US Ambassador In Pakistan Forces A Newspaper To Censor A Known US Critic

Finally, the Americans take their revenge.  Dr. Mazari single-handedly threw cold water on Washington’s plan last year to send a rabidly anti-Pakistani US army general as defense attaché to Islamabad.  The Pakistani government quietly accepted the appointment.  But Dr. Mazari broke the story and aborted the plan.  When the new pro-US elected government seized power, Mr. Zardari’s special assistant Husain Haqqani’s first order of business was to fire Dr. Mazari from her official post.  And now the US ambassador succeeds in blocking her column.  Welcome to the Banana Republic of Pakistan where soon US ambassadors will have the right appoint presidents and prime ministers.  Some say they already do.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—United States Ambassador Anne W. Patterson intervened with one of the largest newspaper groups in Pakistan to force it to block today a decade-old weekly column by a prominent academic and critic of US policies.

Dr. Shireen Mazari, the former director of the Islamabad Institute of Strategic Studies and a mordant critic of US blunders in Pakistan and the region, was stunned when her column failed to appear in today’s edition of the newspaper.  This happened after the US ambassador sent a ‘private’ letter to the management of The News International, one of the largest English-language dailies of Pakistan.

This is a new high for American influence inside Pakistan. 

Never before did a US ambassador manage to force such a change in a newspaper’s policy.  For those who are new to Pakistan, this is equivalent to having Maureen Dowd or Tom Friedman’s column knocked off the pages of the New York Times because Dick Cheney does not like their criticism.

Unlike Ms. Patterson in Pakistan, her colleague in London, ambassador Louis Susman, could never dream of achieving a similar feat by, say, convincing The Times of London to block a column by David Aaronovitch.  Or the US ambassador in Moscow, John Beylre, Jr., who could never even think of forcing Komsomolskaya Pravda to do anything remotely similar.  They have Vladimir Putin in Russian who knows how to protect his country’s interest.

Only in Pakistan, where American meddling has reached alarming proportions and risks turning this second largest Muslim country and the world’s seventh declared nuclear-armed nation into another version of Latin America’s banana republics where Washington has been known to change governments at will.

The US achieved a feat last year when it forced the country’s military establishment under a weak and insecure Pervez Musharraf to strike a ‘deal’ to forgive the questionable illegal wealth and other criminal cases against several Pakistani political figures in order to help them come to power in exchange for supporting US policies in Pakistan.

Another major break for Washington is Pakistan’s acquiescence in the construction in Islamabad of what will soon become the largest US embassy in the world.  Recently, members of privately armed US militias have been spotted in Islamabad, in some cases roughing up Pakistani citizens, without the Pakistani government daring to take action.

But blocking Dr. Mazari’s column is a new high for American influence in Pakistani affairs.

She especially earned the ire of the Americans last year when she single handedly threw cold water on US plans to post a notoriously anti-Pakistan US army general to Islamabad.  It was March 2008 when the new pro-US government in Islamabad allowed Washington to post Major General Jay W. Hood as the Chief, Office of the Defence Representative in Islamabad. 

But Dr. Mazari broke the news of the appointment through her column, creating an uproar and forcing the Pakistani government to reject the appointment.

Dr. Mazari held a press conference today at the Islamabad head office of Pakistan Justice Movement, or PTI, a political party headed by cricket star Imran Khan where she is a senior official handling foreign policy issues.

Ambassador Anne Patterson is reported to have sent a letter to the management of the newspaper protesting at Dr. Mazari’s writings, especially on the question of the presence of Blackwater and other private American militias on Pakistani soil.  Interestingly, Ms. Patterson said she did not want to see her letter published in the newspaper and insisted it be kept private.  It is also not clear if Ms. Patterson actually threatened legal action or other form of protest or pressure if the newspaper continued to publish Dr. Mazari’s columns.

The newspaper editorial team is said to be ready to publish the blocked column later, possibly with some editing.  Frankly, no one can blame a newspaper for protecting its interest when the very government of Pakistan seems incapable of protecting the national interest.  Had Pakistan had a truly nationalistic government in Islamabad, one that inspired confidence, I can imagine that any newspaper would have politely deflected undue pressure from a foreign diplomat.

But the very fact that the column failed to run marks a victory for the US embassy and a fresh sign of the growing US influence and meddling in Pakistan’s internal matters.

It is not clear if Ms. Patterson sought the permission of the Pakistan Foreign Office before directly contacting a Pakistani newspaper to exert pressure.

This is the fourth attempt by the US Embassy to silence Dr. Mazari, whose incisive political commentary based on her close brush with power corridors in Islamabad over the years has given the Americans and the Brits a constant headache.  Her columns are fodder for those who advocate a more nationalistic and Pakistan-centric approach in dealing with Washington instead of the current approach where the United States is reaping strategic benefits at the expense of Pakistan’s interests and stability.

In 2006, the US ambassador at the time, Ryan Crocker, is reported to have warned Pakistan’s foreign secretary Mr. Riaz Khokar, that he will consider Dr. Mazari’s writings to be reflective of official Pakistani thinking because Dr. Mazari was heading a think tank financed by the Foreign Office.  The US diplomat demanded Dr. Mazari, according to her, be removed from office or told to stop criticizing US policies.

The foreign secretary resisted the pressure and Dr. Mazari continued her policy discourse.  The interesting thing is that the first order of business for the present pro-US government in Islamabad after seizing power last year was to fire Dr. Mazari. 

Her ousting was engineered by Mr. Husain Haqqani, Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington who is widely known in Pakistan as a staunch American apologist.  Many jokingly call him ‘America’s ambassador to the Pakistani embassy in Washington.’  So it was no surprise that Dr. Mazari was fired as soon Mr. Haqqani’s government came in power.

I personally faced a similar situation when a US diplomat telephoned me in November 2007 to accuse me of spreading anti-Americanism on the state-run PTV.  My crime was to start a series of talk shows discussing how our ally the US turned Afghanistan into a hub for anti-Pakistan forces in the region.  The lady US diplomat used a cheap trick to intimidate me when she asked, ‘Does Musharraf know what you’re doing?’

My answer was, ‘Does President Bush know when US media frequently runs anti-Pakistan articles?’

Dr. Mazari is not disheartened by this episode.  ‘They might have knocked me off this time,’ she told me today after her press conference, ‘but the last round will be mine. The Americans can’t gag me in my own country.’  And that is exactly what the newspaper, The News International, has assured her of.

PKKH has learnt from informed sources within the Pakistan Navy that certain high-ranking individuals within the Naval forces are involved in secret construction of operational facilities in Gharo, Sindh, which are intended to serve as a base for around 200 US marines.

Unconfirmed reports suggest that a high ranking official of the Special Service Group Navy (SSGN), which is the commando division of the Pakistan Navy, is involved in the construction of a large complex in GHARO, Sindh, which is described to be purpose built to serve as a base for an army unit – comprising of halls, residential units, and storage facilities. The source has also stressed that the Pakistan Navy had already rejected a similar proposal by the US Armed Forces earlier this year. However, the SSGN official involved had kept the authorities in the dark about the purpose-built facility in Gharo.

Some years back the Navy had decided to shift the SSGN headquarter (PNS Iqbal) from the dockyard to a coastal area, but Gharo was not the likely sight at the time. Because there has been a sudden increase in assistance to the SSGN from the US, questions are being raised whether this shifting of the SSGN to Gharo is actually a ruse to allow US Marine “trainers” to arrive there in large numbers on the pretext of training the SSGN commandos in newly-acquired weapons and tactics?

UPDATE September 3rd:
The source has also stressed that the Pakistan Navy had already rejected a similar proposal by the US Armed Forces earlier this year. However, the SSGN official involved, along with some help from other individuals, had kept the authorities in the dark about the purpose-built facility in Gharo. The top leadership of PAKISTAN NAVY was unaware of these plans at the time of publishing this report.

Time for Services Chiefs and Chairman JCSC to take action

Three cheers to these custodians of national secrets and national solidarity and hats off to our television hosts – or anchor persons as we call them in Pakistan – who not only encourage these retired officers to talk but willingly provide them a platform to air national secrets, live, across the world, without care for the price the nation will have to pay for this collective act of grave indiscretion. It is time that the Services Chiefs of Pakistan Army, Pakistan Air Force and Pakistan Navy should sit together under the Chair of Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee and end this soap opera at national cost.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—The way former Pakistani intelligence officers are spilling the beans on television screens these days has no precedence anywhere else in the world.

It is a fact that nowhere in the world do former Armed Forces officers or former Intelligence agents reveal sensitive information about actions carried out under the State Secrets Act.

Official secrets are kept secret until death because disclosing them can harm the interests of the country and the nation.

Pakistan, however, is very unfortunate in this regard. In our country those who are supposed to be the custodians of national and official secrets have themselves started succumbing to the lust of fame and the pull of a sensation-hungry media.

Former ISI Chief Lieutenant General Hamid Gul (Rtd) set the trend. This encouraged many others and now another former ISI Chief Lt. Gen. Asad Durrani, former Corps Commander Quetta Lt. Gen. Tariq Pervez, former Chief of Air Staff Kaleem Saadat, several former ISI officers, and now the former chief of the country’s civilian intelligence agency, IB, Brigadier Imtiaz, top the list of those who are daringly disclosing official secrets on talk shows with impunity.

Keeping in view their respective career records, we can expect that these retired officers know much more official secrets than what they are revealing, and they are revealing a lot. And they are committing this blunder without realizing the damage they are doing to the nation’s security and solidarity.

In fact, these officers may not realize that their indiscretions qualify them for trial under high treason charges and that they are also violating the oath under which they committed they would never disclose. They are not supposed to expose state secrets even 50 or 100 years after their retirements.

Three cheers to these custodians of national secrets and national solidarity and hats off to our television hosts – or anchor persons as we call them in Pakistan – who not only encourage these retired officers to talk but willingly provide them a platform to air national secrets, live, across the world, without care for the price the nation will have to pay for this collective act of grave indiscretion.

The Daily Mail strongly believes that it is about time that the Services Chiefs of Pakistan Army, Pakistan Air Force and Pakistan Navy should sit together under the Chair of Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee and devise a policy to ensure that no one from the three services is ever allowed again to disclose such secrets to media and if he or she does so, they should be tried in military courts for violation of oath and sedition.

The Daily Mail also believes that the above mentioned former ISI and Army officers must be arrested by ISI and should be interrogated thoroughly to identify the internal and foreign actors on whose behest these retired officers are damaging the country’s solidarity and destroying the image of national institutions. We believe that if this is not done, the country’s safety, security and image would remain in a double jeopardy.

These retired officers should not be let free with a license to play havoc with the integrity of national institutions and national security.

Makhdoom Babar Sultan is the editor-in-chief of the Daily Mail News, which publishes everyday from Islamabad and Beijing. He can be reached at macbabur@hotmail.com

Dr. Shireen Mazari has had the honor of being one of the targets of the US Embassy in Islamabad particularly since 2008 when in her columns she broke the news of US Army’s General Hood coming to Pakistan and the 11 conditions that the Pakistani government was quietly planning to accept granting unfettered access in Pakistan for US personnel with no legal restraints.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—While US diplomats target their critics in Pakistan with a new ferocity, the US media and politicians target the Pakistan’s nuclear and military capability.

Taking the latter first, Dr. Khan had barely gained his “freedom” when that murderous former Vice President Dick Cheney, in a pre-taped interview to Fox News (30 August), declared that the Obama Administration should use the CIA to find out what Dr. Khan was up to! Cheney also expressed pride in the Bush Administration’s aggressive use of drones in FATA!

So should we assume that the increased presence of Blackwater and other unidentified US personnel in Islamabad may also have Dr. Khan as a possible target?

Nor was it just Cheney firing off on one of America’s obsessions – Dr. Khan – while quite unconcerned about the massive proliferation that the US continues to Israel (this is all now part of the published and available data in case the US embassy accuses this scribe of falsehood again).

More irritating than disturbing, has been the story in The New York Times (NYT), citing unnamed senior administration and congressional officials (of course when we cite similar sources, US officialdom is not amused), accusing Pakistan of modifying the Harpoon missiles given to the Pakistan navy to enable to hit land-based targets.

Had the NYT bothered to do some basic research they would have realized that Pakistan has no need to modify the old Harpoon missiles when they already have far better land-based missile systems already battle-tested and in their arsenal. As it is, the Harpoon does not have the range that would be required to hit land-based targets.

The question that arises then is why plant this story now – apart from the continuing US effort to undermine the Pakistan’s military capability and keep the military institution under pressure (or so they assume)?

One reason may have to do with putting pressure on the Pakistan Navy to give its go-ahead to the US request, forwarded by Pakistan’s Ministry of Defense to the Naval Chief, to allow them to build a landing strip near Gwadar (their own miniport facility) where US marines can land “some stuff” ostensibly as part of their anti-narcotic activities. So far there has been no response from the Pakistani side. Why they can’t do that at the existing facilities in the area is the question some Pakistanis are asking?

Interestingly, in relation to the Pakistan Navy and the Harpoon issue, there are also unconfirmed but reliable reports that the Special Services Group Navy (SSGN) is constructing operational facilities in Gharo, Sindh (close to the Indus delta, south of Thatta) which are purpose-built to serve as a base for an army unit – comprising halls, residential units and storage facilities. Some years back the Navy had decided to shift the SSGN headquarter (PNS Iqbal) from the dockyard to a coastal area, but Gharo was not the likely sight at the time. Because there has been a sudden increase in assistance to the SSGN from the US, questions are being raised whether this shifting of the SSGN to Gharo is actually a ruse to allow US Marine “trainers” to arrive there in large numbers on the pretext of training the SSGN commandos in newly-acquired weapons and tactics? So, the old carrot and stick approach – assistance and then the ridiculous Harpoon story – continues to be at work. What is disturbing here is that perhaps this whole Gharo “deal” is being done at a micro tactical level with the overall military high command not totally in the know. Certainly, it merits a closer examination by the military leadership and more transparency.

Clearly, the Americans do not understand the ordinary Pakistani. Their interaction with the ruling elites has led them to assume that this elite, with its tendency towards subservience and a constant gaze towards Washington (with a few exceptions) is reflective of the Pakistani nation at large. But, to their dismay, they are finding out otherwise even as they infiltrate into the bureaucratic and academic set ups in Pakistan. Again, subtlety having never been a strong American trait, they are responding to negative responses of ordinary Pakistanis in the usual ham-fisted manner in an effort to silence the critics. This writer has had the honor of being one of their targets especially since 2008 when stories regarding General Hood and the 11 conditions relating to unfettered access in Pakistan for US personnel with no legal restraints broke on the front pages of The News.

But even earlier, when Mr. Riaz Khokhar was Foreign Secretary, the US embassy had sought to have me either silenced in terms of my column or removed from the Institute of Strategic Studies – or else the embassy would assume that I was reflecting (heavens forbid) the official views of the Government of Pakistan. That is why some readers may recall for a while at the bottom of my column there was a one-liner stating that the views expressed were my own. Full credit to Mr. Khokhar for standing his ground, but I knew it was simply a matter of time when I would be liberated from all official strangleholds.

Now, once again, the US Ambassador, has turned her guns on this scribe as well as some electronic media hosts – all of whom have been exposing the increasing muscle flexing by the growing number of non-diplomatic Americans now in Pakistan – especially the notorious Blackwater – now re-christened Xe Worldwide. Just for the record, whatever has appeared in these columns regarding this group and the dubious Creative Associates International Inc (CAII) has been gleaned from Western media sources including the Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA), but then verified from reliable local sources. It is interesting to see how the more the US penetrates Pakistani officialdom, the more the saner elements within this officialdom show their anger and frustration and reveal to ordinary Pakistanis the wholesale handing over of the country to Washington.

Especially with the Blackwater issue refusing to die down in the media despite a strange silence in Parliament and in spite of threats of multiple types from the yet-to-be-expanded US embassy in Islamabad; new revelations are made on a daily basis about US shenanigans in Pakistan. Here in Pakistan it has got to the stage where one is not sure who is an “official” American and who is not. After all, the guard who abused Pakistan and an SHO in the diplomatic enclave was a member of the US government; but who were the three Americans who beat up a Pakistani citizen, Mohsin Bokhari, in Islamabad’s Aabpara last week? After using violence against this citizen they did eventually apologize, but the police refused to register a case because they felt that if the case registered by the SHO of the diplomatic enclave had no impact in terms of justice – thanks to the pusillanimity of the present Ministry of Foreign Affairs setup – it would simply be a waste of their energy in the month of fasting to register yet another case of violence by Americans against a Pakistani citizen.

Further, as the growing disaffection hits the more conscientious Pakistanis in officialdom, what should one make of the information (from frustrated police officials) regarding four Americans initially arrested on Friday, 25 August, at FIA headquarters, Peshawar Morrh, Islamabad with unlicensed automatic weapons (seven MI-6) and no identification – although the arresting officials say they were “kala pani” (Blackwater) personnel around 14:45. When they were brought to the Margala police station, SP Nasir Aftab, who had previously been serving in the diplomatic enclave, also arrived, followed by US embassy’s security officer, a retired Pakistan army officer, Captain Ijaz. The latter abused and threatened the policemen and in front of SP Aftab had the four Americans, with no diplomatic identity, released from custody. When the SHO protested, SP Aftab also adopted Captain Ijaz’s tone and later confessed he was helpless as he had orders from “above” for the release of these American law breakers. Incidentally, if the US Administration has no links with Blackwater anymore, why is the US embassy in the forefront of interceding on their behalf?

So how much pressure will we all be able to endure and when will we all be silenced one way or another? If the Americans understood us they would realize that the Pakistani nation cannot be silenced into submission despite its leadership.

This article was first published in www.pakistankakhudahafiz.com.

Source: www.ahmedquraishi.com

A book in India that praises Pakistan’s founder is being celebrated in Pakistan.  Pakistani commentators appear apologetic in trying to seek approval.  The book argues that Mohammad Ali Jinnah did not want Pakistan as a first choice.  This is a common mistake made both by Indian and western writers, and even some Pakistani intellectuals.  Pakistan was destined to happen, a result of ten centuries of Pakistani cultural, political and military presence in the region located between India, Iran and Afghanistan.  The Quaid-e-Azam, as Pakistanis reverently call their Great Leader, understood this and became the instrument for a cause larger than him.  The Indians need to correct one more fallacy: there was no ‘partition’ in 1947.

While we should thank India’s former foreign minister for his courage in praising the charismatic leader of Pakistan’s independence movement, we should stop behaving as if we are seeking validation and vindication.  Mr. Jaswant Singh’s book is not a Pakistani victory.  It is a sincere attempt by an Indian citizen to probe what is commonly known as partition, which itself is based on the false notion that a sovereign India was wrongly divided.  For us in Pakistan, we should realize that our independence – and not ‘partition’ – is steeped in both modern and old histories and requires no explanation.

 Pakistani intellectuals continue to be afflicted with low self-esteem that prevents them from fashioning an interpretation of history supportive of the idea of Pakistani nationalism.  In this, our intellectuals are far behind the thinkers in Israel, for example, who achieved the impossible by reviving a 2,000-year-old dead language to gel a nation of diverse peoples.

 Our politicians and thinkers failed to make something out of Pakistan in the past six decades mainly because of the lack of pride that comes from a sense of being, a sense of destiny, a sense of history.  This discussion is also important because we have seen brazen attempts during the last two years, especially in the US media, to promote the idea of Pakistan’s balkanization.

Finding a nationalistic motivation, a sort of PakNationalism, is essential.

The first thing Pakistanis need to know is that Pakistan was destined to happen.  Our leader, Mr. Jinnah, made it happen through his sheer brilliance because he was there.  But Pakistan was going to happen anyway, in some shape or form and at an opportune time, because of the force of history.  Pakistan was not a historical coincidence that the common historical version suggests and which Mr. Singh reinforced.  There is no coincidence in the fact that a quarter of a century before Quaid-e-Azam’s rise, a poet who wore a Turkish tarboosh (hat) and wrote Persian poetry predicted such a country.  Pakistan’s rise came exactly 90 years after the formal fall of the Mughal empire, Pakistan’s predecessor, which was the only India the world had known for centuries.  Except for that 90-year-long gap, Pakistan had existed in several shapes and forms and for at least ten centuries or more.

Our Indian friends have the right to debate the question of India’s supposed division.  But today’s India, born in 1947, was never divided or partitioned. It a historical fallacy to think that Pakistan was ever part of any united and sovereign Indian state.  The only thing that was divided in 1947 was a British colony that in turn was based on a defunct Muslim empire.  The Indian grievance about the ‘partition’ that is at the core of Indian animosity toward Pakistan is without base. 

 What is more surprising is how Pakistan’s intellectuals were drawn by Mr. Singh’s book to conclude that Pakistan’s founding father was an ‘Indian nationalist’ who did not want Pakistan as a first choice.  This is incorrect because it negates the force of history that favored Pakistan. Tens of millions of people wanted to be future Pakistani citizens before the country even existed.  The timely and superb leadership of Mr. Jinnah was an instrument, not the cause.

 Sixty-two years later, Pakistanis shouldn’t be discussing details.  We know there was a Pakistan independence movement.  We know it was anchored in history.  We know that the fourth and fifth generations of today’s Pakistanis are more integrated than ever, sharing similar ethnic and cultural roots spread over three dynamic regions that surround Pakistan.

 This is the reality of Mr. Jinnah’s PakNationalism.  And this is the only thing that matters.

Part 1.

Part 2.

Part 3.

Part 4.

Part 5.

Over the past many years there has been a strong lobby of Baluchistan Separatists Movement who strive to separate the Province of Baluchistan from Pakistan. The efforts in recent times have gained significant foot hold to become the talk of the town in recent few months, Patriotic Pakistanis are generally averse to this proposition while the corrupt politicians continue to strangulate the province forcing the Baluchis to struggle for an independent Baluchistan.

A few years back in 2006 US Armed Forces Journal published a map outlining the new Blood Borders which discussed the possibility of a seperate Baluchistan, this map was met with severe outcry across Pakistan. The pros and cons of such a division are still heavily debated and only until recently has it started taking a turn for the worse

A reader of this blog, Basit, pointed about a surprising discovery in one of the forms published on the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) website, the form under question is the AR-11 [Change of Address] form which is used by non US Nationals to notify the USCIS of any change in address. Surprisingly the field “Country of Citizenship” lists Baluchistan (Pakistan) as an option. Within the list of countries listed, I was relieved to see Pakistan still listed, but cant seem to understand why they chose to list Baluchistan alone and conveniently forgot to list the more populus of our other three provinces like Sindh, Punjab or even NWFP.

It could very well be an accidental error, it could also be a list of the most often used terms that people use to fill out this USICS form, or it could very well be a direct indication of things to come, a suggestion that Baluchistan may very well become a country separated from Pakistan.

The issue of Baluchistan being such a sensitive topic I believe the inclusion must touch a very sensitive nerve and should be condemned across the board, with the hope that the Pakistani diplomatic envoys [hopefully they have some balls] to challenge the US officials for an offical apology and an immediate removal.

By: Muhammad Khan (Editor)

Jeevay Pakistan Team wishes you a blessed Ramadan. May Allah shower his blessings on Muslim Ummah in this sacred month and the days to come.  May you find peace and prosperity throughout this month and always.

May Allah Bless Muslim Ummah!!!

May Allah Bless Pakistan!!!

Hamesha Jeevay Pakistan!!!

Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah delivering a speech as Lord Mountbatten looks on.

Singing of the national anthem for the first time.

Funeral procession of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah in Karachi.

Liaquat Ali Khan, elected as first prime minister of Pakistan, visiting a PAF Base.

Fazal Mahmood after the first ever cricket victory over England at Lord’s in 1954.

Ayub khan in discussion with Fatima Jinnah, popularly known as Madar-e-Millat (Mother of the nation).

Gen Yahya Khan touches a horse as Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat looks on.

Lt Gen A. K. Niazi of Pakistan (R) surrenders his forces to Lt. Gen Jagjit Singh Aurora (L) of the Indian army in December 1971, marking the separation of East Pakistan.

Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, founder of Pakistan People’s Party, took over as the country’s president in 1971 and was later elected as the prime minister.

Gen Zia ul Haq with a farmer in Punjab.

Benazir Bhutto elected as the first female prime minister of Pakistan.

Pakistan became the World Champs by defeating England in 1992 World Cup.

Scientists at the Chagai Hills test site pose for a photograph on 28 May 1998.

Pakistan Test Nnuclear Ghauri Missile.

Pervez Musharraf Resigns.

Pakistan has beaten Sri Lanka by 8 wickets to become the World Champions of T20 Cricket.