Will there be an upset in NA-246 by-election in Karachi?
Will the Chinese premier Xi Jinping’s Pakistan visit be a game-changer? What does an MSR (Maritime Silk Route) mean to the Balochs and the Balochistan insurgency?
How are India and Pakistan realigning themselves in post Cold War World?
ViewPoint from Overseas host Faraz Darvesh discusses these and other questions with panelists Misbah Azam(www.politicsinpakistan.com), Riaz Haq (www.riazhaq.com), and Ali H Cemendtaur (www.Cemendtaur.net) in Silicon Valley, California, USA.
کیا پاکستان میں یمن کے متعلق بالغ رائے عامہ ظاہر کرتی ہے کہ پاکستان میں حالات بہتری کی طرف گامزن ہیں؟ کیا پاکستانی فوج کو یمن میں فوجی چڑھائی میں سعودی عرب کا ساتھ دینا چاہیے؟ کیا اس دفعہ این اے ۲۴۶ میں متحدہ قومی موومنٹ کو واقعی شکست ہوسکتی ہے؟ کیا چینی صدر کا اسلام آباد کا دورہ پاکستان کے معاشی حالات یکسر تبدیل کردے گا؟ کیا گوادر کراچی ریلوے لائن کا منصوبہ بلوچستان کے خراب حالات میں مکمل ہوپائے گا؟ کیا ہندوستان کا جھکائو مغرب کی طرف بڑھ رہا ہے جب کہ پاکستان چین اور روس سے تعلقات بہتر کررہا ہے؟
ویو پواءنٹ فرام اوورسیز کے میزبان فراز درویش کی مصباح اعظم، ریاض حق، اور علی حسن سمندطور سے گفتگو۔
https://youtu.be/C1p-mq8GQhI
https://vimeo.com/125473999
Yemen Crisis and Sectarian strife; NA-246; Xi Jinping’s Pakistan visit, Balochistan, and India’s realignment from WBT TV on Vimeo.
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China picked a dam project in northern Pakistan for its first investment by a $40 billion Silk Road infrastructure fund as President Xi Jinping looks to expand the country’s influence across three continents.
The fund will become a shareholder of China Three Gorges South Asia Investment Ltd., which will construct the Karot dam on the Jhelum river, according to a statement on the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s website on Tuesday. The total investment will be $1.65 billion, according to the People’s Bank of China.
“We don’t subscribe to the view that a country expands hegemony when it becomes powerful,” Xi told Pakistani lawmakers on Tuesday. “Peaceful development is in China’s interest and also in the interest of Asia and the world.”
Xi’s visit is the first by a Chinese head of state in almost a decade to Pakistan, a nation that’s key to to his efforts to access the Indian Ocean over land and boost trade with Europe, Africa and the Middle East. China is Pakistan’s top trading partner, and they have a mutual distrust of India.
The two nations are planning $45 billion in projects along a 3,000-kilometer (1,850 miles) corridor stretching from Xinjiang in western China to Gwadar on the Arabian Sea. The investments -- $28 billion of which were announced this week -- would boost Pakistan’s economic growth and provide another route for China to import oil from the Middle East.
‘Great Match’
The Karot dam will be located in Rawalpindi near the capital Islamabad. It’s a “great match” between the development strategies of the two nations and a priority project in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, China’s central bank said in its statement.
The 720-megawatt run-of-river dam would take about six years to build, according to project disclosure documents filed by the World Bank’s International Finance Corp., which is investing $125 million in China Three Gorges South Asia Investment Ltd. The project would generate 75 percent of its energy during the summer months when water flow in the Jhelum river is at its highest, the documents show.
China Three Gorges Corp., the Beijing-based developer of the world’s largest dam, expects to become Pakistan’s biggest clean-energy company with plans for $5.5 billion of hydropower, solar and wind projects totaling more than 2,000 megawatts in capacity, according to the IFC. Pakistan requires as much as $20 billion in investments over the next five years to overcome a 10,000-megawatt shortfall in power capacity, it said.
‘All-Weather’ Friend
On Monday, Xi and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif signed pacts to build roads, ports and power plants, nearly equal to the amount of foreign aid the U.S. has provided to Pakistan over the past decade to support its war in Afghanistan.
If realized, the investments will help Sharif revive Pakistan’s economy, which suffers from chronic power failures and an insurgency that has killed more than 50,000 people since 2001. Sharif has received a loan from the International Monetary Fund to help put the country’s finances back on track.
“It’s very significant,” said Mohammed Sohail, chief executive officer of Topline Securities Ltd. in Karachi. “It can bring a big change for all our economic fundamentals, in particular in energy.”
Pakistan’s benchmark stock index has been among Asia’s best performers over the past six months. It fell 0.9 percent at 11:29 a.m. local time, the most in three weeks.
The 51 agreements included an “All-Weather” strategic partnership that seeks to formalize longstanding defense ties between the nations. They also pledged to fight terrorism and help bring peace to Afghanistan. The two nations may conclude the sale of eight Chinese submarines, more than doubling Pakistan’s fleet.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-21/china-picks-pakistan-dam-as-first-stop-on-40-billion-silk-road
A former diplomat, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, said in a TV debate that the Pakistani army has decided to raise a special force to safeguard this 3,000km corridor.
Many are sceptical because the army previously failed to ensure a trouble-free supply to Nato troops in Afghanistan.
But some believe the military is likely to treat the Chinese corridor differently because the economic benefits accruing from it could help isolate Baloch insurgents.
Why is China doing this?
Pakistanis have long described their "friendship" with China as higher than the Himalayas, deeper than the oceans, and as information minister Pervez Rashid put it more recently, sweeter than honey. But behind these lofty words lie some hard-core interests.
China has been a more reliable and less meddlesome supplier of military hardware to Pakistan than the US, and is therefore seen by Pakistanis as a silent ally against arch-rival India.
Friendly exchanges with China also help Pakistan show to its "more volatile" allies in the west, notably the US, that it has other powerful friends as well.
For the Chinese, the relationship has a geo-strategic significance.
The corridor through Gwadar gives them their shortest access to the Middle East and Africa, where thousands of Chinese firms, employing tens of thousands of Chinese workers, are involved in development work.
The corridor also promises to open up remote, landlocked Xinjiang, and create incentives for both state and private enterprises to expand economic activity and create jobs in this under-developed region.
China could also be trying to find alternative trade routes to by-pass the Malacca straits, presently the only maritime route China can use to access the Middle East, Africa and Europe. Apart from being long, it can be blockaded in times of war.
This may be the reason China is also pursuing an eastern corridor to the Bay of Bengal, expected to pass through parts of Myanmar, Bangladesh and possibly India.
Experts say much of Chinese activity is geared towards boosting domestic income and consumption as its previous policy of encouraging cheap exports is no longer enough to sustain growth. On the external front, it is investing in a number of ports in Asia in an apparent attempt to access sources of energy and increase its influence over maritime routes.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32400091
The Holy Qur’an narrates to its followers the episode of the Yemeni King Abraha who wanted to sack the House of Allah, the Holy Kabaa in Mecca, few years before the birth of our Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Allah destroyed the elephants of that besotted invader by despatching little birds with pebbles in their beaks to check the advance of the aggressor. That, perhaps, was the first-ever aerial defence of a military target in the recorded history of mankind.
But what an irony it is that in this 21 st century, Yemen is being pummeled from the air by the besotted rulers of Saudi Arabia who claim to be keepers and custodians of the Holy Kaaba. History, indeed, is repeating itself, but in completely reverse order.
The Saudis had no business invading a hapless—and aerially defenceless—Yemeni people from the air. It’s as much an act of bloated hubris as was Abraha’s invasion of the land where the House of God was located.
But the age of miracles has long since come to an end. So, it’s inconceivable that there would be any squadrons of miracle birds coming to the aid of the beleaguered Yemenis and blasting the Saudi fighters and bombers off the Yemeni air space.
However, the irony of ironies is that it’s the modern-day Abrahas who are seeking the help of their friends, ‘brothers’ and allies to beef up their invasion with their armies and arms so they may heap more misery on the poor Yemenis . Pakistan is one ‘brotherly’ state the Saudis desperately covet to rope into their corner. http://pakistanlink.org/Opinion/2015/Apr15/15/01.HTM
#Saudi Prince Warns Agnst #Iran's Growing Influence On #Arab, #Muslim Nations, Slams #Pakistan For Neutrality #Yemen
http://www.ibtimes.com/saudi-prince-warns-against-irans-growing-influence-arab-muslim-nations-slams-pakistan-1931246#.VV1HopqGk_Z.twitter …
Prince Turki Faisal, a former Saudi intelligence chief, warned against Iran's encroachment on Arab and Muslim nations in the region this week as Iranian-backed rebels continue to fight the Saudi-backed government in Yemen. Faisal also urged Saudi Arabia's allies to curb Iranian influence.
The ongoing conflict in Yemen has pitted rivals Saudi Arabia against Iran in a battle for Middle East supremacy. “As we are dealing with Yemen, Iran’s imperial ambitions will be checked in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq,” Faisal said in a statement Monday, according to Arab News in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. “Our nations and peoples are experiencing a period of chaotic and harmful interventions and changes.”
Faisal, the former Saudi ambassador to the United States and United Kingdom, also called Pakistan’s decision to stay neutral in the ongoing Yemen war “disappointing.” A Saudi-led coalition has launched airstrikes against the Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen since late March. Iran’s Shiite government has supplied the Houthis with arms, money and training. The militia ousted Yemen’s Sunni government and seized the capital Sanaa in September.
“Some mealy mouthed politicians have forgotten what the Kingdom has done for Pakistan since its birth,” the Saudi prince said in the statement Monday.
Faisal also asked U.S. President Barack Obama to “find the way to make our area free of weapons of mass destruction,” as Washington seeks to sign an agreement with Tehran that would curb Iran’s nuclear capabilities, Arab News said. Tentative framework for a nuclear deal between six world powers and Tehran was drafted last month, in which Iran agreed to limit its nuclear activity in return for lifted sanctions. A final agreement could be reached by the end of June.
“The devil is in the details, which we will await,” said Faisal, founder of the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh.
IMF: #SaudiArabia will be bankrupt in 5 years: It's running on empty @AJENews http://aje.io/skup
Saudi Arabia could burn through its financial assets within five years, as the country grapples with slumping oil prices.
The Middle East’s biggest economy is expected to run budget deficits of 21.6 percent in 2015 and 19.4 percent in 2016, according the IMF’s latest regional outlook.
That means Riyadh needs to find money to meet its spending plans. Just like its oil exporting neighbours, it plans to make substantial cuts to its budgets.
"For the region’s oil exporters, the fall in prices has led to large export revenue losses, amounting to a staggering $360bn this year alone," Masood Ahmed, the IMF’s Middle East director, told reporters in Dubai.
There has been a trickle of evidence over the last few months that not all is well inside the kingdom.
The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency has withdrawn $70bn in funds managed by overseas financial institutions. Its foreign reserves have fallen by almost $73bn, since oil prices slumped, leaving it with $654.5bn.
But with a debt-to-GDP ratio of two percent, there is plenty of room for the country to borrow money to fund its growth.
The International Monetary Fund’s regional report also found that:
Syria’s economy has contract as much as 60 percent since the start of the conflict.
Yemen’s economy has slumped nearly 30 percent.
Economic growth for the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan could rise to 3.9 percent in 2016 from 2.5 percent this year.
Oil prices are expected to average $52 a barrel in 2015 and could rise to $63 a barrel next year.
With oil prices languishing around $50 a barrel, oil exporters need to diversify their economies to absorb millions of job seekers. "Achieving fiscal sustainability over the medium term will be especially challenging given the need to create jobs for the more than 10 million people anticipated to be looking for work by 2020 in the region’s oil-exporting countries," Ahmed said.
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