Video Report - امریکا ته د تازه راغلو افغان کډوالو په ملاتړ د کانګرس ودانۍ ته څېرمه پرلت

Video Report - خيبر پښتونخوا: زيارکښان وايي د اوړو لوړو بيو يې ژوند ستونزمن کړی دی

Video Report - Foreign Minister of Pakistan Bilawal Bhutto Zardari's interview with Associated Press

#Pakistan - Bilawal warns of consequences to Taliban isolation

Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari wants the world to engage the Taliban and has warned of dangerous consequences if Afghanistan’s rulers are again isolated.

In an interview with AFP on a visit to Washington, Bilawal cautioned against creating “parallel governance” after the United States, distrustful of the Taliban, put Afghanistan’s frozen assets in a professional fund in Switzerland. “We’ve learned from the past that when we wash our hands and turn our backs, we end up creating unintended consequences and more problems for ourselves,” Bilawal said on Tuesday. “I believe that our concerns of an economic collapse, of an exodus of refugees, of a threat of new recruits for organisations such as ISIS-K and others, outweigh concerns that there may be about their financial institutions,” he added.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had expressed similar views while addressing the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly last week.

In contrast to some previous officials, Bilawal offered no warm words for the Taliban in the interview with AFP.

But he said the Taliban needed “political space” on concerns such as women’s rights, which have been sharply curtailed.

“Throughout history, theocratic, autocratic regimes haven’t exactly tended to expand rights at times of economic strife,” he said. “In fact, they tend to hold on to cultural issues and other issues to engage their population.” The US came away unpersuaded from a series of talks with the Taliban and in August said they had violated promises by welcoming Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was found at a house in Kabul and killed in a US strike.

‘Great power rivalries’

Bilawal, the Oxford-educated 34-year-old scion of a preeminent political dynasty, took office five months ago amid political turbulence after a no-confidence vote saw the ouster of former prime minister Imran Khan.The strife comes as the country is ravaged by floods that have submerged one-third of the country, displacing millions.At a meeting Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken promised long-term support. In a message less welcome by Pakistan, the top US diplomat also called on Islamabad to ask China to restructure debt accumulated as Beijing builds billions of dollars of infrastructure in a quest for Indian Ocean port access.

Asked about Blinken’s remarks, Bilawal said he has had “very productive conversations” with China and said he hoped that assistance after the historic floods “does not fall prey to great power rivalries and geostrategic issues”.

With Beijing seen by many Pakistanis as an uncritical ally, successive governments in Islamabad have rebuffed US calls to weigh in on the mass incarceration of Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim people, a campaign Washington calls genocide. “I’m sure that the United States would like for us to comment more on China’s internal affairs,” Bilawal said. “But maybe if we start by addressing disputes that are recognised by bodies such as the United Nations as disputes of an international nature, that would be more productive.”

He was referring to the Kashmir issue, which has triggered two of the three full-fledged wars between India and Pakistan.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist, in 2019 stripped Muslim-majority occupied Kashmir of its historic autonomy and opened the way for other Indian citizens to live there.

Bilawal recalled that when the PPP was in power in 2010, it moved to open trade with India, then led by prime minister Manmohan Singh.

“We were willing to take the political risk, stick our necks on the line, and touch the third rail of Pakistani politics — but because we knew that there was a rational, reasonable player on the other end who would perhaps be willing to reciprocate,” Bilawal said.

“Unfortunately, that space does not exist today. It’s a very different India. “

https://www.dawn.com/news/1712404

Pakistan Army, Taliban involved in narco trade: NATO investigation

The unholy nexus of the Pakistan Army and the Taliban’s involvement in the narco trade was revealed by the NATO Defence Education Enhancement Program (DEEP) report.According to this 2022 report titled “Narco-Insecurity, Inc, the convergence of Pakistan and Afghanistan narco-trade was made possible with the help of Pakistan’s military spy agency the ISI, which launched several covert operations with sympathetic jihadist groups, all of whom relied heavily on narcotics trafficking to fund their operations,” reported South Asia Press.

The illegal narcotics trade constitutes one of the main financial sources of the insurgency groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but, more importantly, it feeds narco-terror, globally.

Moreover, Af-Pak heroin networks, drug lords and their nexus with the Taliban and Pakistani military present a principal impediment to security, state-building, and democratic governance in Afghanistan and the region. Pakistan’s role in drug proliferation is validated by a number of arrests of its nationals in other countries on charges of drug trafficking. It is reported that Pakistan has established smuggling networks over the last years into India – and especially within the Kashmir valley – so as to ensure a steady supply of narcotics and weapons, reported South Asia Press.

The central aim of this NATO academic report written by David R Winston is to analyse the growth of the narcotics industry stemming from Afghanistan as well as Pakistan and the nexus that has formed between narcotics trafficking and terrorism.

The Taliban have long used narcotics as their main source of revenue. Without the poppy crop, they may never have grown to be the massive organisation that they are today that was capable of toppling the Ghani government, as per the writer. With the control of Afghanistan by the Taliban last year, the terror group has acquired control over the opium cultivation in the country, reported South Asia Press. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) November 2021 Report, Afghanistan accounted for around 85 per cent of global opium production in the year 2020 and supplied approximately 80 per cent of the world’s opium consumers.

The total value of opiates (opium, morphine, and heroin) was 9 per cent to 14 per cent of Afghanistan’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020. Methamphetamine and cannabis are two other major drugs which have expanded production in Afghanistan in recent years, reported South Asia Press.

With Pakistan sharing 2,400 kilometres of the largely porous border with Afghanistan, it has served as a transit corridor for drug traffickers. According to independent estimates, more than 40 per cent of Afghan drugs transit Pakistan before they reach the international markets. Tonnes of opiates and meth are trafficked from Afghanistan to the Torkham border crossing, Ghulam Khan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, from where they are sent to Lahore and Faisalabad, reassembled into huge consignments, reported South Asia Press.

Beyond the region, Afghan-originated drugs create enormous challenges for international security by financing terrorism, instigating corruption, and creating health emergencies. It is time to put an end to such “narco” trade originating from Afghanistan and supported by Pakistan, reported South Asia Press.

https://theprint.in/world/pak-army-taliban-involved-in-narco-trade-nato-investigation/1145952/