stand shoulder to shoulder" with Saudi Arabia in case of a violation of that country’s territorial integrity, or a threat to Muslim holy sites in Mecca and Medina.

The vote on Friday comes on the heels of frenetic diplomatic activity, with Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iranian foreign minister, in Islamabad for a two-day visit that concluded on Thursday, following Pakistani leader Nawaz Sharif’s meetings in Turkey with that country’s leadership on the issue.

Pakistani leaders have also met senior Saudi officials in Riyadh in the last two weeks, while the country’s military leadership has been in talks with Iran and Egypt.

Peace broker's role

Pakistan, alongside regional ally Turkey, has placed itself as a peace broker in the conflict, calling on the UN and Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) to take a pro-active role in fostering dialogue to end the conflict. 

The parliamentary resolution is not binding on the executive, but the fact that text was proposed by senior cabinet member Dar, who is a member of the ruling PML-N party, and that it was passed unanimously indicate that it is highly unlikely the government would defy it.

The resolution passed on Friday "calls upon the warring factions in Yemen to resolve their differences peacefully through dialogue".

Members of both houses of parliament had been debating the issue since Monday, when the government convened the joint session to formulate a joint position on the conflict.

On Monday, Khawaja Asif, Pakistani defence minister, revealed that Saudi Arabia had, in meetings with the Pakistani leadership, conveyed a request for fighter jets, ground troops and naval warships to be contributed to Saudi Arabia’s Operation Decisive Storm.

Excerpt: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/04/pakistan-rules-military-operations-yemen-150410074921586.html 

Op: Pakistan has sent military advisers and equipment to KSA. Also Pakistani troops have a small permanent garrison in KSA to protect the royal family.

The decision to remain neutral is a wise one, it's done great things for Switzerland, it can surely help Pakistan. I understand the need to return favors, however Pakistan has said unless Saudi Arabia is invaded on its own soil then Pakistan will remain neutral.

Pakistan has helped Saudi Arabia against Yemeni rebels in 1969. PAF sent pilots to fly RSAF fighter jets and conducted air strikes on Yemeni rebels making incursions into Saudi Arabia.

Pakistan has done a lot for Saudi Arabia.

Pakistan has the most urbanized population in South Asia - World Bank

Lahore Gulberg District aerial view.

Pakistan has the most urbanized population in South Asia with more percentage of people living in cities than any South Asian country. According to World Bank data in 2013 Pakistan had 38% of its population living in urban areas and cities, while nearby India in 2013 is at 32%. This is an important indicator because populations that are concentrated in more urban centric environments are better integrated into a modern economy. Which means higher employment rates, higher income rates, less poverty, and a stronger middle class.

Urban population (% of total) | Data | Table

Russia-Pakistan Deal May Lead to More Sales

By Usman Ansari  February 16, 2015

ISLAMABAD — A deal for Pakistan to directly import Russian engines for the JF-17 Thunder multi-role fighter will improve the program and may lead to more Russian-made parts for the aircraft, analysts say.

News broke over the weekend that Pakistan would directly import the Klimov RD-93 engines from Russia rather than via China, which reportedly also supports the deal. Kaiser Tufail, an analyst and former air commodore, said he believes the deal is significant on cost and political grounds.

"I think a direct deal with Russia for supply of the engines basically removes the Chinese middleman, resulting in cheaper procurement cost. It is also reflective of a thaw in what has been a frosty relationship with Russia over the past several decades," he said.

Considering the JF-17 is a Sino-Pakistani project, Tufail said: "China's approval of direct procurement from Russia is also significant, and can be seen as trilateral cooperation between the three countries, in which Pakistan enjoys a pivotal position."

Engine availability has always been a source of speculation for the JF-17 program — initially the lack of a Western-made powerplant — and whether Moscow would continue to supply the RD-93, leading Pakistan to look for an alternative.

An alternative does exist in the Chinese Guizhou WS-13, but analysts do not consider it yet to have matured. With the guaranteed availability of the RD-93, the only issue is whether a more powerful, and perhaps thrust-vectoring, variant may be adopted at a future date.

The European EJ200 is also being offered, but for potential customers such as Saudi Arabia.
Brian Cloughley, analyst and former Australia defense attache to Islamabad, said, "I think there is already examination of the means of upgrading the JF-17 in many ways, and it would be surprising if this did not include more powerful engines, and certainly an improved version of the RD-93 would be a sensible choice."

Cloughley said financing may be an issue, but it's something he said he believed politics will overcome. "As usual, it all comes down to cost — but Russia is cutting the price of its exported defense material in order to acquire and lock-in markets."

Cloughley also highlighted a perennial fear of sanctions for Pakistan that still shapes its policies. "This is yet another blowback effect of sanctions, and it may cost the west considerably in the long term."

However, Tufail questioned the need for the JF-17 needing a replacement engine.
"I believe it is a premature idea, as the current RD-93 is powerful enough, providing a thrust-to-weight ratio of almost 1:1," said Tufail.

Russia-Pakistan Deal May Lead to More Sales

Pakistani military says it kills more than 60 militants in various clashes -Reuters

Pakistan kills school massacre 'facilitator'

Pakistan kills 77 militants after Taliban school massacre

Pakistani security forces have killed a Taliban commander who allegedly facilitated the Peshawar school massacre, which left 150 people dead in the country's worst ever attack.

Officials on Friday said the fighter, named only as Saddam, was killed on Thursday night in a gunfight with security forces in the restive Khyber tribal area, which borders the northwestern city of Peshawar where last week's attack took place.

"Commander Saddam was a dreaded terrorist, who was killed in an exchange of fire with the security forces in Jamrud town of Khyber tribal region," top local administration official Shahab Ali Shah told a press conference in Peshawar.

"Six of his accomplices were injured and arrested."
He added that Saddam is believed to have facilitated the school attack, although the extent or capacity of his alleged involvement was not yet known.

"Authorities are currently interrogating the injured terrorists," Shah said.
He described Saddam as an important commander in the Pakistani Taliban, or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and said he had masterminded several bomb attacks.

Saddam and his accomplices had been involved in several recent attacks on security forces that had resulted in heavy casualties, Shah said.

The Taliban and other fighters have taken refuge in Khyber from a major army offensive launched in June in North Waziristan, another restive tribal area on the Afghan border that has been a hub for al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters since the early 2000s...

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has announced the establishment of military courts for terror-related cases in order to accelerate trials, and he has also lifted a six-year moratorium on the death penalty, reinstating it for terrorism-related cases.

Officials said Monday that Pakistan plans to execute around 500 fighters in the coming weeks.



Excerpt: Pakistan kills school massacre 'facilitator'

In Pakistan school attack, Taliban terrorists kill 145, mostly children

By Sophia Saifi and Greg Botelho, CNN

updated 1:28 AM EST, Wed December 17, 2014

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- "'God is great,'" the Taliban militants shouted as they roared through the hallways of a school in Peshawar, Pakistan.

Then, 14-year-old student Ahmed Faraz recalled, one of them took a harsher tone.

 " 'A lot of the children are under the benches,' " a Pakistani Taliban said, according to Ahmed. " 'Kill them.' "

By the time the hours-long siege at Army Public School and Degree College ended early Tuesday evening, at least 145 people -- 132 children, 10 school staff members and three soldiers -- were dead, military spokesman Gen. Asim Bajwa said. More than 100 were injured, many with gunshot wounds, according to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province Information Minister Mushtaq Ghani.

he death toll does not include the terrorists who attacked the school, bursting into an auditorium where a large number of students were taking an exam and gunning down many of them within minutes, Bajwa said.

"They started shooting indiscriminately," Bajwa said, "and that's where maximum damage was caused."

Pakistani Taliban spokesman Mohammed Khurrassani said the militants scaled the school's walls around 10 a.m. (midnight ET), intent on killing older students there.

The Taliban had "300 to 400 people ... under their custody" at one point, said Khurrassani, whose group is called Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. But Bajwa said there was no hostage situation, as the attackers' focus was shooting to kill rather than taking captives.

They were eventually met by Pakistani troops who pushed through the complex building by building, room by room. By 4 p.m., they'd confined the attackers to four buildings. A few hours later, all the militants -- seven of them, according to Bajwa -- were dead.

Excerpt: In Pakistan school attack, Taliban terrorists kill 145, mostly children

Al Qaeda in search of its 'own territory' in India

India Conflict Map, SATP.org

Gabriel Domínguez, Sept 9, 2014

India has stepped up security after al Qaeda announced the formation of a local wing. But as analyst Gauri Khandekar tells DW, the militant group is in reality seeking recruits rather than launching a new branch.

In a video posted online, al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri announced it had created an Indian branch and promised to spread Islamic rule and "raise the flag of jihad" across the "Indian subcontinent" and Myanmar. Indian authorities said they were taking the move seriously and put several states on high alert on September 4.

In the meantime, the announcement was hailed by a new breakaway faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) called Jamat-ul-Ahrar. "We believe that the branch will work hard for the achievement of the rights of Muslims in the subcontinent," the splinter group's spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan, said in a message posted on Twitter and Facebook.

Analysts say al Qaeda has been increasingly overshadowed by 'Islamic State', a renegade offshoot of the terror group which has managed to capture vast territory in Syria and Iraq and inspired thousands of fighters to join its jihadist mission.

So far, terror threats In India have largely come from neighboring Pakistan and Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan region. Gauri Khandekar, head of the Asia Program at the European think tank FRIDE, says in a DW interview that while there is no evidence of an al Qaeda presence in the subcontinent, the organization wants to take advantage of the large and young Muslim population in the region.

DW: How credible are the al Qaeda chief's claims of expansion and the creation of an Indian branch?

Gauri Khandekar: This is indeed worrisome. It has been said that al Qaeda (AQ) is trying to compete with IS for recruits and funding, but what has not been said is that the network is also differentiating itself from IS geographically. AQ does not want to compete with IS for territory, so it is trying to claim its own "territory of action" and channeling an undisclosed amount of its resources on the Indian subcontinent, especially as foreign troops prepare to leave Afghanistan.


Source: Al Qaeda in search of its 'own territory' in India 


It will be interesting to see how India and the new Prime Minister Modi handles this challenge. I think in the coming years India will face a wave of instability and internal attacks as militancy in the country intensifies.