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UNCLAS ISLAMABAD 002710 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KMDR KPAO OIIP OPRC PGOV PREL PK
SUBJECT:  PAKISTAN MEDIA REACTION: TERRORISM/MILITARY, POLITICAL, 
ECON/BUSINESS, MISCELLANEOUS - NOVEMBER 10, 2009 
 
Summary:  Reports of a suicide attack in Peshawar (3 dead, 5 
injured) received extensive coverage in all dailies on Tuesday. 
Newspapers also reported that the death toll in Sunday's suicide 
attack in Matni (on the outskirts of Peshawar) reached 18.  Some 
dailies ran the U.S. Embassy's statement condemning the incident. 
Several major newspapers quoted Afghan warlord Gulbadin Hikmatyar as 
saying that "Usama Bin is still alive."  Commenting on the alleged 
Indian proxy war with Pakistan using Afghanistan as a base, "The 
Nation," observed that "the U.S., which is leading war against 
terrorism, must also be asked to keep the Indians on a tight rein." 
End Summary. 
 
TERRORISM/MILITARY ISSUES 
 
News Story: Rickshaw Bomber Kills Three In Peshawar "The News" 
(11/10) 
 
"Three people, including a policeman, were killed and five others 
sustained injuries in Peshawar on Monday when a suicide bomber 
riding an auto-rickshaw blew himself up at a police barricade on the 
Ring Road in the Latifabad area. This was the second suicide bombing 
in Peshawar during the last 24 hours. Also, the death toll in the 
Sunday's suicide attack in Matani reached 18, as three critically 
wounded villagers succumbed to their injuries at the Lady Reading 
Hospital (LRH)." 
 
News Story: Usama Is Still Alive: Hikmatyar "Daily Times" (11/10) 
 
"Hezb-e-Islami chief Gulbudin Hikmatyar has said that Osama Bin 
Laden is still alive, a private TV channel reported on Monday. 
Speaking in a video message, Hikmatyar said the U.S. would be given 
'safe exit' if it decided to pull out of Afghanistan. 'Al Qaeda's 
'wrong' strategy was the reason the Taliban were toppled,' he said." 
 
 
News Story: U.S. Flays Terror Strikes In Peshawar "The Frontier 
Post" (11/10) 
 
"the United States has condemned the terrorist strikes in Adezai 
Village and Monday at a police check-point in Peshawar that killed 
and injured many innocent Pakistanis. According to Jeremiah Knight, 
Acting spokesman of U.S. Embassy, United States has extended its 
sympathies to the victims of those attacks and the families and 
friends of those who lost their lives in these attacks." 
 
News Story: Army Consolidates Gains In Waziristan "Dawn" (11/10) 
 
"Twenty Taliban insurgents have been killed as military tried to 
consolidate gains in its offensive against militants in South 
Waziristan, the army said on Sunday. Pakistan launched a punishing 
air and ground offensive in the region bordering Afghanistan on 
October 17, with 30,000 troops backed by fighter jets and helicopter 
gunships laying siege to Taliban bolt-holes." 
 
News Story: 18 Taliban, 7 Soldiers Killed In FATA Violence "Daily 
Times" (11/10) 
 
"The army killed at least 18 more Taliban in South Waziristan, 
Kurram Agency and Bajaur Agency on Monday. 'Taliban fired rockets at 
a check-post in Makeen, South Waziristan ... killing four soldiers. 
Meanwhile, eight Taliban were killed [in fighting],' said the ISPR, 
adding that security forces cleared Tauda China Khola and 
established a check-post near Makeen." 
 
News Story: Nine Militants Die In Kurram Agency Blitz "The News" 
(11/10) 
 
"Nine militants were killed and their 10 hideouts were destroyed 
when jetfighters blitzed different areas in central part of Kurram 
Agency on Monday. 
 
News Story: TTP Names New Head For Khyber Agency "The News" (11/10) 
 
"Tariq Afridi, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) commander for 
Darra Adam Khel, has reportedly been appointed as the head of the 
banned organisation for Khyber Agency and the Matani area in the 
Peshawar district. The sources said Muhammad, the spokesman for the 
TTP in Darra Adam Khel, would also be the spokesman for the 
organisation for the Khyber Agency and the Matani area." 
 
 
Editorial: Confronting Reality, an editorial in the center-right 
national English daily "The Nation" (cir. 20,000) (11/10) 
 
"The series of bomb blasts that keep occurring day after day in 
Peshawar indicate that the terrorists, though losing ground against 
Pakistan Army in South Waziristan, retain the strength to launch 
reprisal attacks....  Keeping in view the evidence that has been 
obtained, it is clear that India is engaged in a proxy war with 
Pakistan using Afghanistan as a base.... It could be much better if 
New Delhi is pressurized straightaway to give up backing terrorism 
inside Pakistan. The U.S., which is leading the war against 
terrorism, must also be asked to keep the Indians on a tight rein." 
 
 
Editorial: Target Peshawar, an editorial in the Lahore-based liberal 
English daily "The Post" (cir. 5,000) (11/10) 
 
"While the military operation is going on, the terrorists may try to 
carry out such attacks whenever they get the chance. The enemy is 
determined and consistent in its extremist policy and will not give 
it up. The government, too, should remain determined in rooting out 
extremism by using military force. If peace is to be restored in 
Pakistan, militancy has to be crushed." 
 
Opinion: Militants Open A New Front, an op-ed by Khadim Hussain in 
the Karachi-based center-left independent national English daily 
"Dawn" (cir. 55,000) (11/10) 
 
"A Suicide attack in Adezai village on the outskirts of Peshawar on 
Sunday killed a number of people, including the Adezai nazim Abdul 
Malik.  The attack appears to be part of a larger plan by the 
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan in and around Darra Adamkhel and their 
allies in Khyber Agency to demoralize the leadership and disrupt the 
local organized resistance to the militants' onslaught on Peshawar 
from the south and south-west of the city." 
 
Opinion: Testing Times For Pakistan-U.S. Relations, an op-ed by Dr. 
Maleeha Lohdi in the populist, often sensational national English 
daily "The News" (cir. 55,000) (11/10) 
 
"Unless the two countries can work out a way to cooperatively deal 
with the issues that will emerge in this complex process, the 
Congressional requirements will expose ties to repeated stress at a 
critical time for both nations. Pakistani and U.S. officials will 
also have to work harder to convince each other, as well as their 
skeptical publics and legislatures, that their relationship has 
positive, intrinsic value and is not transactional and expedient, 
impelled by transient circumstances. The months ahead can either see 
the two countries setting about purposively to close their trust gap 
and give relations the consistency they have lacked or encounter 
more turbulence with deleterious and destabilizing effects on their 
relations." 
 
Opinion: Parting Kick!, an op-ed by Nosheen Saeed in the 
center-right national English daily "The Nation" (cir. 20,000) 
(11/10) 
 
"It is clear that Pakistanis don't want their country to be run by 
the Americans or President Obama's special envoy to Afghanistan and 
Pakistan, Mr. Richard Holbrooke. They take exception to the 
demeaning expression Af-Pak which turns them into a part of the 
problem; they don't want their country micromanaged through puppet 
regimes; they don't want to be a client state toeing US orders; they 
don't want U.S. aid with humiliating conditions; and they don't want 
to be slaves. They only want to be masters of their own destiny. 
That is all we want!" 
 
POLITICAL ISSUES 
 
News Story: with Zardari Busy In Survival, National Security Issues 
Ignored "The News" (11/10) 
 
"Mistrust between the Presidency and the establishment is growing 
with every passing day as President Asif Ali Zardari is embroiled in 
his survival battles and top priority national security matters are 
being ignored. A top military general is said to have shared with 
his politician friend the view that some top security issues are not 
getting the kind of attention they deserve from the Presidency and 
 
the government." 
 
News Story: Shujaat Claims Authorship Of NRO And Its Name "Dawn" 
(11/10) 
 
"Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, the PML-Q chief, disclosed in an 
interview on Monday that the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) 
was his brainchild. The ordinance was promulgated in Oct 2007 by the 
government of then President Pervez Musharraf. "Yes, I proposed its 
name because I wanted it to be equally and universally applicable. 
We did not want only certain individuals to benefit. The idea behind 
the ordinance was national reconciliation and to let the democratic 
system function," Chaudhry Shujaat said in the interview with 
'Dawn.'" 
 
News Story: Aitzaz Says He Has Been Offered Senior Position "Dawn" 
(11/10) 
 
"PPP leader and former president of the Supreme Court Bar 
Association Aitzaz Ahsan has confirmed reports that he has been 
offered a senior position in the government. Talking to newsmen 
after a ceremony making the birth anniversary of Allama Iqbal on 
Monday, he avoided naming the position offered to him by saying that 
'it will ruin peaceful nights of some people.'" 
 
Opinion: Democracy In Danger, an op-ed by Mir Jamilur Rahman in the 
populist, often sensational national English daily "The News" (cir. 
55,000) (11/10) 
 
"President Zardari has startled the nation by revealing that since 
he became president 14 months ago, he has foiled three attempts to 
unseat him....  Nawaz Sharif has said time and again that he will 
not back any unconstitutional move to remove the government.... 
Fauzia Wahab, MNA and Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Secretary 
Information, has acknowledged that the U.S. Ambassador could reverse 
government's decisions taken at the highest level. Thus it would 
hold true that Ann Patterson is not merely an Ambassador but U.S. 
viceroy in Pakistan.... If the U.S. envoy did intervene, then Ms. 
Wahab should have kept it secret because its disclosure has 
reflected badly on the president and the prime minister. However, it 
appears as a figment of her imagination that Nawaz Sharif was let 
off on the advice of the U.S. envoy." 
 
ECON/BUSINESS 
 
News Story: U.S. Committed To Pakistan: Holbrooke "Dawn" (11/10) 
 
"The United States has committed itself to help improve Pakistan's 
ailing economy with a particular emphasis on assisting the country 
in dealing with the energy crisis, U.S. special envoy Richard 
Holbrooke said on Monday. Mr. Holbrooke, in an interview to CNN, 
said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had made this commitment 
during her recent trip to Pakistan." 
 
News Story: U.S. Aid May Be Disastrous: Minister "The News" (11/10) 
 
"Federal Minister for Science and Technology Azam Sawati has said 
that Pakistan should enhance its relations with China instead of 
accepting aid from the United States, as this aid may take us to the 
verge of disaster. He was addressing the PCSIR (Pakistan Council for 
Scientific and Industrial Research) laboratories while having a 
one-day visit on Monday." 
 
News Story: Saudi Arabia To Provide $380m Soft Loan To Pakistan "The 
News" (11/10) 
 
"Saudi Arabia, while honoring its commitment to the Government of 
Pakistan made at the Tokyo conference of the Friends of Democratic 
Pakistan (FoDP) and subsequent bilateral interaction, has come 
forward to provide assistance to Pakistan. The Saudi government has 
announced a tangible soft loan and funds to improve the balance of 
payments. (According to agencies, Saudi Arabia would give $ 380 
million as soft loan and budgetary support to Pakistan)." 
 
MISCELLANEOUS 
 
News Story: Blatant Violations Of Diplomatic Immunity! "The Nation" 
(11/10) 
 
"Expressing deep concerns over blatant violations of diplomatic 
immunity, legal experts said on Monday that certain diplomatic 
missions were reportedly overstepping their mandated immunity. They 
specially referred to the U.S. outfit Backwater's murky activities 
in the country. 'Though for foreign missions a number of rules and 
regulations are relaxed but in certain cases they are required to 
fulfill certain conditions, including prior information to Pakistan 
Government about their travel and meetings' schedule with political 
and social dignitaries. However, in some cases these requirements 
are not fulfilled by the diplomats,' they observed." 
 
News Story: Merkel Asks U.S. To Cast Aside Unilateralism "Dawn" 
(11/10) 
 
"The United States should cede some of its powers to international 
organizations to create a 'world order', Chancellor Angela Merkel 
said on Monday in an unusually sharp criticism of Washington before 
she led world leaders through the Brandenburg Gate - the climax of 
ceremonies marking 20 years since the Berlin Wall came crashing down 
in 1989. 'We Europeans are used to this.... We have voluntarily 
given up many of our powers to Brussels and to the European Union,' 
said the German chancellor. 
 
(All circulation figures are based on estimation) 
Patterson