SCA MORNING PRESS CLIPS

epubdos : Afghanistan

Prepared for the U.S. Department of State

Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs

By TechMIS
www.TechMIS.com

Mobile User Copy

TO:	SCA & Staff
DATE:	Tuesday, February 13, 2024 6:30 AM ET

Afghanistan

Afghan population increasingly vulnerable to malnutrition, illness: Human Rights Watch (The Hill)

The Hill [2/12/2024 9:52 AM, Lauren Sforza, 1592K, Negative]
The Human Rights Watch issued a stark report on the health of the Afghan population Monday, warning that the lack of foreign assistance to the country has resulted in more malnutrition and illnesses among Afghans.

The report, published Monday, said the reduction in foreign assistance to public health in Afghanistan, and the Taliban’s abuses against women and girls, have “jeopardized the right to health for millions of Afghans.” Since the Taliban takeover in 2021, foreign aid for Afghanistan dried up and led to many suffering from poverty and hunger, The Associated Press noted.

“The loss of foreign development aid and Taliban rights violations have caused a catastrophic health crisis in Afghanistan that is disproportionately harming women and girls,” Fereshta Abbasi, Afghanistan researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

“The Taliban have severely obstructed women from providing or accessing health care, while the cost of treatment and medicine has put care out of reach for many Afghans,” Abbasi added.

The report noted that the World Food Program said last year that Afghanistan’s malnutrition rates reached a record high, with about half of the population enduring severe hunger throughout the year.

The report also noted that there was a severe reduction in funds for hospitals in Afghanistan. The International Committee of the Red Cross provided support for 33 area hospitals in the two years since the Taliban takeover, but ended its program last year when it began to experience its own funding struggles.

The report said humanitarian aid organizations told Human Rights Watch they plan to close hospitals and reduce operations. Workers with the organizations also told the New York-based watchdog they are running low on medical supplies.

“All donors have been cutting aid. … We closed some mobile teams because donors cut aid. We may need to close 10 major hospitals in the next six months,” an official with an international aid organization told Human Rights Watch.

The report noted the lack of access to enough food, water and medical supplies has led to increased illness.

“Inadequate access to food, clean water, and healthcare services has also led to a rise in preventable diseases. This has placed a strain on an already struggling health system as it grapples with an increased demand, including greater need for specialized care for people with acute forms of malnutrition,” the report stated.

Analysts See Limits to China, Iran, Russia Collaboration With Taliban (VOA)

VOA [2/12/2024 7:11 PM, Roshan Noorzai and Zheela Noori, 761K, Neutral]
Since the Taliban seized control in August 2021, China, Iran and Russia have been steadily courting Afghanistan’s de facto government for influence. The three countries have kept their embassies open in Kabul and were among the first to hand over Afghan embassies to the Taliban at home.

Last month, Moscow, Beijing and Tehran were the most high-profile participants at the Taliban’s first conference on regional cooperation in Kabul.

But what are the real prospects of China, Russia, Iran and the Taliban cooperating in the region?

Analysts tell VOA that while Beijing, Moscow and Tehran may be united in a common goal to oppose the U.S. in the region, that is perhaps the only area where their interests align, analysts say.

“Anti-Americanism is the one idea” that brings China, Iran and Russia together, said Alex Vatanka, founding director of the Iran Program at the Middle East Institute in Washington.

He told VOA that Tehran, Moscow and Beijing “want to push the United States out of Eurasia and Central Asia ... [but] how much can they on the operational level cooperate? That’s a big question.”

He added that “anti-Americanism” alone cannot keep the partnership together as there “is nothing ideological to bring them together.”

According to a newly released U.S. State Department’s strategy document, China, Iran and Russia seek “strategic and economic advantage, or at a minimum, to put the U.S. at a disadvantage.”

“China, Iran and Russia have cultivated very close ties with the Taliban,” said Nilofar Sakhi, a lecturer at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University, adding that they are trying to “have political and economic influence in the region.”

Despite close ties, none of the three countries has formally recognized the Taliban’s government and their interests in the region all differ.

Pragmatic approach

Late last month, China was the first country to formally accept the credentials of the Taliban’s ambassador.

Some former diplomats and analysts say the move was akin to formal recognition. Sun Yun, the director of the China Program at the Stimson Center in Washington does not agree.

China still has to “formally extended political recognition to the Taliban’s government,” Sun told VOA. Even so, compared to Western countries, China has established “very close” relations with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

“China adopts a pragmatic approach in Afghanistan,” said Sun, adding that early on Beijing realized that the U.S.-backed former Afghan government did not have “the popular support to continue” governing Afghanistan.

Beijing had been cultivating ties with the Taliban for years before the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul.

Sun said that “what has happened in the past two and a half years substantiated that assessment that the Taliban regime is not going anywhere.”

She added that security, economic and political factors are “all part of a broader consideration that comes to the foundation of China’s policy toward Afghanistan.”

For China, one key concern is about any breach of militancy from Afghanistan into its western region of Xinjiang.

Beijing also has economic interests in Afghanistan, including extending the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a flagship of the Belt and Road Initiative, to Afghanistan and investing in minerals in Afghanistan.

China has also been vocal in criticizing the U.S. and NATO for freezing Afghanistan’s assets and “leaving the Afghan people in a serious humanitarian crisis” in the country.

Complicated past

Though Iran has not formally recognized the Taliban, it handed over the Afghan embassy in Tehran to the Taliban in February 2023.

The Middle East Institute’s Vatanka said that the Iranian regime has not recognized the Taliban because of some bilateral issues, including border security and water distribution.

Last year, tensions between Iran and the Taliban over the Helmand River’s flow of water escalated to a deadly clash, which killed two Iranian security guards and one Taliban border guard.

Iran and the Taliban have had complicated relations in the past.

During the civil war in Afghanistan in the 1990s, Iran was supporting the forces fighting against the Taliban, particularly after the Taliban killed nine Iranian diplomats in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif in 1998.

“It is still too early for the Iranians to forget what the Taliban was” when it was in power in the 1990s, said Vatanka.

Full of contradiction

Like Iran, Russia was another country that supported forces fighting the Taliban during the civil war in the 1990s.

Ghaus Janbaz, a former Afghan diplomat to Moscow, told VOA that Moscow’s policy toward Afghanistan has been “full of contradictions” in recent years.

Janbaz added that Russia is politically supporting the Taliban, but at the same time, its “military and security officials criticize the Taliban and cite an uptick in terrorist activities in Afghanistan.”

He said that before the Taliban’s takeover, Moscow had diplomatic relations with the former Afghan government, but it also supported “the Taliban at all the levels.”

“It is similar now. Russia has ties with the Taliban, but an anti-Taliban leader was invited to Moscow,” Janbaz said. “They say it was not an invitation by the government, but nothing happens without the approval of the government in Russia.”

An Afghan anti-Taliban leader, Ahmad Masoud, participated in a conference on Afghanistan in Russia in November 2023.

Janbaz says that despite Moscow’s close ties with the Taliban, “I do not think that in the near future, Moscow will extend recognition to the Taliban’s regime.”

He said that similar to China and Iran, Russia’s policy toward the Taliban is driven by regional geopolitics.

“Tactically they might have an alliance against the West, but there are strategic differences” between these countries, Janbaz said.

Decades-old mass grave unearthed in Afghanistan: Taliban officials (Agence France-Presse)

Agence France-Presse [2/12/2024 12:27 PM, Staff, 11975K, Negative]
A mass grave containing around 100 bodies believed to date from Afghanistan’s Soviet-backed government era has been discovered in the country’s eastern Khost province, local officials said on Monday.

The grave was found Saturday during construction of a small dam in the Sarbani area of central Khost, mayor Bismillah Bilal said.

"According to the initial information, these people were buried here after being killed in 1358" in the Afghan calendar, corresponding to April 1979 to March 1980, he told AFP.

"At least 100 bodies were discovered" in the grave, Bilal added, noting that some remains bore women’s clothing and that all appeared to be civilians.

Local residents said the remains belonged to victims of the violence that followed the 1978 Soviet-backed communist coup in Afghanistan.

"In 1358, these people were brought here in a merciless, barbaric way by the cruel communist authorities without trial," said Salam Sharifi, whose father disappeared under the communist government, his remains never found.

"They were martyred and we are their descendants. This is a cruelty that history will never forget," Sharifi told AFP.

A committee has been appointed to relocate the remains, with residents helping municipality workers to remove the bodies from the site, piling the dry bones into bags that lined the excavated grave on Monday.

"No one knows who these martyrs are," said resident Mandair Mangal. "They were all buried in the earth and we are taking out the bones and sorting them."

After decades of conflict -- including the Soviet invasion from 1979, the following civil war and the US-led occupation -- many mass graves have been found across Afghanistan.

In 2009, another mass grave of victims of the Soviet-backed government era was discovered, containing at least 20 bodies.

More recently, in September 2022, a mass grave containing the remains of 12 people was found in Spin Boldak, a site of fierce fighting between former Afghan government forces and Taliban fighters during their two-decade insurgency before they seized power in 2021.

Two prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay return to a heroes’ welcome in Afghanistan more than 20 years after they were arrested (Daily Mail)

Daily Mail [2/12/2024 1:53 PM, Freya Barnes, 11975K, Neutral]
Two former prisoners held at the US detention centre in Guantanamo Bay until 2017 were welcomed home to Afghanistan on Monday, more than 20 years after they were arrested.

Abdul Karim and Abdul Zahir landed in Kabul early on Monday from Oman, where they had been transferred in 2017 and held under house arrest, said Zahir’s son Mohammad Osman and airport staff.

They were among hundreds of suspected militants captured by US forces during the United States’s ‘War on Terror’ and held in the secretive prison in Cuba.

Referring to Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities Zahir’s son Osman said: ‘With the grace of God and efforts by the leaders of the Islamic Emirate, he has returned to the country’.

US authorities faced accusations of torture and abuse against prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay facility, where many were held without charge or the legal power to challenge their detention.

Most of the military prison’s inmates have been released over the years, including senior Taliban leaders.

Osman said: ‘I am very happy. When I woke up in the morning, I felt like it was Eid for me’.

The returnees were whisked to a VIP area away from media and a jostling crowd of supporters, some clutching bouquets, who had gathered for their arrival.

Karim and Zahir both told media outlet Hurriyat they were overwhelmed with happiness at their return.

Karim said: ‘Praise be to Allah, I returned to my country in such a time when there is an Islamic system and peace all over Afghanistan’.

Zahir arrived at the controversial prison in 2002, the year it opened in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, according to Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani and US documents.

Karim arrived in 2003, having been detained and held in Pakistan before he was handed over to US custody.

Both men had been under surveillance without the right to travel for seven years in the Gulf kingdom of Oman, Qani said in a post on social media site X on Sunday.

‘Due to the efforts of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the imposed restrictions will be lifted and they will return to their homeland,’ he said.

Billboards welcoming the two men back to Afghanistan were erected en route to the airport ahead of their arrival and a heavy security presence was deployed on Monday morning.

One Afghan prisoner remains in detention at Guantanamo Bay, Muhammad Rahim, whose family called for his release in November.

The US government has said for years it is working to reduce the number of detainees and eventually shut down Guantanamo Bay, which lies on the island of Cuba but is under US jurisdiction.

Pakistan

Who Are the Major Players After Pakistan’s Stunning Election? (New York Times)

New York Times [2/12/2024 4:14 PM, Alan Yuhas and Christina Goldbaum, 831K, Neutral]
The stunning election success of a party whose leader is in jail has set off a political crisis in Pakistan, a nuclear-armed nation of 240 million people.

The stakes are high: Pakistanis face soaring inflation and costs of living, frequent blackouts, resurgent terrorist attacks and tense relations with their neighbors.

Here are the critical figures competing for power.

Imran Khan: The jailed leader
Imran Khan, a former prime minister and cricket star, has been sentenced to 34 years in prison on charges that include leaking state secrets and unlawful marriage. He is barred from holding office, and his supporters call the charges, which he denies, an effort by the military to silence its leading critic.

Mr. Khan, 71, was ousted as prime minister in 2022 but staged a comeback, rallying young people with populist rhetoric and criticism of the dynastic families and military establishment that have dominated Pakistan for decades. In the election last week, candidates aligned with Mr. Khan won more seats in Parliament than any other group — but still fell short of forming a majority on their own.

Mr. Khan faces a legal labyrinth as he seeks to leave prison. Many experts believe his party is unlikely to assemble a governing coalition, given the military’s preference for its rivals and his tense relationships with the two other major parties.

But his party’s ability to organize support online has helped Mr. Khan persevere as a powerful influence. His party is challenging election results on the basis of widely reported irregularities in vote counting, and an A.I.-generated version of Mr. Khan declared victory on Saturday.

Nawaz Sharif: The other former prime minister

Mr. Khan’s main rival was another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif. Both men were aligned with military generals when they took office and then fell out with them.

Analysts say military pressure contributed to Mr. Sharif’s trouble holding onto power: Despite being Pakistan’s longest-serving prime minister, serving three terms, he never finished one in office. (Pakistan has never had a prime minister finish a full term in office.)

He stepped down most recently in 2017, after he and his family were ensnared in corruption allegations that the Supreme Court ruled disqualified him from office.

Mr. Sharif, 74, spent years in self-imposed exile in London before returning to Pakistan last year after reaching a détente with the military, which sensed he could rival Mr. Khan’s popular support, analysts say. During his last term, he presided over a period of relative economic stability but ultimately fell out with the military over foreign policy and its role in politics.

His party won the second-most seats in Parliament, according to preliminary counts: 77 candidates, compared with the 92 aligned with Mr. Khan.

But it is not clear that Mr. Sharif would serve again as prime minister. Before the election, he suggested he only wanted the role if his party won a simple majority. In recent years, he has also become increasingly concerned about his legacy, and leading a weak government, after elections marred in allegations of rigging, could imperil it, analysts say.

Shehbaz Sharif: The former prime minister’s brother

Shehbaz Sharif, the 72-year-old brother of the former prime minister, is considered the military’s preferred choice for prime minister. He led a coalition government after Mr. Khan’s ouster, and is seen as more deferential to the military than his brother.

He became the standard-bearer of their party, the P.M.L.N., and is known for his administrative skills and his oversight of large infrastructure projects. He, too, has been dogged by accusations of graft and malfeasance that were the focus of several corruption investigations.

He has denied the allegations, but has also faced criticism over his leadership in Punjab, the country’s most populous province and the home of the Sharif dynasty. While chief minister there, he was accused of doing too little to curb extremist sectarian groups and ordering extrajudicial killings. He was acquitted of those charges in 2008.

The coalition government he presided over as prime minister was also widely unpopular and seen as unable to address the economic crisis. And he does not have the popular appeal of his elder brother, who maintains a loyal base of support in parts of Punjab.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari: A dynastic scion

The third-most seats in Parliament went to the Pakistan People’s Party, potentially making it a key player in any coalition.

The party is led by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the son of Benazir Bhutto, who in 1988 became the first woman to be democratically elected to lead a Muslim country. Ms. Bhutto was elected twice, twice expelled from office — under pressure from the military on charges of corruption — and assassinated in 2007 as she sought a third term in office.

Her son, 35, has sought to turn around the party’s declining fortunes, partly by appealing to people outside the party’s base in southern Pakistan. The party could form part of a Sharif-led coalition government — and on Sunday, leaders from both parties met to discuss that possibility.

The military

Hanging over all these politicians is the military, which has for decades acted as Pakistan’s ultimate authority, ushering in civilian leaders, staging coups and guiding political decisions. Last week’s election was a stunning upset for the military, which had relied on its long effective playbook for crushing political dissent.

Gen. Syed Asim Munir, the military’s chief, is widely considered a personal rival of Mr. Khan. But since the election, General Munir has faced pressure to strike a deal with the imprisoned leader that might involve his eventual release on bail.

If they do not reach a deal, Mr. Khan could tell his party’s winning candidates to resign from Parliament in protest. That could create further political chaos for the country, undermining the legitimacy of the incoming government. Those leaders will also have to contend with rising anger that many Pakistanis feel toward the military as it cracks down on protests, and as economic problems have multiplied on its watch.

After Pakistan’s shocking election result, all eyes are on the generals (Washington Post)

Washington Post [2/12/2024 7:42 AM, Rick Noack, 6902K, Neutral]
Four days after a shocking election result rattled Pakistan’s establishment, all eyes are on the powerful generals who have long been seen as the ultimate arbiters of politics in this country.

Their grip, a constant since independence in 1947, suddenly appears in doubt, according to supporters of jailed ex-premier Imran Khan. Candidates backed by the former leader gained more seats in a general election last week than any other political bloc, posing a remarkable challenge to the establishment that appeared determined to suppress them.

Khan’s party remains unlikely to be able to form a government because its candidates fell short of an absolute majority and other parties are unlikely to ally with it. They also all ran as independents and will be at a disadvantage in the complicated process of seat allocation that is expected to favor three-time former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s party.

Pakistan stunned as ex-premier Khan’s party overperforms in election

But the widespread perception among many Pakistanis that Khan’s party, Movement for Justice (known as Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI), is the real winner of last Thursday’s election could have deep implications for the delicate balance between Pakistan’s military and the country’s civilian leaders.

For many Khan supporters, their vote was as much about sending an anti-establishment message as it was about supporting the jailed former premier. “It is now evident that there is much anger against the establishment’s open and constant interference in civilian matters — interference which has only grown over the years because there has been no firm political consensus against it,” Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper wrote in a post-election editorial.

After Khan ran afoul of the military two years ago, Pakistani officials all but dismantled his party. Many of its leaders were arrested — including Khan, who has been convicted in three separate cases so far — and the party’s offices were raided the week of the election.

The key question now is how the establishment will respond to their unprecedented failure to politically sideline the party: By further cracking down on Khan and his allies, or by trying to reconcile with the ex-premier they once backed?

Pakistan’s military is no stranger to challenges from civilian leaders and the public, however. It has weathered serious political storms in the past and reemerged more emboldened and with a seemingly even tighter grip on politics.

“Some political leaders will always be willing to stand with the establishment and enjoy power,” said Hasan Askari Rizvi, a Pakistani political analyst. “This election result is a serious setback for the establishment, but ultimately it will prevail, as it has done in the past.”

Pakistan’s establishment, however, could also be underestimating the growing cynicism and anger in crisis-ridden middle-class neighborhoods, which tend to be bastions of support for Khan, a nationalist politician advocating for a European-style welfare state based on Islamic values.

Even though Khan did not deliver on many of his core promises, as even some of his supporters acknowledge, the former prime minister’s appeal could grow further here if the next government excludes Khan’s allies and fails to boost economic growth.

“A weak coalition government is not good news for Pakistan’s economy, which is still in the ICU,” said Maleeha Lodhi, a former Pakistani ambassador to the United States.

To many of Khan’s supporters, last week’s election is as much reason for resignation as it is for hope.

“We’re seeing a revolution,” said Shakir, 29, who spoke on the condition that only his first name be used because he works for a government department. But he cautioned that if Khan’s party does not come to power in the wake of this vote, fury may ultimately give way to despair and apathy. “Then nobody will come out and vote in the next election.”

Rarely have anti-establishment attitudes been so mainstream and been voiced so publicly than in the days since the vote. Objections to the voting process were raised across the political spectrum, and one candidate from a smaller, traditionally military-aligned party even objected to his own election victory, saying that he was unfairly handed a provincial assembly seat that should have gone to his PTI-backed opponent.

Standing next to a shopping mall in Islamabad, Kashaf Mumtaz, a 26-year-old marketing freelancer, and 23-year-old medical student Shehzadi Najaf said it was clear to them that Khan’s party would not be allowed to return to power any time soon.

But they still came out to vote for his candidates anyway. “We wanted to make it difficult” for the establishment, Najaf said.

Both complained that the country’s military-dominated political system has neglected Pakistan’s younger generations of voters, continuing to elevate politicians such as Sharif, 74, who ran on a pro-business platform that has largely remained the same over the past three decades.

Mumtaz and Najaf pointed to the lengthy delays in vote counting as another symptom of the country’s political flaws. As PTI-backed candidates appeared to take a strong lead early Thursday night in unofficial polls published by media outlets, counting suddenly appeared to slow, prompting allegations of vote rigging and questions from international observers that remain largely unaddressed. It took three days for the final provisional count to be announced.

“Had the military stepped back and not intervened when it became clear that PTI-sponsored independents were doing well, I think that would have been a big boost for the army” in the eyes of the Pakistani population, said Michael Kugelman, a South Asia analyst at the Wilson Center.

“But the perception among many in Pakistan is that the army suffered a big blow,” he said.

Pakistan Parties’ Coalition Talks Hit Snag Over Who Becomes PM (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg [2/13/2024 3:40 AM, Ismail Dilawar, 5543K, Neutral]
Pakistan’s two main family-controlled political parties hit a snag in their talks to form a new government, as they can’t agree who would become prime minister in their coalition designed to thwart jailed ex-leader Imran Khan.

The Sharif and Bhutto clans both want their candidates to take the top job, local media reported Monday. Sherry Rehman, a senior leader of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s Pakistan Peoples Party, said it will form committees to “negotiate with other political parties.”

The development suggests it could take weeks for a government to be formed. The day before, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz President Shehbaz Sharif said on X that the clans had “agreed in principle to save the country from political instability.”

“All major parties are moving cautiously, slowly,” said Hasan Askari Rizvi, a Lahore-based analyst. “Each wants to bargain well with maximum gains. They are hard bargainers. PTI doesn’t look interested” because it doesn’t want to join with others, nor do they want to join with it, he said.

The Sharifs and Bhuttos have been negotiating to form a government after Imran Khan’s candidates, running as independents, defied the odds by taking the most seats in the election but fell short of an outright majority. Bhutto Zardari’s PPP had two meetings with three-time premier Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N over the weekend.

Details of the discussions weren’t made public, but local media reported that PML-N wants either Nawaz or his brother, Shehbaz, to lead the government. PPP, which came third in the vote, would like Bhutto Zardari, 35, the son of assassinated former premier Benazir Bhutto, to be prime minister, saying he would be a fresh face in a country where more than 60% of the population are under 30.

Any coalition between the parties would thwart Khan’s candidates, whose strong showing highlighted the former cricket star’s enduring popularity and voters’ disillusionment with the status quo in Pakistan’s politics, represented by the Sharif and Bhutto parties and the powerful military. Khan’s party has alleged vote-rigging in the election and there have been scattered protests across the country.

For investors, any delay in forming a government would lead to further uncertainty for an economy facing challenges on several fronts. Inflation is running at 28%, the fastest pace in Asia, making it difficult for people to make ends meet. A nine-month bailout program with the International Monetary Fund, Pakistan’s 23rd since independence in 1947, expires in March, suggesting any new leader will have to negotiate a new deal.

“Beyond risks to political stability, negotiating a new IMF program and implementing austerity policies will be more challenging in a more politically divided environment with a stronger opposition,” Johanna Chua, Hong Kong-based head of emerging-markets economics with Citigroup Inc., wrote in a note.

The base case for a multiparty coalition backed by the military hasn’t changed, but the coalition government may now be less stable and this could undermine the pursuit of the reforms needed to stabilize the economy, Citigroup said.

Investors are already dumping the nation’s stocks, with the benchmark index slumping more than 5% over the past three days. The rupee has been stable after the elections, while most dollar bonds have slowly recovered after Friday’s selloff.

Parties are trying to cobble together a coalition of at least 133 of the 265 seats that were up for grabs last week.

Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf candidates have filed lawsuits to force recounts in seats its so-called independents lost. The party is targeting 50 seats that it claims were lost due to vote-rigging, according to PTI spokesman Raoof Hassan. Khan loyalists have won 95 to 97 seats, PTI has said, though one independent candidate has switched sides to PML-N and there’s a possibility more could follow.

PTI has ruled out forming an alliance with either PML-N or the PPP. The party is also filing a petition seeking a declaration from the Election Commission that the independents are party members, according to Ali Zafar, a party senator. There’s also the option of getting them to join a smaller party. Either way, the objective is the same: to access the 70 seats reserved for religious minorities and women, which will boost their numbers and give them some sway in nominating a prime minister.

Pakistan’s premier defends the delay in releasing election results and denies the vote was unfair (AP)

AP [2/12/2024 2:23 PM, Munir Ahmed and Abdul Sattar, 22K, Neutral]
Pakistan’s caretaker prime minister on Monday defended the widely criticized delay in announcing the results of last week’s parliamentary election, saying authorities took only 36 hours to count over 60 million votes while grappling with militant attacks.

Anwaarul-Haq-Kakar insisted that a “level playing field” was available to all political parties, including that of imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan, and pointed out that election results in 2018, when Khan won office, had been announced after 66 hours.

Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, won more seats than any other in Thursday’s election, but only because its candidates ran as independents after the party was expelled from the vote. The candidates won 93 out of 265 National Assembly seats, not enough to form a government. Khan couldn’t run because of criminal convictions that he calls politically motivated.

The Pakistan Muslim League-N party, led by three-time premier and ex-felon Nawaz Sharif, secured 75 seats. The Pakistan People’s Party, or PPP, led by Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, came in third with 54 seats.

The two parties, which led the campaign to kick Khan out of office in 2022, were in talks to form a coalition government.

Sharif was marked as the Pakistani security establishment’s preferred candidate because of his smooth return to the country in October. He spent four years in exile to avoid serving prison sentences, but his convictions were overturned within weeks of his arrival.

The vote was overshadowed by allegations of vote-rigging and an unprecedented mobile phone shutdown. The Election Commission denied the allegations of rigging.

Kakar told a news conference that mobile phone service was suspended on election day for security reasons following a pair of militant attacks that killed 30 people in southwestern Baluchistan province a day before the vote. He said that security forces last week killed a key militant from the Islamic State group who was behind the elections-related attacks.

He said he could afford a delay in announcing results “but not the terrorism.”

Kakar said the elections were largely peaceful, free and fair, and the process to install a new government could begin in the next eight or nine days when the National Assembly is expected to convene. He said the parliament will elect the speaker, deputy speaker and new prime minister.

Kakar also said people were allowed to hold peaceful protests but warned that action would be taken if rallies turned violent.

On Monday, thousands of Khan’s supporters and members of other political parties blocked key highways and held a daylong strike in the volatile southwest to protest alleged vote-rigging. Separately, several nationalist and Islamist political parties in Baluchistan blocked two highways leading to Iranian and Afghan border crossings.

Jan Achakzai, a government spokesman in Baluchistan, urged protesters to “show grace” by accepting defeat and moving away from the highways.

The U.N. secretary-general urged Pakistan’s parties and political leaders “to maintain a calm atmosphere” and reject any actions that could increase tensions, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. The statement called for all disputes to be settled through established legal frameworks and for rights to be respected.

Pakistan parties wrangle over premiership, vote rigging allegations rejected (Reuters)

Reuters [2/12/2024 12:21 PM, Asif Shahzad and Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam, 11975K, Neutral]
Pakistan’s two largest political parties were on Monday wrangling over who will be prime minister after an inconclusive election last week forced them to join forces and try to form a coalition in a parliament dominated by independents.

The squabbling is likely to deepen concerns about the stability of the nation which is mired in an economic crisis and battling a surge in militant violence.

Pakistan’s benchmark share index (.KSE), opens new tab fell 3.4% on Monday, its first day of trading after the results of the Feb. 8 vote.

Former prime ministers Imran Khan and Nawaz Sharif both declared victory on Friday, with independent candidates backed by the jailed Khan forming the largest group of 93 members of a total of 264 seats for which results were declared.

However, Khan cannot become prime minister from jail and his grouping cannot form a government as they nominally ran as independents as his party was barred from standing.

Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was the largest recognised party with 75 seats and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the son of assassinated former premier Benazir Bhutto, was second with 54.

The two parties opened formal talks late on Sunday to form a coalition government, with a statement from PML-N saying the meeting was "constructive" and "both expressed commitment to putting nation’s interest and well-being above everything".

ML-N and PPP officials, however, said their talks were snagged over which leader would take the top job.

"Both sides are interested to form a coalition, but there is no breakthrough so far. Both parties want the office of prime minister," a senior PML-N figure close to the Sharif family told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The PML-N has not named its prime ministerial candidate.

However, the PML-N source said it was "most likely" that Shehbaz Sharif, 72, who held the post for 16 months until August, will be chosen. He is the younger brother of party founder Nawaz Sharif, 74, who has been prime minister three times.

Nawaz Sharif would have been the candidate only if the party had got a clear majority, the senior figure added.

Ata Tarar, another senior PML-N figure, however, said that the party had not made a decision on its candidate.

To become prime minister, a candidate has to show they have a simple majority of 169 seats out of the 336-member National Assembly when it is called into session in the next few weeks. Some 70 seats are reserved for women and minorities, divided between parties on a proportional basis.

RIGGING ALLEGATIONS REJECTED

The PPP has always maintained Bhutto Zardari as its political scion, and if successful, the 35-year-old former foreign minister will become Pakistan’s youngest premier since his mother Benazir.

"Our party wants Bilawal as prime minister," PPP leader Faisal Karim Kundi told Geo TV, adding that independents were joining his party. "No one can form a government without us."

Some independent lawmakers, formerly of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), could join either party, or form a coalition with a smaller party to try block the two larger parties, analysts say.

The PTI declined to comment about the lawmakers’ plans.

The vote was marred by a mobile internet shutdown on election day and unusually delayed results, leading to accusations that it was rigged and drawing concern from rights groups and foreign governments.

Several political parties and candidates have called for protests against the results and PTI supporters blocked traffic in the northern city of Peshawar on Sunday.

Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar rejected the accusations and said there was no manipulation of results and no pressure on the election commission to deliver a particular result.

He said Pakistan would not investigate allegations of election irregularities just because some foreign capitals had sought a probe and had its own laws to deal with any challenges.

The Election Commission of Pakistan blamed the mobile internet shutdown for the delay.

"The election commission rejects altogether the allegations of rigging in the polls," it said in its first response to the accusations. A couple of such incidents cannot be denied and there are forums to address such cases, it said in a statement.

Imran Khan’s rivals eye deal to share Pakistan prime ministerial term (Nikkei Asia)

Nikkei Asia [2/13/2024 2:57 AM, Adnan Aamir, 293K, Neutral]
Pakistan’s surprising election results have pushed the parties of three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and former Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari into coalition talks that may lead to them splitting the prime minister’s five-year term.

Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was widely expected to win last Thursday’s elections as the apparent preference of the powerful military establishment. But the strong performance of independent candidates backed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan has prompted a scramble to forge a workable coalition between the PML-N and Bhutto Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

Provisional results from the election commission show independents, mostly supported by the PTI, winning 101 seats followed by the PML-N at 75 and the PPP at 54. The PTI’s independent candidates defied the odds after the party was stripped of its electoral symbol and barred from contesting as a single group.

Multiple sources involved in the coalition talks confirmed that the idea has been floated to have the PPP and PML-N each appoint a prime minister for two and a half years.

This possibility is still under consideration but the parties have a history of working together. They were part of the coalition government that took power after Khan was ousted in a no-confidence vote in April 2022. That alliance, known as the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), elected Nawaz’s younger brother Shehbaz Sharif to become prime minister. The prospective new coalition is already being dubbed PDM 2.0.

The PML-N has also entered into such a power-sharing arrangement in the past, at the provincial level. In 2013, the party agreed with the National Party to split the five-year term of the chief minister of Balochistan.

After the elections, the question of who should take the top office is seen as the key sticking point in the coalition negotiations between the PML-N and PPP. To elect a prime minister, a party or coalition needs a simple majority in the 336-seat National Assembly, which includes 70 seats reserved for women and minorities that are allotted proportionally. This system further tips the balance in favor of the PML-N and PPP, as the PTI can only access those seats by having its candidates join another party and would still be unable to use them to elect a prime minister due to a technicality.

On Sunday, the PML-N said it had a "constructive" meeting with the PPP. But there have been less positive rumblings, too.

"If party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is not elected as prime minister, then [the PPP] should sit on the opposition benches," Faisal Karim Kundi, the PPP’s central secretary for information, told local media.

As a result, a power-sharing arrangement is increasingly seen as a feasible compromise. At 35, Bhutto Zardari would be the youngest prime minister since his mother, Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in 2007. Nawaz Sharif is 74, while Shehbaz is 72.

The PML-N is busy courting others, as well. The party’s leadership has met with counterparts of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which won 17 seats, to seek its support.

The PML-N is even attempting to entice some of the independent candidates to join its ranks. So far, Waseem Qadir, a PTI-backed independent who won in Lahore, is the only one who has done so.

The PTI itself has made it clear that it will not work with the PPP or PML-N under any circumstances. "There would be no power-sharing talks with PML-N or PPP, and PTI would prefer to sit in opposition," Gohar Ali Khan, the party’s chairman, told local media.

PTI members and others have alleged that the polls were manipulated and filed several court challenges, to no avail so far. Protesters have also taken to the streets to demand free and fair results. The election commission has flatly rejected allegations that the process was rigged.

The election results clearly showed, however, that Khan and his party still command widespread popularity.

"A coalition government of the PPP, PML-N and others will solidify the narrative ... among the masses that [the PTI] is single-handedly fighting a battle against all status-quo parties in Pakistan," said Tahir Naeem Malik, a professor of international relations at the National University of Modern Languages (NUML) in Islamabad.

Experts have varying opinions on whether a pact to share the prime minister’s job would work.

Sabookh Syed, a political analyst in Islamabad, believes such an arrangement is only feasible if the military establishment lends support in the background. "Shehbaz Sharif, as a prime minister, can work with the military and he has proved it," Syed said.

NUML’s Malik warned that coalition governments are inherently weak due to multiple groups with competing interests. In any case, he said, "No government in the history of Pakistan has completed its term and it’s highly unlikely that the proposed weak coalition of the PPP and PML-N would make it through the next five years."

Farhan Hanif Siddiqui, associate professor of international relations at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, suggested that the success of such a pact depends on whether the two parties are also ready to share the political burden of making tough, unpopular decisions. If they "do not equally share the burden," he said, "then the coalition would be undermined from day one."

High on the list of the next government’s difficult decisions is a new agreement with the International Monetary Fund.

Local media reports say an IMF team will visit Pakistan for a final review of the country’s $3 billion standby agreement after the central and all four provincial governments have been formed. The agreement, which has helped Pakistan avoid a sovereign debt default, expires on April 12, after which Islamabad will need to negotiate another deal. Many anticipate that the IMF will impose stricter conditions.

Experts say the military has brought the PML-N back to the verge of power so that it can fix the struggling economy. The political stakes are high.

"If PDM 2.0 can’t make visible improvements in the economy in the next six months, then more voters would shift toward the PTI, making the party even more popular," predicted Siddiqui from Quaid-i-Azam University.

He said Pakistan’s economic woes require deep structural reforms that, so far, no party has been willing to introduce. "Political parties want to achieve economic recovery through foreign investment only and not by addressing the internal structural flaws of the economy," he said. "This will be the biggest challenge for the next coalition government."

Pakistani protesters block highways to demonstrate against election results (Al Jazeera)

Al Jazeera [2/12/2024 8:24 AM, Staff, 2060K, Negative]
Thousands of protesters have blocked highways and started a daylong strike to demonstrate against the results of last week’s general election in Pakistan.

The demonstrations on Monday follow the announcement of the final results from the February 8 vote, with tensions high amid claims of vote rigging and tampering, and intense uncertainty over the formation of the next government.

Former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party and its affiliates won the most seats in the final tally published on Sunday, securing 95 of 264 seats. Ex-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party came second with 75 seats.

With no one party winning a majority, complex negotiations are ongoing over forming a coalition government that will pick the country’s next prime minister.

With dozens of constituency results facing challenges in court, Pakistan has weeks of political uncertainty ahead.

Amid those tricky talks, controversy persists over allegations of vote rigging. The PTI is also protesting that Khan was not able to run in the election due to criminal convictions, some of which were pushed through just ahead of the vote.

Alongside other parties, the PTI has refused to accept defeat in dozens of constituencies, claiming vote tampering.

Thousands took to the streets over the weekend in Lahore, where dozens were arrested. On Monday, the party organised further protests and a strike.

A government spokesperson in the province of Balochistan, Jan Achakzai, urged protesters to “show grace” by accepting defeat and moving from the highways.

Police had previously warned that they would come down hard on illegal gatherings and cited a Section 144 order, a colonial-era law banning public gatherings.

“Some individuals are inciting illegal gatherings around the Election Commission and other government offices,” a statement from Islamabad’s police force said on Sunday.

“Legal action will be taken against unlawful assemblies. It should be noted that soliciting for gatherings is also a crime,” it said.

A similar warning was also issued in Rawalpindi, where AFP staff saw police fire tear gas at a crowd of PTI supporters picketing an election office.

A gathering of about 200 PTI supporters in Lahore was dispersed quickly after police moved in with riot shields and batons.

Meanwhile, Sharif’s PML-N, which has the backing of Pakistan’s powerful military, and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), which came third in the election with 54 seats, are holding alliance talks and wrangling over who would be premier.

More Protests In Pakistan Over Election Results As Talks On Future Government Continue (Radio Free Europe)

Radio Free Europe [2/12/2024 8:06 AM, Staff, 223K, Neutral]
Thousands of people have protested, including blocking roads, in the southwestern Balochistan region of Pakistan against the results of recent inconclusive parliamentary elections as Pakistan’s two largest political parties continued talks over who could lead a future government.

Several parties have rejected the results of the February 8 nationwide poll, with many claiming vote rigging.

Independent candidates -- most linked to jailed former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehrik-e Insaf (PTI) party -- took the most seats in the polls. That spoiled the chances of the army-backed Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) to win a ruling majority.

However, independents cannot form a government and the country faces weeks of uncertainty as rival parties negotiate coalitions. PTI leaders have claimed they would have won even more seats if not for vote-rigging.

It will be up to the new parliament to pick Pakistan’s next prime minister.

On February 12, thousands of supporters of Khan took to the streets in Balochistan, where Jan Achakzai, a government spokesman, urged protesters to “show grace” by accepting defeat and moving away from the highways.

Khan could not run in the election because of criminal convictions against him that he says are politically motivated.

But candidates aligned with him secured 101 out of 266 seats in the National Assembly, or lower house of parliament.

The Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) party led by three-time prime minister and ex-felon Nawaz Sharif secured 75. Sharif is currently in talks with allies to form a coalition government.

The Pakistan People’s Party, or PPP, led by Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, came in third with 54 seats. One result has been withheld and another vote was postponed because of a candidate’s death. The campaign to kick Khan out of office in 2022 was led by the PML-N and the PPP.

In a statement late on February 11, the PML-N and the PPP said they were committed to "putting the nation’s interest and well-being above everything" and "to steering Pakistan away from political instability and towards a path of prosperity and resilience."

Officials from both the PML-N and the PPP, however, said talks were stuck over whose leader would take the top job.

"Both sides are interested to form a coalition, but there is no breakthrough so far. Both parties want the office of prime minister," a top PML-N leader close to Sharif told Reuters.

Has Pakistan’s Military Finally Lost Its Mystique? (Bloomberg – opinion)

Bloomberg [2/12/2024 6:00 PM, Mihir Sharma, 5543K, Neutral]
Its leader was clapped in jail, its ballot symbol erased, and its candidates forced to run as independents — and yet the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party of former Prime Minister Imran Khan shockingly pulled ahead of its two biggest rivals in last week’s elections. Although Pakistan’s powerful army did not conceal its desire to end Khan’s political career, many voters clearly had other ideas. In the process, they have delivered an unprecedented and shocking rebuke to the military brass who have exerted inordinate influence over the country’s fate since its birth in 1947.

In often dysfunctional Pakistan, citizens have typically seen the army as not just the only functional and trustworthy institution, but also the repository, interpreter and defender of the country’s founding values. The military has constantly meddled in democracy: Nawaz Sharif, who has been prime minister three times and still leads the party likely to head the next governing coalition, has been driven out of power by the army every single time. Usually, the population acquiesces quietly. The uniforms, they seem to think, know best.

This time feels different. For the first time in Pakistan, we have real evidence that an explicitly anti-military stance is also a winning political platform. In the past, after being forced out of power, Sharif has achieved some success by campaigning on the slogan “respect the vote.” But the turnout for Khan’s otherwise down-and-out party last week eclipsed any previous attempts by Pakistan’s civilian politicians to emerge from the army’s vast shadow.

Khan’s party remains far short of a majority. Now that the controversial process of counting the votes is finished — although legal challenges to the results will be mounted for months — PTI-affiliated independents appear to hold at least 95 out of the 265 seats in Pakistan’s National Assembly that were being contested. The two other parties that have traditionally shared power in Pakistan, Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League–Nawaz and the Bhutto clan’s Pakistan Peoples Party, can claim 129. They just need help from one other small party to put together a winning coalition.

Khan, however, is not giving up. His voters were rewarded with a defiant victory speech after the elections, put it together using AI since he is still in jail. I have to admit that it was remarkably effective. It will be enough, surely to send his supporters out into the streets in the weeks ahead, complicating both his rivals’ plans for a stable coalition and the military’s desire to see a smooth transition of power to its current favorites.

The generals will have few precedents to guide them. Both the Bhuttos and Sharif have defied the brass in the past and rallied their supporters sufficiently to survive long spells in the political wilderness. But they were never able to transform anti-military sentiment into the kind of mobilizing tool Khan’s PTI has.

Perhaps this is because Khan has challenged the basic notion that the Pakistan army is the guardian of the state and of its founders’ vision. Khan is just egocentric enough to think that Pakistan needs no guardian but him, and no vision other than his. And he is just confident enough in his messianic role to convince other Pakistanis that he is more in tune with their aspirations than high-ranking generals are.

The power of the narrative Khan carefully built during the years before he came to power cannot be underestimated. The destiny of Pakistan is, he says, to be the perfect Islamist welfare state, modeled on the ancient Arabian town of Medina when it was ruled by the Prophet Muhammad. This was also what Pakistan’s founding generation aimed for, he says, before corrupt politicians and a predatory elite warped their vision.

Populism thrives on longing for a lost golden age and an identifiable cast of villains. Elite clans such as the Bhuttos and the Sharifs served Khan as foils for a while. Now he has added his former backers in the army to the list of wrongdoers.

In saying that it is the generals who have thwarted Pakistan’s aspirations for decades, Khan has touched — if unreflectively and cynically — upon a previously unspeakable truth. The unexpected resonance of that assertion has lifted his party above its rivals — and cast nuclear-armed Pakistan into deeply unsettling political territory.

Pakistan’s election sends the country into a deeper crisis (The Hill – opinion)

The Hill [2/12/2024 2:00 PM, Husain Haqqani, 1592K, Neutral]
Pakistan’s general election, held on Feb. 8, has plunged the country into an even deeper crisis than it already faced.

The country’s all-powerful military leaders did not get the result they ostensibly sought: a clear victory for the conservative Pakistan Muslim League (PML) — the party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the generals’ one-time nemesis. Instead, Pakistani voters expressed their disenchantment with the entrenched establishment as well as with dynastic politics by voting for independents affiliated with the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) — the party of populist former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is currently in prison for corruption.

71-year-old Khan’s mostly young supporters overcame many odds, including severe repression and exclusion of PTI from the list of parties eligible to identify their candidates on the ballot paper by party affiliation. Having won with the backing of the military in the 2018 election, when Sharif and his supporters were in prison, Khan defied the powerful institution after being removed from office through a parliamentary vote of no confidence in April 2022. He built a powerful narrative of victimhood, based partly on anti-American conspiracy theories.

But Khan’s success in swaying voters fed up with corruption, economic dysfunction and years of military meddling in politics will not end Pakistan’s instability. It might, in fact, further aggravate the crisis.

Election results have given Khan’s allies more seats than any other party, but it is not a majority. In keeping with the tradition of populists all over the world, Khan and his PTI have abused and ridiculed other parties for so long that no one seems willing to join PTI in a coalition. Even in 2018, PTI only found coalition partners with the help of the military establishment.

Khan’s party claims it has been cheated out of an absolute majority, and its emotionally charged supporters seem willing to take to the streets to demand acceptance of the PTI’s right to form the government. There is no doubt that PTI was denied a level playing field in the elections, as has been the case with any party disfavored by the military establishment in previous Pakistani elections. But past victims of the establishment negotiated with other political parties, bargained with the military and found a way forward.

Each of Pakistan’s major political figures has, at one time or another, colluded with the generals to secure a share in the country’s government. Each one has also been the victim of the high-handedness of the permanent state structure. The ideal outcome for Pakistan would be for the military to withdraw from politics and for politicians to work out compromises with each other, rather than letting the military be the final arbiter of political disputes.

But that seems like even more of a pipedream after the Feb. 8 elections. The entire premise of Imran Khan’s politics has been that his political rivals are either crooks or traitors. He has always preferred dealing with the military and will now want to leverage his popularity for greater power for himself. His political rivals, meanwhile, seem inclined to get together with the military’s blessings and form the next coalition government.

Ironically, although voters may have wanted to rebuke the military elite, the behavior of various political actors, including Khan, might set the stage for continuing the military’s political role. Barring a willingness among politicians to negotiate in good faith, coalition politics will still need someone to broker deals. And if there is violence in the streets, people might clamor again for the military to restore order.

Meanwhile, amid personality-driven politics, Pakistan’s politicians have completely ignored the nation’s economy and frayed foreign relations. Pakistan has to pay back $28 billion in loans over the next two years. It might have to borrow yet again to service existing loans and avoid bankruptcy.

The new government will have to negotiate a new bailout package with the International Monetary Fund and seek support from Pakistan’s traditional backers — China, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. All the donors agree that Pakistan must implement economic reforms before they agree to lend it more money. A government of national unity might be better placed to negotiate with lenders. Instead, Pakistan’s politics are more polarized than ever, its society more fragmented.

The United States has done well by staying away from Pakistan’s electoral fray, beyond demanding an investigation into allegations of election irregularities and saying that the U.S. will work with whichever elected government takes office. U.S. interest in Pakistan has diminished significantly since the withdrawal from Afghanistan, as has American military and economic assistance.

There is a strong streak of anti-Americanism that runs across the political spectrum in Pakistan. Past American efforts to support democracy have only fueled conspiracy theories. Khan, for example, blew up what was a normal diplomatic exchange into a vote-getting conspiracy theory about a U.S. plot against him.

Some American members of Congress, influenced by lobbying from their Pakistani-American constituents, might want a more proactive American role in Pakistan’s internal affairs. But nothing good will come of it from the U.S. point of view. While Pakistan goes through internal convulsions that are not conducive to U.S. engagement beyond what is absolutely necessary, American officials must limit themselves to reiterating their support for Pakistan’s stability and democracy.

India

Police use tear gas against Indian farmers marching to New Delhi to demand guaranteed crop prices (AP)

AP [2/13/2024 3:37 AM, Sheikh Saaliq, 456K, Neutral]
Indian police on Tuesday used tear gas and detained some farmers who clashed with them and tried to break barricades blocking their way to New Delhi to demand guaranteed crop prices in a repeat of 2021 protests, when they camped on the capital’s outskirts for more than a year.

Police dropped tear gas canisters on the protesting farmers from a drone at one of the border points in northern Haryana state that leads to New Delhi, where tens of thousands of farmers are headed on tractors and trucks.

Police have sealed multiple entry points into the capital with barriers of giant metal containers, barbed wire, spikes and cement blocks. The government has banned large gatherings in the capital and suspended internet service in some districts of neighboring Haryana state to prevent communication among the protesters.

The demonstration comes more than two years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi withdrew controversial agriculture laws that had triggered the earlier protests, in which tens of thousands of farmers camped outside the capital through a harsh winter and a devastating COVID-19 surge.

The farmers, who began their march in northern Haryana and Punjab states, are asking for a guaranteed minimum support price for all farm produce. The government protects agricultural producers against any sharp fall in farm prices by announcing a minimum purchase price for certain essential crops at the beginning of the sowing season, taking into account the cost of production.

Farmers are also pressing the government to meet its promise to double their income.

The withdrawal of the agricultural laws in November 2021 was seen as a major retreat by the Modi government. The government at that time said it would set up a panel of farmers and government officials to find ways to ensure support prices for all farm produce. Multiple meetings since then have made no progress.

The march comes just months before a national election in which Modi is widely expected to win a third term.

The protests could pose a significant challenge for Modi and his governing Bharatiya Janata Party as farmers form the most influential voting bloc in India and politicians have long considered it unwise to alienate them. The stakes are high in Harayana and Punjab, where farmers form a sizeable population, as the two states send 23 lawmakers to India’s lower house of Parliament.

“We do not want to break any barricades. We want a resolution of our issues through dialogue. But if they (the government) do nothing, then what will we do? It is our compulsion,” Sarwan Singh Pandher, a leader of one of the farmer groups, told reporters Tuesday.

Pandher said talks between farm leaders and government ministers on Monday failed to produce any consensus on their key demands and the government refused to make a decision.

Some farmer and trade unions have also announced a countrywide rural strike on Friday.

Indian police block roads to halt farmers’ march to New Delhi (Al Jazeera)

Al Jazeera [2/12/2024 7:41 AM, Staff, 2060K, Neutral]
Indian police have blocked roads leading to New Delhi as farmers march towards the capital to press for increased government support.

Government ministers were preparing to meet union leaders on Monday to discuss their demands for better crop prices, which were promised three years ago, amid protests aimed at forcing the repeal of laws designed to deregulate vast agricultural markets.

The roadblocks were set up in a bid to avoid a repeat of the protests in 2021, when thousands of farmers camped out on major highways leading to the country’s capital.

The farmers’ march comes just months before national elections in India, in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is widely expected to win a third term. The country’s millions of farmers form an influential voting bloc and ruling parties try to keep growers on their side.

Television footage showed tractors driving towards Delhi from the northern Indian breadbasket states of Punjab and Haryana. Barriers, including barbed wire fencing and cement blocks, have been erected on the edge of the city. Police also issued orders prohibiting public gatherings in Delhi.

The farmers have come out after a call by union leaders to demand higher support or guaranteed prices for their produce and press the government to meet its promise to double farmers’ income.

“We will move peacefully and our objective is that the government listen to our demands,” Sarvan Singh Pandher, general secretary of Punjab Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee, told news agency ANI.

The government announces support prices for more than 20 crops each year to set a benchmark, but state agencies buy only rice and wheat at the support level, which benefits only about 6 percent of farmers who raise those two crops.

In 2021, tens of thousands of farmers staged a yearlong protest to persuade Modi to repeal three new laws passed the previous year.

The government said the laws were aimed at modernising India’s vast agriculture sector and that they would increase the income of the farmers by giving them more choices to sell their produce.

But the farmers said the laws would give private corporations control over the sector and deprive them of a minimum support price (MSP) guaranteed by the government for their produce.

Amid the pressure, Modi’s administration made a surprise U-turn, rolling back the controversial legislations.

Farmers protest: Delhi turns into fortress as thousand march to India capital (BBC)

BBC [2/12/2024 11:26 PM, Meryl Sebastian and Nikhila Henry, 14192K, Neutral]
Thousands of protesting farmers are marching from neighbouring states to India’s capital Delhi to seek assured prices for their crops

In 2020, farmers had camped at Delhi borders protesting against controversial agricultural reforms.

The year-long protest - in which dozens died - was called off after the government agreed to repeal the laws.

Now the farmers have hit the streets again saying their key demands still haven’t been fulfilled.

Police in Delhi have sealed the borders on three sides of the city, in an attempt to avoid a repeat of 2020 when protesting farmers hunkered down for months, blocking national highways that connect the capital to its neighbouring states. The movement was seen as one of the biggest challenges to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.

Two rounds of talks between farm union leaders and federal ministers have failed to break the deadlock.

Farmers are asking for assured floor prices - also known as minimum support price or MSP - which allows them to sell a majority of their produce at government-controlled wholesale markets or mandis. They are also demanding that the government fulfil its promise of doubling farmers’ income.

The march comes just months before the general elections in which Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is seeking a third term in power. Farmers form one of the most influential voting blocs in India and experts say the government would try not to alienate them ahead of the polls.

On Monday, federal ministers held a six-hour-long meeting with farm union leaders. The two sides reportedly came to an agreement on some of the demands, including the withdrawal of cases registered against protesters during the 2020 agitation.

But there was no consensus on the MSP. In 2021, after the farm laws were repealed, the government had said it would set up a panel to find ways to ensure support prices for all farm produce. But the committee is yet to submit its report.

In the meantime, authorities have deployed barricades, fenced the border with barbed wire and added cement blocks to stop protesters from entering the capital.

Police have also prohibited large gatherings in the city, including at borders points between Delhi and the neighbouring Uttar Pradesh and Haryana states through which the farmers are expected to reach the capital.

In Haryana, the BJP-led state government has suspended internet services in seven districts until Tuesday.

Over 200 farmer unions are participating in the march. "We will move peacefully and our objective is that the government listens to our demands," Sarvan Singh Pandher, general secretary of the Punjab Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee, told the ANI news agency.

Farmers’ and trade unions have also announced a rural strike on 16 February during which no agricultural activities will be carried out. Shops, markets and offices in all villages will be closed while farmers will block major roads across the country.

India Says It Stopped China’s Attempt to Repeat 1962 Border War (Newsweek)

Newsweek [2/12/2024 12:29 PM, Aadil Brar, 2244K, Negative]
India’s home-affairs minister said China tried to bring about a repeat of the 1962 war between the countries during a 2020 border conflict, but New Delhi successfully stood up to Beijing’s aggression.

In a rare move, Amit Shah made the comments in Lok Sabha, India’s lower house of parliament, while taking stock of New Delhi’s performance during the Covid pandemic and discussing other related issues. China and India fought a bloody war in 1962 over the disputed 2,100-mile Line of Actual Control (LAC), which has since shaped the bilateral relationship between two countries with vast populations and hugely important economies.

Since 2020, the two sides have been locked in an intense border stand-off in the Eastern Ladakh region, with thousands of soldiers from both countries still stationed in the frigid Himalayan area. The soldiers exchanged blows on June 15, 2020, when 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese soldiers died.

"During this period, when the COVID pandemic was raging, China showed its real face, like in 1962. We stood firmly to it and didn’t lose an inch of land," Shah said in parliament on Saturday.

The U.S. increasingly considers New Delhi a bulwark against Beijing’s aggressive stance against neighbors in the Indo-Pacific. The U.S. State Department recently approved the sale of 31 MQ-9 Reaper drones to India, which are likely to be deployed along the border with China to improve surveillance of the contested boundary, Reuters reported on February 1.

Newsweek contacted the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi for comment.

India is seeking a restoration of the status that existed before April 2020, when the People’s Liberation Army soldiers were deployed in forward positions along the LAC.

Meanwhile, Beijing has downplayed the ongoing tensions between the countries by calling on New Delhi to look at the broader bilateral relationship while putting the current phase of border tensions aside.

"It is unwise and inappropriate for the Indian side to link the boundary issue with overall relations. This approach is against the two countries’ shared interests," Col. Wu Qian, a spokesperson for China’s defense ministry, recently told reporters in Beijing.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in June 2020 that China hadn’t taken any territory as the controversy over its incursion into territory held by New Delhi continues.

"Neither have they intruded into our border, nor has any post been taken over by them (China). Twenty of our jawans (soldiers) were martyred, but those who dared Bharat Mata, they were taught a lesson," Modi said, according to the Hindustan Times on June 19, 2020.

India urged to ‘speed up’ over detained Jagtar Singh Johal case (BBC)

BBC [2/12/2024 8:25 AM, Staff, 14192K, Neutral]
The foreign secretary has urged the Indian government to "speed up" the case of a Scottish man detained in India for more than six years.

Jagtar Singh Johal, a 37-year-old Sikh activist, faces terror charges in connection with political violence in the north of the country.

Mr Johal’s brother, Gurpreet Singh Johal, met Lord Cameron on Monday.

However, he said he "expected more" from the encounter with the former prime minister.

"The UK government could bring my brother home tomorrow if they really wanted to," he added.

"I said to David Cameron that my brother’s life is in your hands, because the foreign secretary makes the decision, it’s you that can call and bring my brother back home."

The UK government said it was committed to seeing the case resolved.

Mr Johal’s family said his life depended on the foreign secretary’s intervention.

Jagtar Singh Johal, from Dumbarton, was arrested in India in November 2017, just weeks after his wedding there.

A cross-party group of MPs has said that having arrested him, "interrogators electrocuted him, and threatened to douse him in petrol and set him alight".

They also said that to make the torture stop "Jagtar recorded video statements and signed blank pieces of paper".

These allegations have been denied by the Indian authorities. He is currently facing eight charges of conspiracy to murder, linked to political violence in India.

Lord Cameron is the sixth foreign secretary to be in post since Mr Johal’s arrest.

"I take incredibly seriously any case of a British citizen imprisoned in another country," he said.

"As foreign secretary, I’ve looked at the case, I’ve examined all the paperwork, I wanted to meet with the family and hear what they think.

"I want to really stress that as an incoming foreign secretary, you don’t just accept what the government has said up to now, you really look at it, you really ask the questions."

The previous foreign secretary, James Cleverly, met the family and spoke to India about Mr Johal’s detainment.

However, he did not call for his release.

"That the Indian government has got to speed up this case," Lord Cameron added.

"We also want to keep the consular access that we’ve had.

"What I’ve said to the family, is that I’m going to go back to my office, I’m going to look at the paperwork all over again, I’m going to take into account what they’ve said and see whether there’s a different approach we should be taking.

"I’ve made absolutely no promises that it will be different, but I take these cases very seriously and I will re-examine everything and make sure that we are doing the right thing."

Definitive answer

Jagtar Singh Johal’s brother Gurpreet Singh Johal, who is a lawyer and Labour councillor, thanked Lord Cameron for meeting him but he had "no good answers to my questions".

"I expected more," he said. "I expected answers from the UK government as to why they’ve not called for Jagtar’s release - he didn’t do that.

"He promised to come back to me with a proper definitive answer soon - and I’m going to hold him to that."

Mr Johal said not being able to speak to his brother was heart-breaking for the entire family.

It was his 37th birthday on Friday and his family were unable to reach him in prison for a scheduled phone call.

"No-one is suggesting [Lord Cameron] should browbeat India," said Mr Johal. "He just needs to work constructively with their government to negotiate my brother’s return.

"The reality is that ‘consular access’ means one visit every six weeks, and a note to the family about whether Jagtar gets video calls or has a TV in his cell.

"It’s pathetic that this is the extent of the UK government’s concerns when a British national is arbitrarily detained for six years and counting, on the basis of a torture confession."

He said the foreign secretary had committed to scheduling a follow-up meeting.

Mr Johal’s trial for the eight most serious cases against him started in 2022 but he still has not been convicted of any crime.

In May 2022, a UN panel of human rights experts found his detention was arbitrary - in other words lacked legal basis - and he should be released.

The High Commission of India in London insist "due process" under Indian law is being followed in the case.

A spokesperson said: "Mr Johal is facing criminal trials in no less than eight cases of hate crimes with charges relating to extremely serious offences including terror crimes, conspiracy to murder, and merciless assassinations of people belongings to different faiths.

"He has been charged under appropriate provisions under the Indian laws after extensive investigations by national agencies.

"Due process is being followed under Indian laws, to which he will be subjected as the crimes for which he is charged have been committed in India.

"As his cases are before courts in India, it is for the courts to decide the next steps in his case, not the government of either country."

India’s Elite Worries About America (Wall Street Journal – opinion)

Wall Street Journal [2/12/2024 6:20 PM, Walter Russell Mead, 810K, Neutral]
I spoke at the Global Business Summit, a conference organized here by an Indian media group, and spent several days talking to Indian business leaders, journalists and senior government officials. Most were very optimistic about the country’s prospects. India’s economic growth is trending at about 7% a year, and a massive infrastructure push is transforming the country. The flight of foreign (and Chinese) capital from China is driving investment to India, with companies such as Apple moving electronics production here.

From the standpoint of government officials and many in the business world, there’s more. The Bharatiya Janata Party government is heavily favored in parliamentary elections this spring. With an approval rating of 78%, Prime Minister Narendra Modi remains the most popular leader in the democratic world and appears headed for a third term. Businesses like certainty, and even corporate chieftains who don’t share the BJP’s Hindu nationalism support a strong, stable and reasonably pro-business government in New Delhi.

All this good news is a heady brew, but the officials I spoke with were anything but triumphalist. What sobers them is the gathering storm on the international horizon. The near-closure of the Red Sea by the Iran-backed Houthi militia is a direct threat to Indian trade with Europe and North America. Upheavals across the Middle East threaten the economic corridor through the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Israel—a corridor that New Delhi hopes will boost trade and investment. Western efforts to isolate Russia have, in New Delhi’s view, driven it into China’s arms, creating serious problems for India.

China casts a long shadow across the region. India’s neighbor and would-be rival Pakistan has moved steadily into China’s orbit. Beijing’s debt-trap diplomacy has given it leverage in Sri Lanka. China has tightened its links with Maldives. The civil war in Myanmar offers China opportunities to increase its influence in that resource-rich country. Chinese businesses and diplomats are working to solidify their influence across Africa.

At the end of the day, though, what worries India’s leaders most isn’t China. It’s the U.S. India’s security and prosperity are closely tied to the U.S. and the international system Americans have done so much to build. Does the U.S. have the will and wisdom to keep the system afloat? Is America still ready to do what it takes to keep the peace in the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific? Is the American political system still capable of producing leaders who can navigate rough global seas?

Indians read the American news. They know that a special counsel appointed by President Biden’s attorney general issued a report saying that the president appeared too elderly to remember basic facts. They also know that Mr. Biden’s leading political rival threatened to blow up the North Atlantic Treaty Organization over some members’ unwillingness to honor their commitments to contribute to the common defense. They know that Mr. Biden’s national security adviser boasted last year that the Middle East was calmer than it had been in decades, days before Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks touched off a crisis that the U.S. still struggles to manage.

India wants to reform the existing international system (among other things, to gain a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council), but it needs that system to work. The safety of sea lanes like the Red Sea, stable access to reasonably priced fossil fuels from the Persian Gulf, opportunities for Indian exports around the world—these are necessary for India to prosper.

As that system has come under attack, Indian diplomacy has shifted into high gear. One focus is the Persian Gulf. After speaking at the Global Business Summit, Prime Minister Modi will travel this week to inaugurate a Hindu temple in the U.A.E. Indians meanwhile celebrated the release of eight Indian naval officers who had been sentenced to death by Qatar on charges of spying for a “third country,” widely assumed to be Israel.

As the prime minister prepared to fly west, External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar was at the Indian Ocean Conference in Perth, Australia. He warned participants of “conflict, threats to maritime traffic, piracy and terrorism” on one side of the Indian Ocean and challenges to international law and the freedom of navigation on the other.

Mr. Modi and his cabinet understand how closely Indian and American interests converge. They are asking whether Washington can still summon the intellectual coherence and political energy to do what needs to be done.

It is a question many of America’s friends are asking. I wish I knew the answer.

NSB

Bangladesh, a bastion of female empowerment, lags on democracy (Nikkei Asia – opinion)

Nikkei Asia [2/12/2024 9:08 PM, Toru Takahashi, 293K, Negative]
Two strong, prominent female leaders have found themselves facing very different political futures in neighboring countries on the Bay of Bengal.

On Feb. 1, Myanmar marked the third anniversary of the military takeover that overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Suu Kyi, who led the civilian government as state counselor, was detained and has been convicted on myriad charges in what critics call sham trials. The country’s democratic forces, shorn of the charismatic leader, are mired in an armed struggle with the army.

In Bangladesh, the ruling Awami League achieved a resounding victory in the general election on Jan. 7, which was boycotted by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). The vote paved the way for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s fourth consecutive term and her fifth overall, making her the longest-serving female head of state in the world.

Hasina’s quest for leadership has been driven by a bitter and emotionally charged rivalry with another woman: former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia.

After Bangladesh gained independence from Pakistan in 1971, its first president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was assassinated in a military coup in 1975. One of the masterminds behind the killing was Gen. Ziaur Rahman. After he became president in 1977, he established the BNP to counter the Awami League, which once had been led by Mujibur Rahman. When he was assassinated in 1981 amid internal military conflict, his wife, Khaleda Zia, took over as the party leader. That same year, Hasina, Mujibur Rahman’s eldest daughter, was entrusted with the leadership of the Awami League and returned home after six years in exile.

Following Bangladesh’s democratization in 1990, the Awami League and the BNP fiercely contested the 1991 general election. After the BNP won, Zia became prime minister. Over the ensuing 33 years, Zia has held power for a total of 10 years and Hasina 21 years, excluding two years of interim government during political turmoil.

Last April, I had the opportunity to interview Hasina in Dhaka, the nation’s capital. During the interview, she gave me a list of statistics for 2022 that showed impressive improvements in 53 areas -- including economic growth, poverty, school enrollment and electrification -- since 2006, the last year of the Zia government. I glimpsed the deep and persistent sense of rivalry that Hasina feels against Zia in the fact that she picked 2006 as the year for comparison over any other year, including 2009, when she regained power, never to lose again.

There is no denying that the two women have led the country’s development and progress.

Bangladesh now ranks 59th out of 146 countries in gender equality, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2023. In Asia, it is behind only the Philippines (16th), Singapore (49th) and Laos (54th); Taiwan was not included. Bangladesh has made great strides since its No. 91 ranking in 2006, the year the WEF began publishing the report.

The empowerment of women has advanced in Bangladesh, though it is an Islamic country where women’s actions are often restricted, thanks to several political and economic factors.

First, on the political front, the constitution enacted in 1972 mandated a parliamentary quota for women. Initially 15 seats, or 5% of the total, were allocated to women, but the quota has gradually been raised to 50 seats, or 14% of the total.

While the rises of Hasina and Zia to prime minister owed much to their pedigrees, the public has accepted their leadership partly due to the political climate conducive to women’s social advancement.

On the economic side, Bangladesh has seen a remarkable rise in the global garment industry.

The Multifiber Arrangement, an international trade agreement introduced in 1974, imposed country-specific caps on clothing exports from developing countries to Western nations, sending manufacturers in places like South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan scurrying to find alternative production sites. They found a place in Bangladesh, which has since become the major recipient of their investments.

"Before the development of the garment sector, work for Bangladeshi women was limited to domestic chores, farm processing or the sex industry," said Mayumi Murayama, executive vice president at the Japan External Trade Organization’s Institute of Developing Economies. "The country’s abundant labor and population density has met the needs of the sewing industry, revolutionizing women’s role and standing in society."

About 4,000 factories in the sewing industry now employ 4 million people, supplying global brands like H&M, Gap and Fast Retailing’s Uniqlo. The industry accounts for over 80% of the nation’s exports.

According to the World Trade Organization, Bangladesh’s clothing exports totaled $45 billion in 2022, making it the world’s second-largest garment exporter, with a 7.9% share. Industry leader China had a 31.7% share.

With its economy growing at annual rates of around 6% to 7% over the last 20 years, Bangladesh is poised to leave the United Nations’ classification as a least developed country in two years, an achievement clearly owing to women’s economic power.

The Hasina government has appointed women to ministerial and other key posts, and has made public education for girls free up to high school. According to material I received during the interview with Hasina, women’s labor participation doubled from 21% in 2006 to 43% in 2022.

However, what the "Hasina papers" did not mention was the country’s steady decline in democratization.

In the World Bank’s annual rankings on democratization, Bangladesh fell from 142nd in 2006 to 150th in 2023. When Hasina first became prime minister, in 1996, it had been much higher, at 101st.

In 1996, the Zia administration introduced a system of caretaker transitional governments to end the cycle of political turmoil. The system, adopted as a concession to the then-opposition Awami League, brought victory to Hasina’s party in that year’s election and secured fair elections for a while, with each nonpartisan caretaker government following a vote that brought a transfer of power.

However, when Hasina returned to power as prime minister in 2009, she amended the constitution, abolishing the caretaker system she once demanded -- laying the ground for her long reign. Now the BNP is the one calling for the revival of the caretaker arrangement.

To solidify power, Hasina also prosecuted Zia, who remains under de facto house arrest, and continues a crackdown on the weakened BNP. With over 20,000 party executives and supporters detained before the latest general election, the BNP had little choice but to boycott the poll. Despite mounting pressure from Western powers to hold free and fair elections, Hasina remained unfazed, calling the opposition party a terrorist organization.

Bangladesh, while designating Islam as the state religion, is basically secular and relatively tolerant of other faiths -- a position well reflected in its respect for gender diversity.

It seems only natural that economic development and the rise of an urban middle class would lead to greater democratization, but Bangladesh has seen a sharp deterioration in democracy more than three decades after such a process began.

In some Asian countries, perfunctory elections have been used as a tool to prolong and justify authoritarian regimes, like in Cambodia, which held polls last July to select representatives of its lower house, and Pakistan, which is headed toward general elections on March 8.

Even aside from the violent political turmoil in Myanmar, the deepening authoritarianism in Bangladesh serves as a painful reminder of the growing risk to global democracy.

Bhutan’s new mega-city could mean the end of the planet’s most peaceful place (The Telegraph)

The Telegraph [2/12/2024 8:30 PM, Sarah Marshall, 1824K, Neutral]
“One of our biggest challenges is being seen as this locked-up mountain kingdom,” a Bhutanese politician complained to me during my visit to the tiny Himalayan land of the thunder dragon in late 2022. I’d come to join the prime minister, members of government and enthusiastic locals on an inaugural hike along the new Trans Bhutan Trail – a revived network of ancient trading paths.

Like many of the tourists in my party, I’d been lured by the mystery of what lay behind the golden temples and snow-capped peaks of a country which only opened to tourism 50 years ago.

Bhutan’s drawcard has always been its elusiveness. A nation built on the principles of Buddhism and a philosophy of “Gross National Happiness” seems so foreign and exotic in a world booming and busting under capitalism that Bhutan may as well be on Mars.

Education and healthcare are free, there are no advertising billboards or major fast-food chains (junk food addicts in capital city Thimphu have their own KFC – Karma Fried Chicken) and this was the first country in the world to be declared carbon negative. It all adds up to a real-life Shangri-La.

But things are inevitably changing. At the end of last year in an address to the nation, King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck announced ambitious plans for a new urban development intending to put Bhutan on the economic map. Spanning 250,000 acres (2.5 per cent of the mountainous country), Gelephu Mindfulness City will include residential neighbourhoods, healthcare, spiritual and cultural centres, a university and an airport.

“The Gelephu Masterplan gives form to His Majesty’s vision to create a city that becomes a cradle for growth and innovation while remaining founded on Bhutanese nature and culture,” says Bjarke Ingels, founder and creative director of Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), the architects commissioned to see through the ambitious project. “We imagine the Mindfulness City as a place that could be nowhere else.”

It’s a commendable concept; an attempt to balance the demands of economic development with the needs of spiritual wellbeing. But the cynic in me wonders if that’s humanly possible. Could Bhutan’s lofty urban dream end up being nothing more than a Buddhist Disneyland or a nirvanic Center Parcs?

Tuning in to the outside world

To be fair, Bhutan’s rulers have been in a tricky situation for some time. A mass exodus of disillusioned youth seeking better job opportunities in Australia, India and Kuwait has resulted in 14,000 people (2 per cent of the population) leaving the country between 2018 and 2023, according to data from Paro International Airport.

“Unless we find the right solution, our population may dwindle to the point where we have more shops than customers, more restaurants than diners, and more houses than tenants,” said His Majesty in his public address.

When I first visited Bhutan in 2010, internet connection was patchy. Now 3G is everywhere and the trappings of a materialistic outside world are hard to resist. Even before that, the arrival of TV sets had an impact. “We used to eat dinner in a circle, but now we all sit in a U-shape,” one Bhutanese local joked to me.

Bitcoin and biodiversity

The need for development is there but it undoubtedly comes at a cost – usually that’s the environment. Part of the Mindfulness City masterplan involves a new hydroelectric dam, an industry that’s overtaken tourism as the country’s primary source of revenue.

But organisers insist nature is at the forefront of the project: residential areas will be low-density and low-rise, transport will run on clean energy, and biodiversity corridors will allow elephants and other wildlife to move freely. Considering electricity lines in the Phobjikha Valley were carefully laid underground to avoid disturbing flocks of black-necked cranes arriving from Tibet every October, it’s highly conceivable these claims will be followed through.

Besides, plans for future development are mainly in the less invasive tech sphere: blockchain projects, green cryptocurrency mining and drone testing are already underway. “With our cool temperatures and hydro power, we could become a major hub for data centres,” one ambitious Bhutanese politician told me.

The Bhutan blueprint

Bitcoins are a world away from the auspicious pennies showering Buddhas in temples, but all these changes have positive benefits for tourism too. Regarded by pilots as one of the most difficult airports in which to land, Paro has limited flights and expensive seats sell out quickly. A new airport in a better location will undoubtedly make access easier.

Jigme Dorji, a local guide working through the TravelLocal platform, predicts that the Mindfulness City could even be a blueprint for future tourism.

“It comes at a time when slow travel and prioritising rest and wellbeing is at the forefront of travellers’ minds. There are aspects of Bhutanese tourism which position the country as a pioneer that we could all learn from – especially preservation of cultural traditions and avoiding overtourism.”

Bhutan has always been a master of intrigue: no doubt visitors will flock to Gelephu simply to see what it’s like.

“It will take the collective effort of every Bhutanese to make this a success,” says a spokesperson for the Bhutanese Mindfulness City media team, aware of the many challenges ahead. “Bhutan will have to make up in energy and ingenuity what it lacks in numbers and economic capacity.”

The gates to the kingdom are well and truly open. Time will tell if its potential can be unlocked.

Sri Lankan Leftist Coalition’s India Visit Raises its Profile (The Diplomat)

The Diplomat [2/12/2024 6:03 AM, Rathindra Kuruwita, 201K, Neutral]
Sri Lanka’s National People’s Power (NPP), a leftist coalition led by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), recently visited India at the invitation of the Indian government. The visit is significant; it underscores the emergence of the NPP as a major political force in Sri Lanka, one that is being courted by major powers.

During its five-day official visit to India, which began on February 5, the NPP delegation held meetings with senior Indian officials, including External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, toured key agricultural and industrial hubs, and visited key business giants like Tata Motors and the Indian multinational cooperative society, Amul. The delegation visited New Delhi, Ahmedabad, and Thiruvananthapuram.

Formed in 2015 with the JVP as its core, the NPP comprises around 28 political parties and workers unions, women’s organizations, etc., and is led by JVP chief, Anura Kumara Dissanayaka.

Since its formation, it has been considered by its political opponents as a fringe political alliance with no prospects of coming to power. The NPP performed poorly in the 2019 presidential election and the 2020 general election: its presidential candidate, Dissanayaka, secured just 3 percent of the votes, and it won just three seats in the Sri Lankan parliamentary election.

However, its political fortunes seem to be improving over the last couple of years.

Even its adversaries admit that the NPP has emerged as the most successful force in post-aragalaya (the powerful anti-government protests of 2022) Sri Lanka. A recent opinion poll conducted by the Institute for Health Policy (IHP) indicated that if elections were to be held now, the NPP would have a significant lead over the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), Sri Lanka’s main opposition party, in terms of voter preference.

Since the mass protests of 2022, the NPP has focused on grassroots mobilization, capitalizing on the economic crisis and delegitimization of the ruling political forces.

The then-ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), which is led by the Rajapaksa family, bore the brunt of public dissatisfaction for causing the economic downturn. The protests forced the resignation of several members of the family, including President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Their exit led to an SLPP-backed government headed by President Ranil Wickremesinghe of the United National Party (UNP). The SLPP and the UNP are currently implementing an International Monetary Fund (IMF)-dictated austerity program that is hugely unpopular in the country.

With the center-right SJB, whose economic policy is dictated by economists supportive of IMF policies, failing to capitalize on the mass discontent due to the limitations of its political agenda, space has opened up for the NPP to take on a larger role in opposition politics.

It is increasingly evident that the NPP is a major political force in Sri Lanka today and the possibility of it winning the presidential and general elections that are to be held this year cannot be ruled out.

Dismayed by the growing mass support for the NPP, politicians from the SLPP, UNP, and SJB have increasingly invested in a narrative that the leftist coalition has little standing in the international community.

Contrary to such claims, several institutions like the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and the IMF, as well as members of the Western diplomatic corps, have been reaching out to engage NPP leaders.

Another common claim made by the NPP’s rivals is that it leans toward China and that India views the party unfavorably given the JVP’s anti-Indian past.

When the JVP was established in the mid-1960s as a breakaway group of the Community Party – Peking Wing, one of the main ideas it espoused was “anti-Indian expansionism.” In the late 1980s, the JVP again returned to this theme following the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord, which led to the implementation of the 13th amendment to the constitution and the arrival of the Indian Peacekeeping Force.

Since its return to mainstream politics in the mid-1990s, the JVP has avoided similar anti-Indian rhetoric. However, the party has been at the forefront of efforts to block the sale of strategic Sri Lankan assets to India.

While an NPP delegation did visit China in December following an official invitation from the Communist Party of China, it followed up on that visit with one to India.

The recent invitation from the Indian government and the fact that both Jaishankar and Doval met the NPP delegation indicates that New Delhi sees the NPP as a major political force in Sri Lanka, one that it cannot ignore.

The India visit is a major public relations victory for the NPP. Dissanayaka was described by India’s influential English daily, The Hindu, as the “island nation’s most popular politician.” The visit is likely to have alleviated fears of international isolation under NPP rule among Sri Lanka’s middle class.

The Sri Lankan political establishment, i.e. the SLPP, UNP and SJB, are trying to downplay the importance of the NPP’s India visit and portraying it as an example of the unprincipled nature of the NPP.

Simultaneously, India too has benefited from its recent engagement with the NPP delegation by establishing personal connections with key figures, notably Dissanayaka, potentially the country’s future executive president. This engagement serves to mitigate concerns about potential anti-Indian sentiments in the NPP/JVP leadership. The reaction to the visit by other political parties underscores the need for a Sri Lankan political party to have cordial relations with India.

The NPP visit has prompted several other Sri Lankan politicians to visit India and seek audiences with Indian politicians. Namal Rajapaksa, the son of Mahinda Rajapaksa who is being groomed as a future leader, is already in India. The SJB, which is one of the biggest casualties of the NPP visit, is reported to have asked the Indian High Commission in Colombo to arrange a visit to India.

Sri Lankan politicians seeking Indian blessing is also a win for the Indian foreign policy establishment at a time when India’s relationship with its neighbors is at a low.

However, it is unlikely that the NPP’s visit to India would bring a drastic change in its stance toward its giant neighbor. While the NPP is not an anti-India party, one of the main reasons for its popularity is that it has fought against the selling of national assets to foreign companies.

It has campaigned against India’s Adani Group taking control over Sri Lankan ports, renewable energy, and airports. Leaders and associates of the NPP are also at the forefront of the movement against the sale of the National Livestock Development Board (NLDB) to India’s Amul.

While the visit has improved relations between the NPP and India and showcased the former as a major political force in Sri Lanka, the divergence on the Adani issue underscores the complexities that will dog their relationship.

India finds itself at a crossroads, balancing the benefits of cultivating ties with the influential coalition against the NPP’s unwavering opposition to certain economic collaborations.

Central Asia

Kazakh Journalist Goes On Trial On Extremism Charges (Radio Free Europe)

Radio Free Europe [2/12/2024 6:22 AM, Staff, 223K, Neutral]
Independent Kazakh journalist Duman Mukhammedkarim known for his articles critical of the government went on trial on February 12 on extremism charges that he, his supporters, and rights defenders call politically motivated.

A court in the southern town of Qonaev did not allow journalists to attend the trial and agreed to a request by prosecutors to hold the court proceedings behind closed doors.

The court also rejected motions by Mukhammedkarim’s lawyer to grant her client an additional 15 days to fully familiarize himself with the case materials as well as allow him to be transferred to house arrest.

Dozens of Mukhammedkarim’s supporters gathered in front of the court’s building, chanting "Freedom!"

Mukhammedkarim, whose Ne Deidi? (What Do They Say?) YouTube channel is extremely popular in Kazakhstan, was sent to pretrial detention in June 2023 on charges of financing an extremist group and participating in a banned group’s activities.

The charges against Mukhammedkarim stem from his online interview with the fugitive banker and outspoken critic of the Kazakh government, Mukhtar Ablyazov, whose Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) movement was labeled as extremist and banned in the country in March 2018.

If convicted, Mukhammedkarim could be sentenced to up to 12 years in prison.

Domestic and international rights organizations have urged Kazakh authorities to drop all charges against Mukhammedkarim and immediately release him. Kazakh rights defenders have recognized Mukhammedkarim as "political prisoner."

Rights watchdogs have criticized the authorities in the tightly controlled former Soviet republic for persecuting dissent, but Astana has shrugged the criticism off, saying there are no political prisoners in the country.

Kazakhstan was had been ruled by authoritarian President Nursultan Nazarbaev since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 until current President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev succeeded him in 2019.

Over the past three decades, several opposition figures have been killed and many jailed or forced to flee the country.

Toqaev, who broadened his powers after Nazarbaev and his family left the oil-rich country’s political scene following deadly, unprecedented anti-government protests in January 2022, has promised political reforms and more freedoms for citizens.

However, many in Kazakhstan consider the reforms announced by Toqaev to be cosmetic, as a crackdown on dissent has continued even after the president announced his "New Kazakhstan" program.

Japarov Accuses U.S. Of Interfering In Kyrgyzstan’s Internal Affairs (Radio Free Europe)

Radio Free Europe [2/12/2024 6:53 AM, Eleonora Beishenbek-kyzy, 223K, Negative]
Kyrgyzstan has published the text of a letter by President Sadyr Japarov to U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, in which the Central Asian nation’s leader accused the United States of interfering in his country’s internal affairs.

On February 9, the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry said minister Jeenbek Kulubaev met with the U.S. Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan Lesslie Viguerie and handed over Japarov’s response to a letter by Blinken that reportedly expressed concern over ongoing discussions by Kyrgyz lawmakers of a controversial bill that would allow authorities to register organizations as "foreign representatives," legislation that critics say mirrors repressive Russian laws on "foreign agents."

"I have to note with regret that the content of your letter has signs of interference in the internal affairs of our state," Japarov’s letter -- published by his spokesman Askat Alagozov -- said.

"Today, there are tens of thousands of nongovernmental/nonprofit organizations that are successfully working throughout Kyrgyzstan," the letter continued, adding that there is "a problem directly related to the protection of the legitimate interests of the Kyrgyz state."

Japarov also wrote that the bill in question "is close to the current Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) adopted in the U.S.A. in 1938."

FARA is only triggered when an entity or an individual engages in political activity in the United States.

According to Japarov, some groups in his country that receive funds from abroad "often disseminate false and unreliable information."

In his letter, Japarov closes by saying his country is "ready to work" with the United States, adding: "My only request -- not to interfere in the internal affairs of our country."

Last month, the Kyrgyz parliament’s committee for constitutional laws approved the bill in question in the first reading. Further discussion of the controversial draft law is pending.

According to the draft, noncommercial organizations and media outlets that receive foreign funding and are engaged in broadly defined "political" activities will be obliged to report about their activities to the authorities. The legislation will also introduce wide oversight powers by the authorities and potential criminal sanctions for undefined criminal offences.

Dozens of nongovernmental organizations in Kyrgyzstan and international rights watchdogs have called on Kyrgyz lawmakers to reject the bill, insisting that it could be used by the authorities to discredit those labeled as "foreign representatives" and to stifle dissent.

Kyrgyzstan: Japarov hits back at U.S. over NGO bill criticism (EurasiaNet)

EurasiaNet [2/12/2024 4:14 PM, Ayzirek Imanaliyeva, 57.6K, Neutral]
The president of Kyrgyzstan has lashed out at the U.S. government over its criticism of proposed changes to the law that stand to severely complicate the operations of local nongovernmental groups.

Sadyr Japarov said in his February 12 note to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the concerns voiced by Washington were based on inaccurate information provided by foreign-funded NGOs whose leadership he cast as thieving money-grabbers.

“Such unreliable sources speculate on their ‘difficulties’ and ‘persecutions,’ which, in turn, force sponsoring foreign structures to follow their lead, engage in wastefulness, wasting money of taxpayers in the United States and [European Union] countries,” Japarov said in the letter, written in English.

The Kyrgyz leader was responding to a letter sent to him last month by Blinken, who expressed his misgivings over a so-called “foreign representatives” law, which was approved in its first reading in parliament in October. In its current form, this bill, which is modeled on a Russian law adopted in 2012, requires any organizations receiving funding from abroad for the purpose of what government bodies deem to be political activity to register as “foreign representatives.”

Critics of the proposed new rules complain that tightened bureaucratic requirements will make it unsustainable for many NGOs to continue existing.

Blinken reportedly said the bill as it stands “threatens Kyrgyz citizens’ access to vital services such as health care and education through programs run by NGOs with support from the U.S. government and international partners.”

“Some U.S. implementing partners are so concerned about this law … they are considering the possibility of a preventive termination of their activities in the Kyrgyz Republic,” Blinken said in the letter, whose contents have been reported by 24.kg news agency.

In a statement released last week, Amnesty International worried that changes made to the “foreign representatives” bill in January threatens to broaden the category of people liable to be penalized.

The “vague, expansive, and ambiguous language gives the authorities excessively discretionary powers to target NGOs for carrying out their legitimate work, including advocacy on public policies that affect the whole spectrum of human rights, including the right to a healthy environment,” Amnesty said.

Japarov was intemperate in his response to Blinken, accusing the United States of hypocrisy.

“The concept of the draft law initiated by members of the Kyrgyz Parliament is close to the current Foreign Agents Registration Act … adopted in the USA in 1938,” he wrote. “The question cannot help but arise: Why is it possible for you, but not for us?”

He reserved stronger condemnation for critics of the bill, however.

“Over the past three decades, a ‘layer’ of non-governmental/non-profit organizations that receive funding from abroad has appeared in our country (in Kyrgyz society they are called ‘grant eaters’), whose leaders have turned them, in fact, into ‘family enterprises,’ engaged in ‘sawing off’ the money coming from foreign sponsors,” Japarov wrote, deploying translations of Russian slang terms.

Elsewhere, the president played down the value of NGOs, arguing that structures had willed into existence since coming to power in October 2020 were more than up to the job.

“Feedback has been established between the authorities and the people through the People’s Kurultai,” he said.

That was an allusion to a new permanent branch of government that has been created at Japarov’s behest and that will convene periodically to rubber stamp his policies and lend them an imprimatur of popular legitimacy.

A maiden edition of the two-day People’s Kurultai was held in December and was attended by 700 delegates from across the country. Discussions reportedly touched on border issues, education, the provision of clean drinking and irrigation water, agriculture, the justice system, corruption, the environment, and the state of the nation’s roads, among other topics.

Report: Beard-wearers singled out for harassment in Uzbekistan (EurasiaNet)

EurasiaNet [2/12/2024 4:14 PM, Staff, 57.6K, Neutral]
The authorities in Uzbekistan have reportedly embarked on a fresh wave of harassment against men wearing beards, sparking concerns about a worsening climate for religious freedoms.

RFE/RL’s Uzbek service, Radio Ozodlik, reported on February 11 that police patrolling the Techno-Olam shopping complex in Tashkent one Friday earlier this month detained at least 10 people with facial hair.

Traders at the market, which is popularly known as Malika, said detainees were later taken to a nearby police precinct and made to shave under threat of imprisonment.

“More than 10 believers were detained last Friday and were given an ultimatum: shave the beards or face 15 days in jail,” one unnamed trader told the U.S.-funded broadcaster.

Another eyewitness claimed that similar raids are now taking place almost weekly.

“A slight beard growth triggers demands for shaving, and people with long beards are escorted to the police station,” the eyewitness is reported to have said.

Police officials contacted by Ozodlik, however, denied these accounts and said that the heightened police presence at the bazaar around the period of Friday prayers was purely in the interests of maintaining public order.

But concerns have been expressed elsewhere that the Uzbek government is backsliding on religious freedoms, despite a recent trend toward improvement.

In a statement in May, Human Rights Watch accused the authorities of obstructing the official recognition of religious groups, imposing random restrictions on individuals previously imprisoned for their religious beliefs, and using broadly defined and imprecisely articulated legislation as grounds for prosecuting pious Muslims.

“President Shavkat Mirziyoyev received credit early on for initiating reforms granting more religious freedoms in Uzbekistan, but what we’re seeing today is a mixed record, in which serious abuses occur with impunity,” Mihra Rittmann, a Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch, said at the time.

Similar language was deployed by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom in September in response to reports that religious figures had been subjected to raids, that some Muslim men were being forced to shave their beards and that school administrators were making schoolgirls remove their hijabs.

USCIRF Commissioner Nury Turkel said these incidents were sufficient grounds for the U.S. government to consider placing Uzbekistan on its Special Watch List.

“Unfortunately, we’re seeing the reemergence of practices that only serve to intimidate believers of all kinds and suppress religious expression,” Turkel said.

As of the end of 2023, the one former Soviet republic included in the Special Watch List Countries was Azerbaijan.

Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, meanwhile, are listed as Countries of Particular Concern, which is the designation envisioned under the U.S. International Religious Freedom Act for governments assessed as engaging in severe violations of religious freedom, characterized by systematic actions such as torture, prolonged detention without charges, and forced disappearances.

Indo-Pacific

Indian Ocean Leaders Warn of Threats to Shipping, Stability (The Diplomat)

The Diplomat [2/12/2024 4:14 PM, Grant Wyeth, 201K, Neutral]
On Friday and Saturday last week the seventh Indian Ocean Conference was held in Perth, Western Australia. The conference was an opportunity for Indian Ocean rim countries – and those that rely on the region – to discuss the pressing issues within the Indian Ocean, and float ideas to address emerging problems. The theme of the conference was “Towards a Stable and Sustainable Indian Ocean” and the keynote addresses were delivered by Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong and India’s Minister for External Affairs, S. Jaishankar.

While stability and sustainability could be interpreted in a multitude of ways, the more direct, yet undeclared, theme of the conference was China. Although the official government representatives speaking at the conference were reluctant to mention China by name, all who advocated for an agreed-upon set of rules and norms in the Indian Ocean region were discussing Beijing in practice. There are, of course, other threats to regular trade and safe passage in the region – like Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea – but these don’t pose the structural challenges that China does.

The primary concern is that Beijing’s willful violations of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in the South China Sea may lead to China ignoring UNCLOS in the Indian Ocean as well. As Wong stated in her address: “The countries gathered here are no strangers to strategic competition – and you are also no strangers to its costs. As expanding military powers take a greater interest in our region, we each need to sharpen our focus on what our interests are, and how to work together to uphold them.”

In his keynote address, Jaishankar also made note of the threats to stability, both from non-state actors and from China’s attempts to revise to agreed-upon rules and norms. “As we gaze at the Indian Ocean, the challenges besetting the world are on full display there,” the Indian external affairs minister said. “At one extremity, we see conflict, threats to maritime traffic, piracy and terrorism. At the other, there are challenges to international law, concerns about freedom of navigation and overflights, and of safeguarding of sovereignty and of independence. Any disregard for arduously negotiated regimes like UNCLOS 1982 is naturally disturbing.”

Freedom of navigation is something most of us take for granted. The interconnected nature of the global economy means that most of the products that we rely upon for our daily lives have come to us via ship. We expect these products to be in our stores without thinking about how they actually got there, and the efforts it has taken – both diplomatically and in terms of security – to guarantee that these products will be available.

It was Singapore’s foreign minister, Vivian Balakrishnan, who made this point:

The moment a ship leaves Perth, or Colombo, or Mumbai, or Singapore, that ship does not have to seek permission from anyone or pay rental to anyone to decide where it is going to call, wherever it is in the world. That is the legal and economic significance of freedom of navigation. Even if you have to traverse territorial seas, or straits used for international navigation, you assert the right of innocent passage, you get to go through, you pay no one, you seek no permissions. Now, this is critical, even today, for economic lifeblood.

This freedom of navigation exists because states have agreed that it is in everyone’s interest. It was notable that smaller states at the conference – including landlocked ones like Nepal and Bhutan, which also rely on the Indian Ocean – were keen to emphasize their own concerns about challenges to UNCLOS. It is smaller states that benefit the most from mutually beneficial rules and norms, as they often lack the muscle to protect their own interests.

This was a point acknowledged by Wong, who stressed the desire for a “region that is peaceful and predictable…Where a larger country does not determine the fate of a smaller country.” Such a region relies on a “credible military capability” that can make the risks of challenging these norms far too great.

Which leads to the other elephant in the conference room – the United States. We have all been fortunate to live during a period where the world’s most powerful state has acted as a guarantor of freedom of navigation. This has enabled a period of extraordinary prosperity for many, and a reduction in extreme poverty for others. Yet a burgeoning disinterest in being such a guarantor – especially within the Republican Party – is the other major threat to stability in the Indo-Pacific.

This trend makes the concerns about China expressed at the Indian Ocean Conference all the more nerve-wracking.

Twitter

Afghanistan

Abdul Qahar Balkhi
@QaharBalkhi
[2/12/2024 12:14 PM, 230.6K followers, 27 retweets, 171 likes]
Two Afghans held in the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison, Mullah Abdul Zahir Saber detained 05/10/2002 & Haji Abdul Karim detained 08/14/2002, then transferred to the Sultanate of Oman in 2017 having spent 7 years there were released & returned to Afghanistan this morning

Abdul Qahar Balkhi
@QaharBalkhi
[2/12/2024 12:14 PM, 230.6K followers, 21 likes]
as a result of the continuous efforts the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan expresses its gratitude and appreciation to the fraternal Sultanate of Oman for hosting & taking care of the two individuals.

Heather Barr
@heatherbarr1
[2/13/2024 12:32 AM, 62.2K followers, 10 retweets, 27 likes]
Three important new reports from @WRNnews look at the dire situation Afghan women face inside their own country and in exile in Pakistan and India. Essential reading. https://www.womensregionalnetwork.org/wrncommunityconversations

SIGAR
@SIGARHQ
[2/12/2024 11:00 AM, 169K followers, 5 retweets, 15 likes]
UN reported close to 500 schools & over 100 health facilities were each within one kilometer (0.62 miles) of explosive hazard & over 60 people killed/injured every month by unexploded ordnance in Afghanistan https://sigar.mil/pdf/quarterlyreports/2024-01-30qr.pdf#page=87

SIGAR
@SIGARHQ
[2/12/2024 7:00 AM, 169K followers, 9 likes]
#StateDept: Significant disruption to methamphetamine production & trade of ephedra in #AFG due to Taliban’s closure of Abdul Wadood Bazaar, open-air drug market in Farah Province; destruction of labs; prohibition of harvesting naturally occurring ephedra https://sigar.mil/pdf/quarterlyreports/2024-01-30qr.pdf#page=57

Pakistan

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[2/12/2024 1:15 PM, 209.1K followers, 129 retweets, 280 likes]
I spoke w/ @Keshav_Paddu in this @ThePrintIndia video interview on Pakistan’s election. We discussed key pre-election factors, why PTI did so well on election day, implications for the army, possible scenarios for what’s next, and international reactions. https://youtu.be/v7IJ8tN_c_o

Asad Ali Toor
@AsadAToor
[2/12/2024 11:11 PM, 280.6K followers, 1.1K retweets, 3.1K likes]
#US said #Pakistan should hold an independent investigation into the claims of election irregularities through its legal system. Some US lawmakers urging the Biden administration not to recognize the results of the Feb 8 elections until probe is completed.

Madiha Afzal
@MadihaAfzal
[2/12/2024 10:52 AM, 42.3K followers, 6 retweets, 6 likes]
.@ishaantharoor on the powerful lesson behind Pakistan’s stunning election result, including some thoughts from me & @OmarWaraich

Madiha Afzal
@MadihaAfzal
[2/12/2024 11:00 AM, 42.3K followers, 16 retweets, 22 likes]
I note: “The Pakistani electorate defied all odds and an array of massive electoral barriers to deliver a clear message: they no longer welcome the military’s interference in politics... That message in itself is a moment of hope for Pakistan’s democracy.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/02/11/pakistan-election-results-khan-lessons/

Hamid Mir
@HamidMirPAK
[2/13/2024 2:35 AM, 8.4M followers, 323 retweets, 1.4K likes]
“People involved in [enforced disappearance] should be given the death penalty twice,” remarked Justice Kayani. He then asked the caretaker PM @anwaar_kakar to appear on Monday at 10am to explain why a case should not be registered against him. https://www.geo.tv/latest/530954-pm-kakar-summoned-by-ihc-next-week-in-missing-baloch-students-case

Sadanand Dhume
@dhume
[2/12/2024 10:55 PM, 171.1K followers, 13 retweets, 26 likes]
.@OmarWaraich: In ousting Imran Khan from power two years ago Pakistan’s generals made a fatal miscalculation. They forgot that unpopularity in government doesn’t mean unpopularity in opposition.

India

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[2/12/2024 12:43 AM, 95.3M followers, 2.5K retweets, 14K likes]
Over the next two days, I will be visiting UAE and Qatar to attend various programmes, which will deepen India’s bilateral relations with these nations. My visit to UAE will be my seventh since assuming office, indicating the priority we attach to strong India-UAE friendship. I am eager to meet my brother, HH @MohamedBinZayed. I will have the honour of inaugurating the first Hindu Mandir in UAE. I will also address the Indian Community at a community programme in Abu Dhabi. I will also speak at the @WorldGovSummit and meet @HHShkMohd in Dubai. I look forward to meeting HH Sheikh @TamimBinHamad, under whose leadership Qatar is witnessing immense growth. https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2005467

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[2/12/2024 2:52 AM, 95.3M followers, 5.1K retweets, 21K likes]
The launch of India’s UPI services in Sri Lanka and Mauritius underscores the robust linkages between our countries. https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1zqKVqpBADWxB

PMO India
@PMOIndia
[2/13/2024 1:25 AM, 55.7M followers, 125 retweets, 477 likes]
Our government is committed to the internationalisation goals for our educational institutions, as outlined under the NEP. The IIT-Delhi Abu Dhabi campus and the IIT-Madras Zanzibar campus underscore this commitment. Union Education Minister, Shri @dpradhanbjp Ji, shares this sentiment in his article.

President of India
@rashtrapatibhvn
[2/12/2024 8:59 AM, 24M followers, 350 retweets, 2.5K likes]
President Droupadi Murmu graced the 20th convocation of Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat. The President told students that they should think beyond their own job and career, and use their knowledge, alumni networks and technical skills to create new businesses and employment opportunities. https://presidentofindia.gov.in/press_releases/president-india-graces-20th-convocation-sardar-vallabhbhai-national-institute

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[2/12/2024 7:46 AM, 3M followers, 396 retweets, 3.2K likes]
Witnessed PM @narendramodi, President @RW_UNP and PM @KumarJugnauth launch UPI in Sri Lanka and UPI & RuPay card in Mauritius. Another milestone in our #NeighbourhoodFirst that will take the benefits of #DigitalIndia to our SAGAR partners.

NSB

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bangladesh
@BDMOFA
[2/12/2024 4:11 AM, 33.7K followers, 26 retweets, 121 likes]
HFM received H.E. Mr. Rinchen Kuentsyl, Amb of Bhutan to Bangladesh for a courtesy call at his office. He emphasized on enhancing the current excellent cooperation between the two countries in trade & commerce, connectivity, education, health, power, people to people contact etc.

Awami League
@albd1971
[2/12/2024 9:11 AM, 636.1K followers, 34 retweets, 105 likes]
The Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib #RailwayBridge is now almost visible. It is located about 300 metres upstream of the Jamuna highway bridge. Spanning 4.8 km, it is poised to become #Bangladesh’s largest dual gauge and double track railway bridge. https://tbsnews.net/features/focus/bridging-horizons-bangabandhu-sheikh-mujib-railway-bridge-791174

Awami League
@albd1971
[2/12/2024 4:55 AM, 636.1K followers, 43 retweets, 161 likes]
Prime Minister #SheikhHasina has said the world needs the right policies and institutions to help young women choose a career in #science and #technology. https://albd.org/articles/news/41303/ #WomenInScience #GirlsInScience #Bangladesh #ScienceEducation

The President’s Office, Maldives
@presidencymv
[2/12/2024 9:59 AM, 106.9K followers, 140 retweets, 154 likes]
The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), H.E. Kristalina Georgieva paid a courtesy call on H.E. President Dr @MMuizzu today.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maldives
@MoFAmv
[2/12/2024 11:39 PM, 53.4K followers, 6 retweets, 7 likes]
Under the Skills Development Programme #FOSIM held the first day of Refresher Session on Correspondences. Skills Development Programme contributes to the continuance of the professionalism of the Foreign Service.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maldives
@MoFAmv
[2/12/2024 9:23 AM, 53.4K followers, 14 retweets, 15 likes]
Newly appointed @UN Resident Coordinator a.i. Bradley Busetto paid a courtesy call on Foreign Secretary Fathimath Inaya today. Foreign Secretary thanked @UNMaldives for continued support towards Government’s priorities & reiterated Maldives commitment to enhance cooperation with UN.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maldives
@MoFAmv
[2/12/2024 9:21 AM, 53.4K followers, 24 retweets, 31 likes]
Foreign Secretary Fathimath Inaya meets @USinMaldives Ambassador Hugo Yon and a delegation from @SFRCdems, today. Discussions focused on the many aspects of the multifaceted Maldives-US partnership and avenues for further cooperation.

Moosa Zameer
@MoosaZameer
[2/12/2024 12:09 PM, 12.7K followers, 37 retweets, 47 likes]
Pleased to participate in the call on President Dr. @MMuizzu by H.E @KGeorgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Discussions focused on continued economic growth and the Government’s plans to address existing challenges. IMF remains a valuable long-term developmental partner of the Maldives. @IMFNews

Moosa Zameer
@MoosaZameer
[2/12/2024 11:28 AM, 12.7K followers, 30 retweets, 47 likes]
Productive meeting with H.E. @dilmabr, President of New Development Bank (NDB) on the sidelines of the World Governments Summit. We discussed President Dr. @MMuizzu Government’s key strategies for reform and growth and the government’s plan to address existing challenges. Further discussed enhancing engagements between the Maldives and NDB. @NDB_int

M U M Ali Sabry
@alisabrypc
[2/12/2024 4:29 AM, 4.9K followers, 5 retweets, 15 likes]
A virtual launch introduced UPI transactions via LankaQR, enhancing digital payments for Indian tourists in Sri Lanka a short while ago. Led by NPCI International Payments Limited & LankaPay Pvt Ltd, the initiative aims to rapidly expand, with 10,000 merchants set to accept UPI payments shortly after launch. By March 2024, this number will reach 65,000, providing a seamless payment solution for Indian tourists - PMD

Namal Rajapaksa
@RajapaksaNamal
[2/12/2024 4:38 AM, 438.3K followers, 12 likes]
In Agalawatta, Ittapana, Meegahatenna, Baduraliya, and Panadure for #DasaBalaSena mission. Strengthening grassroots, dispel misinformation, empower leaders—it’s our commitment. ‘Engaging with our people isn’t just duty; it’s our pledge to unity and truth.’

Central Asia

MFA Kazakhstan
@MFA_KZ
[2/12/2024 6:46 AM, 50.4K followers, 43 retweets, 34 likes]
2nd Annual Astana International Forum to further legacy of cross border diplomacy and collaboration https://gov.kz/memleket/entities/mfa/press/news/details/703950?lang=en #mfakz #kazakhstan #aif2024

{End of Report}

To subscribe to the SCA Morning Press Clips, please email SCA-PressOfficers@state.gov. Please do not reply directly to this email.