Pakistan Security Brief

U.S. asks Pakistan to "curb IEDs”; Khar says U.S. to blame if Pakistan fails in war on terror; Gilani says Pakistan will soon resolve issues with U.S.; Pakistan deploys troops to Afghanistan-Pakistan border; Ijaz and Haqqani submit statement to Supreme Court; Zardari discharged from Dubai hospital; AP and Reuters report militants still active in North and South Waziristan; Six militants killed in clash with FC officers in Turbat; Widow confesses to aiding her husband in terrorist attacks; Express Tribune explores plight of women in Pakistani IDP camps; British court orders release of Pakistani detainee.

U.S.-Pakistan Relations

• On Wednesday, a Congressional panel attached a proposal to the Defense Authorization Bill that called for greater Pakistani regulation of fertilizer products commonly used in improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Afghanistan.  If the bill is adopted, the U.S. government will not be able to “release more than 40 percent of the counterinsurgency funds meant for Pakistan” unless Pakistan takes initiative against IED “materials” bound for Afghanistan.[1]

• During a Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS) meeting on Thursday, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said that the “U.S. would be responsible if Pakistan failed in [the] war on terror.” Khar’s comments came in response to a U.S. congressional panel vote to freeze $700 million in U.S. aid to Pakistan on Monday.  While the freeze has not been finalized, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry condemned the vote and Khar articulated that Pakistan had begun “talking to other counties” for aid.  Meanwhile, the Christian Science Monitor reports on the plight of NATO truck drivers as Pakistan’s blockade of NATO supply routes continued for a twentieth day on Wednesday.[2]

• On Wednesday, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani said that Pakistan would resume “negotiations” with the U.S. to “resolve thorny issues bedeviling [U.S.-Pakistan relations]” once Pakistan’s Parliament approved the “new rules of engagement” made by Pakistan’s Cabinet Committee on Defense (DCC).[3]

• A spokesman for Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday that Pakistan had “established over 900 checkposts” and had deployed 160,000 troops to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border to “stop any movement of the terrorist elements.”  The spokesman noted, however, that Pakistan could not be “held responsible for the weaknesses and loopholes” on the Afghan side of the border.[4]

Pakistani Politics

• On Thursday, Mansoor Ijaz, the Pakistani-American businessman that ignited the “memogate” political scandal, submitted an 81-page statement to the Supreme Court for its inquiry into the secret memo on Thursday. The memo, which was allegedly sent by former Pakistani Ambassador to the U.S. Hussain Haqqani to former U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen via Ijaz, reportedly requested U.S. support for Pakistan’s civilian government in the event of a Pakistani military coup. Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry ruled to accept a written statement from Haqqani on Wednesday, acknowledging that the court’s attempt to block the statement violated the Pakistani Constitution. Ijaz inspired further controversy on Thursday after making allegations that Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy chief Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha secretly visited several Arab countries soon after the May 2 U.S. raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in an effort to garner Arab support for a possible military coup against President Asif Ali Zardari.  Meanwhile, the Supreme Court reported that it was still waiting for a statement from Zardari.[5]

• Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari was discharged from the American Hospital in Dubai late Wednesday night.  Zardari’s press office announced that the President plans to recover at his home in Dubai and has not yet decided when he will return to Pakistan. However, Senior PPP officials have suggested that Zardari may return to Pakistan on December 27th, the anniversary of the 2007 assassination of his wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Earlier, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani claimed that Zardari had sought medical treatment in Dubai because “he feared [threats to his life] in Pakistan[i] hospitals.”According to the Washington Post, there has been widespread speculation within Pakistan as to whether Zardari’s extended absence is due to health issues or rather a concerted effort to avoid the Pakistani Supreme Court probe into the “memogate” scandal.[6]

FATA

• The Associated Press and Reuters report on the “resilience of militants in [Pakistan’s] northwestern tribal areas” and the existence of terrorist training camps in South Waziristan, suggesting that these areas are outside of military control despite the 2009 military offensive in South Waziristan.  Militants in South Waziristan are reportedly able to travel freely and without detection by the Pakistan Army, which the Pakistani Taliban claims is “confined to the roads,” while “surrounding areas are in Taliban control.”[7]

 Balochistan

• On Thursday, six militants were killed by retaliatory fire after attacking a Frontier Corps (FC) vehicle in Turbat. Three FC officers were injured in the assault.[8]

Karachi Violence

• Sabiha Khatoon, the wife of a Taliban militant, confessed to assisting her husband conduct several terrorist attacks in Pakistan after she was detained by Karachi police on Wednesday. Khatoon’s husband, Qari Shahid Khan, a senior member of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), was killed in a police raid last week. During her interrogation, Khatoon admitted her complicity in several of her husband’s terrorist plots, including a May attack on a Pakistani naval base in Karachi which killed ten security officers.[9]

IDP Camps

• On Thursday, the Express Tribune chronicled the horrors experienced by women living in Internally Displaced Person (IDP) Camps in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. A report released by the human rights organization “Khwendo Kor” reveals that women in the camps are frequently forced into sex in exchange for food or other supplies.  The atrocity of these incidents is further magnified as they frequently lead to “honor killings” where women that have been raped are then murdered for disgracing their family. According to the report, the prevalence of these camps and their terrible conditions has significantly lowered the quality of life for women residing in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and FATA.[10]

Pakistani Prisoner

• A British appeals court upheld a habeas corpus petition on Wednesday and ordered the British government to release Yunus Rahmatullah, a Pakistani detainee currently in U.S. custody. British forces captured Rahmatullah in Iraq in 2004 and immediately handed him over to U.S. forces who have held him at the U.S. Airbase in Bagram, Afghanistan for nearly eight years without a formal charge.  The court’s ruling has fostered an air of tension between the U.S. and UK as Britain is obliged to comply with the ruling while the U.S. is not.[11]