Anapa Getaway: Relaxing summer vacation in the south of Russia

IS CHINA TURNING UP HEAT ON INDIA THROUGH PAKISTAN FLANK AMID DOKLAM STANDOFF?

BY TOM HUSSAIN

While Chinese and Indian troops face off near Bhutan, skirmishes between Indian and Pakistani forces along the disputed border in Kashmir have spiralled dangerously since May, threatening India with hostilities on two flanks. But even though the Pakistani army would like to leverage the Doklam standoff to settle its old scores with India, China has so far been reluctant to pile pressure on the Kashmir front through Pakistan.

Despite the Chinese state media’s calls for the government to militarily humiliate India in a multiple-front war, China has made no attempt to link the two flanks by publicly taking sides with Pakistan over the intensified clashes along the Kashmir border, known as the Line of Control. “China’s approach to the Kashmir dispute is a function of its own domestic challenges, as well as the fact that it is also a party (to the disputed territory), so even if the geopolitical fault lines in the region harden, the Chinese position won’t solely be driven by a greater tilt towards Pakistan and against India,” said Andrew Small, a fellow at the German Marshall Fund and author of The China-Pakistan Axis.

Clashes along the Kashmir border have spiked since a terror attack that killed 18 Indian soldiers at a military camp near the Line of Control in September. Indian forces responded by conducting what they called “surgical strikes” against targets on the Pakistan-administered territory, sparking unceasing fighting there ever since.

“We should not read too much into the timing of the China-India border standoff and the surge in the Line of Control violence. That said, let’s be clear: China and India are at each other’s throats at the moment and there’s good reason to think that the India-Pakistan rivalry could get dragged into this,” said Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asian programme at the Woodrow Wilson Centre in Washington.

“Could Pakistan be seeing India bogged down in the Himalayas and sensing an opportunity to put pressure on India from another flank? Absolutely,” he told This Week in Asia.

Figures released on Sunday by the Pakistani military’s Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) directorate sought to build the case that India has ramped up military action along the Line of Control. According to the Pakistani military, there have been more than 580 Indian violations of a 2004 ceasefire agreement so far this year. It was 382 last year.

According to the Indian Army, there have been 238 ceasefire violations by Pakistani forces this year up to mid-July.

Fighting has intensified in recent months, with 308 incidents taking place between May 1 and July 15, says the ISPR. Since being appointed Pakistani army chief in November amid the frequent fighting, Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa has visited frontline military positions in Kashmir every month. The General has shifted the focus of the national security narrative away from Pakistan’s largely won war against Taliban insurgents and back towards its historical enmity with India.

But the Pakistani military’s leadership is constrained in its actions by mounting US pressure to act decisively against Afghan Taliban and anti-India terrorist factions that “continued to operate from Pakistani soil in 2016”, according to the US State Department country report for Pakistan, released on Wednesday.

US defence and foreign affairs spending bills currently making their way through the Congress have tightened conditions on the release of funds to Pakistan, making it subject to confirmation that it has proactively acted to prevent cross-border terrorist attacks from its territory. The US defence bill notes that the US and India view geopolitical developments in Asia “the same way”, and requires the Trump administration to produce a working plan for enhanced military cooperation with India within six months. However, the US is also concerned that rising military tensions with India would make Pakistan less cooperative in finding a Taliban-inclusive negotiated political settlement in Afghanistan. The US is keen to involve India in the Afghanistan peace process, an idea Pakistan is averse to.

“Tensions between Pakistan and India must be addressed. Pakistan’s actions in Afghanistan are in many ways driven – rightly or wrongly – by its existential fear of India and potential encirclement by an Afghanistan government that would allow India to use its territory for anti-Pakistan activities,” said a recently published report by the US Institute of Peace, a Washington think tank. “Therefore, some steps need to be taken to give Pakistan assurances that its support for an Afghanistan-led peace process will not risk losing power to India.” Fighting flared up again this week along the Kashmir border since the death of four Pakistani soldiers on Sunday. Speaking to his Indian counterpart by telephone the following day, for the first time in six week, the Pakistani army’s chief of military operations warned the fresh bout of clashes could lead to a dangerous tactical escalation.

“While we don’t want to go down the path where we start choking each other’s supply lines, however, any such recurrence will invoke more strong and effective measures from Pakistan’s side,” said Maj Gen Sahir Shamshad Mirza, according to an ISPR press release.A Pakistani Ranger shares a word with an Indian Border Security Force soldier at the India-Pakistan joint border check post of Wagah, India. Photo: AP India’s Lt Gen A.K. Bhatt said his forces would respond in kind. The Indian side had opened fire on Sunday in response to an attempt by Pakistani militants to infiltrate across the Line of Control, according to an Indian army spokesman. Two Indian soldiers were killed in a Pakistani ceasefire violation on Tuesday, the Indian army said. Pakistan’s military said its forces had killed a further five Indian soldiers on Wednesday.Since May, Pakistan’s air force has activated its forward operating bases along the entire length of its border with India. The decision was taken after Indian press reports revealed the Indian air force chief, Air Chief Marshall B.S. Dhanoa, had asked all 12,000 officers under his command to be “prepared for operations with our present holdings, at a very short notice”. Beijing has repeatedly called on both sides to engage in diplomatic talks and offered on Monday to play a “constructive role” in improving relations between Islamabad and New Delhi. The offer was a glib reminder that India and Pakistan have both sought diplomatic assistance from China and the US to resolve previous crises that threatened to descend into war.

Pakistan’s forbidden romance with Bollywood

Invoking India’s decades-old policy of refusing third-party intervention in its disputes with Pakistan, the foreign ministry spokesman dismissed the offer out of hand. In view of the Bhutan standoff, China may thus be seeking to subtly leverage military tensions between India and Pakistan to its advantage, but without substantially changing its position on Kashmir.

RELATED ARTICLES Chinese troops in a border region with India. Beijing and New Delhi have long-standing territorial tensions. Photo: AP China is being ‘unusually aggressive’ in border row Border standoff with India be damned, Chinse love for this Bollywood film just keeps growing Tensions between China and India flared last month in an area on the Tibetan border known as Donglang in Chinese and Doklam in India. Photo: AP India ready for talks with China to end border stand-off, but Beijing digs in heels Chinese troops in a border region with India. Beijing and New Delhi have long-standing territorial tensions. Photo: AP China is being ‘unusually aggressive’ in border row Beijing has in fact successfully negotiated nearly all its land border disputes, sometimes explicitly invoking relevant international law. Stark exceptions are China’s still-disputed borders with India and Bhutan. Illustration: Ingo Fast “Beijing will tread carefully when it comes to revising a stance that it has held to for decades. But there is a sense at the moment that there is a little more room for Chinese manoeuvre at the margins, primarily as a result of growing tensions in Sino-Indian relations,” said Small.
http://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2103646/china-turning-heat-india-through-pakistan-flank-amid-doklam

China: India's withdrawal a prerequisite for meaningful dialogue

China - Trump’s new Afghan strategy will fail if neighbors’ concerns not addressed

By M. Nadeem Alizai 

In the past, America's abstruse Afghan strategy has deteriorated the security situation in the region. Perhaps the strategy was not planned meticulously. It was ambiguous. Or perhaps it was well-calculated and clear but only for top leaders in the US, because they had hidden goals. Clearly defined solutions to the ongoing problems were missing. The presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan for over a decade could not protect Afghans. Terrorism is claiming lives of Afghan civilians and security personnel on a regular basis.

Massive terror attacks in the country, despite the presence of US-dominated NATO forces, are lamentable and raise questions about the sincerity of Washington in the current war on terror. 

US policies have failed to alleviate the misery of Afghans - a fact yet to be embraced by the Pentagon. Current policies show the White House's apathy. The element of arbitration - the only viable option out of the Afghan quagmire - is missing in these policies. 

Tired of America's longest war, the Trump administration is drafting another Afghan strategy.

According to US Defense Secretary James Mattis, the new strategy for the war-hit country will have a "regional context." This week, the secretary told news reporters that the strategy "could change the nature of US military engagement" in Afghanistan. 

It is believed that US military engagement will not be limited to assistance or training missions. American troops in Afghanistan will fight militant groups directly, and night raids will resume. 

Night raids were the only bone of contention between the Karzai and Obama administrations. In a country like Afghanistan, where tribalism has deep roots, the surprise searches by foreign forces aggravate the local population. 

Many Afghans see this strategy as a pretext for a longer presence of US forces in the country. They believe the strategy will not help the country because if the goal was elimination of terrorists and helping Afghan security forces, the US would have done it long before. Haunted by terrorism, Afghans say that the Islamic State (IS) emerged in the presence of foreign troops.

Likewise, Pakistan will distance itself further from the US if it comes under crippling pressure, and drone strikes were resumed. A troop surge without a clear plan will also perturb Russia and China, because the two countries played an important role in the Afghan reconciliation process. Iran, China and Russia will feel pressure when violence increases in Afghanistan. 

If this happens, then the future of the Afghan peace process is surely dark as talks and war cannot go hand in hand.

Recent developments in the region suggest that although the Afghan government is desperately looking forward to the new strategy, its neighbors do not approve. Iran's parliament passed a resolution against the US. 

Political indicators give us a hint about the reaction of Afghanistan's neighbors to the new strategy, which is still under discussion. The reaction is favorable neither to the Trump administration nor the Afghan government. 

Therefore, a candid approach toward the Afghan problem is imperative to end the vicious circle of violence in the war-devastated country. 

If the security concerns, views and interests of Afghanistan's neighbors are not considered by the Trump administration, then the new strategy will not help the war-torn nation. Taking Afghanistan's neighbors onboard is vital to ending the war through dialogue, which is the only viable option. If the concerns and viewpoints of China, Iran, Russia and Pakistan are not considered, it will create suspicions and tensions. 

Afghan strategy must be broad-based and backed by Afghanistan's neighbors. The White House has failed to give convincing replies to numerous questions related to the war against terrorism, especially the dramatic emergence of IS. Strategy based on insolence and miscalculations will prolong the misery of the Afghan people. Besides, an absence of key regional players will embolden the insurgents. 

Therefore, inclusion of Afghanistan's neighbors in the discussion on Afghan strategy would help US military strategists. 

In order to end the war and have a result-oriented Afghan strategy, the US should convene a conference on its strategy. 

The new strategy shall prove as a blessing rather than a curse for the Afghan people and other nations in the region who have suffered greatly. The best approach will be to include the affected nations and address their concerns. It will not only help in leading the war on terror to its ultimate end but also finding solutions to other major challenges such as radicalism, narcotics trafficking, separatist movements and civilian casualties. 

NATO shouldn’t worry about China-Russia drill

China and Russia are joining forces for military exercises in the Baltic Sea from Friday till July 28. Three Chinese warships will blaze a trail in the first-ever joint operation in European inland waters. NATO and the West are casting a sensitive and strange look at the exercises. Many Western media outlets view the operation as an example of China flexing its military muscle globally.

The West is not used to seeing China's presence in the Baltic Sea, a traditional geopolitical forefront in Europe. The Baltic Sea has never been a closed region. But once China enters the area, some members of NATO would watch it suspiciously.   

In fact, China's intention of sending its warships to the Baltic Sea is very simple - boosting the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination. The back-to-back strategic cooperation does not target any third party. But of course, if any third party is unfriendly toward China and Russia, they will feel invisible pressure of some sort. 

This is a time when China and NATO are most friendly to each other. This is also a time when China's comprehensive strategic partnership with Russia is continuing to develop. Moscow has never expressed discontent with the improving relationship between China and NATO. So NATO should not think too much about the joint military exercises.                        

The military cooperation between China and Russia is still preliminary and limited. Many Western media outlets call China and Russia "allies," and they know the expression is frivolous. Beijing and Moscow have no intention to forge an alliance in the traditional sense. The two countries wish to be partners but they want to keep away from forging an alliance and their stance is sincere.

The fact that the West is paranoid about the general joint military exercises reflects its fragility. Why is the powerful West so fragile? It is because their strategic squeeze on China and Russia is going too far. 

Many observers believe that if China and Russia are too close, they will form an unprecedented big power. But in fact the combined strength of China and Russia is still weaker than that of the West. China and Russia want to protect their own countries' interests and their wish is sincere and restrained. Today, the battlefronts of the two countries are not long. They are capable of protecting their own core interests. With their mutual support and back-to-back strategic posture, they have sufficient capability to safeguard their interests. 

It has been decades since the end of the Cold War. Revolutionary changes such as the deepening of globalization have taken place. But the West's prejudice against Beijing and Moscow still remains unchanged. The West's elbowing of China and Russia seems to be endless. We simply cannot understand why some Western forces are so obsessed with setting China and Russia as a target.

Russia is generally on the strategic defensive while China is a rare gentle rising power. Some in the West feel uncomfortable about the two countries, who are in fact not forging an alliance but only engaged in cooperation including joint military drills in the Baltic Sea. It is their own fault if they feel that way.

Chinese navy will surely get stronger and stronger and march further and further, which the West should get used to. China will not grab others' territory and seek to steal others' influence. Today, China's interest spreads all over the globe and China is activating its role that the sea has reserved for the Chinese people. China is far simpler than what Western public opinion claims. Many of China's developments have been achieved naturally. China has no wild ambition of outstretching around the world.     

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Chinese naval fleet arrives in Russia for joint drill

Video - Putin holds Q&A with school children in Sochi

Putin Discusses Personal Life, Future Plans, State Issues With Children in Sochi

Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting on Friday with children of the Sirius children’s center in Sochi and shared some details regarding his personal life and career, plans for 2018 presidential race and discussed some issues of Russian economy and science.

The Sirius center was founded in 2013 based on the infrastructure for the Olympic Games, on Putin's initiative. The president is the chair of the center's board of trustees.

The center aims to find gifted children, help foster their talents and provide further professional support.

LIFE, LOVE, FREEDOM

A number of questions, asked by the children, were devoted to some aspects of president's personal life, including using of social networks, hobbies, personal values and career among others.

In particular, Putin admitted that he did not have any accounts on social media networks, however, added that he knew that there were some 5,000 social media accounts using his name.

"I have nothing to do with any of them, just so it is clear to you and other users. It is not me writing under my name. I hope they say nothing bad, but either way it is not me," Putin said.

When asked about key values of his life, the president said they are love, freedom and life itself.

"The first is life itself. This is the greatest value. Then love and freedom," Putin said speaking to children, adding that the collapse of the Soviet Union was the event that impacted his life the most.

The president also disclosed a pseudonym that he used when studying at an intelligence school, a special training institution for intelligence agents.

"When I studied at an intelligence school, I had a pseudonym — 'Platov.' Everyone had pseudonyms, because such job requires certain level of conspiracy," Putin said, adding that using a pseudonym now seemed absurd to him.

Speaking about his life the president said that he had always been engaged in sports and could do 15-17 chin-ups, however, admitted that he had never participated in military and patriotic games.

Putin also said that he had good relations with parents and always listened to their advice and recommendations, however, the final choice he had always taken by himself.

PEOPLE'S CHOICE

Putin said that he had not yet decided whether he would run for president in 2018, when asked about his future career plans.

"I have not decided yet, I’ll see. Elections are in 2018, there is still time before the electoral campaign, so we will see," Putin said.

According to Putin, it is the Russian people that will decide who will become the next Russian president even if there is an established political practice of suggesting successors before leaving the post.

"I want to say that, according to the established international practice, if a leader of a party, a country or a government leaves [his post], generally, but not always, he would introduce someone or recommend to pay special attention to a particular person as to someone who will head a country's government or a party. But in the end, the people will be the ones to decide through a direct and secret vote who will head the country, as provided for under the Russian Constitution. That is why, no matter who recommends whom, it is the Russian people who will make their personal decision," the president stressed.

The president also admitted that he was asked to amend the constitution to extend the term of the head of state in office, but he did not and will not do that.

HUMANKIND ON BRINK OF NEW DEVELOPMENT STAGE

The humankind is on the brink of a leap forward, Putin pointed out at the meeting with the Sirius children.

"Global change is happening all the time, but at a different speed. In the Middle Ages there was a certain speed of change, in the 20th century it is different, these days, the speed has significantly grown. It is connected to the accretion of knowledge: the more knowledge the humankind has, the faster the changes. Besides, there is such a phenomenon as 'gradual accretion followed by the leap.' So we seem to be on the cusp of the leap forward," Putin said.

According to the president, Russia will allocate about $850 million to support the system of grants for scientific researches and support young specialists in different areas.

Putin added that the development of biotechnologies is one of the key directions in modern science, and the state will fully support researches engaged in this area.

The Russian president also noted that technoparks for young scientists and specialists are currently being created in 24 regions. In addition, the authorities will try in 2018 to raise the salaries of scientific institutions employees to 200 percent of the average salary level in the economy.

The head of state also proposed to expand the list of competitions on scientific projects, and promised to think about the benefits for students who take an active part in them.

OIL NOT TO BE OVER SOON

The children also asked the president about country's energy future, in particular, how the situation will develop when Russia runs out of oil, gas and coal.

"It will not happen soon, more and more reserves are being discovered, this applies to all hydrocarbons — oil, gas and coal," Putin said.

The head of state stressed that Russia should be on the brink of progress in the development of renewable resources.

"The whole world is working on hydrogen energy, renewable energy, biofuels. The renewable resources are wind, tides of waves, solar energy. The question is that all this must be effective and cheaper than hydrocarbons. We need to think about this today," Putin added.

MARS AND SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE

The president also talked about Russia's plans to explore Mars and said that Russia would continue to participate in joint work with the Europeans to develop this direction.

"I do not remember exactly, but in my opinion, in 2020 we plan together with the Europeans to make another attempt (landing on Mars), but we will make a landing complex. I hope that we will do it well and we will succeed," Putin told the children.

He noted that further work will consist of moving to the satellites of Mars and landing an apparatus there.

"That is why, the work has been planned and it has been planned within specific terms — the launch in 2019 and an apparatus landing on Mars several years later," Putin added.

Answering the question what unresolved secrets of history he would like to disclose, Putin said that he would like to unravel the mystery of creation of the universe and the solar system.

Video Report - ‘Not made of sugar’: Putin shrugs off badass downpour pic

It was a memorable day for Russian social media when Vladimir Putin went out to lay a wreath at a WWII memorial near the Kremlin. In a massive downpour and without an umbrella, photos of the drenched
Russian leader flooded the internet. And people only had one question…

“Why didn’t he have an umbrella?” Not surprisingly, the children he was speaking to in Sochi brought this up.

With all the judo and bare-chested horse-riding, most would agree that the Russian president is made of tough stuff.

So when asked why he didn’t use an umbrella at the ceremony at the Tomb of Unknown Soldier in Moscow, where he laid the wreath on the Day of Memory and Sorrow in late June, Putin replied: “I didn’t even think of getting under an umbrella as the wreath was being laid,” Putin said, adding, that Russian soldiers fought day and night in any weather during the World War II. “People lived there and died there. That’s such a horrible situation.”

“It’s not that I had thought of something or not, or had made a decision. It didn’t cross my mind that I should’ve acted differently. I think it’s normal. We aren’t made of sugar, we won’t melt.”

“The rain hit unexpectedly. Rain is known to start suddenly,” Putin quipped.

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Pakistan - Saudi-led alliance & Gen Raheel Sharif

IS retired Gen Raheel Sharif commanding a ghost army? Government representatives have insisted that so long as the terms of reference of the Saudi-led Islamic Military Alliance to Fight Terrorism are not finalised, Pakistan’s participation cannot be determined. But with the prime minister’s foreign adviser, Sartaj Aziz, once again struggling to answer questions in the Senate on Tuesday, it is obvious that the Pakistani government is not clear when these terms will be finalised. So why was an NoC issued to Gen Sharif, allowing him to proceed to Saudi Arabia to take command of an army that does not exist and to implement the orders of an alliance whose terms have not yet been finalised? Despite another round of questions by senators on Tuesday, Mr Aziz was unable to offer anything resembling an acceptable answer.

It is possible to attribute the decision to issue Gen Sharif an NoC to a civil-military relationship that is forever shrouded in secrecy and in which the civilians are arm-twisted into making poor choices. But so long as the veil of secrecy remains, it is also possible to interpret the decision to send Gen Sharif to Saudi Arabia in other ways. Could the civilian government have struck a deal with the then army chief to provide him a job post retirement if he gave up on his rumoured ambition to secure a second term as army chief? The problem with secrecy is that it breeds rumours and suspicion, especially when it concerns individuals at the very top of the de facto power structure in the country. The phrase ‘in the national interest’ is bandied about easily; surely, when it comes to Pakistan joining a foreign military alliance, with the possibility of troop deployments abroad, the national interest demands clarity and transparency.

There is also a problem that the government refuses to acknowledge: parliament has debated and rejected the possibility of sending troops to a sectarian cauldron in the Middle East and the Gulf. Saudi Arabia is rightly a close ally of Pakistan and the ties between the two countries are deep and long-standing, but Saudi Arabia’s interests are not automatically Pakistan’s. As the war in Yemen and now the blockade of Qatar have indicated, the Saudi leadership, undergoing a generational change, is making questionable decisions. Pakistan’s core national interest is to defeat militancy of all stripes. But in their quest for ascendancy over rival states, several Middle Eastern and Gulf countries have embraced groups that can have disastrous consequences for this country. There is already speculation that recent sectarian attacks in the country are the militant Islamic State group’s purported retaliation against Pakistanis fighting in Syria. The warning signs are too big to ignore. Gen Sharif ought to unilaterally reconsider his position. If he does not, the government must consider ways to cancel the NoC he has been granted.

Pakistan - Not forgetting #Mashal

How soon we forget.

How soon we forget the words of our own convictions.

How soon we forget that never again ought to mean just that.

How soon we only care to remember the living, those who almost lost. Praising their resilience as if casually bathing ourselves in a reflected glory that we somehow believe was of our own making. How much easier it is to praise Malala, Mukhtaran Mai. For they had the decency to survive. To live and let us hijack the narrative, appropriate what they stood for and rewrite it by our own hand — to say finally that this is what we had been talking about all along. Such unhidden dangers. But not so those who fall to the sword. The Qandeels, the Mashal Khans of this hard and unforgiving country. For it is not so profitable profiteering from the dead.

Qandeel, like Malala, fought against conservatism and tested the boundaries of societal norms. She, too pushed the buttons of the religious right. Yet on her grave do we dance. She, who dared and dared until she was done for. All the easier for us to say that she got what she deserved.

And what of Mashal?

At first we felt brave and proud and loud as we condemned his murder most foul. Far easier it is, after all, to take a posthumous stand for those lynched for blasphemy when the victim checks majority boxes: male and Muslim, twin virtues undoubtedly. Not to mention the small matter of being found not guilty of that which they falsely accused him. So maybe we thought that our work was done. That making his name go viral was enough. And that being done we then unshackled ourselves from long-term responsibility, all the better to turn the other cheek to see which new bandwagon we could jump upon. After all, because of us and us alone were the organs of the state sitting up and taking suo moto notice of a frenzied attack upon an innocent young man. Our work was indeed done.

Except that things don’t roll like that. Not here, in the real world. Not in this hard and unforgiving country. Forty days have passed. His nearest and dearest still find themselves wandering in the wilderness. There has been no parting of the sea. No one has walked on water. These are miracles of another time. No one has, in fact, done anything. The JIT on Mashal’s death risks standing defunct. The bitter irony being that those who today stand before the spotlight of the courts are part of the problem that sent a young man to an early and brutal death.

If his life meant anything to you, to us, to anyone and everyone — we must keep his memory alive and keep the pressure on. This is the only way justice will be done.

US withholds 50 Million Dollars military support to Pakistan

The US Defense Department withheld $50 million in Pakistan military payments after Pentagon chief Jim Mattis accused Islamabad of not doing enough to counter the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network, an official said Friday.

“Secretary Mattis told congressional defense committees that he was not able to certify that Pakistan took sufficient actions against the Haqqani network to permit full reimbursement of the fiscal year 2016 Coalition Support Funds,” Pentagon Spokesman Adam Stump said. The United States had allotted $900mn in military aid to Pakistan through the special fund. The country has already received $550mn of that, but Mattis’s decision means $50mn will be withheld. The remaining $300mn was rescinded by Congress as part of a broader appropriations act. “This decision does not reduce the significance of the sacrifices that the Pakistani military has undertaken over previous years,” Stump said. “Pakistan still has time to take action against the Haqqani network in order to influence the secretary’s certification decision in FY17,” he added.

Led by Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is also the Taliban’s deputy leader, the group has carried out numerous operations deep in the heart of Kabul and has been blamed by Afghanistan for a devastating truck bombing that killed more than 150 people in the capital in May. Post navigation

Pakistan - Khursheed Shah asks PM to present assets record to parliament

While continuously mounting pressure on the government, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah has asked Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to submit whole record of his foreign assets to the parliament.

“The Prime Minister should present all the documents of his foreign properties to the parliament, which he mentioned in his speech delivered on the floor of the National Assembly on 16 May,” Syed Khursheed Shah demanded this in a letter to National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, in his speech on May 16, also suggested formation of a joint committee to draft the Terms of Reference (ToRs) for establishing a judicial commission to probe the allegations levelled against him in the Panama Leaks. “I have all the documents with me,” the PM had said during in his speech. Giving reference of his speech, he said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had mentioned that he had all the record of his factories in Jeddah and Dubai. “The Prime Minister had also suggested constitution of a joint committee to draft the ToRs for establishing a judicial commission to investigate the allegations against him,” Shah said in his letter, mentioning the documents presented to the court had already been shared in the Joint Investigation Report (JIT).

Shah said that Prime Minister had not mentioned any detail in the parliament as yet. “Sharif family has no answer to the questions raised,” he said adding the Sharif family instead of responding to the questions regarding money trail using delaying tactics.

Nonetheless, the Premier is confident that he will survive the Panamagate storm, as evident from his recent statements wherein he has repeatedly said that he “won’t resign at any cost, on anyone’s call”, he added.

After the JIT report was presented in the Supreme Court, it was an impression that the premier would have to go either voluntarily or through an adverse court order. But the situation is still not the same as predicted by political pundits because the government has challenged the report of joint investigation team by pointing out its deficiencies and flaws.

Pakistan SC reserves ruling in Panama Papers case

Mubashir Zaidi

The date of announcement of verdict has not been given. If convicted, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif can face disqualification from politics.

Pakistan's Supreme Court on Friday reserved the judgment in the Panama Papers case in which Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family are accused of amassing assets abroad through offshore companies and concealing the information from tax authorities.

The assets under the microscope are four apartments in Park Lane area of London.

The date of announcement of the verdict has not been given. If convicted, Mr. Sharif can face disqualification from politics. The case has dominated headlines in Pakistan for over a year and most government ministers, including the Prime Minister himself and opposition leaders, are only focussing to speak on this case.

Pakistani Tehrik-i-Insaf of Imran Khan filed a petition in the apex court following the publication of Panama Papers.

In April last, Mr. Sharif narrowly escaped when the Supreme Court, in a 3-2 judgment, ordered an inquiry against him. Two judges in the minority judgment claimed that he was not truthful. A judge even referred to him as a godfather and used strong words like ''Sicilian mafia''.

A Joint Investigation Team (JIT) was formed by the judges to ascertain whether the Sharifs used legitimate means to purchase the flats. The JIT concluded last week in a damning report that Mr. Sharif and his children were living beyong their means and submitted forged documents to conceal their assets. Mr. Sharifs' lawyers still deny the allegations.

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court took up the JIT findings to decide if Mr. Sharif stands disqualified or should his case be sent to anti-corruption body National Accountability Bureau.

The court, after hearing the arguments of both sides, reserved the verdict. It, however, said that it would address the issue whether Mr. Sharif was being truthful. Mr. Sharif, on the other hand, has been holding public rallies and asking what are the charges against him. "I still don't know what are the charges we are facing. I have not done any corruption or embezzled any funds from the treasury. It seems like a conspiracy," he told a gathering in Upper Dir area on Thursday.


But the Opposition is confident that the Supreme Court will declare the Prime Minister disqualified. Elections are scheduled in Pakistan next year.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/panama-papers-case-pakistan-supreme-court-reserves-ruling/article19323609.ece