Pilots and aircrews from the 22nd Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron arrived at PAFB Chaklala March 3 to conduct the information exchange with their Pakistan air force hosts.

Upon arrival, the Airmen invited PAF pilots and aircrews aboard their KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft to familiarize them with Air Force air refueling equipment and procedures.

U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Michael LeFever, the senior U.S. Defense Representative to Pakistan, hosted Pakistan Air Commodore Tahir Ranjha, the PAF air transportation director and Air Commodore Khalil Ahmed, the PAF Chaklala commander, aboard the KC-135 aircraft.

“Events like these promote understanding and enhance our military-to-military relationships while also boosting capability and expertise,” Admiral LeFever said. “In addition, with the planned arrival of more F-16s to Pakistan later this year, developing PAF air refueling expertise is critical to increasing their airborne endurance and enhancing their ability to counter the violent extremist threat in their country.”

The role in strengthening commercial ties with industrial units in Pakistan and enlarging the scope of economic co-operation between the two countries were discussed.

The delegation is from the 39th Pakistan Navy Staff Course, led by Rear Admiral Sayed Bashir Ahmad.

It was accompanied by Pakistan Embassy First Secretary Muhammad Saleem.

“Bahrain and Pakistan share ties that go way back in history, and the relationship remains strong to this day,” said Alba chief executive officer Laurent Schmitt.

“The economic ties between the two countries continue to show encouraging growth, and we discussed ways in which Alba could contribute towards boosting commercial and technological co-operation with industrial bodies in Pakistan.”

The Pakistani naval delegation was given a tour of the smelter and was briefed on the process of aluminium production.

“It’s all set and planned, but I haven’t talked to him,” she admits, her face scrubbed clean and wearing a Pakistan Air Force (PAF) jumpsuit — a far cry from the make-up and ornate gown she’ll wear for the wedding.

The wedding between Flight Lieutenant Ambreen Gul, 25, and an engineer from Islamabad has been arranged by their families in the best Pakistani tradition.

When she wakes up on Monday — International Women’s Day — she’ll be married to a man she has only seen once before and with whom she has barely exchanged a word.

Pakistan is a conservative Muslim country, where the United Nations says only 40 percent of adult women are literate. Women are victims of violence and abuse, and the country still lacks a law against domestic violence.

But in 2006, seven women broke into one of Pakistan’s most exclusive male clubs to graduate as fighter pilots — perhaps the most prestigious job in the powerful military and for six decades closed to the fairer sex.

Ambreen’s company manager father was delighted. Ironically it was her housewife mother who initially feared her daughter would bring shame on the family.

“It was because of our eastern culture. She thought people would say, ‘Why are you letting your daughter go out of the home?’”

She and 26-year-old Flight Lieutenant Nadia Gul say PAF is a trailblazer for women’s rights. As respected officers with a 60,000-rupee-a-month (700-dollar) salary, they are living out their dreams.

“It’s a profession of passion. One has to be extremely motivated. I love flying. I love to fly fighter jets, to do something for my country that is very unique,” smiled Ambreen, her hair stuffed into a pony tail.

Signing up aged 18, only a handful of girls beat homesickness and stiff competition to pass a six-month selection process and graduate after three-and-a-half years of training.

“It was the toughest time we’ve ever faced,” Ambreen remembers.

During a training flight on a Chinese-made F-7, she once blacked out for a few seconds before survival reflexes kicked in.

Nadia, whose army captain husband is serving on the front line of Pakistan’s war against the Taliban in the wind-swept mountains of Swat, won a prize for academic achievement at PAF’s first women fighter pilot graduation.

“It was the first time. It was history,” she remembers, a bottle-green hijab covering most of her hair and tucked into her padded pilot’s jacket.

“I was just a girl who went to college and came back home, but now I’m in a great profession,” said Nadia.

Commanding male subordinates, they bat aside any question of sexism or men who don’t take kindly to being ordered about by a woman.

They love the respect that comes with official fighter pilot status in the armed forces — the wealthiest institution in Pakistan.

“Families are very fascinated. Everyone’s very impressed,” says Nadia, describing her husband as “very supportive” and “proud”.

Forbes ranked Pakistan in 2010 as the fourth most dangerous country in the world. Officers say only a tiny elite — and no women — actually fly in combat in Pakistan’s tribal belt, a battleground against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

While PAF is outwardly very proud of its women pilots, some wonder privately whether women are strong enough to reach the top of the profession.

But flying transport and cargo planes, ferrying VIPs like cabinet ministers around the country, Nadia feels women’s lot is improving and takes issue with Western perceptions of Pakistan as backward.

“PAF are giving us this chance on an equal basis. It was really a bold step that the Pakistan Air Force has taken in recruiting lady fighter pilots,” she said.

In a country where extended family is important and most middle-class women rely on servants for household work and child-minding, Ambreen and Nadia may be saved some of the problems faced by women in the West.

They believe marriage and — in the future — motherhood can complement, not replace, a career, “provided you have a supportive family”.

The exercises are believed to contribute to developing cooperation and friendship between the two states as well as to raise their capability to counter terrorism and ensure peace and stability in the region.

The two countries held military consultations in early March, discussing the program of the drills, which will be the third such exercises, and confirming that they would not be aimed against any third party.

Friendship exercises were previously held in 2004 and 2006, employing 200 and 400 troops from both sides respectively.

Major-General Sajjad Ghani, who is leading the offensive in the upper part of Swat valley, said people in neighbouring Kalam valley and Lower Dir district were raising their own militias, commonly known as lashkars, to confront the militants, Reuters reports

‘They are resolutely defending against the advance of the Taliban. That’s the silver lining that I can see,’ he told reporters during a trip to Swat arranged by the military.

In a sign of growing hostility, villagers in Kalam and Lower Dir have tried to expel the gunmen.

Several people were killed or wounded in a clash between armed villagers and Taliban fighters in Kalam on Thursday, provincial assembly member Jafar Shah told Reuters.

Villagers had made a similar stand in parts of Lower Dir, to the west of Swat, and the Taliban had pulled out of some areas, a provincial government official there said.

‘Today they stand isolated, not only in the valley but also at the national scene. I think this is a big achievement of the government as well as the military,’ military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas said.

Ghani said civilian casualties were ‘less than double figures’ in areas under his command.

Ghani said two major militant strongholds had been secured in upper Swat and people who had fled the area would soon be asked to return to their homes.

Ghani said the military was determined to eliminate the Taliban and ruled out the possibility of any talks or a ceasefire with the militants.

‘This time it has been decided to take the operation to its logical conclusion aimed at eliminating the terrorists,’ he said.

The six-month battle with Islamist insurgents in the remote Bajaur district is seen as pivotal to the country’s fight against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, after bombings have killed more than 1,600 people in less than two years.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan’s government launched the Bajaur offensive in August amid heavy criticism from US and Afghan officials who say it is not doing enough to stop militants crossing into Afghanistan to attack foreign troops.

Heavy artillery and helicopter gunships have pounded Bajaur, one of Pakistan’s seven federally-administered tribal areas (FATA) along the Afghan border, in a bid to flush out militant bases, killing hundreds.

“We think that we have secured this agency (district),” said Major General Tariq Khan, the commander of forces fighting in Bajaur.

“They have lost. They have lost their cohesion out here,” Khan told reporters flown by helicopters from the capital, Islamabad.

A Pakistani army colonel named Saifullah, who gave only one name, said the military had also beaten back militants in the neighbouring tribal area of Mohmand, also on the Afghan border, where security forces have been waging lower-level offensives.

“Now the people’s minds are clear. They now believe in the strength of the force and the resolve of the government that this militancy is being pursued and is being finished,” he told reporters in Ghallanai.

“The influence of militants has reduced over a major proportion of the population and area,” the colonel added.

Pakistan is facing increased US pressure to clampdown on militant hideouts with President Barack Obama deploying an extra 17,000 troops to Afghanistan as part of a major shift in its action against global terrorist networks from Iraq to south Asia.

There was no independent verification of the Bajaur victory but the Taliban see the district as a key strategic district they cannot not afford to lose, analysts have said.

To the east is Swat, where the Taliban have called an indefinite ceasefire following a nearly two-year insurgency, while on the Afghan side is a long frontier with the Taliban hotspot of Kunar province.

Khan recommended fencing the rugged and porous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan to prevent the cross-border movement of Taliban militants.

He said troops would withdraw gradually but not pull out for some time, speculating that military operations in five of Pakistan’s seven wild tribal districts could finish by the end of the year.

In Bajaur, 97 soldiers from the Pakistan army and the paramilitary Frontier Corps have been killed, while 404 troops were injured, he said.

Khan said about 50 percent of the militants were Afghans and some Sudanese and Egyptians had been killed in Bajaur in the initial stages of operation.

He described a unilateral ceasefire declared by the Taliban on Monday as “a face-saving statement”.

“There was no question of ceasefire, the resistance has melted, dissolved. It is not there,” he said.

Shafir Ullah, the chief of the Bajaur civil administration, said 1,600 militants were killed during the campaign and more than 2,000 injured while some 150 civilians also died and about 2,000 were injured in the fighting.

The pitched battles and bombardment had destroyed about 5,000 homes in Bajaur, which is home to about one million people, Ullah said.

Ullah appealed for international donors to come forward with money for reconstruction and the provision of basic services such as electricity and water to 304,598 people displaced from their homes in Bajaur.

The official said more than 180,000 had returned.

This organization has been crucial in bringing regional stability. Its contribution in the 1980s against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan could not be denied, and it operated cooperatively with multiple US agencies for a decade or more.

After Sept. 11, 2001, the American campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan could not have materialized without the willful support of Pakistan and its security organizations, including the ISI. Scores of key Al Qaeda and Taliban figures were either killed or handed over to the United States through the ISI’s help.

Supporting the United States in Afghanistan and elsewhere while combating extremism, Pakistan has incurred colossal human loss in terms of deaths of its citizens and security officials.

Recurring suicide attacks on Pakistan’s security officials in Rawalpindi and Islamabad and target killing of its members in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and elsewhere illustrate the frustration and damage Pakistan has caused to the militants and terrorists.

Allegations of the ISI’s cadres operating in connivance with the Taliban or Al-Qaeda and portrayals of the agency as an autonomous body are not based on fact. The ISI operates under complete control of the civilian government, and American authorities are convinced of the credibility of this institution following the return of Pakistan to full democracy.

Nadeem H. Kiani
Press attache
Embassy of Pakistan
Washington

Richard Holbrooke, considered the architect of peace in Bosnia, was due to meet President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and military chiefs, the foreign ministry said.

US President Barack Obama has called Afghanistan the main front in the “war on terror” and plans to send a further 30,000 troops there, doubling the US contingent fighting a Taliban-led insurgency along with NATO forces.

Holbrooke will hold top-level talks in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India before “reporting back” to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Obama.

“I am here to listen and learn the ground realities of this critically important country,” Holbrooke was quoted as saying in a statement released by the US embassy after his arrival in Islamabad late Monday.

“The United States looks forward to reviewing our policies and renewing our commitment and friendship with the people of Pakistan,” he added.

The foreign ministry said Islamabad was looking for fresh perspective on security, stability and development, to address “militancy, terrorism and extremism effectively” in a “comprehensive and holistic strategy”.

But Holbrooke will likely face criticism from a civilian government worried that US missile strikes against militant targets on its territory will exacerbate its domestic problems and unpopularity.

Islamabad’s relations with Washington and Kabul have been strained over accusations that Pakistan is not doing enough to eradicate Islamist “safe havens” on its territory.

Pakistan, reeling from attacks that have killed more than 1,500 people in 20 months, has welcomed the US policy review.

Holbrooke’s mission will be further complicated by an escalating blame game between India and Pakistan over the Mumbai attacks, which New Delhi has blamed on Pakistan-based militants.

The United States has also expressed concern that nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan’s atomic bomb who was freed from house arrest last week, will not be involved in nuclear proliferation.

“What is required in my view is new ideas, better coordination within the US government, better coordination with our NATO allies and other concerned countries, and the time to get it right,” Holbrooke said in Germany on Sunday.

“Pakistan’s situation is dire,” he said. “It needs international assistance, international sympathy and international support.”

Pakistan wants the US missile attacks to end, US aid (10 billion dollars under ex-ruler Pervez Musharraf) and renewed diplomacy on Kashmir, an issue at the heart of its troubles with India but which Washington says is not within Holbrooke’s mandate.

Islamabad said Monday its investigators needed more information from India to complete a probe into the Mumbai attacks in November, when 10 gunmen killed 165 people during a 60-hour siege.

New Delhi blamed the attacks on the banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is active in Indian-ruled Kashmir, but the outfit has denied responsibility.

The meeting was informed that the aircraft would have an edge over its contemporary aircraft particularly Indian light-combat aircraft in terms of cost, early availability and supportability.

The JF-17 Thunder is a light weight, all-weather, multi-role fighter aircraft jointly developed by China and Pakistan. The aircraft has been designed for high performance at low cost.

JF-17 Thunder Pictures at DefenceTalk.com

The Minister told the envoy that Pakistan was proud of its relations with China which had always supported Pakistan in difficult times and had played instrumental role in its economic development as well as strengthening its defence sector.

He said that both countries needed to further expand and consolidate their bilateral cooperation for the mutual benefits of the two countries.

The Minister sought the assistance of Chinese government for expanding and building Karachi and Gwadar shipyards. He also lauded the Chinese contribution towards strengthening and developing the defence industry of Pakistan.

The ambassador informed the Minister that China would continue to assist Pakistan in the areas of economy and defence.

He said China was working on a number of projects in Pakistan to make it economically a prosperous country. He said China would help Pakistan in up-gradation of Gwadar Port so as to enhance its capacity and make it a hub of economic and commercial activities. -APP