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Video Report - Coronavirus variants: What you need to know

Video Report - Olivia Rodrigo, President Biden, and Dr. Fauci talk Vaccines at the White House

Video Report - Vice President Harris Delivers Remarks to the National Bar Association

As Infections Rise, C.D.C. Urges Some Vaccinated Americans to Wear Masks Again

 By Apoorva Mandavilli

In communities with growing caseloads, vaccinated and unvaccinated people should return to wearing masks indoors in public areas, health officials said.

Revising a decision made just two months ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday that people vaccinated against the coronavirus should resume wearing masks in public indoor spaces in parts of the country where the virus is surging.

C.D.C. officials also called for universal masking for teachers, staff, students and visitors in schools, regardless of vaccination status and community transmission of the virus. With additional precautions, schools nonetheless should return to in-person learning in the fall. The recommendations are another baleful twist in the course of America’s pandemic, a war-weary concession that the virus is outstripping vaccination efforts. The agency’s move follows rising case counts in states like Florida and Missouri, as well as growing reports of breakthrough infections of the more contagious Delta variant among people who are fully immunized.

“The Delta variant is showing every day its willingness to outsmart us,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the C.D.C., said at a news briefing on Tuesday.

The C.D.C. said Americans should resume wearing masks in areas where there are more than 50 new infections per 100,000 residents over the previous seven days, or more than 8 percent of tests are positive for infection over that period. Health officials should reassess these figures weekly and change local restrictions accordingly, the agency said. By those criteria, all residents of Florida, Arkansas and Louisiana, for example, should wear masks indoors. Nearly two-thirds of U.S. counties qualify, many concentrated in the South.

The agency said that even vaccinated Americans in areas without surges might consider wearing a mask in public indoor settings if they or someone in their household has an impaired immune system or is at risk for severe disease, or if someone in the household is unvaccinated.

That includes vaccinated parents of children under age 12, who are currently ineligible for the shots.

C.D.C. officials were persuaded by new scientific evidence showing that even vaccinated people may become infected and may carry the virus in great amounts, perhaps even similar to those in unvaccinated people, Dr. Walensky acknowledged at the news briefing.

Data from several states and other countries show that the variant behaves differently from previous versions of the coronavirus, she added: “This new science is worrisome and unfortunately warrants an update to our recommendation.”

“This is not a decision we at C.D.C. have made lightly,” Dr. Walensky added. “This weighs heavily on me.” Americans are tired and frustrated, she said, and mental health challenges are on the rise.

After the agency’s announcement, White House staff were instructed to begin wearing masks again indoors. The Biden administration is considering requiring all federal employees to be vaccinated or to submit to regular testing and workplace restrictions, requirements similar to those being imposed in New York City and California.

“We have a pandemic because of the unvaccinated, and they’re sowing enormous confusion,” President Biden told reporters on Tuesday. “The more we learn about this virus and the Delta variant, the more we have to be worried and concerned. And there’s only one thing we know for sure — if those other hundred million people got vaccinated, we’d be in a very different world.”

The C.D.C. needed to revisit its recommendations, said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the administration’s lead adviser on the pandemic. “I don’t think you can say that this is just flip-flopping back and forth. They’re dealing with new information that the science is providing.” The vaccines remain remarkably effective against the worst outcomes of infection with any form of the coronavirus, including hospitalization and death. But the new guidelines explicitly apply to both the unvaccinated and vaccinated, a sharp departure from the agency’s position since May that vaccinated people do not need to wear masks in most indoor spaces. Those recommendations, which had seemed to signal a winding down of the pandemic, were based on earlier data suggesting that vaccinated people rarely become infected and almost never transmit the virus, making masking unnecessary.

But that was before the arrival of the Delta variant, which now accounts for the bulk of infections in the United States. And it may be followed by others. “The big concern is that the next variant that might emerge — just potentially a few mutations away — could evade our vaccine,” she said.

Whether masks become ubiquitous again may depend on local surveillance and outreach efforts, which vary from state to state. Many Americans simply do not know what infection rates and positive test rates are in their area on a week-by-week basis. Based on what scientists are learning about the Delta variant’s ability to cause breakthrough infections, “this is a move in the right direction,” said Dr. Celine Gounder, an infectious disease specialist at Bellevue Hospital Center in New York.

The American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, the two leading teachers’ unions, strongly endorsed the C.D.C.’s move to universal masking in schools.

“Masking inside schools, regardless of vaccine status, is required as an important way to deal with the changing realities of virus transmission,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the A.F.T. “It is a necessary precaution until children under 12 can receive a Covid vaccine and more Americans over 12 get vaccinated.”

Other union officials said the guidance did not go far enough, and would fail to protect frontline and essential workers in supermarkets, retail stores and meatpacking plants.

“A national mask mandate is the only way we can finally take control of this virus,” said Marc Perrone, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International. Whether state and local government officials are willing to follow the agency’s guidance is far from certain. And there is sure to be resistance from pandemic-fatigued Americans, particularly in regions of the country where vaccination rates are low and concerns about the virus are muted. Some jurisdictions, like Los Angeles County and St. Louis County, have already reinstated mask mandates in response to rising cases. But officials in some communities in Los Angeles County have said they will not enforce a mandate. And the Missouri attorney general has filed a lawsuit against the city of St. Louis to stop the measure.

Businesses, too, are likely to find that new mask recommendations complicate plans to return to their offices in places where the virus is spreading and may necessitate new mandates for employees to get vaccines.

The Washington Post, for example, on Tuesday said it would require proof of vaccination as a condition of employment when workers return to the office in September, after hearing concerns from many employees about the emergence of coronavirus variants. If businesses believe that such mandates would be beneficial, “we encourage them to do so,” Dr. Walensky said at the news briefing. “We’re encouraging, really, any activities that would motivate further vaccination.”

As recently as last week, a C.D.C. spokesman said that the agency had no plans to change its masking guidance, unless there was a significant change in the science. Now researchers have begun to turn up disturbing data.

The Delta variant is thought to be more than twice as contagious as the original version of the virus. Some research now suggests that people infected with the variant carry about a thousandfold more virus than those infected with other variants, and they may stay infected for longer.

C.D.C. officials were swayed by new research showing that even vaccinated people may carry great amounts of the variant virus in the nose and throat, suggesting that they also may spread it to others. Large so-called viral loads may help explain reports of breakthrough infections in groups of vaccinated people. For example, an outbreak that began in Provincetown, Mass., after Fourth of July festivities there, has grown to include at least 765 cases, according to Steve Katsurinis, chair of the Provincetown Board of Health.

Of the 469 cases reported among Massachusetts residents alone, 74 percent were in people who were fully immunized, Mr. Katsurinis said.

Smaller clusters of breakthrough infections have been reported after weddings, family reunions and dinner parties. Some of the infected people had symptoms, but the vast majority were not seriously ill, suggesting that immunity produced by the vaccines quickly curbs the virus. Vaccines “are not a force field,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health. Instead, vaccination trains the immune system to recognize cells that become infected with the virus.

“The term ‘breakthrough infection’ is probably a bit misleading,” she said. “It’s probably more realistic that we talk about ‘breakthrough disease’ and how much of that is occurring.”

Dr. Walensky acknowledged that some vaccinated people can become infected with the Delta variant and may be contagious, but maintained that it was a rare event. So far vaccinated people account for just 3 percent of hospitalizations, officials have found.

Dr. Gounder and other experts said that it is unclear how often vaccinated people transmit the virus to others, but it may be more common than scientists had predicted as the original virus was spreading last year. Vaccinated people — particularly those with weak immune systems or otherwise at high risk — should consider wearing masks even in areas of low transmission, he said: “Masks can effectively reduce the amount of virus that we breathe in and prevent us from getting sick, and so they augment the impact of our vaccine. Almost everywhere in the U.S., it’s a good idea.” Infections have been rising swiftly in the United States, to more than 56,000 daily cases on average, as of Tuesday, more than four times the number a month ago. Hospitalizations have also been ticking up in nearly all states, and deaths have risen to an average of 275 per day.

Federal officials need to articulate clear plans for testing and long-term masking, experts said.

“The question is, what are the offramps for masking?” asked Dr. Nuzzo. “If we want to continue to ask people to step up, we need to give them a vision of what we’re working toward.”

The C.D.C. should have simply have told all Americans to wear masks indoors, said Ali Mokdad, an epidemiologist at University of Washington and former C.D.C. scientist.

''If you look at the country, every state is seeing a rise in transmission,” Dr. Mokdad said. “So why not say, ‘Everybody in the U.S. should be wearing a mask indoors?’ The whole country is on fire.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/27/health/covid-cdc-masks-vaccines-delta-variant.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage

طالبان دې په افغانستان کې د ولس رایې ته احترام وکړي: منظور پښتين

 

د پښتون ژغورنې غورځنګ مشر منظور پښتين په افغانستان کې په جګړه کې پر ښکېلو طالبانو او نورو بااختياره خواو غږ کړی چې د

افغان ولس رايې ته دې احترام ولري.

د پښتون ژغورنې غورځنګ لخوا د جنوبي وزيرستان په مکين کې نن د جولای په ۲۷مه د افغانستان په امنيتي حالاتو رابلل شوې جلسې ته په وينا کې د غورځنګ مشر منظور پښتين وويل چې جنګ د مسلې حل نه دی او بايد ټولې ستونزې په خبرو هوارې شي.

پښتین وویل، په افغانستان کې اوس سړکونه، پلونه، پوهنتونونه او ښوونځي ودان شوي دي، خلک تعلیم حاصلوي، او یو داسې تیار افغانستان ړنګول پر ټول لر او بر پښتانه یو بوج اچول دي. او هلته چې د خلک یوڅه ژوند راجوړ شوی دی، هغه خرابول دي. دا ورانی دې نه کېږي. بلکې د افغان ولس رایې ته دې درناوی وشي. د افغانستان مخکینی او اوسنی حکومت د ولس په رایه راغلی او راتلونکې حکومت دې هم د ولس په رایه جوړ شي. د ولس د رایې پرته حکومت به په زور جوړول وي او په زوره راغلی حکومت د مسلې حل نه دی او پي ټي اېم په افغانستان کې یوازې د ولس په رایه حکومت مني. ده وویل پر ټولو ښکېلو غاړو ږغ کوي چې د ولس رایې ته دې احترام وشي.

نوموړي د پاکستان له عالمانو او سياستوالانو هم غوښتنه وکړه چې په افغان سوله کې دې خپل رول ولوبوي. پښتین زیاته کړه چې د افغانستان او پاکستان د پښتنو له مشرانو سره به په دغه سيمه کې د امنيت او پرمختګ راوستو په هدف غونډې کوي. هغه د پاکستان پر دولت غږ وکړ چې د پښتنو حقونو ته دې احترام ولري.

د پښتون ژغورنې غورځنګ مشر له حکومته غوښتنه وکړه چې سيمه دې له ماينونو پاکه کړل شي او د جګړو پر مهال دې د ړنګ شوو کورونو مالکانو ته معاوضې ورکړل شي. منظور دا هم وويل چې د وزيرستاني ځوان نقيب مسيد په وژنه تورن پوليس چارواکی راو انوار خلاص ګرځي او د پي ټي اېم مخکښ او د قامي اسمبلۍ غړی علي وزير په جېل کې دی. ده دا غوښتنه هم وکړه چې پوځ دې لادرکه کسان عدالت ته وړاندې کړي.

منظور پښتین خپله وینا د پښتونخوا ملي عوامي پارټۍ د صوبايي مشر عثمان خان کاکړ د مړینې له پېښې پیل کړه او زیاته یې کړه چې هغه تل د خپل ولس او وطن خبره کوله، تل یې د دې علاقې (وزیرستانونه) خبره کوله، تل یې د لر او بر افغان خبره کوله. د ده په وینا چې ''دا ټوله جلسه د عثمان لالا شهادت ته سلام کوي. د ده ژوند ته سلام کوي. منظور پښتین وویل چې دوی (پښتون ژغورنه غورځنګ) د عثمان لالا د مړینې په معامله کې د هغه له کورنۍ او ګوند سره تل ترڅنګ ولاړه ده.''

د مکين نننۍ جلسې ته په وينا کې د پيپلز پارټۍ مخکښ فرحت الله بابر وويل چې په سيمه کې د پښتنو جنګ ته د ورداخلولو لپاره بيا کوششونه روان دي او بايد پښتانه له دې ځان وساتي.

د پي ټي اېم يو بل مخکښ او د قامي اسمبلۍ غړي محسن داوړ بيا جلسې ته په وينا کې وويل چې څومره طالبان دي، که هغه په افغانستان کې دي او که په پاکستان کې، دوی د تشدد له لارې قبضه کول غواړي او د ده په خبره دوی د افغان ولسمشر اشرف غني د جمهوري حکومت ملاتړ کوي. د مشال رېډيو خبريال وايې د جلسې پر وخت نېټ او ټیلیفون سګنلې بند کړل شوې وې او شا او خوا پنځلس زره کسانو د مکين په جلسه کې ګډون وکړ.

https://www.mashaalradio.com/a/31379555.html

EDITORIAL: Delta Variant and Pakistan

With the Delta variant turning out to be a cause of grave concern in Sindh and Gilgit-Baltistan, their provincial governments have taken drastic steps for lockdown measures that may be difficult to absorb for a great number of businesses but remain vital for public safety. While the national positivity average hovers around 6%, the 25% rate in Karachi is unprecedented with hospitals unable to cope the additional burden. Similarly, an approximately 9% rate for Gilgit-Baltistan is equally concerning. Even the district administration in Gwadar recently chose to close down the entire city for the next two weeks. Notably, just 3.2% of Pakistan’s population has been fully vaccinated which substantiates the notion of slow vaccination process. A number of factors are responsible for such a meagre rate including conspiracy theories and general hesitations. A lax attitude on part of sections of the public is also contributing to the staggering rise in number of cases as unvaccinated people are going out and about without realising the consequences. While vaccination does not ensure total immunity, it does help reduce the chances of fatalities despite some rare exceptions. Even SOPs are being ignored in large number of places which the authorities need to be strict about. Reportedly, domestic air travel is being conditioned with full vaccination from next month.

This is a step in the right direction for the greater good of the public which needs to cooperate with state authorities. Though a bit late to the vaccination rollout plan, the arrival of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines is a great sign for international travellers. This would assist them in securing quarantine exemptions in tourism and business-oriented countries.

However, a lot more needs to be done for containing this menace of a pandemic which is here to stay for longer than expected. For this, global efforts need to remain collective and devoid of any political manoeuvrings.

https://dailytimes.com.pk/796394/delta-variant-and-pakistan/

Imran Khan And Taliban: An Impending Disaster – OpEd

By Raza Shahani

When I had touched the consciousness of watching the black-and-white television, I saw the Taliban using heavy weapons against their compatriotsto occupy Soviet-left Afghanistan. While the Taliban were rooting out their opponents with the blitzkrieg speed, the people and state in Pakistan were walking swagger and hubris. Needless to say, Pakistan, along with the Saudi Arabia and the UAE, promptly recognized the Taliban regime and established the diplomatic relations. Similarly, a batch of millions was born in Pakistan during latter half of the 1990s; the period, during which the Taliban were establishing their rule in Afghanistan. Today, those Pakistanis born in mid-90s have reached the age of their mid-20s. This is the prime age for getting on work, job or begin a business to sustain their family and make life going. However, the situation is otherwise.

After capturing Kabul in 1996, the Taliban hosted Al Qaeda, the international terrorist organization. Thus, Al Qaeda began operating from Afghan soil against the US interests in the different countries. Finally, it blew up Twin Towers with striking hijacked plans. The Taliban rejected the US pleas and warnings to dissociate from Al Qaeda and handover its leadership to the US. Forced to bomb the Taliban regime and Al Qaeda, the US demanded Pakistan to join the international coalition against the terrorist organization and its host. In fact, being a weak country, Pakistan couldn’t resist the US demand and joined the coalition forces unwillingly as a frontline state against the Taliban and Al Qaeda. The war dragged on for two decades. As its spillover effect, the war entered the Pakistani territory. The cost of war for Pakistan has been unimaginable – in terms of both men and material. The life of youth was ruined. They were wasted!

In fact, when the war was ending after two decades, the Pakistani youth born in 90s was expecting peace and opportunities here in Pakistan. Yet, again they are seeing the Taliban, weapons, war and no opportunity to undertake the responsibility. However, once again Khan Regime and the system-beneficiary people and institutions are celebrating the Taliban gains in Afghanistan! 

  Ironically, up to entering politics, Khan had spent his life dancing and debouching with wine and women in the clubs, ball parties and on the beaches in the West. His own nearly necked photos and video clips with his so many western girl friends litter the internet. However, Khan perfectly knew that Islam can be easily sold out to the Pakistanis, especially to the Punjabis. He then rightly sensed the tilt of the security establishment towards the Taliban and the like. So, Khan, a playboy, put on the garb of a piety teacher. Besides, Khan assumed the role of the political mouth piece of the Taliban. This was the reason the Taliban had nominated him as the head of their negotiating team to hold dialogue with the Pakistani government. These two factors, peoples’ frustration with the traditional parties and last but not least the help of the establishment helped him come in power. But, Khan brutally failed to deliver. The people again felt cheated.

Nevertheless, Khan succeeded in concealing his governance failure under the cloak of religion. The first thing he did was to purchase Ertugrul, a Turkish drama series. The drama series was based on Jihad and in it was eulogized cutthroat culture! This cutthroat culture enamored, especially the people of the Punjab, who constitute more than 50 percent population of Pakistan. Moreover, the next misleading tact Khan employed was to exaggerate the subject of Islam phobia. Khan’s hyperbole against Islam phobia further captivated the people in the Punjab.

The result was further radicalization of the society to the point of terrorism and rebellion against state. In Baluchistan religious terrorists abducted Hazara Shia coal-mine workers and beheaded them. Besides, a frightening scene was seen in the Punjab, where hundreds of thousands militant-protesters filled the streets of the nearly all cities of the Punjab to coerce the government to oust the French ambassador on the blasphemy caricature charges. The protesters were so radicalized that they killed, brutally beat and paraded cops on the roads. Nearly around a week, the Punjab was hijacked by the zealots. The state then kneeled before the lynching crowds and signed a peace deal with them while promising to bring the issue of ambassador in the parliament.

Thus, with the government of the Taliban in the brethren neighboring Afghanistan connected with the long, rugged and porous border, already hyper-radicalized society would be further radicalized. Pakistan is not a homogenous society. It is divided on the sectarian lines. So, the sectarian violence would be revived. Furthermore, drugs and weapons would inundate the country.

Apart from all aforementioned pearls of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the frightening scenario is that the Taliban may encroach upon the Pushton areas of Pakistan, as the Afghan Taliban and the Pakistan Pushton are the same people connected by the blood, language, history, culture and geography. What severs them is the Durand Line drawn by the British during ending part of the 19th century. Then Pakistan army will be fighting the Taliban. This scenario is possible because the ethnicity and religion can mix!

As a consequence of the Taliban in Afghanistan, war, weapons, drugs and violence would deprive the Pakistani youth their future! Again this batch born in the mid-90s would be wasted and ruined!

https://www.eurasiareview.com/26072021-imran-khan-and-taliban-an-impending-disaster-oped/

Pakistan minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed can ride horses, row boats. But he’s just a meme for many

SIMRIN SIRUR

Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed posted pictures and videos of himself relaxing at his mansion called ‘Freedom House.’ Pakistani social media knew what to do next. 

 Imphal: A lot is happening in Pakistan: Covid-19 positivity rates are soaring, a civil war in Afghanistan is threatening to spill over into the country, and the murder of an ex-diplomat’s daughter has caused a nationwide uproar. But what is Pakistan’s Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed keeping himself busy with? He is riding horses and rowing boats at his Freedom farmhouse in Rawalpindi. It sent Pakistanis on social media into splits, who called him ‘nalaeq’, ‘donkey’, ‘Ertrugul Ghazi’, and ‘another play boy’. His house? “(Press) Freedom (Slaughter) House.”

Ahmed took time off during Eid and posted pictures and videos of himself relaxing at his mansion, which he calls ‘Freedom House.’

The minister is known for his candour and media savviness, but social media users haven’t taken kindly to this display, and have been trolling him ever since.

A few comments even betray a sense of frustration with Rashid Ahmed’s performance as Interior Minister.

“Please be honest to fix the problems under your ministry this time,” said a user on Facebook under a video of Ahmed paddling in a boat.

Besides the farmhouse, the minister also owns a Lal Haveli in Rawalpindi, which has its own YouTube channel. He appears in comedy shows, where he jokes that the young follow him because he is in “second-hand good condition”. If the host didn’t laugh repeating it, it’s possible to miss the humour there. And before you could dig into his past to uncover some uncomfortable truths, Rashid Ahmed himself would tell you he has been jailed several times, all through his school and college days.

Freedom farmhouse But it’s Rashid’s Freedom House that gets everyone’s goat, especially the Pakistani media. The property is treated by the news channels like a celebrity mansion to be explored. Dunya News once did a special feature on the “undrooni manzar (insides)” of the mansion.

They reveal a “model” house inside the property, which was made for “only” Rs 17 lakh.

The farmhouse’s main attraction, though, according to the channel, is a deep cavern which was designed by none other than Rashid himself. Dreamy stuff.

But this is what they don’t mention: Rashid Ahmed caused huge embarrassment for the Pakistani government when JKLF chief Yasin Malik claimed that this same farmhouse was used to give arms training to Kashmiri separatists, including himself. Apparently, this is why the farmhouse is named ‘Freedom House’. Of course, Ahmed denied the claim. But that’s not all. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz accuses him of having “grabbed” the land.While news channels may have to skip such coverage, social media users aren’t as forgiving, questioning Ahmed from where he acquired all the wealth to build properties.“What business did his father have or does he have? This farmhouse was made of the money stolen from the people and the money given to the Army with the money donated to Italy [sic],” a user commented on Facebook.

Some also wondered how Rashid Ahmed was able to fill the lake with water to paddle around in when Rawalpindi is reeling under a dry spell.

An ‘embarrassing’ minister

Rashid Ahmed has been in politics for a long time, and over the last 35 years, has been in charge of 15 ministries, interior being the latest.

Often a subject of memes, he found his place in one alongside Prime Minister Imran Khan “planting pine trees” — only this time he is riding a horse as Khan is shown digging graves named Economy, Kashmir, CPEC, Rupee, Decency, Merit in Freedom farmhouse.

https://theprint.in/go-to-pakistan/pakistan-minister-sheikh-rashid-ahmed-can-ride-horses-row-boats-but-hes-just-a-meme-for-many/703699/

Why a Taliban victory may not be everything Pakistan wished for

By Scott Peterson

@peterson__scott

In 2017, then-President Donald Trump singled out Pakistan for giving “safe haven to agents of chaos, violence, and terror,” the same groups “that try every single day to kill our people” in Afghanistan.

At the time, it was seen as long-overdue recognition of an open secret: that Pakistan, a U.S. ally, was backing its enemy, the Taliban.

“We have been paying Pakistan billions … at the same time they are housing the very terrorists that we are fighting,” said Mr. Trump. “But that will have to change.”

WHY WE WROTE THIS 

Pakistan’s heavy investment in the Taliban was vital in leading to America’s military defeat in Afghanistan. But is the prospect of a sweeping Taliban victory giving Pakistan second thoughts?

Fast-forward four years, and what has changed instead is that the Taliban are today sweeping across Afghanistan and threatening the U.S.-backed government in Kabul, as U.S. forces withdraw unconditionally.

Pakistan has invested heavily in just such an outcome. Despite consistent denials, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency has been instrumental since 2006 in boosting the insurgents with explosives, cash, ideological recruits, and a cross-border safe haven, analysts say.And yet, as the Taliban juggernaut has accelerated its advance and vowed to re-establish a strict Islamic Emirate, signs of concern are emerging in Pakistan about the dangers of an outright Taliban victory over the United States and the government in Kabul.

Key players in Islamabad may be changing their thinking, as they weigh the prospects of a relatively friendly Taliban-led state against the risk of sparking renewed civil war and instability in Afghanistan, a refugee exodus, and an emboldened cadre of Pakistan’s own recently regenerated jihadists. “Pakistan wants the Taliban to take power [as] a culmination of the long-term strategy of bringing the Taliban back,” says Asfandyar Mir, an expert in political violence at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation. “But at the same time it is nervous. It certainly appears to have some buyer’s remorse [with] concerns that the Pakistanis are starting to express more and more,” says Mr. Mir, speaking from Islamabad.

Pakistan’s homefront

One Pakistani concern is that the “Taliban’s dependence on them is going down, which has manifested itself in testy, poor behavior in meetings with senior military intelligence officials,” he says, giving Pakistani officials the impression that today’s Taliban are “harder to control” than in the past.

A larger concern for Pakistan is the energizing impact the Taliban’s ascendance is having on Pakistan’s own jihadist insurgents, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, which has close ties to the Afghan Taliban and has recently regenerated a campaign to overthrow the Pakistani state.

Pakistani intelligence and army chiefs reportedly have briefed Pakistani lawmakers that the Taliban and TTP – which has targeted numerous Pakistani intelligence and military officials – are two sides of the same coin. “Our jihadis will be emboldened. They will say that ‘if America can be beaten, what is the Pakistan army to stand in our way?’” an unnamed senior Pakistani official told The Wall Street Journal of the Taliban advance. “The TTP has really stepped up its violence against Pakistan. They have been hitting various military targets the last 6 to 12 months,” says Mr. Mir. “Pakistan probably underestimated that if you bring the Taliban to power in Afghanistan, that will obviously embolden Islamist insurgents inside the country. Due to the TTP’s stepped-up attacks, that reality is starting to crystallize.” The Taliban now control more than half of Afghanistan’s 400-plus district centers – most of those seized since June – but none of the 34 provincial capitals. The United Nations reported Monday that 5,183 civilians were killed or wounded the first six months of this year – a 47% increase over the same period last year.

The United States, Russia, and China have all pressured Pakistan to convince the Taliban not to advance on Kabul, and to instead find a political solution. In March, all four nations issued a joint statement opposing the “restoration of the Islamic Emirate” – the name the Taliban used for their state when they ruled in the late 1990s, which was recognized then only by Pakistan.

The Taliban immediately rejected the statement as “against all principle and not acceptable.”

Khalilzad’s visit to Islamabad Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. envoy for Afghanistan, visited Islamabad July 19 and met with the ISI chief and top officials. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has said his country, in the past, “made a mistake by choosing between warring parties” in Afghanistan and now has “no favorites.” After meeting Ambassdor Khalilzad, he said instability would cause “serious challenges” for Pakistan.

Just days before, Pakistan had tried and failed to convene a meeting in Islamabad between senior Afghan leaders, including President Ashraf Ghani and former President Hamid Karzai, with top Taliban leaders, to hammer out a power-sharing deal. Pakistan’s national security adviser, Moeed Yusuf, told Indian television Saturday that Pakistan was “obsessively focused” on a political settlement but had “very limited leverage” over the Taliban.

Kabul has complained bitterly for years about Pakistan’s support of the Taliban, and seen few signs of change. Whatever its security concerns, Pakistan has not stopped the Afghan Taliban from using its territory to recruit Pakistani fighters, provide safe haven, or care for wounded fighters.

President Ghani on July 17 said Pakistan had, in the previous month, allowed more than 10,000 “jihadi fighters” to enter Afghanistan.

“Can Taliban convince a single [Afghan] including themselves that they aren’t puppets of Rawalpindi’s GHQ [Pakistani military headquarters]? They are just a kill and destruction squad in the hands of Pakistan,” tweeted Amrullah Saleh, the Afghan first vice president and former spy chief, earlier this month. “Pak has once again opted for a very dangerous and costly adventure,” he said in another tweet. Peace talks as cover

Afghan officials say Pakistan has also abetted the Taliban’s use of intra-Afghan peace talks, which began last September but made little progress, to prepare for continued war.

Back in January, for example, Taliban negotiators were late in returning to the Gulf state of Qatar for talks scheduled to resume on the 5th.

“Where were the Taliban?” Ahmad Shuja Jamal, head of international affairs and regional cooperation on Afghanistan’s National Security Council, asked rhetorically during a webinar this month hosted by the Frontline Club in London. The answer, he said, came a few days later, when videos from Pakistan showed Taliban leaders “parading across a line of suicide bombers of the Taliban” and visiting “wounded Taliban terrorists” treated in Pakistani hospitals. Mr. Jamal accused the Taliban of planting explosive devices manufactured with Pakistani-produced ammonium nitrate “in people’s orchards, in people’s crops, in people’s abandoned homes and pathways into and out of their villages.”

The solution, he said, is for the U.S. and others to “pressure Pakistan, so that they actually do play, finally, a constructive role that only they can play in this equation.”

Pakistan, however, despite stated concern about Afghan Taliban victories, appears to have done little to meaningfully knuckle down.

“There was a big push to mobilize fighters in the last few months, in the [Pakistani] tribal areas and in the Pashtun areas around the south of Afghanistan in Baluchistan,” Carlotta Gall, a New York Times correspondent who covered Afghanistan and Pakistan for more than a decade, said in the webinar.

“We know there are a lot of bodies coming back, including of Pakistanis,” said Ms. Gall, author of “The Wrong Enemy.” The Nangarhar governor’s office tweeted Sunday, for example, that 39 dead Pakistani fighters were sent home the past two weeks. Videos show funerals of fighters in Pakistan, with white Taliban flags held aloft. “It’s a massive, state-organized campaign, and it’s been going on for 20 years,” said Ms. Gall, whose book title invokes Richard Holbrooke, the late U.S. special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, who once said, “We may be fighting the wrong enemy in the wrong country.” “Pakistan has never given up on its idea to have a client state in Afghanistan,” she said. “It hasn’t changed. It hasn’t stopped. The Americans knew it all along.”

A colonial power

That has been most clear to Afghans, who have been shocked by the speed and scale of destruction of the current Taliban campaign – and are suspicious of any claimed Pakistani change of heart.“Every Afghan now knows that the name used for these invasions is Taliban, but it’s actually the Pakistani Army in the uniform of the Taliban,” says Orzala Nemat, a Kabul-based analyst.

https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2021/0726/Why-a-Taliban-victory-may-not-be-everything-Pakistan-wished-for