The first US drone strike in Pakistan after the recent elections did more than just kill Waliur Rehman, the second top man of the Pakistani Taliban. The automated execution also sabotaged the latest version of a peace process between the militants and the Pakistani government.
After the killing of its key commander in the May 29 explosion, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) withdrew its pending offer of peace talks with the government. The outlawed TTP said that it was holding Pakistan's government and military establishment responsible for the attack, and vowed to avenge Rehman's death.
Considering the TTP's previous manipulation of the "peace talk" process, this result may in the long run serve the group's opponents very well.
In direct terms, too, the killing came as a big blow to the TTP, because Rehman was the real brain behind its operational capacity.
As the TTP's prime commander in the Mehsud area, he was poised to succeed Hakimullah Mehsud as leader of the TTP and had emerged as the group's primary military strategist; many members of the group had grown wary of Mr Mehsud's brutality.
The death of Rehman brings Khan Saeed to prominence in the TTP. Mr Saeed, 38, was involved in planning a 2011 attack on a Pakistani navy base and was involved in a jail break last year in the northwestern town of Bannu; 400 militants escaped.
Rehman had been amenable to talks with the government. The drone killed him on the same day that members of the provincial assembly in the northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province were taking their oaths of office.
This was the first drone strike in Pakistan since the May 11 general elections that brought Nawaf Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) to power.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, meanwhile, the same elections brought in a new provincial government of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, led nationally by cricketer-turned politician Imran Khan.
The May 29 strike was a clear message to the newly elected Pakistani government that the US will continue its drone war in the country's northwestern tribal region, the stronghold of Islamist militants.
In fact the US, as noted above, actually killed two birds with one drone: it eliminated a key Taliban commander and also stopped the government-TTP dialogue process, at least temporarily.
Indeed, not only is there no immediate prospect of talks, but more suicide attacks and other bloodshed now seem likely.
That does not suit the agenda of Mr Sharif, who was sworn in as Pakistan's prime minister on June 5, entering the office for the third time, after about 14 years.
He strongly believes that holding talks with the Pakistani Taliban is the only effective way to tackle the extremism and terrorism confronting the country.
In February, the TTP declared that it would negotiate if Mr Sharif, as well as the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and the Jamaat-i-Islami chief Syed Munawwar Hasan, agreed to act as guarantors for the talks.
Before the drone attack, Mr Sharif and Maulana Rehman had reportedly worked out a mechanism for negotiating with the Taliban through a grand peace jirga (tribal gathering).
Mr Sharif, who has spoken of the whole US drone campaign as a challenge to Pakistani sovereignty, vehemently condemned the May 29 incident.
But there is also an argument to the contrary, that the US drone weapon is essential in the country's lawless border areas which have become a safe haven for militants. (Last month the US president, Barack Obama, defended his covert drone war as legal but warned that undisciplined use of the tactic would invite abuses of power.)
Pakistan is currently ruled by right-wing political parties that have long supported dialogue with the extremists and opposed the US drone strikes. Both Mr Sharif and Mr Khan strongly oppose any full-fledged military operation against Taliban militant outfits in North Waziristan.
But the new government will have to convince Washington to stop the drone strikes before it can convince the Taliban to resolve the problem at the negotiating table. And getting agreement, from the US or, later, from the Taliban, will be a hard nut to crack.
The US will not abandon its weapon of choice easily, or at all. Increasing tension between Islamabad and Washington over this issue can already be plainly foreseen.
Further, it is still not clear if Pakistan's political leadership and military establishment are on the same page on the issue of dealing with the Taliban.
Last month, army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani declared the war on terror to be the country's own war.
He has a point: over 5,000 security personnel and 45,000 civilians have so far died in this war that seems to have no end. Besides human losses, the economic cost is incalculable.
The Taliban have repeatedly used dialogue to achieve short-term objectives, such as the freedom of jailed militants, while never showing any flexibility about its ideological goals. The ultimate fact is that the Taliban have been utterly unreliable in adhering to its peace agreements.
By now it should be very clear that Talibanisation is a grave threat to the soul of a democratic and progressive Pakistan, and the war on extremism is a war for the country's soul.
Syed Fazl-e-Haider (www.syedfazlehaider.com) is a development analyst in Pakistan
sfazlehaider05@yahoo.com
The biog
Simon Nadim has completed 7,000 dives.
The hardest dive in the UAE is the German U-boat 110m down off the Fujairah coast.
As a child, he loved the documentaries of Jacques Cousteau
He also led a team that discovered the long-lost portion of the Ines oil tanker.
If you are interested in diving, he runs the XR Hub Dive Centre in Fujairah
Green ambitions
- Trees: 1,500 to be planted, replacing 300 felled ones, with veteran oaks protected
- Lake: Brown's centrepiece to be cleaned of silt that makes it as shallow as 2.5cm
- Biodiversity: Bat cave to be added and habitats designed for kingfishers and little grebes
- Flood risk: Longer grass, deeper lake, restored ponds and absorbent paths all meant to siphon off water
The five pillars of Islam
Coffee: black death or elixir of life?
It is among the greatest health debates of our time; splashed across newspapers with contradicting headlines - is coffee good for you or not?
Depending on what you read, it is either a cancer-causing, sleep-depriving, stomach ulcer-inducing black death or the secret to long life, cutting the chance of stroke, diabetes and cancer.
The latest research - a study of 8,412 people across the UK who each underwent an MRI heart scan - is intended to put to bed (caffeine allowing) conflicting reports of the pros and cons of consumption.
The study, funded by the British Heart Foundation, contradicted previous findings that it stiffens arteries, putting pressure on the heart and increasing the likelihood of a heart attack or stroke, leading to warnings to cut down.
Numerous studies have recognised the benefits of coffee in cutting oral and esophageal cancer, the risk of a stroke and cirrhosis of the liver.
The benefits are often linked to biologically active compounds including caffeine, flavonoids, lignans, and other polyphenols, which benefit the body. These and othetr coffee compounds regulate genes involved in DNA repair, have anti-inflammatory properties and are associated with lower risk of insulin resistance, which is linked to type-2 diabetes.
But as doctors warn, too much of anything is inadvisable. The British Heart Foundation found the heaviest coffee drinkers in the study were most likely to be men who smoked and drank alcohol regularly.
Excessive amounts of coffee also unsettle the stomach causing or contributing to stomach ulcers. It also stains the teeth over time, hampers absorption of minerals and vitamins like zinc and iron.
It also raises blood pressure, which is largely problematic for people with existing conditions.
So the heaviest drinkers of the black stuff - some in the study had up to 25 cups per day - may want to rein it in.
Rory Reynolds
Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
Teachers' pay - what you need to know
Pay varies significantly depending on the school, its rating and the curriculum. Here's a rough guide as of January 2021:
- top end schools tend to pay Dh16,000-17,000 a month - plus a monthly housing allowance of up to Dh6,000. These tend to be British curriculum schools rated 'outstanding' or 'very good', followed by American schools
- average salary across curriculums and skill levels is about Dh10,000, recruiters say
- it is becoming more common for schools to provide accommodation, sometimes in an apartment block with other teachers, rather than hand teachers a cash housing allowance
- some strong performing schools have cut back on salaries since the pandemic began, sometimes offering Dh16,000 including the housing allowance, which reflects the slump in rental costs, and sheer demand for jobs
- maths and science teachers are most in demand and some schools will pay up to Dh3,000 more than other teachers in recognition of their technical skills
- at the other end of the market, teachers in some Indian schools, where fees are lower and competition among applicants is intense, can be paid as low as Dh3,000 per month
- in Indian schools, it has also become common for teachers to share residential accommodation, living in a block with colleagues
Closing the loophole on sugary drinks
As The National reported last year, non-fizzy sugared drinks were not covered when the original tax was introduced in 2017. Sports drinks sold in supermarkets were found to contain, on average, 20 grams of sugar per 500ml bottle.
The non-fizzy drink AriZona Iced Tea contains 65 grams of sugar – about 16 teaspoons – per 680ml can. The average can costs about Dh6, which would rise to Dh9.
Drinks such as Starbucks Bottled Mocha Frappuccino contain 31g of sugar in 270ml, while Nescafe Mocha in a can contains 15.6g of sugar in a 240ml can.
Flavoured water, long-life fruit juice concentrates, pre-packaged sweetened coffee drinks fall under the ‘sweetened drink’ category
Not taxed:
Freshly squeezed fruit juices, ground coffee beans, tea leaves and pre-prepared flavoured milkshakes do not come under the ‘sweetened drink’ band.
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
Director: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
Rating: 1/5
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
THE SIXTH SENSE
Starring: Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, Hayley Joel Osment
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Rating: 5/5
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