Maverick Report
ISLAMABAD: Unfortunately, the military dictatorships have made the unanimously adopted constitution disputed and the existing document with the 17th amendment is a gift of Gen (Retd) Pervez Musharraf, therefore, the real parliamentary democracy cannot be revived until the document is restored to its original form.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Supreme Leader Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif was addressing a meeting of his party’s constitutional experts and members of the parliamentary committee on constitutional reforms at his Raiwind residence.
“Had the democratic process been allowed to continue, there would have been no need for brainstorming to settle the constitutional issues,” the twice-elected former prime minister said according to a press release issued by the PML-N Central Secretariat here on Wednesday.
“The fundamental objective of the PML-N struggle is the reformation and change of system so that Pakistan could be transformed in accordance with the vision of Quaid-i-Azam by establishing a clean and strong democratic system that could benefit masses,” he declared.
The PML-N top leader said that his party would play its role at every level to overcome the constitutional crisis in the country. He said that the party would have to play an effective role for evolving consensus on issues of repealing the 17th amendment and provincial autonomy so that the nation could be given good tiding of the abolition of the 17th amendment.
The meeting, attended by Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Senator Ishaq Dar, Sartaj Aziz, Barrister Zafarullah and MNAs Ahsan Iqbal, Sardar Mahtab Khan, Anosha Rehman and Zahid Hamid, was informed about proceedings of the parliamentary committee on constitutional reforms.

Maverick Report
WASHINGTON DC: Condemning the escalation in terrorist attacks in Pakistan, the Pakistani American Public Affairs Committee (PAKPAC) has called for capacity-building of the police force of the country.
“Terrorists and anti-Pakistan forces who have been on the run after the effective military operation in Swat Valley and Waziristan are now regrouping in discrete bands to create panic and insecurity amongst law abiding citizens of Pakistan,” the PAKPAC said in a statement posted at its website.
“Their objective this time is to spread fear amongst local police force. It maybe recalled few years ago similar tactics were used by terrorists in Iraq by bombarding police stations and police training camps,” it added.
Referring to terrorist attacks in the past few days alone including the one on the country’s minister for religious affairs, the PAKPAC said this escalating situation of instability is unacceptable. To check further rise in terrorist attacks targeting innocent civilians and government entities, it recommended some actions to the Pakistan government and the US administration and legislators.
The PAKPAC said the Pakistan government should strengthen local police force to combat escalating insurgency, especially with the upcoming Eidul Fitr festivities, and apprehend and put to trial suspects of terrorist acts. It urged the Pakistani judiciary to take up and provide speedy judicial process in punishing terrorists for their acts.
It called upon the US legislators to quickly pass legislation authorising the US assistance to Pakistan and the Obama administration to immediately implement the US economic assistance to Pakistan. It urged the US administration to also allocate and direct a substantial portion of US military assistance to Pakistan towards meeting the needs and capacity building of Pakistani police force.

Maverick Report
ISLAMABAD: The twin objectives of development and combating climate change would necessitate unprecedented and costly socioeconomic adjustments such as the raising of investment levels in the developing world and challenging of resources and technology in order to lower the carbon content of growth and building capacities and robust governance and management institutions, says a latest UN report.
The report titled ‘World Economic and Social Survey 2009: Promoting Development, Saving the Planet’ and released globally on Wednesday calls for a global New Deal providing for a more integrated framework and joint programmes with shared goals for adaptation, forests, energy and poverty eradication.
As negotiations for a new global agreement to address climate change enter the final stages before the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference this December, the United Nations issued the survey globally.
In Pakistan, the survey was presented by an eminent and senior former Pakistani diplomat and former Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Shafqat KakaKhel at a press launch at the UN Information Centre, Islamabad.
Elaborating the salient features of the survey, KakaKhel said that as its title highlights, the report addresses the evidently distinct but intrinsically inter related and mutually reinforcing challenges of achieving the goal of widespread development and averting the catastrophe of climate change and global warming and its devastating impacts, especially in the developing countries.
The forthcoming climate change meetings in Copenhagen in December this year at which 180 countries representatives will negotiate a new climate agreement adds to the relevance and significance of the report. Indeed, the report furnishes a number of practical, do-able ideas on the core issues in the climate debate that have been inconclusively discussed in two rounds of intergovernmental negotiations held in March and June this year and which must be resolved if the Copenhagen meetings are to produce consensus that accommodates the best interests of all states, rich and poor, large and small.
The survey accepts the main findings of the Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC issued in 2007 which have been further corroborated by scores of impeccable scientific studies by reputed climate research centres in the world. The survey agrees that the world community must accept a maximum temperature increase of 2°C above pre-industrial levels as the target for stabilising the concentration of carbon dioxide at a level that prevents a dangerous disruption of the planetary climatic system.
This corresponds to a target greenhouse gases concentration (in terms of CO2 equivalents of between 350 and 450 parts per million in terms of volume and weight) and global reductions of the order of 50-80 per cent over 1990 levels, by 2050. In terms of actual emissions, this would amount to a reduction from roughly 40 gigatons of CO2 (Gt CO2) at present to between 8 and 20 gigatons by 2050.
The survey refers to the adverse impacts of climate change as catalogued by the IPCC which have been manifested by more frequent and more intense and more devastating incidents of floods, drought, rapid glacial melt, monsoon failures, hurricanes, declining agricultural yields, inundation of agricultural land and human settlements by rising level of sea and ocean waters.
Ironically although developing countries have not contributed to the historic building up of greenhouse gases which have led to warming and climate change, they especially those in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia and Latin America are most vulnerable to its negative impacts and least prepared to cope with them.
The climate change debate has been marked by emphasis on the reduction of greenhouse gases emissions. In Kyoto in 1997 specific, time bound reduction targets were agreed for some three dozen or so industrialized, rich states whose emissions since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution had mainly led to the creation of the climate change threat. Subsequently, however, the industrialized countries began to insist on reduction targets to be agreed by few rapidly industrializing developing countries (the so called rich developing countries) such as China, India, and Brazil.
In December 2007, at the climate change meetings in Bali, it was agreed that developing countries will undertake nationally appropriate mitigation efforts provided they receive financial resources and technology. The reduction of emissions by some developing countries is one of the main contentious issues in the ongoing negotiations.
The negotiation landscape for the Copenhagen meetings has been complicated by the widespread financial and economic slowdown and powerful economic and social lobbies in the OECD countries are warning their Governments against accepting drastic emissions cuts owing to the negative fall out and such cuts on energy intensive industrial activities.
The questions constituting the agenda of the Copenhagen meetings are:
How to achieve GHG emissions reductions in a world economic scene blighted by slowdown and recession?
How to broaden the emissions reduction net and ensure that developing countries achieve economic development without excessive emissions, or put differently, how to de-link development from greenhouse gas emissions?
How will developing countries and communities most vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change adapt to those impacts and achieve a developmental breakthrough?
At the 2007 Bali meeting it was agreed that the goal of the negotiations in 2009 culminating in the Copenhagen meetings will be to reach consensus on the four mutually reinforcing pillars of global climate action, namely mitigation, adaptation, technology and financing.
The UNDESA 2009 survey asserts that the goal of climate stabilization can be achieved but not through ad hoc and incremental actions. It calls for stronger efforts by the advanced countries and meaningful participation by developing countries in reducing emissions while achieving sustained growth.
The survey states that emission reductions are feasible despite the current recession and a grossly unequal and unjust global landscape. It argues that combining high economic growth in developing countries with a radical lowering of their emissions trajectory is feasible mainly because of technological advances and development of renewable sources of energy for running factories, generating electricity, transport, office and home uses.
The survey critically reviews the three approaches to emissions reduction presently being discussed. The first is that like developed countries, developing countries adopt either voluntarily or through coercion, reduction targets. The second one is that developing countries set targets or take action towards emission reduction strictly conditional upon the availability of finances and technology.
The survey finds the first approach being deeply flawed and impractical. It considers the second approach necessary but likely to produce limited incremental actions on a project to project basis.
The survey then proceeds to offer a third option under which developed and poor developing countries jointly adopt both climate and developmental targets. It argues that the recent multiplicity of food, energy and financial crisis may have created just the context in which the cooperative actions envisaged in the third approach could take root.
Looking at development and climate together is necessary because of climate change’s is devastating impacts on the livelihoods of the poor and the vulnerable in the developing countries. It has been estimated that for every 1°C rise in average global temperature, annual average growth in poor countries could drop by 2-3 percentage points, with virtually no change for the developed countries which might even benefit in the medium term from increased agricultural yields and lower transportation costs across ice free arctic shipping lanes.
With regard to the financial cost of averting climate change, the UNDESA Survey refers to the analysis prepared by Sir Nicholas Stern in 2007 for the UK Government and popularly known as the Stern report which amounted to a significant analytical breakthrough. Stern described the building of greenhouse gases emissions as “the greatest market failure the world has seen” and asserted that urgent action now could save the world from much greater catastrophe in the future.
This triggered an intensified debate in the advanced countries about the quantities of emissions cuts and how to achieve them. The Cap and Trade system which has received much cognizance conforms to the policy experience, institutional capacity and economic conditions of rich countries. But it does not respond to the plight and priorities of the developing countries. Across the board ceiling or curbs on emissions would indeed jeopardize development prospects in the developing world.
The survey points out that the impasse can be overcome by approaching the climate challenge as a development challenge. For this the excessive emphasis on market oriented reforms of the 1980’s and 1990’s needs to be abandoned and replaced by an investment led model , somewhat on the pattern of the investments initiated by President Obama. The bulk of the energy needs for the investments must come from renewable sources such as wind, solar, and advanced (non food) bio-fuels. Significant investments would require a fundamental shift in the process of industrialization, adequate infrastructure, and the existence of robust institutions.
The survey examines the crucial role of forests both as a source of livelihood for close to 25 per cent of the world population and as an effective sink for greenhouse gases and calls for wide-ranging measures to prevent deforestation and enable afforestation and reforestation.
The survey calls for measures to alleviate the adverse impacts of climate change on health and sanitation and the quality and quantity of water resources.
The survey calls for special measures to address the consequences of the rapid urbanization of the world population.
The survey calls for the widest possible development and diffusion of technology, large-scale strategic investments and an effective role by the state in achieving the twin goal of climate stabilization and equitable economic development.
What makes the 2009 Economic and Social Survey directly relevant for the climate negotiations of the essential elements of the proposed New Global Deal and specific suggestions addressing the agreed four pillars of global climate action? The essential elements are: (i) An investment based approach; (ii) a collaborative agenda; and (iii) firm commitment to phase out high emissions growth.
The mechanisms needed for translating the deal into tangible actions suggested by the survey are: (i) a global clean energy fund; (ii) a global feed in tariff regime; (iii) a reformed Clean Development Mechanism; and (iv) forest related mechanisms.
The survey proposes the launching of a Global Climate Technology Programme, a global Research and Development Fund; a balanced Intellectual Property Regime for technology transfer, and finally a global trade regime that serves the causes of development, health and environmental protection.
Concluding his presentation, Kakakhel emphasised: “…to save planet, we need to strive fast to address the effects of the climate change in Pakistan. We have to take the climate change seriously. The effects of Climate Change on Pakistan can be seen by melting of glaciers, early or delayed and less monsoons, and deforestation. There is a great need to enhance knowledge and awareness and sustainable actions plans to address the challenges of climate change in the country.”

Maverick Report
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday called for a special initiative plan for Gilgit-Baltistan to execute a number of infrastructure and development projects in the fields of energy, higher education, Industrial zones and tourism.
According to an official release, he made the call when a 21-member delegation of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) from Gilgit-Baltistan called on him at the President House on Wednesday. Minister for Information Qamar Zaman Kaira and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Nawabzada Malik Ahmad were also present in the meeting. The delegation was led by Syed Mehdi Shah, president of PPP Gilgit-Baltistan.
The delegation congratulated President Zardari on the unveiling of a far-reaching political reform package for Gilgit-Baltistan recently by the federal cabinet. They also pledged support to the president and the government policies.
Talking to the members of the delegation, President Zardari said that uplift and political reforms for Gilgit-Baltistan were part of the PPP manifesto. During every PPP government, the PPP had taken significant steps in this regard, he said.
Members of the delegation also highlighted specific development issues concerning their areas. The president said that he would advise the government to address their concerns at the earliest.

Maverick Report
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday reiterated that the Friends of Democratic Pakistan (FoDP) initiative should be seen as a long-term engagement of the international community with Pakistan to help it face the challenges including economic crisis in the wake of fight against militancy and terrorism.
According to an official release, a meeting was held Wednesday evening at the President House to review and fine tune Pakistan’s case before the forthcoming FoDP summit in New York later this month. The meeting particularly discussed the mater in respect of Pakistan's needs in the segments of energy, food and agriculture, security and financial outlays for Malakand Plan. The meeting also took stock of the recent FoDP ministerial meeting in Turkey.
Besides Finance Minister Shaukat Tareen, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Minister for Food and Agriculture Nazer Mohammad Gondal, Minister for Information Qamer Zaman Kaira, Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Benazir Income Support Programme Chairperson Farzana Raja, Minister of State for Finance Hina Rabbani Khar and Minister of State for Information Samsam Ali S Bukhari, senior government officials attended the meeting.
Briefing the media about the meeting, Farhatullah Babar, spokesperson to the president, said the president directed that Pakistan’s case should encompass the totality of the reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts by including in it a long-term strategy to fight militancy through education and also battle of ideas and intellect. The political commitment of international community to help Pakistan would go a long way in fighting extremism and militancy, he said.

Mavericks Report
ISLAMABAD: While most depictions of extraterrestrials are found in fiction, half of Pakistanis (50 per cent) believe that some form of alien life exists somewhere in the universe, whereas just as many (49 per cent) do not believe in that, says a latest survey released here on Wednesday.
According to a Gilani Research Foundation survey, a proportionately higher percentage of men and people above 50 years of age believe that humans are not alone in the universe.
In the survey, a nationally representative sample of men and women from across the country was asked: “In your view is there life on other planets?”
In a follow up question, the respondents were asked: “Suppose if there is life in other planets, in your view how those inhabitants would be different?”
One per cent of respondents gave no response. If there was life on other planets, 45 per cent of the respondents believed the inhabitants of those planets would be less intelligent than the humans, 24 per cent said they would be more intelligent, 18 per cent said they would be just like humans and 13 per cent believed they would be different in some other way or gave no response.
While a comparatively higher percentage of men believe that aliens would be less intelligent, women think they would be sharper than the humans.
The study was released by Gilani Foundation and carried out by Gallup Pakistan, the Pakistani affiliate of Gallup International. The latest survey was carried out among a sample of 2,650 men and women in rural and urban areas of all four provinces of the country during August 2009. Error margin is estimated to be approximately +2-3 per cent at 95% confidence level.

Maverick Report
PESHAWAR: Pakistani security forces killed three suspected militants and demolished houses of several militant commanders as well as a centre of outlawed Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) in different areas on the second day of the operation ‘Bia Daraghlam’ (Here I come again) in Bara subdivision of Khyber tribal district on Wednesday.
Minister for Environment Hameedullah Jan Afridi, however, termed the military operation in Khyber Agency unjustified, saying he was not taken on board before the crackdown. He called upon the government to immediately halt it.
As many as 35 people, believed to be militants, were arrested and a huge quantity of arms and ammunition seized during raids on suspected locations, security officials said. The detainees and arms seized during the swoop were produced before the media at the Shahkas Fort of Frontier Constabulary in Bara.
The arrested people also included a prominent elder Malik Durran Gul, who was presented before media blindfolded. The elder was, however, freed later saying he was taken into custody for violating the curfew.
Malik Durran Gul was kidnapped by the Bara-based banned LI sometime ago and remained in their custody for several months on charges of his alleged links with the government. Locals said the elder was freed after payment of Rs3 million as fine to the banned outfit.
Talking to journalists, several of the arrested people said they had nothing to do with LI or any other militant outfit. “I was sitting outside my house when arrested by the security forces,” said one man seemed to be in his 20s.
He added that all the LI people had already vacated their centres and taken refuge into the mountainous areas.
Officials said house of a key LI commander Haleem Shah was demolished in Kamarkhel area of Bara. Shah was leading LI before its present chief Mangal Bagh. House of another commander Misri Gul, an erstwhile spokesman for the banned outfit, was also destroyed in Shalobar area.
In Sipah area, house of commander Ghuncha Gul Zakhakhel was demolished, while another two houses owned by commanders Sabeel and commander Saifoor were also razed in Malik Dinkhel and Sipah areas of Bara, respectively.
The houses of the commanders were captured by the security forces on Tuesday but were not destroyed by the troops that day for not having the heavy machinery to raze the buildings.
Besides the residential constructions, a centre of banned LI was also destroyed in Shalobar area while a market consisting of 18 shops dealing in small arms and ammunition was also flattened in Bara Bazaar.
Security officials at the Shahkas Fort told journalists that two vehicles, prepared for suicide attacks, were also destroyed during a raid on an LI centre by the troops.
Locals said none of the three people killed in Wednesday’s action belonged to the LI while bodies of three of the nine people killed on Tuesday were still lying in Dogra hospital as people cannot come out of their houses to identify and take the bodies because of curfew in the whole of Bara subdivision.
In Sipah area, the security forces arrested chief of Jamaat-e-Islami, Khyber Agency, Shah Faisal, during a raid on his house. Faisal’s uncle, six other members of his family and four guests were also taken into custody, locals said.
The residents said they were facing problems because of curfew. “Food situation was normal today, but we are running out of the stock and will be left with nothing to eat during the month of Ramadan if curfew was not relaxed in a day or two,” said one resident who did not want to be named.
The tribesman said people could not shift their patients to hospitals and health clinics because of the restrictions. “Security forces are opening fire at anyone walking or driving on or alongside the road,” he added.
Locals also said that majority of the arrested people were common citizens. “Long hair is typical of the LI men, but all the arrested people have English haircut with few having no beards,” said one photographer who visited the detainees at the Shahkas Fort.
The security officials and political administration claimed killing 40 militants on Tuesday, the first day of the operation codenamed ‘Bia Daraghlam’. They also claimed arresting 43 militants on the first day.
A similar action conducted in Bara on June 28 last year was codenamed ‘Daraghlam’ (Here I come). The operation was launched following reports that the city of Peshawar was likely to fall to the militants.
The recent operation was launched after the killing and beheading of nearly three dozen people in Bara in the past one month. Most of those killed during that period were said to be opponents of the outlawed Lashkar-e-Islam.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Minister for Environment Hameedullah Jan Afridi on Wednesday termed the military operation in Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency unjustified, saying that he was not taken on board before the crackdown. He called upon the government to immediately halt it.
Addressing a press conference at the Press Club here, the federal minister, who represents Khyber Agency in the National Assembly, said it was regrettable that being federal minister and representative of the tribesmen of the agency he was not taken into confidence before launching an operation. He said even the political administration was unaware as to who took the decision about the military operation in Bara tehsil.
Afridi said if the government had reservations over the religious organisations of the agency, it should take the elders of the agency and public representatives into confidence before any operation. He asked the government that if the operation was against Lashkar-e-Islam and Ansar-ul-Islam — two banned militant outfits, why common tribesmen including children, women and elderly people had been targeted and killed. He was of the opinion that most of the tribesmen were ignorant about the curfew rules and that was the reason the security forces killed two people for violating the curfew.
The minister claimed that 40 innocent people, having beards and associated with Tableeghi Jamaat (a non-political religious preaching organisation), were arrested by the security forces for alleged links with militants.
Afridi expressed his fear that because of close proximity of Bara tehsil with Peshawar, the militants might target the settled areas in retaliation. He said he was trying to contact Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani in this regard.