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Posts published in “Pak Media comment”

The wages of isolation: by Khurram Husain in Dawn, Aug 08, 2019

The writer is a member of staff. THE most telling moment in the parliament session called to discuss the Modi government’s recent actions on changing the legislative status of Kashmir came when the prime minister, after being harangued and berated, turned to the opposition leader who was sitting directly across the aisle from him, and asked in a vexed tone: “What do you want me to do? Attack India?” And there in that brief exchange…

Experts fear challenges in meeting US expectations

by SHAFQAT ALI in The Nation, July 25, 2019 ISLAMABAD – Foreign policy experts Wednesday cautioned about the challenges that lie ahead amid improving ties between Pakistan and the United States. The experts, however, welcomed progress in ties with the US as they spoke at a Round-table Conference at Islamabad Policy Institute) on ‘PM Imran Khan’s Visit to US: A Review and the Road Ahead’. This was the second in a series of discussions hosted…

Unsuspecting Pakistani brides: by Rafia Zakaria in Dawn, June 5th, 2019

The writer is an attorney teaching constitutional law and political philosophy. THE seeds of the problem were sown three decades ago. In the years following the Cultural Revolution, the People’s Republic of China put into effect its one-child policy. Under its purview, every couple was limited to just one offspring. While the policy itself finally ended in 2015, its effects did not. First among these effects was selective abortion, as well as the alleged killing…

Detentions in Sri Lanka: edit in The Express Tribune, April 26th, 2019.

Several Pakistanis have been detained in Sri Lanka over the recent serial bombings. A police spokesman said on Thursday in Colombo that a group of Pakistanis had been detained overnight among an unspecified number of foreign nationals for overstaying their visas. This makes it clear that they have no direct links to the attacks on three churches and four hotels. The attacks killed 359 people and also wounded around 500 in possibly the deadliest operation…

Need for stronger SCO role against terrorism

By Wang Wenwen in Global Times, Apr 23, 2019 The ghastly bombings of hotels and churches in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday highlighted the need for Asian countries to strengthen coordination to prevent such tragedies from happening again. And the role of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) should be enhanced. The violence broke a decade-long peace in the country which had been dogged by its civil war until 2009. The Sri Lankan government described the…

Why must Pakistan wait for international pressure to mount to tackle extremism?

By Imad Zafar in The Express Tribune blogs, Mar 7, 2019 The writer is a columnist and writes for various English and Urdu publications. The state has finally come out of a long slumber and has launched an operation to eliminate the religious extremist groups who are allegedly using Pakistan’s soil to create disturbances in India, Iran and Afghanistan. In the wake of the rift between Pakistan and India, this can be termed as a…

Will the Pak ban on militant outfits work without a plan?: by Imtiaz Gul in Daily Times, March 8th 2019.

Following formally banning Jamaat ud Dawah (JuD) and its humanitarian arm, Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), the government on March 5 also moved to take over the institutional paraphernalia associated with Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) across the country. The Sindh government alone took over control of 56 facilities including schools, hospitals and madaris previously run by Jamat-ud-Dawa and Falah-e-Insaniat. For optics, this all looks good. But the issue begging a fundamental question is whether semantics will also change? Will…

The enigma of arms race with India: by Ahmad Faruqui in Daily Times, Feb 8th 2019.

Being much smaller than India, Pakistan knows that it can never reach parity with India in conventional weapons without bankrupting itself. So it developed nuclear weapons. Its nuclear arsenal is now estimated to be on par with India’s. That should have freed up resources from the conventional arms race to be spent on economic, social and cultural development, yielding the so-called nuclear dividend. Unfortunately, the opposite happened. Spending on conventional weapons was not lowered. It…

Afghan war helped Pakistan keep nuclear option: US papers

by Anwar Iqbal in Dawn, December 23rd, 2018 WASHINGTON: Torn between preventing Pakistan from going nuclear and fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan, the United States appears to have decided that pushing the Russians out of Kabul was more important, shows a set of documents released by the US State Department. Official US memos and letter — released under an arrangement to make public official documents after 30 years — show that Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping…

Business confidence takes a hit as Pak govt dithers on IMF deals

By Salman Siddiqui in The Express Tribune, November 27th, 2018 The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government completed its first 100 days on Monday. Unfortunately, progress on the short-duration governance was marred by a drop in business confidence. The government spent a lot more time on deciding whether to go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout, which holds the key towards the dreamed economic turnaround ahead. “The self-imposed controversy over going to the IMF…

Despite expectations, Pakistan gets just $1.5b in foreign loans

By Shahbaz Rana in The Express Tribune, November 27th, 2018. ISLAMABAD: The disbursements of foreign loans still remains low, as Pakistan has received only $1.5 billion in the first four months of this fiscal year, amid expectations that inflows may improve in the coming months on back of support from China in shape of foreign commercial loans. From July through October of fiscal year 2018-19, international creditors disbursed $1.46 billion loans, according to officials of…