My Voice: Abbas Butt says Jammu and Kashmir struggle has become a business for some.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1DQTmdG6Es&feature=youtu.be
Friday, 31 July 2020
In my programme 'My Voice', Junaid Qureshi examines role of APHC and how Pakistan has damaged the Jammu and Kashmir.
In my programme 'My Voice', Junaid Qureshi examines role of APHC and how Pakistan has damaged the Jammu and Kashmir.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD41B5G46xc&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD41B5G46xc&feature=youtu.be
My Voice: Sajjad Raja examines role of Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir.
My Voice: Sajjad Raja examines role of Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KodoHQyh7TA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KodoHQyh7TA
Tuesday, 28 July 2020
My Voice: Sajjad Raja examines role of India in Jammu and Kashmir with regard to 5 August 2019.
My Voice: Sajjad Raja examines role of India in Jammu and Kashmir with regard to 5 August 2019.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19i1K4s5cco&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19i1K4s5cco&feature=youtu.be
Chinese Dream – Xi’s attempted coup against Pakistan
Chinese Dream – Xi’s attempted coup against Pakistan
China's Communist leader has managed the creation of a supra-constitutional CPEC Authority
Xi Jinping is all set to sideline the democratically elected representatives and civil servants of the people of Pakistan so as to expand his direct influence over the political and economic processes of the country.
Since 2016, Xi, the general secretary of the Communist Party of China has been forcing the Pakistani establishment to put pressure on the government (it was Nawaz Sharif’s government back then) to sideline the Planning Ministry’s role in the implementation and monitoring of the multibillion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Xi pushed for the creation of a supra-constitutional CPEC Authority that would freelance the management of the predatory infrastructure and power-generation projects under his direct command.
The proposal was rejected then, but last year it was again presented before the prime minister of the country – now Imran Khan. The reason given was timely completion of the projects.
This time the prime minister is a full-fledged puppet of the military establishment, and therefore it was easier than before to manipulate the law to fulfill Xi’s desire to take over the Planning Ministry of Pakistan, and in future the country itself.
I consider Pakistan’s Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives one of the most crucial state institutions, whose senior bureaucrats could implicitly scrutinize and resist Xi’s draconian CPEC scheme, as they had access to all of the secret documents on the agreement and were involved, directly and indirectly, in the decision-making process.
So long as the reins were under the control of civilian institutions led by representatives of the people and civil servants, thorough accountability of Xi’s master plan at least at some level and at some point in time – if not at once – was possible. Sidelining the civil institutions altogether would allow Xi to play on both sides of the board.
The agreement was so highly confidential that even the secretary of maritime affairs once refused to show it to the Senate Standing Committee on Finance. So one can imagine what an above-the-law sort of deal it must be.
The CPEC Authority was established in October last year using a presidential ordinance (without parliament’s approval) for four months and then was given another four-month extension. But Xi wants permanent control. And now that the establishment has its puppet in the Prime Minister’s House, it is putting all of its efforts into making the Authority more powerful and a permanent part of the constitution by pushing it through parliament.
Since the Authority has come into existence, its chairman has been a retired lieutenant-general.
Xi doesn’t want the Belt and Road Initiative or any of its components to be held accountable or face resistance. He knows that his Chinese Dream of indoctrination of a majority of free people of the world by 2050 will not be fulfilled if the people of the countries victimized by the BRI come to know about his strategy to destroy their futures and those of their future generations.
The truth is that he is burdening those countries in debt traps while they are already suffering from intense balance-of-payments crises. Xi will slowly poison Pakistan and other poor economies by creating extreme shortages of foreign-exchange reserves. In the end, these countries will have to accept the invasion of their political and economic systems by the Communist Party of China.
Four months ago, an inquiry into the workings of independent power producers (IPPs) took place in which two major coal-fired power-plant projects that were built under the CPEC – Huaneng Shandong Ruyi Energy and Port Qasim Electric Power Company – were found involved in corruption as they had misrepresented interest during construction to loot almost US$226 million from the dollar-strapped Pakistani economy.
The supra-constitutional CPEC Authority will act as the CPC’s subsidiary in Pakistan and will be responsible for conceiving, implementing, expanding, enforcing, controlling, regulating, coordinating, monitoring, evaluating and carrying out all activities related to the CPEC.
Furthermore, it will have the constitutional power to initiate an investigation and impose penalties against any public office holder (including the prime minister and president of Pakistan) or any other person who is directly or indirectly engaged in CPEC-related activities who willfully resist directions, instructions or specified orders of the CPEC Authority.
Even the prime minister’s powers will be limited to what is specified in the CPEC Authority Bill 2020. So he too will have to obey Xi’s commands.
According to a news report (that soon after its publication was mysteriously taken down), the chairman of the Authority – who, as noted above, is a retired lieutenant-general – will co-chair the Joint Cooperation Committee as the democratically elected planning minister will be removed from this position.
The JCC is the main decision-making body of CPEC. It has members from both Pakistan and China. But every year the Chinese officials at the JCC meetings browbeat the Pakistani officials as they review the making of Xi’s version of the East India Company.
As the world moves toward 2050, Xi’s plan of China’s ultimate control of the majority of the emerging-market economies is becoming crystal clear. At the cost of its sovereignty, territorial integrity and freedom of its people, the “selected” government of Pakistan is finding a permanent place in Xi’s basket.
Today he will attempt coup against the Ministry of Planning; next in his playbook could be its Defense Ministry, IT Ministry, Human Rights Ministry, Petroleum Ministry and many more.
ALI SALMAN ANDANI
The writer is a New Delhi-based economic and political analyst and columnist for various online and print media outlets. His analysis focuses on economic, political, social and cultural issues, especially those related to corruption, human rights violations, the global market economy, foreign policy, and environmental crises. Find him on Twitter @an_alisalman More by Ali Salman Andani
Pakistan’s Covid crisis could result in famine
Pakistan’s Covid crisis could result in famine
Wheat shortages caused by supply chain failures, poor state planning and pestilence threaten perfect storm of disease and hunger
PESHAWAR – Pakistan’s Covid-19 outbreak is morphing into a food security crisis as massive wheat shortages emerge due to failing supply chains, poor government planning, unseasonal rains and, not least, pestilence.
Wheat millers claim the virus-hit nation is on course for a 3.5 million ton shortfall of the targeted 27 million tons needed for this year. If accurate, the shortage could result in severe food shortages during the upcoming winter season.
Pakistan’s economy has been devastated by the Covid-19 pandemic. As of July 28, the country had recorded over 275,000 cases and at least 5,865 deaths from the disease. Lockdowns and displacement, meanwhile, have disrupted food supply chains.
Around 80% of Pakistan’s farmers grow wheat on nearly nine million hectares, representing close to 40% of total cultivated land. Wheat is the nation’s main crop, contributing over 2% of gross domestic product (GDP).
Farmers retain about 60% of their wheat production for seed and food consumption, while the government buys 25% to 30% of the harvest. The private sector purchases the rest. One-third of total production is generally retained by wheat growers for cultivation and household food consumption.
Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government says it plans to meet the shortfall through imports and early stock releases, but millers doubt they will be able to convince importers or find sellers at the government’s approved below-market price rates.
Pakistan’s domestic requirement of wheat is over 2 million tons per month, or 25.5 million tons annually for the 212 million-plus population. The government had targeted to procure 8.25 million tons from growers for strategic reserves, while 700,000 tons were provisionally earmarked for export to Afghanistan.
At the end of June, Pakistan’s Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of Khan’s cabinet approved the import of 2.5 million tons of wheat to meet the shortfall and bring prices down in domestic markets. The shipments never materialized, however, as the private sector shied away from government proposed rates.
“The government fixed 1,450 rupees (US$8.6) per 40 KG bag of wheat while import cost of the same quantity comes to 1,750 rupees ($10.4),” said Asim Raza, chairman of the All Pakistan Flour Mills Association (APFMA).
“The importers find this rate uncompetitive for import unless the government offers a subsidy to make up for the price differential in local and imported wheat,” Raza said.
The Ministry of National Food Security and Research announced this month various incentives to bridge the price difference between local and imported wheat, including relief in some regulatory and customs duties, sales tax and withholding tax.
Omer Hamid Khan, secretary of the ministry, claimed that the measures would encourage wheat importers and that orders had already been placed to import 270,000 tons of wheat, which will reportedly be shipped via four vessels over the next two months.
Hafeez Pasha, a former finance minister and renowned economist, has estimated that the end-consumers would pay an extra 180 billion rupees ($1.1 billion) due to the shortages. He said that the government would need to import at least two billion tons of wheat to meet domestic requirements.
It was the first time in 21 years that Pakistan would need to import wheat, Pasha said. That’s raising questions about whether the country has the capacity to handle such a large volume of imports and if it will be able to efficiently distribute the grain in a timely manner to avoid a possible famine.
Staple food shortages have already pushed prices up by some 30% this year in Punjab, Pakistan’s food basket region. Millers there have cut back on the wheat flour production due to skyrocketing prices for the grain on open markets.
The government’s fixed 1,450 rupees ($8.6) price per 40-kilogram bag is well below the open market price of 2,200 rupees ($13). In a bid to deflate prices, the federal government has released 400,000 tons of wheat from its reserve stocks to help local flour millers to keep their wheels turning.
Normally, the food department releases wheat from the government reserved stock from September onward, during the onset of the cold season. The early stockpile release foretells a crisis in December and early next year when the demand for wheat products usually rises.
Reports indicate that forward public stocks are already largely depleted. Minister for Food Security Syed Fakhar Imam recently informed parliament about a mysterious “disappearance” of wheat from government stocks.
“We have procured record six million ton wheat, but it is a mystery as to where it has gone,” Fakhar said while winding up a recent debate on the agriculture sector.
“We have only 450,000 tons of wheat in the carry forward stock against the previous year’s stock of around 4 million tons, which means that with the addition of a new crop the country’s total production will be 24.5 million tons,” APFMA’s Raza said. “This shows a shortfall of over 3.5 million tons needs to be met by imports.”
Like others, he has expressed doubts about the government’s ability to arrange berth space and vessels to import 3.5 million tons of wheat in such a short period of time.
Apart from supply chain mismanagement, mother nature is also wreaking havoc on supplies. The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), in a report released in May, warned Pakistan faced a serious food crisis due to locust attacks on crops.
The report noted a new “migration pattern” of desert locust in Southwest Asia and predicted potential dire effects on Pakistan’s wide agro-economy without stronger government control measures to fight back the insect invasion.
“In Pakistan, 38% of the area (60% in Balochistan, 25% in Sindh and 15% in Punjab) are breeding grounds for the desert locust, whereas the entire country is under the threat of invasion if the desert locust is not contained in the breeding regions,” the report said.
Monday, 27 July 2020
Scrapping Article 370 was marital rape assault on faith of J and K says PDPs Naeem Akhtar, AZAAN JAVAID
Scrapping Article 370 was marital rape assault on faith of J and K says PDPs Naeem Akhtar AZAAN JAVAID 28 July, 2020
In an exclusive interview to ThePrint, Naeem Akhtar says PDP will use all democratic, constitutional and peaceful means to resist this onslaught on Kashmir and its Muslim character.
Srinagar: Senior Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader and former cabinet minister of Jammu and Kashmir Naeem Akhtar Monday said the decisions taken by the Narendra Modi government, including scrapping of Article 370 and the Citizenship Amendment Act, have rekindled the Hindu versus Muslim discourse, and created a ‘South Asian Ummah’ (Muslim unity), extending from Khyber (in Pakistan) to Chittagong in Bangladesh.
In an exclusive interview to ThePrint ahead of the first anniversary of the government’s Article 370 move, Akhtar described the decision as “marital rape”.
“I would compare the 5 August decision with marital rape because a marriage is done according to rules, according to law, but then there is one party which enforces itself on the other. That is what happened to Kashmir on 5 August. We were part of a covenant, a Constitution, which was used against us to achieve goals that were antitheses of why we had joined the Union of India,” Akhtar, considered the closest adviser of PDP chief and former CM Mehbooba Mufti, told ThePrint.
On 5 August, the Modi government revoked Article 370 that granted special powers to J&K, and bifurcated the region into two union territories of J&K and Ladakh with and without an assembly, respectively.
PDP’s future
On National Conference vice-president and former J&K CM Omar Abdullah’s statement that he won’t contest the assembly elections until full statehood is restored, Akhtar said the PDP has its own view.
“That is Mr Omar Abdullah speaking for himself. PDP has its own agenda, its own view. Since our president (Mehbooba Mufti) is still (booked) under PSA (Public Safety Act), we will take a call on this,” he said.
“But I have no doubt in my mind that PDP believes that whatever happened on 5 August and later is a direct assault on the identity, faith and culture of Jammu and Kashmir, and Kashmir is its focus target. I don’t think with this being so, it can be business as usual,” said Akhtar, who was detained for around 11 months under the PSA after the Article 370 move.
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“Right now, there aren’t many takers for mainstream politics in Kashmir. What Mr Syed Ali Shah Geelani would have done to transfer this anger and alienation against India, Mr Amit Shah has done.
“I don’t see much in our (PDP) politics, but that does not mean that we will not speak. We will certainly use all democratic, constitutional and peaceful means to resist this onslaught on Kashmir and its Muslim character. We will do whatever it takes, but we adopt and stick to democratic means,” said Akhtar, who has served as a close advisor of former Home Minister and J&K chief minister Mufti Sayeed.
‘South Asian Ummah’
Akhtar also spoke about the alliance between the PDP and the BJP, saying: “During the time I was in detention, I understood the meaning for might is right. I understood that there can be no agreements between unequal parties, which is what happened in 1947 when Kashmir acceded to GOI, which is what happened post-2014, when PDP went in an alliance with BJP.”
Akhtar also spoke about the symbolism attached with the construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya on 5 August. The bhoomi pujan ceremony of Ram Mandir will be held on 5 August, following which the construction of the temple will start.
“Why is this 5 August marked with Ram Mandir? Because the foundation stone of the Hindu Rashtra is Kashmir, which is now mortar brick and stone for Hindu Rashtra. Kashmir has been transformed into a Hindu versus Muslim problem — something which the people of Kashmir did not believe in,” said the 68-year-old leader.
Akhtar also launched a scathing attack on “Hindutva politics” of the BJP and said the prevailing geo-political situation in south Asia will not bode well.
“Now if you see the murmurs from Bangladesh, an all-time friend of India, who owe their liberation to the Indian Army and the political leadership of India, what are they saying today? They have reservations about Ram Mandir.
“You have wittingly or unwittingly created a feeling of a sub-continental ummah from Khyber to Chittagong — by introducing CAA, by specifically making it about Hindus of Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan, and you told the world that India is Hindu. We welcome Hindus,” he added.
‘This was done because we were a Muslim majority state’
Akhtar also said that “in the new Hindutva framework, it is is like an abuse or a sore thumb to have a place called Muslim”.
“Why was this (scrapping Article 370) done? This was a question that I have asked myself frequently. This was done because we were a Muslim majority state.”
Akhtar said the 5 August move was to simply erase “the Muslim dark spot from the bright shining Hindutva map”.
“It was to convert this state into a Hindu majority state. BJP leaders have been saying it openly that we will have a Hindu CM in J&K because they will never be comfortable with a CM wearing a Karakulli (traditional Kashmiri cap) or a headscarf. It is being projected by the BJP as a matter of shame that Babur ki aulad (Babar’s children) are still in Kashmir,” said Akhtar.
Also read: Revoking Article 370 lends new edge to China-Pakistan nexus against India, says rights forum
‘Biggest let down’
The PDP leader further said: “We have to understand how GOI has considered J&K and it has for a long time, even before 5 August, (considered it) as a security project… this place, which had voluntarily gone over to India and was the only Muslim entity, perhaps the only entity in 1,400 years of Islamic history that gave itself to a non-Muslim secular state. It was unprecedented.
“Our forefathers had joined India thinking that our civilisation will be preserved in a secular democratic India rather than a theocratic country. What was done on 5 August was that a final blow was delivered to this feeling and, in doing that, GOI expected that there would be a massive response to it from the people so they tried to gag everybody and they did it very successfully and unfortunately the rest of the country endorsed this,” he added.
“It was the biggest let down for the people of Kashmir. The media, the Parliament, the judiciary, the intellectuals — nobody spoke for us and a manufactured discourse led entire country to believe that Kashmir has now been conquered and it was projected as a Hindu victory over a Muslim state,” he said.
Responding to a question on why he thought PDP president Mehbooba Mufti continues to be booked under the controversial Public Safety Act, the former minister said, “The Government of India closed all channels of expression and unprecedented drive of arrest was launched, thousands of mainstream workers, who have been facing bullets and all kinds of social ostracisation were hauled up.
“Jails upto Tamil Nadu are filled with Kashmiris, lawyers, traders, activists and politicians. I think after that they did some assessment of malleability of leadership and in that perhaps finding Mehbooba Mufti still a problem in their plan… her detention was extended,” Akhtar said.
Akhtar also said that he was approached by government officials on three occasions asking him to retire from politics in return for his release. “I told them that thousands of Kashmiri boys are going into their graves. What difference will it make if another old man dies in an Indian prison,” he said.
“It is time for every Kashmiri to think beyond parties because there is nothing to fight for. What is there to fight for? There is an existential threat to Muslims of the state and it is no less to non-Muslims of Jammu, who face the same threat.”
“Why did Shiv Sena come into existence in Maharashtra? It was not against Muslims, it was against outsiders who Balasaheb Thackeray at that time thought were taking away jobs and land from the inhabitants. It is happening in Jammu as we speak… Jobs, lands being taken, the first wave of demographic change is coming to Jammu,” he added.
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