Pakistan Security Brief

Afghan President says Pakistan is “crucial” to Afghan peace process and formally invites Taliban leadership to engage in talks; Afghan officials meet with Taliban in Quetta; U.S. Secretary of State and Pakistani Foreign Minister to meet on Thursday; Pakistani navy receives two U.S.-made P3C aircraft; New Delhi police arrest Pakistani man suspected of being ISI agent; Pakistan and UN launch “Floods 2011 Early Recovery Framework;” Pakistan was deadliest country for journalists in 2011; Pakistan’s Supreme Court resumes prime minister’s contempt of court case; Pervez Musharraf denies involvement in Benazir Bhutto’s murder; Mansoor Ijaz records “memogate” testimony in London; BlackBerry refuses to provide Ijaz’s messages to judicial commission; Security officials launch conclusion of military operation in Darra Adam Khel. 

International Relations

• Afghan President Hamid Karzai telephoned Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Tuesday, seeking Pakistan’s support and saying it would be “crucial” to the success of the peace process. Gilani assured Karzai that Pakistan “would wholeheartedly support” an “Afghan-owned and Afghan-led peace process.” Following the phone conversation, Karzai formally invited the Taliban leadership “to engage in direct talks with the Afghan government.”[1]

• The head of a Kandahar peace council said on Tuesday that Afghan officials are holding talks with the Taliban in Quetta, where they have had multiple meetings with a mid-level Taliban commander.[2]

• In an interview with the Guardian, Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said that Pakistan will not support a “U.S.-driven initiative” to begin Afghan peace talks in Qatar until it is clear that the Afghan government supports them. Khar said Pakistan is waiting for Afghan President Karzai to “determine the course of action of his government and once that is done,” Pakistan will fully support it.[3]

• The News reported Tuesday that New Delhi police arrested Kamran Akbar, a Pakistani man suspected of being an Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agent, who had been living in India for the last 20 years. Acting on a tip-off, police apprehended Akbar at New Delhi Railway Station on February 13, as he was about to board a train after obtaining classified defense-related documents. According to Deputy Commissioner of Police Ashok Chand, Akbar got an Indian passport under the name “Asif Husain,” and he was recruited by Pakistani military intelligence agencies, when he went back to Pakistan for a visit in July 1997.[4]

• Speaker of the lower house of India’s parliament Meira Kumar and a seven-member parliamentary delegation arrived in Pakistan on Tuesday for a five-day state visit to create stronger ties and better cooperation between the two governments. During her visit, Kumar will meet with several Pakistani officials including Pakistani Speaker of the National Assembly Fehmida Mirza, President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani.[5]

• On Thursday, Pakistan and the UN launched the “Floods 2011 Early Recovery Framework,” for the flood-affected areas in Sindh and Balochistan. They requested $440 million from international donors for “the restoration of livelihoods, support for food security, basic social services, shelter, community infrastructure, health, nutrition, water and sanitation.”[6]

U.S.-Pakistan Relations

• U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Pakistani Foreign Minister Khar are expected to meet in London on Thursday at an international conference on Somalia. This will be the first meeting between Clinton and Khar since the November 2011 NATO airstrike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.[7]

• On Tuesday, the Pakistani navy received a delivery of two U.S.-made P3C aircraft under the foreign military funding program. The aircraft, equipped with the latest avionics, are designed to improve Pakistan’s surveillance capabilities in the North Arabian Sea, a highly important shipping route that suffers from Somali piracy. Islamist militants destroyed the previous two P3C aircraft, when they attacked a naval base in Karachi in May 2011.[8]

• According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, Pakistan was the deadliest country for journalists in 2011 for the second year in a row. Of the 46 journalists killed worldwide in 2011, seven died in Pakistan.[9]  

Domestic Politics

• A seven-member bench of Pakistan’s Supreme Court headed by Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk resumed the hearing of the contempt of court case against Prime Minister Gilani on Wednesday. During the hearing, the attorney general gave a statement and submitted documentary evidence. The court directed the attorney general and Gilani’s counsel to submit all their evidence to the court by February 27 and then adjourned the hearing until February 28.[10]

• During television interviews on Tuesday, former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf denied allegations made by Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik that Musharraf was involved in former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s murder. Musharraf said that he had informed Bhutto about the threats on her life before she arrived in Pakistan, but the provincial government and members of the Pakistan Peoples Party were primarily responsible for her security.[11]

• While addressing the media via telephone from Switzerland on Wednesday, the self-exiled leader of the Balochistan Republican Party (BRP) Brahamdagh Bugti supported the U.S. congressional bill on Balochistan’s self-determination and criticized the Pakistani government for bringing attention to the deteriorating situation in Balochistan too late.[12]

Memogate

• Express News reported that Pakistani- American businessman Mansoor Ijaz arrived at the Pakistani High Commission in London on Wednesday to record his testimony in the memogate case. A three-member judicial commission is recording Ijaz’s statement in the Islamabad High Court via video link.[13]

• BlackBerry has refused to provide the judicial commission in the memogate case access to the messages exchanged between Mansoor Ijaz and former Pakistani ambassador to the U.S. Hussain Haqqani. Although Ijaz offered to withdraw his privacy rights, the company stated that it could not release consumers’ messages to a “third party.”[14]

Militancy

• At a ceremony in Tor Chappar on Tuesday, security officials announced the conclusion of a military operation launched in Darra Adam Khel in 2008 in which 20 soldiers and more than 100 militants were killed. The District Coordination Officer announced that officials would soon begin work on coal mining and gas exploration, and they would also rebuild all the schools destroyed by militants or security forces.[15]

• A landmine exploded in the Sipah area of Bara, Khyber agency on Wednesday, killing three people. Security forces have been carrying out an operation for the last three years in Sipah, which is considered to be Lashkar-e-Islam’s strong hold.[16]

• An explosion took place when a roadside bomb went off near a security forces convoy in the Sro Kali area of Charsadda district. No casualties were reported.[17]

• A homemade bomb outside a house in Spin Qabar, Khyber agency exploded when residents tried to remove the device, killing two people and injuring another.[18]

• On Tuesday, a bomb planted on a parked motorcycle exploded near a government hospital in Matani, on the outskirts of Peshawar. No injuries were reported.[19]