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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger513125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1150660559601274268.post-77361606704517221062016-08-25T10:03:00.002+05:002016-08-25T10:03:54.031+05:00Interview | Khawaja Ahmad Hassan<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"> Interview | Khawaja Ahmad Hassan</span></h2>
This interview was published in Family magazine 21-27 August 2016<br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"اقتدار کی چُل"</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">انڈیا کی فلم کا گانا ہے ' ارے لڑکی بیوٹیفُل کر گئ چُل' جو کہ پاکستان کےچند سیاستدانوں پر انڈین گانے ' ھائی ھیلز تے نچے تہ تُو بڑی جچے' کی طرح بہت جچتا ہے بس فرق اتنا ھے کہ پاکستانی سیاستدانوں کو کوئی خوبصورت ناری نہیں بالکہ وزیراعظم کی یا پھر کسی وزارت کی کرسی ہر وقت ایک چُل میں مبتلا رکھتی ہے۔ </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">یہ چُل اس قدر شدید ہے کہ اِن بدبختو سے مزید دو سال اور برداشت نھیں ھو رہا اور ہو بھی کیسے، جس صوبے میں ان کو حکومت ملی اس کا بجٹ تو انھوں نے چائے بسکٹ میں اڑا دیا اور رھی سہی کثر خونخوار چوہوں نے پوری کردی ۔ تو بھییاء جب تین سال اسی حسرت میں گزار دیئے کے صبح ھو، سب مر جائیں اور میں کالی شیروانی پہن کر وزیراعظم بن جائوں تو یہ تو ھونا ھی تھا ۔ </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">خان صاحب کو غشی کے دورے پڑتے ھیں جب وہ اگلہ الیکشن ۲۰۱۸ میں دیکھتے ھیں۔ پنجاب سے جیت نھیں سکتے اور اگر پنجاب نہ جیتے تو کالی شیروانی الماری میں ہی لٹکی رہ جائے گی۔ لہاذہ انکا حکومت نہ چلنے دینا سمجھ میں آتا ھے اور وہ ۲۰۱۸ تک کوئی نہ کوئی جواز تلاش کرتے رھیں گے۔</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">آجکل حولداروں کے ساتھ ملکر انھوں نے نیا آئیٹم نکالا ھے اور وہ ھے شہباز یا نثار میں سے وزیراعظم بنانے کا ۔ عقل کے اندھوں کو یہ بات زہن نشین کر لینی چائیے کہ مسلم لیگ نون ھے ھی نون کے دم سے ، یعنی نواز شریف کے دم سے۔ آٹھ سال جلہ وطنی کے بعد بی لوگوں نے ووٹ دیا تو نواز شریف کے نام پر۔ تو پھر مائینس ون فارمولا کیوں؟ مشکل وقت گزر گیا، اب کون پاڑٹی چھوڑتا ہے جناب ۔ بہرحال جسکا بھی یہ منصوبہ ھے ، بہت بوسیدہ ہے اور یہ ۲۰۱۸ سے پہلے آخری کوشش ہے حکومت گرانے کی جو کے ناکام ھوگی ۔</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">بس اتنا کہنا چاہتا ھوں کہ اس ملک کو چلنے دیں ۔ اگر وزیراعظم بننا آپکے نصیب میں ہے تو آپ ضرور بنے گے مگر خدارا اس ملک کو اپنی انا کی بھینٹ مت چڑھائیں۔ شکریہ</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #f5f8fa; color: #8899a6; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 14px; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br /><a class="twitter-hashtag-button" data-related="HadeedSher" data-url="http://voiceofpmln.blogspot.com/" href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?button_hashtag=VoPMLN"></a> <script>!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');</script>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09448660347811161502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1150660559601274268.post-44570574551572500132016-06-01T23:10:00.000+05:002016-06-01T23:10:17.036+05:00Nawaz Sharif is the only viable option for Pakistan<h1 class="heading-story" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: black; font-family: HelveticaNeueLTPro-Bd !important; font-size: 44px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.1; margin: 0px; orphans: auto; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.1em; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
Nawaz Sharif is the only viable option for Pakistan</h1>
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With no alternative vision for governance and two insurgencies, Pakistanis must support Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.</h2>
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by</h2>
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<a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/profile/tom-hussain.html" style="background: transparent; color: #2575bc; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom;">Tom Hussain</a></h1>
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<img alt="Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif [Reuters]" height="180" src="http://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2016/5/31/5773561473d54655bc0e2be572e3a8ec_18.jpg" width="320" /></h2>
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Pakistan has undergone a breathless eight years since its third transition from military rule to elected parliamentary governance in 2008. </div>
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<span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px !important; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The elections that year were overshadowed by the tragic assassination in December 2007 of Benazir Bhutto, who was on course for an unprecedented term as prime minister, amid a wave of national optimism. Her murder heralded the onset of a Taliban insurgency that has cost the country dearly.</span></div>
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<span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px !important; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">As significantly, it robbed Pakistan of a leader acceptable to the public across the country's four federating units. The wave of sympathy that followed ushered into power a coalition government engineered by her widower, President Asif Ali Zardari, but his reputation for corruption, justifiable or not, has made him a hugely divisive figure, and certainly not one with whom most Pakistanis wish to identify.</span></div>
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Inside Story - Targeting the Taliban</div>
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<span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px !important; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Naturally, the spotlight shifted to Bhutto's career-long rival, Nawaz Sharif, whose sweeping victory in the 2013 general election reflected the electorate's frustration with the Zardari administration's preoccupation with consolidating power, and inability to arrest the declining security situation and economy, in particular crippling power shortages.</span></div>
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<span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Allegations of corruption</span></h2>
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<span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px !important; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sharif, too, has struggled. Like Zardari, he has been dogged by allegations of corruption, but unlike the former president, he has been hamstrung by a lack of political wiles.</span></div>
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<a class="internallink" href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/05/death-warlord-change-afghanistan-160523074151279.html" style="background: transparent; color: rgb(250, 144, 0) !important; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom;" target="_self"><span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: rgb(250, 144, 0) !important; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px !important; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">READ MORE: </span>Death of a warlord will change nothing in Afghanistan</a></div>
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His naivety was exposed by his attempt to seek a negotiated peace with the Pakistani Taliban who, unlike their Afghan colleagues, have no popular support whatsoever.</div>
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Khan, while the obvious candidate, has yet to turn rhetoric into a practical course of action...</div>
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Similarly, he was tricked into launching a treason prosecution against General Pervez Musharraf, who had ousted him in an October 1999 coup, whereas he should have realised that it would antagonise the country's powerful military, thereby weakening his ability as prime minister to govern.</div>
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<span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px !important; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Thus barely more than a year after being elected, Sharif's government was nearly toppled by raucous protests led by former sports star Imran Khan, who has latched on to the exasperation of many Pakistanis with the country's pervasive culture of corruption, nepotism and lawlessness to emerge as a potential prime minister.</span></div>
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<span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px !important; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Indeed, had it not been for the outspoken support within parliament of Zardari's coalition, now in opposition, and an embarrassing surrender of defence and foreign policy decision-making to the military, Sharif would have been overthrown.</span></div>
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<span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px !important; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Nonetheless, his public approval ratings remain very high, according to opinion<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px !important; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/975923/two-years-on-survey-records-nawazs-approval-rating-at-75/" style="background: transparent; color: rgb(250, 144, 0) !important; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom;" target="_blank">polls</a>conducted late last year.</span></div>
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<span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px !important; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">With the odd exception, where by-elections have been necessitated, his party has retained seats in the federal parliament and the assembly in populous Punjab province, his political heartland. It also swept to victory in recent local government elections held there.</span></div>
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<span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px !important; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Nor is that level of support likely to change significantly because of the Panama Papers' revelations that his adult children have owned offshore companies.</span></div>
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<span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px !important; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It is not that Sharif is well endowed with with the charisma, eloquence, instincts and forceful personality that traditionally define a "leader".</span></div>
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<span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px !important; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Rather, it is because Sharif is acceptable to the majority of Pakistanis, including the the three of four provinces in which his party has no popular support to speak of, because he is perceived as a safe pair of hands.</span></div>
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Confrontational and ruthless </h2>
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<span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px !important; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Another factor is the lack of a credible alternative. Khan, while the obvious candidate, has yet to turn rhetoric into a practical course of action, and because of the involvement of an army general in the 2014 protests, is not liked in the southern provinces of Balochistan and Sindh, where people are distrustful of the Punjab-centric military.</span></div>
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<a class="internallink" href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/04/momentum-builds-pakistan-act-corruption-160427082558348.html" style="background: transparent; color: rgb(250, 144, 0) !important; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom;" target="_self"><span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: rgb(250, 144, 0) !important; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px !important; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">READ MORE: </span>Momentum builds for Pakistan to act against corruption</a></div>
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Khan is yet to mature the way Sharif has. Whereas he was a confrontational and ruthless political protagonist in his two brief stints as prime minister in the 1990s, Sharif is now cautious.</div>
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Undoubtedly, his forced exile from Pakistan during General Musharraf’s regime, spent mostly in Saudi Arabia, gave him time to reflect. During that period, he also grew close to Bhutto and was profoundly affected by her assassination.</div>
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<span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px !important; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">With her gone, Sharif is the only politician in Pakistan with the stature of a credible national leader, albeit it a highly flawed one. Thus Pakistanis have good reason to feel nervous about their prime minister's scheduled open-heart surgery on Tuesday.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 0.8em !important; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.8em; max-width: 38em; orphans: auto; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px !important; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sharif's detractors, after pausing briefly to pray for his recovery, have created a furore about who, constitutionally, can rule Pakistan while he is indisposed.</span></div>
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Minus Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan would be leaderless at a time when it is deeply involved in fighting two insurgencies...</div>
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<span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px !important; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Perhaps they should broaden their perspective.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 0.8em !important; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.8em; max-width: 38em; orphans: auto; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px !important; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Minus Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan would be leaderless at a time when it is deeply involved in fighting two insurgencies - one against the Taliban, the other against Baloch rebels. Its economy is tentatively emerging from eight years of austerity.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 0.8em !important; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.8em; max-width: 38em; orphans: auto; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px !important; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Meanwhile, Pakistan's relations with neighbouring Afghanistan and India are uncomfortably antagonistic, and it is being diplomatically squeezed by the United States on matters of national security, as evidenced by the US drone strike that recently killed Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 0.8em !important; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.8em; max-width: 38em; orphans: auto; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px !important; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">As such, any pursuit of Sharif's political demise that is not focused on a legitimate transfer of power after the 2018 general election is rooted in callous disregard for Pakistan's stability.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 0.8em !important; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.8em; max-width: 38em; orphans: auto; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px !important; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Those political actors are either blind to the nationally divisive consequences of their actions, or just don't care.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 0.8em !important; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.8em; max-width: 38em; orphans: auto; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
<em style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Tom Hussain is a journalist and Pakistan affairs analyst based in Islamabad.</strong></em></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 0.8em !important; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.8em; max-width: 38em; orphans: auto; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
<em style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.</strong></em></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 0.8em !important; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 3em; max-width: 38em; orphans: auto; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: rgb(142, 142, 142) !important; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px !important; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Source:</span> <span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: rgb(33, 33, 33) !important; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px !important; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Al Jazeera</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 0.8em !important; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 3em; max-width: 38em; orphans: auto; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: rgb(33, 33, 33) !important; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px !important; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/05/nawaz-sharif-viable-option-pakistan-160530095043904.html </span></div>
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Tax returns of Sharif Group of industries & Prime Minister Sharif: <a href="https://t.co/zfh7Y5hBel">pic.twitter.com/zfh7Y5hBel</a></div>
— Maryam Nawaz Sharif (@MaryamNSharif) <a href="https://twitter.com/MaryamNSharif/status/732237896644694016">May 16, 2016</a></blockquote>
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<h1 class="title" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', times-roman, serif; font-size: 34px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 6px 0px 0.5em; orphans: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
<a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/1030515/is-pakistan-ready-for-a-take-off/" style="border: 0px; color: #212121; font-family: inherit; font-size: 34px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Is Pakistan ready for a take-off?</a></h1>
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By<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://tribune.com.pk/author/6347/ahsan-iqbal/" style="border: 0px; color: #666699; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Posts by Ahsan Iqbal">Ahsan Iqbal</a></div>
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Published: January 19, 2016</div>
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The latter half of the 20<sup style="line-height: 0;">th</sup><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>century has seen many countries successfully emerge as regional powerhouses. Unfortunately, Pakistan has been struggling to make this happen despite being endowed with rich resources. In the 1960s, Pakistan was touted as a rising economic power like Japan but its progress was derailed due to the 1965 war. In the early 1990s, Pakistan again captured the attention of the world when it took the lead in pioneering economic reforms in South Asia. However, this dream once again proved to be short-lived as the country plunged into a decade of political instability. Governments lasted no more than two years, and eventually the country was caught in the talons of martial law. In 2013, the Western media was calling Pakistan the most dangerous country in the world. Just two years later, due to economic reforms and security-related measures taken by the government, Pakistan is being projected as an emerging economic success story by the same media. Today, we are again poised for an economic take-off. The improving security situation, improving economic indicators and the establishment of the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/887949/china-pakistan-economic-corridor-lines-of-development-not-lines-of-divide/" style="border: 0px; color: #0077ee; font-family: inherit; font-size: 19px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>offer many opportunities for the country. The million-dollar question is whether we will seize this moment for an economic take-off or will once again squander it.</div>
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<strong style="font-size: 18px; font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/1029983/china-pak-investment-pml-q-refuses-to-support-changes-in-cpec/" style="border: 0px; color: #0077ee; font-family: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">China-Pak investment: PML-Q refuses to support changes in CPEC</a></strong></div>
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There cannnot be a better analogy to understand Pakistan’s trajectory than learning from the concept of ‘take-off’ in aviation. In order for a plane to successfully take off, besides having a clear runway and favourable weather conditions, in the tug of war between opposing vertical and horizontal forces of lift versus weight, and thrust versus drag, the forces of lift must prevail over weight and the power of thrust must prevail over drag. During a take-off, all the weight on the aircraft must also be stable, otherwise the take-off can turn into an accident. The aircraft cannot take off if its engines are not working in sync to provide the required thrust. An aircraft can land with one of its engines shut down, but it can never take off without all engines working together. If all these conditions are not met, the plane can’t take off successfully.</div>
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This example is instructive in understanding Pakistan’s potential for a take-off. Firstly, we are a nation of 200 million people, of which almost two-thirds consists of the youth, with heightened aspirations and expectations. Our institutions are weak due to a fractured political history featuring long shadows of various martial laws. Moreover, due to the lack of investment in human capital over a prolonged period means that we still have high levels of illiteracy, disease and poverty. This translates into a heavy weight of social underdevelopment that has to be lifted. We need an extraordinary force of lift to overcome the drag and downward pull and achieve a successful take-off. We possess a rich endowment base. However, this can only be harnessed effectively by adopting the right strategies and implementation mechanisms with a clear focus on the economic agenda. Additionally, just as an aircraft can’t take off if the runway isn’t clear and is not of the desired length, countries also need to ensure that their policies are sound and provide a consistent and stable span for take-off. Finally, equally important is the favourability of the socio-political weather, as political thunderstorms and social jolts are capable of subverting take-offs.</div>
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<strong style="font-size: 18px; font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/887949/china-pakistan-economic-corridor-lines-of-development-not-lines-of-divide/" style="border: 0px; color: #0077ee; font-family: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">China-Pakistan Economic Corridor: Lines of development – not lines of divide</a></strong></div>
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The nation’s institutions must work harmoniously to produce the positive synergy required for an economic take-off. It is absolutely critical that all national institutions align themselves with a national vision and function with harmony to overcome the inertia of forces of the status quo to ensure a national take-off. Pakistan is an evolving society in which new power centres are emerging alongside traditional structures of power. After the Eighteenth Amendment, provinces have assumed added responsibilities and roles. Coordination between the federal government and provinces for realising the national development agenda has become critical. The media, the private sector and civil society are new and powerful players in national affairs. The judiciary has assumed a new role in the wake of Judges Restoration Movement. The role of parliament and the legislatures has become critical for effective democratic governance. The civil and military bureaucracy play a key role in our context.</div>
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Based on these fundamentals and lessons from our history, in order to ensure Pakistan’s take-off, it is critically important that all stakeholders, institutions and players join hands for a team effort. Political differences must not come in the way of the pursuit of national goals. Vision 2025 has been developed through elaborate and extensive consultation of all stakeholders. It has been approved with the consensus of all political parties represented in the governments of our federation, with the PML-N at the Centre and Punjab, the PTI and the Jamaat-e-Islami in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the PPP in Sindh and the nationalist parties in Balochistan. The nation has declared its aspirations and intent to join the league of newly emerging economies with the goal to be among the top 25 economies of the world by 2025. In order to reach this goal, we will need to achieve an annual growth rate of over seven per cent. Though this may seem daunting, with the great dividend of the CPEC in our grasp, this goal is achievable. However, to realise this dream we need to follow the rules of a successful take-off — maintaining favourable political weather, ensuring a smooth platform of consistent policies, and working together as a united, determined and focused nation.<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 19px; font-style: italic; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 19px; font-style: italic; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Published in The Express Tribune, January 20<sup style="line-height: 0;">th</sup>, 2016.</em></div>
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<a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/1018521/a-good-year-for-the-pml-n/">A good year for the PML-N</a></h1>
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<strong class="location" style="display: block; float: left; font-size: 18px; font-weight: normal !important;">LAHORE: </strong><div style="border: 0px; color: #212121; font-family: inherit; font-size: 19px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.01em; line-height: 27px; margin: 0px 0px 27px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
The start of 2015 was a time for reflection for the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). The ruling party assessing the financial and political losses caused by the 126-day-long sit-in by the Pakistan Thereek-e-Insaf (PTI) in front of the parliament. The PTI ended its sit-in after the December 16 massacre in Peshawar. It then appeared that the PML-N was struggling to keep things under control.</div>
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By the end of the year, the PML-N appears more comfortable with the political situation. Analysts say it is a rare moment in the country’s history; all three tiers of a democratic government (federal, provincial and local government) are in place.</div>
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Politically speaking, it was a good year for the PML-N. The party swept local government and Cantonment Board elections. It also won four out of five National Assembly seats in the by-polls this year.</div>
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In the NA-137 by-election in Nankana Sahib, PML-N’s candidate Shazra Mansab won comfortably by polling 77,890 votes. His opponent Ijaz Shah got 39,363 votes.</div>
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In NA-108 Mandi Bahauddin, PML-N’s candidate Mumtaz Ahmad Tarar defeated the candidate fielded by the PTI by over 28,000 votes. Tarar took 70,638 votes. His opponent, Muhammad Tariq, obtained 42,029 votes.</div>
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Riazul Haq, an independent candidate, won the NA-144 Okara by-polls and later joined the PML-N.</div>
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The by-election in NA-122 Lahore was arguably the most anticipated event of the year. Sardar Ayaz Sadiq of PML-N defeated Abdul Aleem Khan of the PTI in a close contest. Sadiq was once again elected speaker of the National Assembly.</div>
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The PML-N also won four out of six Provincial Assembly seats where by-election was held. Mumtaz Quraish won the by-election in PP-24 DG Khan, Mahmoodul Hasan in PP-196 Multan and Chaudhary Akhtar in PP-100 Gujranwala. In PP-16 Attock, Jehangir Khanzada, son of slain home minister Shuja Khanzada, secured victory in the by-poll. The PML-N candidates were defeated by the PTI’s Nasir Cheema in PP-97 Gujranwala and Shoaib Siddiqi in PP-147 Lahore.</div>
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<strong style="font-size: 18px; font-weight: bold;">What’s next?</strong></div>
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PML-N central leader Hamza Shehbaz said the party had shown that it wanted to resolve people’s problems. He said those who did staged sit-ins had wasted time and resources. He said by 2017, the PML-N government will have overcome the load shedding crisis.</div>
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<strong style="font-size: 18px; font-weight: bold;">All’s well for democracy in Pakistan</strong></div>
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Analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi said while all three tiers of democracy were formally place in Pakistan, the country was being governed in a very personalised manner.</div>
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“The question is that is National Assembly being strengthened as an institution? Does the prime minister or the chief minister go to the assembly? Are decisions made inside the assembly or outside? We have seen that the prime minister rarely goes to the parliament and same is the case with the Punjab chief minister.”</div>
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He said it remained to be seen how things would change with the elected local governments. “Democracy has definitely strengthened in 2015. However institutions need to be strengthened and we hope this happens in the future,” he said.<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 19px; font-style: italic; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 19px; font-style: italic; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Published in The Express Tribune, December 30<sup style="line-height: 0;">th</sup>, 2015.</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 19px; font-style: italic; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">http://tribune.com.pk/story/1018521/a-good-year-for-the-pml-n/ </em></div>
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How Pakistan’s National Health Insurance Program Will Work</h1>
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Pakistan’s government launched a national health insurance program for its poorest households Thursday, marking the start of the most-ambitious public health project in the country’s history.</div>
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The Prime Minister’s National Health Program will from Thursday cover families that make less than $2 a day through a gradual rollout. In the first phase, over 3 million families will get health insurance in 23 districts, with the ultimate aim to cover 22 million households across the country, officials said.</div>
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“This is another step towards the welfare state that we promised to create when we came into power,”said Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.</div>
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The Pakistani government already subsidizes health care to varying degrees in public hospitals, but officials acknowledge these facilities are unable to handle the patient load or achieve public health targets.</div>
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The government said earlier this year that it wouldn’t be able to meet the United Nation’s targets for child and maternal mortality rates that formed part of the Millennium Development Goals, which had a deadline of 2015. Critics have blamed Pakistan’s low health spending and inadequate management as key factors in the poor health provision. Between July 2014 and March 2015, Pakistan spent just 0.42% of its GDP on health.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2015/12/14/how-india-can-cure-its-health-system/" style="color: #115b8f; font-weight: bold; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">The U.S. government spends about 8.3% of GDP on healthcare.</a></div>
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The new insurance program will cover treatment at both public and private hospitals. Private hospitals that sign up will then be offered loans on easy terms to upgrade their facilities, officials said, without providing further details about interest rates and conditions.</div>
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Saira Afzal Tarar, minister of state for health Services, regulations and coordination, said most Pakistanis pay out of pocket for treatment. “There is treatment at government-run hospitals, but there are long lines. Those who don’t have a recommendation have to wait months for treatment,” Ms. Tarar said at the launch ceremony in Islamabad. “With this [health insurance] card, you’ll be able to go to the hospitals where you weren’t allowed to even go to the front door. Now, you’ll be treated there with dignity and respect.” Ms. Tarar said.</div>
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The national health program, with an initial funding of 9 billion Pakistani rupees ($86 million) will pay for the treatment of the types of illnesses identified by the government as critical: heart disease, diabetes and related illnesses, cancer, kidney and liver diseases, complications from infections like HIV and Hepatitis, road accidents, and burn injuries. Officials said coverage can be extended to other conditions considered life-threatening.</div>
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The government said Thursday that the program will be run in partnership with provincial governments, which will share the financial burden. Beneficiaries will receive insurance cards, after selection from a database of low-income Pakistanis set up in 2008 for a separate cash support program.</div>
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The coverage includes 50,000 rupees for general treatment, and 300,000 rupees for serious illnesses. Mr. Sharif said on Thursday that the government is making arrangements for an emergency fund that would extend coverage to 600,000 rupees for cases that require longer treatment.</div>
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Officials on Thursday didn’t provide specific timelines for the rollout of the next phase, which is expected to cover another 3.3 million households. The finance ministry said earlier this year that the program aims to cover 22 million families.</div>
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The<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://finance.gov.pk/survey/chapters_14/15_Poverty_Social_Safety_Nets.pdf" style="color: #115b8f; font-weight: bold; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">finance ministry</a>, quoting World Bank data and 2008 population estimates, said last year that if living on $2 a day is taken as the poverty line, over 60% of the population would fall in that category.</div>
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http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2015/12/31/how-pakistans-national-health-insurance-program-will-work/ </div>
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With cozy ties between extremists and Islamabad on the decline, militants now face a more resolved and committed effort to eliminate them.</div>
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</section><div class="post-inner" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-family: Solido, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 17.008px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 33.6px; margin: 15px 0px 0px; orphans: auto; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
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During the separate visits of the Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif to Washington in recent months, observers<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://thediplomat.com/2015/11/pakistans-general-raheel-sharif-goes-to-washington-deja-vu-all-over-again/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">dismissed</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>the prospect of meaningful changes in Pakistan’s security policies or in the U.S.-Pakistan relationship. On the surface they may not be wrong, but in seeking major breakthroughs or transformations, incremental yet consequential choices are often overlooked.</div>
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The recent revelations that the San Bernardino shooters had<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/08/world/asia/tashfeen-malik-attended-conservative-religious-school-in-pakistan.html" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">extremist</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/tashfeen-malik-studied-at-conservative-religious-school-in-pakistan-1449512518" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">ties</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>to Pakistan might appear to confirm the narrative that Pakistan is consumed by a downward spiral of extremist violence. But over the past year, Pakistan has quietly made some important, costly, and under-appreciated strides in its counter-militancy efforts. Individually, none are groundbreaking, but together they point in a more promising direction for Pakistani society, regional stability, and the U.S.-Pakistan relationship.</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Military Targeting in Tribal Regions</strong></div>
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First, the Pakistani army has pursued more comprehensive military operations in the tribal areas than initially expected. Though it has not directly targeted the Haqqani Network as the United States hoped, Pakistan has actively targeted a wide array of militant groups, not just the Pakistani Taliban (TTP).</div>
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Hafiz Gul Bahadur, the leader of the TTP and a long-time government tactical ally based in North Waziristan, may have only been<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.dawn.com/news/1132050" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">displaced</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>to Afghanistan during the early phases of the military’s operation, but the Pakistani army has made his life difficult. It reportedly<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-13-34561-30-killed-as-jets-target-Gul-Bahadur" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">targeted</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>him,<a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/748965/change-of-command-maulvi-halim-replaces-gul-bahadur-as-waziristan-taliban-chief/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">sidelined</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>him operationally from his organization, and then<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.dawn.com/news/1149403" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">eliminated</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>some of his remaining commanders in airstrikes last fall. Once a potential prospect for reconciliation, Khan Syed Sajna, a former leader of the TTP in South Waziristan, was<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/17/us-pakistan-militants-idUSKCN0QM15T20150817#1Slb6309IMZmPIuJ.97" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">targeted</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>by a Pakistan Army intent on accepting only<a href="http://nation.com.pk/national/27-Nov-2015/drone-strike-killed-sajna-at-pak-afghan-border" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">unconditional surrenders</a>. Sajna was consequently<a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/11/pakistan-taliban-commander-allegedly-killed-drones-151126094717789.html" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>killed</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>in a U.S. drone strike in late November. The state has also<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.samaa.tv/pakistan/2015/08/pakistan-claims-arrest-of-twin-church-attacks-suspects/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">cracked down</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>on potential TTP splinter groups like<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2015/08/pakistani-taliban-faction-assassinates-punjab-minister.php" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Jamat ul Ahrar</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.samaa.tv/pakistan/2015/08/pakistan-claims-arrest-of-twin-church-attacks-suspects/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Sheheryar Mehsud group</a>, both of which have recently carried out attacks against a provincial government official and a Christian church.</div>
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Quietly expanded target sets may have resulted from lessons learned, deliberate strategy, mission creep, or failed efforts to flip breakaway factions. But the result is that Pakistan is more directly targeting the Taliban.</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Kinetic Operations Against Former Assets</strong></div>
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Second, Pakistani security forces have expanded their counter-militancy operations, not only against assets once under state purview that have now turned rogue, but also against a wider range of sectarian militant groups. Pakistan adopted a strategy of leadership-targeting, or “decapitation” against the once formidable Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a sectarian militant group with strong links to the Sunni extremist political group, Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat. Over the past year, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi leadership – once described as “<a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2015/08/economist-explains-3" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">untouchable</a>” and “<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/malik-siraj-akbar/pakistans-other-taliban_b_1898848.html" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">invincible</a>” – has been systematically wiped out in a series of<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/26/pakistani-terrorist-killed-alleged-police-killing-haroon-bhatti" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">extra-judicial killings</a>, possibly because it was<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-13-38894-Malik-Ishaqs-killing-a-big-blow-to-Daesh" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">drifting</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>towards the Islamic State.</div>
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In February, the death of Usman Saifullah Kurd – the mastermind behind attacks on hundreds of Hazaras and Shia over the past decade – “<a href="http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-2-302120-Killing-of-Usman-Kurd-a-major-blow-to-LeJ" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">[broke] the back</a>” of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in Balochistan. Several months later, a major police<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/928592/malik-ishaq-the-life-and-death-of-a-terror-kingpin/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">raid</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>killed its leader, Malik Ishaq, his two sons, and 11 other militants. Other Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militants were<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.geo.tv/article-202253-Two-suspected-terrorists-involved-in-Safoora-carnage-arrested-in-Karachi-#_" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">captured</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>during targeted raids based on specific intelligence in October. And a third leader, Haroon Bhatti, was<a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/Pak-police-arrest-Lashkar-e-Jhangvi-leader/articleshow/49504513.cms" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">arrested</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>in late October and then<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.dawn.com/news/1222374/lj-founding-member-three-others-killed-in-police-action-in-lahore" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">killed</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>in a staged encounter with Lahore police (effectively an extra-judicial killing) two weeks ago. As a retributive response to Malik Ishaq’s killing, Punjab Home Minister Shuja Khanzada, a retired Army Colonel, was<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.dawn.com/news/1200807/blast-at-punjab-home-minister-shuja-khanzadas-political-office-7-dead" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">assassinated</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>in a suicide bombing along with sixteen others. Despite this, the state proved willing to stomach the consequences of the fight, and showed that it is willing to take on powerful and influential groups – like<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.dawn.com/news/787668/hazara-killers-supported-from-punjab-to-the-middle-east" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">LeJ</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>– once afforded<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: italic; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">de facto</em><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>protection by the Pakistani government.</div>
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A<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://patrickjohnston.info/materials/decapitation.pdf" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">substantial</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/files/Price.pdf" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">amount</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>of recent<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://patrickjohnston.info/materials/drones.pdf" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">research</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>suggests that leadership-targeting can be effective, and yield security improvements under<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09636412.2014.935229#.Vl2jHHuEcUs" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">certain conditions</a>. Security officials<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-13-38894-Malik-Ishaqs-killing-a-big-blow-to-Daesh" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">anticipate</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>substantial fragmentation of the targeted group “after elimination of first, second, third and fourth line leadership.” This decapitation campaign already seems to be correlating with a significant drop in sectarian violence. Since 2012, annual sectarian incidents and casualties are down by about 50 percent or more<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/pakistan/database/sect-killing.htm" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">nationwide</a>, and by approximately 75 percent in<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/pakistan/Balochistan/data/sectarianviolencebalochistan2009.htm" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Balochistan</a>, where Laskhar-e-Jhangvi’s violence has wreaked considerable havoc.</div>
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The counter-sectarian campaign could expand beyond Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.<a href="http://san-pips.com/index.php?action=db&id=1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">The Pak Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS)</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>estimates that the state has conducted 20 major search operations that have netted nearly 100 key leaders from the militant-linked Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat party. Chipping away at sectarian groups is important, because they<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.mei.edu/sites/default/files/publications/Arif%20Rafiq%20report.pdf" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">feed</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>other militant organizations like al Qaeda, TTP, Jaish-e-Mohammed, and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Denial of Social Space</strong></div>
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Third, Islamabad has augmented the military’s kinetic actions by denying extremist and militant groups of the social space they have utilized and operated in for decades. It has begun to seriously<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2015/02/24/city/islamabad/55-booked-for-misuse-of-loudspeaker/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">enforce</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>regulations on<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.dawn.com/news/1206205" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">hate</a><a href="http://www.dawn.com/news/1212653" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">speech</a>, on the misuse of<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/856084/amplifier-act-police-remove-extra-loudspeakers-from-mosques/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">mosque</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.dawn.com/news/1172108" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">loudspeakers</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>or<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.dawn.com/news/1159508" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">amplifiers</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>to prevent public incitement, and on<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2015/09/23/city/lahore/1363-penalised-for-fanning-hatred-through-loudspeakers/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">weapons sales</a>. Tempering sectarian mobilization with these tools was<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.thefridaytimes.com/beta3/tft/article.php?issue=20130301&page=4" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">not new</a>, but its enforcement is.</div>
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Even<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://san-pips.com/index.php?action=journal&id=main" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">independent assessments</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>identify progress, albeit slow, on the government’s National Action Plan, which was formulated in January to crack down on terrorism.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/977902/sectarian-strife-over-9000-hate-preachers-arrested-under-nap/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Thousands</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>of incendiary clerics have been arrested for preaching sectarian hatred and distributing banned literature; some have even been<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/904295/justice-served-three-men-convicted-of-spreading-hate/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">successfully</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.dawn.com/news/1183023" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">prosecuted</a>. Shops have been closed and materials confiscated for hate speech inciting violence. The glorification of terrorism has been<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.dawn.com/news/1158400" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">banned</a>. This may be producing a deterrent effect. Some observers point out that Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat has not been able to hold a conference in an urban area for the past eight months.</div>
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Religious seminaries, their<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/851861/geo-tagging-database-punjab-maps-location-of-11000-madrassas/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">curriculum</a>, and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://nation.com.pk/national/26-Nov-2015/293-punjab-seminaries-linked-to-terrorism" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">ties</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>to foreign organizations and funders are increasingly<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.dawn.com/news/1183059" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">scrutinized</a>. Dozens of unregistered or suspect seminaries have been<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.dawn.com/news/1203606" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">raided</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>or<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/989768/counterterror-plan-102-madrassas-sealed-for-stoking-sectarianism/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">forced to close</a>. Meetings of civilian, military, and madrassa educational board leaders also offer a path for structural reform. The Federal Investigation Agency has<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/pulling-the-plug-on-terror-funding/#.VluWxXuEcUs" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">expose</a>d millions of dollars in domestic financing of terrorism,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/943605/hundi-and-hawala-52-afghans-involved-in-terror-finance-nabbed/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">interdicted</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>some foreign financing, and enlisted help from international partners to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/national/05-Nov-2015/pakistan-to-protect-territorial-integrity-of-saudi-arabia-coas" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">choke</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>the flow of funds to extremist organizations. The Supreme Court’s<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.dawn.com/news/1211506" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">decision</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>to uphold the conviction of Mumtaz Qadri for the January assassination of former Punjab governor Salman Taseer sent an important signal and affirmed the right to criticize misuses of the blasphemy law (though not the law itself).</div>
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Finally, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.dawn.com/news/1218289" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">prohibited</a>media coverage of banned organizations, specifically LeT and Jamaat-ud-Dawa, though there appears to be confusion and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/pemra-cosmetic-measures/#.Vls0knuEcUs" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">bureaucratic infighting</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>over this judgment. Even critics of government shortcomings<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/counter-argument-are-in-a-state-of-fear-amir-rana/#.Vlsx2nuEcUs" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">acknowledge</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>“the space for pro-extremist mindset has gradually shrunk.”</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Hard Foreign Policy Choices</strong></div>
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Finally, Pakistan has also assumed tough foreign policy stances that support its internal security national agenda. In April, the government made a decision to avoid getting roped into the conflict in Yemen. Such involvement in an almost explicitly sectarian conflict would have triggered internal divisions with Pakistan’s large Shia population and exacerbated its sectarian problem.</div>
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The decision was challenging for Pakistan to make. Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states openly pressured the Sharif government to intervene – a difficult request to fend off, given their historical financial support of Pakistan through oil discounts, soft loans (like a recent one worth<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/13/us-pakistan-saudi-idUSBREA2C13G20140313#iXOyR7ZcjQ086rLF.97" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">$1.5 billion</a>), and remittances from migrant laborers. One United Arab Emirates minister warned that Pakistan would pay a “<a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/middle-east/article24782971.html" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">heavy price</a>” for this choice.</div>
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Pakistan’s military proved critical in the decision to stay out of Yemen, despite<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/markaz/posts/2015/04/14-pakistan-military-assistance-saudi-intervention-yemen" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">intense</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/05/sanctions-pakistan-terrorists-thrive-150518065848142.html" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">lobbying</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>by religious parties like Jamaat-ud-Dawa. Part of Pakistan’s refusal may have been that Riyadh reportedly requested deployments of only Sunni soldiers from a military that is<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://nation.com.pk/blogs/05-Apr-2015/by-asking-for-sunni-soldiers-saudi-arabia-is-trying-to-divide-pakistan-army" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">estimated</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>to be up to 30 percent Shia. More assertive Pakistani leaders have begun to both<a href="http://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/headline/gen-raheel-sharif-meets-saudi-king-salman-crown-prince/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">privately</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.dawn.com/news/1158244" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">openly</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/819528/national-action-plan-pakistan-in-fresh-push-to-choke-terror-funding/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">criticize</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.peacebuilding.no/var/ezflow_site/storage/original/application/202d14d49238cab72b99e625383101d3.pdf" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Saudi</a>, Iranian, and UAE funding of religious seminaries and sectarian groups.</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Shortcomings and the Future</strong></div>
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Pakistan’s decision to tackle militant and extremist organizations once considered too valuable or too dangerous is encouraging, but those expecting the resolve against former assets like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/explained/a-terrorists-killing-in-pakistan-the-background/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">snowball</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>into actions against groups like the Haqqani Network and LeT should not hold their breath. State counter-militancy efforts are still constrained by fears of loss of control, violent retribution since LeT’s military strength is<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.the-american-interest.com/2011/09/01/unraveling/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">orders of magnitude</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>greater than<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=P_Px5TdHx1YC&lpg=PT193&ots=aJNRniX9J1&dq=john%20schmidt%20unraveling%20jhangvi%20few%20hundred&pg=PT194#v=onepage&q=john%20schmidt%20unraveling%20jhangvi%20few%20hundred&f=false" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">LeJ’s</a>, potential electoral costs in the PML-N’s<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/2013_General_Elections_in_Pakistan.svg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">electoral heartland</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>in central Punjab, and loss of these groups’ utility in achieving foreign policy objectives in Afghanistan and Kashmir.</div>
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Even if Pakistan narrowly focuses on its sectarian militant problem, it has a long way to go. Worrisome patterns of extremism remain part of the national fabric, most recently evinced by reports that Tashfeen Malik, one of the shooters in the San Bernardino terrorist massacre, may have had <a href="http://nation.com.pk/international/05-Dec-2015/california-shooting-female-attacker-linked-to-lal-masjid-abdul-aziz" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">links</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>to radical groups in Pakistan. Sectarian <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/pakistans-ahmadis-battle-mob-state-identity-061307843.html" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">mob violence</a> continues, IS is feared to be<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/opinion/26-Nov-2015/pie-in-the-sky" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">making</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/islamic-state-is-having-a-hard-time-taking-root-in-pakistan/2015/12/05/2fa548b0-8e2b-11e5-934c-a369c80822c2_story.html" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">inroads</a>, and many of the thousands of unregistered <a href="http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/editorial/28-Nov-2015/madrassa-reform" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">madrassas</a> retain nontransparent financing, regressive curricula, and continue to function as terrorist recruitment centers. Additionally, the limits of the state’s capabilities – or willpower – may be <a href="http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/opinion/20-Nov-2015/the-need-to-revisit-lal-masjid" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">exposed</a> in an emerging showdown at Islamabad’s Lal Masjid. Maulana Abdul Aziz Ghazi – a <a href="http://www.dawn.com/news/1155014" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">known</a> security threat who retains links to the Taliban and expresses <a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/806711/no-regret-over-supporting-is-says-lal-masjid-cleric/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">support</a> for IS – resumed delivering Friday sermons, and appears poised to <a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/995472/controversial-cleric-govt-given-two-weeks-to-fulfil-demands/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">resurrect</a> a movement for Sharia law.</div>
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The feeders for many militant organizations are sectarian groups posing as legitimate political parties, and they cannot be wiped out kinetically. This challenge will require<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://tns.thenews.com.pk/counter-argument-are-in-a-state-of-fear-amir-rana/#.Vl3CbHuEcUt" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">counter-narratives,</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>counter-radicalization, and a range of social, political, and economic reforms. As noted analyst Huma Yusuf<a href="http://www.dawn.com/news/1221556/home-grown-threat" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #eb1414; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">argues</a>, “Pakistan’s war against violent extremism will not be won in the battlefields, but in classrooms, madressahs, mosques, the offices of bureaucrats, and at police stations.”</div>
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<strong style="font-size: 18px; font-weight: normal;"><strong class="location" style="display: block; float: left; font-size: 18px; font-weight: normal !important;">KARACHI: </strong>Pakistan received foreign direct investment (FDI) of $216.2 million in the first quarter of 2015-16, 7.7% higher than the FDI received in the same three-month period of the preceding fiscal year.</strong></div>
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According to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday, FDI increased $15.6 million year on year in July-September, as it amounted to $200.7 million in the corresponding months of 2014-15.</div>
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Pakistan has faced low levels of foreign investment in recent years. The SBP has called an increase in FDI “imperative” for the sustainability of the economy’s external sector.</div>
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Largest contributor to the FDI in Jul-September was China ($190.2million), followed by the United Arab Emirates ($48.9 million), United Kingdom ($33.4 million), Switzerland ($27.9 million) and Italy ($26.9 million).</div>
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Net FDI in September alone clocked up at $96.9 million, up 8% from the net inflow of $89.7 million recorded in the same month of the preceding fiscal year.</div>
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The largest net outflow of FDI in July-September was recorded in the petro chemicals ($135.8 million) followed by metal products ($14 million).</div>
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The largest increase in FDI in July-September was in the category of power, which attracted $142.5 million. Other sectors that attracted substantial FDI in the first three months of 2015-16 were tobacco and cigarettes ($28.9 million) and oil and gas exploration ($41.4 million). However, the FDI in the oil and gas exploration category dropped 47.5% on a year-on-year basis.</div>
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Pakistan received FDI of $709.3 million in 2014-15, which was 58.2% less than the FDI received in the preceding fiscal year. Largest contributor to the FDI during 2014-15 was the United States ($238.7 million), followed by China ($229.5 million) and United Arab Emirates ($222.4 million).</div>
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However, the US has pulled out $103.4 million from Pakistan so far in 2015-16 although net inflows from the world’s largest economy amounted to $54.8 million in the same three-month period of the last fiscal year.</div>
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<img alt="" height="488" src="http://i1.tribune.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/0-FDINET-1444999268.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12.0012px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="625" /><div class="wp-caption-text" style="border: 0px; color: #666666; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: 0.01em; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 27px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
DESIGN: NABEEL AHMED</div>
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Many foreign investors have left Pakistan for good in recent years because of the energy crisis and bad governance. At least four multinational pharmaceutical companies have left Pakistan for good in the last six years. The category of pharmaceutical and over-the-counter products lost FDI of $47.2 million in the last fiscal year.</div>
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However, FDI from China is expected to rise further in view of the recently announced China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), according to the SBP. “The implementation of infrastructure development and energy projects under the CPEC will further enhance the improving investment environment,” it said in a recent statement.<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 19px; font-style: italic; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 19px; font-style: italic; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/973704/year-on-year-fdi-rises-7-7-during-july-september/">Published</a> in The Express Tribune, October 16<sup style="line-height: 0;">th</sup>, 2015.</em></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">We congratulate Mr. Mogens Lykketoft for his election as President of the 7oth Session of the UN General Assembly. It is acknowledgement of your distinguished career in public service. We share your commitment to action towards building a more just and stable world. We also pay tribute to Mr. Sam Kutesa for his able stewardship of the 69th Session. Mr. President, Seventy years ago, the United Nations was created from the ruins of the most devastating war the world has witnessed. Its purpose was to build universal peace and prosperity on the basis of equitable principles, cooperation and collective action.</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">Despite the constraints of the Cold War, the United Nations served the international community as the beacon of hope; the repository of freedom; an advocate of the oppressed; a vehicle for development and progress. But, we – the peoples of the United Nations – have not succeeded in beating our arms into ploughshares or promoting universal prosperity and larger freedoms. Confrontation has returned between major powers at a time when many parts of the world are in turmoil.</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">Terrorism is spreading. Poverty and deprivation have yet to be overcome. Gross violations of human rights are rampant. We are witnessing human dislocation – refugees and forced migrants – on a scale not witnessed for over half a century. Our very existence is threatened by the wanton damage done to our planet’s life sustaining systems.</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">Yet Mr. President, this is also a moment of opportunity. Today, our interdependent world possesses the financial, scientific and organizational capabilities to address these diverse and interrelated challenges that pose a common threat to all member states. At the historic Summit over the weekend, we have collectively committed ourselves to achieve 17 Sustainable Development Goals, to promote equitable and inclusive development for all our peoples.</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">The real! challenge remains – to mobilize the collective political will and resources to ensure the comprehensive implementation of the agenda we have solemnly endorsed. Pakistan has already initiated action on national goals to promote the Post-2015 Development Agenda. We are also creating a robust mechanism for the monitoring and implementation of these goals and targets. Mr. President, Later this year in Paris, we will need to respond with common but differentiated responsibility to the threat posed by Climate Change. Partisan interests must not stand in the way of an ambitious and collective commitment to halt and reverse the damage done to our planet. Mr, President, On the 70th anniversary of the UN, we should strive to adapt this world organization so as to respond effectively to the current and emerging challenges that confront us all. Pakistan supports a comprehensive reform of the United Nations, including that of the Security Council.</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">We need a Security Council that is more democratic, representative, accountable and transparent. A Council that reflects the interests of all member states, in accordance with the principle of sovereign equality.</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">Not a Council, which is an expanded club of the powerful and privileged. Mr. President, Peacekeeping has been one of the key responsibilities of the United Nations. 2 Pakistan is proud of its historic and current role as a major troop contributor. We regard it as our obligation to uphold international peace and security. Mr President, Pakistan is the primary victim of terrorism. We have lost thousands of lives including civilians and soldiers to terrorist violence. The blood that has been shed – including that of our innocent children – has reinforced our resolve to eliminate this scourge from our society. We will fight terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, irrespective of who their sponsors are. Our Operation, Zarb-e-Azb, is the largest anti-terrorism campaign against terrorists anywhere, involving over 18o,ooo of our security forces. It has made substantial progress in cleansing our country of all terrorists and will conclude only when our objective has been accomplished. This Operation is complemented by an all-inclusive National Action Plan. It encompasses police and security actions, political and legal measures and social and economic policy packages, aimed at countering violent extremism. The global threat of terrorism cannot be defeated unless we address its underlying causes. Poverty and ignorance are part of the problem.</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">Extremist ideologies must be opposed. But the narrative of the terrorists also has to be countered through the just resolution of the several instances of oppression and injustice against Muslims in various parts of the world. Unfortunately, some seek to use the global campaign against terrorism to suppress the legitimate right of occupied peoples to self -determination. Mr. President, The rise and spread of terrorism across the Middle East today poses unprecedented security challenges. Wracked by violence, ethnic and sectarian conflicts, and the rise of Daesh, several countries of the region are today the vortex of conflict and instability. Others are being sucked into this quagmire. The tragedy of Palestine has intensified. The accepted avenue for peace between Palestine and Israel – a two state solution – appears further away today than ever before, due to the intransigent stance of the occupying power.</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">Yet as I speak the proud Palestinian flag is being raised just outside this hail. We hope this is just the first step. We look forward to welcoming Palestine as a full member of the United Nations. Mr. President, Muslims are suffering across the world: Palestinians and Kashmiris oppressed by foreign occupation; persecuted minorities; and the discrimination against Muslim refugees fleeing persecution or war.</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">The international community must redress these injustices against the Muslim people. Mr. President, We welcome the comprehensive nuclear agreement reached between Iran and the P-Five plus One. This shows what diplomatic engagement and multilateralism can achieve. It augurs well for the peace and security of our region and beyond Mr. President, Pakistan-Afghan relations underwent a positive transformation after the advent of the National Unity Government in Kabul.</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">In response to the request from the Afghan Government and with the support of the international community, Pakistan made strenuous efforts to facilitate the process of Afghan reconciliation. Dialogue did open between the Afghan Government and the Taliban, which was an unprecedented first. But it was unfortunate that certain developments stalled the process. Thereafter, militant attacks intensified, which we unequivocally condemn. Pakistan will persist in the endeavor to help resume the dialogue process and promote peace and stability in Afghanistan. We can, however, do so only if we receive the required cooperation from the Afghan government.</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">Tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan are in neither country’s interests. We are encouraged that the international community, including the major powers, desire continuation of the peace process in Afghanistan. 4 Mr o President, Pakistan greatly appreciates China’s proactive role in promoting peace and prosperity in Afghanistan and our region. We welcome China’s vision of “One Belt, One Road”. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, announced during President Xi Jinping’s visit to Pakistan earlier this year wil! spur regional economic integration and bring prosperity to the entire region and beyond.</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">This is an inspiring model of South-South cooperation that should be emulated. We also welcome Russia’s greater focus on Asian cooperation. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which Pakistan will be joining this year as a full member, holds great promise for promoting regional connectivity. Mr. President, The history of South Asia is one of missed opportunities. Among its dire consequences is the persistence of poverty and deprivation in our region. Development is my Government’s first priority and has underpinned my policy to build a peaceful neighborhood. Our peoples need peace to prosper. Peace can be achieved through dialogue, not disengagement.</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">In 1997 when the Composite Dialogue was launched with India, our two countries agreed that this would encompass two principal items: Kashmir and Peace and Security, along with six other issues, including terrorism. The primacy and urgency of addressing these two issues is even more compelling today. Consultations with Kashmiris, who are an integral part of the dispute, are essential to evolving a peaceful solution. Since 1947, the Kashmir dispute has remained unresolved. UN Security Council resolutions have remained unimplemented. Three generations of Kashmiris have only seen broken promises and brutal oppression. Over lOO,OOO have died in their struggle for self-determination. This is the most persistent failure of the United Nations.</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">Mr President, When I assumed office of the Prime Minister of Pakistan in June 2o13, for the third time, one of my first priorities was to normalize relations with India. I reached out to the Indian leadership to emphasize that our common enemy was poverty and underdevelopment. Cooperation, not confrontation, should define, our relationship. Yet today ceasefire violations along the Line of Control and the Working Boundary are intensifying, causing civilian deaths including women and children. Wisdom dictates that our immediate neighbor refrains from fomenting instability in Pakistan.</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">The two countries should address and resolve the causes of tension and take all possible measures to avert further escalation. That is why I want to use the opportunity today to propose a new peace initiative with India, starting with measures that are the simplest to implement: One, we propose that Pakistan and India formalize and respect the 2003 understanding for a complete ceasefire on the Line of Control in Kashmir. For this purpose, we call for UNMOGIP’s expansion to monitor the observance of the ceasefire.</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">Two, we propose, that Pakistan and India reaffirm that they will not resort to the use or the threat of use of force under any circumstances. This is a central element of the UN Charter. Three, steps be taken to demilitarize Kashmir. Four, agree to an unconditional mutual withdrawal from Siachen Glacier, the world’s highest battleground. An easing of threat perceptions through such peace efforts will make it possible for Pakistan and India to agree on a broad range of measures to address the peril posed by offensive and advanced weapons systems.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">Pakistan neither wants to, nor is it engaged in, an arms race in South Asia. We cannot however remain oblivious to the evolving security dynamics and arms buildup in our region, which obliges us to take essential steps to maintain our security. As a responsible nuclear weapon state, Pakistan will continue to support the objectives of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. We have maintained the highest standards of nuclear security and have established an effective regime to ensure the safety and security of our nuclear facilities and stocks. South Asia needs strategic stability and this requires serious dialogue to achieve nuclear restraint, conventional balance and conflict resolution. Finally Mr. President, We look forward to playing our part to build a brighter era of peace and prosperity in South Asia. We owe it to our people and to succeeding generations.</span><br style="background-color: white; content: "A" !important; display: block !important; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 1.5em !important;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">I thank you Mr. President.</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1150660559601274268.post-3130806823463121952015-10-02T17:57:00.001+05:002015-10-02T17:57:52.862+05:00Netanyahu refused to be in same restaurant as Pakistani leader <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a class="postid-9876209" href="http://nypost.com/2015/10/01/netanyahu-refused-to-be-in-same-restaurant-as-pakistani-leader/" style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Netanyahu refused to be in same restaurant as Pakistani leader</a></h1>
<br />Israel avoided a potentially uncomfortable New York confrontation with Pakistan during UN General Assembly week by canceling a dinner reservation for Prime Minister <a href="https://thenypost.wordpress.com/tag/benjamin-netanyahu/">Benjamin Netanyahu</a> after learning Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif would be eating at the same spot.<br />The billionaire Pakistani leader ate at Serafina Always on Tuesday night.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Netanyahu’s team had booked tables there, too, “but decided not to proceed after learning the Pakistani pol would be there,” a source told us, adding the decision to cancel was made “for security reasons.”<br />Sharif, speaking in 2014 about the Gaza conflict, said, “[The] world must stop Israel from this naked and brutal aggression.”<br />Netanyahu is scheduled to address the UN General Assembly on Thursday and is expected to talk about Islamic extremism and the Iran nuclear deal.<br />A witness at Serafina said Sharif dined for three hours on the second floor with his wife, who “looked beautiful” dressed in gold, and 10 others in his entourage, while his security detail occupied two separate tables.<br />His party was adamant that there could be no alcohol or meat, and they ate pizzas and drank sodas. For dessert they ate apple pie, cheesecake and chocolate soufflé.<br />But they declined the tiramisu because it contains a splash of amaretto.<br />When they left the place at 10:30 p.m., we’re told Sharif and his wife spoke in Italian to the staff, saying, “Grazie.”<br />A source added of Netanyahu, “He opted not to eat at Serafina after learning Pakistan’s leader would be there. Netanyahu has the best security in the world. But one can assume that it wouldn’t make sense for him to be at a restaurant at the same time as Sharif.”<br /><br /><a class="twitter-follow-button" data-show-count="false" href="https://twitter.com/VoPMLN">Follow @VoPMLN</a><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1150660559601274268.post-8595828157778975762015-09-23T12:41:00.000+05:002015-09-23T12:41:01.988+05:00Audit report of National debt retirement scheme (NDRS)<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-5-340229-PITB-An-unheard-story-in-Pakistan!">PITB: An unheard story in Pakistan!</a></span></h2>
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When the metro buses, offering scheduled rides, ply on roads in Lahore and Rawalpindi/Islamabad in a controlled environment and one looks at real-time maps on screens and listens to the automated voice messages on-board, the feeling of being in a developed foreign country is undeniable.</div>
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This is just the tip of the iceberg when one looks at reforms the Punjab government, powered by Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB), has been introducing in the realm of good governance and public service delivery. The growing e-culture in public departments of Punjab government, from interactive dashboards to smartphone applications, is fast changing the government. Ask anyone in government of Punjab and people can’t seem to run out of superlatives for PITB’s work.</div>
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Name any department in Punjab, the PITB’s mark is pretty obvious, be it education, health, agriculture, livestock, law & order and revenue and many more. The Board is spearheading almost all the key initiatives of the Punjab government to provide quality services to the public, data-driven monitoring and automation of operations.</div>
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From real-time information on attendance of teachers and students in public schools across the province to repository of free digitised textbooks and disease surveillance, flood monitoring and crime investigation reporting and integrated command, control and communication systems and digitising land records, the PITB is helping drive the reform agenda of the government by implementing a robust monitoring system.</div>
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This monitoring system has been effectively used in curtailing dengue, tracking vaccinators, assessing flood damages, and of course subsequent efforts by the Punjab government to introduce reforms and achieve desired improvements. The PITB’s role in education sector, which is something very close to Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s heart, is quite significant and the same has been resulting in different policy interventions from the government.</div>
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Today when we appreciate improvement in attendance of teachers and students (above 90 percent) in over 50,000 public schools across Punjab the fact should not be neglected that all this is possible through the monitoring staff, equipped with SIM-enabled tablet PCs developed by the PITB, which allow them to digitally submit monitoring forms during their visits. The system is really helping reducing absenteeism. Similarly it was the PITB designed smartphone-based early epidemic warning system which played a key role in fighting dengue epidemic in 2012. Nonetheless, the PITB is somehow an unheard story in Pakistan!</div>
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“What India Can Learn About E-Governance From Pakistan” goes the headline of a prestigious media outlet of neighbouring India in recognition of services being rendered by the PITB, which is being headed by Dr Umar Saif, a LUMS graduate, who holds a PhD from University of Cambridge and Post-Doc from MIT. Last year, the PITB work was mentioned as one of the three global examples of innovation in governance by the World Bank President.</div>
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Recently the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government has approached the PITB seeking its technical assistance in developing an android-based monitoring of Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) workers. It is pertinent to mention here that Punjab has successfully developed and implemented monitoring of vaccinators using android phone through its e-vaccination programme “eVaccs”.</div>
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According to Aizaz Akhtar, Head of Special Monitoring Unit at Chief Minister’s Office, the Health Department has been benefitting from PITB vis-à-vis the use of technology for better and effective service delivery. “PITB is our key partner in building technology to bring delivery culture in the government of Punjab”, he added. The PITB is also behind one of the significant developments taking place in Punjab Police vis-à-vis reforms in traditional “thana culture”. Through initiatives like Command, Control and Communication, commonly known as IC3, the PITB is engaged in improving operational efficiency of police and to put the force on modern lines. Through the IC3, the PITB is bringing together various elements of Punjab Police operation so that the same work as a unified team.</div>
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This team work seems to be at the heart of PITB when one visits its offices at Arfa Software Technology Park, named after Arfa Karim, the child prodigy who died at the age of 16. “The lights are never switched off at the PITB offices”, remarks one PITB employee about the grueling work hours at this organisation.</div>
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According to Waqas Hassan, AIG (Crime Analysis & Monitoring), who is focal person for these reforms at IG office, from automation of manual records to online FIR registration the PITB was helping Punjab Police to develop Police Computer System having features such as computerised registration of FIR, handheld biometric verification devices, digitised biometric criminal record database, and human resource management system etc. “An automated system of FIR system has been introduced in 201 police stations in Punjab”, said Waqas. The system along with other components will be replicated in all the districts across the province, he added.</div>
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Out of many other public-friendly initiatives the PITB has launched e-Stamping system in order to replace the arcane stamp paper system, fraught with fraudulent practices, and leakage of government revenues. The new system will enable a citizen to acquire a stamp paper within 30 minutes and will cut out fraud and forged transactions. Citizens can get an e-stamp paper through any designated branch of a schedule bank, saving both time and money.</div>
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Similarly the ATM-powered water filtration plants initiative to be launched as a pilot project in selective districts of Punjab is aimed at empowering people to reduce wastage of clean drinking water and its proper utilisation. “PITB is benefitting the common man by bringing down the barriers for accessing government services. For instance, with citizen facilitation centres (e-Khidmat Centres), citizens can access 16 government services under one roof without having to wait in long queues, track their applications through an automated process and expect a response within a stipulated time”, said Dr Umar Saif.</div>
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It is pertinent to mention here that Dr Saif is also the founding Vice-Chancellor of Information Technology University (ITU) and the first Pakistani to be named as one of the top 35 young innovators in the world (TR35) in 2011 by MIT Technology Review. He is also first Pakistani to receive a PhD in Computer Science from Cambridge and that too at the age of 23. He has a long list of international accolades to his name. He also received Siatra-e-Imtiaz (SI) for his services in the field of Information Technology.</div>
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The PITB’s success story is certainly a result of putting the right man for the right job, and in this case, the chief minister seems to have found just the right man for his reform agenda in the government.</div>
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<a href="http://www.thethirdpole.net/china-helps-pakistan-build-worlds-largest-solar-farm/">China helps Pakistan build world’s largest solar farm</a></h1>
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<span class="author vcard" style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="fn" style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Zofeen T Ebrahim</span></span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><time class="date time published" style="color: #0fa4d4; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; padding-top: 20px;" title="2015-09-07T11:21:40+0000">07.09.2015</time><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="post-comments" style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">·<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.thethirdpole.net/china-helps-pakistan-build-worlds-largest-solar-farm/#comments" style="color: #888888; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">5 Comments</a></span></div>
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<strong style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Chinese companies are building a massive solar power station in the Punjab desert, but is the project the most effective way of solving Pakistan’s escalating energy crisis?</strong></div>
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<a class="fancybox image" href="http://www.thethirdpole.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/pak-solar-china.jpg" rel="gallery" style="color: #0fa4d4; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Photo courtesy of QASP" class="wp-image-11259" height="481" src="http://www.thethirdpole.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/pak-solar-china.jpg" style="border: none; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px auto 1em; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="640" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34) !important; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif !important; font-size: 12px !important; line-height: 14.4px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
Once complete the 1,000 MW the Quaid-e-Azam solar park will be the world’s largest (Photo courtesy of QASP)</div>
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Some 400,000 solar panels, spread over 200 hectares of flat desert, glare defiantly at the sun at what is known as the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.qasolar.com/" style="color: #0fa4d4; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Quaid-e-Azam Solar Power Park</a>(QASP) in Punjab, named after Pakistan’s founding father.</div>
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The 100 MW photovoltaic (PV) solar farm was built by Chinese company<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.enfsolar.com/directory/component/2714/xinjiang-sunoasis" style="color: #0fa4d4; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Xinjiang SunOasis</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>in just three months, at a cost of around US$131 million and started selling electricity to the national grid in August.</div>
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This is the first energy project under the US<a href="https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/7864-China-s-new-silk-road-What-s-in-it-for-Pakistan-" style="color: #0fa4d4; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">$46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor</a>, a key part of China’s ‘new silk roads’, linking the port at Gwadar in southern Pakistan with Kashgar in China’s western region of Xinjiang.</div>
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The 100 MW plant is the pilot stage of a more ambitious plan to build the world’s largest solar farm. Once completed in 2017, the site could have capacity of 5.2 million PV cells producing as much as 1,000 MW of electricity – equivalent to an average sized coal-fired power station and enough to power about 320,000 households. Construction of the next stage is already underway, led by Zonergy, another Chinese company.</div>
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Eighteen months ago, the site was nothing more than wilderness. Now a mini city has emerged in the middle of the desert, with over 2,000 workers accompanied by heavy machinery, power transmission lines, blocks of buildings, water pipes and pylons.</div>
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<strong style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Reducing emissions, providing livelihoods</strong></div>
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The Cholistan desert is the ideal spot for solar power, said Muhammad Hassan Askari, operating manager of the solar park. The area gets 13 hours of sunlight every day while the huge expanse of flat desert is ideal for a large commercial project.</div>
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The big advantage of solar power, he said, is that a large park can be completed faster than thermal or hydropower projects, which take much longer and require a lot of maintenance.</div>
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The solar park will also shrink Pakistan’s carbon footprint, said Najam Ahmed Shah, the chief executive officer of QASP, displacing about 57,500 tonnes of coal burn and reducing emissions by 90,750 tonnes every year.</div>
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Pakistan aims to reduce its reliance on hydrocarbons, especially imported coal, oil and gas, to around 60% by 2025 from the present 87%. The country has a target to produce 10% of its total energy mix from renewables (excluding hydropower, which already constitutes 15% of the total energy mix). The current generation from renewable energy is around 1-2%.</div>
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While Pakistan contributes less than 1% to global GHG output, the country’s carbon emissions are growing by 3.9% a year. By 2020 it will spew out 650 million tonnes of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) if the current trend continues, said climatologist Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry, the UN secretary general’s special advisor for Asia with the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://www.wmo.int/pages/index_en.html" style="color: #0fa4d4; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">World Meteorological Organisation</a>.</div>
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The solar park will also eventually generate 15,000 to 33,000 jobs for local people alone and attract investment to the region.</div>
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The Quaid-e-Azam plant will be almost double the size of the existing largest solar PV generating facilities worldwide</div>
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<strong style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Unprecedented scale</strong></div>
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Some experts worry the project is too ambitious. Former director general of WWF-Pakistan Ali Hassan Habib, who now runs a company providing rooftop solar solutions, welcomed the project but was uneasy about the government “jumping into untested scale”. The plant will be almost double the size of the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/Solar-Star-Largest-PV-Power-Plant-in-the-World-Now-Operational" style="color: #0fa4d4; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">existing largest solar PV generating facilities</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>worldwide, he said.</div>
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“It may have been better to build the equivalent remaining 900 MW closer to where electricity is consumed – on say the rooftops of large parking lots – rather than installing it in remote locations,” he said.</div>
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<strong style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Environmental impact of clean energy</strong></div>
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Because solar energy is still finding a foothold in the energy mix and technologies are evolving, not enough is known about the park’s impact on the environment and natural resources.</div>
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Some negative impacts have already become apparent. For example, solar power consumes lots of water. PV panels may require little maintenance, according to QASP, but they need to be kept squeaky clean. An estimated one litre of water is used to clean each panel. Water consumed to clean the eventual 5.2 million panels built will be colossal for a country that is fast becoming<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.dawn.com/news/1187036" style="color: #0fa4d4; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">water stressed</a>. Currently, 30 people take 10 to 15 days to clean the entire 400,000 cells.</div>
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“This year we’ve been very lucky as there have been unprecedented rains and so panels were cleaned automatically,” said Askari, who said they were looking for more efficient ways to clean panels.</div>
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At the same time, increasing human activities will disturb the arid region’s rich biodiversity and wildlife, such as the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinkara" style="color: #0fa4d4; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">chinkara</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Indian gazelle), caracal cat and houbara bustard.</div>
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The construction of new road network and supporting commercial activities associated with large solar PV projects do leave a substantial “footprint” on the land, agreed Habib.</div>
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Water consumed to clean the eventual 5.2 million panels built will be colossal for a country that is fast becoming water stressed</div>
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Shah justified the project, saying it was built on uninhabited wasteland. “An<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://environment.gov.pk/act-rules/IEE-EIA-REG.pdf" style="color: #0fa4d4; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Initial Environmental Examination</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>was carried out and we got a nod from the Environment Protection Department before embarking upon the project,” he explained.</div>
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Habib suggested the government set up an environment and social fund to offset any negative impact.</div>
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Environmentalists are also concerned about the fate of the millions of PV panels which will wear out within 25 years. The panels will have to be recycled to extract the silicon used to make them, and then replaced.</div>
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<strong style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Pakistan’s energy crisis</strong></div>
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Pakistan has been in the grip of severe energy shortages for many years with some rural areas left without power for up to 20 hours a day. There has been little local or foreign investment in the industrial sector because of the extensive power cuts, and a number of factories have had to close down.</div>
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With an installed electricity generation capacity of 22,797 MW, the country’s total production stands at just 14,000 MW. In recent years, demand has risen to 19,000 MW.</div>
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While the 1,000 MW of solar energy will help ease energy constraints, Askari said government investment in several other hydropower and coal projects should also help alleviate power shortages.</div>
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Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif promised power cuts would end by 2017-2018 at the inauguration ceremony of 100 MW solar project in May, earlier this year.</div>
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<strong style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Not everyone is happy</strong></div>
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But some critics say it is the investors who will get rich from the solar project, while consumers will have to pay more in the long run.</div>
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“Hydropower can produce energy for less than half the price of solar and about the same as wind so why a fixation on solar?” said an Islamabad-based energy expert working with the government, who spoke to thethirdpole.net on the condition of anonymity.</div>
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He is sceptical of solar for a number of reasons.</div>
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First, the solar farm will actually produce far less than the much touted 1,000 MW of electricity. “On average, solar power plants deliver only about 20% of installed capacity, and the peak production is during the day, while the peak demand is in the evening when the plant does not produce anything,” the expert pointed out. Alternative arrangements have to be made to draw upon hydro or thermal sources at an “extra cost”. But the project’s owners say the 100MW solar plant could produce near to capacity at 85MW at its peak.</div>
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Second, solar energy is more expensive than other energy sources. QASP claims it is selling solar power to the grid at US$0.14/unit. Sources within the<a href="http://www.ntdc.com.pk/" style="color: #0fa4d4; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">National Transmission and Despatch Company</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>say they have signed a deal to buy electricity at $0.24/unit, which will drop later to perhaps $0.17/unit after seven years when loans are paid off. In either case, this price is far higher than the $0.07 for hydropower, $0.11 for fuel oil and $0.12 for imported LNG.</div>
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“And these figures are only for generation; another 25% must be added to it for cost of delivery to be borne by the consumer, accounting for losses and theft,” he pointed out.</div>
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“The financial justification for solar was approved when oil prices were at US$110 a barrel,” he said, lamenting that the government refused to heed to advice that oil prices would drop.</div>
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Others argue that solar prices will decline over time, making it competitive. Vaqar Ahmed, deputy executive director at the Islamabad-based think tank, Sustainable Development Policy Institute, said: “For every new technology the fixed costs are higher in the initial years and diminish over time as economies of scale are achieved.” And learning from China, efficiency will rise and prices for solar cells will continue to fall, he said.</div>
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Wind could be a much bigger contributor to Pakistan’s energy need, said WWF’s Habib, given its potential of 120,000 MW. “Unlike solar, wind energy maintains production at night,” he pointed out.</div>
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<strong style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Political risks</strong></div>
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With just a little over two years left in his term, the success of the solar project is important for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.</div>
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“The project has huge political implications for the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (N),” said Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) M. Hassan Malik, who is responsible for the security arrangements of the entire QASP area.</div>
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“Through this project the government also wants to send out the message to the outside world that it has the capacity to undertake mega projects and will provide foolproof security to investors.”</div>
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Working in an area characterised by lawlessness and extremism, Malik’s job is challenging. “Not only is the park a national asset, we have foreign nationals working at the plant, so the sensitivity is two-fold,” he said.</div>
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There are 800 to 900 men guarding the site where around 400 Chinese workers and over 2,000 labourers work at any given time.</div>
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<strong style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Culture shock</strong></div>
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For Alexander Halbich, a German engineer who has been at the park for over a year, getting used to heavily armed security men following him around was most disconcerting aspect of his new job. “The food is good, the people are extremely hospitable and we do go out to the city once in a while tailed by armed guards, but there is little to do after dark,” he added.</div>
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“There isn’t much to do in the evenings,” agreed Muhammad Hasan Askari, who heads the technical team. Hailing from Lahore, Punjab’s capital, he keeps himself busy with work and looks forward to going home at the weekends.</div>
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Foreign workers get to go home less often. “I go every three months for ten days or more,” said Zhang Ting, a young Chinese engineer. “I’m quite ready to go home by two months but when I do go back, I miss Pakistan and the work,” she added.</div>
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Ting had to deal with a language barrier and hostile weather when she arrived to work at the site. The Chinese engineer also had to adjust to a very different work culture.</div>
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“We resolved the issue by getting more Pakistanis on our design team to crease out the differences and conflicts,” she said.</div>
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<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/in-pakistan-a-prime-minister-and-a-country-rebound--at-least-for-now/2015/09/07/4661049e-5173-11e5-8c19-0b6825aa4a3a_story.html"><span style="font-size: x-large;">In Pakistan, a prime minister and a country rebound — at least for now</span></a></h2>
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<span class="dateline" style="box-sizing: border-box;">ISLAMABAD, Pakistan<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span>— One year after he was nearly bounced from office, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has hung on amid signs the country could be on the cusp of a surprising turnaround.</div>
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After years of terrorist attacks, military coups and political upheaval, Pakistan for now has settled into a period of relative calm. Over the past nine months, government statistics show, major terrorist attacks have declined 70 percent, and Pakistanis are flocking back to shopping malls, resorts and restaurants.</div>
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The relaxed and optimistic mood here is benefiting Sharif politically, despite the humiliation he faced a year ago when he had to cede a chunk of his power to Pakistan’s military. Still, the arrangement is allowing Sharif to do something that Pakistani leaders have struggled to accomplish for much of the past decade: implement a road map for what a peaceful, stable Pakistan could look like. And in the process, Sharif is winning over skeptics despite his low-key leadership style.</div>
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“People are feeling more secure. There are development projects, and the perspective of people is changing to say, ‘Okay, now we can see things are going well,’ ” said Zafar Mueen Nasir, dean of business studies at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics. “Of course, there will always be some criticism and always a second opinion, but as far as I am concerned, this government is at least showing some progress.”</div>
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Last summer, after Sharif’s first year in office was marked by disputes with political rivals and the country’s powerful military, tens of thousands of protesters<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/pakistans-sharif-enlists-army-to-secure-high-security-zone-ahead-of-protests/2014/08/19/1ea58938-27a9-11e4-8593-da634b334390_story.html" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;">camped out</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>near his mansion, demanding his resignation. At the time, there was widespread speculation that military leaders were<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/08/19/pakistan-politics-military-idINL4N0QP5F720140819" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;">considering a coup</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>to oust Sharif over his diplomatic outreach to Pakistan’s arch rival, India.</div>
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<i style="box-sizing: border-box;">[<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/pakistans-sharif-enlists-army-to-secure-high-security-zone-ahead-of-protests/2014/08/19/1ea58938-27a9-11e4-8593-da634b334390_story.html" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;">Protesters march toward Pakistan’s Parliament in sign of deepening crisis</a>]</i></div>
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But as Islamabad slipped into an unusually chilly fall, Sharif outlasted the protesters. To remain in office, he reportedly had to make<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/08/29/did-a-soft-coup-just-happen-in-pakistan/" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;">significant concessions</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>to military commanders, including giving them full authority to make major decisions related to government policy toward Afghanistan and India.</div>
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Now, despite his reduced power, Sharif has turned his attention toward trying to rebuild a chronically sluggish economy while also delivering shiny new amenities for residents.</div>
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It’s a strategy that has become easier to implement this year, as a<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/pakistani-military-says-it-achieved-major-victory-in-mountain-assault/2015/07/04/02e46a64-2250-11e5-a135-935065bc30d0_story.html" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;">military campaign</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>in Pakistan’s tribal belt and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/pakistan-turns-up-heat-against-powerful-party-in-bid-to-secure-karachi/2015/07/27/165acd2a-2f18-11e5-818f-a242f28e7022_story.html" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;">its largest city, Karachi,</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>has been credited with reducing terrorist attacks and other crimes.</div>
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In the first eight months of this year, 680 civilians have been killed in terrorist attacks, compared with 1,194 in the same period last year and 2,246 in 2013, according to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, which monitors violence in the region.</div>
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<i style="box-sizing: border-box;">[<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/pakistani-military-says-it-achieved-major-victory-in-mountain-assault/2015/07/04/02e46a64-2250-11e5-a135-935065bc30d0_story.html" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;">Pakistani military says it achieved major victory in mountain assault</a>]</i></div>
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A rapidly growing country of 180 million, Pakistan has<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/946594/why-25-million-children-are-out-of-school-in-pakistan/" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;">plenty of obstacles</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>to overcome.</div>
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Energy shortages can keep the lights out for hours at a time, even in wealthy neighborhoods. Tens of millions of children suffer from poor nutrition, unsafe drinking water and sporadic access to medical care. The average Pakistani makes just $1,513 per year; many can’t find jobs. And Pakistan still has unsettled relations with India and Afghanistan, both of which accuse it of using favored terrorist groups as proxies to destabilize its neighbors.</div>
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Pakistan’s bare-knuckled political system also remains unsettled. Sharif, who still has 2 ½ years remaining in his term, will continue to face relentless challenges from political rivals eager to exploit the next crisis.</div>
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But in recent months, speculation about a civil war or an economic collapse has died down. Instead, credit agencies are<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://www.moodys.com/research/Moodys-upgrades-Pakistans-bond-ratings-to-B3-with-a-stable--PR_325728" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;">boosting Pakistan’s bond ratings</a>and large investment firms are advising clients to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/business/02-Jul-2015/pakistan-s-economic-revival-attracting-investors-bloomberg-report" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;">take a second look</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>at opportunities here.</div>
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“It is the best, undiscovered investment opportunity in emerging or frontier markets,” Charlie Robertson, London-based chief economist at Renaissance Capital,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-30/in-best-hidden-frontier-market-boom-signals-pakistan-revival" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;">told Bloomberg News in late June</a>.</div>
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The International Monetary Fund, which has extended a $6.2 billion loan, released a report last month crediting Pakistan for its 4.1 percent growth in gross domestic product this year, with a bump up to 4.5 percent projected for next year.</div>
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<i style="box-sizing: border-box;">[<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/pakistan-turns-up-heat-against-powerful-party-in-bid-to-secure-karachi/2015/07/27/165acd2a-2f18-11e5-818f-a242f28e7022_story.html" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;">Pakistan turns up heat against powerful party in bid to secure Karachi</a>]</i></div>
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Many economists and analysts, however, remain skeptical that Pakistan’s economy and government have truly turned a corner toward happier, more prosperous times. They note that past moments of stability have been quickly disrupted by tragedy, scandal or an investor-rattling political or military crisis.</div>
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“I still don’t really see many reasons for real optimism,” said Frederic Grare, director of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “The economic situation is better right now, but the economic situation is better for almost everybody because energy is cheap.”</div>
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Sharif, however, has started delivering on his promise to make life a bit easier for Pakistan’s middle class, which for decades has endured substandard transportation, housing and employment options.</div>
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A millionaire business tycoon who also served two terms as prime minister in the 1990s, Sharif is promising to build 800 miles of highways and 14 power plants by 2018.</div>
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Several of the projects are designed to accommodate a major expansion of Chinese investment in Pakistan. China is hoping to use Pakistani roads and ports to open up new trading routes via the Arabian Sea, which could also help Pakistan expand its manufacturing base.</div>
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Although that partnership might take decades to reach its potential, Sharif is also implementing shorter-term goals to improve life for Pakistanis.</div>
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In May, Sharif<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/a-startling-sight-in-pakistan-fast-affordable-air-conditioned-buses/2015/06/09/cd735702-0df3-11e5-a0fe-dccfea4653ee_story.html" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;">inaugurated a 14-mile rapid-bus system</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>connecting the relatively affluent capital of Islamabad to the working-class town of Rawalpindi. A month earlier, the government introduced new cross-country, deluxe train service featuring air-conditioning, WiFi and televisions.</div>
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<i style="box-sizing: border-box;">[<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/a-startling-sight-in-pakistan-fast-affordable-air-conditioned-buses/2015/06/09/cd735702-0df3-11e5-a0fe-dccfea4653ee_story.html" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;">A startling sight in Pakistan: Fast, affordable, air-conditioned buses</a>]</i></div>
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The Islamabad airport, consistently ranked as one of<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/17/islamabad-manila-worst-airports-list" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;">the most outdated</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>in the world, has been upgraded with spiffier ticket counters, air-conditioned shuttle buses and its first fast-food restaurant.</div>
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“This government is far better, compared to previous governments,” Dilawar Ali, a 43-year-old engineer, said as he shopped at a market in Islamabad. “Look at these Metro bus projects, these roads and bridges. We could only imagine such things when we were in school and college kids.”</div>
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But Salman Zaidi, deputy director of the nonpartisan Jinnah Institute, said a closer examination of Sharif’s record still leaves major questions about his leadership style.</div>
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The prime minister, who declined to be interviewed for this article, lacks the forceful persona needed to become a unifying leader in a country with eight major political parties, Zaidi said. Sharif’s overall approach to governing, he said, is also outdated.</div>
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“He has a mind-set that comes from the 1950s, where large infrastructure projects equal development, and I think we have moved several decades beyond that,” Zaidi said. “A better estimation of a politician’s ability is ability to deliver on the ground in terms of education, in terms of justice, in terms of health care.”</div>
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Marvin Weinbaum, a Pakistan expert at the Middle East Institute in Washington, said there is also broad disappointment that Sharif hasn’t been able to do more to curb the electricity shortage or to overhaul a government bureaucracy that numbers 650,000 employees.</div>
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“Yes, Pakistan has stabilized, but it’s stabilized because the military said to Nawaz, ‘Okay, if you want to stay in power, you are going to play by our rules,’ ” Weinbaum said. Sharif, he added, “is not seen as a real reformer.”</div>
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In Karachi, which generates a quarter of Pakistan’s GDP, business leaders are also angered by Sharif’s efforts to broaden Pakistan’s tax base — a key demand of the IMF and other creditors. Pakistani farmers are nervous about sluggish exports.</div>
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Still, for the broader Pakistani public, the country finally appears to be waking up after a decade-long slumber.</div>
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After the Ramadan holiday ended in mid-July, surprising numbers of Pakistanis flocked to Himalayan mountain resort towns,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/923459/deluge-of-tourists-madness-in-murree-again/" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;">overwhelming highways and hotels</a>.</div>
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Last month, the largest crowd in years filled Islamabad’s streets to celebrate Pakistan’s Independence Day.</div>
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In Peshawar, where the Pakistani Taliban killed about 150 teachers and students at a school in December, merchants are also reporting an increase in business as violence waned this year.</div>
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“No doubt, business activities are encouraging,” said Haji Khanan, a 50-year-old shop owner in Karkhano Market, on the edge of Peshawar near Pakistan’s once-unruly tribal belt. “You can see for yourself. Look, there are no free spaces available for parked cars.”</div>
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Whether Pakistan’s momentum can be sustained, however, is a question most Pakistanis are hesitant to answer.</div>
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“It’s 10 p.m., and I am here shopping with my kids and wife, and in previous years I would not be going out at this late hour,” Arif Khaliq, 43, said while buying back-to-school shoes. “Now, will this last? That is to be seen. <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">. . .</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>We can only pray.”</div>
</article><div class="post-body-sig-line" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: FranklinITCProLight, HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue Light', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/people/tim-craig" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none;"><img class="post-body-headshot-left " src="https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=http://img.washingtonpost.com/news/world/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2014/06/tim-craig.jpg&w=180&h=180" style="border: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213); box-sizing: border-box; float: left; margin: 24px 24px 24px 0px; max-width: 90px;" /></a><div class="post-body-bio has-photo" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 24px 0px 24px 105px;">
Tim Craig is The Post’s bureau chief in Pakistan. He has also covered conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and within the District of Columbia government.</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">Interview | Sardar Ayyaz Sadiq </span></h2>
http://pkpolitics.com/2015/08/24/capital-talk-24-aug-2015/
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