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Posts published in “Pak Media comment”

Afghan people, Afghan govt and the Taliban — a necessary distinction

by Inam Ul Haque in The Express Tribune, October 29th, 2020.The writer is a retired major general and has an interest in International Relations and Political Sociology.It is fashionable these days to lump every shortcoming that Pakistan faces at the doorstep of Afghanistan. Be it the inflation, the rising crime, the ever present terrorism, the congestion in our urban places like Peshawar, the proliferation of drugs or the ubiquity of Kalashnikov… Afghanistan and Afghan refugees…

Matter of learning poverty: edit in Daily Times, Oct 29, 2020

Most leading International Financial Institutions (IFIs) have been pretty ahead of the curve in terms of identifying just how and how much the world might change because of the coronavirus pandemic. Some, like the World Health Organisation (WHO) and World Trade Organisation (WTO) have warned of famines, sometimes of “biblical proportions,” and reduced trade which in the worst case scenario could see many trillions in lost global earnings and impact people accordingly across the globe.…

People and prices: edit in The News, Oct 29, 2020

The story of how the price rise faced by people all over the country has come about seems to be one of incompetence, mismanagement and a sheer unwillingness to take action on time. At a meeting on Tuesday, government ministers are reported to have attacked the bureaucracy for stopping the government from moving in time. But what we see is that the government of itself has inflicted a loss of some Rs400 billion on the…

Pakistan’s strategy to address FATF mandates was inadequate

by Abdul Rauf Shakoori in Daily Times, Oct 29, 2020The writer is a corporate lawyer based in the USA and a subject matter expert in White Collar Crimes and Sanctions Compliance.Pakistan’s struggle to remove itself from the list of Jurisdictions under increased monitoring is yet to end. We as a nation witnessed this bizarre news when president of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) announced that Pakistanwill remain in the grey list till February 2021…

RED ZONE FILES: Beyond our comfort zone

by Fahd Husain in Dawn, Oct 29, 2020Everyone is hurting. Everyone needs a breather. Three bumper rallies by the opposition alliance Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) has shaken Pakistan’s political equilibrium in more ways than one. The key stakeholders are rattled, nervous and exhausted. They need time to figure out what is happening and where it is heading. Luckily for all, they now have a breather — in fact 23 days of a breather till the…

Opposition’s huge rallies

by Rustam Shah Mohmand in The Express Tribune, October 29th, 2020.The writer is a former chief secretary K-P and former ambassadorThe campaign to unseat the government is finally underway. Whether it is sustainable or would lose steam as controversies take hold remains to be seen. But there’s one unmistakable takeaway from the Gujranwala and Karachi public meetings. There is a yearning for change as for over two years, people’s endurance has reached its limit. The…

Directing national effort positively: op-ed by Talat Masood in The Express Tribune, Oct 28, 2020.

The writer is a retired lieutenant general of the Pakistan Army and a former federal secretary. He has also served as chairman of the Pakistan Ordnance Factories BoardA time comes in the life of nations when their leaders cannot continue with policies counter to accepted norms of democracy and its foundational principles merely to serve their personal or narrow institutional vested interests. That moment is right now for Pakistan. This is applicable to leaders of…

A national dialogue:: op-ed by Zahid Hussain in Dawn, October 28th, 2020

The writer is an author and journalist.IT seems as if Prime Minister Imran Khan’s container speeches are coming back to haunt him as he confronts the opposition’s onslaught. The difference is that he has little with which to defend his government’s pitiable performance. Blaming the previous administrations for everything that has gone wrong in this country doesn’t sound convincing halfway through his term. Now he speaks of a ‘foreign conspiracy’ — the last refuge of…

Who’ll go on the back foot now?:edit in Daily Times, Oct 28, 2020

It seems nobody’s in the mood to back down just yet. The opposition has opened a Pandora’s Box, thanks to Nawaz Sharif, so there’s no way they can de-escalate without shooting themselves in the foot and losing whatever political relevance they have left forever. And the government, which was expected to be the bigger man, so to speak, in this confrontation, has also ruled out any possibility of a negotiated settlement. The prime minister himself…

Crossing red lines in Quetta

Editorial in Dawn, October 28th, 2020IN Quetta, the Pakistan Democratic Movement ventured into forbidden territory. At its Gujranwala and Karachi rallies, the PDM leaders highlighted the people’s economic hardships and the misery caused by skyrocketing prices of essential food items and medicines, and rightly so. But it was at the mammoth gathering in Balochistan’s capital last Sunday that the speakers also addressed the issue of enforced disappearances, and gave voice to the grief of the…

Cyber Crime Wing FIA turning into mafia

By SYED FAWAD ALI SHAH in Pakistan Today, Oct 28, 2020With the advent of modern technology, the face of traditional crime has drastically changed. Now criminals adopt digital means to commit different crimes. This has ushered into an era of cybercrimes in the society. Now law enforcement agencies are facing culprits who use cyberspace to successfully commit an offences. In Pakistan the Federal Investigation Agency has been assigned the task of countering cybercrimes. it has…