Chief of Army Staff | General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.

[Fearless Warrior]

COAS General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani visits Kurram Agency - August 18, 2011

 

[fatman17]

Army accelerates pace of relief in FATA



Orakzai Agency—On the instructions of Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Prevez Kayani, Pakistan Army has pooled up its resources to provide maximum possible assistance and relief to displaced people of FATA.

Official sources here Sunday informed, in pursuant of COAS instructions, the Gujranwala Corps dispatched first consignment of about 15 loaded trucks of Non-Food Items (NFIs) i.e furniture, beddings, shoes, clothing, kitchen items/utensils, toiletries/cosmetics etc for distribution among 34,000 displaced families of Orakzai Agency.

While fully acknowledging the whole hearted support of tribal people of FATA to the army law enforcement operations, Pakistan Army is fully determined for the well- being of people of the area. In this regard, army has undertaken different measures to provide relief to people like organizing relief and medical camp is one out of many other such steps to bring significant improvement.

The last time any meaningful reforms were undertaken in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas was in 1997 when people inhabiting this tribal borderland of over 27,220 square kilometres were granted universal adult franchise. Until then only hereditary and appointed maliks, or tribal elders, could vote and contest election for parliament.

There was opposition even then to this move by sections of the bureaucracy and the security establishment, but President Farooq Leghari went ahead and gave the right of vote to every tribesman and tribeswoman. Now, 14 years later more piecemeal reforms have been announced by extending the Political Parties Order, 2002, to Fata to allow formation, organisation and functioning of political parties in the seven tribal agencies and six Frontier Regions and amending the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) 1901 to try and bring this law in conformity with basic human rights.

The fact that the Political Parties Order in its present shape dates back to 2002 and has been extended to Fata after nine years shows the slow and cautious pace of introduction of change in the tribal areas.—APP


so where is the local administration? - isnt this their job?

 

[S.M.R]

 

[air marshal]

 

[Windjammer]

Rawalpindi - August 23, 2011:
Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani visited Armed Forces Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine today.
COAS met the officers and soldiers who had sustained injuries involving loss of limbs during active operations. He appreciated their sacrifice, courage and determination to overcome the loss. He also visited various facilities at the institute. COAS emphasized the provision of best medical care to rehabilitate the patients, particularly those wounded during operation.
Earlier, on arrival COAS was received by, Lieutenant General Muhammad Rehan Burney, Surgeon General.

 

[fatman17]

Rawalpindi - August 23, 2011:
Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani visited Armed Forces Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine today.
COAS met the officers and soldiers who had sustained injuries involving loss of limbs during active operations. He appreciated their sacrifice, courage and determination to overcome the loss. He also visited various facilities at the institute. COAS emphasized the provision of best medical care to rehabilitate the patients, particularly those wounded during operation.
Earlier, on arrival COAS was received by, Lieutenant General Muhammad Rehan Burney, Surgeon General.

each picture tells a different story, sadness, happiness, determination. - God Bless them all !

 

[Windjammer]

each picture tells a different story, sadness, happiness, determination. - God Bless them all !

Indeed sir, it's heartening to see that these sons of soil haven't resigned to their fate and are being well looked after.
They have indeed sacrificed their today for our tommarrow.

 

[fatman17]

Taliban fight takes heavy toll on Pakistani troops


SEBASTIAN ABBOT, Associated Press
Thursday, August 25, 2011

In this photo taken Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2011, a Pakistani doctor works in a lab with artificial limbs at a military rehabilitation hospital in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. The soldiers recovering at Pakistan's only military rehabilitation hospital are a testament to the human toll from Pakistan's fight against Islamist militants. Photo: Muhammed Muheisen / AP
In this photo taken Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2011, a Pakistani doctor...
In this photo taken Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2011, a Pakistani army soldier, center, surrounded by doctors, who was injured during fighting against Islamist militants, attends a physical therapy training at a military rehabilitation hospital in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. The soldiers recovering at Pakistan's only military rehabilitation hospital are a testament to the human toll from Pakistan's fight against Islamist militants. Photo: Muhammed Muheisen / AP
In this photo taken Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2011, a Pakistani army...
In this photo taken Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2011, Pakistani army officers who were injured during fighting against Islamist militants, wait their turn to attend a physical therapy training at a military rehabilitation hospital in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. The soldiers recovering at Pakistan's only military rehabilitation hospital are a testament to the human toll from Pakistan's fight against Islamist militants. Photo: Muhammed Muheisen / AP
In this photo taken Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2011, Pakistani army...
In this photo taken Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2011, a Pakistani army soldier who was injured during fighting against Islamist militants, attends a physical therapy training at a military rehabilitation hospital in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Soldiers recovering at Pakistan's only military rehabilitation hospital are a testament to the human toll from Pakistan's fight against Islamist militants. Their stories are rarely heard, lost amid Washington's criticism that Islamabad is allowing insurgents fighting in Afghanistan safe haven, hampering its goal to withdraw from that country. Photo: Muhammed Muheisen / AP
In this photo taken Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2011, a Pakistani army...
In this photo taken Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2011, Pakistani army officers who were injured during fighting against Islamist militants, attend a physical therapy training at a military rehabilitation hospital in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. The soldiers recovering at Pakistan's only military rehabilitation hospital are a testament to the human toll from Pakistan's fight against Islamist militants. Photo: Muhammed Muheisen / AP
In this photo taken Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2011, Pakistani army...
In this photo taken Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2011, Pakistani army Captain Qasim Abbas, center, who was injured during fighting against Islamist militants, flashes the victory sign while attending a physical therapy training at a military rehabilitation hospital in
Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Abbas and the other soldiers recovering at Pakistan's only military rehabilitation hospital are a testament to the human toll from Pakistan's fight against Islamist militants. Photo: Muhammed Muheisen / AP
In this photo taken Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2011, Pakistani army...


RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (AP) — Capt. Qasim Abbas had finished a six-month stint fighting the Taliban close to the Afghan border and was heading home to get engaged when the militants struck, ambushing his convoy, pitching his vehicle off a 90-foot cliff and leaving him with brain injuries that make speaking and walking a daily battle.

Abbas and the other soldiers recovering at Pakistan's only military rehabilitation hospital are a testament to the human toll from Pakistan's fight against Islamist militants. Their plight receives little attention from Pakistani politicians, possibly because they are afraid of associating themselves with an unpopular fight that many citizens see as driven by the United States.

"Fight, fight, keep fighting," Abbas said slowly but with purpose when asked if he had a message for his colleagues still battling the Taliban. He raised his fist in the air to drive home his point.

The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks saw thousands of Taliban militants cross over the border into Pakistan, where they meshed with homegrown Taliban fighters and their allies. Under heavy American pressure, Pakistan's army in 2004 began fighting the local militants, who have responded with hundreds of attacks against security forces and civilians across the country.

Nearly 3,000 Pakistani troops have been killed fighting insurgents — more soldiers than NATO forces have lost in Afghanistan. Over 9,000 others have been wounded, many by buried bombs that blew off limbs and caused other life-altering injuries, the Pakistani military says.

The most severely wounded, like 24-year-old Abbas, are sent to the Armed Forces Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine just outside the capital in the garrison town of Rawalpindi. The institute's spotless interior, attentive staff and relatively advanced equipment are a far cry from Pakistan's crowded and dirty public hospitals.

But the rooms are filled with stories of pain and suffering.

Abbas fought with paramilitary special forces in the Orakzai tribal area during the first half of 2010 and was awarded a commendation by Pakistan's army chief for his role in seizing a strategic hilltop, said the soldier's brother, Maj. Usman Abbas.

The tall and lanky former army basketball player grew out his hair and beard during his deployment so he could blend in among the locals in the mountainous region near the Afghan border, said Abbas' brother. But his luck ran out when he was ambushed on June 21 of last year as he was leaving Orakzai to meet his future wife.

The attack left Abbas in a coma for six months, but he is now driven to recover. He spends three hours every morning in the hospital's gym trying to coax strength back into his arms and legs and overcome partial paralysis on the left side of his body.

The most common injuries the rehab hospital has had to deal with have been from homemade bombs the militants bury throughout the tribal region, said the head of the institute, Maj. Gen. Akthar Waheed. These weapons also pose the greatest threat to U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Capt. Kaleem Nasar was part of an operation elsewhere in the northwest in January of this year when he stepped on a bomb. The explosion blew off one of his legs, and the other had to be amputated below the knee. He visited the rehab hospital recently so doctors could work on his artificial limbs.

Despite his injuries, he does not regret going to war against the Taliban and hopes he can return to active duty.

"I am satisfied I have done something for my country," said the 27-year-old soldier. "If I can go back to that area and serve my country, God willing I will."

But Waheed, the head of the hospital, is worried that Pakistani troops wounded in battle don't receive enough recognition in the country. None of Pakistan's civilian leaders or other politicians have visited the hospital in the five years he has been running it, he said.

"They need much more recognition because they have done so much sacrifice for the cause," said Waheed.

Waheed contrasted the lack of political attention in Pakistan with a visit he made to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in the U.S. in April. He was there for only five days but saw a stream of officials and reporters come to the facility to meet with U.S. soldiers wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq, he said.

The battle against the Pakistani Taliban is a touchy subject in Pakistan because many citizens view it as an extension of support for the unpopular U.S. war in Afghanistan. A poll conducted by the Pew Research Center earlier this year found that only 37 percent of Pakistanis support using the army to fight extremists in the tribal area, down from 53 percent in 2009.

The U.S. has repeatedly demanded that Pakistan target Afghan militants using its territory to launch attacks against foreign troops in Afghanistan, but the military has said its troops are stretched too thin by operations against the Pakistani Taliban. Many analysts believe, however, that Pakistan is reluctant to target militants with whom it has historical ties and could be useful allies in Afghanistan after foreign troops withdraw.

As operations against the Pakistani Taliban have escalated, the army has expanded its rehab hospital, adding a workshop to build artificial limbs and specialists in speech therapy and vocational training, said Waheed. But the facility still suffers from a shortage of staff and has struggled to deal with the number of wounded soldiers. The hospital hopes to expand its capacity to 150 beds in the next few years from 100 today, said Waheed. He hopes this expansion will be accompanied by greater appreciation of what the soldiers have gone through.

"Any person who has given his limb, say his right hand, what is left with him?" said Waheed. "His suffering is for all of life."
____

Associated Press writer Asif Shahzad contributed to this report.



Read more: Taliban fight takes heavy toll on Pakistani troops - Connecticut Post

 

[fatman17]

VIEW: Army chief — risk of overexposure —A R Siddiqi


Kayani is no Musharraf, who was enthralled with his media coverage day in and day out. His had been a carefully crafted self-image every time he would appear before the print and electronic media. Overdone, the PR did more harm than good to Musharraf.

Did Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani speak too soon — back-to-back — in his two press statements, which appeared on Sunday, August 21, 2011 and Monday, August 22, 2011? While expressing “grave concern” over the deteriorating law and order situation in Karachi, on August 21, he said that the army was “ready to restore peace in the mega city, if asked by the government”. In his second statement on August 22, he expressed his “complete” satisfaction over the “nation’s support to the armed forces”. That would include the Pakistan Navy and the Pakistan Air Force.

The armed forces, he added, would “live up to the expectation of the nation”. When someone as quiet — naturally and deliberately — as General Kayani speaks with such candour and frankness, it pricks up one’s ears. Even if unintended, the army chief’s statements carried a shade of doing it for the sake of public relations, normally left to his spokesman, the ISPR chief. Was it then an opportunistic call or an alarm bell? Ever since the traumatic Abbottabad episode of May 2, and the grave damage it did to the military image, it was for the first time that the army chief went public in so robust a vein about the state of the armed forces and the support of the nation to them.

Kayani is no Musharraf, who was enthralled with his media coverage day in and day out. His had been a carefully crafted self-image every time he would appear before the print and electronic media. Overdone, the PR did more harm than good to Musharraf. His voice, initially loud and clear, and body language exuding absolute confidence, in time had acquired a hollow ring and an exhausted look. As for the forefathers — Ayub and Zia — they wrote up their own obituaries via their exuberant media coverage.

Ayub had been a darling of the media, especially of the foreign press. He was admired for his towering personality, physical presence and clipped Sandhurst accent. He would fill every place with his presence be it the Pentagon or the White House. This went on until he failed in war, a soldier’s ultimate test of coverage and total commitment to his profession.

The 1965 war turned into a blind alley for Ayub, a cul-de-sac without an outlet.

Zia donned the robe of a religious dean along with his gorgeous (colonial/secular) armoured corps uniform to make such an odd combination of the holy and the profane. Together with the ungodly capitalist US, he beat the godless Soviet Union in the Soviet-Afghan war. He helped the US turn the war into a jihad to leave Pakistan grappling with the legacy of endless militancy. Pakistan bleeds with the backlash of Zia’s perpetrated jihad-fi-sabil-Allah (just war).

His three-point official motto for the army, imaan (faith), taqwa (piety) and jihad fi-sabil-Allah, made a mockery of a modern, highly professional and salaried military force. Mercifully, the legacy died with him for all practical purposes.

Yahya, besides his part-time duties as the president, army chief and the supreme commander, had so much else in his private life to bother too much about his public image. His PR had been restricted mainly to his quarterly policy speeches to give the nation enough to discuss and debate for the next three months. In the meantime, he would address an odd press conference or grant an interview. Yahya was not afraid of the press but would rather keep them at arms length as far as possible.

He died as an unsung army chief. His name is hardly ever mentioned along with Ayub, Zia and Musharraf — each of whom treated this unfortunate country as his happy hunting ground.

General Kayani has two years plus to go before completing his extended six-year tenure in November 2013. His one enduring task would be to live down the stigma of Abbottabad as best as possible. That would be no ordinary task. For the first time ever, Abbottabad brought an ISI chief to the floor of parliament to apologise for his and his organisation’s failure in anticipating and upstaging the US air raid deep inside our territory.

Karachi may well turn out to be, by far, the most daunting task for the army and its chief, and for the rest of his tenure if it is deployed there. The military must succeed in the ordeals ahead. It stands on the cutting edge of the razor.



The writer is a retired brigadier of the Pakistan Army.

 

[muse]

Zia donned the robe of a religious dean along with his gorgeous (colonial/secular) armoured corps uniform to make such an odd combination of the holy and the profane. Together with the ungodly capitalist US, he beat the godless Soviet Union in the Soviet-Afghan war. He helped the US turn the war into a jihad to leave Pakistan grappling with the legacy of endless militancy. Pakistan bleeds with the backlash of Zia’s perpetrated jihad-fi-sabil-Allah (just war).

His three-point official motto for the army, imaan (faith), taqwa (piety) and jihad fi-sabil-Allah, made a mockery of a modern, highly professional and salaried military force. Mercifully, the legacy died with him for all practical purposes.

And some even now threaten us that this "trivial" matter not be brought up - but it will be, until, it is resolved. Pakistan must make a successful transition, not an aborted one, not a half way transition, but a complete transition.

 

[Xeric]

And some even now threaten us that this "trivial" matter not be brought up - but it will be,

slammered, because:

Mercifully, the legacy died with him for all practical purposes.

 

[muse]

The "trivial" matter of the Pakistan army ethic being a Jihadi ethic, is unfortunately, very much alive - Brig. Sidiqui's Jihadism and the Army and Islam in the garrison threads, reveal that this legacy is very much alive - though we may want it dead, we must not allow those who seek to play osterich or to wool the over the eyes of others, to suggest that this "trivial" matter of a Jihadi ethic in the army is dead - at least not till we have killed it.

 

[ali.ali]

each picture tells a different story, sadness, happiness, determination. - God Bless them all !

thanks all pic.....

---------- Post added at 10:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:11 PM ----------

Good and Very very Mubarak For his Family and son.........
May ALLAH bless you........

 

[nescafe]

many of the drones strikes have killed babies like his grandson and have amputated kids just like these soldiers. yes. i am an asshole. but yes, you cant completely silence this voice that keeps echoing at the background.


and we provided intel, logistics and diplomatic support for the NATO who amputated millions of muslims in iraq and afghanistan. if the taliban will every get defeated, the real reason will be pakistani support for their defeat.there is no denying of this fact.

 

[ali.ali]

Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani
many of the drones strikes have killed babies like his grandson and have amputated kids just like these soldiers. yes. i am an asshole. but yes, you cant completely silence this voice that keeps echoing at the background.