As Pakistan votes, the military watches from its barracks

Updated 09 May 2013
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As Pakistan votes, the military watches from its barracks

ISLAMABAD: When a rock-band song mocking Pakistan’s army was mysteriously blocked on Internet sites recently, no one was surprised. But, as political parties jousted their way to this Saturday’s elections, it was a small reminder of where power really lies.
There is no doubt that attempts to bury a legacy of decades of military rule have made headway in Pakistan, where — for the first time — a civilian government completed its five-year term and stood aside to allow voters choose its successor.
But it would be a mistake to interpret the army’s decision to stay put in its barracks throughout those five years as a sign that it has loosened its grip on power, or that civilian primacy has at last arrived in the nuclear-armed nation.
Whatever the make-up of the government that emerges from the general election, its powers will be heavily circumscribed.
The military will decide on foreign policy and security, including the volatile ties with Washington as NATO troops withdraw from neighboring Afghanistan, and it will still run the thorny relationship with old enemy and nuclear rival India.
“There is no new chapter in the history of Pakistan as far as civilian-military relations are concerned,” said Ayesha Siddiqa, an expert on Pakistan’s secretive army. “The military remains relevant to politics, and it has partnerships that allow it to remain outside but control the inside.” That the civilian government will still play second fiddle in Pakistan’s policy-making establishment raises questions about how far Pakistan’s young democracy has come and suggests that future coups cannot be ruled out.
Indeed, the prospect of election frontrunner Nawaz Sharif — who has crossed swords with the army in the past — returning as prime minister for a third time has raised concern that civilian-military distrust could erupt in open hostility.
“If Nawaz wins it will be a miracle if he completes five years,” said a senior journalist in Islamabad, who turned up the volume on his television during an interview with Reuters to muffle the conversation.
The military has ruled this South Asian nation for more than half of its history since independence in 1947, through coups or from behind the scenes.
The tentacles of the army reach into every corner of society, including the media and — thanks to a multi-billion-dollar business empire of its own — the economy. Its shadowy Inter-Services Intelligence arm has been dubbed a state within a state, and is believed to have vast influence over politicians.
Chief of Army Staff Ashfaq Kayani, whose reputation as a cool-headed, thinking general sets him apart from some of his impetuous predecessors, has said repeatedly that soldiers have no business running the government.
“No doubt there is a lot of pressure on him from generals below to do something,” said Muhammad Malick, a news anchor on the Dunya TV channel. “But personally he is not someone who would like to intervene.” The army has good reason to want an amenable prime minister.
Kayani is due to retire this November, and the civilian government must at least nominally approve his successor. The new military chief will be in charge at a pivotal time as Western troops withdraw from Afghanistan, redrawing political and strategic alliances across a region that also includes Iran, India and central Asian states.
Some analysts say the preferred — and likely — election outcome for the army would be a parliament where no one party holds a majority, with the balance of power held by cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan.
Analysts say the military sees Khan as a useful foil to the main parties, whose corruption and incompetence in power has fueled a build-up of social tensions.

The military itself has lost much of its aura of invincibility within the country after a series of embarrassing setbacks since Kayani took over in 2007.
These have included brazen attacks by militants on key military bases and the surprise swoop in 2011 by US special forces on Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden’s hideout in a garrison town just 50 km up the road from Islamabad.
Meanwhile, the judiciary — long under the thumb of the military — has been flexing its muscles.
In 2007, Supreme Court Judge Iftikhar Chaudhry was removed from office after he opposed plans to extend the term of then- military leader Pervez Musharraf. He was reinstated after a rash of street protests by lawyers, and then last year Chaudhry ruled that the military should stop interfering in politics.
Musharraf, who seized power in a coup in 1999, resigned in 2008 and went into self-imposed exile abroad, returned to Pakistan in March to run in the election for a parliament seat.
Instead, he was arrested for his crackdown on the judiciary during his rule, and the astonished people of Pakistan watched on TV the ignominious spectacle of a former army commander fleeing from court and then being jeered by hundreds of lawyers.
“The military used to get cover from the judiciary,” said a retired military officer, who asked not to be named. “The difference between that time and now is the strength and independence of the judiciary.” Even the media, while still manipulated by the military, now finds the army “an easier morsel to chew,” says Dunya’s Malick.
But if the military has given some ground to democratic institutions, it remains a widely respected center of power that has the country’s politicians looking over their shoulders.
In a cryptic speech last month that has since been pored over by countless commentators, General Kayani took a swipe at the political class for its “self-aggrandizement” and “plundering (of) national wealth and resources.”
Many have taken his address as a warning to the incoming government that only by breaking with the corrupt and feckless ways of its predecessors can the country — as he put it — “end this game of hide-and-seek between democracy and dictatorship.”
Sharif, although a protégé of military dictator General Zia ul-Haq in the 1980s, was turfed from the prime minister’s office by Musharraf in 1999 and is still distrusted by the army.
He had his own warning for generals angling to succeed Kayani, pointing to Musharraf’s recent humiliating ordeal. “This accountability which is now taking place is itself a lesson to all those who have any such designs in the future,” he said.


American Airlines flight lands in Rome after ‘security’ issue

Updated 5 sec ago
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American Airlines flight lands in Rome after ‘security’ issue

  • An American Airlines official said the aircraft landed in Rome due to Indian protocol requirements

ROME: An American Airlines flight from New York to New Delhi was diverted to Rome on Sunday afternoon following an “alleged bomb scare,” an Italian airport spokesman said.
The US-based carrier gave no details on the nature of what it called a “possible security concern” on the flight carrying 199 passengers plus crew, which was escorted by two Italian fighter jets before landing.
“The flight landed safely at FCO (Rome), and law enforcement inspected and cleared the aircraft to re-depart,” American Airlines said in a statement.
Mahesh Kumar, an IT consultant aboard the flight, said the pilot announced the diversion to Rome due to “security reasons” about three hours before landing.
“Everyone was afraid. Everyone was staying quiet and obeying the orders,” the 55-year-old from Texas told AFP.
“They asked us to sit down and not to roam around while the fighter jets were near us,” Kumar said, adding that Italian police escorted passengers for a security screening in the airport when they landed.
The flight had taken off from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on Saturday at around 8:11 p.m. local time (01:11 GMT Sunday), according to flight tracker FlightAware.
It turned around sharply while flying over the Caspian Sea, the website showed.
An American Airlines official said the aircraft landed in Rome due to Indian protocol requirements.
“The possible issue was determined to be non-credible, but per DEL Airport protocol, an inspection was required before landing at DEL,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“The flight will stay in FCO overnight to allow for required crew rest before continuing to DEL as soon as possible tomorrow.”
Rome airport operations were not affected by the incident, an Italian airport spokesman said.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed the plane had landed safely “after the crew reported a security issue.”
American Airlines, one of the largest US air carriers, is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas.
Its international operations serve more than 60 countries, according to the airline’s website.


US federal agencies resist Musk’s job justification demand

Updated 5 min 32 sec ago
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US federal agencies resist Musk’s job justification demand

  • US media reported that Trump administration-appointed officials at the FBI, the State Department and the office of national intelligence also instructed staff not to respond directly

WASHINGTON: Multiple US federal agencies, including some led by prominent Donald Trump loyalists, have pushed back against a move by Elon Musk to force employees to explain what they had achieved at work or risk losing their jobs.
The resistance signaled a possible rift between key Trump administration figures and Musk, who has spearheaded a campaign to slash the government’s millions-strong civilian work force that has sown confusion across multiple agencies.
On Saturday, federal employees received an email seen by AFP from the US Office of Personnel Management giving them until 11:59 p.m. Monday to submit “approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week.”
Not long beforehand, Musk had posted on X that “all federal workers” would receive the email and that “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
Federal workers told AFP they had been advised not to reply immediately.
On Sunday, the Defense Department posted a note requesting that staff “pause any response to the OPM email titled ‘What did you do last week.’“
“The Department of Defense is responsible for reviewing the performance of its personnel and it will conduct any review in accordance with its own procedures,” it said in a post on X.
US media reported that Trump administration-appointed officials at the FBI, the State Department and the office of national intelligence also instructed staff not to respond directly.
The new director the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Kash Patel, sent a message to personnel on Saturday saying, “the FBI, through the office of the director, is in charge of all our review processes,” the New York Times wrote.
Unions also quickly pushed back, with the largest federal employee union, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), vowing to challenge any unlawful terminations.
In a letter to the OPM on Sunday, the AFGE criticized the power given to the “unelected and unhinged” Musk and said the “email was nothing more than an irresponsible and sophomoric attempt to create confusion and bully the hard-working federal employees that serve our country.”
Trump has put Musk — the world’s richest person and the president’s biggest donor — in charge of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) advisory body, tasking him with slashing public spending and tackling alleged waste and corruption.
DOGE is a free-ranging entity run by the tech entrepreneur, though its cost-cutting spree has been met with pushback on several fronts and mixed court rulings.

 


Germany’s conservatives win election but tough coalition talks loom

Updated 12 min 28 sec ago
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Germany’s conservatives win election but tough coalition talks loom

  • After the collapse of incumbent Olaf Scholz’s unloved coalition, Merz, 69, promised cheering supporters his government meant making Germany “present in Europe again

BERLIN: Germany’s conservatives won the national election on Sunday but a fractured vote handed the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) its best ever result in second place and left conservative leader Friedrich Merz facing messy coalition talks.
Merz, who has no previous experience in office, is set to become chancellor as Europe’s largest economy is ailing, its society split over migration and its security caught between a confrontational US and an assertive Russia and China.
After the collapse of incumbent Olaf Scholz’s unloved coalition, Merz, 69, promised cheering supporters his government meant making Germany “present in Europe again, so that the world notices that Germany is being reliably governed again.”
“Tonight we will celebrate, and from tomorrow we start working. ... The world out there is not waiting for us.”
US President Donald Trump, whose ally Elon Musk had repeatedly endorsed the AfD during the campaign, cheered the conservative victory on Truth Social.
“Much like the USA, the people of Germany got tired of the no common sense agenda, especially on energy and immigration, that has prevailed for so many years,” Trump wrote.
Following a campaign roiled by violent attacks for which people of migrant background were arrested, the conservative CDU/CSU bloc won 28.4 percent of the vote, followed by the AfD with 20.4 percent, said a projection published by ZDF broadcaster.
All of the mainstream parties have ruled out working with the AfD, which looks set to double its score from the previous vote and saw Sunday’s result as just the beginning. “Our hand remains outstretched to form a government,” leader Alice Weidel told supporters, adding “next time we’ll come first.”

MERZ’S JUGGLING ACT
Merz is heading into what are likely to be lengthy coalition talks without a strong negotiating hand. While his CDU/CSU emerged as the largest bloc, it scored its second worst post-war result.
It remains unclear whether Merz will need one or two partners to form a majority, with the fate of smaller parties unclear in a way that could jumble parliamentary arithmetic.
A three-way coalition would likely be much more unwieldy, hampering Germany’s ability to show clear leadership.
Chancellor Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) tumbled to their worst result since World War Two, with 16.4 percent of the vote share, and Scholz conceding a “bitter” result, according to the ZDF projection, while the Greens were on 12.2 percent.
Strong support particularly from younger voters pushed the far-left Die Linke party to 8.9 percent of the vote.
The pro-market Free Democrats (FDP) and newcomer Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) party hovered around the 5 percent threshold to enter parliament.
Voter turnout at 83 percent was the highest since before reunification in 1990, according to exit polls. Male voters tended more toward the right, while female voters showed stronger support for leftist parties.
“A three-party coalition runs the risk of more muddling through and more stagnation unless all parties involved realize that this is the last chance to bring change and to prevent the AfD from getting stronger,” Carsten Brzeski, global head of macro at ING.

CARETAKER SCHOLZ
A brash economic liberal who has shifted the conservatives to the right, Merz is considered the antithesis of former conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel, who led Germany for 16 years.
Merz conditionally supports equipping Ukraine with longer-range Taurus missiles, a step Scholz’s government shied away from, and sees Europe as firmly anchored in NATO.
Sunday’s election came after the collapse last November of Scholz’s coalition of his SPD, the Greens and pro-market FDP in a row over budget spending.
Lengthy coalition talks could leave Scholz in a caretaker role for months, delaying urgently needed policies to revive the German economy after two consecutive years of contraction and as companies struggle against global rivals.
It would also create a leadership vacuum in the heart of Europe even as it deals with a host of challenges such as Trump threatening a trade war and attempting to fast-track a ceasefire deal for Ukraine without European involvement.
Germans are more pessimistic about their living standards now than at any time since the financial crisis in 2008.
Attitudes toward migration have also hardened, a profound shift in German public sentiment since its “Refugees Welcome” culture during Europe’s migrant crisis in 2015, that the AfD has both driven and harnessed.


Europe must reach defense ‘independence’ of US: Germany’s Merz

Updated 11 min 47 sec ago
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Europe must reach defense ‘independence’ of US: Germany’s Merz

  • Merz, leader of the CDU/CSU alliance, said he had “no illusions at all about what is coming out of America”

BERLIN: Germany’s conservative election winner Friedrich Merz said Sunday that Europe must boost its own defense capabilities amid growing US-Europe tensions over Ukraine and NATO funding.
“For me, the absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA” in defense matters, Merz said.
“After Donald Trump’s statements in the last week it is clear that the Americans... are largely indifferent to the fate of Europe,” he said in a TV debate with other top candidates after the election.
“I am very curious to see what will happen between now and the NATO summit at the end of June,” he said.
But he added that it was questionable “whether we will still be talking about NATO in its current form or whether we will have to establish an independent European defense capability much more quickly.”
Merz, leader of the CDU/CSU alliance, said he had “no illusions at all about what is coming out of America.”
He also reiterated his condemnation of “the recent interventions in the German election campaign by Elon Musk.” The US tech billionaire and key Trump ally stridently supported the far-right and Moscow-friendly Alternative for Germany (AfD).
“The interventions from Washington were no less dramatic and impertinent than the interventions we have seen from Moscow, so we are under massive pressure from two sides,” Merz said.


Wide power cuts in S. Africa in new electricity failure

A pedestrian walks past as taxi operators in Tembisa north of Johannesburg on July 14, 2021. (AFP)
Updated 23 February 2025
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Wide power cuts in S. Africa in new electricity failure

  • Under stage six, power is halted a dozen times over four days and for up to four hours a time

JOHANNESBURG: Power was abruptly cut to large parts of South Africa Sunday and the national energy provider announced days of power blackouts in Africa’s most industrialized nation.
The announcement came as a surprise after positive statements from Eskom suggesting years of crippling power cuts of sometimes up to 12 hours a day may soon be over.
The heavily indebted public power utility said in a statement it had to ration electricity supply “until further notice” because of multiple breakdowns at three coal-fired power plants.

HIGHLIGHT

The heavily indebted public power utility said in a statement it had to ration electricity supply ‘until further notice’ because of multiple breakdowns at three coal-fired power plants.

It implemented stage six of its electricity rationing plan on which stage eight provides for the highest level of cuts.
Under stage six, power is halted a dozen times over four days and for up to four hours a time. The cuts are rotated through the country.
Eskom last announced limited cuts at the end of January for the first time in around 300 days.
In February it boasted that there had been a dramatic improvement in performance between April 2024 and February 2025, compared to the previous year.
Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, Eskom CEO Dan Marokane and senior officials apologized for the latest breakdown in a press conference that was carried live on main television channels.
Full power was expected to be restored by the end of the week, the minister said, explaining the technical sequence of the failure and ruling out sabotage.
“A setback. Unacceptable. We understand your anger, your disappointment, your grievance. We will resolve this,” Ramokgopa said.
Eskom was confident a plan of remedial action started more than a year ago would ultimately see the end of power rationing, including through maintenance of infrastructure and installation of new capacity, he said.
Eskom acknowledged that South Africa’s unreliable power supply is a “structural constraint” to its economic development and to foreign investment, he said.
It was also embarrassing that the power disruption coincided with meetings in South Africa this week of top diplomats from the G20 group of the world’s most powerful economies, he told the ENCA broadcaster.
The pro-business Democratic Alliance party, a key partner in the national unity government, said the severe power rationing showed South Africa “cannot rely on Eskom to be its primary source of electricity.”
The country urgently needed to open the electricity supply sector by encouraging private sector involvement and unbundling state-owned Eskom, it said.
Eskom supplies most of South Africa’s power needs and also exports power elsewhere in Africa, including Zambia and Zimbabwe.
It generates more than 80 percent of its power at coal-fired stations and is under pressure to transition to green and renewable energy.
The group is burdened by massive debt from years of corruption and mismanagement, with lack of plant maintenance, theft and vandalism also blamed for South Africa’s electricity crisis.
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