Many of us in India and Pakistan clearly remember how in 1999 the Pakistan-India peace dialogue between Nawaz Sharif and Atal Bihari Vajpayee was undermined by the then Pakistan army chief General Pervez Musharraf through his Kargil misadventures. We also remember that while Indian Prime Minister was being accorded a red carpet welcome in Lahore, Pakistan army was busy in sending Wahhabi Deobandi Jihadi infiltrators to Indian side of Kashmir to promote its strategic agenda. In other words, Pakistan army and its mischievous generals used the peace dialogue between India and Pakistan as a diversion tactic to buy time and space to execute their own Jihadist designs.
Well, that is exactly what the project known as Aman Ki Asha is about.
While we are not aware of the intentions of Indian partners in the whole process (some say that the circulation obsessed, commercial Indian media is becoming a tool in the hands of Pakistan’s military establishment), it is a known fact that Jang Group, the Pakistani partner and founder of the Aman Ki Asha project is no more than an extension or affiliate of Pakistan’s military establishment.
With known lackeys of Pakistan army such as Hamid Mir, Ansar Abbasi, Shaheen Sehbai, Kamran Khan, Najam Sethi and General Mehmud Durrani, Jang Group (Jang/ The News / Geo TV) is one of the most discredited media groups in Pakistan (perhaps in the league of Nawaiwaqt, The Friday Times, Daily Ummat, Takbeer and Zarb-e-Momin).
Hamid Mir is known for his links with the ISI-backed Punjabi Taliban (aka Sipah-e-Sahaba ASWJ-LeJ), Ansar Abbasi is known for his support for Mumtaz Qadri (killer of Salmaan Taseer), Najam Sethi is the one who colluded with Pakistan army paving the way for the dismissal of Benazir Bhutto’s government in 1996, Beena Sarwar is the same person who could not see how or where Ejaz Haider justified persecution of Shia Hazaras in his notorious op-ed in Express Tribune. Beena Sarwar co-founded Citizens for Democracy (CFD) a project with known lackeys of Pakistan’s military establishment eg Nasim Zehra and Sherry Rehman, CFD mafia was a part of the blaming the victim (blaming the PPP) brigade after Taseer’s murder.
General Mehmud Durrani, another key proponent of the Aman Ki Aasha (in fact Agni ki Bhasha), was General Musharraf’s mentor in designing the Kargil misadventure.
Pakistan is a country where Punjabi and Urdu speaking elite (also known as urban fake liberals) is dominant in the media and remains tightly aligned with Pakistan army because of financial and political interests. All Pakistani institutions like judiciary, bureaucracy and media are controlled and managed by Pakistan army and its various agencies (MI, ISI etc).
There are many questions about the JANG/GEO group. On the one hand, GEO gives the maximum air time to right-wing extremists, conspiracy theory mongers, pathological liars (Ansar Abbasi and Shaheen Shehbai, please take a bow) and ISI mouthpieces (yes Najam Sethi, we are referring to you) all of whom variously promote the anti-people propaganda that is churned in the bowels of Aabpara. On the other hand, they also sponsor cosmetic gestures like “Aman ki Asha” to ensure that their funding from the likes of the Voice of America (VOA) and Stratfor continues.
On the surface, such gestures (eg Aman ki Asha and Bol) appear to have some utility. However, when examined closely, they are hollow gestures that weakly highlight a few symptoms but skilfully avoid the core issues of why conjoined phenomena like extremism and anti-India schizophrenia persist. How can these issues ever be resolved without examining the central role played by the probable main backers of the Jang Group, i.e., the military establishment.
For greater exposures of JANG/GEO one can view other blogs such as Pakistan Media Watch and LUBP. Suffice to say, GEO is the same channel that was promoting the ISI-Taliban-Al Qaeda-Jamaat-e-Islami backed “Lawyer’s Movement” as a Pro-Democracy movement!
It’s the time we should ask how many Sindhis, Balochs, Pashtuns, Hazaras, Gilgitis and Baltis are there in the so called Aman Ki Aasha? How many Pakistani minorities like Shia Muslims, Hindus, Christians, and Ahmadi Muslims are there in the Aman Ki Aasha? More or less zero.
How can those who seem to be least worried about providing Aman Ki Asha (peace) to their own people such as Shia Muslims, Baloch, Pashtuns, Ahmadi Muslims, Hazaras, Tooris etc assure Aman Ki Asha to India or any other country?
What have the Aman Ki Asha folks in Pakistan done to stop the mass murders of the Balochs, Shia Hazaras, Tooris, Pashtuns and Ahmadis in their own country?
Why are the majority of Sindhis, Pashtuns, Balochs, Shia Muslims, Ahmadi Muslims dissatisfied with the Jang Group / Geo TV, a corporation which is in fact single major source of creating Xenophobia (USA Phobia, India phobia) in Pakistan? For example, Jang Group played an opportunistic, xenophobic role in the Raymond Davis episode, Mumbai terror attacks by the ISI backed LeT terrorists, blocking clemency for Sarbhajit Singh etc).
Pakistan army with the help of its jihadi proxies is currently busy in conducting mass murders of Shia Muslims, Balochs and Pashtuns in Pakistan. They all constitute crimes against humanity and call for international intervention and action that is long overdue. Where are you the Aman Ki Aasha folks? Why can’t you extend your hands of Aman Ki Aasha towards the Balochs and Shias first? Why are Beena Sarwar, Raza Rumi of ISI-backed Jinnah Institute and Hamid Mir ignoring or/and misrepresenting the Shia massacres in Pakistan by the ISI-backed LeJ-ASWJ-TTP terrorists? Why does Beena Sarwar appear to be a key defendant of Ejaz Haider who himself is a key advocate of the Deep State?
Millions of Pakistanis in the north-west tribal areas live in a human rights free zone where they have no legal protection by the government and are subject to abuses by the Taliban. Nearly 4 million people are effectively living under the Taliban in north-west Pakistan without rule of law and effectively abandoned by the Punjabi-dominated military government. The residents of FATA continue to be governed by a colonial-era law, the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) of 1901, which denies basic constitutional rights and protections for the residents of FATA, including their rights to political representation, judicial appeal, and freedom from collective punishment. No Aman, no Asha for them?
Citizens of India and Pakistan must beware that the so called Aman Ki Asha is in fact a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It is an act of deceit crafted by Pakistani army’s most brutal child, ISI.
(Some parts of this article adapted from here)
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Update 21 April 2014:
Ansar Abbasi reveals that Aman Ki Asha is an ISI-approved project
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“Jang Group’s Aman Ki Asha project was started after due consultation with and approval by the ISI’s chief General Shuja Pasha.” – Jang Group’s columnist Ansar Abbasi reveals in daily Jang (21 Apr 2014)
We always maintained that agency-friendly moles are abound in Aman ki Asha. This confirms that in addition to right-wing Deobandi Islamists, elitist pseduo-liberals too are sponsored by the mother of all agencies.
Pakistan Blogzine 