Agreed 22 Points of Ulema-e-Pakistan to establish Islamic Shariah
Agreed 22 Points of Ulema-e-Pakistan to establish Islamic Shariah
The first attempt to establish Islamic Sharia in Pakistan was made by adopting the Objectives Resolution on March 12th, 1949. In the very next year, that is in 1950, thirty one (31) leading and eminent Ulema and scholars of various sects and schools of Islamic jurisprudence AGREED on 22 basic points for the country’s constitution. Even today these 22 points can be used as a basis for establishing Shariah in the country. There are various proposals among these 22 points which can produce a just and pious society.
Following is the list of Ulema who documented the 22 points dossier:
(1) Allama Sayyid Suleiman Nadwi (President, Majlis-e-Haza)
(2) Maulana Sayyid Abul A’la Maududi (Ameer, Jamate-e-Islami Pakistan)
(3) Maulana Shams-ul-Haq Afghani (Minister for Education, State of Qalat)
(4) Maulana Badar Alam (Ustaaz-ul-Hadees, Tando Allah Yar, Sindh)
(5) Maulana Ihtisham-ul-Haq Thanwi (Administrator, Dar-ul-Uloom Al Islamia, Ashraf-Abad, Sindh)
(6) Maulana Muhammad Abdul Hamid Qadri, Badyouni (President, Jamiat-Ulema Pakistan)
(7) Mufti Muhammad Shafi (Member Board of Islamic Education, Constituent Assembly Pakistan)
(8) Maulana Muhammad Idris Kandhalwi (Sheikh-ul-Jamia, Jamia Abbasiya, Bahalwpur)\
(9) Maulana Khair Muhammad (Administrator, Madrasa Khair-ul-Madaris, Multan city)
(10)Maulana Mufti Muhammad Hassan (Administrator, Madrasa Ashrafiya, Neela Gunbad, Lahore)
(11)Peer Sahab Muhammad Ameen-ul-Hasanaat (Manki shareef, Sarhad)
(12)Maulana Yusuf Binori (Shiekh-ul-Tafseer, Ashraf Abad, Sindh)
(13)Haji Khadim-ul-Islam Muhammad Ameen (Al Mujahid-Abad, Peshawar) Khalifa Haji Tarang Zai
(14)Qazi Abdul Samad Sarbaazi (Qazi Qalaat, Balochistan)
(15)Maulana Athar Ali (President Jamiat-Ulema Islam, East Pakistan)
(16)Maulana Abu ja’far Muhammad Saleh (Ameer Hizbullah, East Pakistan)
(17)Maulana Raghib Hassan (Vice President Jamiat-Ulema Islam, East Pakistan)
(18)Maulana Muhammad Habib-ur-Rehman (Sarseena Shareef, East Pakistan)
(19)Maulana Muhammad Ali Jalandhri (Majlis Ihrar-e-Islam, Pakistan)
(20)Maulana Dawud Ghaznavi (President Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadees, West Pakistan)
(21)Mufti Jafar Hussein Mujtahid (Member Board of Islamic Education)
(22)Mufti Hafiz Kifayat Hussein Mujtahid (Supreme Organization for Protection of Rights of Shia-e-Pakistan, Lahore)
(23)Maulana Muhammad Ismail (Nazim Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadees, Gujranwala, Pakistan)
(24)Maulana Habibullah (Jamia Deeniya Dar-ul-Huda, Therhy, Khairpur Mir)
(25)Maulana Ahmad Ali (Ameer Anjuman Khuddam-ul-Deen Sheranwala Darwaza, Lahore)
(26)Maulana Muhammad Sadiq (Administrator, Madrasa Mazhar-ul-Uloom, Khadda, Karachi)
(27)Professor Abdul Khaliq (Member Board of Islamic Education)
(28)Maulana Shams-ul-Haq Fareed Puri (Main Administrator, Madrasa Ashraf-ul-Uloom, Dhaka)
(29)Maulana Mufti Sahab Dad (Madrasat-ul-Islam, Karachi, Sindh)
(30)Maulana Muhammad Zafar Ahmad Ansari (Sec. Board of Islamic Education, Constituent Assembly, Pakistan)
(31)Peer Sahab Muhammad Hashim Mujaddadi (Tando Sayeen Daad, Sindh)
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Twenty-Two Agreed Points for Islamic Constitution
(1) ALLAH (SWT) is the REAL Sovereign and Lord of this universe.
(2) The Law of the country shall be based on Quran and Sunnah and neither any law shall be enacted nor any Administrative injunction shall be laid down that is repugnant to Quran and Sunnah.
(3) This country shall not be based on any geographical, racial, linguistic or any other concepts but on those principles and aims which are based on the code of life laid down by Islam.
(4) It shall be the obligation of Islamic state to establish the goods defined by Quran and Sunnah, suppress the wrongs and arrange for the revival and supremacy of Islamic beliefs and for the necessary education of established Islamic sects according to their understandings of religion.
(5) It shall be the obligation of Islamic state to strengthen the unity and brotherhood among all the Muslims of the world. It shall get rid of all the means that may give rise to differences among the Muslim citizens of the state due to ignorant prejudices of racism, linguistics, regionalism or any other sort of discrimination and ensure the stability of unity among the Islamic community.
(6) State shall sponsor, without any religious, race or other discrimination, the basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter, health and education for all such people who cannot earn their livelihood or cannot do so temporarily due to unemployment, illness or other reasons.
(7) Citizens of the country shall enjoy all the rights laid down for them in Islamic Sharia. It means protection of life, property and dignity within the Law, freedom of religion and sect, freedom to worship, freedom of caste, freedom of expression, freedom to move, freedom to gather, freedom to earn livelihood, equal opportunity to progress and right to get benefits from social organizations.
(8) None of the above-mentioned rights of any citizen shall be suppressed at any time without any legitimate reason according to Islamic Law and none shall be punished for any accusation of crime without provision of an opportunity to defend and without a judicial decision.
(9) The established Islamic sects shall enjoy complete religious freedom within the prescribed boundaries and Law. They shall have the right to educate their followers on their religion. The decisions related to their personal affairs shall be made according to their religious jurisprudence and it shall be suitable to make an arrangement that their own judges make such decisions.
(10) The non-Muslim citizens of the state shall enjoy complete freedom, within the prescribed boundaries and Law, to practice their religion, worship, culture, religious education and they will have the right to get decisions on their personal affairs according to their religious law or traditions.
(11) It shall be mandatory to abide by the agreements made, with non-Muslim citizens of the state, within the boundaries of Sharia. Both the Muslim and non-Muslim citizens shall have equal civic rights as mentioned above in clause no. 7.
(12) It shall be mandatory for the President of the country to be a male Muslim whose trustworthiness, capability and decision-making enjoys the confidence of people or their elected representatives.
(13) The president of the state shall be actually responsible for administering the state. However he can delegate any part of his authority to a person or an organization.
(14) The government of the President shall not be autocratic but consultative. It implies that he shall execute his duties after consultation with the members of government and the elected representatives of the people.
(15) The President shall have no right to govern without the help of consultation after suspending the constitution partially or completely.
(16) The organization that shall elect the President shall also have the right to remove him with majority votes.
(17) The President of the state shall have the same civil rights as general Muslims and shall not be immune to impeachment.
(18) Same law shall be applied to the members and workers of the government and the citizens and the general courts shall implement it.
(19) The judiciary shall be separate and independent from the administration so that the judiciary does not get influenced by the administration in performing its duties.
(20) It shall be prohibited to preach or promote any of such thoughts and ideologies, which may be destructive to the basic principles of the Islamic state.
(21) The various provinces and parts of the country shall be considered the Administrative Units of one state. Their status shall not be racial, linguistic or tribal entities but shall be of administrative territories, which may be delegated administrative authorities under the central dominion keeping in view the administrative convenience but they shall not have right to disintegrate from the centre.
(22) Any interpretation of the Constitution that is against Quran and Sunnah shall not be valid.
(Weekly Al I’tisam – Gujranwala)
February 9th 1951
Indo-Pak Relations: Viable Partnership?
It is not that the US connection is something new in the history of the region, but the level and scope of US interests and the resulting involvement are playing a greater role in shaping the region’s geopolitics. In this connection, it is crucial to have a glance over the types of engagement, which the US has with both countries in the post-9/11 milieu, which is characterized by the policy of the “carrot and stick”. The “carrot” for India and the “stick” for Pakistan.
With a convergence of strategic interests, the US has committed itself to accomplish a long-term partnership with India. The signing of the Indo-US Nuclear Deal is a clear fact of such a strong commitment. To sign this deal, the US did not only disregard the international norms on nuclear safeguard, but it changed its domestic legislation as well.
However, Pakistan’s case is different, for there is a divergence of interests between the two states — US and Pakistan. Therefore, the US used coercive diplomacy in its dealings with Pakistan. The US initiated the partnership, in the post-9/11 period, with the threat to be pushed back to the Stone Age in case of non-alliance, and subsequently the drone attacks characterized the rest of the period. All this resulted in the maintenance of a pressure on the Pakistani leadership to carry out the US objectives in the region.
After the completion of one year of the Obama Administration, the statements of the US Defense Secretary on the south Asian soil are clarifying the US interests in the region. The statements of the Defense Secretary Robert Gates indicate a hallmark of a turning point in the strategy toward Pakistan.
Earlier, in the post-9/11 scenario, the US repeatedly asserted that Pakistan should concentrate its efforts on the western front, while being comfortable from the eastern side. Now on the pretext of “a planned attack from Pakistani soil,” the US has openly threatened Pakistan that it should be ready to face the consequences in such an eventuality from its nuclear neighbor.
| Continuous drone attacks, allegations of Al-Qaeda’s presence in Pakistan, and the cry about Pakistan’s nuclear program have not fully paid off. |
Working on the policy of “allegation without credible evidence,” the US defense secretary who also happens to be a former director (1991–93) of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), has given a fresh impetus to the blame game continuing in the bilateral relationship of the two neighbors.After several years of struggle in Iraq to destroy the “alleged” existing stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, the Defense Secretary’s message to the Indians for being aware of the threat from the “alleged” Pakistan-based terrorist organizations is raising serious questions.
In the words of Gates, “working with Al-Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba [is] planning attacks in India.” Further, he said, “I think it is not unreasonable to assume that Indian patience would be limited were there to be further attacks.”
Thus, Gates has given a positive environment for escalating the conflict between the two nuclear rivals.
CFR Report
Interestingly, this environment of escalating the violence between the two nuclear rivals has reached the Indian capital within few days of the publication of a report by a prominent US think tank — Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). The report is in continuation of the series aimed at deliberating upon the possible contingency faced by the US interests. Being a prelude to Gates’s statement, it deserves to be analyzed in depth. The report highlights the following points in the memorandum:
1. India faces a “real” likelihood of a terrorist attack by Pakistan-based terrorist organizations in the “near future,” resulting in a retaliatory strike from India — this time, after Mumbai attacks, leading to escalation of a violent conflict between the two “nuclear” neighbors.
2. Nuclear threshold is likely to be crossed in case India suffers another attack, or Pakistani nuclear command gets confused. The attack would jeopardize the US war in Afghanistan, even if the nuclear threshold is not crossed.
3. Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad (JEM) are planning to conduct such an attack, and being the regional proxies, they would be helped by Al-Qaeda.
4. Three factors are important in influencing the Indian response: identity of terrorists (Pakistani), death toll, and terrorist choice of target.
5. Three targets are important in this regard: national political leadership, urban centers, and symbols of national unity.
6. In case of limited support from Pakistan the response “would be” airstrikes against the terrorists’ camps in Pakistan. India would consider ground mobilization or naval blockade in case of “egregious” attack.
| If India reacts in a way that could threaten stability, the US would pressurize Pakistan, saying, “Deal with the terrorists or we will.” |
7. Pakistani leadership, under pressure, would retaliate, resulting in distracting their concentration from other issues and in undermining the US war in Afghanistan or Pakistan’s efforts in tribal areas.8. If India responds by conducting airstrikes, the US would support it by putting pressure on Pakistan to limit its reaction and provide India with intelligence on the terrorists’ camps in Pakistan. If India reacts in a way that could threaten stability, the US would pressurize Pakistan, saying, “Deal with the terrorists or we will.”
9. It is recommended that Washington should share information with India, and if the US cooperation with Pakistan proves futile, the US should take aggressive actions against these groups on its own.
One wonders if it is an analysis or an operational plan that is being unfolded as the next step of the strategy of using coercive diplomacy against Pakistan is being recommended.
Continuous drone attacks, allegations of Al-Qaeda’s presence in Pakistan, and the cry about Pakistan’s nuclear program have not fully paid off and Pakistan appears to have started resisting.
In effect, this has only reinforced the suspicion by the people in Pakistan, who always perceived the US pressure on Pakistan to move its troops to the western border, rather than being on the eastern front. Most people perceived it as being aimed at engaging Pakistan on the Western border in order to make it vulnerable on the eastern side.
The plans seem to be targeting a repeat of the scenario, which was created in 2001, in the aftermath of the so-called attacks on the Indian Parliament. At that time too, the two countries came on the verge of war as the blame was put on Pakistan. The war, however, didn’t take place because of Pakistan’s firm response.
The wishful thinking now seems that if a repeat scenario is materialized, Pakistan being heavily engaged on its western border, may not be able to retaliate in the same way and will be ready to accept whatever role it will be offered.
It needs to be noted that the Council of Foreign Relations’ report and Gates’s statement in India are attempts to preempt any possible discussion about weather the “likely attack in India” was planned in Pakistan.
A Fishy Attack
| Prominent Indian human rights activist Arundhati Roy has raised 11 important questions. |
Pakistan was instantly blamed for the Parliament’s attack despite the fact that the number of perpetrators was not established, and even today, details of the five attackers, who were killed are unknown.The accusations pointed at Pakistan have provided India and its strategic partners enough experience to create a similar situation in the future. Writing seven years after the attack on the Indian Parliament, prominent Indian human rights activist Arundhati Roy has raised 11 important questions, which are unanswered, even today, about the attack, including how a car packed with explosives entered the parliament complex despite a warning by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on December 12, 2001, about an imminent attack on the parliament and given the improved security drill.
Is it plausible that organizations like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad would rely on a person who was in regular contact with the security forces, particularly the Special Task Force (STF) of the Jammu and Kashmir police; how do the security forces explain the fact that a person under their surveillance was able to conspire in a major militant operation? And is it not true that the military mobilization to the Pakistan border had begun long before the December 13 attack? [1]
In the wake of mounting pressure on the US to withdraw from Afghanistan, a necessary component of the US and Indian strategy is the increased Indian involvement in Afghanistan, which, from the outset, Pakistan has considered as being a threat to its security.
This is clearly reflective in the statement of the Defense Secretary wherein he said that the “kind of support and extraordinary support that India is providing in Afghanistan now is really ideal.” In the same context, the Defense Secretary was loud and clear about the long-term US objectives in this equation: When lauding India, he said, “The emergence of India as a global power and the development of the US-India relationship is one of the great success stories of the last two decades.” Subsequently, there remains no doubt that the Indian hegemonic characteristics are being strengthened by the US presence in the region.
While Pakistan needs to be careful and should work out a proper strategy to face any malicious attempts against it, India also needs to realize that peace and prosperity of the region are not rooted in the way the Indo-US partnership is set up.
The US has its own objectives in the region and is not consistent with the two powers being at harmony with each other. Any move targeted at the disruption of the strategic balance existing between the two nuclear neighbors would have negative implications for them both, the region and the world at large.
Role of Media in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
The 21st century is considered as the era of media. The strength of media determines the vocal power of any nation today. The print and electronic media have been playing a pivotal role and continue to do so with an ever increased strength in transforming the cognitive style of masses around the globe.
When I browse channels stationed at different parts of the world I find each one representing the local culture and values with future reflected in their broadcast. And when I return to my home I fail to locate a single Pakistani channel representing the true culture of Pakistan.
I move back again to American and Indian News channels to verify my opinion. Unfortunately I do not succeed to find a difference in telecast style from Pakistani media – anchors wearing western suits, sleeveless, saris, similar ads, similar drama stories, scripts and the list goes on. Millions among the nation watch them, youngsters imitate them and eventually our culture seems to be imitating Indian and thereby Western culture.
Was this what our ancestors sacrificed for? Was it to achieve such state of affairs? Was this our projected goal?
Certainly No!
Pakistan is a product of an ideology called the Islamic Ideology. Neither the secularists nor the Islamists have a second opinion on this historical fact.
Quad-e-Azam, saying::
“Pakistan not only means freedom and independence but the Muslim Ideology which has to be preserved, which has come to us as a precious gift and treasure and which, we hope other will share with us”
Message to Frontier Muslim Students Federation
June 18, 1945
The media of Islamic Republic of Pakistan is acting as a termite that has ruined our culture in the past 60 years and with acceleration over the past decade. The outcome is as visible as the sky.
It is not a mere propaganda when an Indian politician says in pride “…. We do not need to conquer Pakistan by force any more. We have already done so through our culture….”
The question is: How did Indian culture penetrate our society?
Did it come floating over the Indus River OR came flying in the winds?
Our media has utterly failed to protect our culture, our values and most importantly our existential basis: The Two Nation Theory.
The Two Nation Theory states that the Hindu and Muslims are two different cultures. They are two parallel nations moving in opposite direction – one towards Paradise and the other towards Hell.
So how dare we adopted the path of Hindus?
Why do our acts, marriages, business, dress-code, traditions follow the footsteps of Hindus?
Allama iqbal said:
“Waza mein nasara or tamaddun mein Hanood … Ay Musalman tumhein dekh ke sharmaye Yahud”
This piece of Iqbal is very much fitting to describe us as a nation today.
My heart palpitates and mind puzzles when I realize that all of these media community, the anchors, the producers, the directors, the actors are part of our own nation.
How could we produce such traitors?
Yes I call them traitors because they have betrayed the Two Nation Theory. They have played a pivotal role in weakening the Foundations of Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
In my opinion the only way we can take on this media war is by holding the ‘rope’ of ALLAH (SWT) with firm strength and practicing the Islamic culture which belongs to us. And the only route to achieving success in this challenge is the route of Islamic Ideology.
Faith in ALLAH (SWT), Unity of the nation, Discipline in our lives can get us back the Pakistan of 1947.
Are you ready to take on this Challenge?
Kashmir Solidarity Day message: Jihad-e-Kashmir should Resume!
MUZAFFARABAD: Speakers at a conference on Kashmir held here on Thursday called for continuing the jihad in occupied Kashmir till attaining freedom from India and asked the government of Pakistan not to create hurdles for Kashmiri fighters who wanted to achieve this goal on their own.
“As long as Jammu and Kashmir is under Indian subjugation, jihad must continue… Pakistan should continue political, diplomatic and moral support for the Kashmiris seeking freedom.
If Pakistani rulers cannot help Kashmiris, they should let the field open for the Kashmiri militants, instead of creating any obstacles in their way,” said a declaration adopted at the “Solidarity with Kashmir” conference.
The conference was addressed by United Jihad Council chairman Syed Salahuddin, former ISI chief Lt-Gen (retd) Hamid Gul, AJK assembly Speaker Shah Ghulam Qadir and Jamaatud Dawa leader Abdur Rehman Makki.
Although the event was organised by the little known Tehrik Azadi-i-Jammu Kashmir, it was in effect a show of Jamaatud Dawa which has been maintaining a low profile in the region since the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
The declaration stressed that practical steps were needed to bring an end to Indian repression in Kashmir, instead of observing one-minute silence on the Kashmir Solidarity Day on Feb 5. It said that the ban on all Kashmiri militant groups should be lifted and the role of Azad Jammu Kashmir as the base camp of freedom struggle should be revived.
It said that proposals like “self-governance and demilitarisation” were not a substitute for the UN Security Council resolutions on Kashmir and Pakistan should not budge from its principled demand of implementation of these resolutions.
Mr Salahuddin said that sacrifices rendered by Kashmiris were not meant for internal autonomy, division or trans-LoC trade, but for freedom of the occupied state.
He asserted that Kashmiris were not opposed to dialogue with India, but 131 rounds of talks held over the past six decades had produced nothing.
“Instead of begging the UN and world powers for Kashmir settlement, we should flex our muscles and revive the spirit of jihad which is bound to get the issue resolved,” he said.
Mr Salahuddin claimed that the armed struggle in Kashmir was nearing success in 2001 when Pervez Musharraf “stabbed the freedom movement in the back”.
The UJC chief rejected Indian allegations about involvement of Jamaatud Dawa and Lashkar-e-Taiba in the Mumbai attacks and urged the Pakistan government to end the ban on JuD and release its leader Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.
“He (Lakhvi) is our aide and an active member of the UJC. He has been behind bars for long, although no charges have been established against him,” he said.
Hamid Gul warned India that the jihad would not stop till it granted freedom to Kashmiris.
The AJK assembly speaker assured the gathering that the AJK government would neither accept nor become part of any “sell-out of Kashmir”.
Covert activities under federal government’s nose!
ISLAMABAD – The owner of Inter-Risk Security Company Capt (r) Syed Ali Zaidi allegedly trained almost three batches of recruits in the Rawat Industrial Area where he was running a training centre under the label of ‘Care and Craft Auto Mobiles. According to reliable sources, foreign trainers used to visit the alleged training centre to train the recruits. “It was assumed that Zaidi himself was training the people but there were some reports about foreign trainers who used to come there for training the people”, source said. Capt (retired) Ali Jafar Zaidi belonged tot eh SSG and had been detailed to general (retired) Musharraf and ex Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
Sources also revealed that each batch might consist of 25 to 30 recruits who were given different kinds of training including the usage of sophisticated weapons. These trained guys after completion of their training were reportedly sent or deputed with a foreign embassy’s official,” a source informed.
He also stated that Captain Zaidi was getting $ 2000 for each trained guy while his trained people were getting Rs 40,000 per head as their salary. “The alleged training centre was closed when the police raided the Centre 18/19 September, the source added. A red coloured three/four floor building with a huge yard is situated in Rawat Industrial Area. The building was surrounded with walls and green sheets while a fence was also used on the walls. Labourers of the nearby factories, when asked, told that the auto workshop may have been closed for Ramazan, but when it was open, no body was allowed to go in. certainly there were no cars to be seen for auto repairs! It is worth recalling that Islamabad Police raided the house of Zaidi but he was not found while police recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition including 61 repeater guns, pistols and a rifle. However, according to Zaidi’s lawyer Syed Murtaza Ali, Zaidi had got an interim bail (bail before arrest).
Blackwater Recruiting Agents Fluent In Urdu & Punjabi For Pakistan
Report Suggests Pakistani Envoy In Washington Has Issued 360 Visas To Americans In One Month Without Consulting Islamabad
Blackwater USA is looking for mercenaries fluent in Urdu, Pakistan’s national language, and Punjabi, the language spoken by natives of Pakistan’s largest populated province. The US military already deploys officers and commando units manned by people fluent in Pashto, spoken in most of western Pakistan and southern Afghanistan. Keeping in view the denials of the US embassy in Islamabad and the expanding American presence on Pakistani soil, these recruitments are obviously not meant for running call centers. Since Washington has unilaterally decided that Pakistan is now a ‘war theater’ after Iraq and Afghanistan, it is only natural that American terrorism will also be unleashed in Pakistan. Blackwater is in Pakistan.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—Blackwater USA has concealed its Web presence. If you type http://www.BlackwaterUSA.com, you will be redirected to the website of an organization called U.S. Training Center , which offers military and personal security courses. The website does not overtly say or indicate it is linked to Blackwater, but on Sept. 12 a media release was posted on the homepage defending Blackwater against accusations the private ‘army’ overbilled the US government for work in Iraq in 2006 and 2007.
The bigger news, however, is that ‘Blackwater USA’ is hiring in Pakistan. While BlackwaterUSA.com does not exist on the Web any longer, I 3an employment form on a secured page of the private security firm’s website that clearly indicates the private mercenary army is hiring Urdu- and Punjabi-speaking agents. This would complement the existing Pashto-speaking agents that both Blackwater private mercenary army and its employer, the US military, have on the ground in Afghanistan and – as reports increasingly indicate – in Pakistan.
Snapshots of the screen from the page titled secure.blackwaterusa.com show that the page is part of the Blackwater Employee and Applicant Resource System (BEARS).
CLICK TO ENLARGE
The snapshots shown here indicate that hiring continues as we speak for agents and for people with military training who can speak Urdu, Pakistan’s national language, and Punjabi, spoken by the natives of Pakistan’s largest populated province.
Obviously, agents with proficiency in the two languages will be operating in and around Pakistan since there is little utility for such agents anywhere else in the world.
This is the latest in a pile of circumstantial evidence that supports the growing concerns within the Pakistani public opinion that private US security firms are setting up shop in Pakistan, bringing to the country the same mayhem that has engulfed Iraq and Afghanistan, possibly with the permission of influential people in the Pakistani government.
A petition has been submitted to the Supreme Court of Pakistan today requesting that the government of Pakistan be ordered to explain why the US embassy in Islamabad is building a fortified embassy the size of an international airport, spread over 52 to 54 acres. The petitioner, who is a private Pakistani citizen, has accused the United States of constructing a military base in the heart of the Pakistani capital in the guise of an embassy.
On Aug. 5, PakNationalists/AhmedQuraishi.com broke the news of how a Washington-incorporated private company that calls itself an NGO and executes contractual humanitarian work for the US government in conflict zones is suspected of acting as cover for Blackwater in Peshawar.
On Jul. 27, the Deutsche Presse-Agentur [DPA] reported that residents of an upscale suburb in Peshawar have formally complained to the Pakistani government that armed private Americans were spreading fear in the area.
We also received a statement issued by Mr. Richard Snelsire, the spokesman for the US embassy in Islamabad, denying these reports:
Since 2002, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has committed more than $3.4 billion in humanitarian and development assistance to the people of Pakistan in relief, health, education, and economic development programs.
Creative Associates is one of many organizations USAID engages to deliver this assistance, which also includes the Government of Pakistan, local non-governmental, and international humanitarian institutions. This organization has no link to any international security firm, nor is it affiliated in any way with an intelligence service.
Recent allegations against USAID partners such as Creative Associates are false, and place individuals delivering humanitarian and development assistance to the people of Pakistan at risk.
Richard Snelsire
Despite these denials, the Pakistani government and the US embassy are unable to explain several incidents in Peshawar and Islamabad over the past few weeks that involved privately armed American citizens, especially accounts by private citizens confirming they have seen and interacted with these foreign agents in public places. In at least three incidents, these privately armed Americans were released by police authorities under pressure from the government despite involvement in altercations with local Pakistanis. In one case, an armed US citizen physically assaulted a Pakistani police officer and uttered obscenities against the host country.
The alarming part of this story is that the embassy of Pakistan in Washington is reported to have issued several hundred entry permits and visas to individuals without seeking clearance from the country’s security departments. In one recent report, it is reported that the Pakistani ambassador issued 360 visas to US citizens in one month, sometime this year, from the ambassador’s discretionary quota of visas and again without clearance from Pakistani security departments.
Who are these Americans who are arriving in Pakistan in the tens and hundreds at a time when the US embassy in Islamabad follows a strange practice where a staffer personally calls any US citizen in the United States in order to warn them about coming to Pakistan for personal reasons or pleasure, apparently because of the security situation?
Pakistan Awami Inqalaab - Need of the Hour! 