Hello folks ....this is another attempt at honest plagiarism...best let Pakistanis describe their own situation...
Something I discovered...for anything in Pakistan there is a precedence and there is a cartoon for it which says everything better than most words.
The opening partnership in Pakistan is continuing unabated. Run rate is slow. However the pace is fast and never ending…always threatening to get out…always in super over mode... we often forget that Pakistan is the only nation where cricket is played with two batsmen from the same end……. When you read Pakistani papers, things meander along and suddenly there is a burst of activity and one gets rare insights into Pakistan. Here are a few more….click on the heading and you will go to the original article.
For the past two years, we have seen one sector of the economy after another get hit by price spirals, attributed largely to a steep mismatch between supply and demand (or between cost of provision of goods versus the recovery made from sales of the goods), the supply chains are in deep disarray in one area after another…
The economy is now caught in a swindle without an end. Like a shoal of piranhas, vested interests everywhere are swindling the state to reap rentier-scale profits that create turbulence which the state has to dampen. The results of this mismanagement pile up either in the state’s subsidy bill, or at the consumer’s doorstep in the form of higher prices. Already they are being pushed to pass the circular debt through to end consumers, and the Petroleum Division (whose minister gave us this circular debt in his old role as power minister) is warning of another circular debt in fuels that might also need to be passed through to end consumers. As things stand, this state of constant lurching from one crisis to another, from one set of shortages to another, from one price spiral to another, will never end.
The merry go round in Pakistan called circular debt continues without an end. New avenues of debt keep cropping up. The political will and capability are skeletal.
Pakistan continues to be ranked as one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, as more than 140 journalists and media assistants have been killed in the country since 2000. After this introduction the report notes the emergence of a relatively new form of persecution of the media, namely, institution of legal cases against journalists and entangling them in legal battles.
The more significant findings are:
— Journalists working for the print media are twice more likely to be targets of legal action than their colleagues in the electronic media.
— Sindh is a three times riskier region for journalists than any other province or the capital territory.
— Most journalists (over one-third of them) are charged with offences under the Penal Code while another one-third are likely to be charged with terrorism, while some others may be tried under electronic crimes or defamation laws.
— The most common allegation against journalists is “acting against state institutions” or “defaming state institutions”. Other allegations can be “illegal possession of arms /explosives”, “drug running”, “keeping proscribed literature”, or “harassing citizens”
— In 15 out of the 17 cases (88.2 per cent) analysed action was initiated by the state or its functionaries.
— Those initiating cases often demanded more than one remedy from journalists. The most common demand was proof of journalists’ assertion in their reports, followed by a demand for an apology.
— In the two-thirds of the cases in which investigations were completed by the police, only half of them were declared fit for trial. The trial in 60pc of the cases was never concluded, leaving most journalists without a chance to prove their innocence. In over 80pc of the cases in which the trial did conclude, the journalists-accused were found innocent and acquitted. However, 10 out of the 17 cases never reached a conclusion and thus most of the journalists concerned did not receive justice at all.
Journalism in Pakistan must be one of the dangerous professions and Terrorism must be the safest. One is state sponsored and the other is state hunted.
…the state’s ability and willingness to monitor citizens and their activities grow with each passing day. And while surveillance may be used as a tool to protect, we are concerned that it is instead quite often being used to exercise control…
In the case of the presidential reference against Justice Isa, who, according to Justice Shah’s dissenting note, was surveilled and investigated without any judicial oversight along with his family, it reminds us of how unlawful and uncontrolled surveillance poses severe threats to personal liberty, privacy and dignity. “The issue of unlawful surveillance and invasion of privacy of the Petitioner Judge and his family is far more critical and graver than the information procured,” Justice Shah points out.
The state of privacy in Pakistan is already dismal. But for us, this case begs an even more pertinent question: if the privacy of a Supreme Court justice is threatened, can a common person feel safe? Are we even safe?...
Well…a lot is made of surveillance of judges…the Pakis have been trained in an elite school with elite students to destroy any kind of privacy which a citizen can enjoy. Judges are no exception. No need to be indignant about it….Judges in Pakistan must be as corrupt as elsewhere…
A NATIONAL Assembly panel rightly postponed the clearance of the proposed China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2020, for discussion and voting by the lower house till the government satisfies its members on the authority’s legal status months after the lapse of the ordinance that created it.
The panel wanted the planning officials to explain the legal basis for the authority to continue to exist and for its chairman to keep his job after the ordinance’s expiry in May. The officials couldn’t come up with any plausible explanation for the existence of the authority or the expense incurred on running it without any law to protect its operations. Among other things, the bill seeks to indemnify the actions of the authority since the expiry of the ordinance that had been promulgated a year ago and later extended in January.
All this is a sham. The revered parliamentarians are missing the cake called CPEC…the new CPEC will become legal once some Yuans change hands….
WHAT would a Biden presidency mean for US-Pakistan relations? That would depend on several factors, unknown and known. The main unknown would be the US foreign policy to emerge from the wreck left behind by Donald Trump…
Asking Pakistan to choose between China and the US would only tighten the Pakistan-China embrace. Even Washington’s closest allies have not been presented with this stark choice. It is not just America; China too is pivoting to Asia, and to the Middle East, and Pakistan is where the two pivots face off. Pakistan cannot be left entirely dependent on China. The truth is that US-India relations alone can neither define US-Pakistan relations nor address all of America’s challenges in the region. Washington may want Pakistan to be a weak ally of China but capable enough of serving American purposes.
Pakistan will continue to run from pillar to post…..however we all know that it is in the Chinese lap already…so why the Sham…Pakistani capacity for attempting to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds is evident in this sanctimonious article…
A statement by the ISPR yesterday said the ISI and Rangers officials involved in the “Karachi incident” have been removed pending further departmental proceedings for having acted “overzealously”….
That Mr Bhutto-Zardari looked to Gen Bajwa to order an inquiry, and this was undertaken, also indicates that the perpetrators were taking instructions from individuals in the security establishment. Both the ISI and Rangers, whose top cadres comprise serving military officials on deputation, technically report to the prime minister and the interior minister, respectively. However, the near calamitous fallout of this episode indicates the perils of this chain of command being disturbed. The military has unnecessarily been dragged into an ugly political fracas, one that its reputation could well have done without. Security institutions must disengage from civilian affairs; therein lies the path of least controversy.
Ah… the Karachi incident has been taken over by the Establishment as the last arbitrator of all affairs in Pakistan….
Red Zone Files : Shaken and Stirred
Recent events provide a glimpse into this cascading state of confusion. Each stakeholder is burdened with internal contradictions and external limitations. Let’s map this confusion player by player.
PTI government: …there are essentially two concerns…expressed quietly within the party. One…unrelenting and inflexible approach towards the opposition regardless of the unfolding consequences. Second…solidifying perception of governance mayhem, especially in Punjab. There is also a third factor.. people only whisper in hushed tones: the delicate relationship with the establishment and prospects of it straining.
PML-N: The Nawaz Sharif narrative has catapulted the party to new heights of confrontation since... PML-N now constitutes the pointed end of the PDM spear. By going straight for his rivals’ centre of gravity, Sharif has upended all calculations and wrecked all the best laid plans.
Politics is now in a churn and the alignments of our political solar system are veering dangerously off course.
Government allies: PML-Q is fuming. The PML-Q-PTI alliance is hanging by a thread and waiting for an excuse to rupture. The BNP (Mengal) has already broken ranks with PTI and the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) may be bracing for trouble.
Establishment: The ‘Karachi incident’ and its fallout in terms of reprimands against officers of the ISI and Rangers has created ripples. It is an incident that the establishment could have done without. The fact that the army chief took action as per the court of enquiry has blunted criticism to significant level — as has a positive reaction from Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari — but the unease triggered by the brazenness of the act of mistreating/kidnapping the IG Police lingers on.
The cartoon says it all…does it not? I liked the heading …bond style…martini...shaken not strirred…This last cartoon is for the road....
A very accurate account of Imran‘s extreme helplessness and Pakistan’s perpetual Democracy dilemma. My compliments for the excellent piece.
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