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Pakistan Headed The Sri Lanka Way Of Economic And Political Meltdown – Analysis

By Dr. Subhash Kapila

Sri Lanka’s complete economic and political meltdown attributable to Sri Lanka’s bartering its fiscal and autonomy to China’s ‘Debt Traps’ under the seemingly redoubtable President-Prime Minister Duo Rajapaksha Brothers, should be an eye-opener for Pakistan as with Pakistani economic meltdown underway what awaits Pakistan is a political meltdown.

Noticeably, Pakistan too like Sri Lanka’s leadership has courted and flirted with China economically and strategically. This became more marked in since 2018 when Pakistani masses mesmerised by Imran Khan selling dreams of a ‘Naya (New) Pakistan’ emerged as Pakistan’s Prime Minister.

It is doubtful that a return to power of Imran Khan as Prime Minister could forestall Pakistan’s economic and political meltdown. On the contrary Imran Khan’s credentials and demonstrated performance indicate otherwise.

Pakistan’s economic spiral downslide resulted in a big way from then PM Imran Khan with boundless political arrogance fostered by his China-tilt connect with Beijing made him brash to jettison United States and Saudi Arabia as Pakistan’s main donors underwriting Pakistan’s financial solvency.

Pakistan’s comparative situation with Sri Lankan terms of economic and political meltdown has not gone unnoticed within Pakistan and some media Columnists have reflected these concerns.

Further, reflected by this Columnist the disturbing similarities with Sri Lanka as import dependence on essential commodities, limited foreign exchange and piled up external debt.

Pakistan’s economic and political meltdown is a legacy issue of over three years of rule of former Prime Minister Imran Khan. Pakistan was mercifully saved by the Constitutional Coup underwritten by Pakistan Army bringing PM Shahbaz Sharif to replace him. 

However, Pakistan seems to be in a self-destruct mode going by the recent by-poll election results in Pakistan’s majority province of Punjab. Former PM Imran Khan’s PTI party swept the polls leading to widespread speculation in Pakistan media that this could possibly herald the political resurrection of Imran Khan and his possible return as Pakistan’s Prime Minister. 

However, Imran Khan’s big win in Punjab was from seats in which earlier PTI legislators had stood disqualified. The PTI therefore can be said to have retained its earlier poetically strong con constituencies. PTI has nothing to show that it has enlarged its political base.

In South Asian politics, by-poll results are not an accurate barometer of political mood swings and more so in Pakistan where there are too many imponderables at play, bot external and internal.

Pakistan’s foreign policy under Imran Khan as Prime Minister was horribly messed-up both by Imran Khan’s own predilections for China and those of his impulsive and brash Foreign Minister Qureshi. Both of them, more than earlier regimes swung Pakistan firmly into China’s orbit and flirting with notions of Pakistan-Turkey-Malaysia Islamic Bloc to offset the more conservative hold of the Arab Monarchs Bloc on the Islamic World.

In both cases, Pakistan was geopolitically positioning itself with countries which patently were in adversarial mode with United States which controlled global financial institutions.

The economic spinoff of the above impulsive moves was that Pakistan so- positioning led to an economic squeeze of financial sustenance of Pakistan by major donors like United States and Saudi Arabia which were the very sources of financial largesse which had sustained Pakistan financially. 

Pakistan under Imran Khan Regime was not trusted by the United States and Saudi Arabia changed course only after PM Imran Khan went with a begging bowl to Jeddah and forsook moves to form Pakistan-Turkey-Malaysia Bloc as rival to Saudi-led Arab Monarchies Bloc.

The United States also made initial political outreach moves to Pakistan with exit of PM Imran Khan. The Pakistan Army Chief despite the Army’s predominant Chines military inventories publicly articulated that Pakistan sought good relations with the United States, signalling that it had not approved Imran Khan’s marked China-tilt.

Pakistan’s internal political dynamics, if going by recent by-poll results suggesting Pakistan’s political mood for return of Imran Khan as Prime Minister could then put United States political outreaches to Pakistan in jeopardy, and which in its wake ensures lending by global financial institutions slip into reverse gears.

Pakistan’s economy would take at least a decade to recover under present political conditions continuing to prevail. However, should political mood-swings veer towards Former PTI PM Imran Khan then Pakistan’s economic meltdown would get accelerated?

Former PM Imran Khan with all his political demagoguery is less likely to continue in power, even if he returns, as political meltdown is a natural corollary of Pakistan’s economic meltdown.

China has already exhibited that it can bail out Pakistan financially only up to a point where any Pakistani regime can ensure the security of Chinese economic and strategic interests in Pakistan. But how can a future Imran Khan Regime forestall Pakistan’s economic meltdown if China does not go in for massive re-scheduling of Chinese loans to Pakistan. Can China do it with its own declining economic growth?

While dwelling on the subject, the attitudes of Pakistan Army cannot be side-lined. The Pakistani Army is a strong determinator of Pakistan’s foreign policies and Pakistan’s political dynamics. Too much significance is being attached today to speculation that Pakistan Army is a ‘Divided House’ with some of the Generals supporting Imran Khan.

In the overall analysis, it can be safely asserted that when it would come to an eventual showdown on Pakistan Army losing its grip on Pakistan’s governance, then Pakistan Army hierarchy would close its ranks to safeguard its corporate interests.  Can it be forgotten by Pakistan Army hierarchy that Imran Khan as Prime Minister was dividing the Pakistan Army’s Collegium of Generals while in power?

Concluding, it can be asserted that if Pakistan is to avoid going the Sri Lanka path of economic and political meltdown, then Pakistan’s political dynamics seeking return of former PM Imran Khan to power would only hasten the meltdown of Pakistan.

https://www.eurasiareview.com/24072022-pakistan-headed-the-sri-lanka-way-of-economic-and-political-meltdown-analysis/

One such informed Columnist, Mohsin Saleem Ullah on July 21 in Express Tribune has assessed and compared the economic situation in Pakistan as akin to Sri Lankan major crisis. It is brought out that Pakistan today is similarly plagued with severe external debt, high inflation, surge in unemployment and scarcity of food grains and medicines 

Water management for Balochistan

Dawood Khan

It is time policies are made and implemented swiftly to respond to the water needs of the province.

B

alochistan’s water crisis has reached a level where rain is needed everywhere, all the time. Sadly, the annual rainfall is meager. On the other hand, there is little preparedness for it. Every time it rains, flooding damage affects lives and livelihoods, particularly in the agriculture. All this was on display last week when it rained in most parts of Balochistan.

In Pishin district, the rain storm caused a number of families to migrate to higher points under an open sky. Water entered the living quarters in many areas. People in the Malakyar village had to flee their homes during the night. Many families migrated to urban regions and started living with their relatives in the host cities.

A few weeks ago, videos of some female students at Loralai Medical College went viral on social media. They were carrying pots of water. They travelled great distances from their hostels and fetched water for themselves. The students have been deprived of safe drinking water. For a long time, the people of Gwadar have not had sufficient water. On several occasions they have been forced to hold street protests.

Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, is over-populated. Families that hail from quite far-flung regions (both Pashtuns and Baloch) also reside in the capital. It is mostly because unlike their ancestral villages their children have access to basic healthcare and schools. The large population needs water. However, the water supply is not sufficient. Water tankers charge around Rs 10,000 per fill. Over the years, an entire water economy has evolved in the city.

In Killa Saifullah, the agriculture has been affected the most by heavy rains. Many shepherds lost their livestock on the eve of Eid-ul-Azha. Some said they had to watch helpless their animals drowned. The already marginalised segment of the society was badly hit economically. Similar stories poured in from other parts of the province. It cannot be claimed, however, that all parts of the province received adequate media coverage.

Potable water scarcity is a serious issue. It causes poverty, illiteracy, stunted growth and security issues. The population of Balochistan is less than the city of Lahore but it is scattered over 48 percent of the land area of the country. 

Many people in Balochistan do not have clean water to drink. The water table has gone down nearly a thousand feet in recent years. Installation of solar-powered tubewells, promoted by some politicians, brings only temporary relief.

When it rains, the worries of many citizens are multiplied. Rural regions are affected the most because of the poor design and construction of buildings.

Potable water scarcity is a very serious issue. It causes poverty, illiteracy, stunted growth and security issues. The population of Balochistan, less than that of the city of Lahore, is scattered over 48 percent of land area of the country.

Government policies to solve these issues have not proved compatible with the ground realities. Balochistan does not have enough dams and reservoirs to store rain water. Most of the rainwater is wasted. It flows out quickly and joins the sea, becoming unfit for drinking and other uses.

There is an opportunity for the federal and provincial governments to bring the issue to the table with the Chinese under the CPEC umbrella. The issue must be given priority. The authorities should declare a water emergency. Use of clean water for washing cars etc should be banned.

Balochistan is blessed with minerals and natural resources. It should resolve its water issue by requiring mining companies to provide water for the host communities.

The provincial government should also develop a water trade system with other provinces. In return for the water received Balochistan can provide grapes, apples, melons and watermelons to the rest of the country.

Balochistan is adjacent to Afghanistan which has sufficient water. The government should analyse this option wisely and enter a suitable arrangement with the Afghan government.

The karez system in Balochistan has become extinct. Restoring this system is not viable. A better alternative is small dams to store rainwater.

In the near future, construction and operation of such dams will likely be the best indicator of the health of the economy. It will also be a good yardstick for the sincerity of politicians.

https://www.thenews.com.pk/tns/detail/976186-water-management-for-balochistan 

Pakistan: 100 killed, 57 injured in rain-related incidents in Balochistan province

Heavy downpours have killed 100 people in Pakistan, leaving 57 injured and displacing many across southwest Balochistan province.

The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) said that women, children and men were among 100 people killed in recent heavy rainfall in the province, ARY News reported.

“Overall 6,063 houses were demolished while 550-kilometre road track along four major highways in the province also got damaged during the rainfall,” PDMA said. The disaster management authority mentioned that over 712 animals have been killed during the heavy downpour. Section 144 was imposed by the government for a period of one month after the forecasts predicted more downpours in the province.

Section 144 prevents people from going to picnics at rivers, dams and other water bodies. Under the section, there is a ban on swimming in rivers and water streams.

NDMA has provided relief goods to the province, local media reported. The relief goods include family tents and de-watering pumps to assist the disaster management authority. The PDMA situation report said that more than 2,500 houses have been completely damaged, whereas 1,417 houses have been partly damaged in the recent rains.

Rescue and relief activities are in full swing in the province, according to the PDMA, adding that camps, ration bags, blankets, and other everyday life necessary stuff have been dispatched to the flood-hit areas.

Earlier, the Pakistan Meteorological Department forecasted more heavy rains in various districts of the province from Friday to Tuesday, advising all concerned authorities to remain alert and take necessary precautionary measures during the forecast period. Due to heavy rainfalls across Pakistan, several incidents of people getting electrocuted have come to light.

Rainwater has accumulated on the main roads and streets and has caused a disruption in the flow of traffic, and the accumulated water has caused several vehicles and motorcycles to break down on the streets. The downpour across the has caused several houses and villages to be submerged, standing crops and infrastructure was damaged and many remote areas were cut off from the rest of the population due to destroyed roads.

https://theprint.in/world/pak-100-killed-57-injured-in-rain-related-incidents-in-balochistan-province/1053195/

Christians in Pakistan are victims of rape, forced marriages, and violent mobs using blasphemy laws against them

A witness to the plight of Christians and other religious minorities talks to Aleteia, as the European Union considers suspending Pakistan's preferential trading status.Each year, human rights observers report that as many as 1,000 mostly Christian and Hindu girls and young women in Pakistan are raped and subjected to forced conversions and marriages to Muslim men.

These crimes have helped earn Pakistan its ignominious designation as a “Country of Particular Concern” on the U.S. Department of State’s Religious Freedom Report. Representing only 2% of the population of Pakistan, Christians are often victims of the country’s harsh blasphemy laws and mob violence.That number however, represents only about half of the actual number of victims, says Shaheed Mobeen, a Pakistani professor of philosophy at the Pontifical Urban University in Rome and an advocate for religious freedom in Pakistan. Mobeen is a witness testifying at the International Religious Freedom Summit, held in Washington, DC, this week. A guest of the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, he is here to talk about the persecution of religious minorities in Muslim-majority Pakistan.

Aid to the Church in Need, in its support of persecuted Christians around the world, helps fund the legal defense of Christians accused of blasphemy, and aids in the rescue of Christian girls abducted and forcibly converted.

“The government of Pakistan doesn’t accept [the number of victims as] 1,000 a year, but in the last two years, what I have seen, and what volunteers, nuns and lawyers have found, is that there are about 2,000 forced conversions and marriages a year,” Mobeen told Aleteia. In addition to Christians, Hindu, Sikh, and Shia Muslim families are being victimized and forced into marriages with Muslim men.

Abducted by Muslim “uncles”

The perpetrators of these crimes against girls and young women, he said, are usually family friends.“What happens is a Muslim man who appears to be a friend of the Christian family visits the family, they eat together, and they drink together. This man starts bringing some gifts for the children of the house. The parents think that he is just like part of the family, whereas he is already planning his own future 3rd, 4th, or 5th wife,” Mobeen explained.

“And he chooses the most beautiful minor girl between the ages of 10 and 14. Fascinated by the candies, all the nice dresses, all the make-up things, these almost-teenagers think at the beginning that its an uncle who is giving so many gifts.

“Then he sexually violates the girl, converts her to Islam, and marries the same girl. After two days when the parents are looking for her everywhere, they receive a letter: ‘Your daughter has accepted Islam, congratulations, she will be saved,’” Mobeen said. While the minimum legal age for marriage in Pakistan ranges from 14 to 18 depending on the province, that restriction is ignored by the men who abduct these girls, and sometimes by the courts tasked with upholding the law. In Sindh Province, for example, in the southeastern region of Pakistan, girls must be 18 to marry without the permission of their parents. When the parents of 14-year-old Huma Younus, a Catholic girl, went to court after their daughter was abducted, forcibly converted to Islam, and married off to a Muslim man, they discovered that the judicial system was not based on the laws on the books. In his ruling, the judge declared that, despite the evidence that a 14-year-old girl had been illegally married without her parents’ permission, no crime had been committed. He said that the marriage was legal.

His reasoning: in accordance with Sharia law, since their daughter had already had her first menstrual period, she was of marriageable age.

The decision set off a firestorm of protests on social media, and was the subject of remarks on up on the floor of the UK Parliament, Mobeen said.He told Aleteia that despite the many witnesses present, the court later denied that the judge ruled as he did. “It became an issue, and three days later the same court issued a press release saying ‘all that is being said in social media is not true.’ But we are witnesses to confirm that that was said,” Mobeen said.

Blasphemy laws and the threat of international sanctions

According to reports from human rights observers, Christians, Hindus and other religious minorities continue to be victimized by mobs of Muslims who attack them because of alleged acts of blasphemy.

Under the Pakistani penal code, accusations of blasphemy can subject one to life imprisonment and the death penalty, although nobody has ever been executed, at least through the judicial system. For non-Muslims accused of blasphemy, according to Aid to the Church in Need’s Religious Freedom Report, “accusations often result in lynching, mob attacks on entire neighborhoods, and extrajudicial killings.” Those who survive are brought to jail, where they remain, having been denied bail because they are believed to be safer in jail. In some cases, those who are incarcerated die under suspicious circumstances, Mobeed said.

The world turned its eyes to Pakistan when human rights activists, including Aid to the Church in Need, brought attention to the case of Asia Bibi, the Pakistani woman sentenced to death after being convicted of blasphemy charges. Her 2018 acquittal due to “insufficient evidence” was followed by a decrease in charges of blasphemy. The Center for Social Justice (CSJ) reported authorities charged and imprisoned 84 individuals in 2021 for blasphemy, a decrease from the 199 brought in on blasphemy charges in 2020.“After the release of Asia Bibi, Pakistan realized the world is looking at us and there are going to be economic sanctions on us if we don’t respect and give space for religious freedom and human rights,” Mobeen said.

In the United States, while Pakistan remains on the list of “countries of particular concern,” the U.S. State Department has issued a waiver so sanctions won’t be brought against Pakistan, due to “the national interests of the United States.”

Meanwhile, Pakistan is now in danger of losing its GSP+ status with the European Union because of its persecution of religious minorities. The country benefits from a preferential status that allows it to enjoy zero duties on 66% of its exports. In April several Members of the European Parliament called for a debate on human rights abuses in Pakistan, with a focus on discrimination against religious minorities. In its resolution the group demanded that Pakistan protect religious freedom or risk losing aid from the European countries. “Pakistan is trying to do its best to show to the international community that there is religious freedom in Pakistan, that they are respecting human rights in Pakistan, but in the case of religious minorities, religious freedom is not even discussed. We have a department of religious affairs called Interfaith Harmony and they are not doing anything in that direction and they don’t even know what interfaith dialogue means,” he said.

And despite a decrease in the number of people jailed for blasphemy, Mobeen said that there are “many Asia Bibis in Pakistan in prison.”

“They need to be saved, the many boys and girls, school teachers who are in jail, accused of blasphemy, while there is no proof of having committed blasphemy. They are going to stay for years and years in jail,” he said.

Criminals hiding behind Sharia law

According to Mobeen, the rapes, forced conversions and marriages, and mob violence have little to do with religion.

“Religion does not have anything to do with that kind of lustful attitude of these men,” accused of abducting young girls and forcing them to marry them, he said.

“Those vicious and lustful men use religious law to protect themselves and safeguard themselves, just like with the blasphemy laws.” Mobeen believes that charges of blasphemy are often made by Muslims who are jealous of how Christians and Hindus are faring economically. “Islam does not invite you to rape a girl, Islam does not teach you to accuse someone falsely of blasphemy, but with this situation, it is legally possible for a Muslim criminal to hide himself behind these Islamic laws,” he explained.

Hope rests on international pressure

“Christians are finding it difficult to survive in everyday life,” Mobeen stressed.

His hope is that the United States and other nations will press for Pakistan to provide protection for religious minorities.

“If they say they are protecting religious minorities, it is not true. If it appears they are doing something, it’s not enough, we need to be protected better,” Mobeen said.In addition, he believes the Pakistani government should be encouraged to provide economic assistance to minority small businessmen and educational scholarships to religious minorities.Because many Christian parents refuse to let their daughters attend state schools for fear they will be abducted, the literacy rate for girls is only about 9%, Mobbed estimates. Home-schooling is not an option as many of the parents are themselves illiterate. And Christian schools are unaffordable for many. University scholarships, he says, are denied non-Muslims, blocking off the main path to economic well-being.

But no amount of economic or educational assistance will help without the physical protection of religious minorities, Mobbed said.

“We are citizens of Pakistan. We aren’t aliens. We need protections as any other citizens of Pakistan do,” he said.

https://aleteia.org/2022/07/01/christians-in-pakistan-are-victims-of-rape-forced-marriages-and-violent-mobs-using-blasphemy-laws-against-them/