Why have the Chinese and the Pakistani leaders visited Tehran and Riyadh recently? Is this a coordinated Pak-China effort for regional peace and economic growth? Would it help broker peace in the Gulf and the Middle East regions? Can the two nations pull off a miracle here?
Viewpoint From Overseas host Faraz Darvesh discusses these and other questions with panelists Misbah Azam and Riaz Haq (www.riazhaq.com)
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3o361u_terror-at-bacha-khan-u-pakistan-china-leaders-visit-iran-saudi-arabia_news
Terror at Bacha Khan U; Pakistan & China... by ViewpointFromOverseas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TR729p54d9Y
https://vimeo.com/152849792
Terror at Bacha Khan U; Pakistan & China Leaders Visit Iran & Saudi Arabia from WBT Productions on Vimeo.
Related Links:
Haq's Musings
Has Modi Stepped Up Covert War in Pakistan?
China-Pakistan Economic Corridor
Can Pakistan Learn From Sri Lanka to End Terror?
Talk4Pak Think Tank
VPOS Youtube Channel
VPOS Vimeo Channel
12 comments:
The issues between India and Pakistan are unlikely to be resolved. Pakistan with Kashmir in mind comes to the table with an ideological decree based on religion while India rejects any ideological stance.
Look at discussions on your blog. You and other Pakistanis have diametrically opposing views from the Indian arguments that you do allow on your blog.
Talks will go on forever and never will India give up Jammu and Kashmir because it belongs in India.
Better to start trade and leave all that aside. The inter country commerce can boost Pakistan GDP by 1% while India's benefit will be 0.25%. Many economists reckon.
Nigel: "The issues between India and Pakistan are unlikely to be resolved. Pakistan with Kashmir in mind comes to the table with an ideological decree based on religion while India rejects any ideological stance."
This is an incorrect assessment given the fact that leaders both India and Pakistan have recently said they came very close to a deal during Musharraf years. Ex India RAW Chief AS Dulat has said this, so has Manmohan Singh. The Musharraf formula is still there for both to come together on as soon as Modi realizes the need to get to a resolution.
"This is an incorrect assessment given the fact that leaders both India and Pakistan have recently said they came very close to a deal during Musharraf years. "
That deal was agreeing to convert LOC as border and maintain status quo after that.
I am not sure Pak will be happy with that.
Anon: " That deal was agreeing to convert LOC as border and maintain status quo after that.
I am not sure Pak will be happy with that."
The Musharraf formula envisions soft or porous borders in Kashmir with freedom of movement for the Kashmiris; exceptional autonomy or "self-governance" within each region of Kashmir; phased demilitarization of all regions; and finally, a "joint supervisory mechanism," with representatives from India, Pakistan and all parts of Kashmir, to oversee the plan’s implementation.
Then there is that problem, in Pakistan, who makes big foreign policy decisions. Would it be Nawaz Sharif and his government or the Military. India will shut everything down if there is cross border terrorism and if there is peace would it not diminish the power of the Pakistan Military?
Nigel: "Then there is that problem, in Pakistan, who makes big foreign policy decisions. Would it be Nawaz Sharif and his government or the Military. India will shut everything down if there is cross border terrorism and if there is peace would it not diminish the power of the Pakistan Military?"
Who do you think makes foreign policy decisions? Is it the prime minster?
Indian security analysts and politicians regularly blame Pakistan for the failure of past bilateral diplomatic efforts by citing what they believe is the adverse role of Pakistani military in framing Pakistan's policy toward India. This rationale, however, does not explain why the diplomatic initiatives undertaken by Pakistani military leaders from General Zia to General Musharraf have not borne fruit.
A more rational explanation for the policy failures surfaced in secret US embassy cables leaked by Wikileaks and published by The Hindu. After a meeting with India's National Security Adviser and former Indian intelligence chief M.K. Narayanan in August 2009, American Ambassador Timothy Roemer concluded that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was isolated within his own government in his “great belief” in talks and negotiations with Pakistan.
Roemer said that although Narayanan's hawkish stance on Pakistan was well known, his willingness to “distance himself from his boss (Manmohan Singh) in an initial courtesy call would suggest that PM Singh is more isolated than we thought within his own inner circle in his effort to "trust but verify" and pursue talks with Pakistan particularly in the wake of the hammering his government took from opposition for the July Sharm al-Sheikh statement with (Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza) Gilani.”
http://www.riazhaq.com/2011/03/india-pakistan-cricket-diplomacy-at.html
Nigel: "Then there is that problem, in Pakistan, who makes big foreign policy decisions. Would it be Nawaz Sharif and his government or the Military."
Who do you think makes foreign policy decisions? Is it the prime minster?
Indian security analysts and politicians regularly blame Pakistan for the failure of past bilateral diplomatic efforts by citing what they believe is the adverse role of Pakistani military in framing Pakistan's policy toward India. This rationale, however, does not explain why the diplomatic initiatives undertaken by Pakistani military leaders from General Zia to General Musharraf have not borne fruit.
A more rational explanation for the policy failures surfaced in secret US embassy cables leaked by Wikileaks and published by The Hindu. After a meeting with India's National Security Adviser and former Indian intelligence chief M.K. Narayanan in August 2009, American Ambassador Timothy Roemer concluded that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was isolated within his own government in his “great belief” in talks and negotiations with Pakistan.
Roemer said that although Narayanan's hawkish stance on Pakistan was well known, his willingness to “distance himself from his boss (Manmohan Singh) in an initial courtesy call would suggest that PM Singh is more isolated than we thought within his own inner circle in his effort to "trust but verify" and pursue talks with Pakistan particularly in the wake of the hammering his government took from opposition for the July Sharm al-Sheikh statement with (Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza) Gilani.”
http://www.riazhaq.com/2011/03/india-pakistan-cricket-diplomacy-at.html
Nigel: " India will shut everything down if there is cross border terrorism and if there is peace would it not diminish the power of the Pakistan Military?"
And do what instead? Indians know that war with Pakistan is not an option, nor can they move elsewhere to a different neighborhood. And proxy war the Indians wage against Pakistan will not help them either.
http://www.riazhaq.com/2014/12/has-modi-stepped-up-indias-covert-war.html
As to peace diminishing Pakistan military's power, it's just a myth. If that were the case, why would General Musharraf come so close making a deal with India on Kashmir?
@nigel
@riaz
Too many issues, too complicated as your discussion affirms. Peace is not possible. Make LoC the de facto border and that's it. Pakistan goes its way and India does the same.
Punjab was divided
Bengal was divided
Pakistan was divided
British India was divided
And now Kashmir
So be it
#Daesh (#ISIS) Threat Could Inadvertently Unite #Afghanistan, #Pakistan and Beyond
http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20160126/1033698159/daesh-unites-afghanistan.html … via @SputnikInt
The threat posed by Daesh could act to unite factions in Afghanistan and beyond, said Anatol Lieven, Georgetown University professor and Middle East expert, in an interview with Radio Sputnik.
Lieven claims that the emergence of Daesh in the country may potentially lead to the enhancement of peace talks between the government in Kabul and Taliban insurgents.
The two sides, along with groups in neighboring states, could find a commonality in their mutual rejection of the growing influence of the violent extremist group.
“The most important thing about ISIS (another abbreviation for Daesh) is that this is off style both to the government and the Taliban,” Lieven explained. “Indeed it is also off style to all the regional states. In that way, it could be the only force which unites the whole region,” the expert claimed.
Commenting on the recent setbacks of Afghan security forces, which have lost ground in the country to the Islamists, Lieven said he believes the most serious vulnerability is that of weak government forces.
“The problem is, that the Afghan army can hold territory, but they have been very poor, so far, at recapturing territory out in the countryside,” he said.
Afghan law enforcement additionally relies heavily on foreign assistance, especially that of the United States.
“They are wholly dependent – for money, for weapons, for pay – on continued US aid,” Lieven stated.
Kabul must offer something viable to the Taliban if they intend to pacify the country, he said, adding that, “Dividing and conquering also requires genuine and convincing peace offers to the mainstream Taliban.”
You are going to appreciate this.
http://www.thestatesman.com/mobi/news/world/indian-american-group-backs-donald-trump/119538.html
#Education is becoming an extremist battleground in #Pakistan. #TTP #Terrorism, #BachaKhanUniversity #Malala http://wpo.st/mEW71
The one year anniversary commemorations of the heinous attack on a Peshawar public school were barely over when gunmen once again went from classroom to classroom killing students and staff at a Pakistani university nearby. The sickening attack confirmed that the Taliban is waging a carefully considered ideological war in Pakistan — and the nation’s more than 200,000 public and private schools are now at the front lines.
In doing so, they are attacking the one area of Pakistani society where there is clear reason for optimism, as the growth of low-cost private schools in recent decades has given more and more young people, particularly girls, access to education.
Tahir Andrabi Tahir Andrabi Asim I. Khwaja Asim I. Khwaja
There are very visible casualties of this strategy: not only Malala Yousafzai, now world-famous and a Nobel laureate, but Aitzaz Hasan, the 15-year-old boy who died preventing a suicide bomber from entering his school in the northern district of Hangu and chemistry professor Hamid Hussain, who died while trying to stave off the Taliban gunmen so his students could escape.
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Will Pakistani citizens – and parents – maintain their growing commitment to education in the face of Taliban brutality? How much risk is too much? In surveys, we find that parents of Pakistani students are progressive, forward-looking, and don’t want religious indoctrination for their children. But if violence disrupts their mental calculus – if in addition to a school’s price, distance, and quality they add the consideration that their child could be killed – then parents may no longer behave normally, despite their preferences. Instead fear might compel them to withdraw from schools entirely.
As we speak, many schools are announcing temporary closure of facilities in the aftermath of the latest attack. The government has ominously warned that the Taliban may be winning psychologically – even as the army operation against them weakens their military capabilities.
Protecting more than 30 million children spread across thousands of locations is not something the security forces can accomplish by themselves or simply by targeting militant strongholds. Ordinary citizens must affirm by their beliefs, words, and actions in everyday life that they recognize the danger that resides among them. Until they can actualize their own agency in protecting these children, the most progressive social current in the country will be lost – and with time, so might Pakistan itself.
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