Saturday, April 20, 2019

وزیراعظم عمران خان ٹیکنوکریٹس کے نرغے میں

پاکستان تحریک انصاف کی حکومت سال 2018 کے عام انتخابات کے بعد عمران خان کی قیادت میں برسراقتدار آئی تو اس کا دعویٰ تھا کہ یہ ایک محدود کابینہ کے ساتھ موثر طرز حکمرانی متعارف کروا کے عوام کو معاشی آسودگی اور بہتر معیار زندگی فراہم کرے گی۔
مگر ابھی حکومت کو پہلا سال بھی مکمل نہیں ہوا کہ بڑھتی ہوئی مہنگائی کے باعث حکومت کی کارکردگی تنقید کے کٹہرے میں آنے لگی۔ منتخب حکومتیں ایسی تنقید زیادہ دیر برداشت نہیں کرتیں۔ اس بار بھی ایسا ہی ہوا۔
وفاقی کابینہ میں اکھاڑ پچھاڑ اچانک نہیں تھی۔ کھچڑی تو کئی دن سے پک رہی تھی مگر کہانی ایک خبری ’لیک‘ کی صورت میں 15 اپریل کو مختلف ٹیلی ویژن چینلز پرمنظر عام پر آئی اور بتایا گیا کہ وفاقی کابینہ میں وزیر خزانہ اسد عمر سمیت اہم تبدیلیاں لائی جائیں گی۔ مگر شام کو حکومتی ترجمانوں نے تبدیلی کی اس خبر کی تردیدیں جاری کر دیں اور پیمرا نے متعلقہ ٹی وی چینلز کے خلاف یہ غلط خبریں نشر کرنے کا نوٹس بھی لے لیا۔
دو روز تک خاموشی رہی مگر تیسرے روز تبدیلی کی پہلی خبر اسد عمر نے پارلیمان ہاؤس میں صحافیوں سے شیئر کی۔ وہ قومی اسمبلی کی توانائی کمیٹی اجلاس کی صدارت کرنے وزیراعظم سیکریٹریٹ سے وہاں پہنچے تھے۔ صحافیوں کو دیکھتے ہی بول اٹھے کہ وزیراعظم نے انھیں وزارت پیڑولیم کی پیشکش کی ہے مگر انھوں نے انکار کر دیا ہے۔
تھوڑی دیر میں وزیراعظم سیکریٹریٹ سے صحافیوں کو فون پر اطلاعات موصول ہونا شروع ہو گئیں کہ کابینہ میں تبدیلی صرف اسد عمر تک محدود نہیں ہے۔ دراصل حکومت اسد عمر کی جانب سے غیر متوقع طور پر پیٹرولیم کی وزارت قبول نہ کرنے کے ردعمل سے پیدا ہونے والے تاثر کو زائل کرنے کی کوشش میں تھی۔ حیران کن طور پر وزرا کے قلمدانوں کی تبدیلی اورتین نئے خصوصی معاونین بھی تعینات کیے گئے۔
ان تبدیلیوں میں اہم ترین اسد عمر کی جگہ وزارت خزانہ میں عبدالحفیظ شیخ کو لانا، وزیر پارلیمانی امور بریگیڈئیر ریٹائرڈ اعجاز شاہ کو وزارت داخلہ کا قلمدان دینا، فواد چوہدری کو وزارت اطلاعات سے سائنس و ٹیکنالوجی کا قلمدان دینا اور غلام سرور خان کو وزارت پیڑولیم سے ایوی ایشن کی وزارت میں تعینات کرنا شامل تھا مگر کابینہ میں ان اندرونی تبدیلیوں کے ساتھ ساتھ تین غیر منتخب شخصیات فردوس عاشق اعوان، ڈاکٹر ندیم بابر اور ڈاکٹر ظفر اللہ مرزا کو معاون خصوصی برائے وزیراعظم بھی تعینات کیا گیا۔
وزیراعظم عمران خان کا بنیادی نعرہ تبدیلی تھا۔ اس نعرے کے ساتھ حکومت کے وجود میں آنے سے اب تک آٹھ ماہ کے اندر تحریک انصاف کی حکومت کو مرکز میں دو وزرا یعنی اعظم خان سواتی اور بابر اعوان سے ہاتھ دھونا پڑا۔
اعظم سواتی کو اسلام آباد میں زمین کے قبضے اور اپنے پڑوس میں ایک غریب خاندان کو جیل بھیجنے کے سکینڈل میں ملوث ہونے کے باعث وزارت چھوڑنی پڑی تو بابر اعوان کو نیب میں نندی پور ریفرنس میں ملزم نامزد ہونے کے باعث وزیراعظم کے معاون خصوصی کا عہدہ چھوڑنا پڑا۔
اسی طرح پنجاب میں صوبائی وزیر علیم خان بھی نیب کیس میں گرفتاری کے باعث وزارت سے فارغ ہوئے جبکہ فیاض الحسن چوہان اپنے متنازع بیانات کے باعث گھر بھیجے گئے۔ یعنی آٹھ ماہ کے دورانیے میں پاکستان تحریک انصاف کو تبدیلی کے فریم میں فکس نہ ہونے والے اپنے چار وزرا سے ہاتھ دھونا پڑا۔
18 اپریل کو اسد عمر تحریک انصاف کے پانچویں وزیر تھے جنھیں بظاہر معاشی مسائل حل نہ کرنے کے باعث گھر جانا پڑا۔ وزیراعظم عمران خان انھیں وزیر کے عہدے پر بہرحال برقرار رکھنا چاہتے تھے مگر اسد عمر نے وزارت سے بھی استعفیٰ دے دیا۔
حالیہ سالوں میں اسد عمر، نوید قمر کے بعد قومی اسمبلی میں براہ راست منتخب ہو کر وزیر خزانہ بننے والے دوسرے شخص تھے۔ نوید قمر کو پیپلزپارٹی کے آخری دور میں وزیر خزانہ تعینات کیا گیا تھا مگر پانچ ماہ بعد انھیں بھی وزارت خزانہ سے ہٹا کر وزارت پیڑولیم میں لگا دیا گیا تھا۔ اسد عمر نوید قمر سے محض تین ماہ زیادہ وزارت خزانہ کے قلمدان کے حامل رہے۔
اسد عمر کے بعد عبدالحفیظ شیخ کو بطور مشیر خزانہ وفاقی وزیر کا عہدہ دیا جا رہا ہے۔ امریکہ کی بوسٹن یونیورسٹی سے تعلیم یافتہ عبدالحفیظ شیخ ایک ٹیکنو کریٹ ہیں جو بالترتیب سابق فوجی صدر پرویز مشرف اور پھر پیپلز پارٹی کے ادوار میں سرمایہ کاری کے وزیر رہ چکے ہیں۔
تادم تحریر عبدالحفیظ شیخ کی تعیناتی کا نوٹیفیکیشن تو جاری نہیں ہوا تاہم وزیراعظم کے خصوصی معاونین کے طور پر ڈاکٹر فردوس عاشق اعوان، ڈاکٹر ندیم بابر اور ڈاکٹر ظفراللہ مرزا کے نوٹیفیکیشن جاری کردیے گئے ہیں۔
فردوس عاشق اعوان کو وزارت اطلاعات کے لیے مشیر مقرر کیا گیا ہے۔ وہ گذشتہ عام انتخابات میں سیالکوٹ سے ہار گئی تھیں۔ ڈاکٹر ندیم بابر اورینٹ پاور نامی کمپنی کے سابق سربراہ ہیں جنھیں پی ٹی آئی حکومت نے اکتوبر نے توانائی کے بارے میں ٹاسک فورس کا سربراہ تعینات کیا تھا۔ اب انھیں توانائی کے شعبے کا معاون خصوصی تعینات کیا گیا ہے۔
صحت کے شعبہ میں تعینات کیے گئے وزیراعظم کے معاون خصوصی ڈاکٹر ظفر اللہ مرزا کو پارٹی میں البتہ کم لوگ ہی جانتے ہیں۔ ان کے بارے میں بتایا جاتا ہے کہ وہ عرصہ دراز بیرون ملک صحت کے شعبہ میں خدمات سرانجام دیتے رہے ہیں۔
حیران کن بات تو یہ ہے کہ حکومت کے غیر منتخب معاونین کی فہرست میں سب سے زیادہ معاونین میڈیا سے متعلق ہیں۔ فردوس عاشق اعوان اس فہرست میں ابھی شامل ہوئی ہیں لیکن افتخار درانی اور یوسف بیگ مرزا پہلے ہی میڈیا کے امور دیکھ رہے ہیں اس سے ظاہر ہوتا ہے کہ حکومت کو میڈیا کے زریعے اپنا تاثر بہتر بنانا معیشت اور دیگر چیلنجز سے بڑا چیلنج لگتا ہے۔
اگر اسد عمر کو کابینہ سے نکال دیا جائے تو کابینہ میں وفاقی وزیروں کی کل تعداد 24 رہ جاتی ہے، پانچ وزرا مملکت، چار مشیران اور 13 خصوصی معاونین۔ یعنی کابینہ کے کل ارکان کی تعداد 46 ہو چکی ہے۔
اس سارے عمل میں اگر غیر منتخب افراد کی گنتی کی جائِے تو پتہ چلتا ہے ہے کہ 46 رکنی کابینہ میں وفاقی وزیر کے برابر عہدے کے حامل غیر منتخب مشیران اور معاونین خصوصی یعنی ٹیکنو کریٹس کی تعداد 17 ہوچکی ہے۔ یہ تمام افراد اہم ترین امور کو دیکھ رہے ہیں۔
پاکستان انسٹیٹوٹ آف لیجسلیٹو ڈویلپمنٹ کے سربراہ احمد بلال محبوب کے خیال میں کابینہ میں غیر منتخب معاونین تو محض پتے ہیں اصل مسئلہ تو جڑوں کا ہے جو بہت سنگین مسئلہ ہے۔
ان کا یہ بھی کہنا ہے کہ اگر غیر منتخب افراد آئین میں درج ہدایات کے مطابق ہیں تو اس سے فرق نہیں پڑتا۔
احمد بلال محبوب کی فکر انگیز باتیں اپنی جگہ مگر عملی طور پر وفاقی کابینہ کے اہم ترین امور یہ غیر منتخب لوگ ہی دیکھ رہے ہیں جن میں عبدالحفیظ شیخ ایک اہم اضافہ ہوں گے۔
اس سے قبل احتساب امور کی نگرانی برطانیہ سے تعلیم یافتہ لیکن غیر منتخب معاون خصوصی بیرسٹر شہزاد اکبر کر رہے ہیں جو ملک میں جاری احتسابی عمل کے نگران اعلیِ ہیں۔ وزیراعظم کے سیاسی امور کے معاون خصوصی نعیم الحق بھی ایک غیر منتخب شخصیت ہیں۔
ایسا واضع طور پر دکھائی دے رہا ہے کہ ہر گذرتے وقت کے ساتھ وزیراعظم عمران خان منتخب ارکان سے دور ہو کر غیر منتخب ٹیکنو کریٹس کے قریب ہوتے جا رہے ہیں۔
وزیر اعظم عمران خان کا یہ کہنا ہے کہ وہ بہتر کارکردگی نہ دکھانے پر تبدیلیاں لے کر آئے ہیں اور جو بھی بہتر کارکردگی نہیں دکھائے گا اور ملک کے لیے بہتر نہیں ہو گا وہ اسے بدل دیں گے لیکن سوال یہ ہے کہ مزید غیر منتخب افراد کو کابینہ میں شامل کر کے کیا وزیراعظم مطلوبہ نتائج حاصل کر لیں گے؟

Chinese men lure Pakistani girls with marriage to traffic them






Illegal matchmaking mafia arranges marriages between Chinese men and poor Pakistani girls.
The Pakistan government has warned people against a mafia involved in ‘fake’ marriages of Chinese men with Pakistani girls.
The Chinese Embassy in Islamabad has issued a statement urging caution against unlawful matchmaking centres involved in these marriages to earn profit.
According to reports, the Pakistan government has launched a crackdown on the illegal matchmaking centres. They lure poor Pakistani girls, especially Christian girls to marry Chinese men who are either visiting or working in Pakistan.
They produce fake documents of Chinese men showing them either as Christians or Muslims. They then find poor girls mainly from the Christian community to marry them by offering money and promises of ‘good life’. However, many girls reportedly became vicitms of human trafficking and forced into prostitution.
Talking to Gulf News, a Dubai-based Pakistani Christian community leader Rev Johan Qadir condemned the practice and said various churches in Pakistan have already launched awareness campaign amongst the Christian community warning them against illegal marriages.
“The government should launch a crackdown and save lives of the poor girls who are easily lured with promises of a comfortable life but actually they are trapped and trafficked to China,” he said.
He said the illegal matchmakers make fake certificates or affidavits for Chinese men showing them as Christian and bachelors and trap poor girls to marry them. “We request Prime Minister Imran Khan to take serious notice of this exploitation of the poor girls as many of them are forced into prostitution after their weddings.

The scam exposed

A report revealed that middlemen trapped Pakistani girls by promising them Rs40,000 (Dh1050) monthly besides mobile phones and Chinese visas. A TV channel also aired images of several Chinese men with Pakistani women, including two teenage girls, at an illegal matchmaking center in Lahore.
Thousands of Chinese are now living in Pakistan since the launch of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CEPEC) project in 2015. Many of them have even bought houses and cars in the country.
Some Chinese men have ulterior motives behind marrying Pakistani girls as they take them to China after marriage and force them into prostitution and even sell their organs.
The local facilitators told the TV channel they would lure families into an agreement by saying their would-be Chinese son-in-law was seeking Pakistani citizenship so he could invest in the country as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project.

Banners for weddings

Roadside banners and posters can also been seen in Youhanabad—the largest Christian locality – in Lahore, inviting families to marry their girls with Chinese.
The banners read: “Long live Pak-China friendship! Attention honorable Christians. Proposals of deserving, poor and good families are urgently required for China. Chinese family will bear all expenses. Education is not a problem.”

Chinese Embassy response

However, Chinese Embassy in Islamabad refutes reports of human trafficking of Pakistani girls and the sale of organs. But the statement did warn against illegal marriages.
The Chinese Embassy statement reads: Both China and Pakistan adopt rule of law and firmly oppose human trafficking and sales of human organs.
The above-mentioned reports about sales of organs are misleading and groundless. We notice that recently some unlawful matchmaking centers made illegal profits from brokering cross-national marriages. Both Chinese and Pakistani youths are victims of these illegal agents.
Chinese laws and regulations strictly prohibit cross-national matchmaking centers. No individual is allowed to engage in any form of such activity by deception or for profit. The Chinese government also strictly prohibits any organisation or individual from buying or selling human organs in any form, or engaging in such activities. For those who constitute a crime, criminal responsibility shall be investigated in accordance with the law.
China is cooperating with Pakistani law enforcement agencies to crack down on illegal matchmaking centers.
We remind both Chinese and Pakistani citizens to remain vigilant and not to be cheated. We also welcome valuable clues to combat such offenses. At the same time, it is hoped that reports should be based on the facts. We hope that the public do not believe in misleading information and work together to safeguard China-Pakistan friendship.”

Pakistan action

While briefing Pakistani lawmakers at one of the recent meetings, senior government officials reportedly said Islamabad was in close contact with Beijing about fake marriages and action was being taken to counter the practice.
A spokesman for the Interior Ministry said: “Some private marriage bureaus were involved in these marriages and most of the complaints were being received from Lahore and Abbottabad.

Why Pashtuns in Pakistan are rising up



Miran Shah, the administrative headquarter of my constituency in Pakistan’s western North Waziristan tribal district, once served as the global headquarters of terrorism. Al-Qaeda, the Haqqani network and other militant organizations moved there after being routed out by the U.S. military from neighboring Afghanistan in late 2001.
As Pakistan turned a blind eye to their revival, we paid a high price for Islamabad’s misguided policies. First, we endured a decade of rule by the Taliban and al-Qaeda. After the military finally moved into North Waziristan in 2014, about 1 million of North Waziristan’s residents were displaced, and our homes and livelihoods were ruined.
Now that we are trying to rebuild our lives after about three years of displacement, the Taliban are being allowed to return. In a secret deal with the military, some of them are expected to carry weapons. We have already seen a sharp spike in targeted assassinations.
But the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (also known as the Movement for the Protection of Pashtuns, or PTM) is determined to expose this and prevent our people from living under the Taliban’s tyranny again. On Sunday, tens of thousands of the movement’s supporters held a mass protest in Miran Shah to prevent North Waziristan from reverting to dark times.The residents of North Waziristan, whom I have represented in Parliament since July 2018, are perhaps the worst victims of the games that our military plays. But the more than 200 million Pakistani citizens stand helplessly by as our democracy, Parliament, judiciary and media outlets are manipulated by a powerful security establishment. Its policy of supporting militants and conducting proxy wars over the past four decades has resulted in death, destruction and economic disaster for Pakistan.
My skepticism gives way to optimism, though, when I see the energy and hope that drive my young comrades from the PTM. I am energized and reassured by their resolve to carry out a peaceful campaign to reclaim our dignity, security and rights.
The PTM has emerged as a reaction to the death and destruction unleashed upon the roughly 50 million Pashtuns in Afghanistan and Pakistan for years, and it has remained nonviolent despite facing violence from the state. The PTM is also having an impact across the border in Afghanistan, where fellow Pashtuns recently staged a peace march.
The Pashtuns’ sufferings can be traced back to the Soviet invasion and occupation of the 1980s, which devastated Afghanistan. The Pashtun homeland in Pakistan along the Afghan border became a staging ground for one of the largest asymmetrical conflicts of the 20th century. It radicalized two generations and generated an economy tied to terrorism and extremism.In the aftermath of 9/11, the Pashtun homeland in Pakistan also became into a war zone. Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s military regime and its successors failed to prevent Taliban militants from establishing de facto control in parts of what was known until recently as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).Within Pakistan, the costs of these failures were borne almost entirely by the Pashtuns. Since 2003, militant attacks and military operations have killed tens of thousands of Pashtuns and displaced many more. Nearly 2,000 Pashtun tribal leaders died for resisting the Taliban takeover of FATA.
The PTM is a reaction to these failures of the state. The movement’s core support comes from millennials who grew up witnessing a contrived war between militants and Pakistan’s military. Their maneuvers and covert alliances have brought only utter devastation to Pakistan’s roughly 35 million Pashtuns.
At the most basic level, the PTM is campaigning for the right to live. We demand an end to extrajudicial killings and accountability for the perpetrators. We demand an end to enforced disappearances and harassment by security forces. And we want landmines cleared off our civilian areas that have taken the lives and limbs of so many children and adults. It is telling that the state responds to even these simple demands with heartless arrogance.
Every time my bill on enforced disappearances comes up for discussion, Parliament has adjourned. State-backed militants, also known as “the good Taliban,” have killed PTM activists, while the government charges our peaceful comrades under laws meant for terrorists. Our gatherings are discouraged through crackdowns and the creation of official obstacles to obtaining permission for venues. Many of our activists have lost their jobs, while others have had to shut down their businesses. Others have been barred from traveling abroad. As if that were not enough, a brigade of online trolls regularly declares us traitors on social media while inciting violence against us. We also face a blackout from electronic and print media.
Despite all this, our people have awoken. The spring of a Pashtun awakening blossoms against all odds.
A senior Pakistani official recently tried to persuade me to give up our protests because it angers the generals. He argued that the military must be feared because they speak through weapons. I responded that my generation came of age amid bombs and bullets. We have seen our homes demolished and our elders killed. We have nothing more to lose. Our struggle will continue until we have the right to live, and until we win our right to live, threats to our lives are meaningless.

Pakistani establishment is waging a new war: against its own media


Pakistan’s Human Rights Commission says media firms facing attack for reports that are critical of security and intelligence agencies as well as militants.

Pakistan’s leading rights watchdog says it has documented the “unprecedented level” to which the freedom of expression and press freedom has shrunk in the country.
In its annual report documenting rights abuses in the predominantly Muslim country of 207 million people, the nongovernmental Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) revealed a startling decrease in individual and collective freedom of expression in 2018.
“Media coverage was severely inhibited amid a climate of intimidation and fear, most specifically in reporting on abuses by government security and intelligence agencies as well as militants,” the report noted.
According to the HRCP, Pakistani media companies were pressured by officials to avoid covering certain issues while journalists were intimidated into self-censorship as authorities punished violators of such bans by blocking television networks and the distribution of newspapers.
“Overt repression was attributed to national security concerns,” the report said. “In most cases, however, the incidences of interference and intimidation by state and non-state actors received no official acknowledgment and there was a complete absence of efforts to hold anyone accountable.”
The report documented an alarming trend of threats to freedom of expression. These include the naming of journalist Cyril Almeida in a treason case along with former Pakistani Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi for interviewing them. Almeida faced an arrest warrant and a ban on traveling abroad, which were later revoked.
“The media were reportedly also pressured into firing certain employees who were deemed too critical of the Pakistani [security] establishment,” the report said. “Prime-time news [television] show hosts Talat Hussain, Murtaza Solangi, Matiullah Jan, and Nusrat Javed either quit or lost their jobs.”
HRCP says protests and movements demanding security, rights, or accountably of officials faced censorship of their coverage.
“The most commonly tabooed subjects cited were: missing persons, the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), Baloch separatists, and rights activists,” the report said, citing a survey the HRCP conducted to gauge how officials control and influence the coverage of Pakistani news media.
The report says journalists in the country’s print and broadcast media routinely receive advice from Pakistani civilian and military bureaucrats responsible for public relations.
“In some cases, state or intelligence agencies approached channel or newspaper owners directly, threatening their channel/publication or parent business with NAB or FIA cases or suspension of advertisements unless they agreed to abide by certain conditions,” report said citing the National Accountability Bureau and the Federal Investigation Agency by their acronyms.
But last year Asif Ghafoor, a spokesman for the military, rejected imposing curbs on the media.
“We have never told any journalist or media owner what to say and what not to,” he told journalists in June. “We have always told them that Pakistan needs to unite, and we need to bring forward its strengths and success. I thank the media for their willing cooperation.”
Pakistan is considered one of the most dangerous countries for journalists. According to the global media watchdog the Committee to Protect Journalists, 68 journalists have been killed in Pakistan since 1992. Pakistani journalists face censorship, beatings, threats, disappearances, and illegal confinements.
In an ominous sign of the threats faced by journalists, the HRCP says that even the editor of its annual State of Human Rights in 2017 report faced an armed raid thinly disguised as a burglary.
“In the hour-long visitation, her phones, laptop, and hard drives were removed, and documents inspected,” the report said. “She was questioned on her personal and professional status, including her religion, caste, and who was paying her.”
HRCP says that while some jewelry and cash were taken, the police admitted it was no ordinary burglary and she was advised against filing a complaint.
“An investigation never materialized and formal letters written to the authorities went unacknowledged,” the report noted.

Pakistani generals want to restore their golden era & that’s why Musharraf’s team is back




Musharraf’s team was competent because it secured western assistance, pledging to fight terrorists while covertly assisting them at the same time.

Amajor reshuffle in Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s cabinet leaves key ministries in the hands of several technocrats and a former spymaster accused of protectingOsama bin Laden, all of whom previously served in General Pervez Musharraf’s military regime. Politicians loyal to Khan have also been sidelined.
The military, which assisted Imran Khan’s rise to power, used his celebrity status to tap into the yearning of change among Pakistani youth. But its objective all along was to restore what Pakistan’s generals see as their golden era. Under Musharraf, the military ran affairs of the state with the help of technocrats who managed a relatively booming economy.
In the minds of Pakistan’s generals, Musharraf’s team was competent because it secured large amounts of western assistance, pledging to fight terrorists while covertly assisting them at the same time. The civilian governments that succeeded Musharraf could not maintain the poker face and were, therefore, incompetent.
The soldiers believe in their own propaganda and do not realise that the double games of the Musharraf era have permanently eroded Pakistan’s international credibility.
The military set in motion a series of events – Khan’s sit-in outside parliamentdisqualificationof then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif without a trial, corruption proceedings against major politicians, denial of media space to anyone the military did not like while building Khan’s image as a saviour – to help him win the deeply flawed elections of July 2018. Their purpose in doing so was not to bring the change Khan promised his young supporters but to undo the changes that had occurred since Musharraf’s removal from power.
Khan is a narcissist celebrity, with little experience of government, who also believes in his own propaganda. He assumed that as long as he did the military’s bidding in foreign policy and pursue the army’s critics with a vengeance, the civilian government and the military would remain on the same page.
The military leadership has now decided to change the writing on the page they share with the civilian prime minister. They want the economy to be run as efficiently as they believe it was run under Musharraf and they want cabinet ministers who can cover the tracks of Pakistan’s disreputable intelligence services.
As the generals see it, Pakistan did not face Financial Action Task Force (FATF) sanctions during the Musharraf era although a number of Jihadi terrorist groups operated openly. There was also less global criticism of enforced disappearances and mistreatment of religious minorities. Even the discovery of A.Q. Khan’s nuclear Walmart did not attract scrutiny that would have jeopardised Pakistan’s economy or security.
Thus, in the generals’ thinking, it is all about who presents Pakistan’s case to the world and how, not about changing the situation on the ground. Khan’s outgoing ministers did a poorer job than Musharraf’s team, hence a return to Musharraf’s team for key portfolios.
At the top of the list of Musharraf’s men inducted into Imran Khan’s cabinet is the new interior minister, Brigadier (R) Ijaz Shah – a former intelligence officer who served as director of the Intelligence Bureau under Musharraf. Shah is reported to have run terrorist operations in Jammu and Kashmir when he served in Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and his role as Musharraf’s hatchet man did not earn him a particularly good reputation either.
When Musharraf tried to nominate Ijaz Shah as High Commissioner to Australia, the Australian government withheld consent to that ambassadorial appointment – a rare occurrence in contemporary diplomacy.
Shah was also accused of playing a key role in harbouring Osama bin Laden and was named by Benazir Bhutto before her assassination as someone plotting to kill her. His appointment as minister in-charge of law and order is unlikely to advance the claim that Pakistan has turned the corner on sponsoring Jihadi terrorism at a time when FATF is considering blacklisting Pakistan. But Shah probably qualifies as a competent spymaster inside Pakistan’s hyper-nationalist bubble.
Another controversial appointment is that of Nadeem Babar, a businessman with interests in private power companies and a supposed expert on energy, as special assistant to the PM for petroleum and natural resources with the rank of a minister. Babar cannot be designated minister because he is not a member of parliament, one of 16 such persons in Khan’s 47-member cabinet.
There is a clear conflict of interest in making a person with business interests in the energy sector as the head of the ministry dealing with the sector. But there are other reasons why Babar should not have been appointed to the job. Apparently, his company Orient Power failed to pay Pakistan Rupees 800 million to Pakistan’s Sui Northern Gas Pipelines, ignoring the decision of the London Court of International Arbitration.
Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, a technocrat who served as Musharraf’s privatisation minister and was brought back as finance minister under Asif Ali Zardari, will replace Asad Umar as adviser for finance. Shaikh did well in his previous stints in government, but his appointment hardly represents change.
Fawad Chaudhry, who was the information minister and like Shaikh had served in the Zardari and Musharraf governments, has been appointed minister for science and technology. His replacement in the information ministry, Firdous Ashiq Awan, is also a veteran of the Zardari regime as are several others in the cabinet.
Considering that Imran Khan and the military blame Pakistan’s decline on elected leaders like Zardari, the choice of many of Zardari’s ministers in the new government suggests that Zardari was better at selecting members for his team than the new Captain.
As is often the case, there is always something to laugh about in otherwise disturbing news from Pakistan. Ijaz Shah’s appointment as minister of interior might be frightening, the rise of unelected advisers and the reinstatement of Musharraf’s team might be disconcerting, but the designation of Shehryar Afridi as minister for states and frontier regions is downright funny.
Khan’s government had announced the abolition of the Ministry for States and Frontier Regions (known as SAFRON) in September 2018. Afridi, who was interior minister until the cabinet reshuffle, might be a good choice to be minister of an abolished ministry because he believes Imran Khan can talk to the dead.
He is also the man who was filmed holding out assurances that Hafiz Saeed, head of the terror organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), would never be harmed by his government because Saeed and others like him raise their voice for “Pakistan and righteousness”.
As Pakistan’s generals might say, the new interior minister may have harboured bin Laden as alleged, but at least he was competent enough not to be filmed with him.

America Should Stop Supporting The Lavish Life Of Pakistan's Rich

America should stop providing aid to Pakistan, which ends up supporting the country’s rich and powerful.
It should let China and Saudi Arabia do it.
Providing financial aid to poor countries around the world makes a great deal of sense for America, both on humanitarian and geopolitical grounds.The trouble is that in some cases, American foreign aid ends up supporting the lifestyles of the elite rather than the lives of the poor. Pakistan is a case in point. For decades, Washington has been very generous to that South Asian nation , according to Akbar Zaidi, a Karachi-based political economist and Columbia University Visiting Scholar. It helped the country deal with chronic debt crisis.

“Washington support is often reflected in its endorsement of Pakistan’s applications for aid from international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank,” says Zaidi. “It helps to have the United States as an ally when it comes to seeking assistance from multilateral sources.”
MSCI Pakistan ETF
MSCI Pakistan ETF
 KOYFIN
Pakistan Central Government Debt
Pakistan Central Government Debt
 KOYFIN


Like back in December 2001, when Washington brokered a $12 billion IMF debt relief package for Islamabad, in exchange f or support to fight Islamic militancy in the region.
So why Pakistan is running into debt problems that require foreign aid to solve them?
Because the country’s elite is refusing to pay its fair share of taxes, according to Zaidi.
“These problems are perennial—it would be incorrect to call them a “crisis”—largely because of the Pakistani elite’s ability to avoid taxing itself,” says Zaidi. “Instead, successive governments have preferred to leverage Islamic militancy, ignoring the risks of doing so) while relying on financial aid from outside countries with geopolitical interests in the region from international financial institutions.”
The Pakistani elite , he continues, “ frightens foreigners into proving funds to stabilize the country against a self-created, false threat of extremists taking over a nuclear state.”
Meanwhile, foreign aid allows the country’s elite to live a lavish life. “This is a classic moral hazard problem: the luxury of always being bailed out has allowed the Pakistani elite to live with great impunity. Beyond responsibility in cocoons of lavish unaccountability. They feel little need to undertake structural reforms of the economy and institutions that would result in a fairer, more just, and more equitable form of government and representation.”
Instead, they prefer London, New York, and Dubai more than they do Karachi -- when it comes to investing and partying with their money, that is.
That’s according to the former director of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for Pakistan , Marc-André Franche.
“You cannot have an elite that takes advantage of very cheap and uneducated labour when it comes to making money, and when it is time to party is found in London ; when it’s time to buy things, in Dubai; and when it’s time to buy property it invests in Dubai or Europe or New York. The elite needs to decide do they want a country or not,” Franche stated in an interview with the Business Recorder.
All good reasons why America should let China and Saudi Arabia, Pakistan’s new allies, support the lifestyle of their rich and powerful.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2019/04/20/america-should-stop-supporting-the-lavish-life-of-pakistans-rich/#7e2dec206dc0

Friday, April 19, 2019

Video Report - Two Saudi sisters seek asylum in Georgia out of fear for their own family

Video Report - Tens of thousands of people protest against military rule in Sudan

Video Report - Kellyanne Conway's husband calls for Trump's impeachment

Comedy Video - Colbert Gets His Copy Of The Mueller Report

An interview with an Iraqi scholar has led me to think very differently about Brexit and extremism in Europe

By Robert Fisk
In Shiasm,’ the great man, Sayed Hakeem, reminds me, ‘the more knowledge a scholar has, the more humble he must be – otherwise he will become a dictator’.

Sayed Mohamed-Hussain el-Hakeem is one of the most prominent Shia scholars in Iraq. When Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani eventually dies, Hakeem’s father Mohamed Sayeed is likely to inherit his role as the principal cleric in the land – and then, so they say, the mantle will fall to Hakeem’s brother, Riyadh. So this discreet man “speaketh of what he knoweth” and, in his precise way, he comes across as a supporter of humanism rather than mere theology. When you sit opposite him, you know you are listening to a voice that matters in the battered land of Iraq.
Dozens of Sayeds and turbaned students push out of the iron door to his lecture hall only a few hundred metres from the golden-domed shrine of the Imam Ali, cousin of the Prophet Mohamed. But Sayed Hakeem does not mince his words – neither political nor spiritual. No, you realise, Iran does not govern the minds of Iraq’s Shia. Nor does any fear of Isis. Or the west. Saddam haunts our conversation – as he does still all of Iraq – but so does the Shah, even the Ottoman Empire.
We start with the Ottomans. “They did not have any scientific achievement. They governed their people by force. They kept their people in darkness – they made them distant from science. When the west came with its science, its strategy was to divide countries so they could control them more easily. The First and Second World Wars left these internal conflicts to continue and the west looked after their own interests, not the UN or human rights. But wars are not just in this region – the conflict between Germany and France was like that between Iraq and Iran [during Saddam’s 1980-1988 invasion of Iran].”
So far so good, and all familiar stuff. “Then in Europe, political interests succeeded personal interests. They created the EU and tried to develop it. But if Europe gives way to rightest extremism, the conflict [here] will return back to Europe. If [the Europeans] allow this, they will not have a common basis to work on. We don’t wish this to happen. We hope that the conflict does not develop – and that the US does not feed right-wing extremists so that they prevail. They are already doing this – with Brexit!”
Smiles all round in the Sayed’s little office. I had not expected Brexit would make its appearance, not here, so close to the great shrine of Ali, the Prophet’s successor – and to the poor house in which Khomeini himself stayed in his Iraqi exile until 1979. “In Shiasm,” the great man reminds me, “the more knowledge a scholar has, the more humble he must be – otherwise he will become a dictator.” Shiasm understands the Western world more than we think, perhaps, and it is certainly independent. Of Iran for example, whose Farsi language the Sayed speaks only a little. When I ask if perhaps Iran can eventually dominate Shia Iraq – where Shias comprise 65 per cent of the population – I am treated to a lecture on the principles of regional theology.
“We follow the school of Najaf [in Iraq], which is different from other schools,” he says. “Scientifically, all the Shia schools are the same. But we don’t interfere with politics. We Shia are like our Grand Ayatollahs – they are free in their thoughts as to how they understand the Prophet and the 12 Imams. Different views are respected.”
Here the little lecture narrows its focus. “We had different views from the ‘marjaiya’ [superior scholars] of Qom [in Iran]. We don’t think there should be a supreme leader – this is different from what Khomeini taught. Here we should not be involved in politics.” The message is obvious. Khomeini’s concept of a supreme clerical leader – at present, it is the ageing Iranian Ayatollah Khamenei – has no meaning in Najaf. Indeed, though Sayed Hakeem does not say this, the idea of a supreme leader had no historical precedence in Iran itself.
And we turn swiftly to recent Middle Eastern history. The Shah of Iran was called “the policeman” of the Gulf. “He had strong ties with the west. When the regime changed in Iran, the country came out of that axis. The new revolution in Iran had problems with the west, especially after the siege of the US embassy. Iran is a strong country and other nations feared the new government. Look at history – three strong nations, Turkey, Iraq and Palestine [Israel] surrounded Iran with powerful armies. The Gulf played a good role in that. Every war needs men and money. The west was generous in providing guns.”
There is a brief historical intermission here, the arrival in our talk of the post-Renaissance. “In the west, 300 years ago, there was conflict between the church and scientists. Scientists prevailed because they were raised on scientific facts. The people backed up the scientists. Our faith does not conflict with this science.”
Was this, I wondered, a subtle alignment with western thought, maybe a touch of Martin Luther amid Muslim theology? Sayed Hakeem has more to say on another, more recent phenomenon with darker roots: Isis. He speaks with more vigour now, of an organisation “that tried to feed hatred into people – so they raised people to believe in black and white, whom they used against us. Isis, when they go into society, they isolate some people from the outside world.”
This is a different interpretation of the Isis death cult which our western “experts” define. “They are trying to use people who are hopeless – to give them a false hope. They approach ‘hopeless’ people, they try to give them a window of hope that ‘this is the only chance you have’. They are trying to make an internal conflict inside these people to pull them towards their false ideology. Bin Laden once said that they should focus on the ages between 18 and 25… During their teens, human beings are in self-conflict, with high hopes but few resources – and Isis use this conflict to capture their minds, those who did not enjoy the end of their childhood. So Isis gave them big responsibility and said ‘you are not a child any more’.”
This violent ideology must be changed, the Sayed says. “Isis was not born in Iraq – in Mosul, Tikrit or Ramadi. It is a result of outside ideology, planning and funding ... There is a political hand which is feeding the ideology of the [Sunni] Wahabis. We have to convince them that violence will bring more violence. They have to coexist. There are factors that can reduce this ‘internal hatred’: knowledge and culture, productive work, coexistence and humanitarian values.” These are interesting words from a man whose people fought a long and bitter war against Isis. For Wahabis, I suspect, read Saudis. 
Saddam’s horrors – not unconnected in the Sayed’s mind from Isis, I suspect – proved the resilience of Shias. And Hakeem repeats that Shia Muslims are “balanced between life and the other life, so at the peak of a crisis we take [to help us] hope and great patience – this is our step to the future”. Was this how they endured the torture chambers and death pits of Saddam, the decades of imprisonment, the mass murders of Shias by Isis? Humanism wins. Is that what this means? Theology is a dangerous subject for journalists to explain.
Maybe that’s why, when for a few moments I meet his elderly father – the next great Ayatollah of Iraq – he holds out his ancient hand to me and says: “There are two kinds of journalists, the ones who tell lies. And the ones who try to tell the truth – I hope you are one of the second.” We shall find out the answer when his son Sayed Mohamed-Hussain el-Hakeem reads these words.