For Pakistan, terrorism is a state-sponsored business

[Oracle]

4 ultras of Qaida-inspired group killed in Shopian

Want to reach hell and get your 72 promised homos, visit India.

J&K: Top Jaish commander Lukman killed in Baramulla encounter

[Oracle]

WATCH: Army chief, PM Imran's son at Lord’s to support green shirts

Country is on the verge of going bankrupt, and here we have Bajwa and Im the Dim's son watching cricket in London. Unholy mess that is Pakistan.

[Oracle]

Pakistan on cusp of achieving enduring peace: COAS

Enduring peace? Kashmir is not disputed, as Pak has no claims over it. Pakistan Army along with irregular islamic marauders raped, killed and plundered Kashmir starting in 1947. It will end with the break-up of Pakistan. Insh-Allah-Usama-Bin-Laden.

New ISI chief Faiz Hameed a manipulator picked by army chief Bajwa to be his master’s voice

The Pakistan Army’s strategic intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, got a new chief this week, Lt General Faiz Hameed, making the world wonder what has he done to deserve the position. Or what will now be the fate of one of the most talked about intelligence agencies in the world.

Lt Gen. Faiz Hameed, the new Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief, has raised eyebrows not due to his appointment but because he replaced Lt Gen. Asim Munir, who was appointed just eight months ago. This creates an impression that Faiz Hameed brings more to his boss’s table than his immediate predecessor. The change has ensured for him the title of being ‘his master’s voice’ and the fact that this will have an impact on the politics inside the organisation for the short to medium term.

There were times during Pakistan’s life as a frontline state for the United States when every new army chief would make observers wonder if the new man in was religiously conservative or had liberal tendencies. Notwithstanding that such line of questioning was incorrect, it was inspired by the idea that the army chief during the 1980s, Zia-ul-Haq, had changed the mood of the army. Using Zia-ul-Haq as a cultural-organisational milestone diverted observers away from the reality that the army, like a good armed bureaucracy, may change its outlook depending on the top boss but would remain focused on its strategic goals.

Thus, a new head of the ISI will not or cannot tamper with its strategic goals. He will not interact with the jihadis on his own or eliminate them because he doesn’t agree with the idea. However, his relationship with the army chief, the ISI and the rest of the army will have an impact on his ability to perform. We know that the former head of the ISI, Lt Gen. (retd) Shamsur Rahman Kallu was outwitted by his organisation and kept out of the information loop because his organisation did not trust him. Kallu was appointed to the position by then Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who used her powers to appoint the ISI chief to bring in her own man and replace the hawkish Lt Gen. Hamid Gul.

Past & present, in Bajwa’s company
Lt Gen. Faiz Hameed’s relationship with Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa date back to the early to mid-2010s, when the former was a brigadier and posted as Chief of Staff at the Rawalpindi based 10th Corps where Bajwa was the field commander officer. Both Bajwa and Hameed belong to the Baluch regiment. Subsequently, Hameed was promoted as major general and sent to 16th infantry division at Pannu Aqil, which experts believe belie the fact that he was viewed by the army under Raheel Sharif as an average officer who was not given the better 12, 11, and 10 infantry divisions at the same station.

After completing the command of a division, which is one of the prerequisites of for promotion to the rank of a three-star appointment, Hameed was brought back to Rawalpindi. But Qamar Bajwa, who had taken over the command of the army by then, brought his own man to head the ‘C’ wing of the ISI responsible for counter-intelligence, which means a hand on the political pulse of Pakistan and on the organisational pulse of its army. Indeed, Hameed grew so powerful in that position that many viewed him as the main man running the ISI and not Lt Gen. Naveed Mukhtar, who served as the DG ISI from December 2016 to October 2018. However, Hameed couldn’t be made the head as he was still short of a third star, which he earned in April 2019 and was posted as the Adjutant-General. This is another powerful position within the GHQ hierarchy, especially in terms of contact with the army chief.

General Hameed could have continued as Adjutant-General had Bajwa not gotten restless and brought him back to the ISI — this time as the top boss of the spy agency to replace Lt Gen. Asim Munir, who has been shunted off to a less illustrious position as the Corps Commander Gujranwala. The shift will certainly leave a mark on the relationship between the army’s spy organisation, Military Intelligence – which is where Asim Munir had come from – and the ISI.

Not so average ambitions
Faiz Hameed may be counted as an average officer but he is certainly a man with above average personal ambitions. A three-year stint at the ISI means he would have his hand on the organisational pulse to ensure that he remains in the run for the position of the army chief in the future, depending on when Bajwa decides to doff his uniform. Bajwa’s influence leaped further last week when he was included as a member in Prime Minister Imran Khan’s newly created body for Pakistan’s economic revival – the National Development Council. Though many observers claim that Bajwa will retire from his position of army chief in November this year, Bajwa himself had voiced his intent to stay on for at least another year to his counterparts in the United Kingdom during a visit in October 2018.

Sources claim that Faiz Hameed qualifies to be in the run if Bajwa gets either a one-year or a three-year extension. In fact, many say that Faiz Hameed has ensured that when it is the turn for his name to be considered, Asim Munir would not qualify for the same due to some critical, though minor, manipulation of his service record. Meanwhile, he will serve his boss in the army, carefully monitoring the impact that an extension may have on the organisation and its corporate ethos. Bajwa’s staying on will have an effect on the careers of 24 lieutenant generals and numerous major generals. The domino effect of Bajwa’s decision will enhance the internal pressure inside the organisation. The level of resentment and the fallback will have to be calculated and minimised.

General Bajwa seems to be consistently working on his image as a man with a grand plan to create a new country with a cleaner system of governance. In a recent corps commander’s conference, General Bajwa thundered: ‘mein kisi ko nahin chhorun ga’ (I will not spare anyone). The issue here is not just the ‘corrupt’ civilian, which is how the popular narrative goes, but also men in uniform. Bajwa recently sentenced a three-star lieutenant general to 14 years of rigorous imprisonment and death to a one-star brigadier and a scientist for leaking the country’s nuclear secrets for money. This, in an army that has tried to insulate itself from corruption allegations through instituting an extensive system of perks and privileges for its men, especially the higher echelons. The story of Lt Gen. (retd) Javed Iqbal and Retired Brigadier Raja Rizwan speaks of the breaking down of the business-as-usual method.

A death sentence to its officers is certainly a rarity, which may have become imperative considering that Raja Rizwan is accused of sharing secrets with India’s Research & Analysis Wing (RAW). The Lt Gen., on the other hand, was possibly linked with the US effort to locate Pakistan’s strategic assets, particularly after Washington DC grew fearful of militants succeeding in hurting the strategic chain-of-command for decision-making. There was resentment in the military, especially the segments considered as the ‘deep state’, regarding Gen Pervez Musharraf’s closeness with the Americans. The metallurgist responsible for building Pakistan’s nuclear enrichment program, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan recently filed a petition in the Lahore High Court accusing Musharraf of colluding with the US in forcing him to publicly take responsibility for selling nuclear secrets to Libya, Iran and North Korea.

Reading this news along with the earlier one indicates the worry that there are elements within the Pakistan Army that may be involved in trading secrets with foreign agencies. There are reports of over a dozen officers being investigated in relation with the earlier-mentioned case. Chief Qamar Bajwa could always build a case for securing his own institution against irresponsible behaviour.

PTI, the important task
Lt. General Faiz Hameed is certainly no Asad Durrani or Hamid Gul. At best, he is what General Ahmed Shuja Pasha was for his boss, General Kiyani. More than military matters, Faiz Hameed’s greater worth lies in domestic political manipulation, something that he has already proven to do. The role he played in building the 2017 protest of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) to weaken the Nawaz Sharif government, and later manipulating a peace deal with the Barelvi militants, was criticised by the Supreme Court. As the head of ISI, Faiz Hameed would ensure that the new political mechanism namely the PTI survives, and the political influence of the opposition parties is managed well, especially at a time when the risk to Prime Minister Imran Khan can become formidable due to economic pressures the public faces.

One of Lt Gen. Faiz Hameed’s important tasks would be to ensure that the political pot doesn’t boil over into the streets. This would call for management of resources within the political party system, and generating sufficient amount of fear in the larger civil society to curb any popular political movement emerging, especially in Punjab. According to one keen observer of Pakistan’s security, there will certainly be more news of ‘mysterious deaths’ in the country.

The other significant players with whom the new ISI chief would have to keep the conversation going are the jihadi groups that are under pressure because of the nature of geo-politics at the moment. While the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is a current reality, conditions could change in case of an Iran-US conflagration. Obviously, in those circumstances, the situation will change not just for the jihadis but for the Pakistan military in general. For the moment, Faiz Hameed is in good company with the interior minister, Brigadier (retd) Ijaz Shah, who has links with all kinds of jihadis – from al-Qaida and Lashkar-e-Taiba to Jaish-e-Mohammed and the Taliban – to keep the conversation with the militants going.

Perhaps, the biggest impact of this appointment will be on the future of Pakistan Army as an institution. If indeed the purpose is to build up and ensure prolongation of General Bajwa’s career, as was done by his predecessor General Kiyani, it points to a shift in the organisational ethos. With every army chief considering himself indispensable, the only result is the eventual weakening of the organisation.

[Oracle]

FATF shouldn’t get sidetracked by Pak claims, say experts

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) should ensure Pakistan implements an action plan to curb terror financing instead of being sidetracked by Islamabad’s allegations that New Delhi is politicising the watchdog’s processes, people familiar with developments said.

The people, including officials of at least four countries that have tracked Pakistan’s efforts to implement the 27-point plan since it was placed on FATF’s grey list in June last year, said the focus should be on Islamabad taking “credible, verifiable, irreversible and sustainable” steps to end terror funding and terrorism emanating from territory under its control.

Following a plenary meeting that ended in Orlando, Florida, on Friday, the FATF said Pakistan had failed to meet targets for controlling terror financing for the second consecutive time. The multilateral watchdog tacitly warned Pakistan could be placed on its black list if it failed to complete its action plan by October.

When India on Saturday said it expected Pakistan to implement the action plan in line with its political commitment to FATF, Islamabad responded by describing New Delhi’s position as “preposterous and unwarranted”.

Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesman accused India of making “relentless efforts to politicise the deliberations of FATF” and said the watchdog’s membership should take “cognisance of this continuing malicious campaign”.

However, the people cited above said Pakistan was resorting to a “false ploy of politicisation of the FATF process” to divert attention from implementing the action plan and to evade scrutiny of its poor compliance with global standards for money laundering and terror financing.

Several reports in Pakistani media showed the country’s leadership had approached the political leadership of FATF member states to seek their support to avoid being put on FATF’s black list. Such steps were tantamount to Pakistan politicising the technical processes of the FATF.

Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi too visited FATF member states before the Florida plenary and made public statements about using diplomacy to overcome deficiencies pointed out by a technical body affiliated to the FATF.

The FATF includes 36 member states and two regional organisations, the Gulf Cooperation Council and the European Commission. Several key member states, including France, the UK and the US, have called on Pakistan in recent months to crack down on terrorists operating from its soil.

It is understood that Pakistan’s “iron brother ally” China, which will take over the FATF’s presidency from the US next month, lobbied with several members of the watchdog before and during the plenary on Pakistan’s behalf. Recent reports in the state-run Turkish media said China, Malaysia and Turkey had voted at the Florida plenary to oppose a move to put Pakistan in the black list. According to the FATF’s charter, a move cannot go through if it is opposed by at least three member states.

[Oracle]

China, Malaysia, Turkey bail out Pakistan at FATF: Islamabad may stall till it's Beijing's turn to head body

Pakistan has managed to avoid being blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for now even as the international watchdog found in its latest review that Islamabad failed to curb funnelling of funds to terror groups.

FATF said that it will keep Pakistan on its 'grey' list for now. The global terror funding watchdog, however, warned Islamabad of further action if it failed to show tangible results by October, which would likely result in sanctions hitting its fragile economy hard.

Pakistan got a temporary breather, garnering support of three out of the 35 member states: China, Malaysia and Turkey. While China has been an all-weather ally for Islamabad, bailing it out in the face of economic crisis, the neighbouring country has recently managed to strengthen its ties with Malaysia after assertive diplomatic efforts. Pakistan has been inching closer to Turkey since the mid 2000s as the two countries fortified their trade and defense ties; it was also the only member that stood by Pakistan despite a strong campaign launched by the US, UK, India and Europe after recent terrorist attacks on India.

China, especially has backed Islamabad on multiple occasion despite increased global pressure spurred by India's relentless campaign. More recently, Beijing blocked New Delhi's bid to list Masood Azhar as a global terrorist four times before finally giving way in May. But experts say the move only came after it became 'untenable' for China to protect Pakistan's interest any longer as all other veto-powered members of the United Nations Security Council started rallying behind India.

The FATF decision is only a temporary relief for Pakistan, but experts say it will earn Islamabad much needed time to garner support from more friendly nations to eventually wade off the looming threat of sanctions.

"This is a temporary relief allowing us to rally more and more support to permanently get rid of this threat. As far as I know, the foreign ministry is already in touch with FATF and Asia Pacific Group (APG) members and other friendly countries, and briefing them of measures it has taken to combat terror financing and money laundering recently", India Today quoted Ali Sarwar Naqvi, former ambassador of Pakistan to Jordan as saying.

Furthermore, it is noteworthy that China is set to secure FATF presidency before the next meeting is held while Saudi Arabia representing the Gulf Cooperation Council is to become a full FATF member, both countries being traditional Pakistani allies. With this, fears are ripe that Islamabad may get away once again, which will mean that action against groups like Jaish-e-Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Taiba may lose steam, a government source told Economic Times days before the FATF meeting began.

Currently, India, the co-chair of the joint group of FATF and the APG, along with the United States and United Kingdom, has been campaigning to ensure Islamabad ends up in FATF's 'blacklist', claiming that the country has failed to meet international standards in combating financial crimes and terror financing.

During the FATF meeting, the US, the UK and France were some prominent countries to have voiced concern over Pakistan's failure to do enough to contain terror funding in its soil and not registering cases against terror masterminds Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar under anti-terror laws, sources said Saturday.

Pakistan continues to state that it has seized more than 700 properties of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Jamat-ud-Dawah (JuD) and Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), similar to what it did as a result of its previous grey listing in 2012. However, FATF members are concerned that there are no cases registered against the terror leadership, namely Hafeez Saeed and Masood Azhar and other UN-designated terrorists.

In a bid to bluff the financial watchdog, Pakistani authorities have shown arrests of LeT, JeM, JuD and FiF cadres. But all were apprehended under its Maintenance of Public Order Act and not under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.

Under the MPO Act, authorities cannot hold a detainee beyond 60 days. Pakistan has detained JeM founder Azhar and LeT founder Saeed mostly under the laws that provide for detention for apprehension of breach of peace, they have never been prosecuted under anti-terror laws.

The FATF implements UN designations, which do not warrant arrest. They ask only for freeze of funds, denial of access to weapons and travel embargo. The financial watchdog also wants nations to impose penalties that are proportionate and dissuasive.

Islamabad has been on the global money laundering and terror financing watchdog FATF 'grey list' since June, 2018 after thorough assessment of the Asia Pacific Group (APG) of the country's security mechanism and its financial systems.

Pakistan has not been able to implement the 27 point action plan, which was assigned to it by the APG and FATF. The group set Islamabad a deadline for 2019 January to show conclusive proof of impact caused, which was further extended till May 2019. Pakistan failed to meet both deadlines.

The other issue for losing focus could be a US-Iran boxing match.

[Oracle]

Who says a bankrupt Pakistan cannot afford a military?

Defence services secured biggest supplementary grant

So what, the abduls of Pakistan will eat grass, they will continue to proliferate nukes, and the Pakistan Army will continue to sponsor terrorism.

[Double Edge]

Tatmadaw & the Indian Army is killing scores of NE terrorists along the international border. 100s have been arrested and are in Burma's jail.

Key operative of NSCN-K Myanmar faction apprehended in Nagaland

This is a recent development. Its exactly like the one with the Banglas. Neither of those two are a safe haven any more.

[Oracle]

Lol. True. The COAS of PA = PM, President, Chief Justice, everything rolled in one.

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Pakistan proposes 6-point plan at UN to counter racism, religious hatred

When muslim countries shun the path of using terrorism as a foreign policy tool, become secular democracies, when muslims become literate and shun raping/murdering/converting minorities, there would be no religious hatred. Islamophobia is due to Pakistan's continued use of terrorists as an army without uniform.

[Oracle]

Blacklisting Pakistan absolutely a possibility: FATF president

KSA became a member. I still maintain my earlier position, that the decision to blacklist Pakistan will be a political one, not because Pakistan did or didn't do something on the list.

[Oracle]

Showkat Ahmed Mir, most wanted militant, and 3 others killed in encounter in J&K

[Double Edge]

Blacklisting Pakistan absolutely a possibility: FATF president

ok, so this is much more clear than the earlier Pak reports.

“Now the action plan itself is set to complete in September. So this [the June 16-21 Orlando plenary] was not the plenary where we would discuss a blacklisting issue. This was the plenary where we examine how far and how far behind Pakistan is on its action plan … and I must say they are far behind,” Mr. Billinglsea said.

Now we know why there wasn't any maneuvering. It wan't necessary at this point.

China, Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council were among those at the Orlando plenary who had asked that Pakistan be given more time to comply with the action plan, The Hindu had reported over the weekend.

They are not opposing blacklisting (yet) but asking for more time for Pakistan to comply. Longer Pakistan drags its feet, longer it remains in the grey list. Take too long and the case to put them in black list gets stronger.

KSA became a member. I still maintain my earlier position, that the decision to blacklist Pakistan will be a political one, not because Pakistan did or didn't do something on the list.

Then you are repeating the Pak line. Saying this is political devalues the whole exercise. Why bother to comply in the first place then. Let's just have a show of hands. And therein lies the danger because if the Paks can get away with it then the significance of the FATF will be diminished.

The decision however, to condition fund disbursement under an IMF programme based on structural benchmarks that might be associated with the Financial Action Task Force is purely an IMF decision,” he said.

No IMF loan until they comply with FATF conditions. Should they comply they do not get into the blacklist. And when they complete the requirements they get out of the grey list. Somewhere along that process they get the IMF loan.

[Oracle]

Pompeo hopes for Afghan peace deal 'before September 1'

What am I supposed to gather from this piece? If Pakistan helps the US before Sep 1, the way US wants it, Pak would not be blacklisted at the FATF?

[Double Edge]

Pompeo hopes for Afghan peace deal 'before September 1'

What am I supposed to gather from this piece? If Pakistan helps the US before Sep 1, the way US wants it, Pak would not be blacklisted at the FATF?

I think its best to see these as mutually exclusive and then watch how things develop. These connections were made earlier and all they do is confuse the picture.

IMF will depend on how transparent the Paks can be about CPEC. Pompeo has alluded to this earlier.

But nobody official has said peace in Afghanistan or Taliban deal equals no blacklisting.

[Oracle]

What happened in the meeting between Pompeo and Jaishankar/Modi? Any insider details?

India will do what is in its national interest: Jaishankar to Pompeo on S-400 deal