WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama said on Friday that it would be very hard to imagine stability and peace in the region if Pakistan and Afghanistan did not come to some agreement. At a White House news conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Mr Obama also acknowledged that he had seen “a greater awareness (of this issue) on the part of the Pakistani government”. The news conference which followed an hour-long meeting between the two leaders also indicated that they still had serious differences on a future US military presence in Afghanistan. While President Obama made it clear that there would be no US troops in Afghanistan after 2014 if Kabul refused to provide complete legal immunity to those deployed there, Mr Karzai insisted that other issues should be resolved before such immunity was granted. The two leaders, however, agreed to support a Taliban office in Doha and urged the government of Qatar to facilitate the efforts. Dawn, The News, Daily Times.
PESHAWAR: School Officers Association and All Tribal Teachers Association (ATTA), Fata, have warned to launch a campaign against the government if non-local officers appointed on key administrative posts in Federally Administered Tribal Areas are not replaced with local officers. “We give two-week time to the government to replace all officers belonging to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa who have been posted on key posts in education department of Fata with local officers because the appointment of influential persons has caused serious unrest among tribal teachers,” said ATTA president Abdul Jalil Afridi while speaking at a press conference at Peshawar Press Club on Friday. Dawn, The News.
WANA: The political administration on Friday arrested 18 tribesmen under the Collective Responsibility Section of the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) in Tank for not cooperating with the government in recovery of eight abducted employees of the Gomal Zam Dam. The official sources said owing to the Peshawar High Court’s suo moto notice in connection with the officials’ abduction, the political administration had been increasing pressure on the Mahsud tribesmen for the safe recovery of the captives. The employees of the dam were abducted from the Tank-Wana Road on August 15 while they were heading for their homes before Eidul Fitr. On the continued protests and appeals of the family members of the abducted persons, the PHC had taken suo moto notice of the issue and directed the government to make solid steps for their early recovery from the kidnappers. The captives and their captors are believed to be in South Waziristan. The News.
ISLAMABAD: In the aftermath of Pakistani military establishment’s decision to revise its doctrine and recognise domestic militants especially the Taliban as a larger threat than India, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has announced sending its fighters to Jammu & Kashmir and wage struggle for the implementation of Shariah rule in India. Introducing a paradigm shift in its decades-old India-centric policy, Pakistan’s military establishment has recently added a new chapter to the Army Doctrine in the Green Book, describing homegrown militancy as the biggest threat to the national security. The Army Doctrine deals with operational preparedness and is reviewed intermittently. A special chapter titled ‘Sub-conventional warfare’ has been included this year in the Green Book which holds strategic papers by professional soldiers who give their ideas on various subjects. While emphasising that the biggest threat to Pakistan lies within not without, the new Army Doctrine states that the TTP and a host of assorted militants within, are a bigger security threat than India.’ The News.
NOWSHERA: A man shot dead his wife due to a petty domestic issue in the Choki Drab area of Pabbi tehsil on Friday, police sources said. The sources said that Ismail exchanged harsh words with his wife and allegedly opened fire on her in rage, killing her on the spot. The accused managed to escape. The News.
TANK: The Imran Khan Foundation (IKF) Friday distributed relief goods among the displaced Mahsud tribespersons in Tank district. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader from South Waziristan Dost Mohammad Mahsud distributed the relief items among the IDPs at three different places. Speaking on the occasion, he expressed his shock at the squalid conditions under which the displaced tribes people were living. He said it was deplorable that the IDPs were still living under the open sky in the harsh winter. The relief package included 20kgs flour bag, five kilogram pulses, cooking oil, two kilogram sugar and salt. Tents and warm clothes were distributed among the IDPs. The News.
NAWAF KHAN, SHARAFAT ALI CHAUDHARY
