A group of people staged a protest in front of the Quetta Press Club in Pakistan against the arrest of Noor Jehan from Balochistan’s Turbat by the Counter-Terrorist Department.

Notably, women came out in large number to participate in the protest led by Mama Qadeer, the Vice Chairman of the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, Pakistan vernacular media reported.

While addressing the protesters, many Baloch leaders said, “Counter-Terrorist Department is now arresting our women folk after our youths. The arrest of Noor Jehan by CTD is condemnable.”

The Baloch leaders said that the government agencies had first forcefully arrested the youths and then made them disappear without a trace and after some time their tortured and mutilated bodies were found far from their homes.

“Now they are arresting our women also. It is intolerable. They demanded that Noor Jehan should be released immediately. Otherwise, we will be forced to take some strong steps and the government and its agencies will be responsible for it,” Baloch leaders said.

Chinese authorities recently arrested another activist for speaking out against abuses committed by health and police authorities as the country continues adhering to its “zero-COVID” protocols despite criticism from global health experts.

Ji Xiaolong was arrested at his Yanlord Riverside apartment in Shanghai’s Pudong district, forcefully taking him and his wife into custody. According to local media, he was detained for three days and then released after strict and long hours of questioning.

As China continues to face the impact of the resurgence of COVID cases in key cities, the country’s top leadership has vowed to “win the war” against infection with its scientific and effective epidemic control policy that will stand the test of time.

This message was conveyed by the top leadership at the meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee chaired by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee.

Xinhua news agency reported that China’s much-publicized “zero-covid” strategy that the government credited for bringing the country out of the pandemic till recently is falling apart as the rapidly mounting cases are again forcing mass lockdowns like those seen in 2020.

As the pandemic is still raging across the world and the coronavirus keeps mutating, there is a great deal of uncertainty concerning how the pandemic will develop, according to the meeting, which warned against any slackening in the control efforts.

“Relaxation will undoubtedly lead to massive numbers of infections, critical cases and deaths, seriously impacting economic and social development and people’s lives and health,” the top leaders said in the meeting.

They stressed the importance of unswervingly adhering to the zero-COVID policy and resolutely fighting any attempts to distort, question or dismiss China’s COVID policy.

The high-profile security pact China recently entered into with Solomon Islands has sparked political storm in the island nation with the Opposition demanding a reversal of the pact as the the people do not want the agreement with Beijing.

Solomon Islands’ main opposition leader, Matthew Wale, while highlighting the peoples’ rejection of Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare’s security deal with China, said the China-Solomons agreement is opaque.

Wale pointed out that those opposed to the deal included members of Sogavare’s government as well.

Speaking with The Strategist, Wale stated that the vast majority of ordinary Solomon islanders did not want any sort of security arrangement with China, and they would be very concerned about this one being signed.

According to him, “It’s clear to me that the vast majority of ordinary Solomon islanders do not want a base here, or even this deal. A majority of the people do not want China here at all in the first place.”

The opposition to high profile security deal with China cannot be seen in isolation. It is linked to the 2021 Solomon Islands unrest. The Solomon Islands had previously been among only a handful of countries with diplomatic ties to Taipei rather than Beijing, a significant proportion of which are in the South Pacific.

In September 2019, PM Sogavare established formal diplomatic ties with China. According to news reports, around 730 million US dollars worth of financial aid had been promised by Beijing to the Solomons, one of the Pacific’s poorest nations, in exchange for the move. This led to Taiwan terminating its diplomatic relations with the Solomon Islands after 36 long years.

The government’s decision to switch diplomatic relations with China was opposed by Malaita Province Premier Daniel Suidani who had openly criticised the government. Malaita province is the most populous island in the Solomon Islands archipelago. South Pacific geopolitical researcher Ed Cavanough had told abc.net.com there was evidence that a relationship between the province and Taiwan remained in some form.

Unlike the national government, Malaita Province continued to be supported by Taiwan and the United States, with the latter sending 25 million US dollars of aid to the island in 2020. The premier of Malaita Province, Suidani held an independence referendum in 2020 which the national government had dismissed as illegitimate.

Rising unemployment and poverty, worsened by the border closure during the COVID-19 pandemic, have also been cited as a cause of the unrest. Chinese businesses were also accused of giving jobs to foreigners instead of locals.

The islands witnessed a series of demonstrations and violent riots in November 2021. It had started off as a peaceful protest against the government’s decision to recognize China over Taiwan which turned out violent as protesters attempted to storm Parliament to depose PM Sogavare.

Businesses, mainly in the islands’ capital Honiara’s Chinatown district, were burnt and looted. A police station had been set on fire. The police had used tear gas shells to disperse protestors and the government had sought help from the Australian Government. Australia had deployed the Australian Federal Police and Defence Force. Papua New Guinea and Fiji had also dispatched peacekeepers while New Zealand deployed police and troops.

A no-confidence motion was moved in the Parliament by the opposition member but it got defeated on the floor of the house in December 2021.

Honiara has also seen violent demonstrations target ethnic Chinese-owned businesses in the past. In 2006, following the election of then Prime Minister Snyder Rini, rioters looted and burned Chinese-owned businesses, because of claims that the election had been rigged with the financial assistance of Chinese business people.

Many Chinese residents were left homeless, and the riots led to the deployment of Australian and New Zealand soldiers to help restore order.

In the main, Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has assured that the security pact with China will not hurt or undermine peace and harmony in the region.

This is even as the international community has expressed shock over the security deal. New Zealand and Australia have reacted with frustration to the news. These countries expressed fear that it may provide for China to establish a military base in the Pacific.

The United States has also expressed its concerns over the pact. Senior US officials plan to travel to the country this week to express their deep concern and make an attempt to nullify the security deal.

Meanwhile, Chinese observers pointed out that the “concerns” expressed by the US and Australia over the security pact showed that they use the South Pacific region as an “arena” for competition with China and try to contain China’s peaceful development.

They added that the US and Australia may increase military cooperation and civilian investment in the Solomon Islands and other South Pacific countries to counter China’s rising influence.

The apparent failure of Imran Khan in delivering on the promises he made has brought the opposition parties in Pakistan together. Now attempts are being made by them to oust Khan, which he said would lead to serious consequences.

But, the opposition parties are hell-bent on bringing down Khan's hybrid government, which they claim is actually run by the country's powerful army. 

Khan has been floundering under pressure as his decisions have worsened the economic and political situation in the country, which the opposition has blamed.

They now have submitted a no-trust motion against Khan to the National Assembly. The Speaker of the assembly now has to call for a session in 14 days. It means the fate of Khan will be decided before March ends.

Political parties like Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q), which were allies of Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf so far, have now joined the opposition camp, led by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). 

According to the opposition, Imran Khan has failed on several parameters of governance, security and diplomacy. Pakistan's reputed newspaper Friday Times said the country was in a bad economic situation due to poor governance and mismanagement at the highest levels of the Khan government. 

PML-N Vice-President, Maryam Nawaz said, Khan had put Pakistan in a disadvantageous position. Claiming, Khan had become a liability and ought to be unseated, Nawaz said "Shut him in a room, or else if a monkey gets hold of a matchstick, there would be a threat of fire!"

Even his recent visit to Russia just before the invasion of Ukraine began, came under heavy criticism for being a dull-witted diplomatic move. Khan even took a potshot at the European Union diplomats for asking to condemn Russia over the Ukraine invasion. 

This, Pakistani opposition leaders said, hurt Pakistan's image in the world. "Imran has destroyed his political capital and reputation, but he should not be allowed to damage Pakistan's international political capital and reputation," said PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif. 

Meanwhile, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said "puppet" prime minister Imran Khan was responsible for the whole economic crisis in Pakistan. It is said quite openly in Pakistan that Khan could become the prime minister thanks to the support from the army. And this led to the coinage of the term "hybrid government". 

The army had allegedly rigged the 2018 elections to make a way for Khan. So, he is often called puppet prime minister. 

Opposition parties have been lashing out at Khan for high inflation, unemployment and rising terrorism in Pakistan. "The people have been compelled to send Imran Khan home because this illegitimate, incapable and incompetent selected have robbed the people," Zardari said.

Moreover, Khan can be struggling to get Pakistan out of the "grey list" of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) as well as improve the country's financial situation. Recently Khan agreed that he failed to fulfil the promises he made to the people of Pakistan but he deflected blame to the system. 

The opposition has moved the no-trust motion that says "The leader of the House has lost the confidence of this House. There is political instability and uncertainty in the country and the foreign policy has totally failed." It has provoked Khan to threaten the opposition of negative consequences. "Are you ready for what I will do with you once your plans for a no-trust motion fail?" he warned. 

However, Khan appears to be losing the ground as many people from his camp are joining the opposition group to oust him. After a PTI leader Jahangir Khan shook hands with the opposition, Khan's close friend Aleem Khan, joined the dissidents club.

The future path seems quite difficult for Khan as he will be removed as prime minister if the no-trust motion is passed. And to make the matter worse, Pakistan's powerful army does not seem to be standing behind Khan in these troubled times. The opposition has been highlighting the Khan-army nexus time and again. 

However, Khan is said to have fallen out of the army's favour now. The army is not likely to come to Khan's rescue once its protege. In such a scenario, the ongoing tussle between Khan and the opposition becomes very important for Pakistan as it may see the end of Khan's career.

Raising concern that Afghanistan could revert to being a safe haven for international terrorists who might target European countries after the Taliban takeover, the European Union (EU) prepared an action plan to deal with the threat.

Federico Giuliani, writing in Insideover said that the EU action plan calls on EU intelligence networks “to monitor the impact of the Taliban’s takeover in Afghanistan on the global Islamist extremist and jihadist propaganda scene, including the Afghan diaspora and Muslims in Europe”.

The briefing, titled “Security situation in Afghanistan implications for Europe”, says, “In response to events in Afghanistan, the Council published a counter-terrorism action plan on Afghanistan in September, setting out four clear objectives, and making 22 recommendations for action, said Giuliani.

The EU proposes and is implementing, screening Afghan nationals and others evacuated from Afghanistan. Another critical recommendation suggests taking a military manual to tackle terrorism, said Giuliani.

“The plan also recommends improvements in information-sharing, so that updated ‘battlefield information’ collected in Afghanistan – such as ‘fingerprints found on explosive devices or biometric data of fighters detained in Afghan prisons and who have been released by the Taliban’ – is available to the competent national authorities and Europol.

The EU action plan highlights the importance of “assessing the presence and activities of terrorist groups in Afghanistan and their financing, and of monitoring terrorists’ travel between the EU and Afghanistan”.

The EU will be setting up an EU-level “pool of security-vetted specialists in Afghan languages, including Pashtu, Dari, Urdu and Farsi to monitor social networks and to promote counterterrorism dialogues with countries in the region, reported Insideover.

The EU is also mooting the idea of cutting off two sources of Taliban funding: the drugs trade and arms trafficking.

The plan also draws attention to the “risk that weaponry seized by the Taliban after the withdrawal of US and allied troops, and taken from Afghan security forces, may be sold.”

In this context, the EU is implementing the 2020-2025 EU action plan on “firearms trafficking, particularly with respect to the western Balkans, Moldova and Ukraine,” said Giuliani.

India is carrying out more warship patrols than ever before as concerns grow about the country’s ability to remain dominant in the Indian Ocean as China’s naval power quickly increases.

The waters off India haven’t seen this many naval vessels together since World War II as both China and Western allies deploy more warships in the area, according to senior Indian naval officials familiar with the matter. They estimated about 125 foreign naval vessels were in the Indian Ocean at any given time, roughly three times the number deployed in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks when the U.S. invaded Afghanistan. 

While Indian officials are confident they can manage the threat for now, a lack of funding threatens the country’s ability to keep pace with China and other nations. Most Indian submarines critical to controlling the oceans are about two decades old, and plans to increase the warship fleet to 200 -- including a third aircraft carrier -- keep getting delayed.

India now has about 130 warships, roughly a third of China’s naval fleet comprising 350 ships and submarines -- the largest in the world. Despite that, last year the navy saw the biggest gap among India’s three military services between requested and actual funds, prompting a parliamentary panel to ask the government to stop making further reductions.

The navy’s budget will be in focus on Feb. 1, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government presents its annual spending plan in parliament. In the last five years, the shortfall between what the Indian Navy requested and what it got ranged from 5% to 41%, the panel of lawmakers said in a 2020 report to the government. In the latest report submitted last month, they said the navy’s allocation was “less than half the amount” it wanted.

India has permanently deployed warships at five choke points in the Indian Ocean, stretching from the Gulf of Aden in the west to the Malacca Strait in the east. The waters carry some of 40% of the world’s oil from fossil-fuel producers in the Middle East to some of Asia’s biggest economies. 

Ocean Vigil

Last year the Indian Navy carried out an all-time high of 50 joint exercises with friendly navies, including one with Japanese warships around the Malacca Strait, said a senior naval official. 

Still, India has been cautious to avoid antagonizing Beijing as the two countries battle along their contested Himalayan borders. Modi’s government has turned down requests from friendly navies to jointly patrol the South China Sea, another naval official said. 

India’s navy has sought to demonstrate its reach with humanitarian missions. In 2015, more than 26 countries, including the U.S., turned to India to help evacuate their citizens when civil war in Yemen intensified. Half a dozen Indian warships were able to rescue 4,000 Indian citizens as well as 1,200 foreigners before Port Aden was bombarded. 

In the last two years, the naval ships have sailed 40,000 nautical miles -- or twice around the earth -- carrying food, medicines and weapons to Indian Ocean countries. On Dec. 26, an Indian warship sailed into Mozambique for the first time carrying weapons and humanitarian aid.   

Overall leaders in India’s capital have become “more aligned with the Indian Navy’s view of the country’s interest in the maritime domain,” said Nilanthi Samaranayake, a director of the Strategic and Policy Analysis Program at CNA, a U.S.-based research organization. “Especially if it relates to the safety of Indian citizens working overseas and remittances to the national economy.”

Pakistan Federal Minister of Finance Shaukat Tarin has said that there will be no decline in the price-hike in the country for the next three months.

The News International reported quoting Tarin said that the prices have swelled all over the globe due to the COVID-19 pandemic but Pakistan didn't let its industries stop working.

"The prices hiked up to 90 per cent in the international market. Trade deficit increased due to the rise in oil prices while the Afghan crisis weighed down Pakistan's currency," Tarin said during a press conference in Islamabad at the Pak-China Centre on Wednesday.

He said the current account deficit would recede in the remaining months of the current fiscal year because the government had procured vaccines and there were no more requirements for importing wheat and sugar, The News International reported, adding him saying "The government had imported wheat and sugar to the tune of 1 billion USD."

The Pakistan Minister hoped that the exports target of 31 billion USD and IT exports would fetch 3.5 billion USD during the current fiscal year. The remittances, he said, were going up by 11 per cent so far against the 29 per cent growth achieved in the last fiscal year, the media outlet said.

In early January, the country's Finance Minister tabled the Finance (Supplementary) Bill 2021 also called as 'mini-budget' in the Senate amid protest from opposition members.

The bill seeks to amend certain laws on taxes and duties to meet the International Monetary Fund's (IMF's) conditions for the clearance of Pakistan's sixth review of the USD 6 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) by the financial institution, paving way for the disbursement of a tranche of around USD 1 billion.

South Korea wants to break China’s monopoly in the battery manufacturing materials. However, it has been hunting for critical mineral processing partners to provide alternative to China. In the race to become `battery king’, South Korea has been working overtime to be the battery king leaving China behind. President Moon Jae-in had been stated in July that South Korea will strive to become a global battery manufacturing powerhouse by 2030, part of a plan to be carbon neutral by 2050.

South Korea and Western countries have realised that China would use its near-monopoly of the rare earths trade as a "weapon" against its rivals. Rare earth metals are actually not as rare as their name might imply. But they are critical to high-performance optics and lasers, and essential to the most powerful magnets and superconductors in the world etc. South Korea has accelerated its efforts to leave China behind as battery manufacturing has become the key element in national security matters for most of the countries.

Rare earths are very expensive but are not profitable in the markets. This has made them less desirable in the past—until the world realized that China controlled much of the market. Some of rare earth materials are Scandium (used to strengthen aluminum alloys; Yttrium( Used in superconductors and exotic light sources, Lanthanum(Used in specialty glasses and optics,
 electrodes and hydrogen storage );Cerium (Makes an excellent oxidizer, used in oil cracking during petroleum refining and is used for yellow colouring in ceramics and glass; Praseodymium (Used in magnets, lasers and as green colour in ceramics and glassNeodymium(Used in magnets, lasers and as purple colour in ceramics and glass and Dysprosium(Used in magnets and lasers).

However, these materials are essential to the modern world and can be found inside mobile phones, batteries and even cosmetics. And many of them are becoming ever-more vital to the clean energy economy. Not only this but advanced military equipment depends on them. For instance, F-35 Joint Strike Fighters need half a tonne of rare earth metals to get airborne, underscoring the strategic importance of supply.

China has a control over 90 per cent of processing which has prompted the developed world to explore alternatives. Australia has large natural reserves of both resources but limited manufacturing capability. Considering Australia has rich resources in critical minerals, South Korea stepped up efforts to further cement relations with Australia.

However, the focus of South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s recent visit to Australia was to find alternatives to China. Both the countries signed an Memorandum of Understanding ( MoU) was signed on cooperation in the critical mineral supply chain. South Korea and Australia had clinched a "low and zero emissions technology partnership" earlier this year.

Under the MoU, Australia will help South Korea solidify its battery manufacturing sector. Battery manufacturing has become the key element in national security matters for most of the countries. “Our two countries share the view that establishing a stable mineral supply chain is important not only for the two countries, but also for the global economy,” Moon had stated after the MoU was sign.

Moon has expressed his desires to give importance to Batteries. Earlier, he had stated that batteries are the backbone of the Korean industries that hold the future of the country. He further stated that there is a need to sharpen competitiveness to overtake the bigger rivals and further widen the gap with their followers.

South Korea has been making all out efforts to leave China behind in battery manufacturing. The competition between South Korea and China in the battery manufacturing sector is cut-throat. According to available information, South Korea has dominated the world battery sector in 2020 with an impressive 38% share in the global market.

At that time, China trailed at a mere 24%. In 2021, China left south Korea behind. In the first fourth months China climbed to 43%, while South Korea fell to 31%. The war between South Korea and China over who is the ‘the battery king’,is likely to become worse after MoU signed between Seoul and Canberra. South Korea approached Australia to get world’s biggest rare earth powerhouse, that is Australia, to cement its position as the battery powerhouse of the world.

The two nations signed a billion-dollar defence deal to provide Australia with equipment like artillery weapons, supply vehicles and radar. This is the largest defence deal Australia has ever clinched with an Asian nation. So, South Korea will help Australia boost its defences against China, while Australia will help South Korea solidify its battery manufacturing sector. In both cases, the victim-to-be will be none other than China.

Currently, Australia supplies around 40 per cent of South Korea's critical mineral imports, those that are crucial for many of the components needed to drive the world's economies to net zero emissions by 2050.
Refining of rare earth minerals is a hugely expensive process, which can be complicated by environmental concerns such as radioactive waste. An Australian company, Australian Strategical Materials (ASM), a rare earth miner based in New South Wales, plans to diversity its business with a new plant in South Korea to produce metals used in magnets.

South Korea’s limitations
South Korea has been careful than neighbouring Japan to China’s increasingly assertive foreign policy because of its reliance on Beijing to negotiate any future peace deal with communist North Korea. How things will take shape will be when in South Korean presidential elections due next year. If a conservative leader is elected, South Korea will be more willing to cooperate with Australia and the US, and play a larger role alongside the two of them (to a degree). This won’t happen if there’s a progressive administration.

Analysts say that Even if there’s a conservative leader, South Korea is unlikely to go as far as Australia in condemning China’s actions. That’s because it won’t be in South Korea’s interests to do sp. Seoul needs China to help in its negotiations with North Korea. South Korea’s largest businesses are heavily invested in China and South Korea won’t want to damage the relationship.

Surveillance cameras made by firms monitoring the movements of Britons in more than 275,000 separate networks have been identified at five Uighur internment camps in Xinjiang, The Mail on Sunday reported. 

The specialist CCTV cameras of Chinese state-owned companies Hikvision and Dahua have been found monitoring detainees at the camps. 

The research, carried out by surveillance experts IPVM, identified the cameras by studying recently-recorded video footage by a Chinese blogger of the 're-education centres' for minority Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang. 

The cameras are tailored to low-light conditions and come with analytics such as intrusion detection, line crossing detection, and region entrance/exiting detection, which can all be used to detect people entering sensitive areas or inmates trying to escape. 

Both firms have been blacklisted in the US over links to human rights abuses but so far the UK Government has not moved to sanction the companies. 

It comes as the MoS can also reveal a study has found the UK has the world's fourth largest network outside of China of CCTV cameras made by Communist Party-owned companies. 

A report found that Britons are surveilled by 277,986 networks of Hikvision and Dahua cameras, with the number of individual cameras likely to be much higher. 

London holds the largest number at 61,504, followed by Birmingham with 8,865, Manchester with 7,436 and Liverpool with 4,957, according to researchers at TOP10VPN. 

Last week it emerged that the Government is using hundreds of Hikvision cameras across the Department for Health, Department for Work and Pensions, and Ministry of Justice. 

This is despite a Freedom of Information request by the campaign group Free Tibet that uncovered official Ministry of Defence guidance warning 'not to use / install Hikvision equipment'. 

And last week the MoS revealed the Home Office had faced a security scare after discovering a CCTV unit in its London HQ manufactured by Dahua. 

Authorities in the US fear the companies' camera technology present a national security concern because of their links to the Chinese state, which the firms' bosses strongly deny. 

Both Hikvision and Dahua's cameras and technology has been used in the repression of the Muslim minority Uighurs in China. 

Conservative MP Alicia Kearns, of the China Research Group, said: 'I have been calling for the UK government to ban Hikvision and Dahua cameras for months - not least stripping it from Government departments and local councils. 

"This is yet more evidence why we urgently need to rip this insidious technology from our country to protect our civil liberties. 

'It is unacceptable for even a penny of taxpayers' money to go to an arm of the Chinese state, one actively facilitating the genocide of the Uighur people in Xinjiang."

Earlier this month, the Government brought its revised camera surveillance code before Parliament but failed to include a human rights clause blocking the purchase of equipment from firms linked to human rights abuses. 

Fraser Sampson, England and Wales's Biometric and Surveillance Camera Commissioner, said: "From what little they've said publicly it seems Hikvision would like to adopt a 'fire and forget' approach and disown any responsibility for what is done with their systems once they've designed and installed them."

Hikvision supplies CCTV cameras to British schools, police forces, government departments, local councils, hospitals, care homes and private companies.

The Chinese government owns a controlling stake in Hikvision and smaller minority share of Dahua.

Hikvision declined to comment but a Dahua spokesman said: ‘We cannot confirm that the camera pictured is in fact a Dahua device and its specific purpose, as there are many look-alike cameras made by other manufacturers available on the market.

‘Regardless, we are not surprised, not should anyone else be surprised, to see an outward facing and traffic-monitoring security camera located on the perimeter of what appears to be a government facility.

"One would expect to find cameras being widely used to help secure public and commercial facilities, reduce traffic congestions, improve industrial automation, as well as many other intelligent applications to help make the world safer and smarter."

Flight services between India and Singapore under the Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) commenced on Monday even as Singapore deferred similar travel arrangements with some other countries amid the 'Omicron' scare.

India and Singapore agreed on resuming scheduled commercial flights between both countries under the VTL from November 29 with six designated flights daily from Chennai, Delhi, and Mumbai.

Vistara and IndiGo said they have started operating flights to Singapore, while there was no comment from Air India. Vaccinated Travel Lane allows quarantine-free travel to Singapore for fully vaccinated travellers.

"There is no change as of now in terms of our Singapore operations - our first flight went at 1:50 am today," a Vistara spokesperson said.

While there is no change as of now, the spokesperson said the situation is being reviewed and a decision will be taken accordingly.

"We can confirm that we are operating our flight on Chennai-Singapore as per schedule," an IndiGo spokesperson said.

Vistara had disclosed that starting from November 29, it would operate Airbus A320neo/A321neo planes between India and Singapore.

Singapore has deferred VTL arrangements with Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates as a "precautionary move" to reduce the risk of importation and spread of 'Omicron'.

Unidentified persons have destroyed a telecommunication tower in a northwestern tribal district of Pakistan, soon after it started providing internet service, RFE/RL reported.

The attacked tower belonged to China Mobile Pakistan, a 100 per cent owned subsidiary of China Mobile Communications Corporation, reports Asian Lite News.

The tower in the restive North Waziristan district was destroyed by explosives on Friday, the report said.

The tower belonged to China Mobile Pakistan, a 100 per cent owned subsidiary of China Mobile Communications Corporation. The Pakistan-based mobile data network operator does business under the name Zong.

Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), known as the Pakistani Taliban, and other militant groups are known to operate in the area, the report added.

A local police officer said the tower had been providing mobile phone signals since 2019.
The report said the blast occurred two days after the tower started providing internet service in the area.

Local residents had staged protests in the past demanding high-speed internet connection.

Pakistani security forces had carried out a massive military operation in North Waziristan in June 2014 claiming that the TTP had been eradicated.

However, continued attacks by the militants suggest that the group has returned and poses a threat to peace and security in the area once again, the report said.

Amid rising insecurity in Nigeria, the country now risks an arms embargo following the indictment of the Nigerian Army and the Nigeria Police Force by the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Restitution for Victims of SARS Related Abuses and other matters, which states that at least nine persons were confirmed dead at the Lekki toll plaza when soldiers stormed the tollgate to disperse #EndSARS protesters on October 20, 2020.

The 309-page report stated, “The atrocious maiming and killing of unarmed, helpless and unresisting protesters, while sitting on the floor and waving their Nigerian flags and while singing the National Anthem can be equated to a massacre in context.”

While indicting the soldiers and the police, the panel stated that it unravelled the fact that after the personnel of the Nigerian Army exited the scene, the Nigeria Police Force followed up with the killing of the protesters, shooting directly at those fleeing, who ran into shanties and the lagoon.

It recommended that all army officers, excluding Major General Omata, and men of the Nigerian Army deployed in the Lekki tollgate should be made to face appropriate disciplinary action, stripped of their ranks and dismissed as they were not fit and proper to serve in any public or security service of the nation.

Already, the United States, the United Nations, the United Kingdom and Amnesty International have called on the Nigerian government to ensure that the panel’s report is handled transparently even as the military and the Federal Government await the release of the White Paper.

The Nigerian military and its current use of arms are subject to the Leahy vetting, an American rights law that prohibits the United States government from providing military assistance to foreign security force units that violate human rights with impunity.

An arms embargo had earlier been placed on Nigeria, which prevented the country from effectively pursuing the war against terror during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

However, during the administration of former American President, Donald Trump, the embargo was lifted and the US began selling arms to Nigeria, including 12 Super Tucano aircraft.

The US, however, warned that the arms and the soldiers being trained would be subject to Leahy vetting, meaning that military assistance could be discontinued.

Earlier in the year, Reuters had reported that the United States Congress had initiated plans to impose an arms embargo on Nigeria.

In an email chat with The PUNCH on Wednesday, the Deputy Director for Advocacy and Government Relations for Amnesty International USA, Mr Adotei Akwei, said he had written to the US Congress to implement the Leahy laws against Nigeria.

Akwei welcomed the report of the panel, adding that it confirmed what Amnesty had always been saying about the #EndSARS protests.

He said, “While we welcome this report, we are also painfully aware that other investigations into abuses by the Nigerian security forces have also confirmed abuses, called for reform and accountability and have resulted in no action whatsoever.

“We will wait to see what the response is from the Buhari administration, but until then, we still call for robust implementation of the Leahy laws in regards to the Nigerian military.”

In an interview with The PUNCH, a former Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Prof Bola Akinterinwa, said Nigeria could face not just an arms embargo, but sanctions.

Akinterinwa stated, “It goes beyond an embargo. There are many ways foreign countries respond to situations like this. If you use the US as an example, I can assure you that all those suspected government officials will be sanctioned in different ways, either by visa bans, withdrawal of privileges, or initiate a trial for them abroad.

“Some months ago, some US congressmen said they should not supply the Tucano ordered by Nigeria and they should stop selling arms to Nigeria. In this kind of situation, the likelihood of further sale of arms to Nigeria is remote. They are currently considering that.”

A retired Nigerian diplomat, Ambassador Joe Keshi, who served in the US, Togo, Ethiopia, Belgium, the Netherlands, Namibia and Sierra Leone, said indeed, Nigeria risked another arms embargo with the damning report on the killing of the #EndSARS protesters.

Keshi stated that the Nigeria police needed urgent reforms, including learning how to handle protesters.

He said the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, goofed by calling on Nigerians not to disparage the military when he could have just promised to investigate the issues raised in the report.

The retired diplomat said the Federal Government should admit that mistakes were made and apologise rather than attempting to pick holes in the panel’s report.

“That is true (arms embargo). And that is why it is so sad the way the authorities are reacting to this report. There should be a simple admission that a mistake was made,” Keshi said.

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However, a former Deputy Director of the Department of State Services, Mike Ejiofor, said it would be too early to say if Nigeria would face an arms embargo.

Ejiofor said the international community would be watching to see how Nigeria would react to the report.

“Let us keep our fingers crossed. Let us wait to see how things go,” he said.

PDP Reps ask Blinken to probe violence against #EndSARS protesters, others

Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party caucus in the House of Representatives has said the planned visit by the United States Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, to Nigeria is to address corruption, insecurity and human rights abuses under the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).

It urged the visitor to ask questions about abuse of state power and use of violence to suppress peaceful protesters, particularly activists of the #EndSARS movement and campaigners for self-determination.

The leader of the PDP caucus, Kingsley Chinda, in a statement on Wednesday, also called on the Federal Government to assure Blinken that it would not use facilities provided by the US against Nigerians agitating legitimately.

Chinda in the statement titled, ‘PDP Reps Caucus says Blinken’s visit to Consider Human Rights Abuses, Insecurity and Corruption…Visit to Address Government’s Failure to Curb Terrorists Attacks’, added that the opposition lawmakers welcomed the visit of the US top official to Nigeria.

The caucus noted that the visit was timely, adding, “It is our expectation that he (Blinken) would use his visit to address the growing human rights abuses, increasing threats to democracy, insecurity and corruption in Nigeria.

“Just this week, a Brigadier-General was killed by ISWAP and this is in addition to the countless numbers of soldiers, who have been killed or grievously injured with the weightless and worthless remark of getting to the root of the matter.

“Our country cannot afford the luxury of losing military officers to terrorists when it can seek strategic military and counter-insurgency assistance from the United States that has for many years built strategic and sustained military and intelligence frameworks for fighting terrorism.

“We note that the insistence of the Government of the United States that all strategic military, anti-terrorism and counter insurgency engagements must be in accord with the Leahy laws.”

The caucus further urged the US, through Blinken, to “impress on the Nigerian government, as an act of principle, to stay within the realm of prohibition by not deploying received military assistance against citizens, who embark on legitimate and constitutional agitation, including agitation for self-determination and secession, which are legitimate aspirations under our laws and treaties entered into by Nigeria.”

The statement further read, “Secretary Blinken should as a matter of urgency hold the Nigerian government to account for the wanton assaults on rights, abuse of state power, systematic use of state violence to suppress peaceful protesters, particularly activists of the #EndSARS movement and campaigners for self-determination, extrajudicial killings, intimidation of the judiciary; and declare to this government that abuses of human rights have consequences.”

5,000 sign petition to jail Buhari in one hour

A petition by bestselling author, Reno Omokri, on the change.org platform received 5,000 signatures in just one hour.

The petition, which was filed on Wednesday, was directed at the International Criminal Court and comes after the Lagos #EndSARS panel indicted the Buhari administration in its report.

At 5,000 signatures, the petition is the first of Nigerian origin to hit that number in an hour.

The petition is titled, ‘A Petition to The International Criminal Court to Arraign Muhammadu Buhari for Crimes Against Humanity’.    ,,

Copyright PUNCH.

The Kashmir Trade Alliance (KTA) urged the government to ensure proper electric supply to industrial units and shops during working hours.

“Industrial Units, traders are facing difficulties caused by the hide and seek of electricity besides low voltage during the day. It is adding to the miseries caused due to the Covid lockdown.

"At a time when the economy is already running at a snail’s pace, the poor electricity supply is adding to our woes,” KTA president, Aijaz Shahdhar said.

He said the government should provide uninterrupted electricity without any delay.

“At the outset of the winter, rather than decreasing the curtailment hours, there has been an increase in the curtailment schedule.

"The KTA urges the government to provide uninterrupted power supply during the day in the commercial areas without any further delay,” he added.

In July, Chinese leader Xi Jinping made a speech to senior Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials declaring they must do more to share the “story” of the party’s success with the rest of the world. Chinese officials were told to extol the virtues of China’s model of authoritarian governance abroad, in order to enhance the international influence of both the country and the party.

Although analysts argue that the CCP does not export its ideology, it is clear that illiberal actors around the world are being influenced by CCP's style of authoritarianism, which poses an ideological threat to prevailing democratic norms. The goal is to achieve economic and political preeminence and not to undermine individual democracies or spread Marxism.

China has been taking efforts to this effect-meddling in foreign political systems, consolidating economic influence, expanding information operations and spreading propaganda. The aim is to erode democratic principles and institutions between countries and from within.

To counter Beijing’s promotion of authoritarian governance, advocates of democracy must have a better understanding of how China's actions are weakening democracy globally and what it aims to achieve by exporting its political model.

Reinvigorating democracy at home and abroad will require effectively designed policies to respond to Beijing’s ideological challenge. Global influence, security and power for China and for itself are the aims CCP wants to achieve through promotion of its own authoritarian system rather than imposition of Marxist-Leninist ideology on foreign societies.

Numerous declarations of confidence in the country’s antidemocratic political path and CCP's own ideology have been issued by the party to this end. Xi Jinping seeks to popularize “Chinese wisdom” throughout the world as a “contribution to mankind” and has made clear he regards China’s illiberal model of governance as superior to so-called Western political systems.'

China’s economic success is frequently portrayed as proof that the road to prosperity no longer runs through liberal democracy by Xi and other Chinese leaders. Xi describes China’s model as being ideal for nations who want to speed up their development while ignoring external pressure to democratize.

This message resonates with corrupt leaders who seek to achieve economic prosperity without responding to the needs of their people. National leaders have a right to choose their political system-be it totalitarian, corrupt or downright illegitimate is a rhetoric often repeated by Chinese officials and they deride democracy as a farce, despite being the only system that represents the true will of people.

It is pertinent to note that during the Cold War, Soviet Union too advocated forcibly installing autocratic leaders around the world and emphasized the right of countries to be ruled by nondemocratic regimes. Promotion of authoritarianism as a superior governance model by CCP presents a challenge to democracy particularly when paired with China’s political and economic measures that weaken democratic ones around the world and bolster authoritarian regimes.

There are two broad categories in which China’s international efforts to subvert democracy fall. The first includes its attempts to silence critics of China in developed nations like Canada, Germany, Australia and Japan to shape the narrative about China and magnify the voices of institutions and individuals that promote closer ties with CCP.

To promote a more positive portrayal of China, Beijing wields both inducements and threats with the Chinese ambassador to Sweden dubbing it as 'fine wine-shotgun' tactic. Financial retaliation against those it sees as hostile to China’s interests and preferential market access to friendly businesses, governments, and academic institutions is commonly used to enforce acceptable conduct.

Seeking to control how foreigners are educated about China, they monitors Chinese students abroad, silence academic discourse deemed offensive and threaten Chinese dissidents and their families. Expanding its media footprint, China has started funding foreign newspapers and news portals which together establish an exhaustive strategy to shape, inform and ultimately control perceptions of China throughout the world.

In recent past, it has been seen newspapers taking completely 360 degree turn from their previous stands. The second category of antidemocratic actions is capturing a small coterie of corrupt elites in countries afflicted with fragile democracies and helping them centralize power by insulating them from the demands of civil society. Elites from these countries hope to learn from a political system that has enabled China’s transformation into the world’s second-largest economy and have deployed Chinese technology to repress their citizens and help them maintain power indefinitely.

China’s opaque and corrupt investment practices, coupled with preference for antidemocratic collaborators further corrodes democratic institutions as state-owned enterprises encourage a more unaccountable and corrupt class of political elites who strike murky deals with Chinese banks and undermine their country’s long-term prosperity in return for personal gain. Hence, China's export of repression must be nipped in the bud.

Written by Pushkar Sinha

Narai the Great, a Thai emperor, had a dream in 1677 of building a river way across the Malay Peninsula's narrowest point, known as the Kra Isthmus, with the intention of establishing a direct trade route between Siam, now Thailand and Burma.

He ordered his engineer from the south to study the feasibility of dredging this canal as a viable alternative to the lengthier and more congested route across the Malacca Strait, a narrow sea corridor that connects modern-day Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore and transports 25% of the world's commercial goods.

According to one Thai legislator, as of now, China may have ambitions to build such a canal, but there's a catch. The Thai government shelved plans for a marine route between the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea in 2020, therefore the Kra Isthmus is currently being considered as a Thai Land Bridge, utilizing road and rail connections to transport goods to and from deep seaports on both sides.

The Thai Land Bridge, if completed, would give an alternate route around the congested Strait of Malacca, lowering transit costs, reducing the danger of piracy, and alleviating strain on a waterway that is expected to surpass its capacity in the next 10 years.

Countries are reliant on West Asian energy resources, which needs a steady trade supply The main disadvantages of creating a canal, this big and long would have such environmental damage and end up isolating the country.

This could result in a Country-wide uprising in the south, which could be avoided with the land-based strategy. Supporters of the plan also believed that it could not be done for less than the staggering US$55 billion estimated to be needed to construct a canal.

A classified US Defense Department document from 2005 has detailed how China was planning to invest in the Kra Canal. This stems from the fact that the country has become acutely vulnerable, particularly because of its sheer reliance on the Malacca Straits.

Former Chinese President Hu Jintao created the phrase "Malacca Dilemma" to describe China's overwhelming reliance on the Straits, which has put the country's ability to access the oceans and move commerce and energy supplies at risk.

The focus on alternatives to the Straits of Malacca will lead to an increase in Beijing's efforts to leverage Southeast Asian nations as it strives to expand its significance through initiatives such as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. It is in this context that the Kra canal's issue is raised.

In terms of geopolitics, as China's assertiveness in the Indian and Pacific Oceans has grown, China has used coercion to gain control and security over its maritime environment in the South China Sea. This has been done through the construction of artificial islands as well as seemingly innocuous economic methods such as anchoring fishing trawlers in contested waters.

Controlling of a transit corridor via Thailand would aid China's energy security and blockade resistance. Navy vessels would be able to reach the Indian Ocean more easily if it were a canal.

This would fit in with China's "String of Pearls" policy, which pertains to a geopolitical hypothesis that describes the network of Chinese aspirations in the Indian Ocean region (IOR). It relates directly to China's network of military and economic facilities built-in nations bordering the Indian Ocean between both the Chinese mainland and Port Sudan.

The threat of a US Navy energy blockade in the Strait of Malacca will cause major economic harm to China is viewed as a propelling reason for Beijing to diversify its energy security, such as oil and gas pipelines through Myanmar. 

In recent months, major protests have broken out against the present administration in Thailand. Thai student organizations suspect that the government is cozying up to China and have taken to the streets to protest the government's suspected participation in the abduction and death of dissidents, who opposed the moves thereby putting Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha's position under fire.

Last Sunday, Taiwan reported an obtrusion into its air defence zone by the Chinese military jets.

As per Taiwan’s military report, a fleet of nineteen airships including aircraft with nuclear and fighter capabilities stormed into the island’s Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIA).

Some jets flew over by the Chinese military involved an anti-submarine aircraft & four H-6 bombers which has the potential to bear nuclear weapons.

An Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) of a country is the airspace above the water or land. Aircrafts travelling over this space are identified and controlled in the interest of national security & defence.

The United States Armed Forces created the ADIZ for Taiwan after World War 1. ADIZs are not governed by any international treaties and are self-declaratory.
In response to China’s action, the Taiwan defence ministry dispatched the battle aircraft and deployed missiles to warn off Chinese jets.

China is prominently overreaching its authority over Taiwan since last year & often engages in such cheap tactics of power flex.

During the Coronavirus outbreak in September 2020 last year, Undersecretary of State Keith Krach, a United States envoy held meetings with Taiwan authorities. As a show of retaliation, Beijing flew over 18 warplanes over the Taiwan Strait to establish its authority and force. The move was motivated to intimidate the supporters of Taiwan’s sovereign identity.

China’s defence ministry called it an imperative step amidst the situation in Taiwan to protect the national interest and territorial integrity.

Beijing is in strong opposition to any exchange of interaction between Taiwan and other nations especially the US. In January 2021, on the first day of office of the newly elected President Joe Biden, China again flew over 15 aircraft over Taiwan. The President’s office reaffirmed the US support for Taiwan.

Then again in March, another such incursion followed & twenty Chinese military aircraft entered Taiwan’s ADIZ. Predictably, China’s action was in response to an agreement between the US and Taiwan for a Coast Guard Working Group to coordinate policy.

A change in leadership in the US does not deter China to prevent it from claiming what it has always seen as its right to fly in its own courtyard. It also wants to scare Taiwanese President Tsai against making any move towards formal independence.

A similar incident happened in April when 25 Chinese military jets flew over the Taiwan Strait. Furthermore, in June some 28 Chinese military aircrafts hovered over the Air Defence Identification Zone of Taiwan, marking the largest reported incursion to date. This particular event arose right after the NATO leaders expressed their concerns over China’s increasing military aggressiveness.

Discussing at a summit in Brussels, the leaders also said that China is building & expanding its nuclear weaponry at a swift speed while cooperating with Russia.

Even though Taiwan got separated from China in 1949, China still asserts that one fine day, the island will again be reunited with the mainland, by force if needed.

Taiwan is governed by its own separate constitution and a democratically elected government. But this doesn’t preclude China from claiming Taiwan as part of its own territory.

Beijing has been mounting pressure on the island since 2016, right when Tsai Ing-wen was first elected President. While Taiwan considers itself a democratic sovereign nation, China still sees Taiwan as a breakaway province, a rebellious & dissident territory.
Off late, Beijing is heavily hinging on military threats to pressurize Taiwan and the signal is very clear. China’s current actions seem like a prolusion to war.

Just recently, China also caused controversies between Taiwan and Honduras, one of the 15 nations that maintain formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, depicting a false image of unstable diplomatic ties between the two.

Events like these truly suggest that China is not capable of respecting the boundaries of the sovereign territories.

With the Afghan Taliban taking over most of Afghanistan, the question that arises is whether they will form a government as they did in 1996, with the full knowledge and backing of Pakistan? All indications are that the Taliban is no mood to have an interim government to govern Afghanistan. Several questions arise on this count when the Pakistan factor comes into play. The Taliban, left to themselves have a clear stated goal, that of Taliban rule over Afghanistan. The Military Commission has made it very clear that it will brook no interference from any other political source in Afghanistan. Pakistan, which has backed the Taliban right from the beginning will negotiate the terms for a government in Afghanistan that can be internationally recognised and yet give Islamabad the chance to extract their pound of flesh from the US.

The Taliban issued a statement to commemorate Afghanistan’s 102nd Independence Day (19 August 2021). This statement included a declaration of the formation of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Political leaders from Afghanistan who had visited Pakistan just before the Taliban takeover had publicly opposed a single party government in Afghanistan. The former Speaker of Afghanistan’s Parliament Mir Rehman and several Northern Alliance leaders who had gone to Islamabad had issued a statement saying Afghanistan should be governed by a constitution that is acceptable to everyone. Much ado about nothing, because all these remarks fell on deaf ears as the Taliban steam rolled into Kabul on 15 August.

Within Pakistan, there has been jubilation as the Taliban took over Kabul. Islamist organizations in many Pakistani cities handed out sweets to locals. On social media, some people crowed over the failure of the US war effort and nation-building project next door. Raouf Hasan, a special assistant to Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan tweeted, “Afghanistan is presently witnessing a virtually smooth shifting of power from the corrupt Ghani government to the Taliban.” He added that “the contraption that the US had pieced together for Afghanistan has crumbled like the proverbial house of cards.”

Prime Minister Imran Khan made a curious remark on the Afghan situation recently in Islamabad. Commenting on the cultural dangers inherent in English-language education for Pakistani society — and the “mental slavery” it supposedly imposes — he appeared to point to the fundamentalist Taliban as an exemplar of a kind of empowering authenticity. Afghans, Khan said, “had broken the shackles of slavery.” Imran Khan has for long supported the Taliban and its ideology, leading to his being nicknamed “Taliban Khan”. Imran Khan was also a vocal opponent of the American “war on terror” in the region and blames it for stoking a parallel Pakistani Taliban insurgency.

Prime Minister Khan has stressed the “importance of all sides working to secure an inclusive political solution.” For a nation that has for long backed the Taliban to the hilt and is solely responsible for bringing them to power in 1996 and today, Imran Khan’s remarks appear to be an attempt to divert attention. That is precisely why the PTI and others in the military establishment have cast Pakistan as a victim of cycles of regional unrest and conflict, exacerbated by the interventions of foreign powers like the United States. Moeed Yousuf, Pakistan’s National Security Adviser said in an interview recently that Pakistan was not prepared to see instability in Afghanistan spilling over into Pakistan. Clever rhetoric from a man who knows exactly what Pakistan’s game in Afghanistan is!

This is certainly Pakistan’s moment. For many years, Afghanistan’s leaders had bemoaned the support afforded to the Afghan Taliban by Pakistan, particularly by the country’s military establishment and the Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI. In January 2020, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had scoffed at Pakistani claims that the Afghan Taliban was no longer operating from safe havens in Pakistan. Speaking to journalists during a World Economic Forum roundtable Ghani said, “One can also say that the Earth does not revolve around the sun,” he said. Starting in the late 1980s under President Zia ul-Haq, Pakistan had cultivated militant elements in Afghanistan as part of its own regional pursuit of “strategic depth.”

Mujahideen factions that eventually coalesced into the Taliban, maintained extensive logistical and tactical ties with Pakistani agencies, and they continue to do so even today. Their medical treatment for instance, takes place in hospitals in Chaman and Quetta. Their families live in Pakistan and Taliban officials in Doha carry Pakistani passports. It is this very same network which enabled al-Qaeda terrorist founder Osama bin Laden to find sanctuary in a location not far from Pakistan’s leading military academy in Kakul, until a US Navy Seals team killed him in a raid a decade ago. Pakistan played a double game of allying with the US on the war on terror and continuing to support the Taliban and Haqqani Network for its own strategic purposes. So, within the Pakistani establishment there are those who sympathise with the Islamist elements and their extreme ideology, while there are also those who were keen to use this as an asset to counter India.

Former ISI Chief Hamid Gul said prophetically in 2014 that. “When history is written, it will be stated that the ISI defeated the Soviet Union in Afghanistan with the help of America.” He then added. “Then there will be another sentence. The ISI, with the help of America, defeated America.” There could not have been a more accurate prophecy than the one made by Hamid Gul. It is in this context that one must view calls from several global leaders for tougher international action on Pakistan. As Christine Fair writing in Foreign Policy aptly states: “The United States has steadfastly refused to do the one thing it could have done long ago: targeted sanctions against those in Pakistan’s deep state who sponsor Islamist militants.”

Pertinently, within the Taliban today, the Military Commission is at its peak and for them the restoration of the Islamic Emirate with Sharia law is the fundamental need of the hour. So, there is no question of any compromise on that. What the US has willy-nilly done is to play into the hands of Pakistan and give away Afghanistan on a platter to the Taliban, which is exactly what Islamabad wanted. However, the Taliban takeover does not dim the threat of anti-Islamabad militancy and could also encourage Islamist extremist movements and ethnic Pashtun separatists operating within Pakistan. That is why one can visualise Western frustration with the Pakistani connection to the Afghan Taliban intensifying, in the near future.

Leader of the Awwami National Party in Pashtonkhwa, Mahmood Khan Achakzai called on Pakistani government to denounce support for the war in Afghanistan, saying that peace in this country is important for regional stability.

In a gathering held in Pashtonkhwa to condemn the assassination of Senator Usman Khan Kakar, a senior member of the Pashtonkhwa National Awwami Party - who succumbed to his severe injuries in a hospital in Karachi state of Pakistan- purportedly murdered, Achakzai said that Pakistan is behind the Afghan war and that this war would soon reach to Islamabad.

“There is a need for a single flag to be flown over Afghanistan and the world should respect the independency of Afghanistan,” he added.

This comes as Afghanistan is currently plunged into a major chaos as the Taliban retch up their offensives nationwide in the wake of the U.S. and NATO forces exit.

Now that the US withdrawal from Afghanistan is in full swing and there are barely any NATO troops left in the country, the Taliban’s brutal offensives are paying off. The insurgents’ political victory is not inevitable, but the Taliban have already managed to claim large swaths of territory, hoping to secure Kabul as the ultimate prize.

Although fighting in major Afghan cities including Lashkar Gah, Kandahar and Herat is ongoing, the militants control much of the rural area including the strategically important regions near Pakistan and Iran.

But Afghanistan is no longer an American problem, and Washington is reducing its large military presence to intelligence operations and diplomatic missions. As such, President Joe Biden’s administration has been in talks with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to delegate the defense of Kabul Airport to Turkish forces.

For President Erdogan, this is an opportunity to mend Ankara’s deteriorated relationship with Washington by providing a security umbrella to the remaining American personnel. 

The Taliban have responded ferociously, calling Ankara’s decision “reprehensible” and stating, “If Turkish officials fail to reconsider their decision and continue the occupation of our country, the Islamic Emirate … will take a stand against them.”

A clash between the Taliban and Turkish forces will be inevitable should Erdogan keep his troops in Kabul and treat a potential Taliban regime as an occupation force. To avoid a major escalation and pressure the Taliban to tolerate the Turkish presence, Ankara will likely tap Pakistan, which has the most leverage over the militant organization. 

Pakistan has close relations with Turkey, and its Inter-Services Intelligence is believed to be courting the Taliban and other militant groups. While it is plausible that Islamabad is ready to back Ankara with intelligence and troop transportation, it is unlikely to throw its full weight behind Erdogan. 

For Pakistan, it is essential to maintain a delicate balance vis-à-vis the Taliban. To be sure, a political victory by the Taliban would mean that mostly pro-Pakistan Pashtuns once again control Kabul. However, the Pakistani authorities cannot be ignorant of the dangers that such a victory might produce.

For instance, emboldened Afghan Taliban could galvanize their radical affiliates within Pakistan and push for greater influence in the country, causing a headache for the Pakistani military. As the Wilson Center’s Michael Kugelman attests, the Taliban enjoy much popularity in Pakistan and are seen as a viable alternative to the current government in Kabul. 

Alternatively, by antagonizing the Taliban and openly siding with Turkey, Pakistan would lose its much-cherished position as a middleman between the militant organization and the West. Furthermore, to have a say in the future of the post-American Afghanistan, Islamabad cannot afford to alienate the Taliban insurgents that are currently on the offensive.

No less important are the prevalent impressions within the Pakistani establishment regarding the US involvement in Afghanistan.

Traditionally Islamabad has been quite suspicious of Washington’s intentions and often refused to share useful intelligence to assist the coalition forces. The deep-seated fear in Islamabad is that Washington might take advantage of the shared intelligence and use it against Pakistan in future negotiations. This fear has been exacerbated by Washington’s improved relations with India, Pakistan’s arch-enemy. 

For example, the US played a central role in providing New Delhi with intelligence after the devastating Mumbai attacks in 2008. The terrorist plot originated in Pakistan and was orchestrated by Lashkar-e-Taiba, another terrorist group with links to Pakistani intelligence.

Additionally, the covert operation led by US Special Forces that eliminated Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad was another embarrassing episode for Pakistani intelligence.

The Taliban are determined to push all foreign forces out and will only negotiate once they fully control Afghanistan. Pakistan knows that the Taliban are a tough nut to crack and for all the aforementioned reasons will refrain from investing much in the US-Turkish project.

If Erdogan backtracks, he will hand the militants a tactical victory. Should Ankara and Washington fail to reach an agreement, it will create another layer of tension between the NATO allies.  

It is yet to be seen whether Erdogan has opened Pandora’s box. Nevertheless, his characteristically brash rhetoric and proneness to risky gambles will likely generate new dilemmas for Turkish foreign policy. In the meantime, the Taliban continue their advance.

The Indian Navy is all set to issue a tender to acquire six lethal submarines as part of the ambitious Project 75 India, which is expected to cost more than Rs 50,000 crore.

“The project proposal will be discussed at tomorrow's [Friday's] Defence Acquisition Council meeting, which will be attended by all major stakeholders from the three services and the defence ministry,” top government sources told India Today TV.

The Indian Navy intends to build six conventional diesel-electric submarines under Project 75 India, which would be nearly 50 per cent larger than the Scorpene-class submarines currently under construction at Mazagon Dockyards Limited in Mumbai.

According to the maritime force's specifications, the submarines must be equipped with heavy-duty firepower, with at least 12 Land Attack Cruise Missiles (LACM) and Anti-Ship Cruise Missiles (ASCM).

The Navy has also specified that the submarines must be capable of carrying and launching 18 heavyweight torpedoes at sea. The next generation of submarines will require significantly more firepower than the Scorpene.

While the Indian Navy has over 140 submarines and surface warships, the Pakistani Navy only has about 20 of these. The Indian Navy, on the other hand, is building assets to counter the Chinese Navy, which occasionally operates in the Indian Ocean region.

China has launched a three child policy where Chinese people can now have up to 3 children. In 2016 they scraped their infamous one child policy and allowed couples to have 2 children. It seems the dwindling workforce and increasing aged population is finally catching the eyes of the communist government.

The one child policy was implemented in the 1970s to get the population explosion under control as China tried to catch up with the western world in development. It lead to many capricious problems as children growing up as only children had what was described as little emperor syndrome that is., being treated like royalty as being the only child doted on by 2 sets of grandparents and parents.

It also has now consequentially lead to a mass gender imbalance due to the male preference since people only had one shot. Currently in China there are about 34.9 million more men than women. This is not only a crisis in terms of normalcy in having a family life or a life partner but also a security threat.

Gender imbalance has been correlated to increase in gender based violence against women as the imbalance occurs in countries with strong male preference. The bottom of this totem pole are poor, single, unemployed men who have little to no prospects of finding a partner and our considered a threat to the peace in society as it turns them volatile and they often in desperation join a life of crime.

The three child policy was a much talked about topic on Weibo, where about 440 million netizens engaged, discussing the policy. Most felt that this new policy will have little to no impact on the future choices made by young people as if that were the case they would’ve seen a huge boom in fertility when the government allowed 2 children in 2016. But not only have number not gone up post the 2 child policy but have actually fallen. In 2020 only 12 million Chinese babies were born.

A major reason in this constant decline is the popularity and normalising of the hustle culture known as the 9-6-6 lifestyle, which is to work 9-6 , six days a week. Amongst the educated urban youth many children who grew up as only children do not wish to have more than one child.

The cost of raising a child in 2020 was pegged at 1.99 million yuan and that is a modest estimate. Couples have their respective sets of parents to take care of and their own lives to live they feel it would be incredibly unfair to have children when they simply cannot afford to give them a comfortable lifestyle.

Many expressed that the governments incentive to have children is paid maternity leave of about 98 days although that changes province to province and that is simply not enough incentive to have more children.

Although it is illegal to not hire a woman based on her pregnancy status many employers still force employees to sign contracts that state the female will quit when she gets pregnant. It is ironically the late stages of capitalist market and controlling communist government that has brought this on China.

It seems very clear that the government can increase the allowance to 10 children but people will simply not have any more children without proper safety nets provided by the government for their health and education . It is for this reason that the most productive and highly educated urban population often prefers to be a double income household without any children.

On one hand, China is desperately trying to increase its population but on the other hand they are busy sterilising the Muslims in the Xinjiang province. Reports of forced IUDs implantations and hysterectomies have become common targeting women who are ethnically Uyghur Muslim.

China completely denies these allegations even though an obvious decline in the birth rates in the area have been observed. In just 4 years between 2015 – 2019 the fertility rate between the Uyghur Muslim women went down by 84%. That is in no way normal and exposes the blatant lies told by the Chinese government. So the seeds of a race based policy have started to sprout. It is obvious why China wants to increase its population.

As a country in the late stages of development it is going to become an aged nation and there’s not enough people to be a part of the workforce, China would lose its edge in manufacturing which is a result of having more manpower and thus lose the economic growth it has accrued , China under President Xi is a vision of one China , as one nation of Han Chinese identity and for that China has already taken steps to dismantle ethnic minority culture.

Be it forcing sterilisation of the Uyghur Muslims or changing the curriculum of inner Mongolia to be specifically in Chinese and not Mongolian at all. Whatever the case China’s undoing will be its own inhumane desire to decide how people should behave and that simply won’t go well.

Asserting that Pakistan's priorities have changed, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Tuesday asked the United States to come out of its hangover and quit seeing Islamabad from the "Afghanistan prism", adding that Washington should focus on the bilateral side to their relationship.

Qureshi, in an interview with the Japanese newspaper Nikkei, emphasised that Islamabad's priority now includes economic growth and human development.

"We've told them that Pakistan's thought process has changed. The US administration should come out of its hangover of the past. It's a new, transformed Pakistan, in which our priorities have changed. Our priority is economic growth, human development, economic security, elimination and eradication of terrorism, and reversing extremism," the Pakistan Foreign Minister told Nikkei.

Answering a question over juggling ties with the US and China, the minister said Pakistan has been telling the Americans: "If you go away, somebody has to step in."

"You're not investing in Pakistan, you're not engaging with Pakistan. How are you helping build this bilateral relationship? The only way you can do that is remain engaged. Now if you just come up with a transactional relationship, it won't work. You can't just keep on saying, "Afghanistan, Afghanistan, Afghanistan." There's a bilateral side to us as well."

While noting the importance of Afghanistan, the minister said that Islamabad is doing whatever they can to restore peace and stability in the war-torn country, "But stop looking at us through the Afghanistan prism."

During the interview, Qureshi also noted that the US relationship with India "stands renewed and rejuvenated."

As the US continues to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, the minister said that Pakistan will remain relevant to the US, even if they leave their neighboring country.

"Our geostrategic location is important. We have 200 million people. We are important in the OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation). We are an atomic power. They will need us, down the line. So it's better to remain engaged with Pakistan."

A senior White House coronavirus adviser has said the world needs to "get to the bottom" of the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic while adding that the WHO and China need to do more to reach the definitive answers in the matter.

China refused to give raw data on early Covid-19 cases to the WHO-led team probing the origins of the pandemic. There have been growing calls for a fuller probe on whether the Covid-19 virus may have escaped from the Chinese laboratory.

"It is our position that we need to get to the bottom of this and we need a completely transparent process from China. We need the WHO (World Health Organization) to assist in that matter. We don't feel like that we have that now," said WH Covid advisor Andy Slavitt on Tuesday during a briefing.

"We need to get to the bottom of this whatever the answer may be and that's a critical priority for us," he added.

Answering the same question during the briefing, Dr Anothy Fauci, the Biden administration's top medical adviser said they "feel strongly" that the world should continue with the investigation and go to the next phase of the probe that the WHO has done.

"Because we don't know 100 per cent what the origin is, it's imperative that we look and do an investigation," he added.

This statement comes a few days after an explosive Wall Street Journal report stated that three researchers from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology sought hospital care after they fell ill in November 2019, a month before Beijing reported the first patient with Covid-like symptoms.

"The US government has reason to believe that several researchers inside the WIV became sick in autumn 2019, before the first identified case of the outbreak, with symptoms consistent with both Covid-19 and common seasonal illnesses," the report read, fueling debate of the lab leak theory.

The revelations come amid growing calls for a fuller probe on whether the Covid-19 virus may have escaped from the Chinese laboratory. It also comes on the eve of a meeting of the WHO decision-making body, which is expected to discuss the next phase of investigation into the origin of Covid-19.

Earlier this year, the WHO report determined that the possibility the virus came from a lab was "extremely unlikely," noting there was "no record" any lab had closely related viruses. The probe was criticized by various countries including the US, and UK over its limited access to "complete, original data and samples."

The organization was also accused of being overly deferential to China throughout the course of the study, which was co-authored by 17 Chinese scientists -- several of them from state-run institutions.

China refused to give raw data on early Covid-19 cases to the WHO-led team probing the origins of the pandemic. Beijing has been accused of delaying access to international investigators for months after the initial outbreak, virtually guaranteeing that the lab had been deep-cleaned before any forensic analysis could be done.

Peoples' Party (PPP) chairperson, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that the hike in prices of essential goods during the month of Ramadan shows the incompetence of the Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government.

Bilawal said on Wednesday that Imran is turning people hostile against the government by providing patronage to the "inflation mafia", adding that the promised Ramadan package is nowhere to be seen, Geo News reported.

"The Ramadan package announced by Imran Khan is nowhere to be seen," Geo News quoted Bilawal as saying. "Most of the saving markets are selling more expensive items than the open market."

He added that the change of finance ministers could not alleviate the sufferings of the masses.

A new opinion poll conducted by the market research company Ipsos from March 18 to 24 has shown that around 73 per cent of Pakistanis feel that the country is heading in the wrong direction.

With a sample size of 1,000 people, 62 per cent of the respondents identified inflation, poverty and unemployment as the biggest issues confronting the masses, reported The News International.

Religious freedom conditions in Pakistan continue to worsen as the government systematically enforced blasphemy and anti-Ahmadiyya laws, according to a report released by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

The USCIRF on Wednesday released its 2021 Annual Report documenting developments during 2020.

"Religious freedom conditions in Pakistan continued to worsen. The government systematically enforced blasphemy and anti-Ahmadiyya laws and failed to protect religious minorities from abuses by non-state actors. There was a sharp rise in targeted killings, blasphemy cases, forced conversions, and hate speech targeting religious minorities," the report stated.

In its report, USCIRF stated that Pakistan's treatment of religious minorities is best assessed through the prism of its treatment of the Ahmadiyya community, who continue to face severe official and societal persecution for their beliefs and self-identification as Muslims.

"The year saw a surge in targeted killings of Ahmadis. Between July and November, five Ahmadis were murdered, including 57-year-old Tahir Naseem, an American citizen accused of blasphemy who was shot in a courtroom in July.

"In May, the government formed the National Minorities Commission (NMC) required by a 2014 Supreme Court decision, however Ahmadis were excluded," the report said.

It further stated that Pakistan's religiously discriminatory legislation, such as the blasphemy and anti-Ahmadiyya laws, used in combination with new media rules, contributed to egregious human rights abuses and fostered an overall atmosphere of intolerance for religious minorities that often leads to violence and discrimination.

In August, over 40 blasphemy First Incident Reports (FIRs) were registered, mostly targeting the Shia minority during the month of Muharram.

In 2020, there reportedly were 30 Christians, including seven on death row, jailed in Pakistan on charges of blasphemy, said the report.

Reports also highlighted the issue of abduction, forced conversion to Islam, rape, and forced marriage remained an imminent threat for religious minority women and children, particularly from the Hindu and Christian faiths.

"Pakistani courts systematically failed to protect and provide justice to victims, who are often forced to testify that they converted voluntarily to protect themselves and their families from further harm.

In April, Myra Shahbaz, a 14-year-old Christian schoolgirl, was abducted at gunpoint. Despite Myra telling police she was drugged, raped, and forced to sign papers her abductor later used to allege that she was 19 and had voluntarily married and converted, the court ordered that she be returned to her abductor," the report mentioned.

As per the latest US rights commission's recommendations to the US government, it stated that "Repeal blasphemy and anti-Ahmadiyya laws; until repeal is accomplished, enact reforms to make blasphemy a bailable offense, require evidence by accusers, ensure proper investigation by senior police officials, allow authorities to dismiss unfounded accusations, and enforce existing Penal Code articles criminalising perjury and false accusations."

Amidst growing territorial disputes with its neighbours and military tensions with the United States, China has projected defence expenditure growth of 6.8% this year. This allocation is the sharpest increase since 2019 and the third yearly increase during the last decade. President Xi Jinping has already vowed to make the People’s Liberation Army the strongest military globally, and this spending reflects that goal. Moreover, this increased spending highlights the consequences of its continued territorial aggression and hardened military posture. After making the world suffer due to its inept handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese economy is witnessing a recovery, even as the rest of the world is reeling from the recession.

According to the new figures from the Ministry of Finance, unveiled in early-March, before the beginning of the annual National People’s Congress meeting in Beijing, military spending is expected to be close to $208 billion (1.35 trillion yuan) in 2021. In 2020, the spending was $209.16 billion (1.268 trillion yuan). While these figures show the trend in Chinese military spending, they do not reveal a complete picture. Two key organisations are excluded from this: the People’s Armed Police (PAP), which is responsible for maintaining internal security and law and order and People’s Armed Police Force Coast Guard Corps or Chinese Coast Guard, which enforces the country’s territorial claims in the contested waters of the South China Sea.

There is much lack of transparency about China’s actual defence expenditure, but one trend that has become clear since 2010 is that China’s internal security spending (including the PAP budget) has exceeded the external defence spending and the gap between them is increasing. In 2017, China’s internal security spending was equivalent to about $349 billion – compared to the official external defence spending of $150 billion. This was on the back of its heightened crackdown in Xinjiang and Tibet’s autonomous regions, following frequent instances of social unrest and violence. This budget ceased to be publicly available after 2013, subsequently shown as a percentage of total budgetary spending. Similarly, estimates from 2017 show that China has spent on an average $1.74 billion annually on its Coast Guard, making it the world’s largest Coast Guard fleet, with coercive capabilities.

The defence budget also does not include spending on the space programme, military-owned commercial enterprises, defence mobilisation and costs of operating military bases in the province, among others. If one includes all this, then according to the U.S. Department of Defense, China’s actual spending could be higher than $200 billion – more than the combined expenditure of its neighbours, India, Russia, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.

To mask its growing military ambitions, China is finding new ways to conceal its spending on augmenting military capabilities. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the research organisation which maintains the most authoritative data on China’s military budget, has over the years developed a framework to cover all spending for military purposes, including indirect spending that supports the functioning of the military organisation for instance pensions. The hydra-headed nature of Chinese policies combined with civil-military fusion means that the development of any technology will be necessarily used for military purposes, affording a new capability to the Chinese military, not necessarily funded out of the defence budget. All these have implications for China’s military activities and, therefore, its neighbours. SIPRI, accordingly, is now revising its framework to analyse financial resources China dedicates to military purposes.

Yet, this approach too faces challenges due to a lack of transparency in China’s budgetary expenditure. This is particularly true of its defence R&, where there are only estimates available from SIPRI, the U.S. Department of Defense and International Institute of Strategic Studies. Another category that has been an essential part of Chinese military posture and which fundamentally affects the regional security dynamics, but where spending can only be estimated – either in millions or billions – is China’s island-building activity in the South China Sea.

For more than a decade, China’s military spending has surpassed its annual GDP growth, reflecting the priority it attaches to military modernisation. Beijing has cited growing US-Taiwan proximity, deployment of U.S. aircraft carriers in the region and other developments for its budgetary increase. Yet, it is also true that this sustained increase in military capabilities has shifted the balance in favour of China when it comes to many territorial contestations. This has emboldened Beijing to adopt a hardened military posture towards its neighbours, which has escalated tensions and increased the risk of a regional conflict with wider consequences.

It is clear that despite Covid and the attendant slowdown in economic growth, Beijing is expected to remain on course in its military expenditure and will look for new ways to conceal it from the increased scrutiny of the outside world.