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Pakistan

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Overview

In the sixty or so years since gaining independence, Pakistan has been embroiled in regional wars, internal strife and the war against terrorism. Upon separating itself from India in 1947, Muslim Pakistan engaged in the first of several wars with its larger, Hindu neighbor. Conflicts with India have stemmed from both religious differences and disagreements over control of Kashmir. Pakistan also fought with Indian forces while unsuccessfully attempting to hold onto East Pakistan (now known as Bangladesh) in 1971. In addition, Pakistan and India have been engaged in a nuclear arms race since the 1970s, when India became the first country on the subcontinent to demonstrate it had such weapons. Pakistan, however, did not conduct its first nuclear test until the late 1990s. For most of its history, Pakistan has been ruled by military dictators who have used their control of the army to dominate the presidency. Attempts at civilian rule have been brief and often marred by violence. 

 
Relations with the United States drew close when they formed a military alliance during the Cold War. Pakistan’s non-Communist, pro-West orientation was embraced by American officials who were struggling to develop better relations with India, which at the time was aligned with the Soviet Union. During the 1980s, the Reagan administration greatly expanded military sales to Pakistan and ignored warning signs of the country’s plan to develop nuclear weapons. Once the Cold War ended, Washington was less inclined to help build up Pakistan’s military. But with the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Pakistan once again became a vital US partner in the region. Situated next door to Afghanistan, home of the Taliban and al-Qaeda, Pakistan became a key priority of the Bush administration’s war on terrorism and its efforts to hunt down militants. However, as much as Pakistan’s military ruler, Musharraf, publicly expressed his desire to work with the US, elements within the Pakistani government—specifically, the intelligence agency—maintained close relations with Islamic militants and undermined American operations to capture key figures like Osama bin Laden. With the downfall of Musharraf in 2007, Pakistan’s new civilian government began to distance itself from the US. Relations only grew cooler as American military commandoes based in Afghanistan conducted raids inside Pakistan without first informing leaders in Islamabad. In the wake of the Mumbai terrorist attacks in November 2008 (which may have had links to Pakistan) and the election of Barack Obama to the White House, it remains to be seen what kind of relationship the US and Pakistan will develop in 2009.
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Basic Information

Lay of the Land: In southern Asia, in the northwest portion of the Indian subcontinent, Pakistan extends north from the Arabian Sea roughly 900 miles to the lofty ranges of the Hindu Kush and the Himalayas.

 
Population: 167.8 million
 
Religions: Sunni Muslim 80.0%, Shi'a Muslim 15.9%, Christian 2.5%, Hindu 1.3%, Ethnoreligious 0.15, Baha'i 0.1%, Buddhist 0.1%, non-religious 0.1%.
 
Ethnic Groups: Punjabi 44.1%, Pashtun 15.4%, Sindhi 14.1%, Sariaki 10.5%, Urdu 7.6%, Balochi 3.6%, other 4.7%.
 
Languages: Western Punjabi 38.1%, Pashto (Central, Northern, Southern) 11.8%, Sindhi (official) 11.6%, Seraiki 8.7%, Urdu (official) 6.7%, Balochi (Western, Southern, Eastern) 3.6%, Hindko (Northern, Southern) 1.6%, Brahui 1.3%, Eastern Farsi 0.6%, Bagri 0.1%, English (official). There are 72 living languages in Pakistan.
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History
Pakistan’s early history was marked by the Indus Valley civilization, from 2500–1700 BC. The Aryans, Persians, Greeks, Arabs, Turks, and others swept through the area in succeeding centuries, until Islam was introduced in 711 and became the dominant religion. In 1526, Pakistan became part of the Mogul Empire, which ruled most of the Indian subcontinent from the 16th to the mid-18th century.
 
By 1857, the British established their colony in India, which included Pakistan. At the time, Hindus held most of the economic, social, and political advantages, creating dissatisfaction among the Muslim minority. The nationalist Muslim League came into existence in 1906, led by Mohammed Ali Jinnah. The league supported Britain in the Second World War while the Hindu nationalist leaders, Nehru and Gandhi, did not. In return for the league's support of Britain, in August 1947, Britain agreed to the formation of Pakistan (divided into East and West Pakistan, with India separating the two halves) as a separate dominion within the British Commonwealth, with Jinnah as governor-general. The partition of Pakistan and India along religious lines resulted in the largest migration in human history, with 17 million people fleeing across the borders in both directions to escape the accompanying sectarian violence. This period was marked by the first of several wars between India and Pakistan.
 
Pakistan became a republic on March 23, 1956, with Major General Iskander Mirza as the first president. Military rule prevailed for the next two decades. In April 1965, the second war with India began when fighting broke out in a sparsely inhabited region along the West Pakistan–India border. Fighting spread to Kashmir and to the Punjab, and in September, Pakistani and Indian troops crossed the partition line between the two countries and launched air assaults on each other’s cities. The two countries eventually agreed to a UN-sponsored cease-fire and withdrew their forces.
 
Meanwhile, tensions developed between East and West Pakistan. Separated by more than a thousand miles, the two regions shared few cultural and social traditions other than Islam. To the growing resentment of East Pakistan, West Pakistan monopolized the country’s political and economic power.
 
In 1970, East Pakistan’s Awami League, led by the Bengali leader Sheik Mujibur Rahman, secured a majority of the seats in the national assembly. President Yahya Khan postponed the opening of the national assembly to delay East Pakistan’s demand for greater autonomy, thus provoking civil war. The independent state of Bangladesh, or Bengali nation, was proclaimed on March 26, 1971. Indian troops entered the war in its last weeks, fighting on the side of Bangladesh. This conflict marked the third war between India and Pakistan. Pakistan was defeated on December 16, 1971, and President Yahya Khan stepped down. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto took over Pakistan and accepted Bangladesh as an independent entity.
 
Pakistan’s first elections under civilian rule took place in March 1977, though the victory of Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) was marred by accusations of fraud. In July, the military stepped in once again and took control of the government, this time with General Mohammed Zia ul-Haq in charge. Bhutto was tried and convicted for the murder of a political opponent, and despite worldwide protests, he was executed on April 4, 1979, prompting riots by his supporters. Zia declared himself president on September 16, 1978, and ruled by martial law for the next seven years.
 
Zia’s reign ended in August 1988 when his plane blew up in midair. Elections at the end of 1988 brought Benazir Bhutto, daughter of Zulfikar Bhutto, into office as prime minister, making her the first woman to lead the country. Her time in office lasted only two years and was disrupted by political in-fighting with opposition groups. Bhutto assumed the post of prime minister again in the 1990s, while another political figure—Nawaz Sharif—held the post three different times. Despite the turmoil with its leadership, Pakistan proceeded with its clandestine nuclear weapons program, which experts in the West suspected was in operation since the 1970s. Pakistan conducted its first nuclear test in May 1998, confirming the worst fears of security experts and many others in India, which had tested its first nuclear weapon in 1974. India followed Pakistan’s 1998 test with its own test In a show of force that rattled the region.
 
To make matters worst, in 1999, civilian rule ended once again in Pakistan when General Pervez Musharraf led a coup that toppled the government. Fighting with India broke out again in the disputed territory of Kashmir in May 1999.
 
The Pakistani government maintained close relations with Afghanistan’s Taliban government until the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States. Under US pressure, Pakistan broke with its neighbor to become the United States’ chief ally in the region. In return, President Bush ended sanctions (instituted after Pakistan’s 1998 nuclear test), rescheduled its debt, and helped to bolster the legitimacy of Pervez Musharraf’s rule, who appointed himself president in 2001.
 
In December 2001, suicide bombers attacked the Indian parliament, killing 14 people. Indian officials blamed the attack on Islamic militants supported by Pakistan. Both sides assembled hundreds of thousands of troops along their common border, bringing the two nuclear powers to the brink of war.
 
In 2002, Musharraf’s presidency was extended another five years in elections that opposition groups blasted as fraudulent. He then imposed almost 30 new constitutional amendments that strengthened his power.
 
In March 2003, Pakistani officials arrested Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the top aide to Osama bin Laden, who organized the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Later that year, Pakistan and India declared the first formal cease-fire in Kashmir in 14 years. In April 2005, a bus service began between the two capitals of Kashmir—Srinagar on the Indian side and Pakistan’s Muzaffarabad—uniting families that had been separated by the Line of Control since 1947.
 
Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb, was exposed in February 2004 for having sold nuclear secrets to North Korea, Iran, and Libya. Musharraf had him apologize publicly, and then pardoned him. Khan claimed that he acted alone and not in conjunction with Pakistan’s military or government, much to the doubts of those in India and the West.
 
Pakistan launched major efforts to combat al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, deploying 80,000 troops to its remote and mountainous border with Afghanistan. Yet the country remained a breeding ground for Islamic militancy and Pakistan’s intelligence agency continued to support Islamic militants.
 
In September 2006, President Musharraf signed a controversial peace agreement with seven militant groups who call themselves the “Pakistan Taliban.” Pakistan’s army agreed to withdraw from the area and allow the Taliban to govern themselves, as long as they promised no incursions into Afghanistan or against Pakistani troops. In July 2007, that agreement came under fire in the US with the release of a National Intelligence Estimate that said the deal had allowed al-Qaeda to flourish.
 
An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 struck Pakistani-controlled Kashmir on October 8, 2005. More than 81,000 people were killed and 3 million left homeless. About half of the region’s capital city, Muzaffarabad, was destroyed.
 
In March 2007, President Musharraf suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, accusing him of abuse of power and nepotism. Supporters of Chaudhry took the streets in protest, claiming the move was politically motivated. Thirty-nine people were killed in Karachi when dueling rallies turned violent between those in support of Chaudhry and those supporting the government. Chaudhry had agreed to hear cases involving disappearances of people believed to have been detained by intelligence agencies, as well as constitutional challenges involving Musharraf’s continued rule as president and head of the military. Chaudhry challenged his suspension in court. Pakistan’s Supreme Court ruled that President Musharraf acted illegally when he suspended Chaudhry, and reinstated him.
 
Radical Islamist clerics and students at Islamabad’s Red Mosque, who had carried out a violent campaign to impose Islamic law in Pakistan, exchanged gunfire with government troops in July 2007. The military laid siege to the mosque, which held nearly 2,000 students. Some students escaped or surrendered to officials, and the mosque’s senior cleric, Maulana Abdul Aziz, was caught by officials when attempting to escape. After negotiations between government officials and mosque leaders failed, troops stormed the compound and killed Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who took over as chief of the mosque after the capture of Aziz, his brother. More than 80 people died in the violence. Violence in remote tribal areas intensified after the raid. In addition, the Taliban rescinded the cease-fire signed in September 2006, and a series of suicide bombings and attacks followed.
 
Musharraf’s political troubles intensified in the late summer of 2007. In August, the Supreme Court ruled that Nawaz Sharif could return to Pakistan from exile in Saudi Arabia. Both Sharif and Benazir Bhutto had sought to challenge Musharraf’s role as military leader and president. Days after the ruling, Bhutto revealed that Musharraf had agreed to a power-sharing agreement, in which he would step down as army chief and run for reelection as president. In exchange, Bhutto, who had been living in self-imposed exile for eight years, would be allowed to return to Pakistan and run for prime minister. Aides to Musharraf denied an agreement was reached, though Musharraf said that if elected to a second term as president, he would step down from his post as army chief. In September, Sharif was arrested and deported just hours after he returned to Pakistan.
 
On October 6, 2007, Musharraf was easily reelected to a third term, after opposition groups boycotted the vote. That same month, Bhutto returned to Pakistan, much to the delight of her supporters. The celebration quickly ended when a suicide bomber attacked her convoy, killing as many as 135 people. Bhutto survived the attack.
 
On November 3, Musharraf declared a state of emergency, suspended Pakistan’s constitution, and fired Chief Justice Chaudhry and the other judges on the Supreme Court. In addition, police arrested at least 500 opposition figures. Political opponents said Musharraf had in effect declared martial law. Analysts suggested that Musharraf was trying to preempt an upcoming ruling by the Supreme Court, which was expected to declare he could not constitutionally run for president while head of the military. Musharraf claimed he acted to stem a rising Islamist insurgency.
 
On November 5, thousands of lawyers took to the streets to protest the emergency rule and clashed with police. As many as 700 lawyers were arrested, including Chaudhry, who was placed under house arrest. Under pressure from US officials, Musharraf said parliamentary elections would take place in January 2008.
 
On November 9, thousands of police officers barricaded the city of Rawalpindi, the site of a protest planned by Bhutto. She was later placed under house arrest, but released the next day.
 
Nawaz Sharif returned to Pakistan on November 25 after eight years in exile and demanded that Musharraf lift the emergency rule and reinstate the Supreme Court justices that were dismissed. Musharraf stepped down as military chief three days later, the day before being sworn in as a president. General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the former head of Pakistan’s intelligence agency, took over as army chief.
 
Musharraf ended emergency rule on December 14 and restored the constitution. However, he also issued several executive orders and constitutional amendments that precluded any legal challenges related to his actions during and after emergency rule. In addition, barred the judges who he had fired from resuming their positions.
 
Bhutto was assassinated in a suicide attack on December 27 at a campaign rally in Rawalpindi. Musharraf blamed al-Qaeda for the attack, which killed 23 other people. Bhutto’s supporters, however, accused Musharraf’s government of orchestrating the assassination. Rioting throughout the country followed the attack, and the government shut down nearly all the country’s services to thwart further violence. Musharraf postponed parliamentary elections, which had been scheduled for January 8, 2008, until February 18.
 
In the parliamentary elections, Musharraf’s party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, which had been in power for five years, suffered a stunning defeat. The opposing Pakistan Peoples Party, led by Bhutto’s widower, Asif Ali Zardari, won 80 of the 242 contested seats. The Pakistan Muslim League-N, led by Sharif, took 66 seats. Musharraf party’s won just 40. The Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-N formed a coalition government. In March, Parliament elected Fahmida Mirza as speaker, becoming the first woman in Pakistan elected to the position.
 
In March, Zardari selected Yousaf Raza Gillani, who served as speaker of Parliament in the 1990s under Benazir Bhutto, as prime minister. One of Gillani’s first moves was to release the Supreme Court justices that Musharraf ousted and detained.
 
The new government signaled it would set a clear change of course when it announced that it would negotiate with militants who lived and trained in Pakistan’s remote tribal areas. The policy met resistance from the United States, which, with approval from Musharraaf, has stepped up its attacks against the militants.
 
Fighting along Kashmir’s Line of Control broke out over the summer of 2008, after more than four years of relative calm. The problems arose after authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir transferred 99 acres of land to a trust that runs a Hindu shrine, called Amarnath. Muslims launched a series of protests. The government rescinded the order, which outraged Hindus. About 40 people were killed in the protests and counter-demonstrations, which involved several hundred thousand people. Despite the hostilities, a trade route between India and Pakistan across the Line of Control opened in October for the first time in 60 years.
 
US intelligence agencies determined that Pakistan’s Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) helped to carry out an attack in July that killed more than 50 people outside the Indian Embassy in Kabul, including two Indian diplomats. The attack occurred while Gillani was in the United States meeting with President Bush. Officials also said that the ISI had been tipping off militants about US operations against them.
 
In August, the government announced plans to initiate impeachment proceedings against Musharraf on charges of violating the constitution and misconduct. The charges stemmed from his actions in November 2007 when he suspended the country’s constitution and fired Chief Justice Chaudhry and the other judges of the Supreme Court. Days later Musharraf resigned as president.
 
In September, the two houses of Parliament elected Zardari president by a wide margin.
 
The Pakistani military launched a three week air assault into Afghanistan’s Bajaur region throughout August, which resulted in more than 400 Taliban casualties. The air strikes forced many al-Qaeda and Taliban militants to retreat from towns formally under their control. However, the Pakistani government declared a cease-fire for the month of September in observance of Ramadan, raising fears that the Taliban would use the opportunity to regroup.
 
A truck bomb exploded outside the popular Marriott Hotel in Islamabad in September, killing more than 50 people and wounding hundreds. The bomb went off as government leaders, including the president and prime minister, were dining a few hundred yards away.
 
On November 26, Islamic militants with ties to Pakistan launched one of the most ambitious and deadly terrorist attacks in India’s history. Approximately 170 people were killed and about 300 wounded in a series of attacks on several landmarks and commercial hubs in Mumbai, India. It took Indian forces three days to end the siege of two hotels and the office of a Jewish organization. Indian and US officials said they had evidence that the Pakistan-based militant Islamic group Lashkar-e-Taiba was involved. Lashkar-e-Taiba was established in the late 1980s, with the assistance of Pakistan’s spy agency, to fight Indian control of the Muslim section of Kashmir. The accusation further strained an already tense relationship between the two countries.
 
History of Pakistan (Wikipedia)
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Pakistan's Newspapers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pakistan's Newspapers

 

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History of U.S. Relations with Pakistan
Although immigrants were only labeled as “Pakistani” after the nation was formed in 1947, people from the area of Pakistan began immigrating to the US in the mid-19th century, mostly working on farms or construction. In 1907, Indian Muslims worked alongside Sikhs and Hindu Indians, 2,000 of whom helped build the Western Pacific Railroad. Despite discriminatory immigration policies and racist organizations like the Asiatic Expulsion League (established in 1907), many Indians purchased land and established themselves in America. After the passage of the more liberal Immigration Act of 1965, Pakistani immigration exploded. The initial immigrants tended to be well-educated professionals. They congregated in large cities like New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Chicago partially because of the availability of jobs, and partially because of their familiarity with living in an urban, ethnically diverse environment.
 
Pakistan’s relations with the United States first developed against the backdrop of the Cold War. Pakistan’s strategic geographic position made it a valuable partner in the battle against the Soviet Union and the spread of communism. In 1954, Pakistan signed a Mutual Defense Agreement with the US and subsequently became a member of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) and Central Treaty Organization (CENTO). These agreements allowed the US to use Pakistan as a base for American military reconnaissance flights over Soviet territory.
 
Pakistan, in return, received large amounts of economic and military assistance. The program of military assistance continued until the 1965 Indo-Pakistani War when President Lyndon B. Johnson placed an embargo on arms shipments to Pakistan and India. The American embargo on Pakistan remained in place during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 and was not lifted until 1975, during the administration of President Gerald Ford.
 
US-Pakistani relations preceding the 1971 war were characterized by poor communication and much confusion. The administration of President Richard M. Nixon was forced to formulate a public stance on the brutal crackdown on East Pakistanis by West Pakistani troops that began in March 25, 1971. Nixon maintained that the crackdown was essentially a Pakistani internal affair in which direct intervention of outside powers was to be avoided. His administration expressed its concern about human rights violations and restricted the flow of assistance, but stopped short of an open condemnation.
 
Following the loss of East Pakistan, Pakistan withdrew from SEATO. Pakistan's military links with the West continued to decline throughout Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s tenure in power and into the first years of the Zia regime. CENTO was disbanded following the fall of the shah of Iran in March 1979, and Pakistan then joined the Nonaligned Movement. Zia also continued Bhutto’s policy of developing Pakistan’s nuclear capability. This policy had originated as a defensive measure in reaction to India’s nuclear test explosion in 1974. In April 1979, President Jimmy Carter cut off economic assistance to Pakistan (except for food assistance), as required under the Symington Amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. This amendment called for ceasing economic assistance to non-nuclear weapon countries that imported uranium-enrichment technology. Relations between the United States and Pakistan were further strained in November 1979 when protesters sacked the United States embassy in Islamabad, resulting in the death of four people. The violence had been sparked by a false report that the United States was involved in a fire at the Grand Mosque in Mecca.
 
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979 revived the close relationship between Pakistan and the United States. Initially, Zia spurned the Carter administration’s offer of $400 million in economic and military aid to Pakistan. Under President Ronald Reagan, the US agreed in 1981 to provide $3.2 billion to Pakistan over a period of six years, equally divided between economic and military assistance. A second economic and military assistance program was announced in 1986, this time for over $4 billion, with 57% for economic assistance. US military assistance included the controversial sale of 40 F-16 fighter planes to Pakistan—planes capable of delivering a nuclear weapon. Although Pakistan did not possess such weapons then, it’s been reported that officials in the Reagan administration knew of Pakistan’s effort to develop such weapons of mass destruction and pretended not to know about the clandestine program while lobbying Congress for more aid to the Zia regime.
 
The continuation of the Soviet war in Afghanistan led to waivers—in the case of Pakistan—of legislative restrictions on providing aid to countries with nuclear programs. The Pressler Amendment of 1985 required that if the United States president could not certify to Congress on an annual basis that Pakistan did not possess a nuclear weapon, US assistance to that country would be cut off. For several years, the US looked the other way when it came to Islamabad’s nuclear ambitions. But with the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989 and the end of the Cold War, the US began to take a harder position on the nuclear weapons issue. In 1990, President George H. W. Bush refused to make the certification required under the Pressler Amendment and assistance to Pakistan was subsequently terminated.
 
On August 17, 1988, a plane carrying President Zia, American Ambassador Arnold Raphel, US Brigadier General Herbert Wassom, and 28 Pakistani military officers crashed on a return flight from a military equipment trial near Bahawalpur, killing all on board.
 
Throughout the 1990s, the United States essentially ended military cooperation and arms sales to Pakistan. It was only after the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the US that the Bush Administration chose to re-engage with Pakistan in the area of defense cooperation.
 
U.S-Pakistan Military Cooperation (by Greg Bruno and Jayshree Bajoria, Council on Foreign Relations)
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Current U.S. Relations with Pakistan
The US-Pakistan relationship was transformed by the September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States and the ensuing enlistment of Pakistan as a key ally in US-led counterterrorism efforts. Top US officials have praised Pakistan for its ongoing cooperation, although doubts exist about Islamabad’s commitment to some core US interests. Pakistan is identified as a base for terrorist groups and their supporters operating in Kashmir, India, and Afghanistan. Pakistan’s army has conducted unprecedented and largely ineffectual counterterrorism operations in the country’s western tribal areas, where al-Qaeda operatives and their allies are believed to enjoy “safe haven.” US officials are increasingly concerned that the cross-border infiltration of Islamist militants from Pakistan into Afghanistan is a key obstacle to defeating the Taliban insurgency. In addition, American intelligence officials have privately expressed worry over Pakistan’s intelligence agency and its connections with Islamic radicals.
 
Despite whatever concerns existed in Washington, officials in the Bush administration pressed for substantial increases in US military aid to Pakistan. It secured authority from Congress to waive restrictions on aid to Pakistan, and in June 2004, President George W. Bush designated Pakistan a major Non-NATO ally.
 
In 2006, the United States signed arms transfer agreements with Pakistan in excess of $3.5 billion, ranking Pakistan first among all arms clients of the US during that year. The key elements in Pakistan’s arms purchases were 36 F-16 fighter aircraft for $1.4 billion; a variety of missiles and bombs to be utilized on the F-16s for over $640 million; the purchase of Mid-Life Update Modification Kits to upgrade Pakistan’s existing F-16 aircraft for $890 million; and 115 M109 155mm Self-propelled howitzers for $52 million. The total value of Pakistan’s 2006 arms purchases from the US nearly matched the total value of all military purchases made by Pakistan from the United States between 1950 and 2001 (which equaled more than $3.6 billion in current dollars).
 
Over the last two years, however, US officials have begun to grow weary of Pakistan’s close ties with Islamic militants—to the point where Washington ordered commando raids against Taliban and al-Qaeda elements inside Pakistani territory. In September 2008, American Special Forces raided a village that was home to al-Qaeda militants in the tribal region near the border with Afghanistan. The New York Times later reported that in July, President Bush authorized Special Ops units to launch ground attacks inside Pakistan without seeking approval from the Pakistani government. A top Pakistani military leader said the army would not tolerate such attacks, and subsequently, Pakistan’s military assumed a more forceful posture towards encroaching American military operations.
 
US-Pakistani relations became even more tense in the wake of the November attacks in Mumbai. Leaks out of Washington indicate officials believe Pakistan’s intelligence operation may have had a hand in helping the militants who carried out the well-orchestrated assaults on multiple targets. However, no concrete evidence has been produced.
 
A total of 153,533 people identified themselves as being of Pakistani ancestry in the 2000 US census.
 
In 2006, 126,168 Americans visited Pakistan. Tourism has expanded rapidly since 2002, when 69,030 Americans traveled to Pakistan.
 
In 2006, 31,978 Pakistanis visited the US. The number of tourists has fluctuated between a low of 31,222 (2003) and a high of 39,442 (2002) in recent years.
 
U.S.-Pakistan Relations (by Lisa Curtis, Heritage Foundation)
Pakistan-U.S. Relations (by K. Alan Kronstadt, Congressional Research Service)
U.S. Arms Sales to Pakistan (by Richard F. Grimmett, CRS Report)
 
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Where Does the Money Flow
While relations between the US and Pakistan have largely been dominated by talk of military and counterterrorism efforts, trade has increasingly become an important part of the bilateral relationship. From 2003 to 2007, US imports from Pakistan grew from $2.5 billion to $3.5 billion, while exports also increased from $843 million to $2.03 billion.
 
American imports were led by apparel and household goods, which increased from $1.4 billion to $2.6 billion. Other key imports were scientific, medical and hospital equipment, rising from $28 million to $46 million; and rugs and floor coverings, increasing from $99 million to $105 million.
 
While the US continues to buy retail clothing from Pakistan in ever-growing amounts, it is not purchasing as much cotton cloth and fabrics as it used to. Such sales have dropped from $373 million to $200 million over a five year period.
 
American exports to Pakistan were led by civilian aircraft, which have skyrocketed from $6 million to $452 million. Other valuable exports were parts for military goods, rising from $13.3 million to $67 million; tanks, artillery, missiles and other weapons, increasing from $816,000 to $63.5 million; telecommunications equipment, jumping from $17.5 million to $91 million; industrial machines, rising from $18.6 million to $62 million; generators and accessories, elevating from $18.1 million to $97.7 million; steelmaking materials, increasing from $1.7 million to $66 million; and raw cotton, going from $178 million to $257 million.
 
Overall, the US is running a trade deficit with Pakistan, importing $3.5 billion versus $2.03 billion in exports.
 
The US gave $734.4 million in aid to Pakistan in 2007. The budget allotted the most funds to Foreign Military Financing ($297 million), Education ($124.4 million), Humanitarian Assistance: Protection, Assistance and Solutions ($100 million), Health ($63.2 million), Social Services and Protection for Especially Vulnerable People ($53 million), and International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement ($24 million). 
 
The 2008 budget estimate increased aid to $798.1 million, including $60 million in supplemental aid. The 2009 budget request will increase aid further to $826.3 million and will distribute the most aid to Foreign Military Financing ($300,000), Education ($163.5 million), Health ($96.1 million), Private Sector Competitiveness ($59.9 million), Humanitarian Assistance: Protection, Assistance and Solutions ($50 million), Good Governance ($33.2 million), International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement ($32 million).
 
The US sold $313.8 million of defense articles and services to Pakistan in 2007.
 
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Controversies

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Human Rights
The State Department report on Pakistan’s human rights record for 2007 and 2008 revealed rampant human rights violations. In 2007, the human rights situation worsened significantly, when  former President Musharraf decided to impose a 42-day State of Emergency (SOE), suspend the constitution, and dismiss the Supreme and High Provincial Courts. Additionally, he demanded once again that all judges swear an oath of loyalty to his new legal order. Under the SOE, Musharraf suspended basic civil liberties, including freedom of speech and assembly. In December, Musharraf lifted the SOE and restored an amended constitution, which enhanced presidential powers. Regulatory restrictions were maintained on press activities and freedom of assembly.
 
During the 42 days of the SOE, the government imposed curbs on the media and arrested more than 6,000 lawyers, judges, political party workers and leaders, as well as civil society activists. By the end of the year, approximately one dozen activists, primarily lawyers and judges, remained under house arrest. The government restored public cable access to all but two channels of one private television station. The media, however, was required to sign a code of conduct that discouraged criticism of the government and led to self-censorship.
 
In 2008, democratic rule was restored in Pakistan. Asif A. Zardari, the widower of Benazir Bhutto (assassinated Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader) became the head of state on September 6, 2008, replacing resigned former President Pervez Musharraf. Along with the head of state, positions on the national parliament and Supreme Court were mainly replaced by PPP members. The newly elected government did not follow Musharraf’s restrictions adopted during the state of emergency in 2007. Instead, the government did not enforce media restrictions, lifted restrains on labor unions, withdrew politically motivated criminal charges, and forcefully withdrew approximately 3,000 active military officers from civil service positions that were assigned by Musharraf.
 
Despite the improvements that the newly elected government attempted to make, human rights violations remained rampant and seemed to increase in the state throughout 2008. There were numerous reports that the government committed an increasing number of arbitrary or unlawful killings throughout 2008, compared to 2007. Security forces killed individuals associated with criminal and political groups in staged encounters and during abuse in custody. The Society for Human Rights and Prisoners’ Aid (SHARP) reported 64 encounter killings and 101 killings in police custody. Police stated that these deaths frequently occurred when suspects attempted to escape, resisted arrest, or committed suicide. On the other hand, human rights observers, family members, and the press reported that security forces staged many of the deaths.
 
Politically motivated disappearances declined during the year. Police and security forces held prisoners incommunicado and refused to provide information on their whereabouts. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) estimated that approximately 1,100 persons were missing, compared to 1,600 in 2007. Although some disappearances were associated with terrorism and national security cases, human rights organizations reported that many missing individuals were Sindhi and Baloch nationalists.
 
There were persistent reports that security forces, including intelligence services, tortured and abused persons. Human rights organizations reported incidents of beating, burning with cigarettes, whipping soles of the feet, prolonged isolation, electric shock, denial of food or sleep, hanging upside down, and forced spreading of the legs with bar fetters. Security force personnel reportedly raped women during interrogations. The government rarely took action against those responsible.
 
Prison conditions did not meet international standards and were extremely poor, except for those cells of wealthy or influential prisoners. Overcrowding was widespread. According to SHARP, there were 90,000 prisoners occupying 87 jails originally built to hold a maximum of 36,075 persons. Inadequate food in prisons led to chronic malnutrition for those unable to supplement their diet with help from family or friends. Access to medical care was a problem. Foreign prisoners often remained in prison long after their sentences were completed because there was no one to pay for deportation to their home countries. In addition, SHARP contended that cases of torture by police are underreported due to local customs.
 
Approximately 66% of the female prison population was awaiting trial on adultery-related offenses under the Hudood Ordinances, according to the Aurat Foundation. However, with the enactment of the Women’s Protection Bill in December 2006, women are no longer supposed to be arrested under the Hudood Ordinance, nor required to produce four witnesses to prove a charge of rape as required under the zina laws (laws regarding extramarital sexual intercourse). Family members had previously used the Hudood Ordinances to control their children from making their own choices in marriage. Abusive husbands sometimes invoked the ordinances, or neighbors invoked the ordinances to settle personal scores.
 
The government limited freedom of religion in practice. Islam is the state religion, and the constitution requires that laws be consistent with Islam. According to the constitution, Shari’a can be applied to a situation that is deemed to be in contradiction to the Koran. Therefore, citizens who are normally governed by secular law can be subject to Islamic law based on loose criteria.
 
Human Rights Watch chronicles the last states that permit executions of juvenile offenders in the September 2008 report titled “The Last Holdouts.” The report claims that in 2008, Pakistan executed one juvenile offender and currently has several juvenile offenders on death row awaiting the outcome of a judicial appeal, or the outcome of negotiations for pardons in exchange for financial compensation. Although in 2000 Pakistan issued a Juvenile Justice System Ordinance that banned the death penalty for crimes committed by citizens under 18, implementation remains limited due to the lack of courts and other structures called for in the law.
 
Amnesty International’s Human Rights report on the Islamic Republic of Pakistan has not yet been updated to discuss the human rights violations of the year 2008.
 
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Debate
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Past Ambassadors

The Embassy in Karachi was established Aug 15, 1947, with Charles W. Lewis, Jr., as Chargé d'Affaires ad interim.

Paul H. Alling
Appointment: Sep 20, 1947
Presentation of Credentials: Feb 26, 1948
Termination of Mission: Left post Jun 27, 1948
Note: Commissioned during a recess of the Senate; recommissioned after confirmation on Dec 9, 1947.
 
H. Merle Cochran
Appointment: Mar 4, 1949
Note: Took oath of office, but did not proceed to post.
 
Avra M. Warren
Appointment: Feb 2, 1950
Presentation of Credentials: Feb 25, 1950
Termination of Mission: Left post Nov 26, 1952
 
John M. Cabot
Appointment: Sep 17, 1952
Note: Commissioned during a recess of the Senate; did not serve under this appointment.
 
Horace A. Hildreth
Appointment: May 13, 1953
Presentation of Credentials: May 19, 1953
Termination of Mission: Reaccredited when Pakistan became a republic; formally received Apr 23, 1956; left post May 1, 1957
 
James M. Langley
Appointment: Jun 13, 1957
Presentation of Credentials: Jul 27, 1957
Termination of Mission: Left post Jul 29, 1959
 
William M. Rountree
Appointment: Jun 18, 1959
Presentation of Credentials: Aug 17, 1959
Termination of Mission: Left post Feb 7, 1962
 
Walter P. McConaughy
Appointment: Mar 1, 1962
Presentation of Credentials: Mar 20, 1962
Termination of Mission: Left post May 27, 1966
 
Eugene Murphy Locke
Appointment: May 27, 1966
Presentation of Credentials: Jun 9, 1966
Termination of Mission: Left Pakistan, Apr 16, 1967
 
Benjamin H. Oehlert, Jr.
Appointment: Jul 27, 1967
Presentation of Credentials: Aug 16, 1967
Termination of Mission: Left post Jun 17, 1969
 
Joseph S. Farland
Appointment: Sep 19, 1969
Presentation of Credentials: Nov 15, 1969
Termination of Mission: Left post Apr 30, 1972
 
Note: Sidney Sober served as Chargé d'Affaires ad interim, May 1972–Dec 1973.
 
Henry A. Byroade
Appointment: Oct 15, 1973
Presentation of Credentials: Dec 5, 1973
Termination of Mission: Left post Apr 23, 1977
 
George S. Vest
Note: Nomination withdrawn May 5, 1977.
Arthur W. Hummel, Jr.
Appointment: Jun 8, 1977
Presentation of Credentials: Jun 28, 1977
Termination of Mission: Left post Jul 19, 1981
 
Robert I. Spiers
Appointment: Oct 1, 1981
Presentation of Credentials: Oct 29, 1981
Termination of Mission: Left post Oct 27, 1983
 
Deane Roesch Hinton
Appointment: Nov 21, 1983
Presentation of Credentials: Dec 26, 1983
Termination of Mission: Left post Nov 9, 1986
 
Arnold Lewis Raphel
Appointment: May 4, 1987
Presentation of Credentials: Jun 24, 1987
Termination of Mission: Died near Bahawalpur, Aug 17, 1988
 
Robert Bigger Oakley
Appointment: Aug 18, 1988
Presentation of Credentials: Sep 1, 1988
Termination of Mission: Left post Aug 29, 1991
Note: Commissioned during a recess of the Senate; recommissioned after confirmation on Oct 17, 1988.
 
Nicholas Platt
Appointment: Jul 2, 1991
Presentation of Credentials: Oct 24, 1991
Termination of Mission: Left post Nov 3, 1992
 
John Cameron Monjo
Appointment: Oct 9, 1992
Presentation of Credentials: Nov 10, 1992
Termination of Mission: Left post Sep 10, 1995
 
Thomas W. Simons
Appointment: Dec 19, 1995
Presentation of Credentials: Jan 25, 1996
Termination of Mission: Left post Aug 24, 1998
 
William B. Milam
Appointment: Aug 3, 1998
Presentation of Credentials: Sep 10, 1998
Termination of Mission: Left post Jul 6, 2001
 
Wendy Jean Chamberlin
Appointment: Jul 12, 2001
Presentation of Credentials: Sep 13, 2001
Termination of Mission: Left post May 29, 2002
 
Nancy Jo Powell
Appointment: Aug 2, 2002
Presentation of Credentials: Aug 16, 2002
Termination of Mission: Left post Nov 5, 2004
 
Ryan C. Crocker
Appointment: Oct 18, 2004
Presentation of Credentials: Nov 25, 2004
Termination of Mission: Left post, Mar 28, 2007
 
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Pakistan's Ambassador to the U.S.
ambassador-image Chaudhry, Aizaz Ahmad

Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, since March 13, 2017, is Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, a 36-year veteran of the Pakistan Foreign Service who most recently served as foreign secretary of Pakistan from December 2013 to March 2017. He succeeds Jalil Abbas Jilani, who chose retirement over an extended term in Washington. Chaudhry presented his credentials to President Donald Trump on April 24, 2017.

 

Born on February 27, 1958, Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry graduated PAF College Sargodha, a college prep school run by the Pakistan Air Force, in 1978. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree and a Master’s degree in Political Science at Punjab University in Lahore, Pakistan, and a Masters in International Relations at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1990. 

 

Chaudhry joined the Foreign Service of Pakistan in 1980, starting his career by taking government courses at the Civil Service Academy in Lahore in 1981 and the Foreign Service Training Institute in Islamabad in 1981-1982. His first posting was also educational, as a language trainee at the Pakistani Embassy in Cairo, Egypt, in 1983.

 

Chaudhry served as third/second secretary at Pakistan’s embassy in Doha, Qatar, from 1984 to 1987, and from 1988 to 1991 held jobs in several offices of the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad.

 

From 1991 to 1997, Chaudhry served in Tehran, Iran, as chef de cabinet to the secretary general of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), an intergovernmental organization founded in 1985 by Pakistan, Turkey, and Iran to promote free trade in Central Asia. ECO now has ten members (Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) with a population of 460 million and GDP of $1.75 billion.

 

From 1997 to 1999, Chaudhry served as chef de cabinet to the foreign secretary and participated in India-Pakistan Foreign Secretary level talks.

 

In his first posting to the Western Hemisphere, Chaudhry served as political counsellor and then as deputy permanent representative to the United Nations in New York from 1999 to 2006. 

 

In 2007, Chaudhry served as director general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). He led the Pakistani diplomatic team, chaired several OIC meetings, and organized an OIC Conference of Foreign Ministers in Islamabad in May 2007.

 

From 2007 to 2009, Chaudhry served as director general for South Asia and represented Pakistan at the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.

 

For his first ambassadorship, he served as ambassador to the Netherlands from 2009 to 2012, where he wrote a book Pakistan Mirrored to Dutch Eyes.

 

From 2012 to March 2013, Chaudhry served as additional foreign secretary, focusing on issues related to the United Nations and other international organizations, economic coordination, and disarmament affairs, and then served as the Foreign Ministry spokesperson from March to December 2013. As brief as was his term as spokesperson, Chaudhry found himself in an awkward position when secret documents were published showing that the Pakistani government had cooperated with the CIA’s drone bombing program inside Pakistan’s borders. Chaudhry was left to explain that even if this was true, the current government, installed four months earlier, would not continue the complicity, stating “We regard such strikes as a violation of our sovereignty as well as international law. They are also counter-productive.”

 

Chaudhry and his wife, Najia Aizaz Ahmad, the former president of the Pakistan Foreign Office Women's Association, have three children.

-Matt Bewig

 

To Learn More:

Official Biography

Personal Web Page

Conversations in Diplomacy: Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry and Adil Najam (Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center) (audio)

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Pakistan's Embassy Web Site in the U.S.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pakistan's Embassy in the U.S.

 

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Comments

umer farooq 14 years ago
Pakistani newspapers and urdu news.Good collection of all kind of urdu newspapers at one place.All khabrain at one place that you have to just click on the link and the Pakistani newspapers will be on the show front of you. http://www.cafe4fun.com/urdu/urdu-newspapers.html

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US-flag nation-flag U.S. Embassy web site

U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan

Munter, Cameron
ambassador-image

With the war in Afghanistan spilling over into Pakistan, where the CIA has launched numerous drone attacks on insurgents, the Obama administration selected Cameron Munter, a veteran diplomat with experience in Iraq, to run the U.S. embassy in Islamabad. Munter also is used to working in countries undergoing some kind of political transition, although all of those previous assignments took place in Europe. Munter was sworn in as U.S. ambassador to Pakistan on October 6, 2010. 

 
The son of Helen-Jeanne and Leonard Munter, Cameron Munter was born in Claremont, California, in 1954. Munter attended Claremont High School, where he distinguished himself as a distance runner on the cross country and track teams. His college education took place at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and the universities in Freiburg and Marburg in Germany. He received a doctoral degree in modern European history in 1983 from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. 
 
Munter began his career as a college professor, teaching European history at the University of California, Los Angeles from 1982-1984. He directed European studies at the Twentieth Century Fund in New York (1984-1985) before joining the Foreign Service.
 
His first overseas assignment took him to Warsaw, Poland (1986-1988). He returned to Washington, DC, in 1988 to serve as a staff assistant in the State Department’s Bureau of European Affairs and then as country director for Czechoslovakia. In 1991, he was a Dean Rusk Fellow at Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy.
 
The following year he was sent to Prague in the Czech Republic, serving there until 1995. It was then onto Bonn, Germany (1995-1997), before becoming chief of staff in the NATO Enlargement Ratification Office.
 
In 1998, Munter was director of the Northern European Initiative and then executive assistant to the counselor of the State Department (1998-1999). He served as director for Central Europe at the National Security Council until 2001.
 
Beginning in 2002, Munter began taking on larger roles in U.S. embassies, first as deputy chief of mission in Warsaw until 2005 and then in Prague from 2005 to 2007.
 
In 2006, he led the first Provincial Reconstruction Team in Mosul, Iraq.
 
His first ambassador assignment was in Belgrade, Serbia, from 2007 to 2009. The posting was not without difficulties, as Serbian rioters upset over the American position on Kosovo, set fire to the embassy in 2008. The protests sparked a strong response from Munter, who warned the Serbian government not to allow any more attacks on the diplomatic mission.
 
He returned to Iraq in 2009, this time at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. He served as political-military minister-counselor, then as deputy chief of mission for the first half of 2010, directing strategic planning and American civil-military coordination during the military pullout.
 
Munter’s wife, Marilyn Wyatt, is the author of A Handbook of NGO Governance. She has served as Director of Communications at the Aspen Institute and Director of Global Programs as BoardSource. The couple has a son, Daniel, and a daughter, Anna.
 
Official Biography (State Department)
Cameron Munter ‘New US Ambassador’ (by Baqir Sajjad Syed, Dawn.com)

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Previous U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan

Patterson, Anne
ambassador-image

 

A native of Fort Smith, Arkansas, Anne W. Patterson presented credentials to the president of Pakistan on July 31, 2007. She was confirmed by the Senate as the US Ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan on June 28, 2007, and she took the oath of office on July 6. Patterson graduated from Wellesley College and attended graduate school at the University of North Carolina.
 
Patterson joined the US Foreign Service in 1973 as an economic officer. She held a variety of other economic and political assignments, including in the Bureau of Inter-American Affairs, the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, and the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. Patterson also served as economic counselor in Saudi Arabia from 1984 to 1988 and as political counselor to the US Mission to the United Nations in Geneva from 1988 to 1991. She later served as principal deputy assistant secretary and deputy assistant secretary of inter-American affairs and as office director for Andean affairs.
 
Patterson then served as the ambassador to El Salvador from 1997 to 2000, ambassador to Colombia from 2000 to 2003, deputy inspector general of the State Department from 2003 to 2004, as deputy permanent representative and acting permanent representative at the US Mission to the United Nations from 2004 to 2005, and as the Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs until her current posting to Pakistan.
 

Anne W. Patterson's Official Biography

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Table of Contents
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Overview

In the sixty or so years since gaining independence, Pakistan has been embroiled in regional wars, internal strife and the war against terrorism. Upon separating itself from India in 1947, Muslim Pakistan engaged in the first of several wars with its larger, Hindu neighbor. Conflicts with India have stemmed from both religious differences and disagreements over control of Kashmir. Pakistan also fought with Indian forces while unsuccessfully attempting to hold onto East Pakistan (now known as Bangladesh) in 1971. In addition, Pakistan and India have been engaged in a nuclear arms race since the 1970s, when India became the first country on the subcontinent to demonstrate it had such weapons. Pakistan, however, did not conduct its first nuclear test until the late 1990s. For most of its history, Pakistan has been ruled by military dictators who have used their control of the army to dominate the presidency. Attempts at civilian rule have been brief and often marred by violence. 

 
Relations with the United States drew close when they formed a military alliance during the Cold War. Pakistan’s non-Communist, pro-West orientation was embraced by American officials who were struggling to develop better relations with India, which at the time was aligned with the Soviet Union. During the 1980s, the Reagan administration greatly expanded military sales to Pakistan and ignored warning signs of the country’s plan to develop nuclear weapons. Once the Cold War ended, Washington was less inclined to help build up Pakistan’s military. But with the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Pakistan once again became a vital US partner in the region. Situated next door to Afghanistan, home of the Taliban and al-Qaeda, Pakistan became a key priority of the Bush administration’s war on terrorism and its efforts to hunt down militants. However, as much as Pakistan’s military ruler, Musharraf, publicly expressed his desire to work with the US, elements within the Pakistani government—specifically, the intelligence agency—maintained close relations with Islamic militants and undermined American operations to capture key figures like Osama bin Laden. With the downfall of Musharraf in 2007, Pakistan’s new civilian government began to distance itself from the US. Relations only grew cooler as American military commandoes based in Afghanistan conducted raids inside Pakistan without first informing leaders in Islamabad. In the wake of the Mumbai terrorist attacks in November 2008 (which may have had links to Pakistan) and the election of Barack Obama to the White House, it remains to be seen what kind of relationship the US and Pakistan will develop in 2009.
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Basic Information

Lay of the Land: In southern Asia, in the northwest portion of the Indian subcontinent, Pakistan extends north from the Arabian Sea roughly 900 miles to the lofty ranges of the Hindu Kush and the Himalayas.

 
Population: 167.8 million
 
Religions: Sunni Muslim 80.0%, Shi'a Muslim 15.9%, Christian 2.5%, Hindu 1.3%, Ethnoreligious 0.15, Baha'i 0.1%, Buddhist 0.1%, non-religious 0.1%.
 
Ethnic Groups: Punjabi 44.1%, Pashtun 15.4%, Sindhi 14.1%, Sariaki 10.5%, Urdu 7.6%, Balochi 3.6%, other 4.7%.
 
Languages: Western Punjabi 38.1%, Pashto (Central, Northern, Southern) 11.8%, Sindhi (official) 11.6%, Seraiki 8.7%, Urdu (official) 6.7%, Balochi (Western, Southern, Eastern) 3.6%, Hindko (Northern, Southern) 1.6%, Brahui 1.3%, Eastern Farsi 0.6%, Bagri 0.1%, English (official). There are 72 living languages in Pakistan.
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History
Pakistan’s early history was marked by the Indus Valley civilization, from 2500–1700 BC. The Aryans, Persians, Greeks, Arabs, Turks, and others swept through the area in succeeding centuries, until Islam was introduced in 711 and became the dominant religion. In 1526, Pakistan became part of the Mogul Empire, which ruled most of the Indian subcontinent from the 16th to the mid-18th century.
 
By 1857, the British established their colony in India, which included Pakistan. At the time, Hindus held most of the economic, social, and political advantages, creating dissatisfaction among the Muslim minority. The nationalist Muslim League came into existence in 1906, led by Mohammed Ali Jinnah. The league supported Britain in the Second World War while the Hindu nationalist leaders, Nehru and Gandhi, did not. In return for the league's support of Britain, in August 1947, Britain agreed to the formation of Pakistan (divided into East and West Pakistan, with India separating the two halves) as a separate dominion within the British Commonwealth, with Jinnah as governor-general. The partition of Pakistan and India along religious lines resulted in the largest migration in human history, with 17 million people fleeing across the borders in both directions to escape the accompanying sectarian violence. This period was marked by the first of several wars between India and Pakistan.
 
Pakistan became a republic on March 23, 1956, with Major General Iskander Mirza as the first president. Military rule prevailed for the next two decades. In April 1965, the second war with India began when fighting broke out in a sparsely inhabited region along the West Pakistan–India border. Fighting spread to Kashmir and to the Punjab, and in September, Pakistani and Indian troops crossed the partition line between the two countries and launched air assaults on each other’s cities. The two countries eventually agreed to a UN-sponsored cease-fire and withdrew their forces.
 
Meanwhile, tensions developed between East and West Pakistan. Separated by more than a thousand miles, the two regions shared few cultural and social traditions other than Islam. To the growing resentment of East Pakistan, West Pakistan monopolized the country’s political and economic power.
 
In 1970, East Pakistan’s Awami League, led by the Bengali leader Sheik Mujibur Rahman, secured a majority of the seats in the national assembly. President Yahya Khan postponed the opening of the national assembly to delay East Pakistan’s demand for greater autonomy, thus provoking civil war. The independent state of Bangladesh, or Bengali nation, was proclaimed on March 26, 1971. Indian troops entered the war in its last weeks, fighting on the side of Bangladesh. This conflict marked the third war between India and Pakistan. Pakistan was defeated on December 16, 1971, and President Yahya Khan stepped down. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto took over Pakistan and accepted Bangladesh as an independent entity.
 
Pakistan’s first elections under civilian rule took place in March 1977, though the victory of Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) was marred by accusations of fraud. In July, the military stepped in once again and took control of the government, this time with General Mohammed Zia ul-Haq in charge. Bhutto was tried and convicted for the murder of a political opponent, and despite worldwide protests, he was executed on April 4, 1979, prompting riots by his supporters. Zia declared himself president on September 16, 1978, and ruled by martial law for the next seven years.
 
Zia’s reign ended in August 1988 when his plane blew up in midair. Elections at the end of 1988 brought Benazir Bhutto, daughter of Zulfikar Bhutto, into office as prime minister, making her the first woman to lead the country. Her time in office lasted only two years and was disrupted by political in-fighting with opposition groups. Bhutto assumed the post of prime minister again in the 1990s, while another political figure—Nawaz Sharif—held the post three different times. Despite the turmoil with its leadership, Pakistan proceeded with its clandestine nuclear weapons program, which experts in the West suspected was in operation since the 1970s. Pakistan conducted its first nuclear test in May 1998, confirming the worst fears of security experts and many others in India, which had tested its first nuclear weapon in 1974. India followed Pakistan’s 1998 test with its own test In a show of force that rattled the region.
 
To make matters worst, in 1999, civilian rule ended once again in Pakistan when General Pervez Musharraf led a coup that toppled the government. Fighting with India broke out again in the disputed territory of Kashmir in May 1999.
 
The Pakistani government maintained close relations with Afghanistan’s Taliban government until the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States. Under US pressure, Pakistan broke with its neighbor to become the United States’ chief ally in the region. In return, President Bush ended sanctions (instituted after Pakistan’s 1998 nuclear test), rescheduled its debt, and helped to bolster the legitimacy of Pervez Musharraf’s rule, who appointed himself president in 2001.
 
In December 2001, suicide bombers attacked the Indian parliament, killing 14 people. Indian officials blamed the attack on Islamic militants supported by Pakistan. Both sides assembled hundreds of thousands of troops along their common border, bringing the two nuclear powers to the brink of war.
 
In 2002, Musharraf’s presidency was extended another five years in elections that opposition groups blasted as fraudulent. He then imposed almost 30 new constitutional amendments that strengthened his power.
 
In March 2003, Pakistani officials arrested Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the top aide to Osama bin Laden, who organized the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Later that year, Pakistan and India declared the first formal cease-fire in Kashmir in 14 years. In April 2005, a bus service began between the two capitals of Kashmir—Srinagar on the Indian side and Pakistan’s Muzaffarabad—uniting families that had been separated by the Line of Control since 1947.
 
Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb, was exposed in February 2004 for having sold nuclear secrets to North Korea, Iran, and Libya. Musharraf had him apologize publicly, and then pardoned him. Khan claimed that he acted alone and not in conjunction with Pakistan’s military or government, much to the doubts of those in India and the West.
 
Pakistan launched major efforts to combat al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, deploying 80,000 troops to its remote and mountainous border with Afghanistan. Yet the country remained a breeding ground for Islamic militancy and Pakistan’s intelligence agency continued to support Islamic militants.
 
In September 2006, President Musharraf signed a controversial peace agreement with seven militant groups who call themselves the “Pakistan Taliban.” Pakistan’s army agreed to withdraw from the area and allow the Taliban to govern themselves, as long as they promised no incursions into Afghanistan or against Pakistani troops. In July 2007, that agreement came under fire in the US with the release of a National Intelligence Estimate that said the deal had allowed al-Qaeda to flourish.
 
An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 struck Pakistani-controlled Kashmir on October 8, 2005. More than 81,000 people were killed and 3 million left homeless. About half of the region’s capital city, Muzaffarabad, was destroyed.
 
In March 2007, President Musharraf suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, accusing him of abuse of power and nepotism. Supporters of Chaudhry took the streets in protest, claiming the move was politically motivated. Thirty-nine people were killed in Karachi when dueling rallies turned violent between those in support of Chaudhry and those supporting the government. Chaudhry had agreed to hear cases involving disappearances of people believed to have been detained by intelligence agencies, as well as constitutional challenges involving Musharraf’s continued rule as president and head of the military. Chaudhry challenged his suspension in court. Pakistan’s Supreme Court ruled that President Musharraf acted illegally when he suspended Chaudhry, and reinstated him.
 
Radical Islamist clerics and students at Islamabad’s Red Mosque, who had carried out a violent campaign to impose Islamic law in Pakistan, exchanged gunfire with government troops in July 2007. The military laid siege to the mosque, which held nearly 2,000 students. Some students escaped or surrendered to officials, and the mosque’s senior cleric, Maulana Abdul Aziz, was caught by officials when attempting to escape. After negotiations between government officials and mosque leaders failed, troops stormed the compound and killed Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who took over as chief of the mosque after the capture of Aziz, his brother. More than 80 people died in the violence. Violence in remote tribal areas intensified after the raid. In addition, the Taliban rescinded the cease-fire signed in September 2006, and a series of suicide bombings and attacks followed.
 
Musharraf’s political troubles intensified in the late summer of 2007. In August, the Supreme Court ruled that Nawaz Sharif could return to Pakistan from exile in Saudi Arabia. Both Sharif and Benazir Bhutto had sought to challenge Musharraf’s role as military leader and president. Days after the ruling, Bhutto revealed that Musharraf had agreed to a power-sharing agreement, in which he would step down as army chief and run for reelection as president. In exchange, Bhutto, who had been living in self-imposed exile for eight years, would be allowed to return to Pakistan and run for prime minister. Aides to Musharraf denied an agreement was reached, though Musharraf said that if elected to a second term as president, he would step down from his post as army chief. In September, Sharif was arrested and deported just hours after he returned to Pakistan.
 
On October 6, 2007, Musharraf was easily reelected to a third term, after opposition groups boycotted the vote. That same month, Bhutto returned to Pakistan, much to the delight of her supporters. The celebration quickly ended when a suicide bomber attacked her convoy, killing as many as 135 people. Bhutto survived the attack.
 
On November 3, Musharraf declared a state of emergency, suspended Pakistan’s constitution, and fired Chief Justice Chaudhry and the other judges on the Supreme Court. In addition, police arrested at least 500 opposition figures. Political opponents said Musharraf had in effect declared martial law. Analysts suggested that Musharraf was trying to preempt an upcoming ruling by the Supreme Court, which was expected to declare he could not constitutionally run for president while head of the military. Musharraf claimed he acted to stem a rising Islamist insurgency.
 
On November 5, thousands of lawyers took to the streets to protest the emergency rule and clashed with police. As many as 700 lawyers were arrested, including Chaudhry, who was placed under house arrest. Under pressure from US officials, Musharraf said parliamentary elections would take place in January 2008.
 
On November 9, thousands of police officers barricaded the city of Rawalpindi, the site of a protest planned by Bhutto. She was later placed under house arrest, but released the next day.
 
Nawaz Sharif returned to Pakistan on November 25 after eight years in exile and demanded that Musharraf lift the emergency rule and reinstate the Supreme Court justices that were dismissed. Musharraf stepped down as military chief three days later, the day before being sworn in as a president. General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the former head of Pakistan’s intelligence agency, took over as army chief.
 
Musharraf ended emergency rule on December 14 and restored the constitution. However, he also issued several executive orders and constitutional amendments that precluded any legal challenges related to his actions during and after emergency rule. In addition, barred the judges who he had fired from resuming their positions.
 
Bhutto was assassinated in a suicide attack on December 27 at a campaign rally in Rawalpindi. Musharraf blamed al-Qaeda for the attack, which killed 23 other people. Bhutto’s supporters, however, accused Musharraf’s government of orchestrating the assassination. Rioting throughout the country followed the attack, and the government shut down nearly all the country’s services to thwart further violence. Musharraf postponed parliamentary elections, which had been scheduled for January 8, 2008, until February 18.
 
In the parliamentary elections, Musharraf’s party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, which had been in power for five years, suffered a stunning defeat. The opposing Pakistan Peoples Party, led by Bhutto’s widower, Asif Ali Zardari, won 80 of the 242 contested seats. The Pakistan Muslim League-N, led by Sharif, took 66 seats. Musharraf party’s won just 40. The Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-N formed a coalition government. In March, Parliament elected Fahmida Mirza as speaker, becoming the first woman in Pakistan elected to the position.
 
In March, Zardari selected Yousaf Raza Gillani, who served as speaker of Parliament in the 1990s under Benazir Bhutto, as prime minister. One of Gillani’s first moves was to release the Supreme Court justices that Musharraf ousted and detained.
 
The new government signaled it would set a clear change of course when it announced that it would negotiate with militants who lived and trained in Pakistan’s remote tribal areas. The policy met resistance from the United States, which, with approval from Musharraaf, has stepped up its attacks against the militants.
 
Fighting along Kashmir’s Line of Control broke out over the summer of 2008, after more than four years of relative calm. The problems arose after authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir transferred 99 acres of land to a trust that runs a Hindu shrine, called Amarnath. Muslims launched a series of protests. The government rescinded the order, which outraged Hindus. About 40 people were killed in the protests and counter-demonstrations, which involved several hundred thousand people. Despite the hostilities, a trade route between India and Pakistan across the Line of Control opened in October for the first time in 60 years.
 
US intelligence agencies determined that Pakistan’s Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) helped to carry out an attack in July that killed more than 50 people outside the Indian Embassy in Kabul, including two Indian diplomats. The attack occurred while Gillani was in the United States meeting with President Bush. Officials also said that the ISI had been tipping off militants about US operations against them.
 
In August, the government announced plans to initiate impeachment proceedings against Musharraf on charges of violating the constitution and misconduct. The charges stemmed from his actions in November 2007 when he suspended the country’s constitution and fired Chief Justice Chaudhry and the other judges of the Supreme Court. Days later Musharraf resigned as president.
 
In September, the two houses of Parliament elected Zardari president by a wide margin.
 
The Pakistani military launched a three week air assault into Afghanistan’s Bajaur region throughout August, which resulted in more than 400 Taliban casualties. The air strikes forced many al-Qaeda and Taliban militants to retreat from towns formally under their control. However, the Pakistani government declared a cease-fire for the month of September in observance of Ramadan, raising fears that the Taliban would use the opportunity to regroup.
 
A truck bomb exploded outside the popular Marriott Hotel in Islamabad in September, killing more than 50 people and wounding hundreds. The bomb went off as government leaders, including the president and prime minister, were dining a few hundred yards away.
 
On November 26, Islamic militants with ties to Pakistan launched one of the most ambitious and deadly terrorist attacks in India’s history. Approximately 170 people were killed and about 300 wounded in a series of attacks on several landmarks and commercial hubs in Mumbai, India. It took Indian forces three days to end the siege of two hotels and the office of a Jewish organization. Indian and US officials said they had evidence that the Pakistan-based militant Islamic group Lashkar-e-Taiba was involved. Lashkar-e-Taiba was established in the late 1980s, with the assistance of Pakistan’s spy agency, to fight Indian control of the Muslim section of Kashmir. The accusation further strained an already tense relationship between the two countries.
 
History of Pakistan (Wikipedia)
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Pakistan's Newspapers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pakistan's Newspapers

 

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History of U.S. Relations with Pakistan
Although immigrants were only labeled as “Pakistani” after the nation was formed in 1947, people from the area of Pakistan began immigrating to the US in the mid-19th century, mostly working on farms or construction. In 1907, Indian Muslims worked alongside Sikhs and Hindu Indians, 2,000 of whom helped build the Western Pacific Railroad. Despite discriminatory immigration policies and racist organizations like the Asiatic Expulsion League (established in 1907), many Indians purchased land and established themselves in America. After the passage of the more liberal Immigration Act of 1965, Pakistani immigration exploded. The initial immigrants tended to be well-educated professionals. They congregated in large cities like New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Chicago partially because of the availability of jobs, and partially because of their familiarity with living in an urban, ethnically diverse environment.
 
Pakistan’s relations with the United States first developed against the backdrop of the Cold War. Pakistan’s strategic geographic position made it a valuable partner in the battle against the Soviet Union and the spread of communism. In 1954, Pakistan signed a Mutual Defense Agreement with the US and subsequently became a member of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) and Central Treaty Organization (CENTO). These agreements allowed the US to use Pakistan as a base for American military reconnaissance flights over Soviet territory.
 
Pakistan, in return, received large amounts of economic and military assistance. The program of military assistance continued until the 1965 Indo-Pakistani War when President Lyndon B. Johnson placed an embargo on arms shipments to Pakistan and India. The American embargo on Pakistan remained in place during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 and was not lifted until 1975, during the administration of President Gerald Ford.
 
US-Pakistani relations preceding the 1971 war were characterized by poor communication and much confusion. The administration of President Richard M. Nixon was forced to formulate a public stance on the brutal crackdown on East Pakistanis by West Pakistani troops that began in March 25, 1971. Nixon maintained that the crackdown was essentially a Pakistani internal affair in which direct intervention of outside powers was to be avoided. His administration expressed its concern about human rights violations and restricted the flow of assistance, but stopped short of an open condemnation.
 
Following the loss of East Pakistan, Pakistan withdrew from SEATO. Pakistan's military links with the West continued to decline throughout Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s tenure in power and into the first years of the Zia regime. CENTO was disbanded following the fall of the shah of Iran in March 1979, and Pakistan then joined the Nonaligned Movement. Zia also continued Bhutto’s policy of developing Pakistan’s nuclear capability. This policy had originated as a defensive measure in reaction to India’s nuclear test explosion in 1974. In April 1979, President Jimmy Carter cut off economic assistance to Pakistan (except for food assistance), as required under the Symington Amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. This amendment called for ceasing economic assistance to non-nuclear weapon countries that imported uranium-enrichment technology. Relations between the United States and Pakistan were further strained in November 1979 when protesters sacked the United States embassy in Islamabad, resulting in the death of four people. The violence had been sparked by a false report that the United States was involved in a fire at the Grand Mosque in Mecca.
 
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979 revived the close relationship between Pakistan and the United States. Initially, Zia spurned the Carter administration’s offer of $400 million in economic and military aid to Pakistan. Under President Ronald Reagan, the US agreed in 1981 to provide $3.2 billion to Pakistan over a period of six years, equally divided between economic and military assistance. A second economic and military assistance program was announced in 1986, this time for over $4 billion, with 57% for economic assistance. US military assistance included the controversial sale of 40 F-16 fighter planes to Pakistan—planes capable of delivering a nuclear weapon. Although Pakistan did not possess such weapons then, it’s been reported that officials in the Reagan administration knew of Pakistan’s effort to develop such weapons of mass destruction and pretended not to know about the clandestine program while lobbying Congress for more aid to the Zia regime.
 
The continuation of the Soviet war in Afghanistan led to waivers—in the case of Pakistan—of legislative restrictions on providing aid to countries with nuclear programs. The Pressler Amendment of 1985 required that if the United States president could not certify to Congress on an annual basis that Pakistan did not possess a nuclear weapon, US assistance to that country would be cut off. For several years, the US looked the other way when it came to Islamabad’s nuclear ambitions. But with the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989 and the end of the Cold War, the US began to take a harder position on the nuclear weapons issue. In 1990, President George H. W. Bush refused to make the certification required under the Pressler Amendment and assistance to Pakistan was subsequently terminated.
 
On August 17, 1988, a plane carrying President Zia, American Ambassador Arnold Raphel, US Brigadier General Herbert Wassom, and 28 Pakistani military officers crashed on a return flight from a military equipment trial near Bahawalpur, killing all on board.
 
Throughout the 1990s, the United States essentially ended military cooperation and arms sales to Pakistan. It was only after the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the US that the Bush Administration chose to re-engage with Pakistan in the area of defense cooperation.
 
U.S-Pakistan Military Cooperation (by Greg Bruno and Jayshree Bajoria, Council on Foreign Relations)
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Current U.S. Relations with Pakistan
The US-Pakistan relationship was transformed by the September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States and the ensuing enlistment of Pakistan as a key ally in US-led counterterrorism efforts. Top US officials have praised Pakistan for its ongoing cooperation, although doubts exist about Islamabad’s commitment to some core US interests. Pakistan is identified as a base for terrorist groups and their supporters operating in Kashmir, India, and Afghanistan. Pakistan’s army has conducted unprecedented and largely ineffectual counterterrorism operations in the country’s western tribal areas, where al-Qaeda operatives and their allies are believed to enjoy “safe haven.” US officials are increasingly concerned that the cross-border infiltration of Islamist militants from Pakistan into Afghanistan is a key obstacle to defeating the Taliban insurgency. In addition, American intelligence officials have privately expressed worry over Pakistan’s intelligence agency and its connections with Islamic radicals.
 
Despite whatever concerns existed in Washington, officials in the Bush administration pressed for substantial increases in US military aid to Pakistan. It secured authority from Congress to waive restrictions on aid to Pakistan, and in June 2004, President George W. Bush designated Pakistan a major Non-NATO ally.
 
In 2006, the United States signed arms transfer agreements with Pakistan in excess of $3.5 billion, ranking Pakistan first among all arms clients of the US during that year. The key elements in Pakistan’s arms purchases were 36 F-16 fighter aircraft for $1.4 billion; a variety of missiles and bombs to be utilized on the F-16s for over $640 million; the purchase of Mid-Life Update Modification Kits to upgrade Pakistan’s existing F-16 aircraft for $890 million; and 115 M109 155mm Self-propelled howitzers for $52 million. The total value of Pakistan’s 2006 arms purchases from the US nearly matched the total value of all military purchases made by Pakistan from the United States between 1950 and 2001 (which equaled more than $3.6 billion in current dollars).
 
Over the last two years, however, US officials have begun to grow weary of Pakistan’s close ties with Islamic militants—to the point where Washington ordered commando raids against Taliban and al-Qaeda elements inside Pakistani territory. In September 2008, American Special Forces raided a village that was home to al-Qaeda militants in the tribal region near the border with Afghanistan. The New York Times later reported that in July, President Bush authorized Special Ops units to launch ground attacks inside Pakistan without seeking approval from the Pakistani government. A top Pakistani military leader said the army would not tolerate such attacks, and subsequently, Pakistan’s military assumed a more forceful posture towards encroaching American military operations.
 
US-Pakistani relations became even more tense in the wake of the November attacks in Mumbai. Leaks out of Washington indicate officials believe Pakistan’s intelligence operation may have had a hand in helping the militants who carried out the well-orchestrated assaults on multiple targets. However, no concrete evidence has been produced.
 
A total of 153,533 people identified themselves as being of Pakistani ancestry in the 2000 US census.
 
In 2006, 126,168 Americans visited Pakistan. Tourism has expanded rapidly since 2002, when 69,030 Americans traveled to Pakistan.
 
In 2006, 31,978 Pakistanis visited the US. The number of tourists has fluctuated between a low of 31,222 (2003) and a high of 39,442 (2002) in recent years.
 
U.S.-Pakistan Relations (by Lisa Curtis, Heritage Foundation)
Pakistan-U.S. Relations (by K. Alan Kronstadt, Congressional Research Service)
U.S. Arms Sales to Pakistan (by Richard F. Grimmett, CRS Report)
 
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Where Does the Money Flow
While relations between the US and Pakistan have largely been dominated by talk of military and counterterrorism efforts, trade has increasingly become an important part of the bilateral relationship. From 2003 to 2007, US imports from Pakistan grew from $2.5 billion to $3.5 billion, while exports also increased from $843 million to $2.03 billion.
 
American imports were led by apparel and household goods, which increased from $1.4 billion to $2.6 billion. Other key imports were scientific, medical and hospital equipment, rising from $28 million to $46 million; and rugs and floor coverings, increasing from $99 million to $105 million.
 
While the US continues to buy retail clothing from Pakistan in ever-growing amounts, it is not purchasing as much cotton cloth and fabrics as it used to. Such sales have dropped from $373 million to $200 million over a five year period.
 
American exports to Pakistan were led by civilian aircraft, which have skyrocketed from $6 million to $452 million. Other valuable exports were parts for military goods, rising from $13.3 million to $67 million; tanks, artillery, missiles and other weapons, increasing from $816,000 to $63.5 million; telecommunications equipment, jumping from $17.5 million to $91 million; industrial machines, rising from $18.6 million to $62 million; generators and accessories, elevating from $18.1 million to $97.7 million; steelmaking materials, increasing from $1.7 million to $66 million; and raw cotton, going from $178 million to $257 million.
 
Overall, the US is running a trade deficit with Pakistan, importing $3.5 billion versus $2.03 billion in exports.
 
The US gave $734.4 million in aid to Pakistan in 2007. The budget allotted the most funds to Foreign Military Financing ($297 million), Education ($124.4 million), Humanitarian Assistance: Protection, Assistance and Solutions ($100 million), Health ($63.2 million), Social Services and Protection for Especially Vulnerable People ($53 million), and International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement ($24 million). 
 
The 2008 budget estimate increased aid to $798.1 million, including $60 million in supplemental aid. The 2009 budget request will increase aid further to $826.3 million and will distribute the most aid to Foreign Military Financing ($300,000), Education ($163.5 million), Health ($96.1 million), Private Sector Competitiveness ($59.9 million), Humanitarian Assistance: Protection, Assistance and Solutions ($50 million), Good Governance ($33.2 million), International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement ($32 million).
 
The US sold $313.8 million of defense articles and services to Pakistan in 2007.
 
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Controversies

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Human Rights
The State Department report on Pakistan’s human rights record for 2007 and 2008 revealed rampant human rights violations. In 2007, the human rights situation worsened significantly, when  former President Musharraf decided to impose a 42-day State of Emergency (SOE), suspend the constitution, and dismiss the Supreme and High Provincial Courts. Additionally, he demanded once again that all judges swear an oath of loyalty to his new legal order. Under the SOE, Musharraf suspended basic civil liberties, including freedom of speech and assembly. In December, Musharraf lifted the SOE and restored an amended constitution, which enhanced presidential powers. Regulatory restrictions were maintained on press activities and freedom of assembly.
 
During the 42 days of the SOE, the government imposed curbs on the media and arrested more than 6,000 lawyers, judges, political party workers and leaders, as well as civil society activists. By the end of the year, approximately one dozen activists, primarily lawyers and judges, remained under house arrest. The government restored public cable access to all but two channels of one private television station. The media, however, was required to sign a code of conduct that discouraged criticism of the government and led to self-censorship.
 
In 2008, democratic rule was restored in Pakistan. Asif A. Zardari, the widower of Benazir Bhutto (assassinated Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader) became the head of state on September 6, 2008, replacing resigned former President Pervez Musharraf. Along with the head of state, positions on the national parliament and Supreme Court were mainly replaced by PPP members. The newly elected government did not follow Musharraf’s restrictions adopted during the state of emergency in 2007. Instead, the government did not enforce media restrictions, lifted restrains on labor unions, withdrew politically motivated criminal charges, and forcefully withdrew approximately 3,000 active military officers from civil service positions that were assigned by Musharraf.
 
Despite the improvements that the newly elected government attempted to make, human rights violations remained rampant and seemed to increase in the state throughout 2008. There were numerous reports that the government committed an increasing number of arbitrary or unlawful killings throughout 2008, compared to 2007. Security forces killed individuals associated with criminal and political groups in staged encounters and during abuse in custody. The Society for Human Rights and Prisoners’ Aid (SHARP) reported 64 encounter killings and 101 killings in police custody. Police stated that these deaths frequently occurred when suspects attempted to escape, resisted arrest, or committed suicide. On the other hand, human rights observers, family members, and the press reported that security forces staged many of the deaths.
 
Politically motivated disappearances declined during the year. Police and security forces held prisoners incommunicado and refused to provide information on their whereabouts. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) estimated that approximately 1,100 persons were missing, compared to 1,600 in 2007. Although some disappearances were associated with terrorism and national security cases, human rights organizations reported that many missing individuals were Sindhi and Baloch nationalists.
 
There were persistent reports that security forces, including intelligence services, tortured and abused persons. Human rights organizations reported incidents of beating, burning with cigarettes, whipping soles of the feet, prolonged isolation, electric shock, denial of food or sleep, hanging upside down, and forced spreading of the legs with bar fetters. Security force personnel reportedly raped women during interrogations. The government rarely took action against those responsible.
 
Prison conditions did not meet international standards and were extremely poor, except for those cells of wealthy or influential prisoners. Overcrowding was widespread. According to SHARP, there were 90,000 prisoners occupying 87 jails originally built to hold a maximum of 36,075 persons. Inadequate food in prisons led to chronic malnutrition for those unable to supplement their diet with help from family or friends. Access to medical care was a problem. Foreign prisoners often remained in prison long after their sentences were completed because there was no one to pay for deportation to their home countries. In addition, SHARP contended that cases of torture by police are underreported due to local customs.
 
Approximately 66% of the female prison population was awaiting trial on adultery-related offenses under the Hudood Ordinances, according to the Aurat Foundation. However, with the enactment of the Women’s Protection Bill in December 2006, women are no longer supposed to be arrested under the Hudood Ordinance, nor required to produce four witnesses to prove a charge of rape as required under the zina laws (laws regarding extramarital sexual intercourse). Family members had previously used the Hudood Ordinances to control their children from making their own choices in marriage. Abusive husbands sometimes invoked the ordinances, or neighbors invoked the ordinances to settle personal scores.
 
The government limited freedom of religion in practice. Islam is the state religion, and the constitution requires that laws be consistent with Islam. According to the constitution, Shari’a can be applied to a situation that is deemed to be in contradiction to the Koran. Therefore, citizens who are normally governed by secular law can be subject to Islamic law based on loose criteria.
 
Human Rights Watch chronicles the last states that permit executions of juvenile offenders in the September 2008 report titled “The Last Holdouts.” The report claims that in 2008, Pakistan executed one juvenile offender and currently has several juvenile offenders on death row awaiting the outcome of a judicial appeal, or the outcome of negotiations for pardons in exchange for financial compensation. Although in 2000 Pakistan issued a Juvenile Justice System Ordinance that banned the death penalty for crimes committed by citizens under 18, implementation remains limited due to the lack of courts and other structures called for in the law.
 
Amnesty International’s Human Rights report on the Islamic Republic of Pakistan has not yet been updated to discuss the human rights violations of the year 2008.
 
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Debate
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Past Ambassadors

The Embassy in Karachi was established Aug 15, 1947, with Charles W. Lewis, Jr., as Chargé d'Affaires ad interim.

Paul H. Alling
Appointment: Sep 20, 1947
Presentation of Credentials: Feb 26, 1948
Termination of Mission: Left post Jun 27, 1948
Note: Commissioned during a recess of the Senate; recommissioned after confirmation on Dec 9, 1947.
 
H. Merle Cochran
Appointment: Mar 4, 1949
Note: Took oath of office, but did not proceed to post.
 
Avra M. Warren
Appointment: Feb 2, 1950
Presentation of Credentials: Feb 25, 1950
Termination of Mission: Left post Nov 26, 1952
 
John M. Cabot
Appointment: Sep 17, 1952
Note: Commissioned during a recess of the Senate; did not serve under this appointment.
 
Horace A. Hildreth
Appointment: May 13, 1953
Presentation of Credentials: May 19, 1953
Termination of Mission: Reaccredited when Pakistan became a republic; formally received Apr 23, 1956; left post May 1, 1957
 
James M. Langley
Appointment: Jun 13, 1957
Presentation of Credentials: Jul 27, 1957
Termination of Mission: Left post Jul 29, 1959
 
William M. Rountree
Appointment: Jun 18, 1959
Presentation of Credentials: Aug 17, 1959
Termination of Mission: Left post Feb 7, 1962
 
Walter P. McConaughy
Appointment: Mar 1, 1962
Presentation of Credentials: Mar 20, 1962
Termination of Mission: Left post May 27, 1966
 
Eugene Murphy Locke
Appointment: May 27, 1966
Presentation of Credentials: Jun 9, 1966
Termination of Mission: Left Pakistan, Apr 16, 1967
 
Benjamin H. Oehlert, Jr.
Appointment: Jul 27, 1967
Presentation of Credentials: Aug 16, 1967
Termination of Mission: Left post Jun 17, 1969
 
Joseph S. Farland
Appointment: Sep 19, 1969
Presentation of Credentials: Nov 15, 1969
Termination of Mission: Left post Apr 30, 1972
 
Note: Sidney Sober served as Chargé d'Affaires ad interim, May 1972–Dec 1973.
 
Henry A. Byroade
Appointment: Oct 15, 1973
Presentation of Credentials: Dec 5, 1973
Termination of Mission: Left post Apr 23, 1977
 
George S. Vest
Note: Nomination withdrawn May 5, 1977.
Arthur W. Hummel, Jr.
Appointment: Jun 8, 1977
Presentation of Credentials: Jun 28, 1977
Termination of Mission: Left post Jul 19, 1981
 
Robert I. Spiers
Appointment: Oct 1, 1981
Presentation of Credentials: Oct 29, 1981
Termination of Mission: Left post Oct 27, 1983
 
Deane Roesch Hinton
Appointment: Nov 21, 1983
Presentation of Credentials: Dec 26, 1983
Termination of Mission: Left post Nov 9, 1986
 
Arnold Lewis Raphel
Appointment: May 4, 1987
Presentation of Credentials: Jun 24, 1987
Termination of Mission: Died near Bahawalpur, Aug 17, 1988
 
Robert Bigger Oakley
Appointment: Aug 18, 1988
Presentation of Credentials: Sep 1, 1988
Termination of Mission: Left post Aug 29, 1991
Note: Commissioned during a recess of the Senate; recommissioned after confirmation on Oct 17, 1988.
 
Nicholas Platt
Appointment: Jul 2, 1991
Presentation of Credentials: Oct 24, 1991
Termination of Mission: Left post Nov 3, 1992
 
John Cameron Monjo
Appointment: Oct 9, 1992
Presentation of Credentials: Nov 10, 1992
Termination of Mission: Left post Sep 10, 1995
 
Thomas W. Simons
Appointment: Dec 19, 1995
Presentation of Credentials: Jan 25, 1996
Termination of Mission: Left post Aug 24, 1998
 
William B. Milam
Appointment: Aug 3, 1998
Presentation of Credentials: Sep 10, 1998
Termination of Mission: Left post Jul 6, 2001
 
Wendy Jean Chamberlin
Appointment: Jul 12, 2001
Presentation of Credentials: Sep 13, 2001
Termination of Mission: Left post May 29, 2002
 
Nancy Jo Powell
Appointment: Aug 2, 2002
Presentation of Credentials: Aug 16, 2002
Termination of Mission: Left post Nov 5, 2004
 
Ryan C. Crocker
Appointment: Oct 18, 2004
Presentation of Credentials: Nov 25, 2004
Termination of Mission: Left post, Mar 28, 2007
 
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Pakistan's Ambassador to the U.S.
ambassador-image Chaudhry, Aizaz Ahmad

Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, since March 13, 2017, is Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, a 36-year veteran of the Pakistan Foreign Service who most recently served as foreign secretary of Pakistan from December 2013 to March 2017. He succeeds Jalil Abbas Jilani, who chose retirement over an extended term in Washington. Chaudhry presented his credentials to President Donald Trump on April 24, 2017.

 

Born on February 27, 1958, Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry graduated PAF College Sargodha, a college prep school run by the Pakistan Air Force, in 1978. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree and a Master’s degree in Political Science at Punjab University in Lahore, Pakistan, and a Masters in International Relations at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1990. 

 

Chaudhry joined the Foreign Service of Pakistan in 1980, starting his career by taking government courses at the Civil Service Academy in Lahore in 1981 and the Foreign Service Training Institute in Islamabad in 1981-1982. His first posting was also educational, as a language trainee at the Pakistani Embassy in Cairo, Egypt, in 1983.

 

Chaudhry served as third/second secretary at Pakistan’s embassy in Doha, Qatar, from 1984 to 1987, and from 1988 to 1991 held jobs in several offices of the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad.

 

From 1991 to 1997, Chaudhry served in Tehran, Iran, as chef de cabinet to the secretary general of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), an intergovernmental organization founded in 1985 by Pakistan, Turkey, and Iran to promote free trade in Central Asia. ECO now has ten members (Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) with a population of 460 million and GDP of $1.75 billion.

 

From 1997 to 1999, Chaudhry served as chef de cabinet to the foreign secretary and participated in India-Pakistan Foreign Secretary level talks.

 

In his first posting to the Western Hemisphere, Chaudhry served as political counsellor and then as deputy permanent representative to the United Nations in New York from 1999 to 2006. 

 

In 2007, Chaudhry served as director general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). He led the Pakistani diplomatic team, chaired several OIC meetings, and organized an OIC Conference of Foreign Ministers in Islamabad in May 2007.

 

From 2007 to 2009, Chaudhry served as director general for South Asia and represented Pakistan at the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.

 

For his first ambassadorship, he served as ambassador to the Netherlands from 2009 to 2012, where he wrote a book Pakistan Mirrored to Dutch Eyes.

 

From 2012 to March 2013, Chaudhry served as additional foreign secretary, focusing on issues related to the United Nations and other international organizations, economic coordination, and disarmament affairs, and then served as the Foreign Ministry spokesperson from March to December 2013. As brief as was his term as spokesperson, Chaudhry found himself in an awkward position when secret documents were published showing that the Pakistani government had cooperated with the CIA’s drone bombing program inside Pakistan’s borders. Chaudhry was left to explain that even if this was true, the current government, installed four months earlier, would not continue the complicity, stating “We regard such strikes as a violation of our sovereignty as well as international law. They are also counter-productive.”

 

Chaudhry and his wife, Najia Aizaz Ahmad, the former president of the Pakistan Foreign Office Women's Association, have three children.

-Matt Bewig

 

To Learn More:

Official Biography

Personal Web Page

Conversations in Diplomacy: Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry and Adil Najam (Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center) (audio)

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Pakistan's Embassy Web Site in the U.S.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pakistan's Embassy in the U.S.

 

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Comments

umer farooq 14 years ago
Pakistani newspapers and urdu news.Good collection of all kind of urdu newspapers at one place.All khabrain at one place that you have to just click on the link and the Pakistani newspapers will be on the show front of you. http://www.cafe4fun.com/urdu/urdu-newspapers.html

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US-flag nation-flag U.S. Embassy web site

U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan

Munter, Cameron
ambassador-image

With the war in Afghanistan spilling over into Pakistan, where the CIA has launched numerous drone attacks on insurgents, the Obama administration selected Cameron Munter, a veteran diplomat with experience in Iraq, to run the U.S. embassy in Islamabad. Munter also is used to working in countries undergoing some kind of political transition, although all of those previous assignments took place in Europe. Munter was sworn in as U.S. ambassador to Pakistan on October 6, 2010. 

 
The son of Helen-Jeanne and Leonard Munter, Cameron Munter was born in Claremont, California, in 1954. Munter attended Claremont High School, where he distinguished himself as a distance runner on the cross country and track teams. His college education took place at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and the universities in Freiburg and Marburg in Germany. He received a doctoral degree in modern European history in 1983 from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. 
 
Munter began his career as a college professor, teaching European history at the University of California, Los Angeles from 1982-1984. He directed European studies at the Twentieth Century Fund in New York (1984-1985) before joining the Foreign Service.
 
His first overseas assignment took him to Warsaw, Poland (1986-1988). He returned to Washington, DC, in 1988 to serve as a staff assistant in the State Department’s Bureau of European Affairs and then as country director for Czechoslovakia. In 1991, he was a Dean Rusk Fellow at Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy.
 
The following year he was sent to Prague in the Czech Republic, serving there until 1995. It was then onto Bonn, Germany (1995-1997), before becoming chief of staff in the NATO Enlargement Ratification Office.
 
In 1998, Munter was director of the Northern European Initiative and then executive assistant to the counselor of the State Department (1998-1999). He served as director for Central Europe at the National Security Council until 2001.
 
Beginning in 2002, Munter began taking on larger roles in U.S. embassies, first as deputy chief of mission in Warsaw until 2005 and then in Prague from 2005 to 2007.
 
In 2006, he led the first Provincial Reconstruction Team in Mosul, Iraq.
 
His first ambassador assignment was in Belgrade, Serbia, from 2007 to 2009. The posting was not without difficulties, as Serbian rioters upset over the American position on Kosovo, set fire to the embassy in 2008. The protests sparked a strong response from Munter, who warned the Serbian government not to allow any more attacks on the diplomatic mission.
 
He returned to Iraq in 2009, this time at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. He served as political-military minister-counselor, then as deputy chief of mission for the first half of 2010, directing strategic planning and American civil-military coordination during the military pullout.
 
Munter’s wife, Marilyn Wyatt, is the author of A Handbook of NGO Governance. She has served as Director of Communications at the Aspen Institute and Director of Global Programs as BoardSource. The couple has a son, Daniel, and a daughter, Anna.
 
Official Biography (State Department)
Cameron Munter ‘New US Ambassador’ (by Baqir Sajjad Syed, Dawn.com)

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Previous U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan

Patterson, Anne
ambassador-image

 

A native of Fort Smith, Arkansas, Anne W. Patterson presented credentials to the president of Pakistan on July 31, 2007. She was confirmed by the Senate as the US Ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan on June 28, 2007, and she took the oath of office on July 6. Patterson graduated from Wellesley College and attended graduate school at the University of North Carolina.
 
Patterson joined the US Foreign Service in 1973 as an economic officer. She held a variety of other economic and political assignments, including in the Bureau of Inter-American Affairs, the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, and the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. Patterson also served as economic counselor in Saudi Arabia from 1984 to 1988 and as political counselor to the US Mission to the United Nations in Geneva from 1988 to 1991. She later served as principal deputy assistant secretary and deputy assistant secretary of inter-American affairs and as office director for Andean affairs.
 
Patterson then served as the ambassador to El Salvador from 1997 to 2000, ambassador to Colombia from 2000 to 2003, deputy inspector general of the State Department from 2003 to 2004, as deputy permanent representative and acting permanent representative at the US Mission to the United Nations from 2004 to 2005, and as the Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs until her current posting to Pakistan.
 

Anne W. Patterson's Official Biography

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