By Naveed Ahmad (7/27/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

BACKGROUND: Under the new law, the North West Frontier Province government would appoint ombudsmen (mohtasibs) – those who hold others accountable – at provincial, district and village levels to ensure that people respect the call to prayers, pray on time, and do not engage in commerce during the Friday prayers besides stopping unrelated men and women from appearing in public places together, and discourage singing and dancing. With a religious police under his command as an enforcement arm, the army of newly-appointed mohtasibs would also monitor the media to ensure ‘useful for the promotion of Islamic values’. Besides General Musharraf’s regime, human rights organizations, politicians and media bodies see the attempt by the religious clerics to ‘effectively install ultra-conservative rule’ in the province, conflicting with fundamental rights enshrined in the 1973 constitution and violating personal freedoms.

By Stephen Blank (7/27/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

BACKGROUND: Sources disagree as to who was behind the summit’s communiqué concerning the bases, attributing the initiative either to Karimov, Russian President Vladimir Putin or to China’s President, Hu Jintao. However it is clear that several weeks if not months of Sino-Russian pressure upon Central Asian governments lay behind it. Russia has consistently and publicly sought to limit the duration of the U.

By Erica Marat (7/27/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

BACKGROUND: This was the U.S. Secretary of Defense’s second visit to Kyrgyzstan since the ouster of the former Akaev regime on March 24.