Tuesday, May 21, 2019
ڈالر مزید اوپر، 154 کا ہوگیا، سونا بھی 600 روپے تولہ مہنگا
کرنسی مارکیٹ ،ڈالر کی قدر میں اضافےکا تسلسل ،منگل کوانٹربینک مارکیٹ
ریکارڈ کیاگیا،جس کے نتیجے میں امریکی ڈالر کی قیمت خرید150.00روپے سے بڑھ کر152.00روپے اورقیمت فروخت150 .90روپے سے بڑھ کر153.50روپے کی بلندترین سطح پر پہنچ گئی۔یوروکی قیمت خریدمیں استحکام اورقیمت فروخت میں50پیسے جبکہ برطانوی پائونڈ کی قیمت خریدمیں50پیسے اورقیمت فروخت میں1.00روپے کا اضافہ ریکارڈ کیاگیا،جس کے نتیجے میں بالترتیب یوروکی قیمت خرید167.00روپے پرمستحکم اورقیمت فروخت169.50روپے سے بڑھ کر170.00روپے جبکہ برطانوی پائونڈکی قیمت خرید190.50روپے سے بڑھ کر191.00روپے اورقیمت فروخت193 .00روپے سے بڑھ کر194.00روپے ہوگئی ۔ فاریکس رپورٹ کے مطابق سعودی ریال کی قیمت میں20پیسے اور یواے ای درہم کی قیمت میں10پیسے کامزیداضافہ ریکارڈ کیاگیا،جس کے نتیجے میں بالترتیب سعودی ریال کی قیمت خرید40.10روپے سے بڑھ کر40.30روپے اورقیمت فروخت40.60روپے سے بڑھ کر40.80روپے جبکہ یواے ای درہم کی قیمت خرید40.90روپے سے بڑھ کر41.00روپے اورقیمت فروخت41.40روپے سے بڑھ کر41.50 روپے ہوگئی۔
Pakistan’s Iran conundrum
Michael Kugelman
It came at an even tenser moment for Washington’s relations with Tehran. Iran’s Islamic revolution had played out over the previous months, with the pro-US monarchy having been overthrown and replaced by Ayatollah Khomeini. Two weeks before the assault on the US embassy in Islamabad, Iranian radicals had seized the American embassy in Tehran.
In fact, the attack on the American facility in Pakistan was triggered in part by a radio message broadcast by Khomeini in which he falsely claimed that the US was behind an assault on the Grand Mosque in Mecca that had taken place the day before.
The siege of the US embassy in Pakistan represented the most explosive moment for the US-Iran-Pakistan triangle — one that over the last 40 years has been marked by a hostile US-Iran relationship, a US-Pakistan partnership that has vacillated between cordial and confrontational and a delicate Iran-Pakistan relationship that has played out in the shadow of a Saudi state that is the former’s bitter rival and the latter’s close ally.A big question for this volatile triangle today is what Washington’s increasingly hard line on Iran might mean for Pakistan — and particularly as Prime Minister Imran Khan, through some strikingly pro-Iran messaging and a key recent visit to Tehran, has telegraphed a desire to take a more explicitly neutral position in the Saudi-Iranian regional rivalry.The answer underscores just how counterproductive an aggressive US position on Iran can be: American pressure on Iran undoubtedly disadvantages Islamabad — but it also imperils Washington’s own interests, as well as those of its closest friends in the broader region.In reality, it’s hard to identify any country that benefits from relentless US efforts to tighten the screws on Iran, particularly if the two sides find themselves on a collision course that leads to a military confrontation.For Pakistan, deepening US-Iran tensions and the risk of confrontation make all the more challenging Islamabad’s efforts to maintain a position of studied neutrality in the Iran-Saudi Arabia dispute. Riyadh — already enjoying some new leverage after its recent $3 billion gift to Pakistan — could pressure Islamabad to side with the Saudis in an unfolding US-Iran crisis.
Washington’s hardline Iran policy also poses problems for Pakistan’s energy security. The US sanctions regime hampers the ability of Pakistan, a nation badly in need of foreign energy resources, to acquire hydrocarbons from a top global supplier (nearly 90 per cent of Pakistan’s energy needs are currently met by imported crude and petroleum products from the Middle East).
And Washington’s tough sanctions on Tehran essentially ensure that the much-hyped Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline remains dead in the water.
And then there is America. Aside from providing an excuse for US Iran hawks to engage in some chest thumping, it’s hard to imagine an increasingly hardline Iran policy producing positive results for Washington.
Indeed, the worst-case scenario — the American use of force against Iran — would destabilise a Mideast region that has long been a powder keg and a source of concern for US policymakers. Even outcomes short of war, such as sky-high bilateral tensions and repeated US threats, spell trouble for American interests.
Here, consider the war in Afghanistan. Longstanding ill will in US-Iran relations has meant that Washington can’t consider using Iranian territory as part of an alternate supply route to convey Nato materiel to and from Afghanistan, should the current route in Pakistan be closed down — as it was during the serious crisis in US-Pakistan relations in 2011 and 2012.
Instead, Washington would have to depend on alternate routes through Central Asia, which are not only more circuitous and expensive than the Pakistani one, but also vulnerable to the machinations of Moscow. Nato’s Russian rival could try to hamper access to those alternate routes located in what it regards as its sphere of influence.
Additionally, US pressure on Iran raises the possibility that Tehran could retaliate by providing episodic arms support to the Taliban — assistance that US and Afghan officials suspect has already been provided, particularly during the insurgents’ offensive in the western Afghan province of Farah, bordering Iran, last year.Afghanistan, therefore, also suffers from Washington’s tough Iran policy. And so does India, the other top US partner in South Asia. The Iran sanctions regime hurts New Delhi’s energy interests, which look to Iran as a key partner, and its efforts to develop the Chabahar port project in southern Iran.Meanwhile, Iran’s Gulf neighbours, including Saudi Arabia, could suffer highly deleterious effects from a continued US-Iran confrontation — none more so than regional destabilisation (though to be sure, any higher global oil prices that result from a fresh Mideast conflagration would be a boon for these energy-producing states).As for Israel, arguably America’s most critical ally, if Iran were to be hit by US firepower, Israeli territory could well be one of the first targets of Iran-sponsored reprisals.
And yet, even with so many different countries affected by US-Iran tensions, Pakistan finds itself in a uniquely vulnerable position.
Islamabad has significant relationships with Iran’s US and Saudi rivals. It features a Shia population that according to the academic Vali Nasr exceeds 30 million (the largest number of Shias outside Iran). And it shares a border with Iran, so a potential US-Iran conflict could have direct spillover effects for Pakistan.
In the coming weeks, if US-Iran relations continue to deteriorate, Pakistan could find itself under increasing pressure from both Riyadh and Washington to distance itself from Tehran.
Fortunately for Pakistan, there are two pieces of good news here. First, history shows that Islamabad has successfully managed to withstand pressure from both partners.Pakistan never formally took a side in the Iran-Iraq war, despite Washington’s preference for it to be firmly in the Iraq camp. And in more recent years, Islamabad resisted Saudi Arabia’s attempt to drag it into Riyadh’s war in Yemen.Second, President Trump’s tendency to resort to sudden about-faces means that a march towards war is by no means assured. He hinted in recent days that he may be receptive to negotiations with Tehran.
Still, this much is true: US policy towards Iran isn’t about to magically become more conciliatory anytime soon — including after Trump has left office.
Much ink has been spilled about all the anti-Pakistan feeling in Washington. And yet, the US capital’s deep and often bipartisan hostility towards Iran makes its sentiment towards Pakistan seem jolly by comparison. Perhaps it’s because of the Iranian revolution, the serious threat that US policymakers think Iran poses to Israel, or their belief that Tehran sponsors and stages acts of instability.
Indeed, there are striking similarities between how many in Washington view Tehran and Islamabad: they are both perceived as destabilising players that use militant proxies to cause problems for US interests and American friends.
At any rate, whatever the reasons may be, Washington’s hostility towards Iran is real and relentless. In this regard, President Barack Obama’s bold move in 2015 to extend an olive branch and work with other world powers to conclude a nuclear deal with Tehran should be seen as an anomaly, not a new precedent, for US policy.
Consequently, Pakistan — and the rest of the world — may be spared a conflict between the United States and Iran. But this toxic and confrontational relationship, and the challenges it poses for Pakistan and the world, is likely to endure for quite some time.
How a dry well dashed Pakistan’s hopes of economic recovery
By SAAD HASAN
Premature statements about an 'untapped' oil field did more damage than the actual failure to find oil and gas reserves in country’s offshore Indus delta.
Over the weekend, news came that the latest attempt to search for oil and gas reserves in Pakistan’s territorial waters was being called off.
The drilling at the offshore Kekra-1 well should have been a routine affair. But for a country facing runaway inflation, slowing economic growth and high foreign debt, the project had assumed the role of saviour.
From tweets to vlog, people have pondered over the prospect for days. Almost everyone appeared sure about a discovery from the well that was drilled 280 kilometers off the coast of Karachi.
And none other than Prime Minister Imran Khan had fueled those hopes even though it was only an exploratory well and the consortium led by Italy’s ENI had days to go before confirming anything.
“...if the indications we are getting from the companies are anything to go by, there’s a strong possibility that we may discover a very big reserve in our waters,” he told a group of journalists in March.
In subsequent days, he and his ministers continued to talk about the well’s potential, adding to a social media frenzy.
“It was very unwise on their part to make such statements,” says Masood Siddiqui, ex-CEO of OGDCL, Pakistan’s largest petroleum company which was part of the four-company consortium drilling Kekra-1.
“It’s like playing a 5-day long test cricket match and announcing a winner on basis of the first inning,” he told TRT World.
This was the 18th offshore well drilled in a region known as Indus delta, which is located in Pakistan’s territorial waters in the Arabian Sea. All previous attempts have so far failed to yield commercially viable reserves.
“Oil wells turn up dry all the time. It’s not a big deal. But the matter was really politicised this time,” says Siddiqui.
Since winning an election last August, Khan’s ruling Pakistan Tehreek Insaf has struggled to put economy back on track. A loan-deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has led to further devaluation of rupee, which was already Asia’s worst performing currency.
Pakistan also faces an energy crisis where shortage of gas and electricity often hits households and factories.
Fighting a multitude of problems and little to show for its performance, the government had come to rely too much on what was essentially an exploration attempt, industry people say.
Siddiqui says the drilling was for what is known as an exploratory well, in which rig bits descend below the ground to estimate size of the petroleum reservoir.
“Even if they had found something, it would have taken at least seven years to monetise it. Then there was also the question about its commercial viability.”
The cost of building a subsea pipeline for the ultra-deep well could run into millions of dollars, he says.
Better luck next time
But industry veterans say Indus delta remains underexplored and similar geological formations elsewhere have oil and gas reserves.
“The prospects are very high when you analogue Indus delta with other deltas,” such as Egypt’s Nile and Niger of Nigeria, says Khalid Rahman, the ex-CEO of Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL), which is also a partner in Kekra-1 joint venture.
“There have even been discoveries on Indian side of Indus delta,” he told TRT World.
Rahman, who was the CEO when PPL and ENI had drilled the last offshore well in 2010, says Khan’s government was trying to attract attention to foreign investment that had gone into Kekra-1 but ended up needlessly talking about it.
False hopes and disappointment has now led way to conspiracy theories about the $100 million project.
Somebody has started a WhatsApp conversation about how ENI used a redundant rig to get money out of the government, says Rahman.
“This goes on to show a general suspicion and lack of thought. How can it be expected that other partners in the joint venture could have kept their eyes closed to something like that?”
Petroleum exploration especially offshore drilling is risky and success comes after multiple attempts, he says.
“There’s no need to give hope on something which is not certain.”
Video Report - Pakistan IMF deal: Rupee to be devalued against dollar
Pakistan has agreed on a deal with the International Monetary Fund to receive a $6 billion loan.
But under its terms, its currency will have to be devalued against the dollar, and electricity and gas prices will increase.
That is likely to prove unpopular.
Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder reports from Islamabad.
Pakistan: Ethnic Backlash In Balochistan – Analysis
By Tushar Ranjan Mohanty
Unidentified militants opened indiscriminate fire on labourers working in an agriculture field in the Manjho Shori area of Naseerabad District in Balochistan on May 15, 2019, killing three of them and injuring one. The deceased had come from Tando Adam area of the Nawab Shah District in Sindh, and were daily-wage labourers. The attackers managed to escape. Though no group has so far claimed responsibility for the killing, Baloch insurgent groups have a history of killing non-Baloch labourers.
In the intervening night of April 17 and 18, 2019, unidentified assailants shot dead at least 14 passengers after forcibly offloading them from a bus plying on the Makran Coastal Highway in the Ormara area of Gwadar District. Reports indicate that around 15 to 20 armed assailants wearing Security Forces’ (SF) uniforms stopped five or six buses travelling between Karachi (Sindh) and Gwadar (Balochistan), checked the identity cards of passengers, and offloaded 16 of the passengers from just one bus. Two of the offloaded passengers managed to escape despite sustaining injuries. Balochistan Inspector General of Police Mohsin Hassan Butt described the incident as a “targeted killing”. Baloch Raji Aajoi Sangar (BRAS, Baloch National Freedom Front) claimed responsibility for the killing.
On March 24, 2019, Police recovered three bullet-riddled bodies in the Zadin area under Rakhni tehsil(revenue unit) in Barkhan District. All the three deceased were residents of the Dera Ismail Khan District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). No group claimed responsibility for the killings.
According to partial data compiled by South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), a total of 229 ‘outsiders’ have been killed in Balochistan since the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti, leader of the Bugti tribe and President of the Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP), on August 26, 2006, (data till May 19, 2019). Bugti was killed in a military operation in the Chalgri area of the Bhamboor Hills in Dera Bugti District.
Baloch insurgents have essentially targeted people from other provinces. However, out of the 229 ‘outsiders’ killed, at least 178 were Punjabis alone. Eight Punjabis were killed in 2018; 23 in 2017. There were no such fatalities among Punjabis in 2016. The number of Punjabi fatalities in the Province stood at 22 in 2015; 17 in 2014; 29 in 2013; 26 in 2012; 13 in 2011; 21 in 2010; 18 in 2009; and one in 2008. No such fatalities were recorded in 2007 and 2006. While Punjabis have been the main targets, other non-native persons also fell to the ethnic collateral damage. Out of 51 non-Punjabi ‘outsiders’, 33 were Sindhis, while the ethnic identity of the remaining 18 is unascertained.
A series of attacks on ‘outsiders’ in Balochistan, as well as the destruction of national infrastructure followed the killing of Akbar Bugti. These killings have been orchestrated by Baloch insurgent groups such as the BLA, Baloch Liberation Front (BLF) and the Baloch Republican Army (BRA), among others, who began to voice anti-Punjabi sentiments in their campaigns in the wake of the military action against Bugti. A media report published on June 28, 2011, noted, “Almost all non-Baloch are on their hit-list.” Muhammad Khalid of Balochistan-Punjabi Ittehad stated, “The militants began to target the Punjabi settlers after Nawab Bugti was taken out by the military (in August, 2006). Before that there were occasional incidents in which Punjabis were targeted.”
Significantly, most of the Punjabi settler killings were recorded in South Balochistan, which accounts for 156 killings out of the total of 178, (principally in Bolan, Kech, Gwadar, Panjgur, Khuzdar, Sibi and Lasbela Districts); and 27 in North Balochistan (mostly in Nushki, Quetta and Mustang Districts). The overwhelming concentration of such killings in the South is because of the presence and dominance of Baloch insurgent groups in this region, while the North is dominated by Islamist extremist formations such as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), who engage principally in sectarian killings.
Forced disappearances engineered by Pakistani SFs are another reason behind the targeted killings of non-Baloch persons in the region. According to partial data compiled by the SATP, of the 4,317 civilian fatalities recorded in Balochistan since 2004 (data till May 19, 2019), at least 1,378 have been attributable to one or other terrorist/insurgent outfit. Of these, 435 civilian killings (263 in the South and 172 in the North) have been claimed by Baloch separatist formations, while Islamist and sectarian extremist formations – primarily Islamic State, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), TTP and Ahrar-ul-Hind (Liberators of India) – claimed responsibility for another 943 civilian killings, 860 in the North (mostly in and around Quetta) and 83 in the South. The remaining 2,939 civilian fatalities – 1,708 in the South and 1,231 in the North – remain ‘unattributed’. It is widely believed that Security Agencies are busy with “kill and dump” operations, particularly in the Southern region, against local Baloch dissidents, a reality that Pakistan’s Supreme Court has clearly recognized.
Irked, by such killings the Baloch insurgent groups target non-Baloch people or even some Baloch whom they suspect to be spying for the SFs. At least two labourers (ethnicity not known) were killed when unidentified militants opened fire on a coal mine in the Khosat area of Harnai District on May 9, 2019. After the incident, Frontier Corps (FC) personnel rushed to the spot and a vehicle carrying the FC personnel hit a landmine, resulting in three FC fatalities. BLA claimed responsibility for the attack in an emailed statement from Jeehand Baloch, a BLA spokesperson: “We want to make it clear to the local spies and death squad groups of Pakistan Army that they will not be forgiven for their crimes.”
‘Outsiders’ are also targeted as the Baloch groups believe that they are helping Islamabad push forward its China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project. The Project according to Baloch nationalists, brings no benefit to the Baloch, but constitutes just another tool for their exploitation. Not surprisingly, since its inception in Pakistan on April 20, 2015, CPEC has been under attack from Baloch insurgents. According to official figures 44 people had died and over 100 wounded in “attacks targeting CPEC projects mainly road construction in Balochistan, which began in 2014” till September 8, 2016. Since September 9, 2016, according to partial data compiled by SATP, at least another 31 persons have been killed in attacks targeting CPEC-related projects across the Province (data till May 19, 2019), including the most recent attack on May 11, 2019, in which four terrorists stormed the luxury Zaver Pearl-Continental Hotel, in Gwadar in Balochistan. The Hotel had around 70 guests at the time, including 40 Chinese nationals. Nine persons, including four hotel employees, one Pakistan Navy soldier and all four attackers, were killed during the eight-hour long siege.
Amidst all this, overall fatalities in the province are on the rise. Between January 1 and May 19, 2019, a total of 127 fatalities (58 civilians, 39 SF personnel, and 30 terrorists) have been recorded. During the corresponding period of 2018, the number of fatalities stood at 108 (39 civilians, 39 SF personnel, and 30 terrorists). Through 2018, there were a total of 381 fatalities (239 civilians, 79 SF personnel, and 63 terrorists). There were 343 total fatalities in 2017. Fatalities had registered declining trends between 2014 and 2017.
Baloch insurgents have been fighting continuously against Islamabad’s coercion for more than a decade – and, indeed, intermittently for over seven decades – demanding independence for the ethnic Baloch areas of the country. They argue that the Province has been neglected by the Pakistani state and exploited for its mineral resources, and that the ‘outsiders’ that are being targeted by the insurgents are agents of Islamabad. Islamabad has done little to alleviate conditions in Balochistan, or to address the grievances of its people.
#Pakistan - #PPP - Start with 'PM-select' if professional beggars are to be arrested: Bilawal
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Tuesday urged concerned authorities to start with "prime minister-select", if they actually wanted to arrest "professional beggars".
Bilawal said so while responding to a Twitter post from Deputy Commissioner Islamabad regarding action against professional beggars in the federal capital's F-10 and F-11 sectors.
"This government intends to get rid of the poor, instead of poverty," the PPP chairman said in his tweet.
"If professional beggars are to be arrested actually, then start with PM-select.
Yeh ghurbat nahi ghareeb mitao hakoomat hai. Agar wakay hi professional beggars ko arrest karna hai tau Wazeer-e-Azam Select say shuru kar lay...
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It is pertinent to mention here that professional beggars swarmed major cities of the country with the arrival of holy month of Ramzan, making it difficult for citizens to stop over at public places and food joints.
Local authorities in Islamabad have launched a crackdown on such beggars in the federal capital, however, an action is yet to be seen in other cities across the country.
ڈالر تاریخ کی بلند ترین سطح پر، 153 روپے کا ہو گیا
انٹر بینک میں امریکی ڈالر تاریخ کی بلند ترین سطح پر پہنچ گیا،انٹر بینک میں ڈالر 1 روپے 36 پیسے مزید مہنگا ہو کر 151 روپے کا ہو گیا جبکہ اوپن مارکیٹ میں ڈالر مزید 2 روپے اضافے سے 153 روپے کا ہو گیا۔
ایکسچینج کرنسی ایسوسی ایشن کے مطابق آج صبح اوپن مارکیٹ میں ڈالر کی قدر میں 2 روپے کا مزید اضافہ ہوا اور وہ اس وقت 153 روپے کی بلند ترین سطح پر پہنچ گیا۔
گزشتہ 4 کاروباری دنوں میں ڈالر 9 روپے 60 پیسے مہنگا ہوا ہے، جس کے بعد بیرونی قرضوں میں 1000 ارب روپے کا اضافہ ہوا ہے۔
گزشتہ روز انٹربینک میں ڈالر ایک روپے 78 پیسے مزید مہنگا ہوکر 149 روپے 65 پیسے جب کہ اوپن مارکیٹ میں ایک روپے مہنگا ہوکر 152 روپے پہنچا تھا۔
ڈالر کی قدر میں اضافے کی ایک وجہ ذخیرہ اندوزی بھی ہے، جس کے حوالے سے ممتاز عالم دین مفتی تقی عثمانی کا کہنا ہے کہ موجودہ حالات میں نفع اور ذخیرہ اندوزی کے مقصد سے ڈالر کی خریداری شرعاً گناہ اور ملک سے بے وفائی ہے۔