ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s civilian and military leadership were on the same page on Indian home minister Rajnath Singh’s visit to Islamabad to attend a SAARC interior ministers conference earlier this week. It was army chief Gen Raheel Sharif who pushed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif not to cancel the meet at the last minute, officials of the Foreign Office said.

Sharif is already under pressure from the main opposition Pakistan People’s Party and Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreeke-Insaf over the Panama Papers scandal, observers said. The leaks showed Sharif’s three children were among Pakistanis who own offshore assets worth millions of dollars.

“In such a situation, if the religious parties had started a public agitation which resulted in violence and deaths, the situation could have turned precarious for the government,” said analyst Ali Zaidi. Instead of cancelling the SAARC meet, the Pakistani leadership decided to downplay it for the domestic audience.

“That is why we saw the blacking out of coverage of the event on channels as well as the downplaying on most media,” said senior journalist Tahir Najmi.

Journalists and editors said they had received advice from the military’s public relations arm not to telecast events at the SAARC meet live or to play them up. “We thought the army was trying to undermine the political leadership while in fact it was working to ensure that they were both on the same page,” said one journalist who didn’t want to be named. The timing of the meeting was the main issue. It came at a time when J&K was engulfed in violence and the Pakistan government had already started a very visible campaign to protest what is happening across the Line of Control.

“At such a time, the arrival of the Indian home minister, who is seen as one of the players behind the violence, would have been very difficult for the Sharif government to justify,” said Zaidi. However, to cancel the SAARC meet would have been perceived as an obvious rebuff to the Indian leadership at a time when Pakistan is aware of its growing isolation in world affairs.

PTI FILEPakistan’s PM Nawaz Sharif (2nd from left) with Indian home minister Rajnath Singh (extreme right) in Islamabad.

One senior official said the visit was a testing time for the Nawaz Sharif government because of the increased violence in Jammu and Kashmir and the resulting pressure built up by Pakistan’s religious parties and groups over the issue. Officials said it was the army that discouraged the religious and hardline parties and groups from banding together under the banner of the Difa-e-Pakistan Council (Defence of Pakistan Council) and holding countrywide protests. There were protests by Hafiz Saeed’s Jamaat-ud-Dawah, Syed Salahuddin’s Hizbul Mujahideen and other groups during Singh’s visit.

Army is keen on acquiring land in Pinjore where Haryana has a flying club. File photo

Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 31

The Army is considering setting up a maintenance and overhaul base for helicopters operated by the Army Aviation Corps (AAC) in this region and has sought allocation of land for the purpose from the Haryana government.“The Army has projected a requirement for 40 acres and is keen on acquiring land in Pinjore where Haryana has a flying club and the location is also adjacent to the Western Command headquarters,” a state government officer said.“But as land is not available in Pinjore due to other developmental projects, we have suggested Hisar, where an integrated aviation hub is envisioned, as an alternative,” he said. The Aviation Corps’ mandate is battlefield support, reconnaissance and surveillance, search and rescue, communication and liaison and logistic support in varied terrain ranging from high altitude to the deserts. The bulk of its fleet is based in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Rajasthan.Unlike the Air Force that operates a large number of Soviet-origin helicopters, AAC fleet comprises Dhruv, Rudra, Chetak and Cheetah helicopters that are manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). These have to be sent to Bangalore for major repairs and overhaul. “Though the number of Cheetah and Chetak helicopters is declining, the strength of Dhruvs and Rudras (armed version of Dhruv) is increasing. The AAC is also going in for the Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) made by HAL, besides procuring a large number of light utility and attack helicopters. Since most of them would be deployed in the western theatre, it would be operationally and logistically advantageous to have a maintenance and overhaul hub in this region,” an officer said.State government officers said process was on to upgrade the present airstrip at Hisar, about 150 km from Delhi and 340 km from Chandigarh, into an international airport. “One of the components of the upgraded airport complex is maintenance, repair and overhaul hub for aircraft. We are also exploring the feasibility of setting up a manufacturing complex for defence and aviation components at Hisar as part of the offset policy,” an officer said.

Will augment fleet

• At present, the Army Aviation Corps has a fleet of about 150 helicopters
• The Army plans to procure 150 more Dhruvs, 80 Rudras and 114 LCHs
• Its long-term plans include medium lift utility helicopters, specialised helicopters and light transport aircraft

Chandigarh: Hitting out at Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, Punjab Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh on Friday said it was a matter of deep concern that posting of officers at vital operational position were being done on ad hoc basis in the Army, adding that it appeared that the PMO was taking the decision on top-level appointments. Referring to the posting of the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Western Command in officiating capacity, he said it had never happened earlier. He said that the posting of the officers on vital positions should be announced well in advance. TNS

CHANDIGARH: Lieutenant general Jagbir Singh Cheema, general officer commanding, Vajra Corps, has been nominated as officiating general officer commanding-in-chief of Western Command with effect from August 1. But it’s an interim arrangement, says the army headquarters.

Current GOC-in-C lieutenant general KJ Singh will superannuate after almost four decades on July 31. “With the interim arrangement, there will be no vacuum in the functioning of the Western Command headquarters and the chain of command will be intact,” says a Western Command press statement issued here on Thursday.

It’s unprecedented to have no name cleared for the army commander’s post. Lieutenant general Cheema has been in command of the prestigious Vajra Corps since August 21, 2015. He fought insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir and the North East.

Outgoing Western Army commander lieutenant general KJ Singh presided over a video conference with the corps commanders and principal staff officers to finalise modalities and response strategy for high operational preparedness. He appreciated the high morale of the troops.

Being briefed. ANI

New Delhi, July 26

The search and rescue operation for the missing AN-32 aircraft entered its fifth day on Tuesday even as hopes of finding alive the 29 defence personnel on board receded as all leads till now have turned out to be bad.“A lot of resources are in place. All leads till now have turned out to be bad. We are trying to concentrate on some links or sound which has emitted from some area. Trying to find out, that needs to be ascertained but there were some false leads of similar type,” Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said here.He said a state-of-the-art ice-class research vessel, Sagar Nidhi, of the National Institute of Ocean Technology has been called for from Mauritius.

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“That will reach but any deep vessel to operate, it will need specific area, because deep vessels which go inside cannot go and search per se unless you have some definite small area. So last time (Doriner crash), a submarine had identified the location and then we had sent it (deep sea vessel of Reliance). It is a secondary operation after initial identification,” Parrikar said.Sagar Nidhi comes with Dynamic Positioning System which keeps its position stable, which is required for oceanographic research. It has a huge deck area for deploying ROV/Manned submersibles/Tsunami monitoring system.Gondola arrangement is also made for precision acoustic measurements. Drop Keel facility is made to fit any underwater transducers without dry docking the vessel.One separate lab is designed and installed with integrated survey systems with modern scientific survey equipments like single- and multi-beam echo sounder for shallow and deep waters, sub-bottom profiler and acoustic current profiler.Parrikar also refuted claims of a senior Coast Guard official who said the Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) had not functioned during the Dornier crash also.“I think the submarine finally located the Dornier with the same beeps. Initially sound might not have come due to depth of water but when the submarine went in there, they identified the location. Can’t say whether it is operating or not now but we have not been able to hear it,” he said.Meanwhile, sources in the Air Force said the reason of the incident is too early to be ascertained but indicated that weather could have played a role.“The weather was bad but the pilot had taken the required steps,” a senior source said. PTI

Says govt seeking expert opinion on alternative to pellet guns in volatile situations.

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 21

Attacking Pakistan for “spreading terrorism” in India and “fanning the ongoing violence” in Kashmir, Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday said the government is in the process of seeking expert opinion on alternatives to the use of non-lethal weapons like pellet guns in volatile situations.Replying to a debate in Lok Sabha on Thursday, on the issue of Kashmir violence, Rajnath lay the blame of simmering tensions in the Valley on the doors of Pakistan saying dreaded terrorist Hafiz Saeed had now come out openly to claim that he had spoken to the slain Hijbul Mujahideen commander a few days prior to his killing.“Hizbul Mujahideen is an important part of United Jehad Council which works to destabilise India on the orders of Pakistan. Pakistan is constantly engaged in the pursuit to create troubles in India to deflect the attention of the world from its misgovernance and failures. There is no doubt that Pakistan has played a principal role in ruining the atmosphere in Kashmir and has then gone to the extent of observing Black Day on their soil in respect of what was an internal affair of India,” a firm Rajnath said, admonishing Pakistan not to bother about Indian Muslims, who are patriots.Listing the details of casualties in the Valley, Rajnath said 38 people had died and 2,180 were injured. “Of the injured, 2,055 have been discharged from hospitals. I must say here that 1,739 security personnel, too, were injured and despite such a vast scale of injury they adopted as much restraint in dealing with the violence in Kashmir as they could,” the minister said, adding that PM Narendra Modi and he himself had asked the forces to adopt maximum restraint in the Valley.On the concerns of MPs about the use of pellet guns which have caused several eye injuries in Kashmir, Rajnath said he had decided to form a committee of experts to suggest alternatives to the use of pellet guns.“Pellet guns were not used in Kashmir for the first time. These were used in 2010 also. At that time six people had died, 198 had suffered eye injuries and five had been blinded. This time we have had one death, 53 injuries and no blinding,” the minister noted, adding that the government is open to considering alternatives to pellet guns as a means for crowd management and control.On the issue of sending an all-party delegation to Kashmir, Rajnath said JK Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti had asked him to let the situation become normal first. “Even I wanted to go to Kashmir but she advised me to wait. She has said she is coming to Delhi in three days to discuss the issue of a delegation,” Singh added.

R Sedhuraman

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, July 17

The Supreme Court has ruled that military service would be counted for seniority in civil service only for those who had offered to serve the country during external aggression.A Bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and C Nagappan made the clarification in a case from Himachal Pradesh where the government had taken into account the Army service of even those who did not deserve it under the Demobilised Army Personnel Rules 1974.The Himachal Pradesh High Court had quashed the orders granting such benefits, forcing the affected ex-servicemen of the HP Administrative Service to come to the SC.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)Arguing for the general category officials, advocate Anil Nag pleaded that the HC had rightly noted that the appellants were recruited during the period when there was no emergency arising from any war and as such did not deserve the benefit of military service for the purpose of fixing their seniority in the HP administrative service.The High Court had also taken note of the fact that the rules stipulated that those who had already taken civil employment was debarred from claiming benefit of seniority.Since one of the appeallants, Mohan Lal Chauhan, had already taken up civil employment before his recruitment in HPAS, he was ineligible to claim the benefit of military service, Nag pleaded. However, since Chauhan would retire in May 2017, the SC allowed him to continue in the present post till then. He would get all retirement benefits on the basis of the last post held by him. “The respondents who had succeeded before the High Court shall reap the benefits that are due to them. The present order is passed keeping in view the special features of this case,” the Bench said.

Simran Sodhi

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 28

The Chinese media today hit out at India, calling it “spoiled” and Indians “too self-centered and self-righteous”.In an editorial in the state-run Global Times (GT), China also defended its decision to oppose India’s entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). In a parallel development, the Chinese Foreign Ministry struck a far more conciliatory note, saying China wanted “fair, sensible and mutually acceptable solution” to all contentious issues between the two countries. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook and Twitter @thetribunechd)The comments came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India had a “whole lot of problems” with China.“Common interests between the two countries far outweigh their differences. The Chinese side will work with the Indian side to steer the bilateral relations, and deepen cooperation in different fields,” the ministry said.But, the GT editorial besides being critical of India did not spare the US either. India has pointed the finger at China for opposing its NSG bid and despite the fact that there were other nations opposed to its membership, India after the NSG fiasco stayed fixated on “one country” that persistently raised procedural concerns about India’s entry.The GT editorial pointed out that China was correct in opposing India’s bid as the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) formed the basis of NSG membership. “Now India wants to be the first exception to join the NSG without signing the NPT. It is morally legitimate for China and other members to upset India’s proposal in defence of principles,” the editorial said.It also mocked India for its attitude towards the US. In another scathing indictment, the editorial said Indian nationalists should learn to behave themselves. It, however, spared the government: “On the contrary, the Indian Government behaves decently and is willing to communicate.”

The US is not the whole world. Its endorsement does not mean India has won the backing of the world An editorial in Global Times