Pakistan: Little has changed in 75 years

Thanks to Facebook for reminding me of one of my blogs titled “Ruling Elites of Pakistan” posted on July 24, 2015. I am sure as the readers go through, they may find it very current. The situation hasn’t improved in Pakistan in the last seventy five years. Thanks to the morons adamant at maintaining the status quo.

In the recent past I got a unique opportunity to talk to the students of various business schools. The topic of my presentation was “Pakistan: Opportunities, Challenges and threats”. The consensus arrived at was that the country offers enormous opportunities but people in general and investors in particular suffer from ‘confidence deficit’.

Peeping into the history reveals that the country has been ruled by those having common vested interest and most of the sitting/past members of Senate, National and Provincial Assemblies could be labeled ‘turn coats’. They change loyalty because they wish to remain part of ruling junta, be it democratic or autocratic rule.

 The younger generation continues to suffer from illusion because of mudslinging by the leading political parties i.e. PML-N, PPP, MQM and PTI. Some claim to be opposition parties but have been part of ruling junta for decades. The incumbent prime minister and chief mister of Punjab are the legacy of a ‘Military Dictator, Zia ul- Hq. PTI has formed government in KPK province after 2013 election and is in fact part of ruling junta. MQM has remain in power for considerably long time

Some critics say the country is a victim of geopolitics because super powers install and dislodge rulers in Pakistan to pursue their ‘expansionism’ and politics prove to be ‘loyal than king’. Starting from Liaquat Ali Khan to Nawaz Sharif all the rulers have been towing the US foreign policy for the region.

Ayub Khan’s ten year rule was due to Pakistan’s assigned role in ‘cold war’. For ten years Zia ul Haq fought the US proxy war in Afghanistan to avert USSR attack on the country and frustrate its attempt to get access to ‘warm waters’ that also led to installation of Taliban government  there. When the status of Taliban turned to foe from friend the crusade against them was led by Pervez Musharraf. Asif Zardari did the same and Nawaz Sharif also seems to be following his footsteps.

People believed that PTI would usher a change but forgot that the same old faces control its hierarchy and political agenda. The only inspiration of its chief is to become the next prime minister of Pakistan. Though the decision of Judicial Commission is out, the perception prevails that elections were engineered to create history by making Nawaz Saharif prime minister of Pakistan for the third time.

Many term hanging of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto ‘judicial murder’ and the mystery surrounding assassination of  Benazir Bhutto and earlier dismissal of her government twice pre-maturely raises many question. Many critics find some similarity in killing of Mr. Aquino and his wife becoming president of Philippines and Benazir’s widower becoming president of Pakistan after her assassination, the strings in both the cases were moved from outside.

Decades of participation in the proxy war has proliferated political uncertainty, religious fanaticism, arms and drug trade. On top of all funding of local terrorist, be it in the name of creation of supremacy of Shariah or fighting for the deprived has resulted in assignation and destruction of civilian and military installations.

Some experts say all this is part of a great plan to keep Pakistan dependent on multilateral donors i.e. International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Asian Development Bank and even Islamic Development Bank. Keeping the country dependent on these institutions that are arms of super powers makes it easier to rein Pakistan. It is difficult to bring any change in the country without changing the mindset of masses.

 

West must stop its unconditional support for Zelensky

Amid the Russia-Ukraine war, Nato and the  European Union offer a perfect example of a type of “war communication”. In terms of censorship, disinformation and propaganda, the world is witnessing a replay of the happenings during the Gulf War and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The only voices authorized to speak are those giving the official party line, Nato spokespersons, retired officers converted to the lucrative business of security consulting, geopolitical experts (those who stick to the script), Russia’s political opponents, Ukrainian deputies and other allies of President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The mythification of Zelensky has reached absurdist levels, partly by the acting talents of Zelensky, a professional comedian who has shrewdly seized the moment to radically rebrand himself as a symbol of resistance, freedom and democracy.

Zelensky is a populist demagogue and a manipulator; an autocrat at the head of a regime that can best be described as proto-fascist.

With his demagogic cry of “the people against the elites”, his rudimentary electoral program, his false promises to fight corruption that were forgotten as soon as he was elected, and his brutal authoritarian leanings, Zelensky is a perfect example of western populism.

The Kyiv regime also exhibits a growing number of proto-fascistic characteristics: the cult of the personality, which turns the head of state into a venerated and untouchable figure; the militarization of society; the saturation of media and cultural spaces with war propaganda.

Before the war, western media were recognizing the reality of that problem - but as soon as the war started, these groups were magically whitewashed as freedom fighters, and praised as heroic resistors through typical spin. Anyone who now raises the issue is immediately accused of disseminating Putin’s propaganda or being an agent of the Kremlin. 

Even more shocking, yet typical of war propaganda, has been the systematic censorship by dominant western media of any information that would undermine the Zelensky worship and unconditional support for the Kyiv regime. 

In a March presidential decree, Zelensky banned the opposition by suspending the activities of 11 political parties accused of having links with Russia. Thus, the invasion was used in the most cynical manner as a convenient excuse to crack down on political opposition through false rhetoric about collaboration with the enemy. 

Zelensky also invoked the war to eliminate media freedom by merging and nationalizing Ukrainian television channels into a single information platform called “United News” - a platform entirely dedicated to his propaganda.

Zelensky regime is controlled by the most hawkish and extremist escalationists, both Ukrainian and foreign, starting with US President Joe Biden, who has been shunting aside any talk of diplomatic negotiations.

Though at first willing to negotiate and compromise, Zelensky has since fallen in line with the most extremist war hawks, none of whom appear to care about the rest of Europe, which they view merely as something to exploit for more arms and money.

Instead of being emboldened in this reckless military escalation of a war that is devastating his own population and country, Zelensky should instead be pushed towards the negotiating table - for his own sake, that of his suffering people, and the good of the world, which is now itself suffering from a slew of setbacks: inflation, energy and food shortages, and a military-industrial complex ecstatic at the prospect of having trillions of dollars redirected towards it for years to come. A deal to end the war seems feasible, as there a reasonable peace plan on the table. 

In additional to all its other consequences, the Russian invasion has further fractured the US-led post-war global order, which has become a battleground between the ever-more hawkish and imperialistic US, backed by the EU and with the instrumentalization of institutions such as Nato and the G7; and the anti-western bloc led by China and Russia, now officially designated as the West’s two main geopolitical existential threats. 

Given the heavy dependence of Middle East on all involved parties - Russia, Ukraine and the West - for food and energy supplies, as well as national security, they know they have nothing to gain but a lot to lose from direct involvement in this conflict, or from overtly picking sides. They have thus uncomfortably strived to distance themselves from the war without alienating anyone - a tough balancing act that can see them accused of siding with the enemy for shying away from the western sanctions regime.

In fact, many have actively refused to side with Ukraine and the West against Russia for a number of reasons, including perceived western hypocrisy on the professed principle of non-aggression and respect for territorial sovereignty (Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan loom large here); racist double standards on the treatment of refugees; and widespread distrust of the West in general.

Biden leaves Saudi Arabia empty-handed

Joe Biden has left the region empty-handed hoping the OPEC+ group, comprising Saudi Arabia, Russia and other producers, will boost production at a meeting scheduled for August 03, 2022.

Gulf states, which have refused to side with the West against Russia over Ukraine, are seeking a concrete commitment from the United States to strategic ties that have been strained over perceived US disengagement from the region.

President Joe Biden told Arab leaders on Saturday that the United States would remain an active partner in the Middle East, but he failed to secure commitments to a regional security axis that would include Israel or an immediate oil output rise.

Biden, who began his first trip to the Middle East as president with a visit to Israel, presented his vision and strategy for America's engagement in the Middle East at an Arab summit in Jeddah.

The summit communiqué was vague, however, and Saudi Arabia, Washington's most important Arab ally, poured cold water on US hopes the summit could help lay the groundwork for a regional security alliance - including Israel - to combat Iranian threats.

A plan to connect air defence systems could be a hard sell for Arab states that have no ties with Israel and balk at being part of an alliance seen as against Iran, which has a strong regional network of proxies including Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen.

Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, said he was not aware of any discussions on a Gulf-Israeli defence alliance and that the kingdom was not involved in such talks.

He told reporters after the US-Arab summit that Riyadh's decision to open its airspace to all air carriers had nothing to do with establishing diplomatic ties with Israel and was not a precursor to further steps.

Biden focused on the summit with six Gulf states and Egypt, Jordan and Iraq, while downplaying the meeting with MbS which drew criticism in the United States over human rights concerns.

Biden needs the help of OPEC giant Saudi Arabia at a time of high crude prices and other problems related to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Washington also wants to curb Iran's sway in the region and China's global influence.

Biden came to Saudi Arabia hoping to reach a deal on oil production to help drive down gasoline prices that are driving inflation above 40-year highs and threatening his approval ratings.

He leaves the region empty-handed but hoping the OPEC+ group, comprising Saudi Arabia, Russia and other producers, will boost production at a meeting on Aug. 3.

Gulf states, which have refused to side with the West against Russia over Ukraine, are seeking a concrete commitment from the United States to strategic ties that have been strained over perceived US disengagement from the region.

Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have been frustrated by US conditions on arms sales and at their exclusion from indirect US-Iran talks on reviving a 2015 nuclear pact they see as flawed for not tackling concerns about Iran's missile program and behaviour.

Israel had encouraged Biden's trip to Saudi Arabia, hoping it would lead to warmer ties between it and Riyadh as part of a wider Arab rapprochement.

 

 

United States extends undue favor to India

The US House of Representative has passed a legislative amendment that would protect India from punitive sanctions for buying missiles from Russia.

The India-specific amendment, passed on Thursday afternoon, still has to go through the Senate before it’s signed by President Joe Biden.

Authored and introduced by Indian-American Congressman Ro Khanna, urges the Biden administration to give India a waiver to the Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), which can bring immediate sanctions against New Delhi for buying weapons from Moscow.

The amendment argues that such a waiver is needed to deter China’s influence in the region. It was passed by voice vote as part of an en bloc amendment during floor consideration of the US defence bill for 2023.

US law deems waiver ‘necessary’ to counter China’s growing global influence

The United States views India as a key ally in its effort to counter China’s growing global influence and has also included it in the alliance known as ‘Quad’ that aims to counter China in the Pacific region.

Enacted by the US Congress in 2017, CAATSA provides for punitive actions against any country engaged in transactions with Russian defence and intelligence sectors.

CAATSA became a sticking point in India-US ties after New Delhi inked a deal to secure the S-400 missile defence system from Moscow, in the midst of the Russia-Ukraine war. India has also violated US sanctions on buying oil from Russia.

In May, Senator Bob Menendez, who heads the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, pointed out at a congressional hearing that the Indians “go buy oil from Russia. They buy the S-400 anti-missile system. They abstain at the United Nations on votes criticizing Russia and yet they were never punished for these violations.

Khanna, who is Vice Chair of the India Caucus in the US Congress, however, urged Washington to “stand with India in the face of escalating aggression from China”.

The Reuters news agency reported this week that India’s oil imports from Russia surged to a record of around 950,000 barrels per day (bpd) in June, as Indian refiners snapped up Russian oil sold at hefty discounts.

India shipped in about 4.8 million bpd of oil in June, about 23 per cent higher than a year earlier, the report added.

What is more important for Biden? Saudi oil or Khashoggi

The Washington Post’s publisher blasted President Biden for greeting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with a fist bump Friday, saying it not only “projected intimacy and comfort” but also gave the Middle East leader “redemption.”

Fred Ryan, the publisher and CEO of The Washington Post, called the exchange between the two leaders at the royal palace in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, “shameful.”

“The first bump between President Biden and Mohammed bin Salman was worse than a handshake — it was shameful. It projected a level of intimacy and comfort that delivers to MBS the unwarranted redemption he was been desperately seeking,” Ryan said in a statement, using a common media abbreviation for the crown prince’s name.

Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia has been heavily criticized, including his meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed, who the US intelligence community said approved the 2018 murder of US-based journalist and Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi.  

The Post also reported that Saudi officials had initially excluded two reporters from the newspaper from a planned media briefing that the government was holding on Friday.

They were later allowed to attend the roundtable after bringing up the issue with the White House officials, the Post added.

This is Biden’s first visit to Saudi Arabia after he was elected in 2020 and comes after he promised during his presidential campaign to make the Middle East country a “pariah” state over Khashoggi’s murder in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

Biden highlighted progress in moving relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel toward normalization and said the US and Saudi Arabia agreed to partner on a far-reaching green energy initiative.

Biden also expressed optimism that Saudi Arabia would take steps to boost the global oil supply in the coming weeks, which had been viewed as a major goal of the trip given high domestic gas prices and the disruption of the global energy market caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The trip to the Middle East, Biden said, was about reasserting US leadership in the region at a time when China and Russia are trying to expand their influence and challenge global order.

 

Biden said Friday he raised Khashoggi’s murder during his meeting with the crown prince after the White House wouldn’t comment on whether the president would raise the journalist’s death in the meeting. 

“I raised it at the top of the meeting, making it clear what I thought of it at the time and what I think of it now,” Biden said in a speech.

 “We are not going to leave a vacuum in the Middle East for Russia or China to fill, and we’re getting results,” Biden said.  

Significance of simultaneous visits of Biden and Putin to West Asia

Simultaneous visits of the presidents of the United States and Russia to the West Asia region signifies East-West confrontation.

Mohammad Hossein Soltanifard, Head of the office representing Iran’s interests in Cairo, said his country is the central part of any equation in the region.

Biden started a 4-day visit to Israel and Saudi Arabia from July 13, 2022. Putin is scheduled to visit Iran on July 19. 2022. Putin will attend a trilateral meeting with the leaders of Iran and Turkey, the so-called Astana format of meetings for Syria-related talks.

Putin's visit to Iran immediately after Biden’s trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia “evokes, once again, the East-West confrontation,” Soltanifard said on Twitter.

Soltanifard added, “Iran will still be the bridge of victory, with the difference that the Islamic Republic of Iran is considered the main part of any equation in the region at this point.”

Soltanifard has been appointed as the representative of Iran’s interests in Egypt recently. He replaced Nasser Kanaani, who is now the spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry. Soltanifard reached Cairo on July 11.

Earlier, he also praised Cairo's position in opposing the American project to establish an alliance against the Islamic Republic of Iran. “Egypt's opposition to the illusory dream of the United States to create an alliance against the Islamic Republic of Iran in light of the silence of other countries participating in the Jeddah Summit is commendable and understandable.,” he said on Twitter.

He added, “And this project, like the project to create the Greater Middle East and the deal of the century, will be born dead, God willing.”

Iran and Egypt have held a high-level meeting in recent weeks and have agreed to boost their relations, according to a Qatari-owned newspaper.

Citing Egyptian diplomatic sources, Al Araby Al Jadeed said new developments have taken place in the relations between Tehran and Cairo ahead of a mid-July visit by US President Joe Biden to the region.

“A high-level meeting, which took place during the recent visit of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to the Sultanate of Oman, brought together Egyptian and Iranian officials,” the sources told Al Araby Al Jadeed in early July.

They added that the meeting was attended by a high-ranking figure from the delegation accompanying the Egyptian president with Omani coordination.

The sources indicated that the meeting “was of a security nature in general, and touched upon the situation in the Gaza Strip and Syria,” adding “there were many points of agreement between the two parties, and that the coming period may witness direct coordination between Cairo and Tehran on issues and matters related to the Strip.”

According to the sources, “during the meeting, an agreement was reached on joint coordination in international forums, as long as that was possible, in light of the desire of Cairo and Tehran to reach a good level of relations, provided that they would gradually improve, according to the developments of events in the region.”

In his visit to Oman, the Egyptian President was accompanied by Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, Chief of General Intelligence Abbas Kamel, Minister of Planning Hala Saeed, and a number of other officials.
 

 

Biden makes history with first direct presidential flight from Israel to Saudi Arabia

President Joe Biden on Friday became the first sitting US President to fly directly from Israel to Saudi Arabia, a historic trip that the White House cited as evidence of warming ties between the two countries. 

“Welcome aboard our historic flight,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One as the plane made its way from Tel Aviv to Jeddah. 

Israel Prime Minister Yair Lapid, Israeli President Isaac Herzog and US Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides sent Biden off at Ben Gurion Airport.  

Biden landed about two hours later at King Abdulaziz International Airport.  

Friday’s flight was preceded by the news that Saudi Arabia would open its airspace to all airlines, including all commercial flights flying to and from Israel. Reports indicate the new policy could pave the way for direct flights from Israel to Saudi Arabia for Muslims to make pilgrimages to Mecca.  

The development, while well short of a full normalization of relations between the two countries, represented a step forward and a win for Biden. Jean-Pierre characterized it as a result of Biden’s persistent diplomacy with Saudi Arabia.  

“As we mark this important moment, Saudi Arabia’s decision can help build momentum toward Israel’s further integration into the region, including with Saudi Arabia,” Biden said in a statement earlier Friday.

“I will do all that I can, through direct diplomacy and leader-to-leader engagement, to keep advancing this groundbreaking process.” 

Biden administration officials say they are working to help Israel normalize relations with Arab nations in order to build on the Abraham Accords brokered under the Trump administration that saw Israel normalize relations with Bahrain, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates.  

 “It is on a path that we hope will eventually lead to normalization, but it is the first step, and the first step is a big step,” White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Friday, referring to the Saudi move to open up its airspace to Israeli flights.  

Lapid praised the Saudis for the move in a statement but called it “only the first step.” 

“We will continue working with necessary caution, for the sake of Israel’s economy, security and the good of our citizens,” Lapid said in a statement.