International News
Imran Khan is the new Nazi of Asia
Imran Khan represents a peculiar phase in politics that emerges during periods of economic contradictions between the ruling elite and the wider population and which cannot be resolved through democratic and peaceful means. Pakistan is suffering from a dense political chaos that has stemmed from a debt dependent economy.
The rift between the military and the civil government of Nawaz Sharif led to the ultimate demise of the latter. The question was who will be in charge of running the economy of Pakistan. When it came to the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) former Prime minister Nawaz Sharif wanted Parliament to be the supreme decision making body. But the military was not willing to give in.
Imran Khan was launched by the military establishment to defame the two party system that according to Khan were taking turns to come into power to plunder the country. Khan was also fed the narrative of an imaginary Riyasat-e-Madina which to me is a utopian idea and was applied to Pakistani polity by Khan as a deadly political weapon.
The military engineered Imran Khan’s accent to power hence he was named the ‘selected’ prime minister by the opposition.
The first task that Khan was given by the Pakistani military establishment was to trod across the globe begging for money. Khan did his best. However, an economy that solely depends on loans and borrowed money cannot erect a sustainable economic foundation. Therefore, with the passage of months and years Pakistan’s current deficit, trade deficit as well as foreign debt continued to rise.
A civil section of the Pakistan’s ruling elite under the leadership of former President Asif Ali Zardari, former Prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Jameet e Ullema Islam leader Maulana Fazal ur Rahman formed Pakistan Democratic Movement or PDM. Dozens of public rallies were held that pulled crowds in millions. Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz Sharif made fiery speeches accusing the military generals of conspiracies against elected civilian governments of the past.
Slogans such as ‘ye jo dehshat gardi hai, is kay pechay wardi hai’, became the anthem of the PDM rallies. The military generals were now clearly on the back foot. The economy that Khan was supposed to turn around slipped further into a downward spiral bringing Pakistan’s GDP into the negative.
General Bajwa and Khan became suspicious of each other as Bajwa realised that Khan was not only unable to deliver but on the contrary had thrown the country to the dogs.
The DG ISI at the time Lt. General Faiz Hamid, who is accused of the political engineering that brought Khan into power, was now trying to out maneuver army Chief. The visit General Hamid made to Kabul in August 2021 to meet the Taliban and help them to come to a consensus to form a new government in Afghanistan was seen as a direct challenge to Bajwa’s authority.
Then on October 6 last year the rift between Imran Khan and General Bajwa over the transfer of Lt. General Hamid as Corps commander Peshawar and appointment of a new DG ISI turned into a bitter conflict of interests.
Meanwhile, General Bajwa managed to elevate Shahbaz Sharif to replace Maryam Nawaz as the leader of the PDM. Sharif banned anti-army slogans to be raised at PDM rallies. Now it became clear that General Bajwa was backing the opposition against Khan. The man in Peshawar, the Khan loyal former DG ISI, was pulling strings from the Peshawar Corps headquarters to weaken the opposition.
This led to a split in the military that was never heard of in the past. Such hybrid war in an institution like the Pakistan army seriously has seriously undermined the fighting spirit of the soldiers and lower ranking officers.
It is in this backdrop that Khan decided to sabotage the whole democratic process and consolidate his grip on power. He devised a plan. On February 24, just one day before Russia attacked Ukraine, Khan landed at Moscow airport to meet president Putin.
Khan knew that at a time when the western democracies were opposing Russia and NATO was being mobilised, Khan’s visit would be criticised by the west.
(Dr Amjad Ayub Mirza is an author and a human rights activist from Mirpur in PoJK. He currently lives in exile in the UK. The views expressed are personal))
International News
23 Palestinians killed by Israeli airstrikes across Gaza
Gaza, Dec 23: At least 23 Palestinians were killed by Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian official news agency WAFA reported.
At least nine people, including three children and two women, were killed, and some others were injured as a result of the Israeli bombing of the Musa bin Nusayr School on Sunday, which houses displaced people in the Al-Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City.
Four more people were killed when the Israeli army bombed a vehicle on the Al-Jalaa Street in Gaza City, it added.
Five citizens, including four children, were killed on Sunday morning in Israel’s shelling of the Jabalia town, north of Gaza City, WAFA said in a separate report.
In the southern Gaza Strip, two people were killed when the Israeli army bombed their apartment west of Khan Yunis, and three others died in the Israeli bombing of the city of Rafah, WAFA said.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Sunday that with the direction of intelligence, the air force conducted a “precise strike” on Hamas militants who were operating inside a command-and-control center in the Gaza Strip.
The command-and-control center, which was embedded inside a compound that previously served as the Musa bin Nusayr School, was used by the militants to plan and execute attacks against IDF troops and the State of Israel, it added.
Israel has been on a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on October 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage.
The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has risen to 45,227, Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Saturday.
Crime
At least 18 killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza
Gaza, Dec 21: At least 18 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes on the central and northern Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian sources.
Local sources and eyewitnesses reported that Israeli warplanes targeted an apartment in the multi-story “Yaffa” tower in the al-Nuseirat camp, located in central Gaza.
A statement from Al-Awda Hospital in the camp confirmed that eight people were killed and 14 others injured, some seriously, in the attack.
In northern Gaza, Israeli shelling struck a house belonging to the “Khilla” family in Jabalia Al-Balad, killing 10 people and injuring several others, according to the Gaza Strip’s Civil Defence.
The Israeli army has not commented on these incidents.
Also on Friday, the military wing of Hamas, Al-Qassam Brigades, announced that one of its fighters had carried out a suicide attack targeting an Israeli force of six soldiers in Jabalia refugee camp, northern Gaza.
The Israeli army has not issued a comment on this incident.
Earlier on Thursday at least 16 Palestinians were killed by Israeli bombings in northern Gaza, the Palestinian official news agency WAFA reported.
At least 10 people were killed on Wednesday night and some others injured when the Israeli aircraft bombed the house of the Al-Najjar family in the town of Jabalia, WAFA said.
Six more people were killed due to Israeli bombing on the house of the Al-Zaytouniya family near the Al-Tabi’in School in the Al-Daraj neighborhood, east of Gaza City, it added.
The Israeli army has not commented on these incidents.
Israel has been conducting a large-scale offensive against Hamas in Gaza in retaliation for the October 7, 2023 Hamas assault on southern Israel, which resulted in approximately 1,200 deaths and 250 hostages taken.
As of Friday, the Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks in Gaza has risen to 45,206, according to Gaza-based health authorities.
International News
Khalistani separatist Pannun’s threat to Indian ambassador ‘serious’ issue, taken up with US: MEA
New Delhi, Dec 20: The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Friday revealed that New Delhi has taken “seriously” the latest threat issued by the US-based Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun against India’s Ambassador to the US, Vinay Mohan Kwatra and raised it accordingly with the authorities in Washington.
In a recent video, Pannun threatened that Kwatra is on the radar of pro-Khalistani Sikhs in America for allegedly coordinating with Russian authorities, who in turn were providing inputs to Indian intelligence agencies on the Khalistani network in the United States.
“As and when such threats are issued, we take them very seriously and raise them with the US government. In this particular case also, we have raised it with the US government and it is our expectation that the United States government will take our security concerns seriously and act on it,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said during a weekly media briefing in New Delhi on Friday.
A former Foreign Secretary, Kwatra took charge as India’s Ambassador to the United States in August this year, succeeding Taranjit Singh Sandhu.
His appointment came at a time when Khalistani separatists continue to target Hindu community in the country and also the Indian missions.
Khalistanis have been found to be involved in incidents of defacement of temples, including in California and New York, and also in acts of arson and vandalism at the Indian embassy in San Francisco.
Several lawmakers, including Shri Thanedar – a Democrat elected to the House of Representatives from Michigan state – have raised alarm over the “substantial increase” in attacks on Hindus and their places of worship in the United States.
The lawmaker had recently expressed frustration with the investigating agency for their failure to find the culprits behind the incidents at the temples and the consulate.
“It appears to be a very coordinated effort to attack these places of worship which has created a lot of fear in the community. And often what we have seen is that the law enforcement, the local law enforcement enters into these investigations and rarely any suspects have been identified, and that investigation goes nowhere.
“What that does is that it leaves the community feeling like nobody cares about them. Nobody reports back to them on what’s going on. And that means that the community continues to live in fear, the computing community continues to live in an adverse situation with essentially no help from law enforcement,” he said.
The lawmaker went on to state that he and his colleagues are asking the US Department of Justice for “coordinated efforts between the local law enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Investigation Department of Justice, and higher priority needs to be assigned to such hate crimes against this peaceful community”.
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