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November 2011’s B-side has its main focus on the emergence of a third force in Pakistani politics in Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) as well as continuing commentary on the evil of US drone attacks in Pakistan. The B-side begins with an analysis of the rise of Imran Khan’s PTI by Rahimullah Yusufzai, who remains one of Pakistan’s most respected jourmalists. The second article also passes comment on Imran Khan’s PTI and is written by Sana Buchha who represents the new breed of Pakistani journalists.

The B-side concludes with a heart rending article by Pratap Chatterjee about a young Pakistani boy who visited Islamabad to campaign against US drone attacks and was compensated accordingly by the US not in dollars but in the form of a drone attack that killed him, need I say more? November 2011′s B-side contents include:

1. The Emergence of Imran Khan by RAHIMULLAH YUSUFZAI
2. His Name is Khan, Imran Khan by SANA BUCHA
3. The CIA’s Unaccountable Drone War Claims Another Casualty by PRATAP CHATTERJEE

The first article is written by Rahimullah Yuzufzai on the emergence of Imran Khan.

The Emergence of Imran Khan by Rahimullah Yusufzai

The article is published in The News and can be read here.

WASIM VIEW- Rahimullah Yusufzai’s article charts the rise of Imran Khan and is a must read for all objective Pakistanis who wish to understand the rise of the PTI. Yusufzai is fair in praising Imran Khan in the article and like me has concluded that he is a man on a mission when he writes ‘whatever one may say about Imran Khan’s politics, not many can question his never-say-die attitude. He refuses to give up even at the worst of times and inspires hope’.

Yusufzai was right to note the mammoth crowd that attended the Lahore rally, the largest gathering since Benazir Bhutto’s return in 1986 and was right too in concluding that the youth of Pakistan had made their decision to back the PTI in their droves. Later in the article, Yusufzai questions the worth of musicians like Shehzad Roy in singing at the rally and later on is right to drawing attention to the challenges before the PTI in staying true to its tall ideals and at the same time select electable candidates to win influence in Pakistan if it is to be a third force to be reckoned with.

The second article also focuses on Imran Khan’s PTI and is written by Geo Anchor and journalist, Sana Bucha.

His Name is Khan, Imran Khan by Sana Bucha

The article is published in The News and can be read here

WASIM VIEW- Sana Bucha’s article on Imran Khan’s rise has upset me and is the very antithesis of good and honest journalism and in stark contrast to the earlier article by Rahimullah Yusufzai. Buchha is bullish at the outset of her article and boasts (to her cost as I will prove) of her journalistic responsibility to present both sides of a story, sadly for her she has failed in that endeavour as her article is full of unnecessary bile and bias.

The quality of Bucha’s article and journalism can be gauged from the following sentence ‘Aside from entertainment, what did we, the public, get out of the PTI’s recent show of strength?’. The music at the PTI Lahore rally may not have been the best idea as alluded to by Rahimullah Yusufzai in his excellent article earlier, however Bucha is flogging the wrong horse and seems is deaf, dumb and blind to the real story of the Lahore rally which was the emergence of the PTI as a political force.

Later in her article, Bucha butchers the art of honest journalism by engaging in blatant lies in criticizing Imran Khan for his support of peace talks with the Taliban and ridiculing him by writing ‘Imran Khan wants to talk peace with extremists who have forcibly occupied a large area of Pakistani land to dictate their agenda. Khan also seeks to bring terrorists into the mainstream – if it was up to him, those who have killed more than 40,000 innocent people may be welcomed in parliament!’

Bucha’s deceit is that she has lied in the extract above for she and the entire Pakistani media are well aware of the recent APC which decided to give peace a chance and authorized the government to engage in the same peace talks Buchha criticizes only Imran Khan for. Another example of Bucha’s bias against Imran Khan are her comments on his uncontroversial support for utilizing Pakistan’s vast reserves of Thar coal which Bucha informs us lie underground (is that so!) and that ‘their extraction halted as the Chinese have fled amid security fears. Law and order, however, is the least of Imran’s worries’. Bucha is clearly unaware of recent Russian interest as reported in her own newspaper and shared below:

Moreover Bucha must be living on another planet in Pakistan if she is not aware of Dr Samar Mubarakmand’s 50MW coal gasification project that has been completed already. Concluding, Sana Bucha’s diatribe (its not an article) is also a must read for Pakistanis for it proves that the all anchors are not journalists in Pakistan and that lies can be peddled from the likes of Bucha in print and on the idiot box that she is suited to.

The final article is written by Pratap Chatterjee and is a tough one to read for it details the death by drone of Tariq Aziz who was a 16 year old Pakistani civilian.

The CIA’s Unaccountable Drone War Claims Another Casualty by Pratap Chatterjee

The article is published in The Guardian and can be read here.

WASIM VIEW- The heart-rending article by Pratap Chatterjee on the drone attack that killed Tariq Aziz made my blood boil and angers me as Tariq Aziz had visited Islamabad to campaign against drone strikes and was punished for this deed by death by drone.

Chatterjee’s article raises many vital legal questions for the US administration and in particular the CIA. Chatterjee is right to question the CIA’s right to kill and names Stephen Preston who is the general counsel at the CIA headquarters as the chief executioner of the hundreds of drone strikes that have killed innocent Pakistani civilians as reported in my posts here.

I echo the sentiments of Chatterjee in his insightful artice and support the legal questions he has put to the CIA. Indeed he is right to question the logic of Tariq Aziz attending a seminar in Islamabad in the full view of a media circus if he was the terror mastermind for which he was slain. Thus I cannot but conclude and echo Chatterjee’s final words on Tariq Aziz’s death, that of ‘unless the CIA can prove that Tariq Aziz posed an imminent threat (as the White House’s legal advice stipulates a targeted killing must in order for an attack to be carried out), or that he was a key planner in a war against the US or Pakistan, the killing of this 16 year old was murder, and any jury should convict the CIA accordingly’.

Continuing with the theme of hope, I wish to share some good news regarding Swat. Readers will know of my anger and concern at the evil that was unleashed by the satanic Taliban in Swat in my posts here. I supported the military action to rid Swat of Lucifer’s litter and am happy to see its return to normalcy.

In recent days I have been made aware of a positive and uplifting campaign to promote Swat with a view to encouraging tourism in what is paradise and is Pakistan’s own Switzerland.  A campaign supported by USAID (is this the much lauded and loathed Kerry-Lugar money?) and other agencies has produced a video titled Zindagi Hai Yahan with vocals by the impressive Meesha Shafi and I share it below:

I hope the video above is passed around and shared amongst the Pakistani communities wherever they reside and shared with foreigners with a view to projecting the beauty of Swat. Let us all discover and rediscover Swat.

Post October 30, Pakistan has found a new hero and a new hope in Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e- Insaf. On that day a much needed third force in Pakistani politics rose in the form of the PTI phoenix in front of mammoth crowds at Minar-e-Pakistan.

The PTI rally at was a slap in the face for the mainstream political parties as well as Imran Khan’s vocal critics as he proved that cometh the hour, cometh Imran. The PTI jalsa in Lahore proved that Imran Khan had finally arrived as a big beast in the political jungle as evidenced in the mammoth crowds that attended the rally and in doing so proved the PTI’s rising street power.

I must admit that I was surprised by the mammoth crowds and the level of passion and hope in the crowds. I can only assume that the Pakistani masses have had enough of the corrupt politicians who dupe and deceive them each time and recall what the former Ambassador Tayyab Siddiqui said ‘look into the eyes of the miserable masses. The lava of their anger and frustration is burning. It may soon erupt, sweeping away the inhuman system of power and privilege and those enjoying them’. I sincerely hope that the people of Pakistan have had enough and seen the light.

As a fan of Imran Khan and his principled politics I welcome the rise of the PTI as the party under his leadership represents quite possibly the last hope for the renewal of the Quaid’s Pakistan. Like most Pakistanis I was energized by the historic jalsa at Minar-e-Pakistan and could feel amongst the crowed a wave of change sweeping across the country and share Imran Khan’s speech below (Imran Khan speech begins at 22:48):

Imran Khan represents the promise of a better and other Pakistan that I dream about every day. However I know that Pakistan is not going to be transformed overnight, however Imran Khan’s PTI provide us with hope, and that should be enough for millions of Pakistanis who are desperately looking for an alternative to the PPP government comprising of incompetent and corrupt leaders. So go forth Imran Khan I am with you and wish you god speed in your quest to renew the Pakistan of the Quaid and Allama Iqbal and go forth and serve the poor people of Pakistan.

Today lawyers across Pakistan have observed a black day in marking four years since the imposition of Musharraf’s martial law on 3 November 2007. On that day Pakistan’s judiciary including the Chief Justice of Pakistan were sacked and placed under house arrest for a detention that lasted months whilst the lawyers leaders like Munir A Malik were tortured by a vicious dictator.

On 3 November 2007,  the constitution was defamed and the people of Pakistan put under martial law to save the first and second skin of Pervez Musharraf. Four years later it is the judiciary and the people of Pakistan who have won the day reducing the all-powerful Musharraf  to a midget of a man who has escaped Pakistan.

Indeed Musharraf is hiding in London and elsewhere from the long hand of the law that seeks to hold him accountable for his deeds as evidenced recently by the order from the Balochistan High Court to bring him back to Pakistan regarding his murder of Nawab Akbar Bugti.

As we mark the 3rd November 2007, I wish to pay tribute to all in the lawyers movement and in the judiciary who remained steadfast against Musharraf’s martial law. In particular I wish to pay special tribute to a living hero of mine, that is Justice Khalilul Rehman Ramday whose work and name will forever be written in golden letters in Pakistan.

The great man retired a year or so ago from the Supreme Court of Pakistan, however his judgement restoring the Chief Justice of Pakistan numbering  279 pages shown here was a landmark judgement in the judicial history of Pakistan. I recently saw an interview of the great man in which he discusses the lawyers movement and his detention and I share it to record the events of 3rd November 2007 as well as a tribute to Justice Ramday who remain steadfast in standing tall to the dictator:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

 Justice Ramday Zindabad.

October 2011′s B-side is in memoriam to Begum Nusrat Bhutto who passed away in October. This special B-side includes three articles of tribute to the iron lady of Pakistan with contributions from the respected analyst Nasim Zehra followed by an article by Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the UK, Wajid Shamsul Hasan. The respected columnist Kamran Shafi is the author of the final article, October 2011′s B-side contents include the following:

1. Ten Feet Tall by NASIM ZEHRA
2. Begum Bhutto Lived Fighting, Died Fighting by WAJID SHAMSUL HASAN
3. Begum Bhutto Remembered by KAMRAN SHAFI

It is a coincidence that all articles were published in The Express Tribune and thus my comments will cover all three together. The first article was written by the respected analyst and journalist, Nasim Zehra. The second was written by Wajid Shamsul Hasan and the final article by Kamran Shafi.

B-Side Articles

The Nasim Zehra article is published in The Express Tribune and can be read here.

The Wajid Shamsul Hasan article is published in The Express Tribune and can be read here.

The Kamran Shafi article is published in The Express Tribune and can be read here.

WASIM VIEW- As I read the three articles of tribute by Nasim Zehra, Wajid Shamsul Hasan and Kamran Shafi I was reminded of the words of the great Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who said of himself ‘I’m not made of a wood which burns easily’. I feel the same words can be said for Begum Nusrat Bhutto who stood tall as a giant to the midget of a man that was Zia in facing his evil rule. Like millions of Pakistanis, I too mourn the passing of Begum Nusrat Bhutto and pray that she is granted paradise.

The trio of articles have rekindled my respect and reverence for her person with the articles proving that she was an iron lady and a true Bhutto who valiantly fought against Zia’s vicious dictatorship and single-handedly kept alive the Pakistan’s People Party. Wajid Shamsul Hasan is right when he writes that ‘the graceful Begum Bhutto took all that was thrown at her with great stoicism and courage, Unlike many of her male counterparts who showed instant preference to surrender at the first crack of the military dictator’s whip, it was Begum Bhutto who dared to challenge when they hounded her husband Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’.

As expected, Wajid Shamsul Hasan’s article was full of tribute, however the most insightful article was that of Nasim Zehra which provided a glimpse of the passion of Begum Bhutto on the Kashmir issue. Kashmir remains the life vein of Pakistan and as a Pakistani with Kashmiri heritage, Nasim Zehra’s informative article proved that the Kashmir cause was a Bhutto cause for all time from Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto to Begum Nusrat Bhutto and beyond.

Otherwise both Kamran Shafi and Nasim Zehra are right to laud Begum Nusrat Bhutto’s contribution to Pakistan and democracy, for it is praise well-deserved. At a personal level, I am sad that in her final years, the iron lady was a broken women owing to illness and no doubt a broken heart after the murder of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and her children. All three articles have done a sterling job in reminding me about Begum Nusrat Bhutto’s the service to Pakistan, it is sad that another Bhutto has departed but I know that the Bhutto legacy will live on and flourish in the masses for Neruda said it right and it is most apt for the Bhuttos that  “you can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep spring from coming.”

Source:  Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

This second installment of the Progress Pakistan series once again aims to inspire Pakistanis wherever they reside that Pakistan can and must progress. The first installment focused on Zubair Bhatti’s initiative to tackle the menance of corruption and can be read again here. The second installment focuses on another life or death issue for Pakistan, the rising intolerance that is savagely eating it up and the good work of one Khurshid Khan of Peshawar.

Khurshid Khan is a deputy attorney general,  a respected lawyer and a proud Muslim. Like us all, Khurshid Khan detests the Taliban and their evil and is proud of Pakistan’s pluralistic heritage as envisioned by the Quaid which afforded Pakistan’s minority communities absolute equal rights in the state of Pakistan, It is a sad indictment on us as Pakistanis and the state of Pakistan that we have failed to honour that promise and thus have failed as individuals and as a collective to honour the white (and the green for that matter) of our flag,  the same cannot be said for Khurshid Khan.

Khurshid Khan’s love for Pakistan’s minorities especially the Sikh community of Peshawar is a story that truly inspires and came to my knowledge by an excellent article by Shaheen Buneri in Sikhchic as shared below:

The Noble Servant of Peshawar

Khurshid Khan, an eminent 60-year-old lawyer and deputy attorney general of Pakistan, wants to “heal the wounds” of the terror-stricken minority Sikh community in that country.

So he does an extraordinary thing at a gurdwara in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Every day when he completes his work as a legal expert, Khan visits a Sikh gurdwara in the center of the city, wraps a piece of cloth around his head to cover it and thus show his respect, and sits in the doorway to shine the shoes of Sikhs, whose community has come under frequent attack by Taliban militants over the last few years.

[The act of cleaning the shoes of others is, in the culture of the subcontinent, the ultimate act of humilty and repentance.]

Two months back, militants in the Khyber Agency region abducted three Sikhs and demanded a huge ransom for their release. Two were eventually freed. But one, Sardar Jaspal Singh, was killed in a brutal fashion and his corpse left on the roadside in the tribal area.

“I went to offer my condolences to the family of Jaspal Singh and that was a turning point in my life,” says Khan. “I realized that as a Pashtun I should work to ‘heal their wounds’ by becoming their sevaadar (servant). I want to give them a message of love and brotherhood, and that’s why every day I am here to shine their shoes.”

Khan says he is himself a landlord and doesn’t even shine his own shoes at his home. But his cause inspires him to sit on the ground on a daily basis and shine 70 to 80 pairs of shoes.

“I can see the light of love in their eyes for me and my people,” he maintains.

He adds that Sikhs have lived in the area with the dominant Pashtun communities for centuries, pay taxes, and play an important role in the economic progress of the region. But still, he laments, we fail to protect their lives and property.

They are being killed and kidnapped by the Taliban in Orakzai, Kurrum, and Khyber tribal regions, Khan says, adding that other Pakistanis must stand by them in these critical hours and give them a sense of oneness and brotherhood.

An estimated 28,000 Sikhs live in Pakistan, including about 10,000 who live in the tribal region and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of the conflict-ridden country. In May 2009, Taliban militants destroyed 11 Sikh homes in the Orakzai tribal district after accusing them of failing to pay “taxes.” The ongoing conflict in the Buner and Swat districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has displaced more than 200 families.

Khurshid Khan is an example for us all and proves that true Muslims do still live on the land of the pure. His service to the Sikh community shows a level of sacrifice and humility that should be intrinsic in us as Muslims and as Pakistanis more widely for the bonds of humanity should above all else, bind all of the different communities in Pakistan.

We must all become Khurshid Khan’s in that sense, for only then can the flag of green and white fly high and only then can Pakistan prosper. 

Photo: Muslim Hands 

On 27 July, I was worried when remembering the great flood and wrote the following in my post:

I must applaud The Flood Commission Report that runs into two hundred pages and more made many conclusions which are yet to be implemented. A recent editorial in The News titled ‘Flood déjà vu’ here warns us all of the oncoming monsoon season and the apathy of the government who have yet to learn the lessons of the great flood. Such news does not surprise me and is the nightmare that keeps Pakistan awake at night.

It appears that I was right to be worried as the government has been found wanting with the monsoon floods of 2011 flooding Balochistan and most of Sindh with 23 out of 24 districts under water.

It pains me that Pakistan has once again gone back more years with the flood of 2011 flooding 6.8 million acres of land with the loss in lives and livestock being considerable. Furthermore 8.8 million people have been affected, and Pakistan’s breadbasket that is Sindh has lost 1.7 million acres of crop area to flood damage.

At a personal level, I am livid as this was a disaster that could have been better managed as the monsoon season comes each year does it not Messrs Zardari and Gilani. However nothing was done, indeed it is clear the government failed to plan for the monsoon season at all and ignored too the recommendations of the Supreme Court’s flood inquiry.

I get angrier when I read the editorial again in The News as it is instructive and an open indictment on the failures of the Pakistani government and I share it here and below in full:

Flood Deja Vu

As this year’s monsoon approaches so do the harbingers of yet more trouble for those areas affected by last year’s record inundation. A copy of the Sindh contingency plan obtained by this newspaper reads much like a catalogue of accidents which are about to happen. Given the magnitude of the catastrophe that struck Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan and Khybher-Pakhtunkhwa last year, it might have been expected that lessons would have been learned and preparations made to at least mitigate the worst effects of such an event happening again. Seemingly not, at least in Sindh – though there are also indications of similar levels of unpreparedness in KP and Punjab. Such preparations as have been made are likely to be inadequate, and the effects of last year’s rains will be compounded year on year – perhaps for years to come. Once again there is heavy reliance on the army and the navy to come to the aid of the civil power; but only for the rescue phase of the operation. Our armed forces are already stretched and under-resourced. We cannot expect significant international assistance unless the floods are as great as in 2010, and such aid as we received then fell considerably below expectations.

The contingency plan calls for the allocation of Rs11 billion to meet the needs of an estimated 1,065,000 affectees in 16 districts of Sindh. The plan is candid about the resource and technical inadequacies of the provincial government and rests much faith in the military, but points out that even the most basic flood early warning systems are either absent or non-functional where they exist. If people have no warning the chance of them saving themselves or their movable property is significantly reduced. Those systems that were in place at community level last year failed because of the damage to the mobile phone infrastructure. Even where that has been repaired there is no guarantee that similar damage, followed by a similar breakdown in service, will not happen again. Given the shift in global weather patterns we are increasingly likely to see ever-greater floods in our part of the world. This is not a passing cloud, this is a meteorological fixture and we need to respond appropriately, creating and sustaining the resources and protections that look to long-term future rather than political short-termism. It is predicted that the people of Thatta are likely to be hardest hit this time around. Their community leaders and local administrations need to be mobilising today – because tomorrow may be too late.

The lava that erupts within me as I read the above is a sight to behold. I am livid that this was an editorial written five weeks before the monsoon season and was crystal clear in signposting what the government should have done in preparation for the monsoon season.

The lax and indifferent attitude to governance by the Zardari-Gilani government in infamous, however I did not think they could stoop so low given that the PPP is proud of its Sindhi heritage and its much-feared Sindh card. It just proves that the government just doesn’t care for Sindhis or any other Pakistani save for empty sloganeering.

The sad fact is that the failure of the government has cost Balochistan and Sindh dear and proved once again that this government and the Pakistani state has not learnt the lessons of the great flood. As an optimist, I can only hope the lessons of the 2011 flood are learnt for the people of Pakistan cannot take much more.

September 2011′s B-side continues to discuss that migraine of migraines, Pakistan-US relations. Ten years on from 9/11, the effect of that dark day on Pakistan are reviewed by none other than the man at the helm on that day, Pervez Musharraf.

The second article looks at the current Pakistan-US tension after Admiral Mullen’s diatribe and is writtten by the one and only Christopher Hitchens. The final article in the B-side is a one-off for it is written by the slain Salmaan Taseer on Pakistan’s water and energy crisis. September 2011′s B-side contents include:

1. I Stand By My Decision by PERVEZ MUSHARRAF
2. Pakistan Is The Enemy by CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS
3. The Case for Kalabagh Dam by SALMAAN TASEER

The first article is written by Pervez Musharrraf and reviews Pakistan’s engagement with the world and the US in particuar after 9/11.

I Stand By My Decision by Pervez Musharraf

The article is published on The News and can be read here.

WASIM VIEW-Pervez Musharraf’s article written on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 charts his momentous decision to support the US after 9/11. As such the article should include the rationale behind his decision as well as an honest appraisal of the so-called war on terror. However such a task is beyond Musharraf, instead as has become customary for him, his article is full of it, that is full of bluster.

In the article Musharraf cannot help serve his lying itch when he discusses his decision to accept five out of the seven US demands made to him. He is unapolegetic and proud of his decision especially his refusal to allow the US blanket overflight and landing rights as well as territorial access including the use of Pakistan’s naval ports, air bases and strategic locations for US actions. However just two words- drone attacks prove that Musharraf is lying on the issue given that drone attacks began under his rule. It is fair to say the situation has got worse under the present leadership, however Mushafrraf cannot abdicate his responsibility as drone attacks with his tacit approval no doubt began in his tenure from Shamsi airbase as recent posts have proved here.

For most of the article, Musharraf shares his analysis at the time however as was the case with his role in office it is the omissions that trip him up. For example Musharraf is happy to share his analysis on the likely US reaction but makes no mention of the missing persons who were sold by him according to his book (to the devil) in the war on terror. Such a glaring omission is deliberate no doubt and thus his championing of his decision ten years seems hollow and misplaced given Pakistan has lost 30,000 of her civilians since that dark day.

The second article is written by Christopher Hitchens and it too covers Pakistan-US relations.

Pakistan Is The Enemy by Christopher Hitchens

The article is published in Slate and can be read here.

WASIM VIEW- Christopher Hitchens article begins and ends with bouts of poor storytelling with opinions masquerading as facts. In only the second paragraph he is quick to declare ‘Pakistan’s military-intelligence elite as the most adroit double-dealing profiteer from terrorism in the entire region’. The claim is absurd indeed only one fact is needed to prove him wrong, that 30,000 Pakistanis have lost their lives to terrorism.

Hitchens also suffers from (selective) amnesia and/or is being economical with the truth or both as we all know of US exploits in the world a la South America and the Iran-Contra affair to name two examples of Uncle Sam’s profiteering from terrorism.

Hitchens article is quite frankly, poor and amateurish. For example in lambasting Pakistan and supporting the US claim that Pakistan supports the Haqqanis against the US, Hitchens is unable to do the most elementary journalistic duty of seeing both sides and cannot even contemplate a motive for such sudden claims against Pakistan.

For a writer and commentator of his stature, Hitchens demonstrates a childlike innocence (aah) in not being able to fathom a motive behind Admiral Mullen’s diatribe against Pakistan. Hitchens is deaf and blind to the fact and Mullen motive that the US has failed in Afghanistan and needs to blame Pakistan for her superpower failures.

Hitchens has nothing to say of the US failure in Afghanistan, a truth he tries to hide but cannot hide from even in passing when he refers to the recent Afghanistan elections as ‘scandaously bought and rigged’. The flaws and contradictions in his arguments are clear for all to see given that the elections took place thanks to US dollars and on Uncle Sam’s watch, I hasten to add Mr Hitchens!.

The rest of the article is full of bluster and bile as has become custom for Hitchens with Judge Hitchens declaring Pakistan to have broken UN resolutions and international law. Hitchens is happy to declare Pakistan guilty of all manner of crimes with Pakistan blamed for granting a safe-house to Bin Laden as well as the Indian Embassy attack in Kabul in July 2008. Both claims are absurd and Hitchens is left looking a fool for he has no evidence forthcoming that can prove his hypothesis. All in all, Hitchens article is not worth the paper it is written on for it is full of lies that he seeks to hide as half-truths.

The last article is the best of the B-side and it is written by the slain Punjab Governer, Salmaan Taseer.

The Case for Kalabagh Dam by Salmaan Taseer

The article is published in Newsweek Pakistan and can be read here.

WASIM VIEW- Salmaan Taseer’s article is articulate, authoritative and frightening in its findings. Already a water-stressed country, Taseer warns that soon Pakistan will not have enough water for its crops and will suffer major food shortages unless remedial action is taken swiftly. Time is of the essence according to Taseer who opined that Pakistan has ‘five to seven years, to secure our future’.

The solution to Pakistan’s water woes according to Taseer is the building of the Kalabagh Dam. Taseer eloquently puts his case forward for the building of the dam and blows away the weak and trivial arguments of opponents with a scholarly defence of Kalabagh dam. For example he refers to the great flood of 2010 in his article as proof that Kalabagh should have been built, a point made stronger when he reveals that the 50 million acre-feet of water which ravaged towns and villages, if stored would have served Pakistan’s water needs for seven years.

Furthermore, Taseer rubbishes the lies of the Sindhi nationalists and the ANP who oppose the building of Kalabagh dam purely by the power of his arguments proving for example that Nowshera in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa cannot be flooded as the ANP falsely claims.

In fact, Taseer turns the ANP argument on its head by proving that Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa is probably the most likely to benefit of all provinces if Kalabagh is built for it will irrigate an additional 800,000 acres of land in the province thus ensuring it becomes self-sufficient in wheat. Taseer also proves wrong the notion that Sindh will lose water, instead Sindh is set to benefit from an extra 2.25 million acre-feet of water.

Taseer proves beyond doubt that Pakistan will be in a win-win situation if Kalabagh dam is built. Taseer’s article deserves a fair hearing as he has strong arguments as he strictly deals with facts and not opinions. For example no Pakistani can ignore his claim that wheat production is likely to drop by at least 30 percent within seven years if the water storage issue remains unresolved. For the Balochi and the Lahori the resulting starvation and civil unrest caused by such a fall need not be contemplated for it will be nothing short of cataclysmic and Taseer deserves praise for drawing attention to our impending doom.

Taseer’s article does not engage in scaremongering for the sake of it, his championing of the Kalabagh dam is heartfelt and he was vocal about it during his the floods of 2010. Taseer’s passing at the start of this year is made all the more tragic and regretable for he was a heavyweight whose championing of the cause made headline news. As a leading PPP politician and Governer of Punjab, Taseer was well-placed to bring people together on the issue. Indeed Taseer was right to say that ‘it will take political daring and awareness efforts to highlight the true facts and to change the very rigid, entrenched positions of Sindhi nationalists and the Awami National Party. If we could sit down with India and reach a settlement in the form of the Indus Waters Treaty, can we not do the same among ourselves?

It is hoped that the excellent Taseer article on the building of the Kalabagh dam represents a watershed in the national discourse on the issue for Taseer is only too right in warning that ‘;a no-new-dam situation, especially a no-Kalabagh situation, is what Pakistan’s enemies are fervently praying for’. Let us as Pakistanis foil the plans of our enemies, and instead unite and rise as one nation by building the Kalabagh dam forthwith.

In the final post of the 3-part special on drone attacks in Pakistan, the truth about civilian casualties of drone strikes is revealed thanks to a credible report by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. The report proves that the Obama Administration has been lying on drone attacks and conclusively documents the falsity of US Counterterrorism Advisor John Brennan’s public claim that ‘in the last year ‘there hasn’t been a single collateral death from U.S. drone attacks’ as Brennan’s bs is shown to be exactly that, bullshit.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism has made the news across the world (except Pakistan it seems) with its investigation detailing drone strikes in Pakistan that had killed many, many Pakistani civilians. The Bureau found 168 children had been killed and this is a conservative figure and accounts for 44% of the minimum figure of 385 civilians reported killed by drone attacks.

A summary of the extensive findings and their drone truths can be accessed on their website here and is necessary reading for it includes a detailed report of hundreds of drone strikes and their cost in terms of civilian casualties during the Bush and Obama years. A screenshot of the Bureau’s investigation of just three drone attacks will provide readers with a glimpse of the extensive research the Bureau got involved in and is shared below:

Screenshot 1

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 The Bureau website has investigated hundreds of drone strikes and kept a conservative tally kept of civilian deaths which up to the date of this post reads on their website as below:

In truth the figure is likely to be much, much higher as the Bureau has a rigorous methodology — counting civilian deaths only when they can be definitively confirmed up to and including the victims’ names. One can be sure that some deaths will almost certainly go uncounted in Waziristan and the wider FATA region is inaccessible to journalists.

For readers with less time to visit the website extensively, a snapshot summary of the bureau’s findings can be accessed by watching the following interview of Chris Woods of on Democracy Now as shared below:

In concluding this special 3-part post on drone strikes in Pakistan, it is hoped that the posts have informed and illuminated the discussion and debate around drone strikes in Pakistan. The drone truths I have shared are truths that must be shared with the world for Pakistan’s citizens are suffering a drone strike every four days at present.

Naively it is hoped that these posts can awake the Pakistani people to agitate against and resist drone attacks by forcing our ruling elites to ensure that the sovereignty and life of each and every Pakistani is not cut down by a drone ever again.

This is the second post of the 3-part special on drone strikes in Pakistan written ten years on from a Pakistan ravaged by 9/11. This second post continues to reveal more drone truths as I share actual evidence of the human cost of US drone strikes in Pakistan thanks to Noor Behram’s photos.

Noor Behram recently made news in the UK owing to his exhibition “Gaming in Waziristan” in a London gallery which documented the aftermath of US drone attacks in North Waziristan. Focusing on the impact of drone attacks on civilians, many of Noor Behram’s photos show dead children and the remains of women and were shown for the first time in public in conjunction with the legal charity Reprieve as part of its campaigh to end drone strikes in Pakistan.

Noor Behram’s drone truths need little explanation for the photos say it all. However Behram has explained his work in an interview with The Guardian and I share its key points below:

According to Behram, who has reached the sites of 60 attacks, the amount of civilian casualties is high. “For every 10 to 15 people killed, maybe they get one militant, “There are just pieces of flesh lying around after a strike. You can’t find bodies. So the locals pick up the flesh and curse America. They say that America is killing us inside our own country, inside our own homes, and only because we are Muslims. The youth in the area surrounding a strike gets crazed. Hatred builds up inside those who have seen a drone attack. The Americans think it is working, but the damage they’re doing is far greater.

In terms of the photos, they say a picture says a thousand words and in the case of Noor Behram’s drone photos, they do much more than that and could write volumes of pages and fill endless number of books. In choosing to share some of the images, I must inform readers that some of the images taken by Noor Behram are upsetting and graphic and discretion is advised, the photos are shared below:

Some of Noor Behram’s photos like one not shown above with the shattered skull of a child are too graphic to show and have only been seen by those attending the exhibition in London. However the photos are bad enough and cause untold distress to me as a human being and especially as a Pakistani. It pains me even more to know that the Pakistani ruling elite in Zardari, Gilani and Kayani are complicit in the drone attacks which have resulted in the deaths of Pakistani civilians.

The sad truth is that Pakistani civilians in FATA are drone-disposable, for our leaders remain apathetic to the pain of drone strikes for they fall in Makeen and not PM Gilani’s Multan, they fall in Razmuk and not General Kayani’s Rawalpindi and they fall in North Wazirstan and not in President Zardari’s Nawabshah.