Epaper_23-01-02 KHI

J U I ’ S A P C l A S h E S o U t K P g o v t f o R l Aw o R d E R , E C o n o m I C S I t U At I o n

A

at Mufti Mahmood Markaz after the A P C

ALL-PARTIES conference organized by Jamiat Ulemai-e-Islam Fazl (JUIF) on Sunday termed the problems faced by the pro v i n c e including law and order situation, economic crisis and extortion due to failure o f t h e g o v e r n m e n t o f K h y b e r

Pakhtunkhwa

o have been occupying the province for nine years have made the province indebted and destroyed

He said that the provincial government and the chief minister will have to audit for billion of rupees Maulana Fazlur Rehman said that BRT,

M a l a m J a b b a a n d B i l l i o n Tr e e p r o j e c t s s h o u l d b e i n v e s t i g a t e d H e s a i d t h a t t h e helicopter bill was passed only to protect Imran Khan from NAB cases and we condemn such legislation for personal interest

The provincial government should prov i d e r e l i e f t o t h e p e o p l e b y e n s u r i n g t h e supply of chea p f l o u r, s a i d M a u l a n a F az l u r R e h m a n

He said that the people are well aware n o w f r o m t h e i n c o m p e t e n c y o f P T I ,

adding we had no idea that we were stuck in such a quagmire due to the wrong policies of this party

M a u l a n a F a z l u r R e h m a n f u r t h e r s a i d t h a t P a k i s t a n w a s o n i t s w a y t o b e i n g b l a c k l i s t e d b u t d u e t o t h e e ff o r t s o f t h e p r e s e n t g o v e r n m e n t c o u n t y c a m e t o t h e w h i t e l i s t t h a t ’s w h y t h e y c a n ’t e v e n h o l d protests and long marches

H e s a i d t h a t t h e c e n t e r i s b e i n g a tt a c k e d b u t w e a r e d e f e n d i n g i t s t r a t e g i -

He said that news circulating on social media about the technocratic government did not come to my notice C P E C w a s a b i g p r o j e c t b u t i t w a s spoiled in three and a half years by the PTI g o v e r n m e n t , a d d i n g t h e s e p e o p l e h a v e killed Pakistan economically

He said that the provincial government s h o u l d t a k e m e a s u r e s f o r t h e s a f e t y a n d p e a c e o f t h e p e o p l e a n d b e t t e r l a w a n d order situation

Chinese brands shine as Pak istan made around 20 million phones in 2022

ISLAMABAD

S ta f f R e p o R t

In 2022 with the leading role of Chinese manufacturing companies, Pakistan has locally assembled/manufactured about 20 million mobile phones in the country, which outnumbered phones imported from other countries

PR looking up new options for branding passenger trains, platforms

ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t

Pakistan Railways is planning to consider various options for branding several passenger trains and railway platforms to generate maximum revenue for the department Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique has already directed the concerned authorities to present a new revenue model regarding the branding of trains and platforms an official in the Ministry of Railways told APP He said the branding of the trains and platforms would not only address the increasing deficit of Pakistan Railways but also allow private firms to advertise their products for this purpose The official said that initially Pakistan Railways would be offered five trains for branding their seat covers, internal walls of the passenger coaches, and even toilets as a pilot project “The deficit of the department to decrease after starting this project and the minister has already directed the concerned to complete all the formalities in this regard as soon as possible, he added Pakistan Railways is also planning to upgrade its five major railway stations across the country on modern lines to facilitate the passengers and help the department to generate more revenue The purpose to upgrade the railway stations is to make them commercial hubs for business activities and facilitate the passengers,” he added He said the stations include Karachi Lahore Faisalabad Peshawar and Quetta The official said that the decision was made in line with the direction of Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique The official said that the government was taking several steps to improve the performance of Pakistan Railways and would provide maximum facilities to the masses

Gwadar Pro on Sunday quoting Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) s data, stated that between January and November the locally assembled/manufactured phones include 11 5 million 2G sets while the number of smartphones is 8 2 million

On average manufacturing per month during the first 11 months of the year is 1 8 million phones; thus, the inclusion of December data will bring the overall data to over 20 million phones in 2022

In 2022, like the previous two years, Chinese companies are amongst the top local manufacturing/assembling brands

The Secretary Emergency Services Dr Rizwan Naseer said that Rescue 1122 rescued over 1748255 emergency victims while responding to 1536638 emergencies during the year 2022, while maintaining its average response time of seven minutes and standard in all districts of Punjab The data showed 21 7 percent increase in the number of emergencies as compared to previous year 2021

He was presiding over an Annual Performance-2022 review meeting, which was held at Emergency Services Headquarters here on Saturday The meeting was attended by all Head of Wings of Emergency Services Headquarters & Academy The Secretary was briefed about all Punjab rescue operations i e road traffic crashes, medical, fire, Structural collapse, crime, drowning, fall from height/slip snake emergencies delivery and others miscellaneous emergencies

At this occasion, Provincial Monitoring Cell briefed Secretary Emergency Services that 369564 Road Traffic Crashes (RTCs) took place across the Punjab in 2022, whereas 364030 RTCs were reported in 2021 with an increase of 1 5% Similarly 26477 fire incidents were reported in all 36 districts of Punjab in 2022 whereas 20810 cases of fires were reported in 2021 with increase of 27 percent Rescue 1122 managed 940591 medical emergencies in 2022, whereas the Service responded to 715191 medical emergencies in 2021 with increase of

31 5 percent Furthermore, the Punjab Emergency Service responded to 37036 crime emergencies in 2022, as compared to 34314 in 2021 with increase of 8 percent cases The Service also responded to 1324 cases of drowning, 36545 fall from height/slip, 972 Structural collapses, 3491 Snake Search Emergencies, 1105 Scorpion Bite, 1056 Snake Bite and 26567 miscellaneous incidents Provincial Monitoring Officer further briefed that during last year 174123 victims were provided Patients Transfer Services free of cost from primary healthcare facility to specialized advance healthcare facility Besides that Motorbike Rescue Service responded 346981 emergencies with average response time of 4 minutes in all districts of Punjab in 2022

While speaking the occasion, Dr Rizwan Naseer said that during the last 18 years, Rescue Service has emerged as a successful model of emergency services delivery for South Asian countries He said that the team of Emergency Services Academy has become the first United Nations INSARAG classified team in South Asia Dr Rizwan appreciated the District Emergency Officers for maintaining the standards of Emergency Services in all Districts of Punjab and successful flood rescue operations in South Punjab in 2022 by rescuing over 80,000 flood affectees and provision of transportation to over 1,25,000 people to safe areas He directed all DEOs to ensure community building safety regulations in 50 feet and above buildings, establish Community Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) at village level and promote road safety to develop safer communities in Punjab

another subsidiary of Transsion Holdings, manufactured/assembled 1 61 million phones Similarly Oppo has manufactured 1 30 million phones while TECNO has assembled/manufactured 1 05 million phones

Due to the local assembly/manufacturing of mobile devices, Pakistan has saved foreign exchange reserves, which the country s economic system badly needs

In 2022 Pakistan commercially imported 1 37 million devices while in 2021 the number of imported devices was 10 26 million while that of local manufacturing/assembling was 24 66 million In 2020 the number of imported devices was 24 51 million, which was much higher than the 13 05 million locally assembled/manufactured mobile sets

Domestically manufactured/ assembled phones outnumber imported phones when PTA issued the Mobile Device Manufacturing Authorizations (MDMA) to several foreign companies to set up their manufacturing/assembling plants in Pakistan

10th anniversar y of CPEC crucial to Pakistan’s economy: Speakers

ISLAMABAD

S ta f f R e p o R t

Speakers at a webinar opined that Pakistan needs to revisit its geopolitical strategic and economic framework in the context of the changing world landscape, especially in the Asia-Pacific region They said that Pakistan will be marking ten years of CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor) in 2023 which is pivotal to its economic security

According to Gwadar Pro on Sunday, the webinar was organized by the Development Communications Network (Devcom-Pakistan) on Saturday the New Year’s Eve The theme of the webinar was “Pakistan’s geopolitical repositioning in 2023 Munir Ahmed, Executive Director, Devcom-Pakistan said that China has established partnerships and projected its influence by utilizing the huge resources at its disposal As an important pilot project for the joint construction of “Belt and Road Initiative” CPEC has achieved fruitful and remarkable results It has brought US$25 4 billion in investment to Pakistan and created a total of 190 000 jobs it was learned In 2023 we should give full play to the role of CPEC as a critical engine of Pakistan s economic development On the occasion, Chairman Senate Standing Committee of Defense Production Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed highlighted that Pakistan must pursue its role as a hub for regional connectivity while strengthening ties with its core partners like China, Turkey and Saudi Arabia

President D r Alvi spearheading public awareness c ampaigns, forging unity

ISLAMABAD

President Dr Arif Alvi remained a distinct figure during the year 2022 owing to his allbracing pursuit of social, moral, educational and political reforms, reminding the society to adopt to the latest developments in the realm of science and technology, while shunning their differences with an urge to steer the country out of the current challenges in different areas

Expressing his views in a short documentary about the one-year (2022) performance of the Aiwan-e-Sadr, the president said that he enjoyed a working relationship with the incumbent federal government Both he and the prime minister respected each other ’s offices he said adding that different pieces of legislation were sent by the government to his office for signing and sometimes he sent back unsigned certain

pieces of legislation after due consideration

The president expressed his views over the ongoing campaigns about the breast cancer, women s rights, rights of the differentiallyabled persons persons with disabilities and revolution in the information technology industry and the political situation of the country The president had been leading the political efforts to bring the political parties together

After change in the government, the president said he tried to steer Pakistan out of the crises of polarization, lack of dialogue for the future and the mandate issue which had become critical

The president referring to recent floods in Pakistan, said that climate-induced floods had caused widespread devastation as vast chunks of land, spreading over hundreds of miles in Balochistan and Sindh provinces had been under floodwater forcing the people to migrate The country suffered huge losses to the

tune of billions of dollars The world support in this regard was not sufficient, he said, adding a donors’ conference was being held in Geneva, and he hoped that it would have a positive outcome

The president also thanked those countries, institutions, NGOs, and civilian and military organizations that had supported the

flood relief activities in Pakistan

President Dr Alvi and First Lady Begum Samina Alvi had been very vocal about the women s inheritance rights and fervently advocating for the female skill development in different technical fields

The president stressed that it was the responsibility of the society to provide harassment free-environment to the women

Founder of the nation, Quaid-e-Azam had also stressed upon the women’s empowerment, he added The president referring to a recent survey conducted in about 158 countries and in which Pakistan ranked low in women’s disparity indicator, said that it had disappointed him very much

He maintained that Islam and the Islamic state established by the Holy Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) had given rights to the women which were even unthinkable of in Europe during 1910

The president expressing his satisfaction

over the outcome of the breast cancer awareness drive spearheaded by him and Begum Alvi, said that now, it was no more considered as taboo in families

About the differentially abled persons the president enumerated that they could be classified in three categories, blind, deaf and physically retarded people

All of them possessed the same capabilities like the ordinary people, therefore, they should be given access in the society and be encouraged not as dependent, but contributing members of the society, he stressed

The Federal Ombudsmen’s Offices had also been working effectively to redress public issues The different appeals against their decisions were made to the president The president recollected a case pertained to the levy of tax on an old person by the FBR and regretted that with just a mere impugned amount of Rs2033, the FBR spent a precious amount and wasted time

PESHAWAR S ta f f R e p o R t

cally

S ta f f R e p o R t

The PTA data shows that a Chinese mobile company manufactured/assembled 2 74 million; VGO TEL which is a subsidiary of Transsion Holdings manufactured 2 10 million phones; China’s Vivo manufactured/assembled 1 66 million phones while Infinix

Punjab Emergenc y S er vice resc ued 1748,255 emergenc y vic tims during 2022

2022 and the ‘new normal’

2022 will be remembered as the year that Pakistan saw a Prime Minister ousted by Parliament through a no-confidence motion for the very first time That event proved seminal, for it led not only to an apparent violation of the constitution by the Mr Khan and others, but it also led to a seminal confession by cOAS Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa that the Army had become neutral, thus admitting by implication what was common knowledge: that it had routinely interfered in politics One result was that it led to the convulsions in the Punjab, which meant that 2022 could well be called The Year of Three cMs (Usman Buzdar, Hamza Shehbaz and ch Pervez elahi), just as the year 68 is called the Year of Four emperors in Roman history it perhaps epitomises the instability of the country that there has been no settling down, and the chief Ministership is once again in dispute, and before the Lahore High court Behind Mr Khan’s ouster was the parlous state of the economy That has not changed 2022 has seen the rupee hit record lows against the dollar, and a global energy and foodstuff crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, with the conflict now dragging on with no end in sight As if that was bad enough, Pakistan also faced an exceptionally devastating monsoon flood, which some have rated the worst in its history The bottom line is that the economy has not stabilized

Unfortunately for Pakistan’s citizens, none of these crises show any sign of resolving themselves in 2023 even if an emergency is imposed, and federal elections postponed, and even if the PTi cannot dissolve the Punjab and KP Assemblies, there seems no way of putting off provincial elections, so the year will be an election year Unfortunately, elections between two parties which are at daggers drawn, but neither of which seems to have any solution to the economic problem, are not likely lead to stability At the same time floods are likely to be as bad as this year ’s because of climate change There is also a new covid wave engulfing china it has spread to the USA, as well as neghbouring india The government must prepare to face the pandemic at the same time as the floods it is not a good outlook, and it is only the human sprit, and divine intervention, that will enable the country to surmount 2023 After all, that is how it got through 2022

Fe W will regret the passing of 2022 it has seen soaring inflation and falling real incomes in a global cost of living crisis it has seen rising interest rates, a strong dollar and widespread difficulties over debt: according to the iMF 60 percent of low-income countries are in debt distress or at high risk of being so it has seen falling asset prices and heightened volatility in markets it has seen the failure of the cOP27 conference to bend the curve of emissions of greenhouse gases downwards it has not even seen full recovery from the dire outcomes of the covid pandemic especially among the world’s poorest people ’ An excerpt from a recent The Financial Times published article Glimmers of light in a terrible year by Martin Wolf

After almost two years since the start of the covid19 pandemic, the early days of 2022 had shown the build-up of signs of a waning coronavirus onslaught and its mutations, and back then a couple of months into the global supply shock, all exposing the deep flaws in the globally dominant neoliberal policy framework, not to mention the main existential threat in the shape of climate change fast unfolding, it was no less than writing on the wall that to maintain life as we know it needed a ‘new normal’

Apparently, it had become quite a dominant view point that the ways of greed, and profit over people mindset, in an overall environment of market fundamentalism rule all, were not the sustainable and inclusive ways, that the proponents of neoliberalism had so vehemently championed over the last couple of decades

Yet, despite the realization that the world could not return to this neoliberal setting as the pandemic gave way to some semblance of a routine life, unfortunately the ‘new normal’ has continued to remain the main theme in major policymaking arenas in both individual countries and overall globally

Aziz-ud-Din

M A Niazi Joint Editor

On the contrary, just into the last week of February, Russia invaded Ukraine, which accentuated the already difficult global supply shock; not only sending strong signals of famine, for instance, to a number of

parts in Africa, but overall increasing the scarcity and price of mainly food and energy At the same time, neoliberal policy still remains the dominant guiding post sadly, with not much progress made on regulation and overall greater role of governments in general

A recent The Guardian published article ‘The pendulum swung against globalization in 2022 – and that s no bad thing by Larry elliott pointed out in this regard ‘This was supposed to be the year when things returned to normal After the collapse of activity during the months of lockdown in 2020 and the supply bottlenecks of 2021 the hope was that 2022 would call time on an era of seemingly permanent crisis it hasn’t quite turned out like that ’

On the economic front the same recipe meant that overboard monetary tightening for instance led to significant capital flight in developing countries, on one hand and increased the impact of imported inflation at the back of stronger US dollar, and also because inflation reduction required a significant boost in aggregate supply that high cost of capital did not allow

The unnecessarily high interest rates kept by developing countries in general, and in Pakistan specifically firstly in order to wrongly chase foreign portfolio investment (FPi) or ‘hot money’), rather than keeping the cost of capital low, and giving boost to exports and allowing greater public investment and aggregate demand to attract foreign direct investment (FDi) instead Secondly, the policy rate was significantly raised under a mistaken thought process that it was aggregate demand that was mainly responsible for inflation, when clearly the main determination of inflation was and remains aggregate supply shock, a strong dollar increasing the imported inflation component, and higher cost push inflation

Overboard monetary tightening by the US Federal Reserve –a similar move made by many other major central banks globally, in addition to the same by a number of developing countries as indicated above –resulted in significant strengthening of the dollar, which increased external debt repayments on one hand, exacerbating the already difficult debt sustainability situation of developing countries like Pakistan, while high policy rate domestically added to these difficulties in terms of much greater domestic debt repayments So, on one hand, diminishing impact on foreign exchange reserves, making it difficult to service debt, and make necessary imports in terms of essential everyday items and also those used in producing exports, and on the other higher domestic debt repayments were squeezing already scarce fiscal space with developing countries

For Pakistan, reduced fiscal space, in addition to high inflation, low economic growth, and in turn revenues further reducing the fiscal space in addition to a difficult debt repayments situation, has brought all the more difficult choices in terms of catering the needs of millions of people who have lost their livelihoods –while a large number of people also lost their lives –in the wake of the catastrophic flooding; which cost the economy around $30 billion

The unnecessarily tight monetary policy stance in a number of major Western capitals, meant that in-

U S s a n c t i o n s o n I r a n a n d t h e i r i m p a c t

iran’s

Si n c e the iranian revolution in 1979, The USA and iran have had hostile relations including diplomatic This was due to iran’s actions, which included the hostage crisis, proxy wars and support for non-State actors such as Hamas and Hezbollah Since then, there have been unfriendly ties between the two countries because of Washington s action including Saddam Hussein s support for an attack on iran However, once the orthodox iranian revolutionaries were defeated in the 1990s, the islamic administration developed ties with several european nations, as well aschina and india, and the former USSR They discussed the oil and gas arrangements However, the USA s and iran s ties remained tense and antagonistic; US oil companies were barred from lucrative petrodeals, and the Bush administration designated iran as part of the Axis of evil

Furthermore, the nuclear programme of iran also affected the relationship of both states iran claimed that iran s nuclear programme was for peaceful purposes and also according to the iAeA states can keep nuclear weapons for peaceful purposes but due to the interests of the USA, it has imposed sanctions on iran which affected the iranian economy and as a result of the sanctions iran was unable to establish its hegemony in the region

The Joint comprehensive Plan of Action, also referred to as the iran nuclear Deal or iran Deal is a nuclear programme agreement between iran and the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the United nations Security council china France Russia the United Kingdom, and the United States plus Germany) together with the european Union that was reached in Vienna on

and the quantity of existing rotators has decreased by 66% The iAeA can examine offices announced as undeclared it can utilze iran’s atomic production network and all uranium mines and manufacturing plants

These hostile relations became much more serious during the Trump Administration in 2018, Trump withdrew from the Joint comprehensive Plan Of Action (JcPOA) and that relations have deteriorated and that iran’s economy is suffering because of severe economic sanctions Trump tweeted in July 2019 that iran had erred by shooting down a US military surveillance drone that had entered its airspace on 20 June 2019

Furthermore, Trump claims that the agreement was one-sided and that the deal was never made Trump also made a statement in 2018-2019 to increase sanctions against iran The USA has used Unilateral sanctions to weaken iran due to its nuclear weapons Sanctions against iran influenced the entire Middle east, and heightened tensions Trump’s goal was to Halt iran’s nuclear programme and to stop it supporting Shia against Sunnis across the region

US sanctions initially targeted investments in the oil, gas, and petrochemical industries as well as transactions with the islamic Revolutionary Guard corps and exports of refined petroleum products it covered banking and insurance activities, domain name registration, web hosting for corporate endeavours and shipping (including with the central Bank of iran) Subsequent Un resolutions have increased sanctions against iran

Iran has a reputation for being both overconfident and insecure , and it has long sought to defend itself from potential foreign inter ventions and meddling. It is more defensive than offensive to oppose Iran obtaining nuclear weapons because it would pose a challeng e to Israel, a longestablished heg emonic force in the region

flation– which was otherwise significantly determined by aggregate supply shock for although more so for developing countries, but also significantly for developed countries– remained at very high levels in the developed world as well during the current year According to the same Guardian published article, Larry elliott pointed out in this regard ‘For most western countries 2022 was the year when cost of living pressures hit a 40-year high, prompting the US Federal Reserve, the european central Bank and the Bank of england to slam on the brakes Threadneedle Street’s monetary policy committee met eight times in 2022 and raised interest rates each time ’

A significant move towards a new normal could have vociferously ushered in a move towards a non-austerity, and non-neoliberal policy, meaningfully incentivized a significant shift towards a much-needed green and resilient economic transition, catered to reducing income and wealth inequalities by making economic and political processes more inclusive– increasing in turn the impact of public opinion on public policy– and pushed towards decreasing poverty; where after for a number of decades before the pandemic, absolute poverty reportedly saw an increasing trend globally

On the contrary, apart from mainly a set of bright policy options presented under the Bridgetown initiative’, the same neoliberal, austerity, and procyclical policy mindset has continued to remain rampant during the current year This policy needs to end immediately, mainly given the window of opportunity to meaningfully reverse the onslaught of climate change– especially in terms of limiting the rise in average global temperature since the start of the industrial Revolution, to remain below 1 5°c– is fast closing; under a number of scenarios there may not be more than a decade to achieve this goal Hence it is essential that 2023 should mark the beginning, and in a deep way, of a much-needed new normal

The writer holds PhD in Economics degree from the University of Barcelona, and previously worked at International Monetary Fund Prior to this he did MSc in Economics from the University of York (United Kingdom), and worked at the Ministry of Economic Affairs & Statistics (Pakistan) among other places He is author of Springer published book (2016) The economic impact of International Monetary Fund programmes: institutional quality macroeconomic stabilization and economic growth’ He tweets @omerjaved7

omy expanded quickly in 2016, by 12 5 percent, after the nuclear accord was signed But the reprieve only

while

The Biden Administration argued and demonstrated its willingness to re-join JcPOA in order to remove mistrust and normalize relations between the USA and iran so that iran won t approach other powerful nations and pose a danger to the USA Biden consistently promised during the campaign to re-enter the iran nuclear deal that President Obama signed in 2015 and President Trump abandoned in 2018 in a September 2020 op-ed Biden stated, “if iran returns to strict compliance with the nuclear deal, the United States would rejoin the accord as a starting point for follow-on negotiations ” We will endeavour to enhance and expand the parameters of the nuclear deal with our partners, while simultaneously taking care of other pressing matters

F r o m a l l o f t h e s e f a c t o r s , i t c a n b e i n f e r r e d t h a t mistrust and conflicting interests strained the relations h i p s b e t w e e n t h e t w o s t a t e s a n d t h a t b o t h s t a t e s utilised their resources to oppose one another in order to protect their respective national interests However, in the Middle east both powers were competing for hegemony under the influence of “offensive realism ” iran appears to succeed in this endeavour, though, as it pursues nuclear power

iran has a reputation for being both overconfident and insecure, and it has long sought to defend itself from potential foreign interventions and meddling it is more defensive than offensive to oppose iran obtaining nuclear weapons because it would pose a challenge to israel a long-established hegemonic force in the region The best course of action for the USA and its allies would be to continue the talks and maintain contact with iran so that the West could get used to the concept of an iranian nuclear state and come to an understanding with it The sanctions should be eased, though, as they generally upset locals but pose little threat to iran s programme, which is growing more successfully

T h e A u t h o r d i d h e r g r a d u a t i o n f

‘

July 14, 2015 JcPOA deal required the balance (weakening) of Half of iran’s 20% enhancement of uranium and the suspension of improvement surpassing 5% There will be no greater advancement of improvement plants or heavy water reactors in Arak no new improvement destinations; no going back over or advancement of going back over Offices; no new taxes;

economy is crumbling after years of US sanctions and Tehran insists Washington must suspend those restrictions before the two sides can return to nuclear talks Due to the sanctions iran’s economy contracted an estimated 4 9percent% in 2020, steadily shrinking since 2017 According to estimates, iran s economy dropped by 4 99 percent in 2020, extending a negative trend that started in 2017 The islamic Republic’s econ-

lasted for a short

D

The effec ts of the 2023 epidemic remain

Yousaf Nizami Editor

Dedicated to the legac y of late Hameed Nizami Arif Nizami (Late) Founding Editor

Umar Aziz Executive Editor

Ahmad Joint Editor

Te r r o r i s m a n d t h e r e s p o n s i b i l i t i e s o f N A C TA , N S A O f f i c e a n d N A P

their families This regrouping was apparently the result of talks Pakistan initiated with the TTP on the advice of the Afghan Taliban The public had no option just to accept what the state was doing and what the state was claiming censorship during the PTi era discouraged independent journalists from report5ng the situation from the ground and TTP reclaimed areas it lost during several military operations in Swat Valley as well in the erstwhile FATA region

i have reasons to believe that the PTi government took security as a top priority and institutions that were responsible for follow-ups and keeping an eye on the situation like nAcTA and the office of the national Security Advisor (nSA) to the Prime Minister were almost non-operational

Once upon a time there was an office of national Security Advisor (nSA) to the Prime Minister in Pakistan and i remember that this office used to work as a link among security organizations, media men, think tanks, academicians, and writers Once headed by Lt Gen (retd) nasser Janjua who fought and won the war against terrorism and against separatists in Balochistan, used to hold deliberations, background discussions seminars talks and conferences to get maximum input from the public and to get feedback as well as suggestions

Power struggle amid growing pover t y

T H R O U G H O U T the course of human history, mankind has seen many changes in the realms of living standards, agriculture, culture and civilisation as well as in terms of socio-economic religious and political domains nonetheless, actual progress is something that has remained a mirage The world may be flaunted as a place where everything has become achievable and possible but reality suggests otherwise The other side of the picture features fissures that continue to push the so-called advanced world towards the edge

For instance most developed countries like the United States and Russia, pose existential threat to the world at large because they appear to be in some sort of never-ending arms race nuclear weapons have sown the seeds of destruction that may hit us any time in recent times, the Ukraine crisis has forced Russian President Vladimir Putin to talk about possible use of nuclear weapons and keeping them on high alert as a threat to Western powers On its part, the West responded with threats of retaliation and consequences is this a scenario indicative of human progress? Only a twisted mind can make such a claim

Moreover, the world is caught up in territorial disputes that have the potential to destroy the world wherein humanity might perish it is a common observation that strained relations between Pakistan and india, largely due to the Kashmir dispute, represent a flashpoint that may trigger a nuclear war between the two neighbouring countries

Other such cases include the nagorno-Karabakh dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and, indeed, the israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Middle east Unresolved issues like these are warnings that the world needs to adopt a progressive outlook rather than living on the edge of this knife or that Moving on, have the humans succeeded in eradicating chronic diseases like say cancer and diabetes? Lately a single virus later called covid, left the whole world crippled The horrible consequences of that single virus and its various mutations touched every aspect of life, and touched it negatively For months all major actors of the international community got down on their knees and accepted their defeat against that virus That in a critical sense exposed the net worth of the progress humans claim to have made Furthermore climate change is a pestering wound that has caused flare-ups in the shape of disasters, like flash floods, droughts, tsunamis, landslides, earthquakes, avalanches, hurricanes and other means that continue to perpetuate the cycle of huge mass displacement grinding poverty, agricultural losses, social nuisance, environmental degradation and economic consequences

Ec O n O M i c A L LY in the intensive care Unit (iUc) socially and politically in a chaotic phase after Project imran backfired and thereafter was abandoned; Pakistan is again trying hard to kill the multi-headed serpent of terrorism Last Friday the supreme body of Pakistan that looks after the security dynamics of the country started three-day deliberations in islamabad headed by prime minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif to review economic, social, and strategic security The supreme body, also known as national Security committee (nSc), is a component of the civil and military leadership of the country chaired by the Prime Minister The committee can ask anybody to join the meeting if needed

The recent meeting was attended by federal ministers ishaq Dar, Ahsan iqbal, and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, while chairman Joint chiefs of Staff committee Gen Sahir Shamshad Mirza, chief of Army Staff (cOAS) Gen Asim Munir and other service chiefs were also present The committee was briefed about economic conditions regional security Afghanistan terrorism and reemergence of the TTP Available information from insiders indicates that the new cOAS is quite clear-headed and that we cannot compromise our security to protect the interests of anybody if it is so, i trust that Pakistan shall think only about Pakistan instead of compromising its security to benefit Afghans in the future Pakistan fought against terrorism effectively through Operation Zarb-e-Azb which was followed by Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad everybody who has an interest in security dynamics knows the foreground background and result of these operations, therefore there is no need to go into detail about them The results were positive and security forces almost cleaned the country and Pakistan became a normal state to live in However, it was short-lived and we saw things were not normal as the state was telling us by the end of 2020 Tehrik Taliban Pakistan (TTP) slowly but surely started coming back to Afghan-Pakistan border areas and then the situation became out of control by the beginning of the year 2022 when Swat Valley made an SOS call through huge public protests against the TTP regrouping

However, the state had been telling them there was no need to worry and some TTP members had arrived back from Afghanistan to rejoin

Without going into details about what happened in the past 40 years we understand that after the massacre of children in Army Public School Peshawar the state understood that the sword that was cast and crafted in the Jihad era of the mid-1970s was now slaughtering their own children and was not confined only to common people; so the state decided to think otherwise and the national Action Plan (nAP) was formed and it was decided that the national counter Terrorism Authority (nAcTA) that was formed in 2009 would be monitoring authority of the nAP

A revised nAP was formulated by nAcTA and approved by the government in 2021 now, the revised nAP is the main pillar of the government s policy initiatives against extremism and terrorism What nAcTA is doing can be judged by the fact that if someone visits nAcTA s website can find the last three news that are; “change of command of national coordinator nAcTA” publishing date July 2, 2018 national Dialogue on Preventing Violent extremism Programming in Pakistan: challenges, Lessons Learned and Way Forward” publishing date October 23 2021 and nAcTA & Shaoor Foundation Organized Vice chancellors conference at Peshawar” publishing date April 22, 2022

i think the above references are enough to know the pace of work and initiatives taken by nAcTA in the last four years According to the term of reference of nAcTA, it is a federal authority to formulate counter-terrorism and counter-extremism strategies nAcTA is responsible for doing research about the causes of extremism and terrorism, and publishes it periodically and makes liaison with international bodies to facilitate cooperation in relevant fields in reality, nAcTA has no contact with the media, no regular briefings given to media about threats and scope of work and no information on what nAcTA has done so far since the latest wave of terrorism that started last October You can find in the record the last annual report that is the annual report for 2020 You can find the nAcTA Watch for June 2020 and June 2021 You cannot find any Pakistan Journal of Terrorism Research on the nAcTA website though i believe they uploaded one in June 2020 Meanwhile the national Action Plan (nAP) looks as if it has been napping since 2018 if you talk about initiatives taken by the provinces to mitigate terrorism in simple words nothing concrete is done by civilian authorities to control terrorism in Pakistan, and as a result, we are facing the rise of the TTP again in Pakistan

General Janjua knew the currents and undercurrents and threads of terrorism in Pakistan because he also served in Swat and led operations against terrorism and his successful handling of Swat operations was the reason that the then Prime Minister Mian nawaz Sharif placed him in Balochistan as commander Xii corps also known as Quetta corps, because Balochistan was burning and separatists were gaining a stronghold There is no need to go into details about the successes of General Janjua because his work had been appreciated by friends and foes and he became a buddy of youth and common people who were victims of terrorism and he left Baluchistan as the most trusted friend of Balochis He was a catharsis center for everybody who was a victim or concerned about extremism in Baluchistan in one of his interviews with this writer he said believed in seeking closure of conflict instead of winning it because he does not want to give a sense of losing to anybody who is a stakeholder in the issue His desire to make Balochistan a hub of economic activity by making Balochistan a focal point for trade is known to everybody He resigned on 27 June 2018, when Pakistan had as caretaker Prime Minister Mr Justice (retd) nasir-ul-Mulk

Many friends had been asking him the reasons for his resignation that he never shared with anybody but i could feel that the system was not ready to accept a straightforward and blunt person after Mian nawaz Sharif was removed i could also smell that former cOAS Gen Qamar Bajwa had not had very cordial interaction with him After the removal of Mian nawaz Sharif from the PM Office, General Janjua was confined to his office practically with no resources, staff, or desire of civil and military leadership to utilize his expertise He wanted to work but the state had something else in its mind

We thereafter saw that the office of nSA had been non-operational till Moeed Yusuf was brought from the USA to hold this sensitive seat and he failed to get trust and respect from regional stakeholders like the central Asian republics as well as from the then Afghan leadership He might have had no connection with people on the ground therefore his work looked just on the surface

i am of the view that there is a dire need of revamping the entire system responsible to manage terrorism-related issues if the multiparty government is really serious to mitigate the nonserious and nonsensical strategy the PTi government had about the issue of clamping terrorism in Pakistan

The writer is an international award winning journalist who has been in the field since 1988 and appears in national and international media as analyst and political scientist

For instance Pakistan despite contributing even less than one per cent to the phenomenon of global warming, has to face difficult times and is at the mercy of major climate change culprits The world community has yet to map out a plan to de-carbonise and turn to a carbon-free economic order that may be functional and acceptable at the global level in short, there is a long distance to travel before actual progress can be claimed Before judging the book by its cover it is important to realise that cosmetic changes do not mean progress A tangible improvement must show positive results For example, the world is stuck in the yoke of hunger and grinding poverty that lead to huge losses annually but the international community takes deeper interest in maintaining hegemonic control of a few mighty powers over the rest of the world

ABDUL QADEER SEELRO LARKANA

Parents and dreams

i am the first girl from my whole tribe to have acquired higher education, earned a master ’s degree in english from the University of Karachi and currently preparing to be part of the central Superior Services (cSS) All this has been possible only because of my parents who defied the conservative norms of society and supported me through thick and thin Ours is a conservative tribe where it is believed that girls may go morally corrupt by getting education, especially higher education Tribal elders believe that the sole purpose of a woman’s existence is to get married, raise children, cook and wash dishes As such, it is ‘unwise’ to waste money on their education That being so, a woman pursuing a career is simply unimaginable; a taboo i am blessed to have parents who stood by my side i urge every parent to do the same and let their daughters acquire education in order to fulfil their dreams We must not deprive our daughters of what is as simple as the basic right to education

NAZMEEN KHAN KARACHI

Lecturers’ salaries

i n March 2021, the Project Management Unit (PMU) of the Higher education Department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) had appointed more than 250 lecturers for various colleges of the newly-merged districts on a contract basis initially for six months

However, owing to the lack of lecturers in these colleges, the hired staff of PMU got two consecutive extensions in their service and the second extension expired in October 2022

All such lecturers are now performing their duties without any extension Almost all the said colleges have sent their extension summaries to the PMU and it is expected that a third extension will soon be granted

A bigger problem is that the salaries are never paid when due The last salary disbursement took place in June 2022 it has been more than six months that we, the lecturers, have not received our salaries How can people focus on the standard of education when they are being made to perform their duties without the promised compensation?

Like any other citizen, teachers, too, have families to feed and look after Under the prevailing circumstances, one is not able to afford even the hostel expenditure in the respective colleges it is only natural that employees deliver better when they get their wages on time

The reason behind the issue is probably that the funds are controlled by the federal government When we approached the KP s Higher education Department, we were told by the authorities that the previous federal government had stopped the funds for the project One wonders why the federal government did that when the provincial government also belonged to the same political party Our survival is at stake, and all concerned should resolve the issue at the earliest

RAFIUDDIN MEHSUD WANA

a Letter from Prometheus

agha Iqrar harOOn

real news

A DA M J O H N S O N

IT’s been a banner month for people who love invoking the “free speech” buzzword Whether elon Musk was promoting it as a catch-all abstract value to justify inviting transphobes and neo-nazis back to Twitter, or mainstream journalists were invoking the idea in response to a petulant billionaire banning his critics from the large social media company he just purchased for $44 billion, everyone these past few weeks has had some opinion on free speech, what it means, and who its supposed champion or, more often than not, its most hypocritical defender truly is What the conversation has been largely lacking (other than a coherent definition of “free speech”) is a serious acknowledgment that free speech as a concept means very little if we don t discuss how massive asymmetries in the distribution of power and the accumulation of wealth in the hands of a tiny few effectively determine who has the right to speak freely and who doesn t If you, like me, are trying to understand why this debate seems so repetitive and tedious, it’s because its terms are deliberately vague and don t address a whole picture of what rights mean, or ought to mean To understand this we need to first have a discussion about negative rights versus positive rights

Negative rights and positive rights are both critically important to any definition of “freedom ” and they necessarily complement each other: one without the other doesn t amount to much Positive rights are basic, lifesustaining things one ought to be entitled to if one is to enjoy and exercise the freedom that comes with having the necessities for comfortable living taken care of (ie , healthcare housing education food a basic living standard, etc ) Think Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms, which included freedom from want an idea many on the right found communistic and vulgar when he gave his famous speech in 1941 Over the course of its young nationhood, the Us and its citizens have developed a peculiar allergy to the concept of positive rights; instead of seeing the universal guarantee of life-sustaining provisions like housing and healthcare as enhancing the freedom of individuals to live act and think unburdened by the lifethreatening need to secure said provisions on their own, the entrenched American common sense is that such guarantees amount to handouts and state overreach that, somehow, makes us less free The concept of negative rights, on the other hand, is something we are more much more familiar with: they offer protection from oppression and persecution, namely in the realm of government imposition Negative rights, that is, safeguard the freedoms of individuals freedom of speech assembly, religion, freedom of due process, the right not to self incriminate from any attempts by the state, whether intentional or by accident to limit individuals ability to exercise said freedoms

Broadly speaking, in capitalist countries, the idea of positive rights who gets meaningful access to the platforms and material conditions required to speak and be heard never factors into any conversations about “free speech For instance the debate around the creation of the University of Austin, billed as a would-be bastion of “free speech” by many of the same players (like Bari Weiss) who always play an outsized role in shaping such debates when they invariably begin anew, never addressed the fact that precisely none of those who signed up to combat the so-called censorious left have ever said anything about the 2 3 million incarcerated people in the Us who have virtually no free speech rights That’s merely one example of how elite-dominated free speech discourse reflects the selective and self-serving attempts to define the

Tribune

Th e election Commission (eC) has developed a prototype of a remote electronic voting machine (eVM) that will enable domestic migrants to cast their votes at the place where they have settled According to the 2011 Census, 37 per cent of the people in India are migrants It’s a hassle for them to return to their home state to exercise their franchise even as postal ballot has met with a lukewarm response over the years Their failure to do the needful adversely impacts the voter turnout The eC has not only invited various political parties for a demonstration, but also sought written views from

freedom in question by those who have more of it than others but refuse to acknowledge why Then there are the issues of corporate surveillance and the illegal undermining of union organizers free speech ” On the former, I and many others have warned about the dangers and pitfalls of Big Tech partnering with security services to curate what we do and don’t see on social media (Though all prior installments of the “Twitter Files” had been nakedly geared toward generating outrage among the Fox News set it s important to note Tuesday’s revelation that the Pentagon had worked with Twitter on a sustained psyops campaign is legitimately newsworthy) Regarding free speech rights at work, scholars and labor organizers have documented how internal surveillance tech, spying on and monitoring workers activities and interpersonal communications renders any concept of “free speech” at the workplace, where we spend almost half our waking lives, a complete joke There are many richer, more original ways of approaching the slogan of “free speech” power dynamics, psyops, workplace suppression of speech but we ignore those in favor of boilerplate negative-rights-centered conversations about who is and isn’t banned from a specific social media platform

Pointing out Musk s hypocrisy on the topic is playing the game on easy mode, so I won’t bother, but suffice it to say, in our broader public debates around “free speech, the plight of the poor, dispossessed, imprisoned, and marginalized simply don’t factor in Because the average American commentator has zero concept of or ideological commitment to a parallel regime of positive rights that would give these negative rights any realworld purchase or liberatory power This is not a new concept, of course As James Peck notes in his 2011 book Ideal Illusions positive rights were central to the United Nations’ 30-point “Universal Declaration of human Rights, written in 1948 Labor rights and the tenets of economic equality can be seen peppered throughout the document, though they didn’t end up impacting much in terms of the shaping and enforcement of post-Cold War international law Just the same the founder of the liberal rights organization human Rights Watch, Aryeh Neier, somewhat infamously rejected positive rights as inherently oppressive writing in his 2003 memoir Taking Liberties, “I oppose the concept of economic rights The concept of economic and social rights is profoundly undemocratic ” he would add later that “Authoritarian power is probably a prerequisite for giving meaning to economic and social rights

For Western capitalist countries we have been imbued and indoctrinated with only half the equation For the most part (with exceptions), we will get the negative rights but are denied positive rights both in practice and as part of our civic education In this framework, where a narrowly defined “freedom from” takes unquestioned precedence over freedom to white nationalists like Charles Murray being deplatformed at Middlebury College is the cause of great consternation and debate, but thousands dying each year from homelessness largely doesn’t register even a blip in public consciousness Perhaps people will feel vaguely sad about an unfortunate reality but nothing as visceral or outrageous as the average American’s response to the perceived violating of our rights

Take a more recent example of this shallow framework: Last september, The Atlantic published a widely praised article by the American enterprise Institute’s sally satel that lamented how the left is increasingly authoritarian” on the topic of “free speech ” As is often the case with this discourse, the reader was treated to a litany of intellectually incurious power-flattering pseudo-social science that dismisses as “authoritarian,” without nuance or skepticism, cherry-picked leftwing slogans like, We need to replace the established order by any means necessary,” and “Getting rid of inequality is more important than free speech” all under the assumption that the status quo and the pressures of normalized mass poverty aren’t “authoritarian” and have no bearing whatsoever on people’s ability to be free and live freely To satel and the researchers she references, the absence of positive rights such as housing, education, and healthcare are not authoritarian People dying on the streets is not authoritarian Being forced to work in sweatshop conditions for bare survival is not authoritarian This is a capitalist liberal view of human rights, but it is not a universal or ideology-free view

One can view liberal negative rights as important (as the left most assuredly should), but absent positive rights of economic security, healthcare, food, and basic living

standards they amount to little more than buzzwords with little to no practical value how much “free speech” do I have if my ability to speak freely is cut short because I ve died from preventable disease? how much free speech” do I have if I’m imprisoned by a racist criminal justice system that criminalizes poverty? how much free speech do I have if I can t lobby my co-workers to unionize without getting fired and potentially facing homelessness as a result? Moreover, according to satel, violent revolutions are by definition authoritarian ; thus, poor farmers in the Global south who have been exploited for hundreds of years are simply supposed to ask the ruling class nicely for basic economic security and rights if they want change to happen A pretty convenient framework, indeed, for a corporate-funded lobbying front like the American enterprise Institute

This isn’t to say the left, historically, hasn’t rallied around “free speech” as a virtue worth defending Quite the opposite, in fact From eugene V Debs and Ricardo Flores Magón to sacco and Vanzetti, the left knows the costs of not having the right to speak and dissent freely Radical syndicalists in the early 20th century, like the founders and members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), engaged in so-called “free speech fights” that challenged the legality of laws preventing free assembly and picketing Composed of socialists and anarchists, the IWW used the negative rights protections of the First Amendment to defend and protect its right to create one big union” as a mechanism for transitioning to a classless society that would be defined by, first and foremost, a regime of positive righ b d d li

The New Left of t the “Free speech Move ilarly invoking the rig tution to defend protest and opposing the Viet 1960s left used the po to advance a positive r Menand wrote in The N last year, the stu didn’t really want fr speech, or only fre speech They wanted institutional and social change But they pursued a tactic aimed at co-opting the faculty The faculty had good re sons for caution about ciating themselve controversial political But free speech was United states stood fo the banner carried into tles against McCarthy loyalty oaths Free sp liberal could in goo science resist ”

Put another way: it slogan that served a pu and the vagueness of slogan meant that it c be used for good or For instance, since th tionary anti-political-c ness movement of t 1990’s, “free speech” c been a banner carried b space for ideas and con since the rise of social and 1970s They need workers’ right to union fend the right to protes a socially acceptable w the left or right because been any true Unive free speech has histo beyond enlightenment and not allowing state pure political expressio ing it over the past few defend Libs of TikTok’ get non-public figure crimes, one can be exc the spirit of John stuar

Indeed, by and larg tity of liberal negative eration for how po people s ability to live

bourgeois moral framework and one shouldn t fall for the trap of only debating the scope and criteria of this one half of the rights equation It’s this negative-rightsonly framework that dominates these debates on both the Trumpist, Muskian, Trigger The Libs right and on the side occupied by mainstream liberal critics But it’s an incomplete framework designed to uphold the hierarchical societal arrangements that make human rights conditional on one’s place within the hierarchy a framework that is simultaneously too coy with defending the idea of negative rights (for instance, dismissing Musk’s “free speech” rhetoric only on the grounds that he himself is being hypocritical) and too accepting of the right’s bad-faith framing of the debate itself

A more substantive and holistic argument is needed, based on discussions about how we can broaden and make more meaningful “free speech” rights by empowering and platforming marginalized voices, providing people with basic needs, and democratizing media control out of the hands of unaccountable corporations and capricious billionaires Only then can the cycle of endless free speech gotchas move beyond the predictable back and forth and address much more urgent and relevant questions about who owns the platforms people speak on, who has access to them, and who is silenced not only by Twitter shadowbans or FBI content moderators, but also by poverty, racism, incarceration, and preventable death

them on various aspects of the matter

The move is presumably aimed at increasing voter participation In the recent Gujarat Assembly elections, the turnout was 4 per cent lower than that recorded in the 2017 state polls himachal Pradesh s vote percentage this time was only marginally higher compared to the previous Assembly elections With nine states going to the polls in the coming year,

followed by the General election in 2024, the facility of remote voting can boost the involvement of migrants in the electoral process

There are legal, administrative and technological challenges to be dealt with while introducing remote eVMs The task of identifying the migrants and enumerating them is onerous The implementation of the Model Code of Conduct at remote polling booths

in other states won’t be easy either Regarding the technological aspect, the machines have to pass the test of credibility and acceptability among all stakeholders The Congress has already voiced its concern, stating that the eC should first allay the Opposition s apprehensions about the misuse of eVMs before extending their application Allegations about the eVMs’ vulnerability to being hacked or tampered with are made every now and then, but these are yet to be substantiated by concrete evidence Amid the occasional hue and cry, the eVM system in the world s largest democracy has by and large proved to be reliable and robust The eC has its work cut out to dispel political parties’ fears about remote voting and bring them on board

Adam Johnson hosts the Citations Needed podcast and writes at The Column on Substack

, ‘ F R E E S P E E C H ’ A N D O T H E R R I G H T S B E C O M E

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