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Video Report - #NayaDaur #Politics #Pakistan Imran Khan's Latest Claims On Economy, NRO, And Crackdown On Opposition

Which Muslim State Is Pressuring Pakistan To Normalize With Israel?

By Al Bawaba News

The Pakistani prime minister made headlines last week when he revealed that Islamabad has been under pressure from some “friendly” nations to recognize Israel.

Although he stopped short of naming them despite being repeatedly asked whether they were Muslim or non-Muslim countries, many believe Imran Khan was referring to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

“Leave this [question]. There are things we cannot say. We have good relations with them,” Khan told the interviewer.

The UAE and Bahrain recently established diplomatic and economic relations with Israel. Some other Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia, are also weighing options to normalize relations.

“Let us stand on our own feet in terms of the economy, then you may ask these questions,” Khan further said, referring to Islamabad’s longstanding economic dependence on the oil-rich Gulf states.

Terming the reports “fabricated,” a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry said Khan was “misquoted” as there is no such pressure on Islamabad to recognize Tel Aviv.

Though Khan clearly articulated Pakistan’s position that unless a just settlement of the Palestine issue — satisfactory to Palestinians — was found, Pakistan could not recognize Israel, Islamabad is abuzz with rumors about a possible Saudi role.

While Saudi Arabia has not yet recognized Israel, it is widely believed that the UAE and Bahrain could not have crossed the “red line” without Riyadh’s approval.

No official confirmation

Mohammad Ali Siddiqi, a Karachi-based analyst who often writes on the Middle East, does not eliminate the possibility of Riyadh putting pressure on Islamabad to normalize relations with Tel Aviv.

“As for Saudi pressure, yes, it cannot be ruled out,” Siddiqi told Anadolu Agency, saying if Pakistan recognizes the Jewish state, credit will go to Riyadh.

“The MBS could be quite calculating,” he said, referring to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. “If one were to believe what [Turkish President] Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, MBS threatened to expel all Pakistani workers in the kingdom if Imran Khan attended the Kuala Lumpur Summit last December.”

Pakistan refused to attend the summit at the eleventh hour reportedly due to pressure from Saudi Arabia, which saw the forum as an alternative to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

According to Siddiqi, Pakistani officials, even former officials, however, would not confirm or deny if there is any pressure on Pakistan to recognize Israel.

But if countries are exerting pressure, is Saudi Arabia among them?

No Saudi pressure

Lt. Gen. (retd.) Talat Masood, an Islamabad-based security analyst, said Riyadh is not persuading Pakistan to recognize Israel.

“The Arab states are normalizing their ties with Israel under a narrow approach purely based on political and economic gains at the cost of values. They no longer care much about the Palestine cause,” he told Anadolu Agency.

“There could be a little Saudi role to woo Pakistan in this regard, but by and large, I don’t think there is any pressure,” said Masood, who served in the Pakistani army till 1990.

Pakistan’s former ambassador to Saudi Arabia Shahid Amin shared a similar opinion. “Why would Saudi Arabia do that… after the Foreign Ministry’s clarification, it should be cleared. Pakistan does not fit in this picture,” he said.

Amin, nonetheless, acknowledged that Abu Dhabi and Manama have normalized ties with Tel Aviv with Riyadh’s consent.

But, he said, it would be difficult for Riyadh to do so, given the internal and external issues it could face. “Saudi Arabia spearheads the Muslim world, its recognition will invite too many problems for itself,” he explained.

Echoing Amin’s views, Siddiqi said: “Saudi Arabia commands a unique position in the Islamic fraternity. Its kings call themselves servants of the two holy places [of Mecca and Medina]. For that reason, it cannot afford to shock the Muslim world to take a decision that many Muslims could regard as a betrayal of not just the Palestinian cause but of the Islamic cause.”

Masood, however, said it is just a matter of time that the kingdom follows in the footsteps of UAE and Bahrain, saying that it let both the countries get on with it to test the waters. “This was to prepare the Saudi public to digest the huge move.”

Islamabad not to bow to pressure

But even if there is pressure, Pakistan will not bow to that, according to Masood.

“Imran Khan fully understands that Pakistanis will never accept any decision which aims to recognize or normalize ties with Israel. That’s what he has made it clear that time and again,” he said. “Saudi Arabia too knows this very well.”

Supporting his view, Siddiqi said “a hasty recognition could unleash a wave of extremist backlash, which the weak and beleaguered Imran Khan government cannot afford.”

Pakistan’s relationships with Gulf states have a strong economic basis. Huge amounts of remittances are sent by expatriate Pakistanis in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait, among others.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE jointly host over three million Pakistanis.

Saudi Arabia, where 1.9 million Pakistanis reside, tops the list of countries with the highest amount of remittances sent to Pakistan — over $4.5 billion annually — followed by the UAE with over $3.47 billion, according to Pakistan’s central bank.

The kingdom and the emirates are also Pakistan’s largest regional trading partners, which have together exported goods and services, mainly crude oil, worth over $7 billion to Pakistan in the current fiscal year.

Islamabad’s exports to these countries stood at $852 million and $300 million, respectively, in 2019/2020.

In recent years, however, Pakistan’s ties with the traditional Gulf allies have taken a toll due to its “neutrality” on several issues, including the war in Yemen and the blockade of Qatar by a Saudi-led Arab alliance.

Riyadh also seems irked by criticism from Islamabad that it has been lukewarm on the long-standing Kashmir dispute. Some local and international media took Khan as hinting at the US, Pakistan’s longtime ally in the so-called war against terrorism, a contention quickly rejected by Islamabad.

https://www.eurasiareview.com/25112020-which-muslim-state-is-pressuring-pakistan-to-normalize-with-israel/

China quietly fuels India and Pakistan’s next conflict

By FM SHAKIL

In the run-up to recent local elections, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan announced he had granted “provisional” provincial status to Gilgit-Baltistan, a semi-autonomous state that India also claims as part of the disputed region of Kashmir.

Khan’s designation was declared soon after a closed-door meeting in September between the Pakistan army’s top brass and opposition parliamentarians, and has raised widespread speculation that China tacitly supported the potentially explosive announcement. Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed and other senior military generals apparently advised opposition leaders on the decision, which threatens to spike tensions and possibly armed conflict with India. Significantly, most of those who met the military’s leadership are part of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), which is currently spearheading a campaign against the military’s outsized role in politics under Khan’s elected administration.

While Khan’s announcement, made on November 1, did not indicate a timeframe for formally establishing Gilgit-Baltistan into a Pakistani province, potentially the nation’s fifth, the move would help to secure the US$60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which passes through the heart of the disputed region.

How India will respond is a wild card, but analysts suggest New Delhi could opt for new ceasefire-breaking surgical strikes in the territory as it did in September 2016 across the Line of Control in Kashmir, then reputedly to hit militant launch pads. A future strike, however, would likely be on Pakistani security forces as they move to consolidate Islamabad’s control on the territory. Khan’s governing Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party is now poised to form a government in Gilgit-Baltistan after outpacing the main opposition Pakistan People’s Party and Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) at November 15 local polls.

Opposition politicians have since said that the issue should have been tabled and deliberated in parliament before making what they say is a hasty decision to change Gilgit-Baltistan’s status, a move some see as a counter to India’s August 2019 withdrawal of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status.

Critics say that the top brass meeting with opposition leaders, just weeks before Khan’s formal announcement, shows that the “deep state” was pulling strings from behind the scenes and that Khan’s civilian government is fronting a military-devised design. Significantly, the military is leading the China-backed, multi-billion dollar CPEC. Predictably, India rejected Pakistan’s designation, claiming it was an attempt by Islamabad to hide its “illegal” occupation of the territory. Indian media reports have suggested that China has pushed Pakistan to integrate the region and thus consolidate Beijing’s foothold in the contested region.

Those reports have suggested Islamabad can not likely resist Beijing’s pressure at a time it seeks to roll over a $3 billion Chinese trade finance facility that Khan’s government uses to repay maturing debts.

If China does not extend the financial facility when it expires, the reports suggest, Pakistan would find it extremely difficult to repay the sum, both because of the nation’s dire finances and current poor relations with traditional rich patrons in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Selig Seidenman Harrison, an Asia scholar with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a senior fellow at the Center of International Policy and expert on South Asian affairs, has noted in his research that anywhere between 7,000 to 11,000 People’s Liberation Army (PLA) personnel have been stationed in Gilgit-Baltistan to construct railroads, the Karakoram Highway, dams, expressways and other infrastructure projects.

Harrison has written in the past that China plans to extend its hold in Gilgit-Baltistan to develop unhindered road and rail access to oil-rich Gulf States via Pakistan, thereby bypassing sea routes that could potentially be blocked in a conflict with the United States. His academic assessments have noted that Chinese oil tankers currently take 16 to 25 days to reach the Gulf, but that the travel time would be reduced to just 48 hours with the completion of high-speed rail and road links that connect Chinese-built Pakistani ports at Gwadar and elsewhere through Gilgit-Baltistan to western China.

Harrison also previously reported in the New York Times on 22 tunnels constructed by China in secretive locations in Gilgit-Baltistan that even Pakistani soldiers reputedly are barred from accessing. He has suggested that the tunnels may serve as “missile storage sites” while also providing for a gas pipeline connecting Iran to China designed to cross the Himalayas through Gilgit-Baltistan.

Harrison’s initial reports on China’s involvement in Gilgit-Baltistan were published before the birth of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the CPEC. China’s vision for the region has taken clearer shape as BRI and CPEC projects have come into view. China has so far invested over $30 billion in energy, rail, road and early harvest projects across the country, with another $30 billion reportedly on the way. Beijing has also earmarked investment funds for Gilgit-Baltistan’s power sector, including $8.5 billion to build the world’s tallest roller compact dam, known as Diamer-Bhasha.

The dam, scheduled to produce 4,500 MW of power for the national grid, will have a 200-square kilometer reservoir that will flood as much as 100 kilometers of irrigated agricultural land and at least 32 villages, displacing untold thousands of people.

The future of China’s massive investments in Pakistan depends on political stability in Gilgit-Baltistan, which is adjacent to China’s restive Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region where it holds over a million ethnic Uighurs in controversial camps. Compared to the Pakistani provinces of Balochistan and Sindh, Gilgit-Baltistan is less restive. However, the region has witnessed serious sectarian strife in the past, with local Sunni militants carrying out numerous attacks on the predominantly Shiite population. Other local groups have taken aim specifically at China’s activities and projects in the semi-autonomous territory. The Balwaristan National Front, a nationalist force agitating for Gilgit-Baltistan independence, has organized several protests against the CPEC and Pakistani authorities. Those threats could explain why China would prefer for Islamabad to take firmer control of the territory by making it a formal province. Indeed, if the CPEC proceeds smoothly in Gilgit-Baltistan the new infrastructure could greatly reduce China’s costs of trade.

A study on the CPEC’s potential cost-saving impacts on trade, jointly authored by Pakistani and Chinese experts, shows that the once related projects are completed the average transport cost of a 40-foot shipping container between China’s Kashgar and Europe would fall by $1,350 (32.9%) and $1,450 (41.4%) to the Middle East.

Other strategic analysts suggest that the unexpected explosion of China-India border tensions in May this year, resulting in an ongoing military standoff, has amplified Gilgit-Baltistan’s strategic importance while stirring Indian apprehensions of a possible two-front war in the high mountain region.

The battlefield in Ladakh where 20 Indian soldiers were killed by Chinese troops in June along the contested region’s Line of Actual Control is a mere 173 kilometers away from Gilgit-Baltistan, where thousands of PLA soldiers are deployed for building roads, rails and dams and where Pakistan now has an eye on creating its fifth province.

https://asiatimes.com/2020/11/china-quietly-fuels-india-and-pakistans-next-conflict/

Bilawal Bhutto condemns PTI govt's 'thuggery' as PPP's Ali Musa Gilani confirms own arrest

 PPP leader Ali Musa Gilani on Wednesday confirmed that he has been arrested by police following a rally ahead of the Pakistan Democratic Movement's (PDM) upcoming jalsa, with the party chairperson terming the move as the PTI government's "thuggery".

The Multan Police "have arrested me and my colleagues", Ali Musa Gilani told Geo News in a telephonic conversation. "I requested [a copy] of the FIR registered against me but I'm not being provided" one by the police, he added.

The Multan Police, in a statement, said a case was registered against Ali Musa Gilani for holding a rally today despite the ban. "We have nominated 30 leaders of the PPP and the PML-N in the FIR," they added, noting that at least 50 other unidentified political workers were booked as well.

Suppressing 'people's movement by force'

PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari strongly condemned the arrest of Ali Musa Gilani, saying it was "thuggery and bullying by the selected rulers".

"The government now wants to suppress the people's movement by force," Bilawal Bhutto added.

He said the "regime is scared" and knew that "people stand with democracy not with selected government", vowing to go ahead with the Nov 30 protest — which he said was "our democratic right".

'Sputters of a dying flame'

Condemnations against Ali Musa's arrest, as well as the case against Kasim Gilani, Abdul Kadir Gilani, and Ali Haider Gilani, poured in from PPP leaders across the country.

"This is a cowardice act from the puppet govt," the general secretary of the PPP's South Punjab chapter, Natasha Daultana, said on Twitter.

The information secretary of PPP's Central Punjab chapter, Syed Hassan Murtaza, said the arrest showed "the cowardice of the government" but the party workers were not afraid at all.

"The government's actions are like the sputters of a dying flame," Murtaza said on Twitter, adding that "the rule of the Niazi gang will now definitely come to an end".

'Shameful image of a fascist govt'

PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz, who has been at the forefront of the PDM coalition alongside Bilawal Bhutto, also condemned the arrest, terming it "shameful image of a fascist government".

"Reflects extreme fear. We condemn Ali Musa Gillani’s arrest but reiterate our resolve to rid Pak of the inept selected and his govt. Insha’Allah," Maryam said on Twitter.

Multan Police denied arrest earlier

Earlier, a spokesperson for the Gilani House had said at least three PPP officials, including the former prime minister's son, Ali Musa, were arrested but the Multan Police had denied the claims.

The Multan Police had told the media that Ali Musa Gilani — the son of PPP leader and former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani — had arrived at the police station alongside other political workers to meet their arrested colleagues.

"Ali Musa Gilani has not been arrested; he is in the police station due to the throng of the workers outside," the Multan Police said.

Yousaf Raza Gilani leads Multan rally

Prior to that, PPP leader Yousaf Raza Gilani led a rally here from Nawan Shehr ahead of the Pakistan Democratic Movement's (PDM) upcoming jalsa, where his son, Ali Musa, had torn apart a copy of a first information report (FIR) terming it "bogus".

The rally — from Multan's Nawan Shehr to Ghanta Ghar Chowk — was led by the PPP in preparation for the PDM's jalsa meeting on November 30. 

Multan's deputy commissioner, Amir Khattak, said the district administration had not allowed the PPP to hold a rally. Consequently, heavy contingents of police were deployed on all roads leading to the city's Nawan Shehr.

Both DC Khattak and Multan's Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Muhammad Hassan Raza Khan were there at the site as well.

Moreover, there were severe traffic jams on the roads towards Nawan Shehr, with blockages reported on Chowk Dera Ada, Kalma Chowk, Tariq Road, and Abdali Road.

'No response' to request for permission

Local authorities had installed barriers at the rally's main areas and routes to discourage people from entering but the participants and the PPP's political workers removed them.

The rally's leadership claimed that they had submitted a request for the gathering, as well as for the PDM's jalsa in Qila Kohna Qasim Bagh Stadium, two weeks prior but the district administration had not responded.

The PPP leader's son, Syed Ali Musa Gilani, joined the rally, whereupon he got hold of a copy of a case filed against the gathering and tore it apart in front of the participants.

"The district administration lodged a false FIR for breaking the locks of the venue," Musa Gilani said.

'Bogus FIR based on false, ridiculous charges'

Former prime minister Gillani's son Kasim also talked about the rally on Twitter before sharing a copy of the FIR in another post.

"The Punjab government has registered a bogus FIR based on false and ridiculous charges Abdul Qadir Gilani, myself and [PPP/PDM]," he said.

The three sons of the former prime minister, including Musa and Kasim, reached the Lohari Gate police station after a case was filed against them a day earlier and offered the authorities to arrest them on the spot.

https://www.geo.tv/latest/320519-ppp-yousaf-raza-gilani-leads-rally-ahead-of-pakistan-democratic-movement-pdm-jalsa-son-musa-fir