Several countries in touch with Haqqanis: Kayani

ISLAMABAD: Reacting to US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen’s outburst, Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has not only rejected his allegations of using the Haqqani network for waging a proxy war in Afghanistan but also pointed out that several countries were engaged with the militant group.

Pakistan's Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani (R) listens to US Admiral Mike Mullen at the start of the NATO MC conference in Seville, Spain on September 16, 2011

A rejoinder issued by the ISPR on Friday quoted Gen Kayani as having said that Admiral Mullen’s statement was “very unfortunate and not based on facts”.

But significantly embedded within the brief rejoinder was an unspoken acknowledgment that Haqqanis were crucial for reconciliation in Afghanistan and, therefore, a number of countries, including Pakistan, maintained contact with them.

“Admiral Mullen knows fully well which countries are in contact with the Haqqanis. Singling out Pakistan is neither fair nor productive,” the army chief said.

A military official disclosed in a background conversation that the United States and a number of European countries had been talking to the Haqqanis for reconciliation. During some recent contacts, he said, Pakistan had made it clear to the US that its engagement with the Haqqani network should not be misconstrued as one meant to undermine American interests in Afghanistan.

“We worked with them for positive objectives which could have been useful for all stakeholders in the Afghan end-game,” he stressed.

Gen Kayani, the ISPR handout said, found Admiral Mullen’s diatribe disturbing because his prolonged meeting with the latter in Spain last week was “rather constructive”.

The military official said there was nothing of this sort (finger pointing) in their meeting held on the sidelines of a Nato conference, rather they had deliberated on the way forward in their soured ties, constraints in relationship, withdrawal of coalition forces from Afghanistan and the role of various stakeholders.

Contrary to his assertion, a US official, speaking to Dawn from Washington, claimed that what was now being publicly said had been conveyed personally to Gen Kayani in Seville (Spain).

The US has been accusing Pakistan for long of supporting the Haqqani network and been exerting pressure on the government and army to act against the group.

Hina Rabbani Khar, the New Foreign Minister, Praised in India

Hindustan Times Report

Hina Rabbani Khar - a style icon

Pearls, Roberto Cavalli shades and a Birkin bag, speculated to be worth Rs 17 lakh — Pakistan’s youngest and first woman foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar has got people talking about her impeccable style sense during her ongoing Delhi visit. The 34-year-old is quite a style icon back in her own country, reveal Pakistan’s noted fashion designers. 

“She dresses conservatively, conscious of the fact that she represents a Muslim state. Her brief to the designer is not to make body-hugging dresses. But she’s extremely stylish,” says Lahore-based Honey Waqar, who has designed for Khar. “Politicians here are usually not aware about brands, but she knows a lot and loves accessorising with stylish bags,” says Islamabad-based designer Sobia Nazir. “In private gatherings, you’d spot her in trendy jeans,” adds Karachi-based designer Faiza Samee.


Delhi’s fashion circuit and even Twitter was abuzz with style talk about her on Tuesday. “I love the understated pearls. The bag gives a formal and crisp flavour,” says designer Nida Mahmood. “Hina Rabbani Khar is the newest stylista in India,” tweeted  Himanshu Parmekar. Meanwhile, all the talk about her fashion sense made some wonder if the focus is being taken away from what she’s in India for. “If Hina Rabbani were a male foreign minister of Pakistan, would she EVER be deconstructed in terms

Pakistan's New and Youngest Foreign Minister, Hina Rabbani Khar 

Look back in sorrow - By Ardeshir Cowasjee

By Ardeshir Cowasjee

IN times of dire turmoil, when things on all fronts seem hopeless and one does not know what might happen in the coming minutes, when the system just does not work because those put in place to work it are, to put it mildly, unfit — the leadership consisting of alleged criminals, hoodlums, substandard minds, liars and deceivers — some of us look back into time when violence was not the theme of the day.

This year has been a beast, it opened with a bang, literally and January has been followed by incidents awful and dispiriting, the month of May being the high point in what is very much Pakistan’s war against itself.

What never ceases to amaze is that those guilty for the happenings and disgrace, even humiliation — particularly of the not-so-merry month of May — are all in place, where they were, having evidenced not an iota of shame. The shameless flourish, and they are legion.

Mid-year blues were with us last month when coincidentally a number of columnists came out to remind us what this sad country once was, and how life was lived in consonance with the rest of the democratic free world, of how there was hope, of how there was enjoyment, of how life for the particular few held happiness.

Down the decades we have all failed to even begin to learn from history that when religiosity — the stressed false selective practice of religion — overtakes a state, imposed upon it by those who use the easiest of artifacts, their own brand of religion, for reasons of expediency or to prop up a dicey or failing regime, things fall