Gilgit schools attacked by Senator A. Rehman Malik

The attack on 12 schools in Gilgit Baltistan has once again reminded us of TTP .The syndicate between Al Qaeda, TTP and Daesh is re-emerging.

If we review the whole phenomenon of extremism, militancy and finally terrorism we would find that the entire phenomenon has been based on religious thoughts. The fighters created by USA in Afghanistan under the cover of jihad were pitched against Soviet Union by exploiting and manoeuvring the religious thoughts of the fighters. Pakistan jumped in voluntarily without considering the future repercussions on its national horizon. USA needed the support of ‘mujaheddin’ – religious zealots - to confront and contain Soviet Union and, therefore, USA encouraged and supported the recruitment and influx of foreign mujaheddin in Afghanistan via Pakistan thus attracting the focus of the world. Abrupt withdrawal of USA and the sudden stoppage of salaries and funds to the jihadis created Taliban in Afghanistan. This phenomenon further accelerated with the support of Al-Qaeda and its leader Osama bin Laden and his supporters within the Muslim world.

The suffering of Pakistan started when the unemployed ‘mujaheddin’ from Pakistan and abroad mingled with Pakistani militant religious groups and started a sectarian war in the country. With the re-entry of USA in Afghanistan post-9/11 as an invading force, Pakistan once again joined hands with USA to fight against Taliban in a so-called ‘war on terror’. The engagement of Pakistan in the war on terror provided an opportunity to religious militant groups to apparently support their Muslim brethren in Afghanistan but at the same time it was an opportunity for grabbing share of the booty. These scattered militants ultimately gathered under the umbrella of newly formed terrorist group called Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan under the now dead Baitullah Mahsud.  TTP and its affiliated groups besides carrying out their militant activities inside Afghanistan against US and its allied forces also started terrorist activities inside Pakistan indiscriminately. TTP carried out suicide bombings on innocent civilians, government buildings and personnel including army, police and security agencies for the support of Pakistan to US and its allies in Afghanistan. Pakistan has thus suffered more than 70 thousand casualties due to its participation in the ‘war on terror’.

Geographically the most hit area has been KPK and especially the tribal areas. The narrative built by TTP and its affiliates to justify its terrorist activities mainly centred around three point-agenda, which included: stoppage of support of Pakistan to US and its allies in Afghanistan; implementation of Sharia laws in the country – although TTP and its affiliates has never been found serious on the issue of implementation of Sharia Laws; and last but not the least, denial of right of traditional education to girls, as being un-Islamic.

The nation continued to suffer at the hands of these so called contractors of Islam and while we were expecting the diminishing presence and influence of Al-Qaida and TTP in the country, we started feeling the presence of yet another terrorist outfit internationally known as Daesh or ISIS. Its signatures started emerging in the country through various terrorist activities in Pakistan. There are no reasons to doubt that Daesh also known as ISIS was created and funded by US in Iraq and Syria and supported by its allies, not only in Europe but in Middle East, for their geo-political interests. Its presence in Afghanistan after throwing out of Iraq could not happen without the support of US for obvious reasons. It has now become an anti-Pakistan entity with the support of US and India for carrying out terrorist activities inside Pakistan to keep it destabilised.

With the background of Pakistan being targeted by terrorism, the burning of 12 schools in Diamer in CEPK zone is some kind of a message from the inimical forces. I as a student of investigation am worried about it as the regions is between China and Pakistan and I have already warned about destruction and repercussions in future in the region. There is also a possibility that CPEC is also under threat.

We must not forget that the statement of US Defense Secretary that “The One Belt, One Road also goes through disputed territory, and I think that in itself shows the vulnerability of trying to establish that sort of a dictate”. Similarly we must also not forget the statement of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi where he had termed CPEC as “unacceptable” project for India.

CPEC is a project which is in the benefit of both China and Pakistan and inimical forces have been trying to sabotage it through a variety of tactics including creating terror in the region – burning of 12 schools could be one of those tactics. These forces would continue to do the same; therefore, our law enforcing agencies have to be extra ordinary vigilant to counter the inimical forces in the background of stances of both US and India vis-à-vis CPEC.

Attack on 12 schools in Diamer is not an attack on the buildings, but it is a challenge and an attack on our entire nation. This terrorist attack was to create fear and destabilise the region being part of CPEC project at a time when the new government was in the process of being formed. The way the terrorists are re-emerging, it looks as if these forces will continue their anti-Pakistan efforts.

he provincial government of KPK and Gilgit-Baltistan government including AJK governments should have extended support to Gilgit-Baltistan government in terms of intelligence, as it does not have any Special Branch outfit there.

It is also more worrisome that nobody from Gilgit-Baltistan government came forward to decide action against those people who have been preaching against the girls’ schools. I have a big question that is it not the State, which is sleeping and has failed to perform their constitutional duty to protect the life and property of its citizens.

My worry is that the terrorists have started their terrorist’s action around Shahrah-e-Karakoram (KKH - CPEC route) and therefore we need to increase our security and intelligence from Khanjrab to Gwadar to ensure that such conspiracies, planning to sabotage the CPEC project or destabilising Pakistan in Gilgit-Baltistan should be frustrated.

This part of Pakistan has become highly sensitive with CPEC corridor hence there is dire need to enhance the security of Gilgit Baltistan to ensure full protection of CPEC from militants from Gilgit Baltistan and other inimical elements including Indian agents present in this area. Our elite agencies have to double up their role to provide effective intelligence on such extremists for timely actions.

The Article has been Published in ‘’The Nation’’ on August 08^th, 2018

The Link to Article is: https://nation.com.pk/08-Aug-2018/gilgit-schools-attacked

Non-ending Pak sufferings and our national approach by Senator A. Rehman Malik

It’s been long since we are witnessing non-ending foreign interference from various international inimical forces that have been trying to place Pakistan on the negative list and it for their own geo political motives.

Our leadership could foresee the hidden agendas in it and kept on falling as victim and getting the nation into deep challenges. We have landed in the present mess because the successive govts failed to provide nation with the long term doable policies.

We used to look upon Washington as if it is the boss and so today Washington looks down upon us like some inferior entity. USA has led the campaign against us which became evident through their recent inimical attitude towards us in FATF.

I was 14 years old when India attacked Pakistan in 1965 and we were directly affected by this attack as my village Jujjay is very close to the border. My family along with the other fellow families had to leave our houses as instructed by the Army because of the heavy shelling by Indian air force and its artillery.

I, being a child, was unable to understand the attack and village elders also failed to explain to me but this question went into silent mode which I understood later. Though we won the war of 1965 but as nation we could not consolidate ourselves and set the country on the right path of unity and tolerance. The division of the country made us a weak nation.

We witnessed another aggression on the sovereignty of Pakistan in 1971 that deprived us of half of our beloved country. I was student of BSc at that time so I could understand that India is all-out to demolish us yet we sustained the shock. This shock led the nation towards depression as well as lack of confidence in the leadership of the country.

The biggest jolt was sliding of the economy and we as a nation instead of creating sustainable and viable economy got trapped in non-ending net of foreign debts. The after effect of this debt is that we are under the debt of $200 billion and it is adding to our problems both in terms of economic and governance.

The rupee as predicted is sliding unhindered as the parameters and factors of sustainability are unable to hold it because of the increasing inflation, drop of growth, further local and foreign borrowing, debt servicing both at home and abroad. It is resulting into price hike which is affecting the common man.

The poor governance and performance of our economic advisors remained pathetic as economic advisors always boosted it by getting more loans to repay the loans but nobody thought to get rid of the loans and debt retiring.

The international financial institution including IMF and the World Bank work on the international agenda and one of their basic secret agendas is to take the indirect financial control of the borrowing country in order to regulate the taxes themselves as our national assets are already under mortgage with these institutions. The details of mortgage and debts are as under:

There is a total of $100 billion plus CEPC $67 billion external debt, internal debt is Rs19 trillion and total debt servicing at $6 billion on Pakistan. Our important national assets like Jinnah international airport Karachi, Peshawar-Faisalabad motorway, Faisalabad-Pindi Bhattian motorway, Islamabad-Peshawar motorway, Islamabad-Lahore motorway, PTV and Radio Pakistan have all been mortgaged to the external financial institutes like World Bank, IMF and others for repayments of debts.

The agenda is to destabilise Pakistan and now the West is eying on our nuclear abilities. The phenomena of al-Qaeda/Taliban and now Daesh are part of the same larger plan where India is being used for very long time. Now Afghan Intelligence too has joined RAW, as the present emerging wave of terrorism is part of their agenda to destabilise Pakistan.

Pakistan has suffered the most after 9/11 and is still suffering even though no Pakistani indirectly or directly was ever found involved in the incident. In fact, the investigation in the matters suggested in the 28 pages report that 15 boys from Middle East had carried out 9/11 but USA is yet more friendly with them whereas Pakistan is suffering despite zero involvement in the incident. It’s a pre set vendetta and hostile mindset that is tormenting Pakistan without its fault.

In another incident, on 22nd December 2001, a self-proclaimed al-Qaeda operative, Richard Reid flew from UK to USA carrying shoes that were packed with two types of explosives. He was subdued by passengers after failing to detonate plastic explosives concealed within his shoes. Reid was eventually arrested after landing in Boston and sentenced to 3 life terms plus 110 years without parole. He had strong links with Indian RAW and CIA. USA failed totally to prove or create his link with Pakistan.

India’s basic agenda behind creation of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) has always been mainly to focus on Pakistan when its other intelligence network failed in 1965. The organisation started with 250 people and about $400,000 and now it has been expanded to several thousand personnel, yet its staffing and budget remain a secret. It is no more a secret that it was CIA that assisted in the creation of RAW and is still financing it to spread terrorism in Pakistan. It has also been allocated special budget to create unrest in Balochistan only to discredit Pakistan.

RAW played a significant role in the formation of Bangladesh along with the Indian army. It created, trained and armed Mukti Bahni, a group of extremists Bengalis fighting for the separate state of Bangladesh through disintegration of Pakistan. It has always been planning and executing covert operations inside Pakistan through proxies and terrorist networks.

Now it is attempting to further hit our economy through FATF using USA against us. Indian RAW lobbied with CIA against Pakistan lodging complaint with FATF to put Pakistan name on FATF’s blacklist by citing baseless and false charges. It sent a secretary-level delegation to Moscow on Jan 31 not to support Pakistan. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also asked Gulf countries, not to support Pakistan at the FATF. According to FATF rules, if a minimum of three members’ votes against the proposal, then it cannot go through. While the US worked on Saudi Arabia and Turkey, India dealt with China alone. Eventually, the Indian delegation, struck a deal with the Chinese team that related to support for FATF membership for Beijing in the future. Soon, all the three objections were removed and the proposal went through. It was simply our failure to not have the support of our friends.

Similarly, in Kulbhushan Yadev’s case, despite his conviction, we as country failed to act and now we are before the international court where we also failed to bring PM Modi to the international court as war criminal.

Unfortunately we remain on the defensive policy and some leaders of India played a game of hypocrisy but kept on advancing the agenda of RAW. The Indian policy coupled with West created havoc of war on terror via Afghanistan and resultantly the sense of instability and terror in fact scared the investor leaving heavy dent on our economy and now we are suffering almost in major sectors. We politically, financially and internationally suffer because of our non-collective national approach.

We have now alien finical aggression from IMF and World Bank coupled with State-sponsored terrorism from inside our eastern and western boarders. The imposed war on terror has cost us over $120 billion and more than 74,000 lives in last 15 years. The direct and indirect cost incurred by Pakistan due to incidents of terrorism has amounted to $126.79 billion. Hosting millions of Afghan refugees has not only burdened Pakistan’s economy but also imposed an additional stress on its internal security situation.

Pakistan is continuously suffering since the independence and India has never accepted us as a separate state leaving no stone unturned to damage Pakistan with his inimical actions. We as nation have begged for foreign debts, isolation from the world and volunteered both in Soviet Union- USA war and subsequently opted to the engineered war on terror where we are still suffering Afro- Arab-Pak terrorists all duly trained by American CIA.

Is this non-ending suffering really going to finish or every new govt will have no choice except for bowing before the world for more borrowings or we will stand with pride and say no to further loans? Let us we deal our challenges with a better proactive approach as that is the only way forward.

I had predicted in my article published on 26th June 2018 that this election will be of independent MNAs who will play decisive role in electing the PM. And now we are in the exact situation as the new PM is dependent of independent MNA so it partly mandate for PTI.

This new govt will also be a coalition govt and will start suffering the usual and undefined complications in the governance. Main issue regarding debt retirement/fiscal policies would again slip in the hands of IMF & World Bank.

Let us see what new approach would be brought by the new govt in making.

The Article has been Published in ‘’The News’’ on August 05^th, 2018

The Link to Article is: https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/350811-non-ending-pak-sufferings-and-our-national-approach

ایران ا ور افغانستان بارے ٹرمپ پالیسی-

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Yes Minister’, bureaucrats and a new PM by Senator A. Rehman Malik

Senator A. Rehman Malik  Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Interior

The first episode of British serial “Yes Minister” was written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn in which the actor namely Paul Clark Eddington shows the struggles of a Minister in formulation of legislation and departmental changes in his act and how the efforts of the Minister are frustrated and compared to the former ones. I find this play close to the reality as we follow almost the same system.

It is challenge for a Prime minister to please the bureaucracy in order to make it through. The said sitcom fits completely to our own political and administrative system.

Pakistani administrative system runs on subjective grounds rather on objective grounds. Though there is a constitution which guides our governance but unfortunately our governance does not run on well-defined objectives but it is pushed on subjective modes and the system becomes subservient to the will of individual chief executive.

It is a historical fact that the PM in any country gets trapped and becomes hostage in the hand of his own bureaucracy – like his Principal Secretary and few federal secretaries - and they becomes more powerful than their boss and the system.

The vigor of new PM is likely to be suppressed by his bureaucracy and the few initial briefings with the expression of multiple fears in fact will cripple his plans and it’s a usual practice for every PM. We need to see if the new PM is able to break the status quo of bureaucracy and bring a new era of effective and clean team for implementation of rule of law.

The first challenge is the economic crunch, and in normal course of briefing by the bureaucracy it has sufficient grounds to convince the PM to get more loans from IMF and World Bank. In fact his own finance minister would be leading him in pleading for further loans.

It would be a challenge for him whether he decides to ask for further foreign loans or finds some alternate way to strengthen the economy like the President of Turkey who made the country self-sufficient with zero foreign debts as of now. I feel that Instead of depending on “Yes Prime Minister” model bureaucracy I hope he will ask a member of the financial team of Turkey to help us in getting rid of this fiscal cancer of foreign debts which has basically disabled the progress of our country.

In fact, leaving the PM house and residing in exclusive small cottage is not just enough to transform Pakistan into a modern prosperous Pakistan. The people will not bother where their Prime Minster stays but they are concerned what would be the vision of their PM to drive the country out of the crises.

I think the opposition will be a very robust opposition against PTI especially through the Parliament, social media and street level. Due to the economic situation and rise in oil prices, PTI will have to go against their campaign promises as per manifesto; in addition to this they will also not be able to control inflation as explained above. PTI may have to face tough time both in the center and Punjab.

The sector which has been destroyed by “yes minster” band is our energy sector, so where is the energy generation plan of the PM? It looks as if the energy crises are going to further deepen. Will the new PM be able to break the bureaucratic barrier and hurdles already created because of our built-in inefficient system?

Pakistan has precariously survived 5 years without a foreign minister and a well-formulated foreign policy despite this known fact that a foreign policy is essential especially in this age of globalisation when new and daunting challenges have emerged for our country. The conduct of foreign policy would be fundamental to the success of new PM and his cabinet. The question that rises here is that, will the status co in MOFA be still continued through “yes minister” policy or the PM will bring some radical changes by adopting aggressive foreign policy?

India and Pakistan have always had awful and lamentable relationship upon their diplomatic, military and political front: whereas the people of both countries have been seeking normalised and sound relations as both share almost same cultures and traditions. The new government by making sincere efforts to normalise the relationship between both countries can earn mutual respect and make its foreign policy a successful and historic one. Several things need to be done to bring both countries to peace; democracy must be strengthened in Pakistan, economic relations should be improved, terrorism of any variety should be crushed, particularly the State sponsored variety, ceasefire violations be completely stopped by both, nuclear and missile race be stopped as these are hugely expensive, dangerous and detrimental to economic development and last but not the least initiation of social, cultural and political dialog process to enter into a long term friendship is needed.

The new PM will also need to ensure China stays committed to its planned $62bn investment in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which is expected to develop direly needed infrastructure for the 200-million-strong country.

Foreign anti-Pakistan sentiment has made Pakistan isolated from the world. Pakistan was unable to block highly negative and inimical propaganda initiated at international level led by India which has landed us in the list of FAFT. FATF grey list is the most pressing matter for the new PM of getting Pakistan off it as soon as possible.

National security which needs extra attention as inadequate national security is well reflected to see the terrorists’ attacks during election 2018. Let us see how the new PM improves the security conditions where there are difficulties as the law and order already stood devolved through the 18th amendments which has made provinces responsible for law and order. Moreover, we need to see how the new PM brings the matter more under his control to improve the security with the help of provinces.

Pakistan is on the verge of an ecological disaster and the looming water shortages need to be addressed immediately. According to a report, Pakistan will soon be facing extreme scarcity of water and might go dry by 2025. Pakistan has massive Himalayan glaciers, rivers, monsoon rains and floods but just three major water reserves are there because of which, surplus water is quickly lost. A wise initiative by the new PM would be essential to build infrastructure to reverse the course of the impending crisis. There is also a need of public education on how to not waste water and rather preserve it.

Another major challenge for the new PM would be the balance of power between the civil government and armed forces. The next PM is required to meet the country’s challenges without upsetting this delicate balance of power keeping.

The Article is Published in ‘’THE NATION’’ on July 30^th, 2018

The Link to Article is : Yes Minister’, bureaucrats and a new PM by Senator A. Rehman Malik

NATIONAL CHALLENGES BEYOND 25TH JULY BY SENATOR A. REHMAN MALIK

25th July is getting important with every passing day. Let us see what would be our treatment to this prime day of our history. Will all the voters show respect to this prime day by coming out of their houses to vote, instead of planning holiday and going for picnic?

Let us hope that this day will be considered as a day to secure the future of our generation as more participation means casting of more votes which mean increasing the numerical strength of votes for the contesting candidates. This would mean increase of average turnout of 45% of past three general elections to at least more than 90 %. This increase in numerical number will bring more collective wisdom to elect a more suitable candidate who can perform their national duties in the most befitting manners and to the expectation of the entire nation.

The present challenges facing Pakistan post 25th July are not likely to tend towards improvements but likely to further deteriorate unless we elect honest and educated capable members for both NA and PAs. It would happen only if the voters make fair choice based on merit on 25th and not to vote under the tutored influence.

Now why I say that we need legislators with high leadership qualities is because they are the one who are going to be policy makers which will drive our country from the challenges briefly discussed below.

Economic challenge: Pakistan is currently confronting multiple challenges which vary in intensity. Some of the challenges are seemingly multi-dimensional and complex in nature which certainly will take many years to overcome. The ever-rising inflation, increasing unemployment, shrinking GDP and diminishing exports level are the major obstacles which restrict the ability of Pakistan to have a well-developed and flourishing economy. The biggest challenge to be encountered by the new government is Pakistan’s external debt and liabilities which have soared to a record $91.8 billion plus $67Billion from China for CPEC showing an increase of over 50% or nearly $31 billion in the past four years and nine months. Our national assets have gone under combined loss of Rs. 705 billion from 2013 – 2016 with PIA under Rs. 45 billion, PSM (Pakistan steel Mills) under Rs. 177 billion and Pakistan Railway with Rs. 60 billion of loss annually.

The external debt and liabilities of $91.8 billion plus $67 billion as of March-end suggest that the figure may touch $170 billion very soon as the country faces grave challenges in meeting growing external financing requirements. Pakistan is scheduled to make some bullet debt and interest payments in the last quarter (April-June) of the current fiscal year. With a population of over 190 million, around a mere 1 percent of the Pakistani citizens are tax payers.

The other big challenges are the loss-making public sector enterprises (PSEs) that continue to bleed. These have suffered a cumulative loss of Rs 3.746 trillion over the last five years. The challenge for the new government is to work on the shortfalls left behind by its predecessors.

Internal Security: The new Government must be prepared for even bigger internal security challenges this year after elections as Daesh, has raised new serious security challenge for Pakistan. The emergence of Daesh in close proximity to Pakistan has raised new internal security challenges. TTP militants have relocated themselves in Afghanistan and Daesh is establishing a footprint in Afghanistan near the Pakistani border, which can be seen as a real potential of spill over into parts of Pakistan.

Foreign policy: Pakistan is being isolated because of its poor foreign policy that has resulted in the current situation. We have failed to score allies even though there was huge opportunity to do so. Foreign policy cannot be seen in isolation, for it is only a reflection of a country’s domestic policy and we have been really unfortunate to have been deprived of a logical foreign policy as well as a foreign minister for the past 5years.

Kashmir issue: Today India and Pakistan are two independent countries on the map of the world but Kashmir issue is still unresolved. Kashmir is the unresolved agenda of partition and till today the people of Kashmir lack freedom. The paradise on earth is every day tainted with bloodshed and the voice of innocent people is being suppressed through bullets and pellets of Indian Army. The new government, through an appropriate foreign policy, is supposed to be smart enough to get resolve the Kashmir issue. It’s a way forward for the new Government at this point to allocate more manpower and resources to enhance its diplomatic efforts through a comprehensive Kashmir policy.

Energy Crises: Energy crisis has been haunting our country for past many years but unfortunately no Government has ever come up with a reasonable and constructive plan to cope with it. It would be a bigger challenge for the new Government to take out the country from this prolonged and poorly managed crisis. We have now reached to 7000 MW electricity shortfall which now is triggering extra unscheduled load shedding in several parts of the country.

Water crises: Water is another major challenge for the upcoming government and it cannot be ignored. According to a recent report by IMF, Pakistan is ranked third among the countries facing intense water crisis and might run dry by 2025.

The main reason behind this acute shortfall is that India has recently blocked water flow from India to Pakistan putting it under survival challenge.

The Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Saqib Nisar has done a great service to Pakistan by ordering and supervising early construction of Bhasha dam to save the country going dry. I had written an article upon this on-going crisis issue on 9th June 2018, in which I had proposed three suggestions and I hope the next government will follow my advices and the solution given in the said article

FATF grey list: India in its efforts to isolate Pakistan has not even abstained from lobbying with US as, in November 2017 India lodged a complaint with FATF to put Pakistan name on FATF’s blacklist upon baseless and false charges. It sent a Secretary-level delegation to Moscow on Jan 31 not to support Pakistan. The Indian media reported that in his recent visits to Gulf countries, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also asked them not to support Pakistan at the FATF. Our incompetent government could not safeguard the position of our country in front of the world as it has been grey listed as a corrupt and terrorist state with FATF. The new government is supposed to make every possible effort to remove the charges of corruption and terrorism off our country.

The above challenges are real threat to our country as the economic situation is inching us towards the bankruptcy. We need able and educated and honest leadership to deal with these challenges.

The casual attitude towards 25th July by the voters would not be able to block the dishonest politician hence every voter has to dedicate this day for the national cause to see a prosperous Pakistan beyond 25th July.

The article was published in Daily “The Nation” dated July 24, 2018 and the link to the original article is NATIONAL CHALLENGES BEYOND 25TH JULY BY SENATOR A. REHMAN MALIK