Pakistan Security Brief

Pakistan coaxing Afghan Taliban back into talks; Lawmaker fears drone strikes in Gilgit-Baltistan in future; Security concerns result in close of IDP camp offices; IED rocks NATO supply base in Khyber; Pakistan and Afghanistan to discuss refugees; Three rockets fired at factory in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa; 3 killed in Karachi; David Cameron to visit Pakistan; New energy policy, government repays more of IMF debt; India, Pakistan discuss relationship; New IMF tax rejected by Ishaq Dar; Ministry of Interior prohibits arms licenses; Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to focus on energy investment in China visit.

Afghanistan-Pakistan Relations

• According to a report in Dawn, Pakistani officials are currently in talks with the Afghan Taliban over the Qatar peace talks, and are attempting to convince the Taliban to return to the negotiating table. According to an unnamed official, “The process is continuing. In fact it is in everyone’s interest that the process remains alive.”[1]

• Minister of States and Frontier Regions Abdul Qadir Baloch met on Friday with Afghan government officials and members of the U.N. Refugee Agency to discuss future policies regarding Afghan refugees in Pakistan.  The current Tripartite Commission is due to expire on June 30, however Pakistan has agreed to extend refugee status while talks are ongoing to resolve outstanding issues including Proof of Registration cards, repatriation, and reintegration.  Senior officials have said that the government of Pakistan will not expel the refugees.[2]

U.S.-Pakistan Relations

• One day after the Pakistani government released the names of suspected militants in the Nanga Parbat killings, Gilgit-Baltistan's Chairmen of the Standing Committee Amjad Hussain on Friday claimed that drone strikes within the region might occur in the near future. According to Hussain, “If locals don’t shun their affiliation with the banned terrorist organization like TTP, it is highly likely that this region becomes the next destination for drone strikes.”[3]

• On Thursday, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah met with U.S. Ambassador Richard Olson to discuss investment in Pakistan, particularly in the energy sector. According to the Express Tribune, Olson and Shah are planning a Pakistan-U.S. business conference to highlight some of the opportunities available.[4]  

Militancy and Terrorism

• Following warnings by the security forces of an impending terrorist attack, humanitarian aid workers at the Jalozai Internally-Displaced Persons camp in the Nowshera district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa closed their offices.  A senior camp official said the offices will remain closed until further notice.[5]

• An Improvised Explosive Device (IED) exploded on Friday near a security checkpoint providing support for NATO suppliers at Teddy Bazar in Jamrud sub-district, Khyber agency.  There were no casualties, and no group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.[6]

• A factory worker and his two accomplices tortured another man to death in the Nawab Town area of Lahore on Thursday; the motive for the killing remains unclear.[7]

• Militants fired three rockets at a cement factory in Darra Pezu in the Lakki Marwat District of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on Wednesday evening, causing some structural damage.  No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but last week suspected militants distributed flyers signed by Commander Usmani of the TTP’s Lakki Marwat chapter near the factory.[8]

• A newly-wed woman and her husband were shot on Friday by unknown gunmen on motorcycles in Risalpur, Nowshera district, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, killing the bride and wounding the husband.[9]

• Police officials in Swat district announced on Thursday that two men responsible for killing one police officer and wounding another on Wednesday night had been killed in an operation.[10]

• Unidentified gunmen on motorcycles opened fire outside Mehran Bakery in the Kharadar area of Karachi on Friday, killing three people and wounding ten others.[11] 

• 5 people were killed in Karachi on Thursday in separate incidents throughout the city. A police constable was gunned down by unidentified gunmen riding through Liaquat Chowk, while another man was shot down on his way to work in Gol Market. A car dealer was killed on his way home in Karsaz, and police recovered two bodies, one in Agra Taj Colony, and another in Bashar Colony.[12]  

• The police detained 107 suspects in raids throughout Islamabad on Thursday. Most of the arrested were from Afghanistan and Northern Pakistan.[13]

• In Islamabad on Friday, three criminals posing as TTP militants were arrested. The suspects had been extorting citizens under the guise of TTP members seeking money for Jihad.[14]           

British-Pakistan Relations

• British Prime Minister David Cameron is expected to visit Pakistan on Saturday, according Foreign Office spokesman Aizaz Chaudhry. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Cameron are expected to discuss the Afghan peace process, as well as continue the Enhanced Strategic Dialogue on bilateral cooperation between the two nations.[15]

Electrical Crisis 

• Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attended a high-level meeting on Friday to finalize the government’s new energy policy; an official announcement unveiling the new plan is pending.[16] 

• On Friday, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar announced that the government will pay back the first installment of Rs326 billion ($3.28 billion) of its circular debt to Independent Power Producers. The total debt stands at Rs503 billion ($5.07 billion).[17] 

India-Pakistan Relations

• During a meeting on Friday with outgoing Indian High Commissioner Sharat Sabharwal, President Asif Ali Zardari expressed interest in developing affable relations with the Indian government; Zardari thanked Sabharwal for his efforts while in office. According to Sabharwal, the relationship between India and Pakistan has grown stronger in his four year tenure, particularly in the last two years. According to Sartaj Aziz, Adviser to the Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs, Sharif plans to pick “up the threads from the Lahore process of 1999,” by improving commercial ties with India, policies which he has already discussed with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.[18] 

• Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Sharat Sabharwal and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islami (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman met on Thursday to discuss bilateral relations between the two nations. According to Sabharwal, both trade relations and visa restrictions have improved over the past few years.[19]

• According to an Express Tribune report, Indian national Zakir Mumtaz died of a stroke today following his imprisonment in Kot Lakhpat jail, Lahore, for an illegal border crossing on August 3, 2011.  His death is the latest in a series of Indian prisoners’ deaths linked to allegations of torture.[20]

IMF Talks

• Finance Minister Ishaq Dar informed the National Assembly on Thursday that the government would not institute any new taxes to meet preconditions of a higher tax yield for the International Monetary Fund’s financial assistance package. The same day, Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal disagreed with Dar, saying that the government would need to take on some burden in order to receive the bailout. According to Iqbal, the taxes are “a  tough decision” the government needs to make.[21]  

• The Pakistani government paid $260 million back to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Friday, according to a report in the Express Tribune. An IMF team is currently in Pakistan to discuss a potential bailout, on the order of $5-7 billion.[22]

Domestic

• On Thursday, the Ministry of the Interior announced a prohibition on all new arms licenses until further notice.  The move follows increasing public debate about forming an efficient domestic security policy for the prevention of terrorism and criminal activity.[23]

• Riaz Pirzada, an MNA from Bahawalpur, became the newest federal minister yesterday after taking the oath of office administered by President Asif Ali Zardari; the government has not yet formally announced which portfolio Pirzada will receive.[24]

• During Thursday’s court proceedings in the case of 280 missing persons, Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan denounced the maintenance of clandestine detention facilities by law enforcement organizations and intelligence agencies.  Khan also expressed concern over rumors of other secret facilities in Mohmand, Orakzai, Bajaur and Kurram Agencies.[25] 

• In a heated Sindh parliamentary session, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) pronvincial assembly members attacked the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) for recent surges in violence in Karachi. According to the PPP's Saniya Naz Baloch, the MQM is a “mafia,” guilty of extortion and targeted killings within the embattled city.[26]  

• According to Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, treason charges against former Presdient Pervez Musharraf will not be focused on the Pakistan Army, but on Musharraf individually. According to Khan, “During the eight years of dictatorship, it was Musharraf alone who enjoyed absolute power.”[27]

• On Friday, the Prime Minister's Cell for Polio Control was reinstated, after being disbanded by the caretaker government in May. Polio vaccination teams within Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the FATA have been targeted in past months by militants, who claim the teams are “CIA” operatives, guilty of espionage.[28] 

• On Friday, leader of the opposition in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah claimed that the current government probe into Swiss court corruption charges against President Asif Ali Zardar is being used to “choke the PPP” in a partisan attack.[29]

China-Pakistan Relations

• According to Minister of Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal on Thursday, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's upcoming visit to China on July 4 will seek to strengthen economic ties between the two nations. Sharif is expected to encourage Chinese investors to invest in Pakistan's energy sector during the visit.[30]