ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s National Security Committee (NSC), the country’s top civil-military body, called former Premier Nawaz Sharif’s statement on the 2008 Mumbai attacks “incorrect and misleading” after its session on Monday.
“The meeting reviewed the recent statement in the context of the Mumbai attacks, as it appeared in the Daily Dawn of 12th May 2018, and unanimously termed this statement as incorrect and misleading,” said an official handout released by the government after the meeting.
Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi chaired the meeting at Prime Minister’s House attended by all three services chiefs, including Chief of Army Staff Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa and Director General Inter-Services Intelligence Lt. Gen. Naveed Mukhtar, as well as other senior civil and military officials.
“The participants observed that it was very unfortunate that the opinion arising out of either misconceptions or grievances was being presented in disregard of concrete facts and realities,” the official statement said.
The participants of the meeting also “unanimously rejected the allegations and condemned the fallacious assertions.”
Sharif on Saturday questioned the role of militant outfits in cross-border terrorism in his interview published in Dawn newspaper. This was played up by Indian media as an admission by Pakistan of its involvement in Mumbai attacks.
“Militant organizations are active. Call them non-state actors, should we allow them to cross the border and kill 150 people in Mumbai? Explain it to me. Why can’t we complete the trial?” Nawaz Sharif said in the interview.
The NSC meeting, however, accused India of delay in finalization of the cases against alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba’s militants who attacked installations in Mumbai in November 2008.
“Besides many other refusals (by India) during the investigation, the denial of access to the principal accused, Ajmal Kasab, and his extraordinarily hurried execution became the core impediment in the finalization of the trial (here in Pakistan),” the statement said.
Earlier, Pakistan’s major opposition parties, including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), also lambasted Sharif for his “irresponsible” statement and demanded that he retract it.
Fawad Chaudhry, secretary of information for PTI, said that Sharif was trying to appease the international establishment through his "anti-Pakistan" statements.
“Nawaz Sharif has fired a bullet at Pakistan and state institutions,” he told Arab News.
PTI legislator Khurram Sher Zaman on Monday submitted a resolution in the Sindh Assembly seeking a “ban on the broadcast of Nawaz Sharif’s statements and speeches” as these had “given comfort and propaganda points to all enemies of Pakistan.”
Political analyst Qamar Cheema told Arab News: “There is deep divide between the establishment and Nawaz Sharif and to damage the establishment Nawaz tried to give an impression that non-state actors are still being used by the Pakistani establishment as state policy.”
He said that it was the individual conduct of some militants who attacked different buildings in Mumbai, and “Pakistan is already prosecuting all of the suspects involved in the attack.”
Shortly after the National Security Committee meeting, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said: “Nawaz Sharif was misquoted by the Indian media.”
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, the prime minister said: “Some parts of the statement attributed to Nawaz Sharif are not true.”
However, local news channels criticized him for going against the earlier NSC statement and creating further ambiguity. Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah owned Nawaz Sharif’s statement and publicly defended his position while talking to the media in Lahore.
He said that Sharif had made the statement in the “greater national interest,” adding he was not the first Pakistani who had raised these concerns about the Mumbai attacks. He claimed that the former prime minister’s rivals were targeting him to gain political mileage ahead of the general elections.
Sanaullah also lashed out at the country’s security establishment: “One general comes into power and creates ‘mujahideen;’ the other takes over power and declares them terrorists.” He added such political antics could not be allowed in the country anymore.
The Punjab law minister’s media talk was followed by Sharif’s public rally in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Buner city, during which he remained unfazed and unapologetic.
The former prime minister wondered why there was no accountability of generals who overthrew democratically-elected governments and undermined the constitution of the country while politicians who worked for Pakistan and its people were labelled as traitors.
Sharif also challenged his detractors to form a “national commission” to look into his statement, saying that the same authority should also bring together those individuals who were calling him a traitor so that the people of Pakistan could see who was right and who was wrong.
“Whoever is found guilty,” he said while addressing a roaring crowd, “hang him publicly.”
Sharif statement roils Pakistan’s top civil-military brass
Sharif statement roils Pakistan’s top civil-military brass
- Sharif challenges detractors to form 'national commission' to look into his statement
- Some parts of the statement attributed to Nawaz Sharif not true, says PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi
Greenland crisis boosts Danish apps designed to identify and help boycott US goods
- Boycott campaigns are usually short-lived and real change often requires an organized effort rather than individual consumers
COPENHAGEN: The makers of mobile apps designed to help shoppers identify and boycott American goods say they saw a surge of interest in Denmark and beyond after the recent flare-up in tensions over US President Donald Trump’s designs on Greenland.
The creator of the “Made O’Meter” app, Ian Rosenfeldt, said he saw around 30,000 downloads of the free app in just three days at the height of the trans-Atlantic diplomatic crisis in late January out of more than 100,000 since it was launched in March.
Apps offer practical help
Rosenfeldt, who lives in Copenhagen and works in digital marketing, decided to create the app a year ago after joining a Facebook group of like-minded Danes hoping to boycott US goods.
“Many people were frustrated and thinking, ‘How do we actually do this in practical terms,’” the 53-year-old recalled. “If you use a bar code scanner, it’s difficult to see if a product is actually American or not, if it’s Danish or not. And if you don’t know that, you can’t really make a conscious choice.”
The latest version of “Made O’Meter” uses artificial intelligence to identify and analyze several products at a time, then recommend similar European-made alternatives. Users can set preferences, like “No USA-owned brands” or “Only EU-based brands.” The app claims over 95 percent accuracy.
“By using artificial intelligence, you can take an image of a product … and it can make a deep dive to go out and find the correct information about the product in many levels,” Rosenfeldt told The Associated Press during a demonstration at a Copenhagen grocery store. “This way, you have information that you can use to take decisions on what you think is right.”
‘Losing an ally’
After an initial surge of downloads when the app was launched, usage tailed off. Until last month, when Trump stepped up his rhetoric about the need for the US to acquire Greenland, a strategically important and mineral-rich Arctic island that is a semiautonomous territory of Denmark.
Usage peaked Jan. 23, when there were almost 40,000 scans in one day, compared with 500 or so daily last summer. It has dropped back since but there were still around 5,000 a day this week, said Rosenfeldt, who noted “Made O’Meter” is used by over 20,000 people in Denmark but also by people in Germany, Spain, Italy, even Venezuela.
“It’s become much more personal,” said Rosenfeldt, who spoke of “losing an ally and a friend.”
Trump announced in January he would slap new tariffs on Denmark and seven other European countries that opposed his takeover calls, only to abruptly drop his threats after he said a “framework” for a deal over access to mineral-rich Greenland was reached with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte’s help. Few details of that agreement have emerged.
The US began technical talks in late January to put together an Arctic security deal with Denmark and Greenland, which say sovereignty is not negotiable.
Rosenfeldt knows such boycotts won’t damage the US economy, but hopes to send a message to supermarkets and encourage greater reliance on European producers.
“Maybe we can send a signal and people will listen and we can make a change,” he added.
The protest may be largely symbolic
Another Danish app, “NonUSA,” topped 100,000 downloads at the beginning of February. One of its creators, 21-year-old Jonas Pipper, said there were over 25,000 downloads Jan. 21, when 526 product scans were performed in a minute at one point. Of the users, some 46,000 are in Denmark and around 10,000 in Germany.
“We noticed some users saying they felt like a little bit of the pressure was lifted off them,” Pipper said. “They feel like they kind of gained the power back in this situation.”
It’s questionable whether such apps will have much practical effect.
Christina Gravert, an associate professor of economics at the University of Copenhagen, said there are actually few US products on Danish grocery store shelves, “around 1 to 3 percent”. Nuts, wines and candy, for example. But there is widespread use of American technology in Denmark, from Apple iPhones to Microsoft Office tools.
“If you really want to have an impact, that’s where you should start,” she said.
Even “Made O’Meter” and “NonUSA” are downloaded from Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store.
Gravert, who specializes in behavioral economics, said such boycott campaigns are usually short-lived and real change often requires an organized effort rather than individual consumers.
“It can be interesting for big supermarket brands to say, OK, we’re not going to carry these products anymore because consumers don’t want to buy them,” she said. “If you think about large companies, this might have some type of impact on the import (they) do.”
On a recent morning, shoppers leaving one Copenhagen grocery store were divided.
“We do boycott, but we don’t know all the American goods. So, it’s mostly the well-known trademarks,” said Morten Nielsen, 68, a retired navy officer. “It’s a personal feeling … we feel we do something, I know we are not doing very much.”
“I love America, I love traveling in America,” said 63-year-old retiree Charlotte Fuglsang. “I don’t think we should protest that way.”
