Daily brief: Pakistani, American officials meet in Washington

New resource: yesterday, the New America Foundation launched PakistanSurvey.org, which combines in-depth, agency-specific analysis from regional experts and public opinion polling from Pakistan’s tribal regions with mapping of reported U.S. drone strikes in the country’s northwest. Click for more.

Mending ties

In the third such session this year, the Obama administration and top Pakistani officials are meeting in Washington, and U.S. President Barack Obama reportedly met with the Pakistani delegation yesterday (Bloomberg, The News, AP, Post). The administration reportedly plans to announce an increase in military aid to Pakistan this week. Obama has not visited Pakistan since he took office and will not visit when he goes to India next month, though the White House announced that he plans to visit next year and has invited Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari to Washington (AFP, AP). Bonus read: Arif Rafiq, "frenemies in need can be friends indeed" (FP).

Karachi was shut down yesterday, with schools and markets closed and little traffic on the streets, in mourning for the last several days of violence; at least 11 more people were killed yesterday, and Pakistani authorities are reportedly considering search operations in "sensitive areas" and curfews in the southern port city (Daily Times, AJE, The News, ET, Dawn). Paramilitary troops have been deployed in several areas of the city, but Gilani has ruled out sending in the army (NYT).

Pakistan’s Dawn reports that two sons of insurgent leader Jalaluddin Haqqani have been mediating a sectarian conflict in the northwest tribal agency of Kurram, which the Haqqani network is reportedly interested in because of its strategic location and pressure on the group in Waziristan (Dawn). A local commander with links to the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan was killed earlier today in Kurram when his vehicle drove over a remote-controlled roadside bomb (AP).

And Pakistan’s Supreme Court delayed a potential confrontation between the judiciary and the government by asking MPs to review Article 175-A of the 18th amendment to the constitution, which would see senior court judges appointed by a parliamentary committee (AJE, Dawn, ET).

Military and diplomatic pressure

Britain’s Daily Telegraph reports that Mullah Baradar, the second-in-command of the Taliban who was arrested in Karachi early this year, has been released and is reportedly meeting with militant commanders in Pakistan and Afghanistan "to build a consensus that will let the Taliban come to the dialogue table," according to an Afghan official (Tel). Afghanistan’s High Peace Council said earlier today that Saudi Arabia would be a good place to hold any formal talks with the Taliban that develop, and a Taliban delegation reportedly went to the Kingdom earlier this month to seek Saudi sponsorship of talks with the Karzai government (AP, AFP, Post). Mullah Omar, the Taliban’s leader, does not appear to be in talks with the Afghan government, and a senior Pakistani security official said Pakistan has not been involved in talks between Kabul and Pakistan-based leaders of the insurgency (LAT).

Carlotta Gall reports on coalition operations in Kandahar, 18 months in the making, that began producing results "only after thousands of extra troops were in place at the end of August," and writes that some 12,000 U.S. and NATO troops and 7,000 Afghan security forces have been able to, for the first time, "mount operations simultaneously in all of the most critical areas of the province" (NYT). A Taliban fighter asserted, "We are waiting until this force has been exhausted and has done all they are supposed to do, and later on our fighters will re-enter the area," though the police chief in Arghandab commented, "We broke their neck." Ahmed Wali Karzai, Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s half-brother and Kandahar strongman, added, "Most of [the Taliban] I believe left before the military operation started" (AP). Residents of Kandahar describe NATO softening operations in the preceding month and Taliban intimidation tactics to the Independent (Independent).

Although nearly a quarter of the ballots from last month’s Afghan parliamentary election were thrown out because of complaints of fraud, the Afghan Independent Election Commission has been praised for trying to "do an honest job of counting the ballots" (Post, NYT). The Journal reports that about 90 of the 249 Wolesi Jirga seats were won by incumbents (WSJ). Final results are due out later this month.

Flashpoint

A gun battle broke out earlier today between several Jaish-e-Mohammad militants and Indian security forces on the outskirts of Srinagar, the capital of Indian-administered Kashmir (PTI, AFP). The area was evacuated and no casualties have been reported.

Vigorous trade

Pajhwok reports that drugs designed to improve sexual performance are sold across Kabul, smuggled in from Pakistan, India, and Germany and costing between 20 and 80 afghanis per packet (Pajhwok). The Pakistani imports are at the low end of the cost spectrum, while Germany’s products are the most expensive.

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